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Baldur's Gate Heroes #006


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#1 Guest_Coutelier_*

Posted 26 October 2006 - 09:52 AM

Baldur’s Gate Heroes #006
Carnival, Part Three


The blonde stopped struggling and Imoen, who had managed to keep hold of her gun, stood and backed off a few steps, keeping the weapon trained on her attacker. The blonde was unarmed and the sad truth was anyone who could be pinned by Imoen wasn’t much of a threat. But who could say what an Engineered Life Form could or would do? For all Imoen knew, she was somehow controlling those man-beasts.

The red-heads night vision glasses had been the first thing to go flying, so she kept the torch fixed on the ELF, who dragged herself across the floor on her butt and sat up against the opposite wall with her head bowed. She looked a doll who had been discarded there by a bored child. Her yellow dress was dirty and torn and Imoen could see numerous cuts and bruises across white skin that appeared to have never experienced sunlight. The blonde was pretty of course, like in the photo. Well, if you were going to design a person you wouldn’t design one who was ugly, would you?

“Do you understand me?” Imoen realized she didn’t yet know if the girl was even able to speak. The red-head crouched in front of the blonde so they were level. Blue eyes flicked up to meet her own, which Imoen took to mean ‘yes’. “Do you speak?”

“W-who are you?” The blonde stammered whilst sucking in some air. All that answering a question with a question business… but at least it had answered Imoen’s question and it was possible for them to talk. “What… what are you doing here? The company didn’t send you,” the ELF trailed off, turning her eyes away.

“What makes you say that?”

“Because…” the blonde bit her lip, perhaps wondering if it would be wise to finish but realized she no longer had a choice. “Because I-I think the company would have sent more people… and you look like thieves. Please… t-there’s’ nothing here. You should just leave.”

“Look, Nancy Drew, I ask the questions and then I decide what I should do, got it?” Imoen waved her gun a bit to illustrate why she was in control. The ELF looked a little annoyed but remained silent. “Okay… now, do you have a name?”

“Yes… i-it’s Aerie.”

“Nice. Now, Aerie, what was that… creature, and why’d you stop me from shooting at it?”

“She was running away!” Aerie snapped angrily. “You had no need to kill her.”

Imoen looked a little guilty under her mask. She had no doubt Diana would be telling her off as well… morally, sure, she should have let the thing go. Tactically though, that was a mistake and one that could well come back and bite them in the asses later. She saw the conviction in Aerie’s eyes and decided the blonde was telling her the truth. Imoen started liking the girl, finding that naïve morality quite appealing. It seemed to remind her of some people she used to know.

“Alright,” Imoen pulled off her mask, allowing Aerie to see her face. Hopefully the Engineered Life Form would understand it was a friendly gesture. Indeed, the blonde instantly became more relaxed. “My name’s Imoen. We came here to rescue you.”

“Me?” Aerie looked surprised and puzzled. “I… I can’t leave.”

“Why not?” now Imoen looked puzzled as well. “You just said there was nothing here.”

“There isn’t,” Aerie said quietly. “Kalah’s killed nearly everybody… b-but Miss Hannah and Quayle are still here. I won’t leave until I know they’re safe. Not… not willingly, anyway. But you should get out while you can… you don’t know what he’s capable of.”

“You are going to have to slow down,” of course, it was never going to be as simple as them all just walking out of here. Yoshimo appeared at that moment. Imoen had seen him sent flying by the creature, but she knew he hadn’t been badly hurt. He’d probably been standing by the door listening to their conversation.

Upon seeing that Imoen had removed her mask, he did likewise and gave Aerie a bow. She politely nodded back.

“I see you have found what we came for,” he grinned to Imoen. “And have you also noticed, apart from the one guard, we have seen no other bodies?”

“I figured maybe those creatures had eaten them,” the red head shrugged.

“No,” Aerie sounded like she was a far greater distance away than she was. “They… they don’t like the taste of human flesh. They prefer eating the rats…”

Yoshimo knelt by a pile of ash and picked out some objects to show Imoen. A ring, a watch… a gold tooth…

“Kalah,” Aerie explained.

“Fortune favors us today,” Yoshimo smiled. “We can leave with our prize now and no-one would ever know we were here. Anyone who comes to investigate would assume she burned with the rest of them.”

“I won’t go!” Aerie suddenly stood up and clenched her tiny fists. Despite losing to Imoen and being outgunned two to none she indicated she would fight them if she had to. “Please… if you help me save the others first, then I would go with you willingly.”

“It is one million dollars standing there,” he reminded Imoen. Of course, the two of them could easier overpower Aerie and drag her out. But then there was Minsc… they would have to keep the ELF drugged. If he found out they’d abandoned people in need just for the money he’d feel betrayed, outraged. You also had to consider that with her not being human, there was no telling for sure what effect drugs might have on Aerie.

“I-I have nothing to offer you, if money is all you care about,” Aerie bowed her head, seeming resigned. A thought then occurred to her which caused her to brighten up just a bit. “Miss… Miss Hannah is someone of importance in the company, from what I gather. I’m sure if you got her out she could offer you some reward. But please help Quayle as well.”

“You’re going to have to tell us everything that’s happened here,” Imoen told her. She’d decided that, more important than any other concerns, how she would feel about walking away was what really mattered. What was she, really, moral or practical? Was it really enough for her to simply stay alive? Obviously, it wasn’t enough for Aerie. She had a ticket out of this dungeon but refused to take it. There was once a little red haired girl, who Imoen dimly recalled, who would have braved anything to help her friends also.

“So, you’re staying?” Yoshimo concluded.

“Can’t walk away, can I?” Imoen explained. “I know what the safest, most practical thing to do is… but that’s not really who I am. I’m sure I’m not a very good hero either, but for some reason I’m sure I’d rather be right than living. And you know what; I’ve done all the work getting us in here so I think I’m entitled to do something that I want to do.”

“It would be rather crowded on Dynaheir with six of us,” Yoshimo pointed out. “Plus, you do know the other risks?”

“Yeah… Hannah or Quayle might give us away. But really, do you have to be so…so…” Imoen’s hand moved in small circles as if she was hoping to somehow tune in to the right word.

“Presagious?” Aerie suggested.

“Thanks. Yoshimo, stop being so presagious.”

“As you wish then,” the Japanese man bowed again.

“So… you’re going to help too?”

“If only to protect my share of the money.”

“T-thank you,” Aerie bowed.

“What’s with all the bowing?” Imoen’s mouth quirked. “We’re not exactly going to meet the Queen of England down here.”

“Manners, friend,” Yoshimo said. “They could get you a long way.”

Imoen was about to respond when they heard a sound like thunder coming from above… but it wasn’t from outside the base. Besides, the skies had been clear for miles around when they arrived.

“Kalah,” Aerie said. “J-just… flexing his muscles. He rarely leaves the lab now… but, that’s where he’s holding Quayle.”

“Why don’t you start telling us everything from the beginning?” Imoen suggested.

“I…I will try. But not here… I left Miss Hannah alone. I only went out to find her food. Please follow me.”

Aerie slowly walked away and the other two started to follow when they noticed the bronze bird again floating towards them.

“It’s just Ammale,” Aerie explained. “Kalah activated him, but he immediately sought me out. I… I tried to reprogram him to find other survivors but… I-I couldn’t undo all of his original programming. He’s never returned with anyone, until now. I… I don’t think there’s anyone left to find.”

“He was leading us to you?” Said Imoen.

“Yes. Do not worry… he’s incapable of hurting you.”

As they continued through the facility Imoen turned her attention back to her equipment.

“Minsc?” She whispered into a microphone. “Is my transponder working?”

“It is,” the Russian’s voice boomed back through the speaker. “Minsc and Boo will be with you soon.”

“Have you seen any of those creatures yet?”

“Negative.”

“Well, so you know there are some sort of animals alive in here. They could be dangerous,” though honestly, she doubted they could pose a threat to the cyborg.

“Minsc will watch like a lemming watches for cliffs.”

“Er, yeah. Not sure what that means but, see you soon. I hope,” she switched off and turned attention back to the pointy eared Engineered Life Form walking in front of her. “What are you supposed to be anyway? A Vulcan?”

“Vulcan? W-why would you think that?” Aerie turned back to her, tilting her head and raising her right eyebrow so that a neat question mark could be drawn straight across her face, with her small round lips making the dot. Obviously, she didn’t understand the reference. “I… I wish there were some Vulcan’s here,” she muttered. “They’d know how to deal with Kalah.”

A look of realization spread across Imoen’s face. She didn’t know why hadn’t realized it before, it had been so obvious from the beginning.

“You are an alien, aren’t you?” She said.

“I’m not from this planet, if that’s what you mean,” Aerie said like it was no big deal.

“I knew it! All that stuff about Engineered Life Forms was a cover because they’d found an actual alien.”

“Impossible,” Yoshimo protested, shaking his head. “Look at her… the chances of a life form evolving on other planet to so closely resemble a human being are none at all.”

“My entire race was created by aliens called the Seldarine,” Aerie explained, again her voice was a long way away. “I think it likely they based our design on your species. Earth would have been the greatest discovery in my people’s history… i-if I could have told them about it. But it’s not important now.”

“Not important?!” Imoen had to restrain herself from jumping up and down. “You’re a real live alien… that’s like the most important thing ever. People will want to know.”

“I suppose. I-if I may ask, ma’am, who would be interested in rescuing me?”

“Oh… they call themselves Project ELF or something.”

“I see,” Aerie looked down sadly, clearly enthused by who her rescuers were.

“You know them?”

“Yes. They were the people who had me originally. They…” she suddenly trailed off. “It’s not important. What’s important is helping Quayle.”

Imoen zipped up her lip for the time being. But she felt giddy, like a little kid again. It had been a long time since she’d felt like that. There were a million questions waiting to be asked about life on other planets, alien culture… and these people, they just locked her up in a cage? What the hell were they thinking? If people knew for sure that there were aliens maybe they’d stop fighting amongst themselves for a bit and stop to really think about themselves.

“Perhaps they thought people would panic if they knew,” Yoshimo reasoned.

“Maybe people would,” Imoen answered, “If the aliens were scaly green octopuses who turned up in flying saucers above the White House. But Aerie just seems like an ordinary sweet girl. A little on the thin side, but really not someone people would be afraid of.”

“I doubt many people would believe she was an alien. They’d claim she was hoax, at most the product of some clever genetic engineering.”

“The covers perfect, isn’t it?”

“I’m not yet convinced it is a cover.”

Aerie led them through more corridors that looked much the same as all the others. A person could go mad forced to stay in a place like this. But Aerie seemed nice enough. Odd perhaps, but nice. Eventually she led them into a room lit by a few battery powered lamps. There they found a woman with reddish-brown hair wearing a business outfit with short skirt, too short really, but it seemed to have worn better than Aerie’s dress. The woman was crouched in a corner weeping to her self, glancing up briefly when the blonde entered the room.

“You were supposed to bring food,” she cried, “I’m so hungry…”

“I’m sincerely sorry ma’am,” Aerie explained. “I… I met some people…”

“Who…” the woman jumped up when she saw the newcomers and tried to compose herself, straightening her skirt and jacket and making a useless effort to get her hair close to presentable. “Did the company send you? I’m a member of the board. You have to get me out of this place!”

“Miss Hannah, I presume,” Yoshimo bowed again like he was meeting royalty.

“Hannah Morgan, yes,” she suddenly started eyeing them both suspiciously.

“Aerie tells us she’s an alien,” Imoen said in conversational tone. Hannah shot the blonde a sharp look.

“I-I thought it was best to tell the truth, ma’am,” Aerie tried to avoid the woman’s gaze.

“The company didn’t send you, did it?” Hannah sighed. “Very well. The army found her and her ship in Arizona about thirty six years ago. The ship was damaged beyond repair.”

“How?” Imoen asked Aerie. “Did you crash?”

‘Er… no,” the blonde alien flushed. “I-it’s embarrassing, really. It seems I landed in the middle of some maneuvers.”

“The government locked her up right away,” Hannah went on. “She couldn’t speak a word of English at first, but when she could talk she said she’d been responding to some sort of distress call.”

“It’s true. I received a signal through witch-space coming from this planet, but… I couldn’t pin point the source.”

“They questioned her for a while then locked her in a cell in one of their secret research facilities and forgot all about her for the next twenty years. Then we… acquired her and the probe.”

“You mean you kidnapped her,” Imoen corrected. “And Project ELF is a branch of the government?”

“Of course… I suppose they sent you. Look, I don’t care what you do with her,” Hannah gestured towards Aerie. “I just want to get off this island and see my son. I can pay you anything you want.”

Imoen frowned on the woman who was so quick to completely abandon the person who had obviously been keeping her alive all this time. She turned to Aerie, finding the aliens selfless nature far more worthy of her respect than Miss Miniskirt.

“So, what’s all this Engineered Life Form stuff?” The red head asked.

“Like I told you, my race was created by the Seldarine,” Aerie explained. “All of their scientific knowledge and the knowledge of my ancestors is in me… flashed into my brain while I grew in my pod. I… I told the scientists here about how we’re made. How the Mother computers select our genes, and… the creature that attacked you was the result.”

“I still don’t really get why you were protecting one of them.”

“Y-you have to understand… what they did wasn’t really their fault. They were just so angry at the way they’d been treated. The scientists didn’t really know what they were doing. Those poor creatures… their bodies are so twisted that every second of life is agony to them. And it’s my fault… I should never have told them anything.”

“Admittedly we may have acted too hastily in the creation of those monstrosities,” Hannah said.

“At least, when Quayle came, the focus was shifted to medical research,” the blonde brightened up a bit. “Some good has come of my time here. I’ve helped to cure many diseases that thousands of humans used to die of. Have you heard of Drakes disease? We made the cure here three years ago.”

“I’ve heard of it,” Imoen’s eyes started boring into Hannah. The woman started flinching. “I’ve never heard of any cure though.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Aerie looked between the two women, positively bewildered.

“I know you don’t,” Imoen placed a consoling hand on her shoulder. “I suppose our behavior must seem alien to you. So why don’t we let Miss Hannah explain it?”

“We just… more tests needed to be done,” Hannah insisted while Imoen started bearing down on her.

“Bull!” The red head snapped. Hannah backed away, only to bump into Yoshimo. “You just weren’t interested in selling a cure, not while you’re making so much money selling people medicines that only make the sickness last longer.”

“B-but, why make a cure at all if they don’t intend to use it?” Aerie asked.

“So that they can patent it and make sure no-one else has it,” Imoen answered, while the blonde’s heart sank all the way to her knees.

“I still don’t… I still don’t understand. D-did Quayle know about this?”

“He’s barely aware of what goes on in the same room as him, so no,” Hannah said, “Look, I wanted to release the cure, I did! But the other members of the board voted against it. They’re to blame!”

“You’re making me very angry,” Imoen said and it was true. She’d never felt this angry before. You know the phrase ‘seeing red’… see literally was. Selfishness… greed… the human race at its worst … she thought about shooting the woman through, even though she knew she would never do it. But some voice, from somewhere, gave her a much better idea. “Do you keep samples of the diseases here in your lab?”

“What? Why?!”

“I’m thinking maybe it would help you if you had a deadline…”

“You wouldn’t…” She looked like she was going to run but Yoshimo grabbed her arms and held her fast, displaying a surprising amount of physical strength for his size.

“Wouldn’t I? I don’t know… I know I want to be a good person, but earlier I tried to kill a living thing even though it was running away from me. I’m not a hundred per cent sure what I can or will do.”

“How dare you assume the moral high ground!” Hannah stood up to the red head defiantly. The knowledge there was no way out – Aerie had slumped against the wall again staring into space, trying in vain to make sense of things – had apparently made her brave. “How much are they paying you, hmm? How much is the alien worth? That’s the only reason you came here isn’t it?”

“That’s… just… well,” Imoen stammered out. The woman certainly raised a good point. Altruism certainly hadn’t been her motive. “Just shut up!” She said and punched Hannah in the jaw. The woman’s eyes rolled back and she slumped unconscious to the floor.

Both she and Yoshimo spent a moment staring at her fist. She’d never knocked anyone out before, not like that. It was as if something else guided her hand so that it struck the right spot…

“I… I don’t know what came over me,” the red head shrugged sheepishly.




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