But I am not going to let them hold me back like this. I activate my electrical barrier, only this time making sure to extend its radius by a dozen feet in order to catch all of the drones at once.
It works. When the barrier strikes all of the drones in unison, they all fall to the ground around me in a clatter of metal and plastic. I quickly raise my arms to protect my head from their fall, because despite their size, these drones are quite heavy.
In seconds, I am surrounded on every side by inactive and damaged drones, which are no longer sounding their loud alarms. A few are even smoking, which means it is unlikely they will ever see action again.
But I am not free from danger just yet. Dwarfish workers are running toward me as fast as their short legs can carry them, pointing and shouting curses at me as they do so. There are at least a dozen of these workers, with more no doubt coming on the way, and they are armed with picks and shovels and other digging equipment that, while not as effective as actual weaponry, can still harm me significantly if used against me.
I turn to run into the mountains, but before I can do so, a pale claw flies toward me from the corner of my optic. I duck and roll forward over the drones, narrowly avoiding the claw, and then, when I get back to my feet, I look to see who is trying to kill me.
It is another arctic vampire, although it is clearly not the arctic vampire from before, the one who took me here. This one is bigger and more masculine, with a clearly defined jawline, and wings that are as wide as a phoenix's. He has green eyes, an unusual eye color for an arctic vampire to have, although his lips are as red as the average vampire's. He also wears clothing, some wool pants, but besides that he is shirtless, which surprises me, considering how cold it is. Then again, he is an arctic vampire, so he is probably used to the cold.
The arctic vampire advances toward me, growling as he does so, while the dwarfish workers near the pit stop when they see him. I do not know why they stop, seeing as this vampire appears to be on their side, but I am not complaining, as it will make escaping much easier.
I begin to back up, saying as I do so, “Are you Kalcan?”
The arctic vampire nods, showing no sign of surprise at the fact that I know his name. “Indeed. And you are that stupid robot, J997, that tried to stop Jornan's earlier attempts to smuggle super speed drugs into Xeeo, yes?”
“How did you know that?” I ask. “I did not see you at the crime scene.”
“Jornan and I are … friends, to put it one way,” says Kalcan, flashing his fangs at me. “And we tend to talk to each other. I thought for sure that you were still with the Foundation, but I guess you must have escaped the slaughter that that battle ended up being.”
“Slaughter?” I repeat, still backing up as quickly as I can. “How could you know about that battle unless … are you a member of Reunification?”
“More than a member,” says Kalcan, “an Elder. But yes, I was there when we slaughtered every remaining agent there. I even got to snack on a few annoying Foundation agents myself.”
If what Kalcan says is true, then that means that the Foundation lost. Of course, he may be lying, seeing as he does not strike me as an honest vampire, but I cannot say for certain if that is the case or not.
But again, it does not matter. I have no loyalty to either the Foundation or Reunification. All I wish to do is go home.
So I say to Kalcan, “Let me go. I do not wish to fight you. I only came here because of a deal I made with another member of your species. Otherwise, I would not even be here at all.”
Kalcan shakes his head. “Oh, machine, I am afraid it is not that simple. While you may have no interest in fighting me, you still present a clear threat to our operations, now that you've seen our pit here and destroyed almost all of our active drones. Do you really think I will let you go after that?”
“Now? I guess not,” I say, “because you seem quite eager to destroy me.”
“Only because you deserve it,” says Kalcan. He licks his lips. “I won't get any blood from you, but tearing you apart piece by piece will make me feel better anyway.”
Just as Kalcan prepares to leap at me, a familiar voice behind me shouts, “J997!”
Before I can turn to look and see who it is, a shining, blinding light explodes behind me. The blinding light causes Kalcan to put his hands over his eyes and hiss in anger, while the dwarves cover their eyes as well.
I glance up in the direction that the light is shining from and see a woman standing on a rise above us, although the light is shining so brightly that even I cannot make out who she is exactly. Her voice sounds familiar, although I do not place it immediately.
“Come here!” says the woman, whose voice I now recognize as Palos's. “Quickly, before they recover!”
I do not hesitate to listen to her calls. I activate my boosters and go flying away from Kalcan and the dwarves, heading directly toward Palos. She dims her light so I can see her, but it is still bright enough that Kalcan and his minions are incapable of following me.
I land next to her with no problem, and as soon as I do, she shuts off the light glowing from her ring. With that light gone, I can now see her much better than before.
Palos looks similar to how I remember seeing her last, although her pointed nose appears to have been broken and hastily repaired with skyras magic and her robes have been slashed and cut in several places. She looks like she has been through a fight, which makes me wonder if she fought against Reunification at the Foundation's base. Scanners indicate that her body temperature is low, no doubt due to the coldness of the mountains, although her robes appear thicker than usual, which probably help keep her warm.
“Palos?” I say. “It has been a while since I last saw you. You look terrible.”
She shakes her head. “It doth not matter, machine. I will explain to ye what happened later. For now, we must—”
I hear something large flying through the air toward us. Looking over my shoulder, I see Kalcan flying up at us, apparently having fully recovered from the blinding light. He is flying at us so fast that I can barely follow his movement, although I do notice his dwarves following him from a distance.
Before I can fire my finger lightning bolts at him, Palos grabs my arm and pulls. The next instant, Kalcan, his dwarves, and the pit vanish, replaced instead by an empty, small cave—not the arctic vampire's cave from before—which has barely enough room for the two of us.
As soon as we materialize in the cave, I pull my arm out of Palos's hand and step away from her. The teleportation makes my optics blink rapidly for a moment before my focus returns, which is odd because I did not suffer from any ill effects from Delanian teleportation earlier. Perhaps Palos did not do it correctly this time.
Shaking my head, I look and see Palos sit down on the cave floor, panting and sweating. She looks tired and hungry; indeed, a quick scan of her body shows me that she has not eaten in some time. Her skyras energy level appears unusually low as well, which makes me wonder how she managed not only to create that blinding light, but also to teleport us away from the pit. She must be much stronger than she appears.
“Thank you for rescuing me, Palos,” I say as I dust some snow off my shoulder that I did not notice before. “You were just in time.”
Palos nods, her chest heaving up and down as she wipes sweat off her brow. “Ye … are welcome, J997. I consider ye an ally, right now the only ally destiny has chosen to bless me with. 'Tis the only good blessing I seem to have right now.”
I look around the cave as she speaks. As I noted before, it is a small cave, with nowhere as much room as the arctic vampire's cave. Its temperature is low, although not freezing low, which is due to the fire burning nearby. It is not a large fire by any means, but due to the size of the cave, it does not need to be in order to heat this place well.
I see no traces or hints of vampiric occupation, which is good because the last thing I need right now is to anger another arctic vampire. Having seen the power that Kalcan and th
at other arctic vampire wield, I think I can live the rest of my life without getting into a fight with another.
Looking down at Palos, I say, “Palos, what happened to you? What happened to the Foundation? How did you know where to find me?”
“To answer your last question, J997, I did not know where ye might be,” says Palos, shaking her head. “When the Head told me to go and get ye from the meeting room to ensure ye would survive in the event that the base fell, I discovered ye had gone missing. 'Twas a terrible thing that drained my hope from me and made me feel awful. Finding you by that pit was as much of a stroke of luck as winning a game of roll.”
“It was indeed lucky for me that you chose to go there,” I say. “Anyway, Kalcan told me that the Foundation lost the battle against Reunification earlier. Is that true?”
Palos sinks her face into her hands. “It is, as much as I may wish it wasn't. Reunification's attack on our base was so sudden that we barely had time to rally those agents who were not wounded or dead from the previous assault. We were utterly crushed.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” I say. “How many agents survived?”
“I know not,” says Palos, without raising her face out of her hands. “When it became clear as a summer sky that the Foundation was lost, I ran. I know not even where the Head is, though to be honest, I wish not to know that, for she will be exceedingly angry with me for my desertion if she ever finds me again.”
Palos sounds completely broken, although her attitude does not extend to me, seeing as I am a robot. Still, I understand that broken attitudes like hers can affect the effectiveness of organics in stressful situations, so I should probably find a way to cheer her up soon.
First, however, I need more information, so I ask, “After Reunification's assault on the Foundation's headquarters, what did you do then?”
“I hid in this cave,” says Palos, gesturing at the small cave in which we stood. “'Twas a terrible blizzard blowing, you see, and I needed some place out of the wind and snow to hide. I chose this because it is well-hidden and hard to find if ye know not where it already is.”
“After that?” I say.
“After that, I slept for hours,” says Palos, still not raising her face to look at me. “I was so distraught that it was the only thing I knew to do. When I awoke, I was tired and hungry, but I did not dare leave my cave, lest Reunification's agents were searching for me nearby.”
“But you did leave eventually,” I say. “After all, you came and helped me, did you not?”
Palos looks up at me. Tears are running down her pale face, which makes her look even more pathetic than before. “That I did, that I did. I went out because I was so overcome with guilt over my desertion that I wanted to redeem mine self. And I decided to do that by destroying Reunification's pit, the one where I saved ye.”
I sit down in order to be eye level with Palos. Humans generally do not like speaking with beings above them, so I think I can make her feel more comfortable if we are on the same level.
“Did you Foundation agents know about the pit the entire time?” I ask.
“Yes,” says Palos, nodding. “We have been aware of it for some time now. We set up our own Delanian base here because we suspected that Reunification would come to this place in search of what they are looking for, although they somehow managed to sneak by without us noticing until they had already dug their pit as deeply as they already have.”
“I do not understand how they managed to move in all of that heavy and loud construction equipment without you Foundation agents noticing,” I say. “To me, that does not speak well of your observation methods.”
“The mountains are a big place and Reunification used some kind of magic to hide from us, which we only managed to notice when the Head arrived after her stay at the Xeeonite base,” says Palos. She punches the floor of the cave. “But it doth not matter much anymore. They are getting closer and closer to achieving that which they have been working toward for years. And we let them do it.”
“You thought you could destroy it on your own,” I say. “You thought that would redeem you for your desertion.”
“Yes,” says Palos. She rubs the tears out of her eyes. “Indeed. Although, in truth, I do not really think I can do it by myself. Likely I would have been torn to shreds by Kalcan or killed by his dwarves if I attempted to stop them, which is the fate I deserve for my cowardly ways.”
She lowers her face into her hands again and begins sobbing loudly. I do not want her to sob like this because it makes her far less effective in helping me figure out what to do next. I should figure out a way to cheer her up.
So, consulting my electronic edition of Secrets of Humor, I rest one of my hands on her shoulder and say, “Palos, do you know what you call a Jikorian merchant who is willing to sell his own family for profit?”
Palos stops sobbing and looks up at me with a perplexed expression. With her nose sniffling, she says, “To me, that sounds like a monster corrupted by greed itself.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “A Jikorian merchant who is willing to sell his own family for profit is called a father of profit. Get it?”
Palos stares at me with a lack of understanding in her eyes. “No, I do not. Is that supposed to be some sort of joke?”
“Yes,” I say. “Do you not find it amusing?”
Palos shakes her head. “No, I do not. I see nothing amusing in that joke.”
“Hmm,” I say. “Maybe it is because you are a Delanian and therefore do not understand Xeeonite humor. The original joke was in the Jikorian language, after all, so it was probably some kind of untranslatable pun that made it funny. Or maybe I just need to work on my delivery.”
Palos continues to stare at me, only now, she seems more worried for my sanity than anything. It is the same look that all of the Delanians have given me every time I tell a joke. They must not be used to a robot trying to be humorous, which makes sense, seeing as there are very few robots on Dela at all.
“Anyway,” I continue, in an attempt to break the ice, “let's get back to the topic of Reunification. So you say that the Foundation's Delanian branch has been overrun and destroyed by Reunification, yes?”
“Yes,” says Palos. She sniffles again. “I know not how many of my fellow agents survived the slaughter, but I guess few did. However many may have perished, I must still avenge their deaths by destroying Reunification's pit and stopping them from achieving their plans.”
“I see,” I say. “Well, can you tell me what Reunification is attempting to accomplish? So far, you Foundation agents have kept it a secret from me by saying that I don't need to know it.”
Palos looks away from me. “I still doth not wish to tell ye, but since it seems like ye and I are the only two who can stand against Reunification now, then I suppose it is safe for me to tell ye.”
She looks at me again and wipes the tears from her eyes. “Reunification wishes to reunite Dela and Xeeo as one world. By any means necessary.”
I tilt my head to the side. “Reunite? That does not make any sense. Dela and Xeeo have never been one world. While the two worlds do share some similarities, they have always been distinct planets with their own histories and courses of evolution. They did not become connected until Simultaneous Connection happened over a century ago.”
“Nay,” says Palos. “That is false. A long time ago—well before you or I were even thought of—Dela and Xeeo were once one world. Then, after some traumatic cataclysm, the one world became two, and thus they have been ever since.”
“Do you have any proof of that claim?” I ask. “Because I see none.”
“Ye want proof?” says Palos. “Have ye never wondered why it is that someone can travel from Dela to Xeeo and survive, or vice versa? Have ye never thought it strange that skyras exists in both worlds and can be manipulated by inhabitants of both worlds? Has it not occurred to ye to consider how odd it is that humans on both worlds are able to procreate with each other, even despit
e the years of separation betwixt our worlds?”
I think about that for a moment. The proofs she lists off are questions that Xeeonite scientists and Delanian wizards and witches have been debating for years, among other similar questions. Yet I still do not believe that Dela and Xeeo were once one; after all, if they were at one pointed separated, how did anyone living on those worlds at the same survive what must have been an extremely cataclysmic event? It makes no sense.
“And now Reunification wishes to reunite the worlds again,” says Palos. She places her hands together. “The Foundation has been fighting them for years. We have fought at a stalemate for a long time, yet it seems like all of our hard work has become for naught, now that the Foundation is but a tiny shadow of its former self.”
“Assume I believe you,” I say. “Assume I believe that, at some point in the past, Dela and Xeeo were one world. Why should I help you keep them separate?”
“Machine, ye are the dullest robot I have ever had the displeasure of meeting,” says Palos with a sigh. “Think about it with your mechanical brain. Both Dela and Xeeo have been separated for thousands of years; they have developed into their own distinctive, incompatible geographies. By reuniting them, Reunification risks killing billions of people and utterly destroying any chance for life on the new world they wish to create, or recreate, as is the situation.”
“Of course,” I say. “Now I understand. But is it even possible to reunite the worlds? To my knowledge, neither Xeeonite science nor Delanian magic can even come close to doing that.”
“Ye would think not, but Reunification has worked for centuries to find a way to do it,” says Palos. “And I am afraid that they have finally discovered a method that may work. Yet even if they succeed in their endeavour, billions of innocent lives on both worlds will still be lost unless we stop them.”
“Is Reunification searching for that method they think might work here?” I say. “What are they digging for, exactly?”
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