Chapter 3 No.3

Blue gel dribbled from the corner of her mouth as she looked at the three people on the other side of the glass. Their expressions were priceless. She herself was surprised by how pale the people were. They looked like walking corpses. Suddenly she began to fear that she would never feel rays of sunlight hitting her skin again. She sighed: it was a small price to pay for a new life.

"Hey, a picture will last longer!" she yelled to startle the hospitality representatives. They had all been staring at her wet, naked body.

Surprisingly, the House of Oxen rep did raise her tablet so she could take a photo. Jordanis swatted it back down and gave her a scolding look. "Take a mental picture, " he muttered so that Nikhita could not hear him nor read his lips.

"You are looking... I believe it is somaina." Lysander said smugly before inhaling more of the orange smoke from his cigarette.

"I do look beautiful, " Nikhita noted while looking down at her not-so-attractive security uniform, "and Bodo is not my first language. Nice try."

Lysander exhaled loudly. "Rest assured, Miss Kothari, I will figure it out."

"Uh huh, " she nodded along with a patronising smile.

The pair had a game going: every time they encountered each other Lysander would try and guess Nikhita's first language. This was all because a few years back she had informed him that she had not originally spoken Mandarin, English or Hindi when she was a child. Jordanis hated not winning so if he knew he was going to come across Nikhita at an event or party, he would memorise a few key words from a particular language in India and then incorporate some of them into their next conversation in hopes that he had found her first language. The two were not exactly friends, however the former deputy chairman enjoyed studying Old Earth in his spare time which meant he and Nikhita had a connection.

"It is something like Arabic, isn't it?" he asked with a pitched voice that suggested he was annoyed. "It is a language that isn't native to India."

"Yes... my first language is actually Slovak, " she joked. "Now go away. I'm on duty."

Koris flipped his wrist to check his watch. It was just a few minutes past the eleventh hour mark and this party was most likely going to go till the thirteenth hour. He sighed. Young was not a socialite. He would have much rather been at home or in his office doing something productive.

He considered making up an excuse so he could slip out, but that would not look good in the news. The reporters were stalking the party scene and would notice his departure. He was stuck here at least until the chairman candidate from the House of Oxen left. Sadly, Lord Finn Yuan seemed to be enjoying the festivity very much and would most likely be the last person to leave.

He avoided making conversation for most of the night unless conversation was forced upon him by the more assertive lords and ladies. Koris was not antisocial; he simply despised all other senators even though he was one himself. The truth of the matter was that Young worked so hard in politics because he wanted to change government and 'bring back democracy'. Here all the uptowners were acting like royalty and having nameless servants bring them drinks, but Koris was very aware of the world that was down below them. Most uptowners found it easier to be ignorant to the on-goings of downtown. Koris couldn't bring himself to do that. Unlike most other lords and ladies, he was still a young politician who had not closed his mind off yet.

A lady from the House of Rats had just sparked up a conversation with Koris before everyone's eyes darted to the sky. There was an eerie sound as an object whizzed through the air. It looked like a star in the night's sky as it first shot directly up and then started downwards... toward the rooftop of the Parliament House.

The reaction was split for the lords and ladies. Some screamed and panicked while others stood still like deer in the headlights. None of them could truly comprehend what was about to happen. Precautions had been taken to keep them safe during the dinner party – how could nobody in security have seen this coming?

Nikhita cursed repeatedly as she made a dash for the House of Oxen lord closest to her: Koris Young. She grabbed his wrist roughly and hauled him toward the stairwell. Unlike everyone else, she was never surprised to see bombs, missiles, drones or anything of that sort. She came from a hard planet where those things were common in the constant wars for the dwindling resources of Old Earth.

Most of the security guards had quickly gone into action. However, some ran off without even thinking about the lords and ladies they had sworn to guard. The House of Oxen Chief of Security, Renaldo Davys, was one of these cowards who panicked and dashed to the stairwell as quickly as he could without even taking one look at Lord Finn Yuan: the man he was supposed to primarily protect.

"It's a missile, " Koris stated bewilderedly as Nikhita pushed him through the door to the stairwell.

"Yes, I know!" she hissed. Nikhita did not like it when Koris was this dazed as he was usually so calm and rational.

Looking back over her shoulder, she saw that Finn was still standing there staring up at the sky. With Renaldo not coming to his aid, Nikhita would have to act fast if she was going to save the man. The warhead would reach its target within seconds. She was not sure how big the detonation would be, she could never tell with missiles. She had seen huge ones leave barely a scratch, and small ones destroy city blocks.

Nikhita took a step in the direction Finn was before she was pulled back. At some point within the last few seconds Koris had snapped out of his disordered state and realised the danger they were in. He had pulled the deputy chief of security back because he knew it was too late.