Chapter 9: Contact
The freakiest way to wake up, and this was something that Jon had known for a while now, was to have Naomi stand next to your bed and say your name in as loud a voice as she ever mustered. If there was any time that he was trying to stop jumping out of his skin during, it was then.
This time was no exception.
He did wish that he had stopped himself from grabbing the covers and pulling them up to his chin while he stared at his disturber. But, of course, he hadn't. He had also screamed like a little girl, and it was small comfort that Naomi wouldn't ever tell anyone how he reacted to this treatment.
"An event," she told him, before quickly and limberly clambering up the ladder to the main hallway of the Silver Blur. This gave Jon a moment to actually breathe in. That is, until he realized what Naomi's message had meant, which sent him into a fit of coughing before he sprang up out of the bed and dressed before heading over to the Com Room.
When he got there, he found Naomi and Paul going over the screens, attempting to pierce the magical cloud that had settled around whatever place it was that was 'being struck' this time. Naomi turned to him upon his entrance. "There is a safe place to insert ourselves, if being in the event ourselves is safe."
There was really no other option considering how the other two events had gone before and after they waited for the red cloud to dissipate and guarantee safe passage through the area. "We go in," Jon said. "How hard would it be to grab us back out before the event ended?"
"I will send Paul coordinates," Naomi told him.
Paul nodded. "As long as she's spotting for me, I can manually override and make sure I get you guys back in a pinch."
"So we'd only really need to make sure that we were keeping ourselves safe from the effects of the event," Jon said aloud. "Alright. I'm going in with Naomi now, and we'll head to the center as quickly as possible. Is the center close by the safe place that you found?"
"Under 400 meters," Naomi replied.
Jon sighed. That was further than he had wanted it to be, but closer than he had been afraid of. "Alright. We'll hurry to the location, then. Code phrase for pullout is 'Blur out'."
"Got it," Paul told him. Then he hit a bunch of keys, which had the visual effect of lighting up the teleport pad. "Go ahead; I'll get you down there as soon as you're on the pad."
Jon checked to make sure that his inactive PMD was on his belt like it should be (it was), then he headed over to the pad, followed by his first mate. Paul waved momentarily, then continued with his searching.
After blinking, Jon found himself huddled in the corner of an abandoned building's porch. Naomi's hand immediately obscured his vision, calling up one of her signature silver shields. "I think I can block the event," she said, shakily. Doing whatever she was doing was apparently taxing her.
"Are you alright?"
"I will be fine."
Jon looked at her dubiously for a moment, then relented. "Fine. But if you feel like your assessment of that changes at any time, get us out of here. I can't have you hurting yourself for this."
"Understood."
He wasn't going to be getting any more out of her about this, so he didn't try, instead looking around her hand in the direction that the event was probably coming from. As best that he could measure 400 meters was an intersection, at which several people were milling about.
Well, that was certainly helpful.
"Can you move and keep the defenses up? Also, can you not have your hand directly in front of my face and keep the defenses up?"
Without a word, Naomi took her hand down from his eyes and held a larger, though flickeringly visible, shield in front of them. Once she was settled, she said. "We can travel. I cannot make my shield invisible."
Jon touched her gently on the shoulder, casting a spell that was as easy for him as breathing. Her shield flickered out of visibility. "Mmf," he said, making sure of his handiwork. "I think that'll work."
He received a nod in reply. All set to go, the pair left the porch and got down onto the street, where people were going about their business, though every few seconds most of them jerked and shook their heads. Probably some sort of effect of the event that was coming from the intersection that was now 300 meters in front of them. While Naomi looked sort of strange with her hands splayed out in front of her, her proximity to another person seemed to deflect the stares. Jon didn't have time to wonder about it then, but he filed the thought for later: why weren't they continuing to stare? Without knowledge of magical barriers (and the fact that they can sometimes be invisible), she looked quite strange with her body in that position while she walked along the sidewalk.
As they approached the halfway point of the short trek, Jon was starting to make out faces of the people that were at the intersection that Naomi's directions had indicated. Quite a few people were milling about there... as Jon watched, one particular person was walking in perfect circles (though small ones) at the corner opposite the one that Jon and Naomi would arrive at. He didn't seem to be noticing the fact that he was doing it (or maybe he was doing it on purpose). There were other instances of unexplained behavior. There was a woman pacing on the corner that Naomi and Jon were approaching. She executed a snap turn walked out of sight behind the building that was on the corner, then about a second or two later she was back in vision for a few steps before executing the next snap turn. Jon couldn't read her face from the distance.
Jon, out of reflex more than anything else, looked down at his first mate, whose face didn't give him any sort of indication as to what she thought about this whole event. His gaze went back up to the intersection, this time searching on purpose for the people who weren't experiencing bizarre behaviors. It was hard, as the Train-Wreck Principle was working against him, but he was able to identify three people who were just standing in the same spot, looking around at the people around them (in some cases incredulously).
On the corner that was now only 100 meters away, there was a woman whose blonde hair was tied up in a bun above a vividly red cloak. Her head was turning to watch a lot of different people around her, though she was completely ignoring the pacing woman that was directly behind her. She also seemed to be looking for someone in particular and not finding them, now that Jon could see her face somewhat.
On the corner that was across the street straight ahead, was an older gentleman whose head was slowly sweeping across the assembled people. He watched cars in particular as they came across the intersection, though there weren't all that many going by right then, and he was watching all the people with the bizarre actions and sort of flinching away if one seemed to make a movement toward him.
On the opposite corner from the one that Jon and Naomi were about to arrive on, there was a young man in a long black cloak and a black hat. His eyes were flipping between the two other people that were not doing something extremely strange, and his eyes also took in the newcomers to the intersection as he gave a cursory look to the rest of the people that were nearby. His hands and arms were hidden inside the cloak, though it didn't seem like he was doing much with them, or was hiding anything significant underneath. It was a little unnerving how strong his stare was, but Jon held up to it admirably.
"Which one, do you think?" Jon said, quietly enough that neither the pacing woman or the blonde looking at all the strange people could hear his question. Naomi passed her glance over everyone in a swift motion.
"Him," she said, indicating with a nod of her head the young man in the black cloak all the way diagonally across the paved road.
Jon nodded. "I agree." He pressed his PMD gently. "We're at the location," he said, his voice even lower. "Can you hear me?"
There was some white noise in the background, but the reply was audible against the noise (and Mil had tuned it so that only Naomi and Jon could hear it. "Good enough, anyway." It was Paul.
"Target A is a young man in a black cloak that comes to his knees and black boots beneath that. I think he's wearing black pants over the boots and under the cloak. He's wearing a black hat. If you find us, he's currently diagonally across the intersection."
"Got it," came the reply. "I hope the event ends soon."
But that isn't what happened next.
Everything was suddenly washed over with a black-ish aura that slid across the intersection from the older gentleman's corner through the buildings and all. People winked out of visibility when the aura touched them, but a few remained, including Jon and Naomi. Naomi had jumped in front of Jon with a brightly visible shield in front of her, but the aura seemed to ignore it and pass right through it and her and then through Jon, she spun to look at Jon, but he looked unharmed. He was looking above the building where the aura had come from, looking for someone who could have caused. Suddenly visible at the edge of the building was a figure in what was obviously Barrier Clothing. Her stark red hair would have been more noticeable if it hadn't been for the two firearm-formed PMDs she was wielding.
One was pointed right at Naomi.
"Stand down! I am Enforcer Teana Lanster of the TSAB. One of you is performing dangerous magic, and I demand you cease immediately or face consequences! If you stand down now, you will be allowed a trial!" She called her message into the intersection with authority. Authority that Jon had no intention of obeying.
"I can't reach them," Naomi said, pointing to the communications device that Jon had given her. This made Jon cringe. It was a bad thing if communications with the Silver Blur were cut off.
Jon pressed himself against the outer wall of the building before saying, "Mil, startup."
"Startup: Combat Form Initialized." Jon felt his Barrier Clothing coalesce around him, and he held the familiar weight of Mil's rifle for long and medium range combat in his hands. Naomi was in a ready stance against the wall next to him.
"None of you are going to comply?" the woman calling herself 'Teana' shouted, this time with clear warning in her voice. Jon took a look down the way that the two of them had come, seeing more of the black aura everywhere, but the most disturbing thing was that there was another figure approaching from that side as well. This one's Barrier Clothing was black in the main area but with a white cape/cloak that was wrapped around her. She carried a black pole with a... was that a bardiche on the end? She looked dangerous. More importantly, she was cutting off their easiest escape route.
"Two known additional targets," Jon said under his breath to Naomi. "One I am facing right now, while the other's on the top of that building."
"She's not there."
Jon's head whipped around, and sure enough the woman with the guns akimbo was nowhere in sight. He whipped back to keep his eye on the more immediate threat. "Figures," Jon said. "Abort trying to find the original target; we need to escape to outside this... thing. Is the event occurring still?"
"No."
"Then if we can get out of this thing, we're home free," Jon said. Then the blonde woman who was approaching Jon reached a place where she decided to stop and address them. "You are armed with Devices on an Unadministered world, and using magic in the full view of citizens of said world. You are in violation of TSAB law. Will you come quietly?"
"I don't submit to made-up organizations, generally," Jon said mildly. Though then he was struck by a thought. "We also seem to be outside the borders of your organization... the TS... something?"
The woman with the long blonde hair pointed her PMD at Jon. "The TSAB's authority extends to anywhere that its interests lie."
Funny, he thought to himself. That was precisely the same thing that the Empire thought. If this woman actually was from some organization called the TSAB... this was a whole new can of worms. "I won't be submitting to an organization that I am not a part of; I don't even submit fully to the organization that claims me."
"What organization would that be?"
Jon tried not to make a face, but he probably failed. "The Malainian Alliance. Or the MCAW, the Malainian Confederation of Allied Worlds. How about your... TSAB?"
"The Time-Space Administration Bureau," she replied. "Do you act with the authority of your organization?"
From behind Jon, he heard Naomi quietly. "The other target is chasing Target A. We don't have to worry about her for now."
"In some things, yes," Jon replied to the woman, though he then mumbled, "Pick a direction and give me a signal; I'll follow you." He felt Naomi take the hand that was behind his back and squeeze it once, then twice to indicate she had gotten the message.
"Then I think it would be best if you came with us to our ship..."
"Now's not the best time," Jon said with a wry grin.
"Aerowing," Jon's PMD stated and things went a little crazy for a moment.
Naomi sprang into action exactly three seconds after the plan had been agreed upon, and Jon was hot on her heels. The abrupt departure didn't seem to faze the officer much, who was after them pretty quickly. Flying through the air was a surreal experience, as Jon didn't do it much, but the adrenaline running through his system seemed to be enough for him to handle it well enough this time. He tried not to think about the fact that Naomi was flying without the aid of a PMD.
"Stop!" He heard the voice of the first of the two new arrivals, and looked in time to see a figure clamber onto a roof of a building and fire one of her PMDs at the escaping pair. Though his shields weren't all that good, they were strong enough for him to deflect the incoming missile out of his path and into one of the buildings below (he said an apology to the owners in his head, but he had more pressing matters at that moment).
"How far do we need to go before they can pull us out?" Jon asked Naomi over the wind whipping past them at their high speed.
"We need to get out of this," Naomi said. There was no need for her to specify what she meant.
"Sonic Move." Suddenly, the blonde was in front of them, blocking the escape route that they had chosen. Naomi instantly slowed so that Jon caught up with her, then grabbed his wrist and tugged his flight path such that they zoomed past the obstacle with several feet in clearance, continuing a route that Naomi thought would lead them out. At least, Jon hoped so. With Naomi aiding his magical flight, Jon was now much faster, and Naomi could put on the afterburners to attempt to escape. But it still wasn't fast enough for the blonde to not seemingly teleport in front of the pair.
She pointed her PMD at them. "Stop! Really!"
As Naomi pulled a slightly different stunt, which, while the blonde was ready for something like this, she was not ready for precisely what Naomi had in mind, and the twirling pattern got the two past her with only a foot or two to spare beyond the woman's grasping hand, Jon told her, "No offense; I don't trust you."
Suddenly, static broke in from Mil, and Jon looked at it in astonishment before his PMD told him "Connection found; able to reach the Silver Blur." Naomi had plowed through a discolored dark obviously magical wall. They were outside the aura.
"Get me the Com Room!"
"Captain?"
"Mil, send our coordinates to Paul! Paul! Get us out of here!"
"Yes, sir!" Jon felt the familiar feeling of being grabbed by the magic, and Naomi and he kept the same trajectory and speed as the magic grabbed them. Another black aura was spreading toward them, threatening to cut them off from the ship once again...
But then the next thing he saw was the Com Room, and he and Naomi fell to the floor.
"Captain!" Paul was there to help him up, and Riley was making sure that Naomi was unhurt. "What happened? Why couldn't we get through that... thing? A barrier of some kind?"
Jon sighed as he was helped into a sitting position. "The whole game has changed now. There's another group other than the Alliance that has an interest in the events on this world."
