[MV] The Super Wizard From Space #46: The Red Hand Of General Dragutin, part 3

[Andrew Perron]

On 6/12/2014 10:18 PM, Wil Alambre wrote:
> Several columns of astro-apis
> drones moving toward your position. They're coming from
> metropolitan centers near you. And from forested areas
> directly to your... wait, more contacts coming out of...
> sir... sir, they're everywhere! They're *everyone!* The
> entire planet's compromised!"

IT'S A BUG HUNT, MAN! A BU--*whapped with a rolled-up report on colony 
collapse disorder*

> She's a meagre thing. Crouched down on the ground. Fetal,
> trying to protect herself from whole room. Her subjects are
> still buzzing. That bass note vibration from the
> surrounding... everywhere. She doesn't seem comforted by it.
> Her hands clamped against her ears. Her eyes squeezed shut.
> She terrified.

Ohhhhh. o.o I see now. Damn.

> Rising to a kneeling position.
> Getting a good look at her form. Her current form. Herself.
> "What's wrong with my hands? Why can I see through them?
> What did they do?"
>
> "You're not here. This, uh, this isn't you." This sort of
> thing was never my strength. "Its a transmission gel. Its
> the way... the way *they* communicate outside their species.
> You're somewhere else. You're still wherever you were, but
> you're talking to me here." I need an analogue. What would
> her people have had at this level of world development?
> "It's, ah, it's like a walkie-talkie?"

Very nice.

> "They're a highly eusocial species. They work as a whole,
> but they all have their place in a morphologically discrete
> hierarchy. They instinctively follow a queen mother. If they
> don't have a queen mother, they... they make one. Force one.
> In desperation."

Ahhhhhhhhh. <3 <3 <3

> Through the haze I see realization come over her round face.
> A mix of awe and astonishment when she recognizes my
> uniform. From the murals on the walls outside. "You're one
> of them! Our old science-gods! You're a solar wizard! Oh
> gods, its been so long. I... I wasn't sure. I didn't know if
> I believed or ...!" She wavering, unsure if she should
> prostrate herself or grab at me. She's fascinated.
> She's relieved.

This is SUCH GOOD WRITING. Augh. I'm definitely doing a longer review of this 
in the Roundup.

> "You're here demanding favoursz? While you breathe the
> rotten air of my dead world? You, whosze love I'm szupposed
> to prize more than... these? My unburied people? The people
> you corrupted? That you abandoned? We needed you! We needed
> you and you weren't here! And now they're gone! GONE!"

Yesssss

> "They're gone, but they're not forgotten. Not by ME. Not by
> their QUEEN."
>
> Crap.

YESSSSSSSSSSS

> More bee stuff. More than I expected to be writing when
> I started putting this series together. I blame it on
> Wikipedia. The more I read up on bees, the more little
> tidbits of trivia I discover, the more I want to riff off.

The Virus is a good trope. <3

> The previous issue and this one used to be one long
> chapter. Combined, they were over 2800 words, which went
> way over my self-imposed 1500-word-ish per-issue limit.
> Editor-me convinced writer-me to break them into two
> separate issues, and writer-me now winces a bit at
> both issues ending on the same beat.

Ehhhh. I'm not too terribly bothered - there's real momentum here.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, luff it.