Space Banshee

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. As Marlo hung suspended in the blackness of the void, her limbs writhed and thrashed, her hands and feet grasping for ledges that were not there. The black ash from the cannon she’d been launched from clung to her skin, stinging her eyes. She had no idea if she was upside down or right side up as she whirled, turned, arched and reached into the empty space around her. Slowly the panic she felt began to ebb away, replaced by a giddiness. She was alone. She’d made it. She’d escaped again. There were no faces to scan for malicious intent and no crowds to survey for Flexion spies. As a laugh escaped her lips, she saw a bubble form around it and carry it away. She tried a tentative scream and saw a much larger bubble form around it, the scream pushing against the bubble’s glossy surface, distorting its spherical shape. She knew she would be heard, even in the vacuum of space. Her scream would travel past planets, stars, moons, nebula and even black holes to eventually fall upon ears that couldn’t resist the call. She would be found, she just had to be prepared for who would find her this time: The Flexion, her Family or someone else entirely.

***

Marlo had been trying to escape the Flexion since she was a child. She had waited for the day they would make a mistake and it finally arrived, in the form of a compromised air lock on one of their multiplex research ships. The tightly managed system of white coats, clipboards, expensive equipment, precisely measured data and confinement chambers finally saw a crack. The details of her escape were a blur but she did remember hurtling through space at a speed faster than sound. She couldn’t use her voice to create a portal to a more favourable environment as she was bound and gagged with a Vocal Suppression Device, a band of cold, bitter-tasting metal wrapped around her face and jammed between her lips and teeth, but she was extremely lucky in that they happened to be hovering over an exceptional planet, likely looking for their next test subjects. The planet of her future Family. The planet of the Glamazons, the super freaks, the absurd and the strange. The planet where hundreds of thousands of inter-galactic space travellers journeyed everyday to find the bizarre, the exotic and the beautiful: Crystelscior.

As she fell through Crystelscior’s thick pink atmosphere, unable to breathe or see, she thought to herself this would be her end but it was a better end than trapped in a cage, a subject of study, at the mercy of whatever was in the white coat’s syringe that day. But as she landed in a soft, divinely-scented cushion of flesh, she knew this was a different kind of planet. She began to realize she was riding in a giant palm and gawked up at the five fingers, to one of which she had her arms wrapped around for steadiness. She marvelled at the pink jewelled nails like spires, lacquered and polished clawed talons gleaming in the sun as wisps of clouds rushed past her face. The face of the Glam Giant came into view, smiling so warmly and welcomingly, she knew she had arrived somewhere safe. Accompanying the smile were enormous arched eyebrows, mesmerizing multi-coloured powder soft eye shadow, pouted and painted magenta lips the size of a car each and dark eyelashes like gravity-defying ropes, so long you could swing off of them. A deep voice boomed all around her and despite its volume and thunderousness, it resonated with kindness, humour and care.

“Let’s get you somewhere safe little lady.” In the distance she could see three other glam giants doing incredible things. They were dancing, their gleaming metallic over the knee boots the height of skyscrapers doing high kicks, silver toes reaching the puffy blue clouds in a pink sky. Twirling, jumping, kicking, dropping, voguing, strutting and being fabulous. And as she looked down, which caused her to feel quite queasy as it was several kilometres to the ground, she saw a crowd of what must have been two hundred thousand people, moving like a multi-headed organism, pulsing with energy and elation. Marlo didn’t remember much of what happened next just that her stomach dropped like she was going in for a landing, descending swiftly like in an aircraft and then it all went black.

Marlo struggled to blink her eyes open as she regained consciousness to the shrill high-pitched squeal of a drill very close to her face. She could feel the vibrations of the drill rattle her face flesh and skull at a high frequency. She panicked, her eyes wide, flashing around, trying to make sense of her environment and what was happening. She saw colourful shapes all around her and of course the ominous drill in her periphery, but not much more. As the heavy metal band constricting her mouth fell away and clanked to the marble floor, she let out a deafening shriek. She could see her scream take shape in the air in front of her, like a small shadowy organism and begin to thrash at the fabric of space and time, until a small circle appeared that began to widen. The edges of the circle began to smoke and spark with flame. A Gruselor peered out of the singed hole, its skin a waxy, charred, oozing texture. A monstrous clawed hand reached through the portal, the sound of an ominous call following the claw, likely signalling to its horde. Marlo remembered these nightmarish creatures from the lab, when she had opened a portal to the same planet and they had invaded the facility. Her scars from their venomous scratches and bites pulsing along her torso as she heard the shrill cry. She remembered what she had to do. She screamed again, but focused her intention and managed to narrow the circumference of the circle to a point. It singed off the alien’s oozing arm and it fell to the floor with a thud, still smoking and burning slightly.

As Marlo looked around the room, she took in many quizzical faces from a tapestry of living art works lounging in high-backed white velvet chairs upon a broad platform or reclining against one another in a variety of positions on white fur-lined steps leading up to the thrones. Some people down on the floor appeared to have been in mid-dance and had frozen in strange physical shapes, to watch her. Light poured in through vaulted windows that reached to the high ceiling. This was the Royal Court of Excelscior, in the capital region of Ploverex except it wasn’t actually a monarchy, just a collective of inspired individuals from many different planets coming together in this place to call home and choose their family. But there were Queens and there were Kings and their Jesters. Enormous head pieces of yellow, pink, red and purple roses adorned coiffed heads. Intricate pieces of sculpture were integrated into the fabrics of their clothing. Colourful geometric shapes and symbols were painted onto the skin of many individuals. Ethereal robes and capes flowed from shoulders and jewellery hung from necks, arms, fingers and waists like natural rock formations. And the beings! Skin of every imaginable colour; delicately graceful fuchsia arms and necks, round green bellies, chests and torsos shining like gasoline oil slicks and aqua blue faces with bright orange lips peered out from their comfortable chairs or upon the steps. There were blue moustaches, electric yellow hair, hair woven around intricate sculptures upon peoples heads, feathered limbs and stately wings. It was clear that aliens from many different planets and galaxies had gathered here. There were individuals with sparkling and jagged crystals jutting from their cheekbones and foreheads. Others had glowing, changing pictograms pulsing across their skin, while tiny lights emanated like phosphoresence in a night-time ocean from the translucent skin of some. How strange to be able to see right inside of someone, to see every organ and the flow of their blood. There were robots too, cybernetic beings that were virtually indistinguishable from the organic life forms. Marlo didn’t know where to look or how to feel but she noticed the panic was fading. Her Vocal Suppression Device was off and these people looked kind for the most part.

“The Flexion were looking for her. Their soldiers have been thrown in the stocks. But some spies may have breached the perimeter, likely undercover. We detected their ships circling our atmosphere three days ago and we were waiting for them to take action. We have had five reports of missing persons and now this, now her.”

“We need to hide her.”

“But where?”

“In The Circus of course.”

“Aah yes, The Circus.”

The Circus was a labyrinth. The Circus was an enigma. The Circus was an organized yet chaotic gathering of all the most dazzling and bewildering side show freaks from every corner of the universe, capitalizing on their unique physiologies, gifts and talents developed through years of training. It was the income-generating engine of Ploverex and hence, all of Excelscior, what made it all work. A bird being by the name of Ospret was her official guide. He had an elegant gold-hued beak and large feathered wings the colour of cream arching from his back. He was covered in a lean layer of muscle and carried himself on two legs, seemingly in a perpetual state of readiness to take flight. Once Ospret had earned Marlo’s trrust, bringing food to leave at the door of a small apartment that was just for her and eventually having tentative conversations about where they both came from among other things. She enjoyed hearing about his sky planet, where there existed very little land, encouraging the evolution of intelligent beings of flight. When she felt ready to venture out into the labyrinth of art and spectacle known as The Circus, they walked down a myriad of alleys, taking in several shows and installations of performance art late into the night. There were impossible stretch people reaching their limbs across eight city blocks, in and through windows and doors of multiple buildings, in a mesmerizing tangle, almost like a scavenger hunt. They saw a jelly person that invited Marlo and Ospret to walk right inside of them. They rolled all around, laughing, jelly filling their mouths. Then the being transformed into a harder substance like a bouncing ball and bounced them all through the fair grounds. They saw flying dancers, acrobats with language unfolding upon their skin in the glowing pictograms she’d seen at the Royal Court, the ‘see through’ woman lit from the inside with glowing phosphorescence, ‘Psychic Fish Boy’ who swam around in a giant aquarium telling people their fortunes through a translation device. And of course, the Glam Giants put on the most epic show every night with their skyscraper high boots stomping, kicking and sashaying to loud, soulful dance music.

After about one week, Ospret let her know The Council wanted to meet with her to learn more about her, what she did and how she could contribute to the community and be part of the Family by sharing her gifts. At first she was resistant and scared, but agreed to go to the meeting.

“Tell us what you do Marlo. Tell us about your gifts.” She expected herself to not be very forthcoming, to give them the bare minimum but something in her just broke. The secrecy, the suppression and the denial she had tried to maintain while a captive of the Flexion, just washed away in a flood of emotion. She spent a couple of quiet minutes crying to herself. She felt safe around these people and she was tired of holding back. After she composed herself and dried her eyes, she began.

“I’m a Banshee. My scream is powerful. Not just my scream, but my voice, or specific vocalizations. They can do many things. I can open portals to all kinds of different planets or dimensions, depending on my emotional state and my level of control and intention. But I have to be somewhere to open a portal, it doesn’t work in the vacuum of space. I can also induce a hypnotic or ecstatic trance. In a hypnotic trance, I can make someone do anything I ask them. In an ecstatic trance, I can induce the highest degree of bliss. I can cause harm with my scream as well, it can be deadly. I can be deadly.” With this last statement she looked up slowly to gauge the reactions of the Council members, fearful she’d be seen as a threat and kicked out or worse. But they looked on only with kindness and curiosity.

“To what degree can you control these gifts?”

“Quite well actually. I hid my abilities from the Flexion as much as I could but they had ways of inducing them, or essentially controlling me to bring out whatever aspect of my scream they wanted whether it was inducing ecstasy, violence, inter-dimensional or inter-planetary space travel.”

“What do you know about the Flexion and what do they want with you? What was the purpose of their research with you?”

“I know they wanted to use me for whatever end they could. The final phase of their research was to insert me and others like me into whatever real world context they needed me for and test the results. The end goal was for me to become a more permanent fixture in their armies I presume. Whether it was to pacify their people with the pleasures I could induce or use me against their enemies as a weapon. I know the Flexion consisted mostly of Earth scientists and soldiers sponsored and trained by Venoldin.

“Earthlings? In league with Venoldin?”

“Yes.” The Royal Court began to buzz with whispers and murmurs behind a table where the Council sat, five members in dramatic sculptural garb and wigs several meters high. Earth was a planet that was still quite newly introduced into the network of inter-galactic planets that had life intelligent enough to connect and interact whether that be through friendly relations such as satellite communication, wormhole travel or constructed space bridges and corridors or through war, violence and resource theft. And in the one hundred and seven years since Earth had been brought into the fold from their very distant tiny Milky Way galaxy, they had proven to have a voracious appetite. They were hungry for just about anything: violence, sex, food, entertainment, energy, resources of all kinds. They had already artificially populated several previously uninhabitable planets in their galaxy and were extending into neighbouring galaxies. They were hungry for space travel, to consume what the Universe had to offer, to acquire more resources to permit their expansion. For such a young planet extremely new to the table, they seemed desperate to catch up. With what resources they had, Earthlings had managed to reach Excelscior in droves. Thousands of wealthy Earthlings showed up on Excelscior every day, ready to be entertained, dazzled, seduced and essentially shaken to their core by the wonders Excelscior had to offer. But they approached the place in a different way. Instead of contributing and sharing their gifts while receiving those around them, they just consumed, wanting more and more. This hysteria was driving up the number of spectacles but also sewing discontent with the performers who were feeling more drained and less inspired. It made sense that the Earthlings would be interested in Marlo with her ability to open portals to different dimensions and planets. The amount of resources it took for one Earthling to arrive at Excelscior, for example, was astronomical. They were in hot pursuit of resources to be able to travel farther into space in order to accumulate more so they could consume more and so on. For a planet in its infancy, and with their scientific revolution only its fetal stage, Earthlings really had accomplished astounding feats in their reach into space. And they had done this through their skill at exploiting relationships, in this they excelled. They could play the underling extremely well and in this gain the attention and support of power-hungry planets like Venoldin for example. The Venoldians had clearly seen something in the Earthlings, this hunger for expansion, for new experiences, and were using them for their own purposes as well. This innate quality of Earthlings, or humans as they liked to be called, of seeking newness, of always seeking more is part of what sparked their rapid trajectory of evolution. At least their evolution into massive acquisition, not in the ability to co-exist in a communal spirit while expressing and celebrating individuality.

Marlo continued, “The Venoldians provided Earth with access to technology and research facilities including a fleet of space craft, and top of the line laboratories. They want Earth to extract the secret of my DNA, of the DNA of my people in order to replicate us and exploit our natural gifts, presumably for violence and war.” The Venoldians were a war driven species, with humans they had this in common. They had acquired many planets in their galaxy and beyond, taken over operations and subjected the inhabitants of these neighbouring planets to a miserable, joyless, bleak existence of working to create more wealth and power for the Venoldians. They were small in stature; grey translucent beings of high intelligence but little physical strength. They also excelled in exploiting relationships and getting other species to do their dirty work.

“And what about you Marlo? Where do you come from? Who are you?”

“I’m…I’m from a planet called Sonal. We are a species of sound beings. We wield, use and harness sound in ways that I think would be unfamiliar to most planets. We have special cavities in our faces and through our bodies that allows sound to build and resonate in ways that are unique. We can move objects with sound, build structures and utilize technology among many other capacities. But there are only a dozen or so on each continent that can do with sound what I can.

“How did you come to be taken prisoner by the Flexion?”

“I was kidnapped at birth by undercover Flexion spies posing as doctors and nurses, after I killed my own mother, father and five other hospital staff with my scream. With my first breath of life.” Marlo looked down to the floor, feeling deeply ashamed. She had never spoken these words aloud.

“I see.” The five members of the Council murmured to themselves for a moment. Ospret, sitting to the side, watching on with the rest of the assembled crowd, gave her wink and a nod of encouragement.

They turned their five faces back towards her. “Do you wish to cause us, the people of Excelscior any harm?”

“Oh no, no, no, no, never.” The council members nodded, looking at each other once more.

“Firstly, we’re terribly sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you very much, that’s most kind of you.”

“Secondly, would you like to stay and live here? Develop and share your gifts with the people here, who will in turn share their gifts with you? Not for ticket sales but just to contribute to the community. We would protect and shield you from the Flexion, including all Earthlings as they are clearly in league with the Venoldians and can’t be trusted. Even the space tourists, as we don’t know who is a spy. But our Spy Detection League is always working in the field. The Venoldians have been denied entry to Excelscior for two hundred and forty nine years already since the Invasion of 18, 045. You should have seen the clowns that day, I’ve never seen them so passionate and full of fervour. And the Glam Giants made short work of things with the crunch of their high heeled boots and fierce nails. Everyone really came together that day.” The speaking Council member gave a wry smile.

“Yes, I would be honoured to live amongst you and share of my gifts and enjoy all those around me. And I’m fascinated to learn more about your history.”

“Wonderful, splendid, stupendous!” The relatively serious expressions of the Council members dissolved into wide warm smiles. One of them pulled out a bottle of rose bubbly and popped the cork. The crowd around them sparked into motion and the revelry began. Marlo was swept up into a wave of festivity. She was offered hand shakes, claps on the back, hugs, kisses, was carried around on shoulders and even flown around in the air by Ospret with all below chanting her name. She smiled and laughed more than she had in her entire life, so much her face ached for it. She danced until she couldn’t feel her feet and carried people around on waves of sound so even those who couldn’t fly were dancing in the air all night.

***

Marlo lived and worked in the deep underbelly of The Circus for seven years, becoming a thriving member of Excelscior society. She was not inhibited in any way in her movements despite the Council’s vow to hide her and enjoyed many regions, traveling to different countries when she needed a vacation, taking in the variety of splendours this unique planet had to offer. But at The Circus, stepping into her tent was like stepping into another world. She had six different show themes for six out of the ten-day week, and the audiences or participants ranged in numbers significantly depending on the day of the week. On Clownday, she permitted 10 people into her show called ‘The Night of the Seven Portals’ and crafted a unique sensory adventure for participants to seven of the true wonders of the Universe, from the bottom of a famous ocean bursting with colour and life, to the dazzlingly beautiful rings of planet Nebulonia to the crystal caves of Magool. Chromaday was “Dance through the Dimensions” where she brought a group of five into only one other dimension. Usually these dimensions had entirely different laws of physics, such as existing only along two axes and hence everything showed up in only 2-D abstracted shapes and colours including the audience. Or there was one where people’s thoughts could be heard outside their heads and their emotions lit up their bodies in different colours. Funday was a classical hypnosis session where an audience of thirty assembled and a few volunteered to be subjected to sound hypnosis. In this her voice permeated their consciousness and they were able to surrender control, doing all manner of strange and wonderful things, but always kept safe. This was a real crowd pleaser. On Danceday, Marlo put on an act which was open to a larger audience of one hundred people. She used her mastery of sound and resonance to lift herself into the air and perform a stunning choreography, sometimes she integrated Ospret into her routine in a very romantic and sensual pas-de-deux in flight. She also sang the most ethereal, mesmerizing siren song that had ever been heard on Excelscior. At the end of her show, she lifted the members of the audience and they all had a gravity-defying dance party into the morning with a healthy dose of debauchery. The show on Blissday was for twenty people and it was an ecstatic-trance induced orgy. People came to the event wearing elaborate headpieces, crowns, fine silk robes, lingerie, rubber, latex, straps and masks. People let go of all inhibitions and became fully immersed in the sensual and sexual delights of their own flesh and the flesh of twenty other people. It was a restorative energy exchange and some began to claim Marlo’s Blissday ‘show’ was part of their spiritual practice. Marlo participated fully in this event, letting herself get carried away in the sea of arms, legs, hands, feet, breasts, lips, eyes, genitals, sweat and sweetness. Playday was just for Marlo’s close friends, usually Ospret, Vini Vicious (a tattooed from head to toe glamazon acrobat), Pinky (a two headed comedian extraordinaire that came up to Marlo’s kneecaps) and Shellana (a silent poet and visual word artist of silver skin and golden eyes). Marlo transported them through a portal to a planet where the atmosphere contained hallucinogenic properties. Only plant life existed on this planet as well as a few hundred insect varieties like glowworms, butterflies the size of dogs and milk moths, all wonderful creatures to behold when perceptions became somewhat tilted and unpredictable. The rest of the days she spent living and enjoying her life among friends, who she began to call her family as they all did. She even made friends with a few Earthlings who managed to slip past the security detail assigned to her, who happened to be very safe and inspired people after all.

Life went on like this for seven years. Rumours and reports of Excelscior’s inhabitants going missing continued to occur, on all four continents of the planet. Flexion spies continued to be discovered and arrested but there must have been some that went undetected because it could be assumed that certain ones achieved their goals due to the missing persons report. It was common knowledge that the Flexion had an interest in acquiring and exploiting many of the gifts of the people of Excelscior to use for their own nefarious purposes that did not likely include entertaining or bringing joy and wonder.

Every seven years there was a colossal festival at The Circus, called Artegy, that brought people from every region of Excelscior as well as from every corner of the Universe. They came in droves; in space ships and space trains via the complex web of space corridors (built in collaboration by construction companies of several different planets) or naturally-occurring wormholes were utilized. Marlo had been busy preparing her act, working with set designers and the art department, consulting with finance and ticket sales. Over the seven years, she had become a very well known and loved act and gradually she had gone from performing for and guiding experiences for the inhabitants of Excelscior to paid shows on a larger scale. She was one of the headliners in the Artegy festival and on opening night, she had so much on her mind that she didn’t hear when Ospret slipped into her dressing room. When he tapped her on the shoulder she whirled around.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No problem. What’s wrong? You look worried.”

“I was speaking with Security just now and they informed me that five Flexion spies were spotted but not apprehended. They were reported to be carrying Anti-Sonar shield ray guns and Teleporter Beam Devices. Security are looking for them right now but the crowds are so thick, they’re having trouble finding them and I think they’ve likely split up by now. But they are definitely looking for you. You need to cancel your act and go to the bunkers, to stay safe.

“What? That’s impossible.” Marlo could hear the crowd in the stadium chanting her name and she could hear the blood begin to pound in her ears as her heart beat accelerated. She felt the cold rush of terror down her spine. “I don’t want to go down there and hide, I’ve spent too much of my life in small, dark places already, without freedom, being small, trying to hide who I am. I can’t do it again. I won’t.”

“What will you do?”

“Go somewhere I guess.” Just then they both jumped and turned to look in the direction of the door of Marlo’s dressing room as they heard a couple of loud bangs in succession, a deep thud and what sounded like a body hitting the floor. The door burst open and a human rushed in. They could see the body of a security guard crumpled against the floor in the hall. He aimed an Anti-Sonar shield ray gun at her and pulled the trigger just as Marlo opened her mouth and let out a blood-curdling scream. The force field from the ray gun met the aggressive vibrations of the scream and sent them reverberating back to Marlo and Ospret who were knocked off their feet. As the human went to grab the Teleporter Beam Device on his hip, Marlo scrambled to her feet and ran. She ran through the maze of dark corridors behind the main stage, hoping to lose her assailant. She ran onto a smaller side stage where she saw Lalo the clown packing a very large cannon full of gunpowder. She couldn’t trust herself at this moment to open a portal and take herself somewhere safe, which was her first plan. With her level of panic, she might just portal herself to the planet of the Gruselors.

“Lalo, I need to get in that cannon right now and I need you to light it and blast me into space.”

“Marlo! Darling! What are you doing here? I thought you were getting ready for your big show. The crowd is going crazy my love!”

“Please Lalo, I need you to do this for me. I”m in danger.”

“Ok love, we’ll launch the space fireworks early I guess. Climb in. It’s all ready.”

“Thank you Lalo.” He gave her a warm smile and honked his red nose for her. As she climbed in the cannon, she heard him announcing with a megaphone.

“All right you beauties and beasties, the fireworks show is early tonight. Hang on to your hats and look up to the stars!”