Taking the lantern from Akuum Wuzah, Blye squared her shoulders and led the aliens to the vault’s entrance, pausing before they entered. “Last chance to turn back, gentlemen,” she told them.
“Best we learn now what fate has brought us,” Spata Zhai grumbled, as the drilling expert nodded in agreement. The small crowd gathered around them watched with apprehension as she peered into the shadows.
“Holy Mother Terra, watch over us,” she whispered, before stepping across the threshold.
As she entered, hidden lights came to life, illuminating the space within. With a shrug, she extinguished the now superfluous lantern and handed it back to its owner, before scanning the vault’s interior. At first glance, it appeared to be empty, except for what looked to be a raised lectern in the center of the room. It was made from the same materials as the vault itself, with the same intricate carvings, and as they entered, it began glowing with a faint bluish illumination.
“What do you make of that?” she asked the others.
“Given its location and obvious significance, I would presume it to be a control or interface of some kind,” Akuum hazarded.
“Right,” Blye sighed. “Question is, control for what?”
“There is only one way to learn the answer,” the Ixian remarked, stepping forward and drawing one of his swords. With a quick slash, he drew the blade across his palm before placing his hand on the control surface. “If DNA is required to enter the vault, it is logical to assume that it is also necessary in order to activate it.”
The trio stood waiting, looking around the small space for any sign of success. As the minutes ticked by with no response, Spata Zhai shrugged. “To be honest, I am relieved it did not work,” he said finally, stepping away from the podium before turning to the lone human.
“Actually, I was thinking Akuum Wuzah should go next,” she said, turning to the Glevack.
“Me?” he said in surprise. “Given that a human’s blood opened the vault, you are the logical choice,” he countered.
“Perhaps,” she agreed, “but I’d like to test a theory. If you’re willing, that is.”
He looked back at her with no small amount of trepidation, but after a moment, worked up the courage to approach the platform. Patting down his pockets, he located a small folding multi-tool and opened up one of its blades, pricking his finger and squeezing out the blood until there was a thin coating across his hand. Taking a deep breath, he placed it on the raised dais and waited.
Nothing.
“I was afraid of that,” Blye said unhappily, as Akuum Wuzah moved away. As she stepped forward and took his place, she opened up her medkit and pulled out a scalpel, slicing open her thumb and smearing the blood across the console’s raised surface, before pressing down with her palm.
A faint hum seemed to emanate throughout the chamber as the entrance slid shut, disappearing back into the walls without a trace. Moments later, the ceiling began to recede, stretching further and further away from the trio. “It’s an elevator,” Blye said in sudden recognition. “Whatever this place is, the primary facility must be subterranean.”
Spata Zhai gripped the hilt of his sword tightly as he glared at her. “What is it you are not telling us, Chevalier Tagata?” he demanded. “Two separate humans were able to trigger the ancient machinery running this installation, yet neither Akuum Wuzah nor myself could duplicate your efforts.” He stepped forward, towering over her. “Would you care to explain that?”
“I would if I could,” she answered, “but I’m just as much in the dark as you are. I don’t understand why Terran DNA seems to be the key. Assuming Amar is right, and this site predates our evolution, it doesn’t make one bit of sense.” She looked at him helplessly. “I swear to you, I don’t have the answer.”
The Ixian growled with displeasure, while Akuum Wuzah stared nervously towards the ceiling. “We must be headed deep underground,” he swallowed, as the roof receded from view.
“How deep?” Blye asked.
“Without a frame of reference? I can’t say,” he answered. “A kilometer? More?” He shrugged, shaking his head. “For all I know, we could be traveling hundreds of times that.”
“Turn us around. Now,” Spata Zhai demanded.
“I can try,” Blye answered, as she squeezed her thumb once more to dislodge the scab that was just beginning to form, collecting enough blood to repeat her earlier attempt, only this time it seemed to have no effect. “I suspect it won’t accept a new command until we’ve reached our destination,” she told him, before disinfecting and bandaging her injured digit.
As luck would have it, the elevator came to a stop less than a minute later, a doorway appearing opposite from where the entrance had been located. The three looked at one another before Akuum Wuzah cleared his throat.
“Perhaps it would be wiser to simply go back,” he said apprehensively. “We don’t know what lies beyond that portal. It could be anything… some hidden threat we have never encountered.”
Blye stared at the passageway, then looked up towards the distant ceiling. “We came all this way to see what the Precursors left behind,” she told them. “How can we just leave now?”
“Your curiosity is likely to be your undoing,” Spata Zhai informed her. “Akuum Wuzah is correct. We should return to the surface at once.”
She started backing towards the doorway. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t come here just to turn back around. What’s in that chamber could be the key to everything,” she said excitedly, “and we can’t just ignore that.”
“The hazard is too great,” the Ixian insisted. “Activate the controls and return us to the surface, Chevalier Tagata. Do not force me to do something we would both regret.” He stepped forward, his hand resting on his sword.
Gripping her staff tightly, she edged further away from them. “Are you crazy?” she demanded. “You’d seriously try to force me to go back, without even investigating?”
“And are you so blind to the dangers that you would put this entire camp at risk?” he fired back. Akuum Wuzah watched the exchange nervously, unwilling to interfere, as Blye jutted out her chin in defiance.
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“You want to stop me?” she asked, standing her ground. “Then you will have to kill me.” With that, she spun on her heel and raced for the entranceway, with the Ixian cursing right behind her.
Once again, the lights came on automatically as she skidded to a halt. This space was larger than the one she had just exited, though it too had a raised platform at its center. The configuration was quite different, however; where the dais in the elevator resembled an ancient church’s pulpit, this platform was slightly lower, though much longer and broader. Something about its dimensions tugged at her memory until she finally realized what seemed so familiar.
It looked like a sarcophagus.
Approaching the platform, she gently touched its surface, running her fingers across the carvings. It immediately came to life, a reddish glow pulsing and emanating from within the material itself, casting strange shadows on the surrounding walls.
“... by the Emperor’s blade… what is that thing?” Spata Zhai stammered behind her.
“I don’t know,” she replied, mesmerized by the sight. “Salvation, maybe.”
“Or an ancient horror, waiting to be unleashed,” he fired back. “Step away from it, Blye. For your own safety.”
She ignored the alien warrior, instead circling the platform counterclockwise… widdershins, in the old tongue… her fingers never leaving its exterior shell. Droplets of blood fell from her fingers and onto the strange platform before being siphoned away, as a strange sensation came over her. When she’d activated the elevator, she had noticed nothing unusual, and Amar hadn’t mentioned anything when he’d opened the vault door, but now…
… it was calling to her.
She couldn’t explain it, and it was in no language she understood… in fact, it wasn’t a language at all. Certainly not an audible one, for her ears heard nothing, nor did the others react to the siren song. But as it drank deeply of her DNA, it knew her, and while the song was strange in her mind, it was no less enthralling.
And as it sang, she realized what it wanted her to do.
The aliens accompanying her cried out in alarm as she scrambled up onto the platform, before laying down on its flat surface. The device immediately responded, reconfiguring itself and raising up her head and shoulders, even as she felt links being formed. As her eyes fluttered, something clicked inside her mind as the song reached a climax.
… Connection Established.
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Blye stumbled through a dense fog as she struggled to find a way out. Strange sounds echoed all around her; high-pitched chittering, dense clicking, deep moans that sounded almost like whale song. It was disorienting, and yet she felt no fear. Despite the sheer alienness of this place, there was a part of her that knew she was safe, that no harm would come to her. It was only a puzzle, not a house of horrors.
“Hello?” she called out. “Anybody here?” Her words seemed to dissipate into the mist, yet as she spoke, she could see the vapors glow and pulse at the sound of her voice.
Where was this place?
She froze for a moment, trying to get her bearings. How had she come to this place? Blye tried mentally retracing her steps, but her memories seemed vague and distant. Someone had summoned her, she recalled that much, pulling her away from her duties, to investigate…
Try as she might, nothing else would come. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, but her memory was still a blank. “HELLO?” she shouted again, “Can anybody hear me?”
No response. Just the odd noises, and the glowing fog.
Well then. With no memories to draw from, and no clues regarding her location, any direction was as good as another. Choosing one at random, she forged ahead, her feet finding purchase on a surface that felt slightly uneven, yet still solid. A gentle breeze began to blow, warm, like a spring day, drawing her forward. She grew more confident she was on the right path, as if she could feel something beckoning to her, drawing her near. She started to run, eager to find her way out of this labyrinth, and with a sudden surge of speed burst into the light, shielding her eyes as its brilliance threatened to blind her.
She felt something touch her arm and recoiled, yanking it free. A thick tendril hung before her, hovering in the air, connected to something outside her visual range. It too had pulled away, reacting to her sudden panic by drawing back and wavering in the breeze like a frond in a gentle current. It waited for her, radiating serenity and peaceful intent, until Blye finally swallowed her courage and stepped forward, reaching out to it with a trembling hand.
The tendril slowly slid forward to meet her, extending itself to gently probe and examine her, much as she might with a new and timid patient. Whatever tests it was performing were far too subtle for her to grasp, yet Blye was certain that its knowledge of her was growing exponentially. When it finally slithered up her body and placed its tip against her temple, she closed her eyes and opened up her mind.
A blur of images flashed before her, a jumble taken from various moments of her life. Glimpses from her childhood, her early training as a Knight, her first pregnancy and the birth of her child. Countless hours spent practicing the staff and sword, countless more poring over medical texts, flashes of surgery, her hands covered in gore. All the while, a cacophony of voices filled her ears, the sound of a thousand foreign voices straining to be heard, until one by one they disappeared… leaving a single voice remaining.
… DESIGNATE QUERY PARAMETERS, she heard it say, but the inflection was strangely neutral, almost metallic, as if it had come from a computer instead of a person.
Blye opened up her eyes and stared in shock. The fog had lifted, the questing tendril was gone. Instead, she found herself on the bridge of a ship, seated in the captain's chair with a starfield before her, while at her fingertips a data screen sat ready, the cursor blinking and waiting for input.
Suddenly, it all came rushing back to her.
“You’re a… computer,” she whispered in amazement.
AFFIRMATIVE. AUXILIARY DATA ARCHIVE 17Ω-ALEPH9. AWAITING INPUT.
She stared in disbelief. “How long have you been here?” she asked in wonder.
ARCHIVE 17Ω-ALEPH9 WAS ACTIVATED ON 96443.21 POST DIASPORA. LAST SYSTEM ACCESS: 7.8 x 10¹² CYCLES.
Blye just shook her head. She had no idea what any of that meant, but it felt incredibly ancient. Given that this had to be technology left by the Precursors, that only made sense. Her hands started to tremble as the implications of this discovery sank in. A database of Precursor knowledge, untouched since their disappearance, online and ready to be accessed? Its value was without equal anywhere within the Perseus Arm.
And, she realized with a sinking feeling, the Troika would stop at nothing to possess it, should they learn of its existence.
“Well, we can’t have that,” she said with a knowing smile. There had to be something in the databases they could use to protect themselves, designs for weapons and fortifications that could neutralize not only the Troika, but the Yīqún as well. “Just how much information do you possess?” she asked.
ARCHIVE 17Ω-ALEPH9 CONTAINS THE SUM TOTAL OF DATA REQUIRED TO RESTORE INTERREGNUM SOCIETY AND COMPLETE THE BETQEDEM GATEWAY.
Blye struggled to make sense of that and failed. She was tempted to ask for a clarification but had the sneaking suspicion it wouldn’t be any clearer than the original answer had been. But if what it was saying was true, if it contained everything the Precursors had needed to run their society, then the sky was the limit. With knowledge like that in their possession, they could defeat their enemies once and for all. No longer would her fellow Terrans be forced to beg for scraps just to survive. Instead, the entire galaxy would tremble at the very mention of Earth’s children, as they assumed their rightful place, taking their revenge against all those who had wronged them.
It would be… glorious.
Blye gasped, jumping up from the captain’s chair in sudden horror. “Holy Mother Terra,” she whispered, as the true ramifications of this discovery struck home. It was too much power. Who could be trusted to wield it? She’d only been linked to the system for a few minutes and look at what it had done to her.
Spata Zhai had been right all along.
“How do I get out of here?” she demanded. “Let me out!”
There was a brief pause.
SESSION TERMINATED, the computer said, as the faux bridge vanished before her eyes.
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Her eyes snapped open as she bolted upright from the dais, before scrambling off and backing away from it in terror.
“What is wrong?”
Spata Zhai and Akuum Wuzah looked at her with concern. “What happened?” the Ixian asked.
Blye didn’t trust herself to speak. She merely held herself, and shuddered.