Strange Land (The Young Ancients Book 15) (18 page)

She was serious, but for some reason most of the people started pointing their little boxes at Timon.

A woman that she'd thought was actually shopping spun then, and pointed at him. It was abrupt, and off, so Sara jumped between Tim and the object that was being thrown. It collided with her shield, and the glass bottle broke, causing pale green mist to rise from the floor where it finally landed. Then her shield flared with intense silver light.

"Nanos!" She screamed the word, then moved into the mist, rather than away. It swarmed her, but didn't move outward. It seemed to think she was the target. Or at least the point that was attacked had been marked that way, since it all moved toward her, concentrating on a single place in the protective barrier around her.

"Austra for Austrans! Death to the invader! Death to the false Revered ones!" The woman seemed to be trying to put something in her mouth. At first it seemed like a small capsule, which some people from that land used to kill themselves when they were about to be caught. It wasn't that however.

It was a small explosive, which when the brown haired and otherwise normal looking woman bit down on it, exploded just hard enough to send a spray of red into the air.

Looking down, it was clear that the glowing spot was moving closer to her, as the field she was wearing was breached. At the rate it was moving, she only had another few seconds before it would reach her flesh.

So she started to slowly spin, trying to take the pale mist on different parts of the structure, so it couldn't make its way in as easily. The smoke, nanos most likely, tried to move with her and keep hitting that one point, but it didn't work very well. Not once she was in motion. The mist wasn't fast, and followed her, so others were caught in it, as she moved. Nothing else was being hurt.
She
wasn't even being touched by the thing that wanted her dead. Her magical field of protection was doing its job, cooking the tiny little bugs that were trying to get at her.

Trying to eat their way through the shield to do who knew what. It wouldn't be good, Sara decided, not wanting to test her theory. The only good part of the whole thing was that the mist of whatever it was seemed to be tracking her so completely that everyone else was safe. It wasn't that big of a relief, but by constantly exposing new parts of her shield, she thought she could buy some time.

The only question was; would spinning in place be enough?

Timon looked at her for a moment, then nodded, taking in the mint green haze and the spiral it was making around her, missing the single point that it was trying to focus on near her left hip.

"It's working. Keep doing that. The nano compound is already starting to wear down."

The rest of the people in the room did something very strange, as far as she could tell while making the whole thing spin.

Well, Alphonse was just standing there looking worried, with a force lance clutched in his vast hand, pointing it at the crowd of Austrans with their recording devices. That made sense, given that one person from that land had already made trouble in the last few moments. Who knew if one of these others would end up doing the same?

The strange thing was that they all pointed their devices right at her. As if waiting to capture her death. That got her to smile, trying to keep her face grim and a bit manic, rather than panicked seeming.

"The shield has this. We need to make sure no one else is going to attack like this." She was going to suggest that the people there all put their devices down slowly, but half of them jogged off, still looking through the viewers on whatever they were holding.

One of them, a woman, called out to her.

"We'll get a record of the people outside, and see if we can recognize anyone as doing something odd later! The rest of you, capture the Revered one defeating the assassination attempt! I can get a live feed going on XLM." That was a big deal, it seemed, since everyone listened to the older, slightly gray haired, but lean, woman.

Sara wasn't totally unused to the idea of wine making her head spin, but watching the racks of things move around while totally sober was a new one for her. The movement kept going on, even as the line of light green and silver flashing around her faded into nothing. She didn't want to make a mistake, after all. No one trying to surprise Tim with a colorful prank would have killed themselves like that. Causing their own head to explode.

That meant the stakes were suddenly very high.

She hadn't even stopped spinning, and was starting to feel a little sick about five minutes later, when there was a loud, but muffled thump. Another came about five seconds later, followed by a third shortly after that. Sara stopped, though the room still seemed to move for a bit, as the others looked around, wide eyed.

"Bombs." This came from one of the men in the back. A large fellow that she realized wasn't Austran at all. He was dark skinned, and tall, dressed like one of those people, but the accent was wrong.

Tim nodded.

"That seems right, Mike. Everyone here has their shield on, but I think this must be an attempt to remove all the air from the living areas. We need to find and seal the breeches. We can't wait for the emergency response teams to get there. Everyone go now."

Stumbling along after the rest of them, trying to make sure there was none of the nano dust left to come for her, Sara followed Tim at a slow jog. At first. He ripped away, moving a lot faster than a person should have been able to run, then lifted into the air a few inches and went even faster. Tor-shoes. That function, the ability to hover low to the ground and move without effort, was built in to all the new shields. It took a bit of focus to use, but she managed it, even while fighting off the wave of nausea that tried to overtake her.

Flying after the younger man, even going low to the ground, was harder than it should have been, since her thoughts kept ranging out into different areas. First to Tor and then Trice. Were they safe? Did they even know what was happening? Ali flitted across her mind too, since the noble girl was a friend of hers, even if she
was
one of the main rivals for Tor's attentions. She was very sweet and kind, as well as a lot stronger than most people gave her credit for. Also a full builder already.

A lot of the people there were wizards, and they had magic to seal the holes with, she knew. Not that she had access to that kind of thing at the moment. Most didn't. They had them at the magic shop though. It was just a thing that most had never thought about getting for themselves, she bet.

Sara turned and used her Tor Shoes to reverse direction just in time for the sound to die down. That meant most of the air was already gone. It was a vast amount. It had taken months to build all of it up the first time, if you counted the whole construction of Harmony together. At best they had a day or two of air in their shielded spaces individually before people started to have their skin eaten off to keep them in oxygen. It would eat the parts they didn't need first, to make that happen, turning dead skin, then hair, into the needed material. The other things that came out and weren't alive were all recycled already.

Calling it two days was probably fair for most people, if they'd had air when the automatic portion of things kicked in to protect them. That could be cleaned for a long time, after all.

It wasn't just an attack on Timon Baker then, or even the Ancients. This was meant to kill everyone on Harmony. No matter who was doing it though, they had to know that almost everyone there was innocent of whatever it was they felt justified what they'd done. For a moment she nearly panicked then. Not for herself, or her friends. No, they and a lot of other people would be safe, sitting in her ship. She didn't have a lot of air, but they could make more. They had time for that. She couldn't protect a million people however. Not alone.

"Except you aren't alone." She muttered that to herself, then charged the magic shop door. The people that were working that day seemed to all be kids. As in people no older than Terry was. Twelve or younger. There were five of them, and they all looked scared. It was a mixed group, too. One of the boys was so tiny she almost thought he was too young to be working at all, and nearly black he was so deeply brown. He positively hid behind a taller pale girl that seemed to be in charge. At least she passed Sara something, and then held a similar thing to her own throat. It passed through the protective barrier, so it was designed to do that sort of thing. Otherwise it would have been impossible to touch.

The instant she let it come into contact with her own throat, Sara got the idea. It was a speaking device. Like what they used on the Space Fleet vessels.

"Ma'am? What's happening?" This was spoken in Tellerand, which got Sara to pause for half a second. This girl would have to be a saint, to have made the device she was using work at all. The same was true with the shield.

"We're under attack. It seems like three bombs or explosive magics have been used to make holes in the containment area, letting all the air out. We need to seal those up first. Then we're going to have to find someplace to store people while we get the air going here again. Can you five head up part of that? We need to make sure that everyone is evacuated safely to..." She had nothing, but the terrified and tiny Afrak boy, looking at the ground and shaking, spoke up.

In Afrak, but everyone there seemed to get it.

"Second City?"

The one that Sam Builder had been putting together and that Queen Tiera still refused to call Samville. Sara had never known why, since it was a fine enough name, but she nodded at the tiny one while trying to get her communications device out.

"Grab people and get them the tools they need." This came out in Tellerand, and was addressed to the tall pale girl. A giant for that place. Some of the men had been that tall, but no females. Then she switched to Noram Standard. "The rest of you get ready to do whatever we have to. In fact, load up all the magical items into cases. We can sort them out later, at need."

It would be a mess, but having an extra bathtub might actually be helpful later. Who knew what they'd need? Toothbrushes and soap might be important in the next few days.

 The kids, bless them, did the work without a lot of hesitation, taking floating follow along chests from the racks and setting them to be perfectly sized to get through the front door of the place. The white stone of the walls was decorated with lights in this space, making the whole thing seem cheery, even while they stripped it bare.

It took a bit to get Sam on the device, since it was clear that he'd been napping. The boy, who was looking very fine these days, if a bit sleepy, brushed at his blond hair.

"Sam Builder, what's the emergency?"

"The main city has been vented. An attack using some kind of explosives. Is Samville ready for visitors? Do you have air? We can start moving people over if you have anything at all." She was being assertive, but the man didn't think she was playing around it seemed, since he went pale at the implications.

"We... have room for about a hundred thousand. I'll get everyone going on air manufacturing. Here I'd thought water was going to be the big issue. Damn. I don't know about the rest. Get ships up and have people start building up air reserves? If everyone works..." They might still not have enough time. The magics that did that kind of thing were limited. Though funnily enough, she had three of them on her, she realized. All of the food units that Tim had built could do that.

Unfortunately those weren't available in the store she was in. The Tiera models were, and those could do a bit that way too, but they were all slower and smaller.

Meant for home use.

"We'll have people headed that way inside an hour. Not that I know where it is. Get ready." then she broke the connection, and waved to the kids.

"Get to the docks with all of this. Tell everyone to start moving people that way, but not to push. Load up the children first. We have room for everyone. Keep repeating that part." It might not be true, but damned if she was going to be the one to start a panic.

As she moved out into the main hallway, she nearly knocked into Tor and Ali, both of whom were moving with about fifty red robed people that seemed to be from Vagus. In the mix there were others though, in different clothing. The students from the magic school. Some of whom were from places she hadn't even thought about having that kind of thing, if they weren't just dressing that way for fun. Everyplace, in fact. Including Tellerand.

Tor and Ali didn't have speaking devices, but they did have coms on them, meaning she was able to get in touch with Tor after a few confused moments.

"Love! Get everyone to the docks. We're going to Samville. That and loading up all the jump ships we can set up and fill with air. I need to get with Tiera. Gemma has a ship... Gemma!" Sara had lost her in the mix somehow. Ali, who wasn't even on the communications unit with her closed her eyes and spun, pointing toward where the children were coming out of the shop with the first of the cases. The Squire leading them, looking ready to fight, if she had to.

Brilliant. The girl had been there the whole time, Sara had just been too distracted to realize it.

"Good. Get everyone that has anything air tight down to the docks!"

Tor looked at the device in his hand, then focused, or so it seemed. After a minute standing out in the open, in a hallway filled with anxious people, he spoke.

"This is Torrance Baker. There has been an attack on Harmony. Right now everyone should move toward the main docking area, and get on a ship, in an orderly fashion. We have enough room for everyone, but you'll all want to help make some air, if you get the chance. Many of you will be taken to Second City. Try to make certain that families get to stay together, and look out for each other. We have time to do this right. If anything new comes up, I'll pass the word to you this way." His voice came over not just the communications unit in her hand, but the other one she had in her pocket too.

The speaking unit as well. After a moment, she realized that almost everyone was moving in the right direction.