Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 56: One Weak Spot

It takes as long as it takes. That is one of the Commander's first lessons, and it is one she has needed to use so often that it has become ingrained in her. Heda has lived a hundred years and will live a thousand more, so an hour means nothing, is nothing. The Commander spirit knows this, and is calm – Lexa knows this as well, however her calmness takes far more effort, for she is a person and not a spirit and prey to the weaknesses that causes. But it is still possible for her to wait, to be still.

So once again she sits patiently as Clarke paces, as they wait for the return of Indra and the two dozen gona with her. Or whatever remains of them, at least. It is the first move in a game of chess, Lexa knows – you do not play your pawns carefully, fearful that one might be taken. You accept that some will die from the start and resolve that if they must, they will die for a purpose, a cause. They will die for a greater victory. This attack is to convince the Maunon they are weak and desperate, clutching at straws, going for the generators because that is the only idea they have.

They may lose a pawn, today. But she does not intend they should lose the game.

Her fingers itch to touch Clarke, but she shouldn't. Indra could return at any moment. Lexa clears her throat. "Remind me how this 'hacking' works, Clarke kom Skaikru?" she asks casually.

Clarke pauses in her pacing. She must know Lexa's trying to distract her, but it still works. "It's... it's hard to explain. Mostly because I'm not that great with technology either."

"Maybe I can help," Monty says, opening the tent flap. His face is a light shade of green. Jasper, following him, is the same. They look worse than any Seken Lexa has ever seen on the eve of battle. "If it's okay. That we're in here, I mean. We just kind of -"

"That would be appreciated, Monty Green," Lexa says coolly, eyeing them. She can work out why they're seeking the company of her and Clarke now – they are scared, whereas she and Clarke appear to know what they are doing. They wish for that comfort. She will act as confident as they wish her to be. "So. What is 'hacking'?"

"It's, uh, you kind of, you take over someone else's computers," Jasper says, taking over. He looks unnerved that Lexa knows his friend's name. "They want it to do one thing – like in this case, keep us out – and then we type a bunch of stuff and their computer does what we want and lets us in. The doom-bot turns against his evil overlord and fights by our side."

Lexa raises an eyebrow, making it clear just by her expression that this is not a useful explanation and that she is not amused. Clarke looks a little amused, though.

Monty coughs, and speaks up. "Have you ever seen a rock which is big and strong, but as soon as you hit it in exactly the right place, it breaks apart?" he says, sounding a little calmer than Jasper. "Or it happens with metal, sometimes, too. Just one weak spot, even though everything else is strong."

"I have," Lexa says. She has seen the former at the Rock Line clan, and the latter in other's poorly made weapons.

"Right," Monty says, looking a bit relieved that he got a positive response. "It's like that, except with computers – the ones that control the doors, and the acid fog, and pretty much all things in a high-technology society. Sometimes they have one weak spot. The right numbers and letters are like hitting that spot. Except when you do, they don't just break – they become yours."

"I see," Lexa says, interested in spite of herself. These Sky People do not understand how to make food or hunt or build or anything at all. They live off things made a hundred years ago. But when it comes to some things, they know worlds that her people never have. "Perhaps someday you will have to become a ticha, so that our goufa may learn of these things."