The Exiled Earthborn (38 page)

Lucas nodded. “Absolutely. Nice to meet you, Finn.”

The boy gave him a devious smile. He seemed far too young to be anywhere near a party like this. Lucas saw dancing women in the background wearing shockingly scarce amounts of clothing, given the supposed elegance of the event. A few of them appeared to be wrapped in nothing but holograms.

“Now I don’t mean to talk your ear off. Come! Eat, drink, and try not to outshine me at my own party!”

Stoller flung his arm out toward the hall, which somehow looked even more lavish than the Earth Gala at the palace. The dancing girls might not have been wearing much, but each sparkled with at least ten pounds of jewelry, as did most of the women in attendance. In the center was a metal sculpture of Stoller looking a bit slimmer than he did in real life. The likeness gestured outward and at his feet was a spread of food and spirits that seemed like it could feed an entire continent. Perhaps there was a reason Tulwar and his ilk hated Sora’s elite so much. Lucky for Lucas and those in attendance, Tulwar was currently buried a few miles under the palace with his army scattered to the wind.

It wasn’t fifteen seconds before Lucas felt a tug on his sleeve.

“Excuse me, are you Lucas, the Earthborn?”

Before he turned around, he made sure to fix a smile to his face.

Lucas spent the next hour fleeing from admirers, gradually ascending the decks of the airship. Each floor had even more food and drink, but Lucas restrained himself from overindulging. The man he used to be on Earth wouldn’t have been able to resist.

Lucas was content to sit on a carved wooden chair by the pool filled with revelers who had the good sense to pack a change of clothes to go swimming. A few wore nothing at all, but no one seemed to mind. The pool wasn’t so much a pool as it was a pond, surrounded by real grass, brush, and trees transplanted by a man with apparently more money than he knew what to do with. Lucas caught a server by the arm and ordered a water, which got him a strange look, but a quick nod as the man hurried off.

“… so what do you think about that?”

Snapping his focus back into the moment, Lucas had forgotten he was even talking to someone. A woman sat upright in the chair next to him. She was gorgeous and looked ten years younger than him at least, but who could tell? She had almost platinum hair with sparkling amber eyes and full lips. The slit in her matte black dress reached dangerous heights, and her gaze was unfocused.

“Absolutely,” Lucas said with no recollection of the question. Regardless, the woman smiled and leaned in just a little bit closer to him. Lucas rested his head back onto his chair and stared up at the stars, which appeared to be moving around like fireflies. Women like this had been swarming him all night. Men too, for that matter, though most of them had less suggestive looks in their eyes.

The stars suddenly blurred as the ship shook violently. The familiar thunderclap of an explosion followed. A woman screamed on the other side of the deck.

Not again
, was the panicked thought that flooded into Lucas’s mind as his heart rate doubled. Everyone was racing over to the side of the ship and looking down over the translucent screen that blocked off the edge. Lucas scrambled to his feet to join them, narrowly avoiding falling in the pool as the airship lurched to try and stabilize itself.

When he reached the edge, he found it wasn’t the ship that was under attack. Something had happened in the center of Elyria. A fire blazed brightly in the night below them, and smoke rose from the site. Then, another explosion, which again shook the ship, even lofted far above the area. Lucas thought he could hear the muted sounds of gunfire and more distant screams.

No one in the crowd had any idea what was happening and chattered like a bunch of frightened forest animals. Lucas ran to the door and descended to the next deck.

There he found a similar scene, as all the guests were packed against the eastern windows, the party at a standstill. Stoller was there, and with a wave of his hand an enormous display of the Stream flickered into existence above what appeared to be a ten-foot-wide hearth.

A reporter was on the scene as bloody citizens emerged from the smoke behind him. He was coughing from the debris in the air, yelling over the roar of gunfire and more explosions.

“The city is under attack by unknown forces! The disturbance began here in Tatoni Square and has—”

Something emerged from the smoke behind him. Something Lucas recognized.

The reporter was skewered through the chest and flung backward. Blood spattered onto the lens of the camera. Standing in the reporter’s place was an enormous, metal monstrosity.

“
Killbot
,” Lucas whispered to himself.

The machine onscreen was the same model he’d fought with his splinter team in Rhylos, though this one was painted black instead of gold. On its plated chest were the unmistakable intersecting red slashes of the Fourth Order.

How?

The smoke began to clear behind the robot, which was firing off pulse rounds toward targets offscreen. Behind him, more shapes came into view. More killbots. Two, then three, then four. The closest one eyed them with its thousand-lensed spherical head. The camera went black.

Madric Stoller was attempting to calm the hysterical crowd.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you we are in the safest place in the city. I’ve asked our captain to raise our elevation to the outer atmosphere, well out of the range of any possible attack.”

Lucas didn’t want to be in the safest place in the city. He wanted to help, but more importantly he needed to make sure that Asha, Noah, and Erik were safe in the palace. If Elyria was being attacked, the palace was certainly in danger as well.

As Lucas sprinted down back stairwells to the docking bay, he kept trying to dial Asha on his communicator, but couldn’t connect. After his fifth attempt, he tried Mars Maston instead. On the second try, Maston answered.

“What?” came the loud reply. Lucas could hear gunfire in the background.

“What do you mean ‘what’?” Lucas said incredulously. “What the hell is going on down there?”

More gunfire, then a brief burst of static.

“Fourth Order popped a bunch of killbots out of the sewer system. Ten, eleven maybe. They’re wreaking havoc down here. Probably a few hundred dead already. Where are you?”

“In Stoller’s airship,” Lucas said. He had reached the bay, which was now absent of press, and there were other guests attempting to stream into their hovercraft. Lucas saw no sign of his own.

“I’m stuck up here with no weapons and I don’t know where my guards went. Has the palace been targeted?”

“Negative,” shouted Maston over a raucous explosion. “It’s all concentrated here.”

“Do you need my help?”

“You won’t do much except probably get yourself killed. We’ve got SDI and even palace security coming down to help mop this up. It’s bad, but I’ve seen worse.”

Maston went silent on the comm for an unsettling amount of time. When he broke back in, his tone was grave.

“You need to get to the palace immediately.”

“Why? What’s happening?”

Lucas was in a line of partygoers waiting for their hovercraft to be brought to them. He hopped up anxiously trying to get a clearer view, but the guests and staff were all panicked, and the entire deck was a mess. Fortunately, most had stayed inside at Stoller’s behest. Lucas could feel the airship starting to rise.

“This may be a distraction. Tulwar might be trying to pull something here by sending palace guards into the city to deal with this. It’s a skeleton crew over there now. Even Tannon’s off-continent tonight.”

“Alright, I’m on my way,” Lucas said, pushing his way to the front of the line.

“Shit!” yelled Maston and the comm line went completely dead after broadcasting the first half of an explosion. Lucas hoped he hadn’t just been killed on the spot.

Lucas reached the front of the line. He searched for his own armored car and driver, but could find neither. Ahead of him, a well-dressed older couple was getting into a luxury hovercraft. Lucas made a split-second decision to dive in after them.

He tumbled into the back seat and was greeted with a look of shock from both of them.

“Hi, sorry, but I need to get to the palace, immediately. It’s an emergency.”

The man finally spoke. He had wispy white hair and a close shaven beard.

“Of course it is, it’s an emergency for all of us.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Lucas said as he turned to the driver. “Please, take me to the Grand Palace as quickly as you can.”

The driver turned to him with an annoyed look on his face.

“Look, I know who you are, but I don’t get paid to ditch my clients for any random alien that gets in their car.”

Lucas made another split-second decision, and then dragged the driver’s unconscious body into the backseat. The woman screamed.

Stoller’s private security drew their weapons just as Lucas sped away, but withheld fire.

“Look, I’m sorry about this, but you’ll understand later.”

The couple remained silent and were visibly shaking. The driver didn’t move, but his nose was bleeding onto the floormats. Lucas slid the privacy screen up.

Lucas set a course for the palace docking bay and quickly hacked the system to override the self-imposed maximum speed limitations of the craft. They would be there soon.

Tapping his communicator, he tried Asha again to no avail. Then Maston.

“What?” came the voice in Lucas’s ear.

“So you’re not dead,” Lucas said, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Are you there yet? I was right, Tulwar’s making a break for it.”

“What? How?” Lucas exclaimed.

Maston sent him a video file through the comm. It started playing on the viewscreen of the hovercraft.

It was security footage from the palace showing Tulwar being let out of his cell by a uniformed palace officer. A pair of dead guards lay a short distance away.

“How the hell did this happen?”

“He’s got men on the inside. I don’t know how many.”

The footage showed another guard joining up with Tulwar as they walked through the labyrinthine prison toward the lift.

“This was five minutes ago. Last time I saw them, they were heading toward the Palace Archives.”

“Where’s that?” Lucas asked.

“Next to your Earth Archive. Few chambers over. We have to assume his eventual target is Talis. She’s got her personal guard, but not much else. Most of the security is here fighting these things, and the rest could be in Tulwar’s pocket. I’m trying to get over there, but I’m pinned down. You have to stop him.”

Shit,
Lucas thought as the towering structure began to loom large in front of him. He was being hailed by palace security telling him his entry was unauthorized. He was frantically typing as Maston spoke, trying to send them his verification codes to let them know who he was.

“I have to—” Maston’s voice cut out again after another hail of gunfire. Lucas immediately tried Asha.

“Thank god,” she said on the other end, and Lucas’s stomach unknotted itself.

“Are you alright?” Lucas asked breathlessly.

“I’m fine. I’m in the room with the kids. What the hell is going on over there? Are you far up enough to avoid all this?”

“Yes,” Lucas said. “But I’m on my way to you. Tulwar’s escaped. He’s in the archives and heading for Talis. Palace security is compromised.”

“What?” Asha cried. “I’ll head him off.”

“No,” Lucas said forcefully. “Stay where you are. It’s not—”

But she was already gone.

“Damn it!” Lucas yelled. He tried her comm again without luck. The entire network was melting down because of the attack. A green indicator informed him he’d been given temporary clearance to dock, and he swerved into the entry bay at triple the allowed speed. He skidded sideways on the deck, and the craft ripped through a support pillar before crashing into an armored transport, where it came to a stop. A pair of guards were already sprinting toward him. Usually there were a dozen here.

Lucas poured out of the craft, which was now smoking from somewhere within. The rear door opened and the frightened old couple emerged. He’d forgotten all about them.

“Stay where you are!” came the stern command from the first guard to reach him, weapon drawn.

“I need to get inside. There’s a threat to the High Chancellor.”

The guards didn’t move. Their handguns remained trained on him. Lucas inched toward them.

“The palace is on lockdown,” came the gruff reply from the first guard.

“I know. Don’t you know who I am?” Lucas said, exasperated. The couple held onto each other behind him and were moving toward the back of the bay away from the standoff.

“I know exactly who you are,” the guard said, his eyes narrow.

Were they actual guards or Tulwar plants? Lucas didn’t have time to find out.

“I’m sorry about this.”

Lucas moved like water, the adrenaline taking control of his entire body. He disarmed the first guard before he could blink, and a swift kick sent the other’s pistol flying. Lucas spun around and ripped off one of their helmets, smashing it into the other’s head with force enough to knock him off his feet. Whirling around, he caught the second guard with an elbow that had him unconscious before he hit the ground. One more swift kick to the helmeted man on the pavement, and neither stirred. Hopefully he’d avoided killing them if they were indeed just trying to do their jobs.

Lucas used one of their ID chips to open the doors inside the bay and made his way toward the main hall, clutching the newly acquired energy pistol.

His comm was completely dead now, and Lucas figured there must have been some sort of dampening field in effect to disrupt non-security-related communication when there was a threat inside the palace. Unfortunately, it meant he couldn’t reach Asha or Maston or even Alpha, who was now in an underground research lab a thousand miles away, probably unaware of what was happening in Elyria.

Normally bustling with officials, tourists, and guards, the Great Hall was eerily silent. Lucas’s footsteps echoed off the stone floor and bounced off the walls around him. The ceiling was five stories high and adorned with a massive mural of clouds, stars, moons, and other heavenly bodies. Lucas crept toward the grand staircase at the end of the hall where a series of six lifts stood. From there he could ascend to the Emperor’s Refuge, as it was called, a throwback from ages past, which was where Talis had her personal quarters.