Foot in mouth syndrome

The two people from Walants, dwarf and lawyer, look sandbagged. This was just all too much to take in all at once!

Tarin-Gazin was especially feeling.....ill. The whole afair was frightening, but one thing in particular had struck a nerve with the dwarf. The casual way the.....Golems had discussed how they'd destroyed Minestus' Hoard.......

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Dwarves have a thing for gold and gems.....an obsession some would say. Tarin wasn't as bad as some of his kin, but the destruction of so much wealth was almost like a physical blow to the stocky dwarf.

When he'd protested the Hoard's destruction, the Golem known as Probe had given the dwarf such a look that made the usually stout hearted dwarf a shiver of fear. Then Inquirer had spoken in a soft, but firm voice. It had an edge of steel in it.

"Frankly, I and Probe don't give a rat's ass about how you feel about it, dwarf," the female AI/golem said softly. "It was a means to an end. The end of the monster known as Minestus. The wyrm had the blood of millions of lives on it's hands......and the fact that a few baubles got burnt doesn't cause me to shed a tear."

"Besides which," Probe put in, looking down in disdain at Tarin. "Gold and such are worthless back Home. Money and wealth is based upon the BTU, and nothing else."

The dwarf didn't feel like asking what a BTU was. Frankly, the boisterous dwarf felt the need to be silent until the Golems cooled down.

Probe and Inquirer suddenly looked up and around at the others, and blinked.

"Sorry, we.....kind of got....sidetracked there," Probe chuckled.

"'Tis alright," Duke Dredrick says magnanimously. "It happens to us all."

**********************

Now, at the end , Fred 2 and Para-Astra (she had decided to keep her new name, despite her inspiration having been a person trying to gain her confidence) are holding hands and looking into each other's eyes. Fred 2 and Para-Astra then turn to the Golems.

"Initially we thought that the Alliance had turned upon us," Para-Astra begins. "Now, since Fred the Manfox has explained about trouble within your ranks......we seem to have been wrong."

(Author's Note: some operatives from the Phantoms-and Alliance secret service-had tried to betray the Military and Terra by trying to suppress the cure for the Phage. This is because IF the Phage is cured, and then Terra's resources of Tiberium tapped, the Enemy/Allaince war would end with the defeat of the Lizards. Then, the Military would turn it's eye's upon Home.....see the mess that the Company had made of society in it's governing.....and then Civil War would break out as the Military would try to overthrow the Company to set things right. The Phantom operatives had been trying to prevent the civil war.....by attempting to kill anyone who had anything that looked like a means to a cure to the Phage).

"Seems like there's always somebody," Fred 1 mutters. "With us, it was people like Zular. With you, the Phantoms......"

""Alas, my brother is right," Fred 2 sighs. "I hope that we can find out who the fiend actually is.....from that gem....."

Whoever it was....I wasn't too impressed with his choice of Avatar! Inquirer mutters to herself. It still had the 'Base Command Overrides' within it! They hadn't been erased! Otherwise, I'd not have been able to get the damn thing's own hand to slam the magic gem into it's own forehead! The pilot of the Avatar must have been either overconfident, rushed, or stupid! All Avatar bodies, when first built, have verbal overrides built within them by the Company. The designer felt that the commands protected any humans around the Avatar, in case of an emergency situation. In practice, anyone who shouted the right word could cause the wrong thing to happen (such as......shouting "retreat" and having the piloting intelligence suddenly fighting the Avatar for control as the blasted body tried to run off somewhere.....it froze the Avatar....making it a "sitting duck." ) 80)

Inquirer had discovered this by a quick scan. Remembering a discussion with Sigin Vulpine about the ins and outs of this magical gem trap, she used the belt and suspender's approach.

See, she had TWO magical gems with her for trying to capture the false Oracle's intelligence, she'd teleported one into the Oracle's hand via Crystallic. Then, as she lunged at the Oracle, she'd sent out a telepathic command (gained through her trial by the ghost of Dr. Vincent re: 3146). As she was racing to put the gem she had in her hand on the Avatars forehead, the Avatar was also in the process of slapping the other magical gem in it's forehead.

As it was, the hands of the Oracle had reached the forehead before Inquirer had. Thus was how Seeker had been captured (though neither Probe nor Inquirer knew this yet.....)

1. Now then......

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