The writer gives life to a story, the reader keeps it alive.
Katherine sits awkwardly on the sofa accepting the hospitality of the family she has come to visit, seeking information about the climate on the outside of the ship. (This issue celebrates the vanquishing of a monster in our own time, on this day, 20th January 2021)
As they walk the corridor, the guard begins talking about the Amanojuko proposals for the new world order, making Heyem shiver with the horror of it. (Thank you to Siddiqui Fayesal for interviewing me. You can see the first part of the Interview with a writer, on his website, “Ho Hum… Well we’re going to die anyway!“)
Professors De somme and Sumian, took a very frail but relieved Katherine to Inajda’s cabin in Russia (after giving her a blood shield) The cure has stopped her body degenerating further, and will allow her to recover in time, but she is very weak and can’t walk. They have left her on a bench outside Inajda’s cabin and told her they will collect her in a month’s time.
Katherine sits by the window in her laboratory, synthesising more inhibitor for the patients in the sickbay. She is getting nervous, today is the day she was promised a visit from a future version of herself, and the cure to her illness.
It is finally the fourteenth of May, and The Guild Master’s General has been watching over Katherine as she sleeps. He fades between energy and matter, making himself invisible to Katherine’s nurse as she injects a dose of adrenaline into Katherine’s bloodstream, to wake her up.
A few days have passed since Abouna Panak approached Katherine in her laboratory. She has increased the dose of inhibitor, to attempt to prevent her body from deteriorating any more than it has already. She has made the decision to rest inside the sickbay alongside the other patients, as the long trek from laboratory to her apartment is too much of a strain on her body.
Ajeeta Kothari is on the run. She fled her son’s funeral for the mountains of Afghanistan. She has no allies, and a lot of enemies. She failed in her attempt to get Katherine De Somme to believe that her affiliation had changed. Her only hope of survival is to leave her life behind, and carry on running from the Amanojuko.
After convincing Farokh to keep silent, Katherine makes her way slowly to her laboratory, in an attempt to continue her research into decoding the catalyst. Unfortunately without her writer she has no means of contacting Professor Sumian, and must rely on the rudimentary technology available to her in Saskatoon. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Katherine and Alex went to see a research scientist involved in diagnostics for ancient (and extinct) diseases. (Her name is Dr Bhati and she is also working for Field Marshal Panak. Her laboratory is inside the secret Christmas Island hideout the resistance have acquired.) CLICK HERE for next story in the series.
