Xenozoic Tales #9 --
"Last Link in the Chain" -- Jack happens upon some poachers,
whom he strips of weapons before levaing them in the field--his definition of justice. On
the way back to his garage, he runs across an unhappy mack and finds that his car will not
accelerate. The mack pushes his car over, throwing Jack clear, then goes off. Jack
suspects his car may have been sabotaged, but starts the long walk back to his garage.
Meanwhile, Governor Dahlgren warns Hannah not to tell anyone of Dahlgren's conversations
with Jack. Back in the field, Jack gets the impression he is being followed and discovers
that he is....by a wounded cutter. Jack tries to shoot the cutter with his express rifle
but finds it has been tampered with also. There is a scuffle and both the cutter and Jack
fall off a small cliff, on opposite sides. Jack is slightly injured but figures the cutter
to be dead. He continues his trek home, wondering who might be trying to kill him.
Meanwhile, Hannah and Kirgo begin to grow concerned for Jack and head out to find him,
although it will soon be dark and they will have to stop for the night. Jack builds a huge
fire to protect himself for the night, but the cutter reappears and attacks, so wounded as
to forget its fear of fire. Jack climbs a tree for safety. The next morning, Hannah and
Kirgo find Jack's wrecked car and begin tracking him. Jack awakens in the tree to find the
cutter apparently gone. Jack begins to trek homewards again, but as soon as he leaves the
safety of the woods, the cutter reappears and chases him towards a swamp. Finally Jack
makes it to a small island, certain that the cutter is going to take him anyway, when a
shivat rises and kills the cutter. Hannah and Kirgo arrive on the border of the swamp and
see Jack playing possum on the island, hoping the shivat does not spot him.
"The Aqueduct" -- The new Commisioner of
Water, Wilhelmina Scharnhorst, the former leader of the moles ("History Lesson"), asks Mustapha to build a new
aqueduct. She tells him that the old one works fine but the internal pipes in the city are
failing and the new aqueduct will feed newly found working lines. Furthermore, her own
crew will work the interior lines; Mustapha is to only build the aqueduct and stay out of
the way of her people. Mustapha sets to with a will, but, as a final precaution, sends in
three men when the aqueduct is completed to make sure all is well. Hours go by and his men
do not return, so he goes in himself and finds himself the target of snipers. Mustapha
demands a meeting with Scharnhorst, who tells him that she has obtained power so quickly
because her years of leading the moles were also spent smuggling ancient technology from
the catacombs. She claims that a new day is coming, that those like Jack will be removed
from authority and that man will return to the marvels of pre-cataclysm technology. Then
she invites Mustapha to join her, as he is an engineer and can appreciate her goals.
Furthermore, she plans to hold the City's water hostage with cisterns that tap the new
pipeline, and thus take the chair that Gorgostamos's death has left empty on the Council.
Mustapha agrees, but upon reaching his coworkers again, he booby-traps the aqueduct and
destroys it, temporarily putting a halt to Scharnhorst's schemes. He then decides to run
opposite Scharnhorst for the Council seat.
Xenozoic Tales #10 --
"Lords of the Earth" -- A story told in flashback, as
passages from Hannah's diary, as she and Jack head to sea as fugitives. Hannah and Kirgo
rescue the stranded Jack ("Last Link in the Chain") and head
back towards the City. They are met by a ferocious storm that causes them to have to pull
over for two days. Those days leave Jack recuperated but restless, and they speed back
towards the city. They are met by some of Mustapha's men, who explain what has been going
on in their absence ("The Aqueduct"). Reaching the
garage, Jack finds that two of his workers used to be moles, and thus sabotaged his car
and rifle under Scharnhorst's orders. The day of the election arrives, and the city
gathers to hear the candidates speak. Mustapha speaks of the years of peace that came from
following the old ways, but Scharnhorst reveals that the storm that held Jack and Hannah
up was a massive hurricane that destroyed the farms. She claims that the old ways have
failed them and that man must reassume his rightful place in the world, as masters of
technology and nature. The crowd is swayed and Scharnhorst is elected. Her first act is to
capture Jack and most of his cohorts, the Old Blood Mechanics, who teach communion with
nature. Hannah and Mustapha escape, only to rescue Jack with the aid of Dahlgren. Hannah
and Jack borrow a boat and begin heading south, and Hannah decides to try to convince Jack
that he can win back the position of the Old Blood Mechanics by allying himself with
Wassoon.
"Fields of Expertise" -- The reaction of the "common man" to the
events of "Lords of the Earth." The farms having been
mostly destroyed by the hurricane, now-Governor Scharnhorst's people move into the land
and begin pushing for a return to pre-cataclysmic farming methods, including pesticides
and cutback burning. The farmers are mostly in a state of shock as upheavals take place
all about them. They try to be faithful to the Old Blood Mechanics' way of life, but
Scharnhorst's people wield a heavy bludgeon with technology, reaping mixed blessings and
fears of nature's reprisal.
Xenozoic Tales #11 --
"Primeval" -- Jack and Hannah travel down the coast toward Wassoon in their
borrowed boat. Hannah continues to try to convince Jack that the Wassoon will help him
regain his place in the City in the Sea. Jack, however, explains he has had enough of
people in general and that after he drops Hannah off in Wassoon, he is going to go off
into the wilderness. Yet the City and Nature herself will not allow Jack to rest in peace.
First, pursuing craft from the City chase Jack's boat far out to sea, then a driving storm
beaches them on what appears to be an unhabited island. Trapped until the tide begins to
go back out, Jack and Hannah set out to explore the island for fresh water. However, the
island turns malevolent as giant arthropods (giant even by Xenozoic standards) chase Jack
and Hannah through the jungle unwilling, it seems, to let them get very far inland.
Trapped on a natural bridge, Jack and Hannah leap to the water below to swim back to their
boat, only to discover that Hannah has been bitten by a poisonous creature. Jack sets sail
for Wassoon in order to save Hannah, beginning what first aid he can practice to save her
life. Meanwhile, some very pleased-looking grith watch as Jack's boat heads south, and
Scharnhorst sends an envoy to the Wassoon demanding the return of Jack.
"Report from the Resistance" -- Mustapha writes a letter to Dahlgren,
explaining his tactics and plans to fight Scharnhorst's takeover of the city and
usurpation of the old ways. In the letter, he describes the pillaging Scharnhorst has
begun, even going so far as to renew man's quest for oil. Mustapha has no recourse but
terrorism, destroying Scharnhorst's supplies and using Hermes (the same cutter from "An Archipelago of Stone") to terrify
the populous and convince them that nature has begun to strike back. Mustapha also
recognizes that Scharnhorst is using strongarm tactics to keep the people in thrall,
imprisoning anyone who might appear to have any ties to the resistance.
Xenozoic Tales #12 --
"A Woman's Work" -- Dahlgren works from within the governing council
to overthrow Scharnhorst's plots. This short story follows one of Dahlgren's machinations
as she uses the Council's natural laziness and cowardice, the same traits that gave
Scharnhorst her opportunity to take over, to thwart Scharnhorst herself. Using
misdirection and guile, Dahlgren manages to get ten captured Old Blood Mechanics and
assistants to Mustapha freed from prison and sent to where they can use guerilla tactics
against the new scheme. At the same time, her plot works so well, that Scharnhorst is
deceived and appears to take Dahlgren into her confidence.
"Two Cities" -- Jack dreams and relives his pursuit by the cutter in
"Last Link in the Chain" except that the cutter takes on the
appearance of Scharnhorst. He awakens and finds himself still in the boat heading south
with a deliriously ill Hannah. Finally, a boat from Wassoon reaches them and they are
brought to Wassoon proper, where Jack and Hannah are separated by Lord
