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The Deep Blue Devil

The Man in the Malachite Mask

Doctor Callow’s Dream:

Teatime for Mr Bergamot

PART FOUR - THE GOLD PAGES

The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew

 (Oxblood Films, dir. Severin Unck)

Production Meeting

The Deep Blue Devil

The Man in the Malachite Mask

Doctor Callow’s Dream

And If She’s Not Gone, She Lives There Still

 (Tranquillity Studios, 1961, dir. Percival Unck)

The Deep Blue Devil

The Man in the Malachite Mask

Doctor Callow’s Dream

And If She’s Not Gone, She Lives There Still:

The Case of the Disappearing Documentarian

From the Personal Reels of Percival Alfred Unck

The Graeae

Christmas Card, mailed to C. Brass c/o Oxblood Films,

Yemaya, December 1952

The Ingénue’s Handbook

How Many Miles to Babylon?: Episode 974

The Deep Blue Devil

The Man in the Malachite Mask

Doctor Callow’s Dream

And If She’s Not Gone, She Lives There Still:

The Case of the Reappearing Raconteur

PART FIVE - THE RED PAGES

The Man of the Hours

Goodbye

The Howler and the Lord of the World

Acknowledgments

About the Author

For Heath, who taught me about light

and my father, who taught me how to get the shot

Chronology

(Some dates are approximate due to known issues with reconciling standard and sub-light transit calendars.)

1858: Conrad Wernyhora and Carlotta Xanthea launch the Tree of Knowledge from the Hawaiian islands, Earth

1872: Violet El-Hashem born in Marrakech, Earth

1876: Hathor Callowmilk Corporation founded

1883: Percival Unck born

1891: Mary Pellam born

1902: Proserpine, an American colony on Pluto, is destroyed. Cause unknown.

August 1908: Mary Pellam’s first significant role (Meet Me on Ganymede, dir. Hester Jimenez-Stern)

24 March 1914: First episode of How Many Miles to Babylon? broadcast throughout the inner Solar System

29 October 1914: Severin born in the Lunar city of Tithonus

6 January 1915: Premiere of The Red Beast of Saturn (dir. Percival Unck)

25 January 1916: Erasmo St. John born on location in Guan Yu, Mars

1917: Enyo, a Russian mining settlement on Mars, is destroyed. Cause unknown.

3 July 1919: Premiere of Hope Has No Master (dir. Percival Unck)

1921: Severin sees Mary Pellam for the first time in The Seduction of Madame Mortimer (dir. Thaddeus Irigaray)

1922: Percival Unck and Mary Pellam wed

1924:The Abduction of Proserpine (dir. Percival Unck) released

3 July 1924: Anchises St. John born in Adonis, Venus

14 January 1930: The Achelois sets sail from Tithonus Harbour for The Miranda Affair (dir. Thaddeus Irigaray) wrap party

1936:Self-Portrait with Saturn (dir. Severin Unck) released

Christmas 1937: Erasmo and Severin become romantically involved

1938:The Famine Queen of Phobos (dir. Severin Unck) released

1939: The Stone in Swaddling Clothes departs for the Outer System

1940: The Clamshell built

1940: Fifth Venusian census, the last to record the village of Adonis

1941:And the Sea Remembered, Suddenly (dir. Severin Unck) released

1943:The Sleeping Peacock (dir. Severin Unck) released

June 1944: Moscow Worlds’ Fair / The Clamshell departs for filming of The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew (dir. Severin Unck)

16 November 1944: The Clamshell lands at White Peony Station for Radiant Car principal photography

21 November 1944:Radiant Car film crew sets out from White Peony Station

1 December 1944: Crew arrives in Adonis, Venus, first contact made

2 December 1944: Auditory phenomena commences

3 December 1944: Severin disappears

1946: Erasmo St. John debriefed by Oxblood Films

10 October 1947: Severin’s funeral in absentia

1951: Severin’s funeral

1959: Production begins on The Deep Blue Devil (dir. Percival Unck)