“Boon,” I whispered. “A lot has changed since we were together. Just get him outside.”
I think he sensed my confidence and didn’t question me again. The klee pounced up the stairs on all fours. Though he moved quietly, the stairs rattled under his weight. The klee in the control room would know pretty quickly that somebody was coming up. Hopefully, when he saw another klee, he wouldn’t think anything bad was about to happen to him… because something bad was about to happen to him. The stairs twisted and turned as we climbed. I kept one section of stairs between us, thinking that if the klee came out to see who was coming up, he’d see Boon and not me.
When Boon was almost to the top, he gave me a quick look. I waved as if to say, “Go for it.” He continued on up to the balcony, where a closed door led into the room. He didn’t open it. Instead, he walked around on the balcony to the front of the room, where there were two large windows that looked out from the control room onto the hangar floor. I could lean out, look up, and see Boon as he rapped on the glass. I couldn’t see the klee inside, but I saw Boon gesture for him to come outside.
This was it. I crouched low on the stairs. Directly above me was the door into the room. As soon as the klee came out and turned to round toward Boon, I’d have my chance to spring from behind and knock him into next week.
The door opened. The klee came storming out, looking angry. I guess he didn’t like having surprise visitors knocking on his window. I was close enough to see that he wore a red Ravinian guard uniform. I stayed low, hoping he wouldn’t see me on the stairs. He walked around the balcony to the front, where Boon waited for him.
“Who are you?” the klee demanded to know. “This is a restricted area. You are not authorized to be-”
Before he could finish the sentence, I jumped up onto the balcony and clocked him on the side of the head. Hard. My plan had worked. Everything went perfectly, except that the klee barely reacted, other than to stop talking. Uh-oh. The klee slowly turned around to see what had hit him, so I hit him again. Whack. Right on the side of his cat head. The klee’s head snapped to the side, but he wasn’t hurt. My first thought was that it was impossible. I had nailed the guy with two blows that should have crushed him. The truth hit back a second later.
“Dado,” I gasped.
The cat jumped at me, paws up, claws out. I was so stunned that I barely moved. By all rights the thing should have torn me apart, but Boon jumped at the klee and tackled him from behind. The dado klee hit the floor of the balcony with Boon on top of him.
“The hangar door!” Boon yelled.
Right. The reason we were there. I backed away and went for the control room. Inside I saw that besides the door that led to the balcony, there was another door in the back wall of the room that must have led inside the tree. I feared there might be klees beyond that door, so I jammed Kasha’s weapon against it, hoping it might give us an extra few seconds.
On the balcony, Boon and the klee were wrestling. I didn’t know what kind of fighter Boon was, but there was no way he’d be able to battle a dado for long. I had to get the hangar doors open so that Kasha could power up a gig, then get back out to help my friend.
There was a long control panel with dozens of toggle switches. I really wished there was one that read: hangar doors. There wasn’t. Luckily, most of the switches were the same size, which meant they must have more or less done the same thing. Whatever that was. To the far right of the panel was a large toggle switch. It looked just as good as any, so I threw it.
The overhead lights went on, bringing the hangar to life. The hangar doors didn’t budge though. On the far left of the panel was another large toggle. I quickly went for it and threw it. Two things happened. With a jolt and a screech, the giant doors at the front of the hangar began to slide open. They separated in the middle and slowly moved to either side, like a curtain on a stage, opening up our escape route. Sunlight streamed in, which meant Kasha would have power. That was all great except for the second thing that happened.
Alarms blared. There must have been a special security process required to properly open those doors. Unfortunately, I didn’t know it. I had no doubt that we would soon be flooded with Ravinian guards, because you didn’t need to have the acute hearing of a cat to hear the harsh, jangling horn that honked incessantly. I ran for the door to help Boon as the back door into the control room blew open. The bad guys had arrived sooner than expected. Kasha’s weapon did nothing to keep the door closed. A Ravinian klee burst into the room, picked me up, and threw me against the far wall of the control room, opposite the door to the balcony. I was trapped. A Ravinian klee was between me and the way out. There was nothing good that could come of this scenario. I figured I could battle the klee for a while, but his claws would make for a short fight. I was all set to step out of there and go back to Solara when I saw something leaning against the control panel that made perfect sense. These were dados. Dados that were built on Third Earth. There was no more pretense about not mixing territories. Saint Dane had seen to that. So it made perfect sense that if dados were on Eelong, they would also have dado weapons. Leaning against the control panel was a long, silver wand exactly like the Ravinian dados used on Third Earth.
The klee went for me.
I went for the weapon.
I snagged it just as the klee swiped at me with its claws out. I ducked, feeling the whistle as he barely missed my head. My hands were on the weapon, but I didn’t have time to turn it on. Instead, I jammed the handle back into the dado’s gut. Or whatever it is that area is called on a standing-up cat. The dado didn’t flinch. Its instinct was to take another swipe at me. I didn’t bother trying to block it. I just pushed away from the klee and fell down on my butt. It swiped nothing but air, then set its eyes on me and pounced.
I fumbled with the red power button. I didn’t know if I’d have the chance to power it up and defend myself at the same time. It was more important to use it to ward off the attack than to damage the dado. I stopped worrying about the power and held up the silver wand. The cat did the rest. It leaped with all four paws in the air. Its eyes were locked on mine. It landed square on the point of the wand and seemingly perched there for a second, though I know that was impossible. I pushed, and the cat fell on the floor right next to me. Its lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling.
Dead cat.
I guess I’d gotten the power on.
There wasn’t time to celebrate. Where there was one klee, there would be more. I jumped to my feet and ran for the door to the balcony. Outside, Boon was struggling with the first klee. He was holding his own, too. I think if Boon had known it was a robot, he wouldn’t have been so bold. The klee kept swiping at Boon. Boon kept warding off the blows. He didn’t bother to go in to attack the Ravinian, and I knew why. He wanted to keep it occupied long enough so that I could get the hangar doors open.
“Back here!” I shouted.
The klee stopped swinging at Boon and whipped around toward me. It was the last move he made. I nailed him in the chest with the electric wand and pushed him to the side. It hit the rail of the balcony and toppled over, falling to the floor far below, where it landed on the overhead rotor of a gig. It flipped like a rag doll, and settled on the ground with a sickening thud. Two dead cats.
Boon was exhausted, but he was okay. “What is that thing?” he asked through gasps of air, pointing at the weapon.
“Not a toy. Don’t touch it.” “Don’t worry!”
The two of us scrambled for the stairs and quickly ran down. As we got closer to the floor, I glanced out over the hangar. The doors were continuing to open, but slowly. Too slowly. I wondered where Kasha was. Hopefully, she had picked a gig that would be hit with light, to give it power sooner rather than later. But none of the gigs were powering up.