Pride x Familiar (46 page)

Constance blurted, “It’s like an
earthquake.”

“No, Maya’s right,” Severin declared, “it’s the
gravity generators. There’s something disrupting them.” He
furiously typed on his data-slate. In the center of the room and
between all seven of us, holovid windows shaped like giant
elliptical bubbles winked to life.

I stared at the vistas they displayed,
struggling to accept what I was seeing.

In many of the bubbles we could see a black
vortex complete with thunder and lightning break out high over the
academy grounds. A sleek, fighter-like starship was slowly emerging
from the vortex storm, taking a large piece of the thunder and
lightning with it. Then the vortex began to shrink and fade
away.

For a few seconds the gravity fluctuations eased
just a little, then returned with a vengeance that knocked us all
to the ground.

Jaxon was the first to break the silence, though
the room was hardly quiet since the building continued to shake all
around us. He started to laugh while sitting on the floor which
felt like it was undulating under us. “Holy cow—if that’s Crescent
then they sure know how to make an entrance.”

Constance shot him a heated glare. “Is that all
you have to say?”

He grinned at her. “Well what more do you want
me to say?”

Maya struggled to stay on her hands and knees.
Then she shrugged off her school blazer, and rolled up her blouse’s
sleeves.

I heard her orders through the Fragment
Link.

*
Summon your Fragments and Artifacts.

I slipped out of my blazer and rolled up my
sleeves as well, exposing the wire frame bracelets on my wrists.
*
What’s the plan?

*We use our effect fields to counteract the
fluctuating fields inside the room.

I heard Jaxon laugh. He was out of his blazer as
well and had rolled up his sleeves too. *
Good call. You’re not
just a beautiful face.

*
Shut up, Jaxon,
I snapped at him,
realizing I’d felt a flash jealousy run through me.

Why the Hell was I jealous just now?

*Relax, baby. I only have eyes for you.

I wanted to throw something at him, but it was
my fault for not keeping my
mental
mouth shut.

Constance was growing angry. *
Would the lot
of you focus on what’s important?

I summoned my Valkyrie Armor, and the others
followed suit. The jousting lance appeared in Constance’s right
hand. Maya’s forearm gauntlets with its two attached Okatanas
manifested. Rina’s gun-blade emerged out of the wispy, evil looking
mist that surrounded her, and a sleek visor formed over her
face.

And last but not least, Jaxon’s Kaiser took form
around his body. The torso armor flexed like snake skin, while his
legs and arms were encased in sleek, medieval style armor that
looked light weight. I noticed his shield-blades were missing, but
he didn’t appear bothered by the fact they had no manifested.

The worst of the cold in the room faded, but a
good deal of the chill remained.

Then I felt an effect-field expand around Maya.
I called up my own field, and the others did the same. Rather than
clashing, our fields combined and soon covered the entire room and
part of the outside hallway. The violent tremors subsided.

With my Valkyrie Armor summoned, my Awareness
had expanded sharply. I could hear the sounds of screams and cries
through the hallways and rooms nearest us. I could even hear the
sounds of panic outside the building.

Prissila crawled over to Severin. “We have to do
something.”

Severin was on his knees, studying the holovid
bubbles. “The evacuation alarm has been sounded, but people are
unable to move about without risking injury.”

He stood up and staggered over to his desk. From
a drawer he retrieved an earpiece that served as a communication
device. Hastily fitting it to his right ear, he then carried a
second one over to Maya.

“You’re team leader, put this on.”

Maya took it from his hands but stared at it for
a long moment. I wondered what thoughts were going through her mind
at breakneck speed. However, her reluctance lasted only heartbeats
and she quickly attached the device to her left ear.

Severin didn’t waste time waiting for Maya. He
spoke quickly into the device he now wore.

“Dalton, do you hear me? Good. What’s the
situation in the computer room? I see. Yes—I received your message
about the seventh seal being down. Can you do something about the
effect-field gravity generators? The academy maintenance staff is
working on it? So they’ve shut you out of the process. What about
the evacuation? The tunnels are locked down? What do you mean
they’re sealed shut?”

Prissila looked up sharply. “That shouldn’t be.
The tunnels are supposed to automatically open in the event of an
emergency—”

Severin politely waved at her to be quiet, while
he listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. “You mean
Crescent has gained control of the life support systems?”

I pointed at a handful of the holovid bubbles
displaying various parts of the building interior. “The
students—they can barely move. It’s like the gravity has been
doubled.”

“More like quintupled,” Maya noted. “An Aventis
is strong enough to handle two gees without difficulty but this is
too much even for them.” She shook her head. “This way the students
are immobilized. They can be used as shields against an incursion
by Special Interventions.”

Jaxon laughed. “Why bother? No one’s going to
try entering the school grounds with that warship overhead.”

Maya scowled, “Don’t you get it? With so many
students around, Special Interventions can’t risk a firefight on
academy grounds or the buildings. And the underground access
tunnels leading in and out of Galatea are locked. So no one gets in
or out that way.”

Constance sounded impatient. “So now what? Does
that mean there’s nothing we can do?”

Jaxon shot her a look of disbelief. “You want to
go up against a starship? Look at the guns on that thing. Even our
Fragments wouldn’t last a more than a few seconds against it.”

I noticed he wasn’t referring to his armor and
mine as Artifacts, but as Fragments. Did that mean Maya and the
others didn’t know the truth about our armor? Was he keeping it a
secret on purpose?

Rina noted, “My gun-blade might be able to dent
its reaction fields.”

Maya shook her head sharply. “If we damage that
ship and it comes down on the school, we’re going to have thousands
of casualties. That’s no small ship. It looks larger than a
Pathfinder—probably more than two hundred meters long.”

“Damn it,” Severin cursed. “The comm-link just
failed. I lost contact with the Computer Club. Must be getting
jammed, or maybe Crescent has taken over the comm. relays within
the academy.”

Prissila edged closer to him. “Severin, we need
to do something.”

He shook his head sharply. “We can’t. We’ve lost
control of the school’s network, and that includes all the
life-support and emergency systems. Crescent hacked into every part
in the blink of an eye.”

Maya nodded to herself. “They were planning this
for months. Every time they breached the network, they probably put
in back doors into different systems. No wonder they took it over
so fast.”

I blinked as a thought came to mind. “You think
they’re controlling the network from that starship?”

Severin and Prissila looked at me. The President
shrugged faintly. “Probably.”

I leaned forward. “But initially someone had to
break the seventh seal from within the academy grounds.”

He nodded without hesitation. “Yes, that’s
true.”

I smiled thinly. “Then why don’t we find
Crescent’s hacker and take his Fragment.”

Maya shot me a look. “Even if we take it, we
can’t use it. But”—she smiled cruelly—“maybe we can
convince
them to return control of the network to the administration
staff.”

I nodded. “We can have them unlock the tunnels,
fix the gravity and get the students evacuated.”

Constance asked, “You’re going to
convince
them?”

Maya smiled even more cruelly. “Absolutely.”

Severin clenched his jaw, then declared, “I need
to get to the Computer Club. Over the past few weeks, Dalton’s
people converted it into a command center.”

Constance bit her lower lip before stating,
“You’ll never get there in time without my help.”

Maya agreed. “She’s right. With the gravity
system working the way it is, you’ll have trouble getting down the
corridors, let alone the stairs. If not for our effect-fields you
wouldn’t be standing right now.”

Constance added, “Your people in the Computer
Club may be suffering from the extreme gravity as well. I can help
alleviate that with my Fragment, and if communications are jammed,
you won’t be able to tell Maya and the others where to find the
hacker.” She tapped her jousting lance. “But I can do that through
the Fragment Link.”

Prissila looked worried. “Are you suggesting we
split up?”

Constance nodded. “Yes. This building is shaped
like a giant letter ‘H’, with the cafeteria something of donut in
the middle. I say we split up into two teams to both wings of the
building. This way one of us is guaranteed to be closer to the
hacker once Severin’s computer nerds find them.”

I looked at Severin. “Your Computer Club member
didn’t tell you where the Crimson Crescent hacker is located?”

Severin shook his head. He was trying to send a
message or do something with his palm-slate but was having no
luck.

Jaxon punched a fist against a palm. “Then let’s
go.”

Maya nodded resolutely. “We’re going to take the
fight to them.”

Then Rina pointed out an obvious fact. “We don’t
have our skinsuits, and none of us have drunk Aventis blood in many
days. We’re not at our strongest.”

All five of us Familiars turned to look at
Severin and Prissila, the only two Aventis in the room.

“Damn it,” Severin muttered and took off his
white blazer in a hurry. Prissila hesitated for a heartbeat before
following suit.

Despite the situation, once again I couldn’t
help but envy the girl’s voluptuous chest.

Severin stepped up to Maya and offered her his
left wrist. “You first, then Rina.”

Maya frowned as she took his wrist in her left
hand.

I saw Prissila offer her left wrist to
Constance, but the latter shook her head. “No, I’ll be with the two
of you. Maya and Jaxon need your blood more than I do.”

Again, Prissila hesitated but she moved quickly
over to me. “Don’t bite too deeply.”

I gave the golden haired girl a sour look. “I
have
done this before, Princess.” Then I concentrated on
extending my canines to their full length.

I bit down on the girl’s tender flesh, piercing
it easily and tasting her blood a heartbeat later.

I drank a mouthful then a second before pulling
back.

I wouldn’t need more than that.

Wiping my lips with the back of my hand, I
stepped back and gave Jaxon room.

He took Prissila’s hand gently, then with a
polite and respectful bow, he bit into the soft skin of her wrist,
puncturing the flesh an inch away from my bite marks.

Prissila winced and I watched her squeeze her
eyes shut.

After ten or so seconds Jaxon drew back, licking
the blood that remained on Prissila’s arm before it could dry and
harden.

Prissila started to draw her arm away and cradle
it, but Jaxon pressed a handkerchief over the wound.

He told her, “You don’t want blood on your
uniform, Princess.”

I couldn’t help but arch an eyebrow at his
performance.

While she accepted the cloth and gesture,
Prissila nonetheless gave him a suspicious look. “Appreciated,” she
mumbled.

I thought Jaxon might break into an elaborate
bow, but instead he just smiled innocently and took a step
back.

Maya cut into our thoughts. *
Let’s
go.

She turned and faced Severin and Prissila. “Stay
close to Constance.”

The girl nodded, and then her jousting lance
reconfigured. The conical mid-section slid forward to the peak of
the lance and changed shape into something resembling a small
umbrella.

Just how many different modes did that thing
possess?

Maya’s voice grabbed my attention. “The rest of
us will make our way to the opposite wings of the building. First
we’ll head to the entrance to the cafeteria, but you two”—pointing
at Jaxon and I—“will head to the east wing. Rina and I will stay
here in the west wing. We’ll take position at the opposite
entrances to the cafeteria.”

Severin rolled down his sleeve and slipped on
his white blazer. Making sure the earpiece was properly on his ear,
he said, “With that starship over the academy, it’s doubtful we’ll
get outside support. It’s more than likely they’ll blow away anyone
attempting to get near Galatea. Special Interventions has personnel
within the grounds of the school. However, we don’t know what their
instructions are for such a situation. So for now we rely on
ourselves.”

Maya asked, “Just to be certain, what
instructions did Special Interventions have for us?”

Severin laughed bitterly. “Their instructions
were for us to wait for their instructions.”

Prissila laughed derisively. “That’s
convenient.”

“In other words,” Severin added, “they’re
instructions were for us to stand down, and not move without
orders.”

Maya pursed her lips for a heartbeat. “So by
moving out we’re disobeying orders.”

He gave her a shallow nod.

Maya stared at him flatly for a moment, then
shrugged casually. “Sounds good to me.”

She turned to the door.

“Let’s go.”

#

(Haruka)