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13
RHIANNON
As Nikathy sped off, I realized I had another problem. From the drawings I'd seen earlier, I knew there had to be a power source for the perimeter fence, but I didn't know where it was. I needed to find it if I was going to get these rockets online.
"Do me a favor," I interrupted the commander as he shuffled about the strewn parts. "Knock on that front door. There should be a woman inside. I need to speak to her."
He did as he was told, this time without so much as a word of protest. But when he knocked and nobody answered immediately, he looked back at me, waiting for further guidance.
"Try again."
He pounded on the door harder this time, and to my relief I heard Cosma's voice calling from somewhere within the depths of the house. "Coming!"
When she came to the door and poked her head out, she gave me a troubled look, her lips turning down into a disapproving frown. "How can I help you?" she asked, false kindness dripping from her words.
"Do you know where the control room is for that perimeter fence?"
When she looked back at me, I could see her calculating, weighing her responses, but after a moment, she nodded.
"Good. I need you to take me there. I need to find out what kind of power we have to work with."
The commander stooped and picked me up, and I stifled my laughter. Being carried around was starting to grow on me. But I needed to be serious.
Cosma led us through the foyer and down a short hall, and then turned abruptly and mashed her hand into a stunning painting, punching a hole straight through the canvas. I yelped in surprise. But a moment later, I spotted the hidden keypad, and she was entering a code. To my right, a section of the wall slid open, and I blinked stupidly. I never would have suspected this of being a doorway.
"Don't gawk. The old man knew they'd come for him. He made sure he could keep himself and his safe. Now stay close." She led the way into a dimly-lit hall so narrow I felt my shoulders brush against both sides as my ride tried awkwardly to fit us both through. I had a hard time imagining someone built like Nikathy could fit through here at all.
"Does Nikathy know about this place?"
"Nikathy would've gone blabbering about it to all of his friends if he thought it would earn him fame and glory. Pops never told him."
Her assessment clashed with my own impressions of the man. Nikathy was certainly a bit of an attention seeker, but I had a hard time believing he would have endangered his entire family by giving away their secrets.
The narrow hall opened upon a small room, packed with control monitors and an entire bank of switches. I scanned the equipment quickly, taking mental notes.
"When was the last time any of this was used?" I asked, running my fingers over the dusty controls and grimacing.
"I don't think it's ever been used, actually," Cosma remarked with a hint of irony in her voice. "For all his fears, the Patrol never came after Pops, and then Nikathy and the others were all grown up and he stopped worrying so much. At one point he had someone come down here and test the equipment a few times a year, powering things up and making sure the fence line was still intact, but I couldn't tell you the last time that happened, either."
"Hm. Let's hope this works, then."
I started flipping switches and watching the monitors flash to life. They were slow to come online, and I worried that the system was a total loss, but eventually everything lit up and the console readoperational. At least that was something.
"Um, is there anything else I can do to help?" Cosma asked as I studied the tiny space, muttering to myself.
"Yes. Get me something to take notes with. Quickly, please."
She nodded and ran out of the room, and the commander set me down in a chair to work. I had to do some digging to figure out how the outdated system functioned, but eventually I found my way through the cascading menus and into the system's core. I let out a heavy sigh. It was going to take all my concentration to find my way through this ordeal.
A notepad and pen appeared at my side, almost out of nowhere, and Cosma scampered back to watch. I scribbled notes on the page, running some quick calculations from the numbers presented by the console. A few minutes later, I had some idea of how I might put it all together, but it was still going to be a long shot. I hated when luck had more to do with it than skill. It just didn't seem fair.
I grabbed the notepad and tucked it under my arm. "Let's go. We have some work to do, and we've got to be fast."
Cosma stuck close to us, but she didn't bother to ask any questions. Maybe she didn't know what to ask, and that was fair. We made our way back to the front step and I re-assessed the parts I had laid out before me.
"Okay, I need you to listen very carefully," I explained to Cosma and the Commander. "We are going to have to open up a few of these shells and modify them if we want them to do serious damage. It's... a bit of a delicate matter."
She looked at me strangely. "You mean they might blow us up?"
