Alliance (10 page)

The pink light floats in the air for a
brief period before morphing into the form of a vaguely human
woman. She looks down on the agents seated around the table, while
ignoring me. Scanners indicate that the giant pink woman is made of
pure skyras energy, a phenomenon which I have never seen before in
person, although I am aware that some Delanian magic users can
conjure these kinds of 'skyras ghosts,' as they call them.

Then the skyras ghost says, in an
unusually loud voice, “Konoa, Rozan, everyone! There has been an
attack on the Xeeonite branch. Xeeonite agents are flooding into
the base by the dozens. Every agent currently within HQ must report
to the Tower immediately!”

“
What?” says Konoa in
shock. “Ma'am, what is—”

“
No time to explain,”
says the skyras ghost. She puts her hands together, like she is
begging them to help. “You can speak to Lanresia, who is the only
survivor in any shape to talk. But you must hurry, because she is
dying even as we speak.”

***

Chapter
5

A
s soon as the pink lady says that,
she vanishes into nothingness, leaving behind nothing to indicate
she even existed aside from a higher level of skyras energy
lingering in the room, although my scanners say that even that is
rapidly dissipating.

Before I can ask who that woman is or what
she means, Konoa and the other agents stand up. I expect them to
run toward the door, but instead, Konoa says to the witch, “Rina,
teleport us to Tower. We have no time to lose.”

The witch, whose name must be Rina, raises
her left hand, but before she teleports them away, I step forward
and say, “Wait. What is going on? What are you going to do with me?
Are you just going to leave me here or may I come as well?”

Rozan tosses me an irritated glare.
“You're not even an agent. Why do you think we'd take you with us?
You
weren't summoned, after all.”

“
Actually, I think he
can come with us if he wants,” says Konoa. He nods at me. “He's a
good robot, so I doubt he'll cause us any harm. Besides, we don't
have time to put him back in his room, so we might as well bring
him with us, where we can keep an eye on him.”

Konoa must have more authority over his
fellow agents than I initially thought, because none of the other
agents argue or disagree with him. Rozan rolls his eyes about this
decision, but like the rest of them he does not disagree.

Without any further objections from the
others, the witch known as Rina snaps her fingers. Then the room
changes so abruptly that at first my sensors fail to indicate that
our surroundings have changed at all, even though I can tell that
they have.

We are standing inside a massive,
wide-open chamber, with cobblestone walls, floor, and ceiling just
like the last room we were in. Only this time, rather than having a
large round table in the center of the room, there is an unusually
large Crossways Portal standing on a slightly raised platform. It
appears to be made out of stone, as most Delanian Portals tend to
be, and is currently active, based on the fact that I can see the
odd textures and strange green-and-purple portal within the ring
itself.

But we are not alone in this room. People
of various species—ranging from humans to the bird-like Checrom—are
exiting the Portal and being guided toward the exit on the far end
of the room by other people, who are probably Foundation agents,
although their lack of any uniform or identifying symbols makes
that hard for me to confirm. Still, the fact that all of them are
here is proof enough of their allegiance.

The people coming from the Portal appear
wounded and afraid. One of them, a male human, limps along, while a
female Checrom has most of her feathers burned off and her beak
chipped at the tip. Another person, this one a female human, steps
through the portal and immediately falls face forward, but is
caught in time by Rina, who I did not realize had teleported over
there to catch her just in time.

One of the injured Foundation
agents—because that is who these people must be, if the Head's
message is accurate—carried past me is a male Jikorian with three
deep gashes in his chest. He is completely unconscious, but I do a
quick scan of him anyway as his handlers pass me.

Scanners indicate that the Jikorian male
is a Xeeonite, because I detect several implants in his body, among
them a camera in his left eye that he likely uses to take pictures
with. But I do not learn much else about him, because soon he is
taken out of the room through the large double doors at the other
end, although where he is taken, I do not know.

As I stand there, the other Foundation
agents who teleported with me move to help their injured comrades.
Even Konoa goes to help, but before he does, a feminine voice says,
“Konoa!”

Both Konoa and I look in the direction of
that voice. A human woman is walking toward us, passing the long
line of Foundation agents who are transporting their injured allies
out of the room. Even so, she looks at each wounded agent as they
pass, even mutters what sounds like a prayer under her breath, but
I cannot tell what she mutters because it is in a language I do not
recognize.

My first impression is that this woman is
human, but as she walks closer to us, the information my scanners
give me make no sense. She has an unusually high skyras energy
level, much higher than even Rina's, but she has no rings on her
fingers with which to hold her skyras. What makes her skyras level
so remarkable is that she should be unable to so much as walk with
all of that energy flowing through her, but she moves as easily as
anyone else in the room. If anything, she appears to move even more
gracefully than the others.

Another thing I notice about her is her
body. Her back appears much larger and swollen than the rest of her
body, although with her silver robes I am unable to determine if
that is a natural part of her anatomy or if it is somehow a
mechanical implant or magical distortion. Even my scanners can't
identify it.

And like with all of the Foundation agents
(of which there appear to be many, based on the amount of agents
flooding in from the Portal and the amount of agents aiding those
agents in leaving this room), I find no files on her in the mobile
Database at all. At this point, I am tempted to stop using the
mobile Database entirely, although that is nothing but an idle
thought.

“
Ma'am,” says Konoa,
turning to face the woman as she approaches. He bows deeply, which
tells me that this woman must be highly important. “What happened?
Why are so many of our Xeeonite brethren so badly
injured?”

“
Lanresia will tell us,”
says the woman as she approaches us. “I'll take you to
her.”

I raise a hand. “May I come with you two?
I would also like to learn what happened, even though I am not a
Foundation agent.”

The woman stops and looks at me carefully
with her blue eyes, like I am a possible threat. Her fingers
twitch, like she is going to cast a spell on me, but she does
nothing.

Instead, she nods and says, “If you
wish.”

Then she turns and walks toward the exit
again. Konoa and I follow, although I notice Konoa keeps looking
back at the Portal and seemingly-endless stream of injured
Foundation agents coming from it (although I notice that the stream
is thinning). He must care very deeply about his fellow agents,
which adds more evidence to my theory that Konoa is a high-ranking
member of this organization.

It does not take us long to leave the room
and enter a hallway similar to the one I had been in earlier, only
slightly wider and with more people. The Delanian agents are taking
their Xeeonite counterparts into what appears to be a medical room
on the other side of the hall, but the woman does not lead us into
that room.

Instead, she turns to the right and walks
a few feet before stopping in front of a plain-looking stone door.
She pushes the door open and enters without hesitation, followed by
Konoa, and then myself.

The room we enter is almost too small
after the wide-openness of the Portal room. It reminds me of the
room they kept me in when I was first taken here, only it is a
little bigger and personable, with a bookshelf along one wall and a
bed with white sheets up against the opposite wall.

On the bed lies an elf, but she is not a
Delanian elf. While she is tall and has clear skin, like most
elves, she is also bald, a trend among Xeeonian woman that pegs her
as a Xeeonite native. Another hint is her speaking snake, a machine
attached to her waist like a belt that is designed to speak for
her, which means she must be a mute.

The elf herself is injured, although not
as badly as some of the other Foundation agents I saw earlier. A
cut runs along the bridge of her nose, while her left arm is broken
and in a sling now. One of the speaking snake's optics has been
burned out, although aside from that burned out optic, the rest of
the machine appears perfectly functional.

The elf looks up at us when we enter. She
smiles at Konoa, but then looks at me in confusion.

“
Who is that?” says the
elf, although it is actually her speaking snake that speaks, its
voice more mechanical and monotone than an organic's voice. “I have
never seen him before.”

“
He's a … guest,” says
the woman, who glances at me when she says that. “Don't worry. You
can trust him as much as you can trust me.”

Lanresia relaxes, which tells me that she
must trust this woman a great deal.

As for Konoa, he is at Lanresia's side
before I even realize it. He grabs her hand and holds it tightly,
his eyes focused exclusively on Lanresia, like he thinks he might
never see her again. Scanners indicate that his pheromone levels
are quite high, although that is irrelevant to our current
situation, so I do not focus on it.

“
Lanresia, my love,”
says Konoa, never taking his eyes off her for even a second. “I was
so worried when I heard you were injured, but I am glad to see you
have survived.”

“
I'm happy to see you,
too, Konoa,” says Lanresia, her pheromone levels as high as his. “I
thought for sure I was going to be a goner there, but thankfully I
managed to escape before they could kill me.”

I look at the woman, who now has her arms
folded across her chest, and ask, “Why did you put Lanresia in this
room separate from the other agents?”

“
Because I want to be
the first to know about what happened on Xeeo,” says the woman,
without looking at me. “Then I will tell the others, who are
already frightened and stressed by this sudden and unexpected turn
of events. The truth, whatever it is, will worsen their stress, so
it is better I hear the story first so I can deliver it later,
after this situation becomes less stressful.”

I cock my head to the side. “Are you the
Head?”

The woman nods, still keeping her eyes on
Lanresia and Konoa. “Yes. But that does not matter at the moment.
What matters is Lanresia's story. Lanresia, will you tell us what
happened?”

Lanresia looks at the Head and me,
although even I can tell she would rather continue to stare into
Konoa's eyes than talk about her experiences. Scanners indicate
that Lanresia's stress levels—which had dropped noticeably when
Konoa entered the room—are rising again, rising much higher than is
healthy for your average elf according to Database records on
typical stress levels for elves.

“
It was … horrible,”
says Lanresia with a shudder. “I don't want to talk about it at
all, but I will anyway, because I don't want a repeat here of what
happened there.”

“
Her stress levels are
rising quite high,” I say. “While I am no med-bot, I question the
wisdom of having her relate her experiences so soon after the
traumatic event she just experienced.”

“
I'll be fine,” says
Lanresia, waving at me with her other hand. “I just need a moment
to figure out where to start.”

“
That's fine, my love,”
says Konoa, who strokes her other hand gently. “Take your time. We
don't want to stress you out too much.”

Lanresia goes silent and appears to be
thinking. Then she says, “Well, I should get straight to the point:
The Xeeonite HQ was attacked by a group of humanoid lizard
creatures that can breathe fire.”

“
Humanoid lizard
creatures?” I repeat, unable to stop myself. “Did they, by chance,
resemble—”

“
J997,” says the Head,
glaring at me. “Don't interrupt her. Save your questions for when
she finishes her story.”

I have no reason to listen to the Head, as
she has no authority over me, but I decide to do so because it is
better to listen and get the facts first, rather than ask questions
that may not need to be asked. Besides, there is something about
the way the Head looks at me that tells me I will become scrap
metal if I continue to interrupt Lanresia's story with my
questions.

Lanresia takes a deep breath and continues
her story. “We don't know how the lizard creatures got in. We know
they started in the lower levels, where the Energy Center is. They
destroyed our generator, which caused the power to go out. Then
they made their way up to the higher levels, killing anyone they
ran into.”

“
How many agents did
they kill?” asks the Head, taking a step closer to Lanresia,
rubbing her hands together anxiously. “Was Kojama
killed?”

“
I don't know the exact
number,” Lanresia admits. She wipes sweat from her forehead. “And I
don't know about Kojama, either. We tried to fight the monsters,
but they were too strong and we didn't know what to expect. I
managed to save a lot of agents, but there was so much confusion
that I am not certain how many died and how many lived.”