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Pegasus (Part 68)

Zen was wide-eyed, his mouth open.

Then he spoke.

“It’s an alarm. The space station is being boarded. There were rumors this was about to happen but in all the orbits I never thought it would actually happen. The first I heard about it was in the Moon Inn, not far from here, my usual haunt. I just put it down to drunk talk. But then I heard it more and more. Then recently, infomercials about how the base would be defended ya see started to appear. Dats how I recognise da sound. But, I still never thought it wud actually happen. It’s the Emperor, he wants rid of every last bastion of freedom. We have to get yous out o’ ere and fast.”

“But what about the defense plans? Maybe can help defend the place?” I asked quietly.

Zen replied matter of fact, “Not a hope mate. Dose plans were to sedate da population nothin’ more. In reality, there is no force ‘ere capable o’ resisting ya see. Now folla me.”

He led us into a small side room and pulled back the carpet revealing a secret hatch. Opening it, he said, “You don’t have much time, hurry. I’m well known as bein a part of da resistance. I’ll be at da top of the list for interrogation.”

“You’re not coming?” Tabitha asked.

“No, it’ll be too much heat for the two of yous,” he replied.

Pegasus (Part 67)

Tabitha knocked on the door. There was no response. She looked back at me with a frown.

“Try again,” I tell her.

She knocked more loudly this time.

She could hear something coming from behind the door.

Then the door opened slightly.

Tabitha spoke.

“I wonder what kind of day it is on Earth? Must be thirty degrees.”

Instinctively, I knew she was telling them a password, but with plausible deniability.

The door opened revealing a red skinned man in tattered clothes. He looked old with wrinkes covering his forehead.

“Come on in brothers. There is nothin’ to be scared of. Dis is a safe zone. My name is Zen”

So in we went through a narrow hallway to a small room, with a circular table at its centre.

Two other red skinned people in suits were there but quickly left through a rear door on our entry.

“What can I do for you guys? I wasn’t expecting yous,” Zen said politely.

Tabitha took the lead.

“We need your help. We are on a classified mission for the resistance. Things have gone slightly awry. We need to make it to Xena5.”

“Xena5, are you sure?” His eyes aghast.

“We are,” I replied steadfastly.

Then we heard a sound going off. It was a siren coming from outside.

“What is that?” Tabitha asked.

The Talimammy

The house was quiet, not a murmur or even the sound of wind whistling.

“No fuckin’ way. What the fuck?” I roared looking at the computer screen. My perfect life suddenly shattered.

My Mammy ran into the room.

“What’s wrong?”

There was a moment of silence.

“It’s not that bloody chess again? For God’s sake.”

I’m too annoyed to speak. My blood is boiling, my eyes bulge. I had just thrown away my queen, blundering to another catastrophic defeat. My queen had been a thorn in the side of the enemy till that point. How could my Mam not understand the anguish.”

“That’s it no more chess in this house. It’s banned. You can go up to your own house if you want to play it. Imagine, if your nephews heard you roaring like that. Such a bad example. And you, in your mid-forties”

“You can’t ban chess. What are you? The Taliban?” I replied mockingly, “So, I can go drinking and whoring but no chess?”

“That’s right.”

“Even kill?

“Yep”

“Are you a secret Osama or something”

She wasn’t joking. Now my time spent visiting is about getting a few quick games in here and there.. Anything to feed the monster inside. If I get caught, the computer is off no matter the damage to my ratings.

Pegasus (Part 66)

There were people of all various shapes, sizes, and colours. It was my first time to ever see purple people and angloids. Angloids were taller and had larger brains than normal people. I had read that humanity was diversifying and may in the future even evolve into different species. Many of the space habitats were now operating at below standard earth gravity. Their inhabitants were evolving to become longer as a result. It was suspected that the greater complexity of life in space habitats was also causing humans to evolve bigger brains in places.

I thought it was utterly ridiculous when I read it. The thought that humans could still be going under biological evolution at our high technological level seemed ridiculous but now I wasn’t too sure.

Tabitha was far less fascinated by our surroundings. She held my hand as we drove through the bustling crowds.

“Nearly there,” she said looking back at me.

We turned left, then right through what seemed like a maze of small streets. Each becomes narrower and quieter.

“This is it!” she exclaimed as she pointed at a terraced house in front of us.

It was the first time that I’d seen her smile in some time.

The street had three-story red brick terraced housing on both sides. The one she pointed at looked like all the rest.

Pegasus (Part 65)

Yves was unlike anything I had ever seen before. A large rotating city made up of many different cylindrical levels. It was home to an estimated twenty million people and was a central trading hub in low Earth orbit. We had docked into the central and main thoroughfare.

A mass of people were walking up and down the narrow, paved street that was enclosed by uniform five-story red brick buildings with ornate windows. The clanging of so many feet and people chattering led to a great cacophony of sound that was almost painful to my senses. There was a smell of fish emanating from some of the restaurants that were at street level. Overhead, to their right, was the polluted, exploited planet Earth with hues of blue, white, amber, and black. Still, I couldn’t but stare at it in wonder. After all, that is where everything started, a relic of the past.

We were safe there. Yves treasured its independence which it saw as vital to its economy and the Emperor had decided that it was more valuable functioning, rather than obliterated.

Tabitha tugged at his shirt.

“You have surely seen Earth before?” she said incredulously;

“Of course, but not so close up. I guess you want my head back on mission.”

“Right,” she replied, “come on.”

With that, we joined the great morass of people

Pegasus (Part 64)

I decided to speak first. The language remained in English so that all could understand.

“Congratulations. I believe you have made a fine choice of leader. But I recommend that you hold him to account with elections every certain number of years. Democratic systems have proven superior over the years.

You should also think about having a constitution and a set of laws that you all agree with. That way, you can be clear with one another about what is and what is not allowed.

We have checked Barabus’ accounts. The ship is generating enough economic to sustain everybody and much more on board. If you all work together and care for one another, great good can still come out of this.

We, however, must leave you. We are on an important mission that we must complete at all costs. But we do have some time to show your new leader how things are to be managed. We have examined your flight path. Your next stop is the metropolis of Yves and that is where we will leave you.”

I stopped talking but felt that something was missing.

Then Tabitha spoke.

“But we’ll never forget you. And we’ll be back. It might be a long time, but we will.”

Pegasus (Part 63)

Gradually they came around. Some wanted more drink, but we had bolted it away. It was time to decide what to do next so we went back out to the large meeting hall.

I decided it was my time to speak. For a few moments, I could feel myself grow hot but I persisted.

“Your time with Barabos is over. We saw how you were treated. It was wrong. But you can now become the master of your destiny.”

A voice spoke from behind the crowd, you could sense the fear in the crackling voice. It was from one of the younger ones.

“Will you stay with us?”

I continued.

“No, I’m afraid we can’t. Tabitha’s people need our help and there is something that we must do. But I’m sure that you can manage on your own. The first thing you should do is write up the rules you will live by and select a leader.”

I took Tabitha’s hand and we left them for some time. We had to decide what our next move was too.

The mood was more upbeat on our return. We asked had they selected a leader and it proved to be a familiar face – Padraig.

Review of “The Colony” by Audrey Magee

The author paints a vivid, rich description of life on a fictional wild island off the West Coast of Ireland in the late 1970s set against the backdrop of the Troubles in the North. It begins with an English artist taking a rocky trip on a currach over to it for the summer. We quickly learn that Irish is still the predominant language on it and that only some of the people mostly the younger ones will be able to understand him.

The next chapter gives us the first update on what is happening in the North.

There is another foreigner on the island for the summer, Masson. A French man with some Algerian heritage. He is there to study the Irish language before its expected decline. This turns out to be one of the major themes, the unstoppable decline of the Irish language along with the difficulties and isolation of island life. They do not get along and he resents the Englishman’s presence as it increases the amount of English being used on the island. For those familiar with the language, many of the old arguments raged between them with Masson stressing the language’s cultural importance whereas the Englishman, Lloyd thinks that it is unimportant and shouldn’t stop progress.

The central relationship in the novel is between Lloyd and James (Irish name Seamus). James, who to the horror of Masson doesn’t want to use his Irish name. James gets interested in what Lloyd is doing and becomes his quasi-apprentice for the summer. When he sees what improvement James is making he offers to bring him to London to exhibit his works alongside his own and to send him to art college.

There is an array of other central characters. James’ mother is a widow, his father having drowned with others while fishing, Michael (the money maker), and Francis, Mairead’s brother-in-law.

Mairead enjoys Masson’s bed while he visits the island in secret. This being the 1970s. She also agrees to let Lloyd do some artistic nude paintings of her. It was never her intention but she has become somewhat stuck on the island.

Francis wants her to be his woman but is not interested which is awkward.

Two-thirds of the novel is very good but the ending is disappointing.

James perhaps foolishly accuses his master of copying him, which is laughed off. But Lloyd recognizes then that James is better than him and leaves him on the island. Francis and Mairead’s mother finds out about her naked pictures and admonishes her. And yet the painting still leaves the island. It feels like the start of a story rather than the very end.

Like, are we to believe James will now live out the rest of his life on the island?

And what of his mother?

Therefore, it receives a score of three out of five.

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Sighted Twins’ Self-Discovery & Survival Amid Blind World | Series 1 of See Review

If you like sex, torture, and violence, then this is a must-see. See what I did there. Okay, the sex is more implied than graphic but thankfully the violence and torture are right up there. And my dear readers, I just felt I had to let you know.

Oh, and nearly everybody is blind. Five hundred years previously a virus decimated the human population to a paltry two million. Those who did not die were left blind along with any future descendants.

That was until now. Series 1 is the story of sighted twins and their voyage of self-discovery about their place in the world and about their biological father. They are hunted along the way but have their adopted blind father Baba Voss to guide them both physically and spiritually.

There are many things I enjoyed about this first series, one of which is the medieval battle in the first episode between two armies of the blind. I found it fascinating, Personally, I think they should have left the appearance of people having sight for a bit longer and delved into the new culture.

I give this series five stars out of five. It’s available on Apple.

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Till next time.

Pegasus (Part 62)

We could see on the monitors that some of the kids were already pouring into the room.

“We have to tell them.”

Damn, I knew she was going to say that.

I nodded in agreement and replied, “Yes, I guess so.”

We opened and walked in. Their eyes and some of their mouths were wide open in astonishment. Tabitha did the talking.

“Barabus is gone. You are now free.”

There was a stony silence and some of the children looked at each other for guidance.

“And there is lots of food,” I interjected.

Somehow, I knew that would make a difference. And it did.

Suddenly there was a smile here and there.

Tabitha looked at me, her face looked all contorted. Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about the blood and the dead body.

“Just give us a few minutes to get it sorted,” I continued.

Fortunately, they appeared to believe us. We hastily put the body in a side room and washed the blood from the floor and furniture before calling them in.

Their eyes were aghast at the opulence that they saw and the fine food to be eaten. Telling them to partake in the wine was a mistake though. Little over an hour later the room was full of sleeping bodies and vomit.