Miscellaneous Writings

This page collects assorted accessory writings that sprouted up during the preparation and development of the Chalenge from Beyond 2000 project.

From informal author bios to fore- and afterwords, to unlikely forecasts, these have been collected here as a much refreshing appendix to the story.

Enjoy!

Things to be expected
 (according to Professor Farnell's original post)

Foreword to Part One: We're Needed
(by Mark McFadden)

Mark McFadden became the new Lizard King in the early 80s and has humbled and defeated all challengers since. It should be noted that he did not seek the office but accepted the responsibilities from a sense of noblesse oblige. Before he transcended the mere flesh he was an IT professional and iconoclast by nature. He works at a movie studio. He has developed a Bad Attitude, which will surely be noted in his Permanent Record.

He feels honored to be offered the first chapter and the opportunity to deal with the character of Doc, surely the most dynamic and fascinating character in DG fiction today. In his humble opinion there can never be enough good things said about Doc, although he exhorts everyone to try.

Afterword to Part One: We're Needed
(by Mark McFadden)

Since I was starting, my approach to the project was to write the first part as if I was going to write the whole thing. Then I tried to cram as many elements of where I would have taken it into as few pages as possible. Consequently, this afterword may be as long as the chapter. Sorry. Dave reproduced a Lovecraft Circle 'happening' and I'm in it all the way. To me that includes a rigorous deconstruction of what went in at each stage, we all hope the story rocks but the process is also the star.

Ms. Verde was the cover Agent Laura used in 'Angel', but I had other ideas and decided that she wasn't going to be the Ms. Verde that had arrived. I figured this might disappoint Doc a bit.

Since the central character(s) are a multiple personality, I decided that it would be in first person and would be another resident. I decided that the character's original name was Dave Burroughs and all of the other personalities had the same last name. At some point later he would pick up a nickname or handle so his team members could refer to him without knowing who was at the conn first. Perhaps 'Legion'.

Since physical acts required so much cooperation and teamwork I knew that he wasn't going to be a regular agent. He couldn't go back to the BATF and I knew he wouldn't be able to pass for an active duty LEO. So I had to figure out why DG would want him back and the Library Police were born. For those who haven't heard of the mythical Library Police, they were the original Men In Black, the unseen thin black line between civilization and the barbarian hordes. They enforced the overdue fines and would never rest until they got their man. Miscreants might live a full life and be happily smug in retirement, only to have the Library Police come knocking with an overdue fine of tens of thousands of dollars. Asset forfeiture might be necessary in some cases. They were cruel but fair.

I think it only appropriate that Bobbi Peel be the founder of a police force, don't you? Any parallels to a 'Mrs.' Peel were absolutely intentional since she was the template for Bobbi. Young Robert Peale had good taste in television. Ms. Peel doesn't look much like Diana Rigg, but she does own a leather catsuit and kicks ass.

Robert Peale was a DG resource in the NSA, a gifted mathematician. He was given notes and memoranda concerning Dr. Stephen Courtis which included some equations and number groups for evaluation, although he was not told their source or made privy to any MJ-12 information. It wouldn't have mattered, Robert Peale's reaction to some of the insights gained contemplating the equations and some of Courtis's notations was to become effectively catatonic, wrapped up in the equations to the exclusion of everything else. Roberta woke up and took over, but Robert is still there thinking of numbers. He might wake up again some day with a whole new outlook.

In the meantime, Bobbi practices La Savate, hapkido, and small circle jiu jitsu and consults with another project under the codename 'Rebus'. The only mathematics she can perform these days is the arithmetic involved in Contract Bridge.

At one point, since Lee &Co all ride around in one body, I thought that 'Steed' would be an appropriate codename, but that would be pushing it.

In game terms, Mycroft is the Idea and Spot Hidden rolls. Based on Mycroft Holmes, the older, smarter brother who lives in the exclusively male and silent Diogenes Club. Sherlock said that at times Mycroft is the government. By and large, Mycroft doesn't leave his quarters and only speaks when visitors meet him in the one room at the club where talking is allowed.

In psychological terms, Mycroft is a nerd. Okay, that's not a psychological term yet. But he is. He's the part of Dave Burroughs that was the nerdy genius that couldn't talk to girls, the brilliant intellect with no social skills. He is very competitive but would never admit to such a character flaw.

I wouldn't expect him to stay at the helm, he'd rather go back to his room and contemplate, leaving others with all those messy bodily functions to attend to.

Also, you have to shut Mycroft up or the story won't go anywhere. I think Mycroft took about five paragraphs to describe about five seconds of action. It's that Spot Hidden thing.

I have no real ideas about Diana, although she is apparently smart or Mycroft wouldn't bother mentioning her or her announcements.

Here's my favorite part of this project, seeing where other people go with your references. I mentioned Harvey but didn't flesh him out. If I was going to continue the story (and the Library Police might show up elsewhere), we would discover that Harvey's name is based on Harvey Dent, the brilliant District Attorney of Gotham City who was hideously disfigured and became Two-Face. Harvey also had troubles with reading material. His reaction was to go insane, but the illiterate right side of his brain was unaffected. Due to an old accident (which I haven't fleshed out), his corpus callosum had been severed, which doesn't harm brain function but severs internal communication between the lobes. To gain control the sane silent partner put out the right eye, effectively blinding the left side of the brain. The silent partner (who I call Damballah) is in control of the body and prevents Harvey from harming anything.

Foreword to Chapter 2: Oh What a tangled Web we Weave ...
(by Edward Lipsett)

AE van Vogt once said that the best way to write a novel is to turn the plot upside down every chapter.

This ought to give the rest of you some more ammo to play with...

Foreword to Chapter 3: World's End
(by Gregory A. Wilson)

Hello all,

Here's my entry in our little entertainment. A little aside, I have enjoyed the speculation on the list about Mythos authors, and have my own tact, one that will be slightly apparent in this piece, that is that the authors WE know and love aren't entities in the Mythos.

Rather the events play themselves out and the reports are filed and the horror continues. Well I don't want to offend anyone with rampant speculation so here we go.

Also I don't think we could have picked a better time to do this, I think you'll see why....

Greg

Foreword to Chapter Four: Bad Things
(by Nick Brownlow)

Well, I generally like to um and ah over my literary efforts for eight or nine months first, but with my deadline fast approaching and my day job the way it is, I honestly don't know how much quality dithering time I'll be able to fit into the next few days. Consequently, for better or worse, here's my contribution to CfBY2K.

Incidently, if anyone feels moved to comment on or criticise this, by all means contact me off list;- i'm on something of a drive to 'improve my craft' at the minute, and all input is welcome and would be greatly appreciated.

Afterword to Chapter Five, ÆPigeons, Palms and Planes"
(by Eckhard Huelshoff)

At the time I am writing this afterword a couple of chapters have already followed the mine and one of the characters I introduced - Torsten - has to my surprise become a beloved minor villain of the story and he is still developing.

One of the most interesting things about this project for me was trying to write fiction in another language. And you may believe me: It feels different. [ I already wrote fiction in German. And this project somehow encouraged me to continue trying to write stuff in English. You might see some of the results on this list in the following weeks and months ].

I had to write one of the very first chapters of the project. One advantage was that I still had the freedom of being able to introduce characters. But I also felt the responsibility to get things moving. That's why I had the plane hijacked: To start the action. And this decision seems to have been accepted: The Hijacking has become one of the main sub-plots of the project and `watching' this plot develop in the trusted hands of my fellow writers is both exciting and satisfying. Kind of like to watch a child develop and grow up.

Somehow when I started to write my chapter I felt the urge to feature Adolph Lepus. And I have to admit that since the very first time I read about Lepus in DELTA GREEN I had the vision of him looking like Tommy Lee Jones, that's something I HAD to get into my chapter.

Another thing I was interested in was to create an example for an adept of ÆThe Fate". That's why I introduced Martin Arnold. The character is a loser depending on the fame and success of others. And he's ruined by his rock'n'roll lifestyle. And it's only one additional sad fact of his sad life that, because he was just a roadie and not a musician himself, he's suffering from a second hand rock'n'roll lifestyle.

Arnold has been recruited for ÆThe Fate" by the late Jim Morrison. Actually the Ghost of Jim Morrison is an avatar of Nyarlathotep, that is lingering around my campaigns and fiction already for quite a while. His first appearance was in a short story where an DG-agent was persuaded by Nyarlathotep disguised as the agent's dead idol, the Lizard King, to kill his fellow team members. And of course the appearance of the Lizard King is a tribute to one of the veteran members of the DGML.

In the Hijacking scene I introduced ÆThe man that called himself Torsten", a character I formed after my best friend: . Tall, nearly skinny, late 20s, short black hair and a single eyebrow across his forehead.
Actually my best friend's name is Torsten.
And he as well as the character are doctor of electronic engineering.

Technical Appendix to Chapter Nine

From: "Michael Layne"

Subject: Re: DG: [CfB2K] Part 9: The Frozen Waste

Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2000 22:30:01 -0500

On 25 December, 2000 AD, "David.Clements" <David.Clements@astro.cf.ac.uk> takes Our Heroes someplace where they can have a White Christmas, proving that even Antarctic Summer is cold enough!

Most Excellent writing, in Part 9 of the continuing saga of CfB2K!

The B747 crew probably get to check the box beside Piloting: Commercial Jet Aircraft, for their safe landing of the aircraft on the Ice!

While crevasses, sasturgi (sp?) and the like would have made such a landing highly hazardous at best for an aircraft of this size and weight, it is quite believable that other portions contain stretches of level ice, with little in the way of obstacles to damage the 747.

(They are lucky they didn't encounter white-out conditions ("like flying inside a ping-pong ball") during landing -- but, then, such conditions are rarer than movies sometimes imply, and, if they had encountered a white-out, this would have probably been the final part of a 9-part story...):)

Actual snow cover would likely be shallower than one might expect -- although Antarctica is well-known as a place of ice and snow, it is also (precip-wise) technically a desert! It doesn't snow enormous amounts, but what there is tends to blow around quite a bit!

Speaking of snow blowing around, the pax and crew of the airliner are in quite a fix, unless they are moved to shelter fairly soon! It will be worst outside the aircraft, especially if the wind starts blowing (the downwash from the helos must have been decidedly uncomfortable!), but, even inside the plane, it's going to get cold as the interior cools down! This can be delayed slightly by running the cabin heaters off the 747's APU, assuming they have any fuel left at all (the Auxiliary Power Unit uses fuel at a fraction of the flow rate of the engines), but this is at best a very temporary solution. Even the sweaters, parkas, etc. brought along by the crew and passengers, as this is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, will not be ideal for Antarctic Summer temperatures, and rescuers are advised to lift the survivors to a heated shelter ASAP.

I'm not sure the authors ever gave the "souls onboard" for the plane, but, even with the 747 operating at one-third rated passenger capacity, the survivors would put a fairly high load on any polar base except McMurdo Sound, or possibly a couple of the larger Russian bases! Luckily, this will be a fairly short-term surge load, as (for example) they can be flown out from Williams Air Operation Facility (McMurdo) to Christchurch, NZ, by C-130 or C-17 in fairly short order... (Though, of course, the DG team would probably find a way of staying behind to investigate Things Antarctic Explorers Were Never Meant to Explore...):) McMurdo has a paved runway capable of supporting operations by aircraft of up to C-5B size, although the normal traffic is C-130s and C-17s.

The Herk (probably a ski-wheel equipped LC-130 from that ANG unit that replaced Navy VX-6 on the Antarctic support mission) could land on the Ice and ferry them to McMurdo in only a few trips.

Public spin on the matter would be just what it looks like already to the uninitiated: "Unknown Political Terrorists Hijack Airliner to Antarctica, Film at 11"! (Probably highly edited so as not to show armed men in overwhites...)

Mention of the shooters wearing polar camo suggests they were flown in (from NZ by C-17?) to meet the plane. Normal personnel assigned to Antarctic bases would:

a. Have to scrounge to get enough firearms together to equip a squad, as penguins aren't generally vicious enough to require armed guards on bases.

Antarctica isn't like the Arctic, where one must worry about polar bears.

b. Wear fairly bright-colored polar gear (generally in primary colors):), as they would normally _want_ to be spotted easily against the snow -- especially if they get lost and someone is looking for them.

On a similar note, the smaller helo (likely a Bell UH-1N Twin Huey, which seems to be the US' workhorse for tasks like this) and the CH-47 Chinook, would be painted or marked in bright yellow or fluorescent orange -- if your plane goes down in Antarctica, you want searchers to be able to spot it easily! (The Canadian Forces have a similar policy with their rescue helicopters operating in the Far North...) FWIW, the helos based on USCG icebreakers down there are Aerospatiale HH-65 Dolphins, painted International Orange, overall.

The above is definitely _not_ meant as adverse criticism of an excellent chapter in this ongoing tale! (I'm not including any URLs here for Antarctic bases, or Antarctic support aircraft, or the Antarctic Program's polar gear, but can provide them if anyone is really that interested!)

By the way, Merry Christmas to all on the DGML (even you, MiB!)! (I wonder what the SAN cost of seeing Santa is?):)

Michael Layne

DGGF#688

ADDENDUM

From: "Michael Layne"

Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 16:33:50 -0500

By the way, on conducting further research today, I found that, while a couple of them can accomodate aircraft up to C-5B size, none of the airfields serving McMurdo (and -- depending on the time of the year -- there are up to _three_, plus one emergency field, although at least one of these runways is unusable during most of Antarctic Summer) is actually _paved_...

I was apparently confused a little about some of the data I had read concerning the PEGASUS site -- brought on-line in 1992 as a field in the McMurdo area capable of handling the largest Air Force transports. While C-5s can fly from it, PEGASUS is actually on the ice shelf, usable "all but the warmest months". PEGASUS is relatively distant from the base itself, and most regular LC-130 operations are apparently through Williams, about six or seven miles from the base.

There is one area a few miles from McMurdo, nicknamed the "White-Out Field", which is sometimes used as an emergency field under reduced visibility conditions when the plane doesn't have sufficient fuel to make it to a safer airfield. This one is essentially a miles-long flat spot on very thick ice, with enough snow cover to afford a little traction for airplane tires -- and may be where the 747 set down!

Some useful on-line references for DG people on the Ice:

Your Stay at McMurdo Station Antarctica (http://www.theice.org/mcmstay.html) gives a lot of useful data, though no pictures.

McMurdo Sights (http://plasma2.ssl.berkeley.edu/balloon/sights.html) and Virtual Tour: McMurdo Station, Antarctica (http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/mcmurdo/) do have pictures!

McMurdo from the Air (http://www.theice.org/mcmotter.html) has an overall view of the base, and a description of the location and function of many of the buildings.

An account of his flight south and arrival at McMurdo is included (http://buast7.bu.edu/~mhuang/ant/mcm/mcm.html) as part of Mahoi Huang's "End of the South".

More on the Antarctic runways near McMurdo, set-up of PEGASUS (and mention of an accident to a Hercules which ran afoul of a crevasse) at "Polar Expedition: Plotting an Antarctic Runway" (http://www.gpsworld.com/0799/0799feat1.html).

New York ANG 109th Airlift Wing, the unit which flies the ski-equipped Hercules to keep the Antarctic bases supplied, has a homepage at http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/ang/109.html, with some good pictures of the planes (including one taking off with JATO assistance), while more ski C-130 info is at http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/nyang/

Picture of an orange polar UH-1N Twin Huey at http://www.io.com/~pml/mcmurdo/huey.html, and, for you Coast Guard types, an icebreaker-based HH-65A Dolphin at http://www.uscg.mil/datasheet/images/HH-65.jpg... Official Data Sheet on the Dolphin (http://www.uscg.mil/datasheet/hh-65.html) and coverage of it in the USCG's Ice Ops website (http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/iceops/helo.htm) might also prove useful...

What Kind of Clothes Do You Wear in Antarctica? Find out at http://www.theice.org/clothing.html! A gallery of Antarctic Parkas can be found at http://foundmark.com/pers/gallery/antartica.html -- and, elsewhere in the parka gallery pages here (under "Movies and TV") you can find pictures of two personnel from Cell X (more of Scully than of Mulder) in polar gear during their op on the Ice...:)

The Coast Guard's newest polar icebreaker, the Healy, has her own website (http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/healy/), with plenty of data, photos, even _deck plans_! The other two CG polar icebreakers are the "Polar" class -- Polar Star (http://www.polarstar.org) and Polar Sea (http://www.oz.net/~polarsea). Apparently, Polar Sea is the one deployed to McMurdo this December...

Sorry if I've been too wordy, above...

Michael Layne

DGGF#688

For Those of You That Don't Remember

Chapter 11 addendum - in collaboration with Emerald Hammer

From: Mark McFadden
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 14:34:00 -0800

[Black.]

[Extreme close-ups of a series of video images. The Rodney King riots. Reginald Denny being pulled from his truck.]

NARRATOR: In a city under siege.

[Waco footage. Oklahoma City scenes.]

NARRATOR: In a country under fire.

[Gulf War footage. Various terrorist bombings. Riots, burning flags, etc.]

NARRATOR: In a world gone mad.

[MUSIC: opening riffs of "Bad to the Bone"]

[Extreme close-up of cigar butt hitting ground, then ground under jack-booted heel]

[Extreme close-up of match being struck across stubbled jawline. Camera follows match to end of new cigar being puffed alight]

[Pull back to full shot of backlit AXL GOTTERDAMMERUNG in urban camo, armed with shotgun]

NARRATOR: One man _...

[Close-up of tanned, oiled, muscular, shaved, vein-laden forearm as it rhythmically pumps the shotgun]

NARRATOR: _... has had enough.

[MUSIC stops]
[Extreme foreshortened view, gaping muzzle of shotgun in FG, smiling AXL aiming down barrel in BG]

AXL: Wie geht's?

[BOOOOM!]

[MUSIC: White Zombie metal riff]

[Series of big fiery explosions, quick cuts of various people flying through air ahead of explosions, several vehicles redlining, tires squealing, sparks cascading from cars trying to force each other off of roads, flaming motorcycles and riders vaulting over obstacles and crashing into water, AXL running toward camera followed by humongus billowing ball of flame that just misses consuming him as he dives off of ship, muscle car crashing through wall into middle of crack house]

NARRATOR: Arnold Shwarzenegger IS Axl Gotterdammerung.

CUT TO:

[Overhead POV, AXL is being propelled toward the camera by an enormous fiery explosion.]

AXL: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

NARRATOR: And Axl Gotterdammerung is__THE BISHOF.

CUT TO:

[AXL running toward camera followed by humongus billowing ball of flame that just misses consuming him as he dives out of tunnel]

AXL: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

[AXL running toward camera followed by humongus billowing ball of flame that just misses consuming him as he dives through plate-glass window]

AXL: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

CUT TO:

[Karotechia HQ. Dr. Bitterich is handing costumes to hand-picked Ritter and Bishof]

BITTERICH: You vill infiltrate the objective under the cover of the costume party. Invitations haf been forged, you vill be costumed as classical composers.

REINHARD GALT: I'll be Wagner

HANS: I'll be Beethoven

FRANZ: I'll be Brahms

AXL: I'll be Bach.

CUT TO:

[AXL during lull. Sweaty, stained, bruised and bloodied.]

AXL: I'm getting too old for this sh..

[BOOOM!]

[MUSIC stops]

CUT TO:

[Extreme foreshortened view, gaping muzzle of shotgun in FG, smiling AXL aiming down barrel in BG]

AXL: Auf wiedersehen, baby.

[BOOOOM!]

CUT TO BLACK:

NARRATOR: Coming this Christmas to a theater near you.

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