"Are you sure there's nothing we can say to change your mind?" Sophia asks, just as the group prepares to climb onto the awaiting shuttle. "It's going to be strange going back without you. What will we tell your family?"
Sarah looks at her friends, who are all staring back at her. "I don't know, tell them I appreciate everything they did for me, and..." She stops mid-sentence, trying her best not to cry. She takes a deep breath. "Tell my brother I'm sorry. That I'll be thinking of him a lot. And that I'm fine. Tell him not to worry about me."
Sophia frowns, moving to give Sarah a hug – one which she gingerly returns – before turning to climb aboard the shuttle.
"We're going to miss you. I know it hasn't been very long, but I think you're making a mistake by staying here," Darius offers, extending a hand out toward Sarah. "There's got to be more for you back home than here."
Sarah takes the hand and shakes it; it's about the least awkward friendly gesture she can imagine Darius choosing, since they don't share the same kind of deep bond that he, Nicholas, and Sophia do. "I'm sure about this, Darius. I'm going to be fine here."
With a slight shrug, Darius nods. "Then take care of yourself, and take care of T.K, too." He nods to the alien, before turning to head onto the awaiting starship docked nearby.
"You'll be sure to let us know how things are going up here, alright?" Nicholas steps up next, proving to possess a bit less tact than his best friend as he tries to pull her into a notably warmhearted hug.
Sarah returns the hug, surprising him with a tighter squeeze than anticipated. "Thanks for everything, Nick."
Satisfied with the response, Nicholas looks her over and nods, moving to jog onto the ship behind him to join Darius and Sophia.
Ava is the last to approach. "Look, I know things started out poorly between us, but..." She looks away, folding her arms beneath her chest as she tries to properly express her feelings. "...you turned out to be alright." Her gaze returns to Sarah. "Just don't go do anything stupid while you're here, get yourself killed or something. We need to hang out again."
"Winding up dead isn't really in my plans, but yeah. I'd like that." Sarah nods slowly. She smiles, remembering a time when she used to think Ava was the worst person in her new school.
The group now fully in the shuttle wave goodbye as it begins to slowly lift off. The door whines shut, and after a few moments, the spacecraft quietly begins to lift away from the landing pad. It doesn't take particularly long for the ship to pierce the clouds and disappear, and, once out of sight, Sarah turns her attention toward T.K, Gene, and Nal'rook standing nearby. "Okay. I'm ready. Let's go."
Nicholas looks out the shuttle's window down to the planet below, thinking about what had happened hours prior. He had spent some time with Sarah before their departure, just talking, sharing stories, memories. He wonders what will happen to Sarah out here in the cosmos.
Back on the planet's surface, Gene motions for the group to move to the nearby door, the one leading back into the Wortani building, and the four begin to walk back inside. "According to our sensors, the Caveship should be returning to Torith soon. We've already prepared for its arrival, and if you'd like, you two can be present for the capture process."
The doors swish open on approach, allowing all four to enter the building as before. "I'd enjoy seeing the technology Wortani Enterprises have developed to capture a ship as advanced as the Caveship," Tah-Kuell says, rubbing his hands together eagerly and lifting an eyebrow. "I take it that it's something new, state-of-the-art?"
Gene shakes his head with a chuckle, lifting a hand slightly to give Tah-Kuell pause. "Nothing fancy. The machine works in in two stages. It utilizes tractor beam technology to hold it in place far enough away that it can't use its phase beam to abduct its original occupants, and then disables its computers and AI with an electromagnetic pulse aimed specifically at its vulnerable points, with enough power to pierce through the hull. Once we've disabled the ship, the plan is to move it somewhere we can lock it down so it can't leave, and then get some of our engineers inside to look at integral systems."
Tah-Kuell clasps his hands together excitedly. "Very interesting process. I would very much like to see it in action."
Sarah follows closely behind, wiping some of the tears away from her eyes. She stares at the ground as she walks, mulling things over. Tah-Kuell slows down his pace to join her side. He can tell that this whole ordeal is causing Sarah to have mixed emotions. He places his arm behind her back in a caring gesture. "I'm sure we'll find a way to communicate with them again some day. No need to worry."
Several ships dock on the floor above them. The mechanical whir and hum of several docking arms holding the ships in place being heard even as far down as the lobby below. Not having noticed them before, Tah-Kuell and Sarah now look inside some of the rooms they walk past. Most of the rooms are filled with what can only be described as lab equipment. Beakers, flasks, and cylinders of different shapes and sizes stand on top of shelves and tables inside. Praeryndori and several beings from a race Sarah has not yet seen work together to conduct experiments on several crystal artifacts suspended in the air.
Nal'rook looks between the two stragglers. "I must make some final arrangements with the President. For now, please proceed down to the viewing area." He lifts a wing and presses a square on the holographic menu still following him around. The ground lights up, almost like a trail, leading in the direction Tah-Kuell and Sarah must go. "We'll be joining you shortly. In the meanwhile, we ask that you not go into any other rooms, even if they're unlocked. We have many researchers and scientists working here. It is privacy concerns, you understand."
"Okay. We won't," Sarah says and, with Tah-Kuell following behind, turns to head down the hallway in the direction the trail of light leads.
Nal'rook and the President disappear from view as they head down a different corridor, one that is much more narrow than the rest, and hidden behind several storage boxes. A single nondescript metal door at the end of the corridor glows with a blue outline indicative of shielding technology.
"So, you're really into this sciency stuff, huh, T.K?" says Sarah as they both walk toward their destination down the hall.
"Oh, yes, I've always been interested in technology. It's what my people do. We study. We learn. Then we share. Over the several hundred years I've been alive so far, the collective knowledge of my species has been incredibly useful in this part of the galaxy," Tah-Kuell smiles, continuing to walk alongside Sarah. "I must say, it's a relief to know that I'll have one of my friends with me for this new journey. I'd have much preferred you all to stay with me, but I can certainly understand the strong desire to return to one's home."
Sarah swallows, turning her eyes downward. Without much of a response, she gets quiet again.
"Have I said something to upset you?" Tah-Kuell frowns slightly, turning his attention back to her.
"No, it's not that, I just..." She sighs. "It's fine. I'm just wondering what I'll be doing from now on, where I'll be staying. I forgot to ask them before everything was finalized, mostly because I didn't want our last night together as a group to be depressing." Sarah reaches a hand up to scratch her neck, realizing how little Tah-Kuell could answer. "Maybe I can wait for Gene and Nal'rook to ask them. I hope they can at least give me a room to sleep for the night."
Tah-Kuell looks back over at Sarah, his spindly fingers scratching his chin. "Why wait? I'm certain Gene or Nal'rook would be eager to answer a question like that." He motions for Sarah to follow the line back. "You should go and ask them. I believe we are not too far away. I can tell that these questions will eat at you until you receive the answers you're looking for, so I will wait here until you return."
Deciding this as the best course of action, primarily because Tah-Kuell had hit the nail right on the head with his observation, Sarah turns around and jogs off in the direction of the light trail leading back to the entrance of the building.
"Thanks, T.K. I'll be right back!" She calls to him. They hadn't gone especially far at their casual pace, but by the time she'd made her decision it was still a bit of a jog just to get close. Sarah walks into the narrow corridor the President and Nal'rook had entered just minutes before. She only slows when she hears the low din of voices. Sarah quietly moves in close to the end of the hallway until she can hear what is happening behind the door. She catches them in mid-conversation.
"...should go smoothly. Everything is prepared, and they've done the ancillary tests to ensure it was working properly," Nal'rook speaks, a few gentle beeps showing that he is still using the holographic scheduler from before. Though it's clearly more than just a scheduler by this point. "...if I may be so bold, Mr. President, why did you feel the need to lie to those children? They are just children, are they not? I must admit that my knowledge of Humans is very limited."
"No real reason." Gene is seated behind his desk and turned away to stare out the newly formed window viewing the habitable zone below the space elevator. Starship traffic flows in a surprisingly smooth and harmonious manner. Complete, controlled chaos in a nutshell. "I just wanted to make sure all the loose ends were tied up. Nothing wrong with an overabundance of caution, Nal'rook."
"And what of the girl and the humanoid alien?"
Gene goes quiet for several seconds, before he responds. "The humanoid was an x factor I hadn't anticipated, but the girl will be briefly useful. Her presence will save us a lot of trouble capturing the ship. It's going to come directly to her, to pick her up. The humanoid can be ignored, he didn't have one of those things on his wrist, but the girl? If only she knew the power she held, she could be trouble."
"So we'll be disposing of the girl?"
"Dispose of them both once we've captured the ship. Nothing good can come of having those two around, especially that Grey." Gene spits the word 'Grey' with considerable vitriol. "He'll no doubt catch on to what we're doing before long. That omnitool is the key to all this. To harness the ship's true power. Ensure that this gets done."
Nal'rook nods, observing as Gene walks away in the opposite direction. "As you wish, sir." The clack of his talons against the floor echo through the room as he moves to step around the corner of the door. He pauses, staring down the hallway, eyes quietly considering it. His feathers ruffle slightly but then he calms, and they flatten down against his body once more. Quietly, he changes course and steps away, the clack of talons fading away signifying he is gone.
Sarah, who'd ducked behind one of the storage containers, waits until the clack of talons dull before she walks back down the way she had entered and checks to ensure the Praeryndori is gone. She quietly turns the corner to the other corridor and then runs as quickly as she can while making as little noise as possible. She finds Tah-Kuell right where she'd left him, where he'd promised to wait.
"How did your inquiries go? Were they able to answer your questions?" Tah-Kuell smiles, tilting his head inquisitively. Catching her breath, Sarah leans against the wall nearby. "They're going to...they're going to... kill.. all of us..." She finally manages to regain her composure.
"Preposterous. They have no reason to kill us," Tah-Kuell says, at first sounding incredulous, but then quickly growing worried simply by the sound of his voice. "What are you talking about?"
"Gene isn't as 'benevolent' as you think he is. There's something sinister about him. He says that the omnitools we have are a key to power," Sarah explains, in a hushed, albeit hurried voice.
Tah-Kuell's eyes turn toward Sarah's omnitool on her wrist, the solid metal seeming to wriggle slightly as his gaze crosses it. "Hmm. I hadn't considered it, but perhaps the omnitools are indeed the key to controlling the Caveship in some manner. I have a lot of hypotheses, but no real theories as of yet."
"More importantly, we need to find a way to stop them from capturing the Caveship. And we need to find Nicholas and the others. They're not safe," Sarah says, pushing away from the wall and moving to run along the line leading them to the viewing area, which is filled with tables and fine dining.
Quickly jogging to keep up, Tah-Kuell's longer strides allow him to do so in a timely manner. "Gene mentioned earlier that the technology they're using is current but upgraded tractor beam technology. They're very large, very dangerous machines, but if they're like any of the other tractor beams I've seen, they have a maintenance hatch that leads to the innards of the system. If we can reach the machine and get you inside before they start it, you're just the right size. You should be able to fit. Once inside, you would merely need to disrupt the inner workings somehow. I'm not familiar with the model Gene is using, so once you're inside, you'll have to find a way to damage it ."
"I'll figure it out," Sarah calls back to Tah-Kuell, turning the corner to face a silver metal door. It swishes open to allow them entry into another section of the facility, an area set aside for people to view launches and landings, as well as the city. The thick glass windows seem safe and impenetrable, and the only other door in the vicinity leads to a walkway that extends straight to an oval landing platform, where several workers are moving fuel tanks to and fro. Through the glass they can see an enormous machine in the shape of a pyramid attached to the side of the landing pad.
"There it is. I recognize the design. There's some adjustments, but..." Tah-Kuell looks at Sarah, who's already at the door leading to the walkway. Though she tries to open it in various ways, it beeps lightly at her with each attempt, signifying that it's locked. "It must need security access."
Sarah begrudgingly slams the door with her fist in anger, then sighs. "This is taking too long."
"Try using your omnitool," Tah-Kuell says. "Sophia did something similar once. Perhaps if you focus on your need to open the door, the omnitool will react?"
Deciding to take Tah-Kuell's advice, Sarah presses her hand against the door. She closes her eyes and concentrates. "I need this door open," she states aloud, as clearly as she can. A few quiet moments later, the door beeps in a different manner than before and swishes open, allowing Sarah out onto the walkway. Surprised, she smiles back at Tah-Kuell and chuckles a bit. "It worked! Alright. Maybe you should stay here, T.K."
"Good idea. You'll be more inconspicuous this way. I just hope when this is over, the caveship decides to pick me up as well," Tah-Kuell smiles, giving Sarah a nod and a wave. "Good luck."
Sarah smiles and rushes out onto the walkway. There's a few aliens near the entrance – a single Drakken and a Praeryndori, both occupied with separate tasks – so Sarah is able to cross the walkway and move in close to the device. She looks it over, slowly circling it, until she finds exactly what she's looking for. The maintenance hatch, just a simple opening at ground level, colored silver with yellow and black stripes like most of the spaceport modules in the station.
Kneeling, Sarah moves onto hands and knees to crawl inside, finding it a bit of a tight fit until she gets a few feet in, where she finds enough room to stand, although still a bit cramped.
The inside of the machine blinks a mix of green and white glows from numerous panels, illuminating the inside brightly. While the walls are host to thick black wires, it's impossible to guess which of them would fully disable the thing. In the middle of the room is an obvious power source, a single core of some glowing blue metallic element that's clearly used to generate the immense power the machine needs to operate. It is held in place via some sort of stasis field, and as Sarah carefully approaches, the metallic core shimmers and reacts to her presence.
Before Sarah can reach out to try to adjust or take the core, she feels a burning pain on her wrist caused by the omnitool, forcing her to react by grabbing hold of her arm. The lights inside the machine suddenly switch from their greens and whites to a bright, constant red. The core in front of her rapidly begins to spin, almost out of control, and as she tries to take in a breath she realizes that she struggles to do so. The burning on her wrist quickly becomes an afterthought as she's rapidly deprived of oxygen, and she tries her best not to panic.
Even though she tries to calm herself, desperation begins to set in when her breathing becomes unsatisfactory. As the device whines to life, her head starts to swim, and she feels her balance start to leave her. She staggers backward and falls onto her backside, looking around in a disoriented manner, and down at the rapidly wavering omnitool on her wrist. She can't speak, but she thinks it. 'Please, help me.'
The omnitool shimmers, then slowly liquefies, the liquid metal flowing slowly over Sarah's hand, fitting it like a glove. The only thing keeping her from feeling the searing sensation of her flesh from the omnitool's movement is the adrenaline. While not initially sure what good this might do her, she pushes her way to a slow stand while still gasping for air. Staggering closer to the core, she reaches out with her covered hand and, deciding that a fast, gruesome death was far preferable to a slow and agonizing one, she grabs hold of the spinning metal core.
The moment her hand touches it, the core stops spinning, quickly molding into the glove the omnitool had created to protect her hand. The glove, larger and more powerful now, begins to pulsate, throbbing against her hand. The lack of a power core causes the machine to shutdown, faint white lights helping to illuminate the inside now instead of the bright reds from earlier. With the machine shut down, Sarah breathes deeply of the precious oxygen as the air comes rushing back in. The stasis field completely collapses. Having no further desire to stay, Sarah shakily makes her way back to the maintenance hatch above.
Sarah crawls out to the sight of several more aliens on the landing platform; several of them are looking up toward an awesome sight: the caveship, hovering only a hundred feet or so overhead, unmoving. Gene, however, stands proudly on the landing pad, holding a pistol, having acquired Tah-Kuell and brought him onto the platform by force. It's a smaller laser weapon, though no doubt it packs enough punch to kill someone unarmored.
"You know, I had a feeling that you were smarter than you looked. I should have simply killed you both the moment your friends left the dock. Hell, I should've killed you all, right from the start. That's what I get for being empathetic, I guess. Maybe just a bit too sentimental for my own good. Of course, the peaceful way never works." Gene chuckles, leveling the pistol to Tah-Kuell's head. "Tell you what. Give me your omnitool and everyone gets to leave this planet alive."
"You're a lunatic," Sarah growls, slowly pushing her way to a full stand. Still feeling weak from the lack of oxygen from before. "T.K, are you okay?"
"Busy having my life flash before my eyes, but yes, all things considered..." Tah-Kuell tries to joke nervously. "You'd be surprised how long that takes when you're closing in on four hundred years..."
Gene pushes the pistol against Tah-Kuell's head harder to shut him up, looking toward Sarah half expectantly, half angrily. "Don't try anything funny. Or I will turn his head into paste."
"I can't remove it," Sarah slowly lifts the hand with the thicker still glove-like omnitool on her hand. She uses her free hand to pull at it. It reacts but snaps back into place. "I've tried. We've all tried. If you want it so bad, you're going to have to remove it for me." She extends her hand toward Gene.
"Do you take me for a fool?" Gene laughs, moving behind Tah-Kuell and pressing the pistol against his back. "The Grey should have the capability of removing it from you. Go on." He pushes Tah-Kuell forward, closer to Sarah. With a weary smile, Tah-Kuell reaches out to gently take hold of the glove-like omnitool, using two fingers to pinch the omnitool in two different places. Gently, he begins to slide the glove off, an action that creates a look of surprise on Sarah's face.
"I'm turning around now to hand you the omnitool," Tah-Kuell speaks aloud, slowly moving to turn. He gets halfway, before he nods to Sarah. Snapping out of her initial surprise, she nods back, and quickly shoves the alien out of the way, thrusting her hand forward to have the omnitool engulf her hand once more, shaping perfectly to the contours of her skin with a searing, hot pain. She winces as the burning sensation passes. It's Gene's turn for surprise, letting off a shot from his pistol that the omnitool seems to block and absorb.
Sarah walks over to Gene and grips the pistol, tearing it from the man's grasp and tossing it off the side of the platform, making it fall unceremoniously down to the city below.
High above them, the caveship begins to hum back to life. The sides of the massive vessel begin to light up with a blue aura and its engines start firing back up. Tah-Kuell notices, and once he's regained his balance from the shove, he grabs Sarah and pulls her away from Gene. "We need to go! Quickly!"
Gene, still in shock of what has just happened, grits his teeth and reaches out to grab Sarah by her shirt. "Now you wait just a damn minute!"
Sarah, reacting instinctively, pushes the gloved hand into Gene's face, forcing the metal to sear his skin. With an agonizing cry, Gene releases her shirt and reels backward, desperately crawling over toward one of the nearby Drakken guards. He reaches up to forcibly tear the alien's rifle from his hands and quickly removes the safety from it. He cocks the gun with a smile on his face. "Once I get that damn thing off your hand, I'm thinking torture, for the both of ya."
Now with a firm grip on Sarah, Tah-Kuell forces her near him, leaning toward the nearest edge. Gene frowns, realizing what they're about to do. "Forget it, I'm skipping the torture." He levels the rifle toward Sarah and Tah-Kuell, fumbling with the weapon's safety mechanism.
Sarah and Tah-Kuell glance at each other, before they rush for the edge, leaping; the crack of laser fire echoes around them. Sarah barely feels the energy from a near hit sear her cheek, the adrenaline numbing her senses from the pain.
"Now what?!" screams Sarah as she plummets down through the clouds to the city below.
"Now we just hope that the caveship catches us before we hit the ground!" Tah-Kuell shouts over the rushing air to his companion. "No matter what happens, I want you to know that I'm lucky to have found you and your friends! You did an amazing job!"
Even with the threat of an impending impact looming beneath them, Sarah spares her fate only a mild glance before smiling. "I know! I'm glad I got to meet you too."
"I like to think that life is only the beginning of our journey," Tah-Kuell nods, though before he can speak further, something blots out the sun overhead. The caveship descends over them, suddenly flooding the two with a brilliant blue light. Sarah can feel the energy gently slowing her to a stop. All of the aliens on the platform stare in awe and shock as the massive vessel comes down closer to rescue the two, suspending them in mid-air.
Sarah looks up at the brilliant lightshow the ship is producing and can't help but laugh.
The light flashes different colors and one moment, they're outside; the next, they're aboard the bridge. Sarah hits the familiar metal grating and rolls to her stomach. She pushes herself up and takes a moment to examine herself in case she'd taken a hit and, finding that she's not dying, quickly moves to take one of the caveship's handful of seats. Her gloved hand seems to move on its own, the liquefied metal pressing buttons on the side of the chair. The ship reacts to the inputs, rapidly ascending within seconds. It steadily adjusts course in a seemingly random direction, before rapidly accelerating at lightspeed.
The door leading onto the bridge splits and opens to allow a weakened Tah-Kuell onto the bridge, who quickly moves in closer to look Sarah over. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." Sarah turns her chair to face Tah-Kuell. "What about you?"
"A bit shaken after all that, but..." Tah-Kuell gasps as his eyes scan her face again at the perfect angle to see the damage.
"What! What!" Sarah lifts her hands to touch at her face, letting out an 'ow' on instinct when she accidentally touches her face with her gloved hand. Her free hand eventually finds the wound on her cheek. "Oh. Just a little scratch. I guess it's not that big of a deal. Is this going to be okay? I don't know anything about laser fire."
Tah-Kuell gently touches the wound as well, before he nods, satisfied. "We'll need to put a bandage over it for a while, but the good news is that laser fire cauterizes the wounds they create. You'll have a scar, but otherwise, you'll be fine."
On the several screens at the front of the bridge, a ship quickly comes into view; it's the shuttle. The caveship rapidly catches up, flooding the entire vessel with its trademark blue light. When the caveship cuts the light show, it quickly pulls away from the ship.
"Did it just...?" Sarah mutters, looking at the view screen.
"I imagine they'll be here shortly," Tah-Kuell says, turning to the door. Sarah stands as well, feeling the adrenaline in her system start to wear thin, the exhaustion of the events gradually catching up to her. They both wait, staring at the closed door on the bridge.
As the door opens, in rushes each of the other four, confused at the sight of the two inside, and to being once again aboard the caveship, but clearly relieved.
"What just happened?!" Sophia gasps, aborting a hug meant for Sarah at the last second. "Your cheek...!" Sarah touches the wound gingerly, wincing slightly.
Nicholas approaches both Tah-Kuell and Sarah with a concerned look, frowning in confusion at the metal glove in Sarah's hand. "What went wrong?"
"It's a long story," says Sarah, breathing hard from debilitation. "Just...give me a minute, I'll explain everything..."