The Lone Shee's reports had been posted on the Network. Nacia read through every one she could find quickly. The Warp was very interesting, but she also wanted to know more about what he had seen.
Luck was with her today, for one of the reports mentioned more than she knew. Shoot. The Banshee were not stupid. They would be able to figure out how to follow the Lone Shee into this continuity and onto this planet.
This was bad. The Banshee were brutal. They did not hesitate to kill. If they got here, she doubted the humans would stand much of a chance.
She posted her findings on the Network. Several other Shee noted that if the waves from the paper were correct, then the waves they measured now did match them uncannily well. Some hypothesized that maybe another species was copying the waves as a defense mechanism. Others proposed solutions.
Unfortunately, the humans caught wind of the story. How, Nacia never quite figured out, but the fact was that they did. And that it got reported in their newspapers. Making many humans panic unnecessarily.
Really, she could not see why they were so panicked. The Banshee (or anything that might be copying them) had not appeared yet, and panic would not help them. If anything, panic would makes things worse.
One of the Elders managed to get them to put out another story and apologize for blowing it up so much. Thank the old gods. They needed to concentrate on stopping the Bansh- whatever it was.
Nacia continued going to the human school with Myra, although she spent much of her time drawing plans for inventions. Not all of her time, though. Humans were too amusing to ignore for too long, and occasionally she did learn something new.
For example, that the 'Physical Education' teacher did not appreciate her using technology to help herself do better. But how was it cheating? She was not as strong as the humans, and she could not run for as long. She was merely keeping up!
One day, she was reading on the Network when Myra's mother came up and asked what she was doing. She did not use an accusatory tone, but it still unsettled the Shee slightly.
"Reading on the Network," she answered.
"The Network?"
"It's sort of the Shee's equivalent of the Internet," Myra explained, do something on the human Network – the Internet – as well.
"Ah. All right then. What are you reading about?"
"The newest scientific reports, mostly."
"That sounds very interesting. Well, I'll leave you to your reading. Dinner's going to be ready in about an hour." She exited the room.
"I'm finding reports on the internet as well," Myra said once her mother was far enough away. "Human scientists want to work together with the Shee to help defend our planet."
"Is there anything they can do to help?"
"I'ven't the faintest clue! Ask a scientist, not me."
As it turned out, the humans could help, by thinking of things that a Shee never would. Especially the humans from the 'Creatures Community'. The Shee came up with things to detect any Banshee (hampered a bit by the fact that the two were so similar, genetically and otherwise) and the humans tried to prevent them from being able to come at all. From both sides came inventions whose purpose was to tell whether the things were even Banshee at all.
Nacia excused herself from the human school to have more time for keeping track of events. The Network was more alive than it had been since they were preparing to leave Albia, with wild plans and ideas being presented and supported and shot down and commented on. It would have been so wonderful to watch if it was not because of such a possible emergency.
It was rather unfortunate that there was no way of testing any of the inventions.
When the transmission came, her blood did not 'run cold'.
If anything, it felt overheated with her anger.
How dare the Banshee mock them like that? They were not lazy; in fact, they had been working very hard to protect this planet they now lived on. Were still working very hard.
"Lazy, stupid Shee. We are very close to your new home now. Did you really think that you could escape your past on Albia by fleeing it? And you probably never had known we were coming in the first place if we hadn't warned you," Myra's computer said as she listened a recording of the transmission. Following the words were the strange, almost barking laughs of the half-grendles and the definitely barking laughs of their pet grendels.
Nacia was starting to get used to getting so little sleep. She had pulled all-nighters before in the research labs and when working on experiments. Myra she forced to bed – the immature human needed the sleep more.
The Network was always up on her computer now, along with whatever else she was doing, and it was checked frequently, at least several times an hour. But to her, it seemed like little progress was being made. She cursed at her computer again as it brought up an obscure error message.
"Nacia, get to bed," Myra moaned into her sheets. "You need it too."
"When I finish this analysis.."
"No. Now. You're saying weird words, and that means you're either tired or angry and maybe both. Get to sleep."
"When I finish-"
"Did you get any sleep yesterday? I went to sleep with you working and woke up to you working."
"No, but-"
Myra did not bother with words this time. She slid off the bed as the Shee started speaking, and plucked the laptop-like computer from Nacia's lap. Ignoring the squack the Shee made, she dragged her to the bed. "Sleep. Or I'll figure out how to turn your computer off for you."
Laying down, Nacia could not object.
Dread filled her as she saw that the Banshee-sensors were going off everywhere. And the shields that everyone had been working on did not work that did not harm the Shee either. This was not good.
A deep breath calmed her. The Network was shut down as it was making even her advanced computer lag from the activity. She shut down all her experiments. She pulled up the human Internet and found a site with maps. It was slightly tricky to read the human words, but Nacia managed. Quickly, she found what she was looking for, planned a route, printed it out (humans really needed to figure out how to combine printers and computers – it was so handy) and set it aside. After looking up a few more things, she shut the computer down and packed in its case.
Myra came into the room. "What's going on?" the female-human asked.
"Are your parents home?" Nacia asked, ignoring the question. Myra nodded and Nacia led her down the stairs. She strolled into the kitchen and set the computer's case on the table.
"We need to get out of here," she announced. The humans stared at her. After several long moments, she sighed. "The Banshee are coming. I doubt we can stop them in time. They have advanced weaponry. We do not – we are scientists for the greatest part, not soldiers. Our Arks are too low on fuel to go very far, though they have shields to protect themselves from the Banshee. However, those will hurt us too and are only being used to protect our documents and experiments."
"Where are we going?" Myra squeaked, eyes wide.
"I planned a route to a safe area. You can stay there while I move on to the other Shee."
"Now wait one minute-" Myra's father started, but Nacia interrupted.
"First, though, we need to obtain non-perishable food and a method of carrying it. Water filters are also necessary."
"We have those in the pantry already, enough for a while," Myra's mother said. "I thought I'd prepare for an emergency. But aren't you getting a bit ahead of yourself? Are you sure we need to go?"
"Yes."
"I believe her." Myra's parents turned to their daughter. "Shouldn't we bring flashlights and sleeping bags and the portable radio too though?"
"Good idea," Nacia said.
A few hours later, they were on their way. They walked, as the route did not have roads. Nacia brought a hoverboard with her, just in case, folded to a small thing that easily fit in her 'backpack'.
Just before they were out of the city, a loud, deep hum filled the air. They all looked up. Then the ground started shaking slightly, and a large metal ship descended from the skies. Nobody moved as it landed, until Shee-like shapes that were a bit green and scaly came out of them.
Nacia grabbed onto Myra's hand and ran.
A/N: Insert usual apologies. I guess I got spoiled by my 1 review/chapter, and that discouraged me a bit. I got this finished finally though. Please let me know what you think - even if you hate it from the bottom of your heart. And I'm sorry it's not read over by someone else, it might have a couple mistakes.