Absicon Universe: Queen Lucrecia's Shadow Pt1
Hi All,
The following is an exerpt of a short story I am writing called Queen Lucrecia's Shadow. It is set after the events of Echoes of Absicon, and features one of EoA's central characters, Dorian Hanson, who is only mentioned in this exerpt. Don't worry. It's not as long as it seems.
The wide open space one found on terrestrial planets was like a reprieve from the confinement. A reprieve from the solitude and darkness she had almost become accustomed to. In a sense, it was a kind of madness. But that was what happened when one had spent almost eight months confined to an FTL starship. The claustrophobia that came with lengthy space travel was in itself a kind of insanity, but an insanity one could learn to live with, but never get used to. Perhaps the truly insane were the ones who did get used to it. Thus, Dr. Jasmine Grey could not have been happier being on the surface of such a beautiful planet, even if she knew it would only be for a short while.
The planet was designated FT-301/4, and was located in a binary star system almost Three hundred light years from the central human hub of Tau Ceti, the largest human populated system. Since the reoccupation of the Sol system, Earth was quickly regaining its reputation of humanities ‘home’, but after a two and a half century absence, Earth still had a ways to go before it was as populous as Gilgamesh, Tau Ceti’s single terrestrial planet. Grey was the head Xenologist of a small team sent into deep space to explore extinct cultures.
She looked up at the great temple that stood before her. Thus far on her long journey from the Delta Eridani system, she had explored over fifteen worlds, of which only three showed any signs of having ever supported intelligent life. But nothing she had seen on any of those worlds could compare to what she had discovered on FT-301/4. Nothing she had seen anywhere could compare. The culture had been extinct for almost a millennia, really a short period of time in the galactic scheme of things. The culture had never gotten close to discovering space flight (which pretty much killed the theory that the culture had been destroyed by the Vendo’ Rpah, the same technologically advanced alien race that had attempted to wipe the human race off the face of the universe a few years ago) and had apparently killed themselves off in a great war.
Grey wondered how a race from a planet as beautiful as this one was could become embroiled in what looked as though had been a savage war. Grey had seen the most beautiful things that Gilgamesh and the other human planets had to offer, and they didn’t even come close to the beauty that this planet contained. She had even had an opportunity to visit the re-populated Earth before the Amethystine had left on its long voyage, and in her opinion even the birthplace of her own race could not compare.
The planet was small for a terrestrial, perhaps only a quarter the size of Earth, and as a result, the initial exploration had not taken long. Seventy percent of the planet was covered in water, and what land there was, was situated entirely on the northern hemisphere.
The structure she was standing in front of now (the only surviving structure on the entire planet, it seemed) was situated on the largest continent, halfway between the equator and the north pole. The region was a high table-land range, overlooking a vast badlands, almost a kilometre below. The Table-lands, as the Amethystine’s crew were calling the range now, were mostly vegetation free, with the exception of grass which covered everything except the rock cliffs and the ruins.
She turned to her companion, a former Shadow Fleet officer, who had served aboard the warship Jovian Rage during the war. She was aware of his reputation, and the rumours that circulated the Amethystine’s small crew. It was said that he was a savage soldier, one who had had no qualms with spilling a bit of Vendo’ Rpah blood. He looked as scary as his reputation implied. He was serving aboard the Amethystine as a security expert, recruited by the Proteus Science Council after he had been refused the opportunity to join the newly formed Earth Fleet, which had replaced Shadow Fleet after the war. She didn’t know why he’d been refused a commission, and she didn’t really want to know. The less she knew about him, the better.
“Are you ready to enter, Carmichael?” She asked.
Derek Carmichael scratched the five day stubble on his chin, and hefted the big, nasty looking hybrid rifle over his shoulder.
“Sure thing, doc.” He said in his Shivian accent. “Ladies first, huh?”
“Screw you, ass-hole.” She said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head in exasperation. Carmichael let out a laugh.
“Touchy, touchy.” He said, patronisingly. “Hang back a sec, will ya’?”
He charged the energy cells in the rifle and held it in both hands, as he walked towards the grand, ornamental double doors that were the main entrance to the enormous temple. He stopped in front of them, and activated the flashlight that was incorporated into the structure of the rifle. He took a deep breath, and then suddenly kicked hard at the doors. His foot rebounded off them and jarred his legs.
“God damn it!” He snapped.
Grey let out a small laugh, then suppressed it as Carmichael shot her a nasty glance. He then hefted his gun, and Greys eyes widened in anticipation of what he was about to do.
“No…” She began, but it was too late.
The energy pulse from his weapon streaked out and struck the doors, blowing a huge hole right in the middle of them. He then walked closer, and kicked at the m again. This time they burst open.
“Try and try again.” He said, with a shrug.
“Do you even conceive what you just did?” Grey asked, angrily. “That door was over a thousand god-damned years old.”
“Whatever.” He answered. “Follow me in.”
Grey shook her head in exasperation as Carmichael entered the structure, sweeping the area ahead of him with the weapon. Why the hell had Captain Hanson sent that lunatic down with her? She entered the structure behind him.
It was very dark inside, the only light that which was coming from the flashlight on Carmichael’s weapon. As is swept the room, the beam of light illuminated various ornaments and statues.
“Man, this place is fuckin’ huge!” Carmichael exclaimed. “I think the entire place is hollow!”
Grey found herself agreeing with him. The chamber was huge, and it was certainly not much smaller than the entire outside of the structure. There may have been a room or two towards the back of the structure, but certainly this chamber occupied the vast majority of it.
Grey kneeled and dropped her backpack to the floor. She withdrew a small lighting device, and sat it on the floor of the chamber, somewhere near the middle. She stood.
“Illuminate.” She said.
The small lighting device suddenly activated, and a bright blue-white light filled the chamber. Grey squinted, and slowly opened her eyes as they adjusted to the light.
The room was spectacular.
The room was circular, the walls decorated with ornamental carvings, pictures and hieroglyphs and spaced about five meters apart were large statues, depicting was grey identified as soldiers, hefting large swords and spears. The figures were that of humanoid aliens, similar to humans, but with subtle differences.
It was the lone item in the centre of the chamber which took her attention, however. It was a huge, wildly ornamented sarcophagus, sentried by two fiercely armoured statues, of the same physiology as the other statues. Grey approached the sarcophagus, withdrawing a small recording device that floated by her shoulder, recording everything that she looked at. There were images all over it, punctuated here and there with dialogue written in the alien script that the AI aboard the Amethystine had not been able to decipher yet. Grey made sure she had recorded every aspect of the artefact – with the information now contained in the device, she would be able to create a holographic replica in her lab on the ship.
The sarcophagus was constructed using a type of rock not too dissimilar to volcanic granite. As a result, the lid of the sarcophagus was too heavy for Grey to slide open herself. She called over Carmichael, and together they slid the granite aside.
As Carmichael walked away to explore other areas of the chamber, Grey stepped close to the open stone casket and, bristling with anticipation, peered into it.
Covering the occupant within was a sheet of white fabric, something similar to silk. The fabric had a translucent quality, and the body beneath it could just barely be glimpsed. Grey peeled the fabric back, exposing the horribly decomposed body. The body (or skeleton, perhaps more appropriately) was nothing special in its physiology. It maintained the same basic humanoid form that all the other they had found had. None she had found before, however, had been dressed as elaborately as this one. The clothing was still almost perfectly intact, and was made of a thick, elegant fabric unlike anything Grey had seen before.
It was clear that the individual within the sarcophagus was an important figure in the race’s social structure, maybe something resembling a queen, or maybe a princess. Or maybe even a goddess.
She began to record some vocal notes, using the same floating recording device as she had before. A slight breeze wafted through the chamber, sending a chill down Greys spine. Then she heard something. A noise that sounded like a faint voice, calling something, or someone. It got louder, and she realised what it was calling.
It was calling her name.
“Was that you?” She asked Carmichael, who was standing over near the main doors.
“What?”
“You didn’t hear that?”
“Lady, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Grey shook her head, and turned back to the body. She stared down at it, and could have sworn that one of the arms had moved.
“Jasmine…” The ghostly voice called again, louder than ever.
“You can’t tell me you didn’t hear that!” She said, snapping around to Carmichael.
“I swear to god, Grey, you’re going insane.” Carmichael answered.
She turned back to the body, and gasped slightly. The empty eye sockets had begun to glow a sharp, radiant blue.
“What the…?” She began.
The blue light suddenly burst out of the scull, streaming from the eye-sockets, and hit Greys, eyes. Before she even had a chance to yelp, it had ended. She shook her head, and opened her eyes.
And everything was different.
She was different.
She collapsed down onto the floor, and Carmichael came running over. He helped her get up onto her feet, and looked her over.
“Shit! Are you alright?” He asked.
She smiled, and began to walk towards the temple’s doors.
“I’m fine.” She said, the smile growing larger, as she sensed the warmness of the sun.
“I feel like I’ve been reborn.”
Hope you enjoyed it. When completed, I will be attempting to get this story published in various science fiction magazines like Interzone and Asimov's Science fiction. Let me know what you think!
Also, with the upadated blog design it looks best if you have the true type fonts "Papyrus" and "Tall Paul" installed on your computer. Its not hard to do.
See ya
The following is an exerpt of a short story I am writing called Queen Lucrecia's Shadow. It is set after the events of Echoes of Absicon, and features one of EoA's central characters, Dorian Hanson, who is only mentioned in this exerpt. Don't worry. It's not as long as it seems.
The wide open space one found on terrestrial planets was like a reprieve from the confinement. A reprieve from the solitude and darkness she had almost become accustomed to. In a sense, it was a kind of madness. But that was what happened when one had spent almost eight months confined to an FTL starship. The claustrophobia that came with lengthy space travel was in itself a kind of insanity, but an insanity one could learn to live with, but never get used to. Perhaps the truly insane were the ones who did get used to it. Thus, Dr. Jasmine Grey could not have been happier being on the surface of such a beautiful planet, even if she knew it would only be for a short while.
The planet was designated FT-301/4, and was located in a binary star system almost Three hundred light years from the central human hub of Tau Ceti, the largest human populated system. Since the reoccupation of the Sol system, Earth was quickly regaining its reputation of humanities ‘home’, but after a two and a half century absence, Earth still had a ways to go before it was as populous as Gilgamesh, Tau Ceti’s single terrestrial planet. Grey was the head Xenologist of a small team sent into deep space to explore extinct cultures.
She looked up at the great temple that stood before her. Thus far on her long journey from the Delta Eridani system, she had explored over fifteen worlds, of which only three showed any signs of having ever supported intelligent life. But nothing she had seen on any of those worlds could compare to what she had discovered on FT-301/4. Nothing she had seen anywhere could compare. The culture had been extinct for almost a millennia, really a short period of time in the galactic scheme of things. The culture had never gotten close to discovering space flight (which pretty much killed the theory that the culture had been destroyed by the Vendo’ Rpah, the same technologically advanced alien race that had attempted to wipe the human race off the face of the universe a few years ago) and had apparently killed themselves off in a great war.
Grey wondered how a race from a planet as beautiful as this one was could become embroiled in what looked as though had been a savage war. Grey had seen the most beautiful things that Gilgamesh and the other human planets had to offer, and they didn’t even come close to the beauty that this planet contained. She had even had an opportunity to visit the re-populated Earth before the Amethystine had left on its long voyage, and in her opinion even the birthplace of her own race could not compare.
The planet was small for a terrestrial, perhaps only a quarter the size of Earth, and as a result, the initial exploration had not taken long. Seventy percent of the planet was covered in water, and what land there was, was situated entirely on the northern hemisphere.
The structure she was standing in front of now (the only surviving structure on the entire planet, it seemed) was situated on the largest continent, halfway between the equator and the north pole. The region was a high table-land range, overlooking a vast badlands, almost a kilometre below. The Table-lands, as the Amethystine’s crew were calling the range now, were mostly vegetation free, with the exception of grass which covered everything except the rock cliffs and the ruins.
She turned to her companion, a former Shadow Fleet officer, who had served aboard the warship Jovian Rage during the war. She was aware of his reputation, and the rumours that circulated the Amethystine’s small crew. It was said that he was a savage soldier, one who had had no qualms with spilling a bit of Vendo’ Rpah blood. He looked as scary as his reputation implied. He was serving aboard the Amethystine as a security expert, recruited by the Proteus Science Council after he had been refused the opportunity to join the newly formed Earth Fleet, which had replaced Shadow Fleet after the war. She didn’t know why he’d been refused a commission, and she didn’t really want to know. The less she knew about him, the better.
“Are you ready to enter, Carmichael?” She asked.
Derek Carmichael scratched the five day stubble on his chin, and hefted the big, nasty looking hybrid rifle over his shoulder.
“Sure thing, doc.” He said in his Shivian accent. “Ladies first, huh?”
“Screw you, ass-hole.” She said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head in exasperation. Carmichael let out a laugh.
“Touchy, touchy.” He said, patronisingly. “Hang back a sec, will ya’?”
He charged the energy cells in the rifle and held it in both hands, as he walked towards the grand, ornamental double doors that were the main entrance to the enormous temple. He stopped in front of them, and activated the flashlight that was incorporated into the structure of the rifle. He took a deep breath, and then suddenly kicked hard at the doors. His foot rebounded off them and jarred his legs.
“God damn it!” He snapped.
Grey let out a small laugh, then suppressed it as Carmichael shot her a nasty glance. He then hefted his gun, and Greys eyes widened in anticipation of what he was about to do.
“No…” She began, but it was too late.
The energy pulse from his weapon streaked out and struck the doors, blowing a huge hole right in the middle of them. He then walked closer, and kicked at the m again. This time they burst open.
“Try and try again.” He said, with a shrug.
“Do you even conceive what you just did?” Grey asked, angrily. “That door was over a thousand god-damned years old.”
“Whatever.” He answered. “Follow me in.”
Grey shook her head in exasperation as Carmichael entered the structure, sweeping the area ahead of him with the weapon. Why the hell had Captain Hanson sent that lunatic down with her? She entered the structure behind him.
It was very dark inside, the only light that which was coming from the flashlight on Carmichael’s weapon. As is swept the room, the beam of light illuminated various ornaments and statues.
“Man, this place is fuckin’ huge!” Carmichael exclaimed. “I think the entire place is hollow!”
Grey found herself agreeing with him. The chamber was huge, and it was certainly not much smaller than the entire outside of the structure. There may have been a room or two towards the back of the structure, but certainly this chamber occupied the vast majority of it.
Grey kneeled and dropped her backpack to the floor. She withdrew a small lighting device, and sat it on the floor of the chamber, somewhere near the middle. She stood.
“Illuminate.” She said.
The small lighting device suddenly activated, and a bright blue-white light filled the chamber. Grey squinted, and slowly opened her eyes as they adjusted to the light.
The room was spectacular.
The room was circular, the walls decorated with ornamental carvings, pictures and hieroglyphs and spaced about five meters apart were large statues, depicting was grey identified as soldiers, hefting large swords and spears. The figures were that of humanoid aliens, similar to humans, but with subtle differences.
It was the lone item in the centre of the chamber which took her attention, however. It was a huge, wildly ornamented sarcophagus, sentried by two fiercely armoured statues, of the same physiology as the other statues. Grey approached the sarcophagus, withdrawing a small recording device that floated by her shoulder, recording everything that she looked at. There were images all over it, punctuated here and there with dialogue written in the alien script that the AI aboard the Amethystine had not been able to decipher yet. Grey made sure she had recorded every aspect of the artefact – with the information now contained in the device, she would be able to create a holographic replica in her lab on the ship.
The sarcophagus was constructed using a type of rock not too dissimilar to volcanic granite. As a result, the lid of the sarcophagus was too heavy for Grey to slide open herself. She called over Carmichael, and together they slid the granite aside.
As Carmichael walked away to explore other areas of the chamber, Grey stepped close to the open stone casket and, bristling with anticipation, peered into it.
Covering the occupant within was a sheet of white fabric, something similar to silk. The fabric had a translucent quality, and the body beneath it could just barely be glimpsed. Grey peeled the fabric back, exposing the horribly decomposed body. The body (or skeleton, perhaps more appropriately) was nothing special in its physiology. It maintained the same basic humanoid form that all the other they had found had. None she had found before, however, had been dressed as elaborately as this one. The clothing was still almost perfectly intact, and was made of a thick, elegant fabric unlike anything Grey had seen before.
It was clear that the individual within the sarcophagus was an important figure in the race’s social structure, maybe something resembling a queen, or maybe a princess. Or maybe even a goddess.
She began to record some vocal notes, using the same floating recording device as she had before. A slight breeze wafted through the chamber, sending a chill down Greys spine. Then she heard something. A noise that sounded like a faint voice, calling something, or someone. It got louder, and she realised what it was calling.
It was calling her name.
“Was that you?” She asked Carmichael, who was standing over near the main doors.
“What?”
“You didn’t hear that?”
“Lady, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Grey shook her head, and turned back to the body. She stared down at it, and could have sworn that one of the arms had moved.
“Jasmine…” The ghostly voice called again, louder than ever.
“You can’t tell me you didn’t hear that!” She said, snapping around to Carmichael.
“I swear to god, Grey, you’re going insane.” Carmichael answered.
She turned back to the body, and gasped slightly. The empty eye sockets had begun to glow a sharp, radiant blue.
“What the…?” She began.
The blue light suddenly burst out of the scull, streaming from the eye-sockets, and hit Greys, eyes. Before she even had a chance to yelp, it had ended. She shook her head, and opened her eyes.
And everything was different.
She was different.
She collapsed down onto the floor, and Carmichael came running over. He helped her get up onto her feet, and looked her over.
“Shit! Are you alright?” He asked.
She smiled, and began to walk towards the temple’s doors.
“I’m fine.” She said, the smile growing larger, as she sensed the warmness of the sun.
“I feel like I’ve been reborn.”
Hope you enjoyed it. When completed, I will be attempting to get this story published in various science fiction magazines like Interzone and Asimov's Science fiction. Let me know what you think!
Also, with the upadated blog design it looks best if you have the true type fonts "Papyrus" and "Tall Paul" installed on your computer. Its not hard to do.
See ya
posted by Travis at 8:54 PM
11 Comments:
Hey how do u install the fonts. I skimmed the story but im too tired at the moment to read properly so will check it out again later.
Ja ne
Great story, looking forward to hearing what happens. Sagoi
sounds excellent
I've tried to leave a message three times now... What I originally wanted to say was - Good job Trav, when will we be able to read more.
Mark
Yeah, pretty cool. I can't wait to read more.
i thought your blog was cool and i think you may like this cool Website. now just Click Here
hey tavis. When r u gonna do another blog. Im waiting........
you mean another post? I dunno. I'll do one when I have something to write about
ok - gambatte
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