NaNoWriMo 2010, Part Five

Since I'm behind several days I'm posting by parts now. Part Five should have been done on the 5th but didn't get done then.

Part Five

There was one long moment where time seemed to stretch for Emiray as she strained every sense that she had. Gray was opening his mouth as if to ask a question to her but she blocked it out keeping everything tuned for that one instant. Gray’s hand set down on her shoulder for only a moment before she twirled and ducked, knocking Gray’s legs out from under him.

He cry out as he collapsed onto the floor with a loud crash. During that slow moment Emiray could see a large blurred shape leaping through the air where Gray and her had been a moment before. Then after time had been going so slow it seem to speed up in double time to make up for it.

Emiray leapt forward after the Black Crocodile, holding her knife perfectly still. She plunged toward where the Crocodile should have landed and felt the impact as the point of her knife reach it. It felt like molassis as the knife slowly sunk in. However it didn’t get all of the way in and before she could react something whipped out and knocked her back, sending her spinning to the ground.

Reeling from the hit that must have come from the Crocodile’s tail, Emiray clambered to her feet. She could feel the pain and was gasping for breath but she could see the knife, seemingly suspended in midair, moving quickly toward her. This Black Crocodile was bigger then the last one, much bigger. Emiray hadn’t know that they grew this big.

Emiray kept her balance the best that she could as the Crocodile rushed toward her in an indistinct blur. She managed to slip to one side, avoiding the mouth of razer sharp teeth by mere inches and grabbed the hilt of her knife. It slit a little as she lost momentum and she pressed it in deeper, hopefully deep enough. Then she hung on for her life as the creature thrashed. As it rocked backward and forward trying to dislodge her, she held on to the knife like her life depended on it.

The Crocodiles tale came up and lashed her hard across the back once and then twice. The pain was intense but she kept her teeth gritted and her hands locked firmly on the knife. Then it was all over the Crocodiles movement slowed and eventually stopped. Emiray then waited for minutes, making sure that the creature was finally dead. Only when she was certain that it was finally dead did she let go of the knife and collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion and pain.

Everything still seemed like a hazy to Emiray event when Professor Gray helped her up and lead her out of the pile of gore that she had been kneeling in. Things began to slowly come into mental focus, she first wondered how she should deal with the bodies of two Black Crocodiles. Eventually she gave up on that problem, she would report it and a couple of Engineers would come to clean up and make sure this section of tunnel didn’t have any more of them.

Eventually it began to dawn on her that she was covered in blood and grim and that everything felt a great deal unpleasant, especially her boots which squished a little when she tried to move her toes. The pain was also beginning to seep back into her body as the adrenaline that she had felt went facing down the Black Crocodile began to fade. Most of the time she never missed it but right now she could use a nice hot shower.

It took her a moment to realize that Professor Gray was talking to her. She shook her head to make it a little better, “I’m sorry, what were you saying. After what happened I’m not feeling very well.”

“Well I should think not. Your back is in pretty bad shape with plenty of cuts and it is bleeding all over. You need to get that treated and wrapped or it could get bad. I recommend getting real medical attention but since that it not available to use now we need to do the best we can and keep the would clean.”

“Rob should have bandages.” Said Emiray and R08 stepped forward automatically and pulled several small rolls of bandages out of one of the many bags strung along him. Gray took the rolls from R08 and began to unwind one of them. Staring with and annoyed look on his face Gray looked over the wound.The skill was cut in several places and there was gravel and grim all over, probably from the tail when it hit her. He needed to get the wound clean or any bandaging would just make it worse.

Unscrewing his water bottle he pored it over her back, making sure to wash all of the worst of it clean. Then he scowled and pulled out his personal bottle of liquor. He hated to waste it on something like this but the back needed to be disinfected and without proper tools this was the best that he had available to him.

“I need to disinfect the wound so this is going to be painful.” The scowl still on his face he poured the bottle of alcohol over Emirays back. She flinched but didn’t cry out. The back mostly clean he wiped away the rest that he could with the clean cloth that R08 had conveniently provided for him.

Gray smiled grimly at a job well done, medicine had never been his strong suit even though he had taken several courses. Maybe it was because of his oath, it was already painful for him to heal her given that the only reason he was doing it was to make sure she was capable of leading him to the surface.





Eventually Emiray managed to recover enough to begin leading them again. However, while she would probably be able to lead them to the University District by the end of the day in ordinary conditions it was now no longer possible for her. Her only seemed to have enough in her to lead them both to an Engineer safehouse a couple of hours away. There she was able to get hot water and enjoy a relaxing shower and bath before collapsing on a half sized bed. She could normally keep walking all day but the fight with the Black Crocodiles had drained her and the pain of her back had been making each step a new type of torture. It didn’t take her more then a minute to fall asleep after she had laid down on the bed.

Gray looked over at R08 sitting next to Emiray’s bedside. He had been impressed by her today. She was still a young girl but her skill was much higher then her age would merit, what kind of difficult life had she had. He knew he wouldn’t have been able to wrestle an almost invisible crocodile and end up victorious. It was all he could do to keep from running while Emiray had fought the beast. All thoughts of the weapon tucked away in his coat had disappear from his mind the minute he had seen the blurred look of the creature that had attacked Emiray.

He knew he couldn’t get attached to her, it wouldn’t end well, but he couldn’t help feeling things toward her. Predominantly to was respect for her abilities and pity that she wouldn’t be able to do more with her life. With her skills she would eventually have been someone important, maybe even the head engineer. He feel sorry that she had to get wrapped up in all of this.





It was many hours later that Emiray awoke. She was feeling better then she had been but her back and body were feeling incredibly sore. She felt like she would be able to make it to the surface today but it would be slow progress and would probably be night by the time that they arrived there, maybe a little bit less then half of her average speed.

Hot breakfast was a luxury that seemed to difficult at the moment so she passed out bread and cheese to Gray and eat some herself. An hour later after she had had Gray help her change her bandage they started making their way but up the passageways to the University District. The route hadn’t normally felt so long but she kept a slow pace that event Gray didn’t have any trouble keeping up with.

She kept an even close watch out on her surroundings then usual to make sure they didn’t get ambushed by another Black Crocodile. That never happened however and they reached the surface without further incident. Gray had occasionally tried to keep conversation up, asking her questions about her job, but it was just too much of a pain to answer so she just listened. Gray eventually switched from asking her questions to telling her stories of different experiments that he had done and what the outcome had been. She never really paid attention to the stories.

The passageway to the University District that she had taken was locked with a keypad. The security system was mainly there to keep unrulies out and to make sure new experiments didn’t get released into the Belly like Black Crocodiles had been. It wasn’t very complictated and Emiray then left Professor Gray back into the Academy District.

With the change of scenery around them Gray asked, “Are we finally back in the University Dictrict.”

Emiray nodded mechanically. “Yes, we are still below street level but was are definitely in the University District, on the east side of the District if you needed to know.”
“I see.” Said Gray, he sounded reluctant. “Since you are injured I can take the man’s possessions and give the description of events to the authorities if you want. They you will be able to get medicial attention without worrying about it.”

NaNoWriMo 2010, Day Four

Emiray looked over at Professor Gray and then back at Omar. “I suppose we should get going soon. Keep up the good work Omar.” Omar beamed at the praise and gave her what might have been a salute before motioning to his robot and head off in another direction.

“Professor Gray, do you want to rest a little longer before we start heading back up to the surface.”

“What, now?” He glanced at his watch before saying, “Shouldn’t we stop for the night. It took me two days to get down. This seems like a good place to stay after all.”

Emiray nodded, she could expect his professor to continue going if he had been walking all day. “Alright, although it should probably only take us a day to get back to the University District. Omar probably took the official paths but since I know this sector better then him we should be able to make the return journey much faster.”

Emiray moved over to R08 and pulled the blanket roll off of him and slipped the blanket out of the waterproof bagging. She glanced over at Professor Gray and tossed the blanket to him. “Here you can use that. I usually isn’t very chilly in the sector so I will be find without it.”

“No really, I couldn’t. This is your blanket, I can’t just take it from you.”
“The head engineer would be annoyed at me if I didn’t help any guests, besides I don’t usually use it anyways unless it is cold.”

“I suppose..”

Having gotten his agreement Emiray moved over to one of the cubbies in the wall and slide inside, making herself comfortable. R08 followed her and sat down next to the outside of the cubby. After a few seconds his eyes began to dim and then moments later they went out.

Professor Gray stood there is silent for a minutes watching the girl sleeping in the cubby. He had never imagined that any of the Belly engineers would be like her. She was young, too young, for the job. She could be any more then fifteen, maybe even younger. Yet, Omar had treated her with a great deal of respect and said she had been an engineer longer the he had been.

Gray had had a chance to speak with Omar at length on their way down. Some of their interests have overlapped, engineers knew a great deal about repairing machines and that wasn’t that much different then making them. Gray had gotten several new ideas about how to change his mental resonance chamber from his talks with Omar, resolving several electrical issues that he had been struggling with. If Omar thought of his girl as his senior then how good was she at the job.

He stood there hesitating. He slide his hand inside his coat pocket and touched the cold metal of the weapon had had hidden inside there. If she had kept Harold’s possessions then she must have the Euclidian Key on her somewhere. It would be over in an instant and then he could be able to easily recover the Key. Sure, he would be blamed for it since Omar knew he was with her but if it was for the greater good…

No, he released his grip and pulled his hand out of his coat. He moved over to the other side of the passageway and stretch out as best as he could, wrapping the blanket around him. If he dealt with her now then it would be virtually impossible to escape from the Belly before being caught. He would need to wait for them to leave before doing anything.

June 9th

The Belly, Sector 36

Professor Gray woke up to the smell of something… cooking? He rubbed his eyes and scrubbed his stubble before sitting up and looking around. Emiray was sitting next to a small pot which was sitting on a small electric stove. Gray stood up and went over to the stove and sat beside Emiray. He didn’t really know what to say, it somehow felt unconfortable to watch somebody several decades younger them him cook.

Emiray scooped up some of what seemed to be a mix of mush and stew and handed it to him along with a spoon. “Um, thank you.” He said thankfully. All of the food that he had eaten with Omar had been on the go, Omar never seemed to stop long at any one stop and it had just been dried meat and stale biscuits with him.

He took a spoonful and tasted it. The flavor was fairly bland but it was warm and that made it good enough. He paused for a second while he was chewing. “Is there fresh meat in this?” He asked, quite puzzled.

Emiray nodded, “I managed to get lucky this morning before you woke up.” Gray continued to wait, hoping for a little bit more of an explanation, maybe of what type of meat this was. Eventually it became apparent that Emiray wasn’t going to elaborate and Gray decided that it would probably be better if he never found out what type of meat it was.

They had finished breakfast and had traveled several hours before Emiray stopped and knelt on the ground. She stuck out her hand and pressed her finger into a puddle of strange yellow goo. R08 moved up need to her and examined the goo with her.

“IS THAT…” Began R08 before Emiray said, “Yes, Rob, I think it is.” She rubbed the goo between her fingers, feeling it carefully. Gray moved up behind them and leaned over.
“Is something the matter?”

“Shush… be quiet.” Said Emiray and she glanced around, looking for anything out of place. Beyond the puddle of yellow goo nothing was out of the ordinary. She dropped her hand down to the belt strapped around her jumpsuit and pulled out a large knife. She spun it in her hand until the point was facing up.

“Quietly, walk over to the wall and keep for back to it.” She instructed Professor Gray. She however didn’t move, except for her eyes which flickers back for forth across the corder looking for the almost imperceptible flicker that should be there.

Gray began obeying her order, backing slowly up until his back was against the wall. “What is it? Is there something out there?” Ask Gray, fear beginning to tinge his voice.
Emiray didn’t waste the motion to nod. “Yes, somewhere nearby is a Black Crocodile. We can’t proceed until I have found it or am certain it isn’t around.”

“What do you mean? Wouldn’t a black crocodile be easy to spot?” Asked Gray, the light of curiosity beginning to flicker in his eyes. Strange things always made him interested and once he was interested he could stop asking questions until he had everything figured out. “And why would there be a Crocodile here in the first place.”

“Quiet” whisper Emiray as she tried to concentrate. “Black Crocodile is a misnomer. It is actually just a big lizard, more like a chameleon then anything else. They are practically invisible, blending in almost perfectly with their background. Dealing with one of the is said to be like fighting a crocodile in the darkness, thus the name.”
“I’ve never heard of them before, such a creature couldn’t possibly be natural, could it.”

“I once heard that they were an experiment in the University District that managed to escape. Some of them found homes down in the Belly. Even so they are rare and most engineers have never encountered one before. Several engineers have even died dealing with them.”

“Have you encountered one before.” Said Professor Gray, cold ice running down his spine. Suddenly he was very worried. All his work would be for nothing if the Euclidian Key was lost down here with their deaths. Their bodies might never be found if they died here.
Emiray didn’t respond. She was too busy concentrating on her surroundings. If she wasn’t giving it her full attention she would miss the almost imperceptible blur that showed itself when the Black Crocodile moved. Everything was silent for one long instant when she could only here the dripping on water.

Then she saw it. It was only for a moment but she saw the slight blur at the joint of one of the pipes where the type of the pipe change. Emiray didn’t waste any time. She took three long steps and plunged her knife forward. There was a feeling of pressure and the red blood began spilling over her hands. The thing began to trash under her but she released the knife and took several long steps backward.

Now that it was flailing wilding in near death it could be clearly seen. The lizard was at least three feet long with razor sharp teeth. All of the tiny scales were colored almost perfectly with the pipe it had been crawling along however with the rapid movement the illusion of invisibility was gone.

Emiray waited for the thrashing to die down before stepping back to the Black Crocodile and pulling her knife out of it. Now that it was dead the camouflage had stopped changing. There was a large sigh of relief from Professor Gray who took several steps away from the wall and stood next to the lizard corpse.

“Well, you manage to get it. Good job. Nasty thing isn’t it, and quite big. I can see why it is called a Black Crocodile.” He wiped the sweat from his face with the sleeve of his shirt.

“No”

“No, what?”

“No, it was small. They are usually twice as big as this one.” Emiray’s concentration hadn’t wavered for a second since killing the Black Crocodile. This one had been small, it must have been a young one. Did young Black Crocodiles say with their parent or parents. Emiray didn’t think they did but that was different from knowing and she couldn’t take any risks when dealing with a Black Crocodile.

NaNoWriMo 2010, Day Three

“Not that that I know about.” Responded Ivan. He noticed her worried expression before asking, “Is there some reason for you to think that anything would be…. missing” He paused for a second before the last word because just before he had said it Lynn was gone. She hadn’t left through the doorway or anything mundane like, she had just ceased to be there anymore.

After around a minute for swearing at the frustration of having to deal with her he pulled out his cell phone and dailed her number. There was a ringing sound and he looked up to see a phone sitting on the table next to him. Curse her and her bloody ability to teleport willy nilly. He really needed to find a new job.

June 8th

University District, Professor Harold’s Laboratory

It has taken Lynn several minutes to arrive at Harold’s Laboratory. There was too many intervening obstacles to make the teleportation any quicker. Still by going across the rooftops she had been able to arrive at the other side of the Research District faster then any other person was capable of doing. It was beginning to become evening and the doors to the laboratory were locked. Harold used to keep the doors open late working but since he was missing the must have locked the doors early. Maybe the doors hadn’t even been unlocked today if there was nobody to work here.

Locks never really bothered Lynn however and a moment later she was on the other side of the still locked door. She could have made a few quick jumps and nearly instantly arrived main research room but she walked instead. If something really had happened to Harold then any clue she might find would be interesting.

The rooms on the way to the main research room were empty of any clues that Lynn could find however and the room itself was equally useless. Sure it was full of all sorts of things, experiments that Harold had been working on before his disappearance. Many things were out of the ordinary but that was too be expected, but nothing there clued Lynn into why Harold has vanished. She hadn’t really expected to find anything though, the University Security must have already combed this placed and Ivan would have know had they found anything.

The room changed and Lynn was in the basement. Harold kept many of his projects down here where they were safer and father away from prying eyes. In particular one project was down here that Lynn had helped him with. That was the project that she had initially been worried about and had decided to come over to check on.

It was a relief to see the door into the special laboratory shut and still locked. Only her and Harold would be able of opening the door without breaking it, or at least that was the plan. There were probably other Espers that would be capable of entering the room so it would be best to go in and double check. She went up to the door and typed in the password to open the door and… nothing happened. Lynn frowned, the door not working was a bad sign.

She moved to the other side of the door easily, trying to type in the password had simply been a formality. The keypad on the other side of the door had been rewired as far as she could tell, possibly to stop the door from opening from the other side. But it didn’t look like the door would be able to open from this side either so she didn’t know why somebody would do it, had it been Harold.

She crossed the room instantly, her worry growing and found the case that usually sat there open and flung to the floor new to a small portable power generator that they had kept in the room for testing.
The Euclidian Key was gone.

June 8th

The Belly, Sector 36

It had taken Emiray several days sort everything out down at the water pump. After taking all of the notes she could about the body she needed to find a way to dispose of it. The distance was too far to take the body all the way back up to the surface and she didn’t want to even if she could have. Still she had to carry it, with the help of R08, several miles to something that functioned like an incinerator. It was a horrible way for someone to end, burned deep under the surface with nobody who cared about you to morne for you. It also reminded Emiray that when she died this would probably also happen to her.

After the body was dealt with it was still several more hours before she got to a communication station. Cell phones didn’t get service down in the Belly so engineers had to rely on regularly spaced communication stations to stay in touch with each other hand the chief engineer. Normally she would have made a report about everything that had happened and then been assigned another job in a nearby sector to go and complete. This time was different however. Somebody in the University District was making a fuss and she needed to personally travel up several sectors to return the personal articles that she had deemed important enough to save from the fire.

So she began they days long trip through the tunnels up to the University District. In straight distance it probably wasn’t that far away, only a couple of miles up but there was no straight path. The city has constantly built upon itself and as the top got heavier and heavier the bottom sunk deeper and deeper into the ocean. Now there were miles of tunnels and rooms and passageways all beneath the city. A person could be lost for years down in the Belly if they didn’t know the passageways between the sectors.
Emiray had grown up in the Belly and knew her way around many parts of the Belly. In the parts she didn’t know she was still able to find her way. R08 had been to many places that she never had been and engineers were constantly marking and remarking the correct paths and while an normal person would never recognize the signs Emiray knew them on sight.

When she finally arrived at Sector 37, not far under the University District she made contact with the head engineer again. The orders she received were to wait there Omar, another engineer. He was bring down one of the people from the University District. While it was unusual for people other then engineers to want to enter the Belly she suspected that a death of another person from the University District was probably important enough for that to happen.

Emiray waited at the communication station for Omar and it was only a couple of hours before he arrived. He wore the some type of stained jumpsuit that Emiray was wearing although his was a fair bit bigger then hers. He have her a bow and she nodded her head slightly in response. Following behind him was a robot, although his was much different then R08. He was a quadruped model, faster and stronger the R08 although not as good at delicate tasks. Omar’s was also more bulky and was less then a decade old, practically new by engineering standards. If something couldn’t last at least ten years then it generally wasn’t worth having in the first place.

A little bit behind the robot come another map. The man was huffing and leaned up against the wall as soon as he caught up to Ovan. Surface-siders always had trouble keeping up with the pace that Engineers tend to set. The man looked a little bulky and probably got too much to eat and not enough exercise.

“Is the the man.” Said Emiray. It was more rhetorical then anything else. Who else would be following Ovan down into the Belly. Ovan nodded enthusiastically. He had only been an engineer for three years now and still thought the job was exciting. Emiray thought that he had enough enthusiasm for two or three engineers.

“Yes, that is him. Bit of a strange old dude if I would say so. No disrespect but he always keeps grumbling. First it was about not having a decent cup of coffee and then it was about not taking a bath. Surface-siders can be soft can’t they.” Ovan laughed at his own comment, not seeming to realize that the man was not three feet away from him and plainly capable of hearing everything that was being said.

“Excuse me.” Said the man who seemed to have gotten his breath back. “I heard that there was an Engineer who found the body of a University Citizen an I to believe correctly that you are that engineer?” He paused for a second before continuing. “I mean not offense but you seem awfully young for the job.”

“Hey now, don’t go saying that.” Said Ovan heartily. “Don’t let her fool you. She is one of the best engineers that there is. She has been one longer then I have, she had been one most of her life, practically born an engineer I say, an engineering genius.” He paused to catch a breath and Emiray interrupted him before he could continue.

“Yes, that was me. I found the body down in Sector 38 although I still have not idea how he managed to end up dead locked inside a room. I brought with me all of his personal possession except his clothes. I will give you a full report before you are guided back to the surface.”

Ovan shook his head for a moment. “Actually you will have time to tell him on your way back up. I’m been instructed to pass the guide duty off to you and the head off to Sector 35. It seems that some of the platting is starting to weaken and it left then some of the building in the city above might collapse. Architecture is my strong suit so the chief is wants me to get on to it as quickly as possible. You are to guide Professor Gray here back up to the surface and then give all the appropriate reports before reporting back to the chief.”

NaNoWriMo 2010, Day Two

I finished writing late last night and went to sleep right after that so I am posting the story in the morning.

Six Years Ago
The Belly, Sector 75

The last piece slide into position with a click and Emiray placed the small backplate on and screwed it tight. She picked up the small watch in her equally small hands and turned it around a couple of times. It seemed alright, though she didn’t know for certain yet. She twisted the crank several times and the gave out a giggle as the watch began to tick.

Smiling she hurriedly stood up and raced out of her room and down the dark hallway to her Uncle’s room. She knocked once before entering, no waiting for a response. “Uncle, uncle, look I managed to get it working again. All I needed to do was replace several of the parts and it was able to work again.”

Her Uncle looked up from his work bench and smiled back at her. “Come over her Emi and show me.” He took it from her as she got closer and stared it through his thick glasses. He put it close to his ear and listened before handing it back to her. “You did well, a quality repair job. It will probably last for ten more years because of you.” He reached out and ruffled her short hair. “I’m proud of you.”

She beamed back at him, “Do you think daddy will be proud of me too?” She asked innocently. Her Uncle froze, his hand still tangled in her hair. It was painful for him, he didn’t know what to tell her, he had never had to take care of a child before her father died. There were things that he wanted to tell her, things he should tell her, but he never managed to say anything.

“Yes, I’m sure he would be very proud.” He tried smiling at her but it was forced.

June 5th

The Belly, Sector 38

The water pump had been fixed, the water was pumped out of the room, and the door to the room had been fixed and opened. The rotting smell wasn’t any better but it had been a relief for Emiray to be able to leave the room and breath some relatively clean air again.

“Rob, how could that man have gotten down here. The door into the pump room wasn’t working and he couldn’t have been dead more then a couple of days.” Said Emiray when she got back to the room. She had put on a dust mask which made it a little bit easier to breath, but not much.

“I DO NOT KNOW. YOUR HYPOTHESIS IS SOUND HOWEVER. IT SHOULD BEEN IMPOSSIBLE FOR THERE TO BE A CORPSE HERE. HOWEVER THAT DOES NOT STOP THE CORPSE FROM BEING HERE.” Responded R08 in its warbling tone. It was great at any amount of useful engineering assistance but R08 just wasn’t able to be creative.

“I wonder who he was.” Said Emiray as he put on a pair of thick leather gloves. They were usually used for grabbing into hot object but she really didn’t want to touch the corpse with her bare hands. She began checking the man’s coat pockets, maybe he was carrying an ID or something that would tell Emiray who he was.

She didn’t really want to be doing this but since she had found the corpse she would need to give the chief engineer a though report of everything that she could find out. If it was murder then it would be serious business. “Rob, please start recording.”
“RECORDING STARTED…” Responded R08. It would be better to give an account as she saw it now then try and remember what happened later.

“The corpse isn’t very old, maybe a day or two at the most. I still have no idea how he arrived here. I have been unable to find an wallet or any sort of identification yet but since he is wearing what is probably a lab coat he must be from the University District. Since Sector 38 is below the University District that makes it even more likely.”

She pulled out a something from one of the coat pockets and examined it. “In one of his coat pockets I found a strange object. It is a long rectangular rod bar with something jutting from one end. It resembles a key, although it is very big if it is a key.” Emiray placed the object to one side and continued to search the body. “He doesn’t seem to have an ID on him and other then the unknown object his pockets are empty.”

“There doesn’t seem to be any external injuries on him so it is unlikely that he was murdered. Maybe he got lost down here and starved to death or drowned after some sort of accident. Although how he would end up in the pump room if that was the case it beyond me. Other then the grate I used to enter the pump room there appears to be no forced entry, or any form of entry.”

She spend a couple more minutes going over the body looking for anything else unusual.
“I wonder if he was a father. Rob, stop recording.”

June 5th

University District, Pegasus Research Facility #5

Professor Gray continued to fiddle with the settings for the program. They simulations all seemed to work correctly but the experiments always failed. He had burned through seven different hypothesis to explain the reaction but he had yet to come up with a compelling solution.

There was a hiss as the large machine next to him began to open. The mental resonance chamber should supposedly let you view a person thoughts or watch their dreams but so far the data it had been giving him had been mostly garbage. He took off his glasses and leaned back in his chair before saying, “Good job Edith. You can take the rest of the day off while I rework the machine and redo my hypothesis.”

“Professor Gray, Professor Gray, your phone is ringing.” Gray looked up at Edith for a moment trying to realize what she was talking about. Then his concentration snapped and he too noticed that his phone was ringing. That was strange, almost nobody ever called him on the laboratory line, they always called his cell when they needed to contact him.
He stood up and walked past the walked past Edith and the Mental Resonance Chamber before picking up the phone and answering, “Yes, This is Professor Gray in Facility 5.”

“The tortured Titan guides they way.” Every muscle in Gray’s body froze and he heard the words coming from the other end of the phone. He glanced up to check on Edith but she had already left once he had noticed the phone.

“And we shall pay the same price.” Responded Gray in a whisper. “What is it that I need to do?” Asked Gray in a strangled whisper. He knew this day would eventually come, he had prepared for it and was willing to go through what needed to be done but he knew they price the the Titan suffered that that he would probably share.

“You must recover the Euclidian Key. The scientist who invented it decided not to go along with our wishes.” Said the voice on the other side of the phone. Gray shivered slightly, he knew what would happen to though who didn’t go along.

“What to do you want me to do to recover the Euclidian Key?” Sometimes independent action was a good plan, but now was unlikely to try that route. The man on the other side of the phone was probably important and high up in the ranks. Gray was nothing more then a grunt.

“The Key can be used to distort space and the inventor used it to escape with the Key. However without a large source of energy he will be unable to use it again. According to our measurements the Euclidian Key placed him somewhere underneath the University District. We need you to recover the Euclidian Key and dispose of the scientist who invented it.

“Do you mean in the Belly?” Asked Gray. If the Euclidian Key was in the Belly then it would be more then a little difficult to recover it. Without the right permission a person could get in trouble for entering the Belly, not to mention the possibility of getting lost or finding some dangerous creature. Without an Engineer to guide you then entering the Belly might was well be suicide.

“All the necessary arrangements for you have already been made. You will be making a scientific inquiry into the Belly to study the roots of Mü. An Engineer will be provided for you and you must recover the Key.”

Gray nodded to nobody in particular before saying, “I will do what is needed.”

“For The Greater Good” Said the voice. “For The Greater Good” Said Gray.


June 8th

University District, Residential Section

“Ivan, how can he just be missing?” Asked Lynn in an angry tone. “Harold is a well respected scientist with ten assistants, a person like that just doesn’t disappear.” She tapped her fingers on the table restlessly. She thought she should have been happy that her meeting with Harold was cancelled but she had been working with him closely on several projects and it was disturbing to him suddenly vanish like this.

“He just is. His lab assistants haven’t seen him in days. He seems to have contacted nobody and there have been no records of him.” Explained Ivan slowly. It was often painful for him to deal with Lynn because she would often ignore him completely or simply dismiss his opinion out of hand. She could get away with it too, Lynn was a Level 8 Esper and probably the most powerful single person alive. If she didn’t want to pay attention to him then there was very little that he could do to make her pay attention. It was all very frustrating.

“Is it possible that something happened to him?” Asked Lynn, “Was there anything missing from his laboratory?”

This section of the story will continue tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo 2010, Day One

June 5th
The Belly, Sector 38

Emiray was deep in the Belly, far below the University District. Sector 38 was about as deep and derelict as a place could get. Several times Emiray has to wade and deep as her chest and twice she had to swim though flooded portions. Three of Sector 38’s seven water pumps had been busted and there had been numerous faulty electronics and broken doors. It was Emiray’s job to come down here and make sure everything was in working order.

Dirt and mud crusted her short hair making it impossible to tell what color it used to be. Her clothes, a simple jumpsuit, was so smeared and stained it was hardly recognizable as clothes. It was also at least a size too small for her. The only thing about her that was clean where the numerous tools that hung around her belt. They were clean and almost shined the the murky dark cast by the small electrical lamp that she carried.

She stopped in front of a door and set down her lamp on a nearby pipe that was handing at chest level. The last of Sector 38’s water pump was beyond there and she would need to make sure it was functioning before she made her report to the chief engineer. Given the water level nearby she suspected it was malfunctioning like the others she had fixed. It has after all been a year since this section’s last scheduled maintenance and many of the old pumps couldn’t even last that long before breaking. Even the pumps that hadn’t been broken had still needed some maintenance or they wouldn’t have lasted more then a couple of more months.

Emiray looked over the door looking for any damage. It was a solid metal door and beyond the rust covering the bottom half it seemed to be in good condition. The grabbed the handle in the center of the door and started to turn. There as a squeaking sound and the handle turns an inch before grinding to a stop. Emiray gritted her teeth and pushed again but the door handle refused to budge.

“What do you think Rob?” Emiray asked as she let go of the handle and dusted the flakes of rust off of her hands. There was a click as the robot reached out its hand and pressed it on the door it moved its head closer to the hinges.

R08 was just a little bit taller then Emiray and would probably be thin if it wasn’t carrying a multitude of bags and other things strapped around it. R08 was an old model and would probably have been junked long ago had the Belly Engineer been able to afford replacements. So R08 was still around and had probably been doing the job of an Engineer’s assistant longer then any of the engineers had been engineers, certainly longer then Emiray had been one.

Its mask like face stared at the door for a few more seconds processing before it said. “THe InTERIOr iS LIkEly FlOODeD ANd ThE INSiDE GeARS BUSTED. WE WILL PROBABLY NEED TO REMOVE THE DOOR BEFORE ENTERING.”

Emiray nodded grimly. The door opened inward and if it was indeed flooded then it could take hours to remove the door and get into the pump room and then hours more to fix the door. Only a second rate engineer would leave a broken door behind them. She looked around and then pointed toward the vents in the celling. “Rob, Any chance those would lead me into the pump room. If I could get inside and fix the pump then that would fix the flooding and then we would be able to get the door open.”

“THAT SEEMS LIKE A REASONABLE PLAN. ALTHOUGH THE VENTS MAY NOT LEAD TO THE PUMP ROOM AND THE ROOM MIGHT BE COMPLETELY FLOODED MAKING REPAIRS IMPOSSIBLE.” Responding R08 in its lightly warbling tone. That always but Emiray, she had managed to keep it in good working condition since it had been assigned to her but she had never been able to fix that warble. There was nothing wrong with its speaker system so it must be some kind of software bug.

She reached up and pulled herself onto on of the pipes. A couple of minutes and her wrench managed to get the grate of the vent off and she squeezed herself inside it. “Rob, there isn’t enough room for you to come up here. Stay down there and see what you can do about the door. I’ll come back for parts after I found out what is wrong with the pump.” She heard an affirmative beep as made her way through the vent duck. Ten minutes and two wrong turns later she finally managed to find the vent leading into the pump room.

As she began working on the bolts holding the vent in place she began to smell it. It was the smell of something rotting. She had smell decomposing creatures before, rats and other animals sometimes made there home in the Belly and when they died it didn’t take long for it to start rotting. Emiray got the last bolt off and help the grate gently as she let it slide down. Once it stopped moving downward she slide herself out of the ducts and stopped dead.

There, floating in the middle of the pool of water near the pump was a human corpse.

June 5th
Space, Low Orbit

Lynn stared up at the stars. They were beautiful, they had always been beautiful and so far away. Now that she was as close to them as she had ever been they seemed even farther way. “Beep, Thirty Five Minutes Of Air Remaining” came a sound near her ear. That brought her two her senses and she looked around, the Earth hung below her like a giant gem, sparkling. While the stars still seemed so far away the Earth seemed small and insignificant.

“Lynn, the satellite is two hundred miles retrograde away from you.” Lynn heard the voice through the communication set in her suit. They had been telling her that for a couple of minutes now and would probably start to get annoyed if she continued to spend any more time staring at the stars.

She stared to her west and could see the satellite off in the distance, although it seemed very small. She reached out to it and then it was there right in front of her as if she had always been right next to it. She reached out and grab one of the satellites rails with her gloved hand. “I’m there, now what do I need to do.”

“If you would remember the briefing then you would know that the satellite has run out of the fuel needed to correct its orbit and keep it where we need it to be. Rather then send a new satellite up you are going to replace the fuel canisters. Now please follow my directions carefully.”

Lynn listens as the voice droned on. She followed directions not really paying attention. Twenty minutes later the fuel tank had been replaced and Lynn was finally free to enjoy herself again. Sometimes it was a pain needing to do was she was supposed to. It seemed that all of her time was spent participating is some kind of experiment or preforming some task that nobody else was capable of doing. However she still had fifteen minutes before she ran out of oxygen and she wanted to spend those moments staring at the stars.

“Beep, Five Minutes Of Air Remaining.” Finally she broke away from the stars and spun to look at the Earth. She needed to return back to Mü. The University probably has some test or some experiment they wanted her to perform. She sighed, taking one last deep breath and then the Earth was closer, much closer. She was falling and even through the suit she could feel the atmosphere wiping past her. Every-time her suit warned her that the tempetures were getting to hot there was a shutter and she began to fall again.

Just as her suit began to warn her about the critical low levels of air she flipped the pressure release and air began flowing into her suit from outside. It was thin still, but it was breathable. The Earth was hurtling toward her and she could see the ocean far below her and the city. It was still small but it grew bigger and bigger and she got closer to the ground. Like the stars Mü always impressed her, the largest city in the world floating on top of the ocean.

She could see the building get bigger and bigger as she fell through the clouds. If she kept at this for a couple of more minutes then she would hit the ground. Her eyes locks on one of the taller buildings and then suddenly she was standing on top of it.

“Ivan, I have managed to land safely in the Entertainment district…” Lynn paused for a second deciding, “Cancel any other plans that I have for this evening. Tell them that I am planning to spend the night in the Entertainment district.”

“Wait Lynn, You can’t just do that. You promised me…” Lynn clicked the communicator off and unlatched her helmet letting her hair roll down to her shoulders. “Sure I can, in fact I just did.” Said Lynn with a smile. Ivan would probably get angry at her but there was really nothing that he could do to stop her. Lynn doubted that anyone would be able to stop her if she didn’t want to be stopped and it wasn’t like she was doing anything wrong. Occasionally she wanted to act her age, maybe she would go see a movie or go to the arcade.

First however she needed to go get some clothes, a space suit was hardly the proper attire for a teenage girl. There would probably be somebody in the Entertainment district willing to try her some proper clothes in return for the suit. She smiled planning how she would spend her evening.

Then the roof of the building was empty and Lynn was nowhere to be seen.

NaNoWriMo 2010 - All Online!

I know I never really post here, but this November is will be different. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo for the third time and this year I'm planning on showing everything. Everyday (Or most of them) I will be posting all my writing to my blog for the entire world to see.

My NaNoWriMo profile is there for anyone interested in my initial idea and I will be keeping an up to date word count there.

I already have an interesting idea, but since I can't promise I'm that great an author I can not say it is a good idea. Maybe somebody will like it, maybe not, but I will accept any criticism.

Tales of Arabian Nights

I got to play a game of Tales of Arabian Nights during Conduit and I must say that it is an awesome game.

My character started out by being sold into slavery by her siblings. She escaped and began to try and find her fortune in the world. However the fates looked down on her, as she traveled back to her home she become lost in india and in attempting to get back she tried to make a deal with a wizard, however he became angry when she was unable to pay his price and she was sent back into slavery again.

She eventually managed to buy herself out of slavery however it wasn't long after that she encountered a strange custom where is was illegal to eat figs out of a leather bag. Figs given to her by the person who was trying to arrest her. She managed to escape with only a banishment but is soon came back to haunt her.

She got in trouble in the next city that she visited but not before she encountered a pool of gender changing. It didn't look strange but one sip and he was then a guy. How the guards recognized him with his new gender he never found out.

And thus ends the story of a young noble girl who just wanted to see the expressions on her siblings face when she returned home rich.