Robota
Page 9
If it could be called a fight. Kaantur threw Caps, then chased him down and threw him again almost before he could pick himself up. One of Caps’s arms was hanging useless, and it was only a matter of moments before Kaantur succeeded in breaking him into pieces.
Elyseo picked up the antibacterial apparatus from the exhibit table, then strode to Rend, put the monkey on the apparatus and the hose in the monkey’s hand, then hoisted it all onto his shoulders. When Kaantur passed near them on the way to pick up Caps’s flung body once again, Elyseo leapt up onto the monster’s back.
“Wasting your time!” cried Kaantur with a laugh. “I had this one built without deactivation codes.”
They weren’t going for the codes. Elyseo sat on Kaantur’s shoulders, straddling her giant neck, and pressed several releases in order to open up her head. “Now!” he cried, and Rend began squirting antibacterial spray into the wide-open metal cranium.
The giant robot body danced around insanely, while Kaantur’s voice moaned. “What did you do? What’s happening?”
Then the giant robot’s arm swung against the cylinder and broke it open. Fluid gushed out. The aging body of the woman Ansalilia toppled out onto the floor.
Her feeble hand reached up and pried the life-support mask from her own face. While the giant robot slumped inertly, the ancient woman crept across the floor, reaching out to Caps, speaking in a husky whisper. “You said you’d love me … forever. You said I would always be … beautiful …”
And then she coughed, gagged, choked, died.
Caps walked to her. Knelt beside her. Cradled the ghastly old head in his lap with his one good arm. Two Servants knelt beside him and started working on his injuries, opening the skin to repair damage to his robot arms and back.
“Ansalilia,” murmured Caps. “You could have been a legend, a beautiful memory. Now you’re a tale to frighten children. The monster in the night. The beast who tore at the heart of the world.”
He laid her down again upon the ground and walked, still uncertain of his steps, to where they worked on Beryl. “Is she alive?”
“Not conscious, but alive,” said Decan-Trap.
“I know where her sister is. Now that Kaantur-Set is dead, her secrets are all laid bare before me. If Beryl’s going to die, she first should see her sister alive and free.”
Two Servants rushed from the museum to get the girl.
“And now we wait,” said Elyseo, “because there’s nothing we can do.”
“I’m a monkey,” said Rend. “I can always do something.”
Rend sat on the back of the piano, his feet dangling over the keyboard, and began playing a tune with his toes. Elyseo sat down before him and, reaching to left and right, played an accompaniment. Caps listened to it as the Servants worked expertly to try to repair the damage to Beryl’s body. If she died, he thought, she would die with music in her ears. But perhaps the tune would calm her, call her back, remind her of the music of life, dissonance resolving into harmony if you could only hold on long enough.
10.6Ansalilia
11.1The Lion and the Lamb
In a forest clearing, Caps set a stone marker in place at the head of a large grave. The resting place of Juomes. A few meters away, there was another grave, human size. A young girl, perhaps fourteen years old, touched the stone. “She was the only parent I remember,” said the girl. “Father and mother both. I know she did awful things. I know she tried to kill you. All of that.” She lifted a tear-streaked face. “But she’s stopped doing bad things now. So it’s all right that I remember loving her, isn’t it?”
Beryl embraced her sister.
Decan, Elyseo, and several humans, jodphurs, hunter-beasts, and a monkey named Rend all stood around Juomes’s grave, each walking up in turn to touch the stone.
Caps — Font Prime — walked away to join the girls at Ansalilia’s grave. “There’s nothing wrong with missing someone that you love. I do, even though I lost her long before her body died, and never had a chance to mourn.”
Slowly, and after some hesitation, Beryl’s arm reached out to take Caps around the waist. They stood like that at the graveside for a long while. Then, with Beryl holding her sister by one hand and Caps by the other, they walked back among the children of humanity and the children of the Olm.
The people of Robota.
11.2Caps and Rend
FILM DEVELOPMENT
The next thirty-one pages showcases selected artwork that Doug Chiang created with a small team of film concept artists for a prospective feature film version of Robota. This collection of art is a small glimpse of a large volume of ongoing concepts being developed for the film. They expand upon and feature the main characters from the book and a striking array of new spacecrafts and exotic landscapes. Produced between 2004 and 2010, this is their first publication in any form.
COMIC DEVELOPMENT
The next twelve pages showcases selected artwork from a prospective comic book version of Robota. Working with accomplished comic artist Timothy Green II, Chiang expanded the Robota story further. These pages feature both color and black-and-white panels detailing the exploits of Beryl, the “Eyes of the Forest.” This is their first publication in any form.
ADDITIONAL ARTIST CREDITS
Thirteen years since the initial publication of Robota, the story and the world of Robota continue to expand. I would like to acknowledge and praise my friends and fellow artists for their generous contribution, incredible talent, and continued support and enthusiasm. The journey continues.
Thank you Mark Sullivan, David Hobbins, Eddie Del Rio, Darren Bacon, Nate Dollarhite, Mieke Hutchins, Kathryn Otoshi, Brian Flora, Brian Matyas, Marc Gabbana, Greg Knight, Pete Billington, Randy Gaul, Chris Stoski, Josh Viers, Colin Fix, Roel Robles, Kurt Kaufman, Robert Barnes, Colie Wertz, Emmanuel Shui, Brian Yam, Matt Gilson, Vladimir Todorov, Matt Ward, Matt Dougan, Kim Smith, John Duncan, Tony McVey, Aaron Becker, Landis Fields, and Timothy Green II.
Mark Sullivan
Pages 177, 181, 188-189, 194, 200, 201, 205, 206-207
David Hobbins
Pages 178-179, 180, 198-199
Eddie Del Rio
Pages 178, 184-185,
Darren Bacon
Page 179
Nate Dollarhite
Pages 180-181, 199
Brian Matyas
Pages 182, 183, 195, 198, 204, 205
Marc Gabbana
Page 184
Greg Knight
Pages 185
Randy Gaul
Pages 186, 187, 189,
Chris Stoski
Pages 190-191, 192-193
Brian Flora
Pages 195, 202-203
Emmanuel Shiu
Pages 196-197, 203, 204
Brian Yam
Page 202
Timothy Green II
Pages 209-220
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My deepest appreciation to all my friends who have generously supported and assisted me in realizing this dream. Special thanks to David Craig, Kathryn Otoshi, Tony McVey, Warren Fu, John Duncan, Kim Smith, Mike Murnane, John Goodson, Giles Hancock, Pam Statz, and Marc Hedlund.
And finally, thanks to my mom, dad, brother, and sister.
—Doug Chiang
Photography by Giles Hancock
DOUG CHIANG, the Academy Award-winning artist, author, and production designer, began his career as a stop motion animator on the TV series Pee Wee’s Playhouse. After attending UCLA Film School, he became a commercial TV Director for Rhythm and Hues, Robert Abel and Associates, and Digital Productions. As Creative Director for George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic, he served as Visual Effects Art Director on films such as Terminator 2, Ghost, The Mask, Forrest Gump, and Death Becomes Her. Chiang has earned numerous awards including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Clio Award for design excellence.
As an author he has written many books including Robota, his acclaimed illustrated novel that he created and co-wrote with Nebula and
Hugo-winning author Orson Scott Card. His latest book Mechanika, published in 2008, is in its second edition. Chiang’s artwork has been exhibited worldwide in the Brooklyn Museum, Chicago’s Field Museum, and the Kyoto and Tokyo National museums among others.
In 1995, George Lucas personally selected Chiang to serve as Head of the Lucasfilm art department for seven years on Star Wars: Episodes I and II. He left Lucasfilm in 2002 to form his own 35-person design studio, IceBlink Studios, and worked for Steven Spielberg on War of the Worlds.
In 2006, Chiang partnered with the Walt Disney Company and Robert Zemeckis to form ImageMovers Digital, a new film studio built on the foundation of IceBlink Studios. As Executive Vice President, Chiang grew the company to a core staff of more than 500 employees and oversaw its daily operations until 2011. Additionally, he served as Production Designer for Robert Zemeckis on The Polar Express, Beowulf, Disney’s A Christmas Carol, Mars Needs Moms, and The Yellow Submarine.
Chiang returned to Lucasfilm in 2013 to work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and currently serves as Lucasfilm’s Vice President and Executive Creative Director. With over twenty years of Star Wars design expertise, he oversees designs for all new Star Wars franchise developments including films, theme parks, games, and new media. Presently, he is also co-Production Designer on Star Wars: Rogue One.
Photography by Bob Henderson
ORSON SCOTT CARD is a preeminent sci-fi author with more than one hundred titles to his credit, including the beloved classic Ender’s Game and the national bestseller Ender’s Shadow, for which he won the Hugo and Nebula awards. In addition to science fiction, Card has written several plays and two books on the craft of writing and his works have been translated into many languages, including Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Spanish, and Swedish. He and his wife live in Greensboro, North Carolina and are the parents of five children.
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