[The chase scene here took two months to get right. Granted a lot of that two months was spent staring blankly at these paragraphs trying to make something better come out. Ended up writing most of it while listening to the System Shock 2 soundtrack, so you might notice it's paced like Med Sci 1. Beginning to see why Phillip K. Dick always glossed over his murders and shootouts (like the initial bomb set-up in Ubik). Still, this is THE chapter I've been waiting to write for a long time. At last, Xak will get some much-needed answers, including the most important revelation of all: Just where the hell he is.]

CHAPTER 3

"Good morning, Doctor." Xak counted his eleventh trip to Dr. Adrus' laboratory. The first six started with him begging for answers or mercy. Today he had something else in mind.

"Ah, good morning Xak." He caught the old elf off guard. "You seem to be in a better mood lately. Having fun with those new kinetic actuator implants, are we?"

"Actually, Doctor, I was thinking about killing you."

"Oh." said Adrus in mock surprise. "Well, I do trust you'll decide against that."

"I've already decided. I was just thinking about how I would do it."

"That is an unfortunate conclusion, but you have the right to your own fantasies." Both men knew this wasn't happening today. Xak was tied down to an operating table without so much as a finger to move and Adrus was already lining a knife up against his left leg. "Out of curiosity, how would you intend to kill me."

"It wouldn't take much. At first I thought I'd simply strangle you to death." Xak paused to grit his teeth as the scalpel split his skin open. He wasn't about to give Adrus another cry of pain. "But that would give you too much of a chance to fight back, so I thought of getting you in a headlock and snapping your neck." Xak watched the doctor peel back strips of flesh and muscle like cutting an orange. "The problem with that is it's quick and painless, so I had an idea to take a knife just like the one you're holding and carve your eyes out. Then again, that would take an awfully long time, and I may not be able to stay in the room that long." He was speaking through a clenched jaw as Adrus took a thumb-sized cybernetic device and attached it right to his naked bone. "So this is how I'm going to kill you. I'm going to take that knife you're holding and cut your left arm, just between the bicep and forearm. See that purple line?"

Adrus glanced briefly to his arm as he put Xak's leg back together. "Yes. That would be the radial artery."

"That's right. I'm going to give that one quick slice and walk out of the room. After I leave, you'll be losing gallons of blood a minute. You'll have less than two minutes before you pass out, and by the time anybody finds you, you'll be completely dry."

"Impressive. I wasn't aware you needed an understanding of the humanoid circulatory system to become a bartender these days."

"You don't. Do you want to know why I learned that?"

This piqued the doctor's attention. He calmly put his scalpel aside and leaned closer to his patient for curiosity's sake. Xak's eyes bore into his, letting the gravity of the answer weigh in before he gave it.

"Because I've done it before."

Adrus gave him a brief smile. Then he got to work on the other leg.

When Xak woke up in the orbital room the next morning, something felt disjointed, like the world tilted ever so slightly in the wrong direction. He had grown used to his captor's obsession with regulating every bodily function he was still capable of. Sleep and sunrise always came from a syringe.

This day, he awoke all on his own.

The chaotic rumble of footsteps and urgent chatter brought Xak to light this time. His eyes creaked open to the fully-lit orbital room teeming with nurses and armed guards, most darting in and out of the front door like sparrows in a birdhouse. He couldn't make out words, but the feeling of heated uncertainty in each voice was clear. This was not standard procedure.

Eight of the beds surrounding Xak already vanished, leaving a void of panic for each empty space he counted. They came for the bed to his left, carting the prisoner out the door as doctors barked hasted instructions. Moments passed, and they came for the bed to his right. The orbital room revolved around Xak now, making him the last of the litter. Why this scared him, he couldn't say.

Then they came for him. A nurse seized the cart of Xak's bed and wheeled him past the ominous front door and, at last, out of the orbital room. A strange new light stung his weary eyes. This was the first time Xak had seen any part of the facility outside of his three routine rooms. He frantically scanned everything within his sight for any hint at the overall layout of the place. The hallway was rounded and curved at random, snaking left and right until reaching a set of heavy metal doors that slid apart on their own, leading to a small pod-shaped room that barely fit his bed and its driver. With the press of a glowing button, the doors behind them slid to a close, and Xak felt the ground beneath him rise, churning a sinking feeling into his chest.

"We don't have much time."

The nurse threw off her mask and attacked the bed's restraints with feline claws. Xak had never been so glad to see a Khajiit in his life. As soon as he felt the straps fall he shot up from the gurney. The nurse instantly ushered him back down with one stern paw to his chest.

"Don't get up! This room is called an elevator. It's taking you to the top floor, and I'm already late passing you off." Her voice was sharp yet sweet, save the nervous tremble shaking her words. "They're moving quicker than we expected. In less than an hour they'll fly you to the conscription facility. If that aerocraft takes off with you onboard, there's nothing we can do."

Xak only understood about a quarter of what she just said, but the urgency in her manner told him now was not the time to ask questions. He simply watched as the girl sat next to him on the gurney, carefully re-tying the straps to cover up the loose buckles. "We only have one shot at this. I'm loosening the belts, but whatever you do, do not break out of them until the right moment. Wait for the signal and then make a run for it. Your best chance is down through the flight terminal. If you can make it to the streets, they won't follow you."

From a breast pocket the Khajiit revealed a tiny oval device, barely larger than a Colovian beetle. She sneaked the small pod right into the hole of Xak's left ear, which was about as comfortable as letting a spider crawl into his brain. "This is called a communicator. You'll be able to hear a friend of mine talking to you from far away. Listen to him very closely and do whatever he says."

Xak's tongue was jammed with all that he could say – should say – to the first person to show any shred of kindness to him all week. Who are you? How can I trust you? Where am I? Where should I go? Why am I even here? Yet he couldn't force out more than one word of any option. She answered his stuttering with a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You're going to make it out of here. Just wait for the signal and listen to Sigurd." Their time was drawing to a close. She took her dutiful place behind Xak's gurney and resumed her disguise.

Then she said with a wink "By the way, the name's Ka'ilah."

The room halted with a clang and an electronic bell. Twin doors slid open to reveal another long hallway with three armed troopers to accept him. "We'll take it from here, ma'am." the closest trooper said as they informally brushed the Khajiit aside to seize Xak's gurney. As they carried him down the narrow pearl hall, Xak turned his head as far as he could to see the nurse give him a wave goodbye before vanishing behind the sliding doors. He was, once again, on his own.

"At least this is the last one." the soldier in charge of pushing Xak celebrated. "Any idea what in Voyager's name the big hurry is?"

"Word is we have a terrorist working in the processing division." Answered the trooper two steps behind. "The Magister isn't taking any chances on losing recruits. Not after the action in Wayrest."

"If you ask me, it's bigger than that. This city always had terrorists, and they knew the Dragonborn would come out to play eventually. I wager this is really about the Third Nu-"

BLAM

Xak's world exploded. A great wind blew him off the gurney into a wild flip down the hall. He landed face-down with the makeshift shield at his back. His ears rung like the stinging cry of a chaurus and bitter smoke choked his nostrils. Shaking himself back to reality, he wrestled free of the weakened restraints and wearily crawled to a stand.

A trio of broken corpses in burnt armor lay behind him. Flames marked a hole in the wall revealing the source of the blast. Xak's gurney absorbed the worst of it, leaving him the only man alive within sight.

Safe to say, this was the signal.

"He... Hello? Can you hear me?" The light-toned voice of a man just as nervous as he erupted right in Xak's head. He thought madness had finally kicked in, until his fingers touched upon the communicator lodged in his ear. "I know I'm speaking to the prisoner who just escaped that explosion." No question about it, this voice was the friend the Khajiit mentioned. "Listen, I'd love to tell you all about why you're in this mess, but we're both short on time. My name is Sigurd, and I need you to understand two things. I'm on your side, and you need to get the hell out of there!"

"You're on the top floor of the flight terminal, forty stories up from street level. The building is crawling with Telvanni, so you must do exactly as I say." Sigurd was giving orders at rapid-fire, keeping Xak from muttering a single reply. "When I say go, I want you to jump into that hole the blast created. Don't think, just do it."

Xak was, with the assumption Sigurd could actually hear him, about to tell him to go hell when the door at the end of the hall gave way. He didn't need to turn around to know what was coming.

"Go!"`

He took off like a rampaging kagouti toward the breach. Jumping through the scorched hole brought him to a rough landing in what looked like a kitchen, or what was left of one. The stomps of soldiers running down the hall above followed him. "Out the door, quick! Whatever you do, keep moving!"

He kicked his way into a large round dining room, seemingly abandoned in a hurry. "Straight ahead, the double-doors!" He charged forth, jumping over wooden tables and half-eaten sweetrolls to get to the door just as a trio of soldiers landed behind him.

"Head right, down this hall!" Sigurd ordered and Xak obeyed. "Now left!" The halls and doorways were a blur to Xak as he did all he could to put as much distance between him and the pursuing soldiers.

Xak was now running directly towards a door surrounded in red lights. A striped metal bar ran where a door handle should be. "Damn! They've blocked the maintenance exit!" cursed Sigurd. "Okay, let's try the backup route. Take the right just before the exit. We need to get those troopers off you!" Xak rounded the corner, narrowly missing two pulse shots from the trailing soldiers. "You're coming up to the public area of the terminal. No matter what you see, don't get distracted!"

A dire warning this was. Xak crossed the threshold of the last double doors into a world like which he could never have imagined. A vast, vacuous globe of a building sprawled before him, webbed with serpentine walkways and disc-like platforms. Metal airships descended and rose between wide catwalks crowded with men and women of all species clothed in fabrics that puzzled the mind. The terminal was like a living, breathing creature that pulsed people through its sprawling veins.

His eyes swallowed the sight with an appetite of wonder. They were still hungry when Sigurd blasted over the mic "Run, moron!"

He charged down the nearest walkway, trying not to think of the massive drop beneath. The crowd in his path quickly dispersed to allow the crazed Breton room. To the soldiers that followed him, they ducked in fear.

"Make your way to the executive level! That's the red section of wall to your right!" barked Sigurd. Xak spotted the wall slightly above him at 2 o'clock. Getting there would be another story.

He saw troopers pouring down the walkway to his left. More came straight ahead. The stomping boots behind him were closing in. There was no safe passage. They had him pinned.

"Time to get creative. To your right!" This time Xak and Sigurd were on the same level. He came to a halt at the intersection, letting the troopers from all sides close in. A soldier behind him reached to seize his arm.

That's when he jumped.

Xak dropped off the walkway and landed on an ascending airship, hitting the glass of the cockpit. A startled Argonian pilot swore heavily at him as he scrambled off the cracked glass and along the body of the rising ship. He leaped off the tail end to just manage grabbing the ledge of the opposite catwalk, one that led straight to the executive floors. His pursuers gathered puzzled and confused on the intersection beneath him. Xak knew he gained some time as he rushed down the clear path toward the red double doors.

He was back in the enclosed hallways now, these ones adorned with potted plants and cheesy paintings. "Great work! Just head straight ahead to the elevator down the hall." Xak saw the silence as a chance to catch his breath as he took a brisk walk to the metal doors.

Then the doors slid open. Out came a menacing machine of two mighty legs, a raven-like head of golden glass and long dark cannons in place of arms.

"LEFT! GO LEFT!" Shrieked Sigurd as Xak tumbled through the nearest door. Something burning hot clipped his heel as the hallway was filled with a barrage of laser fire. Xak found himself tumbling up stairs, throwing over benches and plants, blocking an exit, anything he could do to keep that mechanical beast from chasing him. Salty sweat dripped onto his tongue as he felt his limit approaching.

"What in Oblivion was that thing?" He wearily consulted the voice in his head.

"It wasn't supposed to be there. The Telvanni are one step ahead. They must have picked up on the frequency. That means... Damn it!" Xak could hear a table being slammed, papers shuffling, the eruption of more voices behind an electronic fuzz. "You've got one more exit, and they're going to know where you're headed. Find the office of Nelso Drenim. It's just one floor above you."

With a bit of wandering, Xak came to recognize the various plaques and arrows that made up the building's directory. He followed the name Drenim down a short hall and up a winding staircase. His legs were begging for a rest at this point, but Xak told himself that every step was taking him further away from the mirrored room and that damned butcher Adrus. The thought of never seeing either again pushed him up a flight of stairs in seconds.

Around a corner, he faced an impressive red-oak door with the name "Drenim" carved in gold lettering. It gave way to a grand room of marble and glass, thankfully with no Mr. Drenim in sight. A long blue carpet trailed to a desk cluttered with papers and spell scrolls and beyond that, to Xak's relief, was a window to the outside. The glass portal gave little insight to his situation however. It had been tinted a severe black and only the twinkling lights of other towering structures beyond penetrated the veil.

Regaining his purpose, Xak studied the room for any hint of the exit Sigurd mentioned. "I think this is the office. Now what?"

"There's a red button beneath Drenim's desk. Find it and hit it, quick!" Xak's fingers fumbled underneath the frame until they hit a soft switch, which caused a solid steel plate to slam down over the office door. A clever security measure, Xak admired, and realized how badly the Stunted Scamp could use one of those.

"Now see that big window behind the desk? Grab a chair or something and break it."

A light wooden bench next to the bookcase seemed like the right tool. Xak hoisted it up and slammed the bench against the window like a battering ram. After five strikes the bench broke in half on the impact, but not without leaving the glass with a web of cracks to show for it. Xak didn't have time to admire the new view before he heard a furious grinding behind him. Sparks erupted the edges of the office door. Somebody was sawing their way in. "Help me out here, Sigurd!"

"Jump!"

He shot one look out the crumbling window and it was all he needed. "Are you out of your mind!?" Xak swore he would have punched Sigurd if only he were in the room.

"Listen, I know this sounds crazy, but gravity here doesn't work the way you're used to."

"I still don't know where here is!" Xak turned to yelling. The burning line around the door reached midway. The window was no more appealing.

"There's a large fountain on the street level below that office. It's deep enough to land in and the gravity will soften your fall. Xak, this is the last option you have! You don't want to know what they'll put you through if they catch you again. Take the dive, for Talos' sake!"

Down came the door.

He thought about how much it would hurt to fall from the top of the tallest tower he had ever seen and have the ground meet his skull with the force of a hundred warhammers.

Then he thought of spending the rest of his life being carted around in a strapped gurney, drugged and restrained from one room to the next, his only friends being the warped reflections of himself stretched into eternity along the walls of a mirrored cell.

Then he made peace with his gods.

Through the glass he jumped. It shattered against his shoulder, welcoming him to the sea of windless air beyond. For a moment he sailed, in a way that he could count each shard of the window that joined him in his flight. It was then that he finally saw it.

Above him was a great blue orb blanketing most of the starry void beyond. Milky-white wisps of storms streaked across verdant green lands, craggy tan deserts and the shimmering oceans. On its face, Xak could make out familiar shapes from maps and his schooling. The ashen island of Vvardenfell. The great cape of High Rock. The bullseye river of the Imperial City. At it's edges, even the ominous coasts of Akavir and Atmora were clear as Magnus's great light upon them.

He no longer thought of falling. Even as the red horizon and spiral tips of the towers around him crept into vision, Xak could not take his gaze off the distant planet. He could see it! From countless miles above, the very spot he stood days ago along the edge of High Rock and the Wrothgarian Mountains before he was taken here.

And it finally dawned on him just where he had gone.

By the gods... This is Masser!

Xak plunged into the pool beneath. He let the black water take him until the sight of his home – his planet – twisted and blurred into nothing.