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Mad Daedalus Story | |
| Prologue -The wreckage of Ariadne |
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| Back to the 2000 B.C. Daedalus of Athens was known throughout the land as a genius scientist and architect. However, he grew envious of his assistant, his nephew, who was gaining a brilliant reputation of his own. So Daedalus killed his nephew. He was convicted of murder and banished for life to the Isle of Crete. On the Isle of Crete, Daedalus was startled to find a mysterious prehistoric site, half buried in a hill, that contained the wreckage of a huge spaceship. He could find no clues why the ship had journeyed to Earth, nor why it had crashed. But even though it seemed too damaged to ever fly again, its computer still seemed to be working. Daedalus spent years trying to activate the computer and learn its secrets. Finally he succeeded, and the computer came to life. To his amazement and pleasure, a holographic image appeared of a most beautiful young lady. "Greetings," said a voice from the computer, "My name is Ariadne." Deeply impressed with Ariadne’ abilities, Daedalus proposed a deal to her: He would repair her if she would teach him her technology. She accepted it. After learning the alien technology, Daedalus produced exotic machinery and weapons for Minos, the king of Crete, to gain his favor. These devices pleased King Minos, and he used Daedalus’ creations to become powerful and prosperous . King Minos built a shrine for Ariadne on the hill where the spaceship had crashed, and instructed his people to worship her as a messenger of the gods . His true purpose was to keep people away from Ariadne by making the site an inviolable sanctuary. He also kept Daedalus captive in his castle, to keep the alien secrets under his control. Among the things Daedalus created for the king was a bio-weapon, the Minotaur. However the Minotaur turned out to be uncontrollable and deadly—it was a man-eater! It was so dangerous that King Minos ordered Daedalus to built a Labyrinth to confine it. |
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| Loony Labyrinth |
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| Daedalus was deeply disappointed by the Minotaur and the damage it caused, and was discouraged in his scientific studies. One day, as he sat deep in anger and regret, a man named Theseus appeared from the future, carrying a time-travel device called the Loony Machine. Theseus had come from the future to kill the Minotaur to complete the Myth. Meanwhile, Daedalus and Ariadne were conspiring to repair the spaceship in the future when technology is sufficiently developed. They asked Theseus to take them to the future. In return, they would help him to defeat the Minotaur. To help them create the device to defeat the Minotaur, they had Theseus explore the wreckage of the spaceship, which was now a part of the huge Labyrinth, to collect some parts. When the device was finished, Theseus used it to defeat the Minotaur. However, the Loony Machine suddenly malfunctioned, sending Theseus back to the future and leaving Ariadne and Daedalus in Crete in the year 2000 B.C. Theseus felt sorry for Ariadne and Daedalus. He wished he could bring them back to the present so he could complete the deal they had made, but he had no way to restart the Machine. |
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| Spatiotemporal rendezvous |
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| At Knossos, the marooned Daedalus and Ariadne had a discussion. From the moment he saw the Loony Machine, Daedalus had recognized it as one of his own creations—for it had had his signature, and the name of Ariadne in Linear Character A. Then Daedalus had an idea. He had examined the Loony Machine and understood how it worked. He could convert Ariadne into Loony Machine, then use it to take them forward a thousand years so they could fix the wrecked spaceship. Although there was a risk of causing irreversible damage to Ariadne’s artificial intelligence in the process, Ariadne accepted his plan, as she judged there was nothing else they could do. -------------- Daedalus reconstructed her successfully. He is now about to launch the time-travel sequence. Will his wish come true—will he be able to sail through the universe with Ariadne? |
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| Epilogue -Escape, farewell, and again... |
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| But ay me! At that very moment Daedalus's finger touched the switch, they were surrounded by soldiers sent by King Minos to keep them from escaping. King Minos had heard of their conspiracy and decided to stop them. After all, Daedalus and Ariadne were his most valuable assets, the source of his prosperity. Daedalus had no intention of giving up, though his own life was threatened by the half-god tyrant. With his assistant Icarus (a clone of himself), he built flight equipment and succeeded in escaping from the castle with Ariadne as the Loony Machine, and the Loony Stones, the Machine’s source of power . However, there was an accident during the flight and Icarus fell, scattering the Loony Stones he carried all over Earth. Daedalus set out on a long journey to find the Looney Stones, but he never succeeded. Without the Loony Stones, his Loony Machine would never come to life. He hid the Machine deep in the shrine and carved a message on the wall which would be found by Sir Evangel many years later. His heart breaking, he said a fond farewell to Ariadne and disappeared. And now, four thousand years later, the Loony Labyrinth story resumes... -END- |
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