--Point of View: Katie--
The sound of air rushed past as we plunged further into darkness. The only light visible was the small speck above that marked where we jumped and it was growing smaller by the second.
“Crim! We need to slow down!” I shouted; my arms wrapped around his neck for dear life.
Moments later, I was jerked violently as Crim drastically slowed, the screech of metal resonating throughout the shaft. Sparks flew all around us as Crim must have dug his claws into the sides of the shaft like Tom suggested. Our descent slowed and eventually halted, leaving us situated upon a beast in the middle of an elevator shaft.
“Any idea how much further this thing goes? I’m not sure how much of this my claws can take.” Came Crim’s voice from just beneath them.
I could not see him but I could feel his gaze. He was most definitely looking at me. I wondered if he could see in the dark.
“I haven’t a clue, but we have already traveled down a great deal. Wherever this leads, its far beneath the city. That usually means two things in the world of science. Whatever is down here is very valuable, dangerous, or both.” Remarked Tom who was situated behind me.
“Let’s hope for the first one.” I commented, hoping they would not have to face any more immediate threats at their life. At least not for today. “See if you can’t slowly lower us down Crim.”
“I’ll do my best. Its kind of tricky in this position and I’d rather you two not fall.” He replied as we started to slowly move again.
I could picture Crim’s claws digging into the reinforced walls, carving a clear path down its once smooth exterior. I suspected that Crim could have probably survived the fall if he wanted to, but Tom and I would not fair as well. As we fell, I instructed Crim to slow and speed up when it felt appropriate. I was not too keen on being stuck in this shaft for longer than we had to be. Thankfully, the droids did not have the mindset to simply fire down the shaft. Its not like we could have dodged. Regardless, we were making progress and that was a welcome change.
“Once we reach the bottom, we will end up on top of the elevator car, or at least whatever is left of it. The fall more than likely reduced it to a heap of metal. We may need you to make us an exit.” Commented Tom as he thought ahead. He was always a few steps ahead.
“These walls are pretty soft so I don’t imagine it should be any trouble, but we will have to arrive there first. I feel like we’ve been descending for an hour.” Complained Crim.
“Actually, about 30 minutes by my watch but I know what you mean.” Replied Tom.
The rest of the trip down the shaft was uneventful. Everyone remained quiet besides the occasional instruction from myself to Crim. Upon reaching the bottom, Crim did not react quick enough and flopped onto his stomach, letting out a loud grown of pain. Tom and I both felt bad but there was not much we could have done considering none of us could see.
“Right, here we are” groaned Crim as he slowly rose back to his feet. “Mind hopping off so I can bust us out of here?”
We both quickly slid off Crim’s back and pressed our backs to the opposite walls, not wanting to be in the way of loose debris when he started working. Mere moments later the sound of scraping metal and concrete filled the shaft again as Crim started to dig his way through the wall. It took not even a minute for the first ray of light to pierce through an opening he had made. As the hole grew, more and more light flooded inside until we were able to see again. It was a welcoming comfort.
“I’m glad there’s light down here.” Commented Crim as he paused for a moment to look back at us. “Relieved to see you two aren’t beat up too bad from the trip.”
“Likewise, I’m sure you took a thrashing holding off those droids, but you can tell us about it later. How’s that hole coming along?” I asked, scooting around so I could see his progress. The hole was already big enough for a normal sized human to crawl through, but he was not about to stop until he himself could squeeze through. Thankfully, that took no more than ten minutes.
We took turns exiting the elevator shaft. Tom and I simply stepped through the now large hole in the wall. Crim though had to crawl. He did not seem to mind and judging by the look on his face was just happy to be free again. Looking around for the first time, we were in an enormous room that stretched far into the distance. Remarkably though, it was very well lit from lights that appeared to be somewhere we could not quite comprehend even if we searched for them. That was not the only odd thing though. Situated square in the middle of the area was a giant archway that you could probably fly a fleet ship through.
“Katie!” exclaimed Tom out of nowhere. “The gate, from the photograph. That is where we are!”
I blinked and rapidly looked around. He was right. The scale of the room, the gate, it all looked just like the picture we had found.
“Oh wow, you are right Tom. That is most definitely a gate and its still completely intact. At least from this distance. Come on, we need to get a closer look.” I said, quickly forgetting my fears for a moment to press forward towards this new discovery. Tom and Crim followed closely behind.
I knew the gate was big, but I did not fully understand the scale of everything until I stood before it. It stretched higher than most of the buildings above ground and was wider than two city blocks. Thinking back, it made sense why we traveled so far down. It was to make room for this.
“I can’t believe how big this thing is. The remnants of the ones we found previously were nothing compared to this one. Not even close.” Tom commented as he dragged his fingers across the smooth surface of the gate. I did the same and was surprised to find not steel, but stone.
“Pardon my ignorance, again, but what is this thing? It looks like an oversized doorway.” Questioned Crim who had taken a seat directly in the center of the archway.
“Well, its pretty much a doorway if what we’ve read is true. These gates would open a portal to other locations far away. They could traverse galaxies in an instant.” Answered Tom who came to stand with the rest of us. “If that old picture was anything to go by, I would say this one was used to deploy troops and machinery. It would explain the size.”
“You’re probably right. You could march a whole army through this one gate and have it pop out anywhere. Talk about surprising your enemy. How do you even plan against something like this?” I added, the very thought of a droid army appearing out of thin air sent shivers down my spine.
“A gateway huh. Could we use this to escape this place? Or is that a bad idea?” asked Crim, turning to face me and then Tom, a curious look on his face. Was that a bit of excitement I saw?
Tom scratched his head for a moment as he leaned back to gaze up at the pinnacle of the arch several hundred feet above them. “Well, I mean. Its possible I suppose but also very dangerous. Neither Katie nor I has dealt with anything like this. One slip up and we very well could end up somewhere much worse than here. A sun, the core of a planet, empty space, the possibilities are endless.
“There is a risk, sure but surely there are some preset destinations programed into this thing. You said it yourself they used it for transporting troops. I would not be surprised if they moved soldiers between bases like we do now.” I injected, liking the idea more and more as I thought about it. Partly because it was probably the only way we were getting out of here and because it was really cool.
“I’ll start looking I guess.” Sighed Tom, pulling at his hair again in slight frustration. “Its not like we have much of a choice at this point. We can’t stay down here forever.”
“Glad you agree. I’ll check the west side. There looks to be some offices or something on that side. Maybe the control terminal is in one of those. You take the other sider Tom.” I said, looking first to Tom and then to Crim. “And Crim, you uh, look for anything that looks important.”
Crim smiled, knowing very well she was being kind to him but I imagine he appreciated it regardless. “Will do Katie. Both of you holler if you need help.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
So, the group split up temporarily to cover more ground. I made my way swiftly to the offices and began to rummage through desks and terminals for anything that seemed important. The first couple of rooms were what I expected, just offices full of paperwork and records. Records seemed promising at first, but they looked to only list details on the troops being sent out and not where they were being sent. I had to be close though. By the fourth room I struck gold and entered into a room full of terminals. Standing in the center of the room was a large screen with what roughly translated to Destination, Departure, and Arrival. This had to be it.
Jumping onto the nearest computer, I started to type away at a furious pace, using all I knew to gain access to these ancient devices. Thankfully, years of study and the fact humans, regardless of how old or advanced they may be, still used terrible passwords. A few guesses and a bit of dumb luck awarded me with a terminal prompt. What was not so lucky though was the message I was greeted with moments later.
“Gate reactor offline. Please restore power to resume current warp.” I said aloud as I tapped my fingers on the desk. That means we were going to have to restore a reactor if we wanted this to work. It must be nearby. I rose from the desk and made my way back towards the archway, looking around for Tom.
“Tom! Tom where are you?” I called, poking my head into a few rooms before I heard him shout back from further down the line.
“I’m down here. Did you find what we needed?” he asked as he emerged from one of the rooms further down.
“I did, but unfortunately we need to power this thing back up. You didn’t happen to come across a reactor in one of these rooms, did you?” I said, walking up to meet him. “It can’t be too far from here. Wouldn’t make much sense.”
“Well, normally I would say nothing makes sense around here but lucky for you, I did in fact, find your reactor. I was just browsing through its logs when I heard you. You’re going to like this.” He answered, turning back the way he came.
I gave him a curious look and followed. Tom was not somebody to say things lightly so whatever he found must be important. Upon entering the room, I was greeted with a somewhat familiar sight. This room closely resembled the power control room that was up on the first floor. Tom took a seat at the main console and motioned me to take a closer look at the screen.
“Looks like they have four reactors powering this one gate. I guess it takes a lot of oomph to transport raw matter across the galaxy.” Tom said with the biggest smile on his face. “Unfortunately, it looks like one of the reactors was undergoing some sort of maintenance cycle.
“What? That’s not good news at all Tom. This thing isn’t going to work unless we can get that fourth reactor up and running. I don’t know about you, but I’m not an engineer.” I exclaimed, annoyed at his casual demeanor but it quickly faded as he tapped on the screen, drawing my attention to a specific line.
“It looks like they already did the work but forgot to close it back up. The log has a very interesting name for the center chamber.” He explained, waiting for me to read it myself.
“Reactor four maintenance complete. Please reseal heart chamber and commence startup sequence. Heart chamber? They couldn’t mean, could they?” I asked, turning to stare at Tom, my eyes wide with surprise.
“Yes, I do think they could. If everything Crim has told us is true, I can completely believe these reactors are powered by dragon hearts. It all makes so much sense. They supposedly continue to produce this so-called mana even after they died and it would explain how the runes etched all over the reactor body could function. They are the power source. This is why they wanted that dragon in Crim’s village. They were harvesting them for their hearts.” Tom continued to explain, pointing out so many small details that we both failed to connect. I felt foolish not seeing it sooner.
“I can’t believe it. It all makes far too much sense. Crim and his village died so the old ones could produce yet another reactor.” I managed to sputter out.
“People are and have always already been, the worst monsters.” Tom commented quietly, reaching up to pat my shoulder. “We can cry later though. Go find Crim. I’m sure we are going to need his door opening skills. I’ll work on getting everything else prepared.”
I wiped my eyes, sniffling once or twice before turning to go fetch Crim. I would have to tell him the news. He deserved to know why his entire village was wiped clean. It did not take me long to find him. The sound of broken glass rang out from one of the further offices followed by a low groan.
“Ugh, not again. These rooms really should have been made a tad bigger. I mean, I was created in this damn place. They should know better.” Ranted Crim as I turned the corner. He really did look out of place among the lines of desks.
“Crim, there you are. Come on, we found the controls along with the reactor we need to turn back on to make it all work.” I told him quickly, waving for him to hurry up. “And we also discovered something a bit grim. I’ll explain on the way.
Crim listened quietly as I explained Tom’s theory on how the dragon hearts were powering the reactors. To my surprise, Crim did not seem all that fazed. In fact, it almost looked he suspected the same thing.
“I figured they were related. Runes simply don’t work if there is no mana in the air. No dragon heart, no mana, no enchanting. It’s a very basic concept.” Crim explained as we walked, surprising me even more by how much thought he had already put into the subject. “I first started to suspect the hearts existed here when your group of people started that reactor for the first time. When you’ve been around mana for as long as I have, you can feel it. That sensation, while not as strong as it was back then, returned when I was near your base. Near the reactor.”
“Wow, I guess you were ahead of us this whole time. When were you going to tell us?” I asked, curious as to why he had kept it a secret until now.
“I was going to tell you both eventually. I just wasn’t completely sure. Didn’t want to make a fool of myself in front of the first person I managed to befriend here.” He said quietly, a little ashamed.
I could not help but smile a little at that comment. “I understand how you feel so don’t worry about it. All that matters now is getting this reactor started and getting out of here.”
We both nodded in agreement as we arrived back to Tom who was still typing away on the keyboard. I leaned over his shoulder to get a better look.
“How we looking?” I asked as I read through the lines on the screen.
“Good actually. We won’t need Crim to pry this door open. I managed to unlock it from here. Its just over there on the opposite wall.” He said, turning to point at a rather hefty looking down with a spin handle. “If this log is anywhere near accurate, we just need to close whatever this heart chamber is and hit start.”
“Sounds simple enough. Let’s go” I declared, marching with a bit of confidence in my step. I managed to get a few reactors going already. This one should not be any different, right?
I placed a hand on the door handle and began to turn it, releasing the door seal with an audible hiss. Suddenly, I found myself being thrown backwards by Crim who then violently slammed the door shut, his eyes wide and alert.
“Stay back, check your hand, NOW!” Crim yelled, his voice full of worry.
I staggered to my feet, the force of Crim knocking the wind out of me. It was hard to catch my breath.
“What was that for, you could have seriously hurt me Crim. If you wanted to go first all you had to do was,” I started to say but was cut off by a very commanding Crim.
“Your hand, look at it now!” He bellowed again, his voice mimicking authority.
I found myself scared for an unknown reason. What was he talking about? Slowly, I looked down first to my left hand which appeared unchanged as far as I could tell but my right hand was another story. The thick rubber of my suit was bubbling and starting to deform as if I had dunked it into a strong acid. What was going on?
“Tom, my bag! Quick! My suit may be compromised.” I shouted to Tom who reacted immediately, grabbing my supply satchel and running over as fast as he could.
“What on earth is that?” he asked upon kneeling down, the reaction having slowed drastically but still had some reaction left in it.
“I don’t know and don’t have time to check. Just wrap my hand in case the seal goes bad.” I said, feigning composure. It was during times like these that training really paid off.
I watched Tom wrap my hand with a special material designed to patch our suits during times such as this. Accidents did happen and what was important was minimizing the damages. Once the suit was safely repaired, I stood back up and looked to Crim. He still had his entire body pressed against the door, forcing it shut. I went to take a step forward but he growled and told me to stay back.
“Crim, what is going on. What was that?” I asked, taking a step back to keep my distance.
“That was raw, concentrated mana. As soon as you opened that door, I could feel it like a burn on the back of my hand. It’s incredibly toxic to just about anything it comes into contact with. Thankfully it didn’t cause too much damage to your suit.” He explained.
“What do you mean by raw?” prompted Tom who had taken a spot beside me.
“Mana in my time was everywhere. It permeated everything. The forest where dragons resided and eventually passed, absorbed the mana and released it into the air slowly.” He said as he closed his eyes, thinking back. “It was this controlled release of mana that prevented what you just saw from occurring.”
“Okay but that doesn’t explain why it’s so prevalent in that room.” I said, still not understanding completely.
“I understand.” Commented Tom, taking a step forward, much to Crim’s annoyance. “There are potentially four dragon hearts in that room, one for each reactor. One of which is exposed because of the maintenance cycle that was left unfinished. So, its just been in there, for a thousands years releasing mana into the air, right?”
Crim nodded. “That is what I suspect.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense.” I added, feeling a little foolish now. “But is there anything we can do about it? We still need to get in there.”
“Yeah, there is. I’ll go. The mana in that room will eat away at anything it touches.” He said slowly, a deep breath rising inside of him. “but this body of mine may be able to survive long enough to fix whatever needs done.”
“Crim, are you sure? Will you make it out of there alive?” I asked, my fear starting to slowly rise again.
“I do not know Katie, but we don’t have much of a choice. Like you said, we can’t sit around here forever.” Responded Crim, standing tall. “I will go inside and close this door. I’m sure I can figure it out. Regardless, I want both of you to stand far back. There is no telling how far the mana will wander once the door is opened.
I wanted to protest but Tom once again interrupted, placing a hand on my shoulder reassuringly. “If you think you can do it Crim, then our faith is with you. Let’s go Katie.” Said Tom as he led me out of the room. I glanced back one more time to see the giant crimson visage disappear into the reactor’s core.