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Tempest Maria Estrada is a professional finder for the rich and powerful. When the client wants something, Tempest gets it, fast. Do they like it? "It beats working commodities."
Then, one summer day, an alien took over all information systems to explain that they exist, they mean no harm, and they're pursuing projects on Earth. The Eanlians share information, technology, goods, and services, but only on their terms…
Tempest's client, the secretive tech billionaire Lane Coleman, grows increasingly erratic. Tempest finds a mysterious and powerful ally against Lane's dangerous ambitions, but what does the Eanlian really want?
30k words. Part 3 of the Admission Cycle.
Posted by Randomness 2 years ago Report
This is the comment section, spoilers ahead... silly!
Lance's comment of 'not like this' struck me as hysterical. What do you mean, not like this? Doubt he saw any of this coming.
As always, great work. Personal biased hyperfixation towards Agent Song aside, all the characters were refreshing and wonderfully done.
Bonus points for the nonbinary protag.
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Posted by ObsidianSnake 2 years ago Report
He was warned! Unable to sway him, the only result was that it gave him time to stew on it, I guess.
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Posted by bigboy1992 2 years ago Report
Damn this was a good read! Only minor gripe I can come up with is no burps, but that’s a minor thing. The writing and grammar were awesome. And I do like the setting here. Might have to check out your other stories. I hope we can see more of Tempest and Gray in the future.
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Posted by ObsidianSnake 2 years ago Report
I'm pleased you enjoyed it! Agent Gray has appeared briefly in a few stories focused on her grand-daughter, although in a supporting role.
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Posted by Entirely_Logical 2 years ago Report
While we've seen bits and pieces of it before, this may just be the clearest view yet of just how messed up this version of Earth had become, with quite a bit of the kinds of interactions that characters raised in that kind or world could produce. It paints a vision of the future that's oddly hopeful considering that we know what lies in Earth's future is total subjugation.
I had "Grey" pegged as Lau fairly early on, but her identity caught me by surprise when she revealed herself; I had figured that there would be a little longer between these events and those of Hunting Paradise to be a little longer than a few decades. Still, it's fun to see that there are smatterings of truth to the super-hero like image she's been given in stories set further in the future, particularly by the younger generations. Eanlian Batman, as it were.
I do have to wonder just how long it took Renee to figure out that Tempest wasn't joking in the closing moments; I suppose they're a much better actor than she is.
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Posted by ObsidianSnake 2 years ago Report
I hope that the Admission Cycle stories answer why older humans are Like That in the 'modern' stories. They'd survived quite a lot!
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Posted by Mourtzouphlos 2 years ago Report
Now that I see how the Eanlians are treating the annexation process, I can't help but wonder how they'd react if they met a civilization that wasn't a cyberpunk dystopia, and was in fact quite a nice place to live, perhaps even one where multiple species lived in harmony (a la Zootopia). They couldn't just take over without going full on imperialist conquest, and they couldn't justify it without going full on White Man's Burden (i.e. our civilization is the best possible and it is therefore our moral duty to ensure that everyone becomes part of it). Based on how she treats Lane, Agent Gray seems like she'd see through that logic to the self-serving rationalization that it is, but she's also on easy mode (it's her enemies that are saying that, the principles she's upholding are the same as on Eanli (innocent until proven guilty), and she can get what she wants without breaking them). They clearly want a world where predators are unquestionably in charge, but where does that rank in terms of their priorities?
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Posted by Entirely_Logical 2 years ago Report
We have before seen that they aren't above full on imperialist conquest; The marsupials shown in Private Lessons and What Comes After were subject to such events before they began, if I recall. Lane was absolutely a hypocrite and a monster and even as he was willing to sacrifice the lives of hundreds to regain some semblance of power over others, he kind of had a point at calling out their own hypocrisy.
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Posted by Mourtzouphlos 2 years ago Report
True, but that was in the 17/1800s equivalent. Supposedly they're more civilized now. What I'm wondering is how much of that is posturing versus how much of that is genuine belief - if fulfilling them meant they had to interact with those that they viewed as their natural subordinates while really, fully treating them as equals, would they be able to handle that, or would it break their brains so much they decided to go full Nazis on the Eastern Front.
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Posted by Mourtzouphlos 2 years ago Report
So I only just noticed this and I had to go back and check, but how big are Eanlians? I thought they were the same size as their real world counterparts, but Gray is described as being about 7 or 8 feet tall, while actual fossas would be around 3 feet (and the extinct greater fossa is described as "around 30% bigger", so four feet). Am I missing something here? Because I feel like I'm missing something.
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Posted by ObsidianSnake 2 years ago Report
I'll answer that first question.
I base the dimensions on their Earth counterparts, with a slight modifier -- the smaller species are very slightly larger and the largest species very slightly smaller. In other words, I squish the scale. Just a little bit! This allows these stories to explore those differences without making that impossible.
I need to illustrate what I mean by that. Here's an example of a related thing: The speech of a mouse would be too high-pitched, quiet, and rapid for something like a rhino to understand, but that's not the kind of stories I want to tell here. So, on Eanli, a mouse CAN converse with a rhino, but they both have to actively try. There's meaning in that effort.
Anyway... the Eanlian greater fossa described here is their own species based upon two things: 1) extrapolation of a ecological of the island as well as a solitary incomplete rogue fossil; without getting too bogged in details, hypothetically there was a species about Lady Kelriot's size. Remember: the height here is including their rear legs, not just their rump-to-nose length, and she's going to stand up tall whenever there's prey around. 2) There's also some (possibly related) Malagasy legends of a creature, an animal-like vampire, that seem about this size, at least in the telling I received. I found those inspiring.
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