Disclaimer: Roswell, and its characters do not belong to me. Melinda Metz, Jason Katims and 20th Century Fox have that particular pleasure. I'm simply borrowing them until the Season 2 DVD's get released.
Chapter Fifty – Seven – Panic and Power
"Make it go away," said Kyle, his voice filled with panic. "Make it go away."
"Don't you think I tried already?" asked Max.
"Well, try again!" shouted Kyle. "Why'd you do that anyhow? They're going to know it was us. We were the only ones in here."
"Kyle, calm down," said Max. "Freaking out isn't going to help us any."
"Well, it's helping me feel better," said Kyle. "Besides, this is your inner panic I'm picking up on. If you'd just let it out, I wouldn't be freaking so much."
"Leaf floating on a stream Kyle," said Max. "See the freaking image in your mind and focus on it, while I try to come up with a plan."
"Don't bother," said a suddenly calm Kyle. "I have one." He walked across the throne room, stepped out into the hallway, and yelled.
"General Kobodi, General Kobodi! Emergency in the throne room!"
The other Aberjani, and the trainees took up the cry, and footsteps pounded in the hallway as everyone, including General Kobodi made their way to the throne room.
Max watched in horrified fascination as the room filled, and everyone gawked at the orb emblazoned on the headrest of the throne.
"What is the meaning of this!" shouted General Kobodi from the back of the room. "Why are all of these people in this room?" He shoved his way to the front of the crowd, and stopped in shock when the throne came into view.
"Who did this?" he asked, his voice deadly. "Who is responsible for securing this room?"
"We are, General Kobodi," said Kyle, stepping forward.
"Can you explain to me why you chose to stand in a hallway and scream like a fishwife, instead of coming to find me?" asked Kobodi, his voice deadly.
"You told us not to leave the room we were sent to secure," said Kyle, his face a mask of innocence.
A loud laugh caused everyone in the room to turn towards the door, where Kivar stood.
"He has you there, Kobodi," said Kivar, his face a deceptive mask of calmness. "You told them not to leave the area that they secured until they were called. Congratulations, soldier. You unquestioningly followed orders. Now, tell me, which one of you did this?"
"Lord Kivar," said Max, stepping forward. "Neither one of us did this, we don't even know what it is. We only know that this symbol has appeared on the treasonous trash that has appeared in town. Kahtair thought it was best to raise the alarm."
Kivar pushed his way through the crowd of students, and Max tried to hide a shudder of fear when he saw Zan slip his hand into Kivar's pocket and pull out his communicator.
Kivar stopped when he stood in front of Max, and grabbed him by the arm. "Tell me which one of you did this?" he said, his voice hard as metal. As he spoke, he shoved at Max with his mind, and he could feel Kivar prodding him to tell the truth.
"It was here when we came in," Max said, calmly. "As soon as we realized where we saw that symbol, Kahtair called for General Kobodi."
"Dismiss your troops, Kobodi. We're not going to find anything here," said Kivar.
"Lord Kivar," came a disembodied voice. "Lord Kivar, please contact the security center."
Max cringed as he watched Kivar reach into his pocket for his communicator. A look of displeasure crossed his face when he couldn't find it, and he quickly reached into another pocket and retrieved it.
"This is Kivar," he said into the communicator.
"We have secured all the exits, as you requested, Sir. Nobody can enter or exit the building."
"That will be all," said Kivar. He shoved the communicator in his pocket. "Kobodi, I want to meet with you later. You instructed the trainees not to leave the areas they were searching. Your student reacted in the only way possible to notify you of a security breach. His comrades came running to assist him, as good soldiers will. All of this has probably allowed our intruder to escape, unnoticed. I expect you to have a very good reason for why you did this, when we meet. Dismissed."
"Yes, Lord Kivar," said Kobodi, bowing low. When he stood, he shot Kyle a look of malevolent hatred.
"Oh, and Kobodi, if I find out that any of your trainees have been punished because of your error, it will not go well for you," said Kivar, walking out the door.
"You are dismissed," said Kobodi, his voice filled with hatred. "Return to the Training Academy immediately." He pushed past the trainees and stormed out the door and down the hallway.
By unspoken consent, the trainees waited several minutes until they were certain that they wouldn't bump into Kobodi. They filed silently out of the throne, and down to the palace entrance.
Once they were clear of the palace, the other trainees circled around Max and Kyle.
"Which one of you did that?" asked the trainee called Quortoth.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Max. "It's like I said, the symbol was on the throne when we walked into the room."
"Well, we've all got your back on this one," said another trainee. "I could feel Kivar trying to mind warp you into telling the truth."
"I was telling the truth," said Max, quietly. "Come on, let's get back to the Training Academy before Kobodi finds another reason to want to kill us all."
The group began walking towards the school. Max and Kyle allowed themselves to fall to the back of the group, and meet up with Michael and Zan.
"What the hell happened?" Michael asked.
"Max felt the need to play king and sit in the pretty seat," said Kyle. "And the throne decided to announce to the world that the king had arrived."
"It was a stupid thing to do," said Max.
"But perfectly natural," said Zan. "I would have done the same thing, but I don't know if I would have handled the whole situation as well as you guys did."
"That was all Kyle," said Max. "But your switcheroo with the communicators was pretty smooth."
"What switcheroo?" asked Michael. "Jesus, I need a program to keep up with you guys."
"I saw Zan remove the communicator from Kivar's pocket, just before they paged him," said Max. "How did you get the new communicator in his pocket so quickly though? I didn't see that at all."
"I did that first," said Zan. "I slipped Maria's in his left pocket, and pulled the other one out of his right pocket."
"Very cool," said Michael. "You know, I'm starting to feel really superfluous here."
"How do you even know a word like superfluous?" questioned Kyle.
"It was a slow night at the CrashDown. I read Liz's SAT prep book," explained Michael.
"Anybody ever tell you what a geek you are sometimes, Guerin?" asked Kyle.
"Yeah, but you love me anyway," said Michael, and Max did a double take at the uncharacteristic show of emotion.
"We'd better get moving," said Zan. "We're the last ones out, and you know that despite what Kivar said, Kobodi's going to have it out for you and Kyle. Let's not give him any extra ammunition."
Once back at school, the group split up, agreeing to meet in the tunnel room as soon as possible. When Michael entered the room, he found Ava dancing joyously around the room, hugging herself with glee.
"Happy much?" asked Michael.
"Oh Michael, it was wonderful," said Ava, throwing herself into her brother's arms and hugging him tightly.
"That's great," said Michael. "I'm glad it was wonderful, but Ava, I just have one question. What the hell is it?"
"Just an idea that I had," she said. "And it worked perfectly. I didn't think it would, but it did."
"That's it, you are so not allowed to hang out with Maria anymore," said Michael. "It's bad enough that I never have a freaking clue what she's talking about. I never knew it was catchy! You sound just like her. Slow down, start at the beginning, and for crying out loud, please use complete sentences."
"I'm sorry, Michael," said Ava, struggling to calm down a little. "But see, I had this really great idea to get some of the trideka to everyone. Che'koth helped me organize it, and it worked perfectly. Today, just about everyone in school, instructors and students alike received a package with a piece of jewelry in it. Do you know what this means?"
"They're all going to have kick ass accessories?" said Michael.
"Michael!"
"I get it, I get it," said Michael, wrapping his arms around Ava. "Good deal Little Sis, very good deal indeed."
"What's good?" asked Maria, standing with Alex in the doorway.
"Ava's idea of course," said Michael. "Where are the others?"
"There on there way," said Alex. "We saw everyone except for Liz, but I'm sure she'll be down too."
The door opened again, and Max, Kyle, Zan and Isabel walked in to the small room. Everyone took their usual seats, except for Max, who paced around the room, feeling lost without Liz.
"Who wants to go first?" said Kyle in an effort to break the silence that pervaded the room.
"Don't you think we should wait for Liz, first?" Isabel asked tentatively. She knew that she didn't want to tell her story more than once.
"How about if we do this?" asked Michael looking at Ava. He could tell she was so excited to share her news with everyone that she was about to explode. "If someone has happy, and I mean strictly happy, nothing scary, news to share, they share it now. If there is anything of concern to share, we save it for when Liz gets here?"
Everyone agreed, and Ava jumped up, happy to share her news with her friends.
"So the way I figure it, by now, just about every member of the staff and the student body are officially unwarped," she said. "With the obvious exception of Jara Kobodi of course."
"Isn't there a chance that someone will notify Kivar?" asked Alex.
"Yeah," admitted Ava. "But we ran that same risk when we had the guy with the cart pass out all that stuff the other day."
"Ava's right," said Maria. "And I think it was a great idea. Anybody else got any happy news to share?" She looked around the room, and watched as everyone shook their heads. "Then I propose that we celebrate Ava's bold and successful maneuver until Liz gets here. All in favor?"
A resounding chorus of aye's filled the room, followed by laughter at Maria's attempt to follow parliamentary procedure. Everyone relaxed a little and began to talk. The volume of the various discussions drowned out the sounds from the tunnel.
Max looked up and noticed Che'koth standing in the passage to the tunnel, watching all of them, his face a study of intense concentration.
"Hey Che'koth, what's up?" Max asked. "We're just hanging out while we wait for Liz. The pasta nazi is off tonight, but we have plenty of other things to eat."
"There is no time," said Che'koth. "We need to get to work. There is much to be done. I want one of you to make some more flyers right away. When they are done, the rest of you will distribute them through out the city while everyone is asleep."
Nobody moved from their seats. They just stared at Che'koth, shocked by his sudden appearance, and his outburst.
"Why are you sitting there?" he yelled. "I told you to get to work!"
"Now look," began Max. He stopped as a bolt of energy shot across the room, striking Che'koth in the chest. He spun around to find Liz standing in the doorway, her arm extended to fire another bolt of energy if necessary.