Chapter 2: Claustrophobia

As humanity dealt with the joys and troubles that came from our newfound use of the sleeping Dragon, we were unexpectedly contacted by some of our nonhuman neighbors. It had been so many years since we had even heard from them that we almost forgot about their existence. But they were still around, and they were not happy.

Éclair followed in the back while Ryan and Leon walked in front, and the rest of the team surrounded Kavic. Though Éclair had a difficult time seeing the man harming a fly. He just seemed so gentle and genuine, like he was the kindest and most courteous man that ever lived.

Still, even with his docile demeanor, Éclair couldn’t shake the feeling that the man was hiding something. Even the seemingly benign hid venom somewhere, especially in the case of bureaucrats. Whatever secrets he kept, Éclair imagined that she had best be wary of the politician until she found out.

However, Éclair was mostly concerned about the old man in Ryan’s dream who sounded just like ... like ... No, she couldn’t even bring herself to say the name in her head, not with so much on the line. All she knew was that no one should know about Starbeard at this point.

He had made that absolutely clear to Éclair all those years ago when he vanished shortly after saving her life. He was by far the oldest, wisest, and most powerful Elemental Éclair had ever met, possibly the most powerful Elemental that had ever lived. If he said to do something, it would take unequaled foolishness not to.

Éclair suspected that he might’ve used Elemency to infiltrate Ryan’s mind and send him the message, but even that might prove dangerous, especially in a place where dreams were monitored by the Mental Division on occasion. Right now, Éclair’s old mentor was a fugitive from all of the Tarrus Empire, including the Ministry of Fire. As powerful as he was, he could still be captured and executed since even his powers had their limits. If that happened, the last chance for peace and freedom in the universe would die. More than that, Éclair would be heartbroken.

No, I can’t think of that right now! If Ryan is right, then there is a chance of stopping this war before it can start! Right now, both Leon and Ryan need me! I can’t afford to let them down!

As they approached Hamma’s quarters, Éclair saw a guard blocking their way. Éclair cursed silently. She knew that no one would ever believe them, more than that, no one would have time to believe them since they now faced the possibility of invasion.

The Elemental looked to be somewhere in his late twenties, had thinning blond hair, and was decidedly rotund, a rarity among Elementals. Éclair recognized the portly man as the strange but sweet Second named Smith Michael. It was always difficult saying his whole name since he had two first names. Most people called him Skippy since he had once worked aboard a privately owned trading freighter before he joined the Ministry. Being a former Spacer, most people expected him to be pretty eccentric, which he was, but he was also fairly polite and kind of awkward around women; Éclair knew this from experience.

He loved telling stories about some of the things he saw on his voyages as a freighter crewman. Éclair often wondered if half the things he spoke of were real. It was a little difficult to picture gigantic worms that floated in space and occasionally swallowed asteroids and ships in their path. But despite the incredible nature of his tales, Éclair always enjoyed listening to his stories; it reminded her of the time with Starbeard in a way. Still, he wouldn’t be easy to get past being a stickler for rules and discipline ... an unfortunate habit that came from being raised on a ship.

Skippy waved them down, and said, “Ahoy there, mates. What brings ye to these whereabouts?”

His nickname also came from the pirate gig he liked to do, but Éclair could’ve sworn she heard him speaking normally while he talked with his mother on the holophone.

Leon smiled nonchalantly, and said, “Hello, Second Smith Michael.”

“Oh, please. Call me Skippy. Easier than saying two first names, eh?”

“Right, Skippy. We’re here to-”

“An old dude in a floating rocking chair playing a flute sent us here. We need to investigate the Mystic, Hamma Steel, and possibly stop a war,” blurted out Ryan, interrupting an irritated-looking Leon.

Éclair sighed. Sometimes I wonder if that kid is going to make it all the way through puberty.

Skippy stared at Ryan for a moment as if he were a strange lifeform that he’d encountered on his journeys into deep space. Then he threw his head back and started laughing in a high-pitched chortle that turned into a squeal from time to time.

Éclair had seen Skippy laughing like this before, and it usually lasted a full minute depending on the joke. He must’ve found Ryan’s explanation exceptionally funny, because he went a good two minutes of constant laughter. Everyone kind of shuffled their feet awkwardly, but Ryan looked more angry than uncomfortable.

Skippy finally got ahold of himself, his face returning to normal so fast that it seemed unnerving. “You’re serious, aren’t you, matey?”

“Serious as the plague,” grunted Ryan, still glaring up at the old sailor.

Skippy turned to Rachel. “Have you had him looked at?”

Rachel groaned. “We tried. Trust me. He’s incurable.”

“Hey, I am not incurable. I’m incorrigible. There’s a difference.”

Not that he knew what either words meant, probably, thought Éclair with wry satisfaction.

Rachel slapped her head in defeat.

Ryan turned back to Skippy, and said, “Can you let us in?”

Skippy chuckled, almost starting another fit of laughter. “Look here, matey. The place has already been stripped clean by the investigation squad. Anything worth looking into is already in the forensics labs.”

“Then why are you here?”

Skippy huffed indignantly. “I’m here to keep snotnosed snots like you from meddling where they’re not supposed to be. A Mystic lived in there, you know?! Even if the place was already scanned, who knows what kind of dark Elemency that snake might’ve hidden in there for anyone prying around. As of now, the cleansing squads have had their hands full preparing for the war, so no one has had time to get in there and check to see if there are still any unfriendly spells in the work. Until they get here, I have orders to keep this room off-limits to all nonessentials. That includes you.”

Ryan gave his best puppy dog face, and said, “Oh, come on buddy, old chum. Do a guy a solid.”

“No.”

“Please.”

“No.”

“Pretty please.”

“No.”

“Pretty please with a cherry on top.”

“No.”

“Pretty please with sugar on top.”

“No!”

“Pretty please with sugar and cherries on top!”

“NO!!”

“Pretty please with sugar and cherries and a bikini magazine on top!”

“NO, NO, NO! For the last bleeping time, NO! Now get out of here before I haul you all off for mutiny,” said Skippy, his old sailor charisma coming back.

Ryan hung his head. “Well, I got nothing. I ran out of desserts. And the bikini magazine was a bit of a long shot. But hey, you never know until you try.”

Éclair suddenly heard Leon’s voice in her head. Éclair, if you distract him, I can get behind him and knock him out with a small telepathic technique. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt him. It’ll just put him to sleep for perhaps an hour, but I need you to keep him busy until I’m in position. For this to work, I need to touch him in a certain spot. It’s the only way to align our brainwaves properly since I’m not that skilled with telepathy yet.

Éclair nodded mentally and strode up to Skippy, doing her best to draw attention to herself. As much as it made her feel uncomfortable, she just knew that whatever they were looking for was behind that door, so she had to play the flirtatious schoolgirl for now.

“Oh, Skippy,” Éclair said seductively, or at least her best impression of a seductive voice. “Do you think you can tell me one of your stories before we go? I just love listening to them, especially when you talk about how brave you were.”

Seriously! That’s the best you can do, Éclair! she said to herself.

Boys must have been dumber than Éclair thought they were, because Skippy’s cheeks turned bright red as he glanced from side to side, looking both pleased and uncomfortable. “Well, I suppose one story won’t hurt if it’s for you, lass. So there I was, in the grips of death once again while I looked down the maw of the gigantic Space Worm.”

“You mean a wormhole?” asked Ryan in confusion.

“No, an actual worm flying through space - bigger than most capital ships, and with an appetite to match. Its glowing red eyes looked up and down the hull of our ship with hungry ambition. It opened its massive maw with thousands of teeth that rotated around its circular jaws like a giant buzz-saw.

“As I looked down that monster’s gullet, there seemed to be no end. Even if the ship survived the teeth, I’d be stuck in that sucker’s belly for the rest of eternity. It looked like this would be the end of the voyage of the Little Mermaid.”

Ryan looked at Skippy in disgust. “Your ship was called the Little Mermaid?”

Skippy was too wrapped up in his storytelling to pay Ryan any heed. “As I was writing my own will and testament, an epiphany came to old Skippy. Me grandfather was the one who told me stories of the Giant Space Worms, and he said that the legends spoke of a weakness of the beasts. So just as the creature was about to swallow me ship and me crew, I conferred with the Cap’n, giving him the most daring and mad plan ever conceived by man. We-”

Leon crept up behind the former freighter crewman and placed two fingers at the back of his neck. Skippy went out like a light and rather unceremoniously fell right on top of a surprised Ryan. Skippy was far from a small man and had a rather stout physique, so Ryan’s short body became crushed under 250 pounds of pure Skippy.

“Puffffer grewbuba! Gee hmmm uuufff meeeee!” cried Ryan, his voice muffled by Skippy’s unconscious body.

Éclair stifled a giggle, but Rachel didn’t seem so pleased.

“Have you all lost it?! We could get expelled for this!”

Leon seemed unfazed by Rachel’s fury. “If it means saving the Ministry, then so be it. What’s done is done, so no use griping about it now.”

Ryan managed to wriggle from under Skippy’s body, gulping for air like he almost drowned. “As long as I don’t have to carry Skippy anymore, then it works for me!”

“Great!” cried Rachel. “We can add assault to our temporary lapse into insanity! Fine with me! What do I care?”

As soon as they walked into the room, Éclair knew that something was definitely wrong. She didn’t know how she knew, she just sensed it. The room looked much the same as many other military-styled quarters in the Ministry of Fire, except with less homely decorations. The walls were gray, the bed sheets were gray; pretty much everything was gray.

After reaching First Level, Elementals were allowed to liven up their quarters with a little interior decoration, but apparently, Hamma liked the gray atmosphere. Maybe it just went with his personality, being an evil psychopath and all. Or maybe the room just looked barren and hollow after the investigation squads picked it clean. Either way, something in the air put Éclair on edge ... something sinister.

“Something’s wrong. We shouldn’t be here,” warned Éclair in an ominous voice.

“Oh, you gettin’ a weird vibe too,” said Ryan. “Yeah, I’m thinking that investigation squad must’ve missed something, because I definitely feel like something is here.”

Rachel sniffed. “Well, my ‘psycho senses’ aren’t tingling. But what do I know? I’m just the only sane person in the group.”

“I’d like to think I’m sane,” said Tork. “Somewhat.”

“I appreciate the encouragement, Tork. You’re a jewel,” said Rachel rather sarcastically.

“Quiet, all of you!” hushed Leon, raising his hand. “There is something wrong here. Something dark at work within these walls, and it knows we’re here.”

“Well, I’d think it would know since this place is kind of cramped. Not much room for error. Heh! Get it! ‘Room for error’, ‘cause we’re in a bedroom,” joked Ryan, trying to lighten the mood, but as usual, only succeeded in annoying everyone.

Before Éclair could shush Ryan, she heard a groan rumble through the walls and the floor. Éclair may have yelped a little in surprise, but not nearly as loud as Ryan did, and not nearly as high-pitched as he did either.

“Did you hear that?” gasped Grafael.

“Yeah, the walls yawned, and Éclair screamed,” said Ryan a little too quickly. “I didn’t scream because I obviously don’t scream like a girl.”

The walls groaned again, shaking the room violently enough that Éclair almost fell.

“You have angered the room, Uruks! Repent and maybe it will spare us!” whispered Grafael urgently, clearly not his usual warrior self. Éclair knew Grafael to be one of the bravest fighters on the planet, but when he faced anything with even a hint of the supernatural, he became as timid as a kitten.

“Uh,” said Ryan in a patronizing voice, trying to pat the walls reassuringly. “Sorry, your roomship. I didn’t mean to insult your size and crampiness. Personally, I like enclosed spaces.”

If Éclair wasn’t so terrified, she might have thought the whole ordeal rather funny. Grafael and Ryan, the two knuckleheads of the group united in an act of stupidity. However, the atmosphere in the room made Éclair’s skin tingle. It was more than the fact that something evil hid in the walls; it felt like something had been waiting for them specifically. Almost as if their very presence had awakened the darkness in this room, and that’s why the investigation squads didn’t find anything.

“I swear,” said Leon, getting angry. “If you don’t shut up, Uruks, I’m going to-”

“Might I suggest we try the holocomputer at the desk,” said Kavic meekly, speaking up for the first time. It seemed strange to Éclair that a suspected outsider became the voice of reason within the group.

Éclair almost gasped in fright when she saw Leon’s face as he glared at Kavic. Then he finally nodded and headed over to the computer. Sure, Ryan could be annoying, but for Leon to get that angry was unlike him. Éclair sensed that whatever lurked inside this room affected Leon as well, bringing his powerful Lurranna blood to a boil.

Leon seemed to get his anger under control as he sat down at the computer desk and started searching on the red-glowing holographic keys. Without the holographic images, it would’ve looked like Leon was playing an imaginary piano. Éclair never thought much of it, but if someone from the older periods of time could see this, they would gasp in awe. The images looked so real and lifelike, it seemed like one could reach out and touch them.

Across the screen danced thousands of files and journals, all with pictures of people, animals, and aliens from across the universe. They seemed to pertain to some of the places that Hamma had visited. Obviously, there was nothing secret about any of the locations since they weren’t encrypted, but just seeing all the places that Hamma Steel had been in his life made Éclair want to get out more.

She saw images of gigantic elephants – each with three trunks, six tusks, and six eyes - pounding through a massive jungle. Hamma posed in front of the elephants, and Éclair felt astounded when she realized that they were the size of small space cruisers. The setting changed to an ocean of lava that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Then the images changed into a grueling battle with humans and Demihumans in a bloody conflict. The sky was bloodred, explosions of every color racked the frame in orange, green, and blue. Elementals jumped through the fray, dashing across the battlefield with superhuman speed and agility, their bright armor and capes blazing with color.

A gigantic tank cruised through the screen, blasting and crushing any living creature, human or alien unlucky enough to stand in its path. In the red skies, capital ships and fighters blasted each other in a torrent of flames and light. Some of the vessels even seemed to be using Elemency, dragging behind oceans of water or mountains of earth, and using them as both shields and weapons.

Éclair had heard of such innovations, but she had never seen them in action. Leon seemed to be mesmerized by the violent images for a few moments, as if something from his past came back to haunt him. Éclair had a strong urge to change the image for a number of reasons.