As she, Chine, and Jim gained on the object, Alex could tell reality around her hadn’t changed, the closer she’d gotten to the green streak. That meant whatever was keeping the object from falling was natural, which somewhat put Alex at ease. “Hey, Night Watch, did you guys get the coordinates we sent you?” she asked.
Jollies’ voice crackled over the comm. “Why don’t you just use our names?” she asked. “We’re the only ones working here. Tonight, at least. And yeah, we did. I uploaded it into the system, and we’ve been waiting to see if anyone can head over to give you backup. There aren’t a whole lot of agents available, though. We’re having a hard time getting hold of anyone.”
“Where is everyone?”
“Holiday, remember? Most of the Nest is on leave. The only people left are the first-years, and I don’t think any first years are up to something this big. Seems like anytime we get involved with something, it gets a lot more intense than most of the first-years can handle. Hell, some of them are still dealing with the attack on the Nest.”
Alex had done her share of work to keep from thinking about the attack on the Nest. Much like her lost arm, it was better not to dwell on it. Thinking too much opened a well of emotions Alex didn’t want to feel. Painful guilt clenched her chest and bent her thoughts toward that simple feeling of shame she couldn’t hide from.
If there was one thing Alex wanted to stop feeling, it was guilt. No matter how she looked at the situation at the Nest, it rubbed the inside of her chest raw. But she could push it away for now. She’d grown pretty good at doing that.
Jollies was still talking, but Alex had zoned out for a second. She brought herself back to the conversation. The pixie was going on about who to send out into the field. “We might be able to pull in some of Roy’s mech riders. I don’t think those guys ever take a day off, or maybe they don’t take their days on seriously. Oh, and Gill is going to head over shortly.”
It was the first time all day Alex had been happy to hear Gill’s name. Having her team around right now sounded like the best idea. “You should avoid confronting the ship, though,” Jollies said. “At least until you have a better idea of what you’re up against. Otherwise, it could be dangerous.”
Alex agreed with the pixie. Getting close and taking a good, long look at whatever the hell had fallen out of the sky sounded like the best idea. “What’s Gill’s ETA?”
“Probably half an hour or so. He wasn’t at the Nest, and he wasn’t too far from you guys.”
Jim’s voice came over the comm. “Wonder what he was up to today?” Jim wondered.
Alex did, as well. Neither she nor Jim was suspicious of Gill like the rest of the cadets at the Nest. Apparently, drow didn’t have a good reputation with the other races in the realm. Even though Gill had been a part of several decisive victories, many of the elves at the Nest still looked at him with mistrust.
Alex and Jim were finally close enough to the descending ship to be able to scan it. Alex pulled up her HUD visor and gave the ship a simple yet thorough scan. She didn’t bother looking at the information but sent it straight to the Nest.
What Alex really cared about couldn’t be seen through the visor. She squinted, activating her superb dragon vision and focusing on the energy trail around the ship. It was definitely the same energy that had been attached to the meteor Team Boundless had fought. That meant that even if this wasn’t the same kind of ship that had come through before, it had come from the same place.
In addition to the energy, Alex could see there was a host of vrosks and harpies near the ship. Great, Alex thought. Had to bring friends along with you. Alex was preparing to report to the Nest that the ship was definitely going to be a problem. Then she looked closer.
The creatures surrounding the ship were attacking it, both the vrosks and the harpies biting at the ship’s steel sides. Now that’s interesting, Alex thought to herself. She commed Jollies. “Hey, so there’s a shit-ton of dark creatures around the ship, but they’re going after it. I think this might be something the Dark One wants.”
Jollies answered quickly. “If that’s the case, you need to stay a good distance away. You two just keep an eye on things until Gill gets there. We don’t want to escalate anything beyond what we’re staffed for at the moment.”
That made sense. Alex was about to disconnect when a voice broke over her comm as her HUD flashed the message Urgent.
Alex picked up. Myrddin, the ancient wizard responsible for the majority of humanity’s resistance against the Dark One, spoke up, and he sounded drunk off his ass. “Alex!” he bellowed.
Alex was glad her comm was partially mental and not completely physical because the volume of Myrddin’s voice would have ruptured her eardrum. She could practically smell the booze through the comm. “Yes, sir?”
“Just got your message from the Nest. A bit of a problem…yes, bit of a problem. Most of the staff at the Nest is gone. Vacation. You know all about that. But…but…what were we talking about again?”
“I think you called concerning the ship, sir?”
“Ah, yes…yes…well, you see, that ship is going to be a problem. We can’t just have other-dimensional ships landing anytime they want to, but I’m going to need you to wait for backup. Just wait—”
Alex was trying to be polite, but she felt like Myrddin was wasting her time. “Sir, Jollies just told me not to engage. What’s your position on
