The Prequel:

Striding into the Bleeding Red Dwarf Sunset, Two Strange Figures Converse: the One Tall, Tough, and Rangy, Stetson-Crowned and Duster-Clad and Spur-Boot Shod and Six-Gun Fixed, Betimes Glinting Fire On Metal with a Nod or Gesture; the Other Dark, Dire, Huge and Hairy, Loping in a Lupine Gait Yet Curiously Erect, and Despite His Fearful Bulk, Glimmering, Wraith-like…






A Meta-Galactic Dialogue Between Auto-Sapiens and Lycanthrophantom, Followed By a Thrilling Action Sequence and Tragi-Comic Twist:




I, LYCANTHROPHANTOM!

AH, AUTO-SAPIENS!




Auto-Sapiens:

‘My Maker is the Corporation

You Order Your Automatons from

Can you Buy a Bios? An Ikon of the Theos?’


‘Seems Like Every Body in this No Account Spaceport

Hosts a Ghost Behind the Face, Except for Me and My Sort’

(Sighed the Cyber-Ikon from His Apparition-Aperture)




Lycanthrophantom:

‘I Howl to You from Beyond the Veil – You Pale, My Brother in Half-Humanity

I’m the Spectral Wolf-Man, You’re the Haunted Man-Bot, You Fear to See’


I, LYCANTHROPHANTOM!

AH, AUTO-SAPIENS!




Auto-Sapiens:

‘Am I Sentient? Am I Meant?

From Whence is the Spirit Sent?’




Every Laser Pistol in the Place is Drawn

Out the Holster of Every Johnny Outlaw,

Mick Mercenary and Charlie Marshal

In this Hellhole Hull

-The Many-Coloured Blasts Flame Out

And Muttering in his Circuitry, He Adds His Fire to the Fray




But in His Reverie Time Seems to Freeze

As He Falls to His Knees…




Auto-Sapiens:

‘If I Can Die, Can I Live?’


Lycanthrophantom:

‘It May Have Occurred to You That I Too

Was a Cursed Cur On a Dark Dog Star’




Auto-Sapiens:

‘What Farthest Shores are You From?

Are You Ever Going Home?’


Lycanthrophantom:

‘Anything Could Happen, Son

It Could Go On Forever…

Just Jump Off the Cliff’


(He Jumps Off…)




Real-time Action Recommences:


Shoot-out! Shoot-out! Shoot-out!

Shoot-out! Shoot-out! Shoot-out!




Do You Feel My Soul Blasting Out?

The Wires and Veins are Bursting!

Sparks and Blood are Spraying On All of Us!

The Metal Under the Skin is Glowing

And the Bone Under the Metal Showing



Are We Meeting with the Maker in All this Bloody Blur?

Are We Meeting with the Maker in All this Bloody Blur?

Are We Meeting with the Maker in All this Bloody Blur?




Auto-Sapiens’ Dying Words: ‘FIRE!’ [See Blaise Pascal’s Memorial]