Previous Post Quote: In checking a back-reference I was surprised to find that there wasn't a compilation page for Dancer's longest and best "serious" story from 2005. Consider this the 10th anniversary re-release. I used to host the archive page for Far Away, but when I switched from dial-up to Broadband my website was erased (the broadband service, oddly, did not include a web site allowance). Still, I have the old backups (with the original stories), and dug out the three increasingly irrelevant side stories I wrote - I'll post them as followups to this...

That Which Does Not Live: A Far Away tie-in

Originally posted on Tales of the Parodyverse.

Characters in this story are owned either by myself, or other posters on the Board.

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The General had been having a good day. Emphasis on the had. The initial snatch had taken place, the demoralised survivors of the snatch were being winnowed and processed. Everything had gone according to plan, just as it always did.

Then the reports started coming in. Despite the amnesia serum; despite the trauma of having your world-view shattered; despite all the psychological beatings to the psyche that the survivors should have received; some of them were banding together and resisting. Instead of being frightened individuals, easy to manipulate and mould, they were becoming serious hazards to the operation.

And that wasn't the worst of it.

"I'm sorry," he said to the hapless Technician who was unfortunate enough to be making the most recent report. "I fail to see the problem. We know the transfer takes a vast amount of energy. We know that the calculations are not precise. Why are you concerned that it took 'more energy than expected'?"

"..."

"Well?"

"Sir, the estimates were out by several orders of magnitude...We barely managed to complete the transfer of materials. It was as if we were transferring more material than actually existed in the target area."

"And?"

"Sir, we managed to identify three anomalous areas in the energy patterns. Squads were sent out to investigate."

"Technician, do I really have to rack the rest of this report out of you?"

"Sir, Transcripts of the transmissions from the first two squads are attached to the report, Sir."

* * *

Anomaly Investigation and Elimination Squad #3428745 Transmission Transcript File #4876529875

[CONTROL]: Do you have sight of the target area yet?

[#3428745]: Affirmative, Control. The target area is a single building within an open area. We are moving towards engagement.

[CONTROL]: Report on the state of the building.

[#3428745]: It appears to be classifiable as a large dwelling. It appears to have survived the transfer more-or-less intact.

[CONTROL]: Move towards the entrance. Take care, the building could be unstable.

[#3428745]: Affirmative, Control. We are approaching the front entrance nowS***.

[#3428745]: {Transmission becomes confused; weapon fire is apparent in the transmission}

[CONTROL]: AIES #3428745, please respond.

[#3428745]: Two squad members eliminated by some form of automated decapitation weapon. We have returned fire and destroyed the weapon.

[CONTROL]: Acknowledged. Try to enter the building. Take care - there could be other traps.

[#3428745]: Affirmative, Control. We are now inside the building. The entrance point is a large area with openings off on both sides. To the rear is an uneven inclined plane that arcs round to the upper levels. There appears to be a large figure part-way up the inclined plane, sitting in an alcove.

[#3428745]: Correction. The figure appears to be some form of pigment image, surrounded by some sort of frame. There is some sort of inscription underneath. Local translation algorithm is not translating it.

[CONTROL]: Transmit inscription.

[#3428745]: Inscription reads: Marie Murcheson, 1840-1860 Nec scire fas est omnia, vox et praeterea nihil

[CONTROL]: Mainframe algorithm is not translating it either. Maintain a presence in the entrance area and check the openings on the current level.

[#3428745]: Affirmative, Control. We...Wait...There is something moving near the image.

[CONTROL]: Are you sure? We show no life readings other than your own.

[#3428745]: Sorry, Control. Must have been a trick of the light.

[#3428745]: What the...

[#3428745]: {Transmission becomes confused; weapon fire is apparent in the transmission, followed by a single scream, then static}

[CONTROL]: AIES #3428745, please respond.

[CONTROL]: AIES #3428745, please respond.

[CONTROL]: Central: Report AIES #3428745 no longer responding.

* * *

"We sent two other squads in to investigate." explained the Technician. "One of them reported seeing a green alien before their comms equipment underwent some form of failure; the other one disappeared in the same manner as the first. The remaining squads are a little reluctant to go out after them."

"And the second anomaly?"

"Ah. This one was underground..."

* * *

Anomaly Investigation and Elimination Squad #745765 Transmission Transcript File #9876874534

[CONTROL]: Caution: Scanners indicate that you are approaching a large open chamber.

[#745765]: Affirmative, Control. We are entering the chamber now.

[#745765]: {Pause in transmission}

[CONTROL]: AIES #745765, please respond.

[#745765]: Sorry, Control. The chamber appears to be some form of ancient archive. There are labelled items in stacks all over the walls. Lighting is achieved by multiple open flames fuelled by some form of hydrocarbon stick. It's kind of creepy.

[CONTROL]: Creepy?.

[#745765]: There are some seating units here, occupied by...

[#745765]: {Pause in transmission}

[CONTROL]: AIES #745765, please respond.

[#745765]: Sorry, Control. The seating units are occupied by corpses.

[CONTROL]: Targets killed by the Transfer?

[#745765]: Not these, control. These are long dead. There's nothing alive down here.

[CONTROL]: What is the disposition of the corpses?

[#745765]: Unknown. They appear to have died whilst looking at some of the archive material. One of them is holding a spherical drinking container, filled with a red liquid.

[CONTROL]: Poison?

[#745765]: Just checking.

[#745765]: Blast.

[CONTROL]: What happened?

[#745765]: Spilled some of it on the archive material. Still, doesn't matter, I suppose.

[#745765]: What the...

[#745765]: {Transmission becomes confused; sound like transmitter hitting ground}

[#745765]: {Faint voice, not recognised by system}Blasted illiterates. Now we have to get our copy of the Book of Dying Names transcribed again...

[#745765]: {Transmission cuts out}

[CONTROL]: AIES #745765, please respond.

[CONTROL]: AIES #745765, please respond.

[CONTROL]: Central: Report AIES #745765 no longer responding.

* * *

"And how many more squads did you send in?" asked the General.

"Well, none."

"None? Why not."

"Well... We appear to have misplaced the chamber."

"How can you misplace a chamber? Even if they shield it you should still be able to find the location."

"We can, sir. It's just that the tunnels no longer seem to go to it."

The General put his elbows in his desk, his head in his hands and sighed. It had all been going so well.

"And the third anomaly?" He asked.

The Technician gave a signal. A slim, dark-skinned human female was brought in, flanked by a double set of guards.

The General looked up. By human standards she appeared to be attractive, he thought. An ideal slave. Then he noticed the other things...

She was dressed in the flowing robes of a mystic. She wearing an ornate neck ornament, with a strange stone mounted in the center. She was not dressed in the clothes of a slave, she obviously did not have an implant or a power suppresser, and above all, she seemed neither shocked or disoriented - as if being thrown into the unknown with your memories ripped from you was no more that par for the course.

"Why isn't she fitted with a power suppresser or an implant?" he asked the Technician.

"She doesn't have any powers," responded the Technician, "and the implants don't want to be...implanted."

"...?"

"The first of them ceased to work, the second one went insane, and the third...underwent a severe existence failure."

"And the extra guards? Is a powerless human that dangerous?"

"No sir, it's just that slaves seem to disappear around her if she isn't guarded."

"Well," smiled the General. "What shall we do with you?"

He looked her up and down a few times. His eye kept being drawn to the pendant. He froze.

"How about we give you the antidote to the amnesia serum, and drop you off where we found you?" he said suddenly, with a rather unnatural (for him) smile.

"Sir?" protested the Technician.

"Yes," said the General, addressing him directly. "Take the nice mystic back where you found her and let her get on with her mysticisming. That way everyone will be happy and nobody will get their heads ripped off. Here, at least."

The Technician scrambled to fulfil the order. With any luck, he would be away long enough for someone else to make the report about the medical institution.

* * *

Ebony sat on a pile of rubble, watching her memories return. The Shoggoth was bringing her up-to-date with other events.

Now that we have a sample of the antidote, the one known as Grace can work out a way of synthesising it. Greye and his colleagues have made contacts with the banshee and the mathematical one and will start work on intelligence and co-ordination. I will leave the Legion to my estranged self.

"And what are we going to do?"

Everything is going to have to be transported back home somehow. We are going to start building one damn great chymeric gate.

"Sounds like a plan." replied Ebony. "Where's the chalk?"

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Footnotes:

Just in case it is not obvious:

• Anomaly One was caused by dragging the Lair Mansion (and all its associated baggage) across space. Hallie and Marie (both part of the mystic defences) were evidently not pleased about this.
  
• Anomaly Two was caused by the Ghouls of Gothametropolis and their library. Abyssal Greye may take a dim view of that, but would be even more annoyed by having wine spilled on his copy of Book of Dying Names for a second time (the first was mentioned in Cum Grano Salis), which means that he will have to bargin with the Shoggoth to get it re-transcribed again.
  
• Anomaly Three was caused dragging part of the main mass of the Shoggoth (imbedded in Ebony's amulet) across space (by comparison, the lesser mass attached to the Legion went unnoticed).
  
• It is not surprising that there would be problems with a certain medical facility, since it is the known haunt of one Grace O'Mercy, a vampire whose blood was imbued with Serious Matter and the blood of the Elder Vampire Nosferos. We shall not mention the little secret buried in its foundations, mostly because HH has not revealed what it is yet.
  

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