Curses!

I've found a small error on the top level menu for the FF-XI distribution disk. It describes The Forgotten Futures Compendium as including a scenario called "Curse of the Conqueror"; the correct title is Curse of the Leopardmen.

Unfortunately this came to light after the disks had been duplicated and posted. It will be corrected when new disks are made.

A revised index file is here.

A Hint of What Is To Come in FF XII...

The cannon slid in and out through tubes fitted with telescopic joints, which rotated in gimbals, so that they could be worked without allowing air to escape, and the muzzle of the gun was closed by a slide while the shot was introduced at the breech. The torpedoes were worked from torpedo-tubes in the same manner. The cannon varied in size from 200 tons to 10-pounders, the armament of each ship being selected according to the duties which it was expected to perform in an engagement. Besides the holes for the cannon, the hull was pierced in many places by other holes, which were filled up with the transparent metal Lumium, so that the sailors could see what was taking place outside...

...Besides the powerful armament of cannon and torpedoes with which the vessels were provided, each had a powerful apparatus for radiating a force which would annihilate the attraction of cohesion wherever it happened to strike, and with another apparatus which would send destructive waves of the force Ednogen, that could kill any human beings that they might impinge upon. These awful engines of destruction would have been enough, but there was yet another that could paralyze the motor-power of an approaching vessel, and thus leave it helpless and useless. To counter-act the influence of any such engines that the enemy might possess, there were receivers that could annihilate these forces should they impinge upon them. The ether of space and a kind of matter that could be made to radiate in elliptical waves were the basis of these terrible forces that were about to be wielded by the two great races for the destruction of one another...

The Struggle For Empire - Robert William Cole

Eat your heart out, Honor Harrington...

Am I being a little too cynical...

...if I mention that my first reaction to Flora, the apparent romantic interest of The Struggle For Empire, was to think that she is a drip comparable to Basil Fotherington-Thomas ("Hello trees! Hello flowers!") in the Molesworth books.

'What a beautiful thing is life!' she murmured, with the joyous accents of early maidenhood, as she tripped lightly out into the garden. 'Everything around me is so fresh and bright. How happy I feel! Only three more hours and I shall see my dear Alec.'

She stooped over one of the flower-beds and made a small nosegay out of the most sweet-smelling flowers.

'There!' she said, as soon as she had finished binding the flowers together. 'That will do for his button-hole when he comes to dinner this evening.

Fortunately it looks like a rival for Alec's affections turns up about half way through the story, and since she starts out by saving his life I have a feeling that Flora will eventually get the old heave-ho. And serve her right too...

Enhance!

For heliograph, who mentioned this in a comment on my recent post re. CSI.