This ongoing work in progress is entirely a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed within are entirely fictional and any resemblance to people, living or dead is coincidental.
No part of the work may be reproduced in any form without the explicit permission of the author.
Copyright Ion Fyr 2022
ionfyr.net
The interior, whatever it had been before–the ramshackle tent of Pool’s era–had evolved. Utility was of chief importance. Only the vestigial focus on the anthropomorphic shape and stature of the anthromorphs necessitated the extant design.
As Nila entered, light-nodes throughout brightened to full luminosity.
Unexpectedly, her internal wireless received a message from an unknown source.
UNKNOWN: MY DEAR MS TAGORE, WE, AS YOU SAY, HAVE YOUR BACK. MY MAN AND I WAIT OUTSIDE IF YOU NEED OUR ASSISTANCE.
Nila halted and blinked, trying not to reveal the contact. She peered at her guide, searching for an indication that it, or more importantly, the entity it served, noticed the wireless contact.
The practical range of available wireless implants was 100 to 150 meters. Only Etelka (and Pool) would use her surname, but only Etelka would refer to her, employee as “my man”. Attila was somewhere between chief of staff and bodyguard.
Nila’s brain returned to the scene in front of her. Etelka was outside (along with her airship somewhere nearby). The hallway was comprised of extruded metal, probably aluminum. Every meter or so a light-node shed a cool white light on the gleaming hallway. Scuff marks formed a path down the center of the hallway, ground in by countless steps of metal on metal. The sound of the guide trudging along reverberated.
There were no doors from the entry vestibule and the door at the end of the hall. At the same time, there may have been, as there were no visible signs of a door at the end of the hall, but a door slid silently to the side opening into a much larger room beyond. I had not been visible, no seams, no threshold, nothing like that, just a wall that moved aside silently and without visible command on the part of the guide.
The chamber that opened before her was an asymmetrical chasm, with smooth walls of stone and steel and aluminum, at jarring angles to each other and dotted with light-nodes like constellations of stars.
Abruptly before her a figure faded into existence. Clearly a projection–though she could not at the moment locate the source–the figure stood between three and four meters tall, flanked by bronze and brass and glass anthromorphs on either side, these being of a more corporial nature.
Nila was familiar with projections; they had a slightly transparent aspect, letting the background seep through their forms, and having an appreciable massless feel. This was similar, though of higher, nearly perfect resolution, and merely by the brief, but still gradual coming into being, Nila knew its nature.
It was more female than androgynous in form, only slightly. Humanoid features: a human face, arms legs, shallow breasts, bare and lacking nipples, and its state of nakedness revealing only a hint of female sexuality,
The being’s skin was white alabaster, with a matte finish (something self-luminous projections, still struggled with in mainland entertainment centers), the whole body filigreed with cobalt blue lines like symbolic circuitry, giving the appearance of museum quality Sinese porcelain. Rising from the head, in place of hair, were white, writing tendrils, the blue filigree winding, as if twisted into finer and finer spirals as they approached the ends, which faded up into space as they faded from visibility.
The being’s eyes, gleaming in silver and blue, with dilated, emotive pupils, looked down at Nila; it seemed as if the irises pulsed hypnotically.
>Eyes -filter-on -data-record-on | save -internal
She, whatever she is, is trying to hypnotize me, thought Nila, consciously trying to not slider her finger onto the trigger of the Kopf-Heckler, still hanging in front of her torso, even though her hand was resting centimeters away, ring-nyereg clicking on the textured grip.
Perhaps it was the acoustics of the weirdly-shaped room, perhaps it was a technology she was unfamilar with, but the voice seemed to emanate both from the moving lips of the projection, and from within Nila’s own head. It was disorienting and prominent, not so loud as to deafen, but strong enough to ensure attention.
#fiction #science fiction #sci-fi #fantasy #time travel #steampunk #cyberpunk
Ion Fyr 