Part XLV With Headscarf and Hasselblad in the Glens
I knew I scarcely had time to reflect on the uniqueness of my
predicament, that whether I acted successfully or no my deeds would
go unrecognised in the world I cared for. Nor was there even time to
consider doing nothing, the minutes remaining would be drawn out
into centuries and such was my state of tension that it bordered on
hysteria. Was it worth saving a world where neighbours cut off
friends' breasts and served them stuffed in the ancient Roman style?
In a pico second I rebounded from this negative interpretation of
social interaction to consider that somewhere before me in the
bewildering mosaic of the inner solar system which, to my untrained
eye, resembled the highly polished surface of a black granite
countertop in a modern kitchen, lay the object of the LUCA's wrath, of
my own reckless outburst. How often have mere mortals wished that
they could hurl the terrestrial globe into the abyss and how merciful
that none of them have ever had the power to do so! But somewhere
on one of those points ahead there were people capable of bonding
with and caring about creatures dead and fossilised 110 million years
before their time. To hell with the breast stuffers! I said to myself, they
have to be spared perforce, I'll do what I can to preserve the global
environment for an empathetic palaeontologist! I knew, as Beatrice,
like an invigilator of a written exam on Inferno, announced Nove
minuti! that I had only a few seconds to bring the MarkVI round to a
cooperative posture, for without her help I knew that all was lost!
I was not encouraged by her mien for on a close examination she
appeared to be reverting to Belge Noire in front of my very eyes. Her
head was thrown back, her left arm remained aloft in the
commanding gesture of those who feel they have unleashed an
irrevocable force and with her right hand she clung to and supported
her weight on a moulded handle that was formed from the same
material as the console. The pupils of her eyes were dilated so that
her gaze, as far as I could make it out from a position close to and
alongside her, was positively planetary within itself. It was apparent
that attempts at verbal reasoning would glance off this daunting
exterior like an ice spike off a glacial wall. My senses honed by the
urgency of the impending catastrophe, I cast my eye over the console
surface in the hope of detecting any useful changes that I might be
able to exploit and I was rewarded with the sight of a small slotted
