And now for a hint of what is to come, and a little different than what you expect. Things are running slow on this due to other commitments, but you can be assured a new TOS fan-novel is on the way.
Chapter One: The Dark Side of Rebellion
Hong Kong, 1900.
At the end of the 19th century, a rebellion swept across all of China. With the dividing of China's best ports and cities into "spheres of Influence" controlled by Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan, the stage was set for a showdown between China and its "master" nations. Additionally, the American diplomat John Hays, instituted an "Open Door" policy that essentially stripped China of its economic treasures and privileges, instead divesting them amongst the great powers. This intensified the feeling of foreign hatred within China. Lastly, Christian missionaries, known for their open disgust and hatred of Chinese customs and practices, caused a violent backlash against all things domestic, further stirring Chinese discontent. China was slowly being drowned under the weight of foreign powers, and thus, with the coming of the new century, came something not quite as welcome--a bloody, violent movement that would come to be known as the Boxer Rebellion.
The revolution was initiated by a cult known as the I Ho Chuan, or Society of Righteous Fists; the translation of which by Westerners came to be known, colloquially, as "The Boxers". Spurred on by a belief that magic had made them invincible, they began to expand in late 1899. Their initial message of preserving China's purity through the resistance of Western acculturation, the message was soon warped to that of wholesale slaughter of everything non-Chinese. Without restraint in their leadership or concern of Western backlash, The Boxers began their assault in early 1900, attacking all signs of Western presence, including the missions. The attacks were barbaric and hideous: men, women, and children alike were hacked to pieces with swords, burned alive in their homes and places of business, or sometimes tortured through throngs of bloodthirsty Boxers before their subsequent execution and placing their severed heads on display in cages on village gates.
Initially, the Western governments demanded that the Empress Tsu Hsi put down the savage butchery known as the Boxer movement. However, their demands fell on deaf ears, as the Imperial court was dominated by nobles and courtesans with anti-foreign attitudes who were ready to get rid of the Western powers was to them the true symbol of all that was wrong. As a result of this, the Boxers were not outlawed, and thus increased their attacks. Churches were burned, offices destroyed, and diplomats assassinated. By mid-1900, foreigners and Chinese Christian converts were held in small sections of Peking and the Western-controlled ports while the countryside was at the mercy of the Boxers slaughtering any suspected Christians.
However, Western forces, tired of the inaction by the Chinese government, took action. An 9000-strong military force, under the direction of the United States and all the major European powers invaded China and slowly fought its way inland. After the Empress Tsu Hsi abandoned of the capital on August 14, 1900, the siege was lifted. While the world cheered the restoration of civilization to China, the atrocities continued. Western troops began widespread looting of Peking and the surrounding territories while pursuing the Boxers. Thousands of innocent Chinese civilians died, victims of firefights on both sides. While the number of Western casualties were 2500 or so, the number of Chinese Christian converts was more than 30,000--far more than that of the Western powers.
It would not be until the following year that China would be forced to pay for its inaction; it was disarmed and paid over $700 million in reparations over the next four decades. As for the Empress Tsu Hsi, she returned to the Forbidden City in 1901, but the price was that of the Ching dynasty, which was destroyed forever. Because the US had participated in the campaign, it also participated the settlement that was to follow: Hays called for an expansion of the Open Door policy that would apply to all of China, and not just the areas of Western influence. The result of this was a forced access to China's market until its shutdown during World War II.
The British port of Hong Kong, though having its share of troubles during the year of The Boxers, was mostly spared from this indignity due to the large British Garrison at Prince of Wales Pier in the Admiralty section of Hong Kong. As a result, the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong became a refuge for most fleeing the war that was tearing up the country.
In the quiet residential district of Kowloon, on Hollywood Road, there was a small temple. It had stood there for thousands of years, though no one remembered why. It had been named the Temple of the Crystal, though there had been no such opulence that anyone could have seen in it. Even the priest, an old man named Chun Shih Dao, was not sure why--and he had been the temple's priest for as long as anyone could remember, at least before they'd completed the telegraphic link to China back in 1870. The temple sat there, undisturbed and unmolested. Even as the new century had approached, and the current troubles that had come with it, the Temple of the Crystal had been a sign of nothing more than religious devotion and reverence of the ancestors and the world around them...even if that world flew the colors of the British Empire.
That was then.
Now, it was nothing more than a charred wreck, shattered and destroyed with nothing remaining of it. They'd found the old man, dead as can be, his throat covered in strange bitemarks. Demons, some said; demons had come to destroy the holiness of the temple. It had to be true, for here was the earthly remains of Chun Shih Dao; his assistant, a slightly younger priest by the name of Tzu Kang Gou, missing--no doubt his skeleton would be found under the burnt remains of the temple.
Members of the Royal Garrison had been talked into making a search for the demons, to stop them. The Governor, concerned not so much about an army of hell's minions but of the more probable invasion of the Boxers, humored the peasant populace and sent a company of soldiers to scour the territories of the Crown Colony. He'd even sent a couple of priests from the nearby church if the actual (though doubtful) need for exorcism arose, and contacted the Americans, in the event that US support from its Sailors and Marines would be needed.
A few days later, when the populace had been convinced that His Majesty's government had done all it could to protect the population, the hysteria died down, all for the exception of an old crone mindlessly cooing about "the return of the damned Zao Long." However, since no one had ever heard of that name, and the woman was thought to be touched in the head anyway, she was left alone, and life in the colony soon returned to normal as the Boxer Rebellion continued to rage on in the rest of China.
If the people had actually paid attention, they would have been forewarned for what was to happen next. They probably would have even welcomed the rebellion in the streets of Hong Kong.
It would have been better than what was to come.
(<*>)
In a darkened room in Mong Kok, Tzu Kang Gou sat, staring at the melon-sized ball of purple crystal. He could feel the power within radiating power unimaginable, power that would make him Emperor, no, a god. He would not be content simply with the relations of China, but instead would take the British Empire and its surroundings for his very own.
As he sat on a pillow in that opulent room, he was approached by two people...if they could be called that. One was his servant, a hideously scarred man that went by the name of Ja Koh. Covering his face in bandages until he looked like a mummy, the man seemed to eek out a living as a puppet master, creating shows with his life-size marionettes that magically seemed to move on their own without the need of strings. One person had thought Ja Koh's puppets to be simply actresses in guise. When he, however, had pulled apart one of the marionettes in front of the doubter, all doubts had been expelled. However, how they moved and existed was still a grand question. Gou knew the truth of the marionettes, and how they operated, and in fact had given Ja Koh advice on how to improve them.
The other one was one of the marionettes, assigned to Gou as one of his personal servants. Designed to appear as a young, nubile servant, it stared at him with lifeless eyes in a wooden expression, devoid of life; its face showing the lines where one part connected to another. The marionette was designed to follow his every whim, without question, and he'd in honesty, "killed" a number of them on whims. He'd even blasted apart his favorite one in a display of power. This new one, which he'd given the name of Heung Fu, was working out quite well, and might even become his new favorite.
"I am in meditation, Ja Koh," Gou said, his booming voice belying his seemingly frail appearance, not even bothering to take his gaze away from the crystal he held. "This had better be important."
"It is, my Lord," Ja Koh replied, his sibilant voice muffled by the bandages. His red eyes flashed a telegraphed danger to Gou, not a threat, but a genuine warning. "One of my marionettes has reported that the Ox crystal has fallen out of the ownership of Li Ping, and into the hands of some foreigner. The chances of the crystal arriving here is minimal, since it is currently located somewhere in America."
"Excellent," Gou answered magnanimously. "And of the others?"
"As you know, Lord, the Serpent one is mine. The Boar one belongs to that portly white skinned freak--" the man's distaste was clear, "of an Englishman. The Wolf one is still in the hands of that cadaver you brought to life last week." Ja Koh, though normally immune to the macabre, shuddered at his memories of the undead man that now walked the earth. "Are you sure that was wise, sir?"
Gou turned his eyes away from the crystal. "Are you questioning my judgement, Ja Koh?"
Ja Koh audibly gulped. "No, my Lord," he said in a cowed voice, turning his head from those eyes that showed too much.
Gou returned to his mediation. "I thought not." He then paused and added, "What of the last crystal--the Rabbit?"
"Unknown, sir. It has not been seen in millennia. Chances are, it was destroyed, or lost in the annals of history."
"I do not believe that the crystals can be destroyed, but it is a possibility. In any case, if it has not been seen, it shall not be seen. You have done excellent work, Ja Koh. Return to what you were doing."
"Yes, my Lord." Ja Koh bowed, then turned and left the room, swallowed up by the darkness.
Gou was left in the room with the marionette. Not bothering to pay attention to it, he searched out for the Rabbit crystal. That was the last one, the one that was the missing equation. As Ja Koh had said, the rest were accounted for: three were under Gou's control. Two were in America, brought there by Chinese immigrants to that country. One was in the hands of an inept Shaolin novice in the forests by Peking. The last belonged to a worthless Emperor's concubine in the Forbidden City. At one time, there had been others, but they'd been lost. The Firebird one was said to have been lost in the fiery depths of Phoenix Mountain. One was said to have fallen into one of the cursed lakes of Chochuanshan. Another was said to be forever lost in the hidden Valley of Xanadu. No matter--the ones he was concerned about were the eight most powerful ones, the ones that gave their owners not the powers of the animals, but more than that.
The beast crystals, enhanced with the Force of the Beast Spirits and more, were the only threat. Since he had three with his side, that only left the other five. Two were far away, too far to be any use against him. Two more were in the hands of mindless children who probably could not use them to save their lives. The last was gone.
Gou sighed in contentment. He was close to finding the other half of Zao Long, the part that would make him a god. It was somewhere in China, he was sure of it. All that was needed was a little patience, and a little more time. He would find it, and then all of heaven and earth would be his, and there would be nothing that could oppose him.
Finally, he put down the crystal on a golden stand designed for it. Turning his attention to the marionette in the room, he ordered, "Come closer." With a mechanical, wooden gait, the marionette moved forth. As soon as the automaton reached him, he stood up and said, "Entertain me."
With more mechanical, robotic movements, the marionette undressed itself, letting the opulent robes slide to the floor. But the silky smooth flesh that had been concealed under the robes was not that of a wooden, lifeless marionette. And as Gou began to undress himself as well, neither was the solitary teardrop that rolled away from the unblinking, unmoving eye of that marionette.
Ja ne,
Rob(Rivers of truth taste the same. -- Tibetan Saying)
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