by J. C. Diem
Moving silently, we only ran into one robot during the short journey to the end of the hallway and down two flights of overlarge stairs. Red eyes flared in alarm but Ishida zapped the droid before it could sound a warning. Apart from the tiny particles floating on the air, there was no evidence of its demise.
Ishida unerringly led us to a large room that was full of machinery that made little noise but seemed to let out a pulse every few seconds. “Generators,” Gregor mouthed when I looked to him for an explanation. Larger than most cars, all twenty machines were circular and ran very quietly. Aventius and his diminished following hid behind one of the generators in the middle of the room. Cristov nodded to the young ruler that he had commenced the twenty minute countdown.
Consulting his map again, Ishida waved for us to follow him and headed down a corridor that took us to the west. From what I’d been able to gather, we needed to head back up to ground level and find the centre of the factory. We encountered four more robots along the way but multiple blasts from our death rays took care of them.
We reached the second attack point a few minutes later and Ishida’s people hid inside another room full of gigantic machinery. This time Gregor shrugged when I silently asked him for an explanation of what we were looking at. The strange alien technology in the form of dozens of consoles had him stumped. Taking up their positions, the female warrior in charge of the group bowed to her emperor. Ishida bowed to each of his people in turn, wordlessly thanking them for risking their lives.
Down to only seven now, we headed for the far side of the factory. This time we had to descend several levels beneath the ground until we were deep in the bowels of the building. A smell similar to oil permeated the hallways. Geordie wrinkled his nose but wisely kept his complaints to himself. Stealth would be paramount if we wanted to pull this off.
Wherever we were headed, it was far more strongly guarded than the levels above. I quickly lost count of how many droids we zapped into dust particles before we emerged from a silver hallway into a natural cavern. Huge pipes ran across the ground below, carrying the oily crud we could smell to different parts of the planet. Dozens of robots worked on the machinery and it was only a matter of time before we would be spotted.
At that thought, a droid down below saw us, pointed and shouted a warning. Red lights began to flash and sirens went off. “How long do we have left before the countdown is over?” I asked Gregor as we sprinted to the end of the metal runway and down a set of stairs.
“Five minutes,” he replied with envious calm. I had a feeling the next five minutes were going to feel more like five years.
.~.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Clutching the explosives in one hand, I fired violet blasts from the death ray with the other. Once the droids realized we had figured out how to change the settings on the weapons so we could zap them to death, they quickly fled. The epic battle I’d expected fizzled out after only a few shots were fired. Worker droids rather than soldiers, they had been programmed to run rather than to stand and fight.
With the alarm still bleating and the lights flashing madly, I didn’t know how Gregor managed to concentrate enough to continue with the countdown. “One minute left,” he informed us as we reached the cavern floor. “Spread out and try to target as many of the pipes and machinery as possible.”
As instructed, we split up and chose a section of pipes or machinery to blow up. With forty-two explosives amongst our small group, we should be able to do enough damage to destroy the pipelines at least.
“Ten seconds!” Gregor called and I readied the explosives. “Five, four, three, two, one, now!” Depressing the top and bottom of the first explosive, I held it for a couple of seconds before tossing it at the alien machinery. I was blown back a few steps by the blast three seconds later. Fire erupted and the air instantly became toasty. Shrieking in terror, Geordie tossed all six of his explosives at his chosen targets then raced to my side. I threw my last one then grabbed his hand and sprinted for the stairs.
Gregor, Kokoro and Ishida were already waiting for us. Almost dancing on the spot with anxiety for his mentor, Geordie grinned in relief when Igor appeared through the smoke and haze. Then it was my turn to wait with increasing dread until Luc jogged into sight. He was slightly singed but appeared to be unharmed.
“We’d best leave before the whole place comes down around us,” Gregor suggested and received no argument from the rest of us. From the distant explosions going off, I assumed our allies had also been successful with their sabotage attempts.
“Do you think everyone will be able to remember the way out, chérie?” Geordie asked me hopefully.
“I hope so,” I said. With the sirens, lights and smoke, it was going to be pandemonium. Metal crashed as the ceilings and walls fell in. The floor shook constantly as explosions went off somewhere down below. If Ishida hadn’t been guiding us with his electronic map, I doubted we’d have been able to retrace our route through the collapsing building easily.
Almost back at our starting point, we rounded a corner and were confronted with the tail end of a line of droids. Luc motioned us back and we peeked at the robots without being seen. A hidden elevator door slid open and six worker drones stepped inside. The door closed and the line of fleeing robots moved up.
Spotting movement at the other end of the hallway, I tried to warn our allies as they sprinted towards us but the droids reacted too quickly. Three Europeans were turned to dust before the rest of us opened fire on the remaining metal men. Aventius hunched over with grief at losing more of his followers but allowed Cristov and his final few people to herd him to meet us.
Our weapons went up again then were lowered when Ishida’s people joined us. Geordie jumped and almost fired off a shot when the elevator door opened. The carriage was large enough to hold ten of us if we squished inside, which meant we would have to split up again. Gregor summed up our choices. “It will take hours to return back to the underground facilities on foot and this place is about to come apart. I am afraid this is our only chance of survival.”
“But it will take us directly to wherever the rest of the droids went,” Geordie pointed out.
“Not if I can help it,” Ishida said and went to work on the monitor. Pulling up the map of the factory, he zoomed in on our location and tapped on the picture of the elevator. A different map came up, showing us the route the elevator would take and its final destination. Ishida chose a spot halfway along the route and tapped on the screen. The route instantly shortened instead of continuing on. “I think that will stop us from ending up in the middle of a robot infestation,” he said with only a trace of nerves visible that our survival was in his hands.
Another explosion went off beneath our feet and the entire building shook. Luc propelled me inside the elevator and eight more of our kin crammed inside. My stomach flopped over as the elevator first dropped several floors then zoomed sideways at what felt like a phenomenal speed. I was glad the metal coffin didn’t have windows. Knowing we were moving faster than a bullet was one thing, seeing it would have been too much for me to handle. I’d never been a fan of fast rides.
Coming to an abrupt stop, the doors opened and we exited with our weapons drawn. No droids, imps or Viltarans confronted us. We were in one of the underground dwellings in an almost comfortingly familiar silver hallway.
We stepped away from the elevator to give the rest of our group room when they arrived. “Can you sense anything nearby, Natalie?” my one true love asked. Even covered in dust and blackened by smoke, he was gorgeous. At Luc’s amused smile, I stopped mentally undressing him.
Sending out my consciousness, I felt nothing in the immediate area so expanded the search as wide as I could. Suddenly inundated with signs of life, I staggered a step and almost lost my balance. Hands caught and steadied me. Frantic questions were asked but they sounded far away and almost seemed to be coming from another galaxy.
Every being on the planet vied for my notice. Kv
eet in the tens of thousands were clumped together in caverns around the globe. They appeared to me as a sea of yellow dots on a vast black background that mimicked the planet. The ten octosquids were a small, dark grey cluster next to the brighter Kveet they lived with. Imps of various species, some we hadn’t even encountered yet, were caged in their cells. Others roamed the underground structures freely, probably in search of food. I found three more gigantic octosquids lurking in wait for the unwary. They were a disturbing jet black the same colour as their flesh compared to the almost festive orange of the much smaller Kveet imps.
Viltarans stood out from the rest and I found myself being drawn to them. Each one was like a bright red beacon, warning me of danger. They stood out individually and I knew exactly how many we would need to hunt down.
Then my attention was drawn to a far more familiar presence of our kin. Nine white dots were zooming towards us at a fantastic speed.
“Shouldn’t the others be here by now?” someone said uneasily.
“Here they are,” I said and pointed at the wall just as the elevator arrived and disgorged our allies.
“Nat! What happened?” Geordie asked. His young face was pinched with worry. Luc hid his anxiety a little better but his hands on my shoulders were almost too tight.
“It looks like drinking the Viltaran’s blood has amped up my ability to be able to sense things,” I explained to the group as they gathered around.
“How far can your senses reach now?” Gregor asked. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to take in the implications of my enhanced abilities.
“I’m pretty sure I can sense everything that has the ability to think everywhere.” I hadn’t sensed the fungus or insects that lived in the caverns below so assumed my ability only stretched to creatures that had a certain level of intelligence.
Geordie blinked, trying to take that in. “What do you mean?”
Luc eased his grip and slid an arm around my shoulder. I leaned against him, grateful that he never seemed to be repulsed by my strangeness. “When I sent my senses out, they covered the entire planet. I felt where all the Kveet live, where the imps are either caged or roaming around and I sensed these guys zooming along in the elevator.” The late arrivals exchanged disturbed glances, wondering what they had missed while they had been parted from us.
“Did you sense the Viltarans?” Gregor asked. From the small grin he was trying to hide, he already knew the answer.
“Yep, all ninety-one of them.” Gregor’s grin escaped at my reply and was shared by Igor and Luc. No one else seemed to grasp what this meant.
Ishida proved me wrong by his next statement. “There will be nowhere on this planet that they will be able to hide from us.” Kokoro nodded and her smile was just as wide as Gregor’s. “We will be able to anticipate their moves before they make them.” The emperor finished his explanation and the smiles began to spread. We had told the octosquids that I was the most dangerous weapon the Viltarans had ever seen and now I was even more of a threat to them.
“It is a pity you cannot sense the droids,” Geordie said wistfully. “They could sneak up and ambush us at any time.” He’d made a good point and managed to dampen our enthusiasm like a cold bucket of water to the face.
Igor moved to his cringing apprentice but merely put a hand on his shoulder instead of assaulting him. “We have an added advantage that we did not possess before. With these weapons,” he held up his death ray, “and Natalie’s abilities, we have a far greater chance of defeating the Viltarans now.”
Ten of our allies had already died and we numbered only nineteen. Despite Igor’s reassurance, I wondered if anyone but me would still be alive by the time we finished destroying the last Viltaran.
.~.
Chapter Twenty-Five
With over half of our group still weak from lack of food, we headed for the closest sleeping quarters to let our exhausted kin rest. The seven of us who had last snacked on Viltaran blood were still showing no signs of hunger or tiredness. We gathered in the monitor room more out of habit than from a desire to see the ruined cities again.
Ishida grabbed the only blank screen and moved aside so he could show Geordie how to use the device. Kokoro caught my eye and we shared a moment of mutual gratitude that the pair had recovered fully. Ishida giggled at a quip his new friend said then darted a glance at us adults to see if we had noticed his momentary lack of decorum.
Ignoring the youngster’s antics, Gregor stared at the monitors but his mind was far away. Knowing him, he was probably planning our next move and figuring out how he could put my enhanced abilities to their best use against our enemies.
“Before we tackle the Viltarans, we should visit M’narl and ask for more food for our allies,” Luc said. His compassion was just one of the things I loved about him. When we had first met, he had been a justice bringer for the Court. All but one of the Councillors was now dead and the Court was no more, thanks to me, but his instinct to help his own kind hadn’t disappeared.
“I can find them easily enough,” I told my most favourite companion. “The ten octosquids make locating M’narl’s particular group fairly easy.”
Geordie looked up from the monitor. “Are we going to ask them how the imp that ate Natalie then spat her back out got so big?” A mischievous grin played around his mouth when I shot him a sour glance at the reminder of being regurgitated. It hadn’t been one of my finest moments.
“With so few of their kind left, they might not be happy to learn that we have dispatched one of their own,” Kokoro said. “Gregor’s theory that they only grow larger when they consume the appropriate food is the most logical answer.” The most cultured of us smiled at his new love interest and she dropped her gaze modestly. If Kokoro had been human, I was pretty sure a blush would have stained her cheeks. Ishida rolled his eyes but made no comment. Kokoro had waited for a very long time to fall for someone and I was glad the kid wasn’t going to ruin the experience for her.
Testing my newly enhanced senses, I searched for M’narl’s group again and found them a relatively short distance away. Thanks to our speedy trip via elevator, we wouldn’t have to travel far to reach them now. That news would undoubtedly be welcomed by our slumbering allies when they woke for the night.
Uneasy at the thought of leaving our people unguarded, I refrained from dragging Luc off to a distant room to tear his pants off and have my way with him. As Geordie had pointed out, I couldn’t sense the droids so we would have to remain vigilant. Igor had the same thought and crooked his finger at his apprentice. “We should take it in turns to patrol the area just in case the robots come hunting for us.”
“I suggest we all stay away from the dining hall,” Ishida. “We have seen the Viltarans on the monitors when they held their meeting. There is a good possibility that all of the dining areas are monitored.”
Giving the teen a salute that I was pretty sure wasn’t intended to be sarcastic, the Russian steered Geordie out of the room. Engrossed in playing with his new toy, Geordie wouldn’t be much help on the patrol but at least he would be safe with Igor.
At a subtle nudge from Kokoro, Gregor hastened to think of an excuse for the two of them to leave together. Ishida forced out a small sigh and waved his hand. “Just go,” he said in resignation. “I am sure Natalie and Lucentio will be happy to keep me company.”
Kokoro barely remembered to bow to her ruler before she scurried off down the hall with her new love. She was willing to leave her charge in our care while she and Gregor sated their flesh hunger, which meant she trusted us completely. The Japanese and Europeans had come a long way from the feuding nations they had once been. There were so few of us left that neither groups could really be considered to be nations any longer.
Luc draped an arm over the much shorter vampire’s shoulder. “Do you begrudge them their happiness, Emperor Ishida?”
Ishida shook his head. “It is long past time my maker found happiness.”
My
mouth dropped open at the revelation that Ishida was aware Kokoro had been the one who had turned him. “You know she’s your maker?”
His smile was smug that he’d managed to hide his knowledge for so long but it was also a trifle sad. “I lost my parents to fever and was delirious and on the verge of death when Kokoro came for me. I remember her white eyes looking into my own as she told me she would save me and that I was destined to become a great ruler.”
“Kokoro loves you as if you are her own child,” Luc reflected.
Struggling to keep his emotions in check, Ishida nodded again. “I care for her just as greatly. She has never used her position to force me to make decisions that I did not agree with.”
“How do you feel about Gregor?” I asked out of sheer curiosity. If our friend and Kokoro continued to hit it off, Gregor would become something like Ishida’s stepfather.
“He is an honourable man and treats Kokoro with the respect she deserves.” The answer was very formal but I suspected the kid liked Gregor just as much as the rest of us did.
As the day progressed, we took turns to patrol the area. Come nightfall, everyone was awake and we all gathered in the hallway outside the sleeping quarters. No one disagreed with the plan to knock on M’narl’s door, figuratively speaking, and beg for more food. Considering we were planning on killing their evil overlords, offering us blood was the least the diminutive aliens could do for us in return. Now that we knew just how many of the little brown beings were hiding out in their underground lairs, it would be less awkward for us to feed from them.
Under Ishida’s guidance, Geordie used his new monitor to bring up a map of the complex, not that we really needed it since they were mostly identical. The teen led the way, shooting nervous grins over his shoulder at us while checking to make sure we were still following him.