Amber was terrified. “What are they doing to him?”
I watched him move like a puppet on a stick. “I think they’re trying to fix whatever the problem is.”
Her voice was shrill. “Well why don’t they take him out of the game? They did that to Opal and she wasn’t even having any physical problems.”
I held her hand gingerly. “I’m not sure.”
The alarm started beeping and Amber jumped. “Oh, that freaked me out.”
I squeezed her hand. “I think it’s good timing. You need to relax and focus on something else. Are you going to need my help?”
She shook her head. “No, I just need to slow the ship and manually pilot us through the asteroid field. I need to concentrate.”
I stood up. “Alright, I’m going to help Edan.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “You’re leaving me?”
“Uh, no. There’s plenty of people to help Edan. I’ll stay right here with you.” I sat back down.
She smiled weakly. “Thanks.”
“I’d do anything for you, you know that.” I put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and stared at the viewing screen ahead as she slowed the ship in preparation for the task at hand.
Irregularly shaped chunks of gray and brown littered the horizon. We flew through brightly colored clouds of dust and gas backlit by nearby stars. Amber focused on the shifting asteroids and meticulously moved Su past them. The tension in her shoulders was evident as she guided the ship to our destination. We made it through the field with only a few minor collisions none of which breeched the hull. Finally, Zerkola came into our field of view. Bits of the dark planet peeked out between bands of silvery clouds containing occasional bright streaks of teal. The surface was dark like the rich sable soil in a freshly tilled garden bed. As we descended, the Su jolted and bounced through the turbulent atmosphere. Landing took longer than anticipated but finding the Alchemist’s Crypt was easy. The entire planet was made of cracked plateaus and deep canyons filled with murky water. We dropped the ship on one of the uplifts and knew we would have to portal across the water to reach the Crypt. The massive structure covered approximately one-quarter of Zerkola. It was a gray stone building with plum mortar. There were dozens of entrances, but none of them had doorknobs. Edan had woken up and we were getting ready to disembark, but Zuri stopped us.
Her eyes were full of concern. “I can’t get Vanya to wake up. We can’t just leave her here. What should we do?”
I thought for a second and considered what we had on the ship. “We’ve got a stretcher in the medical area. Let’s get her on that and take her inside the Crypt. They should let us all out of the game if we pass it off even if she doesn’t help here.”
She dropped her head in her hands. “I didn’t even think of that till now. What if they don’t let her out? Plus, we need her for activation of crystalline tower warp points and killing the bosses.”
Phineas offered an unpopular suggestion. “We could just replace her.”
Amber punched his shoulder. “Maybe we’ll just replace you then too.”
He rubbed his shoulder. “Think about it though. If we don’t have all ten players, we can’t pass off Zerkola. And if we–”
Amber was fuming. “Stop it. Just stop. Crispin and I will get her inside.”
We walked down the winding corridors and into the sickbay. Up against one wall was a long white stretcher. When I pulled it from the storage clips, it began to hover. “Cool, guess we just have to push it.”
Amber squeezed my arm. “You’re a good man Crispin. Don’t ever forget that.”
We brought the stretcher to Vanya’s side and gingerly lifted her onto it. A thin film formed across her torso and legs to hold her in place. Phineas formed a portal for us to walk through and opened it at a distance from the Crypt. We walked silently as the others chatted in the background. Jinx was more than excited to finally be here. She was the first one to reach the doors and we followed behind. Just before she knocked, two guards materialized. They were dressed in black and had menacing weapons attached in various places across their armor.
“Who sent you?”
Jinx held her head high. “We’re here to meet with Dr. Elio Atlas.”
They laughed. “Yeah, everyone’s here to see the doctor. Buzz off.”
She pulled out the cave spider replica. “This is for him.”
The voice from guard on the left took on a sarcastic tone. “Oh, well in that case, go right ahead.”
Her arms crossed as anger welled up in her eyes. She lashed out suddenly by grabbing one of their guns in each hand and blasting them point blank in their chests. She pulled the helmet from one guard just before he dematerialized.
She waved her hand and started running. “Get away from the building before they come back.”
We all turned and ran back to the ship. Amber and I were the slowest as we pushed the stretcher while we ran. Phineas made a portal for us so we could get away faster and it closed just after they made it back to the door. When we were safely back on the ship, we watched her put the helmet on her head and waited for a response. After several minutes, she lifted up and cradled it in the crook of her arm.
She was disheartened. “We’re not going to get in by trading trinkets and wearing robes like I thought.”
Amber was exasperated. “So what do we do then? Wait for someone to invite us in?”
She shook her head. “No. We’ll have to find a way in without disturbing the guards.”
Suddenly, Vanya opened her eyes and turned her face toward us. “We need a fingerprint generator…to get us inside. Put some…guard’s clothes on and then…”
Wes was too impatient to let her collect her thoughts. “Then what? Why are you stalling?”
Her eyes rolled back and closed again.
Wes threw his hands up in frustration. “Great, now we’re still where we were before killing the guards.”
Jinx walked over and put her hand on Vanya’s forehead. “She’s warm. Try cooling her head to see if she wakes up again.”
Wes was unhappy with the dead weight on this team and didn’t mind showing it. “Why would something in a virtual reality game have any effect on her in real life?”
Edan glared at him. “Don’t you remember what happened on Taska? And we feel pain when we get stabbed or whatever.”
Zuri’s pink plastic suit swished when she walked. “I’ll get some ice.”
We placed icepacks around her head and neck, but it took a long time before the cold had the desired effect. Edan was grouchier than usual either because his body was deteriorating in response to the game or because he didn’t want to end up like Vanya and he made one sarcastic comment after another. Either way, it was irritating. Everyone was on edge due to the uncertainties we faced, and everything seemed to drag on forever.
When she finally woke up, she was groggy and had difficulty walking. Mica tried several potions to fix her problems but only succeeded in restoring her avatar’s health. Amber and Zuri went in search for several items on the ship that could be put together to make robotic legs. Zuri used her engineering abilities to build them and then attached them to the outside of her legs. She was delighted when she was able to walk without assistance and helped fashion a second set for Edan who was struggling even though his disability wasn’t as severe. Our two metal encased compatriots were now rearing to go.
Vanya was more alert now and wanted to lead the incursion. “We just have to look like them. There’s got to be either a back entrance or some underground way to get in that won’t have a ton of guards. Zuri can use her fingerprint generator to get us inside.”
The pink suited scientist pulled out a small device. “I’ve got it right here. Let’s try getting in over there.”
We looked where she pointed and saw a door imbedded in the side of a cliff. Phineas made another portal for us to enter that took us right to the door. As predicted, it was not guarded at all because it had a large scanner for a handp
rint. Zuri’s tiny device shot out a beam of green light to scan the surface of the scanner. It then generated a copy of the most recent hand and transferred it to her white glove. She pressed her hand against the glassy surface and the light above the door shifted from red to green as the door slid open. We ran inside before the door shut and examined our surroundings. The interior was the same cold stone as the exterior which was to be expected. The floors were polished marble and lengthy corridors led in all directions. We picked a hallway and moved quickly down it.
Amber kept her voice low. “How did you get in here before?”
The indigo eyes of the necromancer stared straight ahead. “I used a key.”
“We have keys so why didn’t we use them?”
“It was a different kind of key. You have to have a card to get in and out of the Crypt. The keys we have are for something else.” She pointed to a door up ahead. “That’s probably the guard’s changing area. I can see some uniforms on the wall.”
We ran into the room and found something that would fit us. Edan wanted to use his cloak of invisibility instead, but Jinx wouldn’t have it. She wanted all of us to be visible. Edan reluctantly agreed but kept his cloak on under his guard’s suit just in case. After that, we followed Jinx around since she was the only one who had been on this planet before.
Jinx was unsure of where to go and walked slowly around and peered around corners before she was willing to walk down it. “It’s not exactly like I remember it. They’ve made some changes.”
I was confused by her response. “I though you hadn’t been inside the Crypt so how would you know?”
She shot me a look of irritation. “I’ve seen the plans for the inside on my father’s computer. I’ll prove it.”
Jinx approached a door with a shiny cabochon in the center. She pulled the key from her robe and placed it flat against the door in the center. It melted into the door, dropped back into her hand, and the door split in two and each half slid out of the way. We all stepped inside the stone vestibule and followed Jinx to the main congregating room. It was a huge open area with tall stone pillars supporting the vaulted ceilings of the roof. At the front of the room on a raised platform was a long table where the elite would address the others. It was empty in here now, but Jinx was certain it would soon be filled.
I turned to Jinx. “What are we waiting for?”
She pointed to the table at the front. “The heads of the Crypt will be there on that stage. I know they have a meeting every six hours. The people who do things for them have six hours at most to complete the task they’ve been given and if they don’t report back by the next meeting, they are expelled from the Crypt.”
Amber was suspicious. “You seem to know more than you did when we asked you about this last time. What’s changed?”
She lifted her chin with confidence. “Nothing, I’m just starting to put things together that I’ve seen or read in my father’s office that I didn’t understand before. It’s all starting to make sense.”
Edan raised and shook his fist. “I’d like to give your father a piece of my mind when we get out. If this is permanent damage to my legs he’s going to pay for it.”
She walked over to Edan and got in his face. “My father’s probably the only one who could fix your little problem so watch your tongue.”
He mocked her. “Oooo. So scared. You realize that your father answers to mine, right?”
She raised her brows in defiance. “Oh yeah?”
Iolite was tired of the exchange. “Ugh. You two are so juvenile. Let’s just get on with the game.”
She turned away and moved closer to the stage. “As I was saying, we need to wait for Dr. Elio Atlas. He’ll be handing out the quests.”
The door opened again, and dozens of black clad guards entered the room. We moved as close to the front as we could get and waited for the elite to arrive. They filed in one by one wearing lavish garments and sat in their appropriate location. The last to enter was the one we’d been waiting for. He was a medium build with dark eyes and blonde hair cropped closely to his scalp. He was taller than the others by more than a foot and wore silvery chains across his chest. Each chain held a small replica of the cave spiders asymmetrically on a random link. On a golden cord around his neck was the piece of jewelry we’d seen in the Bone Cave. It was made from a silvery metal with an iridescent sheen that formed a latticework orb. In the center connected by four tapered metal beams was a single drop of emerald liquid suspended as if in a vacuum inside of a slightly larger glass orb. Golden gears encircled the orb that were disconnected from any other piece and each spun in different directions from the other gears.
Edan whispered in my ear. “I’ve seen that before. Do you think we will need it for anything here?”
I shrugged.
“If we do, I can swipe it pretty easily.”
Dr. Atlas addressed his troops with disdain. “Many of you are new to this establishment however, you have all proven your resourcefulness in one way or another which makes you useful for the time being. As you know, there is a new threat to our existence. The Eydis are encroaching on our crystal gardens. We must create a barrier to protect them. However, our head scientist Dr. Sothy has been taken. Who among you are man enough to go after our scientist?”
I raised my hand.
His dark eyes rested on me. “You will need to locate her by finding the way through the mazes inside the ships of the Eydis. She has a beacon with her at all times. Find her and save our crystal gardens. You have six hours.”
He arose and walked out with his well-dressed companions right behind him.
“That was short.”
Phineas pulled out the compass. “We’ll need this for the ships but how can we track the beacon?”
Zuri pulled out yet another gadget from her pouch. “This is a homing device. It will pick up any signal that’s a regular repeating pattern which is exactly what a beacon is.”
Chapter 12 – The Eydis
The prospect of another quest excited me, but I wasn’t sure how many would be participating. I looked around at our group and considered their roles in this game along with their current mental state. Jinx was frustrated and nervous after seeing her brother up close which made me glad that Zuri was leading us this time. Amber was still the only one we could rely on for flying the ship and she seemed both distracted and somewhat fragile. Crispin had become overprotective of her which was somewhat annoying, and I wondered if he would choose to protect her over the group if the right situation arose.
Edan’s hostility overarched every word he spoke, and he’d become more withdrawn. Then I thought about Vanya’s experience here. She’d been nothing more than a complex bit of code and was now controlling the mind and body of Opal. It was scary to think we all might be able to be replaced by something non-human. It was essential I fought hard to win this game and hoped that Mica had been scared enough by recent events to do the same.
My uncertainty of Phineas and Wes as far as what their motivations could be both concerned and made me distrustful of them. Neither acted as if they’d suffered much in their previous life or that either possessed significant personality flaws that would make them a candidate for the game. I wasn’t sure why they were here. Jinx’s reasons were clear and both Edan and Opal were children of the elite making them likely candidates for spies.
I didn’t know how much Opal’s previous experiences would affect Vanya or if she’d been inserted to help either Edan or Jinx. Crispin and Amber were clearly damaged goods but to be honest, even Mica and I were outside the acceptable limits for members of a utopian society. Zuri seemed kind but almost too smart for her own good. I could see her getting into trouble if she decided to deeply investigate the Excisionists. I wondered if they would be replacing her at some point with a more compliant being like they did with Opal. The thought occurred to me that the parents would either have to be informed of the switch or worse.
What if they implant the parents with
an Omega Wave Interceptor Device too? What if they killed them, would anyone know? How would they cover it up? Could the new identity be able to fake it and maybe they just wouldn’t know it wasn’t their kid? How could we be sure we weren’t next or that–
“What you thinking about so hard sis?”
“Hmmm? Oh, um nothing. Are we getting close to the ships?”
“Yep. And Zuri said she might be able to find her without anyone else helping.”
I looked across the bridge and found her sitting next to Wes engaged in a conversation. “Hey Zuri, Mica said you don’t want us to go with you. Is that really what you want?”
Mica vehemently protested. “I did not. I told her you thought you could do it by yourself.”
The Excisionists: Book 1 Page 23