ORIGINS OF CRIMSON INDIGO
PART II
AN ALL NEW PERSPECTIVE COMES TO LIFE IN ...
ORIGINS OF CRIMSON INDIGO
AN ALTERNATE PERSPECTIVE TO THE EPIC ADVENTURE
PRESENTED IN...
OF CRIMSON INDIGO: POINTS OF ORIGIN
ORIGINS OF CRIMSON INDIGO – PART 2/ALIEN LANDSCAPES
An alternative perspective on Points of Origin
By Grant Fausey
A RED late model sports car rushes through flooded streets and pulls into a driveway, windshield wipers racing. Laura Keri, a young woman with long dark hair and green eyes, dressed in designer jeans and a tight-fitting top opens the car door, exits and rushes for the house. The lights flicker then go out, darkening the hall to where the living room meets the stairway to the second floor.
Lisa Keri, a twin, with long dark hair and green eyes, dressed in blue jeans and v-neck top under a jacket runs down the stairs barefoot, carrying a pair of shoes. She gives Laura a quick hug then attempts to pick up her luggage, while putting on her shoe at the same time. Fails.
The car rushes down the driveway, turns sharply and rounds the corner on two wheels vanishing into a lightning strike that shatters the windshield, slicing the car in half. One half of the automobile vanishes taking Lisa with it, as Laura tumbles away skidding across the pavement with her half of the car disappearing into a spray of luminance that rips through the phenomenon like light passing through the cutouts of a stencil. The phenomenon is gone and so are the girls...
Laura crawls from the wreckage and collapses face down on wave-ridden beach, exhausted. A spectacular, thriving metropolis suspended between the trees of an otherworldly forest services as the backdrop to an enormous creature that opens a portal to another dimension. Laura's body glows in rings of distortion that form a sphere around her filled with electrical arcs. Then in a spectacular display of technology, her figure dematerializes in a patchwork arrangement that ends in an exchange of travelers as she is instantly swept away. Indigo, a well-dressed dignitary in stylish, long flowing leathery robes and a wide-brim hat with metallic trim, takes Laura’s place on the transit platform in the midst of a conversation with Nilana, a human looking temporal interface that appears as a ghostly woman dressed in similar attire. She is oblivious to the Gatekeeper’s conversation and is rather argumentative with Indigo.
Frustrated and disoriented, Lisa scrambles across the bedroom floor, stumbling away from an apparition of her sister visible through the doorway. The background shifts, changing the world around Lisa becoming Laura’s likeness in a mirror reflection. Laura pleads with her twin, as Lisa spies a photo stuffed into the upper corner of the mirror. She eyes it for a moment then pulls it off the glass, questioning herself as she sits on the edge of her bed, her reflection omnipresent in the mirror. Eye candy.
A familiar tune plays on the radio, until Lisa slams down on top of the radio-alarm clock, shutting off the receiver. A horn beeps and Lisa rushes through a pair of French doors to see Reuben Taylor’s sedan round the corner at the end of the street. Lisa races out of the front door, down the driveway to the curbside. The car stops curbside to meet her. Reuben Taylor rolls down the window and leans over the seat. Reuben takes a hold of Lisa, supporting her, she’s confused. Minutes later, Dr. Reta Jordan, a middle-aged blonde sits beside her uneasily as Lisa buries her head in the sofa cushion like a sick puppy.
Grabbing a small voice recorder off the desk, Reta Jordan rewinds the recording to repeat the previous conversation with Lisa, while Reuben calls the police, with concerns for her sister, but there’s no sign of her. Meanwhile, Indigo argues with Nilana, oblivious to the Gatekeeper’s conversation and glares at Indigo, rather annoyed with him, making an awful face at her companion.
Nilana motions to the tour guide hovering at the edge of the platform. Jake smirks, grimacing at thought of conversing with the tour guide but finds himself faced with the annoying creature when he turns, greeted by the tour guide. Jake ignores the ticket-taker walking away with attitude and a smile. The tour guide, however, accesses the communications network in response to Indigo’s query about the young unaccompanied female on the transit system ahead of him. Indigo raises an eyebrow when the guide informs him the traveler will be terminated. He takes Nilana by the hand and heads for the transit system, as the gateway activates, sending Jake on his way in a transfer of individuals, leaving the tour to fend for him self.
The machine changes shape, elongating the portal as the tour guide becomes alarmed then frightened, and with good reason. A transit Hound, a large four-legged killing machine, dips and curls like a dog sniffing the air as it lumbers forward, standing erect like a bear before the tour guide demanding answers to his summons. Meanwhile, on the other side of the universe, Laura emerges from transit into a snowy mountainous region, frozen in her tracks with fear. She leaps to the side, narrowly escaping a collision with the skis of an enormous wooden Windrigger sailing vessel as the ship races through the snow, passing overhead in pursuit of an unknown quarry. She is almost immediately lassoed and yanked from the ground and hauled aloft, where she’s confronted with Cappy Houston, a rather husky, rugged-looking humanoid with dark skin pirate wrapped in furs as he lets out a belly laugh and smiles at Laura pulling aboard the Windrigger. Frightened and a bit sheepish, Laura still manages to stand her ground, when a deckhand walks around her, putting his hands on her as if she’s his property.
The twin yanks her arm away and pushes the deckhand out of the way. The deckhand, however, drags Laura below kicking and screaming through an open hatchway, while the first mate, a powerful, square-jawed man acknowledges the skipper’s course correction, taking a hold of the great helm wheel. Two lookouts drop along lines to the deck as the Windrigger’s large sails whip across the deck, lifting one of the long spars from the ground, while replacing it with another. The ship tacks to a new course, its large legs strike the snow with great precision, only to reveal another Windrigger in the distance. The crew scurries about, each with a job they know all too well, while the captain takes up a position to the starboard side of the deck, looking glass in hand.
The tall ships stay on course. Cannon fire falls short of its target just as Indigo and Nilana emerge from the transit gateway. Indigo leaps for the protective cover of nearby rocks, pulls a futuristic hand weapon from its holster and spins around, bringing his weapon to bear. Ready to do battle as he looks to Nilana for answers, but his ghostly companion’sattention is on the approaching vessel’s canon fire. Meanwhile, Mr. Talbert, a strong, long-jawed dark-skinned male with four-arms, beady eyes, and a cynical laugh, dressed in pirate attire and lengthy fur coat, stands in the doorway flanked by two deckhands watching as Laura hits the floor of the hold in front of him. A projectile strikes the side of the ship, ripping a hole in the wall, rattling Laura’s nerves as she is swept out the gaping hole, dragging Talbert out the hole with her.
Laura grabs a tether line on the way down, but the line snaps in the wind and Laura looses her grip. She screams swinging back and forth in the wind like a falling kite as Talbert falls past her on his way to the ground. Laura closes her eyes and cringes as she hears the distant THUD of his impact. In the meantime, Indigo pursues the young woman’s whereabouts, coming to a halt, out of breath, just in time to witness the thunder of a broadside’s echoes through the mountains. The skyline alights with combat as the ships engage, passing each other in a salvo of weapon’s fire. He salutes in his own way and wishes the crew well.
Meanwhile, back in Reta Jordan’s office, Lisa scrambles from the couch. She’s in shock, hysterically fighting for her life. Reuben goes wide-eyed, scurries back and reaches out to Lisa as she hunches over in mortal combat, fighting for her life against an unseen foe. Red lines streak across her arm, blood running from the wounds as Lisa screams in desperation. A long biomechanical arm reaches out from infinity smashing through a wooden desk to get at Lisa, while Indigo and Nilana rush down the side of a snow dune to where Laura is faced with the transit Hound. Nilana summons a portal out of thin air as the Hound leaps to the attack, only to be caught in the transit wake, and is gone. Reuben’s rolls Lisa onto the sofa and breaths a sigh of relief as Dr. Reta Jordan uses a hypo to administer medication to Lisa, while the DJ Reuben Taylor keys in numbers for their own transit.
Jake treads the snow with Laura in tow, surveying the wreckage of a Windrigger, fires burning throughout. The wind howls like a junkyard dog at the moon, taunting Jake. Laura shivers, cold, her face white from frost and blue as the snow-covered ground. He puts his robes around Laura's shoulders, leans her to him and scans the horizon, revealing a makeshift shelter in the midst of the Windrigger wreckage. Indigo limps with Laura to the entrance and stops dead in his tracks. The shadow of something large drapes upon him, followed by a familiar belly laugh. Cappy Houston invites the bounty hunter and his entourage to join him. Meanwhile, back at Reta Jordan’s office, Dr. Jordan finishes wrapping Lisa's arm with a bandage, while Reuben picks up a book from the crunched desk and leafs through the pages to an open cutout area in the book. A golden medallion lifts off the page in front of him, showing Jordan. Dr. Jordan helps Lisa to her feet. Reuben depresses a series of keys then returns it to his pocket. The room shifts in the wake of distortion, forming a transit vortex as Reuben and Dr. Jordan make an exit.
The ambiance fades and the shelves jitter, rattling several items off the shelves onto the floor as the Hound steps from one reality into another, emerging into the office. He immediately scans the interior, sniffing the air, while he rears up on its hind legs, wrecking havoc over his failure to catch his prey. Meanwhile, the transit vortex deposits Reta, Lisa and Ruben onto a large wooden gangplank. Reuben keys in another code on the device, confidently securing the book under his arm as Reta helps Lisa along the gangplank onto a platform landing. The doctor props Lisa up against the alley wall nearly being run over by a shopkeeper in pursuit of a young street urchin in Jordan’s path. Reta Jordan jumps back, only to be faced Lisa, fighting her as she struggles running headlong into Reuben, knocking the book out of his hands. The book hits the ground, flips open and Lisa instinctively reaches for the medallion, which instantly transforms into a golden light, vanishing from the pages to reappear around her neck. Reuben tries to subdue her but fails. Lisa breaks away, running for her life.
REUBEN takes out after Lisa through the crowds, leaving Jordan to retrieve the book, but the shopkeeper, a sly-looking man thing, dressed in robes trimmed in gold, picks the book and dusts it off. The Hound immediately circles the businessman, demanding the book from an offensive posture, as he snarls at the man leaping to attack the shopkeeper. The businessman struggles, the book flies from his hands and strikes the ground, flipping open to reveal blank pages. The Hound snarls then steps on the book, crushing it. IN the meantime, Lisa races through the crowd, lost and confused. She’s disoriented and anxious. Reuben makes his way through the crowd behind her, trying to outrun the Hound, but to no avail as Reta Jordan points at Lisa, but it’s too late. The marketplace is full of fleeing patrons and the Hound. Reuben cringes; Reta Jordan is dead. Lisa, on the other hand, grabs the medallion and tries to hide it, but its golden light engulfs her. The Hound quickly changes direction sensing the medallion. But Reuben stops the beast. He’s wide-eyed in a horrific moment, face-to-face with the killing machine, but instead pets the beast’s nose unafraid.
Lisa scrambles into hiding, staying to the shadows. She’s more aware of her situation and glares at the medallion in the palm of her hand. Its golden light triggers her memories of the accident and Laura. Meanwhile, in the makeshift shack, Indigo lies Laura atop several crates, which serve as a temporary bed. He is definitely captivated by her beauty and resemblance to Krydal Starr, not to mention a little disturbed by Cappy Houston’s interest in her, when he wraps Laura in his furs, tucking them in like a hospital blanket. Indigo takes a swing at Cappy, but misses. Cappy laughs as two henchmen grab a hold of the bounty hunter, separating him from his weapons. Nilana finally steps in, completes a slap to the face but the pirate takes her attack in stride with a belly laugh. Cappy grabs a hold of her arm and pulls her close to him, but she vanishes right in front of him. The sound of canon fire drowning out her anger. A moment late, Nilana pokes her head out of the shelter into the wind beside Cappy as he emerges into the night air then looks back at the makeshift shelter and Laura.
Several pirates rush into the night air weapons drawn, screaming like a banshee as Indigo races toward a tether line, pulling himself off the ground and up the rope, fighting a pirate along the way. The makeshift shelter vanishes into the blowing snow giving way to a Windrigger as it races into the night, sails bellowing against the wind, one ski high in the air, another coursing the surface. Meanwhile, in an alien landscape, Lisa smiles at Reuben happy to see him, but almost instantly realizes who he is and stops mid-stride. Reuben is salivating. Lisa clinches the medallion tightly under her shirt as she faces off against Reuben backing him up. The hound snarls at her, while Reuben presses his finger against her chest, forcing her into the Hound’s clutches. Lisa struggles against the beast, but ends up striking Reuben with both hands as the medallion reacts to her, lashing out at him, hurtling him through the air. Reuben hits the ground, sliding across the platform ending up with his back against a railing, while Lisa dives for the shadows, frantically fleeing for her life, only to come up panting out of breath.
Reuben recovers and drives forward on all fours like the hound. Lisa spies an opening between two broken boards and dives through the opening, landing hard on the platform’s lower level. She comes up hurt, the medallion fully aglow under her shirt, shining through as its light engulfs her. A swirling mass of energy forms around Lisa in the midst of her screams, completing dimensional travel and she is instantly gone. Meanwhile, Reuben emerges into the open. He looks around at the populous, but everyone ignores him going about daily business as if nothing happened. Reuben slaps his hand against his leg disgusted as Lisa emerges from transit on a world with two surfaces, one beyond the clouds in the depths of the sky, the other below her feet. The golden light of her medallion dims, reflecting off crystalline formations that sparkle with starlight like something out of a dream as the light dissipates. A dark shape scurries across the ground silhouetted against the starlit sky to a towering pillar of light at the heart of a distant city in the hues of a rainbow prism. The medallion glows in Lisa’s hand as she turns around to face the approach of a crystal man whose been waiting for her. A moment later, the medallion engulfs Lisa in golden light and the crystal man becomes a reflection of her amidst the star-studded heaven as they walk into the light together, changed forever. Meanwhile, along the snowy wonderland of intermittent fires and Windrigger wreckage, the wind blows through the temporary shelter, the tarp flapping in the bitter cold breeze as it whips open to a shadowy figure dressed in worn combat armor wrapped in coarse brown pelts. The figure looks around cautiously, scanning with her eyes. The brazen Buccaneer steps into the dim light, immediately searching for particulars and shows little interest in Laura but rather approaches the jerry-rigged sacks she rests on.
She pulls away the hoody type wrap reveal herself to be a young, dark-haired woman that looks remarkably like the comatose or unconscious woman on the temporary bunk. Laura awakens with a moan. Laura smiles, but Crimson doesn’t react. Instead, she takes a defensive posture and quickly scans in every direction. She’s baffled by the results. It seems Laura is what she is looking for.
The makeshift shelters covering flies open and Indigo steps through the entrance followed by a pirate, who helplessly gives Crimson a loving shove to one side as he steps into the center of the refuge. Laura spins around and clobbers the pirate in the kisser and takes off in a direct line for the exit. Crimson and Indigo follow suit, racing out the door behind her amazed, and impressed only to abruptly come to a halt in the waiting arms of another pirate. Who immediately yanks the three of them from the ground, hauling them aboard the Windrigger! Cappy puts a looking glass to the night sky and gazes for a moment, turning to the helmsmen as the mainsail shifts position, lifting the mast as it slips across the deck, bellowing in the wind to a new course.
Meanwhile, finding themselves in the cargo hold, the trio disappears into the darkness, while on the snowy dunes, the howling wind roars across the makeshift shelter. The tarp shreds from the inside out, collapsing to the ground as the Hound emerges into the night air. The beast looks on at the Windrigger, then to the distant horizon, past the skyline. He sniffs the air on the hunt, letting out a bloodcurdling cry as the makeshift shelter burst into flames.
In the meantime, in the blackness of the cargo hold, the world around Laura shifts changing while Crimson lifts a small device from the side of her head, turning it off. Laura is genuinely afraid, but stands her ground. Crimson on the other hand, has found her answers and they’re leaving. She takes Laura by the hand, pulls a small device from under her cloak and points it at Nilana discharging the device. Nilana immediately falls to the floor. The bounty hunter emerges from the shadows, seeing the last lingering residue of the vortex as it dissipates. The two women are gone, so Indigo follows protocol, reinitializing Nilana as her body dissolves into random patches, forming multiple personalities that divide into multiple forms on the floor, radiating lines generated from a central point above her remains. He intends to follow the women, but leaves Nilana to cover their escape, returning the room to normal except for a pair of lurking eyes looking out from the cracks. Cappy Houston steps away, his eyes wide over what he has just witnessed.
A vortex opens and Indigo steps out into the busy street, following Laura as she hurries to keep up with Crimson, but stops surprised by Reuben. Laura's first instinct is to run to him, so she does, but the reunion falls short when Laura fights against Reuben, pushing him off her. Reuben, however, has no intention of letting her go. She’s in the clutches of the Hound. Laura screams, punching Reuben in the face much to Crimson’s surprise. She’s impressed. Reuben shakes off the punch and snarls like the Hound. Laura reconsiders her actions and runs. Crimson immediately blocks Reuben’s path. The sound of canon fire echoes throughout the forest setting, while Indigo silently moves to a more favorable position.
The Hound leaps in between Reuben and Laura, landing in front of Crimson blocking the path between them. The bounty hunter, Indigo, moves like a well trained cat in tandem with Crimson as she pushes Laura through the crowd. Reuben pulls a weapon, pointing it directly at Laura, but Indigo lets out a primeval scream rushing headlong into Reuben with enough force to tackle the DJ, sending him into the Hound. Reuben’s weapon discharges, the energy beam barely missing Laura. Crimson rips the medallion from her neck, hurtling the pendant to the ground in an explosion of electrical arcs that rise in an energy sphere that covers the platform.
The Hound is in mortal combat with Indigo, but the bounty hunter deflects the DJ only to be immediately confronted with the beast. Electrical arcs strike the platform, tumbling the marketplace, while the crowd screams, racing for their lives. Meanwhile, the Hound struggles against the force of the impact, bouncing off the platform and gantries with explosive force. The marketplace collapses, falling off in splintered chunks beneath Laura’s feet. Crimson leaps for her life, landing hard on the gigantic root system, making it to safety just in time to see Houston's Windrigger burst through the vortex into the tree world on fire, flanked by a second Windrigger on a tight course through the towering timber as it soars from the vortex into a broadside exchange that sends the pirate crew over the side of Houston's ship. At the same time, Crimson plucks Laura the platform during a mid-fall collapse, hurting aloft with her like high wire trapeze act.
Cappy, on the other hand, takes command sending one last volley into the side of his adversary, setting the Windrigger ablaze. The ship explodes in a sweeping wildfire sending patrons running in all directions. The pirate crew remains vigilant, repelling boarders as the canon fire send the other vessel crashing into the shattered bridge. Then, in one last gesture of defiance, the Hound pulls itself back onto the crumbling street, and stands erect on its hind legs letting out an angry roar that sends shivers down Laura’s back. Indigo embraces Crimson in a moment of thankful bliss then just as quickly turn his attention back to the root of the problem -- the transit Hound. Crimson grips her medallion tightly in her hand and bellows like a wide-eyed cowboy, driving the beast back into the fiery pit vanishing into the depths of the gigantic vortex.
Meanwhile, across the cosmos, Reuben emerges from the swirling vortex, hitting the water just ahead of his Hound counterpart, landing in a swampy jungle at twilight. The cosmic DJ treads knee-deep water to shore, collapsing face down on his hands and knees as the sadistic transit beast distorts and shatters, splintering as it comes apart. The world is in transition, a devastated derelict of a planet held in darkness, hidden from the light of day. Reuben Taylor looks up into the threshold of a giant spider-like living machine hovering over him and everything goes black ...
Meanwhile, back on Cappy’s Windrigger, Laura finds her way to the helm, stands next to the pirate. Her attitude changes, as she looks on at Crimson and Indigo standing next to one another, a look of stormy eyes as her medallion flares white with a golden light to reveal Christopher Denarak, a handsome youth who barely misses a collision with an old woman as he carries a box of supplies, weaving back and forth through the crowds traveling for an ancient wooden fortress overlooking the docks. Cappy smiles at Laura walking her down the gangplank. He puts his arm around her. She kisses him on the cheek and he watches her departure. Then in an after-thought, Cappy shouts to her, throwing the Nilana sphere out across the gangplank to her pointing to Crimson and Indigo, arm in arm and laughs. Laura runs to joins her new friends and, in a moment of happiness, Crimson turns to her sister morphing into the image of her true identity ... Lisa Keri. And we pass through Crimson's eye into the spiraling vortex emerging into an alien landscape.
The End...
By Grant Fausey
A RED late model sports car rushes through flooded streets and pulls into a driveway, windshield wipers racing. Laura Keri, a young woman with long dark hair and green eyes, dressed in designer jeans and a tight-fitting top opens the car door, exits and rushes for the house. The lights flicker then go out, darkening the hall to where the living room meets the stairway to the second floor.
Lisa Keri, a twin, with long dark hair and green eyes, dressed in blue jeans and v-neck top under a jacket runs down the stairs barefoot, carrying a pair of shoes. She gives Laura a quick hug then attempts to pick up her luggage, while putting on her shoe at the same time. Fails.
The car rushes down the driveway, turns sharply and rounds the corner on two wheels vanishing into a lightning strike that shatters the windshield, slicing the car in half. One half of the automobile vanishes taking Lisa with it, as Laura tumbles away skidding across the pavement with her half of the car disappearing into a spray of luminance that rips through the phenomenon like light passing through the cutouts of a stencil. The phenomenon is gone and so are the girls...
Laura crawls from the wreckage and collapses face down on wave-ridden beach, exhausted. A spectacular, thriving metropolis suspended between the trees of an otherworldly forest services as the backdrop to an enormous creature that opens a portal to another dimension. Laura's body glows in rings of distortion that form a sphere around her filled with electrical arcs. Then in a spectacular display of technology, her figure dematerializes in a patchwork arrangement that ends in an exchange of travelers as she is instantly swept away. Indigo, a well-dressed dignitary in stylish, long flowing leathery robes and a wide-brim hat with metallic trim, takes Laura’s place on the transit platform in the midst of a conversation with Nilana, a human looking temporal interface that appears as a ghostly woman dressed in similar attire. She is oblivious to the Gatekeeper’s conversation and is rather argumentative with Indigo.
Frustrated and disoriented, Lisa scrambles across the bedroom floor, stumbling away from an apparition of her sister visible through the doorway. The background shifts, changing the world around Lisa becoming Laura’s likeness in a mirror reflection. Laura pleads with her twin, as Lisa spies a photo stuffed into the upper corner of the mirror. She eyes it for a moment then pulls it off the glass, questioning herself as she sits on the edge of her bed, her reflection omnipresent in the mirror. Eye candy.
A familiar tune plays on the radio, until Lisa slams down on top of the radio-alarm clock, shutting off the receiver. A horn beeps and Lisa rushes through a pair of French doors to see Reuben Taylor’s sedan round the corner at the end of the street. Lisa races out of the front door, down the driveway to the curbside. The car stops curbside to meet her. Reuben Taylor rolls down the window and leans over the seat. Reuben takes a hold of Lisa, supporting her, she’s confused. Minutes later, Dr. Reta Jordan, a middle-aged blonde sits beside her uneasily as Lisa buries her head in the sofa cushion like a sick puppy.
Grabbing a small voice recorder off the desk, Reta Jordan rewinds the recording to repeat the previous conversation with Lisa, while Reuben calls the police, with concerns for her sister, but there’s no sign of her. Meanwhile, Indigo argues with Nilana, oblivious to the Gatekeeper’s conversation and glares at Indigo, rather annoyed with him, making an awful face at her companion.
Nilana motions to the tour guide hovering at the edge of the platform. Jake smirks, grimacing at thought of conversing with the tour guide but finds himself faced with the annoying creature when he turns, greeted by the tour guide. Jake ignores the ticket-taker walking away with attitude and a smile. The tour guide, however, accesses the communications network in response to Indigo’s query about the young unaccompanied female on the transit system ahead of him. Indigo raises an eyebrow when the guide informs him the traveler will be terminated. He takes Nilana by the hand and heads for the transit system, as the gateway activates, sending Jake on his way in a transfer of individuals, leaving the tour to fend for him self.
The machine changes shape, elongating the portal as the tour guide becomes alarmed then frightened, and with good reason. A transit Hound, a large four-legged killing machine, dips and curls like a dog sniffing the air as it lumbers forward, standing erect like a bear before the tour guide demanding answers to his summons. Meanwhile, on the other side of the universe, Laura emerges from transit into a snowy mountainous region, frozen in her tracks with fear. She leaps to the side, narrowly escaping a collision with the skis of an enormous wooden Windrigger sailing vessel as the ship races through the snow, passing overhead in pursuit of an unknown quarry. She is almost immediately lassoed and yanked from the ground and hauled aloft, where she’s confronted with Cappy Houston, a rather husky, rugged-looking humanoid with dark skin pirate wrapped in furs as he lets out a belly laugh and smiles at Laura pulling aboard the Windrigger. Frightened and a bit sheepish, Laura still manages to stand her ground, when a deckhand walks around her, putting his hands on her as if she’s his property.
The twin yanks her arm away and pushes the deckhand out of the way. The deckhand, however, drags Laura below kicking and screaming through an open hatchway, while the first mate, a powerful, square-jawed man acknowledges the skipper’s course correction, taking a hold of the great helm wheel. Two lookouts drop along lines to the deck as the Windrigger’s large sails whip across the deck, lifting one of the long spars from the ground, while replacing it with another. The ship tacks to a new course, its large legs strike the snow with great precision, only to reveal another Windrigger in the distance. The crew scurries about, each with a job they know all too well, while the captain takes up a position to the starboard side of the deck, looking glass in hand.
The tall ships stay on course. Cannon fire falls short of its target just as Indigo and Nilana emerge from the transit gateway. Indigo leaps for the protective cover of nearby rocks, pulls a futuristic hand weapon from its holster and spins around, bringing his weapon to bear. Ready to do battle as he looks to Nilana for answers, but his ghostly companion’sattention is on the approaching vessel’s canon fire. Meanwhile, Mr. Talbert, a strong, long-jawed dark-skinned male with four-arms, beady eyes, and a cynical laugh, dressed in pirate attire and lengthy fur coat, stands in the doorway flanked by two deckhands watching as Laura hits the floor of the hold in front of him. A projectile strikes the side of the ship, ripping a hole in the wall, rattling Laura’s nerves as she is swept out the gaping hole, dragging Talbert out the hole with her.
Laura grabs a tether line on the way down, but the line snaps in the wind and Laura looses her grip. She screams swinging back and forth in the wind like a falling kite as Talbert falls past her on his way to the ground. Laura closes her eyes and cringes as she hears the distant THUD of his impact. In the meantime, Indigo pursues the young woman’s whereabouts, coming to a halt, out of breath, just in time to witness the thunder of a broadside’s echoes through the mountains. The skyline alights with combat as the ships engage, passing each other in a salvo of weapon’s fire. He salutes in his own way and wishes the crew well.
Meanwhile, back in Reta Jordan’s office, Lisa scrambles from the couch. She’s in shock, hysterically fighting for her life. Reuben goes wide-eyed, scurries back and reaches out to Lisa as she hunches over in mortal combat, fighting for her life against an unseen foe. Red lines streak across her arm, blood running from the wounds as Lisa screams in desperation. A long biomechanical arm reaches out from infinity smashing through a wooden desk to get at Lisa, while Indigo and Nilana rush down the side of a snow dune to where Laura is faced with the transit Hound. Nilana summons a portal out of thin air as the Hound leaps to the attack, only to be caught in the transit wake, and is gone. Reuben’s rolls Lisa onto the sofa and breaths a sigh of relief as Dr. Reta Jordan uses a hypo to administer medication to Lisa, while the DJ Reuben Taylor keys in numbers for their own transit.
Jake treads the snow with Laura in tow, surveying the wreckage of a Windrigger, fires burning throughout. The wind howls like a junkyard dog at the moon, taunting Jake. Laura shivers, cold, her face white from frost and blue as the snow-covered ground. He puts his robes around Laura's shoulders, leans her to him and scans the horizon, revealing a makeshift shelter in the midst of the Windrigger wreckage. Indigo limps with Laura to the entrance and stops dead in his tracks. The shadow of something large drapes upon him, followed by a familiar belly laugh. Cappy Houston invites the bounty hunter and his entourage to join him. Meanwhile, back at Reta Jordan’s office, Dr. Jordan finishes wrapping Lisa's arm with a bandage, while Reuben picks up a book from the crunched desk and leafs through the pages to an open cutout area in the book. A golden medallion lifts off the page in front of him, showing Jordan. Dr. Jordan helps Lisa to her feet. Reuben depresses a series of keys then returns it to his pocket. The room shifts in the wake of distortion, forming a transit vortex as Reuben and Dr. Jordan make an exit.
The ambiance fades and the shelves jitter, rattling several items off the shelves onto the floor as the Hound steps from one reality into another, emerging into the office. He immediately scans the interior, sniffing the air, while he rears up on its hind legs, wrecking havoc over his failure to catch his prey. Meanwhile, the transit vortex deposits Reta, Lisa and Ruben onto a large wooden gangplank. Reuben keys in another code on the device, confidently securing the book under his arm as Reta helps Lisa along the gangplank onto a platform landing. The doctor props Lisa up against the alley wall nearly being run over by a shopkeeper in pursuit of a young street urchin in Jordan’s path. Reta Jordan jumps back, only to be faced Lisa, fighting her as she struggles running headlong into Reuben, knocking the book out of his hands. The book hits the ground, flips open and Lisa instinctively reaches for the medallion, which instantly transforms into a golden light, vanishing from the pages to reappear around her neck. Reuben tries to subdue her but fails. Lisa breaks away, running for her life.
REUBEN takes out after Lisa through the crowds, leaving Jordan to retrieve the book, but the shopkeeper, a sly-looking man thing, dressed in robes trimmed in gold, picks the book and dusts it off. The Hound immediately circles the businessman, demanding the book from an offensive posture, as he snarls at the man leaping to attack the shopkeeper. The businessman struggles, the book flies from his hands and strikes the ground, flipping open to reveal blank pages. The Hound snarls then steps on the book, crushing it. IN the meantime, Lisa races through the crowd, lost and confused. She’s disoriented and anxious. Reuben makes his way through the crowd behind her, trying to outrun the Hound, but to no avail as Reta Jordan points at Lisa, but it’s too late. The marketplace is full of fleeing patrons and the Hound. Reuben cringes; Reta Jordan is dead. Lisa, on the other hand, grabs the medallion and tries to hide it, but its golden light engulfs her. The Hound quickly changes direction sensing the medallion. But Reuben stops the beast. He’s wide-eyed in a horrific moment, face-to-face with the killing machine, but instead pets the beast’s nose unafraid.
Lisa scrambles into hiding, staying to the shadows. She’s more aware of her situation and glares at the medallion in the palm of her hand. Its golden light triggers her memories of the accident and Laura. Meanwhile, in the makeshift shack, Indigo lies Laura atop several crates, which serve as a temporary bed. He is definitely captivated by her beauty and resemblance to Krydal Starr, not to mention a little disturbed by Cappy Houston’s interest in her, when he wraps Laura in his furs, tucking them in like a hospital blanket. Indigo takes a swing at Cappy, but misses. Cappy laughs as two henchmen grab a hold of the bounty hunter, separating him from his weapons. Nilana finally steps in, completes a slap to the face but the pirate takes her attack in stride with a belly laugh. Cappy grabs a hold of her arm and pulls her close to him, but she vanishes right in front of him. The sound of canon fire drowning out her anger. A moment late, Nilana pokes her head out of the shelter into the wind beside Cappy as he emerges into the night air then looks back at the makeshift shelter and Laura.
Several pirates rush into the night air weapons drawn, screaming like a banshee as Indigo races toward a tether line, pulling himself off the ground and up the rope, fighting a pirate along the way. The makeshift shelter vanishes into the blowing snow giving way to a Windrigger as it races into the night, sails bellowing against the wind, one ski high in the air, another coursing the surface. Meanwhile, in an alien landscape, Lisa smiles at Reuben happy to see him, but almost instantly realizes who he is and stops mid-stride. Reuben is salivating. Lisa clinches the medallion tightly under her shirt as she faces off against Reuben backing him up. The hound snarls at her, while Reuben presses his finger against her chest, forcing her into the Hound’s clutches. Lisa struggles against the beast, but ends up striking Reuben with both hands as the medallion reacts to her, lashing out at him, hurtling him through the air. Reuben hits the ground, sliding across the platform ending up with his back against a railing, while Lisa dives for the shadows, frantically fleeing for her life, only to come up panting out of breath.
Reuben recovers and drives forward on all fours like the hound. Lisa spies an opening between two broken boards and dives through the opening, landing hard on the platform’s lower level. She comes up hurt, the medallion fully aglow under her shirt, shining through as its light engulfs her. A swirling mass of energy forms around Lisa in the midst of her screams, completing dimensional travel and she is instantly gone. Meanwhile, Reuben emerges into the open. He looks around at the populous, but everyone ignores him going about daily business as if nothing happened. Reuben slaps his hand against his leg disgusted as Lisa emerges from transit on a world with two surfaces, one beyond the clouds in the depths of the sky, the other below her feet. The golden light of her medallion dims, reflecting off crystalline formations that sparkle with starlight like something out of a dream as the light dissipates. A dark shape scurries across the ground silhouetted against the starlit sky to a towering pillar of light at the heart of a distant city in the hues of a rainbow prism. The medallion glows in Lisa’s hand as she turns around to face the approach of a crystal man whose been waiting for her. A moment later, the medallion engulfs Lisa in golden light and the crystal man becomes a reflection of her amidst the star-studded heaven as they walk into the light together, changed forever. Meanwhile, along the snowy wonderland of intermittent fires and Windrigger wreckage, the wind blows through the temporary shelter, the tarp flapping in the bitter cold breeze as it whips open to a shadowy figure dressed in worn combat armor wrapped in coarse brown pelts. The figure looks around cautiously, scanning with her eyes. The brazen Buccaneer steps into the dim light, immediately searching for particulars and shows little interest in Laura but rather approaches the jerry-rigged sacks she rests on.
She pulls away the hoody type wrap reveal herself to be a young, dark-haired woman that looks remarkably like the comatose or unconscious woman on the temporary bunk. Laura awakens with a moan. Laura smiles, but Crimson doesn’t react. Instead, she takes a defensive posture and quickly scans in every direction. She’s baffled by the results. It seems Laura is what she is looking for.
The makeshift shelters covering flies open and Indigo steps through the entrance followed by a pirate, who helplessly gives Crimson a loving shove to one side as he steps into the center of the refuge. Laura spins around and clobbers the pirate in the kisser and takes off in a direct line for the exit. Crimson and Indigo follow suit, racing out the door behind her amazed, and impressed only to abruptly come to a halt in the waiting arms of another pirate. Who immediately yanks the three of them from the ground, hauling them aboard the Windrigger! Cappy puts a looking glass to the night sky and gazes for a moment, turning to the helmsmen as the mainsail shifts position, lifting the mast as it slips across the deck, bellowing in the wind to a new course.
Meanwhile, finding themselves in the cargo hold, the trio disappears into the darkness, while on the snowy dunes, the howling wind roars across the makeshift shelter. The tarp shreds from the inside out, collapsing to the ground as the Hound emerges into the night air. The beast looks on at the Windrigger, then to the distant horizon, past the skyline. He sniffs the air on the hunt, letting out a bloodcurdling cry as the makeshift shelter burst into flames.
In the meantime, in the blackness of the cargo hold, the world around Laura shifts changing while Crimson lifts a small device from the side of her head, turning it off. Laura is genuinely afraid, but stands her ground. Crimson on the other hand, has found her answers and they’re leaving. She takes Laura by the hand, pulls a small device from under her cloak and points it at Nilana discharging the device. Nilana immediately falls to the floor. The bounty hunter emerges from the shadows, seeing the last lingering residue of the vortex as it dissipates. The two women are gone, so Indigo follows protocol, reinitializing Nilana as her body dissolves into random patches, forming multiple personalities that divide into multiple forms on the floor, radiating lines generated from a central point above her remains. He intends to follow the women, but leaves Nilana to cover their escape, returning the room to normal except for a pair of lurking eyes looking out from the cracks. Cappy Houston steps away, his eyes wide over what he has just witnessed.
A vortex opens and Indigo steps out into the busy street, following Laura as she hurries to keep up with Crimson, but stops surprised by Reuben. Laura's first instinct is to run to him, so she does, but the reunion falls short when Laura fights against Reuben, pushing him off her. Reuben, however, has no intention of letting her go. She’s in the clutches of the Hound. Laura screams, punching Reuben in the face much to Crimson’s surprise. She’s impressed. Reuben shakes off the punch and snarls like the Hound. Laura reconsiders her actions and runs. Crimson immediately blocks Reuben’s path. The sound of canon fire echoes throughout the forest setting, while Indigo silently moves to a more favorable position.
The Hound leaps in between Reuben and Laura, landing in front of Crimson blocking the path between them. The bounty hunter, Indigo, moves like a well trained cat in tandem with Crimson as she pushes Laura through the crowd. Reuben pulls a weapon, pointing it directly at Laura, but Indigo lets out a primeval scream rushing headlong into Reuben with enough force to tackle the DJ, sending him into the Hound. Reuben’s weapon discharges, the energy beam barely missing Laura. Crimson rips the medallion from her neck, hurtling the pendant to the ground in an explosion of electrical arcs that rise in an energy sphere that covers the platform.
The Hound is in mortal combat with Indigo, but the bounty hunter deflects the DJ only to be immediately confronted with the beast. Electrical arcs strike the platform, tumbling the marketplace, while the crowd screams, racing for their lives. Meanwhile, the Hound struggles against the force of the impact, bouncing off the platform and gantries with explosive force. The marketplace collapses, falling off in splintered chunks beneath Laura’s feet. Crimson leaps for her life, landing hard on the gigantic root system, making it to safety just in time to see Houston's Windrigger burst through the vortex into the tree world on fire, flanked by a second Windrigger on a tight course through the towering timber as it soars from the vortex into a broadside exchange that sends the pirate crew over the side of Houston's ship. At the same time, Crimson plucks Laura the platform during a mid-fall collapse, hurting aloft with her like high wire trapeze act.
Cappy, on the other hand, takes command sending one last volley into the side of his adversary, setting the Windrigger ablaze. The ship explodes in a sweeping wildfire sending patrons running in all directions. The pirate crew remains vigilant, repelling boarders as the canon fire send the other vessel crashing into the shattered bridge. Then, in one last gesture of defiance, the Hound pulls itself back onto the crumbling street, and stands erect on its hind legs letting out an angry roar that sends shivers down Laura’s back. Indigo embraces Crimson in a moment of thankful bliss then just as quickly turn his attention back to the root of the problem -- the transit Hound. Crimson grips her medallion tightly in her hand and bellows like a wide-eyed cowboy, driving the beast back into the fiery pit vanishing into the depths of the gigantic vortex.
Meanwhile, across the cosmos, Reuben emerges from the swirling vortex, hitting the water just ahead of his Hound counterpart, landing in a swampy jungle at twilight. The cosmic DJ treads knee-deep water to shore, collapsing face down on his hands and knees as the sadistic transit beast distorts and shatters, splintering as it comes apart. The world is in transition, a devastated derelict of a planet held in darkness, hidden from the light of day. Reuben Taylor looks up into the threshold of a giant spider-like living machine hovering over him and everything goes black ...
Meanwhile, back on Cappy’s Windrigger, Laura finds her way to the helm, stands next to the pirate. Her attitude changes, as she looks on at Crimson and Indigo standing next to one another, a look of stormy eyes as her medallion flares white with a golden light to reveal Christopher Denarak, a handsome youth who barely misses a collision with an old woman as he carries a box of supplies, weaving back and forth through the crowds traveling for an ancient wooden fortress overlooking the docks. Cappy smiles at Laura walking her down the gangplank. He puts his arm around her. She kisses him on the cheek and he watches her departure. Then in an after-thought, Cappy shouts to her, throwing the Nilana sphere out across the gangplank to her pointing to Crimson and Indigo, arm in arm and laughs. Laura runs to joins her new friends and, in a moment of happiness, Crimson turns to her sister morphing into the image of her true identity ... Lisa Keri. And we pass through Crimson's eye into the spiraling vortex emerging into an alien landscape.
The End...
