The Day of Reckoning

Chapter 1: The Pillar of Education (Part 1)

The next morning, Renata awoke near dawn to find Laurel already dressed and sitting cross-legged on her bed, with her sword across her lap. Her friend sat with her eyes closed, and when she heaved a sigh, Renata heard the shakiness of her breath.

"Laurel?" Renata asked quietly.

Laurel did not answer; she muttered to herself. "It's going to work; it has to work! No, no—I don't want to succumb, don't want to put myself in that situation again! Will I be more vulnerable, because I've been exposed before? Perhaps on a different planet, in a different situation, the wyrts will be different as well. There's no other way! There has to be some other way! This is the only way to take down the network; they've tried other ways and failed. I must not fail! I cannot fail! If I fail, we might as well be dead!"

Renata shivered at the ominous musings. She grabbed her bathrobe and slipped out of bed to find Deej. The Ewok was certainly a comfort to be around, and he seemed to share Renata's love of peace and good food.

Laurel, meanwhile, sat immobilized by the horrific nightmares of her past. The thought that she would be willingly putting herself through that same nightmare all over again made her heart beat wildly in her chest. Why could wyrts not just be killed outright? Laurel rolled her eyes, knowing that every minute they delayed, the mother-mind formed another wyrt out of her body, like a polyp, and it crawled away out of the cavern to wherever she sent it. Where was the cavern? Could they not just get straight to her and take it down that way?

But Laurel knew that even if the mother-mind was easy to get to, killing her outright would send all the wyrt-hosts into neural shock because the network was so deeply entrenched here. Furthermore, she did not doubt that it would not be easy to get to in the least; surely the cunning Elitinati would be on their guard against anyone equally as cunning.

At last Laurel allowed herself a small smile. They wouldn't see this one coming; at least, not until it was too late to do anything about it.

Carsius rapped softly on the door.

"We're ready for you downstairs, Laurel," he announced soberly.

The Elf nodded and followed him.

In the library they had prepared her a small cloister in one of the alcoves, so that just in case the wyrt tapped in far enough to use her eyes, the Elitinati Mentor controlling it would not see anyone else with her, nor be able to discover her precise location.

Gorrmunsa approached with a syringe in his hand containing a vial of althraxine. He also had another device in his other hand, one that looked like a small stylus with a carpule of analthraxine.

"I'll administer the althraxine," he explained, "and when the wyrts sense it in your system, they will begin crawling toward you, and what you see will become visible to them for a moment. This injector-stylus," he placed the device in her hand, "is the fail-safe. If at any time you feel that you are in danger or risking too much, you must puncture your arm with the tip just inside your elbow and it will release the analthraxine and instantly neutralize the althraxine."

Laurel nodded. Augustus came forward, eyes alight with determination.

"Good luck, Laurel," he said genuinely. "You'd be the bravest person I know for doing this."

"Thank you," Laurel said, on the inside wishing she were miles away from this dangerous situation.

Renata ran forward and threw her arms around her friend.

"Be safe, okay?" she begged. "Don't forget to come back to us when you're done."

Laurel bent her head and kissed the springy red curls. "I'll come back, Ren," she promised, "Just for you."