skyacer

I first read this incredible story a few years ago and reread it this week. It had the same impact on me now as it did 5 or so years ago. Well done!

Pirates! Bring on the Pirates!

Okey, dokey, so there's no 'pirates' - or at least my 17-18th century types anyway, but there seems to be some modern-day 'pirates' conducting their political gamesmanship roles currently comparing penis sizes and other tit-for-tat games. The Chagos Archipelago is a bunch of reefs and a footie pitch for dry land, so will these new homes to be built be on stilts? Since Coral reefs are endangered worldwide, what will happen to the human wastes? A giant port-a-potty, impervious to typhoons will be needed. Maybe it's time for a completely submerged community to be built?

Great chapter! Bring on the Pirates!

Very well developed. I can see Preston acompanying Lewis on the rest of his journey from Glasgow, over to and around Ireland and back to the UK (and beyond?). Since Preston's family has Scottish Highland cattle, maybe Lewis will accept an offer to take some Highland bull sperm back to Australia to make improvements to his own herd? Will that sperm be from one of the bulls or from Preston in person?

Very nice chapter! It looks like Lewis is about to have some company on his journey, for some, if not all, of it.

This was a fantastic ride and all the more so because everything discussed seemed quite logical and feasible. Now, I'm ready for more adventures using the artifacts they picked up on Engris, more of Pacha and Mike and others. You have also created what could become a great screenplay and movie or TV mini-series. Keep up the wonderful writing and I'll keep on reading.

Many of the songwriters from back in the day were very easily understood and had great songs/lyrics. Joni was one of many Canadians who made a huge mark on the American and world music industry, think Leonard Cohen ('Suzanne,' 'Hallelujah'), Neil Young, Ian and Sylvia Tyson and you've only just begun to scratch the surface. Happy listening and then you touch on the Rock n' Roll of Bachman Turner Overdrive, The Jayhawks and...

Joni Mitchell is a Canadian singer/songwriter, probably one of the finest of my generation. She wrote the songs 'Both Sides Now,' 'Urge for Going,' 'Woodstock,' 'Help Me,' and many others. You'll have to Google her or check out her music on YouTube.

A very poetic ending indeed. "We are stardust, we are golden; and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden." (Apologies to Joni Mitchell and her song 'Woodstock'). So P/U did disrupt the Mages' plans and yes, set everyone free by not allowing their neurons to reassemble anywhere. Very. well. done. sir!

Although, since no one has ever returned to tell about the dogs or the new men, they would be escaping to their doom, totally unwittingly.

The tension is building nicely. Will the 13 Mages attempt to poison P/U, or rub them out entirely. I wonder if P/U have an over ride built into the wrist chips, so they can send the mages wherever they want? With all the castes having sex and kids, New Oasis will soon become burdened by the same excess but within a shorter time. If the doors at New Oasis were left open so people could 'escape,' would they leave, or are they preprogrammed to only do what they're told?

The author has explained our planetary situation plainly and succinctly. 😢

Great chapter! Surprises await. Is there an enseemat inside of the chute that will be used to dispose of the emperor, so he can transport safely to somewhere? Can't wait for Alger and Begum to get theirs, several times perhaps...

First steps taken towards their living free of Oasis and the evil Mages. There would not seem to be any sympathetic ears within either the Mages or elsewhere in their caste. I hope that they will be able to take their enseemats and the tech with them, including whatever powers the mats.

Who needs 2 or more vowels when one will do nicely?

Although, maybe the deserts don't want any more water. We need our deserts, just as much as we need our jungles, boreal forests, steppes, and outbacks.

Peteru:Uretep. How soon before they realize that there are clones of themselves in the labs. After their virtual tour of Oasis, they will soon begin planning their escape, but where to? Can a drone take an NC pad to a mountain 20 km in the distance and they transport there? How soon before they meet Primo's people?

So, one of the mini-pads can be placed inside the chute to nowhere but the algae pits and the mages could NC-transit themselves to that pad inside the chute and then die as they fall to their deaths having incredible sex?

If you have challenged me and my mind with possible dystopias, utopias, outcomes and possibilities, then you have done and will continue to do your work well as a writer. The great science fiction and fantasy writers of our time have done exactly that and you are doing nothing less. Please keep writing.

"Coastal cities are under water. Billions of refugees starving, homeless and rioting, ruled by insane warlords using a combination of physical terror and irrational fear of a supernatural, vengeful god." I would say how prescient of you, but you see, it has already started. We'll lose the first island nations before 2050, the Maldives and Vanuatu (and others) well before then. The migration of the refugees has already started as the 'warlords' of the middle east and the African Sahel begin their self-destruction, helped by the warlords of the great Western, Russian and Asian nations. In my new world order, I would ban outright all organized religions and only allow those that worship the Earth mother, that do not require tithes, fealty, and obedience to their invisible gods.

There's always another 'Dominic' waiting in the wings to step forward, or to roll into the limelight.

I wish for people to treat the planet and all the inhabitants (from the tinest insects up to the whales and I'l throw humans into that mix. I really am an optimist. I would never want to be much older and face a courtroom of kids, saying 'if you knew it was so bad, why didn't you stop it or fix things before they became so bad.' That's why I've been involved in environmental committees, birding and the like.

Wow!!! What an ending, but what a beginning as well. I thought that the new 'race' would move underground, eventually construct spaceships and leave this misbegotten planet. Now, I'm looking forward to NumbaCruncha to see what happens next and to learn about the 'secret weapon.' If only that fat Dominic had also met a timely end in the explosion of the lab, or if Primo's group had removed all evidence of the Protectors and Dominic's existence from the earth. Theodore Sturgeon was one of my favorite writers back in the 60s. Very. well. done.

All very well said. Coal companies in the Appalachian Mountain states in the US used to have company 'script' to pay their workers with the only place it could be spent was the company store and of course they lived in company-owned housing. The workers never got ahead and never got out of dept. It was a legalized form of indentured servitude, aka slavery, for many decades. The images painted in Australia have been replicated from examples learned from history and not very old history at that.