NaNoWriMo 2010, Part Seven

“Ok, that is unusual but can you get to the point.” Responded Lynn grumpily. It was more then unusual for a Belly Engineer to be attacked. Custom dictated that you she treat them like your own family since they were the people who kept the city afloat. Even criminals treated them with respect, Lynn didn’t know who would want to attack one.

“Well, they asked her what happened to her. She is still in bad condition but some of the things she say was interesting. She told the hospital workers that she was attacked and that they took the Euclidian Key from her.”

Lynn dropped the phone as she heard what he was saying. The phone almost hit the ground and broke but just before it hit the ground it was instantly back in her hands again.

“Wait, this Engineer said that? What hospital is she being kept at?” Asked Lynn in a rush. She had already left the building she was currently on and was halfway down the block when she got the response.

“She is at Queen General Hospital in the intensive care unit. Apparently she had taken a wound to the chest that was severe. My friend said she the bullet had already been removed and the wound wrapped before she had even been brought there. She claimed that her robot did the operation and while that is hard to believe all the other options are event harder to believe.”

There was a crackle of static and Ivan took his phone away from his head in disgust. The phone had been disconnected and the call dropped. That only happened when Lynn teleported large distances quickly, she must be going directly to the hospital as fast as possible. Ivan stuck his phone back in his pocket, there was no point in calling her again for a while. He would give it a while, enough time for Lynn to talk with this Engineer and figure out what was happening.

June 10th

Academy District, Queen General Hospital

“I’m sorry miss but we can’t let you see her. She is in stable condition but her wounds are still bad and she needs to recover.” Said the doctor, Lynn tried to argue but the doctor shook his head, “Even if you are a powerful Esper, I can’t let you in until she has recovered. I’ve done the best I can and our healing esper will not be able to see to her until tomorrow. You will just have to wait until then to see her.”

Lynn ground her teeth in frustration. If this Engineer really did know where the Euclidian Key was then Lynn needed to speak with her before it was to late to do anything about it. That meant that Lynn really didn’t have time to waste talking with a fool doctor that wouldn’t let her see the Engineer.

“May I at least speak with the robot that was accompanying her here?” Said Lynn with the best modesty that she could muster. Speaking with the robot wouldn’t be optimal but it would hopefully be enough.

“No, that robot is her property and while she is unconscious I can’t let you access it. These are University rules and you should already know them.” Said the doctor. Lynn knew that but she was hoping that the doctor would let the rule slide. She was generally annoyed by people who always followed the exact letter of the law, they always kept tripping her up.

“Fine, I’ll come back tomorrow and see her then. What room will she be in when I come back?” Asked Lynn slyly. She tried to kept all of her intents out of her voice. She had no intention of following the doctor’s orders but it would be inconvenient if the doctor found out about that.
Lynn listen to the doctor’s response and then began to leave the building, making sure to take a short look at the map of the building to get sense of the room’s location. Then after she had left the building and heading a few blocks away she stopped. It only took her a moment to center her own location can calculate the necessary distance, she had been doing it for years and was not the most skilled person at doing it.

The world shifted and the was in a hospital room. A girl, younger then Lynn, was laying on the bed only a few feet away from her. Next to the bed, sitting on a chair was a strange robot. It was carrying an odd collection of bags hung around it and it had a neat circular hole in the center of its blank mask face.

Surprisingly the girl was awake and scrambling at her sheets trying to get free and away from Lynn who had just appeared in front of her. The girl was clutching at he waist like she was expecting something to be there.

Lynn raised and opened her hands to show there there was nothing to be afraid of. That wasn’t strictly true, Lynn could probably put the girl several hundred feet into the air before anyone realized what had happened but the girl probably didn’t know that. “Please calm down, I’m not here to hurt you. I just wanted to ask you some questions about what happened to you.”

The girl stopped moving and just stared at Lynn. It would have been unnerving if the girl didn’t have an expression of pain plastered on her face. “What is it that you want to know?” Asked the girl.

“You were attacked by somebody and the doctors remember you mentioning something called the Euclidian Key. I want to know who it was that attacked you and what they are doing with the Key.”
“What, are you going to try and kill me too.” Responded the girl bitterly. “That man attacked me because he wanted this Euclidian Key and he couldn’t have me tell anyone that he had taken it. I don’t even know that the Euclidian Key is so if you are going to kill me just get it over with already.”

“I’m not here to kill you.” Said Lynn in the calmest voice she could muster, it also hide her exasperation. “I’m trying to recover the Key to prevent anyone from using it. If somebody is willing to kill for it then I need to get it out of that person’s hands as quickly as possible.”
“Any why should I believe that you can’t trying to get it for yourself. If I was attacked to take it then surely it must be important. Wouldn’t you want it just as much as my attacker.”

Lynn couldn’t contain her laugher. “I don’t want it for myself because out of everyone in the world, the Euclidian Key is nothing more then a large piece of metal.” Lynn held out her hand to stop the girl from trying to speak. “I’m an Esper and the Euclidian Key was designed using the insights that were discovered when Harold was studying my power. There is nothing that I could do with the Key that I couldn’t do without it and many things I can do that even someone with the Euclidian Key would be unable to do. I would need a power source capable of powering half of Mü for it to be anything more then metal for me.”

“Any what is you already had an Ark Tunnel Generator” Responded the girl.

“A what?” Said Lynn, feeling a bit of confusion for the first time since she entered the room.

“An Ark Tunnel Generator, something capable of powering half of Mü.” Said the girl coldly.

Lynn stared at the girl with a blank uncomprehending look on her face. “That exists?” She said in amazement.

“Yes, don’t you know what powers your own District. It was heralded at the greatest discovery of the decade and it revolutionize power. I thought it was common knowledge.”

Lynn’s jaw hung open for a second but it snaped closed as she began to thing. “Well, I suppose that if I had the Key and a power source that big I could, I don’t know, um, rip most of the Academy District into pieces, travel to the moon, maybe tear open a hole into another dimension? It is hard to say, there are probably more things you could to with it, though you would probably need my experience to do more then attempt to rip the city apart. I hardly have a need for more power then I already have so I haven’t really put much though into what I would be able to accomplish with it.” She nodded, satisfied with her own explanation. “Though I suppose if anybody but me tried to channel that much power through the Euclidian Key then they are more likely to just rip themselves into a billion pieces then anything else.”

“So, if somebody knew about this then they would be expecting to die if they tried to activate it at full power.” The girl seemed to be in a calm state again. The girl crawled back into the bed and pulled up the sheets again. “Very well. I believe you. I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
“Great.” Said Lynn happily, although she was concerned about the possibility that the girl had brought up. She had been planning to directly stop the Key if it ever got activated on a large scale but if there really was a energy source strong enough to power the entire District and somebody got ahold of it then she didn’t know if she would be able to stop the Key. “First I would like to know your name.”

“I am Emiray, Major Engineer of the Third Quadrant.” Said Emiray and Lynn whistled. She didn’t know much about the Belly Engineers but she knew that Major was a title only given to show their dedication to the city. As far as Lynn knew there were only a handful of them.

“And I am Lynn, Level 8 Teleporter.” Now the return was true. Emiray was showing signs of surprise. While the number of Major Engineers alive was probably in the dozen, the number of Level 8 Espers that have ever existed was less then that.