At one spot, the cables which previously hid the Borg, started moving again. All four of us jumped up.
"What is that?" Saya asked, "I thought the Borg can be stopped if you killed their central brain?"
"They do." Murphy replied.
"Then it's not a Borg?" Merlin wondered.
"Then what is...?" Short began to ask out loud, just before a head crawled from underneath the cables.
"Darvit!" it said, "And people complain about the mess I make."
Whatever it was, it had a white beard, was about the same length as Short, but not the same width, had what looked like tombstones for teeth, and looked almost human.
"Mulch Diggums." Short said, "I was about ready to shoot you."
"Don't cry, there'll always be another time." the thing (Diggums?) replied.
"Were you the one that sank the floor before?" Merlin asked him.
"Yeah, that was me." Diggums explained, "It wasn't easy, I tell yeh. I've never tasted such foul metals."
"Tasted?" Saya asked, with a raised brow. It seemed ironic to me that someone who would drink blood to survive would find it odd that someone else eats metal.
"Holly, this is Foaly." we heard the centaur talk.
"Yes, I know who you are." Short replied, annoyed.
"Our assimilated people are acting like themselves again." he told her, "So I should say the mission is accomplished."
"Not yet." Murphy disagreed, "They still need to get rid of the Borg-technology connected to them."
"That shouldn't be a problem." Foaly replied.
"That's not all that needs to be taken care of." Short whispered.
"What do you mean?" Foaly asked.
"What did you say?" Short questioned, "You're breaking up."
"Huh? How could I be breaking up?" Foaly replied.
"Your system must be faulty again, I can't hear you." Short continued.
"Faulty? Never!"
"What are you talking about?" Merlin wondered, "I can hear..."
Short raised her finger, and he stopped talking.
"Oh!" Foaly reacted, "Um... right. Must be... the Borg... they... must have jamming frequencies... which are kicking in just now!"
"What is going on there?" Murphy asked, after which I heard nothing but static.
"What are you doing?" Merlin couldn't understand.
"Our mission isn't over yet." Short elaborated, "This ship, or what's left of it, it can travel into other dimensions. Is that right?"
"Yes?" Merlin replied, uncertain where she was going with this.
"It's bad enough that Artemis knows you are from different worlds." Short further explained, "If knew how you do it, he might want to use it to further his goals."
"Really?" Diggums asked her, "I thought you'd have softened him up by now."
Softened him up? What did he mean by that?
It may be because her face was barely visible through her helmet, but I could swear she was blushing there, just when she said: "You don't know him as well as I do. He may change his behavior, but not his nature."
"And what do you hope to do?" Saya asked her.
"Would this ship have a self-destruct?" Short asked.
"These people mechanize themselves so they could survive." Saya pointed out, "Why would they have a self-destruct?"
A thought seemed to have come to Merlin's mind: "Say, these Borg were adapting themselves to withstand magic, didn't they?"
"At which they succeeded." Short reminded him.
"No, they succeeded at mastering the magic of your people, not mine." Merlin corrected her, "So what if they were in the middle of understanding my magic, but since we destroyed their brain, there was no one to control what they were doing, and it imploded."
"How do you plan to implode this?" Short asked.
"I am a wizard, remember?" Merlin reminded her.
"You have done this before, haven't you?" Saya asked.
"Are you saying you're keeping your soon-to-be husband from getting this technology?" Diggums asked him, to which Short nodded, so he said: "Can I help?"
Did I misunderstand Diggums, or did he call Fowl Short's soon-to-be husband?
"You can help us get these people out of here first." Short pointed to the Borgs that were still in the room, still confused about where they were or what they were doing there.
All the remaining Borgs were guided out of the building. Once we were all outside of it, Merlin looked at it, made his eyes light up, said the word "IMPLODE", and suddenly the whole structure collapsed on itself. The thought crossed my mind that he could have done this before, but then I remembered this would only have made the Borg stronger, which we couldn't risk.
All of us walked back to Fowl's mansion, where we met with him at the main entrance. As soon as he saw Short, he called out her first name. Short, seeing him, flew up to him, dropping her helmet as she did so, into his arms, and let their mouths touch each other.
Saya frowned at this: "I wonder if this wedding is really just a way for these people to control Artemis Fowl."
"Oh, come now, Saya." Merlin said, "Can't you see they love each other?"
Saya didn't even look at him when she said: "For someone who can come up with that scheme earlier, you're really naïve.
While they were talking, I picked up Short's helmet. It was too small for my head to fit in, but as I looked inside it, I could tell that its visor had electric wires connected to it. Why would a visor, which usually protects the eyes, have such things? Was it so she could see in the dark? Was it maybe a hidden camera? If so, it would explain how Murphy could see what we saw.
I could hear Butler cough: "Master Fowl. I do believe you have to have gone through certain rites before you can kiss the bride."
"Maybe." Fowl broke off his kiss with Short, "But I wouldn't be a Fowl if I didn't break a few rules every now and then."
Short seemed to agree: "Besides that, we still have an hour before time resumes its normal pace, so can't we just take a rest from all this?"
Time. Hearing that word reminded me of something. I hadn't thought about it the whole time, because I heard them mention they froze time. Where was my timer? I tapped Merlin on the shoulder.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
That was a good question. How do I tell him I wanted to know where the timer is? I made my figers draw a rectangle in the air, then pointed at my wrist, where I should have a watch.
"You have an object in your wrist?" Merlin asked.
"When humans point at their wrists, they're usually referring to a watch." Saya told him.
"He must mean that little countdown machine of his." Foaly sounded through our ears.
"You're back!" Merlin cheered.
"I've had it in my workshop." he said, "It's broken, but I think I'm able to fix it."
"You think?" Saya asked.
"With some help from me." Murphy added.
"Here's what I've been thinking." Foaly continued, "Murphy here can't walk on its own, and you keep losing that little machine. So what if I would connect Murphy to the ship? Let him be the pilot, so he can move on his own again."
"Do you have any flying experience?" Saya asked him.
"No." Murphy answered, "But if I am, as he said, connected to the ship, controlling it should be as easy as controlling my own legs."
"And, the best part of it all..." Foaly added, "What if the technology that makes your little machine work were built into the ship?"
"You mean the ship itself will make the portals?" Merlin asked.
"You got it." Foaly replied.
"I suppose it would be much harder to lose a ship than it would be to lose that small device." Merlin said.
"How long before it's done?" Saya questioned.
"Well, let's just say you'll have enough time to attend Artemis' wedding." Foaly replied.
"This can't be real." Saya sighed.
"Why not?" Merlin asked her, "Let's attend it, and you can see they do actually love each other."
Merlin, the eternal romanticist, and Saya the permanent cynic. I started to hope that they wouldn't disagree at the more important moments.
One question did come to mind. Since when do I even use words like "eternal" and "permanent"?
THE END