Zera is worried that they don't actually have any such thing, but she hesitantly says
Yes, please.
You pay the robot 1 domar and you get a large drink with lots of fizz and it tastes fruity like pineapple.
The robot says, "Thank you and enjoy the show."
Zera goes in and finds a seat for the show.
The three of you walk inside.
This is the theatre. At the far end is a curved. A
small stage crouches inconspicuously at the base
of the wall. The indirect lighting is soft
and dim seeming to come from everywhere at
once. It is almost impossible to gauge the height
of the smoothly curved ceiling. It seems to be miles away. The ceiling
The seats are organized into rows, much like a
movie theatre, but the similarity ends there.
Each is contoured to allow for maximum comfort, and they can recline and swivel. A scries of
control buttons are
mounted into the arms. There is, of course, a
slot where the snack chit can be inserted.
Zera examines the seats carefully for restraints and the area for signs of blood or struggle. Was this truly entertainment, or execution, and why wouldn't the metal men just tell her what had happened?
Tintoretto will sniff at the drink, but isn't quite brave enough to taste it. He'll let the technical types check out the chairs first.
An old man in
ancient garb appears on the stage. He says,
“Ladies and gentlemen, the show will begin as
soon as you take your seats,” and then vanishes.
Zera sits, putting in her snack chit to see if they actually do have popcorn or not.
The seats do not have any restraints but they do have a greater range of movement than any chair you have ever seen.
A popcorn is brought to you by a robot shortly after you put your chit in there.
Tintoretto will climb into the seat and insert his snack chit.
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Tinteretto gets what he had ordered.
The doors to this arena burst open and a
crowd of strangely dressed humans enters.
Many of them are carrying food and drink.
Their laughter and idle chitchat fill the room.
It takes only five minutes to fill every seat in
the arena.
Zera tries a single piece of popcorn to make sure it isn't poisoned or gross before she starts munching on it further. She wonders what kind of movie it is going to be... do they film the demise of everyone that comes here?
P'Reena finds it impossible to sit in a chair, so she simply stands beside Zera.
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They take notice of you like any random group of people would if they were entering a movie theater. If they are trying to get to their seats they say "excuse me" so they can get by you.
They wear strange outfits that are in good condition with strange colors and things they definitely are dressed in the way of the ancients. Some no grain material some what looks like rubber.
Tinteretto is overwhelmed by the minds he is confronted with. You are not sure if it is hundreds of minds or one imitating hundreds.
When all the seats are filled, the huge
room grows dark. Suddenly, you are floating
in a void. The chair underneath you is gone,
and you cannot even feel your own weight.
The stars of the sky burst into existence, and
below you is a blue and green sphere, with
swirls and stripes of wispy white. Behind It is
the familiar image of the moon, white and
pockmarked.
As the sphere turns, an old man’s face is
revealed on the other side. His stern but benevolent visage is framed in thick, white
hair.
He says, “Welcome to Sagow' Panchilate Enstoot. Loyal followers, answerers of the call, your help is desperately needed. Long, lonely years have
passed, and now the time has come to rekindle the spirit of the Enstoot. I am inviting each of you to participate in its glory.
You will lead the new dawn by preserving the
wonders of ancient Eleeg. Sign on
the dotted line, and it shall be yours!”
A thunderous applause rises from the audience
as they give the old man a standing ovation.
At this point, a scaled envelope is ejected
from a slot in the arm of Zera, Tinteretto's and all of the people sitting in their chairs.
All of the people immediately open their letters and sign, filled with ecstatic glee.
Tinteretto your letter says:
I, Tinteretto, do hereby accept a lifetime post at the Sagow Panchilate Enstoot as Vice President of Finance. I immediately resign all other paid positions in favor of this one. In return, my every need and desire within these walls shall be
granted. I swear to uphold the principles of
preservation and management of the assets of
the Enstoot.
(Sign here)
Zera your letter says:
I, Dr. Zera, do hereby accept a lifetime post at the Sagow Panchilate Enstoot as Doctor of Astronomy. I immediately resign all other paid positions in favor of this one. In return, my every need and desire within these walls shall be
granted. I swear to uphold the principles of
preservation and management of the assets of
the Enstoot.
(Sign here)
Zera looked at the letter. It was unbelievable in many ways, but... every need and desire? And they had snacks. She thought about her life, just scraping by, and wonders if the people who came here previously just got jobs here. If so, that was good, right? Except, still... what happened to the squirrels?
But maybe they joined up too, or if she joined up she could certainly find out, right? If they would take care of her, and help to preserve the wonders of the ancients... that's all she really wanted. I mean, that and the chance to explore and experiment, but that was kind of built in here as well, right? She wondered just how much of a radiation jolt some of those experiments could put out. Would be interesting to see if they could match her eyes.
She absently petted P'Reena beside her. She wondered if they were going to offer her a job as well. Maybe they didn't because she didn't fit into a seat. Hmm.
Yeah, it was a good deal.
She decided to carefully read what they wanted her to do, but she was inclined to sign. A job offer was unexpected, but might be just what she needed.
Tintoretto will read every word of the contract. Especially any parts about resigning or leaving. This would be a way of fulfilling their mission, but he's not sure if he's willing to sign his entire life away just yet.
The other people in the Lecture Hall look at the two of you in anticipation for you to sign the contract. You see a twelve year old boy start to sweat at his brow and a five year old girl start to bite her finger nails. An old lady peers over Zera's should to see if she has signed yet.
When Zera signs the contract the crowd applaud and they start looking at Tinteretto with anticipation.
Tintoretto continues to read every word, not letting the other people get to him.
P'Reena, being illiterate, is not perturbed by not receiving a letter, but is interested enough to ask Zura what hers says.
Zera reads the letter (or at least the interesting parts) to P'Reena.
Given that there is no clause against resigning when it's done, he'll sign as well.
After both Zera and Tinteretto sign the contract, the people cheer and applaud. Beautiful men and women hug, kiss, and
shake the hands of you and some meek children try to pet P'reena.
The old man
says, “You may collect your back pay at the bursar’s office, in the Administration Building.
Your assistants have been assigned. The program will commence shortly.”
The people sit down and the auditorium gets dark for a few seconds.
Suddenly, you are standing in the room
under the stone, where the jaguar men lived.
A light breeze cools your face, and the smell
of undisturbed dust fills your nostrils. There
is a slight chill to the air.
The door in the stone is being forced open
wider and wider. A man drops through the
opening, gliding on leathery wings in a slow
circle, and finally landing on the floor.
Clearly of human descent, he has reptilian
scales instead of skin. A forked tongue flicks
out, tasting the air. A pair of furry, squirrel like heads pop into view through the ceiling
door.
Without warning, the world starts to move
faster and faster. The snake-man and giant
squirrels are merely blurs, and then they vanish. The room gets dark as the light from the
door fades. Then everything is moving normally again.
A motley crew of unlucky ones drops silently to the floor, blending into the
shadows. A muscular, blue-skinned man
shimmies down a rope and marches confidently into the center of the room. He is shirtless,
with a bandolier across his chest.
The room fades, blurs, and refocuses.
Now you are standing in a room shaped rather like a slice of pie. The dead body of a giant
squirrel lies at your feet. The sickly sweet
smell of roasted flesh assaults your nose. Another body lies behind a table across the
room.
A pair of unlucky ones hold menacing-looking rifles, aimed at the unarmed snake-man
crouched in the corner. The blue-skinned man
steps into the room and says, “Surrender yourself to the Iron Society.”
“I would sooner die!” hisses the snake-man. “Shoot me now and get it over with.”
“That would be such a waste,” says the
blue man. “I have a better idea.”
The blue-skinned man walks toward the
cornered snake-man. Once in range, the
snake-man leaps at him and buries his fangs
into the blue man’s shoulder.
For no apparent reason, the snake-man releases the blue man. His forked tongue licks
the blood off of his scaly lips. The blue man
gathers himself with effort.
The snake-man hisses, “My deepest apologies, lord! Your humble servant begs forgiveness for daring to even touch you, let alone
harm you.”
“I’ll decide your punishment later. You
may crawl behind me,” says the blue man.
The snake-man crawls behind the table
and emerges with a metal box. “You may
have a use for this, my lord. Consider it a
small recompense for my stupidity.”
The blue man looks at it for several minutes, while the snake-man remains on his
hands and knees. A menacing, evil smile
spreads across his face.
“Well done, slave. This is almost worth
getting bitten. Come, we must be off to
Ulmin.”
The image fades, and you arc sitting in the
Lecture Hall once again
The Old Man asks, "Would you like a copy of the footage? Your assistants are waiting for you back in the lobby from whence you came."
Yes, a copy of the footage would be helpful, thank you.
When Zera leaves, she asks
Do you know what was in the box that was given to that blue man, and do you know by what power he overcame Daradall?
The old man says, It is “a replacement controller for primitive Yurkum Torkels.”
The computer produces a
recording of the events mentioned before. A nearby computer terminal ejects a small silver disk.
The Old Man says, "Please take this disk."
Zera takes the disk.
Can you explain the basic functionality of a Yurkum Torkel to me, please? I am unfamiliar with that name.
The Computer a little confused says, "Well yurkum is the basis of the universe. Yurkum is how the Enstoot runs. Torkels are used in tork. Tork is a very popular past time of the ancients there are tens of thousands of known torks throughout the history of the ancients. It seems they quite enjoyed taking part in them."
Zera thinks about this...
Basis of the world, hmm... so the controller was for some kind of molecule or energy... game? a scientific instrument? Wait, or war? The ancients certainly enjoyed that. Was it for some type of weapon?
We might need to look into that for the Enstoot and bring it back here.
In the meantime, can you tell us how to get to the Bursar's office to collect our back pay? Which way to the Administration building?
The computer says, "You go back to the Vater and press the A button or you can say 'Administration Building.' Once there, take a left and it ist second door on the right."
Thank you.
Zera goes out to collect her companions and then they proceed to the Administration building.
As you leave the lecture hall, there are two specimens of live metal waiting for you one speaks to Zera and the other to Tinteretto.
"Welcome to Sagow Enstoot, I will be your personal assistant. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. Here is your personal access card."
Each robot hands you an access card in the color white with a red starburst across the middle.
Zera takes the card, and tells her live metal
Thank you. What is your designation?
After finding out its name, she adds
Follow me. We are going to the Administration building. I hope we get back pay and some of those cool shiny clothes that all the other people were wearing. Also, if there are extra live metal beings around here, why are some of the ones we've encountered still missing parts? Don't you have repair facilities?
The robot says, "I am RSI5. As you wish."
Later, "We have not received a shipment of new parts in 3 hundred, twenty-three years, 2 months and thirteen days. We do have repair facilities in the Buildings and Grounds Facility Building."
Okay Aressai Five, maybe we should go check out those facilities and see if we can get some of the living metal around here fixed up. First the Bursar's office though.
She gathers everyone up into the Vater and presses the A button.
You go into the vater and press the A button and after a short time the door opens into a corridor. The halls are bare.
The first-floor corridor shows a great disturbance
in the dust between the elevator and the lobby.
You recall from the presentation that the blue man's squad trampled the dust as they followed the trail of Daradall and his squirrel
explorers.
Zera exits the Vater and looks around. This area wasn't cleaned up, so she assumes there are no metal men or new employees assigned to maintenance.
Aressai Five, remind me later that we should recruit some people to clean this place up. I think there are a lot of other sentients who would be good employees. Maybe we should go on a recruiting trip after this.
She starts along the corridor, checking into any side rooms on her way to the bursars office, which she remembers was after a left and was the second door on the right, but since the place looks abandoned she checks to see what is here.
The robot says, "Ma'am, we may look into this idea."
The corridor leads both to the left and to the right.
Following the instructions to get to the bursar's office, the first door on the way is on the right and you open the door.
This simple office has a desk with a chair and a
low couch. On the desk is a bulky communicator,
not suitable for easy carrying. On one wall is a
small, metal cabinet. There is also a drawer
mounted underneath it.
Zera checks the cabinet and the drawer.
When Zera touches the cabinet to open it she gets a jolt of electricity pf and she finds both the drawer and cabinet to be locked.
OW! yells Zera.
She had just started feeling like she was healing up after that horrible fight at the entrance, and now this.
What the crap. No bursar here, but we're not allowed to open this up to see if our pay is in here? Are we waiting for someone?
The robot says, "Yes, this is the security office. The bursar is the next door on the right from here. There must be a live wire here for some reason."