Equally as untouched and little used as the grime covered surface, the sim parked behind the wide curve of counter is old, dust sprinkling the gray cloth draped over its shoulders, dust coloring its bald scalp as if a fine fuzz of hair, all creating a semblance of extreme age and extremely uncertain gender. Not that a sim needs a gender, Jupiter reminds herself, but most had seemed to bear one, probably for the comfort of the humans they served. The sim's head is bent over a sheave resting before it, and it appears to be leafing through the content, and, possibly, laughing.
Jupiter, standing at the fore of her little troop, clears her throat until the sim glances up from the humorous read.
"I want to see that last document that Seraphi... that I... viewed in the Archives." The sim raised its head with some reluctance and even more stiffness, as if it hadn't needed to look up for uncounted years.
"Really? Your Majesty," the sim wheezes a bit belatedly.
"Yes," Jupiter replies firmly.
"Dates?" Jupiter gapes a moment, and Caine rubs his nose to suppress a grin.
"I, couldn't say for sure." She realizes she hadn't ever really considered that. "Um," and she turns to Caine, "couldn't have been much before Titus being born, right?" Caine can only offer a sheepish shrug, and when Jupiter turns with a questioning look at the rest, they shuffle a bit until Gemma responds.
"Your Majesty, Titus Abrasax is known to be seven thousand, seven hundred years old. His exact age, however, is a secret many of the entitled families keep well hidden."
"Ok, then," Jupiter nods and returns to face the aged sim. "How does any sheaves I viewed between, say, eight thousand years ago and my death sound. Recurrence, here," she points a thumb at herself in response to the sims quizzical tilt of head.
"And when was your date of death?" Jupiter gaped again, realizing she really doesn't have anything so firm to offer.
"How about until the current date?" Kiza interjects over Jupiter's shoulder. "That should cover it, I think." Jupiter nods, just a little irritated that she didn't think of that, and a touch jealous at the genuine smile her suggestion had earned from Caine. The sim closed its eyes, and its lids fluttered as if calculating.
"Place your seal here," and it points, with a bit of a creaking shoulder, to squat pillar that rose from the dusty surface of the desk. "Retrieval." Then drops its head slowly back to its sheave.
"That's it?"
"Yes." The sim replies without looking up. So, they wait. And they wait. And just when Jupiter starts to fidget, a plain, a grinding sound emanates from one of the long hallways, and a crane of sorts carrying a long, flat metallic box comes ratches into the room, and drops the box with a 'thunk' on the counter. Jupiter pauses, just looking.
"Well, are you going to open it or not?" says the sim with a wheeze.
"Oh, right," Jupiter says chagrined, with not a small dose of discomfort at perusing this in front of everyone. She opens the dusty lid, lifting a sheave with her right hand to lay it beside her on the table. With her left, she reaches for a second, but as soon as the first sheave touches the table, blaring clarion bell rings out, and lights begin to flash all around them. She drops both sheaves and rapidly covers her ears, ducking slightly as the sound attacks from all directions. Caine also covers his sensitive ears and grimaces. In contrast to her previous appearance of great age, the sim snaps to attention and snatches the offending sheave.
"Yyou can't have that!" it yells over the din. "That's forbidden!"
"What do you mean?" Jupiter yells back. Behind her, Gemma takes a fighting stance, scanning for danger. Bob's ear buds whir and his face carries that 'I'm so fired' expression again.
"That's a log from the greatest criminal humanity has ever known!"
"What?" Jupiter yells again, not quite catching the words.
"The mad man who created the gene plague! No one is allowed to read that!"
"Ok, OK, I didn't mean to!"
"But you did! You already did!" The sim slams the sheave on the counter, pointing at a glowing Abrasax seal rising from glassy surface.
"I think," Caine growls, grabbing both women's arms, "we need to get out of here!"
"But," begins Jupiter, straining backward, but Caine's grip is too strong. The siren begins to whir more rapidly, demanding a response. A creaky sim, more robot than android, rumbles from a side corridor into the main chamber, raising its twin arm guns.
"Let's go," Kiza yells, wrenching free from Caine to grab Jupiter's other arm. They race towards the tall double doors which are already groaning shut. Caine, Jupiter, and Kiza spring through, Gemma close behind, but Bob, confusion clouding his features, hesitates. At the last second, Gemma sprints back, grabs him by the waist, and drags him through just as the doors shut, clipping the edge of his neatly tailored suit coat.
Beyond the doors, the crush of old buildings feels more like a corridor than a street. Bits of broken sims, sheave glass, and ancient grit litter the narrow street.
"That was close," Jupiter sighs.
"It's not over yet." Caine nods toward the gaps into what is not quite sky, not quite ceiling, where rank upon rank of distant, dark dots grow until they are revealed as rank up rank of black upon black. Some ride humming floaters. Some sport pairs of glistening bronze wings.
"Those are Aegis!" Kiza gasps. Caine steps in front of Jupiter, speaking over his shoulder.
"Holy crap!" Jupiter exclaims under her breath.
"Stay here. Don't move, not a muscle. I'll speak to them. I can explain."
"Ok." Jupiter agrees weakly, perfectly happy not to budge an inch. "Waiting here is good."
"I can..." Gemma begins.
"Stay," Caine commands, implying, without stating, 'in case anything should go wrong.' He raises his hands far from his holstered energy guns, flicks his wings open slightly to ensure they are perfectly visible, then calls up at the leading edge of flighted legionaries. "I need to speak with your commander." He steps forward slowly, shielding the rest from view.
"You are?"
"Caine Wise." The commander nods.
"I've heard of you. Are you covering this disturbance?"
"There's been a misunderstanding," Caine explains as he takes to the air. Three strokes of his wings, when a bolt streaks from behind him, striking the commander on one wing, and he drops. Caine whirls around, seeking the shooter. His head snaps back, realizing the Aegis are raising their weapons to fire. He is torn, unwilling to fight against the Aegis, even as his shoulders and his wings flicker with the urge to fight, to protect. Jupiter and Kiza duck as more shots seem to be firing just over their own shoulders.
"Down!" Gemma yells, dragging a dazed Bob to the ground. Caine is caught in the open, the fury of cross fire forcing him down. He soars sideways, angling towards Jupiter, but a shot hits a building sending bits of exploding shrapnel which knock him to the ground.
"Caine!" Jupiter yells, rising with every intention of running to his side.
"No!" Gemma jumps up and pulls Jupiter back. As she does so, an Aegis bolt tears through her shoulder, severing one arm. Another tears through her thigh. For a moment, she stares at the twin damaged limbs, before she falls heavily sideways. Kiza tries to catch her, but a sim, especially a martial sim, is much more solid than they might appear. Kiza staggers beneath the sudden weight and Gemma ends up laying haphazardly against a wall.
Pinned down, Jupiter scans for any sign of a path to Caine. Kiza swivels her head between the Aegis fighters above, their ranks split and taking cover on roof tops and behind walls and towers, and behind where shots spit upward, the assailants numerous, yet unseen.
"This way!" a deep, seductive female voice cries from the shadows of one of the crumbling buildings. "Your Majesty, this way!" A gloved hand beckons.
"This may be our only choice," Kiza cautions, gun in hand and equally unsure where to fire as Caine had been.
"And you, you think we should follow this mystery hand? What about Caine?!"
"He is safest where he is." Jupiter looks helplessly in Caine's last known direction, chewing hard on her cheek. "The Aegis will want answers. If we accept this chance, for now, Your Majesty, maybe we will be able to provide them." Jupiter turns back with a decisive nod.
"Bob, Gemma." She motions to Bob to help Gemma, which he accepts with a cross between panic and glee. "I'll find you again," she whispers towards her unseen Caine, then sprints low towards the offer of escape.