Seeing The Hand

Over the last few days, we have described how Bruce and I came up with the design of the cover for Rome's Evolution. If you take a peek, you will see that the cover presents a fairly good representation of what I envisioned. I might have made the forearm a little shorter but oh well. The point being, it is a spectacular structure, like nothing else in the known universe. So it is only natural that when our heroes, Rome, Rei and Bonnie, come across it for the first time, they are suitably impressed:

     MINIMCOM approached the resort town of Ur from the east, flying very low. The azure waters of Lake Eprehem stretched north as far as the eye could see and off to the horizon to the west. A lazy band of clouds drifted over the center part of the water. Rei watched with a sense of wonder from the cockpit window as The Hand came closer and closer. Because of that one geological structure, Ur was easily the most spectacular location on all of Deucado, perhaps on all the worlds of Man.
     The Hand was like nothing Rei had ever seen anywhere. Everyone had always assumed it was a meteor that hit Deucado and caused the crater that became Lake Eprehem. The truth is it was a comet with an iron-nickel core. When the comet crashed down and created the gigantic depression, the metallic core continued on and punctured a pocket of magma. The magma bubbled up to the surface forming a tower that reached nearly a half a mile high. The metal core also hit another band of magma which seeped up to the surface and formed a spurting magma geyser. At regular intervals, like an evil cannon, it would shoot great globs of molten rock up and over the top of tower that stood before it. In its fluid state, the entire structure bent over toward the impact crater. More shots of magma coated it to form a solid platform at the top, a half mile wide. By the time it cooled, the newly formed mountain was hanging out over what would become the largest lake on all of Deucado.
     Much of the water filling the lake came from the comet which quickly condensed. The rest came thanks to the dust and dirt the explosion shot up into the atmosphere which caused Deucado to experience years and years of torrential downpours. As the rains fell and Lake Eprehem filled to the brim, the overhang, now called The Hand, hung farther and farther over the lake.
     “Look at that thing,” Rei said, more or less to himself.
     “It is amazing,” Rome replied, more or less answering him.
     Rei squinted and could see partial concentric circles with The Hand essentially in the middle. It reminded him of a Vuduri city but that wouldn’t make any sense because what would the Vuduri be doing in Ur? When the Essessoni had arrived, they brought their social conventions with them. Even though none of them wanted for anything, they still felt the need to take vacations and Ur was certainly the most satisfying vacation spot on the continent. A resort town sprung up around the giant structure and a portion of it on top as well. The Vuduri would have no use for a resort.

Tomorrow, our band of assassin-hunting detectives enter the resort town of Ur. The mix of cultures, Essessoni, Deucadon, Ibbrassati, and Vuduri is pretty interesting. Plus something nobody expected: money!