Serenity double checked the filters and made certain they were all turned off; no warnings appeared. That was not good; it meant he shouldn’t trust the warnings as much as he had been. This was probably a special case, but it showed that the system wasn’t perfect.
It took some digging for Serenity to find anything other than the warning and map screens he already knew about, but he eventually located a visual display of all of the controls. It had to exist; he’d even come across it a few times. He hadn’t needed to use it then, so it took a bit to remember exactly how to get back to it.
It would let him unlock and open the door, but it couldn’t tell him why the door was visually telling him there was a problem. One piece of the puzzle was obvious from that screen, however; unlike the other rooms, none of the sensors inside the room were reporting anything at all. They might as well not have been there.
Serenity guessed it was possible that the warning meant there simply wasn’t any data on whether or not it was hazardous beyond the door; that would explain the mismatch. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen the same data represented differently in different places for unusual edge cases and “the magic isn’t showing anything at all” was definitely an unusual edge case. Even if that was the reason for the warning, though, he needed to be careful.
Why hadn’t the builders included a way to say what the warning was for? Idiot lights were useful to stop people who didn’t have more access from killing themselves, yes, but they weren’t sufficient for the people who were supposed to actually fix something. In this case, unfortunately, the diagnostics he could run only told him he couldn’t get data but not why.
Maybe there was something in the system that could have told him if he were more familiar with it. If he ever trusted anyone enough to hand over engineering control of the largest vessel on Earth, he might be able to find out eventually. Serenity doubted that would be any time soon. He didn’t feel particularly trusting at the moment.
No, that wasn’t quite true. He might actually be willing to trust a few of the people he’d met during the development of a people detector; it was their bosses he didn’t trust. He didn’t know them. That was enough of a reason; Serenity doubted his father would willingly hand over control any time soon either. He didn’t think any of them had even mentioned that that level of control existed. It would be better if everyone just forgot about the Voice’s statement that A’Atla was owned.
None of that helped him get through the door. He could open it whenever he wanted to, but without knowing what was on the other side it didn’t seem like a good idea. All he knew was that the nexus seemed to drain into the small room behind the door and not come back out; That wasn’t normal and could mean any number of things, most of them unsafe.
The first thing to try was some simple rituals. He was in a nexus, which made power easy, but trying to get the information back out from what seemed like a whirlpool, even a black hole, was not easy. Getting a spell to look inside the room was easy enough, but it took a tremendous amount of power and a specifically designed ritual to get information back out.
Serenity didn’t think he’d have been able to build the ritual without the actual power-draining room in front of him. Even then, it took weeks.
He spent a lot of that time in front of the mystery door tweaking things; he even set up a place to crash so that he didn’t have to go far to sleep. It was a good thing he didn’t actually have to eat or drink, but Blaze did make him leave the door at least once a day for a run and some food. It wasn’t his normal schedule, but it was better than nothing.
The space behind the door was not wet or salty. As far as Serenity could tell, it had never been pumped full of sea water. Unfortunately, it also didn’t have a breathable atmosphere, or at least not one anyone would want to breathe. It was full of some rather nasty toxins and had a distinct lack of oxygen. Serenity’s pressure measurement was also either very wrong or the other side of the door was at a pressure appropriate for the deep ocean. It was somewhat impressive that there was no way to tell that from the outside other than the death’s head on the door.
With the question of what he needed to deal with to safely open the door answered, Serenity had to figure out how to do it. That was a question that was much easier to ask than to answer, so he spent a few days thinking about it. It was also a good time to find out what had happened on the surface while he was hidden away.
The first thing he noticed was that the network relays covered quite a bit more of the ship. He’d known they stretched down to where he was working because he’d laid those out himself but he hadn’t realized the rest were there. They didn’t cover the entire ship, but that would likely take years. Blaze must have placed them with Aide’s directions.
That was another thing that had changed: Aide was talking to Blaze and both of Serenity’s parents directly. With the establishment of the network and the acquisition of a few tablets that Aide had shipped in along with the network, there was no reason he had to always speak through Serenity. Serenity had no idea how Aide had explained his existence, but whatever it was seemed to have worked.
Despite all the delays, the two months that had passed since A’Atla rose hadn’t been long enough to finish the negotiations for the “multinational investigation.” Despite the fact that many of the countries had publicly declared they were waiting, essentially all of the large countries and quite a few of the smaller ones that had sea access to the Atlantic had at least one team on A’Atla; quite a few had several teams. It was large enough with enough well-spaced harbors that it was easy to have a ship drop a team close enough to reach land.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
A number of countries that didn’t have their own sea access also had teams on A’Atla; they clearly didn’t want to be left out of whatever was found. There were also more than a few large companies that had sent people, often with the covert approval of their home countries. In some ways, it reminded Serenity of the sort of rush he’d seen as Vengeance when someone found something good in an old abandoned city. No one knew what was there or what the dangers were, but that didn’t matter compared to the possibility of a large payday.
Naturally, there was a game of cat and mouse happening on the surface. Some teams just wanted to search for whatever they could find while others were intent on revealing exactly who was trespassing on the island. Some of the searchers were just looking for sensational stories, but many were trying to specifically embarrass their rivals.
It was a mess and it was one Serenity was glad he didn’t have to deal with.
He held that belief until the third day of his return to the camp. He still hadn’t found a really good solution to how to open the overpressurized door holding back toxic gas when his mother sent him a message.
Does your hair hold dye?
That wasn’t a question he’d ever expected to be asked. It also wasn’t one he actually knew the answer to.
Probably. I haven’t tried. No idea if it’ll stay after I shift or not. Why?
I need you up here but it can’t be as “Serenity.”
That explained the question about dye but not why she needed him. His mind went back to his investigation of the Tutorial; he still had some of the talismans Honoria had made for him back then. If this was short term enough, he might not even need one; he could do a temporary disguise with his shapeshifting. The talismans simply helped him stay locked in the form.
I can manage a disguise that’s better than just dye. How long do you need me in it and what do you need me for? Should I pretend to be something specific?
Just a few hours today but I don’t know how long it will be after that. It depends on how today goes. At a minimum, you’ll need to make appearances at meals until the next ship arrives.
With luck I’ll have time to fill you in more, but the sooner the better. Here’s the bare minimum: you’re Tom Cooper, you work for someone you won’t specify, and you know “a bit” about magical security. From what you’ve told me, you know enough that the real problem will be not saying too much, so remember that you’re just figuring this out!
Everyone’s going to assume that you’re American and we slipped you onto A’Atla for obvious reasons; don’t confirm it but don’t deny it too hard either. That’s what they’ll expect. Well, you can give a completely outlandish false story if you prefer; that’s the approach Blaze is taking. It should work well, but probably better for him than for you.
The sooner you can get up here, the better - but make sure you aren’t seen until you’re here.
Temporary, then. He could make the decision about a long-term disguise later.
Serenity half wished Bethany had taken the time to explain what was going on, but the fact that Blaze was apparently already involved told him that, whatever had happened, she was probably still dealing with a dozen tiny crises. It was a good thing he was already nearby; it wasn’t that far from his tent to the new location his parents had set up.
If only he’d been paying attention to his armor-selves! They were still with his parents, but he couldn’t really pay attention to that many things at once, so he tended to ignore them as long as they weren’t getting hurt and no one asked for his attention or said his name.
On the other hand, there was someone who paid attention. Aide? What’s going on?
A fight of some sort happened outside the tunnels, Aide reported. Unfortunately, it occurred outside the area I can monitor. Blaze is currently healing the injured at the exterior camp. I believe that is where you are supposed to head as well. I do not know why your mother has requested your assistance.
That was sort of helpful but decidedly incomplete. Well, he’d find out when he got there.
Before then, he apparently needed to decide on a disguise. He needed to pick which Heritage he would use to fake the appearance of a bloodline.
He wanted something that didn’t look like himself, so Dhampir was out; in that form, he basically looked like Thomas with two different oddly-colored eyes. The eyes were Serenity’s colors, which made the connection even more obvious.
Nightmare Wraith was better; at least he didn’t quite look like Thomas. Instead, he looked like Thomas with hair that was dyed black and dark contacts. That was probably what his mother would have gone for if he hadn’t said he had a better disguise, though he doubted Bethany had a way to hide his horns. Nightmare Wraith would do that, at least.
Serenity shook his head as he looked over the list. He really had an odd collection here; washed out, dark hair and eyes, or blue-and-purple were really his main options. The undead bloodlines didn’t look human enough, even if he kept them limited; at a minimum, they made him look unhealthy. He still hadn’t tested the Human bloodline, but if it did anything it would just make him look like Thomas.
Maybe he should push it a little farther and accept an inhuman look that went beyond just hair and eye color? Something that was distinctly different from his colors as Serenity might work then.
Yes, Mana Elemental but he’d let it show more than he had while he was in the Tutorial pretending to be a normal Earth human. That should work.