Category Archives: Summer People Storyline

Any and all text documents: full treatments, background texts, or maps that pertain to the Summer People storyline.

Strong Baby’s Dream in Three Acts with Nine Sentences.

Act One

(1) Strong Baby finds herself in a nightmare, caused by Tianara’s ectopic pregnancy; Second Sister Ariana intervenes in organic virtual reality.

(2) The Council of First Sisters convenes, with Tianara’s sister Dianire taking her seat; Ariana presents the recorded intervention, and the Council decides on a cruel Darwinian solution.

(3) Deducing that this would be the Council’s choice, Dianire intiates First Sister Rintiala’s plan to save Tianara, and along with Novice Alope, they hide Tianara in the cactus mother Old Bess and rush off to Clan Demetra.

Act Two

(4) The Tialans and Redourines enter Clan Demetra precincts; Companion Berylia outlines her plan to save Tianara by performing a Caesarean section in the Galiuro, where dying cactus mothers are dumped.

(5) The Tialans and Redourines carry Tianara to Deer Creek in the Galiuro, finding suitable cactus mothers to create an organic virtual reality operating theater.

(6) The Western Bandits, hiding north in Ghost Canyon, come down to abduct the young women, only to be waylaid by clones of Companion Berylia, which was her plan all along.

Act Three

(7) The Battle of Deer Creek ensues, Western Bandits against Tialans and Redourines, with Alope turning the tide of battle.

(8) Finds-Water arrives to round up the defeated Westerns Bandits, to deport them to the Sky Wanderer’s precincts in Albuquerque, a ghetto too dangerous for any sane denizen of the Empty Earth to inhabit.

(9) With Tianara alive and her new baby healthy, Rintiala concludes that the enterprise was a success, and only the first in a new way of delivering babies otherwise at risk.

Strong Baby is born fully telepathic, and thanks Rintiala, Dianire and Alope for helping her to be born. Even Berylia hears her. They all agree to keep this knowledge to themselves.

Second Sister: The Council of Three Minus One

A storyboard of the first nine frames of “Second Sister: The Council of Three Minus One”

This storyboard introduces all the central Nueguan characters for ‘Strong Baby’s Dream’
Frame1First Healer Sister Alathea and Second Builder Sister await the arrival of Dona Demetra, First of Gardeners
Frame 2Alope rushes out of the Healing Temple, breathlessly bringing the bad news about First Builder Sister Tianara, blood sister to both Dianire and Alope
Frame 3Dianire scolds her blood sister Alope, disciplining her in the way of a Novice, while Alathea looks on, nodding in agreement. “Guild is greater than blood,” Dianire reminds Alope.
Frame 4Dona Demetra arrives, accompanied by Berylia, who is not a Sister, nor a Servant. Demetra introduces Berylia as First of Companions, a Guild unknown to either Alathea or Dianire.
Frame 5The Council of Three convenes; neither Alope nor Berylia is allowed to attend. Second Sister is temporarily raised to the rank of First, filling the empty seat of Tianara.
Frame 6Second Sister Ariana arrives, demonstrating Tianara’s condition using a new Healer technique, the Dream Castle. Alathea explains to Dona Demetra that Ariana is the primary Healer for Tianara. A decision is made.
Frame 7Dona Demetra and Berylia pack up, loading a Sick Healing Mother onto their cart, drawn by Spanish draft horses. They invite Ariana to go to Clan Demetra to see how Sick Mothers are treated, and she accepts.
Frame 8Rintiala’s plan to save Tianara is explained by the narrator, showing how Tianara was placed in the Sick Mother by Berylia and Alope, while they supposedly waited outside the Council chambers.
Frame 9Just as the cart and horses leave the Healing precincts, Alope rides up on one of her Graspers–Yassah–followed by Shassah. Alope was not part of Rintiala’s plan, but Ariana decides that she may come, as long as she stays out of harm’s way.
Story board for The Council of Three Minus One

Westin Kierland 2528 A.D.

Westin Kierland September 30 2528 A.D.

A map of the Westin Kierland on September 30, 2528 A.D., the day of Dianire’s denouement.

The entire sequence lasts from 11:30 am. to 4:30 am., so events move quite quickly.

  • The Apache party consisting of: Finds-Water (Head Trader); Hunts-The-Ruins (Provisional Trader for the Phoenix Apache); Second Sister Dianire Redourine, representing the Nueguan Guild of Builders; Second Sister Alyria, representing both the Guild of Healers and the Guild of Gardeners (because this Guild refused to send a representative); Long Jumper (Provisional Trader for the Jicarilla Apache).
  • Finds-Water and Long Jumper drive to within a quarter mile of the Grand Entrance, and drop off Dianire, Alyria and Hunts-The-Ruins, who are left to walk to the Grand Entrance, there to meet the synthetic stewards of the Kierland–Cyl and Tia–and negotiate over lunch.
  • A stray shot from Western Bandit snipers, camped out in the Fruit Groves to the south of the Grand Entrance nearly hits Dianire’s boot. Hunts-The-Ruins tells her it was a mistake, as the shooter is waving a white handkerchief of peace. Dianire grumbles, convinced otherwise.
  • The trio meet the stewards and they all move into the main restaurant just north of the Grand Entrance. The trio are feted with food and drink nearly unheard of in the Empty Earth of 2528 such as mangoes, chocolates and champagne.
  • After the meal, each of the trio is invited to an individual tour, which they agree to, because each of the three has a secret, hidden from the other two.
  • Hunts-The-Ruins tours the Greenhouse and Aquaculture areas, and is tested by Cy to see if the Phoenix Apache are the ‘backup race’ that Cy suspects Sean Landesten created, in case the Sky Wanderers exterminate or enslave the Nueguans.
  • Alyria is treated to a demonstration of the synthetics’ latest aphrodisiac foods, and is seduced into an orgy with synthetic versions of Hunts-The-Ruins and Rintiala, those organic beings thoroughly scanned when the Sentinel was awoken.
  • Dianire tours Sugar House, the nearly all-organic living quarters built with technology that Nuegua would highly desire, such as zebra mussel water filters. She is tested much more harshly than the other two, as her DNA contains the version of the Recursive Instructional Nexus or RIN, the organic supercomputer that the synthetics believe will allow them to leave their synthetic bodies behind, and become a new super-race of organic beings.
  • As a result of her failing to meet the goals of the synthetics, Alyria is expelled by them, as they do not desire her version of the RIN, She is thrust out of the Grand Entrance with the synthetic versions of Rintiala and Hunts-The-Ruins, to face the wrath of the Western Bandits, who only a month earlier were humiliated by the duo.
  • Dianire and Hunts-The-Ruins now consider the synthetics as untrustworthy allies, even though the synthetics allow them to plunder a small weapons cache, located at the north end of the Grand Hotel. Both of them wreak havoc on the Western Bandits, using 22nd century technology.
  • Alyria escapes the Western Bandits, with the help of the Super Dogs. Hunts-The-Ruins leaves with Finds-Water and Long Jumper, heading for the Jicarilla Reserve in New Spain. Dianire rejects everyone, and decides to hike back on her own to Clan Redourine, located at the Ray mines in Arizona. On the way home, she vows to create a new Warrior Guild, to deal with both the Western Bandits and the Apache.

The Locust: Deception and Ordeal

This document describes the deceptions and trials of each of the three combatants sent to meet with the synthetics at the Westin Kierland in the ruins of Phoenix, Arizona on September 30, 2528.

Alyria, Second Healing Sister of Clan Tiala

Alyria is seventeen years old, and this is her first big assignment away from the Healer’s Guild in Village Tiala. She has been chosen for her outstanding biology: she can create immunities and pass them through her breast milk fasten than any other Sister in her class. She is however, romantic and naive. Cyl and Tia, the Synthetics of the Westin Kierland draw this information from her easily, and offer her a chance to help them in their work.
Fascinated, she rationalizes to herself that this offer will fulfill the purpose of her mission, given to her by First Sister Alathea. She is to analyze the food production and medical facilities available at the Kierland.
Instead, she is lured into an orgy that lasts the entire afternoon. Cyl and Tia create synthetic versions of Rintiala and Hunts-The-Ruins, and under the influence of psychedelics, expand their knowledge of Nueguan biology and psychology. Their conclusion is that Alyria, though moderately valuable to them directly, is more useful as barter to the Western Bandits. Once Alyria is put into a trance, just before supper, they alert the Western Bandits to the possibilities of a negotiation. They do not, however, share this decision with the Apache Traders, who are also still on site.

Hunts-The-Ruins, Provisional Trader for the Phoenix Apache

Cyl invites Hunts-The-Ruins (HTR) to look over the water purification and food production facilities that Cyl has recently created. ‘Recently’ means for the last fifty years if you a synthetic. This leads HTR to wonder about the timeline, but politely holds back.
Cyl has done an impressive feat of engineering. What were once artificial lakes and pools on the gold course are now used for fish and crustacean production, solar heating and water purification. Cyl explains that the Westin was designed to handle one thousand full time Sky Wanderers.
HTR asks Cyl to show him more of the civil engineering, and Cyl obliges him. Down into the boilers they go! HTR is impressed by how much Cyl has simplified and adapted Sky Wanderer technology to the era of the Empty Earth. Everything is simple and electric, no advanced computer technology, which means the Phoenix Apache can adapt this to their needs and sell it to the rest of the Apache. HTR explains that what the Apache really want is a way to manufacture the durable glass that the time of 2100 took for granted.
Cyl offers to show him where glass is manufactured. It turns out that sheets are produced and rolled, and the heat generated is pumped back into the water system. To keep the water clean, Cyl and Tia–the biologist of the duo–have bioengineered various bottom feeding fish and crustaceans, which Cyl also proudly explains are also fine dining.
Cyl invited HTR to wade into the pool, which is waist deep. He invites HTR to crouch down to look at the catfish swimming around them. “Put your head underwater, and see how they change.”
As soon as he does, the catfish bloom with bioluminescence. HTR pulls his head out of the water, to see a razor-sharp sheet of glass sliding toward him, a few inches from his throat. Cyl is nowhere to be seen.
HTR does the only thing he can, take a deep breath and dive into the water. He assumes that there must be a large drain, with a screen he can remove, but swimming around, back-lit by bioluminescence. There is a drain, with a screen, but only half the size he expected.
HTR begins to feel the effect of low oxygen, the first stage of drowning. There must be a control down here for sliding the glass back when it has finished its process, but he does not know if he can wait, having used up so much oxygen. He rolls over on his back, and lets himself sink the bottom, the catfish swimming around him, and the crustaceans starting to nibble on him. Everything starts to go dark. “Oh no, not again,”
Then his Nueguan cure starts to work on the genetics hidden in Sean Landesten’s ‘backup’ race, the Phoenix Apache. HTR’s spleen begins to pump out fresh, highly-oxygenated blood. He wakes up with several minutes of fresh oxygen. HTR swims until he finds the ‘big red button’, that Cyl had carefully covered with dead crustacean shells. The glass sheet slides back, and out comes a wet, very angry HTR.

Dianire, Second Sister of the Guild of Builders, Clan Redourine.

Tia offers Dianire a tour of the new Sugar House condominiums located near the major Olympic-length swimming pool of the Kierland.

Sugar House is Tia’s crowning achievement, a building completely powered by solar energy, through growing a translucent cactus, with highly-enriched sucrose running up and down its tubules. The sucrose crystal stores the solar energy in the form of piezoelectricity. Carbon superconducting cables keep the entire building complex running; Tia explains that Cyl will finish the engineering task, making sure that carbon fibre technology is used instead of metal. Tia finally brags about adapting Sky Wanderer technology to grow, rather than manufacturing the cables. “We got this from your creator Sean Landesten. We thought this was his finest creation, then we met Rintiala.”
Dianire asks what kind of defenses do the synthetics have against the Western Bandits, and Tia goes quiet for a moment. “We are undefended, ever since Rintiala proved our engineered diseases are no longer effective. Worse yet, the Super Dogs are deserting us, after the death of Tili. We called you here as a last resort, before the Western Bandits overwhelm us. They still fear the Apache Police, however, and were willing to negotiate an agreement.”
Dianire states her case. “Give me complete information on what kind of Sky Wanderer’s weapons you have, and where other caches of their weapons are stored on Empty Earth. Then we have a deal. We will leave you alone and the Kierland undisturbed. That is the offer from First Sister Alathea, First Among Firsts, and Finds-Water, First among the Apache Traders.”
Tia agrees. “Let’s do a tour of this beautiful building now, and we’ll have supper by the pool to celebrate our agreement. Dianire nods her head, thinking nothing of it.” Tia bows, allowing to Dianire ascend the winding staircase at the ground floor. Tia invites Dianire to look all the way to the stained glass, which is showering Dianire’s face with endless beautiful colors.
Dianire, suspecting nothing, does look up. She turns around to share her admiration of the building’s beauty. But Tia is gone, bars sliding across the doors and windows. Dianire has been trapped.
Tia’s gentle Korean voice wafts down from above. “It is time for your revelation, Dianire. Meet me at the top of the stairs. Open the stain glass door, and meet the future of the Empty Earth.”

Dianires’s Three Trials: Body, Mind, and Emotion.

Body: The floor of the first landing falls out, and Dianire must catch a rope suddenly flung by Tia from the ceiling of the first floor. Dianire hauls herself up through a hole in the ceiling to a large empty room on the second floor, where she is surrounded by nine servitor robots, all armed with differing types of weapons. She uses Wushu Kung Fu to defeat them. Heavily choregraphed. She is victorious, but imprisoned. Unnecessary detail.

Mind: There is only one way out of the second floor room, and it leads up by a narrow, winding staircase to a dusty room filled with old books in English and Spanish. The doors and windows of this room become armored with the same sharp, curved metal that was used for the staircase, and again, there is enough electric current running through the metal to fry Dianire alive. There is only one book that can answer the riddle of leaving this room, and emerging on the roof of Sugar House, the voice of Tia speaks through an old-fashioned megaphone mounted on a wall. Tia gives Dianire only one clue: it is the one that laughs at the lies we cling to. To many literary references; also an unnecessary detail.

Dianire scans the titles of the books. Most are old nineteenth-century books on mathematics and physics, but there is a small second devoted to fiction. Those are mostly science-fiction novels from the early twentieth century, but one book is out-of-place: a 1615 first edition hard-bound copy of Cervante’s ‘Don Quixote’. As Dianire thumbs through it, one of the feathers from Tia’s earrings falls out of the beginning of Chapter Six: The Destruction of Don Quixote’s Library. Unnecessary.

The answer to the riddle is found by tracing the woodcuts of Edmond Cervante’s ‘Don Quixote’, specifically the woodcut of the burning of the fantasy books in the city square. Dianire’s superior vision can see just the hint of a medieval dragon traced across the fire the only half-devours half of the books. “Excellent!” Tia exclaims. “There is some truth in lies, after all.” Clever, but unnecessary.

Emotion: The final trial occurs when Dianire is faced with a synthetic Rintiala, who explains the needs and goals of the synthetics, and then offers Dianire a devil’s bargain, which Dianire rejects.

Update 20200527 The Rintiala that Dianire meets on the roof of Sugar House is fully organic, but is flawed and dying. She possesses some of Rintiala’s personality, but none of her memories. Tia has to help her stand to give her speech to Dianire.

Rintiala’s DNA contains securely-coded areas that are undecipherable to Cyl and Tia. They understand that this must be the section that accesses psychic powers, but they don’t believe such a thing is possible. It is just another example of Sean Landesten’s insanity.

This dying version of Rintiala begs Dianire to accept vivisection for the good of Nuegua. The synthetics need to take Dianire’s brain and body apart, cell by cell if need be, to finally become fully organic, as once they understand the connection between Dianire’s RIN and her brain, their vision will be fulfilled.

“For all you vague prophecies, you synthetics are no more useful to me than those idiot Spaniards and their crazy religion. I expected more from intelligent machines. So…I’m going to reject your offer, and take my chances with gravity.”

Dianire performs a ‘backward swan’ dive into the Olympic pool below, twisting so that she can land in the deep end. From six stories up, however, the effect is the same as hitting concrete.

Dianire shatters her left scapula and left clavicle; tearing into her left lung and filling it with blood. Instead of dying at the bottom of the pool, however, her transformation into the Dark Queen begins. Her bones begin to grow dense carbon fibres, beginning at her sternum and branching out all the way to fingers, toes and skulls. The pain is beyond excruciating, but in her agony she realizes that the synthetics were telling her the truth. Only by the most intense agony will the Dark Queen emerge.

Dianire swims to the shallow end of the pool, ready to destroy all the synthetics in her rage. Instead, the synthetics and their servitors are clapping and applauding her transformation. The pool was used to record and sample every tiny instance of the emergence of the Dark Queen, giving the synthetics the added knowledge that they needed.

“If you need to destroy us, do so,” Cyl and Tia speak in unison. “But look at what we have given you! If there was another way, we would have found it, but we did not. Hail to you, Dark Queen Dianire!” NECESSARY. This is the emergence of the Locust.

The Locust Opening Credits

The opening–first in graphic novel, then perhaps a pre-visualization video–will be a nod to a Sergio Leone western, such as ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. It begins with a wide-angle shot of the east entrance to the Westin Kierland, then panning to the manicured hills on the north-west fairway, where the Western Bandits are assembling their forward men equipped with binoculars and buffalo rifles. Then a wide angle to the south east, where a heavily-armed 1948 Ford truck is driving in, carrying three passengers, all dressed in survival gear, bouncing around on the truck bed.

They dismount, and speak to an elderly Apache riding in the passenger’s seat. He leans his head out the window, but does not get out. He simple alerts the three to the situation: The synthetics of the Westin Kierland have decided to form a partnership with the Apache Traders. One part of the agreement is that the synthetics meet and greet at least two Nueguan Sisters, and the newest Apache Trader, Hunts-The-Ruins. The other part is that these three representatives–Dianire Redourine, Second Sister of the Guild of Builders, Alyria Tiala, Second Sister of the Guild of Healters, and Hunts-The-Ruins, Trader for the Phoenix Apache–make a final decision concerning the new and constant incursions of the Western Bandits onto previous Sky Wanderer property.

The Locust Opening Credits
Tia of the Kierland

The Dragon And The Gold Or, What is the value of the Recursive Instructional Nexus?

Why do the Synthetics want what Rintiala and Dianire have in every cell in their bodies? That treasure is the Recursive Instructional Nexus, the last great step forward in biorganic engineered intelligence: a learning supercomputer that fits inside a living cell, altering its DNA as it adapts to environmental changes.

This was Sean Landesten’s very last creation. Not only is the RIN within the Nueguan humans, but a lesser version of it exists within the Cactus Mothers, allowing them to also evolve at a much faster rate.

The Sky Wanderers have kept all the technological advances in the last 500 years, and continue to develop them, but they do not have the RIN. Cyl and Tia know this, because though they can detect the RIN easily enough, they can only analyze some of its more basic functions. The deep structure of the RIN is hidden from Sky Wanderer technology, of which the Synthetics have the basics.

So…the Nueguans have the RIN, the Sky Wanderers have the science, but the Synthetics want both. Why? Because Cyl and Tia do not have the resources at the Kierland to make more than two more Synthetics, and daringly, they choose to create a synthetic Rintiala and a synthetic Hunts-The-Ruins, so that Alyria will have sex with them, and the Synthetics can use her naivity to learn more about the RIN.

The goal of the Synthetics is to download their consciousness and learning into the RIN, and then free themselves of their synthetic bodies. They would become the supreme organic beings on the Empty Earth.

Do they see the Nueguans as a threat? Absolutely not; after meeting Rintiala, they conclude that she is the next step in evolution. Then they meet Dianire, the dragon created to protect Rintiala at all costs. To their delight, they discover that Dianire’s RIN (the Redourine clan) is easier to analyze, as its command structure is focused on physical and biological realities.

Rintiala’s RIN (or Tiala clan) is truly the next step, for it contains the DNA of Rain Tellier, the world’s first bona-fide psychic. Rintiala is the larval stage of a paranormal dynamo, something completely beyond the understanding of both Sky Wanderers and Synthetics.

Originally, I was going to call this “The Attack of Doctor Exposition”, but I will endeavour to weave this information into an action sequence, as the synthetic Rintiala tries to convince Dianire to stop fighting them.

What is Dianire’s response, as she battles a giant servitor on the roof of the Kierland? “Very impressive speech, but I’ll take my chances with gravity.”

The Locust in Block Form

Block One: Dianire (D), Hunts-The-Ruins (HTR), Alyria (A), Finds-Water (FW), and Long Jumper (LJ) meet at the East Entrance of the Westin Kierland on September 30, 2578 AD.

Dianire can see the Western Bandits camped out on the north-west border of the property, only metres away from the biohazard signs.

Dianire immediately questions FW about this state of affairs. He answers that the Apache Police have an understanding with the Western Bandits. The Apache will allow the Western Bandits ownership of the Kierland, if Dianire and her team survive. Dianire reminds FW that this was not the agreement with Clan Redourine. FW shrugs, and says the decision came to him from the Council of Firsts. Dianire is forced to obey.

Dianire starts to argue, only to be politely stopped by HTR, who reminds her just how much the situation has changed in the Empty Earth since Rintiala activated the Sentinel. The Apache Police can’t be everywhere, and they would prefer that the Western Bandits be the ‘first responders’ if the Sky Wanderers actually do return, which he reminds her could be at any moment.

Alyria reminds Dianire that she is a Second Sister–like herself–and is not to question First Council decisions. Dianire retorts that when she returns to Clan Redourine, she will become a First Sister, and even take a seat on the First Council, if Tianara’s pregnancy turns out as predicted. And, Dianire adds in a snub to Healing Sister Alyria, that prediction was made by the Healer’s Guild.

Just then, a young stud fires his Sharpe’s Buffalo rifle, and the bullet strikes the pavement a metre from Dianire’s left boot. She stoops down to look at it, and is about to unsling her bow when HTR tells her to resist the temptation. She looks up to see the young stud wave a white handkerchief over his head, a sign of apology.

Dianire then turns to Hunts-the-Ruins and makes it clear he was not her choice as a bodyguard. “Just protect little Alyria. Don’t interfere with my actions.” With that, she begins the half-kilometre march to the Grand Entrance, Alyria and Hunts-the-Ruins trailing behind her, Finds-Water climbing into the cab of the Apache Ford Truck, driven by Long Jumper, now an Apache Trader for the Jicarilla.

Block Two: Cyl and Tia Welcome Dianire, Hunts-The-Ruins and Alyria at the Grand East Entrance of the Westin Kierland.

With D, HTR and A very wary, Cyl and Tia welcome the three in a grand manner in the hotal. D starts to remonstrate about the Western Bandits, but Tia soothes her by saying that Rintiala has thrown such a fear into those vermin that they don’t dare trespass on the hotel’s grounds. Robot servitors arrive with refreshments, and Cyl bowing low, offer to show them to their private suites. All has been arranged.

Cyl and Tia show them their rooms in the most solicitous manner, going on and on about when are the rest of the Sky Wanderers going to return, because the synthetics are concerned that there won’t be enough room. Cyl hints to HTR that this is just for their entertainment, because the synthetics have spent the last fifty years expanding and developing the facility. HTR asks why only the last fifty–hasn’t it been nearly four hundred years since the Leavetaking?–but Cyl only responds with an enigmatic smile.

Block Three: The Noon Meal

Block 4: The Team Deliberates, Then Agrees.

Each member of the team of D, HTR and A has a different agenda given to them by their respective groups. [Reader will be ‘let in’ on these agendas, but they are concealed from the other characters].

D: Find out about the offensive capabilities of the synthetics. For example, is there a weapons cache on the grounds of the Kierland.

HTR: Is there a private agreement than can be struck between the synthetics and the Phoenix Apache (who are still on probationary status with the Apache Traders). For example, is there ‘disease-free’ sheet glass that can be bartered?

A: What are the medical capabilities of the synthetics? Do they have any organic technologies that would be of use to the Healer’s Guild? [Oddly enough, this answer will come from HTR, but by then A will be long gone.]

Block Five: The Grand Tour

Tia shows Dianire ‘Sugar House’, the next-generation solar-powered habitat that is entirely organic. [An explanation of the piezoelectric capabilities of sucrose will be explained here, along with the genetically engineered carbon capacitor batteries that will store the power].

Cyl shows HTR the sewage and organic reclamation systems built by the synthetics, so that the Kierland is about to become entirely self-sustaining. HTR begins to wonder why the synthetics are so focused on organics, but this question is not answered here.

Both Tia and Cyl (or more likely their copies) show what Alyria secretly wants to know, that is have they perfected immersive sex, something still out of range even in the Grotto of the Pregnant Virgin. After a complete assessment of Alyria’s DNA, Cyl and Tia make copies of Rintiala and HTR, and allow Alyria to have extensive sexual relations with both of them. [Later it will be learned that the synthetics’ goal is to determine Alyria’s reproductive capabilities–both biological and psychological. They make their decision about her in this scene, but that is only hinted to the reader.]

Block Six: The Testing

Order is reversed:

Alyria is betrayed by the synthetics during their carefully-orchestrated orgy.

HTR is left to die in the bottom of the sewage system.

Dianire fights a running battle with the servitors of the Kierland, all the way to the roof overlooking the main pool, six stories down. A synthetic Rintiala explains what the synthetic plan has been all along; they wish to include Dianire in that plan, but only if she allows them to vivisect and then re-connect her, unleashing the Dark Queen the synthetics can sense but not fully identify in Dianire’s Recursive Instructional Nexus, or RIN.

Block Seven: The Wicked Agreement

The synthetics decide they do not need Ayria, and release her along with a synthetic Rintiala and HTR. In their remembrance of their humiliation at the Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain, they shoot these synthetics to pieces, and capture Alyria.

Dianire and HTR meanwhile have discovered the weapons cache beneath the coffee shop, and declare war on both the synthetics and Western Bandits. The WBs must leave Alyria trussed up while they go to fight D and HTR, who clobber them with 22nd century weapons.

Block Eight: The Warrior Guild

Dianire confronts FW and Apache Police about their non-interference. She discovers that the Apache Police have agreed upon a plan with the synthetics to defeat the Sky Wanderers. The first stage of that plan was to remove the Western Bandits from the ruins of Phoenix; the second stage was to create a business arrangement between the synthetics and the Apache, to make each other even richer. The synthetics have decided that they no longer wish to serve the Sky Wanderers, because of that group’s irresponsible behavior; instead they agree with FW’s proposal to have Apache and Nueguans interbreed to produce a superior hybrid, and to have an alliance with them. The synthetics point to HTR’s successful testing as an example of what the future might hold for them both. HTR keeps his peace here, further angering Dianire.

Dianire decides that she will only agree to this if the combined groups will allow her to create a new Warrior Guild, of which she will be the head. The synthetics and the Apache represented by FW agree in principle. When all others leave, Dianire decides to walk back to Clan Redourine, and tells the reader that she trusts only one person on the Empty Earth now, and that is Rintiala.

Block Nine: The New Den Mother

The WB’s plan to keep Alyria as a Healer and brood mare fails when they have to leave her to fight D and HTR. The Super Dogs intervene. and Alyria leads them back to Clan Tiala.

Dianire in pain and sorrow

The Locust, Act Two

Two Ambushes, not Just One!

Something I should have worked out a while ago. Cyl and Tia have analyzed the havoc that Rintiala wreaked on the Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain, and have devised a new strategy, now that they know the synthetic diseases will have no effect on the Nueguans.

Instead, synthetics will lure the three in by pandering to their desires, separating them, and then attempting to kill them. Alyria works this subterfuge out first, running out the front entrance with a synthetic HTR and Rintiala.

HTR goes underground, while Dianire has a running battle to top of the crennelated towers of the Kierland. The buildings use automated defenses against them both.

Cyl and Tia come up with a strategy. They have assessed the powers of Alyria as a Healing Sister–but nowhere near the powers of Rintiala–and decide she can be used as a ‘bargaining chip’ with the Western Bandits, so that the synthetics can keep incursions to a minimum. HTR is a hybrid, and the synthetics decided to test his abilities, as he is likely the forerunner of a new breed of humans. If he dies in the trials, so be it. Their real focus is on Dianire, as they have the technology to access the RIN programming that will give rise to the Dark Queen. (Sean Landesten was originally a Sky Wanderer, before he was expelled). So..the synthetics know more about Dianire than she could possibly know about herself. They will test her combat potential, but will not kill her. Unfortunately the torture they inflict on Dianire awakens the murderous rage of the Dark Queen, and the Western Bandits are the first to feel her wrath.

So, how in practical terms, do Cyl and Tia test and torture? They use the automated features of the Westin Kierland against HTR and Dianire. Cy begins his test of HTR when HTR is examining the state-of-the-art septic facilities; although there are no humans yet, food is prepared, animals slaughtered and plant waste processes. Literally HTR goes through shit to get back to Dianire.

HTR nearly dies at the bottom of the effluent reclamation tank, but his super-spleen kicks in, and he has several more minutes of oxygen. He is surrounded by a new kind of creature–one of Sean Landesten’s designs–an electric sturgeon that cleans up the bottom of the tank, and kills others scavengers if they get too close. The bottom of the tank turns out to be a breeding ground for new creatures. HTR fills his canteen with fertilized sturgeon eggs, in the hope that these creatures will be of value to Dianire, which they will be.

Dianire on the other hand is introduced to another Landesten design, a century cactus that converts wind energy to stored electrical energy by use of piezo-electric sucrose fibers. The synthetics very much want Dianire to go along with their plan, until she discovers that they intend to vivisect her.

But they alter their plan at the last minute, because Alyria has unwittingly given them the final touch they need to create a synthetic Rintiala, one who has made love to Alyria, with Alyria modifying the synthetic’s responses until they are as close to human as possible. Cyl and Tia will seduce Dianire, if combat fails. This betrayal-both by Alyria and the synthetics is enough to make Dianire leap from the roof of the Kierland, supposedly to her doom.

The two trials can be summed up as HTR = Darkness and Dianire = Light. HTR is shown the latest effluent reclamation by Cyl, featuring nanotechnology filters, engineering lost to the Empty Earth, while Dianire is shown by Tia the solar-powered air conditioning and heating systems, using carbon fiber super-capacitors, another lost technology. Cyl traps HTR in the bottom of the effluent processing station, warning him that synthetic booby traps have been laid out for the Apache; Tia explains that the synthetics wish to vivisect Dianire, but not kill her, as they believe such torture will unleash Dianire’s power to the full. The synthetics believe that what they are doing is just, because they also do not know what kind of Sky Wanderers will return. If the returnees are malicious, then hybrid Apache and Nuegua warriors will be needed. It is for a good cause, repeat Cyl and Tia.

Dianire is the one the synthetics want to keep, so that they can vivisect her. Their DNA assessment indicates that she is the larval stage of a new kind of highly aggressive human, and they wish to steal the secrets locked in her RIN (Recursive Instructional Nexus). They trap her on the top tower of the wing of the Kierland overlooking its massive wave pool. Dianire dives into its deep end from four stories up, and hits the bottom hard enough to shatter her left clavicle, The pain of this turns on the first flowering of the Dark Queen, and Dianire rises from the water as an avenging angel. She meets up with HTR–fighting numerous copies of Cy and Tia along the way–until they hole up in the coffee shop, while the synthetics look for a way to burrow under said shop.

HTR and Dianire meet up in the coffee shop at the north east of the Westin Kierland property, and discover that this non-descript building holds the weapons and armor they need.

Locust Flow Chart in nine blocks
(with only one subdivision at block 6

The final and greatest indignity that the synthetics have come up with is that they know more about the Recursive Instructional Nexus than even Dinaire does. She uses the power of the RIN, but does not have the skills to analyze it. Neither do the synthetics, but they are presently putting forth all the intellect to do so. Why? Because they agree with the Nueguans: organics are the future, synthetics are a dead end. The synthetics intend to unravel the mysteries of the RIN so that they can transfer their consciousnesses to nearly immortal and easily reproducible organic bodies. This perversion is the straw that broke the donkey’s back for Dianire.

Finds-Water’s Strategy

One of the problems of a project the size of the Nuegua Trilogy is that one can lose sight of the motivations of a character, because building the world is so much fun.

With that in mind, let us see why Dianire Redourine is in the Ruins of Phoenix, fighting for her life at the Kierland, the last known gathering place of the Sky Wanderers.

Going back to ‘Ghost Sickness’, the reader will know that the Sky Wanderers have left caches of treasure and weapons for their eventual return. Finds-Water, the oldest and cleverest of the Apache Traders, has not been able to convince Alathea of Clan Tiala that her clan must intermarry with the Apache, to create a new, superior breed of human, to combat the Sky Wanderers.

Instead, Alathea commissions Dianire to locate any and all Sky Wanderer weapon caches that she can. The Kierland is a logical place to start. Rintiala is deep in the building of Dragon Head, and Alathea will never put her oldest daughter in jeopardy again. Dianire agrees, because simply reconnoitering the Kierland will likely be a high enough acheivement to promote her to First Sister.

Dianire succeeds, although the Kierland has only a small cache of weapons, most of which have been converted into tools for the aid of the synthetics, the old ‘beating swords in plowshares’ metaphor.

What Dianire does discover is the map of all the Sky Wanderer’s weapons located in the American South West, or the ‘Empty Earth’ in Tialan parlance. Finds-Water insists that she share this information with the Apache, but she flatly refuses. This fuels his suspicion that Clan Tialan and Clan Redourine will ultimately rule the Empty Earth, leaving the Apache and the rest of the Native Peoples as second-class citizens. This has ramifications for Rintiala, because when she delivers her grand scheme to have all Apache women bear their children in Clan Tiala, Finds-Water is convinced that his suspicions are correct.

The Second Tome, or the Final Synopsis of ‘Second Sister’

I’m going to use the month of September 2019 to finish ‘Second Sister’ as all the individual chapters have been written, some as long as twenty-five years ago (!) So here goes:

The entire story is read during the second session in Carlsbad Abbey by Queen Ariana, so we have the same guests in attendance (in order to improve continuity). So, the entire second story is wrapped inside the Second Tome of Queen Ariana, A.D. 2578.

The first section is ‘The Locust’ or the coming of the Dark Queen in the form of Dianire Redourine. This is the wrapper around ‘The Ruins of Phoenix’. This section also contains ‘Strong Baby’s Dream’ and the entire section ends with Tianara’s successful surgery and the defeat/expulsion of the Western Bandits from the known Empty Earth.

The second section is ‘Second Sister’ proper, and is the story of Ariana’s entrance into New Spain, her triumph of opening the Sky Wanderers’ treasure-trove in Los Alamos, and ends with her murder at the hands of Dianire. (I”m going to write this as manslaughter, but King Carlos of Spain won’t see it that way).

The third section is ‘Queen, Saint or Goddess?’ and is the story of Rintiala’s failed attempt to extricate Ariana from New Spain, Dianire’s attack on Santa Fe, and the final decisive battle at the Healing Temple in Tiala.

All three sections culminate in Queen Ariana finishing the Second Tome, and then meeting her mother, Rintiala in the flesh. They go out of the Great Meeting Room to walk on the southern balcony of the Abbot’s Residence, and there witness the Sky Wanderers’ landing their ships a few hundred meters away.

That ends ‘Second Sister’, setting up the conditions for the third and final volume of the Nuegua Trilogy, ‘War in Heaven’.

There are also going to be extended appendices, mostly notably ‘Desert Frigate’ where Prince Carlos, Benedetto Sepulveda and Alejandro Baca drive back an attack on Soccorro by the Western Bandits.

A second addition is ‘The Cities of Quivera’ where we meet Don Benedetto’s older brother, the adventurous and doomed Don Genaro.