Protector of Men Ch 52

"Cover, they're actively searching."

"I know, Kesia," he replied curtly, "Can we set her down?"

"Of course," she replied in a quiet voice. Cover watched the screens carefully. The sentinels were slowly approaching. It was a duality – good that they were moving slowly (which meant that they had not detected Purgatory), but bad that they were approaching in the first place. Sentinels had never been seen so close to Zion before.

"I'm going manual," Kesia told him, grabbing her controls. He nodded.

Zandra was enjoying a cold shower in the morning. She was glad that she hadn't had any dreams. In fact, since she had gotten the information from the mystery man, she hadn't had any dreams at all. Instead, her nights were spent worrying about Neo's fate. Would she be able to get to him in time? Would he be there at all? Hopefully Emory could answer some of her questions. As the time went, she was regarding Cover's idea better and better. Some guidance would be well appreciated, she thought.

She began rubbing soap into her short hair. Almost long enough for shampoo… but not quite. At least it was long enough to start falling to the sides, and wasn't so spiky anymore. The shower was invigorating, and allowed her to temporarily forget all of her troubles. She meditated while cleaning herself, clearing her mind of all the detritus from the weeks before. It was soothing.

"They're coming closer."

"I know. Get everyone up here."

"Should I call someone?"

"Get Shade."

Kesia got onto the P.A system.

"Shade, get everyone up to the front," she called out, "We've got company calling."

Zandra hadn't heard the overhead because of the loud shower. So she continued to wash, oblivious to the impending danger outside. It was only when she heard an incessant pounding on the door that she hastily turned off the water. She wrapped herself up in the thin towel on the floor and opened the door, startled by the harsh knocking. Both were a little embarrassed; Shade was behind the door.

"Sorry," he bashfully apologized, looking downwards.

"What's wrong?"

"Squids," he told her, now looking in her eyes, not wanting to be distracted…

"Squids?"

"Oh, ah sentinels," he told her, "We're all s'posed to go to the cockpit again."

Zandra looked around expectantly.

"But…"

"Umm," he started sheepishly, rubbing his palm against his cheek in a gesture of discomfort, "I guess just try and get dressed quickly and head out?"

"Okay," she said, "I'll hurry."

"Sorry."

Zandra laughed, but quickly hushed herself. "Don't worry about it," she whispered after him, and closed the door before quickly changing into her clothes. In less than a minute she was hurrying over to the cockpit, where everyone was waiting. Not for her, but for the sentinels.

"Do we have everything shut down?" Cover asked Kesia. She nodded once.

"Good. We don't want something like last time happening again."

"Two thousand yards," Kesia warned.

"Won't they be able to scan us from there?" Trim asked. Cover put a hand up and nodded.

"Quiet now," he told them, and turned to Kesia. "When they hit one thousand, do it."

Kesia nodded silently and opened the cover for the EMP. Everyone was quiet, waiting for the moment to arrive that the sentinels would approach, that they'd use the EMP and have to run back to Zion. The moment was coming soon.

"Fifteen hundred," she called out after a few seconds. Zandra could see something moving in the pipeways ahead of them; Something flying, curving its way slowly to where they were hiding. Everyone was rather tense as they awaited the EMP to be used. Zandra watched another sentinel appear from the darkness and join the first one. They were getting very close, their many appendages floating gracefully as if they were swimming through water. It was oddly poetic: graceful monsters.

"Twelve hundred," she said, re-adjusting her hand on the EMP button. Cover watched her hand intensely as if making sure it didn't do anything wrong in twisting the control button. Kesia didn't move as the sentinels got closer. Zandra was panicking on the inside – they're too close, she kept thinking, they'll be able to get us…

"Now," Cover suddenly voiced. Kesia looked startled, and then cranked the EMP with shaky hands. Again Zandra saw the wave of electricity inch towards the sentinels, and watched them convulse before falling to the ground below them. For a moment, she felt pity for them; she gasped quietly as the deadened machined fell in careless heaps – but it was only a moment. Zandra looked around, hoping that no one would have seen her momentary loss of control. They hadn't: they were too busy watching the sentinels, as she had been. Zandra felt weary.

A collective sigh was heard from Purgatory once the threat was neutralized. Slowly they went back to what they were doing, save Kesia and Trim. They were to stay in the cockpit with Cover and get the ship back to their home as quickly as possible. Sentinels were never supposed to be that close to Zion.

Zandra was planning on going back to her room, but Shade caught her before she could. Kemp was with him, but promptly left with a loud sigh once she had seen Zandra approach. Zandra was glad not to have to deal with her. Kemp was too much to handle. Actually, Zandra thought angrily, she's always too much to handle. Shade started rumpling his hair when she walked up to him.

"Sorry again," he said, looking at the ground, "I didn't mean to barge in on you…." He trailed off, not wanting to go any further. Zandra was understanding.

"Don't worry," she emphasized, clapping him nicely on the shoulder, "Someone had to tell me."

"Yeah," he allowed, nodding at the ground. They were both quiet for a second.

"So," Zandra started, "Back to Zion,"

"Yeah," he replied, suddenly springing back to life, "So you're going to talk to this Emory guy about the Merovingian?"

"I guess so," she sighed.

"You don't want to go?"

"No," she answered quickly, "It's not that I don't want to."

"You're reluctant to go back?"

"No, it's not that…" Zandra was suddenly reminded again of her last trip to Zion, and was brought back into the realm of silence. Shade kicked himself mentally, remembering that every time he had tried to connect with her, he ended up screwing up a perfectly fine conversation. Good move, he told himself silently.

"Well, I guess we'll be there soon," she finally said, staring off into space.

"Yeah," he answered, "I think Alias is finally staying on her own." He added the last part without thinking about it, and only hushed his voice in the last half. He wanted to bash his head into the wall for being so thoughtless. What if Alias had been in the room?

"Oh," Zandra replied noncommittally. What was the right way to respond to a comment such as that?

"Well, I guess you can always stay with me again," he offered, hoping that his proposition would come off the right way. Zandra nodded into space again, weighing her options.

She could stay with Kesia and Kemp again, but she didn't want to. Zandra figured that staying away from Kemp would be a good idea for the time being. Too obnoxious, too loud-mouthed.

"Yeah," she answered after a few seconds, "That'd be good."