Part 1 of The Annals of Semiramide:
The Levee’s Gonna Break

Semiramide is a dark oceanic planet, oceanic because covered with seas so deep that their lowest layer is of ice a mile thick, dark by virtue of its troubled history. 

Part I of this dramatized version of the dark planet’s annaIs is set in a time when the multiple injuries and insults perpetrated by the humanoid inhabitants of the planet  on the natural order have converged and reinforced, threatening to envelop all in a perfect storm of plagues, droughts, famines, rebellions and class warfare.

The Part takes off on Eulalia, Semiramide’s largest continent, and is  organized bicoastally for geographic clarity:
On the desert East Coast, Rachel is on lookout from a spidery watchtower, responsible for detecting saboteurs who target the crucial water supply. Her counterpart on the malarial West Coast is Crispin, a newly fledged expedition oceanographer on his first and thus seasickness-plagued voyage. The intersection of the initially widely separated paths of the two young humanoids becomes the essence of the story of the first Eulalian Revolution, in its turn Part I of The Annals of Semiramide.

The Levee’s Gonna Break

As the doors slid open, Broneese adjusted his mask while he checked the time with his phone in one practiced, fluid motion.Four minutes late. It’s OK, Diane is mellow, she won’t mind. 


Past the registers, clerks highlighted by the cool glow of the monitors at each one. Blue, blue, blue… Matching masks… His eyes caught the contrast of the yellowish blur of the O-95 over his own nose. “Guess I missed the phone call, ha ha,” he thought. 


Side door. Authorized personnel only, his way to the pharmacy. Back-to-basics pushbutton combination lock amidst ruins of face and fingerprint recognition screens, outmoded by masks and gloves… let’s see… 38O0w7\*… Muffled click… Turn… Yes! Got it right the first time! 


Diane bustled around the medication shelves, white coated back to him. He tried to say good morning but only a gargling sound came out. As he cleared his throat, she turned. 


Mickey Mouse mask! Easy… This is Diane, so it’s not satiric… Oh well, to each her own-we need to laugh. “Nice mask.“ 


“Yeah, I was tired of the same old thing. Hope I can make a customer smile.“ 


“Sorry I’m late. What do you need?” 


“There’s a bunch of authorizations they need over at Central. If you could get to those, I’m kind of swamped with new ones.” 


Broneese promptly took his place. He sat in the tech cubicle and began the tasks. He felt no grudge against Diane, whose relentless cheeriness actually helped him, and he no longer cursed the absurdity of authorization for drugs for a pandemic. In fact, the boring work lulled him with its welcome routine rhythm, and he fell into a daydream.


Prelude: At Lucky’s Pharmacy