The Sektor 7 Protocols: Recent Episodes
Simon Christopher Buck (aka Spaceman Nor Bear)
New London Newconers is set a little prior to the events, and in that part of the universe of the Sector 7 Protocols, where the humans begin their explorations. Told in two episodes, this short story throws some light on the obscure raison d’être of the Lord Gough’s institution, and on the state of mind of many of its inmates. Cross-genre fantasy, written and read, with music composed and produced, by Simon Christopher Buck (aka Spaceman Nor Bear).
Our young man discovers he has friends who have arrived ahead of him, though it is far from clear he remembers them - his amnesia reminds everyone of the terrors of the all-too-recently-concluded quantum wars.
A disorientated young man is discovered waiting for a bus which arrives and takes him via jet-powered ferry across the water to his mysterious island destination, as he begins to understand his situation.
First in the very short chapter 5, a brief message from the space station mainframe reveals that Hansi has tracked down an old military comrade. But then in chapter 6 we meet human characters for the first time. In what seems to be a boarding school on Earth, Rupert Dare wakes up, without really knowing where he is or how he got there. One by one he remembers people's names, as they head down to breakfast - the others tell him they have something to show him.
As a matriarch and her family gather for the Night of Nights, insights are revealed not only into fillial and marital relations in their world, but just how different they are from human society - and from human biology. And there is a glimpse of the crucial relationship between this family and their kind, and a completely - or maybe not so - different species.
Pander de Vries makes a startling discovery. The alien Tarot-reading monk (or rather travelling friar) is making his morning preparations, kneeling on the gleaming floor of his small cabin aboard a speeding starship. Before he sets out on his round of duties for the coming shift, he is shocked by what he reads in the cards. As he tries to decide the meaning of what he has uncovered, we learn more about Azure rituals and what brought him here.
Further unidentified voices - this time exchanging cryptic radio messages - as a flotilla of cutters (plus one tender) circle in on a remote space station. But this is a jolly, not a military manoeuvre...
Chilling battlefield anecdote related by an as-yet unidentified voice, about how he and a lone comrade attempt to extricate themselves from a desperate situation. Some swearing and violence in this episode.