#1: The sentence
Author: Pat, Location: DoncasterPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:16 pm — Betty Wynne Davis looked around her in astonishment. She was
standing on a raised platform ringed in by what looked like bars of light.
Beside her was another woman a few years older than herself, dressed a little
shabbily as if she had fallen on hard times. The two women stared at each other
and then at the room outside. It was huge, long, and narrow, built of stone with
a high ceiling. Windows ran along the upper walls letting in what light there
was, but doing little to lighten the room, which seemed designed to overpower.
Along each side ran rows of seats, parallel to the walls so that those sitting
there were facing each other, and these seats were full of people, shouting,
jeering, screaming insults at the two women. “Do you know where we are?”
asked Betty. “Nein fraulein. And you I know not either.” The voice was
clipped, with an undeniable aristocratic tone to it. “I’m Betty Wynne Davis.
And you are?” “Thekla von Stift.” “You went to the Chalet School!”
exclaimed Betty. “And you were ...had to leave.” “It was not the school my
family thought it was.” “You left the same way I did,” said Betty
reluctantly. She was bitterly ashamed of the way she had let the school, and to
admit what had happened to this woman was hard. Thekla stared at her in
amazement, but before she could say anything there was a loud bang, as if a door
had been thrown open violently, and the room fell silent. Then high in the
ceiling they saw an object moving towards them down the length of the room. It
was a chair, seeming to float under its own power. It came to a halt a few feet
in front of them, and to their astonishment they recognised the figure that was
seated there. Miss Annersley was looking very stern and judicial, leaning
back in the William and Mary style chair. She wore a full length red dress - a
colour neither of them had seen her wear before - with a high mandarin collar. A
great chain hung around her neck, rather like those worn by a town mayor, and
from this hung what looked like some sort of seal of office. Over this she wore
her MA gown and hood. On her head was a judges wig, entirely hiding her hair.
She sat and gazed at them in a way that Betty at least found horribly familiar,
the blue-grey eyes like steel. After what seemed to be hours, Miss Annersley
spoke, her voice, as usual, reaching the far corners of the room with no effort.
“You have been brought here for sentence to be passed,” she said. Betty
plucked up courage from somewhere, and with a vestige of her old cheeky self
managed to give a reply. “We haven’t been charged or given a trial yet,” she
said. A chorus of boos and cat-calls rose from the seated throng around
them. Miss Annersley raised her hand slightly and silence fell again. “Your
guilt is known. Only sentence remains to be passed. You are condemned to serving
for a year on the lower decks of the ‘Enterprise’. It is hoped that at the end
of that time you will have a better idea of how to live with your fellow humans
in harmony and peace. Take them away.” Immediately the two were encased in a
beam of light, and when it dispersed they found themselves in a large room,
surrounded by men and women in strange uniform, a uniform that they themselves
now wore. “This must be a dream!” said Betty. “Nein, no dream. More a
nightmare I think,” said Thekla. “But dream or not, we have to deal with it,
yes?” “Nothing else to do,” agreed Betty, as the strangers began to crowd
around them asking questions.
Last edited by
Pat on Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:33 pm; edited 1 time in total
#2:
Author: Sugar, Location: second star to the right!Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:21 pm — Ohhhhh interesting. Thank you!
#3:
Author: PaulineS, Location: West MidlandsPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:22 pm — An intreging start Pat.
#4: Author: Joan the
Dwarf, Location: Er, where am I?Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:17
pm — Argh!
Miss Annersley as Q!!
*runs away and hides"
#5:
Author: Elbee, Location: SurreyPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:41
pm — I'll
never be able to watch the first episode of The Next Generation now without
thinking of Miss Annersley instead of Q
