by Frank Carey
Neither of them noticed their tails intertwining.
The agents and medic did notice, though, so they quietly left as Nels and Gren looked into each other’s eyes. "You sure about this," Nels asked as he took her hands in his. "You're young with a full life ahead of you."
"I know. I want to spend every minute of that life with you."
He leaned over and kissed her. A few minutes later, she pulled away, smiled, then yelled, "I want this place swept! Move your asses!"
Nels looked at her and marveled at his betrothed. "Yep, this'll work just fine."
Chapter 22 - Demons
The five made their way down the corridors, passing mostly human workers on the way, none of whom paid them the least bit of attention. After a few twists and turns, they found themselves standing in an empty corridor outside the control room. "Torren, scan the room. Let's see if we have company."
"Scanning... Clear."
Lucien tried the door. "Locked. We'll need to pick..."
Jewel disappeared. They heard a click as the door opened from the inside. "Hey," Jewel said as she stood just inside the doorway, her fists on her hips. "Taking a break?"
"Has she always been this cranky?" Marta asked as she walked over to the package control panel.
"I heard that!" Jewel said.
Lucien walked over to join Marta while Jewel, Torren, and Aerith attended to the tractor. "Torren, any chance you can drive that thing?"
"Easy peasy, Dad. It’s similar to ones we use to control the loaders aboard the Marta.
"Good. Kill the laser and get the unit back up here."
"Got it." With his sister and aunt's help, they did as instructed and got the drill turned off and turned around. "It'll be a few minutes until it arrives," Jewel informed them. Its parking rack is just down there to the right of the hole.”
"How deep did they get?" Marta asked as she typed in codes.
"Another five minutes and they would have reached penetration," Jewel said. "That is too damn close. How goes deactivation, sister?"
"Almost there... Got it. Unit is disarmed. Now, I just need to set an overload and this baby is so much slag..." A blaster bolt hit her, singeing Lucien in the process.
"Take cover!" he yelled while grabbing an unconscious Marta and dragging her to safety.
"Dad, are you hurt" Aerith called out from her hiding place behind an instrument rack.
"Your mother is down. Who the hell is shooting at us?"
"I am, elf. My name is Alex, and I used to run things around here."
"You mean Adrestia?"
Alex fired a barrage at Lucien and the others. "Yes, I mean Adrestia. Now I run nothing. All the money is gone. My people are in jail or dead, and I have you and your damn family to thank for it."
Lucien checked Marta’s pulse and grimaced. She wasn't doing well. "Look, Alex, I have a ton of money, and you can have it all if you just walk out that door. I've got a ship nearby which you can take anywhere you want. You can even use me as a hostage. Just let my family go."
"Tempting offer. That's what drives you, isn't it?"
"What? Look, I don't have time for this..."
"Family. It's all about the family with you, isn't it? I..." He abruptly stopped talking.
"You can come out now," Jewel said.
Lucien peeked over the console and saw his sister standing over Alex's unmoving body. "Is he dead?"
"No, just stunned. How's Marta?"
"Not good. Aerith, Torren, help me with your mother."
They ran over and pulled out medpacks and scanners from their harnesses. "Pulse is thready," Aerith said. "The stuff we're giving her will stabilize her for now. We have to get her to a medbed."
"I've got one in the Grumpy Elfling." Down on the work floor, the laser platform emerged from the borehole and came to a stop in the service area. Suddenly, the perimeter lights on the laser platform began to flash red.
"That ain't good," Lucien said while examining the wreckage of the laser control console. He shook his head while keying his mic. "Ulysses actual, this is Hobgoblin, do you copy?"
"Hobgoblin, Ulysses. What is your status?"
"Marta is down, package secure, laser drill on overload, over."
"Repeat last part, over."
"Drill is on overload. Recommend immediate evac out to one hundred miles radial. Require evac of Hobgoblin team. Hobgoblin leader is staying to try to disarm laser, over."
"Roger your transmission, Elfling. This is Sentar. Give us a moment to clean up the area."
The building shook followed by the sound of debris raining down on the metal roof.
"Hobgoblin, this is Med Shuttle One. ETA thirty seconds."
The roof blew off the facility above the drill bore. As they watched, the medical shuttle lowered through the opening, then sidled up against the control room's access door. Lucien ran over and cycled the door open revealing a med team. They ran over and stabilized Marta before putting her on a gurney. Meanwhile, two security officers dragged Alex into the shuttle.
As the team rolled Marta onto the shuttle, Lucien leaned over and kissed her. "Aerith, watch over her. Torren, I'm going to need your help disarming that thing, so standby for my call."
"What the hell do you mean you're staying?" Jewel demanded as the others boarded the shuttle.
"That laser drill is powered by a rather large nuclear power plant, which has a tendency to blow up when certain interlocks are removed, like the ones Alex shut down before destroying the console. I can reinstated those safety systems by directly accessing the control panel on the drill," Lucien explained as he ran over to cabinet marked drill. Inside were tools, one of which was an access panel wrench. He grabbed it and stuffed it into his jacket. "If I don't stop the overload, that drill will explode with enough force to affect the weather of the whole southern hemisphere." He checked the panel one last time. Now, get your ass out of here." Jewel was about to say something, but Harm stopped her. "I'll be fine. Just make sure the others are safe."
She nodded, then followed the others into the ship. Moments later, he was alone. "Time to move your ass, elf," Lucien said out loud. "Time to stop a bomb."
###
Lucien jumped down to the rig floor and sprinted across it to where the drill sat. Overhead and around him, a battle between the corvette and ground forces waged. He knew he was running out of time.
Once at the drill, Lucien searched around until he found the access panel covering the primary control cluster. Using the tool, he quickly removed the bolts holding the panel in place. Throwing the cover aside, he found a timer slowly counting down to oblivion. He only had a few minutes left. That's when he hit the first snag. Someone had removed the terminal, leaving behind only leads.
"Damn sloppy. I'm definitely going to file a complaint with maintenance." Using the tool, Lucien removed the cover while tapping his earpiece. "Ulysses actual, this is Hobgoblin. Let me talk to Torren."
"Hobgoblin, this is Ulysses... One moment..."
"Dad, Torren. Tell me what you see."
"I've got a Luxor model 68 control panel sans keyboard. I need a real quick way to shut down an overload, over."
"Remove the front panel."
"Done."
"On the left side you should see a small cube-shaped module with a flashing light. Carefully remove the module."
"Done."
Torren walked him through the disarming procedure as the timer counted down.
"Okay, the last step is to..."
Something picked Lucien up and threw him into a wall, causing his headset to fly off into a pile of equipment.
"What the hell have you done?" the demon demanded. Lucien knew it was a demon because it was an identical twin to Cleth, the demon Shenda had killed so many years ago.
"Who the hell are you?" Lucien demanded as he got to his feet. He looked over at the control cluster and saw his time was running out.
"My name is Tregga. Why are you interfering with my plans?"
&
nbsp; "So, you're the one behind this attempt at blowing up Earth?"
"Yes, I am, and I paid a great deal of money to have the job done by people who I thought were professionals."
Lucien pulled out a blaster and set it to full power before firing it at the demon. He could feel the weapon grow hot as it threw pure energy at the creature. The weapon depleted its power and shut down, but the demon remained unharmed.
"Nice try, futile, but nice try. Now, I want the package delivered to the core and the planet destroyed as agreed to."
"The package is inert, kaput, destroyed, impotent, dead, nailed to the damn perch. It can't be reactivated, and I wouldn't do it if I could. My God, are you as dense as you are deaf?"
Tregga leapt, covering the distance separating them in a fraction of a second. He grabbed Lucien by his throat and threw him into the side of the tractor, "My patience has come to an end," the demon said as he squeezed.
"Let him go, Tregga."
Tregga turned. Standing next to him and Lucien was a second demon, this one with flames dancing over her body, a body that belonged to his sister, Jewel. "Neresta?"
"Yes, you sociopathic megalomaniac. It's Neresta, your other half. Now, put him down."
Tregga dropped the elf to the ground. Lucien coughed violently. "Let my sister go."
Neresta looked at him. "You want to save her? Then stop the overload."
Lucien looked at her and nodded. Now he had two demons and a nuclear bomb to deal with. First things first, he thought as he went to work on the control panel.
Chapter 23 - Hiding in Plain Sight
"Everybody out of here," Chief Downing yelled as the med shuttle landed next to the tent opening. Around her, contained chaos reigned as the camp was evacuated. "Jewel, has your brother lost his mind?"
"Possibly," she replied as she threw her keys to Colonel Reese. "Use the Elfling. She's a freighter for God's sake. I'll join you shortly."
Reese saluted her, then took off to round-up evacuees.
John ran up and joined them. "How's Marta?"
"Fine, Aerith and Torren are inside with her. Torren is helping Lucien disarm the laser drill."
"Thanks," John said as he ran inside.
"I need to go back and help him," Jewel said.
"All the ships are being used to evacuate personnel."
"I don't need a ship. Just tell the kids..." She stopped as her eyes and jewel changed color, going from blue to fire orange.
"Medic!" Debra yelled, but it was too late. Jewel tilted her head backwards and let loose with an unearthly scream. "Tregga, you piece of shit!" She looked at Debra, then disappeared in a flash of orange light, leaving behind a bewildered medic and chief of security.
###
Aboard the Cube, Dir. Ciara Devlin, and her friend, Dr. Nebulon Blyst, a Tyen from Tralaska, were having drinks in one of the station's lounges after a hard day of attending talks on the subject of the Mordecai expedition. "So, how is it working with Lucien's family?"
"I wish I had a hundred more of them. Chasm has instant access to League and Crystallanian databases he has stored in his brain, Ruby and he have that link thing going so she can help him analyze data at a phenomenal rate, and the kids are plarking amazing. Just the other day, we found a sealed chamber under the ruins. They put on Class-4 biohazard suits and shunted into the room, checked it out, then found a way to unseal it from the inside without damaging it. My life as an expedition leader has gotten orders of magnitude easier with those three working for me."
"Good. I'll tell Lucien when I see him."
"Speaking of Lucien, how is he doing?"
Ciara said nothing.
"Spit it out."
Ciara told her about what was happening on Earth at that moment. "Look, you're clearance goes way up. I haven't told you any of this because there's nothing you can do. Right now, we don't have many options. Evacuating Earth is impossible. Losira and Lucien are working with R-Sec, OffSec, and EarthSec... Nebs?"
Nebulon had stopped moving. Suddenly, her eyes flared bright orange as she went full Tyen. She stood up, tilted her head backwards, screaming, "Tregga, you piece of shit!" before collapsing to the floor.
"Computer, medical emergency, lounge six. I need a med team here, stat!"
###
Ruby and Chasm waited for his kids to reappear from their shunt into another sealed room. "This is cutting our schedule in half," Ruby noted.
"Yes, their shunting ability seems to be a valuable skill, especially under these conditions."
"You're worried about them."
"Always. Ashley can be impulsive and Grayson has a tendency to follow her lead."
A flash of blue light signaled the twins' return. "Miss us?" Ashley asked as she stripped off her hood.
"Always," Chasm replied. "What did you find?"
She handed him a datapad. "It's clean and I think..." She stopped moving as did Grayson.
Ruby snapped her fingers in front of Grayson's face. "Hey, you okay?" They said nothing.
"Medical emergency, building H," Chasm said into his commlink just as his children tilted their heads back and screamed, "Tregga, you piece of shit!" before collapsing to the ground.
###
Nels and Gren sat out on the porch and waited for news from Earth. The last they had heard, Prince Lucien was trying to stop a massive nuclear explosion from occurring. "How are you doing with all this?" Gren asked as she snuggled into her betrothed's arm.
"I'm worried. These Adrestia types are nasty pieces of work. I've seen Lucien at work, and he is formidable. But saving a planet is tough."
"Have you heard about Tennosh?"
"Yeah. Another nasty piece of work."
"Did you know your brother ran rescue missions there using the Conquistador? They say he saved hundreds."
"Damn. No, I didn't know. How did you know?"
"Auntie told me. She read it in the dossier OffSec sent over when he became Prince. You seem to have inherited some of that bravery he has."
"Not bravery, just method and opportunity. I never shunted that far before."
"Yet you did it?"
"Yeah, I guess I did. I..." He stood up, tilted his head back and screamed, "Tregga, you piece of shit!" before collapsing to the ground.
"Computer, Medical emergency, my location. I need medics now!" she yelled as she heard Tregga being cursed from other areas of the castle. She took Nels' hand and held it as she waited for the medics to arrive.
###
Within microseconds of each other, every Tyen and neoLogash in the League tilted their heads back and let loose with the same curse before collapsing unconscious on the floor. The reason why wasn't known until much later.
Chapter 24 - Back at the Rig
As Jewel--Neresta?--and Tregga faced off behind him, Lucien returned to the control panel to stop the overload. He tapped his headset and discovered it was missing. He looked around, but it was nowhere to be found.
He was on his own and he had no idea where to start.
"What the plark are you waiting for, elf?"
Harm turned and saw himself standing next to him, but it wasn't him.
"Harmon? Is that you?"
The pony tailed elf smiled. "Sort of. I think you got a concussion when Tregga threw you into the drill. You’ve had a rough few days."
"So, I'm hallucinating?"
"Yeah, kinda."
"Where's Atmar?"
"Don't know. So, why aren't you stopping the overload?"
Tregga threw Jewel into the hull next to him. She screamed and pushed him away.
"Wow," Harmon said. "Demons again. I really dislike demons. They're just so rude. So, what's the problem?"
"I don't know what to do next."
"What do you mean you don't know? You've printed robots, built ships, and stopped invasions. This is easy peasy."
"You did those things. I negotiate treaties and bake scones. I can't fly, and that math you used to play with is just so much gibberish.”
The timer counted down.
“How's Marta?"
"Are you insane? I have a nuclear bomb ticking down to detonation in front of me and two demons battling it out behind me and you want to know how my wife is?"
"Do you love her?"
"Of course I do, fool!"
"Do you want to see her again?"
"You're daft. Of course I do."
"How did we come up with the Vixen maneuver?"
"Panic. I thought I was going to lose her."
"Like now?"
Lucien watched Harm disappear. "Yeah, like now." He turned, reached inside the drill, and pulled every wire he could find out and threw them to the ground just as the timer went to zero. The control panel exploded as the overload shunted through it to the hull and the package, burning out every component of both devices while throwing Lucien to the ground. He lay there, watching the control cluster melt as electrical discharges blanketed both units. Finally, as the energy drained away, the discharges faded, leaving only a smoking ruin.
"Get up," Tregga said. Lucien saw he was holding an unconscious Jewel, her crystal returned to its normal blue.
Lucien got up and Tregga threw Jewel at him. "Nice try. I told you I can't be killed."
"Darn, I was looking forward to shoveling your dead carcass into the bore hole," Lucien said as he checked her pulse. It was strong.
"Right. Now, fix the package."
"Are you friends with the Creator?"
"No."
"Too bad, because that is the only one who can fix the package. She's slagged as is the drill."
"You lie."
"Blow it out your ventral exhaust port. It’s over. The drill is toast and so is the package. Oh, and we have a beetlebot infestation," Lucien said while nodding to a bug watching them from a nearby stanchion. “It's over, demon. Why don't you go find a rock to hide under?"
Tregga screamed as he grabbed a large pipe. He raised it over his head and advanced on Lucien and Jewel. Before he could take a second step, EMEF Team One in Marine power suits dropped from the opening in the ceiling and opened fire on the demon, forcing him backward toward the borehole. Meanwhile, breaching charges created openings in the walls, allowing EarthSec troops to stream in. They took positions behind the Marines and opened fire on Tregga. With a final scream, he fell backwards into the hole.
