Alliance (16 page)

“
Probably,” says the
Head. She puts one hand on her forehead and frowns. “But I can't
tell for certain. If you could feel it yourself, then you would
understand why I want you to stay here. This army is too big and
powerful to risk losing you to. That is why you must stay
here.”

“
But I am a J bot,” I
say. “I can fight and take care of myself. My energy level is only
at seventy-six percent now, after all, and I am still in good shape
from the previous fight.”

“
What about that hole in
your chest?” says the Head, pointing at my chest. “The one that
looks like one of those lizard creatures from earlier made
it?”

I look down at my chest. The hole is still
there and still needs to be looked at by a certified J bot
technician, but I completely forgot about it until now.

“
I will be fine,” I say,
covering my hole with my hand. “It is not a debilitating wound; it
is what you organics might call a 'flesh wound,' if I had flesh. I
can still move and fight without trouble.”

“
No,” says the Head.
“Stay here. If the battle is successful, then I will be back
shortly. Right now, I need to rally the surviving agents into
whatever fighting force I can gather.”

In the blinking of an optic, the Head is
gone, leaving me all alone in this room. Even so, I can still sense
her skyras level, which is intriguing because she should probably
be out of my range by now. Of course, her aura is fainter now, but
the fact that I can feel it at all means that she is even stronger
than my sensors indicate (although that could be because the
Foundation agents altered my skyras sensors, of course).

I am now the only entity left in this
room. I consider simply standing here and waiting for the Head's
return, or the return of one of the other Foundation agents, but
then I decide that this is the perfect opportunity to attempt to
make an escape.

With no one to stop me, I dash over to the
door and attempt to open it. Unfortunately, I soon discover that
the door is still locked with skyras energy, even after I punch it
as hard as I can, which fails to even create a dent in the door.
The door looks normal, but the skyras energy protecting it must be
reinforcing its strength.

I turn around, hoping to find another way
out of here that I might have missed earlier. That seems doubtful,
but I am aware that the Foundation has many secrets and I would not
put it past them to have secret doors or rooms hidden in their
base. Especially in this place, which appears to be an important
meeting room, which would undoubtedly require a secret exit for
members to escape through in the event of an attack like this
one.

The only question is, how do I find these
secret passageways, if they actually exist? I have no x-ray vision,
after all, nor am I familiar enough with Delanian architecture to
search for the telltale signs of hidden passages. The mobile
Database has few articles on the subject, though that does not
surprise me, seeing as the mobile Database does not contain
articles on every obscure subject in the two worlds.

Therefore, if I am going to find out how
to escape this place (and by this place, I do not mean merely this
room, but the base in general, because I have no reason to stay
around here any longer), then I must search by hand. That will take
time, no doubt, but right now all I have is time, so it is not much
of an issue for me.

I begin walking along the room's
perimeter, my eyes scanning the bookshelves that curve with the
room's walls. I do not recognize the titles of any of these
books—
Prophecy's End
,
Man of My Own Heart
,
The
Tiller's Tale
,
Rise and Fall of the Old Gods
—but they
appear to be fiction titles, oddly enough. I compare their titles
to the list of Delanian novels in the mobile Database, but I find
no match for any of these titles. This makes me wonder just how far
these Foundation agents are willing to go to keep their secrecy if
even their own books apparently do not exist.

In any case, none of the book titles catch
my interest or appear highly unusual, aside from not existing
within the mobile Database. I consider the possibility that some of
these books may be fakes, with their true nature being switches or
levers used to open secret passageways, but there are so many books
that I doubt it is worth my time to try each and every one in my
attempt to find the fake ones.

Another thing I notice about these books
is how old they appear. Their spines are worn and aged, their
titles barely legible even to my sharp optics. I find it strange
how the Head has apparently decided to keep all of these big, thick
tomes rather than digitize them all and put them on a portable
computer. I suppose it is the general Delanian aversion to Xeeonite
technology at work here, which makes me wonder if the Head is a
Delanian native herself.

That is when I notice a single piece of
paper stuck between two particularly thick books. I almost miss it
because it is so thin, but one of its corners pokes out, which
makes me stop and reach for it to see if it might help me find a
way out of here. I gently tug the paper out of the place between
the two books and look down at it out of curiosity.

The paper is old and crinkly, with one of
its corners bitten off, probably by some kind of rodent, although I
am unable to identify what species of rodent exactly due to the odd
shape of the bite mark. In addition, there is a strange, dried
green liquid that looks like dried blood, although my scanner fails
to match the green liquid with any known Delanian or Xeeonite
species recorded in the mobile Database.

On the paper itself is an old, faded
drawing. The drawing is so faded that even I, with my superior
optics, am unable to make out all of its details in full. A quick
scan reveals that its paint—like the green blood above—has no match
in the mobile Database, so I cannot trace its paint to its
source.

From what I can make out of the drawing
itself, it shows a poorly-drawn young human female, not older than
eight-years-old, sitting on a blanket in the middle of a green
field, with curly blonde hair (although I do not know if that color
is indeed green or if it is simply faded due to its age). Sitting
next to the young human female is a robot similar in size, with two
big lantern-like red eyes and what appears to be a bandanna tied
around its neck. And on the robot's right is a young human male,
close in age to the girl, with bright blue eyes.

Below the young human female, her robot
friend, and the young human male are some illegible words, although
even if they were legible, I doubt I would be able to read them.
Their shapes do not resemble the written form of any Delanian or
Xeeonite language that the mobile Database has records on.

This drawing only brings more questions to
mind. Why does the Head apparently own this old drawing? Who does
it depict? It certainly does not resemble the great art of the
Delanian Masters, a group of painters known throughout the two
worlds for their artistic mastery. Why then does she have it here,
stuck in between two large books? And just who are these
individuals depicted on it?

I consider keeping the drawing, as the
paper and ink used to make the drawing have their own unique
properties that deserve further investigation, but then I realize
that taking this drawing would be theft. Seeing as I am not a
thief, I decide to replace the drawing where I found it, although
before I do that I snap a picture of it to keep in my memory so I
can examine it in more detail later, when I have time to do so.

After making sure that the drawing is back
where I found it, I resume walking around the perimeter of the
room, my optics scanning the books as I do so. I still see no sign
of any secret passages or doorways, but that does not mean there
are not any there. It just means that I have to search harder.

I walk past bookshelf after bookshelf, my
optics scanning each book as I pass. Not individually, as I am
walking too fast to do that, but in groups, which is much
quicker.

But after another minute or two of
walking, I find myself back at the only door to this room, exactly
where I started not long ago. I am now no closer to discovering a
way out of here than I was before.

I almost decide to give up and wait until
someone—perhaps the Head, maybe another Foundation agent—comes up
to check up on me. But then I notice the table that the Head and
those other agents had been sitting around earlier and wonder if I
might be able to find a secret passageway there.

I walk up to the table and look down on
it. A scan of the table tells me that it is made of Delanian elvish
wood, which takes me aback slightly, because I was certain that my
scan would tell me that this table is made of some kind of
unidentifiable wood. Perhaps not everything about this Foundation
is a secret or shrouded in mystery.

The surface of the table is carved with
images of creatures that resemble hawks and bulls, as I noticed
earlier. Yet I notice significant differences from actual hawks and
bulls, such as one carving, which features a hawk with burning
feathers and wings, and a carving of a bull that appears to have
swords for horns. I know of no creatures on Dela or Xeeo that
resemble those, which makes me wonder if these are simply the
products of an artist's imagination or if they are stylized
carvings of real animals.

In any case, it does not matter. What I
need to do is search this table for any secret buttons or switches
that might reveal a secret passageway to me. It is my last chance;
if this table does not lead to any secret passages, then I will
truly be stuck in this room until the Head or someone else
returns.

So, starting at the Head's silver chair, I
carefully run my fingers along the underside of the table, using
the sensors on my fingertips to feel for any bumps or other unusual
protrusions that might indicate the presence of a button of some
sort. The wood is smooth so far, but I keep feeling
nonetheless.

I make my way around the table slowly in
order to avoid missing anything. At the same time, I keep my audio
receptors open so I can hear anyone coming to get me on the other
side of the door. My audio receptors, however, pick up nothing
except the occasional rumbling in the floor, which is probably the
result of the fighting against that army that the Head
mentioned.

Soon, I find myself back at the Head's
silver chair again, having found no hidden buttons whatsoever.
Removing my hands from under the table, I step back and look at my
surroundings once more, although it is hard for me to resume my
search for another possible way out when I have effectively
exhausted all possible candidates.

Maybe I really do have to wait here until
someone comes for me. The more I stand here and think about it, the
more likely that seems. How long I will have to wait, I do not
know, as it depends entirely on how effective the Foundation agents
are at fighting off that army.

I lean against the Head's chair, not
because I am tired, but because I have nothing better to do and I
dislike simply standing in one place. Leaning on the chair will
hopefully take off some of the pressure on my joints, although I
doubt they need it, seeing as my joints are state-of-the-art and
are in excellent condition at the moment.

I consider perhaps taking down some of
those books and reading them in order to pass the time when the
sensors on my fingertips discover something. I look at the arm of
the Head's chair, but it appears as smooth as ever to me, even
though I am certain that my sensors picked up something unusual
there.

I run my fingertips along the chair's left
arm and discover, much to my astonishment, a panel that can be
pressed down. It is completely flat with the rest of the arm,
making it invisible to the naked eye, but applying even the
gentlest of pressure reveals its presence right away.

Could this be the entrance to the secret
passageway I have been looking for? Maybe. It is worth trying; at
any rate, I doubt it will do anything terrible to me.

So I press down on the panel, though
gently in order to avoid breaking it.

As soon as I push it down all the way, the
chair moves backwards without warning. I step back, even though it
does not appear hostile or dangerous, and watch as the chair slides
backwards across the floor. Once it stops, I look at what it
reveals.

The removal of the chair reveals a square
hole—same width as the chair's base—where the chair had been a
moment before. This hole has a ladder leading down into the
darkness. I switch to night vision to allow me to see down into the
dark hole, but the hole is so deep that I cannot see its bottom
even with my night vision active.

I dislike going down into places that are
too dark for me to see in even with my night vision; I have no
choice, however, but to climb down this ladder and find out what is
below. There may or may not be a dead end, but the only way I can
find out for certain is by going down there myself.

-

As I suspected, the hole is quite deep.
Even though I have been climbing down it for five minutes now, I
still cannot see the bottom even when I look down. Furthermore,
when I descended into the hole, the chair slid back into place
above me. While it may be possible for me to open it again, there
is a good possibility that it cannot be opened except from the
outside, which means I must continue climbing down regardless of
the danger that awaits.

While I climb down, I still do not hear
any sounds from the outside. I wonder how the battle against the
invading army is going. Is the Foundation winning or is
Reunification winning? What will happen if one of them defeats the
other?