Satyr Play 03 Pt. 02

"Several of the floor crew claim to have seen rainbows wrestling inside the smelting chamber and dancing across the whole building."

Ted glanced at Mike incredulously. "What? Were they high?"

They watched the metal running down the channel as the pot continued to tip and pour.

"Apparently not. Medics checked them out. They're getting a few days off, just in case."

"Shit! I'd claim to see rainbows for that!" Ted chuckled.

He heard Lee up in the crane booth squawk his radio, so he lifted it from his belt.

"What's up, Lee?"

"Ted, I got some weird vibrations coming through the crane. I'm seeing a good connection, but- SHIT!"

Ted watched a surge of molten steel gush from the spout.

"Ted! It's going over! The balance is all fucked up!" Lee yelled over the radio, and Ted slapped the alarm button on the wall behind him.

Lights began flashing, and a loud klaxon wailed. Ted saw his floor team start running towards the exits. "Get out of there, Lee!" he yelled into the radio and was relieved to see the man leave the crane's control booth and run along the catwalk.

His eyes were drawn to the opening of the ladle as... something was moving in the liquid metal!

"What the fuck is THAT?!?" Mike yelled.

Something large and glowing was climbing out of the opening. It suddenly tipped forward and fell, striking the floor below with a massive thump that shook the building. Ted and Mike were thrown to the floor. They looked at each other in shock, then scrambled to their feet and rushed from the control room, racing down the stairs to get to the exit. They stopped to direct the workers outside and looked back. A large creature was struggling to right itself. It was tearing the shit out of the surrounding equipment and concrete it was lying on.

Ted struggled to understand what he was looking at. Its body was roughly shaped like an eggplant, only it was the size of one of those subcompact cars. It seemed to have three thick limbs, each ending with a wide paddle. He couldn't see any eyes, but it did have a cluster of hairs on the top of its head, and a jagged tear of a mouth and its squealing was horrifying. Like metal plates scraping together, the noise cut through Ted and jangled his nerves.

The last few people from the floor crew raced by, and Ted frowned. "Did you see Lee?" he yelled to Mike and saw the man shake his head. Then Ted spotted the man in question wearing a silver suit on the opposite side of the thrashing thing. He was trapped, and the thing seemed like it was about to right itself. Ted noticed it wasn't glowing as brightly as it had been. That gave him an idea.

The creature somehow seemed to notice Lee and slowly started dragging itself towards the man. Its screeches took on a different tone, which to Ted sounded aggressive.

"Mike! Help me!" Ted yelled and ran deeper into the plant, closer to the monster. As he reached the fire equipment station, he turned and saw Mike was a fair distance back. He saw he didn't have much time as the thing was closing on Lee.

Ted grabbed the fire nozzle and pulled the pin to release the hose. He began hauling the hose closer until Mike and two of his crew got behind him as a third man opened the valve.

They struggled to hold the hose as the water blasted out and struck the ground at the thing's... feet.

The cold water exploded into steam when it splashed up against the superheated surface.

It screamed.

The sound it made before paled in comparison. It was deafening. It was terrifying. It shattered two of their helpers' nerve, one on the hose and the man at the valve. They turned and ran.

With only three people to hold the hose, they were having trouble directing it. When the creature turned to charge them, Ted leaned back and managed to tip the torrent of water up to score a direct hit in its horrible maw. The sounds it was making immediately stopped, and it rocked back.

Lee saw his opportunity and made a run for it.

The creature slammed one of its paddle-like appendages against the floor just behind the running man causing him to lose his footing and take a nasty tumble. The next strike would flatten Lee to paste, and it raised its arm for a second attempt.

Ted, Mike, and the crewman held the spray on the area under the raised limb until it seemed to freeze in place.

Steam continued to pour off the creature, so they concentrated on the area of its 'head' as the water dripping down its body was doing damage as well.

The beast slammed a 'hand' down on the concrete floor, striking edge-on in a chopping motion as if attacking the incoming spray. The floor split in a massive crack under their feet, and the men were knocked down, losing their grip on the hose. It spun crazily as they dragged themselves from its path.

Ted got to his feet and saw the creature's hand seemed to be stuck in the floor. He dashed forward and got an arm around Lee. They moved as fast as they could, avoiding the hose as well. They joined up with Mike and the crewman and hustled Lee away as quickly as they could.

Suddenly there was a flash of light, and the ground heaved under them. They all fell forward onto the floor. Looking back, they saw the creature was gone, and a crater in the concrete was all that was left.

The crane gave way, and the ladle hit the ground with a massive thump, and the remaining liquid metal poured out with three roundish orbs.

"Oh my god. It-it laid eggs in the molten steel?" Ted gasped.

"The eggs are moving! We need to call in the army!" Mike exclaimed as he got up and helped Lee to his feet as well.

"Nah, just the fire department," Ted replied as they hustled towards the exit.

-=-

"We're getting really odd readings from the caldera. I'm going to send a drone up for some pictures," Freyja Remeksdóttir said quietly as she peered closely at her laptop screen. The vibrations being recorded didn't match anything she's seen before. Freyja was a volcanologist from Iceland, currently traveling with five fellow volcanologists on a tour of some of the world's most active sites.

They were currently in Columbia, studying the Galeras volcano, which once again was showing signs of activity.

"Most of the drones are down for battery recharging after last night's light show," Magnús Kristjánsson complained. He was her life partner and official technical support crew, how she justified including him on this field study trip. He was highly gifted with the equipment they used, so she didn't feel too bad about choosing him over one of the junior techs from her university.

At dawn, Freyja and Magnús hiked up to the observation site, which was as close as they could safely get without protective suits. From here, the team could launch their drones and still be within range for controlling them. Freyja was set up on a small table, and Magnús was currently unpacking his gear.

He glanced over at her and barely contained his snort of amusement as she'd decided to wear the birthday present he'd bought for her. Her short blonde hair was tied back under a brightly colored kerchief with the new GoPro clipped to a headband, looking very much like a third eye on her forehead. He thought she looked adorable.

The light show he'd spoken of had been captured by five of the team's drones, sent up by Russian volcanologist, Pavel Morozov. He had twenty-five minutes of video showing rainbows twisting and stretching wildly on and above the active peak. They were still trying to explain how that light energy might have been created, and the theories were wild and varied. The arguments became heated, and Pavel had a lovely black eye this morning while their German volcanologist, Rolf Keller, had his hand in a make-shift cast. Bruised face or not, Pavel was giddy with the idea of the fame he'd achieved with his unique videos.

His words finally sinking in, Freyja looked to her husband in dismay. "We don't have a drone?"

He grinned at her. "I didn't say that. I have our drone, which I didn't hand over to Pavel last night. Greedy bastard didn't need any more drones." She grinned at him, so he continued. "It's fully charged, wearing its heat shields, and ready to go." The shielding was an invention he'd come up to allow their drone to withstand the conditions found in the caldera of a volcano, for short periods at least. It was another reason he hadn't loaned the drone to Pavel.

He turned on the camera and checked the feed. The signal was strong, the recording was working, and all systems were go. With a loud whine, the props spun up to speed, and up it went. Magnús expertly controlled the flying camera platform as Freyja sat next to him, watching the screen intently. She reached up and activated the GoPro, and he couldn't suppress his snort then. She playfully pouted and poked him for teasing her.

"Pavel was bragging he was going to sell the video to a film producer friend of his," he muttered as he carefully navigated around some hot spots and moved the drone closer to the lip of the caldera. "Seriously, he was getting very graphic about what he was going to do with all the pussy his friend was going to throw his way."

"The man's a troll," Freyja agreed.

Magnús agreed the term was a good match for the physical reality of the man. Still, the man was happy and not moping as he so often did. That made him a little more bearable. Maybe he wouldn't stare at Freyja so much. "Okay, I'm reaching the lip. Are the odd vibrations still occurring?"

Freyja looked away from the screen to review the readings on her laptop. "Yes, they're stronger than before.

At Magnús' sharp intake of breath, she turned her eyes back to the screen showing the drone's initial view.

In the molten rock could be seen three large shapes which appeared to be swimming in the lava. They each had three limbs ending with large paddle-like appendages. They rose to the surface, then plunged deep only to surface again. Each time they did, the lava would heave.

"This beats the shit out of a light show!" he muttered, and Freyja burst into nervous giggles.

Magnús moved the drone closer, and the three slowed their movements, sinking into the molten rock until only their heads were poking out. They could see the hair-like tendrils on their heads twitching.

He glanced at the sensor feed from the drone, and he could see he had less than twenty seconds to get the drone out of that heat. When he looked back at the screen, he saw the closest creature rise slightly, and something told him to move. He pulled the controls back and to the side abruptly as a jet of molten rock shot by. He pushed the controls and flew the drone past the creatures once more, rolling the flying camera in a loop to evade another jet. He was using an evasive pattern to get the drone back over the lip when it went into an uncontrolled spin. It landed, bounced once, and stopped, luckily with its props pointing skyward. He sent a query to it, and it responded back with a low battery alert. All four props were still functional, so he sent it the command to return home on the quickest route.

When the drone got close enough to see detail, they could see the landing pads were badly melted, and the heat shielding was bent and dangling on one side.

Freyja observed Magnús carefully removing the damaged heat shield with pliers as the metal plate still had some melted rock clinging to it. When she looked back to her laptop, she shrieked as the readings were quickly climbing, indicating an imminent eruption. She threw the computer into her backpack as Magnús stopped the recorder and put it into his pack as they both began to run.

The ground rumbled under them, and they ran faster. The caldera roared, the ground heaved, and a plume of fire and rock was ejected upwards as they ran for their lives.

As they approached base camp, they could see the others scrambling into the back of the truck, which was already beginning to move, the driver losing his nerve.

"WAIT!" Magnús yelled, waving his arms, and Pavel glanced back with a look of terror on his face. He scrambled into the back of the truck and screamed something as he flailed his arms. The engine revved with a cough of black smoke, and the vehicle jolted forward to roll toward the road.

A boulder ejected from the caldera, roughly half the fleeing truck's size, but many times its mass landed on it from above. Magnús and Freyja were thrown to the ground by the impact. He scrambled to his feet, staring at what had once been a truck filled with people, and gave himself a shake. There was no time. He pulled his stunned wife towards the camp where a beat-up old jeep was parked next to the tents. He shoved Freyja into the passenger seat and jumped behind the wheel. They were on the road in seconds, and he put his foot down as the road had long, straight sections. The problem was, it snaked back and forth down the side of the mountain while the eruption went straight down. Once he saw his chance, he put the nose of the jeep over the side and drove straight down the mountainside, working the breaks hard. Freyja screamed as the jeep was always seconds away from crashing, but somehow Magnús kept the jeep's wheels on the ground.

More boulders fell from the sky, and he had to brake hard and veer wide to avoid the damage, but he kept up the speed as much as he could. He crossed the serpentine road several times, and on one occasion, he floored the jeep through a patch of shrubs to get to the road beyond.

Finally, he was forced to head straight across pasture land, crashing through fencing and down farm lanes, until he reached an actual road. He wasted no time but put his foot down and drove like a man possessed amongst the other drivers, all trying to do the same. He was less concerned about his vehicle's condition, so he was willing to drive through a gap between cars and lose paint in the process. No one was willing to stop to argue with fiery death breathing down their necks.

Magnús wasn't proud of what he did to get himself and Freyja clear of the blast, and truthfully, he wasn't even sure how he managed it during those initial minutes. As he stood on the side of a road, miles away from the horrifying devastation unleashed by the mountain, he thought of the looks on the faces of Freyja's colleagues in the back of that ill-fated truck. He saw their terror and their guilt, but they weren't going to wait for the two of them.

Strangely, if they'd waited, they would have avoided the boulder, but they couldn't have moved fast enough to get away in time. Magnús and Freyja would be dead as well.

Dead before they could tell the world of the creatures they'd seen in the caldera. Perhaps the cause for the rapid escalation of the eruption. They had proof. They just needed to upload it.

They held each other tight as they watched the distant city burn.

Chapter 31

Lise-Anne Hoek, Minister of Security for the Hidden Races Council, was ready to call it a day, and it wasn't even lunchtime yet.

The reports she'd been getting this morning left her at her wit's end. Sightings of odd behaving rainbows followed by stories of horrifying creatures were coming in a steady stream.

A farmer in Montana had most of his herd of cattle decimated by one of those ribbon creatures before the man managed to blow it out of the sky with his hunting rifle.

A steel mill in Pittsburgh was severely damaged when something alive in the molten metal attacked the workers. The local firemen were being called heroes for thwarting an invasion of lava monsters.

Most damning of all was a report from Columbia where the two surviving members of a team of volcanologists posted actual video of these lava creatures in a caldera moments before the mountain erupted. Their survival story was flooding the Internet as it was sensational, compelling, and combined with additional video of their desperate escape, impossible to deny. She'd have her team begin their effort to debunk the creature in the lava aspect, but in her heart, she knew it wouldn't be enough.

Lise-Anne had no agents in Columbia available to silence these well-respected experts in their field. Truthfully, it was too late.

Things were going to shit.

She'd convinced herself that if they contained Mr. Gable, these events would stop, but as last night proved, it just got worse.

She contemplated sending an order to terminate him, but wiping out the Fae at the same time was a little extreme.

Her desk phone buzzed from her personal assistant.

She slapped the button. "I said I wasn't to be disturbed!"

The voice was hesitant but firm. "Yes, Ms. Hoek, but Ms. Chandra is here and indicated she knows the true source of the events being triggered."

Lise-Anne paused. Ms. Chandra had to be Mahati, the one working with Mr. Gable. Anything she said would be biased. Still, she was a Chandra, and sparing her a few minutes could avoid difficulties with her family.

"Send her in."

The door opened, and Mahati stepped inside the office and closed the door behind her. She took the chair Lise-Anne gestured to and smiled politely. Lise-Anne did her best to suppress her scowl as the young woman looked too well-rested while she felt like death warmed over.

"Good morning," Mahati began.

"I'm not sure I can agree," Lise-Anne replied sourly and received a nod for it.

"I'm here representing my client, Henry Gable, and his employers, VRL," the lawyer began.

Lise-Anne just held the younger woman's gaze, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"You're holding Mr. Gable against his will, against Baba Yaga's direct command, and endangering the Fae," the lawyer asserted calmly.

"You have evidence to back up this claim?" Lise-Anne said coldly.

"I do." She opened her briefcase and slid a photo across the desk. On it was a clear image of the Minister's assassin.

"Minkah Kamilah Nassor Meskhenet. Bastet assassin on contract with the Hidden Races Council. Currently on special assignment in New York City. Witnessed on more than one occasion in contact with Henry Gable in her feline form and once in her Human guise. Last night Henry Gable was being abducted by parties working for Carl de Bellisle when they were executed by a highly-skilled assassin. The odds of two professional assassins of the Bastet's skill level being in proximity to Henry are astronomical. Once these would-be abductors were killed, Henry was taken."

"All this proves is that there is a serious leak in my department which I will address," Lise-Anne said grimly.

Mahati smiled. "I believe you are going to be too busy in the next little while to be focusing on housecleaning."

Lise-Anne's eyes narrowed as she looked at the Nāga suspiciously.

"You weren't the first or most senior member of the Hidden Races Council I spoke to about this. Chancellor Mugawee was not pleased to be informed that the actions of his Minister of Security would be drawing the attention of every significant security agency in this country," Mahati said with a single raised eyebrow.

Lise-Anne froze then scowled. "What are you talking about?" she snapped.

Mahati's expression hardened. "If you are going to run the most important security agency on this planet and make life and death decisions for the citizens you are tasked to protect, it would be the responsible thing to do to have a complete picture of their interconnections with the world around them before you take steps that might cause a decrease in our security. This means researching more than the widening social circle Henry is developing."

She shot the Minister a look of scorn then continued. "Henry Gable is a brilliant software developer. Potentially the most brilliant to date. This has drawn the attention of the Director of Homeland Security, Stephen Dawes, the Director of the NSA, Wallace Granger, the Director of the FBI, Charles Starkley, and the Director of the CIA, Maurice Hall. All are attempting to woo him away from VRL for his security application development. They consider him a critical asset of the US Government who must not fall into the hands of America's enemies. And you've just imprisoned him."