The Tower in the Sky

WARNING: If you're looking for a simple one-shot with some quick shagging to get instant gratification, you may want to consider looking elsewhere. I will probably take a while for anything like that to build in this story. If you came in with that originally in mind, and decide to continue from here for some random reason, I am honored. If you just hit the back button, I don't blame you and hold nothing against you.
~the Authoress

Preface: The idea for this story came to me in a very unusual way. I've always been interested in the Bermuda Triangle because I am absolutely obsessed with Paranormal Studies. (I even looked to see if my college offered a course in it!) But anyway, I was reading this book, Into the Bermuda Triangle by Gian J. Quasar (probably a pen name). Big f**k-off type book, to use the words of Eddie Izzard, and probably the most intellectual thing I've ever tried to read. So I got to a chapter in the book where he starts talking about how all these ancient manuscripts contain detailed scientific descriptions of space ships and other flying fiendish thingys. But it also talked about how the Tower of Babel was supposedly a weapons platform, from which to launch weapons (described as having the same effects as modern nukes) at higher beings above the planet. This started my mind working, and before long, this story took shape. But that isn't the focus of the story, it's just the setting, and what's going on in that setting. So, yeah, now that you've got the background information, I guess I should tell the story then, shouldn't I?

THE TOWER IN THE SKY

Chapter One: Fallen

Babel was never meant to be a weapon,
and Babylon was never meant to be a
nation of slaves. But things never seem
to work out quite as we plan around here.

~General Phineas Revil

~The polished blue marble streets of Atyantica shone brightly in the noonday sun. The city's gleaming towers of glass and steel pointed towards the heavens in a magnificent display of modern architecture. A dozen or so flying ships, called Vimana by the primitive cultures to the southwest, graced the sky at any given time. It was under these conditions, when a person was able to live a thousand years, according to legend, that Riana Caelum Icandi was born, while a magnificent comet held in the sky over Atyantica. But tragedy had struck a foul blow soon after. A fire tore through the streets on which she was born, and Riana, for some unknown reason, was one of the few spared. But something about that fire had changed her. When her hair grew in, it was black as midnight and soft as fine silk. The people of Atyantica were nearly all what we know as Aryan, that is to say, they had platinum blonde hair and vibrant blue eyes. This being so, the discoloration of Riana's hair was considered unnatural. But as she grew, it became her greatest asset.

Even when she was very young, Riana was very beautiful. Her black hair offset her gleaming sapphire eyes and her skin, pale as the full moon. She was thin in an elegant sort of way, but she never held herself quite the way a person of her stunning good looks was supposed to. She always seemed withdrawn within herself. When she spoke, her voice was like smooth, cold metal being held against the skin of one's face, quiet, calm and cold. Her words were cryptic and she often spoke in what people thought were riddles, but were really darkly beautiful poems she had come up with on the spot. But with the few friends she had, anyone listening at the crack of the orphanage door would have thought her a normal girl, albeit quiet and perhaps a little melodramatic. At school, she did not speak unless she was called on by her mentors, but she always had the right answer, or one so deep and mystical in sounding that her mentor was left momentarily stunned. When she was asked to read a passage from a text the class was reading, she would stand from her seat in the back of room and read in a quiet and restrained way. The mentors were confused slightly and often held talks with the house mother at the orphanage about how such a clearly brilliant girl should be so laconic and anti-social.

Time passed, as it has a nasty habit of doing, and Riana graduated from the small schools at the district level and moved on the opulent Atyantica Praxeum, a prestigious school of higher learning. However, Riana did not fare as well there and, by the time she was sixteen, her records were no longer enough to keep her enrolled. The tears of shame still wet on her face, she left the school and began to wander the streets of Upper Atyantica, the part of the city where the Praxeum was located. But the will of the Powers Above seemed to favor her, and before long, she encountered a rich family in need of a simple servant. They agreed to take her in until her 19th birthday, the day when she was considered an Adult by Atyantican society.

The family that housed her was rich and very high up in the Atyantican social caste. They fed Riana well and gave her a fine dress of black velvet to wear. The tasks they set her to were not hard, although not much in the means of physical labor. Mostly, her duties extended to cleaning up after breakfast, lunch, and dinner and generally cleaning the house. Also, when her considerable talents with the spoken word were discovered by the Lord of the House, she was asked to teach the young children how to speak the Atyantican language and how to write poetry. Also living in the house was a much younger girl, who wanted to learn how to read and write. She could not pay Riana in money, but she could sing very well and in exchange for reading lessons, she taught Riana to sing with a delicate beauty. Riana took to these activities quickly and eagerly, glad to have something with which to occupy her mind. But time again marched forth, and three years passed more quickly than she could have imagined...



~Riana waited patiently in the foyer of the grand house wherein she had lived for the past three years for her final paycheck. It was the day after her nineteenth birthday, and her agreement with the family had expired. Three years had been kind to her. Her long black hair fell straight down well past her shoulders and her blue eyes were just a vibrant as the day she had first opened them. Although she was nineteen, she looked no older than fifteen or sixteen, if that. She was very thin, not from any fault of her caretakers, she was simply built that way. Her breasts were just two small mounds on her chest and other servants often taunted her because she looked under developed. She had responded in the way she best knew how, and it was quite often that her younger friend would find her alone in her attic room, looking wistfully out the small window. But all this unpleasantness was soon to be behind her, as the lady of the household descended the magnificent staircase in the foyer, a smile on her face and a thin, rectangular cloth bag in her hand.

"Riana, darling, you look absolutely stunning in that dress." She complimented Riana as she handed the bag to her. "I am gratified that the clothes I have outgrown can be worn by such a beautiful young woman." Riana smiled and blushed at the gratuitous praise.

"Thank you, my lady." She answered, with her eyes slightly lowered as a sign for respect. The lady of the household laughed. She had come to expect such polite and modest behavior from her, but she could see a burning intensity behind her sapphire eyes. Some time down the road, something would happen that would unleash that fire inside her, and the lady of the household was not sure she wanted to be there when it happened. With a kind farewell and good luck, Riana bid farewell to her employer and stepped out into the streets of Atyantica.



~ Darkness had lain it's pallid veil over Atyantica and a soft rain had begun fall by the times Riana reached the Vimana Station on the outskirts of Upper Atyantica. She hurried inside and paused to catch her breath before approaching the counter.

"Hi, Welcome to Terminus. What can I do for you?" The ticket master behind the counter smiled warmly at Riana as she approached the counter. Riana returned the smile as she took out a single narrow, flat strip of silver metal and lay it on the counter.

"I'd like a ticket to Caelum Mons, please." She answered. The man nodded and handed her a slip of paper.

"The next Vimana arrives in ten minutes, at dock L-15. Level two, second hall on your left. The waiting area is marked." Thanking the attendant, Riana wandered off towards the platform the man had indicated. As she boarded the elevator and it began to move, Riana set her bag down and, from a side compartment of her biggest suitcase, she removed the last remains of her family. She had worn it since she was very young, even though it had been far too long. It was a light, hooded robe made from a delicate, fine silk and was the same color as the dress she had been presented when she entered into the service of the rich family. She slung the cloak over her shoulders and raised the hood, hiding most of her face from view. The station was cold, and Caelum Mons was said to be even colder. The elevator stopped, and Riana paused to fasten the silver clasp of the cloak before stepping out into the deserted hallways of Terminus' second floor.

Terminus from the outside was an impressive marvel of architecture, sweeping into the sky for three stories into the sky. Placed on every story were rows of large round portals, entrances for the sleek Vimanas arriving from Caelum Mons, Slivam Mons, and Aquam Mons, the outer Atyantican colonies. On the inside, it closely resembled an airport of the twentieth century, the rather primitive exterior hiding the technological wonder within. It was in one of the waiting areas that Riana sat down at last, weary from the long walk it had taken to reach Terminus from the central district. Her eyelids became heavy, as a soft voice echoed through the station, saying that due to some unexplained circumstance, the last Vimana of the night that was going to Caelum Mons had been canceled. Riana sighed. She would have to wait until morning to catch a flight to the colony. Drawing her knees up to her chest, Riana felt her eyes drifting shut again. She wrapped the cloak around her legs and lay her chin on her knees. Slowly and silently, sleep crept up on her and placed it's gentle blanket over her delicate body.

The light of dawn filtered in through the windows of the waiting area and played gently across the closed eyes of the area's single sleeping occupant. Riana was curled up in her chair, fast asleep as the light warmed her body and led her gently back towards consciousness. She opened her eyes and gazed around, not remembering at first where she was. Then as the same calm voice reminded her that the next flight to Caelum Mons was boarding she remembered. Scrambling to gather her bags, Riana rose to her feet in a rather undignified rush and practically ran to the boarding ramp. The ramp attendant smiled at her as she went awkwardly up to the door of the Vimana and boarded. She was ushered to her seat by a smiling young woman and most of her luggage was taken to be put in the hold. With a sigh, Riana sat back and looked out the window, for what would be her last glimpse of Atyantica. She did not know it then, but she would never return to the city of her birth. Below her, the Vimana's engines began to roar as the magnificent ship began to pull slowly away from the terminal, towards Caelum Mons. Riana looked down as the ship flew away from the surface of the earth at the vast expanse of ocean surrounding her home. It glistened in the morning sun, and it seemed to her as though it was inviting her back to the city. But there was nothing left for her now on the surface, so Riana turned her eyes toward the stars that the ship was rushing so quickly towards.


~Of all the orbital ring worlds, Caelum Mons was the largest. It had been built for the people of Earth by a mysterious race as a token of their benevolence, as had the other two ring worlds, Silvam and Aquam. Caelum had been built first, however, and was more elegant and more high class. If a person was rich, or hoping to really make something of themselves, they would go to Caelum Mons. The other two worlds were mostly economical in nature. But many of the richest and most well-known families in the world lived on Caelum Mons. That was why Riana was bound for that particular world. She had been raised a servant, trained as a servant, and that was about all she knew how to do. The family in Atyantica couldn't have kept her beyond the time of her agreed engagement, but in the colonies, Riana hoped to find another family that needed a young servant, or even a tudor for their children.

She arrived on the ring world just in time to hear the rumors begin to spread. According to the inhabitants, the reason the last flight to Atyantica had never made it to Terminus was that it had been forced to put down in Cairo due to a leak in the containment field that housed the mercury rods used to power the Vimanas. In Cairo station keeping, the ship had been seized by Babylonian Primitives who claimed they were going to use the ship and it's technologies to attack the colonies. But the citizens of Caelum Mons seemed fairly certain that they would be safe.

"If anything, it's those fools over on Recedentia Arx that should be worried, not us, m'dear." A burly man with a friendly manner responded when Riana asked him if it was still safe to be on the ring world. Recedentia Arx was a military installation out past Aquam Mons. Most of the people on Caelum Mons believed that if any of the orbital structures was to come under attack, it would be Arx. "If you were bound for that world, lass, it's best to steer clear of there for a while. If you're looking for work though, I know a fam-" The man's words were cut off as a deafening explosion shook the Vimana Terminal. Caelum Mons was under attack.

Panic ensued at once, but the attack did not last long. A few more bombardments and the explosions ceased. Seconds later, the gate door on one of the docking ways was blasted apart by strange men in robes carrying metal staffs. The lead man, distinguished from the others by the blood red hue of this cloak and the gold trim on its edges, stepped forward and barked an order.

"Twenty young women for King Solomon." he shouted gruffly into the assembled crowd. The response was an immediate scramble towards the exits of the terminal, but the men moved to quickly, and their heavy metal staffs soon silenced any who would try to escape. But the citizens had been more effective than they knew. Many girls who would have fallen victim to these men had, in fact, escaped. Riana, however, was not among them. She lay on the floor, knocked down by the panicked rush towards the exit. She was the first, and only, one the men found. One of the soldiers hauled her to her feet with all the gentility of a schoolyard bully.

"She's the only one we could find, milord." He said, an apprehensive tone to his voice. The commander strode over and roughly pulled the hood away from Riana's face. He seemed to look at her for a moment, although she could not be sure, the hood obscured his face entirely. Then he straightened up.

"She'll have to do. She's pretty enough." He turned and gave a long, shrill whistle. His men all began to head back to the vessel they had come in, which Riana now guessed was the stolen Vimana. Then, turning back to Riana herself, the commander unhooked her cloak, letting it fall of her shoulders and to the ground, giving her a nasty grin as he did so. "You'll have no need of that where you are going, slave." He said in a rough whisper. He grinned still wider as the tears began to well up in Riana's beautiful eyes. The man that held Riana tightened his grip and led her back to the ship, the crowd watching in horror as they left.