andthen.c

// *********
// andthen.c
// *********

#include {std.h}
#include {acc.h}

string protagonist;

cmd_post()
{

seteuid( getuid() );

protagonist = "cauliflower";

set("gender",female);

set("narrative_mode", 1, limited(protagonist), pres(1));

write("And then the whole gelscape swelled and blistered, bubbling from solid to straight gaseous, go to jail do not pass liquid, do not collect two hundred dollars, get thee to a nunnery, out like a bad knee in a _boom_ angela goddamn davis afro mushroom cloud big enough to lick the moon on its way up, up and out into the stratosphere where the last hazy smear of ozone wasn't doing doodly squat for my complexion. I sprouted tumors on my face, tumors on my tumors; fleshy, hairy things with spots.");

set("visual_aside","crater.gif");

set("narrative_mode",3,omni(),past(1));

narr_resume();

write("Cauliflower dragging herself out from a smoking crater, glowing deep sea algae bluegreen and bawling for mama.");

set("visual_aside","hazmat.gif");

set("narrative_mode",1,omni(protagonist),past(1));

narr_resume();

write("The BEMs dropped down through parting clouds in slick aluminum cigars with areofoils just like we always knew they would. They were small, green, male, and needed women to repopulate their dying world. Came out of those ships single file in white hazmat jumpsuits. Learned their lesson re: xenocidal terrestrial microbes.");

set("audio_aside","sneeze.wav");

set("narrative_mode",3,omni(),past(1));

narr_resume();

write("BEMeltdown upon exposure to influenza virus. Loss of cohesion, denaturation, cellular degredation, evolution of gas; instances of spontaneous combustion.");

set("narrative_mode",1,omni(protagonist),past(1));

narr_resume();

write("Saw my first meltdown when I was 6, soon after they found me, same day in fact. Hoverzoo meatwagon packed full of screaming kids, girls, blooming like me. One girl, no more than eleven years old, I think, had tumors so large and tight round her eyes they bled puffy as pierced jelly doughnuts. She didn't stop screaming until.. until.. well never actually. Now that I think about it, she never did shut up. Right up to the end.");

set("audio_aside","scream1.wav");

write("Their plan was simple, smack the monkey people around, take their female young and die with more toys than anybody else. They were a greedy cutthroat race, I learned. In the Auction Arena all hell was breaking loose with the haggling and bribing going on. This was Mothership, where the Merchants scuttled around alternately backstabbing and backscratching each other. We were a commodity, you see.");

write("Anyway, jelly eyes was drawing a crowd due to her good genes and good breeding. Apparently the BEMs liked the screaming type. Poked and prodded her with suction tip fingers until the whelp got tired of shrieking and finally just settled for choking on her tongue. Click rattle wheeze click went the BEMs, excited and eager. Careless, one pressed its hard slick face to hers, holding her up, one 'hand' around her waist. She gags and coughs up, back to the hollering all of a sudden. I guess she was sick at the time 'cause that BEM dropped her like raw acid and just fell down into seizures. Smoke and bubbles, bubbles; its face dissolving, speckled with Jelly's snot and saliva and probably something stupid and harmless like the measels or a head cold.");

set("narrative_mode",3,limited(),present(1));

narr_resume();

write("impossibly straight lines of red laser light spring from a round metal sphere, hitting the twitching corpse. The aliens back away from the one holding it in a spindly outstretched arm; he passes it over the ruined BEM. It vaporizes the flesh. The earthling heifer is taken to be proccessed by the appropriate Ladysmith.");

set("visual_aside","bckgrnd1.gif");

//collage of images taken from
//media during time just prior
//to and partly during the first
//landing.

set("narrative_mode",1,limited(protagonist),past(2));

narr_resume();

write("They paved the way for landing with something like neutron bombs bug spray for monkeyfolk and and the more sensitive/delicate among us dropped dead on the spot. Then came Black Spring, the two weeks that followed, when cancer finally had its way with mankind. Within the month, most would die. They then screened the population for what they were looking for, females, young and before puberty, before hormones and blood and the madness of mammalian existance.");

set("visual_aside","hoverzoo.gif");

write("Came down the street in factions upon hoverzoos, flying cages to fill with the chosen. Snatched up little girls like Jelly Doughnut and me. Stripped us and sprayed us and stuck us with small painless syringes. The cancer stopped then, well at least stopped spreading. Left me with lumps and bumps and a face like cauliflower. Benign renegade genetic code smoldering but quiescent in each of my million cells. Left my ovaries untouched throughout the whole ordeal; you see, I am a breeding machine. Or will be at least, I still have to see the Ladysmith.");

set("narrative_aside","ladysmith.txt");

//encyclopedic excerpt under
//LADYSMITH heading. history of
//the corps and affiliation with
//BEMs (synop:human sympathizer
//organization. sect of medical
//and scientific community.
//goal: assist BEMs in harvest;
//prepare fruit for BEM usage,
//expedite BEM liftoff and human
//resurgance).

set("visual_aside","process_plant.gif");

set("narrative_mode",1,limited(protagonist),past(3));

narr_resume();

write("The Ladysmith was the nicest man I've ever met in my life. Round and harmless like Santa Claus. Belted me to this aluminum table with holes in it. Laid this damp white towel over my face and I breathe in deeply. Numbness. There are other tables around me, other girls. Jelly Doughnut is with me, somewhere. I wonder how long we will be together. Nobody knows what they will do to us; we all suspect something. I am scared, but the Ladysmith knows just what to say. He is smiling at me. There is a light brown paper collar around me so I cannot see what he is doing to my body. I feel nothing. Rolling coatracks, cluttered with trays and tubes and spider arms tipped with razors. They move in and out of my field of vision. The Ladysmith is controlling them somehow. They operate on us for less than an hour. We are deep in a Factory somewhere. Bare copper pipes, green and wet. Exposed cables and spiral conduit lines. I see everything from my horizontal position, still bolted to the table. It is on wheels and moves silently, automatically. We are a caravan out of the surgery theater and down pale yellow corridors. Bare bulbs overhead, low ceilings swarming with pipes and wire; like a basement. We must be underground. It is cold. Doors open and I am whisked into a bright, tiled room. A woman in scrubs and latex gloves opens my mouth, insterting small screw jacks so I can't close it. More coatracks; this time with spinning drills and translucent yellow tubes oozing white novocaine paste. I feel nothing.");

set("audio_aside","drill.wav");

set("narrative_mode",1,omni(protagonist),past(3));

narr_resume();

write("A few days later, the stitches dissolved and the holes in my gums filled in again. The Ladysmiths had scrambled our insides for BEM compatibility, but we didn't know what that meant. Put us all in a small room to wait. Separated two I did not know and took them away. Found out later, that they were the standard pick from harvest that the Ladysmiths keep for research; always trying to make the process more efficient, always trying to please the BEMs. We were stenciled with bar codes on both eyelids and elsewhere if that was impractical; Jelly Doughnut had the lines tattooed on her cheeks. I don't remember the tattooing, but my eyes were sore. It actually looked rather pretty on some of us, like make-up. Maybe that was why - little girls love to play with make-up.");

set("narrative_mode",3,omni(),past(3));

narr_resume();

write("The terran breeders were reconfigured and allocated to BEMs based on position in the queue, rank, and bid. Timesharing and/or leasing was established where feasible to accomodate as many requests as possible. The terms of warranty and maintenance varied seasonally and from model to model.");

set("visual_aside","bckgrnd2.gif");

//collage of stock footage stills
//from Ladysmith archives (synop:
//BEM/human structural anatomy,
//genitalia, computer generated
//renderings of theoretical surgical
//modifications. b/w photos: B/hu
//Coital Experiments (trials 1 - 17)
//with and without modification.
//photograph record of trauma due to
//interspecie structural conflict.

narr_resume();

write("Many broke.");

set("narrative_mode",3,omni(protagonist),past(3));

write("They thought they were doing the race at large a favor. Before the Ladysmiths, the BEMs had to reinvent the wheel; learning the physiology of an entire new race, recreating modern human medicine and biological understanding. The Ladysmiths saught to lessen the horrific tragedies and failures that the BEM's trial and error tactics were generating, because dispite their accomplishments, they had no concept of the scientific method. The Ladysmiths were saving the human race in the long run.");

set("narrative_mode",1,limited(protagonist),past(3));

write("They were catalysts, speeding and easing the reaction, without themselves being consumed by it. They were the real aliens.");

//[end]