After watching my leaders sign away the freedom of Altura and being stalked and attacked in my own home by a Terran - no, a rebel, I corrected myself - I was unsure of what to do, or even what to think. After spending too much time trying to piece the few details that I had together, I decided that I would just have to ignore it all, and do as my Gr’apa had said – do what I must.
Time to get to work.
I needed to head back to the toy store, but I needed to head to my techs dealer first to get some holo-chips for a new design I had been working on. The chips would be exactly what I needed to improve my dice. We already sold masks and figurines to coordinate with the four animals. With the holo-chips, the dice would project the battle between opponents. Hopefully it would help us to get the
The newer generation of children had become obsessed with technology. As we integrated more Terran technology into our own society, there had been a steady decrease in traffic to our store. Gr’apa did not mind, but I knew that we would not last if we didn’t begin modernizing our toys.
I walked the sand covered stone streets, stopping in at a couple of stores to pick up some new paint and another pouch of candied ants on my way to the techs hub on the other side of the city. I could have ridden one of the bovii carts that flowed through the city and allowed passengers for a small fee, but I couldn’t stand the feeling of bumping along on the path. One such cart passed me, a mother and child riding down the path.
The young boy, one of the ones from the toy store, noticed me and gave a loud, “A’kahh!!” much to his mother’s dismay. I smiled and gave him a loud hawkish screech of my own. It made his mother smile, and my heart felt a bit lighter as I went down the path.
I entered the large store where there were at least a dozen patrons walking between the shelves of display screens, diodes, coils of wire, and many other things that I did not understand. The store’s three attendants used FlyBoots – The tool that gives the Skyfallen their name as well as their ability to traverse the air between their ships and the ground – to move above and around the shoppers, reaching the monstrously high tops of the shelves with as little effort as if they were reaching into the pantry to grab their dinner.
I watched for a few moments, as mesmerized asI was the first time I saw the boots in action. The attendants flew around the store with deceptive ease. I knew how difficult it was to actually use the boots. The shop’s owner, Fabian, had let me try them on for fun once after a night of pepperwine. I ended the night hanging by my feet on the store’s shipping bay with the spicy-sweet wine all over my shirt.
“Ai, Divan! How is the toy business?” The heavyset man landed beside me, graceful as a dancer. His large belly rolled out over his trousers. The heat cannon on his hip bounced against his leg, which left me feeling uneasy, but I had learned long ago to hold my tongue when it came to Fabian and his firearms. At least it isn’t his D-Hydra gun.
I reached a hand out to clasp Fabian’s wrist. We shook and then embraced one another. I could feel the heat rolling off his body from his exertion. He could hire a half-dozen youths to learn the trade and never have to leave his office, but he knew he would be lucky to find even half a dozen that could effectively replace him in the shop he had started so long ago out of a lean-to shack. He saw the need to integrate technology into our society before anyone else, and now he was one of the wealthiest men on Altura. Definitely the wealthiest in Boh’gren.
“Well, I think we can expect it to go downhill after King Damaron’s announcement today. Have you heard any news of High Mage Stravus? I can’t imagine he survived the Terran pistol.” I thought of the assembly, of Stravus and his defiance to the Terrans, and shuddered at the memory of the Terran drawing on him so quickly. They were a ruthless people.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I am willing to wager that he is fine,” said Fabian. “If anyone would be able to survive that, it’s Stravus.” We both sat in silent contemplation for a moment, then he snapped back into focus and asked, “What brings you in today? Need another box of springs? We have a new hydraulic tension coil you might try to use, it could make those dust jumpers rival my boots for height, if not for maneuverability.”
“No, but that is an idea worth trying. I’m looking for some holodisks, and some circuit boards and wire. Smallest you have. Grab one of those hydraulic tension coils, too.” A little box on the counter, set up no doubt to cause curious customers to do just what I was doing, caught my eye. “What’s this thing?”
“That,” said Fabian excitedly, “is the newest in Avian tech! We just got it in last week. It’s a portable EMP field, great for making sure private conversations stay private.” He smirked and lifted an eyebrow at me. “The Terrans have banned them in all of their territories. Act fast, they will probably be off the shelves by weeks-end.” He leaned in very close to me, then whispered, “It was made by the rebels!”
“How much?” I asked, thinking back to the strange woman in my home. “Does it shut down everything? Would it kill a heat cannon?”
Fabian eyed me suspiciously. “Getting up to a bit of trouble, are we?” He wiped the sweat from his brow. “This thing should kill any circuitry within about twenty feet of you. If you are close enough, it should take out the circuits in a sun gun. Why do you need to worry about that, though? I don’t imagine there is much need for something like that in the toy business.?”
“Oh, I was just curious,” I said, shrugging. What are you asking for it?”
“Well, this model is a bit special,” he said with a grin, showing it off like a proud child that had created it himself and had been waiting to get a chance to show it off. “It has remote detonation, a time delay, and the bird I got it off of said it’s reusable, which is apparently pretty hard to do with a device that destroys circuitry. Two-thousand Liir and it’s all yours.”
My jaw dropped. “Two thousand? I was hoping for something more like two hundred. Sorry, Fab. I could really use the tech, but with everything going on I don’t know if I can justify spending everything I have on it. Just the holos and the circuits.”
He gave me a knowing smile, then winked at me. “Hell, friend, I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you try it out for a week. If you haven’t found a use for it by then, all’s the better for the both of us.” He pushed the small device across the counter toward me, ever smiling. “If anyone,” he gestured upward with a finger and looked up without moving his head,” asks where you got it, better not say it was from me. This is legal today, but who knows how long ‘til that changes.”
I walked out of Fabian’s store with two boxes full of parts, and the portable EMP in my inside coat pocket. It bounced against my body as I walked along the lane. The next time she attacks, I’ll be ready, I thought as I walked past a group of older children hopping over one another and flipping onto and off of the balcony of a nearby building, the dust jumpers on their legs coiling and releasing, sending them a dozen feet up into the air.
I smiled as I watched them chasing one another, bouncing off walls and over small hand-drawn carts. The dust kicked up at each bounce, but the children did not mind the mess. One of the boys, likely the oldest, ran full speed at me, activating the spring-loaded leg harnesses a few feet in front of me. He did a skillful spinning flip over me, landing just behind me. His friends cheered him on, and I applauded the maneuver as well.
I was still thinking of the acrobatic little boys wearing the device that came from my father’s brilliant mind when I walked through the entryway of the toy store. As I pushed open the wooden door, however, I heard a soft click, then an indescribably loud and deadly explosive sound, and was hit hard in the stomach, shot through the air like one of the Skyfallen’s missiles. I landed hard on my back, just inside the doorway. The explosion shook the earth and caused the walls of the old store to fall in around me, leaving me pinned to the ground underneath the large yellow stones that made up the building. It took all of my strength to hold onto my consciousness.