Geron Kees

I like it. I'll have to see what I can do with the idea. Thanks!

You're right, CG. The boys could not pass through the door to the frozen world in the mound on granddad Mike's farm. That was because the destination was in a state that would have been fatal to them. However, if they were clad in the protective suits, the Door would deem it safe to allow them to pass.🙂 I am with you on huge bodies of water. I like the lakes here to swim in, and some are very large. I have been on ships at sea, and that doesn't bother me. The ocean is beautiful. But I do not want to swim in it, especially out of sight of shore. I am a land creature by birth! I also couldn't take city life for that long, and prefer it here in the boonies. A world-city would be fascinating to explore, but it would fall into the category of 'nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.' 😄

I do remember that Lang was forced out of Germany in the thirties, and helmed a number of pictures with a distinctly anti-Nazi bent. He was of the German expressionist film-making school, and use b/w to great effect in his movies. His early sci-fi silent masterpiece, Metropolis, is still highly regarded today. His film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy, is still one of the more harrowing accounts of mob violence. Some extremely fine films were made in the black and white era, without today's special effects, that rely on story, setting, and acting ability to tell a tale. :) 🎥

Yes. And there's an old movie I saw once, called Manhunt, where Walter Pidgeon plays a big game hunter who stalks Hitler, gets him in his sights, and pulls the trigger...on an empty chamber. He just did it for the thrill of hunting the biggest game of all. But then he has second thoughts, loads up, and is about to pull the trigger again when he's spotted by a Nazi guard. The second shot goes wild, and the opportunity is missed. But it could have easily been done, especially in pre-war days, when this story took place. The idea of security was very different back then. You have to wonder what the world might be like today had someone pulled the trigger on Hitler and gotten a good hit, before Europe was almost razed to the round. In some ways, it might not be a better world. With Hitler gone, there could be a lot more of Europe speaking Russian today.

You amaze me sometimes, the way you seem to dig out my secrets! But I won't say anything about Brik for now. We'll leave that for a future adventure! Thanks for joining the guys on their journey.

Thanks for all the great observations. I was sort of unwilling to have any of our heroes have to shoot Crowla between the eyes themselves. I was reminded of the fight against Nazi Germany. The allies fought Hitler's armies, and they always had it in their minds that they were fighting THE MAN; yet no allied soldier so much as took a shot at Hitler, and he died by his own actions in a bunker under the streets of his capital city while it burned to the ground around the remains of his forces. Justice need not be of the personal sort to be served. Koort understood this. At some point our guys may have to play rougher. I'm sure they will. But they're still starting out with this thing. You don't remake an empire overnight, or make a man from a boy in a day. I want to let Derry and Cally take their own time getting there.

The best part of storytelling comes from watching the faces of your listeners, and hearing what they have to say as you go along. Thanks for that!

Every quest should ultimately end with the heroes sitting back at home on their very own front porch.

I agree. Like the people that keep the water and the power flowing, the supermarket shelves stocked and the trains running, we don't notice how important they are in their jobs until something comes along that shatters our complacency. Everyone that stayed the course and dealt with this pandemic deserves a great pat on the back and a hug. The healthcare people, perhaps most of all.

I can't say. Really! I can't! 😉

Sssmile when you sssay that! 😄

It has been a fun ride, I have to admit. It's the company we keep, you know? 🙂

"Amazing amount of destruction," Nyf said, sounding slightly appalled. "The materials used to build this place are immensely strong and durable. The walls of these buildings seems to be crystallized." "What could do that?" Mike asked. "I don't know. There are weapons in the empire armory that neutralize the electrostatic attraction between the lattice of positive ions in a metal and the fluid of valence electrons in which they are immersed. Something similar to that effect, but operabl

You scare me sometimes, RP! I almost always revise my stories a small bit after they first play on Iomfats. I have a chance to read them through again, and I tend to notice things I missed before. I was bothered by Nyf not calling out, "Hey, there are three Schrikken hiding in that alcove!" He's able to detect everyone else, right? But at the same time, I wanted the presence of the Schrikken there to be a surprise. So I just sort of ignored it in the first version, but it kept bugging me, hence the additions here. Better to have a somewhat enigmatic reason the guys were not notified, than to ignore the sensor disparity altogether. The second change was simple. Mike had his head bubble opaqued in that scene. Derry couldn't have seen his grandfather's face. But he could hear his voice! My inclination is to make the Schrikken semi-telepathic. They have a great ability to 'hide' from the senses of others, both due to their native form, and because they have a small ability to cloud the minds of others. It could easily be both a hunting and a survival trait on their native world. The human's scanners detected the Schrikken and made warning - but the humans simply couldn't hear it or see it, because the Schrikken kept them from doing so. Just one idea.

You're not Mike in disguise? Oops! You have a valid point! Thus the 'ch' in the English translation, to lengthen the sound. Among themselves, it's likely Sssrikken! It actually is a good point. But it's also common for sounds in one language to not get properly translated into another. My bad. I'll have a talk with Nyf!

Mike has made up his mind of the importance of seeming to be the Armenti. That allows him to be creative!

Okay!

Classic scene. Wagner should have been gay.

"I plan to fly straight across," Gilden told them, as they stood outside next to Aginshir's tube station. "When I get to where the tube straightens and runs true to Crowla's peak, I will land upon it and run the rest of the way. " "Sounds like a plan," Cally said. He turned to Derry. "What about us?" "Well, we can't just fly over there at some crazy speed, because we'll make noise ourselves. Cutting through the air makes a sound, and it gets louder the faster you go." He stared a

Possibly the author, too!

I have a feeling your GP would understand better than you think. When I cancelled my normal, six-month check up last August, my PCP said he would do an online session if I wanted, just to allow us to touch base. I thought that was fine, and did that. As I thanked him at the end, and apologized for cancelling the in-person visit, which I just thought too risky back then, he shook his head and smiled, more than a little sadly. "Don't feel that way at all. I've done nothing for the last few months but sign death certificates. Stay at home. Be safe." Good advice, from someone who knew.

Oh, what's in a title? Nice to have you along, my friend. Hope the guys won't disappoint! 🙂

I actually have this film in my WWII collection! Go Mosquitoes! 🙂

It depends on whether they are 'official' or not. On their own, probably not a good idea. As part of Nyf's crew...maybe.

Seems like a reasonable request!