I have been working on a new story that I have been writing in my head for at least twenty years. The novel was originally untitled. But I started working on it by calling it the Forever Boy. But that made it sound like a super-hero sort of comic-book story. So, I adjusted the title to The Boy… Forever.
I had the idea for a cover when I turned the villain’s primary hench-person into a character formerly used in a Dungeons and Dragons game.
Her name is Firefang, but as she enrolls in the Belle City High School freshman class, she is known as Fiona Long, whose name the gang shortens to Fi. The reason for the name change is that Fi is actually a red Chinese dragon disguised in a human form, a teenage girl.
Her stepfather is secretly a thousands-of-years-old Chinese Celestial Dragon disguised in human form. His name is Tian Long. And in order to stay alive for another twenty years, he must consume the essence of an immortal human being. That immortal happens to be Anita Jones’s young cousin Icarus who became immortal at the age of ten.
So, I tried putting those last two images together to make a cover. As you can plainly see, that didn’t work very well. The dragon seems to be coming out of Fi’s hair like a giant cootie. So. I tried to make it more of a collage.
That was still not good enough. So, I tried even harder to make it look like a collage.
I added the main character, Icarus Jones, and some color contrasts.
To me, that’s better. You are welcome to criticize. It will still be a while before the story is done. I may still change it more. But I am basically satisfied… not Forever… but for now.
When Tron sent a
message to Frieda’s Starbase at Don’t Go Here, he requested Ged himself
come to Outpost for little Artran.
Frieda, however, knew that Ged was at Gaijin with Xavier
Tkriashav. She sent a courier in a brand-new
Express Boat to Gaijin. It was
listed for Tkriashav or Ged Aero only, but somehow it got delivered to Vince
Neill aboard the Megadeath.
Scarpigo Snarcs
wore an X-boat officer’s uniform as he gave the message to Vince.
“All right,
dude! I’ve heard of this kid-dude. It’d be an honor to serve Ged-dude and the
pirate-dude at the same time. We leave
immediately!”
“Thank you,” said
Scarpigo in his guise as Bill the Postman.
“I will just be hitching a ride.”
“Wha…?” said
Cold Death, his bright green Mohawk shaking in confusion.
“ME RIDE WITH
YOU!” said Scarpigo in that extra loud way you normally talk to stupid people,
as if they were deaf rather than merely mentally impaired.
“Okay, Bill,”
said Vince. “You can ride if you try to
be just a bit quieter. That gnarly voice
of yours can surely give me a headache.”
Nikki Sixx looked
over the coordinates to Outpost, tried to figure out the navigational
logarithms in his head, and then gave up; inserting the computer crystal with
the jump program that Bill the Postman supplied him with into the ship’s
navigational computer. The Megadeath
roared musically to life.
Now, travel
between the stars is a miracle of physics and mathematics that only takes place
in certain narrow corridors of gravity and space. A space ship creates a field around itself
that alters the fabric of space nearby. Space
will actually fold itself around the matter the star ship is made of. It appears to disintegrate in one place, and,
after a period in which the space-time continuum percolates around it, reforms
itself in the new location. The location
could be anywhere within a range of six parsecs, even empty space. But spacers only found it useful to travel
from star system to star system. Fuel
would eventually be necessary and none was available in empty parsecs of space.
Twenty-seven
hours after they had taken flight from Don’t Go Here, the Megadeath
arrived at Outpost. Immediately
they were surrounded by Pinwheel Corsairs.
“Alien ship of
unknown design!” called the nearest corsair, “state your business here.”
“Yo, Dude!”
warbled Vince Neill from behind his mirrored shades. “We come on a mission of mercy from Ged
Aero. We come to pick up little dude
Artran and take him to Gaijin.”
“We don’t
recognize you and we don’t know any Gaijin. Prepare to be atomized.”
“Whoa, not cool!”
said Neill into the communicator. He
immediately threw the Megadeath into maneuvers that the corsairs had
never seen attempted, let alone being able to catch up with them. The highly efficient ship made with Ancient
technology danced out of reach of all Pinwheel weaponry.
“Is this an attack?”
rasped Tron’s voice over the communicators.
“No, Dude. I just don’t want my biscuits fried by you!”
“Stop, then, and
prepare to be boarded,” said Tron.
“Whatever you
say, Dude.”
Despite everything
that was sensible, the Megadeath and her Rock-and-Roll crew had fallen
into the hands of a desperate pirate who faced total annihilation at the hands
of the Galtorrian Imperial Fleet.
The planet Hyde
Park was different than most planets in the Thousand Worlds of the Galtorr
Imperium. Where most life in the Orion
Spur was made up of carbon-based life-forms, Hyde Park was rife with
silicon-based life-forms.
Instead of
forests of trees or plants, the countryside was overgrown with gardens of
living crystal, quartz, and harmonic stone.
The wildlife was made up of electro-energy creatures with crystallized
bodies, or even no bodies at all. The
amorphous stone men of Hyde Park communicated with no one but each
other, taking whatever shape struck their weird fancy. They could constitute and dissolve themselves
with the speed of thought.
Nert Cooblegooble
felt ridiculous in his red-and-white-striped pajamas. His blond hair was tied up in random pony
tails, and red freckles had been added to his face with a paintbrush. He stood next to a table advertising
fish-skin socks for sale.
“Stop fidgeting,
Nert!” said Mr. Crushcracker, waving his fat, smelly cigar. “You have to look business-like to sell these
things to tourists.”
“Why do we have
to play these silly pretend games?” complained Nert Cooblegooble, secretly
Arkin Cloudstalker. He looked dubiously
over at Madame Prong, who was obviously an ugly man in drag wearing a tight
blue dress over an overstuffed body and wearing gobs of makeup on his… er,
her eyes and cheeks.
“We calls ‘em as
we sees ‘em,” said Phineas Crushcracker, secretly Scarpigo Snarcs. “These rubes and yokels are used to seein’ us
like this. These secret identities are
critical to our roles as agents of the Thin White Duke. Now be quiet, or I’ll buy a supper club and
beat you over the head with it.”
Madame Prong,
secretly Zero Snarcs, put a swollen white finger to her badly painted red lips
and pantomimed shushing Mr. Crushcracker for saying the TWD-word out loud where
any stone could hear.
“There are no
humans about anywhere!” moaned Nert.
“Why the need for secrecy?”
“The rocks have
ears,” said Mr. Crushcracker.
“What is that
supposed to mean?”
In answer to Arkin’s
question, a man walked up to the fish-sock table. He was not like any other man either Arkin
Cloudstalker or Nert Cooblegooble had ever seen. He was made entirely of stone, a living
statue looking out apparently through carved stone eyes. He was an eerie, zombie-like figure that
moved and talked without expression, always a degree or two off of what would
be natural for a human man.
“Well, well!”
gushed Mr. Crushcracker. “So nice to see
you again, Mr. Lazerstone! How have you
been? How’s the missus and all the
little pebbles?”
The cold stone
voice that came from the hollows inside Lazerstone chilled Arkin to the bone
with dread.
“I don’t pretend
to understand your need for charades, Snarcs.
I do understand the position of the White Duke. I am ready to render aid. I can do far more than even Duke Keyser
himself realizes. Don’t mock me. I get tired of the human need to maintain personal
fictions.”
“Have you met
Nert Cooblegooble?”
“You know that
this man is different from the last human who you introduced as Mr.
Cooblegooble. Don’t play games with me
again.”
“Oh, you take all
the fun out the whole spy thing! This is
the Pirate King, Arkin Cloudstalker.”
“Yes. A noble reputation among those who travel
through the Hyde Park starport. I
believe you use the Knights as a privateer band working to liberate the people
of the Galtorr Imperium, do you not?”
“I do. I like your directness.”
“We are many, Mr.
Cloudstalker, but we are one.”
“Wait, I don’t
understand again. Is this a riddle?”
“No. It is merely a factor in the differences
between your kind and mine.”
“I don’t
understand.”
“Of course, you
don’t. You are like these
ephemerals. You do not have the Wisdom
of the Stones.”
“Oh!” interjected
Mr. Crushcracker, “You mean like, I can’t get no… satisfaction!?”
“Shut up,
Snarcs.” Lazerstone turned cold,
sightless eyes on Phineas Crushcracker.
“This meeting is important.”
“Help me
understand,” pleaded Arkin.
“Very well. The crystals of this planet are all
alive. They are all capable of
thought. In fact, they all share one
vast consciousness. We, the Lazerstone,
are capable of understanding everything about your kind and what they are doing
in our shared galaxy. We have seen the
unnatural evil and crimes of your Galtorr Imperium. We understand the need to put an end to
that. We also realize that only men like
you, Ged Aero, and the White Duke are capable of making your kind turn away
from violent animal ignorance and start harmonizing with the galactic symphony
of life.”
“That is all very
poetic,” said Arkin, still not fully comprehending, “but how are you going to
help us?”
“I will fight for
you. Soon you will see how important
that is for your future Empire.”
“My Empire?”
“Your Democracy
if you prefer.”
“Yes, that would
be better.” Arkin tried to use mental
x-rays to pierce the colorful stone of that impassive face. “Can you see me through those stone eyes of
yours?”
“He can see
through you, Nert,” said Scarpigo Snarcs.
“He’s an all-powerful monster from outer space. Booga-booga!
He can even tell what color underwear you have on.”
The humorless
stone face turned towards Snarcs.
“At least I have
enough respect for his underwear that I don’t feel the need to reveal what it
looks like. Not like the silk shorts with
printed pink bunnies on them that you have on.”
Snarcs turned
stone white. “How did you know about
those?”
“Lazer-vision,
funny boy. I see by using my perceptions
of relative density and wave-lengths of gravitons. Don’t cross me, or I might eat you in the
night!”
Phineas Crushcracker and Scarpigo Snarcs both cringed. Madame Prong held a rubber chicken in her hand with less than the usual gusto.
“By the way,” added Lazerstone, “Booga-booga! Scarpigo Snarcs!”
I have now re-written about sixty percent of the old novel AeroQuest. I published AeroQuest 1 : Stars and Stones in September. AeroQuest 2 : Planet of the White Spider was published yesterday in October. AeroQuest 3 : Juggling Planets will probably take longer than either of the other two. The story has to be elongated. The growing rebellion of the pirates and smugglers trying to establish the New Star League need time to grow their rebellion. In the previous edition of this book the flower blossoms almost before the shoots are out of the ground. I need to develop the rebellion with more planets and systems with reasons why they want to leave the icky old emperor and establish a space-born democracy. And this novel series isn’t merely a parody of Star Wars or an imitation of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It is also its own version of a space opera with unique characters and plot-lines that are entirely Mickian in their non-sensibility.
Ged Aero, the main character and most important protagonist, is revealed in AeroQuest 2 to be the new White Spider, a prophet-like teacher fulfilling a century-old prophecy by leading twelve young disciples into the state of near-perfection of their psionic mind powers. Adventures where these twelve student-disciples learn stuff they need to know need to be added to the original story.
Each of the first two re-written books is about 35,000 words. The original novel is about 120,000 words. I will need to add a lot more than just the re-write of 50,000 more words. And I want to keep the books approximately equal, so I will be aiming to increase the total to at least 140,000 words by writing two more 35,000-word stories. And it may be enough more than that to fill five total books.
If my run-away cancerous imagination is not reigned in, I have at least three more book-length story-tumors to add in beyond that.
So, I have enough to do. My Tuesday blog plan will still be going for a while.
When the space
ship called Megadeath, the Rock and Roll Starship, docked at the now
prosperous spaceport of the planet Don’t Go Here, they interrupted a solemn
ceremony. Administrator Bam-Bam Salongi
was about to be buried in space. His
body, encased in a glass torpedo pod, was on display in Frieda’s central
administration hub. The relatively new
crew of the space port was gathered around for testimonials and remembrances.
Frieda’s
Metalloid form stood guard over the office.
The Dion girl named Taquira was kneeling by the foot of the makeshift
coffin and Tabitha Blue Arrow, in Lady Knight armor, stood over the head of
Bam-Bam’s final resting place.
Xavier Tkriashav
entered the office first, shock registering on his dark, inscrutable face. Behind him stood Captain Tommy Lee, Pilot Vince
Niell, Nikki Sixx, and slack-jawed Cold Death.
All removed hats and became silent mourners.
“What has
happened here?” asked Tkriashav.
“Fez Amin and the
Monopoly Brigade,” said Frieda. “He came
here and killed Mr. Salongi and kidnapped Tara.
We killed one of his Lieutenants, but he used Tara as a shield to make
his escape. I’ve tried to organize
pursuit, but we lost him completely in the Imperium.”
“We should not
have left you vulnerable to attack,” said Tkriashav, shaking his head.
“We were
unprepared for treachery,” said Tabitha, the Lady Knight. “It will not happen again.”
“We have ships
now to defend our home,” said the Dion, Taquira. “We just don’t have any pilots to fly them.”
“We are outward
bound now, to places where I know we will find a large number of willing spacers
ready to come here and help get that problem solved, at least,” said Tkriashav.
“I have places to go where I know all
kinds of Psions. We might even see if we
can strike an accord with the Nebulons we believe are migrating in mass towards
this part of the Orion Spur.”
“You know,” said
Tabitha, “you are opening your arms to all the peoples the Imperium loathes?”
“Yes,” said
Tkriashav. “That was the idea. All us rejects will band together to make
something far better than what Imperial Space has to offer.”
“You are a
hopeless idealist, Psion Master,” said Tabitha Blue Arrow.
“Does that mean
you will leave us and go back to the Imperium?” he responded.
“Of course not,”
replied the Lady Knight. “We need
idealists as leaders. It’s the reason I
joined Cloudstalker’s Corsairs to start with.”
“You are good
man, Psion Master,” hissed Taquira the Dion. She switched her brown lizard’s tail. “We like you a lot!”
“Tara wanted us
to tell Ged Aero that she loves him,” said Frieda. “I fear those may have been the last words
we’ll ever have from her.”
“I will have some
students I have to deliver to Ged on Gaijin,” said Tkriashav. “I will tell him the grave news.”
An emerald-green female
Galtorrian walked into the main office at that moment. “Ged Aero, you sssay?” she hissed. She was beautiful in a serpentine way,
snake-eyed and tressed with flowing green hair.
She wore the uniform of the Imperial Scout Service. “I must find Ged Aero.”
All eyes turned
suspiciously to her.
“Why do you seek
Ged?” asked Tkriashav.
“I must find the
fulfiller of the Prophecy of Zhan! I
have sssearched for him for yearsss. I mussst
find him if it costssss me my life!”
“We shall
see. You will surrender all weapons and
travel with me under guard,” said Tkriashav.
“Yesss, whatever
I mussst do. But, I mussst find him
before hisss enemiesss do.”
The pheromones she gave off at that moment made every male present feel as if he must fall in love with her. Xavier couldn’t help himself from feeling it too. He tried to probe her, but she was apparently a Psion too, though not a type he recognized.
Gaijin is one of the most beautiful worlds in human space according to those humans who have visited enough of them to compare. Its lush, tropical-sea environment is pleasant always and fully climate-controlled by old Sylvani technology. It has far fewer cold places than an Earth-like world such as Talos III or Martin Faulkner’s Dream. It has more resources than an ocean-world like Dancer or Design where no land masses are present. And its greatest features are the people themselves. They are disciplined by the Bushido code, and beautified by the natural Sylvani grace. It was no surprise, then, that Vince Niell and the crew of the Megadeath did not want to leave.
“I have to go to
at least three other worlds,” argued Xavier Tkriashav. “I have important missions to complete. You have the only available spaceship on the
planet.”
“Dude, like, we
don’t got no orders from Ged boss-man,” said Vince Niell. “This ship is his.”
“Ged is very busy
now. I am his friend and agent. I tell you, I have important things to do for
Ged Aero!”
“And we tell you,
Psion Dude, that we don’t go to space for nobody but Ged Aero.”
Xavier smiled. “Can you call him and ask?”
“Dude, we have
commo units on board. Did he take a
walkie-talkie or a commo dot?”
“No.”
“Then ain’t no
way we’re gonna move from this spot.”
Tkriashav looked
at the stubborn rock-and-roll starship pilot.
He saw only two angry reflections of himself looking back from Vince’s
mirrored sunglasses. The hippie freak
had started wearing a pair of red Moko-bird feathers in his hair as if he were
some kind of Native American from ancient Earth.
“I am going to go
and disturb Ged now, and get him to write a note to let me use this starship
while he is training to be Gaijin’s new White Spider.”
“Sounds good to
me, Daddy-o.”
Fuming, the
turbaned Psion stalked back into the city, making his way swiftly through crowded
streets to the Palace of One Thousand Years.
Ged was on the
practice field with Junior, teaching martial arts.
“You were
impressive in the arena,” Tkriashav said when Ged acknowledged his
presence. “Tell me, how is it you already
know the martial arts they teach here?”
“It’s not
something I’m proud of, but I absorbed it by eating the flesh of the man they called
the Black Spider. I inherited the
ability to alter myself into the patterns of his finely trained muscles. Muscle memory is the key to absorbing the
skill. Just like the instincts I’ve absorbed
from animals I’ve eaten.”
“Did you actually
eat one of those invisible cat things?”
“It was during an
episode of survival training on the planet Samothrace when I was young. I guess I had my powers even then, though I
didn’t know it until the last few years.”
“It’s that kind
of knowledge I need you to pass on to other Psions, Ged. Do you mind if I use your starship to round
up a couple of students for you?”
“I would be
honored to serve,” said Ged with a bow.
“Teaching seems to come naturally too, though I don’t ever remember eating
a teacher.”
Xavier laughed. “I need a note for your crew, Ged. They don’t want to leave this place. They won’t take my word.”
“No problem. Will you revisit Don’t Go Here?”
“Yes. After completing the missions I have in mind.”
“Check on Tara
for me. Tell her I miss her. And tell Ham about what’s happened here. I want him to come here and learn about this
place too.”
“I would be happy
to. You like it here, don’t you?”
“How could I help
it? I’m not a monster here. I’m a hero to these people. But I have to say, I don’t understand the
praise any more than I understood the fear.”
The message was
quickly written, and within the hour, the Megadeath roared out of
Gaijinese orbit, headed directly into trouble.
An infinite number of monkeys with and infinite number of word-processors will supposedly eventually type out everything I have ever written and everything I am going to write… As well as everything I will ever write with a random word misspelled or replaced with the wrong word. It would be an infinite mess. After all, infinite monkeys and infinite word-processors would fill infinite space and leave no room for infinite bananas. The monkeys would all starve after the initial typed manuscripts are completed, and any surviving monkeys that randomly evolved an ability to eat word-processors would die from exposure to infinite rotting monkey corpses. The whole thing gets gruesome after a while.
But let’s get serious for a moment. (Something that is generally difficult for Mickey.) Monkeys with type-writers will not solve my essential problem. I will not run out of stories before I run out of time for story-telling. And I find it totally creditable that my time is almost gone.
I am ill again, with a viral infection that gives me headaches, low-grade fever, and a wicked cough. I feel horrible. I had chest pains last night that led to a serious debate yet again. If it had been a heart attack, that would’ve been the end. I cannot survive economically another hospital bill. So, I have to go on the theory that since the last heart-attack scare was only arthritis in the ribs and the strange effect that has on EKGs, this one must also be the same. I can’t afford any other conclusion. And since I am still alive to write this, it was obviously the correct conclusion to draw.
The titles I have listed above, still in my stupid old head, are eleven more books I will add to my growing list. This is, of course, entirely dependent on how much longer I have before the darkness claims me for all time. I have writing to do. No more days off. And if I get five more years of two books a year, I just might make it. But last night convinced me that the effort may end at any time. So, though I am sick, I better get busy and write something.
Ged, Junior, Tkriashav,
Naylund, Sara, and Friashqazatla were all gathered in the office of Shen Ming
inside Akito House.
“Honorable Ged
Aero-sama, we are here to determine the course we must follow to honor the prophecy.” Shen Ming smiled his unnerving crooked smile.
“So, what
prophecy are we talking about?” asked Ged.
“The prophecy of
Shan,” answered Naylund.
“The prophecy of Xan,”
answered Tkriashav.
Shen Ming
chuckled. “Ah, so… a matter of spelling,
ha? It is the wisdom of my ancestors
that the two prophecies are the same.”
“How do you know
this, Shen Ming-sensei?” asked Naylund.
“What does the
prophecy of Shan say is the White Spider’s first task?”
“He will teach
students the Way of the Spider.”
“And what does
the prophecy of Xan say he will do first?”
“He will teach Psions
to use their inborn powers,” said Tkriashav.
“Is this not a
similarity rather than a difference?”
Neither Naylund
nor Tkriashav was able to dispute that.
“Well, then, I
will discuss this first with the Black Wolf.”
Shen Ming smiled at Friashqazatla.
“Who is the Black
Wolf?” asked Naylund. Ged looked
confused as well.
“I am the Black
Wolf,” admitted Friashqazatla quietly.
“And how do you
know this to be true, little Freddy?” asked Shen Ming very patiently.
“I see the Black
Wolf in my inner eye. He constantly
tells me, Come and be me.”
“Do you know the
process to become the Black Wolf?”
“I do not. It distresses me.”
Friashqazatla, or, more simply, Freddy, was a very comely and attractive child. His skin was a rich, reddish brown in color. His hair was jet black and shiny. His eyes were two glowing-blue sky-colored sapphires.
“The Way of the Spider is to look within,”
said Shen Ming. “The Way of the Spider
is self-fulfillment and the honing of personal skills and moral strengths. Can this Way not also mean the development of
Psion powers?”
“Yes, honored Shen
Ming-sensei. I understand how to teach shape-changing
power like my own,” said Ged. “But how
can I teach the Way of the Spider if I do not know it?”
“Have you a
personal code of morality and honor, Ged-sensei?”
“Yes.”
“Then teach that
as the Way of the Spider, for the White Spider is you.”
“And is that all
that I must teach?”
“I believe in the
combat with Ginjiro, the Black Spider, you actually consumed his flesh, did you
not?”
“Shamefully, I
did.”
“And your Psion
power allows you to change into any living creature you have tasted or
otherwise genetically analyzed, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Then the Way of
Combat will be easy for you to teach, for Ginjiro, though evil, was a master of
powerful martial arts.”
Ged was a bit stunned
to learn that part of what he was to teach was knowledge he had gained by
eating a teacher of martial arts.
“Who will I be teaching the Way of the Spider to?”
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
“I see three students here. Lovely Sara, the daughter of Naylund Smith-sama. Your own little blue nephew, Junior Aero. And, of course, the Black Wolf, whom I will always refer to as Freddy because of the lack of ease I have saying his birth name without bruising my tongue and cracking my few remaining teeth. And there is one other we must add to this dojo. We have reason to believe he is a Psion also, a telekinetic. His name is Shu Kwai.” “I accept this assignment, Shen Ming-sensei.”
Ged bowed to Shen Ming humbly. He had become a teacher, complete with the necessary class to be one.
Naylund Smith was dressed in a formal
silk jacket with an embroidered Japanese-style phoenix raising its wings across
the chest and turning to flaming ashes on the back. A white chord ran down the left leg of the
blue silk pants and ended in an embroidered white spider, the first time Ged
was to see the White Spider’s personal logo on anything.
Ged couldn’t help
but admire the strong-looking, erect posture of this amazing man. He wore a gold earring in his left ear; his
head was shaved and hairless except for white eyebrows, a white bun at the very
back of the head, and a white goatee.
The man’s iron-gray eyes glared like the stare of an eagle. Only the golden walking stick hinted at any
weakness in the man, and he never seemed to lean upon it.
“The web of space
is locked in an ever-expanding spiral dance,” said Naylund as ceremonial armor
was strapped to Ged’s arms and chest.
“The spiders that move from strand to strand are merely a counterpoint
to the great dancing flow of the web itself. When spiders contend for space on the web,
then the dance reaches its most violent and most beautiful point. I cannot help you with the next few steps of the
dance. The prophecy says that you will
be victorious, but no prophecy is ever absolute unless it can be proven to come
from God himself.”
“You sound like I
am about to have some kind of duel,” said Ged cautiously. “I thought this was just a welcoming
ceremony.”
“It is that. It is also deadly serious.”
Little Ham Aero
Junior was brought to Ged dressed in a milk-white kimono, and an embroidered
white spider picked out in light blue covered the heart. The female attendants left him with Ged.
“I am to stand
with you, Ged-sensei,” the boy said.
“Did Frieda teach
you to speak so well?” Ged asked the little Nebulon.
“No. I learned your language long ago by telepathy.”
“Why didn’t you
ever teach it to your mother?”
“She hardly ever
spoke to me. I was nothing but a
reminder to her of the shame of her servitude.”
“I’m so sorry for
you, Junior.”
“Don’t be. Now I belong to you and you belong to
me. I will stand at your side and die
rather than leave you.”
“A very handsome
and noble child,” said Naylund. “He
deserves to be treated well by you, Ged.”
“Don’t worry,
Naylund-sensei. I am learning to love my
nephew too.” Ged smiled at Junior.
Naylund motioned
to Ged to leave the tent where he had been dressed in armor. He was now done up in the armor of a Japanese
daimyo or feudal lord, a samurai. He had
everything but the demon mask on him.
As Ged, Naylund
and Junior stepped out into the arena, 40,000 people cheered. Ged was stunned to see so many people. Being a spacer meant being alone more often
than with other people. He’d never in his
life been with so many at once.
“Behold! The so-called White Spider,” said a man
across from Ged in the arena. He gestured
with a silver katana sword to Ged and his two companions. “What do you say that I test this
gaijin? Do you really believe he is the
white spider?”
The crowd roared
that they did believe.
“Well, we shall
see,” said the man, drawing his katana in front of him.
“He will now try
to kill you, Ged,” said Naylund. “If he
succeeds, he will kill the boy and me as well.”
“But, wait!” said
Ged. “I am unarmed!” He sounded panicky.
“According to
prophecy,” said Naylund, “that’s not supposed to be a problem.”
“I am the Black
Spider,” shouted the man. Ged noticed
his black silk robes bore a red spider-symbol on the chest. “I will kill you now, Ged Aero!”
The man charged at Ged with lightning speed. He was obviously martial-arts trained, and knew precisely what to do. Ged tried to dodge, but the katana came down on his right shoulder in a perfect arc. Ged’s right arm was neatly severed at the shoulder.
The crowd
gasped. Ged fell to his knees gasping
also. Junior tried to run to him, but
Naylund grabbed him and firmly held him.
“Patience, little
one. Ged must pass this test himself.”
Ged’s mind swirled,
but fixed on an image from his mind implanted there when Tara helped him return
to his rightful form. His inner eye
sharpened and fixed the image with crystal clarity. Immediately the arm grew back into
place. The crowd was silent with shock.
“So!” said the
Black Spider. “You are a magician! It will help you not! I have killed many magicians before you.”
Ged didn’t bother
to listen. Power was surging through
him. He could feel the rightness of each
shape as it came to him.
“Tara?” said
Junior, amazed at what he saw. Ged had
changed first into the lithe figure of Tara Salongi so that the bulky clothing
and armor would fall away. Then, as the
nude female Ged stepped free of the binding clothing, he was already turning
into the fearsome raptor dinosaur from Don’t Go Here.
“Try this!” cried
the Black Spider as he leaped onto Ged’s scaly back and tried to sever the
saurian head. Ged’s clawed foot nimbly
came up and swept the attacker off, as easily as a horse knocks flies off his
flanks with a twitching tail. The other
clawed foot found the Black Spider as he hit the ground, the wicked hook
slicing into the flesh of his stomach.
The Black Spider
wobbled to his feet again, defiant and angry.
His intestines began to droop out of his wound. “Good trick, spider, but
I’m not beaten yet!”
Even as the Black
Spider was bragging, Ged remembered one other beast he had been forced to kill
and eat. He morphed almost immediately
into a Samothracian Shadowcat, one of the most difficult creatures he had ever
hunted. On the colorful planet of Samothrace,
with its many xeno-flowers, shadowcats had developed the ability to change
color so masterfully; they could practically disappear from view. As soon as the first paw touched the sand of
the arena floor, Ged shimmered and disappeared.
“What? Where…?” cried the Black Spider, swinging his
sword wildly. Attacks battered him from
three sides. Ged it seemed, had turned
into the wind. It looked like puffs of
air were slashing the Black Spider; until finally, the sword fell from his hand
and the Black Spider fell dead and thoroughly bloodied. Ged remained invisible so as not to disgust
the crowd as he replenished himself by feeding on the flesh of the enemy. He also ate his own severed arm before he
finally reappeared in his own form.
Naked, he quickly
dressed in the samurai armor once again, though not bothering with the many
straps and ties. The crowd was utterly
silent, which left Ged wondering what it meant.
Shen Ming
approached solemnly, holding two sheathed swords in his hands.
“You have done well,
my son. Take your swords of office.”
Ged humbly
received the swords from Shen-sensei. He
bowed. There was a beautiful silver
katana with a white ivory pommel and a smaller golden wakizashi with a blue
woven pommel. The crowd now began to cheer
riotously.
“I have defeated the Black Spider?” asked Ged of Naylund.
“You have defeated the first of many Black Spiders, Ged-sama. We will never be at a loss for villains.”
The city of Kiro, Gaijin was a
heavily populated place. The city was
full of high-rise pagoda towers and Kyoto-style castles. Dominating the skyline was the huge obsidian
sculpture of a Black Cat atop the Temple of the Four Pillars of the Secret
Way. Naylund Smith explained it all to
Ged Aero as they made their way through the ornate city.
Ged and Dr. Smith
were accompanied by the two children and Xavier Tkriashav. Tkriashav’s young nephew, Friashqaztl,
trailed behind the group, timid and shy.
All the newcomers were overwhelmed by what they saw.
“This place is
more beautiful than anything I ever saw in my visions,” said Tkriashav.
“Do I understand
correctly that you are the Master Telepath and Psion?” asked Naylund Smith.
“Yes. I am a powerful telepath, teleport, and
clairvoyant. I am not the most powerful
of my people, however.”
“Perhaps,” said
Dr. Smith, “but you figure prominently in the Prophecy of Shan.”
“If that is a book,
I’d like to see it,” said Tkriashav.
“In time. It is a holy book to these people.”
All around the
small group, silk-robed people had been gathering to watch as if the six people
from the space ship were a circus parade.
Many shouted “White Spider!” as if prayers had been at long last
answered.
“Can you tell me
why I am supposed to be this White Spider?” asked Ged as he took long strides
to hurry past lemon-yellow-skinned admirers.
“It is
destiny.” Naylund smiled and nodded his
head indulgently. “The web of outer
space has brought you to us to pick up the threads woven by the last White Spider. The last spider wove this world and its
society. You have come to link it to
other webs and expand this world’s reach back into the stars.”
“You talk a lot of
poetic nonsense.” Ged looked away at the
sky.
“Poetic nonsense
is also sometimes Truth,” said Dr. Smith.
“I will help you to learn that in time.”
Finally, they
came to a beautiful castle made of white stone and Gaijinese Teak wood, inlaid
with bright blue sapphires. It appeared
to have been their destination all along.
“This,” said Dr.
Smith, “is the Palace of a Thousand Years.
It is your new home.”
“We will live
here?” asked Junior.
Dr. Smith looked
at the blue boy. “It is the palace
belonging to Shen Ming. It is the
traditional home of the White Spider. It
is the place where the last White Spider, Shan Sasaki once lived and worked.”
“Do you expect me
to give up space travel?” asked Ged.
“It’s the only life I’ve ever really known.”
“It will be part
of the life you will lead as the White Spider.
It is the work you are expected to do for us.”
“Hmm.” Ged stared up at the curved roofs of the
Palace of One Thousand Years.
Naylund Smith led
the way into the palace through a large wooden gate. Inside they came into a courtyard that
bustled with activity as if it were a small town all by itself. The courtyard had an ornate Torii arch that
marked the center of the great building.
There were practice yards there where groups of children under the care
of a schoolmaster were learning martial arts, probably karate. There was a large oriental garden for quiet contemplation
inside the palace, as well as the entrance into a riding stable filled with
two-legged llama-like mammals called kians.
Naylund pointed out
the two master towers where the instructors lived. There was a massive central building which
Naylund called the Akito House. It
contained the vast White Spider library, a place that had almost as many bound
volumes of books as books on computer memory crystals. Finally, he pointed out Shen Ming’s Hall,
which, he informed them, was the White Spider’s official residence.
They entered Shen
Ming’s Hall through a double door that proved to lead to a huge indoor bathing pool. Naked yellow men, women, and numerous
children were all bathing there. Junior
Aero would’ve blushed if his skin hadn’t been blue. Ged’s skin turned crimson.
Up a marble
stair, they came into the Administrator’s Hall, and a large, stately office. Behind the desk was Shen Ming himself, looking
spry for a man of nine hundred years. He
was bald as a cue ball except for a single top knot at the apex of his head, and
he looked like a wrinkled Alfred E. Newman.
“Honored
Shen-sensei,” began Dr. Smith. “I bring
before you Ged Aero. He is…”
“I know, Naylund-sama,
I know. He is the new White Spider. I would know him anywhere! He is just as Shan-dono described him in the
Prophecy.”
The silk-clad
ancient moved swiftly out from behind the desk and took Ged’s hand. He placed it on his own hairless head. His ridiculous lop-sided smile made new
wrinkles blossom across his wizened face.
“I pledge to you all that I have, White Spider,” Shen Ming said in tones of awe. “I will serve you all of my remaining days.” Ged couldn’t begin to speak. The place and the situation filled him up. Tears welled up in his eyes
Catch a Falling Star 