Chapter 26

"Nice shot Sam!" Jim shouted, throwing the throttle open and yanking it to the right just in time to dodge the flaming wreckage of the ship his friend had shot down.

The S4-7 was everything Jim had known it would be. The polished wooden hull was shallow, and the single mast and triangular sail made it a lot like the dingy Jim had learned to fly while on the R.L.S. Legacy. The main difference was that while Jim sat in back to steer, a large mounted gun sat in front, where Sam had taken up position to take down other ships.

The battle had been going for ages now, and Jim was starting to wonder if it would ever end. They'd gotten no word as to who it was they were fighting yet. All he knew was how they fought. They reminded him a lot of the pirate's style of attacking. There were three larger ships flying high in the sky overhead, with many smaller ships flying down to attack. Very quick, they'd attack and retreat, flying down in wave after wave. The students were doing very well holding them off, but they couldn't last forever. This was a school, not an army.

What boggled Jim's mind most was how they'd been found. The school had a special line of defenses to prevent this exact thing from happening. One such defense included a unique disruptor which would prevent a scanner from pining down their exact location. These people seemed to have been able to find them a little too quickly and too easily.

"Um…Jim?"

"Yeah?" Jim grunted and swooped them to the left, avoiding the fire of another enemy ship.

"Why is the Main Hall…moving?"

"What?" Jim cast a look around, his brain automatically calculating a route so he could look down without crashing them into anything. To his surprise, the Main Hall was indeed moving. Upwards. The boys watched with wide eyes as the entire building pulled from the ground, the dirt and red grasses around it tumbling away.

"It's a ship!" Jim realized aloud as the building finally pulled free entirely. He'd always known it had looked like one…he'd never expected it to actually be one though! He'd figured it was a style thing…

He looked at the old thing with a wide smile. The ship was an older model, but it was also enormous. The Man-of-war ship boasted over 100 canons from what Jim could see, and the many sails were being dropped to absorb whatever sunlight they could find.

The thought made Jim blink in surprise. Sunlight? His eyes moved to the North East, where the first of the two suns was rising. They'd been fighting all night!

He looked back at the enormous ship and grinned again. Well now they had a little something to fight back with. This battle may be over pretty soon, if they had anything to say about it.

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Alex dropped her enormous wrench with a wince, sucking on her finger where she'd managed to pinch it between two very heavy bits of metal. She glared at the spot, already able to see the blood blister forming beneath the surface of the skin. Wonderful…

She looked up and around, then out a tiny porthole to the world outside. She'd been working down in the engine room of the hold for hours now, the bits of sunlight flooding through the dusty glass were comforting enough to almost be overwhelming.

Something flashed by outside and she hurried forward, pressing her nose to the glass. It looked like a war was going on outside! She could see the ground falling away slowly as the Main Hall lifted into the air…but her triumph was overshadowed by the destruction outside.

And somewhere out there was Jim. Fighting to save them all… The sight of ships in flames made her heart freeze in horror and fear. She couldn't just stand here, even if the Hall was flying and ready to go. The rest of her little group had all made their way to the bridge to watch the flight and keep an eye out for trouble. Alex was far too restless to stand around waiting for something to go wrong.

How had this happened? It was something which had been bothering her for hours, her brain whirling as she'd worked on various things. The attack was too perfect…she'd spoken with one of the teachers helping out with the cleaning up of the ship an hour or so before. They'd had no warning. Normally the school's scanners would have been able to pick up any incoming fleas, let alone the three large ships hiding high above them. But they hadn't known a thing until suddenly they were under attack.

Alex didn't know how they'd managed to stay hidden for so long…but she did suspect that they had some help. She also suspected that some of that help was coming from the campus itself. She hadn't missed that even before the attackers knew that Main Hall was a real ship, they'd been focusing a lot of their fire on the building. It wasn't even the center of campus, what had been drawing them to the Hall?

"Hey, Charlie?"

The tiny blond lad was at her side only a moment later. His skills with computers had been put to work alongside the mechanics, and the pair had stuck together most of the night to keep an eye on each other.

"What's up, Alex?"

"Do you have a scanner on you?"

"Always." He pulled a small scanner out of his pocket and Alex nodded, eyes drawn to the window once more. She forced herself to turn away from it in an effort to focus.

"Can you search to see if there's some sort of signal being sent from somewhere nearby? Something which would act as a homing beacon?"

Charlie looked puzzled, but nodded, grey eyes lowering to the screen in his hand. Alex waited patiently, watching him work. Only seconds later his eyebrows clicked together in a frown and she knew she'd been right.

"There's something…it's not really strong or anything. But I don't know what it would be…"

"I bet I do. Show me where."

The boy turned in a circle before taking off, leading her along the mazelike paths surrounding the engine. The Legacy's had been a fraction of the size, this engine was large enough that they needed multiple levels of catwalks in order to reach everything they'd need to.

"There." Alex stopped short, kneeling and looking where Charlie was pointing. There, stuck innocently to the side of the central cell storage box, was a tiny metal button. Alex frowned, reaching it out and plucking it from the engine.

"It's using the battery's solar energy to stay powered up." She realized, inspecting the tiny thing.

"What is it?"

"It's exactly what I thought it was. A homing beacon. This is how the enemy knew where we were."

"But…but how did it get here? If it'd been turned on before the attack, we would have picked up the signal."

Alex nodded, continuing to inspect the button with narrowed blue eyes. "It can be powered down. I'd even suspect you can do it from a distance…"

Charlie grinned at that, holding out a hand. "Let me see. I may be able to trace the signal." Alex placed the small button in his open palm, watching as he held it up to the scanner. The thumb on his right hand flew across the controls in a blur. "I have to eliminate the signal which called on the attackers, and find the background signal. It won't be strong…it may not even be on when someone isn't controlling it from a distance. But if I can just turn it on and off for a moment…"

Alex waited, a small smile growing as she sensed Charlie's plan working. This was perfect…if they could trace a signal, then they might be able to find out how the tracker dot had gotten here in the first place. She had to admit…this whole puzzle solving thing was fun. She was a mechanic at heart, but she understood machines without any trouble. This was something that required a little more brain power.

"Got it! It's coming from...uh oh."

"Uh oh? Uh oh what?" Alex grabbed the scanner from Charlie's hand when he didn't move, looking at the tiny glowing blue dot on the screen.

"Oh…space kittens." She muttered angrily.

Without another word, the pair took off running down the halls, down to the lowest level where the dinghies were tied up. They hopped into one and flew away from the Main Hall ship, straight towards the hall where the teachers had their own apartments.

This didn't make sense…Alex knew it didn't make sense. Why would the signal be coming from the teacher's apartments? Every professional hired on as a teacher had been handpicked. The jobs weren't widely available for people to apply for, they were invitation only. Besides…as they came within view, it made even less sense. Half the building was destroyed, the entire western end reduced to burning rubble.

"The signal is still active?"

"Not active exactly…but live. It's still connecting to something." Charlie told her, hanging on for dear life. He never did well flying on smaller ships like this…Alex was grateful he hadn't left her alone for this though. She followed his directions and landed the skiff at the far end of the building, where they hopped out and snuck through the doors.

"Now where?"

Charlie didn't reply, simply leading the way. Alex followed, keeping an eye out and steering the mousy boy around obstacles in his path. He was so focused on the scanner that he seemed to be rather prone to running into things.

So when he stopped short, Alex did as well. Both of them looked around in confusion.

"There's nothing here." Alex said after a few moments of silence.

"I noticed."

"But…there's nothing. Where's the signal coming from?"

"Here." Charlie showed her the scanner for proof. "It just ends right here."

Alex took the scanner once more, squinting close to the screen. He was right…they were right on top of it. Finally it hit her like a ton of bricks.

"Their cloaking device."

"What?"

"One of the senior mechs told me that we didn't know the enemy ships were here until they were right on top of us. They have some sort of cloaking device which hid them from our scanners. If whoever set this up is on their side, they probably have the same thing."

"Well that's just great." Charlie grumbled. "How are we supposed to find them then?"

Alex grinned. "It fools scanners…not our eyes." She reminded him. She turned to her right where a large modern painting hung on the wall. "Check everything nearby. Something has to lead to the secret place."

As she pulled the painting away from the wall, Charlie moved a vase off of a nearby table. The pair continued their manual search until Charlie grabbed a wall sconce and the whole thing creaked downward like a handle.

A section of wall right beside it popped open, and the pair exchanged triumphant smiles. Alex put a finger to her lips, not wanting to let whoever was inside know they were there. Charlie shook his head, taking a step back. Alex made a face, but didn't have time to bother with this right now. Someone had to go in there…and it may as well be her.

The secret passage before her was almost pitch black, but she shoved aside any nervousness about it and plunged right in. She made her way slowly along the tiny area, one foot easing in front of the other. It paralleled the regular hallway most of the way, and finally turned left. Alex eased her nose around the corner, a single eye looking around.

Pale blue eyes went wide. Before her was a room lit only by the many computer monitors hung on the far wall. Someone sat before them all in a single swivel chair in the center, a control panel wrapping around in front of him. It was the ultimate control center. Alex could see that many of the screens seemed to be hooked up to the school security system, where he could piggyback the thing and know where the people were.

Right now, he was giggling like mad, clapping two sets of hands as he watched the destruction with glee. Alex didn't recognize him from here…but it didn't matter. She had to do something.

She crept forward, spotting a laser pistol on a nearby mattress which lay directly on the floor. She knelt and lifted the weapon, flicking it on to charge it, biting her lip as the faint noise that accompanied the action went unnoticed.

In a single move, she slipped past the four armed man, pointing the pistol right between his eyes. He froze, quaking in fear. She noticed his eyes flick to a small screen on the lower corner…one which showed the hallway she'd just entered through, Charlie still stood outside the doorway. The man hadn't noticed them in the midst of his excitement.

"You seem to have a slight breech in your system." Alex's scathing voice was rougher than sandpaper. "And I find myself not caring in the least."

"I don't know what you're talking about." The male glared at her, though he still trembled. "I'm trying to help."

"I'm sure." The mechanic sent him a look that would set a forest flame. "You seem to be having a little too much fun. Call off the attack."

"I don't have the authority to-" Alex interrupted him, pressing the gun to his head more firmly. "You wouldn't…you're just a girl, you wouldn't…"

"Oh really? This girl happens to love this school. She happens to have friends out there fighting and a boyfriend she loves very much. Don't think for one second that your life means more to me than theirs."

She didn't know if she sounded as frightening as she was aiming for, but apparently it was enough. The man reached out a single trembling hand and lifted a tiny communicator.

"Sir…I've been found."

The reply was lost in a burst of static, but Alex didn't mind as all she'd managed to catch were curses anyway. She found herself doubting this was a very well organized attack…not if whoever was in charge was so easy to anger.

Silence fell over the room. Out of the corner of her eye, Alex spotted the enemy ships stop their attack, turning and flying away in an effort to escape. Though she never wavered in her gaze, the smile bloomed on her face.

"Very nice. Now how about we get you tied up nice and proper, hmm?"

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Woot, Alex to the rescue! And woot for action! Alright, I'm still not sure I did that well...action stuff isn't really my forte ^^; I'm better with emotional drama :P

I could really really use some inspiration guys...I only got three reviews last chapter. Maybe I've gotten spoiled, but I really enjoy hearing what you guys think! But yeah, I'm trying to get as much as i can written this weekend, since I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year and will be focusing on an original novel throughout November. I don't want to leave you guys in the dark, so I'm working ahead as best I can. And I write best when I hear from you guys! So please pretty please, if you don't mind taking the time to tell me what you thought, I'd looove to hear from you!

Your Busy Authoress,

Whisperwings