Valley of the Queens

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

continued from this thread



Ven looked around, a wary expression on his face. "You weren't kidding," he said to the woman standing beside he and Jav. "This sure isn't like any place I've ever been to before."

He toed some dirt, inspecting its consistency, and then turned to the woman. "So if they were to live here -" he motioned to the walls of what appeared to be a cave, " - what exactly would they do?"

It was a valid question. Without a fight to fight, he feared that the rank-and-file of the GAR would be sorely out of luck.

Comments

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"Someone would think of something." She eyed him, then turned and walked toward a door set in the far wall, which also held high windows of unusual shape.

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"Um, no. You see these men have been exposed to nothing but their base needs and killing. Unless there's something for them to do here, there is a high chance that they'll just kill each other into the ground."

Ven scowled. "So come up with an idea fast or we'll just head home."

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She twitched and visibly fought the impulse to stand to attention, then went rigid. "Farming?"

Jav was still frowning as he himself walked over to the door and opened it. His surprised whistle echoed in the big room and over an open space outside. "Ven, come see this."

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"What?" He walked over to where Jav was. "What am I seeing?"

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"That." He went to the railing and looked over it.

The two of them were standing on a terrace over fifty foot above a wide river that ran along the bottom of a steep-walled but immense valley. On the opposite wall, a couple of miles away, more terraces fronted windows and doors, or held a riot of green growing things. More green stuff covered the valley walls, except for the massive carved female figures that stood at wide intervals all along the way, their arms folded under their breasts and expressions of serene amusement on their faces. Both ends of the valley faded into the misty distance. Up ahead was a wide ribbon of blue sky.

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"Well, it's a very pretty place," he said, pointing to both the valley and the statues. "But will it work?"

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Jav succumbed to the urge to spit over the railing, then looked around thoughtfully, liking the feel of the place. "Does that door we came in go anywhere else? That one on the wall back in there?" he asked Aoife.

She nodded and settled to sit cross-legged on the floor. "The guy that I won the portal generator from said that it can go anywhere, even to other realities if you know how. But he didn't know enough about computers to do anything with it."

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"Well that sounds very encouraging," Ven said brusquely.

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Aoife groaned. "There are ships, too. But please don't make me do anything else until I've had time to sleep this off. Please." There was genuine, rather hopeless, pleading in her voice. It made Jav turn and stare again.

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Ven rolled his eyes. "You live here?"

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"No." She grimaced and lay down, closing her eyes. "It's too quiet. I just checked it out once to make sure it covered the debt."

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"...Wha..."

Ven looked over at Jav.

This girl was weird.

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Jav's eyebrows were getting to know his hairline as he leaned back against the railing and watched what was going on. When he saw his brother's glance he shrugged. He had no idea what was going on here.

"What?" Aoife frowned without opening her eyes.

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"Hm. Please to be going home now?" Ven asked nobody in particular.

This place scared the bejeebus out of him, she scared the bejeebus out of him, and didn't he have a beer still at the Port Club?

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She groaned and sat up, thinking that she was going to have to supply a different place. "Aren't you even going to look around? The living quarters are pretty nice."

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"I didn't say it wasn't adequate. All I'm sayin' is that it scares me."

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"Home," she muttered, trying to get to her face and only managing to faceplant and give herself a nosebleed. "Ugh... Aoife's not home right now, can I take a message?"

Jav watched in silence as she passed out at the end of her pronouncement, then looked at his brother. "Cafe?"

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

Ven nodded. "Sounds good."

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"We bringin' her?" Jav's accent had relaxed.

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"I guess we should if we don't want to lose our ticket back here." He knelt down. "Help me get her up, she seems like she might be a bit of deadweight."

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"Yer not jes' takin' the teleporter?" He looked at him over the prone girl, then blinked as he realized something. "We don't know 'er real name. She jes' gave us 'er designation."

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"She knows about how this place operates. I'm not letting that information go."

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"Gotcha." He scooped her up, mindful of the jacket pocket that held that droid gun, then stood. "I still wants to know what the @#$%&#@ they was thinkin' 'o makin' a whole army 'o little things like this."

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

"I have no clue," Ven said. "It doesn't make any sense."

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Jav shook his head, then thought of the Cafe (and the coffee at the Port Club), and walked through the door. By some quirk of the Cafe he wound up back in Newfoundland, but didn't complain.

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

Ven sighed.

"Well, weirder things have happened."