Fiction: The God Named Poe (Part 4)

**Continued from "Fiction: The God Named Poe (Part 3)" .


    Alarms blared as the Da soldiers readied themselves.  There was an intruder.  That’s all they needed to know.  Weapons were loaded, their energy packs charged.  Commanders barked orders to subordinates they could barely see.  The fire suppression systems had activated almost immediately after the vehicle’s impact, but the smoke had enveloped the top floors of the facility.  With the lockdown in place, there was nowhere for it to go.  Still, the Da knew this building blindfolded.
    They lined up outside the room where the vehicle had entered.  The order was given and the door slid open.  In seconds, two dozen armed, shouting Da soldiers crowded into the small office.  They grew silent, crowded in the fog.
    “This is Commander Druug of the Upper Continent Special Forces,” a singularly bulky Da shouted.  “There is no escape from this facility!  Regardless of your intentions, step forward slowly and surrender!”  There was no response from within the smoke, only two quick bursts of light, like sparks.  He assumed they were from the damaged craft.  “Are you certain there’s someone in here?” he asked the Da with a bio-scanner.
    “Yes, Commander.  The scanner shows one Da and an unidentified alien species.”
    “Ready your weapons!  If the intruders do not comply in ten seconds, open fire!”
    “But, sir, we can barely see what we’re aiming at.  Perhaps we should attempt to vent the smoke.”
    “Don’t--”
    A thud from across the room drew everyone’s attention.  Fingers hovered nervously over triggers.  Another thud…and another.  They all recognized the sound.  The noise was soft, like limp bodies falling to the ground.  Eyes darted, trying to see what was right in front of them.  Thud.  This time the noise came from the other side of the room.
    “Prepare to fire!” Druug roared.  A muffled scream was quickly silenced and was promptly followed by the disturbingly familiar thud.
    “At what, sir?!”
    “Second Commander, vent the room!  Blow out another window if you have to, but don’t let this alien worm escape!”
    There was the sound of weapon fire and breaking glass.  A cool breeze whispered into the room.  Under other circumstances, it would have been pleasant.  The smoke filtered out and visibility slowly returned.
    Daxton, wearing dark sunglasses, stood next to the wrecked vehicle, his Timbre swords dripping with viscous, orange Da blood.  Viskau, visibly shaken by the sight of five Da lying dead without ever knowing what hit them, stood slightly in front of him.  Before anyone could overcome the shock, Viskau pressed a button on his prosthetic eye, flooding the room with light.

    “Something bothering you?” Daxton asked Viskau as they fought their way down the hall.  They could have simply taken the ventilation system down to the holding level, but he was never one to do things the easy way.
    “I don’t gather as much pleasure from harming others as you, Author.”  He backhanded a young soldier with his bionic fist.  That was all it took to drop him.  He turned to watch Daxton drive his sword into the gut of perhaps the fiftieth Da to die by his hand today.  “Continue at your rate and you’ll soon match Poe in the number of Da you’ve slaughtered.”  An uppercut rendered another soldier unconscious.
    Daxton didn’t reply.  Instead, he withdrew the swords into their portals and pulled out a small, silver retractable pen.  Viskau recognized it instantly.  He clicked it once and tossed it into the guardroom for the holding cells.  There was a brief silence that lasted an eternity.  Then the room blew apart.  The Da monitoring their stations had no idea what hit them.
    “I seem to be the only one who realizes that the sooner we deal with Poe, the sooner we can restore this Realm to its proper order.”  Daxton took a step closer to Viskau.  “Now, you can either help me or you can get the hell out of my way.  I don’t have time to pander you.”
    This time, Viskau didn’t respond.  He entered the ravaged room and tried to find a functional computer.  After only a moment of searching, he found a terminal that had been shielded by the charred body of the Da who had been using it only seconds before.  He gently laid the body on the ground and got to work.
    “Guard the door,” he told Daxton.  “This may take a little while.”

    “This is taking longer than I’d expected,” Edgar Allan Poe sighed.  He slumped back against a Maln tree and tilted his head at Gerald.  “I’m beginning to suspect they aren’t as eager for me to have ultimate power as I am.”
    “Whoever said you were going to get ultimate power?” Gerald wondered.  “You can’t even wear the pendant.  What makes you think you can wield the staff?”
    Poe grinned.  “One thing you fail to realize is perspective, my dear boy.  The same words can have entirely different meanings depending on who’s reading them.”  He pulled out a digital book reader.  “Your novel never mentioned an off-worlder couldn’t carry the staff.  Nor did you think it necessary to mention the fact that, in order to receive all that power, one must simply have the staff in close proximity to the Gnukata.”  Gerald’s stunned silence overjoyed Poe.  “Remember, a great author concerns himself with the most minor of details, lest his words be open to the wrong interpretation.”
    “Author Poe,” Cilodah interrupted.  “We’ve uncovered something.”
    “That’s what I like to hear!”
    Flanked by two Kri, Cilodah lead Poe and Gerald to the dig sight.  There were dozens of Kri still working to carry away immense piles of rubble in woven containers on their backs.  The hole they’d excavated was vast.  It had only been a relatively short amount of time since they’d begun, but they had already cleared away enough rock to house the World Series.
    Gerald followed in anxious silence.  He was unbound and relatively unguarded, but he knew escape wasn’t an option.  What made him all the more nervous was what he knew they must have uncovered.
    “There.”  Cilodah pointed to an ornately carved stone, still mostly embedded in the rock.  It was worn from spending centuries underground, but otherwise relatively well preserved.  The ground had caved in slightly in front of the stone, exposing a dark chasm.
    It was the Fathers’ Gate.  Gerald had recognized it instantly.  It was one of the last few barriers between Poe and the staff.  His heart sank as the realization set it.  It was inevitable.  Poe was going to obtain the staff and become the most powerful thing in all the Realms.  He knew this was all his fault.  He’d created the staff after all.  Soon, there would be no one alive who could stop Poe.

    “You know,” Daxton spoke with a hint of disappointment, “I really expected some more reinforcements by now.”  Carefully, he peered out the doorway into the smoke filled access hall.  There wasn’t a moving body in sight.
    “The facility is under lockdown.  You’ve probably killed everyone in the building.”  Viskau focused on his work.  It was the only way he could keep himself from vomiting.  Da blood has an overwhelmingly pungent odor even other Da could barely stand.  He wondered, among other things, how Author Wreaths could bear without any visible discomfort.  Daxton, he gathered, was far too familiar with the scent of death.
    “That should make our exit go more smoothly.  Have you found her yet?”
    “This console is malfunctioning.  You could have mentioned you were planning on tossing in a grenade.”
    “I rarely plan.”
    “That’s a dangerous way to go about things, especially for an Author.”
    “It hasn’t failed me yet.”
    Viskau finally accessed the prisoner manifest.  “Ah, here we are.  By Centillus, I had no idea how many there were.”  He spoke with a sense of horrified awe.
    Daxton stared at the screen, for the most part unsure what he was looking at.  The Da language was a series of symbols and pictograms, like Chinese merged with ancient Mayan.  There were rows and rows of cubes, each with a unique symbol inside.  “Are those all prisoner ID’s?”
    “Yes.  There must be thousands of them beneath us.”
    “What?  I thought we were in the basement.”
    “We are.  The basement is the top floor of a massive subterranean prison.  The Da are a sensible race and find them unsightly.”
    Daxton let loose a dispassionate chuckle.  “Oh yeah.  Lock up all the criminals underground where we don’t have to look at them anymore.  Sounds perfectly sensible.”
    “I have tried my hardest to be patient with you, Author Wreaths.”  Viskau’s voice was tense.  “Must you insist on insulting me and my people every step of the way?”
    “Have you located Kavira?” Daxton asked, purposefully redirecting Viskau to his task.
    Viskau took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.  This human was impossible, always looking for a fight.  “It might take a while longer.  The main processor was damaged in the explosion.  It’s no faster than a human computer now.”
    Daxton actually cracked a smile.  “Well, pick up the pace as best you can.  I don’t have all day.”
    “Right.”  Viskau searched the system as best he could, but it still took almost fifteen minutes before he located Kavira’s cell.  “I found her.  She’s four levels below us.”
    “Then let’s go get her.”
    “No need.  All the cells are suspended on retractable tracks above vats of Maln syrup.”
    “Maln syrup?  You mean those huge berry trees?”  Daxton still wondered about the kid who created this place, but he had to admit that it was a pretty imaginative concept.
    “Yes.  By nature the syrup is a respectable adhesive.”  Viskau worked to recall her cell as he spoke.  “Our scientists have learned to concentrate it and coat the floor of each cell block.  If an inmate becomes unruly and attempts to escape, their cell is dropped into the syrup.  It’s only a few inches deep, but it does an excellent job of immobilizing a potential escapee.”
    “I can imagine.”
    “I have Kavira’s cell.  She’ll arrive in the prisoner transport station in the next room.”
“Good.  Let’s go get her and find a way out of this place.”
    Viskau rose from his seat and lead the way.  “The control room for the containment shield is a few levels above us.  Once deactivated, we should be able to simply walk out of the building, provided it hasn’t been surrounded by reinforcements.”
    “Okay, you go collect Kavira.  I’ll locate the control room and turn off the shield.  We’ll meet up on the roof.”
    “The roof?”
    “These guys are bound to have some mode of transportation somewhere.  Unless you’d like to try the pod we came in?”
    “We’ll meet you there in ten minutes.  Try not to kill anyone on the way.”  Viskau turned and hurried down the hall.
    “I’ll try to control myself.”

    “Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before,” Poe recited as he stood before the excavated door.  It had taken quite a bit of effort, even for the Kri, but the ornate stonework gate finally gave way and crumbled to pieces.
    Gerald sighed.  “You do realize the pendant would have acted as a key, don’t you?”
Poe glared at him, irritated that the boy felt the need to ruin his sense of accomplishment.  “Cilodah!  Guard the entrance.  Fry anyone who dares come near.  Come Gerald, we have our prize to collect.”
    Reluctantly, Gerald was lead into the dark abyss past the Father’s Gate.  Beyond that darkness laid a terrible power like none the Realms had ever seen.  It was a power that would shake the foundations of universes, a power that would soon be in the hands of the mad genius, Edgar Allan Poe.

To be continued in

ID: 1488779   (Rated: 13+) Title: Fiction: The God Named Poe (Part 5)  Description: Poe has the staff within reach while Daxton prepares for his assault. By: JDMac