Delusions Of Grandeur

 Music=
1. Ox
-Deaf Wish

"If life exists on other planets, then the Earth is an insane asylum for the cosmos."
-Voltaire







UFOtext=
I. Kalgan
The Mule peered at his scrawny image in the mirror. He stood dressed in rag tag fashion. The harlequin twittered & his face booked a crooked smile. Today he would go to the beach!
II. The Lost City
The twisted broken voice droned in her ear. Astira could only grasp lingual fragments: "The Emperor - commands - submit - glorious - truth - ignorance - strength." She connected the erratic dots.
"I am Astira- servant of Princess Leizu in the High Gardens Of Heaven."
Would it work? She remembered Ozymandias & his silver wire- they watched the ancient flash memory not so long ago by the infrared shore. She wondered & fingered the trigger on her laser pistol. The drone hovered indecisively.

Midnight Diamond

 Music=
1. Fiction
   -The xx

"Roads made for journeys- not destinations"
-Confucius 










UFOtext=
I. Saint-Emilion
The Count gazed into the crystal eye. His vision grew like the pearl of an oyster. The climbing ivy grew in tendrils around the Valentine blooms of Aphrodite. Princess Lei brushed off the snow upon her shoulder. Her beads of summer sweat rolled off her body like rain drops of divine wine. The sunflowers smiled.

Believe In The Stars Above

Music=
1. Tell Me
  -Boston

"Liberty of thought is the life of the soul."
-Voltaire 



UFOtext=
I. The Humming Desert
The drone twinkled in the night sky. Taran watched it hover, then disappear into the jagged crack. He turned to the Jackass-
"You see, these killer drones know their way around. We can follow."
"F**k yea, straight to hell." said the Jackass. He rolled his eyes in the moonshine.
"Look, these fanatical killer drones guard the precious metals- they've done it for tens of thousands of years. Empires collapse & these freak drones go on like nothing happened- they live in the past- total mind control- they're hard wired that way."
"But you have their cyber key."
"Yep."
The Jackass chuckled. He remembered well the day he found that stupid black cyber key- and its ancient room locked & filled with gold bullion. He fondled it warmly.
"Yep. I can turn off those birds any time they get too close. But your lady can't. If they find her- & they probably have- they will kill her. You need to understand that."
For once the Jackass showed empathy for Taran. His eyes watered just a bit.
Taran looked down into the abyss. He remembered well the day he met Astira.
"Astira follows the Way. She is not dead."
The Dragonfly meditated in the starlight. From west to the east the luminous Silk Path arced high in the sky.

The Lost Drones

Music=
1. The Rat Is Back
  -Deaf Wish

"Paradise is where I am."
-Voltaire 









UFOtext=

I. The Lost City
The drone patrol cork screwed down the cavern waterfall. They hovered above the plush mist of the roaring water. One by one they disappeared into dark passages along the rock face. The last drone began to twitter & move in an agitated way. Astira drew her laser pistol & crouched behind a dragonboat. Her i6 gave silent warning in red holographic letters.
"This one want to hack me." she thought.
"Try to read i6."
Then she heard the foreign tongue. She recognized bits & pieces of the modern Silk Path, but the main body of the audio sounded twisted & deformed, perhaps ancient & defunct. She turned on the earpod translator. The altered drone voice warbled in her ear.

Know

Music=
1. In One Ear
  -Cage The Elephant

"There is an infinite amount of hope in the universe... but not for us." 
-Franz Kafka


UFOtext=
I. The Lost City
Natural morning light returned to the vast cavern. Long waterfalls stretched beyond the rocky highland cliff, arcing into space. Falling water roared in the bay but Astira adjusted her earpods to filter out most of the noise. She could still hear the parrots chattering incessantly, but their cacophony went in one ear & out the other. Birdbrains, she thought.
She turned her attention to the flock of ancient drones.

Written In The Stars

Music=
1. Hopeless Romantic
   -Michelle Branch














"The laws of history are as absolute as the laws of physics, & if the probabilities of error are greater, it is only because history does not deal with as many humans as physics does atoms, so that individual variations count for more. Seldon predicted a series of crises through the thousand years of growth, each of which would force a new turning of history into a pre-calculated path. It is those crises which direct us- & therefore a crisis must come now.
"Now!" she repeated, forcefully. "It's almost a century since the last one, & in that century, every vice of the Empire has been repeated in the Foundation.""
-Bayta
 From "Foundation & Empire" by Isaac Asimov

The Dragon Ships

Music=
1. Rhinoceros
  
-Smashing Pumpkins

"Be aware of the present."
-Buddha

UFOtext=
I. Edge Of The Lotus Of Civilization
Ozymandias connected his silver wire. Suddenly the permanent night burst into tropical paradise- the ancient yellow emperor sun ruled a blue sky filled with hummingbirds & parrots. Princess Leizu stood before the Dragon in a water garden of lotus. A spreading fountain gushed from the horn of a white stone rhinoceros. She spoke-
"The Computer Masters left a back door to the kingdom..."
The Dragon smiled ever so faintly. The hologram enlightened a dark branch of ancient psychohistory. He knew Astira would find her way to the magic air pods.