The Julius Deception
Or, "A Factual Description of What on Earth Happened to the Commander"
"Foaly, do I have to remind you that your sensors have been fooled before, in this very terminal, if I remember correctly?"
- Cmdr. Julius Root
Ops. Booth, Lower Elements:
No life signs, no pain sensors. Not even a measly blip.
The Ops Booth at the Lower Elements Police Plaza was usually a hub of activity. Fairies of all sorts would zip past the booth, with the occasional passerby peeking in to see what new invention the centaur was cooking up.
Things had changed; silence had crept over the room. At this point in a typical mission, the Booth ought to have been filled with sounds: the steady drum of centaurian fingers on keyboards, the whirr of computers racing to provide data, carrots being crunched, conversations in the field, and, if you were really lucky, Julius barging in to complain about the budget. Or the Council. Or Holly.
Holly herself might also sneak in when she was sure that the hallways were safe from the commander. Then, Foaly'd bring out his latest project and would show it off to Holly, who, unlike the bulk of the Recon jocks, could understand what he was talking about. Maybe not the one to help him debug it or talk technical about it, but definitely the elf he'd trust most with testing things out in the field.
Of course, with the way Sool kept shortening his budget at every opportunity, chances are that there was not going to be a lot of new creations needing testing.
The new commander in question had just left, but not until after he'd finished poking his cane into Foaly's expensive (and fragile) Atlantean screens. This was one of the reasons that the centaur missed Root. He knew that Julius wouldn't have poked the screens. The commander would have smacked them. And Root actually had done so once, only to be burnt by the heat generated by the plasma.
Come to think of it, Holly had done the same thing. Trying to draw his eyes away from the flat lines on the monitor, Foaly sat back and remembered. On her very first day as an officer in the LEPrecon, Captain Holly Short had wandered into the Ops. Booth while searching a bit haphazardly for her office….
…
"This isn't the Captains' offices, right? Some sprite pointed me in this direction but-"
"Nope. Ops Booth. Captains' offices are on the other end of the escalators."
Then, it hit him. There was only one person who would need a new office: the first girl in Recon, and- to Foaly's great amusement – the only one to beat Commander Root at paintball.
"Hey, wait a moment! Aren't you the one who finally tagged Julius?" Holly paused, not knowing how to react.
When in conversation the subject of her initiation was breached, most officers in Recon were of two minds about it: they either thought that a girl didn't belong in Recon and that Root had been tagged unfairly; or that Holly ought to be congratulated for ending the commander's bragging about never being hit in paintball. Up to this point, it had been easy to gauge which officers had which opinions. With Foaly's impartial question though, Holly couldn't be sure which side he was on…
Seeing this, the centaur smiled. "I'm all for you, Captain." Holly looked visibly relieved. "Anything that annoys the commander is alright in my book. Come on in- I've just finished the tide wave for Tern Mór."
This caught her attention.
"The tidal wave? To cover the damage I caused with the shuttle?" Holly asked, intrigued. "How exactly do you do that?"
Foaly was impressed. Most of the officers in Recon hadn't any notion of what it took to clean up a mission that had gone awry. And even if they did, they didn't care too much how it was done, as long as no Mud Men took notice. He was more than happy to oblige.
He showed Holly how the tidal wave had been programmed to crash into the shores of the island, the impact, and the decimation it had caused to the little shack. There hadn't been much difference in the before and after pictures of the human residence.
"And this is your job? You make tidal waves and cover stuff up?"
Foaly was about to correct her and say that actually, he did much more than that, but her next remark made him bite his tongue.
"Frond, that's amazing. All the mistakes people make in the field and it all falls to you to keep the Mud Men from finding out about them?"
He barely had the chance to reply when he heard what every inventor, scientist, and computer programmer dreads to hear. Because once you hear those words you know that something bad is going to happen. Maybe it's just the way people say it. Maybe it's the manner in which they move towards the computer with their hand outstretched, while everything goes into slow motion. Nonetheless, Foaly's trademark paranoia went into overdrive as Holly said:
"What's that?"
She was pointing to a highlighted section on a large plasma screen. Foaly made a valiant attempt to gallop towards her before the inevitable happened.
"Wait, Captain, don't touch-"
Too late.
Holly's long elfin fingers made contact with the glass and immediately after impact she drew her hand back, cradling it protectively.
"D'Arvit!"
He sighed. "Plasma screen. Gets very hot after it's been on for a while." He noticed blue sparks playing around her fingers as she backed away nervously. Her hair even looked a bit singed. "Guess I should have warned you. Oh well." Holding out a hand to her, he introduced himself:
"Name's Foaly. Technological genius and just about the only thing protecting the People from Mud computer progress. You?"
Holly shook his hand. "Captain Holly Short of Recon. The first female captain and top of the Academy in flying." She grinned sheepishly. "That's about it. I haven't gone out on any missions yet, so…"
"Pleased to meet you, Holly. Want to see the new convict you and Julius bagged? I've got a secret camera in his cell for surveillance."
"Isn't that a violation of his privacy, though?"
Foaly winked at her, then replied, "Only if the Council finds out. Besides," he added, "it can't hurt to be too careful."
Holly ended up spending the remainder of her first day in the Ops. Booth. Foaly didn't get much work done, but he did acquaint Holly with the entire line of wings, iris cams, and weaponry the LEP had at its disposal. Upon finding out where Holly had been, the commander was not pleased at all; which, as usual, pleased Foaly to no end.
…
He sighed, straightening the pile of e-forms that Sool had left in a mess on his keyboard.
Pondering, Foaly reclined in his chair and gradually forgot about the e-forms, about Sool, and about the silent cacophony around him except for the two thin lines on the monitor. There was nothing to distract him from the inevitable conclusion: his machines didn't lie. Holly was gone, just like Julius.
Sool had even seen to it himself; he was the one who had pressed the button, after all. He probably would have even detonated the remote incinerator in Julius' helmet too, if he hadn't already been sure that the former commander was gone.
Foaly absentmindedly wondered how his suits would have held up under such extreme temperatures. Pity that the only ones who had worn them had died…
Deftly, he flicked a switch to his side. The computers around him shut down, one by one, each sporting a black, blank screen as though in mourning. While the Ops. Booth began to dim, the only computer that Foaly left on- the one with the captain and the commander's vitals – fell silent, having gone into the power conserving mode. The lines remained on the screen, pulsing slightly, but showing no other motion.
Outside, news of the commander's death was just beginning to break. LEP personnel were rushing to their computers, trying to see if the rumors they had heard had some validity to them. A few seconds passed before their mouths opened wordlessly and gaped at the Gnommish words spelling out the truth.
Once Foaly thought that he had heard someone knocking on the door of the Ops. Booth. He didn't answer it. They went away after a little while.
The clamor around the Booth had died down, and the officers were migrating dumbfounded between the main hall and their desks, like pallbearers rehearsing with a heavy load on their shoulders. They seemed like ghost- leaderless, lost- as they made soundless movements across the floors.
Foaly blacked out the Ops. Booth's interior windows. No need for him to see what would happen next; he already knew the procedure for fallen officers by heart. He hadn't believed it up until now. He had hung onto the hope that Julius would sooner or later come barging into his office yelling about the stealth shuttle and why hadn't he picked it up before they went in there, blah blah blah. Now, there was nothing.
The centaur kept straining his ears, attempting to pick out the commander's perturbed gait from the silence. For a moment, he could have sworn that he heard Root again, but it was only his imagination.
For now there was no noise.
Back in the Stealth Shuttle:
"Captain Holly Short. The first female in Recon and the officer involved in the Artemis Fowl problem. For more information on Fowl and any of his colleagues, please press 'one.' Captain Short also saved Haven City from the combined efforts of Opal Koboi and Briar Cudgeon in the Goblin Rebellion, along with: Artemis Fowl- for more about Fowl please press 'one'-"
Root grunted. Gods, they were really pushing the Fowl issue.
He was sitting on the floor of the booty box, his back against a wall of truffles, and he was trying to hold onto sanity by listening to a tinny recording about Holly. It was actually very pathetic. That didn't stop him from listening to the recording over and over, though.
"- Bulter, Fowl's manservant, and Foaly, Head of Technology at the LEP. In a covert…"
Sighing, he absentmindedly realized that his involvement in the case had gone unnoticed. Strange how he hadn't picked up on that during the seventeen times he'd listened to Holly's bio in the helmet files…
"…operation, led by Commander Julius Root. For more information on the commander, please press 'three'."
Three? Whatever had happened to two? Had he not paid attention to that either?
To his credit, the commander had thus far managed to restrain himself from falling into deep depression by listening to the bios. Though one would typically expect Frond to be the cause of depression -Root was wondering how anyone could find so many things wrong with his left fibula- the voice in the helmet was for once providing a useful service. There wasn't much else to do anyway: Koboi had sipped some of the fibre-optics in his already dilapidated helmet, and precious few of the actual functions remained intact.
Most of the helmet commands had ceased to operate (the location system was gone, and though Root had hoped fervently that the medical clinic feature had died too, he soon found it was ver much alive), and he considered himself lucky that the officer bios remained. Getting Frond to recite bios would stop her from reprimanding him about being drained of magic as well as his bad smoking habits, and he liked hearing about Holly.
"…for more information on how exactly the Goblin Rebellion was put down, please press 'four'."
Maybe Koboi had plotted to make him go crazy from over-exposure to Frond…
"Holly Short also aided in the memory wipe of Artemis Fowl, for more informa-"
Root nearly hurled the head piece into a truffle stack. How had he listened to that seventeen times? It was enough to make stinkworms stop stinking. Thankfully, Merv and Scant burst through the hatch before the message could lapse back into its endless repetition.
Stealth Shuttle Cockpit, 3 minutes prior
Opal Koboi was busily banging her keyboard with her fists. It wasn't exactly the best course of action for an evil genius, but it felt really good.
Obviously, things weren't exactly peachy for Opal. The view screen in front of her was projecting a giant image of a biobomb exploding into bits, with a small green speck zipping off into the background. Not what you wanted to see when you ignited a missile.
Just as she was getting ready to start tearing her hair out in frustration, she composed herself.
Things were still going according to plan. So what if Captain Short had escaped the biobomb? It made the situation more difficult, but Opal still held the advantage. Captain Short's flight only made the situation more interesting. Think about the drill...that lovely drill, waiting all for you...She relaxed.
Merv and Scant then began to whisper amongst themselves, which did nothing to improve Opal's temperment.
"Think she's really lost it this time?"
"I don't know...watch for the twitch."
The Brill brothers waited.
Very slowly, like a hungry predator stalking out a kill, Opal turned to face them.
"Just what do you think do you two are doing, muttering behind my back? I don't tolerate that, especially when you rudely invaded my privacy by not knocking or addressing me in the proper manner." With a 'hmph!', she turned back to the controls.
Merv decided to break the silence: "Miss Koboi, we're terribly sorry-"
"As you ought to be."
"-we only thought you might like to know-"
Opal massaged her temples, as parents are wont to do when confronted with an overzealous child. "I probably know it already, Merv."
The twin paused. "My apologies-"
"Get on with it, Merv."
"Well, Scant and I were just walking down and inspecting things, since, you know, that's our job..."
The pixie tried to calm down. Think about the drill, Opal, think about the terrified faces that'll be on everyone when they realize...
"...then and we came across this strange thing on the floor. I had no idea what it was, so Scant though he might-"
Drill...mass terror...hysteria...
"-pick it up!" Finished the other twin. "But it wasn't what I'd thought it was."
"It wasn't?" inquired Opal testily. Her fingers had begun to clutch the control pannel so hard that the knuckles looked pale. She repeated her mantra: The drill, in Italy, waiting...all a part of her plan...Her brilliant plan...She became aware that her hand was starting to shake.
"Nope. Not at all."
And there, at that very moment when Scant finished his sentence, it happened.
Opal Koboi's face tightened and, lo and behold, she twitched.
The Brill brothers braced themselves and backed towards the door. This didn't save them from the onsalught of verbal abuse that ensued.
"I don't care what you found on the floor," she began dangerously, "It doesn't have any importance to my plan. Or have you forgotten my plan? With the drill?"
Silence. Merv and Scant knew that it would not be wise (or healthy) to talk.
When Opal resumed speaking, her voice was calm, kind almost. Not a good sign. "I am going to take over the world. You are going to help me. The Fairy People will fall to the Mud Men and all will be mine. Is that simple enough for you?"
"I don't care how many captains escape biobombs or how many commanders don't vaporize when you expect them too!" Her voice had risen to a feverish pitch as she yelled. "It doesn't matter! It doesn't matter! I matter! You matter...!" A pause "...a lot less than I do! Much less! And all of them- the pony, the boy- they don't matter at all! Pretty soon they'll be no more than dust! DUST, I TELL YOU!"
Opal shrieked in manaical laughter. Noticing that Merv and Scant apparently didn't share her enthusiasm (as both were huddled against the furthest wall) she stopped and stared at them.
"You don't get it, do you?" she spat. "You don't understand a thing! There's no hope for you! None!"
Then, after a moment of extreme consternation:
"Why do I even bother trying any more?"
She curled up in her Hoverboy and sulked, occasionally murmuring to herself. The words 'drill', 'Haven', 'captain', and 'destroy' stuck out in her monologue.
Merv nudged Scant. "I think we should leave now."
Scant nodded. "'Cause if we don't, she'll-"
"What are you two doing here? I want to be left ALONE! OUT!"
"-explode." Scant finished weakly.
"OUT! OUT! D'ARVIT, AM I DOOMED TO NEVER BE BY MYSELF!"
"No, ma'am, not-"
"OUT!"
They went out.
Stealth Shuttle, Booty Box:
Julius Root had barely begun to wallow in guilt again before Merv and Scant interrupted him. Thinking that they might be searching for him, he chose to conceal himself behind a truffle mountain.
Much to his surprise, he ended up overhearing something rather important.
"Oh Frond, oh Frond, oh Frond, oh Frond, oh Fr-" Scant wheezed, before he was smacked abruptly by Merv.
"Get a hold of yourself! This is no time to go crazy and spout mantras."
"Just tell that to her! She-"
Merv held up a hand for silence. Scant nodded mutely, acknowledging the request.
"I have a plan." His twin balked. "No, not that kind of plan. We need to placate Miss Koboi, and soon. The way this is headed, we're bound to run into trouble."
Scant came dangerously close to a conniption."He's here, too? I thought this was a stealth shuttle!"
"Not that trouble. I meant that the prisoner might escape, our salaries could dissappear, or we might crash, since no one's flying the shuttle now...that sort of thing."
"Oh. Alright."
Merv openned a box of truffles and offered the box to Scant. Which was a very nice gesture, considering that they were, for all they knew, pulmetting onwards to oblivion.
"Frond," Merv said through a mouthful of truffle, "what a time to have a hissy fit. It's gotta be the-"
"Yeah, I agree with you." Scant finished, "Gotta be those Mud Man hormones. Told her that gland was a bad idea."
"Did she listen to us?"
They stimiltaenously shook their heads 'no' and then continued munching.
Unbeknowst to them, a certain elf behind a certain tower of truffles was starting to piece together his own plan. Like it or not, Julius Root was going to get off this shuttle, by any means necessary.
Author's Note:
Okay. Originally, I wanted to post this one before I went on vacation, but I hadn't done any of the replies nor really revised the chapter. So, instead of posting something that really stunk, I thought that it might be better to wait a bit and then post. (shakes fist) I really was going to update early, though! Believe me! xD
Right...what you have before you- or, rather, above you (points)- is my back-to-school gift to everybody. I've rewritten most of it (it was all Opal screaming at everyone for no reason...great stress relief to write, but it made no sense anyway) and edited the heck out of it, so here you go! You guys even get a nifty Foaly flashback (gasp!) with Holly! Finally!
This might just be Trypt's wonky thinking being -er- wonky, but it seems to me that when an author writes Holly's lines, Holly appears to take on some of the characteristics of the writer. Does anyone else think so? (lol) Could just be me...I made an effort to keep Holly as she was in the books without copying her lines like crazy and stuff. xD But I copy some things anyway, so I shouldn't be talking. Oh well. -end philosophical monologue--
One last note! (yes, we're bored of Trypt by now, I know...) There's a HollyRoot C2 up,(everybody thank sergeantstan for doing that!) so if you're looking for some great HR to read while I -cough- take forever to -cough- update this, check it out! And check, there's my selfless plug for the day, onto the reviews!
Replies:
RussianWolf7: I'm so sorry I took forever to update...I'd love to read your story- can you send it to me in an e-mail? xD Too bad about the 'ratings issue'. (lol) Yup, you're right. I don't intend to change the basic storyline of 'The Opal Deception' too much, I might tweak it a little at the end, though. (and here and there, you know)
lalalalalala: Thanks very much!
sergeantstan: Thank you! xD I really work hard to get the style down and it's great to know that you like it! (hugs) Root similar to Bulter? Hmm. I can see that he might characterize them basically as military guys, both protecting something, but I think that he could have used some creativity to separate their traits. Maybe he could have gone more into Root's past...or showed the softer side of Bulter more (I mean, come on, Bulter likes to watch romantic comedies!) ... (ducks in preparation for flying food) No, it's true! Bulter said so himself in the Artemis Fowl Files. Somehow, I can't picture dear Julius being too similar to that...(lol)
potter-DorK: I had such fun writing that line! xD I want to make Opal more of an actual character instead of the crazy-evil-gal that she sort of turned into in OD. I made your day? (goes into sqee-mode) That's cool! I hope your throat infection's gone...if it's not, then here's chapter four for you ;D Thanks for letting me know about the angst! (relaxes) I was nervous that no one would like it if I included the sad parts, but it didn't make sense not to, so...I did. Chapter Five is going to have a couple of scene-changes, though I do want to keep the story mostly Root-centric. Thanks so much for reviewing- I like getting your reviews.
Trouble Kelp: As soon as we got back from our trip, my family found that the wireless connexion we use was not acting so happy. It never ends...xD I'm using a laptop that had everything deleted by a glitch, and it's supposed to be okay...(shifty eyes) or so they say...The good news is that it's sort of like having a new computer, except sort of old. Thanks so much! I'll try to update quicker- my Dad dismantled the computer an hour before I was going to post this before I went on vacation. (lol)
-anon-anon-anon- : Thanks! I've got school coming up (tomorrow, actually) so I don't know how soon I'll get a chance to update, but I'll do my best. Glad you liked how Koboi turned out!
em: Nope, Holly's safe and sound (well, sort of anyway). So, don't worry! Hope you like this one as much, too!
Stiggy: This isn't exactly soon, but at least it's an update, right? xD That's a good idea! (ponders) I definitely don't mind including a little humour in here (mwahaha) so...I'll see where the story takes me. You speak in the first person, too, huh? I do that too! When I was younger, I spoke as Me, Michelle, and I (I had misunderstood 'myself' and thought 'Michelle' instead, I guess (lol)).
Commander Phoenix: Thanks! I thought that somebody ought to do a Root-returns fic with that title, so I snatched it up when no one had taken it. Truffles are excellent. In order to write from the persona of the characters, I sometimes find it necessary to eat a couple- you know, to really understand the essence of Opal Koboi. (lol)
slime frog: (puts on tinfoil hat and hands one over) There! We can't possibly mindread with the protection of tinfoil guarding our plot details! (lol) When I finish this, let me know how your plot works out (or write a fic!). It would be so random if they were the same...or maybe Colfer's just trying to make everybody go crazy this way. xD I'm not really re-reading it. Once was enough for me! I'm just doing the lazy thing and taking quotes from the 'safe' parts of OD and hoping that no one notices if I'm not one-hundred percent accurate about everything...Cheesy? Yes. Good for sanity though? You bet. I can't wait for the next chapter of your fic- take your time and don't rush! It'll be more than worth the wait when you update it.
Since Trypt has school coming up, she will need a little extra time to update. So, if you want to see how far along I am with the next chapter, check out my profile (another plug! gasp!) and look under 'Various Works and their Status' and 'Deception' should be there. Now, to make Trypt want to update faster...review!
