Vera's finger twitched to the music, and smiled to herself. The room's lights changed color to the beat. She hummed along to the lyrics. Her singing voice wasn't the greatest. The song was "Have to See You Gone," by a recent band called Dynaboys. Thanks to Rose, she'd gotten addicted to the group.
"Enjoying yourself?" Tseen Foo said with borderline disdain.
"What? I have to enjoy my capture somehow!" Vera snapped, not hiding her annoyance. What else was she meant to do, trapped in space inside an explosive box? Vera ignored her colleague and nibbled on some ranch chips from a bag.
"I can't believe I'm siding with Tseen Foo on this, but what happened to your solidarity against caving to your captor's temptations?" Denebokab said.
"You aren't the ones captured!" A twinge of guilt flashed through Vera — ashamed she'd fallen to Stella's offers of comfort. It was dull sitting in an empty room with nothing to do, though. It wasn't her fault!
"Whatever! Are you close to freeing me, Denebokab?" Vera asked, changing the subject.
"I actually have some progress on that front," Denebokab replied. "I've learned you're in a modified escape capsule orbiting the Earth."
"Prefect — you can just transform and snatch me then!" Vera's heart bloomed with renewed hope. Among the Altair, Denebokab was their best flyer, capable of striking prey like a bat on an unsuspecting insect.
"Ah, no can do. The Ectutai are monitoring your capsule with fighters. They'd shoot me down in seconds. I've seen these things in action in simulations. I can't face them alone."
"Really?" In annoyance, she'd spoken this out loud. She flushed, pretending she hadn't spoken. Of the Altair in their small strike team, only Denebokab had wings.
"But it's still valuable intel. Sit and wait. I'll work out something," Denebokab said.
Sit and wait? Easy for him to say! He wasn't the Altair stuck in the same spot for three days straight. Vera was about ready to tear her hair out.
Worse was her tormentor, Stella. How she despised that friendly, smiling face. Every day she appeared out of nowhere to check on Vera. But this didn't fool Vera! She wouldn't crack under this treatment. She'd never talk! Speaking of the devil — which Vera was starting to assume was literally the case — Stella appeared on a viewscreen.
"Morning, Vera! How are you this fine day?" Much to Vera's astonishment, the vTuber wore another outfit: a green sweatshirt with blue jeans. How many outfits did this model have?
"It'd be better if I had some sunshine," Vera said venomously.
Much to Vera's annoyance, Stella seriously considered this snide remark. "I suppose that is a problem. I'll see if I can modify the screens to simulate an actual sky — and night, stars. Make it more homey. How about that?"
"I want out of here!" Vera snapped, her eye twitching.
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Vera." Stella had the nerve to act guilty about that comment. "Your race is trying to destroy humanity, and, well, they're rather put out about it."
"War is war."
"So you keep saying. But I won't stop working until we find some peaceful solution!"
"It won't happen!"
"Do you want to hear about Rose? She's returned to school again after a short break," Stella said, changing the subject — and, as usual, failed to explain how she even knew about Rose. "She rather misses you. Obviously, she and the rest of your class haven't been told about the reason for your absence. They think you've left the country for some family business."
"Won't they be suspicious when they can't contact me by phone."
"It's unfortunate, but unavoidable. Sorry, Vera, but convincing the government to allow you to speak with them is far beyond my means."
"You won't get away with this. We will hunt you down. My siblings are already on your trail." Tseen Foo was an expert hunter, scanning every bit of info on the internet to learn Stella's user's whereabouts. The trail had, admittedly, been tougher than expected, but he'd uncover it, eventually.
As usual, Stella seemed utterly unconcerned. How arrogant could one human be, Vera wondered? She took great comfort in knowing the vTuber would suffer soon.
"Do you want anything?" Stella asked. "I could cook something up for you. I've become quite adept at using the replicator."
"No."
"Shame. Well, if you need anything, contact me. Now, if you would excuse me, I have a stream later. It's karaoke night, and I like tailoring my playlist to my fans' tastes. It's not as easy as it sounds."
"Fascinating." The screen flashed off and returned to its usual plain white color.
"You should socialize with her more. We still haven't learned much about her yet," Denebokab said.
"You try talking to her!" Vera snapped. In her irritation, she'd spoken this out loud. She pretended she hadn't said anything.
"This Stella is too guarded. She says much while also saying little," Lord Tarazed said. "She only gives away whatever suits her."
"How helpful." Vera plopped onto a beanbag chair. She scowled as the lights turned off and switched to a scenic Minnesotan countryside. Above her, clouds floated across a crisp blue sky.
"Why can't they torture me?" Vera said, face in her hands. "Please — anything but this!" This proved humans were sick monsters to allow such treatment.
"This can't continue," Lord Tarazed said. "This is likely only a distraction to keep us busy from our true mission."
"You have a plan?" Vera asked through their mental link, heart blossoming with hope.
"It likely wouldn't cause Stella's destruction, but it should cause a sting humanity won't soon forget. How about we show them the might of an Altair general?" Through the hive mind, Vera sensed the pleased smile on Lord Tarazed's mouth.
"Are you sure, my lord?" Vera asked. This might be reckless. They'd already lost Okab. Worse, humanity had the Ectutai as allies now.
"I won't make it easy for them," Lord Tarazed replied. "I will push and push them until the entire planet breaks."
///
"That's when, on January 30, 1835, a disgruntled unemployed painter named Richard Lawrence approached Andrew Jackson to assassinate him. But both his pistols misfired, giving the 67-year-old president time to incapacitate his attacker with his walking cane."
Rose listened though one ear, but her mind remained distracted. She glanced over at Vera's chair, finding it empty. For two days she'd heard nothing from her friend, neither her texts nor calls answered. It was most unlike her extroverted friend. Despite the reassurances from the teachers that everything was fine, Rose's gut told her something was terribly amiss.
"I mean, if she got kidnapped, someone would mention something, right?" Her bodyguard and LUVOLT were very protective, fighting hard to keep her and the community safe. They would have done something, right? And Rose had her doubts about the story about Vera's disappearance. It wouldn't stop Vera from talking to her friends. And her mom had heard nothing from Vera's parents either, despite being members of the same book club. Rose chewed her pencil in agitation.
///
"I doubt she got kidnapped, Rose," Cecilia said reasonably at lunch. "It's not like she's rich or anything."
As usual, they sat across from each other in the crowded lunchroom. Georges and Hans had joined them also, as was their habit.
"I suppose." But Rose couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. "What do you guys think?"
"You know how government types have been lurking about nowadays," Georges said. "I bet they've experimented on her and turned her into an evil cyborg! Or the aliens. It's hard to say."
Cecilia rolled her eyes. "A serious answer. And the Ectutai are our friends."
"For now." Georges' face twisted like he'd eaten something sour. Hans remained thoughtful, but as usual kept his thoughts to himself.
"I hope she's okay." Rose swore she'd talk to Sandage about it. With his contacts, there wasn't anything he likely couldn't find.
///
"Vera?" Sandage said, furrowing his brow. "Isn't she with family or something?"
"Supposedly, but no one can get in contact with her," Rose huffed as she jogged on the treadmill, her legs burning from the effort. These six mile runs were torture.
To this, the former FBI agent only shrugged. "You know how kids are. They promise to keep in contact, but don't. Sometimes you just lose contact with people."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Be serious, Mr. Sandage. This isn't the 1920s or something. We have phones now, and the internet. And I can't contact her that way either!"
"That sounds serious. I'll see what I can figure out." Was it her imagination, or Sandage sounded somewhat stiff when he'd said this? While his face was compassionate, Rose sensed something off. Was she looking too much into this? Why would Sandage know anything about Vera's disappearance? That made little sense.
Finally, the treadmill marked six miles and Rose set the machine to cooldown. Her pace slowed down to a more reasonable level until the machine stopped completely. She sighed in relief, relieved the workout had finished.
"Hello, Sandage?" Sandage's phone buzzed, and he answered it, leaving the exercise room for some privacy.
"See? Mr. Sandage will handle it. It's fine. She can't be gone. I saw her in a vision, remember?" Cecilia said from the sidelines, sipping at some juice. After her recent workout, some refreshment sounded nice. Rose felt sticky from sweat, eager to shower to clean up. But the matter of Vera came first.
"That vision." In it, both Cecilia and Vera stood in a nowhere place, somewhere outside their reality. The reasons for this vision continued to elude Rose, much to her frustration.
Wait, was Vera's trapped there now? Had the Altair kidnapped her? No, it didn't sound right to Rose. But her gut still screamed something was wrong.
She opened her mouth to voice her crazy, out-there theory when the ground trembled beneath her. The entire room shuddered, various exercise equipment reverberating from the movement.
"An earthquake?" Rose's initial confusion turned to realization, her hand squeezing tight in righteous fury. "The Altair! Finally making a move, huh?"
"Rose!" her bodyguard said, already pulling her away from a nearby window. It was lucky he did, for it exploded as a shockwave struck the building, glass spraying everywhere. Rose screamed, ducking into a ball.
"Are you okay?" Brown asked. He'd used his body to shield his ward, bleeding from tiny cuts across his cheek from where he'd gotten struck by stray glass.
"I think so," Rose said shakily. "Is everyone okay?"
"I'm okay," Cecilia accepting Brown's hand as he helped her up.
"You!" Rose trembled with rage as she looked at the destruction wrought to her town.
Entire buildings had collapsed. Flipped cars sat like turned-over turtles, wrecked after getting thrown dozens of feet. Trees were driven into buildings or whatever stood in their path. The entire town was an utter mess.
Standing in the center of this destructive chaos was a creature straight from nightmares. The thing was massive, standing almost twice as tall as Okab. From its face shot thick tree-like tendrils with porcupine-like barbs at the end. Its skin was gray, like something rotten and aged. Underneath the tree-like tendrils was a tiny O-shaped mouth marked with jagged teeth.
"Holy!" Rose said, taken aback. Terror took the strength from her legs as she stared at this monstrosity. In her heart, she sensed this monster rivaled Okab in power. This was an Altair general.
But Rose kept the tremble from her voice as she called her partner. "Luyten V!" She smiled as she saw it flying above the LUVOLT headquarters, already ready for battle.
Rose climbed up to the broken window. "Mr. Brown. Watch over them for me." Before her bodyguard could reply, she leaped out the window.
"Please don't jump out the window," her bodyguard said, somewhat belatedly, his voice exasperated, as Rose landed on Luyten V's waiting palm.
"Let's get this guy, Luyten V!" Rose's mouth widening into her shark smile, her red eye glowing maliciously. She was eager for some payback after the Altair's heinous attack on the LUVOLT headquarters.
Rose tightened the grip on her controls, heart thumping hard in her chest. Sweat gathered on her palms as she prepared to fight. She'd been training hard for this, not wanting a repeat of her fight with Okab. Still, doubt polluted her confidence like poison, memories of the pain of the Altair infection returning to torment her.
"You can do this, Rose!" No, she refused to allow the fear to take control. Her friends, her family, Sandage were counting on her to win this. Luyten V responded to this, thumping its fists against its chest.
Rose smiled as the cockpit reverberated from the impact. "Seems you're eager too, eh, Luyten V?" With her recent training, Rose figured she could handle Stage 2 of Full Synchronization Mode without issue. She just hoped it'd be enough. She wasn't even remotely ready for prolonged fights at Stage 4.
"Good. You're in." Sandage said from the comm. "The target is on the south side of town, though I doubt you'll miss them."
"No kidding." She was taken aback by the size of the Altair, even from this distance. Whatever this monster was, it stood almost twice as tall as the Luyten V. Rose steeled herself, readying herself for a difficult fight. "Okay, let's go, Luyten V!"
"Hey! Enough!" She arrived at the sight of familiar destruction; half of downtown had been reduced to rubble. Her heart seethed with fury as she noticed the squirming, pained figures in the rubble trying to free themselves.
And there the monster stood, an ancient church crumbling like sand as the creature released it from its grip as it spotted Luyten V. Through lidded eyes, unmistakable malice glared at her.
"Rose, be careful," Sandage said through the communicator. "Remember, that guy has two buddies. They're likely lurking somewhere in ambush."
"Understood." Rose readied her robot to charge her opponent. She'd need to drive it away from town and all the innocent people. While her mind raced how she might accomplish this, the Altair general did something unexpected. It bolted away at astonishing speed.
"Hey, come back here!" She winced as the general's massive feet tore apart houses and streets. Luyten V lifted into the air and flew in pursuit of its prey, but her target fled at an astonishing speed given its massive size.
"Watch yourself, Rose. It might be leading you into a trap," Sandage said. The thought had crossed her mind too. It was a classic ploy: flee and lead your attacker into an ambush.
"Understood! Okay, Luyten V. Full speed. It can't put us into an ambush if we cut it off first!" Luyten V's thrusters roared louder and her robot hurled itself faster at its prey.
But the general continued to surprise her. When it saw Luyten V had increased the speed of its pursuit, the monster only ran faster. It quickly reached the outskirts of the town, vanishing as it outpaced her. It disappeared from her scanners, and Luyten V searched around, finding no sign of the monster.
"What the heck? It just disappeared?" Rose said, confused. "Come on and fight me, coward!" But there was no response.
"What the? It just attacked the town and fled? Why would it do that?"
"No clue," Sandage replied. "Return to base for now."
"Okay, but I'm not leaving Luyten V until the coast is clear.
"Roger."
Rose squeezed her controls tight in frustration. What was the Altair's game now? Was this a new strategy? One thing was certain: this new general wasn't like Okab. Rose feared they'd just begun to face this devious new foe.