#maybe if there was a spot on the catwalk or if the array was small and the gels needed changing

[mayasaura]

one problem with a theatrical adaption of tlt is htn, where the reveal that Gideon lives on works because of the change of second person to first.

the only way i can think of it working is that the actor playing gideon works backstage, like the lights system (but is hidden from the audience aside from subtle hints)

the biggest hint is when when wake breaches pal's river bubble she 'breaks' the lighting system and the stage goes dark. harrow is ushered into the wings by pal so she doesn't see anything, but the lights flick back on just before the curtains drop for a scene change, and pal looks directly up at the light box in surprise and smiles. if the audience is quick to turn around they can see a flash of a black robe.

Oh boy my friend, have you come to the right place!!

So, fun fact about ninja. Bear with me, I am going somewhere with this. The image of a ninja covered head to toe in black, with a hood and mask, comes from Kabuki theatre. It was originally a stagehand uniform. Like stagehands in modern theatre, stagehands in Kabuki would wear all black to signify that they were not really there, and whatever effect they were causing (carrying a prop, creating a breeze, ect.) was to be taken as happening on its own. Basic stagehand stuff, a lot of productions in many styles around the world do it, especially if they don't have fancy rigging systems.

Someone (I don't remember who now, or in what play) had the idea to dress the ninja in a production up as a stagehand. In the convention of the theatre, this made them invisible. The audience was already so used to ignoring stagehands, they didn't know any more than the characters that the ninja was present, despite the actor being clearly visible on stage. Which meant when the ninja struck, it was as if out of nowhere. I can only imagine the uproar in the theatre the first time it happened. It worked so well as to become commonplace, and the rest is history. The popular image of a ninja is still a kabuki stagehand.

So, back to the stage play of Harrow the Ninth. I think you've hit almost exactly on how to incorporate the Gideon twist into a theatrical production. But not as a lighting tech. Gideon is a stage hand. Maybe there would be more than one stagehand, maybe she would be the only one, but she would operate in full view of the audience, literally setting the scenes. I think it works best if she's the only one, but if the production needs more, she should subtly stand out in some way. As the play went on, we would notice that this one stage hand... increasingly interacts with Harrow, though Harrow never acknowledges it. At first it might look like she's playing Harrow's necromancy, because that would be the main special effect she would need to help with. When Harrow is unconscious at the end of a scene, it's always the same stagehand carrying her out. But we all know she's not really there. Until Palamedes acknowledges her. Turns to look right at her, and speaks to her. I can see the scene clearly. He would look at her, stunned, until Gideon finally took off her mask. The line "Kill us twice, shame on God," would be addressed to Gideon, and then he would turn back to Harrow, kiss her on the forehead, and tell her to go. Gideon, always out of Harrow's line of sight, would guide Harrow away while Harrow looked back at Palamedes.

#the locked tomb #harrow the ninth #I have a few ideas how to do gideon as harrow but it needs a lot of workshopping #I love this idea #htn spoilers #gideon nav #speaking as someone who has worked as a light tech that specifically doesn't work so well #because techs are rarely on stage messing with the lights during a production #maybe if there was a spot on the catwalk or if the array was small and the gels needed changing #but anyone who can turn off all the lights on stage is usually behind the audience in a little control room with a lot of switches and dial #that said the stage SHOULD go completely dark immediately after this scene #and the lights should come up suddenly on Gideon and Harrow alone on stage together #harrow having a crisis and staring resolutely forward while Gideon behind her reaches for her and can't touch her #just for a brief moment

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “Approaching Countdown.”

Had to write this at work today, so sorry it is short. 

The GA chairwoman stood in the oppressive muggy heart of Earth. She really hated it, it made her skin itch and her eyes sting, there wasn’t enough water in their atmosphere to actually cause her any harm, but there was definitely enough of it to make her very uncomfortable. A part of her had hoped that it might rain, forcing her to stay off world for the weather formation, but these humans knew what they were doing and had scheduled the launch for a cloudless day.

She looked up at the yellow earth sun and sighed. The humans had been very excited to invite the GA delegations out to view the launch. Humans were generally very excited to show anyone they could their dangerous past, and looking at the thing that was passing for a spaceship, she could not see how it would get more than a few inches off the ground, much less out of orbit. Supposedly they had dipped into very rare rocket fuel reserves to even do this as it required fossil fuel.

Fossil Fuel!

Let that sink in for a moment.

Liquified dead plant and animal remains mixed with liquid oxygen and some sort of oxidizer. She wasn’t sure what that last part meant, she wasn’t a rocket scientist. She sighed again, personally she wished she didn’t have to be here, for she doubted the launch was going to go as the human expected. In all reality her nerves were shot and she wished that she could just pass out for the next few hours and forget where she was. Everything was out of her hands anyway. Her orders had been given and now all she could do was wait.

She stood in the heat not too distant from her array of human bodyguards,dressed in dark suits and wearing dark glasses to cover their eyes. Somehow they managed to look more intimidating than normal humans did frowning, missing the characteristic tooty smile she had grown to associate with humans.

Shehad spent far too much time with Admiral Vir it seemed.

She sighed at the thought of him and shook her head.

Every time she tried to think about something else, it just circled back around to him. She tried not to think about it, taking a very deep breath.

There was some shuffling behind her and she turned slowly on her knuckles feeling the concrete grinding below her hands as she did. Two Tesraki and one other Rundi stood behind her having been let through by the human guards, who still eyed them with some measure of suspicion.

“Everything is in place, Chancellor.”

She nodded her head once.

“How many?”

There are at least thirty patrolling the borders of the trajectory zone. They will know as soon as he breaches orbit.

“And our engineers?”

“We are having trouble gaining access, but we are still working on it.”

“You better hope that we can.”

She lifted her head towards the sky where she could see the faint line of the moon against the blueness of the sky.

“We better hope.”

***

Captain Richard’s palms were very sweaty. He tried to wipe them discreetly on his pants or more accurately a onesie the scientists were calling a “Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment. So like a Onesie with tubes in it. He glanced sidelong over to where Admiral Vir was sitting staring at the antique space suit equipment laid out before them. 

He tried not to make it look like he was staring, but he totally was.

Admiral Vir wasn’t much older than him, maybe by a year or two, but that was part of what made being in the same room with him so strange. Every time he, or probably anyone, though of an admiral, they generally thought of some stuffy grey haired fat guy who sat behind a desk and gave orders. But…. this guy…. Well he was nothing like that at all. He was young and stupidly fit, and sure he had some white hair appearing at his temples, but his hair was blond enough you only noticed it in certain light.

And he was very personable, that was the first thing Richards had noticed.

The man knew how to work a room. He was funny, and despite being intimidated by his status, he found himself forgetting constantly that this guy wasn’t someone cool he had just met out at the bar. 

As if he could sense someone looking at him, Admiral Vir turned around theappriture of his mechanical eye adjusting slightly. He grinned in a very un-admiral way, “This is so friggin awesome.” The man looked like he was about to jump out of his boots, “Just look at this stuff-” He grinned some more dancing from one foot to the other, “Happiest damn day of my life and I’m wearing a diaper.”

That got the rest of the shuttle crew laughing which then devolved into a discussion about the pros and cons of diapers versus the new suit catheters. There was a surprising split on the discussion as the group of men talked, a conversation that was only broken as a group of scientists stepped in to help them with their suits. The process was rather tedious, the suits were bulky and cumbersome, nothing like the neat, sleek and comfortable suits used on regular ships.

Stepping into the pants of the suit they had to hold their arms up as the upper portion was lowered into place over their heads while others hurried in to pull on their arms and then help them fit into the gloves. He ducked his head as the communications cap was placed over his head. They would be wearing the full suit into orbit, though they would be allowed to take it off on the journey over. A journey which would take roughly three days or more to complete. One of them would stay in orbit while Admiral Vir and Richards himself took the lunar module down to the surface.

It was all supposed to go very smoothly from here.

Once suited up he couldn’t help but be reminded of when he was a child ready to go sledding with his siblings, in his massive snow pants and puffy jacket, waddling across the floor with his arms held out to either side.

He honestly hoped he looked cooler than he felt.

Admiral Vir might have been able to pull it off if he wasn’t nearly skipping, which seemed pretty improbable in the massive ass snowman suit.

Glancing out the long windows and into the horizon, he could see crowds of people set up in the distance. Head was a teenager when the Enterprise Launched, standing in an awed crowd as the massive behemoth hauled herself into the sky. He remembered the thrill, and he remembered the fear as he watched it go higher and higher and higher.

He remembered that day as one that led him to where he was now, and couldn’t believe it.

***

 The UN president stood at her lectern feeling a soft breeze blow through her hair. Today was a good day, or at least it was shaping up to be a good day. She had two folders sitting under the lectern like she always did during times like this. One of them was green and one of them was red.

The red one was sitting on top.

She glanced over to where the GA president stood and scowled slightly. She had always thought the little creature was kind of ugly looking like an ant. She had never liked bugs, or bug like things of any kind, which she found to be a common trait among aliens, Drev, Vrul, Gibb, Rundi, Burg.

She looked up at the sky neck stretched out sunning herself in the bright morning.

She could see the rocket in the distance held up on its platform. Admiral Vir would be moving into place now. Most people would see this only as some sort of historical recreation act, but PR analytics suggested that, if the Admiral succeeded, approval rating in the GA would go up almost 3 percent. Human and alien relations had been rockier than most people would like to admit. If Admiral Vir were to fail, the failure would likely shock the aliens senseless, and if he died. It could completely break down human/alien relations for the foreseeable future.

They were on the cusp of cooperation or war, and any single event could push them in that direction.

Relations might have already broken down if it wasn’t for Admiral Vir.

The president reached down a hand brushing the tips of her fingers over the red folder.

***

Jade examined the rocket from the inside of her decontaminated engineer’s suit. She was busy going over final checks before the craft was launched. Personally she thought it was a bad idea. There was no reason to go and do something so dumb when they had perfectly viable technologies available at their fingertips. Of course, she understood the value and importance of major historical events, but that didn’t mean they had to reenact them. I mean it's not like anyone ever wanted toreinaced the titanic or the Berlin wall, or burning down the library of Alexandria, but for some reason some yahoos wanted to strap themselves to a rocket inside a tin can and fly into space.

Using the same EXACT design from TWO THOUSAND years ago.

Might as well start using steam locomotives to get around.

She inched her way along the scaffolding catwalk  just a few hundred feet in the air. She didn’t mind heights, butcher wasn’t stupid, and would enver risk herself unecissarily. She examined the bolts holding the ship together passing a critical eye over each and every one of them. If just a single one of them got loose, it might potentially pull the whole panel off. If that happened, the launch trajectory might destabilize and they could begin to spin into the ground and explode.

Off in the distance she heard an alarm calling her down from above.

She would need to leave soon, and so tucked her clipboard under one arm and began to climb down one of the ladders towards the distant ground.

It was then that she noticed something strange. She didn’t know why she noticed it, it was so small, and she was in a hurry but…. There was something…. Strange. She glanced over and squinted towards the strange reflection.

The siren continued to blare.

She should really go.

She started to descend but then.

“You might want to check that again.”

She nearly leaped out of her skin at the voice turning on the spot and pitching ackwards with wide open eyes nearly falling over the rail as she came face to face with a porcelain white face and wide black eyes like pools of onyx. For a second she almost screamed assuming she had gone insane, but then paused as she saw the figure floating before her a gravity belt around it’s waist, and hundreds of white ribbons streaming from it’s back.

A starborn!

She had seen a documentary mentioning them, even with a few images, so she knew who it was. She also knew that they could read minds.

It wasn’t supposed to be able to speak, but this one was wearing translation gloves, and spoke sign language rather fluently.

“You might want to check again.” It repeated

“But I-”

“The Admiral is expecting an attempt on his life, and the best way to do it would be to sabotage the shuttle. You will want to help me because if the Admiral dies, my daughter will be very upset.”

She opened her mouth then closed it, not sure how to respond but eventually turned back to the shuttle and leaned forward pointing to the side of the rocket, “That, right there, can you float over and take a look. The creature floated past her, billowing like smoke as he eased over. He pointed, “This?”

“Yes.”

He touched it.

“Can you feel it/” She wondered.

“It doesn't feel like the rest of the ship though I cannot say how.”

“Keep looking around, I need to call in-”

“NO!”

She frowned hand halfway to her mic.

“Don’t tell them, we don’t want them to know that we have found anything.

She wasn’t so sure about that, but she didn’t feel like pissing this thing off, so reached to her mic, “Mission control this is Engineering, i'll need a postpone on the launch while I finish off my checklist. This is taking longer than I anticipated.”

“Roger that.” mission control responded.

The sirens stopped a moment later as she urged the Starborn forward to prod at the spot. There wasa soft peeling noise, and after a moment, she watched as the creature came away with a strip of tape.

He floated over to her and she examined it. That shouldn’t have been there, this was not the heat resistant sort of tape they used, and it certainly wasn’t something they would have bothered to put on the outside of a ship. The only thing it seemed to do was match the paint color.

She leaned forward glancing at the side of the shi. If this had gone up during exit it would have burned off, and that would reveal. 

The loose bolt underneath. Just like she feared.

She could fix it and ordered the starborn to do so following the instructions in her head. After that she ordered him to take her vest camera and fly around the outside of the rocket. She had noticed based on the way the light interacted with the tape as compared to the finish of the rocket’s exterior. 

If only she had someone who was good at distinguishing subtle color, and then she remembered.

She called the starborn back.

“Go, get a Drev and hurry back here. I’ll try to stall them.”

[siliquasquama]

Legend of the Red barracuda, Verse 14: you’re always welcome at our house

"Get out," says the director, who remains caught wihin the twisting-branch hands of a Tikolumian. "Get out of my station. You'll be doing that anyway shortly but I want you gone as soon as possible."

The station control room is an impressive array of buttons and switches on two big panels. It seems like the kind of thing that would take at least four engineers in order to run properly. The station itself appears to have twelve, unless the people I'm judging to be maintenance workers are also engineers. Maybe there's an overlap in skillsets. Anyway, none of them can do their jobs right now, because they're all being held fast by the Tikolumians.

Behind me are my crew, plus Sword Lesbian and the little twerps that call themselves the Resistance.

Above me is a high vaulted grey ceiling with windows here and there.

Below me is a floor that rumbles and vibrates with the sounds of a machine working merrily.

"This station is now the property of the Resistance!" says the smokey Crystalline, waving a flamethrower around.

"Oh God," says Tikreelkara, rushing over to the Crystalline, "Put that away before you get hurt -- "

But it is too late, and one of Tikreelkara's people is faster than them. The Crystalline is caught up in twisting branches and lifted high into the air. The tree growls, and makes as if to smash the Crystalline to the ground.

"Will everyone please knock it off?" I say. "We came here for parley, not violence."

"Could have fooled me," says the director.

Tikreelkara scrambles up the tree and whispers something to a spot near its eyes. It slowly lowers the Crystalline.

"Tikreelkara," I say, "are your people willing to let the station engineers go now? Our object was to get in here, and that's taken care of. I don't think these people want to kill us. Maybe. Hey, do any of you engineers want to kill us?"

There is a chorus of "no" and one "yes".

"Alright, keep hold of whoever said yes."

The Tikolumians lift their woody fingers away from the engineers. The engineers rush to the station's controls and as they press levers and flips switches they start passing jargon between each other. Can't understand a word.

"I greatly apologize for the intrusion," I say to the director, "though I hope we have not done you a great deal of harm. Pray tell me, what is your name?

The director brushes off the sleeves of her long grey coat. "Smith." She rushes over to one of the groups of engineers and begins giving them orders.

"Smith?" says Ramon. "Nice name. Hey, Robin, I'm going to go sit with the car if that's all right with you. Bye." He walks back the way we came before I can get a word in. Aristede likewise retreats, along with the members of the Resistance, and all the Tikolumians including Tikreelkara. Klunk looks at the scene, then looks back to where we parked the car, then back to the scene.

"Everyone abandons the quest at the hour when all is revealed!" I say. "Oh, what a pity, what a shame. My dear friends are not steadfast after all!"

"Fine," says Klunk, "I'll stay here as long as you hold my hand."

"What does everyone know that I don't?"

Klunk grabs my hand without even asking me, and points with her other hand towards the windows. They are narrow things, through which I can see little of the sky. Less, in the next few seconds, because a grey pall quickly blocks them. It appears we are sinking.

I turn to Sword Lesbian. She is wringing her hands. "I, uh...might have shot up a few things in order to get through the intake system."

The facility echoes with the sound of a bang then a crash, then a boom.

"Maybe a few important things."

"I'm sure these savvy engineers can fix it," I say.

One of the engineers slumps to the floor and starts crying.

"One moment," I say, but Klunk will not let go of my hand. I have to drag her along as I go to the director. "My profuse apologies," I say to Smith, "I think we have been more trouble than I had expected -- "

She whips around and glares at me.

"Maybe a lot mroe trouble?"

"Just take your pack of brutes and go," she says. "I have to go down with this ship but I don't expect you to."

"We have a vehicle that will take you and all your crew out of here," says Sword Lesbian. "And all the Tikolumians as well. I know it sounds crazy but we can get you out of here."

"I'm not leaving this place!" says Smith. "I am not going to see it crash to the ground. After all the work I did to fix it after my predeccessor ran it ragged trying to produce enough Spelunkium, after all the horrors this place inflicted on the planet, I'm not going to let it crash to the earth and leak toxic fluids all over the place!"

"Wait," I say, "So you're not the one who caused the war back down on Tikolum?"

"There are many reasons I despise the crew of the Space Slug," says Smith, "And today you added to them. I have no more time to explain -- "

"I have an idea," says Sword Lesbian. "But the first thing you need to do is shut this place down. I don't want exhaust fumes filling the cabin of my car."

"Excuse me?"

"And then when the power is off, we can carry the whole thing away," continues Sword Lesbian. "Trust me, it will work."

"Wait a second," says Klunk, "are you saying -- "

"Actually, hang on a sec," says Sword Lesbian. "Keep the station floating as long as you can. We need to do this whole thing gently. I'll go tell the others." She rushes to the Tikolumians and everyone gathered around the Barracuda.

"She didn't even tell us what she's trying to do," I say. "It can't be what I think it is...right?"

"The controls aren't working from here!" says one of the engineers. "We've lost power on one of the panels! We have to do this manually!"

As he says this, I notice the rumbling and vibrating beneath my feet has stopped.

"Dammit!" says Smith. "If we go in there I'm probably going to lose three of you!"

"Sounds like a real dillemma," says Klunk. "But maybe I can help fix the problem, oh my brave mining station director. You don't have to go down with the ship without fighting the whole way. What do you say?"

"Klunk," I say, "you've thrown yourself into danger to fix engines more than enough times already."

"Do you even know how this station works?" says Smith.

"I worked in something like this back when I was a wee sprat," says Klunk. "I shouldn't have too much trouble. And you know what I can do that you can't?" She lets go of my hand and shoots up to the ceiling, then back down. "No scaffolding necessary. Come on, let a stranger take a fall instead of one of the people you're more familiar with." She grabs my hand. "Alright, Robin, let's get some work done. To the main engine room!"

"Am I the captain or not?"

"Captains defer to engineers when discussing engines. Come on."

"I could very well just leave you here. I could even drag you back to the Barracuda."

"Then I shall pull myself by my own hands towards the engine. Come on, the faster we get started the faster we get done. Engineers! Do you want to help me?"

"I still want to kill you," says one of the engineers, "but I suppose I could arrange a suspicious accident while we're all in the engine room."

"Good enough!" says Klunk. "To the engine room!"

I give up my protest, and drag Klunk through the corridors, following the engineers. Smith is following behind us, having decided that if she can't stop her beloved engineers from sacrificing themselves, she won't abandon them either. We pass through wide corridors and narrow corridors, over catwalks and under pipes, until at last we reach the core.

The core of the station is a mass of pipes, metal trusswork, and balconies surrounding a wide cylinder that stands many stories tall. The cylinder is all of metal, but there is a gap on one side where rivets have been knocked out. On the Titanic, the water poured into the gap; here light pours out, and it's as much of a problem, I'm guessing, because there's a mass of broken and twisted pipes in a blast radius near the gap.

"Alright," says Klunk, "We can patch this but it's going to take some time. We might fund ourselves getting pretty close to hitting the planet's surface before we're done. I'm going to saw off the broken bits. Engineers, if you could please gather whatever replacement pipes are available? It doesn't matter if they're wide or narrow, I'll work something out."

The engineers rush off to find some pipes.

Klunk grabs a small tool off her shoulder belt. "Robin, if you can drag me over to one of the pipes here -- thank you -- and I shall begin. Stand back. This light is a doozy." She glances towards something behind me. "The rest of you," she says, "can skedaddle. You don't want to be standing in this light. I said scram!"

I turn around. All of my crew, save Ramon, are standing in the hall, plus the Tikolumians, plus the pitiful teenagers of the Reisistance. They retreat from the light and shuffle into side room off the hall. The aquamarine Gworb sticks their head out from the doorway, still hoping to watch, but hands pull them back into the room.

"You're risking a lot," says Smith. "All for a stranger?"

"For a machine!" says Klunk. "And for a valley, I suppose. Now shoo!" She fires up her tiny saws-all. I retreat with Smith to the safety of a shadowed alcove.

"So your predecessor," I say. "Was he driven by greed?"

"Desperation," says Smith. "He was directed by the Space Slug to deliver as much Spelunkium as possible, as fast as possible. That was in the opening stages of the war, before things had setled down to a stalemate and the resource requirements of the ship were high. My predecessor knew he could get more Spelunkium into the atmosphere if he could get the Tikolumians to work harder. He figured that the best way to do it was to play their factions against each other. A lightning strike in a dry forest, so to speak. He didn't expect things to go quite so badly, though. I don't think he knew that the various traders he was employing were also supplying the Tikolumians with flamethrowers. Or maybe he did. I didn't hear him all that clearly before I threw him off the station."

"Wait, do you mean threw like, dismissed him, or -- "

"Don't worry your pretty little head," says Smith.

The engineers pass us carrying long pipes.

"Alright, Robin," says Klunk, "I need you to hold these pipes in place."

I jog over to Klunk. "Right here and here," she says, pointing to a pipe opening above another one. "Just hold it in place like that -- thank you." She takes another tool off her shoulder belt, and sets to welding the pipe together.

"I'm not sure I want to be here too long," I say. "Can't you just...duct-tape these pipes together or something?" I glance at the engineers who are already duct-taping the pipes in position.

"Anathema!" says Klunk. "I have to actually weld these things. Tape is good for positioning, thank you. You may retreat."

I dash back to the safety of the shade.

"So that's why you hate the Space Slug," I say. "They were the indrect cause of the planet's greatest tragedy. But I don't understand your command structure. I thought you were under the direct command of the rebel fleet?"

"I'm under the command of the central government of the separatist alliance," says the director. "I do not report to the Space Slug. Direct command of this place was revoked from Captain Bones and I was brought aboard. I report directly to the Council."

"But the captain of the Space Slug doesn't know that. He said the reports were garbled."

"And military commanders do what, exactly, when they wish to ingore an order?"

"Fair point. But he sounded sincere."

"Anyone can sound sincere," says Smith. "Ah, but I know the man. Dear mister Bones is a competent administrator of his own vessel, but is occasionally prone to asking far more of his subordinates than they can give. It's a steady turnover of engineers on his ship. And he hardly understands politics. No wonder he was unable to advocate for using the Space Slug offensively. The Council is dominated by people whose goal is to play defense. Not that I blame them. They've got their hands full trying to keep the whole thing together. There are fringe planets close to the core that have declared independence from the alliance, and there are planets farther from the core that have seen most of the fighting. And there are dozens of splinter terrorist groups claiming to fight for freedom, or for the Cosmic Balance, or what have you. It's a damn mess."

"The six young folk in the poor uniforms sound like they're the product of that conflict."

"Wouldn't surprise me," says Smith. "I wish that this secession had never been declared outright, and that things could have continued in a de facto manner. But, some people just can't leave well enough alone, and so you have a council trying to form a new government out of a shaky alliance of planets that were more different than alike before the war. Is anyone winning? Is anyone benefitting from this? I don't know what we're actually gaining. But, maybe I don't know politics either."

"You know more than I do. I've been busy running from the Student Loan Company for ten years, so I'm out of the loop."

"You...chose to run from them? Well, you and your crew have proven yourselves bold and willing to sacrifice. You might have bit off more than you can chew, though. How in heaven's name did you evade them this long? How do I know there isn't some assassin sent to track you down right now?"

"Are they that bad?"

"You will want to stay away from populated areas," says Smith. "Then again...you will want to be finding a new hand, so you might just be heading into a city after all."

"I what?" I lift my hand to my eyes. Well. I think I'm lifting my hand. Phantom feeling, you could call it. The nerves in my brain to move the fingers are there but the hand distinctly is not. What's left is a cloud of blue electricity about the size of my missing hand.

I dash out of the alcove.

"The pipes are in place," says Klunk. "The control panels ought to be functional again. Engineers, you can go and stabilize this place. And, uh..." She glances down at the space where her left arm used to be. There's a small cloud of blue electricity there now. "As for me the first thing I want for this year's Big Bang Day is a set of decent prosthetics."

I grab Klunk by her remaining hand and drag her at full speed away from the cylinder. Stable as it may be it's not worth hanging around and seeing her head disappear or something.

#legend of the red barracuda #soft sci fi #sci fi #science fiction #text