"Damn!" Harper shouted, slamming his fist against the computer panel next to the door.
"What's wrong?" Kael asked, walking over to Harper, still on alert for any Academy soldiers that may be soon making their way over to their location.
"You said encrypted, not welded shut!" he exclaimed, frustrated. "This damn thing has so many different access codes and security loops it'd be faster to stare a hole through the door! On top of that," he raised his hands in exasperation, "this thing doesn't have a port that I can jack into! It's going to take me four hours to decrypt all this stuff!"
"We unfortunately don't have that much time. I'm sure that there's going to be some guards to be checking up on us pretty soon," Kael replied, trying to scan the area with his power to detect if there was anybody that would coming to greet them.
"Can't you just, you know, teleport us through the door?"
Kael shook his head. "Not unless you want your DNA and molecular structure to be scrambled. They made sure that they put up a temporal distortion field around the entire room so that nobody can get through that easily."
"There's just so many different codes," Harper sighed, tapping away on the control panel again. "I've gotten through most of the security measures, but now it wants an override pass code because it's in lock-down mode. I don't suppose that you would know what that would be?"
"Each person is given their own set of codes to use for doors and such. That way the Academy can track what each person does," Kael paused for a moment. "I suppose I can try my old codes, they probably won't work though."
"I'm up for anything right now other than sitting here all day and trying to debug this damn thing."
"Please provide override security code," a steely mechanical voice came through the panel after Harper had hit a few buttons.
"Override code alpha, one, three, bravo, one, six, omega, omega; student ID number one, three, three, two, five, one," Kael said slowly, pronouncing every syllable clearly.
"Student…Kael Lidar…override code…rejected. Faculty override needed for lock-down priority," the voice returned.
"Well that didn't work," Harper said. "Maybe if we would-" Kael cut him off.
"Override code one, three, four, six, twelve, bravo, zeta, one, three, two, one, three; priority five, two, seven, nine; Faculty ID number three, two, one, three, two, eight; department ID number one, three, one, six."
"Faculty…Doctor Kael Lidar…Department…Temporal Sciences…Override code…authenticated."
"Wow, it actually worked," Kael mused. "They should actually keep their student and faculty databases updated."
"Since when were you a doctor?" Harper asked as he continued to work on the control panel. "Yes!" He exclaimed as he heard a short beep come from the panel and the doors opened.
"You may be an engineering genius, Seamus," Kael said as they began to make their way into the room, "but I am a temporal genius."
****
"All right, time to split up. You all know where your blast points are," Jessea said. "We'll report back here in one half-hour. Don't be late," she warned. "'Cause this thing will blow up just the same with you in it."
"Aye aye," Rommie said and watched as Dylan went to secure the basement, and Jessea, the lower corridors. Guess that leaves me with the top, Rommie thought to herself. As she walked along, she pondered. Why did he give me a kiss? We've always been friends, but he's never done anything like that before, not even when he's ecstatic. So why now? Could it be that Harper has feelings for me? She considered it for a second but then thought, No, that's impossible. How could he have feelings for me? I am his creation, well partially. It would be well, weird. Then again, he is cute, and my speech subroutines always seem to tangle a little when I get near him. Those thoughts stopped her cold in tracks, but it as just as well, for she was at her first blast point. She knelt a reached into the backpack she had, and pulled out the parts needed to set the explosive. She thought more as she worked. Does this mean I have feelings for Harper? How could that be? We've been friends for so long………or is that the cause of my feelings? Have they now turned to love? Arrgh, this is so confusing. Very well, then, Seamus Harper, I love you, but I have no idea what to do about it.
****
Trance and a group of three soldiers quickly ducked behind a fallen stone slab, using it as cover. They aimed at a phalanx of soldiers that had a good number of faction soldiers pinned down, and fired. Soldiers fell like flies, and the ones that didn't were obviously surprised. They looked around, giving the other faction soldiers time to fire. Seamus better get out of this alive, she mused. I've risked too much to have him killed. Although, Kael is quite cute in his own right… She shook her head and fired at another Academy soldier. The phalanx had now turned into a group of ten soldiers. Bad Trance! she thought. You love Harper, and you need to remain loyal to him, even if Kael is downright sexy…As she shot the last soldier near the factionists, she wondered, I wonder how hard it would be to have two boyfriends…………