Terry, did you notice that in my feedback on part six of this story I warned you not to let things get all too impossibly scary, or I might have to read the rest of your story with my eyes closed? Well, I think I did at least half-close my eyes while I read this part, which definitely made it difficult to concentrate on niceties like the craftmanship of your writing, your ability to calculate exactly when to spring the next heart attack-inducing plot twist on us, and your ability to drag out and drag out an already unbearable scene until its scare factor is... well, unbearable. In general, I was covering my face with my hands as I was reading and just peeking between my fingers. Got to thank angelic_editor for pointing out the brilliance of your description of the zero-gee Daliesque warehouse, because when I reached that juncture of your story I was just generally taking cover and had no energy to spare to concentrate on things like interior decoration.
But, there were a few details that even I couldn't help enjoying. The first thing that had me sort of giggling, even though I was recoiling from it in horror, was you WHAM warning! Yes, because of the way you wrote it:
**-- Warning --**-- Warning --**-- Warning --**
WHAM alert! WHAM alert! WHAM alert!
**-- Warning --**-- Warning --**-- Warning --**
The way you wrote this, Terry, definitely made me hear a metallic, tinny, computer-generated voice coming out of loudspeakers everywhere on the starship Enterprise! Particularly the very old, campy Kirk and Spock version. I could imagine three "alert levels" here, yellow alert, red alert and WHAM alert. Yellow alert means you should be on the lookout for danger, red alert means that you should be prepared to fight, and WHAM alert means that you only have a few minutes to renew your life insurance policy!
One more thing that fascinated me about this chapter was, of course, Carrie Hillman. I'll say, Terry, Carrie is certainly only a few crumbs short of a full biscuit. On the other hand, a friend of mine, Arnost, who is an incredibly well-read, intelligent, kind and caring person who is also such a dedicated Darwinist that you have to laugh at him sometimes, would just have loved Carrie! Arnost would have explained how Carrie's behaviour is governed by the demands of her genes, and her genes want her to procreate, to have children, thus making her genes multiply. But, according to Arnost, not only do Carrie's genes want her to have children, they are even more interested in her having grandchildren! As many grandchildren as possible, in fact. So what does it take to have many grandchildren?
Well, this is how it works according to Arnost. If a woman realizes that a man is promiscuous, then she is quite likely to want to have children by him. Now, why would she want that? Doesn't she realize that this man is probably going to abandon her? Sure she does, but she doesn't want to
live with him, to spend her life with him. No, she wants his children, pure and simple. More specifically, she wants his son. If she gets a son by this man, and the son turns out just like his father, then the son is likely to flitter from flower to flower, from woman to woman, and impregnate several of them. Some of these women may abort, but others may choose to keep their children, again perhaps hoping they will have a son who is just like his father... And lo and behold, what have we here? Perhaps a whole truckload full of grandchildren for the woman who managed to get a son by a promiscuous man!
So you see, Terry, Arnost would insist that Carrie isn't crazy at all, but just governed by the wishes of her genes. From his super-Darwinistic point of view, it actually makes perfect sense for Carrie to kill Claude, the promiscuous father of her child, too. After all, she doesn't really want to marry him, even if she is trying to fool herself into thinking that she does. After he has impregnated her, he has done his part, and she may as well eat him up, like the Black Widow her mate.... Actually, it isn't quite like that. But, Arnost would point out, Carrie doesn't want Claude to go to other women and have children by them. Because Claude's other children are going to be competing with her son(?) for the access to women's wombs (sorry for being so direct), and Carrie wants as few competitors as possible for her son. So it's better to kill Claude than to let him move on and father other children. Oh, and it probably made sense for Carrie to abort those other children she had been pregnant with, because the men who had fathered them weren't sufficiently promiscuous for their offspring to be likely to give Carrie a lot of grandchildren. So, you know, it just wouldn't really be worth it to carry those babies to term and deliver them and feed them and clothe them and house them for a minimum of eighteen years. Ah, well, Arnost, this is an ugly picture of humanity. I can't totally buy it, even though you have managed to convince me that some women probably do react just like that!
Interesting, Terry! Let me extend Arnost's thanks to you. Otherwise, I thank you for making Lois so heroic and capable, even though she really should have been more careful, and she shouldn't have confronted Carrie without backup. And then I must be a little angry at you ability to fool me into thinking that Karen Vukovich was the murderer, and I must commend you on how perfectly you made it make sense that Carrie was the killer.
Well, Terry! There are three more parts to go. If you make something really bad happen to Lois, then I'll.... Well, I'll.... Hmmm, I'm going to tell you that I really, really, really, really don't like it!!!! How's that for a threat? Aww, Terry. You can't do that to me!!!!
Ann
