Tory looks up when Ford enters the bedroom. He glances over the rainbow of knives spread out on the bed around her, then closes the door.
“What's goin' on?” He studies her carefully. “We need to make a trip to the west continent.” Tory sets to wrapping each knife in heavy cloth. Ford frowns, “We as in...?” “You an' me... an' Rylle.” Tory sets each wrapped knife inside a bag. He nods to himself. “It's really time?” “We have to be there before the eleventh. That's just enough time for travel. I can't take us by qerdir this time... don't really want to.” “I guess you don't know what'll happen either.” Ford crosses the room to sit beside her. Tory shakes her head as she closes up the bag and sets it on the floor beside her. Then she leans against Ford. He pulls her into his lap and she rests her head on his shoulder. After a time, he queries, “How are we gettin' over there?” “Vehicle, boat, vehicle. I know Rylle doesn't drive, but we'll trade off an' there'll be a boat waitin' when we reach Monarch's Town.” “Have you told Rylle?” “Yeah. She knows to be ready first thing tomorrow mornin'.” “We're pickin' her up?” Tory nods. “We're meetin' everyone else at Chancellor Hall.” “The rest of the Second Shield?” “An' Amy an' one of her guardians... 'specially since she's the one who knows where to use the keys.” “Does Angel know we're goin'?” “No. Not plannin' to tell her either.” “You're gonna catch hell for that.” Ford shakes his head. “I'll deal with it when it comes up.” Ford grimaces, but only asks, “Ready to call it a night?” “More than.” Tory makes no effort to move.
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None of us have any idea how much time passes before we pull up to a gate in a chain link fence. Through the windows, we can see workers pulling barbed wire from the top. A stern looking gate guard opens the gate for our vehicle to pass through. Ford frowns as he looks out the windows at the buildings we pass. Logan scowls outright.
“This ain’t no f***in’ experiment, it’s a f***in’ prison!” “Simmer down,” I tell him, “Maybe it’s the only place they could get or maybe the government demanded they had to use someplace like this.” “Maybe.” Ford’s frown deepens as he continues to look out the window. Every person we pass is wearing the same muddy coloured coveralls and hard at work. Sometimes I wish he wouldn’t wear those glasses. They make it really hard to tell what he's thinking. Eventually the vehicle comes to a stop at the door of a large, grey, concrete building. A woman in a neat business suit steps outside as the doors open. Logan is the first out, launching himself at her. Ford follows immediately, but I have a feeling it isn’t to restrain Logan. I follow as fast as I can and find that I have to pull both of them off her. Ford backs off as soon as I touch him, but Logan fights me. I smash his punching hand against the wall as a lesson. Then I turn to the woman. “You better have a real good, short explanation ‘cause some of us ain’t exactly noted for our patience.” She takes a deep breath, straightening her suit jacket. “Welcome to Experiment Redemption. I really must apologize for the conditions. Camp Streton has served as both a prison and a military base and, while renovations are underway, it’s been hard to get supplies.” I cross my arms over my chest, studying her coolly. Behind me, I can hear Angel mutter, “No sh*t.” The woman continues, “My name is Rachelle Berndintas. I will be the liaison for UnderGround Club for the duration of your stay here. If you would please come with me, your orientation will begin in a few minutes.” She leads the way into the building and I follow, leaving Ford to make sure everyone else does as well. Ettoyr is the second plant of a sun like Earth's, which was deemed suitable for terraforming during the original exploration efforts. It has a shorter year overall and two moons. Lunar synch coincides with the equinoxes.
Although initially terraformed to multiple types of terrain, Ettoyr settled out as a largely jungle world and tropical climate. It has two continents, three subcontinents, and two major oceans. The Ettoyr colonists did retain the conditioning, but quickly developed technology based on solar power, touch functionality, and hover, although not full flight.
My writing on the Cemen Colony over the last twenty-five plus years has turned out to be an interesting exercise in alternate timelines and the changes they cause in the characters. Beginning with what was originally a minor character in another story and gradually becoming the massive amount of material I'm still working on as inspiration strikes.
The published novels and tales follow the events predicted in one of four major sets of prophesies - the text written by the first leader of Aarendusch mentioned in the above quotation. Quite likely all the future novels and tales will also follow this line of events. That said... I have finished a very long novel following the Prophesies of Jessayan and begun a sequel to that. I'm debating sharing those scene by scene on this blog. I haven't decided yet. I also have some writing done following the events predicted in Rod Nalell and the Saraiian, along with a whole host of smaller pieces exploring various potential alternate choices stemming from various events along all the different timelines. Again, I may eventually share some of this materal on the blog - I don't know yet whether my readers would even be interested. Silence reigns over the cluster of empty wooden buildings and surrounding sands. Silence broken only by the occasional wind stirring dust around. Silence disrupted by an unnatural whine.
In the middle of the sand flooded main street, in the middle of empty air, a smooth white door slides open. Three women step through and the door slides closed before vanishing. The women look around, shielding their eyes from the glare of the midday sun and their faces from the blowing dust. The smallest of them, no taller than a small child despite having a woman's full figure, darts across the street and through double half doors which swing in the wake of her passing. The other two exchange a glance and a shrug before following. The inside of the building is as dusty as the outside and sand has blown in to nearly cover the floor. Tables surrounded by chairs are set haphazardly around the room, some littered with tankards and bottles, as if the last people to frequent the room had simply gotten up and walked away. Across the room is a bar, behind which the wall is lined with shelves displaying all shapes, colours, and cuts of glass bottles. A set of stairs to one side leads to an upper walkway lined with open doors, although it's impossible to see into any given room from the floor below. The tallest of the three, a slim woman with a long blonde braid, distinctly pointed ears, and light brown-green eyes, looks around and shakes her head. “A tavern by any other name...” “It's out of the wind... mostly,” The diminutive woman sets her pack on an empty table, “So we're here. What now?” “Now we hope they honour their word and leave us be,” The third woman, only slightly shorter than the tallest and somewhat more muscular, looks from one of her companions to the other, “We've gained a home of our choosing. What more could we ask after everything?” Wolntyff is the second planet of a young star and orbited by two moons. It has a potentially habitable sister world in the third planet of the system. The exploration efforts found Wolntyff suitable for terraforming, although the entire planet does suffer from strong nightly wind storms.
The Wolntyff colony is unique in that the colonists were not conditioned to forget Earth and are all aware that they are living on a colony world. The overall colony capital city is Odinsville and law enforcement is the purview of the colonia militia. The novel Colony Zero begins as sands from an unknown source are taking over the surface of the world and forcing the colonists to evacuate the small, unwalled settlements. Pamu is one of several planets in a system with a Sol like sun. It has two as yet unnamed moons and is a water world with polar ice caps and no ground above sea level. Its oceans are home to a host of sentient and not so sentient races, including a variety of dragon.
When humans arrived, they built their homes on floats anchored to the ocean bottom, not realizing they were disturbing the races below. What happens as a result is the subject of the novel Beneath the Waves.
Cemen is a relatively Earth-like planet in orbit of a star similar to Sol and has one unnamed moon. It is home to a primarily subterranean race, who call themselves Sedyr.
In terms of geography, Cemen has two continents, one slightly smaller than the other, and two oceans. The planet is, for the most part, tectonically stable and any kind of tremors or quakes are extremely rare. For some (yet to be determined reason) the colonists from Earth arrived on Cemen in two separate ships, one significantly after the other. The Sedyr emerged to greet the first colonists and help them learn to live on the planet, but had mostly retreated back to their underground homes by the time the second ship of colonists arrived. What would eventually become known as the East Continent was, in time, united into a single empire, which was later broken into four monarchies. The other continent, later known as the West Continent, became and remained a republic. All trade and travel between the continents is under the purview of a group known as the Pleasure Society, who exist outside the authority of any continental government. Possibly due to the influence of the (almost) immortal Sedyr, many of the social structures and governments on Cemen remain relatively stable for long time periods. Another possible influence of the Sedyr on the human colonists is a retention of words, concepts, and holidays that the colonists were supposedly conditioned to forget in the attempt to make them forget Earth. |
AuthorAlexandra A. 'Lexa' Cheshire is the author of numerous novels and short stories published through Howling Wolf Books. Lexa is a wife, mother, cat owner, and music lover. Archives
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