The New Era Chapter 26

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
Akristh had gone straight to the city square. She got up on the stage and started warning people. At first she had a bit of competition, also on the stage was a man advertising for the play to be put on that night by the amateur theater guild, a woman encouraging children to sign up for fall sports, and about three or four people with speeches protesting various political decisions. Akristh was so adamant, and so motivated with her warning, that soon everyone else stopped talking. A large crowd gathered around her, some people were frightened by her words, others just jeered at her. And then, it happened.
There was no bright flash of light, no loud boom, no puff of smoke or little pop. Five Veletti simply appeared in the town square. Akristh only noticed one of them at first, the one that had transported right in front of her. In the split second she had to think, she instinctively pushed the Veletti off the stage before he had time to attack. He transported himself away before hitting the ground. By this time, the other Veletti were attacking, and Akristh looked out at the absolute chaos that reigned in the square. People were running every which way. Since the other four Veletti were stationed at the four corners of the square, some people were running into one while trying to escape the discs of another. Akristh looked around for a replicator, even though she knew there were none in the square. She cursed herself for not bringing a laser gun.
A laser beam flashed right by her, she instinctively cringed as it came much to close for comfort. She looked behind her at where it ended up, and saw a dead Veletti. She realized the Veletti must have transported behind her, but one of The Watchers shot it with a laser gun before it could act. She looked quickly around to see if she could find her benefactor. At that moment, the four Veletti disappeared. Akristh looked out onto the utter devastation that reigned in the time square that was a symbol of beauty only minutes before.
Jumping down from the stage, Akristh walked among those that had been hit, looking for someone that was still alive. The Veletti had good aim, most of the people who were hit at all were dead. She heard someone moaning and ran to the body. The person moaning was lying face down, but once Akristh carefully rolled the person over, she saw that it was Antonius.
Antonius seemed unaware of her presence, as she examined his wounds. A disc had entered his front side, slightly below the rib cage and exited at his back, severing his spinal cord.
Akristh heard someone running up behind her and turned around. It was Mucius. "How is he?" Mucius asked.
"Not good, we better get a medicine ball fast."
"We can't, the replicators aren't working."
"What? Isn't there anyplace else we can get them?"
"Not that I know off. It looks like we've been reduced to old fashioned medicine. I knew Antonius well, let me try and heal him, there are many other people here who need your help."
Akristh nodded. As she stood up, she noticed Mucius was holding a laser gun. He saw her notice it, and knew what she was thinking. "Sorry if I cut that laser fire a little too close to you." Akristh only nodded, trembling as she once again looked out at all the dead, she walked away.


The nearest replicator Livius could find was in an empty hallway, not far from the ship hanger. He decided he would replicate as many laser guns as he could carry, then distribute them all in some more populous area of the city. He had gotten to three laser guns, when reasoning he could probably manage at least one more he ordered the computer to replicate a fourth. There was no response, despite his several succeeding attempts. Livius became quite frustrated, and after swearing a good deal at the computer, decided to test whether the replicator would work on other things besides laser guns. He then tried several things, from hot soup to a set of encyclopedias. None of them worked.
Livius was about to give up the task, when two men all of a sudden appeared right in front of him. Livius immediately realized they were Veletti, and was thankful for the laser gun he was holding in his hand. His finger rapidly squeezed the trigger twice as his hand pointed the gun from one to the other. Both fell down dead, and Livius, who had been horrified seconds before was now overcome with a flood of relief. Leaning against the wall as he collapsed in relief, Livius never thought to look behind him.
A few minutes later some Watchers, fleeing for their lives, would discover him dead, shot several times from behind by discs.


Hans wasn't quite sure where he was going when he left location number seven. Where ever he was needed most, if only he could find out where that was. He decided the city square, always one of the most populated areas in the city was a good place to start. Hans was unprepared for what awaited him there.
Ever since he had heard about the possibility of invasion from Uther, Hans knew the city was in for serious trouble on an intellectual level, and on an intellectual level only. Seeing all the dead and wounded struck the disaster home. Hans looked out at all the dead and wondered how many of those people he knew? How many he knew well? How many did he deeply care about?
Walking through the square, saw Mucius and went up to him. "What happened here?" he asked, knowing in the back of his mind it was a question he need not ask.
"We were attacked Hans, Akristh was right about the invasion. We were hit hard, Antonius is wounded, bad. We can't replicate a medicine ball to help him." Mucius paused, before looking Hans in the eye, seeming to forget what he had said before. "Hans, there are a lot of wounded here, but there are also more then enough people trying to help. We'd only get in the way if we stuck around. Besides," Mucius patted his laser gun, "we've got another job to do."


"We were in the city square, listening to you," Crassus explained, "Antonius, Quintus, and myself. When the attack came, I didn't know what to do, where to run, which way was safe, so I just stood still, dumbstruck with fear I guess."
Akristh pressed down on his leg. "Does this hurt?" she asked.
"Ow! Ow, Deka yes that hurts." Akristh flinched when he mentioned the name Deka, but he didn't notice it. "Well I was standing there, one of those invaders fired at me. I didn't see the disc coming, but Antonius did. He pushed me out of the way, took the disc himself I think." Crassus wanted to go on, but he was briefly overcome by emotion and had to stop long enough to regain control of himself. "Antonius pushed me right out of the square, Quintus was able to escape too. The two of us, we ran down into this nearby park to get away. We were going over that bridge over there," Crassus pointed above him, "when one of the invaders materialized right in front of us. Naturally, we both got off that bridge as fast as we could, we jumped off. The invader didn't go after us, there were enough people behind us for him to shoot. That's how I hurt my legs, in the fall."
Akristh looked over at the bridge, and saw that it was a good five meter fall to the ground. "What happened to Quintus?" she asked.
"He wasn't hurt at all in the fall, so after making sure I wasn't hurt badly, he went to go help the other people. By this time the invader had disappeared again, so he went to help the wounded. What do you think about the leg?"
Akristh shrugged. "I'm no doctor, but I think it's broken. Which one hurts again?"
"They both hurt, but I can stand on the left one okay. The same's not true for the right."
Akristh heard someone yelling her name, and turned to see Hans and Mucius running towards her. "What happened here?" Hans asked.
"Another attack," Akristh answered. "All the other wounded have been cleared out, only Crassus here is left. He just broke his leg."
"Have you guys seen Antonius? Is he alright?" Crassus asked.
Crassus could tell the answer just by the solemn look Mucius gave. "It doesn't look good," Mucius answered.
Crassus, who suspected this all along, was not deeply shaken by the news. Instead he was more curious about his other friend. "What about Quintus?" he asked. "Have you guys seen Quintus?"
"I haven't," Mucius answered. "Have you Hans?"
"No I haven't. Teacher, where is Quintus?" Hans received no answer, so he repeated his question to the same effect. After a third try, he turned to his comrades. "What the heck is going on? The computers aren't working again."


"Alright computer, where is Gaius now?" Only silence followed. "Computer, where is Gaius now?" Again, only silence. "Computer, this is Bakes, why aren't my questions being answered." After a pause, "computer, can you hear me? Are you there? What is wrong?"
Finally, Bakes took a deep breath, and gave up. It was obvious that gradually the computer was ceasing to function in various ways. First the satellite was out, then the communications and replicators, and now the ability to answer questions was impaired. If Bakes could get to a key board, he knew he could find out where Gaius was, but key boards were not plentiful, and the replicators weren't working. By the time he got from the keyboard to where ever Gaius was, Gaius would have long since moved on.
Bakes looked around him. Last time he had inquired of the computer, about two minutes ago when it was still working, it had told him that Gaius was in this area. "Gaius couldn't have gone far," Bakes reasoned. He must be close by." Bakes looked at the labyrinth of hallways that spread out from his position, and from which he had just come. Gaius could be close by, and Bakes would never find him.
Then, Bakes heard a sound. It wasn't a loud sound, in fact Bakes wasn't even quite sure he heard it. It was a very faint sound, so faint Bakes couldn't distinguish what it was, or from which hallway it came from. Nevertheless, it was the only thing he had to go on. Bakes was able to tell the general direction of the sound, and made his best guess as to the hallway.
Walking slowly down the hallway, Bakes was worried about the clicking sound his shoes were making. They weren't exactly loud, but loud enough to let Gaius know he was coming. Bakes stopped to take them off. Then he continued down the hallway.
Out of the corner of his eye, Bakes saw a figure in back of him. Knowing the nature of the invaders, he whirled around, only to see nothing there. "Was it my imagination?" he thought. Continuing onward, Bakes came out of the hallway into a small room in between hallways. The room was littered with all sorts of junk, boxes filled high with long forgotten material. These hallways were for the most part a deserted part of the city. Hardly anyone came down them, although kids sometimes liked to play in the elaborate maze. Stuff left in these hallways, like the boxes, could be left untouched for literally decades.
Entering the room, Bakes looked cautiously at all the hallways that branched off from his location, determined to succeed.