Chapter 7: A Little Luck
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This is utter insanity, Liam thought, it just can not be happening. He sat on the floor, back to the wall. He held his head in his hands. This has to be a dream, a nightmare...
"Wheeeee!!!!" The gleeful sound ricocheted off the walls. Sandoval pushed off the floor, tucked his arms and did a magnificent flip in the air. He floated gently to the ground again.
"Bravo!" Renee clapped enthusiastically. She beamed at the agent.
Sandoval bowed majestically. "Thank you! Thank you!" he said. He smiled back at Renee, then held out his hand. "Now it's your turn."
Renee took the floor as Sandoval retreated to the sidelines. She bowed, then thought for a moment. "Ok! I've got it!" She flung out her arms, jumped into the air and executed a perfect pirouette.
"Encore!" raved Sandoval, clapping. He glanced at the two silent Taelons, who were nodding appreciatively. They all cheered when Renee managed another feat of aerial ballet.
I'm going to wake up any minute now... Liam thought to himself, ignoring the sideshow going on. He had to hold on to some hope. A beeping sound confused him for a second, he actually believed it might be his alarm clock. He raised his head and realized the Taelon room hadn't given way to his apartment.
What now? Liam snapped open his global, the source of the noise. Augur's face immediately appeared. "Augur?"
"Where are you Liam?" Augur asked, sounding concerned. "I tried to contact you before, but there was some kind of interference."
Liam grimaced at the memory of the 'nightclub'. Augur caught the expression and said, "That bad, huh?"
"Regular trip down the rabbit hole," stated Liam.
"'Rabbit hole'?" a confused Augur questioned
"Something Sandoval said. Forget it," said Liam. "What was it, Augur?"
Augur looked at him blankly a moment, then said, "Well, I managed to dig up a little more on the factory. Seems there might be a witness. I'm having him tracked down now."
"That's great," Liam said flatly. "At least we might find out who's responsible for this whole mess." He just hoped he would get a chance to 'meet' the guy.
"That's not all," Augur rushed on, "I've been monitoring some strange internal communications. T'than's taken over the Mothership!"
"What!" Liam's nightmare just got worse.
Augur nodded vigorously. "He's planning to invade Earth! Liam, whatever it is you're doing, you'd better hurry it up!"
"Right!" Liam shut the global and stood. He turned to find Sandoval and Renee performing an impromptu mid-air dance. "Get down from there!"
Sandoval and Renee floated down, giggling. "You're no fun, Liam!" chided Renee.
Liam scowled. "We don't have time. We have to get to the labs." He turned to Da'an and said, "You told me you could guide me around this base, so where are the labs?"
Da'an assumed a quizzical expression. Liam couldn't tell if he was faking it or not.
"Da'an!" he prompted.
Da'an grinned, "Yes, Liam of course. We need to cycle the room so we can move into the base itself. It's necessary to lower the gravity and air pressure, to avoid a shock to our bodies."
"You should activate the pressure belts," added Zo'or.
Liam gave both Taelons a warning look. "These belts won't 'malfunction' will they?"
"Oh no," Da'an shook his head. "It would be too dangerous to tamper with them."
Like falling from the ceiling wasn't? Liam secured the belt around his waist and put his air mask back on. He activated the belt, which resulted in a low hum. Sandoval and Renee followed suit.
Da'an turned from them and walked to a control panel near the exit. He glanced back and instructed, "Once we enter the base, communication between us will become impossible. Zo'or and I shall can use the Commonality, but you three do not have a recourse. Simply allow us to lead the way."
Before Liam could protest or ask if there was any communication equipment, Da'an activated the cycle controls. The hiss of escaping air announced the departure of atmosphere. Liam could feel himself rise slightly, the gravity lessening. He was concentrating on predicting what might happen once they entered the Moonbase proper, when something bumped against his head.
"Huh?" Liam could hear his own exclamation of surprise, muffled by the mask. He swung his head around...and collided with a big, white puff. Wha...?
Large, vaguely familiar objects were floating around in the low gravity. Liam reached out and caught hold of one. He squeezed it. The puff was spongy, soft. He stared at it for a moment, then realized what it was. He gave Sandoval a withering glare. The agent simply shrugged and grinned.
Liam rolled his eyes and let the inflated marshmallow go. He motioned to Da'an to open the door. Da'an nodded, he touched the controls and the door melted away. He led the way out, followed by Zo'or. Liam ushered Sandoval and Renee through the opening.
They emerged into an empty corridor. Well, thought Liam, either they don't know we're here or they didn't feel it necessary to send someone. He was glad to see the way was clear, but suspicious of trouble later on.
A bump from behind sent Liam careening into the wall. His moon shoes decided at that moment to switch from 'gravity' to 'anti-gravity'. Unable to stop himself, Liam bounced across the hallway several times, looking and feeling like a human pinball. Finally, he was able to clasp onto a support of some kind and cease the dizzying ordeal.
He glared in the direction of Sandoval and Renee, who each held one of the oversized marshmallows behind their back. Liam pulled himself over to them. He tapped his moon shoes on the floor until they stuck. Then he held out his hand in a silent demand. Sandoval and Renee frowned, but relinquished the puffs. He pointed down the corridor and they obeyed.
Liam shook his head and sent the puffs sailing back toward the portal room. Please, he begged, Whatever power is out there, just let us get to the labs without any more trouble?
---
Whatever powers that be...Thank You! Liam thought gratefully. Somehow, by some luck or design, the group had managed to locate the labs without incident. Zo'or stood next to the door, authorizing their entrance. He glanced at them with a satisfied grin as the door opened.
Liam proceeded into the first lab. He surveyed the surroundings and blinked in surprise when he spotted the Taelon.
The Taelon was ensconced behind a table, holding a container of some sort in his hand. His blue energy body contrasted with that of Da'an and Zo'or's 'human' ones. He cocked his head to one side, then assumed his own facade.
Da'an and Zo'or approached him and a conversation, of sorts, began. All three Taelons alternately nodded, shook their heads and gestured with their hands. Finally, the Taelon at the table nodded and touched a button on its surface.
Liam felt the pull of gravity return. Da'an turned to him and said, "You may remove your masks. Ki'na has introduced the necessary atmosphere for humans."
Liam cautiously removed his mask. He took a breath and decided there wasn't any trickery involved. "Thank you, Ki'na."
Ki'na nodded again. "Da'an informs me you have questions regarding a certain compound?"
"Yes," replied Liam. Finally, they seemed to be getting somewhere. "A Taelon compound, referred to as zenar, was stolen from the Taelon Mothership. Unfortunately, the compound has been ingested by most, if not all, of the Mothership inhabitants. We need a counter-agent. Preferably one that works on both Taelons and humans."
Ki'na gave Liam an impatient glare. "This is the emergency I have interrupted my experiments for?"
Liam wasn't sure how to answer that. But it didn't seem necessary anyway, since Ki'na turned to Da'an and Zo'or. He huffed, "This information could have been requested via data stream." He stalked to a shelf in the wall behind him, removed a vial and brought it to Liam. "This is the counter-agent you require," he said snidely.
Liam turned the vial over in his hand. "We need enough for the entire Mothership," he observed. "Will we have to replicate more?"
"No," snapped Ki'na. "Merely introduce that into the environment, then initiate a sweep of energy, the type Taelons use in their streams, and the effects of zenar will be cleansed."
Liam nodded, then asked, "What about the humans?"
"The counter-agent will work well enough," Ki'na said impatiently. "They will simply experience mild exhaustion. Now," he swept the group with an acid gaze, "Please vacate the lab. My experiments are delicate and may already be suffering." Without another word, he returned to the table and pressed the environmental controls.
Liam hastily replaced his mask as the friendly atmosphere was vacuumed from the lab. He placed the vial in a zippered pocket and motioned to the others. He led them out of the lab, down the corridors and back to the portal room.