Alien vs. Alien

Because everything still looks . . . active.” It did. The screens were still showing their images, the computers and such had stopped going haywire and appeared to be running, even the big servers.
    “Hurry,” Naomi said through gritted teeth. “It’s harder to keep this going than it looks.”
    “Com on! Walter! Need some help here!”
    “On it, Chief.” No sooner said than a large number of A-Cs arrived and started plugging things in to what appeared to be portable generators. More came in with what looked like telecommunications apparatus.
    “Not that I mind, but how did so many agents become available?”
    “Sent over from Imageering Main,” William shared. “They’re always the last imageers pulled into Field situations.”
    “And because you didn’t use the gate, Chief, they were able to come through without delay,” Walter added. “Embassy shield is back at full power.”
    “Okey-dokey, good job, and keep the com line open.”
    “Will do, Chief.”
    Everyone did what they could to speed things up, but being A-Cs, they were done quickly even without the additional hands. Hacker International confirmed all their stuff was working. But Naomi and Abigail still looked taxed. “What hasn’t been reconnected?”
    “The gate,” Abigail replied.
    “Wow, you brought the gate, too?”
    “It was in the room. We left the bathroom, though.”
    “Wise choice. So, um, what do we do about the gate?”
    William zipped over to the server box containing the gate. “Hang on, I think I can fix it so that it’ll function like a stable floater.” A couple of other agents went to help him. “Okay, let go.”
    Naomi and Abigail relaxed, took deep breaths, and let them out slowly. “I don’t want to have to do that again,” Naomi said.
    “Was it a big power drain?”
    She shook her head. “Not as bad as it could have been. But controlling all the electrical and information and so on isn’t easy.”
    Abigail nodded. “I just wasn’t sure we’d be able to react in time.”
    “You girls did great, and now isn’t the time to start doubting your abilities.” We had had enough of that already. “Do you need to go into isolation or anything?”
    Naomi shook her head. “We need to be quiet and meditate.”
    “That’ll be easy.”
    The Gower girls both laughed, then they moved a few feet away, sat down, and appeared to become one with the mystic forces. Or they went to sleep. Being personally quite poor with meditation, I couldn’t tell. Decided there were more pressing things that needed my attention. “Eddy, talk to me. Are we up and running as if we never stopped?”
    “Close to, yeah.”
    “Super. Walt, ensure that whatever electronic information we’re getting is being housed here and sent to Home Base, NASA Base, and any other Base it makes sense to go to for backup and analysis.”
    “On it, Chief.”
    “Excellent. Will, is that gate really functioning?” If we could keep the gate here, then we saved valuable seconds if we had to evacuate again and the Gower girls weren’t ready.
    “Yes, I think so, though no personnel have tried it yet.”
    “How did they know where you were?” Franklin asked. “That bunker was secured, and yet they took it down as if it were a cardboard box.”
    “Tell me the President’s bunker is more secure than that one was.”
    “I hope so.Std">“e se="-1" fac Franklin didn’t sound convinced.
    “The electronic trail,” Big George said. “That’s how they found you. Who else would be looking at what you’ve had us investigating?”
    “Yeah, I agree. You gave us the printouts so whoever’s been keeping nasty files on us and away from Chuckie wouldn’t know who had that intelligence. However, it must have triggered a destruction mechanism or sent a destruction order.”
    “That sounds like Esteban’s work,” Armstrong said. “And to reassure everyone, the President’s bunker is far more secure than the one we just escaped.”
    “Good.” My mother was there. I cared about the President and everyone else who would be down there, but not like I cared about Mom. Whom I even more desperately wanted to talk to. Mom wasn’t here. However, it was time to do what she’d taughtme and keep things moving. “Can we get eyes on Andrews and the One World Festival?”
    “We don’t have the spare screens,” Stryker said.
    “We will have in a moment, Chief,” Walter shared. “Last contingent from Imageering Main on their way, with extra equipment