h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Anyway I've got nowt to do this evening so i could maybe expend some mental energy thinking about this current chapter... lemmesee...

a-ha...hmmm yes...I seem to have 'accidentally' boarded a transatlantic flight and spent several weeks in America.

I'll try and get the rest of this chapter done soon.

Decided I'd try and write more of Ody and Jamila's journey to sub-station digamma. finger to keyboard after dinner....

"I've got nothing better to do... I think I'll leave the country!" *sound of footsteps, door slam, car door, engine, car door, roar of plane*

I did have ideas I got 'em in a notepad file - still working on them.

Here's an idea....Von Trapp dies in time with the shuttle lifting off....

the flat-lining of a heart monitor coinciding with the last moments of countdown to liftoff...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Dead

Hmm an idea gather pace....Von Trapp and Grobsvaughn are both judged by Thoth and Anubis and each has to recite the 'declaration of innocence' one of course cannot so we see Hell for Von Trapp, but Grobsvaughn who has done no harm is admitted to the Egyptian paradise.

copy>paste - but gives me ideas.

I like this idea of a hall of two-truths.... I think I can use that.

This text comes from the 'Book of Going Forth By Day' commonly called the 'Book of the Dead'. This declaration of innocence had to be said by the deceased in the Hall of Two Truths, in order to be purified and to be allowed rebirth.


O Wide-of-stride who comes from On:
I have not done evil.
O Flame-grasper who comes from Kheraha:
I have not robbed.
O Long-nosed who comes from Khmun:
I have not coveted.
O Shadow-eater who comes from the cave:
I have not stolen.
O Savage-faced who comes from Rostau:
I have not killed people.
O Lion-Twins who come from heaven:
I have not trimmed the measure.
O Flint-eyed who comes from Khem:
I have not cheated.
O Fiery-one who comes backward:
I have not stolen a god´s property.
O Bone-smasher who comes from Hnes:
I have not told lies.
O Flame-thrower who comes from Memphis:
I have not seized food.
O Cave-dweller who comes from the west:
I have not sulked.
O White-toothed who comes from Lakeland:
I have not slain sacred cattle.
O Entrail-eater who comes from slaughterplace:
I have not extorted.
O Lord of Maat who comes from Maaty:
I have not stolen bread rations.
O Wanderer who comes from Bubastis:
I have not spied.
O Pale-one who comes from On:
I have not prattled.
O Villain who comes from Andjty:
I have contended only for my goods.
O Fiend who comes from slaughterhouse:
I have not committed adultery.
O Examiner who comes from Min´s temple:
I have not defiled myself.
O Chief of the nobles who comes from Imu:
I have not caused fear.
O Wrecker who comes from Huy:
I have not trespassed.
O Disturber who comes from the sanctuary:
I have not been violent.
O Child who comes from the nome of On:
I have not been deaf to Maat.
O Foreteller who comes from Wensi:
I have not quarreled.
O Bast who comes from the shrine:
I have not winked.
O Backward-faced who comes from the pit:
I have not copulated with a boy.
O Flame-footed who comes from the dusk:
I have not been false.
O Dark-one who comes from the dusk:
I have not reviled.
O Peace-bringer who comes from Sais:
I have not been aggressive.
O Many-faced who comes from Djefet:
I have not had a hasty heart.
O Accuser who comes from Utjen:
I have not attacked and reviled a god.
O Horned-one who comes from Siut:
I have not made many words.
O Nefertem who comes from Memphis:
I have not sinned, I have not done wrong.
O Timeless-one who comes from Djedu:
I have not made trouble.
O Willful-one who comes from Tjebu:
I have not [waded] in water.
O Flowing-one who comes from Nun:
I have not raised my voice.
O Commander of people who comes from his shrine:
I have not cursed a god.
O Benefactor who comes from Huy:
I have not been boastful.
O Nehebkau who comes from the city:
I have not been haughty.
O High-of-head who comes from the cave:
I have not wanted more than I had.
O Captor who comes from the graveyard:
I have not cursed god in my town.


This is the way to act toward the Hall of the Two Truths. A man says this speech when he is pure, clean, dressed in fresh clothes, shod in white sandals, painted with eye-paint, anointed with the finest oil of myrrh. One shall offer to him beef, fowl, incense, bread, beer, and herbs. And you make this image in drawing on a clean surface in [red paint] mixed with soil on which pigs and goats have not trodden. He for whom this scroll is recited will prosper, and his children will prosper. He will be the friend of the king and his courtiers. He will receive bread, beer, and a big chunk of meat from the altar of the great god. He will not be held back at any gate of the west. He will be ushered in with the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. He will be a follower of Osiris.
Effective a million times.

http://www.philae.nu/akhet/Declaration.html

Hmmm I know this is going to be a bit out of sequence but I'm going to go ahead and try and write this. I've already mapped out the Arthur/Sreka confrontation but not written it. I think I'll be best served getting these ideas down into some written form so I can tinker with them later....

Frame by frame, a bulb flashes on, a bulb flashes off. This process is repeated in a fraction of a second and so the numeral on the display resolves itself towards zero.

-----------------------------

Close by, a point rises erratically on a monitor, it is pale green and osscilates leaving behind a fading contrail of a moment of life expiring. Each moment to the next; rising and falling; being born and dying.

Freidrich Von Trapp was dying.

The line rose as breath filled his one functioning lung and his heart convulsed once more, and then dipped again.

Von Trapp breath was strained and hoarse.

His eyes roamed about the room unseeing...

Misty figures hovered over him.
------------------------

In the network of computers, a circuit awaits a current. A flow of electrons is already heading down the wire like the rush of adrenaline to the heart or a run-away train about smash into the sidings - but it hasn't reached here yet an interchange at the heart of a super-computer. Seconds can be divided into micro seconds and further still, until time no longer seemed to exist, the inert conducting metal waits anticipating nothing.

Then a surge of energy courses through it, the trap is closed, the message sent.

Ignition was underway.

---------------

A light blooms underneath the rockets boosters, followed by a shimmering haze of intense heat and then fire. A roaring gushing flame that becomes fiercly focussed making the entire shuttle and scaffold shake violently.

Gravity is about to be defeated, forces are growing in intensity. The Planet's grip on this tiny metal frame is about to be loosened.

-----------------------

"B.P's dropping" a voice called out.

Pulse is erratic."

The line dipped one last time, Von Trapp exhaled, his eyes already paler, and then the line moved no more amidst the monotonal wailing of various instruments.

"Time?" someone asked.

But Von Trapp had none left.
---------------

The shuttle hovered for an instant of equillibrium as gravity fought and then finally accepted defeat and then slowly, imperceptably and then faster and more visably the rocket began to lift off. Leaving the Earth behind and carrying Von Trapp's soul with it.

Smoke blossmed out from the launch pad and the noise echoed in an ear-drum shredding boom around the ancient rock walls.

Driven upward on collums of flame, the rocket rose upward toward the open dome of Mount Terror.

The crowds went nuts.

The Timer stood idle on a rocky outcrop - the display was no longer lit.

-------------------


The Rocket exited the volcano's crater rim and was immediately rocked by the gale of the blizzard outside.

Cape Canaveral would have been horriffied.

Housten would have had an embolism.

but The Cult were ambitious and nothing ventured.....

Above the rocket, the aurora australis were in full bloom, a green shimmering fog that hung in the sky sretched across the horizon and sky like ribbons.

The had long since sunk below the horizon.
From a distance the rocket was a brilliant, rising star that was arcing ever upwards in sweeping curve.

A cluster of snowy penguins raised their heads against the bitter wind to watch it's flight something vestigal perhaps taking note in the avian brain, perhaps not.

----------------------

A franatic beeping interrupted an otherwise normal hubub in an office.

Not a normal office, however. There were lots of uniforms milling around, pips and shoulder badges rubbed shoulders so to speak.

The hubub squeaked into an eerie, stunned silence, someone dropped a coffe-mug.

"What is that?"

"er....um..it's the old missile tracking station." a chair was wheeled closer, headphones placed over ears. a radar screen was follwing a blob across the sky.

"Have the soviets launched?" a panic crept into the voice.

"checking..." the figure pressed the headset to their ears

"No...not the soviets"

"Thank God."

"That's strange."

"What? What is it?"

The Blob had vanished.

"Something just left the Earth's atmosphere ...last known co-ordinates....it...came from the South Pole....sir."

A red telephone leapt into life. Everyone jumped.

A senior figure possessing a Sam Browne stripe and a bushy white moustache, approached the desk.

The General took it off the cradle. "Yes?" he spoke into the receiver.

"General - this is The Agency" said Guy, "We are monitoring it too. How swiftly can the general staff be assembled?"

"Were you running an operation at The South pole?" the general asked.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it, I'll debrief to GS in 20 minutes."

Guy rung off.

The General looked at his staff - and they looked back at him, questioning, afraid.

Clearly something important had just happened - and it had taken the world completly by surprise.

Von Trapp was standing in a void. In extended before him and away from him, above and below.

"Where am I?" he called out an flapped his medical gown experimentally. Wearing so little he expected to be cold but he was not. There was more. He had expected his voice to echo, the cacophonous repetition, so it came as something of a shock to him when it did not. Rather his voice was swallowed up by the emptiness of what surrounded him.

He was afraid now , it had been a long time since he last felt that, usually he was on the other end of terror. He reflected on this thought, the memory of power and dominion, a slow smile crept to his lips.

But where had it gone? Where was he? The memory faded.

"Where am I?" Von Trapp raised his voice and called out into the darkness.

This time something called back.

YOU RAISE YOUR VOICE TO ME?

The voice was loud, and yet not, it filled the space but was not deafening it simply WAS.

This was some sort of test. Well Von Trapp had survived enough of those and always triumphed.

"I've lived...a good life," he prompted

YOU LIE

WHAT IS YOUR NAME, SOUL?

Von Trapp...Rolfe..Von Trapp.

YOUR DESTINY IS YOUR OWN AND NO OTHERS. NOW, DECLARE YOUR INNOCENCE.

From the depths of is childhood on the run with the nanny, Von Trapp remembered her funny litle rituals where he'd first learnt about the Gods of old. There was a catechism, a ritual...now what was it? He'd studied it in temple, but he'd been good at what he did, out in the world away from the cult...bad habits had crept in, the certainty of youth faded.

"I..um... have not robbed, nor coveted items to steal." he started and faltered. The rest was indistinct and hazy.

AND OF OTHERS - HOW DO OTHERS JUDGE YOU?

Von Trapp reflected proudly on a criminal career of extortion and blackmail, of the worst kinds of malign intent and even murder.

"Carefully - if they know what good for them."

HAVE YOU SINNED?

"No, I've led a good life." lying was a habit that was hard to break even now.

WE CAN SEE YOUR LIFE - IT LIES BEHIND YOU - YOUR FUTURE IS TO BE WEIGHTED.

Do your worst I'm not believer

AND DO YOU WORSHIP NO GODS BEFORE US?

"Us?" who is us?" Von Trapp called back. Show yourself to me. I demand it!

The Darkness looked back at Von Trapp - and he realised that he was not staring at an infinite blackness but rather something that was black and very large.

Before him rose up a jackal head it had been bowed before, and now it was filling the space, his reflection was a mote in but one of it's jewel-set eyes, burning rubies, blazing stones of judgment.

I AM ANUBIS.

Von Trapp was awe-struck.

THIS IS THE HALL OF TWO TRUTHS.

AND YOU WILL ANSWER FOR YOU LIFE.

Von Trapp could see illuminated in a shaft of golden light behind the jackal head was a mirage of colour that took on the the form of a set of golden scales.

The God Anubis reached into Von Trapp and plucked out his heart.

Von Trapp watched in mute horror as the fleshy congealed organ was lifted and carried to the scales by the talon of Anubis.

There was no pain, the Jackal had simply removed it from his chest.

On one side, lay the feather of Maat, Anubis held Von Trapp's heart above the scale, overseen by a figure with an Ibis head and surrounded by the glow of the moon.

The moon figure said....you LIFE IS WEIGHED AND FOUND TO BE

Anubis placed Von Trapp's Heart onto the scales which almost immediately upended as thought carrying lead cannonballs.

WANTING. Anubis replied. TRIBUNAL - YOUR VERDICT ON THIS ONE?

Von Trapp looked up and saw high above the figure of Anubis a semi-circle of 42 pairs of eyes, orange and fearsome open like slits and all of them gazed into the depths of his existence.

OBLIVION was the unanimous reply.

And then he was alone....alone in the void...shrunken, hollow, empty and alone.... until the weight of the void consumed him and Friedrich Von Trapp was no more.

flying back home today when I'm no longer jetlagged I'll see if I can finish this chapter.

We seem to be on the front page today.

REALLY?

Cool.

Right time to get back on the wagon as it were...now where's my gynntonix - I fear finishing this story shall drive me to drink!

quick idea before dinner:

I said somehwere in the backlog of this thread that Anna's phone call to the agency was picked up by Mustapha (in the Egyptian Family Bistro) - maybe when Arthur and X crash on the island, she is in the copter and Mustapha is the pilot?

Regarding Arthur's retiremnt, perhaps X doen't have to just "shh" a nobody but the genile face of the agency cover-shop.

It /could/ help Tim/Leicester get into the Agency.

Closed due to family bereavement.


Hmm tiiiiim letuss see whatsss insside yesss?


Right you are boss.

*smash*

Ideas are percolating once more but exam week looms ominously....

I'm going to think some more about how to write Daltmooreby's betrayl of Sreka - and then hopefully all these dissparate and dispersed elements cna be brought togetehr in one chapter.

Then we are in space - the final reveal, the fight and...*gulp* .... the end?