“The Fallen” 4/16

A bit shorter, but much is going on. And much more will be going on in just a few more segments.

For those of you have not read part three of “Obligations of Rank,” and shame on you, Kira discovered she can sense life, anywhere on Mars. Because she’s a made demi-human? From God? I assume the latter but don’t know.

Once they get close to the end of the rabbit hole, we’ll be meeting a Special Guest, who I have not had in mind for some years.

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“The Fallen” 4/13

May or may not be an update tomorrow, Friday. This was a little hard to get down. Unfortunately for Alicia, it’s about to get harder. I see another Interlude after that, but I don’t think, per my first, they’ll be all the funny anymore.

Burial customs are a cornerstone of all civilizations.

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“The Fallen” 4/9

It’s Friday, so here’s a longer segment. I always seem to have people talking during a meal; quirk of mine, I suppose. As you’ll see on Monday, from the last paragraph here I have her jump to the conclusion, with “so that’s what happened.” Otherwise, I’m retelling swaths from Ice Inundation Intelligence, which all of you have already read.

Since I asked myself about vitamin D deficiency, I had to do some research. Guess what’s on the menu next week?

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“The Fallen” 4/7

New secondary character, batting clean up for what happened in the last pages of A Texas Naval Affair. It is with timeslips such as this that I have no choice but to pause and make notes. Lots of notes.

Looks as if I’ve enough segments to make it to Friday. I’m taking today and part of tomorrow to complete my spreadsheet of character ages (as three generations, so far, have been covered in this MS). I also need to get the sketch of the cavern down so I stop using things such as [north?] as placeholders as I have no idea which way they are facing.

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“The Fallen” 4/6

Ask stupid questions, get handed funny answers. I laughed all the while typing this little interlude. Back on the surface, we get a short glimpse into what Kira’s been up to. Being one of her, that’s quite a lot.

The last line illustrates that being a human at the mercy of demi-humans in an autocratic political system does have some drawbacks.

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“The Fallen” 4/5

With Alicia praying in the last segment, that opens the story to a little more religion, both hers and her speculation.

Even knowing better, she’s still a girl and takes an action wish seems innocuous, but in fact changes everything.

I wonder what’s going on back on the surface?

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“The Fallen” 4/4

And here’s a Machine Civilization first: an alien race. Recently, the stories have taken me places I never expected to go: for example, Fussy and Ed’s time slip in “Ice Inundation Intelligence” and me still not knowing what Kalí is. So, here are some aliens. Are they native to Mars or imports from somewhere else? Did they used to live on the surface then went underground as the atmosphere blew away? And, most importantly, are any still around? I have no idea.

Tiny cliff – or parapet – hanger as we go into the weekend. See everyone on Monday.

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“The Fallen” 4/3

Made a decision yesterday which resulted in the rewrite of a few paragraphs, about three segments from now. I now am much more comfortable with where Alicia is going. And that means *yeah!* back to daily updates, by and large. It also helps to put pressure onto me to say ahead of things rather than sitting about drinking Manhattans and not moving the story forward.

My editing of all this: people, dates, ages, locations, maps, is going to rival what I had to do for the American Imperium trilogy. And this is just a little girl lost down a hole. And, admittedly, I’m getting a “Moria” vibe, not “Wonderland.”

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“The Fallen” 4/2

Still not used to the whole single-character thing but trying to make a go at it. People who are lost are always told to “stay put and let help come to you.” But most people aren’t 4km under the Martian surface. A clever girl, but still a 15-year-old girl, Alicia thinks she should look around a bit.

Perhaps in a later interlude, I’ll have to describe what Kira might be doing by way of a rescue effort. I don’t know if they were in signal when Alicia fell, but the Midwife would surely get work started nearly instantly. Being Russian, I may just have her pick a “volunteer” and push him down the hole after her. The right thing, of course, would be to attach a sensor system run by an ES to a tiny motor and send that down to look around.

We’ll see. There may be some very odd things going on in time before all this is over. And, yes, I have to make a map of her adventures as I’m already lost.

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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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