Post by Admin on Sept 21, 2009 20:25:14 GMT -8
Sat Nov 22, 2008 11:50 pm
EJ wrote:
*He's alive...*
The voice was almost like magic. Almost like telepathy. The cybernetic implant was that good. Worlds better than the earring she used to wear.
*How...?* she sent back, daring to move forward in the confining vent, daring to gain a few more inches.
Silence answered her and then, *Faith.*
She wasn't sure if that meant, because he had faith or if the faith of everyone who loved him kept him alive or just to have faith now. To believe that no matter the odds... no matter that she had seen him shot himself, his young life ended on international television... that somehow, by the grace of Christ, the boy still lived.
Reaching forward in the eerie blue light of the cooling vent, her fingers abruptly found a seam and then an edge. *I’ve come to the junction... finally.*
Blue on blue it was hard to see where one vent ended and another branched into the blueness; she had fallen fourteen feet just half an hour ago when she missed a junction directly below her.
*You'll need to go down to the ceiling bracers.*
Despite herself, Darlin' tapped her hand to her ear like she used to do when her earring transmitter glitched. *Strawberry? Come again?*
Strawberry's voice changed pitch along her auditory nerve. Her tone softened. *You need to go down now, Darlin'. Trust me.*
Darlin' paused a moment and then pulled herself forward by her hands. The vent was so tight she couldn't even raise herself up on her hands and knees, not even turn onto her back... She gazed over the edge. Vertigo. It was a seventy-eight storey drop straight down. Darlin' closed her eyes.
*Strawberry...* her voice, subvocalized for her implant, warbled. This was her one fear. Well... other than that cold fear in the core of her, that fear of ever losing--
*Trust me, Darlin'. I'll always be with you.* Darlin' blinked. Startled, she almost repeated the "come again" when Strawberry added, *Just give me a ten count to patch into the gravity controls.*
Darlin' let out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding. So Strawberry hadn't read her mind... hadn't heard whispers from the Ladybird... she meant in the vent... going down... she would be with her. The ten count passed impossibly fast, or Strawberry was far more jacked than she admitted. Darlin' had known Strawberry's part of this mission would be even more dangerous than her own. In order to open and close the vents at just the right time, to stop the flow of sub-freezing air, to kill security cameras and lights and sensors, Strawberry had to go immersive. Any hacker less than Strawberry's mastery would have gone crazy from the flood of encrypted binary.
*Darlin'. Go... go now!*
And Darlin' dove. Head first she thrust her body over the edge and fell. Like a bullet through a chamber. Darlin' felt the shoulders of her slick kevlar armor actually ripping from the friction of the sheer speed... speed that was gaining... Tears stung her eyes... The flesh of her face felt tight, pulled back... The sound of speed... The sound of Strawberry counting:
*..3...2...1... engage.* And the antigrav engaged in the vent and Darlin' felt herself slowing. After twenty or thirty more feet of gradual fall, soft fall, Darlin's body stopped all together and simply hovered in the vent. Below her the tube shot straight down for dozens of storeys.
Strawberry's voice, *Look to your left.*
Darlin' looked. The blue on blue venting was broken here. The ventworks opened into a pocket layer of ceiling bracers. A high security room. A room where the United National Government was keeping a child... that they were certain was the antichrist... but who Darlin' and Strawberry knew was just a scared little Immortal named Orcus.
EJ wrote:
*He's alive...*
The voice was almost like magic. Almost like telepathy. The cybernetic implant was that good. Worlds better than the earring she used to wear.
*How...?* she sent back, daring to move forward in the confining vent, daring to gain a few more inches.
Silence answered her and then, *Faith.*
She wasn't sure if that meant, because he had faith or if the faith of everyone who loved him kept him alive or just to have faith now. To believe that no matter the odds... no matter that she had seen him shot himself, his young life ended on international television... that somehow, by the grace of Christ, the boy still lived.
Reaching forward in the eerie blue light of the cooling vent, her fingers abruptly found a seam and then an edge. *I’ve come to the junction... finally.*
Blue on blue it was hard to see where one vent ended and another branched into the blueness; she had fallen fourteen feet just half an hour ago when she missed a junction directly below her.
*You'll need to go down to the ceiling bracers.*
Despite herself, Darlin' tapped her hand to her ear like she used to do when her earring transmitter glitched. *Strawberry? Come again?*
Strawberry's voice changed pitch along her auditory nerve. Her tone softened. *You need to go down now, Darlin'. Trust me.*
Darlin' paused a moment and then pulled herself forward by her hands. The vent was so tight she couldn't even raise herself up on her hands and knees, not even turn onto her back... She gazed over the edge. Vertigo. It was a seventy-eight storey drop straight down. Darlin' closed her eyes.
*Strawberry...* her voice, subvocalized for her implant, warbled. This was her one fear. Well... other than that cold fear in the core of her, that fear of ever losing--
*Trust me, Darlin'. I'll always be with you.* Darlin' blinked. Startled, she almost repeated the "come again" when Strawberry added, *Just give me a ten count to patch into the gravity controls.*
Darlin' let out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding. So Strawberry hadn't read her mind... hadn't heard whispers from the Ladybird... she meant in the vent... going down... she would be with her. The ten count passed impossibly fast, or Strawberry was far more jacked than she admitted. Darlin' had known Strawberry's part of this mission would be even more dangerous than her own. In order to open and close the vents at just the right time, to stop the flow of sub-freezing air, to kill security cameras and lights and sensors, Strawberry had to go immersive. Any hacker less than Strawberry's mastery would have gone crazy from the flood of encrypted binary.
*Darlin'. Go... go now!*
And Darlin' dove. Head first she thrust her body over the edge and fell. Like a bullet through a chamber. Darlin' felt the shoulders of her slick kevlar armor actually ripping from the friction of the sheer speed... speed that was gaining... Tears stung her eyes... The flesh of her face felt tight, pulled back... The sound of speed... The sound of Strawberry counting:
*..3...2...1... engage.* And the antigrav engaged in the vent and Darlin' felt herself slowing. After twenty or thirty more feet of gradual fall, soft fall, Darlin's body stopped all together and simply hovered in the vent. Below her the tube shot straight down for dozens of storeys.
Strawberry's voice, *Look to your left.*
Darlin' looked. The blue on blue venting was broken here. The ventworks opened into a pocket layer of ceiling bracers. A high security room. A room where the United National Government was keeping a child... that they were certain was the antichrist... but who Darlin' and Strawberry knew was just a scared little Immortal named Orcus.