Title: City of Light
Chapter: 3
Author: Squeezynz@free.net.nz
Universe: Land of the Giants
Spoilers: none
Rating: PG Adventure
Feedback: Yes please, pretty please.
Archive: Sure, just let me know where
Disclaimer: Just having fun in the sand box, promise to play nice. All IA's , no money, no fowl. *cluck*

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Valerie and Betty passed under the arch leading off the entrance lobby and found themselves in a broad corridor with numerous doors leading off it.

" Choose a door, Betty....this could take us awhile to check these all out." Said Valerie. Betty shot her a grimace, and started walking to the closest door on their left. Valerie followed, looking up to the distant ceiling, noticing what looked like a camera, tracking their progress across the floor. Valerie quickened her pace, bringing her alongside Betty.

" We're being watched again" she hissed. Betty missed her step and stumbled slightly. Valerie put out a hand to steady her. Betty flashed her a tight smile, quickly glancing up and seeing the camera for herself.

" Lets get to that first door." Said Betty.

Valerie reached the door, bending down to crawl under the door edge. She pulled herself through and stood quickly to allow Betty clear access. She surveyed the room as Betty slipped under the door.

" We seem to have found an office, not exactly a treasure trove...shall we try another one ?" Valerie looked up at the ceiling, noting that there were no camera's in view.

" We could take a quick look around then try the next door down." Betty suggested. Valerie nodded then set off across the floor, Betty following at a distance. They checked around the edge of the room, taking a quick look out the wall sized windows, admiring the view of the rapidly darkening dome. After checking the far wall and coming up empty, they made their way back to the door. Betty went first, Valerie taking one last look before sliding under the door. They walked up to the next door, Betty lying on her stomach to take a peek.

" Looks the same setup in this room, lets try another, further down."

" Okay, I just hope the boys are having more success than we are."

The girls set off, missing the next door and reaching the last door before the corridor took a sharp right turn. Valerie crouched down, feeling a draft coming from the gap. She twisted round to look up a Betty.

" I can feel a breeze, maybe this leads to the outside...worth a look at least, whatcha think ?" She grinned up at her friend, seeing her nod in agreement. They squeezed under together, coming up into a room lined with row upon row of consoles, the monitors reeling off numbers. The only noise came from a printer spewing out paper punched with holes and more numbers. The paper was being collected in a large wire catcher, folding back on itself. The girls watched it for a second or two, before turning their attention to the rest of the electronics crowding the room.

Valerie turned, checking for any camera and found one, high up, nearly invisible, trained inexorably on them.

" Betty, lets move, we're on camera again." She said, softly.

They moved slowly but steadily into the room, keeping a console between them and the rotating camera. They passed down a row of monitors, too high up for them to read what was on them, and found themselves in front of a glass brick wall. Behind the wall Valerie saw something move.

" Betty, did you see that...something's in that room...lets get out of here, it might be one of those robots." Valerie started to back away from the wall, keeping her eyes glued on the faint movement, barely discernible behind the distorting glass bricks.

Betty kept pace as Valerie turned and started to run for the door. Behind them they heard the whirr of a motor. The girls pounded down the aisle between the banks of winking lights, the paper continuing to be disgorged, the machinery unconcerned by the plight of the tiny people racing past it. Betty missed her footing and fell heavily, sliding over the glossy floor. She cried out as her head hit the floor. The sound of wheels gliding closer could be heard but not seen. Valerie turned back, coming to where Betty was trying to sit up, holding her head as the room spun.

" Come on, we have to move" Valerie pulled her up, putting an arm about her waist, pulling Betty's arm over her shoulders. Together the two women staggered towards the door. Behind them the source of the noise came into view. Valerie risked a glance over her shoulder and found the impetus to spur her feet. "Come on Betty, not much further."

The machine gaining on them was similar in design to the one they had met in the previous building, but this one was larger and looked positively lethal. It whirred faster, gaining on the struggling women. Valerie pushed Betty up against the door and turned to face their pursuer. Betty was gasping, sliding to the floor as Valerie tried in vain, to push her under the door. The robot slowed, as if sensing the chase was over, an antenna on its back swinging round and fixing a luminous lens on them. Its grasping claw opened and closed menacingly, its wheels gliding noiselessly closer to the frightened woman.

" GET AWAY..." Valerie screamed at it.

The robot's eye blinked and Valerie saw another antenna extend, this one had, what looked like, a microphone on the end of it. She stared at the monster, wondering, idly, if she'd feel any pain when it finally decided to attack them. Suddenly the room was filled with a high pitched hum that made both women clap their hands over their ears.

" What's that noise....please stop it......IT HURTS" Valerie screamed as she saw Betty slump onto her side, her hands falling from her head. Valerie saw blackness creep into her vision as the sound enveloped her senses, the sound closing in on her, making the blackness sweep over.

The robot watched impassively as the woman slid to the floor and keeled over, insensible. It moved forward and brought its lens close to the bodies of the two creatures it had caught, obeying electronic orders.

From another corner of the room, deeply cloaked in the shadows behind the machinery, a figure moved. Padding over the floor in soft slippers the Giant shape crouched down and inspected the tiny figures sprawled by the door. The robot backed off to allow the man room. The Giant picked up the tiny creatures, careful not to tangle their limp limbs. He lay them on a cloth he pulled from his pocket, laying them on the palm of his hand, then folding the soft material around them. He then stood up and carried his precious burden back into the shadows, passing through a door previously unseen by the two girls. The robot followed behind him like a dog, pulling its microphone arm and grasping claws back into its body, trundling along on soundless wheels.

The monitors continued to blink and display, the paper continued to spill out of the printer, oblivious to the tiny drama so recently played out.

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" Which door would you choose ?" Dan asked, surveying the corridor and its choice of doors.

" What does it matter which one, we can take one each and check them all." Marks voice rose with impatience. They hadn't seen or heard anything from Valerie or Betty, Steve was concerned, Mark was downright worried.

" Okay, Dan take the first one, I'll take the next one, Mark you take the next...meet back here in twenty minutes." ordered Steve. The three men checked their watches and took off, Mark running to get to his door. Dan slipped into the first room, seeing the office and checking it quickly, he met Steve coming out of the second room, his head shake in the negative. They moved on down the corridor, expecting Mark to appear from the third room before moving to the last. Mark slid out of the third room, dragging his pack behind him.

" Nothing there, looks like it hasn't been disturbed in years." Mark said.

Steve and Dan affirmed that their room had the same air of neglect. They made their way to the last door, all crawling under to inspect the room.

" They wouldn't have had time to check more than these four rooms, so something must have happened to them." Said Mark.

Steve was looking down at the floor behind the door, he could see recent scuff marks, from wheels or feet he couldn't tell, but it was more evidence than they had found in the other rooms.

" I think they may have been taken."

Dan and Mark came over and looked at the markings on the floor.

" You basing your assumption of this ?" asked Mark, disbelief in his voice.

" It's more than we've found anywhere else. If one of those house robots caught them, where would it take them ?" Steve asked, looking around the room, seeing the monitors and electronics, but not enough wall space for an access hatchway.

" Let's check the whole room out, maybe there's something in the back, or behind this equipment " Mark suggested, starting to walk further into the room. He passed the printer that had stopped exuding paper into the basket, the lights continued to blink but the monitor screens were now all blank. Mark reached up to the bottom of the basket, placing his palm against the bottom sheet of paper.

" It's still warm, this was printing very recently, maybe just before we came in, the sound would have drawn the girls in here...they could still be here." He looked around, trying to see around the consoles. Steve and Dan came over, Steve putting his hand on the metal casing of a control tower. " This is still warm too. Lets see what's at the back of this room, before we lose the light completely."

Mark looked around, surprised that he'd missed how dark it was getting, the sun finally sinking below the horizon. Streaks of red and orange speared the sky, casting a blood red hue over the dome and colouring the city scape. Steve reached the window and looked out over the luridly coloured view, seeing lights start to flick on. The concourse they had travelled on was the first to be illuminated, then lights started to come on in the building, showing windows previously hidden in the architecture. Dan and Mark joined his contemplation of the lighting of the city.

" Where do they get the power to create all this ?" Dan wondered.

" More to the point, who are 'they' and why are they hiding ?" said Steve. The three men left the window and made their way past the glass brick wall, finding what appeared to be a control room or office on the other side. Without warning a light blazed on in the room, making the men jump and back-up against the wall.

" Did we trigger the light ?" Dan whispered.

" I think its on an automatic timer, or a light sensor, everything we've seen so far points to a totally automated society." said Steve.

" Very probably, but someone had to build it in the first place, so where are they ?" Mark asked.

" MAYBE I CAN ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS LITTLE MAN !" a voice boomed above their heads.

Steve, Dan and Mark swung round in alarm, trying to see where the voice was coming from. There was still no sign of a Giant, but from the far corner they watched a robot, larger than the one they had seen before, roll towards them on noiseless wheels. The men adopted defensive poses, Steve and Mark clutching their hatchets, while Dan held a grappling pin, ready to repel an attack. The robot rolled to within ten feet of the men, bringing its lens and what looked like a microphone or speaker, swivelling round to face them.

" Who are you, where are you ?" Mark shouted, shifting his stance, trying to see around the robot.

" I AM EVERYWHERE, AND NO-WHERE...I AM EVERYONE AND NO-ONE.." the voice stated cryptically,

" That's not very helpful...why don't you show yourself ?" asked Steve.

" I'LL DO BETTER THAN THAT....I'LL BRING YOU TO ME"

The voice had only just finished echoing around the room, when it was replaced with a high pitched hum, making the men drop their weapons and clutch their heads. In less than a minute they were all collapsed on the floor. The robot rolling over to inspect the latest catch. It retracted the lens and sonic speaker before backing away to allow another robot, which had also appeared from the corner of the room, to roll soundlessly over to where the tiny bodies lay. A large, flat scoop like a dustpan extended from the front of the new robot, to where Steve sprawled, slowly easing itself under his senseless body. It tilted the pan until Steve slid to the back of the scoop, then it repeated the process with Mark and Dan. It also used a small gripping claw to collect the weapons and pack that had fallen in the process. Then the robot turned and trundled off to a concealed hatchway, which slid open at it's approached.

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In a distant control room, Neeson switched off the microphone and sat back in his chair, the monitor in front of him showing the robots travelling down an access tunnel, bringing their delicate cargo to his presence. He had wanted to meet these people from another planet ever since reading an article about them, several years ago. He didn't think these were the same people, but they came from the same planet, that was good enough for him. Neeson rolled his chair back and stood up. Walking over to a desk in the corner, he inspected the unconscious forms laid out on the hard surface. He had removed their packs and equipment, trying to make them as comfortable as possible, and put them back onto the cloth he'd picked them up in. He smiled as he considered the fact that the Little People were really no different from their Giant counterparts. He had gambled that the men would soon come looking for the women. He would have preferred to meet them on an equal footing, but previous experience had proved that rendering them unconscious to start with made them easier to transport, and to divest of any equipment that would allow them to escape too easily. He wanted to keep these Little People for a long time, to study them and learn all he could before deciding what to do with them. He could always use the tiny women to coerce the men to co-operate, it had worked the last time, Neeson had no doubt it would work this time as well.

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