Barrier, Barrier, where is the Barrier? Jaid hummed to herself to try to keep things light, to try to keep the sense of utter betrayal buried deep in her mind. She was walking slowly down one of the tunnels underneath the compound. The tunnels weren’t exactly off-limits to members with several publicly-available entrances, but there wasn’t really much reason to traverse them normally.

Since the barrier blocked the rain, there was no excuse to use the tunnels to hide from the inclement weather. However, as if Cosmos was looking out for her, a blessing from the sky came fluttering down. It was snowing outside, and for whatever reason, they were letting it through the barrier. Maybe since it was the first snow of the season and everyone wasn’t sick of it yet, or they just hadn’t enabled it.

Regardless of the reason, it gave her a perfect excuse to be trouncing around the tunnels. It even gave her the beginnings of a lie for the barrier if it came down to it. If she got caught near the controls, she could declare a hatred for snow and desperation to get rid of it. By no means was it a good lie, and they’d never look at her the same again, but it was just absurd enough to maybe work.

This wasn’t Jaid’s first time in the tunnels, but the idea still made her uncomfortable. She’d never come down here of her own volition, usually following someone else who took this route. Pretty frequently, though, she’d see Rezin going in and out of the entrances, guessing he took it as often as he could to avoid the crowd of the surface.

On the odd occasion she was down here, she’d often see one of the science crew vanish behind a corner. Rumors buzzed around of hidden passages and labs, very founded rumors it seemed. Hopefully, the barrier controls were somewhere she could get to without much hassle.

Jaid wandered around for a while, not really having a direction in mind. The main tunnel was just a big circle around the entire compound, so it was ultimately impossible to get lost. It was also pretty spacious and could fit some vehicles if needed. Maybe that was the intent if they were ever invaded—something Jaid should keep in mind.

Despite the convenience of the main tunnel, there were dozens of offshoots all around, going off in every direction. Some were hallways that connected to other tunnels, some were just rooms, and some were unmarked doors that opened to nothing. Maybe they were reserved for future use as they became required.

The offshoots appeared mostly relative to the building they were under. Jaid started under their dormitory, so she checked around there first. Basically all she found was storage, but not storage for the organization itself. It was all personal storage for the members and residents.

Guess I’m the only one out of the loop. There were marked storage cages for each individual and almost everyone else had some items in theirs. Jaid tried her room key in the lock for her personal cage and it clicked open. She closed it again right away, not having anything she’d actually need to store.

Jaid assumed that the barrier would most likely be near Nathym’s workshop, so she headed clockwise down the main tunnel in that direction. She didn’t make it very far before she got distracted by all the different offshoots leading under the general’s mansion. Their private gym was pretty interesting. It was mostly identical to the public gym, but she was quite intrigued by the specialized machines.

Next, she stumbled across the movie theater she had no idea existed. There were actually quite a few residents occupying it watching Boon Day movies. Jaid did her best to rationalize that she wasn’t being left out, and that she just hadn’t found out about it because she was too busy.

To her surprise, Jaid found basically nothing around where Nathym’s workshop should be. There were only storage rooms filled with generic science supplies like test tubes and electrical components that she didn’t understand. No sign of the barrier controls anywhere, or the secret lab that was in no way a secret. There wasn’t so much as an out of place seam in the walls.

This was quite disheartening, but Jaid wasn’t ready to give up just yet. If nothing else, she was discovering a lot of neat things about this place she’d never known about. At least that’d be something to hold onto when she went back to her room to resume her identity crisis after nothing fruitful came from this venture.

Jaid was rather intrigued by the next area she found in the circle. On the far east side, there were numerous signs and barriers for construction. She had no idea what else they could be building at this point. From what glimpse she could see, it looked like a bunch of pretty-standard, boxy rooms. But behind them was a series of intricate gears, so it made her even more confused.

The next area was near Mallea’s shack, but it was again mostly just storage. There were decades worth of cleaning supplies along with several bolts of fabric that Mallea used to tailor outfits. What was most surprising was a somewhat out-of-the-way closet that was stacked with books. Most of them didn’t seem like they would fit her tastes, but Jaid had more important things to wonder about.

At the entrance was another surprise—surprising that there was anything at all. Well, that wasn’t putting it quite right. In fact, there was less than nothing since the underground had been removed in the form of a tunnel that ran under Bisomote and even seemed to go well past the town. It was most likely to be used in emergencies and made more sense why the main tunnel was vehicle sized.

Back around at the gym was about what should be expected. There was storage for additional weights and machines, along with the maintenance room for the pool. Jaid also found the mechanisms that let the member side of the gym turn into an arena with the press of a button. Lots of gears and rotating parts that could certainly result in some clumsy persons untimely death if they got caught in it. Just looking at it made her stomach churn.

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On the route back to the dorms, Jaid found the maintenance for the lube pool they’d used in their first two ranking tests. What was surprising were the number of other features that were listed. The pool could be filled with several different things besides lube.

It could be used as a standard pool, but also filled with things like sand and thumbtacks. More dangerous versions of those ranking tests were possibly on the line. However, there was also a button that would fill the pool with gelatin. This raised a few questions. How long would it take to fill? Was it edible? Was it flavored?

Should she push the button? She kind of wanted to push the button. How much trouble would she get in exactly if she pushed the button? Maybe if she never found the barrier room, she’d come back to push the button. At least the night would be more interesting that way.

“Well mawhg me.” Jaid stared at the very obvious, not-hidden-at-all door for the barrier room. It wasn’t far at all from the first entrance she used, only just slightly around the bend. If she’d even walked a few feet in the other direction, she would have found it immediately. Quite a lot of time had been wasted.

There was no scanner for entry, or keycards, or locks, or even a door handle. It was a very standard swivel door just sitting on a hinge that anyone could enter with no effort. Jaid pressed her hand against it, but now all the feelings before started to swirl once more, and she was on the verge of crying again. But she pushed them down, deep deep down as she found her courage.

When she got into the room, it was more or less what she imagined. Jaid had no idea what barrier controls should actually look like, but had an educated guess based on futuristic tech in media. Her expectations were met with whelming results. Maybe it was due to the grandiose nature of some of Nathym’s other inventions, but it felt slightly disappointing.

There was a monitor displaying the barrier status. It was at full strength with enough power to last them 47 years, 7 months, 12 days, 3 hours, 98 minutes, and 77 seconds. There was no doubt that Nathym had nailed it down to an exact science—not a hint of guesswork involved. It’d be best for the CP to discount the idea of the barrier failing again any time soon.

There were several tabs at the bottom with different functions: General Control, Area Restrictions, Security Clearance, Security Logs, Maintenance Logs, and Weather Control. Jaid looked at the controls below and was hesitant to touch them at all, not after the bioscanning mouse incident at the Bovination facility. However, it looked like part of the terminal was available for public use.

General Control, Area Restrictions, and Security Clearance had lock icons next to them, but Jaid tried clicking on one anyways. A prompt popped up asking for a password, so she clicked over to the security logs.

It was overbearingly detailed. Anytime someone entered or left, it knew who they were and the exact time. The log also mentioned anytime the barrier was touched anywhere but at the gates. Scrolling back through it, Jaid found the night where she’d slid her fingers along the barrier a few times. They all listed her by name and exactly what she’d been doing. When she clicked on one, it had detailed footage of her touching the barrier. At the end of all her logs, though, was the message .

Moving on to maintenance logs, there wasn’t much. Most of it was the incident when the barrier had been disabled temporarily and the CP had invaded. Jaid had read up plenty on that incident and how poorly it had been handled, but it also made her understand why they were so cautious towards the Fiends For Hire moving forward. The rest of the logs were only when the barrier had been topped up with energy.

Onwards to weather control, it was about what she expected there as well. However, there were quite a few more options than anticipated. Not only could they choose the type of weather, but the severity as well. There were also controls for not letting it get too hot or cold within the confines of the compound.

All rain settings were currently disabled, and there were options from everything between sprinkle and ‘The world is going to flood’. Most of the wind settings were enabled except for ‘Will literally knock you over’. Snow was about half and half. Dusting, Light Snow, and Average Snow were all currently enabled, but Heavy Snow, Blizzard, and Ice Age were all disabled.

Her lie for turning off the snow was picking up more and more weight. In fact, she’d probably disable it when she left to make the lie a reality. There’d almost certainly be follow up questions, and she may be asked to never do it again, but she was really going to get away with it after all.

Jaid took out her phone that she had pried from her wall and began taking pictures. She took pictures of the controls themselves, every tab open to her, the password screen, as well as the port where new energy could be fueled into the barrier. From there, she took pictures of what looked like the batteries storing all the energy, as well as some other glowing lights and tubes that she couldn’t begin to understand.

Then, she pulled out the cord she had brought with her. There was a port in the controls that would hook up to her phone and then the CP’s built in program would take over. From what she’d been told, the Fiends shouldn’t be able to detect it. They hadn’t detected the phone program so far, so Jaid had really no reason to doubt them, but her confidence in this regard wasn’t exactly brimming.

Ultimately, she decided not to go through with it, for now at least. The program would download all the specs for the barrier, but should also give her full control over it. Really, it was the last thing she wanted to risk and would save it for a time where it was truly necessary. Hopefully, she’d garner enough trust over time that she’d get access without having to resort to the program at all, but she’d keep the option as a backup.

But Jaid never even got the chance to stuff the cord back into her pocket, dropping it in surprise.

“So, you’ve finally decided what side you’re on.”

Oh zjik. Jaid recognized Tize’s voice before she even turned around. Of all people, it had to be him, the one that would be the hardest to sell the lie to.

“Oh hey, Tize” Jaid did her best to greet him calmly. “I was just turning off the snow. Can’t say I’ve ever been a fan. I hope the others don’t mind.” Even if it wasn’t the best lie, she was committed now.

“Let’s drop the act, Jaid Sparka,” Tize stared at her dead in the eyes. Without further warning, he undid the strap on his holster and gripped his pistol. “Or should I call you Jaid Luciri, former knight of the Guzrinn Kingdom and spy for the Central Peace?”