Woo-hoo got this bit done!
Oh, and a note. I've found that . . .'s don't always show up on ff.net, so if you see a single . and a lowercase letter following, it's probably supposed to be a . . . I forgot what they're called **laughs**
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Numero...Cuatro!
Harper
"Mothers of Soral III, lock up your daughters! Seamus Harper, High King of the high seas has arrived!" The engineer's cheerful self-aggrandizement cut off when he stepped down from the ramp extended from the flowing, silver curves of the Andromeda Ascendant. "Holy freakin cannoli," he whispered. "Dylan, Trance, you guys have got to see this place! Rommie, you too." He dropped his bags where he stood, rooted to the spot and slightly more carefully set his surfboard atop the luggage.
The three named followed and absorbed the lush environment, looking rather less awed than their crewmember. "Well, it is beautiful," Dylan began uncertainly, sending a look to Rommie and Trance, silently asking for a suggestion. They shrugged.
"Rommie, you've been to Earth. You've seen the, uh, shining seas and fruitful plains. This is it." He stared out toward the horizon, clearly incredulous of the vista set out in front of him.
"Yes, Harper, I have," the android responded. "I suppose it's similar."
"Similar?? It's the same freakin' place! I mean, this is Earth. Without the Nietzscheans and Magog...and the cities...and ghettos in the cities."
"So basically, it's Earth, minus everything that makes it uniquely Earth?" Rommie's voice was devoid of sarcasm; she was truly confused.
Harper just shook his head. {{AN: these people seem to do that an awful lot, don't they?}} How could he explain that the sunny flowers that dotted the landscape here reminded him of the little blossoms they called weeds but that he had loved anyway and had been all he could find to place on all the graves? How could he tell them about the scent of apple trees in bloom he so rarely caught back home that permeated the soft breezes here, improbable as that was. The Magog and Nietzscheans and filth that Rommie had seen and the others knew of didn't make Earth unique in the least. Instead, it was the vibrancy, the tiny displays of strength amid the horrors and violence that was everyday life, but which one was never completely accustomed to. Like the spicy clean scent of pine that occasionally wafted through the city, granting its human residents a moment's respite from the everlasting stench of sewers and death. He would always remember a totally unexpected thunderstorm that had crashed over Boston one previously still night and lit up the city like a fireworks display, including the Nietzschean ambush. Many more escaped torture and worse that night that would have been possible the peaceful evening they had predicted. The stuff of self-indulgent poets, perhaps, but it reminded Harper that if a solitary, blue-green gem could withstand centuries of torment, much of it brought of by the creatures who'd emerged from it, then by the divine, Seamus Harper could survive one more day on it.
He gathered his baggage and ran to catch up with the others, stumbling over hidden rocks and low vegatation. "If the High King can't walk straight, I'm afraid he may be demoted to court jester," Trance threatened when he narrowly avoided breaking his skull on a knobby old tree root. The warm smile she gave him was fully at odds with her words, and oddly, this heartened him.
"So tell me, my golden warrior princess, is there any chance ol' Harper'll get you out on the waves this time?" Purple Trance had avoided surfing like triangulum measles, but her complexion wasn't the only thing that had altered dramatically when she'd grown up, or whatever. All the answer he received was a very steady look. "No outright refusal, huh? Admit it, Trance, I'm wearing you down, slowly but surely!" A stone tried to catch his foot, and it very nearly succeeded. "Gah! Do you suppose they've heard of roads here?"
Trance was assessing her surroundings, smiling very faintly. "I think it's wonderful." Her eyes twinkled, so like the old Trance that Harper temporarily lost his footing. That could also have been the tiny lizard that had just appeared under his left foot. "You're right about it looking like Earth, Harper." Her auburn braids bobbed as she nodded thoughtfully. "It really does." Harper's eyes widened as he realized what she had just implied. When has Trance been to Earth??
A few more minutes passed as the group followed a well-worn dirt track, two of them offering up prayers that it led to some sort of civilization. One of these petitions to the Divine specified that it be one full of lonely, well-endowed women with a thing for cute blond surfers. Another was busy inspecting this alien world carefully, her deep eyes cataloguing everything they saw, and wondering how she'd never seen this place before. Unusual as it was, her musings were quite similar to the last being's; the latter trying to recall how they'd learned of this place and finding no answer. Of course, Rommie was analyzing and storing images of the planet for her main AI's database, seeking out signs of sentient life, and monitoring the life signs of Dylan and Harper. She'd given up on Trance a long time ago. Something beeped internally, and she zoomed in on the source of the sudden noise. "Dylan! There's a small city just ahead of us." She frowned at the data she was receiving. "It must be shrouded, somehow, for it to have escaped my sensors so far."
Dylan shrugged, unconcerned. Still, the wheels and gears in his head began turning, already formulating and discarding various theories as to why this might be so. "Lead on, Rommie. I cannot wait to experience one of those Sasaran massages they told us about." For her part, Rommie wasn't terribly impressed by the notion. Massage parlors on small, out of the way worlds like this were often no more than legalised houses of ill repute.
From behind them, Harper's voice piped up. "Don't worry, Rommie, you can lay your hands on me any time you like." Even without seeing him, she could picture the laviscious expression on his face. This was followed by a squeak she assumed was an 'ouch' or some other cry of pain. Perhaps Trance had thwapped him. Good for her.
"Harper, do you remember those Magog I laid my hands on?" Had she been aboard the Andromeda... Aboard myself. How much sense does that make?, her AI would have reprimanded her about the habits she picked up from her crew, sarcasm among them.
Dylan chuckled as Harper replied in a much less cocky tone. Of course, he knew she was kidding, but even so... "Right, Rommie. Just, uh, lead on."
She did just that, and soon, they arrived at their destination. Trance seemed reluctant to leave the light forest, but no one else objected in the least. Even Harper's interest in the place was pushed to back of his mind when he saw the city nestled against a steep, verdant hill. The contrast between the bristly evergreens and the smooth domes and curving lines of the multi-hued buildings emphasized the beauty of each. "Hey, Rommie, this place remind you of anyone?"
Now for most people, that question would make absolutely no sense, but Rommie could only nod. Trance, for her part, whispered, awe evident in her quiet alto. "It looks like the Andromeda." And so it did. Everything was constructed of sinuous arcs and sweeps, not a straight line in sight, except for the roads. Even those curved a bit, upon closer inspection.
"Well," Harper quipped, "now we know where High Guard architects retired to after finishing their lovely Glorious Heritage class line." That brought people back to their senses with a vengeance. Rommie began to give a running commentary on each building as they passed them, chattering at a speed usually reserved for auctioneers and Sparky-ed mudfoots when one's outer wall was consisted of fullerene mesh, like her own. Dylan kept interjecting comments about how one or another edifice resembled something from Tarn-Vedra and succeeded at least in receiving irritated looks from Rommie. For Harper, that alone was worth anything that might happen on this trip. Trance, for her part, gaped in silence, her expression one Harper didn't think he'd ever seen on this incarnation of the...colorful pixie.
While he freely admitted that this place definitely had caught his interest and that he wouldn't mind spending a few days with some of the head engineers, he would mind even less finding this resort of theirs and enjoying one of those massages. The man who had contacted them seemed to think them one of the central highlights of any visit here. "Uh guys?" he finally broke in, "if we don't check in soon, they'll give our reservations to a just married Nietzschean couple on honeymoon, and you know they won't be able to appreciate nearly as much as yours truly."
Rommie frowned at him but agreed that they had better find their rooms before long and carefully navigated through the city, stopping at an eye- wrenching blue structure. "Hey Rommie, it matches your hair!" Harper exclaimed, skittering behind Trance for protection in case the android should decide to take offense at his observation. Her chocolate eyes narrowed but otherwise, she didn't react outwardly. Well, he had been the one to give her the nanobots for that function. She paused for a moment, probably accessing what little they'd been told of the city, and nodded.
"This way."
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Oh, and a note. I've found that . . .'s don't always show up on ff.net, so if you see a single . and a lowercase letter following, it's probably supposed to be a . . . I forgot what they're called **laughs**
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Numero...Cuatro!
Harper
"Mothers of Soral III, lock up your daughters! Seamus Harper, High King of the high seas has arrived!" The engineer's cheerful self-aggrandizement cut off when he stepped down from the ramp extended from the flowing, silver curves of the Andromeda Ascendant. "Holy freakin cannoli," he whispered. "Dylan, Trance, you guys have got to see this place! Rommie, you too." He dropped his bags where he stood, rooted to the spot and slightly more carefully set his surfboard atop the luggage.
The three named followed and absorbed the lush environment, looking rather less awed than their crewmember. "Well, it is beautiful," Dylan began uncertainly, sending a look to Rommie and Trance, silently asking for a suggestion. They shrugged.
"Rommie, you've been to Earth. You've seen the, uh, shining seas and fruitful plains. This is it." He stared out toward the horizon, clearly incredulous of the vista set out in front of him.
"Yes, Harper, I have," the android responded. "I suppose it's similar."
"Similar?? It's the same freakin' place! I mean, this is Earth. Without the Nietzscheans and Magog...and the cities...and ghettos in the cities."
"So basically, it's Earth, minus everything that makes it uniquely Earth?" Rommie's voice was devoid of sarcasm; she was truly confused.
Harper just shook his head. {{AN: these people seem to do that an awful lot, don't they?}} How could he explain that the sunny flowers that dotted the landscape here reminded him of the little blossoms they called weeds but that he had loved anyway and had been all he could find to place on all the graves? How could he tell them about the scent of apple trees in bloom he so rarely caught back home that permeated the soft breezes here, improbable as that was. The Magog and Nietzscheans and filth that Rommie had seen and the others knew of didn't make Earth unique in the least. Instead, it was the vibrancy, the tiny displays of strength amid the horrors and violence that was everyday life, but which one was never completely accustomed to. Like the spicy clean scent of pine that occasionally wafted through the city, granting its human residents a moment's respite from the everlasting stench of sewers and death. He would always remember a totally unexpected thunderstorm that had crashed over Boston one previously still night and lit up the city like a fireworks display, including the Nietzschean ambush. Many more escaped torture and worse that night that would have been possible the peaceful evening they had predicted. The stuff of self-indulgent poets, perhaps, but it reminded Harper that if a solitary, blue-green gem could withstand centuries of torment, much of it brought of by the creatures who'd emerged from it, then by the divine, Seamus Harper could survive one more day on it.
He gathered his baggage and ran to catch up with the others, stumbling over hidden rocks and low vegatation. "If the High King can't walk straight, I'm afraid he may be demoted to court jester," Trance threatened when he narrowly avoided breaking his skull on a knobby old tree root. The warm smile she gave him was fully at odds with her words, and oddly, this heartened him.
"So tell me, my golden warrior princess, is there any chance ol' Harper'll get you out on the waves this time?" Purple Trance had avoided surfing like triangulum measles, but her complexion wasn't the only thing that had altered dramatically when she'd grown up, or whatever. All the answer he received was a very steady look. "No outright refusal, huh? Admit it, Trance, I'm wearing you down, slowly but surely!" A stone tried to catch his foot, and it very nearly succeeded. "Gah! Do you suppose they've heard of roads here?"
Trance was assessing her surroundings, smiling very faintly. "I think it's wonderful." Her eyes twinkled, so like the old Trance that Harper temporarily lost his footing. That could also have been the tiny lizard that had just appeared under his left foot. "You're right about it looking like Earth, Harper." Her auburn braids bobbed as she nodded thoughtfully. "It really does." Harper's eyes widened as he realized what she had just implied. When has Trance been to Earth??
A few more minutes passed as the group followed a well-worn dirt track, two of them offering up prayers that it led to some sort of civilization. One of these petitions to the Divine specified that it be one full of lonely, well-endowed women with a thing for cute blond surfers. Another was busy inspecting this alien world carefully, her deep eyes cataloguing everything they saw, and wondering how she'd never seen this place before. Unusual as it was, her musings were quite similar to the last being's; the latter trying to recall how they'd learned of this place and finding no answer. Of course, Rommie was analyzing and storing images of the planet for her main AI's database, seeking out signs of sentient life, and monitoring the life signs of Dylan and Harper. She'd given up on Trance a long time ago. Something beeped internally, and she zoomed in on the source of the sudden noise. "Dylan! There's a small city just ahead of us." She frowned at the data she was receiving. "It must be shrouded, somehow, for it to have escaped my sensors so far."
Dylan shrugged, unconcerned. Still, the wheels and gears in his head began turning, already formulating and discarding various theories as to why this might be so. "Lead on, Rommie. I cannot wait to experience one of those Sasaran massages they told us about." For her part, Rommie wasn't terribly impressed by the notion. Massage parlors on small, out of the way worlds like this were often no more than legalised houses of ill repute.
From behind them, Harper's voice piped up. "Don't worry, Rommie, you can lay your hands on me any time you like." Even without seeing him, she could picture the laviscious expression on his face. This was followed by a squeak she assumed was an 'ouch' or some other cry of pain. Perhaps Trance had thwapped him. Good for her.
"Harper, do you remember those Magog I laid my hands on?" Had she been aboard the Andromeda... Aboard myself. How much sense does that make?, her AI would have reprimanded her about the habits she picked up from her crew, sarcasm among them.
Dylan chuckled as Harper replied in a much less cocky tone. Of course, he knew she was kidding, but even so... "Right, Rommie. Just, uh, lead on."
She did just that, and soon, they arrived at their destination. Trance seemed reluctant to leave the light forest, but no one else objected in the least. Even Harper's interest in the place was pushed to back of his mind when he saw the city nestled against a steep, verdant hill. The contrast between the bristly evergreens and the smooth domes and curving lines of the multi-hued buildings emphasized the beauty of each. "Hey, Rommie, this place remind you of anyone?"
Now for most people, that question would make absolutely no sense, but Rommie could only nod. Trance, for her part, whispered, awe evident in her quiet alto. "It looks like the Andromeda." And so it did. Everything was constructed of sinuous arcs and sweeps, not a straight line in sight, except for the roads. Even those curved a bit, upon closer inspection.
"Well," Harper quipped, "now we know where High Guard architects retired to after finishing their lovely Glorious Heritage class line." That brought people back to their senses with a vengeance. Rommie began to give a running commentary on each building as they passed them, chattering at a speed usually reserved for auctioneers and Sparky-ed mudfoots when one's outer wall was consisted of fullerene mesh, like her own. Dylan kept interjecting comments about how one or another edifice resembled something from Tarn-Vedra and succeeded at least in receiving irritated looks from Rommie. For Harper, that alone was worth anything that might happen on this trip. Trance, for her part, gaped in silence, her expression one Harper didn't think he'd ever seen on this incarnation of the...colorful pixie.
While he freely admitted that this place definitely had caught his interest and that he wouldn't mind spending a few days with some of the head engineers, he would mind even less finding this resort of theirs and enjoying one of those massages. The man who had contacted them seemed to think them one of the central highlights of any visit here. "Uh guys?" he finally broke in, "if we don't check in soon, they'll give our reservations to a just married Nietzschean couple on honeymoon, and you know they won't be able to appreciate nearly as much as yours truly."
Rommie frowned at him but agreed that they had better find their rooms before long and carefully navigated through the city, stopping at an eye- wrenching blue structure. "Hey Rommie, it matches your hair!" Harper exclaimed, skittering behind Trance for protection in case the android should decide to take offense at his observation. Her chocolate eyes narrowed but otherwise, she didn't react outwardly. Well, he had been the one to give her the nanobots for that function. She paused for a moment, probably accessing what little they'd been told of the city, and nodded.
"This way."
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