The old warrior glanced to either side, and then he slapped his forehead with his palm. “Blast! Those initiates have abandoned me. They’re no end of trouble. Nice to share a conversation with you . . .” He held out his hand.
“Nicholas Lyons,” I said, and I shook the man’s hand.
“Sir Nugan Uram,” he said. “I’m the senior Dax emissary to Ecoma. I wouldn’t mind knocking back a few brews with you Caledonian lot, but I think these initiates will keep me too busy. Speaking of, I better go after them.”
I nodded goodbye as the Star Spear left. As soon as he’d turned and walked away, I cracked my neck and then rolled my shoulders. I hadn’t realized how tense I’d been talking with the Dax warrior, but I was glad nothing bad had come of it.
The doctor wasn’t back yet, so I considered the translated words of the enforcer while I waited outside the building she’d entered. I wasn’t sure of the meaning of ‘ripest’, but I didn’t have much time to ponder it because Natali exited the skyscraper.
“All done!” she exclaimed. “I have organized a delivery of Ecomese medkits to the Stalwart. We should have more than enough for the next few missions. Has the tablet finalized the reading?”
I removed her device from my belt and noticed the red light had changed to green. The doctor snatched it out of my hands with eagerness before I could read the device.
The beautiful doctor’s eyebrows tightened, and her dark eyes narrowed in thought. “Peculiar. There are incredible power spikes in this city. I suppose it might be worth having a look at.”
“Could it be because the Ecomese store the energy from the atmosphere in their bodies like batteries?” I asked.
The doctor tilted her head at me, and a curious smile spread her lips. “How did you know that?”
“One of the prime minister’s guards told me the Ecomese humans absorb the storm’s energies outside the Ark. The higher the level, the more they soak up. Apparently, they explode if they take in too much.”
“Fascinating!” Dr. Lenkov’s eyes widened as she looked at her tablet. “Even so, this energy spike seems to be coming from a single location. I doubt the people are generating it.”
“Maybe it’s the energy globe?” I motioned to the giant ball of writhing blue sparks in the artificial sky.
“It could be. I wonder if we can take a closer look at the globe. I would like to know how it functions. Do you have time? I do not wish to keep you from your plans.”
“My only plan today was getting to know you better,” I said. Even though it was apparent Natali had only invited me on the errand to question me, I still wanted to flirt with her.
“Excellent!” The doctor placed her arm in mine. “Shall we?”
I smiled at Natali as she touched me. I was about to tell her about my experience with the Dax, but then I stopped myself. Why ruin a good thing? She didn’t need to know about it, and it would probably dampen an otherwise pleasant day.
We walked through the streets, and I was taken aback again by the lack of people. So many of the skyscrapers seemed deserted, and those with signs of life had most of their windows shuttered.
The doctor spoke to me about her childhood as a Rutheni, and how she’d transferred citizenship into the Caledonian Kingdom so she could attend medical school. The Rutheni’s strict rules dictated which social classes could enter higher institutions, and Natali had been able to contravene those social norms by becoming a Caledonian. It was only after her time in school that she learned to love and respect Queen Catrina, and it was her devotion to the crown that made her join the Stalwart.
I felt a little bad hearing this because I originally thought the crew members were insurrectionists. I hadn’t known then that they were unparalleled in their devotion to both the queen and her late father, King Justinian.
After my conversation with the doctor turned to more mundane things, I noticed all the Ecomese were either traveling toward or leaving from a domed building made entirely of a silver metal. Natali must have noticed, too, because she stopped walking.
I glanced at the artificial sky and realized we were almost directly beneath the ball of energy functioning like a sun. The doctor didn’t seem interested how the sun functioned anymore, since her eyes were fixed on the silver building.
“What do you think the building might be?” she asked.
“An important place,” I answered with a shrug.
Natali removed her tablet from her pocket. “There are strange readings coming from the direction of that building. An energy flux of some kind.”
“Want to check it out?” I asked.
“Yes!” The doctor jumped up and down like a little girl, but her breasts moved beneath her skin tight suit hypnotically. I was surprised by the sudden excited outburst, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. Natali regained composure and then grabbed my arm again.
My armor prevented me from truly feeling her touch, but I imagined for a moment what it might be like to have her soft skin slide against my own. In a blink of an eye, my mind conjured a scene of the doctor leading me back to her quarters and to her bed.
All I cared about now was the lovely woman whose arm was wrapped around mine. The only Rutheni I’d met before were the knights and soldiers I’d fought on Tachion, so I didn’t know whether this kind of physical contact was indicative of attraction or something else.
I hoped it was attraction. At least I would feel less awkward about my thoughts if I knew the doctor was interested in me. I was glad there weren’t any Ecomese close to us because they would have known my incredible desire for her instantly.
We arrived outside the silver building, and the light from the energy sun bounced off its many sides in an array of colors. Ecomese people wearing orange hazmat suits entered the building through two giant doors.
“Yes,” Natali said as she looked at her tablet. “The energy flux is definitely coming from this building. The readings are incredibly high. I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”
“I think we should go inside,” I said, and the doctor squeezed my arm with joy.
Rainbows danced over the domed rooftop as the doctor and I approached two sentries stationed on either side of the building’s giant entrance doors.
“I am Dr. Natali Lenkov of the RTF Stalwart,” she said, and the sentries either didn’t recognize the ship’s name or they didn’t care. The reaction was strange since the enforcer leader had treated me with reverence. “This is Squire Nicholas Lyons.”
The guards looked me up and down, and I saw their grips on their staves tighten a little. I wasn’t surprised by their reaction since I was equipped with full armor and my longsword was attached to my back.
“You may not enter,” the left sentry said.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why is everyone coming and going from this building? The doctor here is getting strange energy readings.”
“No entry to non-Ecomese,” the right sentry barked. “Our prime minister has spoken. If you continue to bother us, we’ll have you escorted back to your ship.”
Dr. Lenkov’s lips tightened into a frown. “Your prime minister has granted us access to the entirety of the Ark.” I could tell she wasn’t used to being refused, and her skin blossomed with anger.
“Not inside here,” the left sentry said, and he lifted his head to look past us. Both men resumed their stations and acted as though we weren’t there.
The doctor scowled at the man before walking in the direction we’d come. I stared at the guard for a second, wondering why they were so determined to not let us inside. The order must have come from higher up, but why? What were they hiding?
I caught up to Natali, and she shook her head in fury. I thought about offering her some consolation but decided against it because I’d never seen her so angry. When we were on the other side of the street, she stopped to stare up at the domed building. The reflection painted rainbows over her helmet and suit. No words came out of her mouth, but her mind was clearly ticking
.
“Why do you think we’re forbidden to enter?” I asked after she had seemed to have calmed down. “I guess it could be something reasonable, like safety. But I have this weird feeling about that building.”
“Do you suspect something amiss?” she said as she stared into my eyes.
“There’s definitely something peculiar about this city, and I don’t think I’m being paranoid.”
Natali gazed longingly at the shiny artifice. “I would like to see what those sentries are so concerned about us seeing.”
If I could see a video feed of an area inside the building, I could use my mutant ability. Without an accurate mental image of the location I wanted to teleport to, I might inadvertently transport the doctor and I into solid matter. I wasn’t certain that would happen, but it was too great a risk just to please Natali.
But maybe I wouldn’t have to teleport.
“Why don’t we see if there’s another way inside?” I doubted we’d find one, but I still wanted to impress the doctor.
“I’m not sure it’s wise to do that, Nick,” she said.
“Come on, it’ll be fun,” I said. I normally obeyed all the rules, but the beautiful Rutheni woman’s allure made me disregard the tendency. She wanted to see the inside of the building, and I wanted to impress her.
Natali exhaled. “I don’t see the harm in having a look, I suppose.” I walked down the stairs, but not before seeing a slight smile on the doctor’s face.
We crossed the road and skirted around the guarded front entrance so we would keep out of the sentries’ line of sight. There was a small alley which looked like it headed back toward the mysterious building, and we walked down it until it curved around to the rear end of the silver structure. Giant robots and containers filled with minerals surrounded a small doorway with signs plastered above it. The area looked like it was midway through construction, but there were no workers, and the project appeared to have been abandoned some time ago.
There was a guardhouse beside it with single sentry sitting behind the glass. I gave the man a wave and a friendly smile.
“What are you doing, Nick?” Dr. Lenkov hissed at me. “He’s not going to let us inside.”
“Trust me,” I whispered back to her.
I’d already formulated a plan, but I wasn’t sure it would work. Still, I didn’t let my doubts show. Confidence was everything.
“We need help,” I said into the microphone on the outside of the guardhouse. I kept my distance from the empath since I didn’t want him reading my emotions. I wasn’t sure the range of his powers, but I figured a metal wall, reinforced glass, and a good three meters would be sufficient.
“You’re Caledonian,” he said with a thick accent. “Nothing for you to see here. If you need assistance, see the empath assigned to you.”
“There’s been a fight with the Dax!” I yelled with false desperation.
The sentry’s eyes bulged, and he shot to his feet. “Excuse me?”
“Yeah, a bunch of kids threw rotten fruit at the Dax Star Spear. I think it was Sir Nugan Uram. He seemed like a pretty big deal. The Star Spear’s initiates got involved, and then a brawl started inside one of the buildings.”
I embellished the story a little, but the sentry seemed terrified, and I figured I’d just given him the shock of his life.
“When?” the Ecomese sentry asked.
“Only a few minutes ago. I didn’t really know who to tell, so I came here.”
“Which building?”
“I don’t remember the exact one. It was really big.” I almost laughed to myself at the vagueness, and I could see the doctor tilt her head at me in confusion.
The man spoke into his radio device, and there were a few tense minutes while he exchanged words with the person on the other end.
“The enforcers said there was trouble between the Dax and some teenagers earlier today, so it must have become worse,” the sentry said to me after the call finished. “Those Dax could really do some damage. The enforcers will need all the help they can get if there’s a riot.”
The sentry turned his head, and I could see him looking at a spear resting on the wall behind him. He sighed, grabbed the weapon, then exited the guardhouse. He didn’t even spare us a second glance as he moved toward the location I’d provided him.
“Impressive, Nick,” Natali said. “You are quite the talker.”
“Talking isn’t all my tongue is good for.” As soon as the words left my lips, I slammed my mouth shut. My heart raced while my face reddened in embarrassment. Had I really said that? I was forward with the doctor because I didn’t think I stood a chance with her. She didn’t seem to mind though, and she slapped my arm.
“Very funny,” she said. “But what do we do now?”
“The sentry will be back as soon as the enforcers realize nothing is going on inside the skyscraper. I don’t know what their surveillance is like so it could be any second now.”
I peered into the guardhouse window and saw a few yellow hazmat suits hanging from a clothes rack. They were identical to the suits worn by the technicians I’d seen entering the building earlier. If the doctor and I were wearing them, we could walk through the facility without anyone bothering us. The empaths might be able to read our emotions, but I figured Natali would be satisfied with a little peek inside the plant so we wouldn’t have to stay long.
I checked for anyone in the area, but we were alone. I couldn’t see any cameras either, so I rushed over to the gatehouse entrance. Before I opened the door, I turned to the doctor with my arm held out. “Ladies first.”
“I shouldn’t,” Natali said. “I am the Stalwart’s senior medical officer. If I’m caught--”
I opened the guardhouse door and urged the doctor in by waving my hand. She reluctantly entered, but I could see a little smile spread her lips. I followed after her, and she stopped at a monitor screen showing a layout of the building. It was much larger than it appeared from the outside, and the passageways extended beneath the surface of this level.
“It’s a power plant,” Natali said with a hint of disappointment.
“That explains the energy readings,” I said.
She pulled out her tablet, glanced at it, and then back at the monitor. “Maybe not. These spikes are highly unusual. Not the sort you would see at a plant harvesting storm energy.”
“So you still want to go inside?”
“Certainly!” The beautiful doctor spun toward me, and I gave her a grin.
“Great,” I said as I removed a small-sized hazmat suit from the rack. “Will this fit you?”
“I’m already wearing a containment suit,” she said.
“This one will keep the Ecomese from noticing that you’re not one of them,” I said.
“Very smart, Nick.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Now try it on.”
Natali took the hazmat suit from me, held it against her body, and then she smiled broadly. “Nicholas Lyons, I cannot believe what I am about to do,” the doctor said as she slipped the hazmat suit over her skin tight containment suit. I almost wished she would have needed to remove her outer layer before donning the new garment, but I figured this wasn’t the place.
Maybe another time.
I found the largest suit and tried to put it on over my armor. Even with the doctor’s assistance, I couldn’t get it above my waist because of my bulky equipment.
“Damn,” I said as I stepped out from the hazmat suit’s legs. I considered removing my armor, but that thought lasted a millisecond. My equipment was too valuable to me to leave behind, and I might even need it inside the plant.
Tachion had taught me to always be prepared for trouble, even in the unlikeliest of places.
I double-checked the sizes of the other suits, but they were all too small. I glanced outside the window and didn’t see any sign of the sentry who’d left. He could return at any minute, and I was almost ready to give up and quit trying to impress the doctor.
“
Maybe we could use this?” Natali gestured at a three-meter-long trolley with a canvas tarp covering it. “You could lie on the lower shelf,” she suggested with a shrug.
I grinned at her, and exhilaration jolted through my body. I couldn’t believe what I was doing, but before I could even consider the consequences, I was sitting inside the trolley with my legs hugged to my chest.
“You gonna push me inside, Doctor?” I asked.
“Yes, that sounds like fun.” She gripped the trolley’s handle and then bit her lip. I couldn’t tell whether her words carried a hidden meaning, but the thought that she might have just made a pass at me made me grin.
Soon, I was moving as the doctor pushed the trolley out from the guardhouse and through the narrow doorway. While we were inside the facility, I kept the canvas layered around me shut tight so I wouldn’t be seen. It meant I couldn’t look at the surroundings, but I preferred blindness to getting caught. Our pace didn’t let up, and I was thankful none of the Ecomese noticed the two emotional readings coming from the single person hauling the trolley.
We stopped suddenly, and Natali lifted the canvas. I crept outside and stretched. We’d stopped on a narrow catwalk, and I turned to see Natali staring down at the chamber fifty feet beneath us.
“Gods!” Natali covered her gaping mouth with her hand.
When I saw what she was looking at, my heart seized in my chest. Below us were at least a thousand naked Ecomese males and females arrayed in rows of ten. I didn’t know how their aging process worked exactly, but they appeared to be in prime health. Every one of them stood within a rune circle while the magic around them glowed faintly and their torsos blared with a bright blue light. At least a dozen rune circles bore degenerated sigils, and there were no Ecomese people standing inside them.
A woman four rows down and two columns to my right suddenly screamed. Her entire body flared like a nova, and then she exploded. Her atoms disintegrated, and the rune circle flickered before glowing too brightly for me to look at. Lines in the ground illuminated from the now empty rune circle and traveled to a giant runic battery at the far end of the chamber.
We had found the source of the Den Ark’s power.
Space Knight Book 2 Page 8
