Chapter (6)

That moment the lights went out. Darkness surrounded them. Even the alarm fell silent.

A quick shuffling noise as the first chair was pushed back. It was followed by the clapping sound of hooves and a loud thud... "D'arvit!" Foaly had missed the door and banged his head against the wall.

"What're you waiting for? Someone to kick you outta your chairs? Cause I ain't got time right now!" Then he galloped down the emergency light lit hallways only to be followed by Artemis and Holly seconds later.

Arrived at the ops booth, Foaly and Artemis swung behind the control board and simultaneously started rebooting the complex systems to find the source of the alarm.

Since his move to Haven Artemis took up the position as a consultant to the LEP. That way they got to keep an eye on him and he could be exercise his mind and actually do something positive. "I'm their Sherlock Holmes", he once had told Holly quite proudly, though she didn't get the mud men reference.

Now Holly just stood and watched them. Her best friend and boyfriend, both completely shutting her out of their world of zeros and ones. She didn't like it.

Not caring what effects an interruption of the techies had to their situation, she grabbed the back of both the men's swivel chairs and turned them round to face her.

"One of you better explains what's happening ..." Her voice trailed off, letting the two geniuses thinking of possible consequences of refusal on their own.

Foaly weighted off who'd have to suffer the more severe aftermaths.

"Arty, you go on then." That said he turned back to his screens. Holly, after all, was the pale elf's girlfriend, not his.

Artemis made one feeble attempt to reason with his better half.

"Listen, Holly, as much as I'd like to explain to you, but as time is of essence-" He was cut off by one meter of redheaded determination.

"Now, love." The last word sounding alarmingly more like threat than pet name ...

"We've been hacked."

Back at the now dim lit conference room, the upper ranks of the LEP assembled what'd happened.

"This is exactly what I was talking about, you can't even handle your own problems and expect me to draw Atlantis into your messes!"

Acorus was the first to speak after the centaur and the two elves had left so suddenly.

He waved at his accompanying officers. "We'll get back to Atlantis immediately, I don't dare to imagine what's happening there!" And they were out of the door before anyone could protest. Maybe everyone was just too pleased being relieved of the Commander's presence.

Trouble was about to march to the ops booth himself and demand an explanation, when Captain Short came back again, hair somewhat more ruffled than before she'd left.

- Foaly had had to concentrate on his screens really hard to prevent a blush as the elves bid their temporary goodbye... -

"Ok, I've got bad news and some a bit less bad news," the officer declared. Trouble glared at her, "Just spit it out, Short!" He really was serious if he called her by last name.

"Well, the alarm was Foaly's backup system, it warns before shutting down, so it wasn't a terror alert, at least not yet. Something, more likely someone, managed to sneak through Foaly's security system and shut down the whole power grid in Haven." The Commander couldn't stop himself from asking.

"And, pray tell, which news is this one?" He kind of didn't want to hear his subordinate's answer.

"The better one, I'm afraid. The generators are powering up now every second. But control over the magma flares is lost and neither Foaly nor Artemis seems to be able to regain control again. They say it appears that the flares are remote controlled from the outside. Right now it's shut down and every flare is withheld.

In this case, the chutes block automatically until the next flare occurs naturally. Can't take chances it'd blow up if anyone went in, before a natural flare takes out the pressure."

Short paused as the other fairies realized what this meant.

Normally, it was merely a matter of hours till the next eruption of molten rock filled the chutes with such heat to maintain pleasant temperatures throughout the Lower Elements.

But now it was winter, at least the subterranean equivalent to winter. It was the time when the shift of the earth's axis caused a decrease to the frequency of these flares. Only a few per week were enough to maintain the power supply but surface transports had to be timed precisely.

"The next flare's due to occur in about three days and with the blocked chutes even a shuttle can't get through... So it looks like we're stuck at the moment. Not a chance to get up there."

Holly had finished and looked at the disbelieving faces.

Then the council members started to talk simultaneously about what had to be done, each certain about his suggestion being the right one.

Vinyáya rushed off, probably to section eight, muttering something under her breath that sounded like "Wouldn't bet on it..." and left behind only (the still mud-woman-obsessed) Commander Kelp, to take over.

Trouble had a hard time concentrating on what to do next as both Captains, Short and Donpino, watched him closely. Three days without being able to take actions on the operation. Three days forced rest. Three days which he could spend with the pretty surface captain...

"What about those convicts then", he finally managed to ask.

"Oh, I forgot, Foaly's nearly finished setting up the connection to the SFPD. I'm gonna go check on how far he got." And she was off again, leaving Cate in the sole presence of the male elf, who fought for sanity - if you didn't count the quarreling council fairies.