cover art by Michael Whelan |
"Greendark in the Cairn" is a fairly straightforward story of the Captain of a spaceship who becomes convinced he is being driven mad by enemies. His ship is encountering a ship of the enemy (who apparently destroyed another ship with 1500 civilians aboard) and the Captain must make the decision to attack, but his mind is losing it. I have to say I didn't see the point, really -- so, he's going mad, for whatever reason, and as a result he fails to perform his duty. There seems nothing more to the story, to be honest."
cover art by Stephen Youll |
Upon reading the above commentary on the story, I read "Greendark in the Cairn" in which Rohrer included the following: "A rumor had spread through the ranks that the enemy was able to control minds. Stanley had scoffed at the rumor. Now he believed it." Stanley is Captain of a spaceship and for the first 4 pages of the story he is having bizarre thoughts. He finally realizes that his mind is being controlled by the Evil Aliens™. Realizing what has happened, and knowing that because the enemy control his brain he will be prevented from destroying the enemy spaceship during the coming battle, he waits to the last minute, kills himself, and then another member of his crew takes over and destroys the enemy spaceship.
I suppose readers who are not particularly interested in telepathy as a sci fi plot device could read "Greendark in the Cairn" and say: "The dude went mad and killed himself. So what?" For my stories (such as "Meet the Phari"), it is important to make it clear to readers that the human characters can be subjected to sophisticated mind control without them ever noticing. Or, if they do notice, their memory of having noticed can be efficiently erased.
Grean (image credits) |
For my stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, I make use of nanotechnology to precisely control human memories and behavior. I imagine that Grean the Kac'hin has access to "infites", a type of nanotechnology that can transfer information into a human brain or selectively hide memories of past events. However, I don't set out to write horror stories, so nothing really bad ever happens in my stories when humans are subjected to alien mind control.
image source |
Kwenslo |
Lady Gensifer and Rupert are taken off of Yrinna and they get to interact with people such as Sally Lanting and Jenny Ebernal who eventually come in contact with Eynta, leading to changes in Eynta's behavior.
Next: Daz Studio animation, lighting and surfaces.
See also: Chapter 11 of "Meet the Phari".
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