Xenotober 2022 08 Protection (Family cont.)

a/n: Lila needs to shake a leg or she's gonna miss the elevator. Things aren't going well, and then they go worse.

All the things belong to Monolithsoft.

Lila admired Eleonora's ability to sprint in short skirt and high heels, and she followed uncertainly but at her own decent pace. Maybe she should pick it up, she thought as she saw the elevator sign flash and the doors begin to open. She wasn't sure what the rush was, but she didn't want to antagonize the BLADE administrator. On the other hand, she could maybe take her time, because it looked like the elevator was packed. The arriving passengers would have to get off before she and Eleonora could have whatever private discussion was needed.

Then she saw who was getting off. It wasn't a crowd. It was one over-sized and wall-shaped human, big enough to form a full team in his own person. Sturdy pants, metal belt, and signature tank-top. Lila slowed to a careful walk. Commander Jack Vandham filled the entrance to the elevator, but showed no sign of disembarking. For some reason he seemed to be reaching for Lila.

Eleonora kept up her initial pace, shooting around Vandham's arms. "Lila!" she shouted back. "Come on!"

Lila couldn't do anything but continue walking mechanically forward. She thought that maybe she couldn't change her pace if her life depended on it. In fact, time seemed to be slowing around her as the corridor stretched longer forward than it had a second before.

"Brown!" bellowed Vandham. "Move it!"

If he had called her "Ms. Brown", she would have turned around and gone back to sit next to Avery until whatever needed to happen happened. If he had said "Lila", she probably would have gone from a walk to taking the tiniest of baby steps. She couldn't refuse him - they'd agreed to be adult about this - but she didn't have to like it.

But he'd called her "Brown", shouted it in the same tone she'd heard dozens, maybe hundreds, of times on the Whale. She'd heard it on the construction campus for the ship. She'd heard it at a naval base before she'd ever dreamed of this future. She knew what it meant. People, not just him, but the rest of the crew needed her to get something done. They were counting on her. Safety, lives, the ship, all of it could be on the line, and she needed to do her part. Preferably two minutes, two days, earlier, but if she ran she could make up for lost time.

Lila put her head down and barreled at the elevator doors. She dodged around him just as Eleonora had, hugging the edges of the closing doors so that she didn't brush against him. Eleonora was leaning against the control panel, all traces of bland professionalism vanished. The elevator lurched upward before Lila had come to a stop. She tilted into a wall, partly from the movement and the need to stop, partly to keep away from the others in the crowded space.

The space became even more crowded in the next moment. Vandham had turned around and with a sweep of both his arms he crowded the two women into the back corner of the elevator. He wrapped his arms around them, until Lila was squished between Vandham's chest and Eleonora's shoulder. The compartment rattled and shook, rocketing upward. Lila wondered when they would run out of building.

The lights went out, replaced by faint red emergency lights. Something was roaring under them. Lila hear a dull deep tone, a ringing sound that reminded her of the Whale's end. The sound of shafts collapsing, metal giving in to heat and explosions. That couldn't be possible. The smell of burning insulation couldn't be the same as that last day. A distant part of her remembered that BLADE tower was an original part of the ship. She tried to wriggle loose, but Vandham pressed them further back, hunching over them.

"Not really necessary, I think." Eleanora's voice was muffled but regaining its freshness. "And I thought we agreed you would stay clear."

"Someone needed to hold the doors for you," Vandham said far too close to Lila's ear.

The red emergency lights switched to a half-version of the regular lighting, and the elevator slowed to what felt like a more normal speed. Vandham peeled himself off the other two. Vandham twisted to look down and behind him. "Aw hell, look at my f-..."

"Language," Eleonora said with restored cheer.

His mustache waggled wryly. "My fabulous pants caught a little of it." He shook out a leg like a tree trunk, and indeed the lower back edge of his pants was singed.

Lila sagged in the corner, shivering.

Vandham looked at her, but she couldn't meet his eyes. "Hey, hey," he said softly. "It's just the cuffs. Didn't touch me. And my boots came through without a mark."

"Could you tell with those ancient things?" Eleonora asked.

Lila's brain struggled to make connections. The dim lights, the wisps of smoke floating past, the normal sounds of floors passing slower and slower, none of it helped her understand. Then she managed to have one piercing thought.

"Avery! We need to get her!"

a/n: A thanks to the Geniuses of Discord for advice on xeno technology and how to write multiple moods at once. We have maybe two more chapters.

Next up: Daily Life, then Rebirth. Oh to have these swapped. (And I may just do that.)