Andrew MacLaren-Scott's Blog, page 114

A well-timed walk

The atmosphere deteriorates

Further adventures after Report on Sample 717, following on from here...

Time passed slowly.

Edrig and Adrig spent much of it tutoring Adm in some of the key differences between their two languages.

'You are intelligent,' Edrig informed Adm at one point. 'You learn well.'

'I learn well,' said Adm, proudly.

They did what they could to inform Adm of the existence of many worlds, and of what had clearly happened to Adm's world in the older days, as he called them. And Adm told them that he had never witnessed the 'biggy booms', but had been told of them by his mother and father, who had been told of them by their mothers and fathers, and so on for a long way back. It was unclear how long. And he told of his own little group setting out from a larger group in the high hilly lands to explore what lay far down and across the plains.

'They not liked me and Eva much. Kinduv kicked out with some buds who come too.'

As they talked they drank a little from the water reserves in the pod and they nibbled at a few dry rations that were available. The Ladies remained resolutely sealed in their suits, sucking on their own internal supplies until they were almost done, but eating nothing since that would require opening up their suits.

'Plenty fat on them to sustain them for a few years,' Edrig commented at one stage, and the three men laughed.

Then came the moment when Adm said, 'I need shit.'

'Ah yes,' responded Edrig, 'I have been thinking of that issue myself. There are no facilities because we are supposed to be unconscious for most of the journey with our bodily functions in a shut down state, and we are certainly not meant to be in here for as long as it seems we may be.'

'I do need shit. Or, eh... wait... No... I do need to do shit. Yes. Is that better?'

'A somewhat better sentence construction my friend, but no improvement in the situation. Well anyway, you will just have to do a shit then, and so will we if we need to, and possibly pees too.'

'Pees?'

'Piss?'

'Ah... Pishings... Yes. Pishings too.'

So as the Ladies looked on, Adm squatted in the corner with his ragged fur gown across his knees, and released his dual cargo onto the pod floor just as Adrig was casting his eyes around for some container that might help.

'Oh my goodness,' declared Adrig, as the aroma reached him.

'Dear me,' added Edrig, grimacing.

The Ladies, in their sealed suits, just quietly shook their heads.

'Oh. He could have used the evacuation compartment to send it the same way as the stunners,' Adrig suggested, not having found any container. 'Oh well. Too late now. And even more messy to try to deal with it that way now. We should have thought of that.'

'It is too late now for many things we maybe should have thought about a bit more, my man,' said Edrig with a sad voice.

'Indeed, my boy. Indeed. That is the way life goes, is it not?'

'It's certainly the way our lives seem to go.'

'Much gooder now for me but,' said Adm with a smile.

And time passed...

After what seemed like at least one his own world's whole days the floor of the pod was rather moist and one corner had accumulated the biological waste of three males. The suited Ladies at least had the advantage of internal absorbent pads, but they had seemed to be sitting rather uncomfortably for a while.

In the middle of one of the continuing conversations among the men, it was Adm who eventually noticed that the Ladies had slumped and apparently lost consciousness.

'Eyes closed. Not moved for long time,' he declared, pointing at them. 'Gone? Just eh.. sleepings maybes?'

'Oh damn,' said Edrig, 'We better open the suits up.'

'Us have to?' Adm asked.

'I don't know... Two dead Ladies to explain away though... If not dead already... Or just sleeping? Does this pod record things, by the way?'

'I doubt it. Not a prison pod. Maybe though... But I think we have to open them up,' said Adrig.

'So do I,' agreed Edrig. Then he shouted out, 'Of course! Definitely! We must save our Ladies!' And this sudden burst of apparent enthusiasm and devotion caused Adrig to roll his eyes.

'Don't,' said Adm firmly, but by then Adrig and Edrig were already ripping at the seals around the necks of the suits and pulling off the head masks.

Another pickle

Further adventures after Report on Sample 717, following on from here...
A short while after departure Adm began to regain consciousness, which puzzled Edrig because every other time he had traveled in this way all passengers had lost consciousness, and as Adm began stirring, the pod ceased to make its operational hum.
'That's strange,' he said towards the silver-suited Ladies. 'I think something may have gone wrong.'
'Why?'
'Because we are not losing consciousness and the pod has stopped humming.'
'Oh.'
Edrig detected concern in the voice. A little fear even.
'Where am?' said Adm, sitting up against a side wall and eyeing the ladies suspiciously, and somewhat drunkenly while rather bemused by the sound of the others talking in their own language.
Both Ladies pointed their stunners at him and one said, 'Quiet!', which arrived just as an unintelligible screech in Adm's ears.
Adm looked aggressively towards the stunners.
'Yes, I do believe we may be stopped,' offered Adrig. 'Was this planned?'
'Stopped where though?' said Edrig, looking at the location screen and seeing only black. No stars. Nothing.
'Stopped in the middle of nowhere. In limbo perhaps. I think we may have broken down.'
The Ladies were silent, although they did cast a quick glance at each other through their masks.
Adm was in no mood to be shouted at, whatever was being said, and was still somewhat enboldened by his early morning drinking.
He looked at the two stunners that had been pointing at him in the cramped and dim compartment, noticed that they were now rather loosely held in hands that had gone somewhat limp, and so with the primitive athleticism of a young brave man he pounced across and grabbed one stunner in each hand before the Ladies had a moment to even realize that he was coming at them.
Much screeching ensued from all four superior beings as Adm looked around for somewhere to place the stunners out of harm's way, judging that whatever they were he was unlikely to be able to operate them.
While the screeching continued, Adm noticed a small open compartment in the side wall that appeared to be hinged at the bottom. He threw the stunners inside and slammed it shut then sat with his back against it.
The superior beings fell silent and looked towards Adm while a soft whooshing sound could be heard behind him.
The Ladies screeched some more at this development.
Adrig managed a smile alongside his generally rather astonished appearance.
'Oh,' he said in 717 English, 'You appear to have evacuated the stunners out to the exterior, wherever that is.'
'Out to Eva?' Adm asked.
'Ah... No... Not out to Eva. Whatever is out there now I am fairly sure that it is not Eva.'
'Huh?'
'I'll explain later.'
Then the Ladies began screeching at Adrig and Edrig, but with a clearly growing nervousness in their voices.
'What are you saying to him? Speak in words we understand? What has he done? He's in big trouble now.'
Adrig looked at them and began to speak in his own language rather calmly.
'Well we may all be in big trouble now, my Ladies, for we appear to be stuck. I suggest we give our attention to that issue first. And I also suggest you open your suits before their atmosphere supply runs out.'
'Our suits? But you are all contaminated!'
'Better to be a little contaminated than to run out of atmosphere to breathe, my Lady, may I suggest?'
'But...'
'How long will it last if you keep it sealed? I am only concerned for your safety, of course.'
'I don't know.'
'Hmm... Presumably long enough for the planned journey home though, or had that not been thought about? Hmm... Well that's going to become a dilemma then, if we are stuck here much longer, or forever.'
'A pickle,' said Edrig.
'Ha yes, My boy. A pickle for them and a pickle for us, that's for sure. But their pickle may become a crisis for them before our pickle does. The pod carries enough atmosphere to endure significant malfunctions, but these sealed suits. I just don't know.'
'Damn you for getting us into this!' one of the Ladies screeched.
'But you lot sent us there my Lady, and anyway, why did you come to get us so soon? Half an orbit, we were told.'
'We thought there was nobody left there, but then you ended up round a warm fire watching dancing naked women.'
'Oh,' Edrig said to Adrig in 717 English, 'I do think they may be jealous!'
'Don't speak like that!' the Lady doing most of the talking commanded. 'Speak so that we can understand.'
'Why let them shout at you?' Adm interjected.
'Well,' said Edrig, turning to Adm, 'It's eh... compaycated. But... with no stunners, you do have a point.'
'Three of us, and me strong,' said Adm.
'Speak in our language!' a Lady screeched.
The thing was, however, as Edrig contemplated, that if they got home they would have to account for their actions to all the big muscly Ladies, with all their stunners and stinger sticks and everything else at their disposal. But would they get back? Yes. Rescue would come, surely?
Just then the pod juddered.
'Ah...' said a Lady, hopefully, but then everything fell silent again.
'Is it trying to fix itself?' Adrig suggested, 'Or are they trying to get to us? May I suggest your communifiers my Ladies?'
'Ah... Yes... Of course. And he is in big trouble,' said a Lady, while pulling a communifier from the wall and starting to speak into it.
But it was dead. Broken. Just like the pod seemed to be. The Auto Return button was not lit up, and did not respond when one of the Ladies gave it a push.
'Who are they?' asked Adm, nodding at the Ladies. 'And who are you?'
'Ah my friend. My new friend,' Edrig began, 'What can I say...'
'Speak in our language!' a Lady screeched again. It was difficult to work out which one was speaking with their distorted voices coming out through a mechanism embedded in their suits.
'I am trying to explain to him why it is not a good idea for him to fight you, my Ladies,' Edrig told them, in his own language. 'After all Ladies, look at him, he is very powerful.'
'But he wouldn't dare!' a Lady's voice said.
'Oh yes he would my Lady. Look at what he did to the stunners. He comes from a very different land from our one. He could kill you if he wanted to.'
'What! Is that a threat?'
'No, no, no, not at all my Lady,' said Edrig deferentially. 'I need to speak to him to try to dissuade him from hurting you. To try to explain to him what life is like in our world, where the Ladies are in charge. And quite right too, of course.'
The Ladies fell silent.
'Good job my boy,' said Adrig, in 717 English.
'Well tell him to behave or he is dead on arrival... or at least shortly after arrival,' a Lady announced, but with some uncertainty in her voice.'
'If we ever arrive,' muttered Edrig.
'Okay,' said Edrig to Adm, back to speaking in 717 English. 'What can I say? Briefly, my friend, there are many worlds other than your one and we are from one of them, and these Ladies are in charge there.'
'What! Why?'
'A good question. But it is the way it is and always has been. Look at their size compared to me. They are big, strong, and they have all the eh... weapons under their strict control.'
Adm was silent, clearly pondering.
'We should fight,' he announced.
'That would not be wise, given that we are likely to have to explain our actions when we get back to our place. If we do,'
'Fight and go another place?'
'I don't know how.'
'Hmm... Very odd. You peeps... Did you make biggy booms of older days?'
'Ah no my friend, that was your own peopl... eh, your own peeps. Your older peeps.'
'Oh...'
Silence fell upon the pod. No words, no humming of machinery, although some lights were still flickering on the console.
'What do we do?' a Lady finally asked. 'You men make things and you fix things. So what do we do?'
Adm just looked at the screeching silver suits with some obvious contempt.
'We cannot fix anything my Lady... My Ladies,' Adrig informed them. 'We are not engineers. We just need to wait and hope that the engineers are aware of our predicament and can fix it remotely, or can come and rescue us, or... if all else fails I could try banging bits of the walls and the console.'
'You don't know how long our suits have atmosphere?'
'No... not at all, but look at us, we seem okay.'
'You are contaminated.'
'We have robust chromosomes.'
'You are contaminated.'
'Oh well then my Ladies, you'll just have to wait and hope. Oh... and do give us instructions for what to do if you lose consciousness due to your suit atmospheres running out.'
'You must save us. That is an order.'
'Well of course my Ladies, but then we would have to open your suits.'
'But you are contaminated.'
'But we are alive my Lady. Which would you prefer? Dead in your suits or contaminated in the pod, for at least a few days longer?'
'Are you enjoying this?'
'Not at all my Lady, not at all.'

Tree time

A quick glimpse

of a sky that conveys every emotion.

A change in frequency

Due to some events that are entirely welcome, activity on this blog is likely to become significantly less frequent for a while and my blog-visiting and commenting may be similarly affected.

A morning surprise

Further adventures after Report on Sample 717, following on from here...

Weariness eventually overcame them and they fell into a disturbed sleep, wakening suddenly in daylight to the sound of a wild commotion outside.

'Peeps! More peeps. From the sky!'

Adrig and Edrig sat up together and then hesitated about going out to investigate.

'Peeps from the sky, my lad, sounds rather like our kind of peeps, eh?'

'You think so? Already?'

'I think so lad. And I hope so. Oh... Or do I?'

'Should we be looking? Or hiding? Or...'

Just as the commotion from outside gave way to a troubling silence, two figures appeared in the bright rectangle of the ruined doorway. Two bulky figures in metallic protective suits holding what could immediately be recognized as stunners from home, and they were pointing the stunners directly at Adrig and Edrig.

'Up and out, now!' came the command from the voice of two Ladies from behind the protective masks.

'But?'

'Now!'

And so the rather bemused duo, both feeling fear mixed with some small degree of hope and relief, stood up and followed the lead of the Ladies, out of the doorway and into the clearing in the woodland amongst the high ruins.

The survivors were gathered around the remains of the previous evening's fire, all looking very puzzled and with Adm standing out a little at the front of the group. They had all been shocked into silence.

About twenty paces from the doorway there stood a large black transporter pod, still humming gently, with its hatch open and green lights flickering on the console inside.

'In!' commanded the Ladies.

'What the? Where going?' Adm shouted out, still holding a drinking vessel that was spilling some of the fermented apple brew.

'Shush,' a female voice called out to him, 'Yuh've been supping. Eva shud not allow supping in early day. Eva! You shud not let drink in early day!'

'Where going?' Adm repeated, walking forwards towards the group of superior beings as they headed towards the pod. 'Stop!'

'He does appear to be somewhat drunk this morning,' Edrig muttered to Adrig, 'Early morning drinking. And they appear to be blaming that on Eva. Interesting.'

'And we appear to be heading homewards my boy, which is also very interesting.'

'Shut up!' commanded one of the Ladies, and then she turned towards the still advancing Adm.

'Oh my, don't you look such a sexy young thing eh?' she told him, but since all of the words from the Ladies were in their own high-pitched language, Adm had no idea whatever about what was being said.

'We could make good use of that one, since he seems so keen to join us,' the second Lady suggested.

'Oh... Could we? I like your way of thinking. My goodness he looks a fit strong boy.'

By now Adm was very close, and his demeanor was aggressive, and so both Ladies turned directly towards him, raised their stunners and screamed 'Stop!', a command that sounded only like an owl screeching to Adm. So he did not stop. So he received the blast of two stunners in his midriff. So he immediately collapsed to the ground.

Two other men of the group approached as if to rescue their colleague, but stopped as soon as the stunners were raised towards them.

'Get this sexy primitive inside the pod,' one Lady said to Edrig and Adrig, and they immediately did so, dragging his limp body to the hatch and heaving it inside.

'Nooooohhhhhhhhh,' cried the survivors.

'Don't worry! Don't worry!' Adrig called back, for he could think of nothing else appropriate to say.

'Get in fools!' the Ladies demanded, and soon all four of them were inside the pod beside the helpless Adm unconscious on the floor.

The hatch was closed. The pod began to hum, and then to the amazement of the watching group in the clearing it dematerialized into a bright beam of light that shot upwards towards the clouds and then was gone.

'This,' said Adrig to his companions, 'will become the stuff of legend down there, if these people manage to survive and thrive and breed onwards and multiply. Ha ha!'

'Hmm...,' offered Edrig, 'A man called Adm under the influence of a heady apple brew, and apparently as a result of the encouragement or at least with the collusion of a woman called Eva... That sounds strangely familiar to me, although I am not sure why.'

'Ha! Yes! Very similar to a 717 legend my boy. Yes. Strangely familiar indeed.'

'Shut up!' said one of the Ladies, sternly.

And the pod spun on...

Nearly home again

My head may be overheating

This may get messy

Stand back. Take cover. Activate the sprinkler system. Please.

I live in there.

Hard rain

Further adventures after Report on Sample 717, following on from here...

The situation deteriorated significantly when the rain began to fall, sending the survivors, as Adrig had named them, hurrying to erect a few small shelters constructed from tied animal skins propped up on joined branches.

There was barely enough room for all twenty-three survivors in the shelters, and so amid a little awkwardness Adrig had pointed towards the nearby shell of a building and indicated that he and Edrig would retreat to there, even though there was only a small area of dusty concrete that was not accumulating puddles.

Adm followed shortly afterwards and seemed keen to ask some questions, beginning with, 'So wherr frum? No more peeps with? No eats? And odd words. Odd speaky.'

Ah... What to say in answer to that? Where had they come from and how had they happened to be slumped against a wall on the top floor of the tallest building in a ruined city. An awkward issue.

'Far,' said Adrig, while Edrig wondered about details.

'In noh sneaks?' inquired Adm, with what Edrig felt was a certain suspicion developing in his voice as he examined their feet, having perhaps already noticed how soft and uncalloused they were.

'Compaycated,' Adrig offered, trying to learn and mimic the words he had heard Adm use earlier.

'Sometimes it may be best just to tell the truth,' Edrig whispered to Adrig, 'because they won't believe it and will just dismiss us as harmless nutters.' As agreed, they continued to speak to one another in Sample 717 English, because communicating their own high squeaky tongue would surely be too risky.

'Nutters?' Adm asked immediately, having picked up more than Edrig had hoped.

'Yes. Nutters,' confirmed Edrig, 'but from another place.'

'Escapey peeps?'

'Eh... No... not exactly escaped but... well... we were left here.'

'Left? You bad peeps?'

'No. No. No... Not bad peeps, but eh, left... abandoned... lost.'

'Ah... lost,' said Adm, frowning and appearing to be thinking. Then he said something very interesting.

'We need man seeds for babes. Girlies want babes. Only some manage babes with us. Is odd. We need noo man seeds... but not bad peeps or nutters seeds.'

'Oh...' said Edrig and Adrig, almost simultaneously.

'We think, eh?' Adm appeared to suggest.

'Eh yes... We can think about it eh? If that is what you mean.'

'We think... We see... Sleepy peeps now.'

'Eh yes, we will try to sleep.'

And that remark from Edrig prompted Adm to depart towards one of the shelters.

But although they were quite drunk from the brew, the two stranded superior beings found it difficult to sleep, huddled as they were on a dry patch of floor in a cold dusty shelter with much on their mind.

'Well that's an offer to ponder my lad eh?' said Adrig, quietly.

'Yes it is old man. Yes it is. But...'

'But?'

'Just...'

'Just?'

'Well... Would you want to bring any child of yours into this?'

'Ah... I see what you mean my young friend, and I admire your concern for the consequences of the actions that I am sure you would be most willing to undertake.'

'The actions yes. The consequences no. This is a bad place Adrig. A bad situation.'

'True, but is our place at home any better really? Or is any place? Would you want to bring any child of yours into any of the worlds that you have been to or have studied, really? Remember I have many children. You have none, unless that recent testoterjuiced orgy has started some. Hah! But I had no choice. The big brutes of our ladies... Well anyway. With choice? Would you? Would you really want to bring a child into this madness? Or into any madness?'

'It's a good question my friend. Perhaps on 717.'

'Yes, 717 was okay, at least in the rich lands.'

'Yes. Perhaps on 717.'

'But here?'

'Perhaps not. It's not a life for anyone now really is it? Scraping around in radioactive ruins or wild woods with radioactive rain falling?'

'But then they seem content enough.'

'They do. So far,' Edrig conceded. 'But still...'

'We may have no choice here either though.'

'Perhaps... And some nice ladies eh?'

'Yes. Nice ladies.'

'I'm cold.'

'So am I.'

'Here... come closer. A man hug even, eh? For warmth.'

'Perhaps my friend. For warmth.'

'Adrig...'

'Yes Edrig?'

'I am worried.'

'And so am I my boy. So am I.'