Pride x Familiar

by Albert Ruckholdt

  The room wasn’t shaking as badly anymore, but it was still moving in all three axis with enough force to hamper walking. I thought I could manage running if I remained over-clocked, but Simone didn’t possess that talent.

  The Countess knelt beside me and pulled her palm-slate out of a skirt pocket. I watched her thumb furiously over the display but I had no idea what she was doing.

  “Oh my gods,” she whispered.

  I barely heard her because of the din surrounding us.

  The Countess showed me the slate’s screen. “This is from the security cameras on the rooftop.”

  I looked at the image on the screen and felt simultaneously amazed and terrified.

  A sleek trident shaped starship had entered the confines of the habitat through the trans-light breach. A thunder storm surrounded the vessel, with lightning flashing furiously around it. The trans-light breach was quickly growing smaller. In less than a minute it would seal shut. But the atmospheric effects surrounding the large starship showed no signs of dissipating.

  I spoke loud enough to be heard.

  “They opened a breach and tunneled into the Island’s mass shadow by moving through trans-space. Then they opened a breach inside the habitat back into real-space. It must have been possible because the Islands don’t have much of a mass shadow.”

  Simone shook her head. “But it shouldn’t be possible.”

  “Well tell it to them. They’re inside the habitat.” I pointed at the screen. “Don’t you get it, that’s Crimson Crescent.”

  Simone’s mouth fell open and wouldn’t close.

  I took the palm-slate from her hands. “Simone, if Crimson Crescent is here then they broke the last seal. That part of the network is now open.”

  “But we still don’t know what’s inside.”

  “That’s not our concern. Our concern is getting out of here. The school has to be evacuated but we should leave that to whoever’s still in charge.”

  I struggled to rise to my knees.

  Simone remained on her hands and knees beside me.

  The tremors afflicting the building and academy grounds were not abating.

  I pocketed my slate, but held up Simone’s. “Call Severin. Ask him what he’s going to do.”

  Before she could answer, the door to the room was flung open. I aimed my palm-slate light at it and saw a girl with familiar blonde hair standing in the doorway. Her baby blue eyes looked relieved but she quickly grew annoyed.

  Melanie yelled, “Damn it—I’ve been looking all over the school for you.”

  Simone and I stared at the girl bracing herself against the doorway.

  I croaked out, “Melanie? What are you doing here?”

  “I told you—looking for you and the Countess,” she responded loudly. “Caelum Desanto, it’s time.”

  With room the continuing to shift about all around us, I held onto Simone, supporting her as best I could. “Time for what?”

  Melanie gave me a feral smile I’d never have pictured on her beautiful face.

  She laughed evilly like the villain on a children’s show.

  “Time to meet your sister.”

  Chapter 19 – Incapacitated.

  (Caprice)

  When the tremors began Severin received a call on his palm-slate.

  His eyes widened, and he began tapping commands into the remote data-slate he was using at the time.

  The force of the tremors increased violently, sending us all to the floor, and killing the lights in the room.

  “Backup,” Severin called out, and the battery operated lamps around the room lit up.

  Prissila cried out, “What the Hell is going on?”

  She had chosen to attend the briefing while the Countess had not. I hated to admit it, but there was a chance she was with Caelum. It was a dark possibility I couldn’t shake.

  The room swayed and I felt the simulated gravity surge and fall repeatedly.

  Maya said, “Something’s affecting the effect-field generators in the building.”

  Constance blurted, “It’s like an earthquake.”

  “No, Maya’s right,” Severin declared, “it’s the gravity generators. There’s something disrupting them.” He furiously typed on his data-slate. In the center of the room and between all seven of us, holovid windows shaped like giant elliptical bubbles winked to life.

  I stared at the vistas they displayed, struggling to accept what I was seeing.

  In many of the bubbles we could see a black vortex complete with thunder and lightning break out high over the academy grounds. A sleek, fighter-like starship was slowly emerging from the vortex storm, taking a large piece of the thunder and lightning with it. Then the vortex began to shrink and fade away.

  For a few seconds the gravity fluctuations eased just a little, then returned with a vengeance that knocked us all to the ground.

  Jaxon was the first to break the silence, though the room was hardly quiet since the building continued to shake all around us. He started to laugh while sitting on the floor which felt like it was undulating under us. “Holy cow—if that’s Crescent then they sure know how to make an entrance.”

  Constance shot him a heated glare. “Is that all you have to say?”

  He grinned at her. “Well what more do you want me to say?”

  Maya struggled to stay on her hands and knees. Then she shrugged off her school blazer, and rolled up her blouse’s sleeves.

  I heard her orders through the Fragment Link.

  *Summon your Fragments and Artifacts.

  I slipped out of my blazer and rolled up my sleeves as well, exposing the wire frame bracelets on my wrists. *What’s the plan?

  *We use our effect fields to counteract the fluctuating fields inside the room.

  I heard Jaxon laugh. He was out of his blazer as well and had rolled up his sleeves too. *Good call. You’re not just a beautiful face.

  *Shut up, Jaxon, I snapped at him, realizing I’d felt a flash jealousy run through me.

  Why the Hell was I jealous just now?

  *Relax, baby. I only have eyes for you.

  I wanted to throw something at him, but it was my fault for not keeping my mental mouth shut.

  Constance was growing angry. *Would the lot of you focus on what’s important?

  I summoned my Valkyrie Armor, and the others followed suit. The jousting lance appeared in Constance’s right hand. Maya’s forearm gauntlets with its two attached Okatanas manifested. Rina’s gun-blade emerged out of the wispy, evil looking mist that surrounded her, and a sleek visor formed over her face.

  And last but not least, Jaxon’s Kaiser took form around his body. The torso armor flexed like snake skin, while his legs and arms were encased in sleek, medieval style armor that looked light weight. I noticed his shield-blades were missing, but he didn’t appear bothered by the fact they had no manifested.

  The worst of the cold in the room faded, but a good deal of the chill remained.

  Then I felt an effect-field expand around Maya. I called up my own field, and the others did the same. Rather than clashing, our fields combined and soon covered the entire room and part of the outside hallway. The violent tremors subsided.

  With my Valkyrie Armor summoned, my Awareness had expanded sharply. I could hear the sounds of screams and cries through the hallways and rooms nearest us. I could even hear the sounds of panic outside the building.

  Prissila crawled over to Severin. “We have to do something.”

  Severin was on his knees, studying the holovid bubbles. “The evacuation alarm has been sounded, but people are unable to move about without risking injury.”

  He stood up and staggered over to his desk. From a drawer he retrieved an earpiece that served as a communication device. Hastily fitting it to his right ear, he then carried a second one over to Maya.

  “You’re team leader, put this on.”

  Maya took it from his hands but stared at it for a long moment. I wondered what thoughts were going throu
gh her mind at breakneck speed. However, her reluctance lasted only heartbeats and she quickly attached the device to her left ear.

  Severin didn’t waste time waiting for Maya. He spoke quickly into the device he now wore.

  “Dalton, do you hear me? Good. What’s the situation in the computer room? I see. Yes—I received your message about the seventh seal being down. Can you do something about the effect-field gravity generators? The academy maintenance staff is working on it? So they’ve shut you out of the process. What about the evacuation? The tunnels are locked down? What do you mean they’re sealed shut?”

  Prissila looked up sharply. “That shouldn’t be. The tunnels are supposed to automatically open in the event of an emergency—”

  Severin politely waved at her to be quiet, while he listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. “You mean Crescent has gained control of the life support systems?”

  I pointed at a handful of the holovid bubbles displaying various parts of the building interior. “The students—they can barely move. It’s like the gravity has been doubled.”

  “More like quintupled,” Maya noted. “An Aventis is strong enough to handle two gees without difficulty but this is too much even for them.” She shook her head. “This way the students are immobilized. They can be used as shields against an incursion by Special Interventions.”

  Jaxon laughed. “Why bother? No one’s going to try entering the school grounds with that warship overhead.”

  Maya scowled, “Don’t you get it? With so many students around, Special Interventions can’t risk a firefight on academy grounds or the buildings. And the underground access tunnels leading in and out of Galatea are locked. So no one gets in or out that way.”

  Constance sounded impatient. “So now what? Does that mean there’s nothing we can do?”

  Jaxon shot her a look of disbelief. “You want to go up against a starship? Look at the guns on that thing. Even our Fragments wouldn’t last a more than a few seconds against it.”

  I noticed he wasn’t referring to his armor and mine as Artifacts, but as Fragments. Did that mean Maya and the others didn’t know the truth about our armor? Was he keeping it a secret on purpose?

  Rina noted, “My gun-blade might be able to dent its reaction fields.”

  Maya shook her head sharply. “If we damage that ship and it comes down on the school, we’re going to have thousands of casualties. That’s no small ship. It looks larger than a Pathfinder—probably more than two hundred meters long.”

  “Damn it,” Severin cursed. “The comm-link just failed. I lost contact with the Computer Club. Must be getting jammed, or maybe Crescent has taken over the comm. relays within the academy.”

  Prissila edged closer to him. “Severin, we need to do something.”

  He shook his head sharply. “We can’t. We’ve lost control of the school’s network, and that includes all the life-support and emergency systems. Crescent hacked into every part in the blink of an eye.”

  Maya nodded to herself. “They were planning this for months. Every time they breached the network, they probably put in back doors into different systems. No wonder they took it over so fast.”

  I blinked as a thought came to mind. “You think they’re controlling the network from that starship?”

  Severin and Prissila looked at me. The President shrugged faintly. “Probably.”

  I leaned forward. “But initially someone had to break the seventh seal from within the academy grounds.”

  He nodded without hesitation. “Yes, that’s true.”

  I smiled thinly. “Then why don’t we find Crescent’s hacker and take his Fragment.”

  Maya shot me a look. “Even if we take it, we can’t use it. But”—she smiled cruelly—“maybe we can convince them to return control of the network to the administration staff.”

  I nodded. “We can have them unlock the tunnels, fix the gravity and get the students evacuated.”

  Constance asked, “You’re going to convince them?”

  Maya smiled even more cruelly. “Absolutely.”

  Severin clenched his jaw, then declared, “I need to get to the Computer Club. Over the past few weeks, Dalton’s people converted it into a command center.”

  Constance bit her lower lip before stating, “You’ll never get there in time without my help.”

  Maya agreed. “She’s right. With the gravity system working the way it is, you’ll have trouble getting down the corridors, let alone the stairs. If not for our effect-fields you wouldn’t be standing right now.”

  Constance added, “Your people in the Computer Club may be suffering from the extreme gravity as well. I can help alleviate that with my Fragment, and if communications are jammed, you won’t be able to tell Maya and the others where to find the hacker.” She tapped her jousting lance. “But I can do that through the Fragment Link.”

  Prissila looked worried. “Are you suggesting we split up?”

  Constance nodded. “Yes. This building is shaped like a giant letter ‘H’, with the cafeteria something of donut in the middle. I say we split up into two teams to both wings of the building. This way one of us is guaranteed to be closer to the hacker once Severin’s computer nerds find them.”

  I looked at Severin. “Your Computer Club member didn’t tell you where the Crimson Crescent hacker is located?”

  Severin shook his head. He was trying to send a message or do something with his palm-slate but was having no luck.

  Jaxon punched a fist against a palm. “Then let’s go.”

  Maya nodded resolutely. “We’re going to take the fight to them.”

  Then Rina pointed out an obvious fact. “We don’t have our skinsuits, and none of us have drunk Aventis blood in many days. We’re not at our strongest.”

  All five of us Familiars turned to look at Severin and Prissila, the only two Aventis in the room.

  “Damn it,” Severin muttered and took off his white blazer in a hurry. Prissila hesitated for a heartbeat before following suit.

  Despite the situation, once again I couldn’t help but envy the girl’s voluptuous chest.

  Severin stepped up to Maya and offered her his left wrist. “You first, then Rina.”

  Maya frowned as she took his wrist in her left hand.

  I saw Prissila offer her left wrist to Constance, but the latter shook her head. “No, I’ll be with the two of you. Maya and Jaxon need your blood more than I do.”

  Again, Prissila hesitated but she moved quickly over to me. “Don’t bite too deeply.”

  I gave the golden haired girl a sour look. “I have done this before, Princess.” Then I concentrated on extending my canines to their full length.

  I bit down on the girl’s tender flesh, piercing it easily and tasting her blood a heartbeat later.

  I drank a mouthful then a second before pulling back.

  I wouldn’t need more than that.

  Wiping my lips with the back of my hand, I stepped back and gave Jaxon room.

  He took Prissila’s hand gently, then with a polite and respectful bow, he bit into the soft skin of her wrist, puncturing the flesh an inch away from my bite marks.

  Prissila winced and I watched her squeeze her eyes shut.

  After ten or so seconds Jaxon drew back, licking the blood that remained on Prissila’s arm before it could dry and harden.

  Prissila started to draw her arm away and cradle it, but Jaxon pressed a handkerchief over the wound.

  He told her, “You don’t want blood on your uniform, Princess.”

  I couldn’t help but arch an eyebrow at his performance.

  While she accepted the cloth and gesture, Prissila nonetheless gave him a suspicious look. “Appreciated,” she mumbled.

  I thought Jaxon might break into an elaborate bow, but instead he just smiled innocently and took a step back.

  Maya cut into our thoughts. *Let’s go.

  She turned and faced Severin and Prissila. “Stay close to Constance.”


  The girl nodded, and then her jousting lance reconfigured. The conical mid-section slid forward to the peak of the lance and changed shape into something resembling a small umbrella.

  Just how many different modes did that thing possess?

  Maya’s voice grabbed my attention. “The rest of us will make our way to the opposite wings of the building. First we’ll head to the entrance to the cafeteria, but you two”—pointing at Jaxon and I—“will head to the east wing. Rina and I will stay here in the west wing. We’ll take position at the opposite entrances to the cafeteria.”

  Severin rolled down his sleeve and slipped on his white blazer. Making sure the earpiece was properly on his ear, he said, “With that starship over the academy, it’s doubtful we’ll get outside support. It’s more than likely they’ll blow away anyone attempting to get near Galatea. Special Interventions has personnel within the grounds of the school. However, we don’t know what their instructions are for such a situation. So for now we rely on ourselves.”

  Maya asked, “Just to be certain, what instructions did Special Interventions have for us?”

  Severin laughed bitterly. “Their instructions were for us to wait for their instructions.”

  Prissila laughed derisively. “That’s convenient.”

  “In other words,” Severin added, “they’re instructions were for us to stand down, and not move without orders.”

  Maya pursed her lips for a heartbeat. “So by moving out we’re disobeying orders.”

  He gave her a shallow nod.

  Maya stared at him flatly for a moment, then shrugged casually. “Sounds good to me.”

  She turned to the door.

  “Let’s go.”

  #

  (Haruka)

  When the shaking began, I was eating in the cafeteria with Duncan, Siobhan, and Alistair. Duncan had invited us up to the third level where the high school seniors ate. So we had a clear view of what was happening in the sky above the academy.

  The cafeteria is shaped like a donut, with the open middle playing the part of an atrium. The atrium’s ceiling is a trans-steel dome that is so clear it gives the impression it’s not even there. That’s why we were able to witness the dark storm forming quickly over the academy.