Andromeda Rose

Discussion in 'The Sims 2' started by Lynet, Aug 2, 2006.

  1. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    Andromeda Rose

    This is sort of a test. My connection allows me a few minutes before cutting off. The repair man is not due until Sunday afternoon. :(

    I'm going to try to upload the beginning of a new story. It's completely different from the soap opera, Dear Emmy, and the fun adventures of Errol and Harcourt. I'll see how it goes. Thanks for your patience. :eek:

    We saw the ruins of a city that was not supposed to be there. And yet there it was, brown and ugly, squatting in the rocks at the foot of the mountain.

    I looked at Cory. What happened? I said.

    Its dead. Its dead like the whole planet. Thats why we didnt read anything in the scans.

    Frozen to death? The mountains were white under the white moon. The rocks were white. And beneath the cold stars, the valley stretched white in all directions for as far as we could see. It was all covered in ice and snow, except where our lander sat in a frozen lake of burnt earth created by our fiery touch down.

    Cory laughed. His breath was a small cloud of steam that frosted the window in front of his face. We had opened the shields so that wed have the widest view, and the thick glass was already icy cold to the touch, in spite of the embedded fiber that should have prevented that. It was real bad out there. A dangerous deep freeze.

    I hit the switch to close the shields over the windows.

    Exhausted and relieved by the reasonably smooth landing, Cory and I shut down the lab and crawled into our cots. I listened to the comforting hum of the heater as I waited for sleep. It was a good heater, with lots of spare parts in the locker as well as two complete backups. I dont like being cold. And I hadnt liked the idea of this planet from the moment we saw the first temperature reading. But planets available for colonizing are rare, and this one offered possibilities, even if the colony had to be buried in the rock to escape the cold. All the snow out there meant water, and that was the key. So we had to come down and take a look.

    Then wed seen the dark bulk of walls at the base of a broken mountain.
     
  2. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    So far so good. Pictures? I'll try. Wow, it worked! These are just pictures of their lander, a metal box. Must be lots of friction when landing or taking off -- the wonders of modern science, yes? (I was temporarily knocked off line but able to get on again. Oh, the irony of it all)
     
  3. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    I awoke to find Cory in front of the windows again, drinking his coffee, squinting at a bright scene of snow, mountains and blue sky. Id overslept. I poured myself some coffee and sat down with him. I could see more detail on the city walls but not much of anything else. Cory, the geologist, was clearly more interested in the massive piles of rock around it. The rocks puzzled him. The mountain puzzled him.

    It blew its lid, he said.

    Like a volcano, I said.

    Its not volcanic. Nothing in this mountain range is volcanic. Nope. That one just blew its lid. And Id surely like to find out why.

    Its that city in the rocks Id like to figure out.

    Easy. Its defensive. From those rocks you can see anything that moves in this valley.

    I dont mean its location. Why is it dead? Obviously nothings moved around here for a very long time.

    You got that right. So we wont be here long. What do you want for breakfast?

    I said I wanted cereal but he ignored me, as usual, and fixed pancakes.

    Corys name doesnt suit him. The name is too easy on the ear and hes a man with a rough face and a rougher manner. Maybe its the broken nose or maybe its the clumsy way he walks on those big feet. Doesnt matter. I often called him by his last name, ONeill, but that didnt suit him, either. His name should have been Rock. He always had one in his hand, or wanted one.

    I go by Andy. Thats short for Andromeda. Andromeda Rose Saville. Its a mouthful and Ive always wondered what my mother was thinking. Ill never know. She ran off with the gardener long before I was old enough to know why anyone would do that. Since I was mostly raised by a robot that my father built, I grew up preferring the company of machines over people. In fact, I didnt at all like the company of people, especially Cory ONeill.
     
  4. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    Introducing a couple of humorless characters...Andromeda Rose Saville and Cory O'Neill.

    Maybe they'll lighten up. :rolleyes:
     
  5. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    I cleaned up from breakfast as Cory sat down at the scanners. He punched at the keys and peered at the screens.

    Easy on the board, I said. Were running out of spare parts.

    He grunted.

    Including whats left of Arkin.

    Cory looked over his shoulder at me. Shut up about Arkin. The robot agreed and thats the end of it. He turned back to the screens and leaned so close his big nose was blocking the view of half the images. No reason, he said, for that mountain to blow up. Theres nothing there. I want to get samples from those rocks. He reached for the keyboard again and it sparked. He yelled out and then muttered something under his breath. I thought I heard Arkin mentioned. Probably did. Arkin and Cory had never much liked each other, and one way or another Arkin was still with us, as part of the ship. He zapped Cory every now and then.

    I sat down at the other board and scanned the ruins. There was no evidence of life, not even something the size of a cockroach. Bacteria there might be, sure, but the scanners had their limits. Wed have to get samples from within the city, too, so I started mapping it, peeling it down one layer at a time, right down to the frozen ground and below.

    Cellars and tunnels go pretty deep under it, I said. Not sure the scanners are picking up all thats there.

    Then well finish it when we get there. Lets go. He stood up and stretched. For one split second, watching him, I felt something I didnt want to feel. I looked away. How was it possible to hate someone and want someone at the same time? Youre a sick woman, Andy, I told myself. Everything about Cory ONeill is repulsive. His face, his voice, his jokes, and his smell. I thought back to Arkins smooth metal arms and gentle touch, and put my hand, fingers spread, on the warm surface of the scanner in front of me. He never threw a spark at me. I wished he would.

    Andy! Get your suit on and hurry it up. We have to be back here before sundown. Thats six hours from now.
     
  6. person123

    person123 Frumpy McDoogle!

    It's great! I love Andromeda already. :D
     
  7. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    If you laugh when you read this story, that's OK. It's corny as heck. But I'm having fun with it. Lot's of pictures later, of course.

    And just a note -- until I find space helmets that aren't from Star Wars Stormtroopers I'll not be taking any pictures of these two from the front when they're walking around in space suits. :eek: If anyone knows where I can find space helmets, let me know. I'd appreciate it.
     
  8. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    It was easier walking than I expected. The snow lay flat and hard with only a few fissures, and these were small enough to jump across or walk around. There was no wind. Gravity and the atmosphere were just a little lighter than our home world, so if it werent for the subzero temperatures our suits would not have been necessary. An oxygen tank would have been sufficient.

    I didnt worry about the suits the way I worried about the lander. The suit model was an old one and well tested. Our mother ship, on the other hand, was experimental, and the lander was a cheap box. We risked death every time we put it down on the surface of a planet. Fortunately, landing the thing was rare. Not rare enough for Cory. The man had no imagination. The fact that we could easily explode and burn up on our way down to the surface never worried him. Just get him to the rocks, thats all he cared about. I had trouble talking him out of wasting our time and our lives by putting down on every wretched world we stopped to scan. Even the last one! It was completely on fire, with volcanoes from pole to pole. Now, I ask you, is a rock worth dying for? But he obsessed over that planet, talking ad nauseum about lost opportunities for gathering data on planetary formation.

    But all this business about Cory is just for my own records, not for the ships log.

    This planet was dead. Cory said it had an active core, a magnetic field, and probably killer arctic winds somewhere around its poles. But here at the equator it was all quiet. Nothing stirred. Except us. We trudged forward over the white snow in our white suits, trailing our grey shadows, headed for the grey rocks and the brown city.

    The brown is odd, I thought. Why isnt it white with ice and snow? Do the walls repel water? Or is there a heat source? Wouldnt we have detected the heat with our scans? I felt my heart beating a little too hard and too fast. The closer we got to the city the more it gave me the creeps.
     
  9. surprised_by_witches

    surprised_by_witches Sleep deprived

    Sheesh. If this is "corny" I'm never writing again. What a fascinating story, so far.

    Just taking my lunch break and thought I should check this out.

    I'm glad I did! :)

    And may I say, YEAH!!! You're writing again!!!
     
  10. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    Cory got plenty of scrapings and bits of mountain rock before we got to the city so he was now interested in the walls.

    Different stone entirely, he said.

    Fix the volume on your radio. Youre too loud.

    They didnt build this city with the stone that surrounds it. Very strange.

    Maybe because the mountain fell on it after it was built. Look over there.

    Part of the city was more ruined than other parts. What I hadnt noticed when mapping it and what we hadnt been able to see from the lander was the rubble of broken walls under one or two mountain boulders. I call them boulders but they were about as big as mountains all by themselves. I looked up toward the father of them all, the mountain rising high against the sky above our heads.

    Is it done falling down? I asked. Stupid question but something was making me uneasy and I wanted a reason.

    Yup, he said. I thought he sounded less confident than he usually did. But maybe that was because hed turned the volume of his radio down too much. Whether the city was built before the landslide or after it, it was still built of rock different from whats handy. I want some samples. He walked faster.

    When we got to the walls and entered a narrow street I aimed my handheld at the stone slabs beneath my boots. The data streamed back to the computers on the lander. Cellars, I said. At least five levels. I stopped talking and studied the readings more carefully.

    Cory chipped at a nearby wall, breaking off pieces and stowing them in small compartments in the chest of his suit.

    Cory, I said. Lets get back to the lander. Right now.

    Wait. I want to get some more of these.

    Now, Cory!
     
  11. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    Momentarily on line and my fingers are crossed. :(

    Pictures as Andy and Cory start exploring the city.
     
  12. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    I started walking back to the lander without waiting to see if he followed. He did, though. I heard him panting over the radio.

    Andy, hold up there.

    We have to get back to the ship right now. My scans have picked up evidence of life. Its down in the cellars. I do not want to be out here any longer, not until I figure out what those readings mean.

    What exactly do they tell you? He put out his big gloved hand, caught my arm and stopped me.

    Just what I said. I pulled my arm free and kept walking. Something is living in the cellars of that city. I dont know any more than that. Its down too deep to get a size or shape or much of anything else, at least not on this handheld. The computer on the lander may give us an outline. There are a lot of variables. I want to look them over.

    Are you sure about this?

    Yes, Im sure! Something down there is breathing. Respiration. The exchange of gases with the environment. Its alive. Got it?

    I knew what Corys problem was. If the planet was inhabited, then we had lost the bonus for finding a new world for colonists. Thats a big bonus to lose.

    Could be that its only vermin. he said. As in rats.

    Could be.

    I heard Cory sigh unhappily. When we got back to the lander I went immediately to the computer. I tweaked variables as much as I could without going off into the realm of the ridiculous. Then I told Cory the results.

    There are two bodies down there, with a very high probability that they are in some form of hibernation mode. Their mass is about the same as yours or mine, which is a lot bigger than a rat. The planet is not free for colonizing. We have to leave.
     
  13. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    Two little bodies and you want to cross off the planet? Thats crazy. Tell you what I think. The city was a colony and it failed. Maybe their entire civilization failed, which is my guess since none of our scouts have encountered them before. Doesnt matter. They arent native to the planet. It was dead before they got here and now theyve abandoned it. For us thats good -- the planet is the right size, the right distance from the sun, its got water, but not too much of it, an atmosphere we can work with

    ONeill, I didnt write the law.

    Youre not listening to me. I said they were colonists, like us, and they gave it up. Besides, the law is vague and its vague on purpose. It allows us to make a judgment based on factors that couldnt be predicted by a bunch of lawyers whove never been out here.

    There is something wrong with this place! I was on edge or I would never have said anything like that out loud.

    Cory grinned wide. Huh? Is this a carefully analyzed, scientific conclusion based on data picked up by the scans? Or is ithmmlemme seeintuition? Id like to know, Saville. My bonus depends on it.

    Its inhabited, Mister! We found a city and theres someone living in it. Thats based on the scientific data. Were leaving. And thats based on the law. Pack up. Were taking off in I looked at my watch, twelve hours.

    No.

    I leaned into his face, What did you say?

    I said, no. Youve been acting strange ever since that robot took himself apart.

    My command has nothing to do with Arkin. Were leaving.

    He told me he loved you.
     
  14. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    For one split second I was too furious to speak. So I slugged him. He deserved it. He had deserved it for a long time. He staggered back, an expression of complete shock on his face. Then he put a hand to his jaw and carefully moved it back and forth. I opened and closed my fist. It hurt.

    “Feel better?” he said. “Cool off, Andy, and don’t do that again. Let’s think about this. It’s a big bonus. We could retire from this rabbit run for life.”

    “Life in a penitentiary for fraud. Good idea.”

    “That’s not what I’m suggesting. Your scans don’t tell you enough about those two bodies. Before we do something stupid we should go take a look at them. Maybe they’re not hibernating. Maybe they’re dying. Maybe it’s a couple of old polar bears. What kind of scientist are you? Not in the least curious about them? It’s your field, right?”

    “Dying polar bears?”

    He started to laugh, then winced and touched his jaw again. I saw a nice bruise growing on it. He said, “I‘m just wondering what they look like.”

    Manipulative wretch. I knew he was right. The sleepers might not be native to the planet. Life in one form or another is tenacious. Once it starts, it hangs on tight, adapting to the most extreme conditions, hot, cold, wet or dry. Down here on the surface of this cold world I hadn’t been able to detect any other evidence of life other than those two buried under the city. If they were native, there’d have been a whole lot more of them, and a million other species as well.

    I took a deep breath. “Twenty-four hours, then. But right now I want you to look at those scrapings and samples you took off the city walls. And I hope you took all precautions because I want to see if there’s home-grown bacteria. If any of that animal life looks like it was born in your nose…”

    “I know what I’m doing, Saville.” He held out his hand, palm up, displaying a small metal cube. “See this? Sealed clean. All of them.”
     
  15. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    We subjected those rock samples to every test I had available on the lander. I wanted to find bacteria, or anything that could have been left behind by bacteria. There was nothing.

    I pulled away from the microscope eyepiece and looked at Cory. It hardly seemed possible that the man could look worse than usual, but he did. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was streaked with sweat and grime. I insist on keeping the lander clean, and the air filters do a reasonably good job of keeping the dust down, so how he got so dirty I cannot figure and don’t want to know.

    He said, “Nothing, right?”

    “It’s not possible. Someone lived in that city, several thousand someones. Whether native or alien they’d have been surrounded by bacteria and it should be here, or at least traces of it.”

    “That’s the trouble with education. It limits your imagination.”

    “Excuse me?”

    “You’re locked in to what a handful of old farts told you, which was their limited view of the universe. Anything’s possible out here. Anything.” He grinned his big gap-toothed grin, “Including you and me getting friendly.”

    “The universe will end first.”

    “Now that ain’t friendly.” He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his coveralls but he was still grinning. “It’ll be light in a couple of hours so we should get some sleep while we can. Then we’ll go take a look at the polar bears.”

    “I get the shower first tonight.”

    He shrugged, “I’ll put things away in here. Everything lined up perfect, labels forward, etc., etc. All as if Andy Rose had done the job herself.”

    I ignored his sarcasm and went off to the shower, then to my cot. I heard him go into the shower. The metal bulkhead was thin and it magnified the sound of the water drumming against it. I thought about how dirty he’d leave the shower, even worse than usual, and I’d have to remind him to clean it before I could stand putting my bare feet in there again. Listening to the water running, I found myself picturing him in the shower, scrubbing away the grime from his arms, chest and legs, raising his face, eyes closed, to the hot stream.

    I rolled over on the cot, fighting the images and the feelings. I hit my pillow with my sore fist and then buried my face in it. But not far enough to stop the odor of soap that trailed Cory when he passed my cot to get to his.
     
  16. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    OK, that's all I got for now. The situation is outlined. :eek: :D

    Should I write some more? :p
     
  17. surprised_by_witches

    surprised_by_witches Sleep deprived

    Duh. What do you think?

    I don't usually like space exploration stories, and I'm hooked. As always, your characters are intriguing, funny and real.

    Nooooo, don't write. Keep us hanging in suspense FOREVER. :D :rolleyes: (That's sarcasm, in case you missed it.)

    I'm thinking a lot could grow in Cory's nose. It's quite a nose. But he's growing on me. And not like a fungus. :p
     
  18. Lynet

    Lynet New Member

    I introduced space explorers, Andy and Cory, as a way to get to the story about this isolated, snowbound place. Oh, well, I guess I should just write it and not give the plot away. :eek: I wrote the story a long time ago and I'm trying to adapt it to a sim world, figuring it out (and changing some things) as I go along. Andy and Cory aren't leaving, though. I like them too much.

    And I can't stop myself from writing. :rolleyes:
     
  19. person123

    person123 Frumpy McDoogle!

    I like how all your characters look unique. No miraculously beautiful ladies. Andy is pretty in her own way. :)
     
  20. jupitershana

    jupitershana Kitty Fanatic!


    And we don't want you too! I love reading your stories Lynet. You should come out with a book of short stories if you aren't planning on writing a novel. I'd buy it!
     

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