The Orphans of New Lur

by Blake Vanier

  Great. This far to get left behind again. Nero looks down.

  “If we don’t get out, it doesn’t matter.” Ryder turns to Nero. “We won’t leave you, okay?”

  Suddenly Ryder’s eyes grow wide and he looks past the other children. He raises his arm with the lepisent but before he can use it, a flash of Aether pulses through them. Nero feels fogginess creep into his mind. He shakes his head clear. The other children’s eyes have glazed over, and they are perfectly still. Nero turns around to see a slim figure of a woman covered in a tight dark suit, a mask, and goggles with golden lenses.

  Nero lifts up his doorman but the woman snatches it out of his hand with amazing celerity.

  Nero glances around in desperation as the woman stares at him. What am I going to do?

  The woman shakes her head, disapproving, and Nero shrinks down. She casually hands the doorman back to him, indicating for him to move to the far side, where she leads the mindless children one by one. Once there, she takes Ryder’s earpiece out and puts it in his pocket. Then she puts each of the children’s fingers in their ears, where they remain. She motions for Nero to do the same, which he does immediately. He shifts his perspective and sees a green haze clinging to all of the dazed children’s heads.

  The woman, who has walked back to the door, is cloaked in the same dim white Aether as the surroundings. Nero can barely distinguish her. She holds up her hand, and red Aether spills from her suit. A massive fireball slams into the barrier, making the metal flex for just a moment before it wraps around the fireball and smashes into the wall on the other side of the exit. The explosion leaves the air crackling with Aether. The red of the woman’s body quickly fades back to white. The sprinkler system kicks in and the cold water makes short work of the small fires, spitting steam where it splashes on red hot metal. Nero’s clothes are soaked through, and he feels a chill run down his spine.

  The woman turns back to Nero and waves goodbye with her fingers.

  Nero half-heartedly waves back. “Uh.”

  She then shimmers out of view. Nero tries to sense her Aether, but he sees nothing.

  Ryder and the rest of the children blink the glaze out of their eyes. “What the heck just happened?”

  “This crazy person in black stunned you all, or something, and then just blew the door apart,” Nero says waving his arms.

  “And then just disappeared?” Korbin asks.

  Nero nods. But not with any invisibility bracelet I’ve seen before…

  “What did she do to us?” Thea asks. “That felt familiar.”

  “It was some sort of Icor Aether. I’m not sure,” Nero says.

  “How about we continue with the getting out of here?” Ryder moves forward. “We can worry about it later. I say we skip the invisibility and just run like crazy.”

  Korbin nods. “Good plan.”

  Ryder leads the way through the puddles of water and back toward the exit. He dips his head into the hallway and jumps back into the room. “Dang it, we have more company.”

  Iona pushes through the children. “I have an idea! Get your lepisents ready!” She pokes her head out and turns the cold end of the doorman on the water as three Erohsian security guards run down the hall.

  The water coating the walls and floor turns to ice. The guards let out a yelp as they lose their feet. They slide down the hallway, desperately clawing at the ice to slow themselves down.

  Iona jumps back in and pulls up her lepisent. “Now!”

  The children zap the guards as they slide past the door, turning them into lumps that continue to slide, inert, for another ten meters.

  Korbin smiles. “That was fun.”

  Ryder laughs. “Yeah, it was. Good thinking, Iona. Let’s go.”

  They all cautiously walk across the ice, running as soon as they are clear of it. Nero draws from the Aether of his doorman to keep up. They plow through the door to the stairwell and run straight into a group of Erohsians with weapons. They are all rapidly descending. Ryder tries to pull up his lepisent, but before he can use it, the group of Erohsians continues past. The children bump into him and come to a stop at the door.

  “Whoa,” Korbin says.

  Ryder throws his finger to his lips. “Shh.”

  Nero shifts his perspective and sees a green chaotic flow of Aether around the Erohsians running down the stairs. That’s strange. “Something isn’t right. They don’t seem like normal Erohsians.”

  “I’m not going to complain if they ignore us,” Ryder says. “I’m not sure what’s going on anymore.”

  “Did they see you?” Iona asks.

  Ryder nods. “Definitely, but they didn’t even flinch. Let’s just follow them, I guess. We can give them a little space.”

  After a moment, the children begin their descent.

  “Do we really have to run down thirty floors?” Nero asks from the back of the group. The repetitive motion of the stairwell makes his head spin.

  Iona glances back, still plummeting down the steps. “We got you on the seventy-fifth and we need to get to the fortieth, so yeah.”

  Nero stumbles down several stairs. Oh great.

  After ten more flights, echoes of fighting from below bounce up the stairwell. They freeze.

  “It sounds really close,” Thea whispers. “How are we going to get by?”

  “Err.” Ryder taps the railing. “The stairwell is our only option, and we need to keep moving. I don’t know what to do.”

  Iona peeks down the center of the stairwell. “We might be able to sneak by.”

  Ryder nods. “Okay, I’ll go down a little and see where the fighting is coming from. I’ll wave you all by if it’s clear.” Ryder tiptoes down another floor and sees an exit propped open by a body of an Erohsian soldier. The sound of multiple weapons firing echoes into the stairwell. “Okay, let’s just make a run for it. The fighting is in the hallway.”

  “What’s going on?” Thea asks.

  Ryder shakes his head. “The Minis are fighting each other… but who cares? Let’s just keep moving. Go first, and I’ll follow behind.”

  Thea runs by first, followed by Iona, Korbin, and Nero. Ryder takes up the rear.

  “Hey, stop!” an Erohsian soldier yells from below.

  Nero instantly freezes. Thea screams. Ryder pushes past Nero, scampering down to Thea.

  “What happened?” Ryder asks.

  Nero forces his legs to move. He finds everyone standing in front of four Erohsian soldiers posed like statues. Nero shifts his perspective and notices a green shimmer over their heads; they have the faintest blue Aether visible throughout the rest of their body. He looks at Thea, and the normal green Aether around her head is almost completely gone. After a moment, though, the green pushes the red, blue, and yellow Aether back down past her neck.

  Thea looks at Ryder, then back at the dazed Erohsians. “They were coming from below. They scared me.”

  “But what happened to them?”

  “I just closed my eyes and screamed. When I opened my eyes, they were frozen.”

  “She used some sort of Aether,” Iona says. “I saw it happen.”

  “I think that’s the same thing the stealth woman did,” Nero says. “It looks like what happened to you all.”

  “But how?” Korbin asks. “She doesn’t have a lepisent. And we didn’t learn how to do that.”

  A trampling of feet from above floods the stairwell. “Run!” Ryder pushes Thea and Iona forward. Nero follows after Korbin. They jump down groups of steps at a time, barely keeping their feet. The floors fly by, but no matter how fast they go, the Erohsians always seem to be behind them. A stairwell exit opens just as Nero passes. He slams it into more Erohsians attempting to join the pursuit, buying a little more time.

  Floors pass by, and the children’s Aether reserves wear thin. They begin to slow.

  “This is it!” Ryder yells.

  Thea slams through the door at the fortieth floor, followed closely by the others. Nero catches a glimpse o
f Erohsians coming from below. He sprints through the door. Just as he crosses the threshold, he feels a sharp stinging in his shoulder. The whole right side of his body goes numb and he stumbles forward, hitting the ground. He struggles to his feet and tries to keep running, but his body will not respond. Korbin turns and begins to come back, but blasts from the Erohsian weapons zip over his head, forcing him to go on with the others. Rough hands seize Nero, while the other Erohsians run after his friends.

  Nero’s mind begins to clear, and panic takes over as he sees Korbin disappear around the corner.

  “We got one, Ma’am,” one of the Erohsians holding him says. “We’re still chasing the others, but they have nowhere to go on this floor. We’ll cover all exits.”

  No. I can’t get captured again. A tingling sensation runs up his spine and over his scalp. I don’t want my brain to be put through a blender!

  Erohsians continue to flow past him. They pull him to the side.

  “Nice try, kid, but you’re ours now.”

  The tingling covers his entire body, turning to sharp pinpricks. His face burns; darkness narrows his vision. All sounds grow far away, like his ears are stuffed with cotton; a deep anger infests his mind. Nero begins to tremble. I don’t want to go back. I won’t! He grabs the Erohsian’s arm and twists it around so they face each other. “No, I’m not!”

  The terror in the soldier’s eyes is clear behind his visor. He desperately shoves a stunner into Nero’s side. There is a sharp bite, and the stunner explodes in the Erohsian’s hand. Nero continues to twist, forcing the man to his knees.

  Violet speckles Nero’s vision and then, everything goes black.

  32

  It Couldn’t Be Worse

  Isis

  Isis watches from her seat. The young boy she had seen almost a year ago in New Lur walks off the stage with an escort of Erohsian guards. They are all dressed for the ceremony.

  So much show… She shakes her head. Should at least be a real escort.

  Isis bites her lip as the ceremony continues. She forces herself to talk politely with the other people at her table during the short breaks between presentations. She even stands up after the Erohsian and Borukin speeches about the new age of friendship to come. Finally, the ceremonies conclude, and the food is served. She grabs her knife and fork, slides them into a tender herb-roasted chicken breast, and slices a piece. Steam rises from the fresh cut, bringing with it an assortment of flavors that tickle her nose.

  CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.

  Everyone in the half-domed banquet hall drops their utensils and turns to the entrance; several have already ducked under their tables. Flashes of Aether weapons zip through the doors, shattering sections of the glass dome behind them. An Erohsian guard stumbles back from the entrance and slumps to the ground. Other guards slam the double doors closed and rush to wedge them shut with furniture.

  “We’re under attack!” Someone yells.

  Thanks, moron. Isis calmly pulls up the holographic screen on her wrist computer to access the building security system as the banquet hall erupts into chaos. She clicks on the emergency button, which triggers the alarm.

  Almost immediately, a video feed of the security officer pops up. “What's the situation, Ma'am? We detected weapons fire on the sixtieth floor.”

  “The banquet hall is under attack by unknown hostiles. Send in help and set up a combat channel for notifications and orders through me.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.” The video feed cuts out.

  Isis selects a security camera of the hall outside the banquet room. A group of Erohsians take up defensive positions and prepare a charge to blow through the doors of the banquet room. Erohsians? What is going on? She takes one last sip of her drink before getting up.

  The guards inside the banquet room have gathered at the door. They continue to stack anything they can find on the barricade.

  Isis grabs a pistol from one of the injured guards. “Pull that junk out of the way. I need to open this door.”

  One of the guards stops and looks at her. “Ma'am?”

  “Do it. I’m not asking.” She looks back at her holographic screen. The security camera shows two Erohsians finalizing the charge on the banquet door. They stand up and run back for cover. Just as the door is cleared, Isis pulls it open, fires her pistol randomly down the hall, and snatches the explosive. She dives out of the way as Aether rounds tear chunks out of the door. In an instant, she looks over the explosive and pulls out the electronic detonators. She turns her eyes away just as they pop, singeing the tips of her fingers. She lets out a breath. That was too close.

  She waves the other guards back to the door. “What are you waiting for? Barricade the doors.”

  The thuds on the doors from the enemy slow. Isis pulls up her wrist computer. The hostiles have moved forward again, kicking at the doors with little effect.

  Good, only one explosive with them.

  She pulls up the combat channel and sends a note that the hostiles appear to be Erohsians in military uniform. Isis walks over to General Lark and the massive Borukin King, who are surrounded by guards. The Borukins stand a meter taller the Erohsians in the dining hall.

  “I thought this place was secured, General,” King Kamin says, his eyes ablaze with indignation.

  “It is, Your Majesty,” the general says. “Don't worry. You and your family are completely safe.”

  “Safe? I am not worried about safety. It is your complete lack of competence that insults me.” The King turns to Isis. “Who is attacking us?”

  Isis looks at the general and back to the King. “We’re currently looking into it. They appear to be disguised as our own military.”

  “How can you propose a partnership when you cannot even protect the most important building in your city?” the King roars. “You Erohsians are just as weak as I thought.” He turns and begins yelling commands to the Borukin guards.

  “What in Anterra is going on, Isis?” General Lark asks.

  “I don’t know, sir. I stopped their first assault and barricaded the door. I don’t think they have any more explosives to break through, so it should hold fine. Reinforcements are on their way. I’ll have this wrapped up shortly.”

  “Keep me updated, and for the Creators’ sake, don’t let anything happen to the Borukins.”

  “Yes, sir.” Isis moves back to the secured doors. There are faint thuds coming from the other side. Erohsian guards are scattered behind make-shift cover. On her holographic screen, she finds the reinforcements are only a few floors down.

  “Reinforcements are almost here,” Isis says to the guards. “When they arrive, I want to hit the hostiles from both sides. They look like Erohsians, so watch your friendly fire.”

  Isis pulls the security camera of the hallway back up on her holographic screen and taps on one of the hostile Erohsians. A profile of an Erohsian soldier pops up. He has an elevated Aether level.

  What does that mean?

  She taps on the other hostiles, noticing that they all have higher Aether levels than typical Erohsians. She sends a note over the combat channel to link hostile Erohsians to elevated levels of Aether.

  Friendly indicators of Erohsians appear on the far side of the hallway. Flashes of light zip down the hall, exploding off the barricades of the hostiles. The ones working on the banquet doors give up and move to face the new threat.

  Isis signals the guards and they clear the doors. The hostiles are cut down from both sides in a matter of minutes. None of them try to surrender.

  Isis crosses the hallway to meet up with the light infantry soldier leading the reinforcements. “Good work, soldier,” Isis says. “I want this floor completely secured. Mix up your soldiers and the guards to maximize effectiveness. The Borukin royalty is our number one concern. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Ma'am.” The soldier moves off.

  Isis puts on an injured soldier's helmet, synchronizes it with her wrist computer, and programs it to mark all Erohsians with elevat
ed Aether levels as hostiles. She accesses the building’s security system and scans for other alarms and notifications. Two pop up. One alarm shows a breach in the door to the roof and another shows a fire alarm in Capping and Extraction. She pulls up the video feed of the room and sees a frozen picture of light-infantry soldiers being consumed by a bright flash. An error message runs across the bottom. She switches the view to the hallway outside Capping and Extraction and sees a mangled door, covered in ice. Sprinklers add to pools of water. A few soaked Erohsian guards are just starting to pick themselves up. What's going on here?

  She rewinds the video feed until there is a bright flash. She hits play, and the video shows an immaculate hallway. After a series of events that leaves the hall a complete disaster, she sees a group of Human children leave the room, scurrying across the ice. Isis’s heart jumps and she freezes the picture, zooming in on their faces. Them! Why weren't they detected? She taps on each child and an Erohsian officer identification pops up. Because the system doesn't register them as Humans… She clenches her fists. How?

  She removes the security clearance on the fake IDs and puts a target flag on them. The security system tracks them to the sixty-fifth floor, moving down the stairwell.

  She opens a public channel to the security officer. “There are unauthorized Humans in the building, somehow using Erohsian identifications. They are heading down the stairwell. I've marked their IDs. We need them brought in alive and with minimal injury. Notify everyone to set their weapons to stun. I'm going to take a group and personally cut them off in the stairwell. Check the system to see if there are more fake IDs out there.”

  “There’s a group of five soldiers on their way up,” the security officer says. “They’re at the fifty-fifth level and will stop anything from getting by.”

  “Perfect.” She closes the channel and grabs two banquet guards and two soldiers, instructing them to follow.

  The door to the stairwell swings open, and red hostile indicators pop up on Isis’s helmet. She starts firing her pistol immediately as hostile Erohsians burst through the door. One falls to the ground, but the rest flood into the hallway. She jumps behind cover as a barrage of weapon fire fills the air.