Category: machine civilization

“The Fallen” 3/9

“What’s behind curtain number one?” Now we know. This is, obviously, me ripping off Tolkien; I’ve long said that all writers “borrow” from one another, but “ripping off” sounds better.

This wraps up the Alvarez’s visit to Ekaterinburg. I’ll gloss their trip to the dams and move things along to their stop in what is de facto imperium territory. It will be a much more relaxed visit as everyone is on the same side. Once that is completed, I’ll close Part Three. Part Four still only exists as notes as I still don’t know what I’m doing with Alicia.

Below, Count Lavrov really steps in it, doesn’t he?

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“The Fallen” 3/8

Playing more catch-up, so another longer segment for the weekend. You’re welcome.

We get another possible foreshadowing of what may or may not be under the Tharsis Plateau. There is also an interesting tell in what Ivan calls Anton and Saras. And, with the mention of Cartaphilus, we now have a touch of the Secondary World in this story. No idea where that might lead.

Looking forward to what’s behind the curtain. See everyone on Monday.

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“The Fallen” 3/7

Well, hello Another Dangerous Person. There is no way, none, that the PM of the Russian Empire is unaware of the unfolding diplomatic situation on Mars. Not about to let things get muddled, Reina obviously wants some skin, literally, in the game. So welcome Ivan, ladies and gentlemen.

Another slightly longer segment, but after spending the last two hours typing, I realized I’m 4000 words ahead of what I’m posting, and the Alvarez’s still aren’t yet to imperium territory for those talks. I might know where that’s going, but more importantly, I need to decide if this will be a novella (~35k words) or another novel (min 50k). Until I answer that, I cannot start Part Four.

When Sergei meets Ivan in the epilogue of Ice Inundation Intelligence, his private thought was, “how can such a nice kid be her son?”

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“The Fallen” 3/3

At last we get Anton Sr into the frame. He’s twenty-nine, I think, at this point. A high-caste Mexican married to a demi-human, mixed race imperial princess. With an ambassadorship. And, as we discover in this shorter segment, still, after five years, getting used to married life.

Hell, at five years my wife and I nearly got divorced. It was my fault. A twice-divorced colleague sat me down and explained: “Clayton. You’re a man and an engineer. If someone tells you a problem, you immediately want to fix it. Women are NOT like that. They talk to talk. Just pretend you’re listening and all will be well.”

And here we are, thirty-one years later. Thanks, Bill!

Section 4 will start us down the political spillway: Japs, Rus, imperials. And a very odd occurrence when they fly over the Arabia Marshes. I wonder if the plot might be showing up?

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Ice Inundation Intelligence

Pleased to announce the release of both the paperback and Kindle versions of my latest book. Number seventeen of the future history that is Machine Civilization.

As with many of my other books, I am hoping to have it ported to Smashwords in a week or two, depending on how many times I bang my head against a brick wall for their kludgy interface,

***

Canada is dying. In a new ice age, one by one, their cities are falling. They occupied the empty US Midwest but Quebec wants out and the Russian Army is coming into their central provinces from the west. Leading a scout unit to divine the Russians’ intentions, Lt. Eloise Patel is captured and tortured, then rescued by the love of her life, Centurion Bob Hardt. The politics point to a three-way war.

Mars is being reborn. Terraformed by the Polar Alliance, the northern hemisphere is an ocean. But the Second Inundation has many worried. There to keep an eye on things, Empress Faustina and one of her sons stumble across an ancient alien artifact – and vanish.

While the politicians bluster and threat, Hardt, Patel, and Sgt. Sergei Konev of the Russian Army try to keep a peace on the ground and between one another and their three nations.

***

“The Fallen” 2/10

And this is the end of part two. It would made for a fantastic scene in a movie, which was how it was shown to me.

Saras’ conflicted feelings to Les are obvious, as a girl, and complex, as they are both demis. Her question and his answer toward the conclusion put an end to whatever emotions she might have been feeling about him, besides love and respect for a senior member of the family. And, this is two Tolkien references in two segments, for those of you keeping track.

I’m getting into part three…and it’s a tangle. Unlike part one which had Eloise with “first-person thoughts,” and part two with Saras doing the same, there is no single of the three I’ve met so far who will have that. So, instead of people thinking and talking to move the story along, it’s third-person me typing all this out. It is NOT my style and I find it limiting and clunky. I’ve only about 1000 words of it so far, and one of those three characters hasn’t even wandered onstage yet, so I’m a little unclear as to how long part three will be. I do, at least, see how it keeps the overall arc toward that feral demi-girl whose image started all this foolishness.

Have a good weekend. New material on Monday. Deus vult.

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“The Fallen” 2/6

Well! Two reveals. One, we get back to what Fussy and Ed found in “Ice Inundation Intelligence,” and two, that Les and Min do, in fact, love one another. I’m guessing they would use the more precise term of agape. I do not even know if Min’s Model 12 body is kitted out for sexual intercourse. Guess we’ll have to find out. In a non-prurient way, of course.

Since they brought up the Device, I wonder how, if at all, it plays into the image of that feral girl by a stream? Many, many futures here and I am increasingly confused. Writing, in a sense, is like Schrodinger’s Cat: by typing the words, you collapse the wave equation from all the myriad ways, to one.

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“The Fallen” 2/5

A bit of a longer segment, going into the weekend. Minerva, as I mentioned in the last segment, started off as a sliver of Reina. Left to her own computational devices, a new personality formed. That personality, like how a baby bird imprints onto its parents, is completely fixated by Laszlo Hartmann. Back when the Minerva-consciousness was still barely formed and she was still Reina, she watched Les and his boyfriend, Nikita, behave in a sexually deviant fashion. As a very young new soul, she made several mistakes based upon that observation when it came to expressing her deep feelings for her captain.

Now, five years later, she seems much more comfortable in her role as helpmate and second-in-command of INS Lionheart as it gads about the outer solar system. As I do not think she has ever been around human children before, her quick response, below, was a surprise to me.

I wonder what Saras and Min will talk about? In wifi, androids can speak mind-to-mind just as demis do, but I don’t think Min would without “copying” everything to Les. We shall see.

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“The Fallen” 2/4

As this is still primarily a writing experiment, I am playing fast and lose with time; thus the “Two weeks later…” That’s sloppy writing but rough drafts are about ideas, not grammar.

From Part Three of “Obligations of Rank” and the short story “Ceres” in “Imperial Entanglements,” we meet Laszlo Hartmann once again. This is about five years after “Ceres,” I think, so there are changes and adjustments to his life. We’ll get to know Minerva a bit more, tomorrow.

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“The Fallen” 2/1

“It is a harsh place.  We are becoming a harsh people.” I knew and know that this story will likely be my darkest since “Crosses and Doublecrosses.” I just didn’t think I would get there so soon. Saras takes after her grandmother in several ways. I am older in what I’ve written that family loyalty does not map to liking someone or a caring relationship.

I wonder what we’ll learn in this Part 2?

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