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                               BLOOD SEASON
                     The Origin of Chalandra Harkness

                                 Prologue
                                    by
                               Gary W. Olson

                               ^v^v^v^v^v^v^

     "Okay, is everyone set?" Manny asked.
     "Ready!" Kent declared.
     "I've got the stock footage cued," Templar told him.
     "What's our status, HAL?" Tom asked.
     "Thirty seconds and counting, Dave," HAL responded.
     "Give us a countdown when we get to ten seconds to go," Chalandra told
HAL.
     "Is everyone in position?" Yury asked.
     "Looks like it," Key told her.
     "Ten seconds," HAL told them.  "Nine...eight..."
     "This is it," Manny said, clenching his teeth.
     "Seven...six...five..."
     "Will it hurt?" Templar asked.
     "Four...three...two..."
     "Hang on!" Chalandra exclaimed.
     "One..."
     "Top of the world, ma!" CalForce exclaimed.
     "Zero," HAL said.  "We have officially re-entered continuity."
     "That tingled," Kent commented, as he threw confetti at speeds of over
200 m.p.h.  Templar rolled the stock footage of fireworks going off, while
Yury, Tom, and Laura launched into a kazoo rendition of 'Stars and Stripes
Forever' (or '99 Luftballoons', it was rather difficult to tell).  Chalandra
and Manny lit cigars, while Key bounced happily on Kent's lap.
     "Dave..." HAL interrupted.
     "Not now, HAL," Manny said.  "We've just gotten back into continuity,
and I don't want to ruin the feeling."
     "We have a visitor, Dave," HAL told him.
     "Tell him or her or it to wait in the lobby a while," Chalandra said.
     "She is already here," HAL said.  "She arrived via transmat from
Planet California."
     A figure appeared in the doorway.  She was five foot nine, with long
brown hair tied back by a black band.  Her skin wasn't quite so light as it
had been when Manny had seen her before - she'd evidently been spending some
time in the sun.
     "Sorry to drop in on you like this," Karina Selanova told them.  "Could
I use your phone?"

                               ^v^v^v^v^v^v^

     Karina set the chia pet down on the coffee table.
     "A car will be around within the hour, to take me to the airport," she
said.
     "I hope you don't mind our asking," Chalandra said, after taking a long
draw off her cigar, "but just how did you come to wind up on Planet
California?"
     Karina's eyes met Chalandra's.  There was something in them - something
other than the cold diamond eyes that she had seen when she had first met
Karina Selanova, when Selanova had come to CalForce headquarters the day
after Radian's defeat, only to find that Radian and her altiversal twin
Shadebeam had escaped.
     "After the final battle in what the media called 'The Industrial
Revolution,' I hid myself in a van operated by Zen Navigator, a person who
was assisting Radian in her search."
     "Her search for what?" Manny asked.
     "I don't know," Karina said.  A lie, Chalandra realized.  But not an
important one.  "We somehow got tossed into a spatial distortion, which
shot us many light-years into space.  We were picked up by a freighter
crewed by two fur-covered louts on their way to a party they had already
missed.  They decided that time-travel was an ideal way to get to the party,
so Zen Navigator decided to bounce them off of a vortex.  I had been
discovered by that point, but there was nothing I could do to dissuade them.
     "We traveled back into the past by more than a year, eventually winding
up at a post-victory celebration on planet Hottentot.  Right after something
called The Battle of Dalan."
     "We were in it," Key said.  "Go on."
     "They retrieved one of Zen's other minibuses, and we left again.  The
plan was to use the same vortex to travel back to the present, but instead
we wound up on Planet California, five millenia before now.  There was a war
going on, between two high-powered entities, The Rad and The Dar, and there
were a group of magicians, the Magestrix, that was intending to destroy all
life on the surface of the planet, for reasons I cannot fathom.
     "We managed to escape, thanks to the ingenuity of Zen Navigator.
Carmine, Andro' (the two louts I mentioned earlier), and myself were
transported to present day Planet California, while Zen, Shadebeam, and
Radian..."  She stopped.
     "What?" Chalandra asked.  "What happened?"
     "I don't know," Karina said.  "According to Zen, there was a slim
chance that they might survive the destruction, that their minibus would be
shot into space and through time.  Radian seemed certain she could guide them
back to Earth."  Karina looked up.  "Have you heard any news on this?"
     "No," Templar said.  "Last we heard was of Radian's disappearance,
following the battle in Bob."
     "I see," Karina said.
     "What did this...Zen Navigator...look like?" Chalandra asked, abruptly.
     "He was tall, and a bit thin," Karina said.  "Wore a black coat, black
circular-rimmed sunglasses, and a black hat with a red feather."
     "I...see," Chalandra said.  Manny looked at her, curiously, but said
nothing.

                               ^v^v^v^v^v^v^

     "So...you've met this Zen Navigator before?" Manny asked, as he rubbed
Chalandra's neck.  Chalandra stretched out on the mattress, tilting her
head forward so that Manny's fingers could knead her neck muscles.  His body
felt warm against her cool skin, and she took her time in answering.
     "I've seen him before," Chalandra told him.  "Many, many years ago.
Why?"
     "Just curious," Manny told her.  Chalandra smiled.
     "We didn't have an affair, if that's what you're curious about," Chalandra
said.  "In fact, we only met once, and I wasn't in any condition to say
anything when we did."  She turned onto her side, and propped her head up with
her arm.  "Did I ever tell you how I became a vampire?"
     "You said Dracula turned you, right?" Manny asked.
     "Yes," Chalandra said.  "But the story gets a bit more complicated..."

DOES IT REALLY?
IT HAD BETTER.  I'VE GOT FIVE PARTS TO FILL.
HOW DOES ZEN NAVIGATOR FIT INTO THE SCENE?
WHAT WILL KARINA SELANOVA DO, NOW THAT IT APPEARS RADIAN IS GONE FOREVER?
DID SHE JOIN THE RE-ENTERING CONTINUITY PARTY?
IS RE-ENTERING CONTINUITY REALLY THAT MUCH OF A BIG DEAL?
Superguy: you're soaking in it.

+-------- Gary W. Olson --------+        "All roads lead *away* from Ankh-
| swede@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu  |         Morpork, but sometimes people just
+----- swede@drycas.bitnet -----+         walk along them the wrong way."
                                          - Terry Pratchett, _Moving_Pictures_