Emerelda’s POV
“…It’s just that…I’ve been having this strange feeling, ever since this morning. It’s completely new to me, and I am unsure where it came from, but self-analysis informs me that it is not a part of Kim’s emotional algorithms.”
Throughout this speech, Elly had been looking at me with increasing surprise. I was slightly surprised as well; it was the longest speech I’d ever made, and it was also unlike me to talk about my problems, let alone with someone else.
“Well Emmy-“ Elly started to say, but was suddenly interrupted by a PA announcement.
“Ok everyone, we’re all prepared for our little sortie into Solaris, so if you could please make you’re way to Queen Zephyr’s planning room, we’ll decide our plan of action.”
I sighed, knowing that Elly and I probably wouldn’t finish our talk, or have another one like it, and wondered why that made me feel sad.
Elly’s POV
I heard Emerelda sigh, no doubt because of our interrupted conversation. Quite an interesting conversation it was too. I don’t think I’d ever heard Emerelda talk about…well, talk about anything really, or at least with anybody other than Fei.
I smiled at her sympathetically, “I’d really like to finish this conversation another time. How about we meet up when we get back?” She didn’t say anything, and her expression didn’t change at all.
I guess she doesn’t believe me, probably because none of us have ever taken the time to really talk to her before.
“Come on, let’s get to the meeting. And I promise we’ll talk when we get back. Ok?”
She looked up at me and replied with a quick “Ok” before walking out the door and down the hallway. Looking after her I shook my head. She sure was a strange girl, that’s for sure…although being made of nanomachines must be pretty strange too.
“I guess that’s just the way she is.” I sighed, and followed her to the meeting.
Emerelda’s POV – Planning Room
The ‘planning room’ was pretty full, with Shevat’s head of security, Hatsue Kuramoto, their military leaders and, of course, all of ‘Fei’s’ friends. Queen Zephyr was also there, but despite all these people there was still room for plenty more people.
I was lurking around the back of the crowd, while they all gathered around the table in the centre of the room, which contained a complete scale model of Solaris, based off scans made by Shevat’s external sensors. Next to this, there was a smaller, incomplete, model of it’s interior, based off information provided by Elly from when she lived there. There was also some information provided by Citan, or ‘Doc’.
Solaris was among the largest structures in the world today, and was the largest occupied ‘city’. It resembled an inverted spike when the 6 side compartments were closed. It was possible for them to open up, and when they were they acted as transportation areas, allowing personnel and cargo to enter and leave with the help of gates.
“Ok, so the plan is to enter through a distortion created in Solaris’ shield with the Seibzehn’s ‘Gravitational Cannon’. The distortion should be small enough for them not to notice, but it won’t last long so you’ll have to be quick.” This came from Queen Zephyr, who was situated at the head of the table.
Hatsue stepped forward, and everyone turned their attention towards him/her.
“Once you’ve been dropped off in pairs, you’ll have to split up, as Solaris has periodic life scans, and if you’re caught in one without the proper clearance level, you’ll be apprehended and interrogated, or simply killed on the spot.” Everyone absorbed this information silently, when he started to speak again. “However, one way to confuse the scans is to mingle with a large group, or to stand close enough to someone that it won’t be able to tell you apart, so mingle when you infiltrate the facilities.”
It seemed like a sound plan, with calculations indicating an 87.63 chance of penetrating undetected. Because everyone was already prepared to go, we headed towards Shevat’s gear bay, to organise our groups and to begin the first stage of the plan.
Elly’s POV – Shevat, Gear Bay
Everyone was gathered around the console in front of the Seibzehn. With a plan of action already decided on, all that was left was to organise everyone into groups. I was nervous about entering Solaris, as I was sure they knew about my desertion. I hoped they hadn’t made it public, or informed my family, especially my father, or my…mother…
I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice Fei speaking until someone gave me a discrete tap on the arm. I looked down and Emerelda was standing next to me, with her usual blank expression and looking at me. I gave her a smile of thanks, and then turned to listen to what Fei was saying.
“OK, we’ll split into 6 different teams and infiltrate Solaris from different locations. Elly, you go with Emerelda. Doc, you and Bart are with me. Rico, you go with Chu-Chu…”
I stopped listening after that. The choices were a bit surprising and pairing Rico with Chu-Chu…maybe he wanted a break. But it wasn’t something I’d complain about and besides, maybe it would give me and Emerelda a chance to talk. If it wasn’t such an important mission, it would probably be nice to get away from the guys for a while. My thoughts were again interrupted, this time by Fei finishing up his speech.
“Ok then, everyone knows who their with, so let’s go!”
To be continued…
Haha, well that’s it for now. What did people think of pairing Rico with Chu-Chu? I thought it was actually pretty funny Anyway, I was thinking of having Fei with the Elly/Emerelda group, but I couldn’t really be bothered thinking how to dump him later on…this way I don’t have to
Okay, enough said about that. I'll be expecting reviews this time...*glares around*. Now as to the Tales of Phantasia story…it’s been nagging at me, actually. Which means I’ll probably start writing it after I get the next chapter of this written down.
Have fun for now, and I expect reviews!
Oh, right. There’s also nothing going on between any of the people in Fei’s party…just for those who may have thought that.