"Tieran, what was that bellow for? It hurt and I jumped a mile. Thank goodness you caught me studying alone in the library instead of tutoring a student."
"Sorry. They have him, Alia."
"Have who, Tieran? Calm down a little. I thought I was the designated panicker."
"They just animated Jareth. I was in contact with him when they took him and he just disappeared mid-sentence. What do we do now?"
"Are you alone?"
"No."
"Then pay attention to what's going on around you. And calm down, or they'll notice something."
"Yes. Right."
"Are you okay, Tieran? You don't look well," James asked as Tieran released the door frame he was clutching with white knuckles.
Alia caught the echo of this question and prompted Tieran, "Tell him a goose must have walked over your grave."
"What?"
"Tell him."
"A goose must have walked over my grave, that is all." "What in the Underground does that mean?"
"It's just a phrase people use to explain a creepy feeling."
"You sure? Maybe you should sit down."
"No, I feel fine," Tieran answered as he sat down anyway.
"You're sure you can't feel Jareth?"
"Not at all. There is nothing there when I reach out and call for him."
"Maybe he's just unconscious or disoriented. Keep calling him, maybe he'll answer when he wakes up or gets his bearings."
"Yes, that must be it," Tieran clutched at this explanation, relieved.
"Looks like you lucked out. You got to see us conquer the Goblin King. Or maybe you're lucky for us. Feeling better?"
"Yes, thank you. Shall we continue meeting the rest of my coworkers?"
"Yeah, sure. There's not many left. I'll check back with you later, Mike."
"Yeah, no prob. See ya." After they left Mike turned back to his computer to finish some fine tuning and muttered to himself, "Fairy. Excitement musta been too much for him. Oughta go back to Penny-pee and Did-he-see-us."
.….
Later that night, Tieran told Cara what he had seen of the computer system.
"Then you can't really just take the computers. There's too many of them. I assume that because Jareth didn't just round them all up and toss everything in the Bog that you can't take care of them with magic that way?" Tieran shook his head. "Then you'll have to cripple them on site. But there's so many of them."
"We can't just get the server?" asked Alia.
"No, all those other computers will work individually. It's all or none or there's no point to it. If they still have an uncorrupted copy of the software they've invented to do this with, they can just start over again."
"Then we'll have to find all the backup copies, as well."
"Yup. Everything," agreed Cara. "Now how do you cleverly steer a conversation to the secret location of the backups, originals, and written copies of a top secret piece of software?"
"Once we get them, how do we take care of the stuff they use everyday?" asked Alia.
"Only thing I can think of is a virus."
"Can you do that?"
"Maybe. It'd be easiest if I had the passwords and everything."
"More asking the nearly impossible," Alia sighed. "'Excuse me, would you mind giving me your password? I'm collecting them you see. No particular reason.' I wonder if Tieran could read it out of their minds? That's awfully unscrupulous, though." She turned to ask Tieran, who was sitting behind her staring vacantly, what he thought about the problem. "Tieran. Tieran?"
"Hmm? What?"
"No sign of Jareth yet?" He had been preoccupied with that off and on since he got to her apartment.
"No, I have been trying to find him. There is nothing yet."
"Have you tried using that crystal he gave you, yet?"
"No, I am not certain it would work without access to his magic."
"Now who's the pessimist? Can't it use your magic? Try it anyway, maybe the connection with him will make it easier to find him."
Tieran produced the crystal much the same way the Goblin King had in the movie. Alia made a mental note to ask Tieran later, when they had more time, if he could play with them the way Jareth had.
The crystal was wrong. It took Alia a moment to realize what was wrong about it. Instead of the faintly luminescent quality that even normal crystal balls from her world had, this one had a dark cast. Instead of focusing, refracting, and reflecting light as it had in the past, it simply absorbed the light without releasing any of it. It remained perfectly clear, unblemished and uncolored, but it was lifeless.
"That doesn't look good," Cara said quietly.
"I'm sorry I brought it up," agreed Alia.
As Tieran intently stared into it, the crystal filled with its usual light.
"Maybe it was just out of magic," Alia whispered.
"Yeah," Cara whispered back.
"Why are we whispering?"
"I don't know. You started it."
"I think I have found him," Tieran announced.
Alia instinctively satisfied her curiosity by reaching out to listen in with her mind, but this left Cara out of the loop.
"Jareth. Jareth, I know you are there somewhere, I can feel you. Answer me."
"Tieran, thank you oh so much for helping me."
"What's happening? Did he find him?" Cara demanded.
"Shh. Yeah, he found him. He's fine, his usual grateful self. Let me listen."
"You are most welcome," answered Tieran. "Can you tell me what happened to you?"
"No. And I have no idea where I am. I can't see or feel anything. I'm not sure I even have a body."
"Cara tells me that the server is used for storage, so that is the most likely location for you now. We are working on a way to get you and the rest of the Labyrinth out of there and then destroy all the computers."
"Please be sure you do them in the proper order."
"Alia, I know you can hear Jareth, can you speak with him? It would be a good idea to have another way to contact him in emergencies."
"I don't know. Can you you hear me, Your Highness?" She still felt uncomfortable addressing him by only his name.
"Yes, I can. Wonderful. Now, at least if am trapped here forever, I will have someone to talk to."
"Don't worry, we'll get you out of there. I for one don't want to spend the rest of my life entertaining you." For some reason, Alia found talking back to the Goblin King easier than calling him by his name.
"Nor do I relish the thought of hearing you complain for eternity," Tieran added. "We will keep you informed, Jareth."
Alia let the Goblin King fade out of her awareness and asked, "Now could we hear about the rest of your day?"
"Yeah. How'd it go?" Cara chimed in.
Tieran sighed and slumped in his chair. "James Green, the director of animation, gave me a tour of the building. I filled out some paperwork. We ate lunch. James introduced me to some of my co-workers. A man named Mike Barr animated Jareth. I met a few more people, whom I do not remember and sincerely hope I do not meet again any time soon. I came home. That is all."
"That's not all," Alia protested. "Tell us about these people you work with."
Tieran recounted his conversation with the designers and modelers.
"They sure are a catty bunch aren't they?" Cara commented. "All forming cliques and talking about each other."
"I wonder if this Caereh is as bad as Amy said?"
"She'd be pretty pitiful if she was. It's probably all gossip," Cara dismissed.
"I should go home and get some sleep or I will not be fit to deal with anyone, pitiful or not, tomorrow. Good night, Cara. I will see you in the morning, Alia."
.….
The next morning Tieran informed James that he thought he would be most useful in the modeling area. Any stage of animation was closer to taking apart the Underground than he wanted to be right now.
"You're sure you don't want to do some of the animating? We could use you there, too."
"No, I think modeling is where I will work best. You looked as though you had the animation under control, despite your delays. Now that Mike has finished imprinting GK, you will have him available, as well."
"Yes, well, he isn't very versatile, but I said you could work where you wanted, so if it's modeler you want, it's modeler you get." James resigned himself to losing an animator. "Someone should be coming by later this morning to get you into your computer. I think it's all pretty standard, but if there's anything unfamiliar on it, I'm sure Amy or Thomas could give you a few pointers. If there's anything you need that they can't help you with, come ask me."
James left and Tieran amused himself by putting up a few prints he had brought in with him. He had decided Escher would be a safe choice, quirky, but not bright and distracting. There was also the added connection with the movie, though he had not chosen the print from the movie. He thought that would be too obvious. Instead, for one he had chosen a soothing pond with autumn leaves, reflecting the sky, a fish in its depths. The other could be taken as a commentary on the working world, if the viewer was so inclined, with laborers continuously climbing stairs around the top of a tower.
He had just hung the pond and was straightening it with his back to the door when a voice asked from behind him, "Tieran Sartali?"
Expecting the computer technician that James had mentioned earlier, he answered without turning around, "Yes. The computer is over there. I have not done anything with it yet. Does this look straight from where you stand?"
"Mm. I hope so."
Disclaimers, credits, trivia:
Labyrinth, etc. belong to the Jim Henson Company.