Chapter7

Hello?

Showering sparks as the chassis hit the ground, the Cala skidded and showered the Chenowth with gravel as the Toyo tires spun on the loose gravel of the lot. Dairine looked around at the evening sky, the modern buildings, and the shimmering ocean to their left. "Spot? Location check."

"Searching...San Diego Bay, California."

"What? Error, surely?"

"Nope. San Diego."

Kit shook his head. "This sure isn't San Diego as I remember it. Where is everyone?"

"Kit..."

"Fine...what d'you need?"

"You to shut up."

Kit stared at her, then bit his lip to keep from blowing up and turned away, shaking his head.

"Thank you," Nita hissed exasperatedly, and, feeling more than a bit stupid and very guilty, got Dairine's attention mentally.

Are they here?

Dairine slapped herself in the forehead at that and muttered, "Spot. Run query on the three rookies."

Searching...Error. Syntax error in Module 12932-47a caused an invalid fault in Module 63905-739h. This program will terminate in 5...4...3...2...1...Terminating... Program Terminated. Shutting down...

"Reboot." Dairine groaned.

There was a mechanical whirring as Spot slowly rebooted, ran a systems check, and confirmed its entry into the OS.

Nope, Dairine shot back. Got a syntax prob.

Fine. Nita thought. I gotta deal with Kit right now.

She turned to her longtime partner and boyfriend and touched his arm gently.

"Kit, I..."

He didn't answer.

"I'm sorry."

Still no answer.

"Kit, really! I'm sorry, I mean it! If you can't accept that, fine. Consi..." She broke off in midsentence, struck by the weight of what she'd been ready to say.

Kit sighed.

"Look, Nita, I don..."

He cut himself off, buried his face in his hands, and didn't say anything more. They sat in silence for a while, Nita listening to the muted buzz of his thoughts, Kit thinking fast and hard. The silence stretched on into well over awkwardness, then well over into boredom. Nita stared blankly out the window of the idling car, and Kit was gazing at the toe of his sneaker. The silence went on until Kit broke it.

"So exactly where are these kids we're after?"

"I don't know," Nita groaned. "Spot had a syntax error. We couldn't find anything."

"Mmm."

And so another long silence began.

"Kit?"

"'Sup?"

"Would you ever hate me?"

He turned and gazed at her.

"Why?"

"Answer the question, Kit."

"I might hate the things you do, but, you...? No."

Nita seemed rather shamefaced as she smiled weakly.

"Oh."

There was another long silence, broken only as the Cala started to move.

The V-8 held a steady pitch as the Cala turned a corner and, slowing to a stop, unlocked the doors. Nita and Kit got out in silence, shivering in the surprisingly cold weather. Kit rubbed his arms, trying to quell the goosebumps running up and down them. Nita shivered, suddenly wishing she'd brought a jacket. The Cala's engine revved as it moved forward, letting the Chenowth move in behind it. The DR-2 let Dairine and Co. out, and together, they gazed at the huge monolithic slab of black jet standing in the middle of what should have been Sea World. The Cala and Chenowth backed away, and Fred bobbed up, coming to rest on Nita's shoulder. She jumped as her shirt started to smoke and, slapping the flames out, rubbed the burnt spot on her arm.

"Fred!" she groaned in exasperation.

Sorry.

Dairine held back a snicker as Nita cast a doleful eye at Kit, who was going red from restraining his laughter. Nita stared at both of them.

"What is the matter with you two?"

Kit opened his mouth to speak, but instead doubled over with laughter. Dairine, spurred by this, couldn't restrain her laughs anymore, and also burst out laughing. Nita stood in bewilderment as Kit choked out, "Your face…your expression…it was so funny…"

Nita shook her head and stared at the slab of jet.

"What are we gonna do 'bout this?" she wondered aloud.

She rapped on it with her knuckles as Kit stopped laughing, muttering something in the Speech. She tapped it twice. Nothing.

"Oookay…" she muttered. "Next tactic…"

She touched one of her charms on her bracelet, whispering the syllable that would place a Moving Device into her hand. Essentially developed for moving large, heavy items, such as one's alien pet, it would, Nita hoped, move the jet slab with ease. She took aim with the finder and pressed the trigger. A wave of sonic waves shot toward the monolith, struck it, and rebounded. Kit and Dairine ducked as the spell shot over their heads and out over the ocean. Kit moved forward, pressed his palm against the side of the jet slab, and pushed. The slab moved with ease, almost as if it were on wheels. Nita gaped. "How'd you do that?"

Kit shrugged. "Simple, my dear Watson…" He ducked a playful blow from Nita and continued. "The slab is simply made to rebound any magical spell to give it the appearance of true jet, while the whole time, it's a huge thing of a polycarbonate material."

He dodged another hit from Nita, but received a nod from Dairine.

"Really…" she muttered.

"Shut up, both of you," Nita muttered. "I haven't been paying attention in science, don't do this…"

"Too late, Neets. It's already done."

Bam. Nita's hand caught the side of Kit's face, not too hard, but hard enough to know she was annoyed. Dairine grinned.

"Oooh, a love tap…"

"DAIRINE!"

"Alright, alright…"

Kit was now more interested in the hole the slab had been covering. It was narrow, small enough for a slim person to fit through, but not big enough for anything else. Nita glanced down it, trying to visually plumb the depth, striving to see the bottom.

"Uhh, Kit, I don't know about thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…!"

She trailed off in a scream as Kit grabbed her arm and pulled her into the chute with him. They plunged down…down…down…

Dairine and Ponch leapt down next, Fred flitting in front of them like a demented firefly. The shaft seemed to go down for miles, meter after meter of unending terror and blackness, until, finally, a faint light appeared at the end of the Steel Slide of Doom. The light grew steadily brighter and brighter, lighting up the tunnel like Fred had gone mad. Dairine, sensing All Was Not Going to End Well, tried desperately to slow herself, but it was too late. The tunnel launched her out onto the ground, sending her tumbling head over heels and onto her face in a very undignified landing. As she stood, Ponch, yipping and yelping like there was no tomorrow, came flying out and knocked her down again. Dairine gently pushed Ponch off and stood, singing her hair as Fred didn't dodge in time. Brushing the soot out of her hair, she glanced around, being very casual about straightening her hair out and dusting her shirt off. And as she glanced around, she realized something.

Hey, where're Kit and Nita? she thought.

Shrugging it off for the time being, she finished dusting herself off and leaned against a boulder. Then, it hit her.

"Nita?!" she called. "Hey, Kit?!"

Hoo boy.