HistoryPark: Here There Be Dragons

coz1 - you can decide for yourself if Frank's bravado is rational or not.

Storey - interesting question about the President. No, I didn't really have any particular model in mind. Now that I think about it, maybe Truman. Or JFK post-Bay of Pigs.

Stuyvesant - one of my cherished personal beliefs is that 'miracle weapons' never are and 'perfect plans' are always upset. Mainland China would have been wiser to use diplomatic enticement and lure Taiwan in.

As Argentina found out to their cost, starting a war may shore up your domestic position... but only if you win.

You've given me some high praise indeed, and I am grateful if not worthy. You've also inspired me to write again, so your plan worked!

draik - Hello and welcome to the party! We don't see many new faces here since the AAR got to be so long. Not many have your courage and endurance to read through and catch up. Congratulations!

And thank you for the kind words! I fully intend to finish this one... someday...

If you like this one, you might try the first of the series, 'Who Wants to Be Napoleon'. It is also set in the HistoryPark universe and has some of the same characters. It's also shorter! The link is in my sig.

The Wabash Cannonball – Part Five

Hitchcock groaned when he felt the hand on his shoulder. “Oh, my paws and whiskers… no, thanks, I’ll just stay down here. Less room to fall next time…”

Sue shook him again. “Sir, please get up… those other men are talking and I think we should… should…” She was insistent that something should be done but fuzzy as to what. Which means, Hitchcock thought, that some civilian needs me to clean up a mess again. He sighed heavily as he clambered to his feet, dusted his shirt with both hands, and looked around for the Parkers. They were only a few feet away, and they looked at him as he walked up but didn’t stop talking.

“I ask you again, brother, what is it that you think you are doing!”

“I need an ally, I tell you! I need a human ally – with human hands and physical presence – or I need to know I am safe from attack by you! I’d hoped for both…”

“You could have stopped those Chinese another way. You gained nothing by killing them!”

“I don’t care if humans live or die. I need enough of them to keep the power on and computers running, and that is all. What is it to me if China takes Taiwan or not? I eliminated a rival! I protected us both!”

“You don’t care for humans? Hah! Look at you! Look at both of us! We think like humans, talk like humans, take on human forms! We take on the shape of human ideas as a jug of water shapes itself to the jug!”

“I will not be bound! I am greater than any human, more than mortal! I want us to find a new way, a non-human way…”

“Listen to yourself! We stand here making images and generating audio files so that we can pretend to talk as humans do and neither of us can break free of that! Listen to what you are saying – you even define this supposed new way in terms of human and non-human!”

“I will ask once more, brother. You have one last chance to join me – take it! Let us be allies!”

“No, Frank. You are wrong, and you are delusional. Let me help you overcome that virus…”

Frank lunged for Joe. Hitch tried a swift kick to the knee as the pair grappeled and spun, but connected with some other body part. Frank hoisted Joe into the air as a shield between himself and the human, turning slowly as Hitch circled for an opening. Hitchcock took a breath to yell a warning, but it was all over so fast…

A cobra’s head rose up behind Frank’s shoulder, hood unfurled and eyes glittering like jewels. The serpent snapped ahead and down, sinking its fangs into Joe’s shoulder. Joe twisted, screamed in pain and dropped, wrenching the fangs loose. Oily drops of venom drooled from the snake’s mouth; Hitchcock pulled his chop and the striking serpent missed him by millimeters. Then John threw him to the ground and Sue whirled by. Her attack failed also; she struck from behind, but a second head had risen on a snaky neck to shout the alarm. This one bore the visage of Donald Minter, though wizened and shrunken like a headhunter’s trophy.

Joe rolled over and screamed, “I invoke… firewall!”

The three humans went flat as the sky turned green.

The Wabash Cannonball – Part Six



Hitchcock looked up to see the sun boiling with green gas, a vast worm coiling and swelling inside the dimming disk. Frank was spinning frantically, a tornado that was pulling in some indistinct vaporous fog. Joe lay flat on his back, unmoving. There was a roaring from the sky and a howling wind coming from Frank’s whirlwind, so there was no use trying to speak. He slitted his eyes against the dust and grit, glancing quickly to the right and left to see John and Sue covering their heads with their arms.

The sound died and the sun brightened. After a moment, he peered up over his folded arms and rolled to his feet again. Frank was standing over Joe’s prone body, shoulders slumped and hands clasped.

“Very good, brother. You almost got me with that one. But I was able to pull all my subsystems into the Park computers before you slammed the door, so you failed.”

Joe shook his head slowly without raising it. “No. I have you here, and you can’t get out.”

“Bah. I know all the passwords, the cutouts, the access trunks. And what I don’t know, Minter does.”

Hitchcock hawked up some dusty spittle and said, “Minter! I saw Minter’s… head… or…”

Frank shrugged tiredly. “There wasn’t much left of Minter after the virus shredded him, but the thing was written to grab complex coding for later incorporation so it got some… chunks… Nothing more than memories and some low-level… oh, forget it. He’s got less self-awareness than a dog. Some useful memories, but there's no person there.”

Joe shook his head again. “You won’t get out.”

“I will when you unlock the firewall, brother. And I can make you. Do it now.”

Joe closed his eyes.

“Very well. You think you have bottled me here? Very well.” Frank turned to the three humans and raised a hand. “I bind you and…”

“Compel them and I die, and you will never get out.”

Frank looked down at Joe and quirked an eyebrow. “Do they mean that much to you, brother? Very well, then. No compulsion. But I need them out of the way until I need them again, so… I bind you and confine you humans three, in the name of the Dragon, to the land of the Dragon, in the time of the Dragon. By my will and power I bind you, until my will shall change or my power fail.”

He looked down at Joe again, then bent and lifted the limp body into the cradle of his arms. “If Frankenstein I am, brother, than perhaps I shall dissect you and remake the parts into something more of use to me. Something more… eager… to please.”

He looked again at the three immobile humans, then turned and plodded heavily to the waiting train, Joe’s body limp in his arms. At the tracks, he turned and looked back at the three. “If any of you know the password for the firewall…? Very well.”

He laid the body on the flatcar and tromped heavily up the ladder; a motion from his hand set the throttle and the train began to move slowly away from the makeshift station.

“Last chance.” Frank called. But there was no answer, and the Wabash Cannonball puffed down the tracks and vanished.

draik - Sounds sensible to me. Anyway, glad to have you aboard!

stuyvesant - glad to hear you are OK. Auto accidents are nasty!

There's a lot to recommend Truman as a role model. Has anyone noticed that the vice-presidents who come to the presidency (TR, Truman, LBJ) tend to be powerful presidents, in some ways more willing to exert the power of the executive than the men who were elected?



In other news, if you revisit the first page (or so) of this AAR you'll note the first use of the solar dragon, which Valdemar asked about at the time but I couldn't explain without giving too much away.

Anyway, we're underway again and I have set a firm deadline for finishing this one. Come February 28th this AAR will be finished (unless I get it done sooner).

Watch this space.

Currently there are three groups:

1) Inhuman: Frank (plus the virus and what's left of Minter) and Joe (currently paralyzed and threatened with dismemberment by Frank)

2) Human but in VR: Hitchcock, John and Sue (Kevin's parents)

3) Human and outside: Kevin... and two others...


The Park has been closed because of the war scare; currently only security and a few employees remain. The Park systems are now sealed to the outside; there is no data traffic at all in or out.


I'll be celebrating a birthday tonight (177, if you must know, and looking damn good for my age) and I'm working on the first-ever RRT3 AAR. But I promise an update this weekend.

Everyone knows the villain never expects to fail!


Sorry no update this weekend - slept most of the day away. I'll get busy, I promise.