jerome alquie illustrations lorghian et sharylla

THE CHROMED PALIMPSEST / LORGHIAN'S AWAKENING

In a futuristic-looking medical room, two robotic spheres carry out the order and inject the product. Unconscious, inert, lying on a medical analysis table, the metallic tentacles of which are moving around him, scanning the slightest organic functioning, the patient is dreaming of the last moments of his life... He sees himself into a little spaceship in orbit around the Earth, in the absolute silence of space, and suddenly this flash and this tremendous impact... His body, motionless until then, is now going into convulsions. The awakening phase of the patient is a success, at last ! The tentacles then freeze and free him from their grasp. The man heavily dropped on the ground. The violent shock makes him regain consciousness. Although very weakened and having his body numbed by hours of motionlessness (he couldn't be further from the truth), he's able to stand on his legs. He then begins examining his waking room. Nothing rings a bell to him, neither furniture, nor instrumentation, nor architecture. But the most harrowing thing yet is the face the mirror sends back to him, which he recognizes even less..."Who am I ?"

Along with a medical robot-sphere, a doctor enters the room to inquire after his patient's health. The diagnosis is immediate : partial amnesia. "I don't know my name, and even less who I am. I don't know where I am or what I'm doing here !" Partial amnesia ! Most disturbing diagnosis for the physician as nobody suffers any longer from this disease nowadays. "I can only remember a flash, I was in my ship, orbiting the Earth." This revelation is even more unsettling ! The Earth ? But the Earth doesn't exist... It's a myth, a fantasy. Panic-stricken by this answer, the doctor gets out of the room.

Along with a medical robot-sphere, a doctor enters the room to inquire after his patient's health. The diagnosis is immediate : partial amnesia. "I don't know my name, and even less who I am. I don't know where I am or what I'm doing here !" Partial amnesia ! Most disturbing diagnosis for the physician as nobody suffers any longer from this disease nowadays. "I can only remember a flash, I was in my ship, orbiting the Earth." This revelation is even more unsettling ! The Earth ? But the Earth doesn't exist... It's a myth, a fantasy. Panic-stricken by this answer, the doctor gets out of the room.

Sure that this place and its occupants are hostile to him, the man resolves to follow the doctor. Leaving the self-preservation instinct taking precedence over everything, he crushes the robot-sphere which was blocking the door to dust, with only one kick. Then he rushes to the deserted halls, following the hasty doctor from a distance. He may have forgotten about his past, but he has totally recovered his strength. As to his faculties of environment and field analysis and his tailing skills, there's absolutely no doubt : it's not a new experience for him !
With this only certainty in mind, he puts down the doctor in order to squeeze the missing information out of him, starting with knowing what he's doing in this hospital. Too late, the robot-spheres have swapped their medical tools with firearms and telescopic sights and they're now aiming at the fugitive. A chase then occurs in the hospital halls, still deserted, where the man multiplied the physical feats to escape his metal pursuers.
He gives himself a few minutes' rest by hiding himself on the building roof. Too busy getting his breath back, he doesn't immediately notice the sight before his eyes : a city looking alike a spider web, with horizontal and vertical buildings, tangled to each other, spreading as far as the eye can see. This has nothing in common with the world he has known... " But where am I ?"
He quickly emerges from his contemplation with the robot-spheres which tracked him back. A new situation analysis was his salvation: as he calculates the vehicles pace, moving on the building fa�ades, he throws himself into the void to land on one of them. A new race then begins, this time in an unknown city.

Ascertained that his reflexes and agility are his best assets, he cancels the auto-pilot of the vehicle and takes control over it. Driving the wrong way down at full speed in an attempt to lose his pursuers, he proves to be outstandingly gifted to dodge the other vehicles. Then again, he would seem to have the piloting in his blood. In a last environment analysis, he jumps out of his vehicle in an overhead railway train, which rushes into a tunnel, the entry of which is immediately blocked by a protection wall that his pursuers crash on. Exhausted by what he's gone through since his waking up, he slumps into a seat...

In a half-conscious slumber, he's watching the news that the train televisions broadcast in loop. They're about planetary conflicts, space cemeteries, or " infernal race " in the Gouvcentral solar system. All of this is purely and simply incomprehensible ! Which world did he fall in, and above everything which age is it ? The strain is too strong and he finally falls asleep.

"Last stop, Arena of the Great Steel Eagle !" Awakened by the comings and goings of the rail travellers - some of whom obviously aren't human, he notices ! - he leaves the station to amble along the district adjacent to a building looking just like a huge Coliseum. Lost among the crowd who ignores him (although he feels he's being stared), he's strolling looking for landmarks, clues about the world he ended up in. But everything that surrounds him, from simple gestures of the everyday life to the unintelligible dialects of alien races, is nothing he can cling to. Technology is ubiquitous, sometimes replacing the man, making the city more impersonal than ever, as the people he tries to talk to show nothing but contempt. He ends his wandering in a dark narrow street, sickened to have found no answer and being fit to drop once more, he lets himself slide by the wall and takes his head in his hands. All of a sudden, he feels drops on his nape, raises his head and notices that it starts raining. He has a ironic smile when he realizes that the rain turns into a deluge.

Out of the darkness, a strange thick-furred animal shakes the fugitive out of his torpor. Suddenly, her eyes become incandescent and the rain stopped as if by magic, as well as the time. From the far end of the street, a mysterious woman comes towards him : "So here you are at last !" she says to him, as if she knew him. "You know who I am ?" "I don't know your name but I know that you could play an important part in the Human Hegemony" "The Human Hegemony... ? Is it this city's... name ?" "It's the world surrounding it, the eight solar systems where man has been settling for centuries. Take this animal with you, he will lead you to other answers..." And the woman disappears as the rain starts raining again, which strengthens the illusion feeling of this encounter

Following the mysterious woman's advice, the man follows close behind the animal who's dashing through the crowd towards the big Coliseum. After having pushed his way through the spectators, he catches up with the animal and sees the show occurring in the stadium center... "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Arena of the Great Steel Eagle ! As a foretaste of the Infernal Race which will begin in a few days, enjoy these splendid robot fights !"

At the arena center, two robots fight without mercy : a gigantic metallic spider vainly attempts to crush with its powerful paws a robot looking vaguely human, though slimmer, but its dodge moves are unimaginably fast. Spinning around the arachnidan monster, he takes advantage of an opening between two legs to get close to the head, lands on its skull with an incredible jump and pierces the metal to rip the positron brain of the huge robot. As if it wanted to finish its opponent, it throws the beast body towards the protection grids in front of the spectators who, due to the fury of the impact, receive a few metallic scraps.

The fugitive is in awe before the robot's sheer power. But is it really a robot ? Indeed, he'd swear to have seen a human stare in the android's metallic eyes, just when it raised the artificial brain remains of his opponent, crushed it with its hands, to get the favour with the public like a gladiator of ancient times...

But another thing then caught his attention : the animal that took him to the arena was moaning, badly wounded by one of the spider-monster scraps that went through the protection grid. At this moment, a young woman drags herself from of the crowd, crouches in front of the animal and lays her hands on her injury. A soft light surrounds the animal who, as if by magic, is able to stand on her four paws in a few seconds, without any obvious scar. As the man gets closer to the young lady to thank her for her saving gesture, he plunges his stare in hers and finds his one and only landmark in this unknown world : like him, she has different-coloured eyes, mirroring his : a turquoise eye and a purple-tinted one. Such a particularity can't be a mere coincidence...

"I am Sharylla. As for you, from this moment, you'll be known as Lorghian!"