Sam walks away, and starts walking over to different makeshift trauma pads to check on her Knights. Each were placed into different colored sections. She walked into the red section first, kneeling at each persons side before moving onto the next. Tyler slowly walks over to Vernon.
Vernon says, “You alright?”
“I should be asking you that.”
“Yea, I’m alive, and I shouldn’t be.
“Got that right princess.” Vick says walking around from the side of the ambulance.
“You saved me.”
“I did, but from the looks of it, it would have gone bad either way.”
Tyler says, “You should be more careful you know that.”
Vernon says, “I know.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
Vick gasps, “Why Commander, I never knew you cared.”
“I really think you should.”
Vick changes his tone from playful one he had been using. “I’m serious Commander, you should probably take the fresh meat here, and send it back. It ain’t ready.”
“That’s for me to decide Vick, just stay out of it. You need to focus on Sam don’t you?”
Vick doesn’t respond, just turns to look at her in the trauma area, and nods.
“Alright Vernon, let’s get out of here.”
Tyler had his own car, not one of the public vehicles like Vernon was always using. The seats were a lot more comfortable too, which was exactly what he needed right then. He hadn’t received a call from Marie yet, which meant she either didn’t know, or knew he was ok. For now at least.
The car ride was quiet. Vernon knew that wasn’t a good thing, but didn’t want to get into it. He knew he was wrong, and the silence was the punishment. No need for reflection when he was already doing it to himself. When his commander gives an order, he should follow it. Normally a new recruit would have been the ranking officer there, and he would only have his instincts to rely on.
They failed him.
Mask had mentioned something about the cruise he was just on, and then Tyler knew about it. Vernon wanted to ask questions but knew he wasn’t going to get them.
“So what would you have done differently?” Tyler says.
Vernon wasn’t expecting for them to be speaking at all. “Uhh…”
“Spit it out rookie.”
That stung Vernon. “I should have listened to my commanding officer.”
“That’s not what I was talking about. What would you have done in that situation had I not been there?”
“Oh. If I would have spotted top tier targets like that, and knew that people might get hurt. I would call off the raid.”
“So you would let them go?”
“No, I would call off the raid. The Knights would have been little more than a stain on the wall if they ran in. They would also get in the way, if I stood any chance, which I don’t think I would have.”
“You’re wrong. Your light would have put you on equal footing, but since you still don’t know how to use it that well. It looked like you were in pain when using it earlier?”
“That’s a nice way of putting it.”
“So your body is reaching its limits?”
“Maybe, Rajini told me that it’s possible to increase the length and amount I use by pushing myself.”
“He’s a smart old coot.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that.”
Tyler laughs.
The rest of the ride was in silence. He got into the elevator when he got home, It fought every bit of himself to do it, but he got in anyway. It had been a long day, and to hell with what Rajini might say to him. Since he isn’t there, he couldn’t reprimand him anyway.
He walks into the apartment, and everything is quiet. Lights are turned off, and Marie is nowhere to be seen. He finds her in bed sound asleep, and lets out a sigh of relief. She seemed to be just fine snoring like a broken Mag-drive. Vernon walks into the bathroom, and starts the shower hoping to wash the day off down the drain. He slides into bed, which feels like a warm cloud hugging him, and he falls to sleep.
There was a mixture of explosions, people panicking, and drigh running all over his dreams. There is a girl on a green hill in the middle of all the commotion. Blue hair waving in the wind. She’s standing under a solitary tree, full of green leaves. He sees the back of her head, and she pulls her hair over her shoulder. The back of her shirt had two slits, and pale skin shone through. Even from behind, she looked familiar. She turns around, and all he can see is a smile, mouthing the words.
Time to wake up.
Two cold noses against Vernon’s thigh wakes him up with a jolt. He flies out of bed, and into the wall, slamming his knee into it.
“Ow.” He protests.
Ignis and Blu at standing at his feet, both smiling up at him.
“Right. Dragons, how could I forget. Good morning you two.”
“Morning.” They say in unison.
Vernon freezes, Gon said something about this, but he didn’t realize it was going to be that quick. “So you can talk now?”
Ignis answers in a deep male voice, “Yes, small.”
“I got ya. So you two understand me, just can’t answer me fully yet.”
Blu answers with a soft female voice and a smile, “Yes.”
Vernon looks around for Marie, but she was already gone. She had left him a message on the fridge. It was a hologram message of her saying I love you, and she had to go into work early. Ignis and Blu both looked at Vernon, and he didn’t know what to do with them. Marie had bought them food, and there was a couple of bowls of water laid out for them. She wouldn’t have setup everything up like that if she expected him to bring them along with him for the day. He shrugs.
“You two think you’ll be ok for a few hours? I will come check on you around lunch time.”
Blu answers, “Yes. Mama take care us.”
Ignis agrees, “Yes, Mama.”
“Alright, well I’m going to get ready and head out.”
Ignis and Blu rub up against Vernon as he leaves. He pets them both, and tells them he won’t be long, but he really doesn’t know how long he’s going to be. He wonders what is going to happen when he gets to Dragon today. He calls up his car and heads out.
The door is shut, and no one is waiting for him today. This would be the first time he enters alone. He swipes his HaLO, and the door unlocks sliding open. He can see the glowing runes at the tips of each of the beams that slide into the wall, each glowing a different shade of purple. Walking through the scanner shows his name as Baxter again, which reminds him he’ll need to talk to someone about that. The rec room was empty, the displays were showing off sports and professional MMA. Vernon goes looking for Rhys in his office. He’s sitting at his table, arms behind his head. Vernon knocks on the door.
“Come in rookie.”
Vernon opens the door, “How’d you know it was me?”
“It could only be you, everyone else is out on assignment.”
“Oh.”
“So about yesterday. Are you trying to make my life difficult, because it sure seems that way?”
“No, I’m not. I don’t know what happened, and I should have listened…”
“Your damn right you should have listened. When a commanding officer gives you an order you follow it. You are not in a position to where you can make your own decisions. You have to earn that, and you have to make up some ground to get there now.”
“I’m sorry sir. The Mask said something about the cruise I went on a few weeks ago, about something that happened on it. As far as I know, nothing happened on it.”
“Above your pay-grade, you were ordered to do recon. You give that information to a superior as part of your report. Personal or no. Understand?”
“Yes sir, understood. Won’t happen again.”
“It better not… Now since we got that out of the way. I need you to take yourself down to Mech squad and have your data scrubbed for any clues you might
have missed last night.”
“Scrubbed?”
“Yea, they are going to take all your visual data stored in your memories from last night. There is a forty eight hour window before things start to get lost. It isn’t painful, it’s just a download. Just takes a while depending on how much is needed.”
“Is that new?”
“To a civ it would be, but we’ve been using it for years. The HaLO’s record things, kind of. Look just go down to Mech, and talk with Mark Holt, tell him I sent you. Oh and let me pass you that requisition order Presley made out for you.”
Vernon receives the order, and it goes into his digital wallet. “Thanks.”
“You impressed Presley, and myself you know that?”
“I did?”
“Yea, with what you did in that cave, anyone on dragon that would know about it would be. It’s a classified mission now, so we can’t talk about it with anyone.”
“What happened?”
“Classified, just know you’re good.”
“Then I guess I out.”
Vernon heads back to his apartment, there was a duffle bag with the materials for the blade he wanted made from Mark Holt, since he was headed there anyway. Ignis and Blu were very happy to see him back so soon, but didn’t like that he had to leave so quickly. He looks into the bag, at the tusk and crystals. He still can’t believe that happened yesterday, but he is surrounded by evidence of it. Thinking too long on the subject would just make his head hurt, so he tells the dragons bye, and heads out again.
Mech squad was in the center of the New Atlantis, across the street from the main Paladin headquarters. Vernon followed the directions he received and stood outside the building. Again there wasn’t anything that was pointing it out as a military site. Vernon walks into the building, and there is a receptionist there. She smiles at him.
“Good morning sir, how may I help you?”
“I’m looking for Mark Holt. This is Mech Squad’s building right?”
She looked scared as he mentioned Mark Holt’s name. “Yes, this is Mech. You are?”
“Vernon Douglas, Dragon.”
“Oh, we’re expecting you, but they were going to have you talk to Marie Ziechang.”
“To my wife? She ok?”
“Your wife? I didn’t know that.”
“I would love to see her sure, but I got orders to talk to Mark, and I have a requisition order for him.”
“I… He doesn’t want to be disturbed today.”
“I’ll take my chances, I’m not going to disobey my lieutenants orders.”
“Then let me call up your wife to lead you in.”
Vernon stands there for a few minutes before Marie shows up. She had a happy yet puzzled look on her face.
“Vernon, what are you doing here?” Marie asks.
“Orders, and I’m going to ask for some equipment be made for me.”
“Oh, well if I would have known, I would have woke you up.”
“I didn’t know, so it’s ok. So this is where you work?”
“Yea, nice right?”
“It is. Upscale without being uptight.”
“I was going to say pretty, but I guess that works.”
“I need to talk to Mark Holt, he’s your boss right?”
“Why do you need to talk to him? …Wait, orders right?”
“You got it.”
“Alright, follow me. I’ll show you my work station too, it’s on the way.”
Vernon follow Marie into the back. Once they get past the first set of regular doors, with the nice décor, security increased heavily. Two large men stand next to a runic scanner, and eye Vernon as he walks up. Vernon waves at them, and sending over his Paladin authorization. They nod, opening a large and thick security door. There are three more check points that all happen in the same manor, before they get into the workshop.
Walking through the last door, opens into a hallway large enough to be the garage back at Dragon. On either side he can see different experiments going on. A man gets into a mechanical suit, fully covering his body, and he watches as little lights start turning on over the suit. Marie looks at Vernon with a smile on her face, and he smiles back. Vernon had always liked technology, and the robotic suit was something that was pretty cool he hadn’t seen before, outside of movies anyway.
The humanoid looking suit picks up two tons of weight with little strain, but the power goes out in the suit before it was able to put it back down. The researcher shakes his head, and scribbles some things in mid-air on his personal notepad in his overlay. Marie giggles, and he waves at her. They exchange a few words about their projects, and introduces Vernon to him.
They move on towards her workstation, passing by a few weapons testing rooms, and he got introduced to a few more people. They stood in front of her workstation. It had more greenery than any other had. Marie was always one with a green thumb, and loved plants. There were shrubs, flowers, and a tiny tree sprouting up in a large pot. On the actual workstation was a medley of tools and parts. Vernon could make out a few of them, but the rest was lost on him. He did clearly recognize the modified folding blade. Marie was working on armor that would not take up space, and deploy when needed or on command. It was based on the folding technology, where metal was condensed with tiny actuators and then moved into a shape of what they were trying to make. The only successful ones out there were the folding blade, and other pedestrian things like boxes, tables, and chairs. Not many people focused on defense, with the absents of wars or even the fear of one, it’s all about stronger, better, faster.
“So this is it, my work station. What do you think?”
“Exactly what I thought it would look like.”
“Oh yea?”
“Yea, it smells just like the garden back at your parent’s house.”
Marie smiles, “That’s what I was going for, and look, I ever got daddy to give me a magi fruit seed. It seems to be growing pretty well too.” She points over to the sprout.
“Wow, he doesn’t let any of those go easily right?”
“I am his little princess after all.”
“You just asked for and he just gave it to you?”
“The power of being an only child, and having your father wrapped around your finger.”
“Yikes, and don’t think you’ll do the same to me.”
She says in a sassy voice. “I already have.”
“Riiight, anyway, where is your boss at?”
She punches him lightly in the stomach, and makes a hmph noise, then walks toward a door toward the back of the hallway. There was no windows that showed into the next room. There was, however, signs all over the door and surrounding walls that said do not enter. Vernon got the distinct feeling he didn’t want to be disturbed. He looks at Marie, and then back to the door.
“Anything I should know before I go in there?”
“Be ready to duck.”
11
Vernon opens the door with the myriad of warnings across it, and slowly walks in. He can see a few half built humanoid robots throughout the workspace. There is a large clump of parts on a table, and he can smell something like oil and burning magic. The smell burns his nose.
A hopeful voice in the back cries out, “Yes, yes, yes. Work for me baby, come one work for me…”
A humming noise fills the air. There is a pressure which Vernon is familiar with. It feels like someone readying a spell to be cast.
The man’s voice starts panicking, “No… No, no, no, no, no. Don’t do this, work damn it work.”
An explosion fills the room with smoke.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it. Damn them for giving me this second rate used up piece of shit crystal. If they would just give me a new one. Damn it. Them and their rules and wait lists.”
Vernon walks around the corner, waving smoke away from his face. “Mark Holt, sir, is that you?”
“Who the hell are you? Can’t you read? No of course you can’t because you’re standing the
re and asking me stupid questions like if I’m who I am. Who’s workshop did you just walk into you ignoramus.”
“Sorry, you’re right that was a stupid question. I have orders from Rhys in dragon to come see you and get scrubbed for information from a raid last night.”
“Oh. So you’re the idiot. Well that makes since.”
Vernon bites back his wiseass comment he was about to make, and replies, “Yes sir, that was me.”
Mark leans his head back, “Hmmm, not entirely stupid I see. I would have another of my people do this, but Tyler made the request for me to do it myself. He doesn’t ask me to do much, and lets me run things the way I like it. Good man, so I figured his request was sound. Didn’t expect you to be you though. He made you sound… Bigger.”
“Only good things I hope.”
“Good enough? What’s in the bag, don’t see many people carrying around things around here without a reason?”
“This is something I have a request for. It’s a drigh tusk, off a roller.”
“Oh!” Mark’s voice peaks. “Do tell what you want me to do with that.”
“I’m not sure how much Tyler has told you about me, but I would like this made into a weapon. It would help me focus my spells better.”
Mark nods. “It usually does the opposite, but he’s told me about your case. Him and Rajini came to me about a year ago. Haven’t been able to do much with the data they sent me, but since you’re here I can take a couple of samples along with everything else. It might help me figure things out better.”
“Sure, sounds good. Oh, and I have two of these.” Vernon pulls out the crystals. “I was going to keep the smaller one, but you can have the big one.”
Marks eyes light up, and mouth gapes open. “How did you… No don’t tell me, I don’t want to know. That is exactly what I need, thank you. Tyler does always know me, I will have to thank him later.”
“So how long does the weapon take to make, I was thinking of getting a sword made.”
“What. No. You can’t just tell me what you want made.”
“Why’s that? Isn’t that how this all works. I ask for something and you make it.”
“Well yes, that is how it works, but I do it with a twist. No one has complained yet, that’s lived anyway.”
Cypher Theorem Series Box Set: Books 1-3, The Zero Class, Shadow Moon, Dragon Fire: A Science Fiction Fantasy Page 46
