Anything-Can-Happen Thursday, for Wizefics (Big Bang Theory, PG13) (1/4)
Title: Anything-Can-Happen Thursday (1/4)
Author: LilyAyl
Recipient: wizefics
Fandom: The Big Bang Theory
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 13,264
Spoilers (if applicable): General show
Warnings (if applicable): None I can think of. Death by hair, maybe?
Prompt: The boys design some experiment that causes the end of the world. Black hole machines, time machines gone wonky, zombie viruses - take your pick. I'd really like to see them focus on trying to clean it up. Sheldon's snark makes me jump up and down, but I love all the characters. Please include Penny and give her a legitimate role of her own. She may not be booksmart, but my bets are on her to survive the apocalypse. Also, I'd prefer either gen or nongraphic het/slash for this fandom.
Summary: After the boys accidentally cause aliens to invade the Earth, Penny helps start the Resistance to save the world.
"The city has fallen silent. There is no warmth left in the sun."
~Eowyn, Return of the King (film)
The world ended on a Thursday.
At least, Penny thought it had been a Thursday. With all the insanity that had followed the end of the world as she knew it, it was difficult to remember exactly when it had begun. The Tuesday beforehand, though, was like crystal in her head. In the weeks and months after, Penny had often revisited that day in her memory, wishing she had given into temptation and smashed a coffee carafe over Howard's head. And everyone else's as well, just to be sure. Stupid scientists. Sure, they were brilliant at flashing lights off and on in foreign countries and building mini-robots, but their brilliance ended at one crucial point-- consequences. Why the hell had not one of them stopped to think for even half a second before reprogramming the satellites and sending a message to the weird star Raj had found in the sky? Boys with their toys. If they weren't already dead, Penny was going to kill them.
She had been working that Tuesday, before the mess and the end. A friend's kid was sick, so Penny had offered to cover her shift as well, which meant a full day of Cheesecake Factory goodness. She was returning from her break when the boys walked in. The other waiters marked her return with brightened smiles and the hostess re-arranged the tables so that the boys sat within Penny's section. Penny cursed; she should have lingered longer in the bathroom. Then they would be someone else's problem. Then again, Sheldon was with them. He'd demand her, loudly and with lecturing, if necessary, until she relented and took over the table. She liked the boys; they were great. They were also the bane of her waitressing existence.
"Oh, good, Penny, you're working," Sheldon said once she approached their table. "The hostess--" he paused to give the poor girl by the door an evil look-- "tried to tell us that you were on break."
"I was," Penny said. "I just got back."
"Well, that was fortunate timing," Sheldon said.
Too fortunate, Penny thought, wondering now if the boys were why she'd been allowed to take her break earlier than usual. "So, what will you be having today?"
"I would like--" Sheldon began.
"The usual," Penny cut him off. She had written up and laminated a copy of Sheldon's order months ago. Every guy and girl in the kitchen now knew the Nutso Special. They kept it pinned up beside the Sally Surprise, an order which, like the famous one from the movie, involved a sandwich with everything, save the bread, on the side. "Leonard?"
Leonard looked up from the charts Raj was spreading over the table. "Uh, just a regular burger meal today. Plain."
"Raj?"
Raj froze and looked to Howard, his eyes wide and lips pleading. Howard rolled his eyes. "The same for us," he said.
"All right. Three plain burger meals and Sheldon's usual. Anything else?"
Howard, the only one paying her the slightest bit of attention now, shook his head. She was impressed. Whatever the guys were looking at had to be important. Even Howard was looking at them more than he was her cleavage. "I think we're goo--"
"Great holy Batman!" Sheldon gasped, grabbing one of the papers. "Is that what I think it is?"
Raj looked at her. Penny rolled her eyes and turned away. Three steps later, Raj began to talk rapidly, all the syllables running together. Penny retreated to the kitchen and turned in her order.
Leah, one of the managers on duty, glanced at the slip and pulled it away before one of the newer cooks could reach for it. "Jeff," she called to the most experienced person besides her in the kitchen. "We got a Nutso for you."
Penny winced when she heard a loud clang of metal. Jeff, a tall man with dark hair and an unfortunate nose, grumbled as he walked up to her and Leah.
"I do it right once," he said, "and I get stuck with it every Tuesday."
Penny huffed with understanding. "You should try being their waitress."
He shuddered. "No thanks." He took the order slip and, to Leah, added, "The chicken for table sixteen is ready to plate." He returned to the heart of the kitchen, yelling to the cooks and his underlings what he needed.
Leah jutted her chin toward the dining area. "I think your boys need more coffee," she said.
Penny filled a carafe and restocked the creamer in her pocket. "Trust me," she said. "Caffeine is the last thing those four need." She picked up a water pitcher with her other hand and walked back out to the table.
Raj did not notice her approaching and so continued talking. "Professor Lambert thinks it is a hoax or problem with the equipment, but if you look at this, labs in Russia and Japan have had similar results."
"So why haven't any of their scientists made a fuss over it?" Leonard asked.
"Because it is too incredible to imagine. This phenomenon does not follow any of the rules we've established for stars, comets, meteors, and so on. They think it has to be an anomaly, because any other option would mean--"
"Life," Leonard said, awestruck.
"Are you certain you've accounted for all alternatives?" Sheldon asked.
Raj shoved papers toward him. "Look for yourself. I have more research back at the lab. I think this is real." He sounded like a five year old at Christmas time.
"Do you think alien chicks will be hot? Or kinky? I bet they are. Different cultural standards and all that," Howard said, dreamily.
Penny suppressed the urge to knock him over the head with the coffee, and, instead, asked, "Refills?"
As she refilled their drinks, her curiosity took the lead. "What are those papers?" she asked.
The boys looked at one another. Then Leonard answered, "Raj has found an odd light in space."
"A weird star, go on."
"Well, not really a star--"
"We think they might be aliens," Raj said, the words bursting out of him. Penny nearly dropped the coffee mug she was filling. Raj looked even more surprised.
"Aliens?" Penny asked.
"That is a possibility," Sheldon said, "but one that I still believe to be remote. As we have not dealt with aliens before, we do not know exactly how to verify the idea."
Penny shrugged and picked up the water pitcher once more. "Why don't you just ask them?"
"We can't just a--" Sheldon stopped, his eyes glazing with thought. Then he blinked. "Wolowitz, does your lab still have access to the new government satellite?"
"Of course. Though only officially until the end of the month, why?"
Sheldon started to grin maniacally and Penny backed away slowly. The boys could handle this one.
Or so she had thought. Their circumstances now spoke otherwise.
A rap on Penny's door rocked her back to the present. The rhythm was special, three knocks three times. "Speak friend and enter," she said, softly.
"Melon," came the equally soft reply. Penny reached up, unlocked the door, and eased it open. Behind Jeff a couple people huddled. "More refugees," he said. "Can you take them?"
Penny bit her lip, then nodded. Jeff smiled in relief. "Thanks," he said. "Keep them safe."
"Safe as hobbits," Penny promised. "Would you like to come in for a rest?" she asked.
Jeff shook his head. "Miss Gandalf wants me to make a run to the Woods."
"She can't," Penny said, weakly.
Jeff shrugged. "You know how it is. Do something right once and you get stuck with it every time. Until next time, my Eowyn." He kissed her gently, one hand pressed warm against her back, the other on her cheek. Penny nipped at his lips and he chuckled. "Take care," he said and then ducked back down the alley. Penny shut the door and locked it, her heart pounding. She forced herself to smile before turning to face her latest batch of escapees and scroungers.
"Well," she said, "let's get you settled."
The Lord of the Rings references had started as a joke almost the instant the aliens had revealed themselves. From the points of the ears and sheen of their hair down to their slender hips and legs, they looked exactly like the elves from Peter Jackson's trilogy. They looked stern, but peaceful. Beautiful. Howard had been in raptures after the broadcast that, in true thriller movie fashion, had dominated all the airwaves.
The Elves were not interested in political power, Earthly resources, or anything of that ilk. They only wanted to talk science. Due to wars and strife on their own planets, Penny learned privately from the guys, the Elves could do a lot more than they understood. Their technology was more inherited than created; and so, they wished to talk with the scientists of Earth and pool their mental resources.
Being the ones to initiate contact, the guys were the first ones to be brought up into the large airships that hovered over California and the Pacific ocean. At first the visits had only been during the day, like work. From the four, Penny learned a lot about the Elves. They took their science seriously and Sheldon was often at odds with them. He was the first to disappear. Leonard had looked away shiftily when she'd demanded answers and promised that Sheldon was safe. He'd just gotten into an argument over strings vs. belkirs, whatever those were, and well-- he'd shrugged. Howard and Raj said nothing, but their wide eyes and the way they refused to discuss anything alien after that made Penny think the worst.
Later, after the Elves stopped pretending they wanted to share their technology and exist peacefully, Penny saw what happened when an Elf got mad. A new waitress took a cup of coffee to the Elf's table by mistake and he snapped. His hair lengthened into whips, stiffened into clubs, and sharpened into needles. He attacked, shredding the girl's skin. Blood pooled on the floor and spurted across the table top. Frozen and watching, Penny imagined Sheldon at the receiving end of one particularly wicked looking hooked-club with spines up and down the shaft.
They closed the restaurant. A nursing student tried to help the new girl, but it was no good. She'd lost too much blood. Standing by her corpse, Penny and the others on duty that day formed the Resistance.
The Lord of the Rings references had begun as a joke, but they became their code. The Woods where Leah, one of three strategists in charge of their offensive, was sending Jeff was back in Pasadena, near the university where everything had begun. It was an Elf city now and one of the most dangerous places in the United States. Jeff had managed the run thrice before, each time barely escaping capture. The second time he'd come back with hairs all through his back. Penny knew how hard that recovery had been for him, because she had helped him through it. Now Leah was sending him back again.
Penny settled her refugees into her back room. "All right," she said, in a soft voice. "Which of you is the genius?"
The three looked at one another. The youngest of the three, a tall girl with small glasses and braids pulled up into a ponytail raised her hand. "Me, probably. I'm good at physics."
"She's been taking university courses by correspondence," the red-haired woman who looked about Penny's age said.
"And you are?" Penny asked.
"Cecily, her former music teacher."
"Why didn't you go to the Elves when they asked for people?" Penny asked.
"I've been helping out Ms. Tate after school."
"I am trying to create a blended middle and high school band. Regina is one of my high school students," Cecily explained.
"And who are you?" Penny asked, turning to the third figure, a man with thinning hair.
"Guy Warner, mechanic and general Jack-of-all," he said. "They've had me fixing up some Elf-tech. I know some of the workings now."
"How did you get away?" Penny asked, awed. So far no one she knew of had been able to figure out how the airships worked. The mechanics and engineers brought into the fold were tightly guarded or dead.
"I was in the first group," the guy explained. "I ran before they clamped down and have been running since. I bumped into your man by coincidence and we helped each other out. He said you'd know where to go next."
"Yes," Penny said. "That is what I do. I know of some projects you could help with. Cecily, perhaps you and Regina could relocate to one of our communities with children. We need more ways to keep kids busy."
Regina wrinkled her nose and raised her brows. "I understand Belkirs," she said. "Do you really want to send me off to play with kids?"
"What?" Penny asked. "How?"
"Online," Regina answered.
Again, Penny asked, "How?" While not even the Elves could control the net, they could make access next to impossible where they had control and then flood the web with false information for everywhere else.
"Music camp at USC."
Cecily's eyes widened and turned to Regina. "You were the one who kept breaking into the office?" Regina shrugged one shoulder.
"Oh," Penny said. She tried to think of a nice way to explain to the girl that everything she knew was likely bunk.
"Not from of their sites," the girl said. The condescension in her voice reminded Penny strongly of Sheldon. "Not even an idiot would fall for their lies. I downloaded the Pennyblossom files."
Penny froze. "The what?"
"The Pennyblossom files," Regina repeated. "They're hidden on this old site for flower hairpins."
Penny didn't even realize she was crying until Cecily asked her what was wrong. Penny shook her head and smiled. "I'm fine," she said. They weren't all dead, she thought, and something broke inside her. She wanted to laugh or cry or something; she didn't know how to express the emotions flooding her. So, instead, she opened a cupboard, removed the shelves, and pushed out the backside.
"Go through there," she said. "There's blankets and food. I'll figure out your destination." They went. Penny shut the back, arranged the shelves, and shut the door. Her house was the safest in their constellation of safe places. The Elves left her alone, only ever bothering her for coffee and cakes that she sold in the front shop, Cafe Norah or, for those who knew her true colors, Rohan. The little cafe, outside Pasadena, but still within the shadow of the aerial city for most of the day, was popular among the Elves who liked to pretend that they weren't taking over the Earth and people who needed a safe place to rest. Penny had two secret rooms, plus a public room for nightly rent. In her own bedroom, she had a laptop that could connect to the internet even in the middle of a desert. One of their scientists had jury-rigged it for her and it was now Penny's most valuable tool. Leah had another one. Some Rangers had smuggled others into libraries and computer cafes for their communal use.
Penny leaned back against her headboard and logged onto Age of Conan. While the game world was less populated than it used to be, thousands of people still played each day. As far as Penny knew, the Elves did not yet see fit to monitor the game as they did most message boards and social networking sites. Penny toggled the chatter off and logged into her guild's noticeboard. Amidst messages from regular players lurked coded updates from most of the hobbit holes along the west coast. Penny wrote down the messages and loaded some macros for her character to mask her inattention. She typed each code into the decoder on her computer and updated her files with the new information. Finished, she turned her attention back to her character. She played the game for a half hour, before claiming work and logging off.
Penny looked at the new information on her screen. Other people could be geniuses and master strategists, Penny just looked for what made sense. She also knew how to act, which was why she ran the cafe. The Elves thought she was on their side. A few had even asked her back to their beds, a prospect that disgusted Penny. She'd sex up Kripke, before she touched any Elf-freak. She spied on conversations, passed information, calmed refugees, and figured out where people were needed. She was one of the few to know what was happening all throughout the Resistance.
Now she only needed to figure out where to send the mastermind, mechanic, and music teacher. Everyone claimed to need help, but a lot of it was BS. People were scared and wanted security blankets. A report from Moria, a large community situated in a series of hidden underground bunkers, grabbed Penny's attention. A group of runners had stolen a small transport and delivered it to Moria. Penny hoped they'd also feinted deliveries elsewhere, or else Moria wouldn't last long. If it did prove safe, they would need people who could understand Elf tech and science. If it proved unsafe, she could divert them to the airport and Texas. Missy had a group down there. Texas was safer than California and would be a good place for the mechanic to share his knowledge and for the kid to learn more from the mysterious insider.
Satisfied, Penny shut down her computer and curled up in her bed. In the morning, she would contact a Ranger and get her refugees ready for their journey south.
The morning, however, had other plans.
Part Two
Author: LilyAyl
Recipient: wizefics
Fandom: The Big Bang Theory
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 13,264
Spoilers (if applicable): General show
Warnings (if applicable): None I can think of. Death by hair, maybe?
Prompt: The boys design some experiment that causes the end of the world. Black hole machines, time machines gone wonky, zombie viruses - take your pick. I'd really like to see them focus on trying to clean it up. Sheldon's snark makes me jump up and down, but I love all the characters. Please include Penny and give her a legitimate role of her own. She may not be booksmart, but my bets are on her to survive the apocalypse. Also, I'd prefer either gen or nongraphic het/slash for this fandom.
Summary: After the boys accidentally cause aliens to invade the Earth, Penny helps start the Resistance to save the world.
"The city has fallen silent. There is no warmth left in the sun."
~Eowyn, Return of the King (film)
The world ended on a Thursday.
At least, Penny thought it had been a Thursday. With all the insanity that had followed the end of the world as she knew it, it was difficult to remember exactly when it had begun. The Tuesday beforehand, though, was like crystal in her head. In the weeks and months after, Penny had often revisited that day in her memory, wishing she had given into temptation and smashed a coffee carafe over Howard's head. And everyone else's as well, just to be sure. Stupid scientists. Sure, they were brilliant at flashing lights off and on in foreign countries and building mini-robots, but their brilliance ended at one crucial point-- consequences. Why the hell had not one of them stopped to think for even half a second before reprogramming the satellites and sending a message to the weird star Raj had found in the sky? Boys with their toys. If they weren't already dead, Penny was going to kill them.
She had been working that Tuesday, before the mess and the end. A friend's kid was sick, so Penny had offered to cover her shift as well, which meant a full day of Cheesecake Factory goodness. She was returning from her break when the boys walked in. The other waiters marked her return with brightened smiles and the hostess re-arranged the tables so that the boys sat within Penny's section. Penny cursed; she should have lingered longer in the bathroom. Then they would be someone else's problem. Then again, Sheldon was with them. He'd demand her, loudly and with lecturing, if necessary, until she relented and took over the table. She liked the boys; they were great. They were also the bane of her waitressing existence.
"Oh, good, Penny, you're working," Sheldon said once she approached their table. "The hostess--" he paused to give the poor girl by the door an evil look-- "tried to tell us that you were on break."
"I was," Penny said. "I just got back."
"Well, that was fortunate timing," Sheldon said.
Too fortunate, Penny thought, wondering now if the boys were why she'd been allowed to take her break earlier than usual. "So, what will you be having today?"
"I would like--" Sheldon began.
"The usual," Penny cut him off. She had written up and laminated a copy of Sheldon's order months ago. Every guy and girl in the kitchen now knew the Nutso Special. They kept it pinned up beside the Sally Surprise, an order which, like the famous one from the movie, involved a sandwich with everything, save the bread, on the side. "Leonard?"
Leonard looked up from the charts Raj was spreading over the table. "Uh, just a regular burger meal today. Plain."
"Raj?"
Raj froze and looked to Howard, his eyes wide and lips pleading. Howard rolled his eyes. "The same for us," he said.
"All right. Three plain burger meals and Sheldon's usual. Anything else?"
Howard, the only one paying her the slightest bit of attention now, shook his head. She was impressed. Whatever the guys were looking at had to be important. Even Howard was looking at them more than he was her cleavage. "I think we're goo--"
"Great holy Batman!" Sheldon gasped, grabbing one of the papers. "Is that what I think it is?"
Raj looked at her. Penny rolled her eyes and turned away. Three steps later, Raj began to talk rapidly, all the syllables running together. Penny retreated to the kitchen and turned in her order.
Leah, one of the managers on duty, glanced at the slip and pulled it away before one of the newer cooks could reach for it. "Jeff," she called to the most experienced person besides her in the kitchen. "We got a Nutso for you."
Penny winced when she heard a loud clang of metal. Jeff, a tall man with dark hair and an unfortunate nose, grumbled as he walked up to her and Leah.
"I do it right once," he said, "and I get stuck with it every Tuesday."
Penny huffed with understanding. "You should try being their waitress."
He shuddered. "No thanks." He took the order slip and, to Leah, added, "The chicken for table sixteen is ready to plate." He returned to the heart of the kitchen, yelling to the cooks and his underlings what he needed.
Leah jutted her chin toward the dining area. "I think your boys need more coffee," she said.
Penny filled a carafe and restocked the creamer in her pocket. "Trust me," she said. "Caffeine is the last thing those four need." She picked up a water pitcher with her other hand and walked back out to the table.
Raj did not notice her approaching and so continued talking. "Professor Lambert thinks it is a hoax or problem with the equipment, but if you look at this, labs in Russia and Japan have had similar results."
"So why haven't any of their scientists made a fuss over it?" Leonard asked.
"Because it is too incredible to imagine. This phenomenon does not follow any of the rules we've established for stars, comets, meteors, and so on. They think it has to be an anomaly, because any other option would mean--"
"Life," Leonard said, awestruck.
"Are you certain you've accounted for all alternatives?" Sheldon asked.
Raj shoved papers toward him. "Look for yourself. I have more research back at the lab. I think this is real." He sounded like a five year old at Christmas time.
"Do you think alien chicks will be hot? Or kinky? I bet they are. Different cultural standards and all that," Howard said, dreamily.
Penny suppressed the urge to knock him over the head with the coffee, and, instead, asked, "Refills?"
As she refilled their drinks, her curiosity took the lead. "What are those papers?" she asked.
The boys looked at one another. Then Leonard answered, "Raj has found an odd light in space."
"A weird star, go on."
"Well, not really a star--"
"We think they might be aliens," Raj said, the words bursting out of him. Penny nearly dropped the coffee mug she was filling. Raj looked even more surprised.
"Aliens?" Penny asked.
"That is a possibility," Sheldon said, "but one that I still believe to be remote. As we have not dealt with aliens before, we do not know exactly how to verify the idea."
Penny shrugged and picked up the water pitcher once more. "Why don't you just ask them?"
"We can't just a--" Sheldon stopped, his eyes glazing with thought. Then he blinked. "Wolowitz, does your lab still have access to the new government satellite?"
"Of course. Though only officially until the end of the month, why?"
Sheldon started to grin maniacally and Penny backed away slowly. The boys could handle this one.
Or so she had thought. Their circumstances now spoke otherwise.
A rap on Penny's door rocked her back to the present. The rhythm was special, three knocks three times. "Speak friend and enter," she said, softly.
"Melon," came the equally soft reply. Penny reached up, unlocked the door, and eased it open. Behind Jeff a couple people huddled. "More refugees," he said. "Can you take them?"
Penny bit her lip, then nodded. Jeff smiled in relief. "Thanks," he said. "Keep them safe."
"Safe as hobbits," Penny promised. "Would you like to come in for a rest?" she asked.
Jeff shook his head. "Miss Gandalf wants me to make a run to the Woods."
"She can't," Penny said, weakly.
Jeff shrugged. "You know how it is. Do something right once and you get stuck with it every time. Until next time, my Eowyn." He kissed her gently, one hand pressed warm against her back, the other on her cheek. Penny nipped at his lips and he chuckled. "Take care," he said and then ducked back down the alley. Penny shut the door and locked it, her heart pounding. She forced herself to smile before turning to face her latest batch of escapees and scroungers.
"Well," she said, "let's get you settled."
The Lord of the Rings references had started as a joke almost the instant the aliens had revealed themselves. From the points of the ears and sheen of their hair down to their slender hips and legs, they looked exactly like the elves from Peter Jackson's trilogy. They looked stern, but peaceful. Beautiful. Howard had been in raptures after the broadcast that, in true thriller movie fashion, had dominated all the airwaves.
The Elves were not interested in political power, Earthly resources, or anything of that ilk. They only wanted to talk science. Due to wars and strife on their own planets, Penny learned privately from the guys, the Elves could do a lot more than they understood. Their technology was more inherited than created; and so, they wished to talk with the scientists of Earth and pool their mental resources.
Being the ones to initiate contact, the guys were the first ones to be brought up into the large airships that hovered over California and the Pacific ocean. At first the visits had only been during the day, like work. From the four, Penny learned a lot about the Elves. They took their science seriously and Sheldon was often at odds with them. He was the first to disappear. Leonard had looked away shiftily when she'd demanded answers and promised that Sheldon was safe. He'd just gotten into an argument over strings vs. belkirs, whatever those were, and well-- he'd shrugged. Howard and Raj said nothing, but their wide eyes and the way they refused to discuss anything alien after that made Penny think the worst.
Later, after the Elves stopped pretending they wanted to share their technology and exist peacefully, Penny saw what happened when an Elf got mad. A new waitress took a cup of coffee to the Elf's table by mistake and he snapped. His hair lengthened into whips, stiffened into clubs, and sharpened into needles. He attacked, shredding the girl's skin. Blood pooled on the floor and spurted across the table top. Frozen and watching, Penny imagined Sheldon at the receiving end of one particularly wicked looking hooked-club with spines up and down the shaft.
They closed the restaurant. A nursing student tried to help the new girl, but it was no good. She'd lost too much blood. Standing by her corpse, Penny and the others on duty that day formed the Resistance.
The Lord of the Rings references had begun as a joke, but they became their code. The Woods where Leah, one of three strategists in charge of their offensive, was sending Jeff was back in Pasadena, near the university where everything had begun. It was an Elf city now and one of the most dangerous places in the United States. Jeff had managed the run thrice before, each time barely escaping capture. The second time he'd come back with hairs all through his back. Penny knew how hard that recovery had been for him, because she had helped him through it. Now Leah was sending him back again.
Penny settled her refugees into her back room. "All right," she said, in a soft voice. "Which of you is the genius?"
The three looked at one another. The youngest of the three, a tall girl with small glasses and braids pulled up into a ponytail raised her hand. "Me, probably. I'm good at physics."
"She's been taking university courses by correspondence," the red-haired woman who looked about Penny's age said.
"And you are?" Penny asked.
"Cecily, her former music teacher."
"Why didn't you go to the Elves when they asked for people?" Penny asked.
"I've been helping out Ms. Tate after school."
"I am trying to create a blended middle and high school band. Regina is one of my high school students," Cecily explained.
"And who are you?" Penny asked, turning to the third figure, a man with thinning hair.
"Guy Warner, mechanic and general Jack-of-all," he said. "They've had me fixing up some Elf-tech. I know some of the workings now."
"How did you get away?" Penny asked, awed. So far no one she knew of had been able to figure out how the airships worked. The mechanics and engineers brought into the fold were tightly guarded or dead.
"I was in the first group," the guy explained. "I ran before they clamped down and have been running since. I bumped into your man by coincidence and we helped each other out. He said you'd know where to go next."
"Yes," Penny said. "That is what I do. I know of some projects you could help with. Cecily, perhaps you and Regina could relocate to one of our communities with children. We need more ways to keep kids busy."
Regina wrinkled her nose and raised her brows. "I understand Belkirs," she said. "Do you really want to send me off to play with kids?"
"What?" Penny asked. "How?"
"Online," Regina answered.
Again, Penny asked, "How?" While not even the Elves could control the net, they could make access next to impossible where they had control and then flood the web with false information for everywhere else.
"Music camp at USC."
Cecily's eyes widened and turned to Regina. "You were the one who kept breaking into the office?" Regina shrugged one shoulder.
"Oh," Penny said. She tried to think of a nice way to explain to the girl that everything she knew was likely bunk.
"Not from of their sites," the girl said. The condescension in her voice reminded Penny strongly of Sheldon. "Not even an idiot would fall for their lies. I downloaded the Pennyblossom files."
Penny froze. "The what?"
"The Pennyblossom files," Regina repeated. "They're hidden on this old site for flower hairpins."
Penny didn't even realize she was crying until Cecily asked her what was wrong. Penny shook her head and smiled. "I'm fine," she said. They weren't all dead, she thought, and something broke inside her. She wanted to laugh or cry or something; she didn't know how to express the emotions flooding her. So, instead, she opened a cupboard, removed the shelves, and pushed out the backside.
"Go through there," she said. "There's blankets and food. I'll figure out your destination." They went. Penny shut the back, arranged the shelves, and shut the door. Her house was the safest in their constellation of safe places. The Elves left her alone, only ever bothering her for coffee and cakes that she sold in the front shop, Cafe Norah or, for those who knew her true colors, Rohan. The little cafe, outside Pasadena, but still within the shadow of the aerial city for most of the day, was popular among the Elves who liked to pretend that they weren't taking over the Earth and people who needed a safe place to rest. Penny had two secret rooms, plus a public room for nightly rent. In her own bedroom, she had a laptop that could connect to the internet even in the middle of a desert. One of their scientists had jury-rigged it for her and it was now Penny's most valuable tool. Leah had another one. Some Rangers had smuggled others into libraries and computer cafes for their communal use.
Penny leaned back against her headboard and logged onto Age of Conan. While the game world was less populated than it used to be, thousands of people still played each day. As far as Penny knew, the Elves did not yet see fit to monitor the game as they did most message boards and social networking sites. Penny toggled the chatter off and logged into her guild's noticeboard. Amidst messages from regular players lurked coded updates from most of the hobbit holes along the west coast. Penny wrote down the messages and loaded some macros for her character to mask her inattention. She typed each code into the decoder on her computer and updated her files with the new information. Finished, she turned her attention back to her character. She played the game for a half hour, before claiming work and logging off.
Penny looked at the new information on her screen. Other people could be geniuses and master strategists, Penny just looked for what made sense. She also knew how to act, which was why she ran the cafe. The Elves thought she was on their side. A few had even asked her back to their beds, a prospect that disgusted Penny. She'd sex up Kripke, before she touched any Elf-freak. She spied on conversations, passed information, calmed refugees, and figured out where people were needed. She was one of the few to know what was happening all throughout the Resistance.
Now she only needed to figure out where to send the mastermind, mechanic, and music teacher. Everyone claimed to need help, but a lot of it was BS. People were scared and wanted security blankets. A report from Moria, a large community situated in a series of hidden underground bunkers, grabbed Penny's attention. A group of runners had stolen a small transport and delivered it to Moria. Penny hoped they'd also feinted deliveries elsewhere, or else Moria wouldn't last long. If it did prove safe, they would need people who could understand Elf tech and science. If it proved unsafe, she could divert them to the airport and Texas. Missy had a group down there. Texas was safer than California and would be a good place for the mechanic to share his knowledge and for the kid to learn more from the mysterious insider.
Satisfied, Penny shut down her computer and curled up in her bed. In the morning, she would contact a Ranger and get her refugees ready for their journey south.
The morning, however, had other plans.
Part Two