Free Crash Flux 1: Welcome To The Machine by Kevin Battleson

the tip of the elevator shaft was a large cylindrical building.  The waste freight elevator opened at its base, and the passenger elevators ran up and down its sides.  There were platforms leading around the other side of the building where the entrance lay, but the Guards took shortcuts across the fencing to get there quicker.  A few people stumbled, turning white as they saw the long drop beneath them, through the fencing.  Raydin had to admit, it took some getting used to.
    The entrance was huge, and they joined the ranks of other passengers that had come up the elevators to the sides.  They all filed in to the main hall.  Before them, a huge mechanical statue stood before them, a woman with a serpentine lower body reaching the ground and wrapping around the pillar in a coil at its base.  Her face was attractive but hawkish, her hair wild.  She had six arms, each of them holding a blade, except her uppermost limbs, which held a long staff and a black orb, which displayed holographic images of an imaginary paradise.   The silver scales of her lower body met the metallic flesh of her muscular upper body, her chest thrust forward in pride, the curve of her breasts displayed, almost shamelessly, like a warrior-queen, standing over a fallen opponent.
    All around them, to the sides, curving up and around in a stacked spiral, were cylinders, half depressed inside the walls, creating a coil that seemed to climb through the ceiling and into the dark recesses of the darkened alcove above.  Platforms wound alongside the cylinders, giving technicians access as they opened the cylinders, drawing them out like compartments in a file cabinet, tinkering with their inner workings.  It was like being inside the center of a wound cable and looking up, the lack of lighting giving the illusion that the walls continued upwards, endlessly.
    The statue spoke.  “Welcome, my children.  You have been chosen.  Those who wish to continue onward to paradise, step forward, follow my servants’ instructions as they lay you in your final resting place, where you will leave your earthly vessel and ascend to heaven.  Those of you who feel you are not yet ready, step outside these walls and into purgatory, and when you feel the call strongly enough, passionately enough, to leave behind all sin and earthly desire, these doors will remain open for you.”  The upper arms gestured all around her in an arc, and the statue once again was silent.
    Raydin moved forward towards the head guard, looking to find some answers.  The guard behind him held him back.  “Not you.  The queen has requested an audience.”  He gestured to Raydin’s friends.  “The rest of you, make your choice.”
    Adon scratched his head, moving his hands in a crossed arc in front of him as if to signal, “no way,” and turned around.  Irule hesitated for a second, then followed him out the door.  Burk looked around, scratched his chin for a moment, considering.  He threw his arms up in the air, shrugged, and followed the few remaining stragglers out the door.  Those remaining inside where led into the cylindrical cells to the side of the wall, where the technicians began attaching cables, helmets, and other apparatus in preparation for their journey.
    Raydin was surprised when the guard unlocked his manacles.  He followed him to a small space behind the statue, which led to a concealed door.  The guard opened the door, and Raydin shuffled onto the elevator with him.  It opened into the Queens throne room.
    Faux curtains made of worked sheet metal prepared the room for an exotic sort of opulence, curving across solid steel pillars shaped like roman columns, much like an old theater or playhouse.  The plate murals across the wall told a different story, however, depicting the spider queen disposing of some horrific elder god.  Raydin followed the story, identical murals beside each wall, as she created a verdant paradise, lush gardens and elaborate temples