Colonel Jeshrop walked over to the call tubes and opened the one leading to the prism stream room. “Commander Hallaust, I want you to signal...” He was cut short by a blast of green gas that caught him square in the face.
He stepped backwards, fighting to stay on his feet, his hands clutching at his throat. “Seal all the tubes,” he coughed. I want this room secure!”
Private Hoferlum coughed and collapsed in his chair.
* * *
In the holding cell, Captain Luvrouck looked on anxiously as the wall of green gas came in and pressed up against the void barrier.
The guard from the hallway stumbled in, his face slamming against the barrier, then sliding down slowly as he collapsed to the floor.
Doctor Yundreck shook his head as he worked. “Immune to pain and torture, but not sleep spells.”
“Let’s just hope this thing is as airtight as they said it is,” Captain Luvrouck fretted.
“Almost done here,” Doctor Yundreck announced as he assembled the seemingly random pile of items into a strange device. Even the dead mice had a place, stuffed inside a glass beaker and attached to the top of what looked increasingly like some sort of helmet.
Ensign Doudmuki busied herself by trying to find as sultry a pose as possible. She bent forward, placing one hand on her knee, while biting on her fingernail and looking back. “Hey Mina, how come you never pose like this?” she teased.
“Because I am a lady,” First-mate Fitdron retorted.
“No, no, see, you're doing it wrong,” Left-tenant Brusuni corrected. “If you really want the guys to drool, you wanna drop something.”
“Drop something?”
“Yeah, then you can bend over to pick it up. Here, try it.”
Left-tenant Brusuni took off her Navy cap and tossed it on the floor. Ensign Doudmuki shrugged and bent over to scoop it up.
“No, go slower, and bend at the hips, not at the back. The point is to show off your backside. Here, I'll show you.”
Left-tenant Brusuni slowly bent over to pick up the hat, while Ensign Holibo looked on in confusion, tilting her head to one side. “Does that really work on men?”
First-mate Fitdron looked up and realized that none of the men were working. They all had their eyes fixated on Brusuni’s backside. She smacked Doctor Yundreck on the head. “Stop drooling and get back to work.” She then pointed a finger at Captain Luvrouck. “And you are going to pay for this when we get back home.”
Ensign Holibo pulled out a notebook and began writing. “Bend at the hips, very effective.”
Ensign Doudmuki tossed down the hat again and tried to recreate the pose herself.
“Ryin, I said knock it off!”
The illusion spell around Doctor Yundreck wore off and evaporated, leaving Dr. Griffin in its place. “All ready,” he announced as he lifted up the strange device.
“Better hurry, lad,” Captain Luvrouck said as he turned back into Captain Evere. “Looks like our disguises just expired.”
Left-tenant Brusuni dissolved into Setsuna as the device was placed on her head. She readied herself and placed a spacer in her mouth to prevent her from biting her own tongue. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Dr. Griffin pulled out a long cable from the device and flicked the needle at the end. “You may feel some pressure.”
Setsuna grabbed his arm. “Pressure, what do you mean pressure?”
Dr. Griffin patted her hand reassuringly. “Oh, that’s just what we doctors say when we mean pain.”
Setsuna’s green eyes grew large. “Hold on, pain? We never talked about...”
Dr. Griffin jammed the needle into an observer in the wall. Setsuna’s head was thrown back back sharply and she screamed, green light pouring out of her eyes.
* * *
In the command room, Colonel Jeshrop grabbed onto his command chair, forcing himself to stay upright. Corporal Brousterlum coughed one final time and then slumped over. There was a rush of energy that passed through the room and all of the wall tiles went blank. When the tiles awoke again, they all displayed the same identical image. It was a crudely drawn chalk image of Ishi, the Stonemasters’ god, chained to a table and being paddled on the back of the head by an old bald man with a grey ponytail.
“Wha...what the frak is this?”
* * *
Back in the cell, Setsuna was frantic. Her entire frame trembled with pain.
“Take this flabbin’ thing off!” She insisted.
“Don’t worry the pressure will subside...eventually.”
“I said take it off, old man!” she yelped, grabbing at the strap under her chin.
“We can’t take it off,” Mina warned. “We take it off, we all stay in here for a very very long time.”
That seemed to calm Setsuna down a little.
“Remember the plan,” Captain Evere focused. “We need you to project a gate through the observers.”
“But it feels like there are a million needles in my head,” Setsuna whimpered.
“Oh, here, this should help,” Dr. Griffin said, placing a dead mouse in each of her hands. “These will let you choose which observer to project through.”
Setsuna unsquinted her eyes and realized that she was holding two dead mice. She squeaked in fright and dropped them to the ground.
Mina slapped Dr. Griffing on the back of the head. “How is that helping?!”
* * *
Outside the reserves, Guild Master Anak didn’t wait for the boarding plank to drop. Instead, he simply leapt the distance between his ship and the stricken Navy Destroyer. Green blasts of magic washed over the deck, fired by passing ships from the Elictr Guild. The men and women of the Navy abandoned their guns and fell to the deck, screaming in horror. Anak squared off against the ship’s captain, who had impressively managed to stay on her feet. When the woman swing her saber, Anak didn’t even bother to dodge it, instead he just caught the blade in his hand and yanked, pulling her forward and off balance. He brought his knee up, catching her right in the gut. She folded forward in agony. Without pause, he then slammed the back of her head with his feathered elbow, knocking her to the ground. A quick stomp of his clawed food drove her face into the deck and rendered her insensible. As Anak sighed with boredom, the rest of his crew boarded, injecting each of the sailors with a special brew that would make sure they slept for the next couple of days.
“Please tell me that was the last of them,” Anak requested.
“Aye, sir, every last Navy ship is taking a nice little nap,” announced first mate Kutra, licking his beak hungrily.
“Good, set course and loose sail, I want our ship to be first in line once the gate to the vault has been opened.”
Kutra tilted his head in confusion. “But sir, our position in line is...”
To emphasize his point, Anak looked him square in the eye turned and ground his foot deeper, cracking the bones of the fallen captain beneath him.
“Aye sir.”
Unnoticed by either of them, a dark figure hid himself inside a pile of cordage.
* * *
Back in the holding cell, Setsuna whimpered like a little girl. “I’m going to get you for this, Doc,” she threatened as she twisted the dead mice in her hands.
“You'd be surprised how often I hear that,” Dr. Griffin revealed as he made adjustments to the helmet she was wearing.
“No, I’m serious, I’m going to wait until you are asleep, and then I'll make a tiny gate inside your abdomen and gate out your internal organs.”
Dr. Griffin stopped working and thought for a moment. “Okay, that one I haven’t heard.”
“Times a wastin’ lass,” Captain Evere warned, looking concerned.
“Keep your breeches on pops, I've found the first counterweight release, I’m just looking for the one on the far side,” Setsuna grumbled as she slid the mouse back and forth with her hand, clearly fighting the urge to drop it.
“His name is not Pops,” Alder corrected. “His name is Evere. Pops i
s the janitor.”
“All you people look the same to me,” Setsuna spat.
Hanner scratched his head. “Whatever happened to Pops anyway?”
Captain Evere and Mina looked at each other in horror. “We forgot Pops!”
* * *
An hundred leagues away, on a small deserted island, Pops the janitor sat dejectedly in the prairie grass next to Deutzia and Sumac.
“I wish they had left me some water,” Pops mentioned as he gripped his mop. Deutzia shimmered sympathetically.
A prairie dog scampered by and paused to look at them curiously.
* * *
Back in the cell, Setsuna jumped up and down happily, her large green pigtails bobbing about. “I found it! I found the second door release.”
Just as they had practiced, Ryin and Hanner stood before her, arms ready.
“Gotta’ close ‘em quick before the helmet overloads,” Dr. Griffin warned.
“But not too fast, I don’t want to close the gates on them and chop their arms off,” Setsuna chided.
Ryin and Hanner chuckled. “She’s kidding, right?” Ryin asked, growing concerned.
“Um, yeah, totally just teasing,” Setsuna said, faking a smile.
There was a flash of light from the helmet, and then two wobbly, flickering gates appeared in the air, each of them revealing a large lever on the other side. Ryin and Hanner reached through and pulled back with all their might. The levers clicked back into position, and the helmet exploded with a crack of smoke. Setsuna was thrown back against the wall of the cell, and her gates snapped shut, slicing off the levers just below the handles.
* * *
Inside the dry dock, the inner door chimed loudly and slowly slid open, revealing the special void barrier beyond. Dozens of unconscious Heshi’sians lay motionless around the dock as the tithe ship drifted forward. The ship gave off a fizzing noise as it passed through the barrier, the dark magic coating every inch, inside and out.
Slowly, the illusion spell on the ship was stripped away, and the tithe ship was revealed to be the black form of the Dreadnaught. The ship came to a rest beyond the barrier, next to a final dock before the descent into the caves.
Lined up on the deck were crates of gold taries, each one run through with a blade. None of them moved.
Next to the crates stood a carved dragon statue. From within it came a tiny kicking noise. The jaw of the dragon broke away and Bunni Bubbles hopped out, dressed in tight black robes and a matching cowl. She looked around to make sure that the coast was clear, then scampered up onto the final crate. “Time to go, Athi,” Bunni, urged, stomping her foot on the crate beneath her. When there was no response, she walked over to the edge of the crate and looked over the side. Seeing the puncture wound where the sword had run through, she brought her little hands up to her face. “Oh no!” she gasped.
There was a powerful crack, and the side of the dragon statue fell away, revealing a square hollow where Athel had been hidden.
Athel rolled out, wearing a cloth mask around her face. Letting out an anguished moan, she fell clumsily to the deck, stretching out her leg awkwardly and attempting to massage the cramped muscles.
“...such a mess,” Bunni complained, hopping down and picking up some of the spilled coins from the puncture in the crate.
“Bunni, stop that,” Athel said as she blundered to her feet and grabbed her backside with one hand. “Ahh, my butt fell asleep too. It’s time to move to Phase three, are you ready?”
Bunni took out a tiny black sash and tied it across her face, covering everything except her big doll eyes. “I was born ready.”
“That’s the spirit.”
They parted ways, Athel quietly slid down into the tunnel, while Bunni ran across the dock and up to a square opening, barely larger than a fist, near the mountain floor. Bunni shimmied inside and squeezed her way farther into the passage. After about twenty feet, she reached a junction. She was now looking over the edge of a vertical shaft that extended down for miles, drawing up heat from deep magma pools to heat the facility. Her eyes became wide and she squeaked with fright.
* * *
Back in the holding cell, everyone sat patiently waiting, while Dr. Griffin attended to Setsuna’s burns.
“I can’t believe we're relying on a girls dress up toy to bust us out of here,” Ryin complained.
* * *
Back in the passage, Bunni pulled out a tiny pair of pink daggers and plunged them into the rockface. Hand over hand, step over step, she slowly started climbing her way up the vertical shaft.
* * *
In the holding cell, Alder stopped unpacking and looked up at Ryin. “You'd be surprised what a few thousand taries will buy you in golem upgrades,” he defended.
“Seems like a wicked waste of money to me,” Ryin groused.
Setsuna coughed and blinked her eyes, looking around in confusion. “Why does everything taste like purple?”
* * *
Athel slid down to the edge of the tunnel. It looked far more intimidating here in person than it had on the model. Each of the snap-doors doors were a full six feet of solid iron, ready to clamp shut at a moment’s notice. Athel felt the urge to peek over the edge and toss a rock down, but she knew that the Heshi’sians stationed down in the cannon emplacements were probably still awake. The gas was not as concentrated here in the caves as it was in the narrow hallways above.
Reaching into her mouth Athel pulled out a live Juupa seed she had been holding in her cheek and placed it on the ground. Covering it with her hand, it sprouted silently into the ground, and began to grow a complex root system beneath the surface. Farther and farther down it grew, carefully avoiding the buried mechanisms that released the doors. At each door, she grew a root cluster aimed at a very specific point. The joint at the corner where the iron met the cave walls. If she could wedge that point, the doors would not be able to close.
* * *
In the command room, Bunni Bubbles managed to wiggle herself through the fist-sized hole in the wall and looked out on the unconscious Stonemasters slumped over their desks. Tapping her finger against her chin, she looked around for the crystal array, and finally found it, with Colonel Jeshrop collapsed on top of it. Climbing up the crystal structure, Bunni skipped up on top of the man’s head. As if she had defeated him herself, she let off a few triumphant punches and kicks into the air.
She hopped down and pushed on the man’s face, until it slid off of the array and he rolled over and collapsed to the floor. The center of the panel was now revealed, a brown, glowing crystal plugged into its center. Bunni grabbed it and tugged with all her might. Slowly but surely, the crystal gave way, and came out with a pop, sending her hurtling down to the floor, crystal in hand. She bounced a couple of times, then spun to a stop against the wall.
“Mission accomplished,” she cheered, holding the crystal up over her head. One by one, the panels and tiles of the command room began displaying red symbols as the void barriers throughout the facility began to die.
As Bunni took the crystal and crawled out again through the hole she came in through, Colonel Jeshrop’s eyes opened.
* * *
In the holding cell, everyone affixed their masks as the barrier came down, allowing the green fog to enter.
“Are you sure this will filter out the gas?” Alder asked as he stepped out.
“Filter?” Dr. Griffin restated, running his fingers through his gray ponytail. “Heavens, no. The fabric is filled with a powerful stimulant that makes it impossible for you to fall asleep.”
Mina stopped as she stepped out. “Oh, great, so now we're breathing in two kinds of poison at the same time?”
Dr. Griffin nodded as they walked down the hall. “You sure are. I invented this stuff when I was studying for my finals for medical school. It made me so alert that I filled in every answer twice, but I forgot to put my name on the test packet.”
Alder adjusted his mask anxiously, stumbling from side to s
ide. “So, is that why you joined the Navy? Because you failed the test?”
Dr. Griffin laughed maniacally. “I never joined the Navy.”
Everyone looked at each other nervously, but it was only Setsuna who was willing to voice the obvious. “Are all Navy doctors like this?”
* * *
In the cave entrance, Athel could feel the sweat beading on her forehead. Her breaths were coming in dry gasps now, every muscle trembling with exertion. Growing this much at once pushed her to the very edge of her abilities. The network of roots now extended for miles. Her vision blurred a little and she fell down on all fours.
The huge void barrier behind her flickered and died, and she knew it was time. Summoning up all her remaining strength, she commanded the Juupa stalks to grow and they cheered in response.
All along the length of the cave shaft, thousands of Juupa trees suddenly sprang to life out of the cave walls and floor. Swift as arrows, they buried their sharp heads into the joints of the snap-doors. The door coils released their energy, spring and mass attempting to crush the hardened tips of the trees which fouled up their works. At first the doors moved fast, but quickly slowed as the force of crushing through the rock-hard points robbed them of their energy. Finally they all came to a stop half-closed, leaving a clear path down to the vault.
I did it.
* * *
Back in the corridor, Alder grunted in pain and collapsed to the floor.
“Hey, are you okay, lad?” Captain Evere asked, coming to his aid.
“Um, yes,” Alder lied, trying to right himself. “Just took a missed step there, I'll be fine.” Alder attempted to stand, but his limbs had no strength in them.
“Something’s wrong here,” Captain Evere concluded. “Doc?”
Ryin and Hanner helped Captain Evere roll Alder onto his back. He was clearly paler than usual.
“I said I was okay,” Alder coughed weakly. “You don’t seem convinced by my performance.”
Captain Evere smiled and placed his large hand on Alder’s bony shoulder. “Son, when you try and act, you are less animate than road kill.”
Alder smiled back. “I was once told: There are no bad students, only bad teachers.”
Isle of Wysteria: The Reluctant Queen Page 25
