nebular (ex_nebular474) wrote in cosmologies, @ 2011-05-04 21:13:00 |
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The carnival is set up on a giant field the size of three city blocks, and it is a spectacular sight. It lights up the dark sky for miles around. Every cart and building is festooned with colorful, blinking lights. The admission fee gets you unlimited rides and shows, which include an arena with sideshow type attractions; numerous musical performers; a complete circus tent; and pretty much anything else you would expect at this type of event. Stalls with games, from water shooting to slamming frogs into cups to popping balloons with darts, are lined up everywhere. You'll have to buy your own food and drink, but there's plenty to be had--ethnic cuisines, as well as more traditional carnival fare, are ready to make their way to your bellies, and stands that offer everything from milkshakes to iced tea, as well as beers (both domestic and artisanal) and liquor in various forms for those of age to gobble up. There three fun houses and two haunted houses. And that's not to mention the rides--you can bet everything hovers. The rides are new and slick and covered in the same kind of chrome sheen that defines the rest of the city's nicer buildings. There are bumper cars, tilt-a-whirl, five different roller coasters (one of which wraps around the entire carnival space), teacups--basically, any ride you can conceive, they have it, and it hovers.
The space cowboy face-off between Brody Hedges and Jeff Doods takes place at 4PM and Dans Le Rose's show begins at 6PM (see comments!).
On her way to the burlesque tent, LENA OWENS sees a shimmer in the air above--or, since the ride is in midair, next to--the newly revealed Hover Ferris Wheel 4000. Invisible to humans, of course, but Lena's Sixth Alien Sense tingles. She makes a note of it, but decides it's nothing and attends the burlesque show. At 8PM, the sky begins to grow dark (the joys of irregular day and night patterns, THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR NOT HAVING A SUN TO ROTATE AROUND!!) so the carnival officials decide to finally light up the Hover Wheel in all its hovering glory. Almost immediately--perhaps spurred by the reckless amount of energy going into keeping the thing airborne and lit--there emits a loud bang. Actually, it's more like a thunderclap, but amplified by fifty. A millisecond later, the sky rips open. A new tear has formed--right in the middle of the carnival.
Most people haven't seen a tear--at least not a new one. A bystander might liken it to a 30-foot-long vulva (obviously made out of SPACE and not flesh) turned at a 90 degree angle. The tear has a sort of "pull" to it, as if being drawn towards a magnet, and anyone who looks at it for too long--and it is spectacular to stare at, all swirling with technicolor space energy (the stuff that's creating the attraction, some posit)--will feel like jumping. And if they jump, as one woman does, they will float swiftly upwards and be sucked right into the crack. Within several minutes, oxygen begins leaking through the gap. Someone calls INRAT, and when they arrive, in space suits (which are much lighter and exponentially easier to move around in than those we have now) so they can safely approach the newly formed tear. A 300-foot rectangle is squared off around the Ferris wheel, which it is worth noting is full of passengers who cannot be let down lest they become sucked into the gap and the atmosphere-less space beyond it. The gappers begin exploring the gap--they wear hoverboots and float around it, touching it and exploring it with both their hands and their special devices. The commanding officer of the INRAT task force enters the gap. When he returns two hours later, he talks in hushed tones over intercom with the members of his team. They then speak to the local police, who evacuate the entire carnival, save the people who are trapped on the Ferris wheel; when the grounds are empty, the police are not allowed back on the area, and INRAT takes over. The whereabouts and condition of the people trapped on the wheel as well as the woman who jumped, are not revealed or addressed by the media or the government.