Baldur’s Gate Heroes #007
Carnival, Part Four
They ended up dragging Hannah into another room and locking the door. Yoshimo seemed disappointed that he didn’t get to tie her up, but Imoen had already creeped herself out too much and decided it was fair to give her a chance to get away should those creatures break in. Besides, Aerie, who had just discovered that all of her time spent trapped in this facility had been meaningless, recovered from her shock and asked that they not harm the woman, as she had been told to keep her safe. Imoen got the feeling that the blonde definitely would try to stop them if she attempted to carry out her threat. The alien had so far proven completely dedicated to someone called Quayle whilst regarding her own life as pretty worthless – something Imoen would liked to have corrected her on, but it would have to wait.
“ Take my hand …” that sounded like Minsc, singing, or something close to that anyway. “ I’m a stranger in paradise …” the sound reverberated through the sterile grey walls of the facility and through the very bones of those hearing it. By the looks of them, Aerie’s ears were probably more sensitive than everybody else’s. It was a good job this wasn’t her first contact with humans, or she might have assumed this was some sort of sonic attack.
“It’s just Minsc,” Imoen explained through her gritted teeth. She’d always known the cyborg was a little… unusual, but she’d never known him to be quite this stupid. And then she remembered – when they’d adventured together before Dynaheir had almost always been at his side. She was probably the only being able to control him.
“ If I stand starry-eyed… That's a danger in paradise… For mortals who stand beside an angel like… ” finally he halted by the door and Imoen was relieved to see he at least remembered to bring weapons. He had two large sacks over each arm, each one containing a range of rifles, machine guns, grenade and rocket launchers…
“Impressive,” Yoshimo said, “looks like he’s brought Great Britain’s entire military arsenal.”
“Pfff… I hope he’s brought more than that,” said Imoen, “we’re going to need more than two kid’s catapults and a ‘super-soaker’.”
And after another important contribution to international relations, Imoen remembered she was still very angry with the Russian. The huge man wasn’t paying her attention though. He’d scanned the room quickly with his cybernetic eye which then came to rest on Aerie. The blonde returned his starry-eyed stare with a look of extreme curiosity… but in fact, most of that was directed towards the hamster sat up on Minsc’s shoulder.
“Hey!” Imoen flapped her arms and jumped to get the cyborg’s attention. “Singing?! Why don’t we just phone ahead, let the bad guys know where we’re staying and what time we’ll be over to visit!” Minsc slowly turned his neck, a red beam from his cyber eye apparently targeting her forehead. Imoen gulped and stepped away, thinking maybe she’d gone too far. “Or… you know, you can sing if you want to,” she said in a nervous hurry, “but, um… could you do it quietly? Please?”
“It’s okay,” Aerie stepped forward, concerned by the sudden change in atmosphere, “The… the labs are all sound-proofed. I doubt Kalah will have heard anything.”
“What about the other creatures?” Yoshimo reminded her.
“Minsc has encountered no signs of life,” the big man informed them.
“I-I don’t why they’re being so quiet,” Aerie said, “It is very odd… but they are the least of our worries. Um… w-what is that?”
“What is what?”
“L-like a rat, b-but smaller and has no tail…”
“Boo is no rat!” Minsc spoke up on his furry friends behalf, rather offended. “Boo is… is Boo!”
“Oh… o-of course,” Aerie said as if that had explained everything, “I’m sorry. I meant no offense… to either of you. My name is Aerie.”
The Russian silently whispered to Boo, who responded with a few twitches of his whiskers. It seemed they were conferring, and then Minsc turned to address the alien, “Boo accepts your apology.”
“Thank you,” Aerie had a trace of a smile on a face that seemed far more accustomed to frowning.
“You’ve never seen a hamster before?” Imoen grinned. Her face had been used to smiling but hadn’t really for some time. It had to be great, didn’t it? To be able to see everything in the world as new and interesting, perhaps even still have hope that there are some things in it which are truly good and wonderful.
“I’m afraid I have seen very little of the indigenous life on your world… b-but now you must see what Kalah has done for yourselves. It may convince you to leave this place,” Aerie said hopefully then turned to the bronze bird she called ‘Ammale’ and uttered to it some instructions in what presumably was an alien language.
It responded by opening its beak and a hollow tube slid out. Yoshimo and Minsc started reaching for weapons but Imoen held them back. Apart from trying to stop Imoen from taking a life, Aerie had expressed no desire to harm anyone so far. Quite the opposite in fact.
Again, the red heads instincts paid off. The tube projected a beam of light and the room filled with stars.
“N’uma!” Aerie tapped Ammale with a screwdriver. “You are playing the wrong file.”
“Nice,” Imoen passed her hand through a holographic image of Earth that appeared in front of her, “These your home movies?”
“H-home…” The blonde tilted her head to ponder the phrase. “I suppose… w-when Ammale encounters potentially intelligent life forms he was programmed to show them this to explain where we came from.”
“So I was right, again. I said it was a probe. And you’ve been completely wrong about everything,” she stuck her tongue out at Yoshimo, who remained impassive, as ever.
“You are indeed wise, ma’am,” Aerie was poking inside Ammale with her screwdriver and tiny tweezers.
“Yeah, I know. It gets embarrassing sometimes,” Imoen said very humbly, “But, less of the ‘ma’am’ please… wow…”
The ‘camera’ started zooming out, right out. Away from Earth, past Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the funny one… all the way out of the solar system. It panned around the stars and centered on one, then started to zoom in on that. Imoen expected it to go into another star system, but as the speck became she saw it was a ship with a silvery hull and shaped like a sword. She had no point of reference, but it had to be huge. As it rotated to show the top side she saw many ivory towers rising from the floor and between were lakes and crystalline forests, all covered by a shimmering blue dome.
“You didn’t come from another planet,” Imoen deducted, “this is your home?”
“Y-yes,” the blonde continued her work with Ammale, not turning to look at the image. No… not wanting to. “It is… it is Faenya-Dail, city ship of the Avariel,” a single tear escaped Aerie’s eye as she spoke. Imoen stepped around the hologram, placing a hand gently on her shoulder.
“You can’t go back there, can you?” The red head said. And as she did so she noticed that, for the first time, Yoshimo gave something away. Her interaction with Aerie clearly disturbed him, even if it only showed for an instant. Perhaps he was still hoping to be paid for handing her over to people they now knew would treat her no better than those here. That, however, would be harder to do if they started to realize the ‘thing’ they were trading was actually a person with feelings, emotions, dreams like your own.
“No… i-it’s impossible now,” Aerie pressed some things inside Ammale and the image started to change. “But this is what you should look at now.”
The hologram was now of the sterile corridors inside the facility. A group of guards had positioned themselves behind a barricade while men and women in lab coats ran by them wearing expressions of horror and desperation. Then another man in a lab coat, at least the remains of one, appeared. He had orange skin and had to be about eight feet tall. He cut down the ones fleeing with tongues of flame that leapt from his fingertips reducing everything to ashes on contact. The guard’s guns had no effect and they too were unable to avoid the same fate. They were shown other images, but they all showed much the same thing happening. When it was over, Imoen shook her head.
“Just once I’d like to meet a super villain who isn’t immune to bullets,” she quipped. Unfortunately doing so didn’t raise her confidence any. “Please tell me that these seraphine…”
“Seldarine,” Aerie immediately corrected.
“Whatever… tell me they gave you knowledge of how to stop him.”
“They did…”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Un-unfortunately, the technology necessary is not here.”
“Not so good.”
“But… I-I think I can weaken him… perhaps enough so that your weapons can penetrate his shield.”
“Getting better.”
“Please explain,” Yoshimo said to Aerie, “I believe we should know exactly what this Kalah is.”
“I… t-there is a realm, another plane or dimension if you prefer. Here there are no stars or planets or the space in-between… it is like an infinite ocean of pure energy we call the witch space. A-at least that’s a fairly close translation of what we call it.”
“Sure you didn’t just make it up to sound cool?” Imoen winked knowingly.
“Cool?” Aerie made her question face. “I’m afraid I don’t understand that word in this context…”
“Continue,” Yoshimo was getting impatient.
“Yes… we, draw on this energy to power much of our technology. But we can also channel it through our own bodies, using our thoughts to give it shape and form in this reality. To do this, we need to be in contact with a certain crystal.”
“That’s what Kalah had on his head?” Imoen piped in, remembering the blue spot she’d seen in the hologram.
“You’re correct yet again… m-ma’am.”
“But I take it you guys don’t go all… orange, right?” Imoen realized she would have to let ‘ma’am’ go for now.
“No… you see, the witch space is also inhabited by a variety of creatures. When a mind enters it trying to use its power… these s-spirits, raukos, seek it out and try to enter them. The Seldarine created us all with a certain gene that makes our minds invisible to them, so we can use the power safely.”
“But Kalah didn’t.”
“I cannot stop it… and I fear it is too late to do anything to save Kalah now. In…in time, the rauko will possess his body completely. Once it does, my peoples experience suggests that it will leave this place and begin to feed.”
“Feed?”
“It will… c-consume the minds of any living creature it comes across, becoming more and more powerful. I wish there was another way, but… I… b-believe that, Kalah, needs to be killed… in order to protect the lives of all the other inhabitants of your world. D-do you still want to help, now that you know the danger?”
“Stop bad guy… save the world,” Imoen yawned theatrically, “it beats flipping burgers, I guess. Besides, be honest Aerie, what are chances of you succeeding if you take Kalah on by yourself?”
“Very slim,” Aerie admitted, “But, I-I must warn you… even with all your help I doubt the odds will be significantly improved.”
“With Minsc’s strength and Boo’s hamster cunning, it is impossible for us to fail!” The big Russian roared, excited that today’s deeds would be more heroic than he had anticipated. No-one else quite felt his confidence, but Aerie was already committed to her cause and Imoen knew she couldn’t just leave. Or could she? Well, part of her maybe could but the part currently in control said she couldn’t leave anyone in trouble.
“There would be little point in being paid if there is no world left to enjoy it in,” Yoshimo made another excellent point. Imoen knew from experience that the world was facing apocalypses all the time. It would be a major downside to her day if one happened that she had a chance to stop. Somewhere along the way however, it seemed a vote had been taken while she was absent and she’d been put in charge of this expedition. Everyone waited for her to give the final word.
“Well, no point standing here like soufflés, is there?” The red head said. “Lock and load peeps.”
***
Imoen, now brandishing an assault rifle, checked out the stairwell. There were about three levels below her and nine up. There was absolutely zero light reaching them in here, so it was back to night vision glasses. Except for Minsc, who had that sort of thing built in. And Aerie… well, she wasn’t exactly sure how Aerie was able to see. Through the glasses the alien’s eyes looked like they were emitting a kind of light. It was kind of spooky. Yoshimo had also taken a rifle, while Minsc held up a mini-gun with about as much effort as it took ordinary men to lift a feather.
“Looks clear,” the red head informed everyone.
“We must ascend seven levels to reach Kalah,” Aerie said and started heading up. She seemed to have no fear of those engineered creatures. She’d explained that after the first day this all started, they spent most of their time hunting the rats that escaped and seemed uninterested in her or Hannah. She reasoned Imoen must have startled the one she saw, although Imoen insisted that it was the other way round. Still, Aerie conceded that it was odd they hadn’t seen any more of them.
“Isn’t that thing heavy?” Imoen asked her as they went up. She referred to the device Aerie held in front of her.
The alien had spent her time since this all started hunting down bits of computer and other components and building them up into a roughly cylindrical device almost as big as her own torso. She held it up via two handlebars she had attached to each side. This, she had told them, would transmit a kind of signal that would interfere with Kalah’s link to witch space. It wouldn’t turn off his powers completely but he would be able to channel far less energy than he could before. It was the best she could do with what was available.
“Allow Minsc to take your burden,” the big man offered, but Aerie turned away.
“No… I can… I-I will manage, thank you,” the blonde said determinedly, but she was starting to pant already. It was obvious the thing was too heavy for her, but she struggled up about two levels with it before finally she couldn’t manage anymore and had to sit. Imoen immediately called for the others to halt.
“Listen Aerie,” the red head crouched next to the alien, placing a friendly hand on her shoulder. “Now, you may be smarter than any human alive today, but you’re really like a kid in other ways, aren’t you?” She noticed the smirk from Yoshimo, letting her know how rich he thought that was. Imoen stuck her tongue out at him. Aerie sagged a bit.
“I don’t… I mean, I-I just wanted…” Aerie couldn’t finish her thought. Despite all her knowledge, it was obvious she had trouble expressing herself and had to think carefully about every word. Perhaps it would be easier for her if they all could speak alien, but Imoen spoke no other language but English. Unless jazz was a language, but the only saxophone she’d ever had ended up as a brass paperweight. Minsc claimed it was an accident.
“I don’t mean it in a bad way,” Imoen handed Aerie a flask, not bothering to think if aliens even drank water. Could be water was deadly to them, but she suspected that only ever happened in bad sci-fi films. Since the Seldarine based their creations on humans, probably most of their bodily functions were the same. It turned out, Aerie was thirsty. Imoen couldn’t recall a day when she’d been right so often. Just a shame the world was going to end.
“Really,” she carried on, “if I ever had kids I wish they would be like you. Good, smart, polite and well behaved… But I’ll probably have kids who are selfish, snotty nosed little brats, which will be my own fault, really. I’ll spoil them because I never had a chance to be with my real parents. I’d end up having to love them because they’re mine, but I could never like them really. I like you though. Do you think I’m rambling a bit?” Aerie nodded, her jaw hanging open. “Yeah… I’ll get back to the point then. I know you think that all the nasty stuff that’s happened here is your own fault somehow, and so you have to be the one to fix it. But you’re not going to be able to help anybody if you’re all pooped out before we even get up there. So, why don’t you just let Minsc carry the box? There’ll be other ways you can help.”
Aerie stared at her strangely for a moment, and then tentatively took Imoen’s hand, allowing the red head to pull her to her feet. “All… alright,” she agreed.
They made much faster progress then, and it wasn’t long at all before they were all standing outside the door Kalah’s laboratory. In the circumstances, perhaps some ominous gothic looking archway would have been more appropriate. But it was just another rather nondescript door. Well, it was metal and looked pretty solid, but not really out of the ordinary. It did present a huge problem though, since it was the only way in or out of the room. Aerie’s device weakened Kalah, but he might still have enough power to cut them all down as they tried to funnel through the entrance.
“I will go in first,” Aerie said.
“You really should stop treating suicide like it’s a hobby,” Imoen said, prompting yet another strange look from the alien.
“Kalah… doesn’t know you’re here. And, I don’t think he will kill me. Not… right away, anyway. He killed everyone else here, but left me and Quayle alive.”
“Why?”
“I… I don’t know. But I think this is our only chance… I-I’ll make sure he faces away from the door so that you can come in after me.”
“Alright,” Imoen didn’t like it, but had to agree with Aerie’s assessment. “But you just distract him, got it? Don’t take any risks. When we start shooting, then see if you can free your friend.”
“You should activate the device as soon as I go in,” Aerie was about to go, but Imoen grabbed her.
“Wait… you haven’t told us how to work it.”
“Um… t-there are two buttons, which I have taken the liberty of labeling.”
Imoen looked at the cylinder, which Minsc easily held aloft in one hand. On the top were the two buttons, with the words ‘OFF’ and ‘ON’ written on them. What a way to make the earthlings feel even more stupid.
“Okay, thanks. We’ll figure it out,” Imoen smiled. “Be careful kid.”
Aerie nodded and made her way across the hall to the door. As she did, Imoen examined the controls and experimentally pressed the button marked ‘ON’, getting a satisfied hum from the device in response. Yoshimo had already removed one of the nearby wall panels uncovering pipes and wiring and they placed the device amongst it, sealing it back up.
Imoen then followed Aerie, lying on the floor next to the door just as the blonde opened it. She took a periscope from amongst her gear and peered into the lab.
“I knew you would come to me, eventually… Servant of the Seldarine,” that had to be this Kalah they’d heard so much about. His voice was deep, booming, about what you’d expect except for a slight wheezing. The orange giant stood in the center of the room, having to bend his neck for his head touched the ceiling. Quayle, to Aerie’s right, had been driven up the wall by him, literally. A small spark seemed to be holding him in place.
“A-aerie?” The old researcher said, as if he didn’t quite believe it. “I told you to get away…”
“Shut up old man!” Kalah waved, and then examined Aerie with a lurid smile on his face. “You belong to me now.”
“Kalah,” Aerie immediately began stepping to he left, slowly circling the monster. “Whatever the rauko has told you is a lie… it… it will kill you, and then everyone else it can find.”
“It will…” Kalah’s face showed signs of struggle. For a moment, it seemed like he might listen, but then he started to laugh. “No… desperate words… from a weak creature who fears my power. But you belong to me. You will live… to serve me.”
“I will not serve the creature inside you.”
“You will,” Kalah waved a hand again, this time Quayle’s body started to convulse as waves of energy passed through him. “You will… or I will kill the old man.”
“Alright! Stop it, please!” Aerie begged, and Kalah acquiesced. “I-I don’t understand… why do you want… me?”
“He… mocked me, this little man. Said I was no good… but… I can be as… good… as him.”
“You… y-you want me because Quayle had me? Despite all this power you have, you’re still… jealous?” Aerie had almost reached the opposite side of the room by this point. Imoen and Yoshimo silently shot through the doorway, taking cover behind some overturned desks.
“I… had to succeed. Father… demanded it,” was the monster crying? His voice sounded like he was in pain somehow. “But, I could not. They… they all laughed. Called me… incompetent. But I proved them wrong,” Kalah pointed to the tiny crystal fused to his head. “I made it work… for me.”
“You did,” Aerie nodded sadly, “But, y-you killed them. You will not change their hearts now. You… have proven yourself to no-one.”
“NO!” Kalah let out an agonized roar, forcing the blonde backwards.
“Y-you are trying to fight it, aren’t you?” Aerie tentatively reached out.
“It… it is too strong. It… wants me to kill… destroy…” Kalah roared again, his huge hands rising up to clutch at his temples. The spark holding Quayle vanished allowing the old man to slip to the floor.
“I truly am sorry,” Aerie’s eyes flooded with tears, “I-I wish… there was a way to help you. Were it possible to contact my people…”
“ What have you done? ” Kalah screamed. Imoen took it that the device was working, so she and Yoshimo sat up and took aim, not that it was possible to miss him.
“There’s no other way,” the small blonde wept, “I’m… I’m sorry.”
She ran to her left towards Quayle, and the guns began to rattle and splutter out their bullets. Kalah screamed and stumbled forwards, but refused to fall to the floor. The bullets were reaching him, but didn’t seem to be penetrating very far beneath his skin, and where they did leave a mark the wound immediately began to close itself.
Aerie helped the bewildered Quayle up, and supported him around the room and out through the door. Kalah managed to turn himself around and roared. With a slap to his chest he began to advance on the two shooting at him, but then saw something which gave him cause to pause.
Minsc appeared in the doorway, his weapon began to spin and whir. Kalah shook violently with the impacts and the cyborg continued to advance, allowing Imoen and Yoshimo to escape behind him and not following them until the monster finally fell on his back shaking the entire room.
Yoshimo, clearly realizing there was no such thing as overkill in this case, pulled the pin from a grenade and chucked back inside.
“Down!” Imoen pulled Aerie and Quayle to the floor. The explosion sent a tremor through the entire facility and blew a lot of heat, dust and debris into the corridor. When it had cleared she cautiously peered back into the lab.
“Holy…” through the smoke she could make out Kalah. Bleeding and badly charred along with everything else inside. But he was still breathing. His hand twitched suddenly, then flattened itself on the ground and he began turning himself over and to rise to his feet. “That’s it… run!”
Everyone agreed that was a very good idea. They’d made it back to the stairwell when they had a high pitched wailing. It didn’t take long for Imoen to find the source. Far down the corridor, somehow clinging to the ceiling, was one of the Engineered Life Forms.
“Startled it, did we?” Imoen gave a slight sneer. The creature was soon joined by its buddies, until there was a group of nine of them at each end of the corridor.
“Th-they have simple minds,” Aerie said, “Kalah… must have learnt how to influence them.”
“Yeah, well, why the hell have we stopped running? Move!” And everyone agreed that was a very good idea.
