It was a bit like archaeology, descending into the lab. The uppermost floor and a half were weathered, sun-beaten, and sandswept, the luster gone out of the ubiquitous metal walls and pipes, sand and dust heaped in every corner.

To go back in time, to see them in a pristine state, we just had to keep going down. The metal of the halls reflected the lights of my swords, and every now and then, I'd pause at seeing a hint of movement, only to realize it was my reflection in a still-intact pane of glass.

There was still damage, mostly as though to be inconvenient as possible. I'm sure it was a result of the blasts, but it almost felt like an earthquake had come through; some hallways were collapsed, and we'd only been able to descend four flights in the stairway before finding it blocked, and forced to cross the labs to find another way down.

Another half-dozen floors later, and I could put my swords away. I didn't, but I could have, as the lights were back on, a buzzing, emergency-red glow that must have been seething for years now.

"You think they have the same kind of deulith cells we do?" AEGIS asked, stepping carefully over twisted shearing in the metal floor. "Three years is a long time for a backup battery, they must have some kind of generator."

"The killer robots seemed powered just fine," I agreed. "And the portal's operational...I dunno if the machine has to work to keep that open or what. But yeah, something."

As we walked down the halls, my exoframe clacking with every step, I saw AEGIS peering with intensity through every door and window we passed. It was killing her, I knew, not to go in there and devour every scrap of paper and plug into every terminal we passed, especially considering that we were looking for an exit, and we were never coming back.

And, I supposed, that this was a new world of AI research, and she was an AI. What enhancements could she make to herself or her body by piggybacking off their tech? We'd never know, unfortunately. Great as I'm sure that might be -- for both of us -- Lia came first.

It was another couple of twisting, labyrinthine floors before I saw movement again, something pulsating in the distance which did not move as I did, like my reflection, and a spark of blue light that didn't mirror the white of my blades.

I was already at the front of the column, between the unknown and Lia and AEGIS. But even so, I took another few steps forward, felt my arms rise up as my hands tightened into fists. My swords drew into my periphery as they moved forward with me.

As I got closer, I confirmed it was a drone. And it was armed, a stubby machine gun dangled from the bottom of the unit, anchored between a set of blue-glowing plasma emitters.

It was a little bigger than my head, and much better put-together than the units I'd seen outside, recovering the corpse. Smooth armored plating, mostly rounded, but with some angles, and a deep trench around its equator gave it the appearance sort of like the head of a dragon, or lizard. Or very spiky dog.

The most-pointy bit, the snout, was directed straight at me. Above it, I could see lights of sensors, taking me in, watching my every advancing step with a dozen unblinking eyes. There were a series of mechanical clicks as it weaved back and forth in the air, its gun pivoting under it, but not with menace...just...I dunno, conversationally?

It was hard to attribute human thought to a floating device with a gun for its only limb. But I did grasp that it was watching me, and it was not pointing the gun at me. The latter of which I was very okay with, not that I was too concerned for my own safety with my shield up. But if they impeded us, or if AEGIS and I had to walk slowly to keep the two of them in my shield, those were more seconds lost on Lia's chances.

"Should I...kill it?" I asked, as the two of us crept down the hall. The drone did nothing but pivot on the spot to keep us in sight.

"It's not hurting us."

"It might just open fire the second we turn our backs. Maybe it's calling for backup right now."

"If you attack, that'd guarantee a response, I bet. I also kind of doubt a security robot would be programmed to let us go, and then randomly attack later," she frowned. "Doesn't seem to have any manipulators, just the gun...highly unlikely it's anything but a security bot."

"So why's it letting us pass?" I asked, as we drew level with it. It even seemed to swerve slightly to give us more clearance in the hall. I paused and let AEGIS go by to keep myself between it and them.

"I don't know. Ajax said the robots in here were trying to kill them...but it seems...docile. Do you think something happened?"

I shook my head, trying hard to both keep an eye down the hall we were headed, and not to let the drone out of my sight. "When we got to Ajax' base, they had literally just put down another drone incursion, so they still seem hostile on that front. The only thing that's happened here is...us, I guess."

"And the body."

"Yeah," I frowned. "Do you think he was important? Like...was he...some target they never killed, and were on high-alert while he was at large?"

"If so, I don't know why they'd collect him. I could understand why they didn't before, he was right in the middle of the rads, and you saw what that did to your exoframe...if they aren't hardened against radiation, he'd be completely inaccessible to them."

"So that's it, then? Some weird glitch or something turned the whole labs hostile, over a charred body?"

She shrugged. "Or maybe not a glitch at all. Who knows?"

We'd reached the end of the hall, closed elevator doors and the stairs we'd been looking for. Hopefully this set would take us further than a few flights down. The damage had been progressively less-severe with every floor we'd descended, so at some point, I had to assume we'd get a clear shot at the bottom.

Although, I didn't know where the portal was. I was kinda hoping it drew as much power as the one we'd already used, and I could just follow the surge. But so far, I'd picked up nothing on my senses. Even the emergency lighting was so low-power it barely registered to me.

I gave the drone one last glance as AEGIS pulled open the stairway door, telepathically warning it that if it followed us, it was as good as scrap, when I heard a ding.

"Ding?" I echoed. "AEGIS was that you?"

"I think it was--"

The elevator door slid open, revealing another security drone, which gave us a passing glance as it hovered resolutely in place.

And next to it, something else entirely, yet very much the same. Another drone, but far more ornate, symmetric, white and gold, with two blue-glowing vertical sensors at its front, a pair of eyes that dimmed and lit as it spoke.

And, oh yeah, it spoke. In an excited, somewhat-rushed male voice. Unmistakably synthetic, with emphasis placed on every syllable

"Visitors, here! Cer, waiting long and excited for your presence! Humbled."

I blinked at it. The thing seemed to bob energetically on its plasma currents. I noted that it was neither armed nor armored like the lizard-head security drone beside it. I definitely considered running it through on the spot, if for no other reason than I didn't want to deal with anything that excitable.

"H-hello," AEGIS said with a raised hand. "How...do you...do?"

"Humbled! Cer's well-being, our honored guests deign to query. Flattered, awestruck!"

"Erm, he seems friendly," she commented.

"If you are friendly, we need help, please. My sister was badly burned...radiation burns. Can you help us get home to treat her?"

"Honored guests, elevator, enter! Cer, capable of providing assistance. Useful!"

I took a deep breath.

Jumping in an enclosed space with a combat drone and a...chatty...weird drone...did not seem like the best of ideas. If we just kept on at our own pace and followed the most obvious path, it was very likely we'd wind up retracing Celia and Ajax's trail, and wind up at the portal.

But how long would that take? The two of them were in here for days, and if we turned down this...thing's hospitality...would it turn hostile? But if I were so worried about it being deranged, I'd be an idiot to accept its help anyway.

In the end, it came down to minutes. How many minutes would I potentially be throwing away by looking on our own? By taking the stairs instead of the elevator? By being paranoid?

It just...seemed like such a bad idea. This thing seemed in charge of at least the gun-drone next to it. Maybe it was in charge of all of them. Maybe it was the one sending attacks across dimensions. It was almost certainly dangerous if it was in charge.

I stepped on the elevator, leaving space for AEGIS and Lia behind me.

Even if all of that were true, that didn't mean it couldn't help us. If nothing else, it lived here and knew its way around. If it showed me to the portal and then tried to kill us, I'd take all the help I could get.

"Delighted! Elevator, going down," it chimed. The doors closed, and we dropped with alarming speed, the two drones buoying in the air at the sudden shift in gravity.

"My sister is severely burned," I repeated. "She needs treatment immediately. We know there's a way home--"

"Medical wing, our first stop, highest priority," it said seriously. "Chances of survival, high! Probably. Cer, must confess however, is not a medical diagnostic unit."

"You're Cer?" AEGIS asked.

"Designation, Cer, correct!" His voice had gone right back to bubbly. "Flattered! Honored guests, still asking about humble Cer, when he is of no interest."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"What is it you do here, Cer?"

"Cer, stewardship role. Facility, aiding in function, keeping lights on, maintaining scientists' experiments in their absence, humble work."

"Do you also run the security?" I asked. "Are you sending the robots to attack our dimension?"

"Security, autonomous. Cer, capable of calling for security, of course, but separate system, not in Cer's wheelhouse. Honored visitors, concerned about presence of defense unit?" He laughed, the blue eyes flashing in time with each enthusiastic ha! "Dispel fear!"

The way he talked felt like it was just barely shy of making my head hurt. I had to wonder if it was originally programmed to speak all backwards, or if the years had not been kind to it. AEGIS had also been locked away underground, and she'd aged quite gracefully.

But, I reminded myself, she was a completely parallel product of AI. For all I knew, in this world, that kind of intelligence could always degrade over a few years. Maybe this kind of insanity was expected. And if he was designed as a steward, it should have been accounted-for.

Still made me wonder. "Cer, how long have you been alone down here?"

The elevator stopped, and the two drones disembarked without hesitation, turning to face us like a limo driver opening the door, at least until Cer turned to the other and made several irritated-sounding electric buzzes and chirps. I braced myself, holding my arm wide, as though that would help shield AEGIS from the incoming fire.

"Begone!" Cer buzzed. "You, making our visitors uncomfortable, waving that gun around. Another hallway far away, go find to patrol."

The combat drone seemed unoffended, as it turned and floated off. Cer practically beamed at us, its two blue eyes glowing bright.

"This way. Helpful!"

He floated down, cheerily leading us further on. These hallways weren't red-lit or damaged in the slightest, and I had to wonder just how far down we'd gone. The elevator felt fast, and we'd been on it for quite a few seconds...twenty floors? Thirty?

It was so spacious and gleaming and well-lit, if you'd told me it was the first floor of a building back at home, I'd have believed it.

As we went, Cer began again, almost sing-song in his conversation. "Your question, answering: Cer has never been alone, would not know what to do with himself."

"Okay, when's the last time you saw people?" I asked.

"Just now!" He seemed to chuckle. "Cer, joking of course, assuming you meant other than you. Others, attempting to infiltrate the lab from time-to-time, repelled by security. Last incident, several months ago."

"That'd be Ajax and Celia," AEGIS muttered. "And...Lettie."

"Three of them, there were. Two, escaped. Troubling!"

I shook my head. "Those were our friends, Cer. And you killed one of them, someone they loved."

"Cer, apologizes, did not know these lab-infiltrating persons. Cer, recommending for the future, stop by front desk and acquire visitors badges?"

"Cer, why didn't we need visitors badges?" AEGIS asked. "Why didn't security shoot us on sight, and why did you come up to greet us?"

"Honored guests! Security, shooting a visitor on sight? Preposterous! You, travelling cross-dimensionally to be here, hospitality is the least we can offer."

"Well you shot at our friends."

"They, from this world, like any intruder could be expected to be. Unexceptional. You, the product of much of our work, my work. A success! Medical wing, here."

A door slid open in front of him, and beyond, I saw a cozy emergency room, six beds in the middle, curtains, brighter lighting than outside. And emerging from their docks in the walls, another set of drones, the very opposite of Cer, absolutely studded with sensors and spindly, fragile-looking manipulators.

The fact that he'd referred to us as 'his work' and a success was not lost on me, but that was less urgent than my sister.

"We were looking for a way home, not a hospital," I said, as the drones advanced on us.

"Ooh. Your sister's odds, slim, if not treated immediately," he said. "Best option."

But, at my words, the medical drones paused in the air. He hovered and warbled with them weirdly, exchanging a set of buzzes and clicks like he had with the security drone.

"Medical unit's prognosis, grim. Statement, confirms that your sister is in serious condition, and requires immediate treatment. Honored guests, even should choose to return home, would be advisable to permit at least first aid here, in attempt to stabilize."

I hated that his tone could switch from bubbly to grim in a sentence. I hated that we found him at all, this wasn't anything I'd expected or planned for...how could it be? How could anyone have anticipated this floating, gleaming, talkative thing?

But just because I was being paranoid didn't mean he was wrong. So far, he'd given us no reason to distrust him...when I'd mentioned Lettie, he'd sounded regretful, almost. And he'd diverted from whatever plans he had to bring us to a medical unit, first-thing, as I'd asked.

"What do you think, AEGIS?"

"I think...whatever your take on them, what it said was right. She needs help, as soon as we can get it. She's...been...fading...in my arms."

I felt myself go white. I knew why AEGIS wouldn't be telling me this before, but to hear it now sent a shock of worry down my spine, to splash painfully in the roiling vat of it already boiling inside me.

"Then...yes," I said, to Cer. "Please. Thank you."

"Care, the very best we can provide, we will give your sister," he said seriously.

AEGIS walked into the room, parting the drones with her passage, and laid Lia gently on one of the beds. As soon as she was down, the drones bustled with activity, IV bags and surgical implements appearing as though by magic, lines being drawn and instruments plugged in, the slipskin being carefully cut off of her.

I got that far before I had to turn away. Her chest under the slipskin didn't look any better than her exposed hands and face. She was more burn than person.

And it was strange. I'd seen so much death, so much gore, been responsible for much of it myself, and I'd never had that big of a problem facing it. It wasn't pleasant, sure, but blood...split flesh, burns...to me that was all just a part of fighting, part of death. If I was at the point where I was prepared to kill, being squeamish about the means seemed ludicrous.

But I couldn't bear to see that on Lia. Maybe it was related, maybe I did associate those things with, and only with death. And that's why I couldn't bear to see them now.

"Distressed, our honored guest appears," Cer said with synthetic concern rich in his sing-song voice. "Cer, offering a sedative, to help?"

A medical drone floated over to us and brandished a small syringe in its spindly metal arms. Offering it, to take, not to jab. "No thanks," I said, and it spun and disappeared right back in with its siblings. "I just...I don't think I can watch this."

AEGIS was steering me away, her arm wrapped around my shoulder. "It's okay. I'm keeping an eye on them. They're good, they're very good. Your sister seems like she's in excellent care."

"Thank you," I said, reaching up and giving her hand a squeeze. "I'm sorry. I'm just--"

"I get it. No need to apologize."

I was still staring at the ground when I felt her lips brush my forehead.

"You can take a rest if you'd like. We can leave as soon as they're done stabilizing her. Although...given the state of our world...if you really wanted to give her the best chance, it may be better to keep her here. Hospitals are...probably full. I dunno."

I shook my head and changed the subject. "Cer. You said we were your work."

"You. My work, she is not a part of it, nor your sister. Glowing success." He sounded so proud of himself.

"Yeah, uh, what work is that?"

He paused, the flickering in his blue optics almost as though he was blinking at me in confusion. "Apologizing. Cer, assuming you had come here for it in the first place."

"Come for...it? Us?"

"Apologizing again. Cer, confusing the situation more than necessary, he thinks. Honored guests, not know, why they have come here?"

"We uh, yeah, don't know exactly what we're looking for. We came here because someone told us to."

He seemed to brighten up, his voice going from questioning right back to bubbly. "Someone, more than that, who told you! Aoede, first of muses. No other, could it be, Cer believes. Oh, to see her handiwork!"

"Aoede?" I echoed. "That's a weird name."

"It's as he said, she was one of the first muses in Greek mythology," AEGIS confirmed, pushing up her glasses. "Muses were the goddesses of the arts, often attributed to both the beauty and the madness that artists were stricken with, and it wasn't uncommon for artists to direct their worship to beg the muses for inspiration." She cleared her throat delicately. "But we got the message from somebody we knew, not an ancient fictional being."

"Somebody you knew, really?" Cer commented, with a sly tone. "Cer, surprised to hear that."

"Was it someone we knew?" I asked AEGIS, feeling my brow furrow.

"Well...yeah. It was Soran, right?"

"Was it, though?"

She paused and looked at me thoughtfully. Cer seemed delighted by our confusion, and was practically bouncing as he looked back and forth between us.

When he spoke, it was in an excited almost-whisper, as though he was offering something conspiratorial through a slick grin. "Honored guests, would like to meet Aoede?"

"That makes no sense," AEGIS dismissed. "We know who sent us the message. It was Mage's power, taken by Soran. It wasn't this Aoede character, and if it was…" she crossed her arms at him "It's a power. It's not capable of communication."

"Delighted! You, avoiding the question, however; wanting to meet her?"

I knew AEGIS was stuck on a lack of understanding. She wouldn't want to go forward unless we knew what we were getting ourselves into. And maybe that was prudent.

But ever since we'd met Cer, I'd been taking the small leaps in trust to follow him, and he hadn't yet steered me wrong. One that didn't seem to immediately imperil Lia, I could do.

"Sure, let's meet this Aoede chick," I said. "I'm gonna go crazy just waiting for Lia anyway, right?"

I was asking AEGIS but it was Cer that replied. "Ecstatic! Cer, bringing her to us, as we speak. This way."

We followed him next door, into an empty examination room, where AEGIS and I took up the chairs, staring at the empty table as though waiting for a patient. I had to wonder how accurate that feeling was, as we caught sight of two familiar drones buzzing past the window, the door sliding open to let them in.

Between them, they were still carrying the charred corpse from the crater. The smell of it entered the room with him, and I had to cough as I held my nose.

"Cer, what the hell?" AEGIS asked.

"You brought us a corpse? This body is supposed to be some muse?"

"Disagreeing! The muse, residing within the body. And this man, is not corpse, is an honored guest, the same as you."

"That's impossible," AEGIS said. "He was in that crater when we got there. This isn't a person, it's a cookie."

"Yet, alive! Wondrous."

AEGIS leaned in very close to the still body, unphased by the blisters and char covering the entirety of the skin, pouring over the burned-away holes, the exposed bones, taking in the tattered, dessicated husk, of what was unmistakably a corpse.

She cocked her head. And then back. And then again.

"What?" I asked, still holding my nose.

"It stinks?" she asked.

"Hell yes it does. Like burning flesh."

Cer bobbed excitedly as AEGIS frowned.

"There's no flesh left to burn. Everything should be sterilized, gone. If anything, it should smell like rot...but it's so dessicated and irradiated, I don't know if that would even take. But I think...and this is just a guess...that there's one other possibility here. That...much as I hate to say it, but Cer might be right."

"That this is...what, some goddess?" I laughed. And then regretted it, as the scorching smell hit the back of my throat. "Maybe that Hawaiian volcano goddess."

"No. Who sent us the message, Athan? And who did we follow to get to this dimension in the first place? It's no coincidence his body was in the crater where we happened to land."

I felt myself tense in the seat as her words percolated through my head. If he was still desperately trying to regenerate, that would explain why there was still flesh to burn and to stink. But...okay...officially what the hell?

"Soran?" I asked.

She nodded. "And somewhere inside him, Mage's power. Aoede, Cer calls it."

"The first muse," he bubbled with uncontrollable excitement. "She, first of many. His tone grew even more manic as the blue eyes pivoted on me to ask. "Honored guest, would care to see more?"