Storms whose furies dwarfed the worst of winters past, driving the might of seas up rivers and into the least streams. Lands turbulent, restless as fever haunted sleepers. Mountains in anger threw down rock, snow and ice or hauled up worse from the depths of the earth. Disease flourished in the resultant death. And in the terror came myriad small wars.
For those charged with remaining calm and analytical the evidence led to one plausible conclusion. This in turn begged further examination for this conclusion flew against hard won rational beliefs founded in the sciences and many a mighty machine. Yet all pointed to lore based on creed of the heart and ephemeral faith . The urgency of the matter compacted what might have otherwise been years of debate into mere days, for the process envisaged was innovative, an appeal to Devine Agencies. Across the breadth of consensus, there was, however, no other option. As one put it.
‘It’s worth a try,’
‘Lady Betrügerin? The Ghost of?’
‘If you likes Custodian Vastberaden. I’m not fussy. Thanks for recognising me though. A girl likes to have a bit of a reputation. Quite a bit of effort there, getting yourself noticed by us. Took a risk. I could’ve nobbled you without discourse,’
‘It’s a time when risks don’t matter,’
‘I suppose it would be fer you folk, down on the ground there,’
The brief conversation concluded as the mist cleared, and light blue passageway ended with a simple wood arched door. The woman of youthful appearance and three centuries notoriety, knocked with deference, but spoke otherwise.
‘He’s ‘ere Guv’nor,’
‘Thank you Betrügerin,’
Opening the door and with a less than sober gesture of invitation Betrügerin stood to one side allowing the Custodian to pass through.
‘Best of luck with your pitch mate,’ she said and passed back into the mist.
Although the atmosphere of the room seemed clear Vastberaden discerned more mist, of a soft coastal sort, the variance made the task of focusing on the man at the other end of the room, problematic. The only detail The Custodian was certain of, the fellow was tall and studying a map laid out on a table, which might have been bigger than first inspection. Vastberaden supposed there would be challenges to the senses when meeting someone who was arbiter of the fate of the world.
‘Custodian Vastberaden,’ the voice was quite ordinary, paradoxically Vastberaden would have been disappointed if he had been addressed in majestic echoing tones, the business to him would seem to have smacked of ostentation. ‘You did not journey here of your own volition. Sent at the behest of eminent and intelligent people, though you did volunteer,’
‘No questions,’ thought Vastberaden, ‘It would also be disappointing if he had to ask. He is supposed to have a quite comprehensive knowledge,’
Then there was the silence. Vastberaden concluded he was going to have to do the talking.
‘Correct,’ the fellow said ‘You are here to state the case for Preservation of Your Civilisations’ Status. In the light of evidence to the opposite,’
‘Of course, he can hear my thoughts. But speaking can be more coherent,’
‘After all the study and conclusions based on investigations over the past century. We discovered this link or pathway, and felt a direct approach was the correct thing to do. After all the effort in forging our civilisation, fatalism could not be countenanced,’
There was a sigh.
‘Whereas your response can be considered positive in its level of determination, you must appreciate against the weight of evidence the achievements are outweighed by the mistakes, abuses and of course hubris,’
‘We are aware of the shortcomings. We are not complacent or uncaring. I would also point out that the current amount of suffering of the innocent is comparable to several of our more profligate wars. We struggle to see The Justice, nay even The Example being set by Higher Authority if I may use such a term,’
The figure looked up from the map, Vastberaden discerned emotion, though which one he found he could not make out.
‘You appear not to have perceived the disadvantageous changes you folk are bringing unto the World,’ one hand drifted across the map ‘Here, these are plain to see. For Humanity is not the only concern. Other Life. And Other Dynamics. They have precedence,’ there was a brief neutral gesture for Vastberaden to draw closer. ‘Come closer. You may be able to discern why things are unravelling the way they have been,’
Vastberaden looked down upon a map, whose basic outlines seemed distantly familiar, although total perception was made difficult by the movements and interactions of shapes, some geometric, some reminiscent of clouds or oceans while others tested the senses to comprehend. The Custodian shook his head in bafflement, at this one hand rested lightly on his shoulder, and in a jarring interlude there was a focus, albeit blurred.
Life was a part of The World. A factor which lived under the sway of forces able to sweep lands and oceans clean of it, and yet in its own various dynamics capable of causing those forces to react in ways folk had not expected to react. Many forms found balance and accord, some did not. Humanity appeared to be one such, and thus forged an extreme example of unbalance. Vastberaden considered the panorama and the circumstances unfolding, no the correct word be ‘unravelling’.
He looked up into a face saddened.
‘You understand something of the problem. You folk with such inventiveness and ability have this talent for making things worse,’
‘Aye. This much is obvious. We made great efforts to seek out something which when it was staring us in the face,’
‘There is the irony. Consider your example. In your urge to find a practical and rational answer you did not rely on convoluted recitations, nor some of the more questionable religious practices. You worked on the evidence of activities of my,’ here Vastberaden detected a slight laugh ‘Own band’s extended efforts. Concluded there was a distinct pattern leading to some intelligence beyond your own realms. One combating malevolent people in your fields and cities. Thence was a most dangerous bold strategy of placing your people as potential false targets sought to establish contact,’
‘It cost us several brave folk,’
‘It was unfortunate. Some of my own have not yet, even ever grasped the subtleties of operations against the corrosions. Lady Betrügerin, though as ruthless as any is possessed of a certain whimsy which saved your life, physical. Know this here is an opportunity of insight. We have our own missions against Ignorance, Fear and Intolerance and despite our seeming apparel of celestial power, in the scheme of things are but talented dedicated, small folk. We cannot stop these events you have brought upon yourselves,’
In his career Vastberaden had known many disappointments, some defeats and a fair number of those designated as insurmountable challenges. To avoid shock and dismay he had prepared himself for this endeavour to be one of the latter, mixed with something of the first. Speak calmly, though. Good manners cost nothing.
‘You did, still allow me to have audience. Would you then, by definition have some advice?’
‘There is always advice. This would depend on whether the listener truly wants advice no matter how unpalatable, and not just an alleged solution?’
Vastberaden thought this reasonable. The one facet which had weighed heavily upon him was the notion of making an appeal to a celestial being. After all such folk would not necessarily have the same moral compass, thus what might seem a heartfelt appeal to you could be laughable or worse objectionable to them. And as for advice, well you could listen to as much of it as you wished, then filter through the whole flood looking for gems.
‘I would always listen to advice,’ Vastberaden said, as he often had, for many folk had taken this statement as willingness to wholeheartdly accept what they would say.
The conclave which had debated and finally acquiesced to Vastberaden’s mission walked into the most secret of chambers to discuss and speculate what had, was and might be taking place. Such was their immersion in the whole venture none of them were truly surprised to find him already seated there. He was quick and economical to advise them he had journeyed to where intended, he had met with someone in authority and had positive news to give them. As was their experience in grave and weighty matters none of them hurried him along, even though a nearby substantial river, had driven by great rains broken its banks, rushed upon and caused the collapse of a castle.
‘There is guidance,’ he said, thoughtfully and told them of the great map and the information thereupon ‘The responsibility lays with everyone. It is not a spiritual, but a physical matter. The resources of the world cannot be taken granted as servile, it is necessary work with the land, rivers, seas, yea even skies. New disciplines and means have to be learnt, old ones adapted. The great forces once thought to be under control are not, much study is necessary. The work will be hard and long. Everyone must understand, bend their minds and bodies to change,’
The first to speak was a graven military fellow, versed in the ways of war and state security, thus with the shortcomings and weaknesses of territories, rulers, influencers of rulers, those who would be either and of course the mentality of mobs and rumours.
‘This will be a very difficult task, like trying to turn around a great vessel in a narrow shallow when a tide has gripped it,’
‘Indeed,’ agreed Vastberaden, then speaking guardedly added ‘The folk I spoke with can offer some assistance,’
At this a woman appeared at his side, she smiled waved, a cheerful little gesture.
‘Lady Betrügerin,’ she said.
‘The Death Maiden?’ asked a man of theological scholarship and thus rather interested ‘Not legendary then Vastberaden?’
‘I can speak for meself.,’ she snapped ‘Quite real thank you. So is he,’ she pointed to someone turning from a mist to a more discernible figure robed, features hidden by a cowl, and in a thin hand holding aloft a scythe. He was silent. Vastberaden took up the discourse.
‘Those whose representatives you see here, are willing to take some time out from their allotted task purging evil dabblers in demonics, to assist as it were. In expunging those of arguably a more important threat. The ones who will not listen either through greed, ignorance or stubborn intransigence,’
‘Of course we can’t be everywhere at once,’ Lady Betrügerin said and the cowled figure nodded agreement ‘And we can’t go taking everyone of the world. Be a bit drastic. Things are bad enough anyhows. Only the worst and most loudest, let the others learn. Y’know you can help there, by telling folk the ones taken was smited by Devine Judgement,’
As the cowled figure nodded so did the military man and the theologian; it seemed a reasonable approach the pair thought.
To be fair to the assembly being mortal there was a brief hub-bub, but general agreement.
‘Strange times. But necessary requirements,’ said the current chairman ‘You Custodian Vastberaden must be escorted to and speak with the emperor, in secret of course,’
Vastberaden seemed a smidge abashed and hesitant, Lady Betrügerin sniggered and nudged him.
‘G’wan,’ she enthused ‘Tell ‘em,’
‘I visited him first,’ Vastberaden confessed ‘He was annoyed. Said it would interfere with his gold mining enterprises. He was my first case. He’s gone from this mortal realm,’
Vastberaden rose, out of the chair and into the air with Lady Betrügerin and the cowled figure.
‘Initially I did display great doubt, myself. Then Lady Betrügerin, educated me, as it were. It didn’t hurt at all. Think on it, gentlemen,’ he said.
And left.
A Singular Circumstance. One Summer’s Day (August#BlogBattle- Peculiar)
https://bbprompt.com/2022/09/02/september-blogbattle-eschaton/
Writing Despite Computers and Programmes 
Pingback: #BlogBattle Stories: Eschaton | BlogBattle
You don’t watch Ancient Aliens by any chance Roger? This is right up with where I’d expect celestial discussions on cataclysms to tick over. Kind of their theories that old Gods were off world visitors mining…oddly enough…gold. What you’ve crafted has similar themes haha.
Shades of Hitchhikers too with the bloke whose name I can’t spell that oversees world building. It’s like a “God” committee debating who should survive an ELE. A recognition that the sub-species below needs thinning out and resetting. Very Noah or Gilgamesh depending on the narrative you follow. I was wondering where the decision on which bits remain above sea level and which become future Atlantean myths!
Obviously I found this fascinating owing to things I watch and ponder. I do watch the above programme too. Not necessarily to agree or disagree, but to see where they visit and what they examine. I’ve learnt about places I’d never even heard about before. Very useful stuff in terms of writing inspiration and the old “what if?” question.
On an aside you have a “which when” sentence. It reads odd as if you initially had a sentence, but altered it and missed removing one of those words?
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Hi Gary.
No, I’ve never seen Ancient Aliens; any similarity is thus coincidental 😃. My own inspirations come from having spent 45 years both working in the UK Civil Service and reading military history (and the political interactions). I have a fascination in how administrations and strategies work, don’t work, work by accident, have unintended consequences and different agencies bumping into each other. In short Chaos.
So having built my world (or found it- still not too sure) and the various layers, it’s fun to explore the what ifs.
With this backdrop adding the Climate Change possibilities into a narrative summoned up by this month’s word was just too good an opportunity to miss!
Also the story from last month did have some unfinished business which begged ( nay nagged) to be used.
Glad you found the mix interesting.
There is indeed a whole wealth of possibilities from our Human narratives to be mined and used in stories or speculations. Being heavily influenced by the raw size of the Cosmos and some physics I currently tend to suspect no one has ever manged or bothered to get here. Fermi and Drake? 🤔- No answer yet of course- and is a plot I am currently struggling with for my latest venture.
Sorry about the ‘which when’; I’ll have to go back and check that- sometimes my narratives get too convoluted and sentences too long (Civil Service again)…. either that or I goofed! 🙃
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I do recall you mentioning the civil service as a source for your intrigues. Alas wrt politics all I come up with is parodies! A shame spitting image isn’t still going!
I agree the world at present is a gold mine for eschaton crafting too. Not that that is a good thing alas.
Re the Drake/Fermi paradox. I know the math has kind of been accepted as a working formula. Personally I’m not convinced by it’s application. An advanced civilisation might have decided to mask its presence. Our star is around 4.5 billion years old. The universe is way older so basing observation on what we see now is kind of naive. Also it’s a very big place so the chances of randomly seeing anything are slim. Obviously you can plot the skies sequentially but any short signal could still be missed. Also if the ability to cloak exists then anything wanting to be here would be and we’d never know by direct evidence. Let’s face it wasn’t that long ago that anyone saying life existed elsewhere was a looney. Now there are vast budgets spent on astrobiology. Water is being found where it “shouldn’t” be and panspermia is gaining traction. Neither is it impossible we have been visited by drones or ET, but deep in the past where they would be perceived as Gods due to science ignorance. This is the basis of that programme and something I keep with an open mind. Either that or a much older highly advanced civilisation that we know nothing about that could travel the world and spread knowledge. Leaving relics of that as evidence maybe. Maths, astronomy, similar build systems, myths and so on.
Never apologise for the which when type stuff either. It’s easily done and we all do it. Part of the commentary is to mention such to help writers recognise where they can improve. Heck I could write a treatise on word craft now haha
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Drake/Fermi or not?. Who of us can truly say? We have opinions and beliefs and there we go. One of the issues with Alien Life is trying to second guess its motivations. The whole thought process is likely to be quite different to ours. Look at our own local incomprehensions with other nations, cultures and races. Who knows….Well yet anyway.
In the meantime I’ll have check that which/when
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Very good debate point Roger. Imagine you were an alien looking at what you see going on here. Would you deem us friend or potential foe once we manage to get off world properly 🤔
I think your point about thought processes is bang on too. Writers often humanise everything which often makes things seem less real. I’ve been watching Rings of Power and that aspect flows. Why do elves there seem to be acting as humans rather than what Jackson created? Even the hobbits seem like us in the guise of leprechauns. #soapbox
If it helps you find it this is the line
‘Aye. This much is obvious. We made great efforts to seek out something which when it was staring us in the face,’
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When it comes to most SF be it film, TV or Fiction we seem to have the very basic:
1. Noble beings coming to improve us (whether we like it or not)
2. The Space Board Game approach of the 4 e’s: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate (in novels add exploit).
I suppose the challenge to have incomprehensible beings with totally alien thoughts and actions might make the reading or watching too much of a challenge for both creator and recipient.
I’ve not seen Rings of Power, aside from the promotional clips but am not surprised by your findings. When I did have ‘Prime’ I started to watch ‘The Wheel of Time’ and thought (don’t recall it being like that).
Still folk new to both like them, so there we go.
After all look what happened to Pierre Boulle’s ‘Planet of the Apes’?
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Pretty solid round up. Formulaic I guess. I thought the Halo series did a reasonable job mind. Separating us from the covenant. I suppose it’s down to how the writer portrays them. If it reads/views well then it works. Try too hard and back to the complication you mentioned.
Or as in Independence Day make them Uber powerful in a way we simply could not survive then bring in a drunk pilot to save the day. I guess we could discuss this for hours haha
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Or….
(Love this film)😃
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Does that take me back! Oddly I saw it recently on Sky movies. Can’t remember which channel but it also ran Barberella too 😂
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Barberella never worked for me, I saw it when first released and it relied too much on late 1960s camp (you had to be there at the time).
Flash Gordon kept true to Pulp Traditions. (And you can’t go wrong with a Queen song as title)
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Bit of a marmite one. Like or hate with not much sitting in-between. Flash Gordon is as you say and the Queen track still exists in its verse with the Flash Mop adverts 😂
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It’s a kind of immortality 😃
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I liked the opening – definitely set the tone for the eschaton. It was entertaining to get a glimpse ‘behind the scenes’ of what needs to be done and how various characters approach the matter.
One thing I struggled with was not knowing who speaks which line at the beginning. The dialogue flows nicely later on, but, in the beginning, I’m not sure of who is who and what their agenda is. I realize that it might not be important, but I just prefer to be in the know.
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That’s fair comment Sam. On reflection I should have ditched the ‘oblique’ image of the ‘Big Guy’ and invested more in describing who was narrating.
I fell into two traps:
1. Disliking John Scalzi’s ‘He Said’…..’She said’ ending to dialogue…even if he does write good stories.
2. The idea that you should not end a piece of dialogue with eg: ‘He said, in fury/joy/confusion’ etc….but let the dialogue to the driving – works OK if you can write excellent dialogue.
I tend to pad out my own stories, but holding to the 2,000 words-ish limit tend to edit, maybe in the wrong places.
I’ll take this on board for the next Challenge.
Thanks for the advice and feedback
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Ha! I often feel lost when writing/editing because I think what I should or should not be doing. When it works, it works, but when it causes too much stress (indirectly), then I don’t think it’s worth it and I simply just write. Just recently, I read that James Patterson writes colloquially and… it kind of gave me more freedom to do what I do. The dude sold hundreds of millions of books and so if he believes in telling stories just like you would if you were telling a friend about what happened, it can’t be THAT wrong. Can it?
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It would be interesting to compile a book whose theme was recording the numbers of ways you should write, with quotes of course.
I reckon it could go into at least two volumes.
Then there would be the follow up which would be a listing of those who did not follow any advice and became successful.
The great unfathomable mystery for writers who never quite make it……
How? And more to the point WHY??? (or Why Not?)
Keep on keeping on I guess Sam.
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Brilliant!
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Thanks Sam.
Pen to paper or keyboard to ‘doc’.
It’s the only way👍
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Truth.
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Quite an intriguing blend of the physical and the metaphysical here. The not-quite-human characters come across as the fairies of old – back when fairies were a force to be reckoned with as opposed to light-hearted sprites. Map Man even makes reference to Small Folk, an old moniker for the otherworldly beings. Nice contrast about how beliefs founded in sciences and mighty machines, where members of humanity fancy themselves godlike, are still no match for what lies beyond their knowledge. And solutions are not without price, where the balance of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are generally intertwined with each other. Very thought provoking read!
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Thank you abe.
I have to tip a nod of inspiration to yourself🙂. Something about Part 1 / Part 2 kept tapping away in my head, and when September’s word popped up, so did the character Lady Betrügerin (never waste a character I say, because they won’t let you forget it!), although not as central; her boss took a centre stage this time.
The narrative then took off….
Thanks for your feedback, I’m glad you found aspects to think on. If I can’t find something for folk to chuckle about, then ‘pondering on’ is good too.
Who truly knows ‘what is out there’? I recall a radio science programme and a UK cosmologist saying knowing every answer would be boring.
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How nice that ‘Parts’ worked so well for you – great use of inspiration! And oh yes, one can’t let a good character go to waste. How true about knowing every answer would make life boring. It would also make writing stories unnecessary because the suspense would be lost!
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Y’know I never thought about that aspect.
A world without stories…Hideous!
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