67. The Three Sions

The group followed Critinous back through the broken facility to the elevator. Above, a collection of energy fluid hung, suspended in its force field. The elevator shaft ran through the fluid to the upstairs and freedom. To one side, three skitters wrenched and tore at a black cube on the floor.
 
Fureva-Yung and Marius leapt to attack the tiniest of the shard’s minions. With one swing of his fist, Marius smashed one in half as Fureva-Yung succeeded in grabbing the other and throwing it up into the bubble of acid. The third scrambled inside the box. A ripple went through the precariously held acid as the shields began to fail. It seems the skitters had succeeded in disrupting the machinery controlling the shields. Marius and Fureva-Yung start to back up as the bubble of acid drooped and saged around them. Going in the other direction, Nox flitted under the sagging field and touched the black box. Instantly, is understood the skitters hadn’t quite completed their work. The main communication paths had been destroyed, but the computer system was attempting to reroute. It was the reason the force field was sagging and not collapsing altogether. Nox helped reinforce the bypass. Unfortunately, she could also see the third skitter, trying to complete its work from the inside.
“Can you do something about that bug?” She asked as Fureva-Yung stepped back under the acid. Though all her screamed to get clear of the acid, the leaned over Nox, protecting her from the threat from above. Ignoring the acid, Fureva-Yung thrust her hand after the skitter, succeeding at shoving her fingers in its mouth parts. If she couldn’t grab it, just maybe she could stop it from chewing more of the box. In retaliation, the skitter slammed Fueva-Yung’s hand back into the circuits Nox was trying to protect. A bolt of electricity zipped up Fureva-Yung’s arm. It was’t even as fun as a tickle from a stun baton.
 
Following Fureva-Yung’s hand, Nox reached into the box and touched the skitter. The fight with the slither of shard was short and one-sided. Nox controlled the skitter, making it fix the damage it had caused. Soon the shields started reinforcing and lifting back into place.
Fureva-Yung breathed a sigh of relief and stepped away from the hovering acid. Nox, focused her thoughts on the tiny piece of the shard and snuffed it out with a thought. The skitter crumpled into a heap of junk metal.
 
“Do you have anything I can put this thing in?” Marius asked, juggling the crystal prison the shard was captured in.
“Will this do?” Fureva-Yung pulled out a cypher that when added to a piece of clothing made a pocket large enough to hold a person. He easily fitted the crystal in its new pocket, freeing his hands for the the climb up to the next level.
 
 
 
 
 
From the top of the stairs, Fureva-Yung smelled a very faint nano smell. She followed her nose down the hall to a odd-shaped room with a clam shell-shaped device its centre. Humming came from the device. Suddenly, Fureva-Yung was surprised as her chain pulled her towards the machine. Grabbing the walls and floor with strong hands and capable feet, she firmly planted herself in the hallway, straining to stay in place. Marius too could feel him implant being pulled by a strong magnetic force. He quickly looked around the corner and saw another skitter just behind the machine. He pulled himself back round the corner as Nox handed him, her helmet and flitted into the room. Wearing nothing metallic, she flew in, spotted the partially hidden skitter and blasted it with a psionic blast. It ducked away behind the machine. The humming intensified. It was clear to Jaden that whatever this machine was designed to do, it was being pushed past its limits now. She left Bellyache behind and ran into the room in search of the skitter causing the trouble. Making a concussive bomb, Marius rolled it around the edge of the room towards where the skitter was last seen. The pull on Fureva-Yung’s chain was getting stronger. Instead of fighting against the pull, she stepped up onto the device so she was perpendicular to the magnetic pull.
 
Honing in on her prey like a bird, Nox once more blasted the skitter, and it stopped dead. The noise kept building. Jaden moved into the centre of the machine and found the magnetic pull was only on the circumference of the device. She started shutting down the machine, but too late as it reached its breaking point, and exploded. Fureva-Yung, violently released from the pull, bounced back up the hall towards Marius. Dodging aside, Marius rubbed his hand and went to work. Besides finding a few useful io in the skitter, Marius also scrounged the plan seed for a cleaning mech. These Jaden gratefully received.
 
Moving easily through the machine, Fureva-Yung found a set of double doors.
“What is this room?” She asked Critinous who was following along behind with the Titan, Fred.
“A storeroom, but it's been cleaned out,” Critinous said as Fureva-Yung opened the door. A long room with shelving appeared. Lit tracks ran the length of the room to the back where another door stood. It was clear by the disturbed dust that things had been hastily taken from the shelves.
 
Fureva-Yung was about to step into the machine when a blast of energy whizzed past her head. Running in, Marius saw four warriors bunched in the back of the store room, peaking around cover. He started making another concussion bomb as the warriors attack. A second warrior shot and missed Fureva-Yung as a third opened the door at the back and the fourth ran through, coming in behind the party. Nox teleported in behind the first warrior and saw the other two fighting Fureva-Yung and Marius in the storeroom. Fureva-Yung used her fleet of foot and zipped into the room to do her spin attack on the two remaining warriors. Jaden went to one of the fleeing warriors and with a touch, shut him down for a minute. Mario threw a concussive bomb, successively hurting the two warriors and Fureva-Yung. The warriors fought back two missing Marius and Jaden, with one cutting Fureva-yung with their sword arm. Jaden, seizing the opportunity, touched the second warrior and deactivating it as well.
“Hey! That was my one!” Nox complained, turning to psychic blast the two warriors in the storeroom instead.
 
Wanting more power for her chain swing, Fureva-Yung tried changing her state into that of the fugue, Yung. She failed to connect to her more basic nature and instead turned on the stun baton attached to her chain.
Marius threw in a second concussive bomb, rocking both Fureva-Yung at the two warriors. To add insult to injury, with his extra movement he stepped into to punch a warrior, swung wide and hit Fureva-Yung instead. She looked balefully down at Marius, usually so sure and confident in his movements,but said nothing. Now they were both between the two warrior servitors.
 
“Look, you can go after one of the others,” Jaden defended her actions by reaching into a servitor twitching at her feet and pulling out a vital lead. The servitor went limp, then, Ka-boom! It exploded, throwing her and Nox is different directions. Nox bounced off the wall close to the storeroom door as Marius reached into one of the warriors and pulled out wiring, servos and circuitry. Ka-boom! The servitor exploded as well, Nox thrown back into the hallway from where she’d come from.
“Can you please stop blowing me up!” She complained, as Jaden once more went rummaging around in a warriors innards.
“Fair enough,” She said, grabbing the warrior and tossing it into the storeroom with Marius and Fureva-Yung, a string of wiring and circuitry, like spilled guts, trailed after. Ka-boom!
Fureva-Yung swung her chain at the last, snapping its head off the last warrior’s body. It, too, exploded. Before the force to reach the battered Nox, she turned and shielded her communications officer.
“Thanks,” Nox said wearily, patting the armour of her Admiral and friend.
 
Leading the way, Marius and Fureva-Yung climbed the stairs to the next level. Goosebumps rose on their skin, their hair rose around them, as they realised they were stepping up into the gravity column room. Without discussion, they scrambled back down the stairs, and they all took the lift to the top floor.
 
They were back in the first room with the heavily lined walls. The door that led to the stairs and the outside was welded shut hastily by what looked like one of the warrior's cannon arms. Nox smirked at the attempt to keep them in and reshaped the weld so the door opened as usual.
 
Tired, bruised and battered, the party of Fureva-Yung, Marius, Jaden and Nox, along with Critinous Torn, Bellyache and the Titan, Fred, all escaped the heavily shielded zone of the Eastern Junction. With one last push, Nox teleported the group as a whole back to Tiltspire to the surprise and shock of its residents. What explanation the residents felt they deserved was not supplied as almost all the group separated to their individual homes. All except Marius, who was eager to get the Sions up the Spire and turn on the transfer.
“Tomorrow, “ Jaden said, begging patience from the eager young man, “Critinous Torn has just arrived, and we’re all bushed.”
“I’m not,” Marius grumbled but soon headed home to Temila.
 
Nox, who was exhausted and desperate for sleep, still found a moment to talk to Raffi.
We found the last Sion, Fureva-Yung’s friend from before. There was a heap of servitors, some really big ones, one Marius made a friend of. It’s named Fred. Oh! And I found something that might help you with that stupid seed. She pulled out the Flaying key, a terrible and amazing device. With the right help, it could save Raffi. In the wrong hands….she didn’t like to think.
I wish I was there to see everything you’re seeing, Raffi lamented. His current life as a gardener in the dome was even more depressing than his life on the streets had been. Nox’s stories only reminded him how badly he’d imprisoned himself in this life of grind.
You will, Nox yawned, unable to stifle her fatigue any longer, You and me out in the world, you see…. any day…
 
It was lunch by the time the whole group was back together and riding the elevator up to the top floor of the Spire. Just as before, the three chairs sat in the middle, heads in the middle, a reader on the armrest for the tattoos. Now, all three dots were at the Spire. It was time to send the Shard to the orbiting prison across the universe.
 
The Sions took their seats, and for the first time, all three lights went green. A display lit up above their heads, stating systems that were online and functions that were now available.
“Open communications to the receiver,” Fureva-Yung announced, sounding like the Admiral she was.
Codes and commands streamed above the watcher’s heads, and a connection with the space station light years away was established.
RECEIVER OFFLINE. REPAIRS REQUIRED. REQUEST PERSONEL INVESTIGATE, The last line of transmission flashed for everyone to see.
“Turn on life support. Prepare for arrival.” Fureva-Yung commanded and the instructions flashed across the ceiling.
An hour later, a new message flashed across the ceiling.
LIFE SUPPORT ONLINE. TELEPORTATION PLATFORM READY…
“We’re going to space!!” Squealed Nox, and though none of the others shared in her celebration, Fureva-Yung, Marius, and Jaden were all ready to see the end of the Shard.