Ring of Rings Science Fantasy Epic Extraordinaire

[Maharg67]

CHAPTER 0012: GRANDTHIRTEEN: WELCOME TO THE RINGBASE

12.1

 

Access was gained to the RingBase, a great sphere divided, internally, into a great Domeland as the top half and a great service-support network of network-systems in the bottom half. Except this was a generalization and the SSNNS was also in the top half and living areas, the watery depths of lakes and other Domeland related features, were in the bottom half.

 

The RingBase proper was a kilometre wide, high, dome at the very center of the RingBase Domeland that was thirty kilometres wide and half that high at the center. The RingBase proper was covered by a transparent dome but was a tripletower arising out of a cluster of big buildings, parks, domefarms and other features. The base of the dome was a high ringwall that plunged deep into the ground and a bubble wrapped the RingBase below.

 

At the top of the RingBase Tripletower, the GrandThirteen studied the great expanse of the Domeland with its semiwilderness of forest, grassland, lakes and other areas. There were paved roads, bridges, ringwalled settlements, other settlements along with a more hilly area to the north. They saw a big lake to the west and some swamps to the east. Very high above floated the semi-enclose disklands. For some reason they caused only dim shadows to appear on the lands, and waters, below.

 

“Why were Scullerra and Foxulder so reluctant to name the Witchblade?” Brad frowned softly as he examined a thin trail of smoke rising up to the far west. “Are they concealing more from us?”

 

Essie nodded. “Yes but not intentionally! They are under some kind of heavily concealed influence but they are far from being controlled by it. They believe they are telling the truth about Scully, and Mulder, and about other events but are they? The other question is, did they really come from Terra and through the Transways. We have done genetic analyzing on genetic samples sneakily taken from the two. We suspect that they were cloned here, inside the Known Lunar Labyrinth.”

 

It was a mystery but just one of many. Why would the two clones be created, filled with false beliefs and then set lose in the way that they had been? Did they have any real relationship with Fox Mulder and Dana Scully? Why would they be sent to seek an item that the original pair had been seeking? Were they actually hunting for the original Scully and Mulder?

 

FreeNet Unity had 'sensed' something wrong with both the shapeshifters and their story. Hence Andy's orders to bring the pair back, by force, to the outpost in Crossenways. That had not pleased the GrandThirteen because they had 'sensed' no evil intentions in either Foxulder or Scullerra.

 

It was decided to work with the two shapeshifters but to keep a careful watch of them.

 

They more than just like the RingBase, and the RingBase Domeland, they loved them. The place was greener, cleaner, less crowded than was much of Moontropolis or other parts of the Human Inhabited Lunar Labyrinth that they had been to.

 

The locals were a mixture of humans, wozzles, bobblins, morloks and some others of smaller numbers but wider variety. They numbered just over a million but the Domeland easily accommodated them thanks to various factors such as many of the locals living in big underground cave systems or in the lake and river waters. Humans tended to live in the ringwalled settlements. Then there were the three high floating, in the sky, semi-enclosed disklands.

 

The RingBase proper had only robots and androids that were mostly semiactive inside special bays.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

12.2

 

Hiwing would remain in the RingBase, for the moment, for she needed to the great airy space to be truly free. It was soon decided that Pussydog and Flipperin would do the same. The neobabies would also stay there with one cyborg and one of the supersoldiers there at any time. Or so it was planned at the time but exotic changes began to happen to the GrandThirteen that were soon to change those plans. With the change came growing awareness of those changes and what they meant.

 

It was not long before the GrandThirteen discovered that any one of them could be both inside of, and outside of, the RingBase at the same time. It was both strange and useful as an ability.

 

So then all of the GrandThirteen were inside the RingBase but, for the moment, not all were outside of the RingBase or the RingBase Domeland.

 

When it was learned that time passed twice quicker inside the RingBase Domeland, than it did outside, it proved to be a boon for now more could be achieved 'inside' so as to assist what was going on 'outside'.

 

It was not long before the first refugees were being let into the RingBase Realm from the Lunar Labyrinth. At first they were often those who badly needed healing or who could otherwise not be properly cared for in the Known Lunar Labyrinth. What helped was that all who entered the RingBase went through the same kind of rejuvenation that those, going through the Transways, did.

 

At first there was no real trouble!

 

Simple Feedback: :thumbsup: = okay :thumbsup: :thumbsup: = good :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: = very good

 

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Terminals%20Used/TERMINAL-IT-Workit-new026.jpg

Edited November 28, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

CHAPTER 0013: SARA PEZZINI WITCHBLADE; IN THE LANE WAY

13.1

 

Sara Pezzini was drop dead gorgeous, could have made it easily as a Moontropolis supermodel, but instead became a very effective homicide detective with the Moontropolis Civil Police in NewNewYork. At that moment she was lying, almost naked, in only the strange biometallic armor of the Witchblade that covered her much as a string bikini might. Yet it protected her far more than that for it actually flowed invisibly through her body.

 

Once it had been an ancient demonic artifact but now it was more of an antihero in mood and practice; the rejuvenating process of the Transways had caused the changes.

 

She crouched against the wall of a lane while three semidrunken tramps stared at her in amazement. Sara ignored them despite that they blearily ogled her. In truth they were not sure that she existed but were enjoying the situation, as much as they could do, anyway.

 

A big brown cockroach scuttled across the lane way, vanishing quickly just as it had appeared. Muffled sounds of motor traffic drifted them through the air of the suncavernland of NewNewYork. Sirens came and went, in the distance, such being a normal sound in that Zone.

 

Sara frowned softly and energies spat out from the rejuvenated, enhanced, altered Witchblade now not so evil as halfway towards good. The three tramps shimmered and then they were three youthful, fit, healthy men in clean rejuvenated tramp clothes. The gear they wore now just looked like a crazy mixture of mismatched out of fashion stuff.

 

One man frowned hard. “My name is John and I will assist. I was a high class kick-boxer once and knew my way around guns, computers and some other handy tech including maintenance. Do you think you might put more 'clothing' on.”

 

Sara sighed, closed her eyes, focused and she changed to wearing flexidenim jeans and the Witchblade became an exotic bracelet hidden beneath a flexidenim jacket and a Tshirt. She also wore city-boots and a cap along with cool looking wrap-around sunglasses that were far more than sunglasses. She had concealed weapons, tools and other devices but the Witchblade was her main asset, though a troubling one at times.

 

Another man grinned, being a slimly muscular eurowhite man. “My name is Sanders and I wish John here had not been so eager to get you to change. Still, if we are going to work together... I was a very good accountant until my creativity got the better of me. The government did not take too kindly to my 'creative bookkeeping' and neither did a Triad mobster that I tried to rip off. I was lucky to live except that I lost everything worth living for, or at least I thought so.”

 

The Triads, the Mafia, and other organized crime factions were constantly fighting over territories in NewNewYork just as they had done in old New York. The traditional syndicates, from Terra, had less successful in many other parts of Moontropolis. They had to deal with the CrimeCorps (Crime Corporations), Hydramax, and other competitors that had emerged from within Moontropolis.

 

The third man shrugged, being a slimly muscular red-brown man. “Call me Norton! I was something of a scientist, a poet and a womanizing, gambling, alcoholic fool. I was a physicist with some higher mathematics and other related fields. Not much to boast about.”

 

Sara snorted. “Edgar Norton Junior, Noble Prize for Science, Moontropolis Genius Award twice, Father of the Antigravity Booster, creator the the Navis Equation that great improved the working of the Transways and one of those who helped greatly improve space colonial technologies.”

Edited November 25, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

13.2

 

Edgar shook his head., he being a slimly muscular yellow-brown man. “Also one of the fools who developed Skynet and assumed we could keep control of it. Sooner, or later, Skynet will turn against humanity if it has not already done so. I tried to warn big government, and big business, that something is deeply wrong with Skynet, that deep inside some powerful, cunning, outside influence has been there always. My reward was to be abducted and smuggled through the Transways. I lost my family, friends, everything and then myself.”

 

Sara stood up and then examined the wristcomputer on her right wrist. “Skynet is a long way away from the Lunar Labyrinth and so is of no concern to us.”

 

Edgar shook his head. “That is far from true. CyberDyne is here and CyberDyne is actually controlled by Skynet, secretly of course. Serving Skynet, here, is the Lunanet. Lunanet is here inside, but also outside, of CyberDyne. CyberDyne is linked with the problems of the unlifen and the undead, both of which arose from humans using the Transways. Except I do not know how exactly that is. I am sure that solving the mysteries, of the use of the Transways, will help solve the mystery of just how the unlifen causing Red Plague arose and the undead also from some people who have come through the Transways. Knowledge, or was it clarification of what I already knew, came to me as I was transformed.”

 

The other two men agreed that the same had happened to them.

 

John stood up and threw some quick punches and low kicks. Then he gave a mild grin. “I am even better than I was, much better. Something tells me we should get out of here.”

 

Sara turned and a gem on the Witchblade glowed briefly red. “Yes, danger is approaching.”

 

It was Edgar who noted it. “What is that strange silvery metallic ring on your head, Sara?”

 

Surprised, Sara reached up to her head and touched it. It was a Ring of the RingOfRings, basic knowledge of such flowing into her mind then, and there. Why, how, when had it come to her and what was it's relationship to the Witchblade? No, the WitchbladeThirteen of which 'her' Witchblade was only one of thirteen but those thirteen were linked 'almost as one'.

 

She turned and smiled grimly at the men. “Look to the wrists of your dominant hands.”

 

Yes, each of the three men wore a Warkblade, like a Warlockblade but less powerful. Edgar was left handed and the two other were right handed so only Edgar had a Warkblade on his left wrist. The men knew, with knowledge flowing from their Warkblades, that they were in service now to Sara. Each of the men had committed dark crimes that had badly effected the lives of many people. John had been an enforcer for a loan shark, Sanders had cheated honest working people and Edgar had knowingly helped with dangerous, evil experiments. They had to pay a price for their crimes, had to redeem themselves.

 

It came to all four of them that the meeting, in the lane, was no accident.

[Maharg67]

CHAPTER 0014: GRANDTHIRTEEN: THE PUZZLE OF CROSSENWAYS

14.1

 

Essie, at least one of the two of her, crouched on a metal catwalk at the edge of a great big disk shaped chamber. Parts of the ancient chamber were human additions, such as the catwalk, but one are of wall was an ancient alien artifact, a great edifice shaped like a great pattern of a disk from which radiated three tentacles and, from the end of each of these, three smaller tentacles.

 

She spoke with a thoughtful tone to her voice. “The name 'Crossenways' existed before the Subways ever came here as a Subnetwork. Yet many folks assume that the name is linked to the fact that this is an important area where the Subways form a kind of a transportation hub. There exists another explanation for the name. I made some inquiries amongst locals and learned the term is a distortion of the older term 'Crossing of Ways'. I was told that it might mean something more than that but that the truth is only known by a very few. One is a woman called FridayJane. FridayJane was amongst the very first people to come through the Transways from the Earth. In her case she was the only one, of a hundred, to make it and she lost everybody that she loved. It is said that she went insane and vanished into this area, never to be seen again.”

 

Brand, the male cyborg, nodded. He looked at the center of the great disk chamber where waters were flowing from three tunnels to vanish down a central tube tunnel that plunged straight downwards. The catwalk had been made early during human explorations of the Lunar Labyrinth and had been before even Moontropolis had existed even as a possible future settlement.

 

It was strange to think that Moontropolis had first been planned as just a moderate sized hitech city with a maximum city of one million people instead of the supercity, it had become, with a population over 100,000,000.

 

Brand spoke. “Why did you bring us here?”

 

“This was the very last place that FridayJane was seen by any other person of the Crossenways or so is the common belief. It was said that FridayJane was convinced that the 99 people, that had entered the Transways with her, were down there. She could not convince others to go with her and then she vanished.”

 

Essie was pointing down the pipe.

 

Brand frowned. “We could use Flipperin, especially with her enhanced older and newer abilities.”

 

With a sparkling shimmer, Flipperin appeared. She was both there and in the RingBase where she was swimming in a great big pool with some dolphins. Flipperin, the one who was there, dived into the tube, into the water thundering into it, and vanished.

 

Essie, and Brand, picked up psychic impressions of what Flipperin experienced. The downward pipe went for a long distance but the dolphinlizard was driven with a great speed and got to its end with out much difficulty. What she found was surprising and amazing.

 

The water fell from a great circular hole in the ceiling of the huge domechamber and splashed into a great bowl shaped lake of mostly clear waters. The domechamber was glowcrystal lit and the bowl lake had rocky sloped shores all around. Yet they ended in areas of soil where plants grew abundantly. People were there living quite comfortably.

 

Brad, and Essie, came down into the bowl lake and found Flipperin being fussed over by the locals, which she enjoyed greatly. FridayJane was there, waiting to meet Essie and Brad.

[Maharg67]

14.2

 

FridayJane was a tough looking woman who was actually quite tough. She was a dark brown human and many of the others were also. Yet many of the local people had become changed into amphibious humans with sleek scale-skin and gills. They were hairless. She wore tough outdoor gear including a kevlar jacket with long sleeves.

 

It was clear that FridayJane was a leader, of sorts, of the local people. Two tough young folk stood close enough, and in a fashion, of bodyguards. Also many locals were clumsily spying on the meeting while pretending to do other things. There were some houses, and other buildings, but a strong indication that most of the people lived, worked, did other things in chambers linked directly to the big domechamber. There were fish and other lifeforms in the bowl lake, closer to the shoreline, with big clumps of floating waterweed.

 

FridayJane crouched on the balcony of a hut built from bits and pieces that had come down the big hole in the ceiling but also stuff that had been salvaged outwards from the domechamber. She smiled. “My 99 were down here, Unity drew me to them, and two friends came down with me. Some are amphibious now, are merhumans, but there is nothing wrong with that. They came through a Waygate, from the Transways, that is close to here. Crossenways actually gets its name from there being three, perhaps more, Waygates in this one Zone.”

 

That was surprising. Waygates, that activated to open Waygateways, had only been found quite far apart both in the home world and in the Lunar Labyrinth. There were three active Waygates on the Earth still sending through people, other life and other stuff. One was in Africa, one was in Central America and one was in Australia.

 

FridayJane went on. “There is a huge domechamber with all three Waygates inside it. One could come from one Waygate and go straight out through another, hence the name of Crossenways.” Then she shook her head in wonder. “Moontropolis, a supercity with over 100,000,000 people?”

 

Brand nodded. “There are other supercities, in the Inhabited Lunar Labyrinth, with such populations being Moonville, Moonburg and Mooncity. As you can tell, much imagination went wild when it came to naming the supercities.”

 

The woman shrugged. “I could have been far worse. You should have heard some of the stupid names that were proposed back when I was up there. Like NewNewYork!”

 

Brand nodded again. “A Zone in Moontropolis!”

 

FridayJane arched her eyebrows. “SugarMoonTown?”

 

“A large city relatively close to Moontown, Moontown being almost a supercity, but independent from it though that is not expected to last too long.” Essie responded this time. “Armies of unlifen, and the undead, are moving into Crossenways. We want to know why.”

 

FridayJane looked surprised. “So it was not just us who suffered the Red Plague, the rise of unlifen and the undead. We lost about 20% of our population and another 20% changed. If that happened with the main population, the results would have been catastrophic.”

 

“They were!” Brand showed a grim expression for a moment. “Not all undead, unlifen, are evil.”

 

FridayJane smiled. “I am glad that you think that way. We have yombies, damphirs, gromps and some others here.”

[Maharg67]

14.3

 

Yombies were 'friendly' zombies, gromps were 'friendly' ghouls and omvires were 'friendly' vampires. The 'friendly' was variable in reality but none of these undead suffered the madness of the 'hunger' as did the majority of undead. Damphirs were on form of 'friendly' unlifen as were gzouls and parakynes. There may have been other forms of 'friendly' the unlifen and undead, yet to be discovered generally by humanity; the same was true of 'unfriendly' unlifen and undead entities.

 

FridayJane showed worry. “My people have been secure here but they can hardly fight against on coming hordes of the undead and unlifen nor armies of unfriendly living.”

 

Essie smiled. “We have just the place for you to go. It is known as the RingBase Domeland and it is linked with the rings around both Brand's head and mine.”

 

FridayJane nodded. “I see them now!” She pulled back a sleeve of her kevlar jacket to expose a Witchblade in its weird biometallic form, including strange inset gems. “Did you 'sense' this, Essie. I noted you glancing at my wrist. I need this to protect my people and will not give it to you or let you take it.”

 

Essie sighed. “We will not try to take it from you. There is another Witchblader in NewNewYork. The GrandThirteen are trying to track her down.”

 

But further talk was interrupted by very bad news. A local courier arrived, sweaty and exhausted, to state that a small army of menacing unlifen were approaching the area, fast. They had already killed, with out provocation, one group of locals that they had come upon.

[Maharg67]

CHAPTER 0015: GRANDTHIRTEEN: AT THE SETTLEMENT OF ANAPELLA

15.1

 

That the invasion of unlifen, and undead, was about the Waygates, the the area, was a reasonable idea but that did not automatically mean it was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

 

The unlifen army was heading towards the Triple Waygate Chamber, which was a relief to the people of Anapella, FridayJane's settlement. Yet they were still under threat because they were not too far from that very chamber.

 

She had found her 'missing 99', her family and friends, along with others important to her life. Anapella had grown from then on with others joining its population but now it was decided the majority would go to the RingBase. A minority would stay at Anapella, keeping it going as a valuable outpost settlement.

 

The first small group vanished, departing to the RingBase from Anapella. It was made up of the very young, the sick and some loved ones. Because two way teleportation was more efficient than one way, and because of the need, equipment and supplies appeared in return. These were copies of typical Moontropolis stuff but it was valuable stuff.

 

FridayJane was pleased that some of the most vulnerable of her people would be safer, though sad that they were gone from the community, and even more willingly to cooperate with the GrandThirteen. The addition of equipment, and supplies, helped her mood. She walked with Essie along the shoreline of the big bowl lake as a fishing raft went past with teenagers using small nets to fish with.

 

“What else could be hidden in Crossenways? A whole mass of things could be hidden up there, at the level of the Subways, and down here where we are below the subways. At least the official subways. There are other tunnels down here that were always kept secretive, or so I have come to suspect.” FridayJane nodded. “They are strange because they lack all the known official symbols, markings and names. There are advanced monorail trains in them that seem designed to move as silently as possible in tunnels that are heavily sound insulated. There are a trio of subway stations but each leads to a massive, heavily armored power-door that none have been able to open. One of the strange subway tunnels leads to the Triple Waygate Chamber. There nearest of the secret subway tunnels is not too far from here.”

 

“We are sorry we are taking your people away from your home.” Essie watched Flipperin, in the distance, swimming with some people. “You must have put a good deal of yourselves into this place.”

 

“There is sadness but keeping our home safe has always been a struggle. It will be good to be in a safer, more secure, place where we have less need to worry, especially about the more vulnerable members of our community.” She sighed. “Another mystery is not too far from here but is not one I like to share with most of the folks of Anapella. I am going to take you to the person whom the settlement of Anapella was named after; her name is Anepel. We can get to her through the secret subway tunnels. You spoke of getting reinforcements to help defend Anapella.”

 

He nodded. “Gather some people and resources from the locality. Prepare for a two-way teleportation of the kind that has already taken place. I am going to get an expeditionary group formed. How many of your people will you have coming with us?”

[Maharg67]

15.2

 

FridayJane looked thoughtful. “StirFrine and CarryMike. StirFrine is amphibious and CarryMike is an excellent scout-fighter with even more knowledge of this Subzone than I have, which is saying a good deal though I hate to sound boastful. Is there something you are not telling me?”

 

Essie nodded. “A large undead army, complete with glimmering mist, has appeared in the area and is also heading towards the Triple Waygate Chamber. The information has only been confirmed. Through the RingOfRings, and various networks, we have access to information but often seems not enough or unreliable or lacking altogether. You have heard of the WhisperNet, haven't you?”

 

FridayJane shook her head. “No but it does not surprise me that such would come to exist in Moontropolis; it is that sort of place. How will you deal with two such evil armies?”

 

Essie sighed. “Let them deal with each other. They hate each other more than they do the living.”

 

The second two-way teleportation took place, between Anapella and the RingBase, with waterweed and people going one way while clones, androids and robots coming the other way. The newcomers were military and service-support units. They had equipment and supplies with them in metallic cube-canisters.

 

Essie set out with the three locals while Brand, and Flipperin, remained at the settlement.

[Maharg67]

CHAPTER 0016: GRANDTHIRTEEN: MEETING ANAPEL

16.1

 

The secret subway tunnels were as FridayJane had described them except that she had failed to mention the heaps of oddly well preserved bodies in power armor of various kinds. Some were military of light, medium or heavy grades. Others were powered hazardous material suits or PHMSTs. All the power armor was also filled with an exotic softly glowing mist. There were deactivated androids, being replicants, deactivated robots and many deactivated roboremotes (dumb-robots). They were heaped, almost tidily, on platforms that the group moved past.

 

FridayJane smiled at Essie. “What androids, robots and people? The platforms are empty!”

 

StirFrine and CarryMike agreed with FridayJane that nothing was on the platforms but, also like her, seemed very reluctant to have a closer look at those platforms.

 

Not long after Essie, and her companions, had left behind the three platforms, Eddie arrived there along with the cyborg Beck. It was then that the GrandThirteen learned that the RingOfRings carried with them some most unique abilities as Eddie, and the RingOfRings, brought the humans back to full healthy existence for they had not been dead but in a bizarre form of suspension. Eddie was surprised, as was Beck, by the glowing energies that went through humans, machines and 'resurrected them' or full activation. All were rejuvenated. Eddie 'sensed' that the white glowing mist, that had been inside the power armor with the people, had made it easier for them to be returned to full life.

 

Essie was aware something important, strange, had happened but she focused on what was happening with her and her companions. Increasingly she aware aware of a subtle but dangerous psychic presence around them and that this was influencing the minds of the other three. It could not, would not, touch her and she picked up fear in this other mind though the other tried to conceal it.

 

The next platform had nothing on it except some abandoned machines. They climbed onto the platform and went through a transit passengers' power-gate that led to a transit walking tunnel. There were roboremote security turrets lowered from the ceiling but they were deactivated.

 

The voice spoke deep in her mind, was warm, strong and supportive.

 

RingMind: Greetings, I am RingMind. You are now merged enough with the RingOfRings for me to fully contact you. You are in danger but only if you are not careful.

 

Essie was surprised but not as much as she expected that she should be. She followed the others along the tunnel and then to the left along a forking tunnel. The other tunnel led into darkness. FridayJane, and her two comrades, did not even appear to notice that the other fork tunnel existed.

 

They came to a hub chamber, ending the tunnel in a disk shaped space but with many doors leading to hallways or small chambers. Somehow it did not surprise Essie that her companions could not see that many of the doors existed. Despite the chamber being bare, she 'sensed' that there had been much violence carried out in that place but many years ago.

 

The chamber they entered offered a surprise but only to Essie as only she could see the place for what it was and the entity in it for what she was. Anapel floated naked in a great big sphere of thick yellow glimmering mist that made her appear more modest. Her face was clearly visible but not the rest of her body. FridayJane, StirFrine and CarryMike stood staring ahead smiling richly. Essie did not like the way that the minds, of her companions, were being manipulated. There was something deeply unhealthy in the nature of it. Indeed, it was not natural.