Another Teaser for a future project

[Bob Schroeck]

I've been feeling guilty about how slowly chapter 6 has been going recently, so my conscience (or something...) has been nudging me to post bits and pieces of other projects as a kind of apology.

I guess I'm feeling apologetic again, because here's another enigmatic but suggestive sequence for people.

---

Doug was wearing his helmet by the time she caught up with him.
Makoto was already at his side, posed almost like a bodyguard
with a grim look on her face. "<System,>" Rei heard him say as
she slipped into place on his other side, "<load song
'Starlight Express'. Play song.>"

Rei's eyes widened and she turned her head with a snap to stare
at him. *He's not seriously going to try...?" She couldn't even
complete the thought. She *knew* that song -- one of the last
times she and her father had spent a civil evening together, he
had taken her to see a production of the musical of the same
name. She'd thought it a little silly and cheesy, with people on
rollerskates singing and pretending to be trains, but the title
song had sent, *still* sent, chills up and down her spine -- even
in English the plaintive cry for certainty and assurance in the
dark of night resonated with the core of her own calling as a
miko.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to see what happened, or run away
from it.

"<When your goodnights have been said
And you are lying in bed
With the covers pulled up tight,
And though you count every sheep
You get the feeling that sleep
Is going to stay away tonight,
That's when you hear it coming
That's when you hear the humming
Of the midnight train.
Here again, can't explain
That midnight train, that midnight train...>"

Almost against her will, Rei found herself turning her eyes to
the night sky above; it was darker and more star-strewn this
night than it had been in years thanks to the blackouts caused by
the Dark Kingdom's attacks.

"<Starlight Express, you must confess
Are you real, yes or no?
Starlight Express, answer me yes
I don't want you to go...>"

Although she had been waiting for it, when it happened it still
took her by surprise.

One moment she'd been studying the stars, looking for something,
anything to move. The next she jumped as a steam whistle that
belonged on a cruise ship sounded so close that it seemed to be
in her ear, so strong that she was almost bowled over by the
force of its cry. Her eyes snapped shut involuntarily at the
overwhelming intensity of it even as she clapped her hands over
her ears. A gust of wind followed, and she was caught in a blast
of hot, moist air as something huge and metallic roared to a stop
somewhere in front of her.

Lowering her hands, Rei opened her eyes to find herself staring
at the front of a steam locomotive larger than any she had ever
seen in her life, too big to run on any track she knew of. Its
cowcatcher, the foremost tip of which was less than ten
centimeters from the toes of her red pumps, had to be at least
four meters wide and was made of two interlocking sets of bars
that reminded her of nothing so much as bared teeth. From there,
her eyes tracked up at least five meters before resting upon the
circular end of an immense boiler. Two huge headlamps, each
easily a meter across, hung on either side of its three-meter
diameter and emitted blazing yellow beams that shot out over all
their heads. Dust motes and insects drifted through them,
briefly illuminated and in turn making the beams themselves
almost visible objects in their own right.

And the beams were not the only light emitted by the huge
machine. As Rei's eyes traced its antique-seeming lines she
realized that faint shimmers raced along its edges and angles,
glistening traces of silvery starlight that were constantly in
motion, limning the locomotive and giving it an unearthly glow.

She was about to reach out and touch one of the racing glimmers
of light when the headlamps swivelled to shine their beams down
upon herself, Makoto and Doug. The cowcatcher flexed like a
mouth as the locomotive looked at them and said in a voice almost
too loud to bear, "Who has flagged me down, and why?"

Rei's head snapped up and she stared. Somehow, without any
detail of its construction having changed, she no longer was
looking at the front end of a machine. She was staring into a
face -- a proud, aristocratic face.

The voice, as loud and overpowering as it was, was a blend of
familiar sounds: the basso rumble of distant wheels on rails,
the hiss of released steam, even the ringing of bells and the
shriek of whistles. Still, it spoke in Japanese, or so she
thought, and still it was comprehensible for all the wild noise
that made it up.

"I have, Elder," Doug said softly but firmly, "to see if you
would pick up passengers." On his other side, Makoto still
stood, unmoving, solid as rock.

*Elder.* Rei's eyes widened with realization. She had expected
Doug would somehow *create* a train with the song. She now
realized that Doug had done something else entirely. No matter
what it looked like, this was no mere machine, no mere construct
of magical power, in front of them.

It was a kami. Just as in the play, the Starlight Express was a
kami.

---

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.