need it...you knew that before any of us did."
I felt my jaw tighten again when another spasm of pain left his light. But I agreed with him. I hated how ruthless that part of me was, but when it came to this kind of thing, it rarely seemed to care about anything except accomplishing whatever it set out to do.
I rarely seemed to be able to fight it very effectively, either.
"All right," I said. I heard that part of me in my voice, too. "You're on surveillance. Guns only for now. I want you saving your light in case we need it for manipulation...same with your body. Tell me if you're getting faint, weak or if you're losing control of your light..." I looked up, swallowing involuntarily at his relieved expression. "They're going to be coming for us. We'll need you to get us out. Do you think you can maintain the shield again, well enough to contain the blast if we have to go through the wall?"
There was a pause where I felt him scanning his own aleimi.
Then he nodded, looking down at me. I saw that relief again, too, if anything more overt in his expression, even as he continued to run through scenarios in his head.
"Yes," he said, and I knew it wasn't only to the question I'd asked aloud.
He leaned close to half of his weight on me as we headed for the entrance to the vaults.
He limped heavily, even so. His left arm rested on my shoulders as he aimed his right hand, the one with the gun, behind us. He kept his eyes trained backwards, too. I knew it probably hurt him to turn like that, given where the wound was located just under his ribs on the right side of his torso, but I also knew we needed him covering us, so I didn't argue.
Instead, I walked us as fast I could around the hole in the carpeted floor, a crater nearly four feet deep at the center. That same point pock-marked the cement foundation roughly where the organic machine had been crawling when I saw it last.
We reached the other side, and I was relieved to see that the first set of doors into the back areas of the vault had been obliterated in the explosion, too. The heavy, organic metal slab hung halfway to the floor, dragging the smoking carpet from where it sagged on its remaining, broken hinge. It was then that I realized everything was covered in white powder from the cement and the broken sheet-rock, including me and Revik. His black hair was dusted white, too.
I didn't pause as we reached the opening, other than to help Revik navigate through the narrow gap between the hanging door and the wall.
"I'll handle the organic locks," I told him. "Do anything you can to save your light...even with basic scans. Same with surveillance...just point it out to me and I'll get it. We don't really need finesse at this point..."
I felt him agree without speaking.
Without talking about it, I realized we'd both agreed on something else.
I was in charge now.
3
HELP
JON POKED HIS head into the room they'd set up as one of the main common areas for the ex-rebels and mid-level infiltrators of the Adhipan and the Seven.
This one happened to function primarily as a feeds-watching and VR station, but the seers hung out there for more social purposes, too. The room itself, located on the fifty-sixth floor of the seer-run hotel, had been emptied of the conference table and chairs that originally filled more than half of it. The more corporate-style furniture had been replaced by couches, end tables and even a few reclining chairs, set up theater-fashion before the long wall monitor across one end of the room. The only things remaining from the room's previous purposing included a two hundred gallon fish tank filled with saltwater fish and a buffet-style table against the wall opposite the main monitor.
Even the bland, corporate-style art had been removed, replaced by the flag of the Seven and a large symbol of the sword and sun done on a traditional-style seer wall weaving.
"Hey," Jon ventured, glancing around the door. "...Have either of you been watching the news
I felt my jaw tighten again when another spasm of pain left his light. But I agreed with him. I hated how ruthless that part of me was, but when it came to this kind of thing, it rarely seemed to care about anything except accomplishing whatever it set out to do.
I rarely seemed to be able to fight it very effectively, either.
"All right," I said. I heard that part of me in my voice, too. "You're on surveillance. Guns only for now. I want you saving your light in case we need it for manipulation...same with your body. Tell me if you're getting faint, weak or if you're losing control of your light..." I looked up, swallowing involuntarily at his relieved expression. "They're going to be coming for us. We'll need you to get us out. Do you think you can maintain the shield again, well enough to contain the blast if we have to go through the wall?"
There was a pause where I felt him scanning his own aleimi.
Then he nodded, looking down at me. I saw that relief again, too, if anything more overt in his expression, even as he continued to run through scenarios in his head.
"Yes," he said, and I knew it wasn't only to the question I'd asked aloud.
He leaned close to half of his weight on me as we headed for the entrance to the vaults.
He limped heavily, even so. His left arm rested on my shoulders as he aimed his right hand, the one with the gun, behind us. He kept his eyes trained backwards, too. I knew it probably hurt him to turn like that, given where the wound was located just under his ribs on the right side of his torso, but I also knew we needed him covering us, so I didn't argue.
Instead, I walked us as fast I could around the hole in the carpeted floor, a crater nearly four feet deep at the center. That same point pock-marked the cement foundation roughly where the organic machine had been crawling when I saw it last.
We reached the other side, and I was relieved to see that the first set of doors into the back areas of the vault had been obliterated in the explosion, too. The heavy, organic metal slab hung halfway to the floor, dragging the smoking carpet from where it sagged on its remaining, broken hinge. It was then that I realized everything was covered in white powder from the cement and the broken sheet-rock, including me and Revik. His black hair was dusted white, too.
I didn't pause as we reached the opening, other than to help Revik navigate through the narrow gap between the hanging door and the wall.
"I'll handle the organic locks," I told him. "Do anything you can to save your light...even with basic scans. Same with surveillance...just point it out to me and I'll get it. We don't really need finesse at this point..."
I felt him agree without speaking.
Without talking about it, I realized we'd both agreed on something else.
I was in charge now.
3
HELP
JON POKED HIS head into the room they'd set up as one of the main common areas for the ex-rebels and mid-level infiltrators of the Adhipan and the Seven.
This one happened to function primarily as a feeds-watching and VR station, but the seers hung out there for more social purposes, too. The room itself, located on the fifty-sixth floor of the seer-run hotel, had been emptied of the conference table and chairs that originally filled more than half of it. The more corporate-style furniture had been replaced by couches, end tables and even a few reclining chairs, set up theater-fashion before the long wall monitor across one end of the room. The only things remaining from the room's previous purposing included a two hundred gallon fish tank filled with saltwater fish and a buffet-style table against the wall opposite the main monitor.
Even the bland, corporate-style art had been removed, replaced by the flag of the Seven and a large symbol of the sword and sun done on a traditional-style seer wall weaving.
"Hey," Jon ventured, glancing around the door. "...Have either of you been watching the news
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