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

ah...referencing the fight on the rooftop in cairo...



X appeared behind Arthur.

Arthur turns to X "My partner's with me - my offer has now *officially* expired.

Sreak thought for a moment: "The one you gave me in Cairo?"

I'm flattered you remember.

Sreak steps forward holding onto the rail so as not to fall. "As I recall the last time you set me an ultimatum I executed your lady friend - like this: "click" he smiles.

Yeah about that..... etc...

damnit - go to sleep brain, I'm tired.


Daltmooreby should knock out Grobsvaugn and hijack the shuttle (obviously no-one the cult knos what Daltmooreby is doing.)

When Arthur triumphs and the laser is destroyed the shuttle and Grobsvaughn explode too.

Then, because we've this whole divinity thing running through this, and miroring the sequence with Gonzaroolio and Pan in ST2 - we can have a sequence were the soft-centred, spiritual Grobsvaughn has his soul weighed aginst a feather by Thoth before being admitted to whatever The ancient Egyptians considered paradise.

I'll need to do some reseacrh for that one but I'm marking it down and filing away in the folder marked 'good ideas for later'


The things I think of when I'm brushing my teeth to go to bed. sheesh.

Ah, it's showers does that to me - gets the ideas flowing, like. I've only been hesitant taking this up because I'm hazy on the status of all the relationships, who is betraying who, who is allied to who, etc. Reading that elucidated things a bit, though I'm sure it would help if you could get the ball rolling so I know where I stand.

Another thought on the whole shuttle thing - if you read back over the scene where the bad guys arrive at the Inner Temple (or whatever we called it) there were workmen attaching mysterious technology and steel-plating the walls, and the tour guide guy mysteriously mentioned that it soon wouldn't be the oldest religious building *on earth*. I was setting up the fact that they were transforming the temple - the core of the entire base - into a space station which would blast off with the Cult's elders on board. My image was of something like the temple facade at Petra (the one they used at the end of Last Crusade) but tubular, a mile long and orbiting the earth. If you want to retcon that in favour of the shuttle it's understandable, but if there's still some way of working it in, 'twould be nifty.

Did I ever mention to you the St Patrick short film I wrote? The editors released a half-finished scene to us the other day. Here's a wee preview for Paddy's Day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhH-8-zz00

The dim voice you can hear in the background telling Patrick not to be such a pu$$y is me, as the voice of God. Later they're going to re-record me and fiddle with my voice to make me sound even more Godlike than I usually do.

removed?


What the hell?

Is someone not a fan?

I've no idea - they didn't leave their name or number.

hey look Terran - while you're here - read 1520 and let me know what you think please.

Bah! That was me - probably removed because I linked to a YouTube video. How stringent are they these days? Anyway...

Yes. I just haven't jumped back into this because I'm a little hazy on the status of everybody's relationships/alliances/betrayals, but your post clarified a lot of that Clive. If you kick things off so we all know where we are, I'd be able to pick it up.

Other thing was about the shuttle/temple. If you read back to when the bad guys first appear at the Inner Temple (or whatever we called it) there were workmen renovating it, attaching metal bits and wiring, and the tour guide hints that soon it won't be the oldest religious structure *on earth* - I was setting up the revelation that the Temple itself has been retrofitted as a rocket powered by volcanic energy, so that the Cult elders could blast off and watch the flooding of earth. My image was the temple at Petra (used at the end of Last Crusade) but tubular, a mile long, orbiting the earth and firing a laser from the pointy end. Little sexier than a shuttle, do we think? If you want to retcon that out, sure, but if it could still be fitted in 'twould be nifty.

The video I linked to was a bit of work I did that's starting to bear fruit - don't know if I mentioned a St Patrick short film I wrote, but the editors have released a half-finished scene to us, where Patrick is pleading for his life with barbarians and the Lord His God is offering some unsavoury tips on how to appeal to them. Hit YouTube and search for 'David Symington' (the producer), it should come up. In the finished product, I'll be the voice of God. Couldn't think of anyone more qualified.

This better not get spiked, swear to God. Firefox crashed the second time I tried to post. It's a vast left-wing conspiracy, I tell you.

Blocking youtube are they - rather odd.

I can certainly do that.

Regarding the rocket - well I don't see any need to retcon out what was written before - I noticed at the time the sense that work in the inner temple was supposed to be a reveal for something but wasn't sure what. I don't think it matters much to be hoenst - it still works.

I took it in the end to be something rather simpler: maintenance work. The funny business of trying to run a colony of thousands inside an active volcano in one of the planet's most inhospitable climates and who want cable movies and broadband as for the reference to 'on Earth', well I suppose I just figured he meant - once we've flooded the rest of it.

Like I said, I don't see a need to retcon that part out - I would point out however, that for a bunch of agorophobic cultists (of whom Annabell, Mary and Von Trapp are notable exceptions Grobsvaughn and Sfret being more typical) - the idea of watching the flooding from space might be a hard sell not to mention a mite problematic regarding how they'd get back inside once the sea levels rose. I always liked the idea, however that Sfret's 'machines' (from his very first introduction) could be a space rocket.

I remember wanting a space sequence in the vein of Moonraker ever since we conceived of ST3 - I really wanted that to mark this story out as the one about the spies, rather than the heavy theological and mythology of ST2. In fact of course the two things have converged rather nicely - but I confess I'd always pictured it as a space shuttle to punctuate the end of Arthur and X's adventure.

I've abandonned the idea in my own head of having a pre-constructed weapons platform waiting for the shuttle to dock to - but had imagined the shuttle would carry the laser on a crane arm stored in the hold.

Prefiguring the fight with Arthur, Daltmooreby has to have a space-walk to the laser suspended above the rocket on the crane arm to insert the Turqoise Moon in the front - that's when Arthur appears to stop him. Then that wonderful fight in graceful slow mo you invented and the errant laser that nearly fries Bob.

Legion, if you are reading the backlog to get a sense of what's happened so far, can I suggest you read the chapterised versions I've been editing for rather than this forum?

Obviously any tweaks I've made are there so the proper balance of the story in it's entirety is there rather than here.

The chapter archive is to be found here: A13303991

I'm having a go at writing the dialogue that passes between Sreka and Daltmooreby that sets up Daltmoore's treachery later on. I'll post it here when I'm done.

I'm trying to catch the sense of uneasy truce between them: deep distrust but one that is momentarily suspended because of their common mission. A mission that Daltmooreby has every intention of reneging on his part. So to serve that end, I've tried to establish him as the intellectual dominant one of the pair in this conversation, so that when he offers his forgiveness to Sreka, Sreka has no option but to accept it - and it sets up Daltmooreby's reverse in the next chapter.

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


Sreka and Daltmooreby travelled down the corridors towards the launch pad in stony cold silence. Finally the unspoken tension between them broke.

"She was pissed." Daltmooreby observed casually.

"I know. I let her down." Sreka's head, hung uncharacteristically low.

"Obviously."

"That was some slap." Daltmooreby continued ignoring Sreka obvious agitation.

"Speak to me of this no more - I am helpless around women."

"Aren't we all?" Daltmooreby said with a sly smile, adding, "What exactly did you do to deserve that, if you don't mind my asking?"

"After I killed Vandeveer, she wanted to guard the gate personally."

"Which you didn't...or couldn't" Daltmooreby sounded sharply critical.

"I didn't get there in time. It was those damn agents! How did they get out of the tunnel?"

"Hmmph! It's a miracle any of us survived." Daltmooreby responded coolly.

"I owed you nothing" Sreak spat. "I still don't." "and that was all Vandeveer. I should have stayed with you and Mary to watch those Agents and the others burn."

"Well we can;t turn back time can we?" At least we share a common loathing of Arthur Robinson."

"I know we do" Sreka said without thinking.

Daltmooreby slowed as he considered this odd remark to his incautious needling. Suddenly the reasoned dawned on him:

"You needed my help!" Daltmooreby gloated to Sreka's obvious discomfort. "That's why you approached me after I came up with Von Trapp from the tunnels. You already knew they were inside!" he took a sharp breath ...ooooh but you hadn't told *her* - had you?"

"No."

"Ha ha. and to think, I was prepared to kill you right there and then."

"You would not have succeeded." Sreka muttered darkly.

"Perhaps not," Daltmooreby sniffed, "It's not really important."

If you still think you cna beat me old man then we should settle our dispute right now." Sreka said.

"What's to settle? We're even. You helped me humble Robinson and for that I thank you. No, my good Cossack - all is forgiven. We have other things to focus on now." and he patted the shoulder pouch under his arm.

"someone's coming." Sreka said, looking up.

(It's Grobsvaughn)

Thats looking great Clive The only thing I could maybe think might change would be "I should have stayed with you and Mary to watch those Agents and the others burn"... just because it does seem very erm... odd after he'd shot him... unless its all part of the deception, in which case it fits, it just read a little odd... but looking good

did he shoot him? I'll have to go back and check - I meant it to establish a point of regret which Daltmooreby could reject, ignore, mock etc. - but thanks for pointing that out to me.

Actually I think it was Daltmoorby that shot Sreka... but it just seemed odd... depending on the current state of edits...

Summary of alliances and betrayals:

---------------
Daltmooreby - chosen by Annabell to take the Turquoise Moon into space. He is accompanied by Sreka. Daltmooreby is about to start his reveal as the descendent of the agent Ozymandias - committed to destroying the cult with their own weapon (starting with abandoning Sreka on the launch scaffold and hijacking the shuttle) but his grief will still bring him into conflict with Arthur when he resolves to destroy The Agency with the self-same device.

----------------
Ody and Jamila - are on the run inside Alpha Complex, having decided that hanging with Arthur and X is too dangerous. Ody also is running from becoming his father by choosing not to face Arthur because he thinks he will kill him, which is what his father wants.

When they find a way out I imagine Sreka to follow them (so this has to take place after his defeat at the hands of Arthur and X.) I had imagined that there is a train line from Antarctica to the Library of Congress in Washington. Picture it: a small crash underground (can't find the brakes) - all the books come off the shelves, smoke rises from a secret doorway - Ody and Jamila emerge covered in sooty dust.

Sreka slinks off unnoticed amid the chaos.

---------------
Anabell - thinks things are going according to plan. Starting with Sreka fighting Arthur and X on board the gantry platform and disrupting her speech - she is about to be proven very wrong when Daltmooreby betrays the Cult

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

Arthur - psychologically very timorous. As time has worn on since Anna's 'death' at the hands of Sreka (remember she is actually alive and well) and the numerous reversals of fortune that Arthur has suffered, he is on the verge of convincing himself that his worth is nil and he doesn't deserve to live. Only X is giving him him the life-support he needs to keep going.

X now becomes much more important - because he is aware that he is propping Arthur up - it will be he who sees the threat to Arthur if he continues in the Agency, espcially as X suspects Ody is serious in wanting to kill him to exact reveneg for Yelena Daltmooreby after The Berlin Mission.

All of this is so it is X, who, when Anna turns up to Arthur's mortified delight, conceives of the plot to declare Arthur 'dead' so that Arthur and Anna can have a life together alone. It's a theme I introduced thematically back in Cairo when the pair appeared in the warehouse with Feizal, when I described Arthur as stood in the light and hearing the bustle of the street outside (signifying a normal life) and X stood in the shadows, apparently disinterested.

Hmm well I can fix that.

oh so er...when I get around to writing Arthur confronting Sreka on the gantry, I must make a point of having Sreka taunt him "all alone again just you and I - how very familiar" and then have X say something like "I'm here Arthur" to precipitate Arthur's renewed confidence in confronting Sreka.

A13753811 - Daltmooreby had a gun, Vandeveer shot it out of his hand before he could use it. All the other violence is physical - mainly Sreka taking a pipe to Von Trapp and finally throwing him and Daltmooreby off the back of the train.

And I was worried you were just talking to yourself, Clive.

HPB