8FOLD/ACRA: Orphans of Mars: To Bell The Cat # 3

[Andrew Perron]

On 6/5/2014 8:12 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
<snip>
 >     Petara smiles, and as is ever the case with the apostate and
 > spymaster, Nerrine cannot tell if the smile is meant to be insolent,
 > or if that's just the way Petara's face always looks.

It's me! <3

 >     "Some of them did," says Petara. "Their leaders, mostly. They
 > considered all of Mars to be the body of the sacred face, and so it
 > was a sin for Martians to live on Mars. And yet still it was not the
 > stupidest of religions on Mars.

Heeheehee.

 >     "They, they knew?" says Nerrine. "Our sisters of battle. We took
 > the White City for them, and... and they sent us here, to die?"
<snip>
 >     "Nerrine... who do you think it is that created the bomb?"

Ohhhhhhh. o.o Good twists.

 >     Ress pulls at the bracelet and lets it snap against her wrist. And
 > in that moment, it occurs to her that here there is a way by which she
 > can both eliminate Nerrine, and elevate her sister to possible
 > Imperatrix material. "It's a pity, isn't it, that you couldn't make
 > one for the rex?"

Hmmmmm. I see how this accomplishes the latter goal, but the former...

 >     "Then why don't you?" says Ress.
 >     Kellin hesitates, then leans forward. Her lips lightly and chastely
 > brush against her sister's. Then she withdraws, looking slightly ill.
 > Looking guilty. Kellin has always looked guilty, even before that last
 > night on Mars, and Ress still has never known why.

Interesting that they still have an incest taboo when sterile, but then, I'm 
sure they picked it up from the culture around them.

 >     Danalee has been through this before. "Our emotions are
 > overpowering whatever it is that she's picking up on. We need to calm
 > ourselves, clear ourselves of all emotion. That means Fenn has to stop
 > thinking about sex."
 >     "What!" cries Fenn.

*snerk*

 >     "No," says Lask. "Its emotions do not tickle like a Martian's. It
 > is unfamiliar."
 >     "Faint and strange," says Danalee. "Do you think...?"
 >     "Venus?" says Quasha. Even she shudders at the thought.

Man that's a lot of life in one solar system. I approve.

 >     "What do you mean?" says Nerrine. "We can't keep this from them."
 >     "We can't?" says Petara incredulously. "Imperatrix, we must. Isn't
 > that obvious? You want us to live, and to fight, and not to despair.
 > What do you think will happen to the lot of them when they discover
 > that we have been abandoned by our race? That we are not the Daughters
 > of Mars, but her orphans?"

We have title!

 >     "But truth is surely better than false hope."
 >     "Hope is better than none," says Petara. "False or otherwise. And
 > on Mars, it seemed all we had to keep us going were lies. Believe me,
 > the others know that no one is coming. But they're willing to pretend
 > that more colonists are on the way. Don't take that away from them."

Hmmmm, yes.

 >     "Stay alive, Quasha, thou wonderful simpleton," whispers Danalee.
 > She squeezes in between the fan blades, stopping only for a moment
 > when she hears the explosion at the front. Goddess, bless Quasha with
 > good sense for once in her life, so that she stood clear of that.

Awwwwwwww. <3

 >    It's been a good long while since she had occasion to do this; the
 > raptors, for all their cunning, have yet to master the twin arts of
 > carpentry and machinery.

They can open doors, tho.

 >     Something's flying at her now. Three of the little mines. Danalee
 > will jump out of the way, jump back, reflexively, without thinking,
 > and the atomizer's beam will be waiting. It's certain death. Certain
 > failure. But there's a slender chance...

It MIGHT JUST WORK

 >     Danalee rolls and fires, rolls and fires, timing it carefully so
 > she doesn't blast a hole in her own stomach. At least one of the beams
 > connect, and the atomizer blast goes high and wide, right through the
 > ceiling. Sunlight pours in, and for the briefest of moments, Danalee
 > can see the Titanian.
 >     But her foe jumps out of the light, and back into the darkness.
 > Cloaked once more, she runs past Danalee and leaps out the side of the
 > ship, through one of the holes that could've been Danalee.
 >     Danalee is in no great hurry to give chase, and so affords herself
 > the luxury of catching her breath.

Very good. <3

 >     "I thought Titan was a dead world," says Fenn.
 >     "Aye," says Quasha. "A millennium ago, or more, slain by our hands."

Damn Martians destroying planets *and* property value

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron mumble grumble