Fic: Antimony (S&S) (Prompt Fill #8)
From belantana, via some discussion: what sort of Element would be played by Nicola Walker (Ruth from Spooks)? With the rider that it had to be an actual element, and none of these silly metal alloys or gemstones. (Also, apparently, I fail at keeping belantana’s prompts to the length these things were supposed to be. I blame Nicola Walker - she'd make a lovely Element, and I'd like to try Antimony in a proper story. Which this isn't, not really...)
Title: Antimony
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2121
Characters/Pairings: Antimony (OC), Steel, Sapphire, Silver.
Notes/Warnings: No spoilers. Mid/late 1980s, so post-series. (I did think about checking more than my memories of using a ZX Spectrum… but then realised that once you factor the way the games used to differ anyway, plus a sinister time thingy and four Elements, that would be silly. Any errors are due to the evil work of Time. Or Silver. Or Antimony.)
Summary: Sapphire and Steel need help from a different specialist after accidentally losing Silver inside a computer game.
***
Antimony examined the computer. These things were becoming more common in even ordinary households now, for leisure at least. She approved although, judging by his expression, Steel didn’t. Sapphire, leaning against the wall behind him, watched them both.
“Is that the trigger?” Steel asked.
Antimony remained looking at it and played with a strand of her hair rather than answer. She could, she thought, point out that they had been here longer than she had, and had the opportunity to search the house - which was old enough to be problematic - and that she’d had to contend with the fact that Silver had previously been meddling with the keyboard and cassette player. However, this was her area of expertise, and she knew the answer already. “Not exactly, but it is the source of the problem.”
The electrics faltered again, the light flickering and the vague sound of a radio and the hum of the refrigerator ceased for a moment, before returning. The computer remained unaffected.
“No,” said Sapphire, leaning forward. “There is something else, isn’t there? It’s not just the machine.”
Antimony nodded. “Something inside the computer. It’s hard to be sure, but it’s getting stronger - it could escape at any minute. If you’d called me first -” She stopped, and turned her head. “It’s never nice to be sent for when someone’s already lost a technician. It’s a bit worrying, you know.”
“Yes. Silver,” said Steel. “What happened?”
Antimony straightened up, and then leant against the table on which the portable TV and the computer’s keyboard and connections were sitting. “He’s in here.” She laid her hand on the top of the monitor.
Sapphire looked at it, and then walked over to put her fingers to the screen. “I can’t sense him.”
Antimony flashed a sudden smile. “Well, he knows you’re here now. But I wouldn’t do that again, if I were you. It’s probably better if he doesn’t get over-excited.”
“Explain,” said Steel.
She glanced down again, letting her hair fall over her face for the moment, as she straightened her long, dark grey skirt. That and the lighter grey cardigan were both plain, as if she had dressed herself merely to show off Sapphire to better effect: the operator was wearing a striking deep blue dress with a long skirt and full sleeves. “There’s something wrong with the game. That’s where it started - then it infected the computer, and now it’s working its way into the wiring of the house. It’ll get beyond that soon, if we don’t stop it.”
“The game?”
Sapphire gave a smile. “They play games on these machines. They have coloured brick walls and alien invaders.”
“Brick walls?”
“Yes.”
“This is a bit different,” said Antimony. “Very basic - they’re developing some much more interesting things, these days, you know, and I -”
“Antimony.”
“Sorry. Anyway, it’s an adventure game. It,” she paused to find the words and then shrugged, “describes a scenario and then the player types a response - and then it tells the player it can’t do what he or she wants to until they give up and go away. But it’s a story, in essentials. And this one is a very old story -”
“An old story in a new format,” said Steel, registering a familiar theme. “Yes.”
Sapphire glanced around her. “And here, in this house with its echoes of the past -”
“Yes, exactly,” said Antimony. “I think it’s the combination of the two that caused this. I don’t think every version of the game is affected. Let’s hope not, anyway. And when Silver started poking about with the computer, it recognised him as a threat and - well, it took him somewhere where it could deal with him on its terms.”
“How do we stop it?”
Antimony closed her eyes, and saw circuitry, wiring, connections - and here, two things that were very much where they shouldn’t be. Then she opened them again and tilted her head back slightly, her grey-green eyes catching the light while the buttons on her cardigan showed unexpected colours in the same glow. “We should talk to Silver.”
She held out her hand to Sapphire, who took it.
“Silver is inside, and that’s where it is. I can guide him through the game to its location, and he can stop it, with your help. It shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“It?” said Steel. “And what is ‘it’? What will it look like?”
Antimony let her gaze stray back to what was really a very simple computer, but still - they had come so far, the humans, and she couldn’t wait to see what they came up with next. “I don’t know. Going by the nature of the story, probably a dragon. Or an evil magician, or a troll. Something that will fit with the game.”
“Can Silver hear you?”
Sapphire smiled. “Yes.”
Antimony. I don’t like the sound of that. I’d be much more useful on the outside. You might not be able to do anything from there, of course, but I’m sure I -
I know what I’m talking about, Silver. Anyway, don’t you think a dragon sounds like fun?
“Can we get inside?” asked Steel, cutting into the telepathic conversation between the two technicians.
No, I don’t, said Silver. I don’t think a dragon sounds like any fun at all. It’s dark in here, and I left my tools behind. I’m sure it won’t take a moment to rejoin you now I know -
Silver, wait. Antimony put her hand to the screen again. Please?
Steel glanced at Sapphire.
“Yes, I think we can get inside.” Sapphire turned to Antimony.
Antimony nodded.
*
YOU ARE IN A MEADOW. TO YOUR LEFT YOU SEE A WOOD WHERE THERE ARE TREES AND FLOWERS. ON YOUR RIGHT THERE IS A HIGH WALL. THERE IS A LOCKED GATE IN THE CENTRE.
Beneath the terse words on the screen, the cursor flashed, awaiting Antimony’s response.
It’s dark. Should it be?
Steel. Antimony looked at the text again, and wondered exactly what the other three were seeing. They don’t have many pictures yet, or at least, this game doesn’t. I’ll guide you through until you reach the creature. I can sense where it is. Something that shouldn’t be there at all...
Antimony paused, as typing that was not hers appeared on the screen:
SILVER PICKS A FLOWER. SILVER GIVES FLOWER TO SAPPHIRE.
Antimony glared at the screen, and put a hand over the small keyboard. ‘Steel’ replaced the word ‘Sapphire’ and, for good measure, she added:
SILVER TURNS RIGHT. SILVER WALKS INTO WALL.
SILVER: Ouch.
I said, let me do the work here. When you reach it, then it’s your turn. It knows the game - and so do I. If you don’t, it can hide from you, or keep you locked in an imaginary room forever because you didn’t stop to pick up the key. And the only word you’ll ever hear again will be ‘error’. And that’s assuming someone doesn’t come along in the meantime and pull the plug out on you, or take the tape out of the computer. I don’t know what that would do, but I don’t think you want to find out.
We understand.
Antimony sat down in the chair opposite the screen on hearing Steel’s reply. Good. Because otherwise we’ll all be in trouble.
Slowly, while they had been carrying out that exchange, a picture had loaded on the computer. It was a crude and entirely two-dimensional image, but she could see the three of them there, and she had to grin. They were in a field, surrounded by bright green grass and primary-coloured flowers, not unlike a child’s drawing. Sapphire was standing next to Steel, somehow staring out of the monitor directly at Antimony. Steel was frowning at a blue flower in his hand, and Silver was lying in the middle of a clump of flowers beside the wall, smiling.
Get up, Silver! Then she laughed to herself, and ran a finger along the bottom of the screen, the colour of the picture from the screen lighting her face and reflecting in her eyes. I should let you stay this way. As pixels, you look… sweet.
Antimony… This time Steel wasn’t amused. She could hear the wariness in his tone, as if he wondered if she meant it.
The screen had flickered at the same time, and now Silver was leaning against the wall while Steel’s scowl was directed outward, at her. And then -
Antimony gasped, and put her hand back to the screen. It’s found you! It’s not going to hide - it’s coming for you -
The picture vanished, leaving the screen abruptly dark. Around her, the lights went off and the vague sounds of the electrical appliances in the house ceased, but the computer was still functioning. The creature inside was using the power, she realised.
Keep the link, you have to keep in contact with me! She stared at the television screen, trying to somehow see further, but there was only a blank screen, and beyond that her knowledge of its workings. “Come on, come on…”
*
YOU ARE IN A DARK CAVERN. A ROCKFALL BLOCKS YOUR ENTRANCE AND THERE IS NO OTHER EXIT.
A DRAGON MOVES TOWARDS YOU.
“Oh, no, not like this,” said Antimony, leaning sharply forward in the chair. Silver? Sapphire? Steel? Can you still hear me?
I can hear you. We can’t move, or see anything. Where is it?
Steel. It’s in there with you. Can’t you move at all? I’d have thought you at least -
I’m trying. A little. We can hear you. How… to… destroy… it…?
I’m thinking! Hang on -
Antimony put her hand over the keyboard again, feeling the rubber of the keys under her palm, some of them a little more worn than others. Impossibly quickly, new text appeared on the screen. Her work this time:
TO YOUR LEFT IS AN OPEN TREASURE CHEST CONTAINING SILVER, GOLD AND COPPER COINS. TO YOUR RIGHT IS A DOOR.
SILVER TAKES THE COINS FROM THE TREASURE CHEST.
STEEL WALKS TOWARDS THE DRAGON.
SAPPHIRE TALKS TO THE DRAGON.
SAPPHIRE: Hello, Dragon.
DRAGON: Hello, Sapphire. Now I shall kill you.
“Er, no, not quite,” muttered Antimony. She frowned, and tried again:
SAPPHIRE USES TELEPATHY TO TALK TO THE DRAGON.
SAPPHIRE: [Hello, Dragon]
DRAGON: [Hello, Sapphire. Now I shall kill you]
SAPPHIRE: [I’d prefer it if you didn’t]
“Drat,” Antimony said in the emptiness of the room. “That wasn’t what I had in mind, either.” She thought for a moment, and replaced her hand on the keyboard:
SILVER TURNS COINS INTO SWORD.
SILVER GIVES SWORD TO STEEL.
STEEL…
Antimony paused on the point of completing the obvious instructions while the cursor flashed, waiting impatiently for the end of the sentence. She was missing something about this, she thought. It wasn’t enough to give them the ability to act on her words. She changed her mind.
Sapphire, tell it that it doesn’t exist; it can’t exist! Steel -
Use something real?
Yes. It’s in control of everything that’s part of the game. I’ve put you in the right place. Now, use something real, and finish it!
If you can, she thought, and glanced around her again at the darkened and silent house, and shivered.
*
The lights came back on, and the computer exploded in a half-hearted spurt of smoke and a spark or two. Inside it, the tape melted and buckled. The screen on the TV monitor died in front of her.
Antimony remained completely still in the chair for a long moment.
“It worked,” said Sapphire, from behind her. “The disturbance has gone.”
Antimony smiled to herself, before turning. Then she looked over at Steel.
“He killed it himself,” said Silver, catching her glance and her unspoken question. He put a hand to the screen and shook his head. “They should have more images in these things. It would be much easier to fight a dragon you can see. The sword was a nice touch, though.”
“That wasn’t real,” she said, getting up from the chair, side-stepping away from the other three. “It won’t have helped.”
“Not as a mere idea, no, but I drew on some of the real components,” said Silver, with a pleased smile, and then he passed Antimony an impossible, blue, two-dimensional flower that faded away in her hands. “I thought it might be more useful.”
Antimony raised her chin. “Nobody likes a show-off.”
“It worked,” said Sapphire again, and took Antimony’s hand.
Steel looked about him. “You’re sure it’s gone?”
“I’m sure.”
“Yes,” said Antimony, and then she gave the others a grin. “And next time you should be more careful with your technician - or ask for me in the first place.”
***
Title: Antimony
Author: lost_spook
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 2121
Characters/Pairings: Antimony (OC), Steel, Sapphire, Silver.
Notes/Warnings: No spoilers. Mid/late 1980s, so post-series. (I did think about checking more than my memories of using a ZX Spectrum… but then realised that once you factor the way the games used to differ anyway, plus a sinister time thingy and four Elements, that would be silly. Any errors are due to the evil work of Time. Or Silver. Or Antimony.)
Summary: Sapphire and Steel need help from a different specialist after accidentally losing Silver inside a computer game.
***
Antimony examined the computer. These things were becoming more common in even ordinary households now, for leisure at least. She approved although, judging by his expression, Steel didn’t. Sapphire, leaning against the wall behind him, watched them both.
“Is that the trigger?” Steel asked.
Antimony remained looking at it and played with a strand of her hair rather than answer. She could, she thought, point out that they had been here longer than she had, and had the opportunity to search the house - which was old enough to be problematic - and that she’d had to contend with the fact that Silver had previously been meddling with the keyboard and cassette player. However, this was her area of expertise, and she knew the answer already. “Not exactly, but it is the source of the problem.”
The electrics faltered again, the light flickering and the vague sound of a radio and the hum of the refrigerator ceased for a moment, before returning. The computer remained unaffected.
“No,” said Sapphire, leaning forward. “There is something else, isn’t there? It’s not just the machine.”
Antimony nodded. “Something inside the computer. It’s hard to be sure, but it’s getting stronger - it could escape at any minute. If you’d called me first -” She stopped, and turned her head. “It’s never nice to be sent for when someone’s already lost a technician. It’s a bit worrying, you know.”
“Yes. Silver,” said Steel. “What happened?”
Antimony straightened up, and then leant against the table on which the portable TV and the computer’s keyboard and connections were sitting. “He’s in here.” She laid her hand on the top of the monitor.
Sapphire looked at it, and then walked over to put her fingers to the screen. “I can’t sense him.”
Antimony flashed a sudden smile. “Well, he knows you’re here now. But I wouldn’t do that again, if I were you. It’s probably better if he doesn’t get over-excited.”
“Explain,” said Steel.
She glanced down again, letting her hair fall over her face for the moment, as she straightened her long, dark grey skirt. That and the lighter grey cardigan were both plain, as if she had dressed herself merely to show off Sapphire to better effect: the operator was wearing a striking deep blue dress with a long skirt and full sleeves. “There’s something wrong with the game. That’s where it started - then it infected the computer, and now it’s working its way into the wiring of the house. It’ll get beyond that soon, if we don’t stop it.”
“The game?”
Sapphire gave a smile. “They play games on these machines. They have coloured brick walls and alien invaders.”
“Brick walls?”
“Yes.”
“This is a bit different,” said Antimony. “Very basic - they’re developing some much more interesting things, these days, you know, and I -”
“Antimony.”
“Sorry. Anyway, it’s an adventure game. It,” she paused to find the words and then shrugged, “describes a scenario and then the player types a response - and then it tells the player it can’t do what he or she wants to until they give up and go away. But it’s a story, in essentials. And this one is a very old story -”
“An old story in a new format,” said Steel, registering a familiar theme. “Yes.”
Sapphire glanced around her. “And here, in this house with its echoes of the past -”
“Yes, exactly,” said Antimony. “I think it’s the combination of the two that caused this. I don’t think every version of the game is affected. Let’s hope not, anyway. And when Silver started poking about with the computer, it recognised him as a threat and - well, it took him somewhere where it could deal with him on its terms.”
“How do we stop it?”
Antimony closed her eyes, and saw circuitry, wiring, connections - and here, two things that were very much where they shouldn’t be. Then she opened them again and tilted her head back slightly, her grey-green eyes catching the light while the buttons on her cardigan showed unexpected colours in the same glow. “We should talk to Silver.”
She held out her hand to Sapphire, who took it.
“Silver is inside, and that’s where it is. I can guide him through the game to its location, and he can stop it, with your help. It shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“It?” said Steel. “And what is ‘it’? What will it look like?”
Antimony let her gaze stray back to what was really a very simple computer, but still - they had come so far, the humans, and she couldn’t wait to see what they came up with next. “I don’t know. Going by the nature of the story, probably a dragon. Or an evil magician, or a troll. Something that will fit with the game.”
“Can Silver hear you?”
Sapphire smiled. “Yes.”
Antimony. I don’t like the sound of that. I’d be much more useful on the outside. You might not be able to do anything from there, of course, but I’m sure I -
I know what I’m talking about, Silver. Anyway, don’t you think a dragon sounds like fun?
“Can we get inside?” asked Steel, cutting into the telepathic conversation between the two technicians.
No, I don’t, said Silver. I don’t think a dragon sounds like any fun at all. It’s dark in here, and I left my tools behind. I’m sure it won’t take a moment to rejoin you now I know -
Silver, wait. Antimony put her hand to the screen again. Please?
Steel glanced at Sapphire.
“Yes, I think we can get inside.” Sapphire turned to Antimony.
Antimony nodded.
*
YOU ARE IN A MEADOW. TO YOUR LEFT YOU SEE A WOOD WHERE THERE ARE TREES AND FLOWERS. ON YOUR RIGHT THERE IS A HIGH WALL. THERE IS A LOCKED GATE IN THE CENTRE.
Beneath the terse words on the screen, the cursor flashed, awaiting Antimony’s response.
It’s dark. Should it be?
Steel. Antimony looked at the text again, and wondered exactly what the other three were seeing. They don’t have many pictures yet, or at least, this game doesn’t. I’ll guide you through until you reach the creature. I can sense where it is. Something that shouldn’t be there at all...
Antimony paused, as typing that was not hers appeared on the screen:
SILVER PICKS A FLOWER. SILVER GIVES FLOWER TO SAPPHIRE.
Antimony glared at the screen, and put a hand over the small keyboard. ‘Steel’ replaced the word ‘Sapphire’ and, for good measure, she added:
SILVER TURNS RIGHT. SILVER WALKS INTO WALL.
SILVER: Ouch.
I said, let me do the work here. When you reach it, then it’s your turn. It knows the game - and so do I. If you don’t, it can hide from you, or keep you locked in an imaginary room forever because you didn’t stop to pick up the key. And the only word you’ll ever hear again will be ‘error’. And that’s assuming someone doesn’t come along in the meantime and pull the plug out on you, or take the tape out of the computer. I don’t know what that would do, but I don’t think you want to find out.
We understand.
Antimony sat down in the chair opposite the screen on hearing Steel’s reply. Good. Because otherwise we’ll all be in trouble.
Slowly, while they had been carrying out that exchange, a picture had loaded on the computer. It was a crude and entirely two-dimensional image, but she could see the three of them there, and she had to grin. They were in a field, surrounded by bright green grass and primary-coloured flowers, not unlike a child’s drawing. Sapphire was standing next to Steel, somehow staring out of the monitor directly at Antimony. Steel was frowning at a blue flower in his hand, and Silver was lying in the middle of a clump of flowers beside the wall, smiling.
Get up, Silver! Then she laughed to herself, and ran a finger along the bottom of the screen, the colour of the picture from the screen lighting her face and reflecting in her eyes. I should let you stay this way. As pixels, you look… sweet.
Antimony… This time Steel wasn’t amused. She could hear the wariness in his tone, as if he wondered if she meant it.
The screen had flickered at the same time, and now Silver was leaning against the wall while Steel’s scowl was directed outward, at her. And then -
Antimony gasped, and put her hand back to the screen. It’s found you! It’s not going to hide - it’s coming for you -
The picture vanished, leaving the screen abruptly dark. Around her, the lights went off and the vague sounds of the electrical appliances in the house ceased, but the computer was still functioning. The creature inside was using the power, she realised.
Keep the link, you have to keep in contact with me! She stared at the television screen, trying to somehow see further, but there was only a blank screen, and beyond that her knowledge of its workings. “Come on, come on…”
*
YOU ARE IN A DARK CAVERN. A ROCKFALL BLOCKS YOUR ENTRANCE AND THERE IS NO OTHER EXIT.
A DRAGON MOVES TOWARDS YOU.
“Oh, no, not like this,” said Antimony, leaning sharply forward in the chair. Silver? Sapphire? Steel? Can you still hear me?
I can hear you. We can’t move, or see anything. Where is it?
Steel. It’s in there with you. Can’t you move at all? I’d have thought you at least -
I’m trying. A little. We can hear you. How… to… destroy… it…?
I’m thinking! Hang on -
Antimony put her hand over the keyboard again, feeling the rubber of the keys under her palm, some of them a little more worn than others. Impossibly quickly, new text appeared on the screen. Her work this time:
TO YOUR LEFT IS AN OPEN TREASURE CHEST CONTAINING SILVER, GOLD AND COPPER COINS. TO YOUR RIGHT IS A DOOR.
SILVER TAKES THE COINS FROM THE TREASURE CHEST.
STEEL WALKS TOWARDS THE DRAGON.
SAPPHIRE TALKS TO THE DRAGON.
SAPPHIRE: Hello, Dragon.
DRAGON: Hello, Sapphire. Now I shall kill you.
“Er, no, not quite,” muttered Antimony. She frowned, and tried again:
SAPPHIRE USES TELEPATHY TO TALK TO THE DRAGON.
SAPPHIRE: [Hello, Dragon]
DRAGON: [Hello, Sapphire. Now I shall kill you]
SAPPHIRE: [I’d prefer it if you didn’t]
“Drat,” Antimony said in the emptiness of the room. “That wasn’t what I had in mind, either.” She thought for a moment, and replaced her hand on the keyboard:
SILVER TURNS COINS INTO SWORD.
SILVER GIVES SWORD TO STEEL.
STEEL…
Antimony paused on the point of completing the obvious instructions while the cursor flashed, waiting impatiently for the end of the sentence. She was missing something about this, she thought. It wasn’t enough to give them the ability to act on her words. She changed her mind.
Sapphire, tell it that it doesn’t exist; it can’t exist! Steel -
Use something real?
Yes. It’s in control of everything that’s part of the game. I’ve put you in the right place. Now, use something real, and finish it!
If you can, she thought, and glanced around her again at the darkened and silent house, and shivered.
*
The lights came back on, and the computer exploded in a half-hearted spurt of smoke and a spark or two. Inside it, the tape melted and buckled. The screen on the TV monitor died in front of her.
Antimony remained completely still in the chair for a long moment.
“It worked,” said Sapphire, from behind her. “The disturbance has gone.”
Antimony smiled to herself, before turning. Then she looked over at Steel.
“He killed it himself,” said Silver, catching her glance and her unspoken question. He put a hand to the screen and shook his head. “They should have more images in these things. It would be much easier to fight a dragon you can see. The sword was a nice touch, though.”
“That wasn’t real,” she said, getting up from the chair, side-stepping away from the other three. “It won’t have helped.”
“Not as a mere idea, no, but I drew on some of the real components,” said Silver, with a pleased smile, and then he passed Antimony an impossible, blue, two-dimensional flower that faded away in her hands. “I thought it might be more useful.”
Antimony raised her chin. “Nobody likes a show-off.”
“It worked,” said Sapphire again, and took Antimony’s hand.
Steel looked about him. “You’re sure it’s gone?”
“I’m sure.”
“Yes,” said Antimony, and then she gave the others a grin. “And next time you should be more careful with your technician - or ask for me in the first place.”
***