WPN One waited for a response, but she had given Ortega too long to think over the proposition. If she had given him a few minutes, her wait would be imperceptibly short, but a whole hour gave her far too much time to think. Instead of focusing on her surroundings, she instead looked to the base. She needed to begin formulating a plan for if Ortega took her offer. She needed to see what Commander Milton might do in response.
She followed her strings, opening her gate wide as the machine hummed beneath her. Line through line, she crossed out of the dungeon and onto the small island above, exiting her cage and crossing the lake that rested at the center of Tartarus. Lines of aether stretched from a single point there and out over the lake to the docks on the far side of the dome, away from the gates that allowed entry to and fro from the base. WPN One crossed those strengths, following the various walkways up and into the exterior dome of the base, where the quarters of the various officers hid in the hard stone walls. The path to Milton's office was familiar, though not well used. However, as she crossed into the area, she found he was not there. Not even Secretary Eaton was at her desk outside his office.
However, two new people waited inside.
One was an older man in a black and red jacket. He wore a cap askew on his grey-haired head and looked as haggard as a rock worn down by the sea. The other was a red-scaled lizard with human form, his long serpentine neck flitting left and right through the room, but he was still wearing the recognizable uniform of the Military Police.
"That's odd," WPN One whispered in her aetheric realm. "Why are they waiting for Commander Milton? Where is Secretary Eaton?"
"It's been over an hour." The lizard man sighed, crossing the room to the window by Secretary Eaton's desk and looking out onto the center dome. "I've never seen such a disrespectful commander."
"We haven't seen him yet." The old man huffed. "But I'm used to this sort of treatment. When you're just delivering the mail, they don't think much of you, even if you're a captain."
"Have you ever delivered mail here?" the lizard man asked. "I let out the north gate when I last left the Core."
"In the past, yeah." The old man sighed, walking over to one of the chairs in front of Secretary Eaton's desk and sitting down before propping up his boots on the desk. "The commander here back then was a different person, I think. This one here, Milton, he's new. I don't know what to make of him yet."
"Does anything feel different?"
"Feels like there are eyes in the walls." The old man shrugged. "I just want to give our report and get out of here. We're burning daylight we could be using to hunt down Ortega."
"The base design is odd," the lizard man said. "I don't feel like we're being watched, but this entire place feels like a prison. Why build a dome to begin with? I can't see the practical reason to have guns pointing toward the inside of the base either."
They didn't know about WPN One, though she had to wonder if the old man felt her watching him. Some people, like Commander Milton, knew the Path of Will and could sense when they were being watched. If the man was a captain, he knew at least two paths.
"All this speculating isn't getting him here faster." The old man sighed.
Thud.
At that moment, the door opened, slamming into the opposite side as Secretary Eaton stepped through, dragging something behind her as she walked. WPN One jumped through a series of her strings to see it was Commander Milton. Secretary Eaton dragged him by the collar into the room, Milton sagging like a punished child until she had him halfway into the office.
"We're back at the office, sir," Secretary Eaton said, releasing the commander and letting him fall to the floor.
"I can see that," Commander Milton said, staring up at the ceiling for a few moments.
Click. Thump.
In a move that WPN One couldn't track through her strings, Commander Milton disappeared from where he lay and reappeared at the door to his office, his hands in his pockets. Only the ghost of aetheric impressions gave any hint of what he had done, and it disappeared in a wisp of static as he turned to the two men waiting for him.
"I see. You are the two captains causing all this ruckus!" He stalked forward, leaning so he no longer towered over the two captains but instead approached them from a low angle. "You have information you want to transmit to the Core, from what I understand."
"Yes, sir." The lizard man saluted as the old man took his feet off the desk and stood up beside him.
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"Well, come on then." Commander Milton waved them into his office. "Tell me what you know, and I'll get it sent to Rockford."
They followed the commander into his office, the door slapping shut behind them. WPN One followed, jumping through the door on one of her strings and into Commander Milton's office. Commander Milton sat down across a heavy wooden desk from the two captains, leaning forward and bridging his fingers across the white and black checkered game set that always rested on his desk.
"What's this?" the lizard man asked as he sat down at one of the chairs in front of the desk.
"My chess set." Commander Milton smiled, gesturing down at the board. "Always play when I get the chance. You ever played before?"
"I've heard of it before." The old man shrugged.
"Fascinating game," Commander Milton said. "One of the oldest on Earth. It is said that the Scions themselves created the game to give the nobility something to do, and they've been playing ever since."
"There are other games similar to it from different worlds," the lizard man said. "I've seen a version played with black and white stones or red and black disks, each with their own rules. There's just something distinctly human about moving pieces on a board."
"Your kind never does those sorts of things?" Commander Milton smiled up at him. "Or are you a human with some sort of curse?"
"I am what I am." The lizard man let out a thin wisp of smoke from his maw before placing a folder from his jacket on the desk. "More importantly, I have a report to make."
Clap.
"Ah yes," Commander Milton said, reaching around his chess set to pick up the paper. "You fellows traveled all the way from Diamond Peak, right? Must be something important to rush all the way here and not stop at any of the nearby bases."
"We needed the transmitter here," Captain Drake said. "We have news to get to the Core about the message that went out a few weeks ago.
"You know something about that?"
The two captains proceeded to share information about a broadcast that had gone out a few weeks earlier across all the nightsea. WPN One listed closely, only to find out that Ortega was involved. The two captains, Drake and Grayson, had been chasing Ortega since he had stolen a ship from Captain Grayson. Grayson and his crew had taken them all the way to Diamond Peak, where they had killed a noble and triggered the message that had been broadcast across the nightsea calling people to come to the Core to reach the New World.
"What are you doing, WPN Nine?" WPN One would have shaken her head if she was back in her body. "Keeping yourself busy overthrowing the world, apparently."
"They killed a noble who happened to be on the island, the lizard man, Captain Drake, said. "Confirmed to be Bibi by the identification number on his armor.'
"You needed a number to identify him?" Commander Milton raised his eyebrow.
"He was bisected," Captain Drake said.
"From what we understand, the message was rigged to go off when Roald's old ship was taken," the old man, Captain Grayson, said. "When Ortega took the ship, the message was sent out."
"So you're after Ortega in this old ship then?" Commander Milton shook his head.
"We are."
"There's a description in the report," Captain Drake said.
"We'll be on the lookout for him then," Commander Milton said, opening the report and beginning to skim it. "Go ahead and take time to resupply. I'll ensure that your report is sent out immediately."
WPN One withdrew from the conversation, her mind racing with possibilities. That they knew the ship to look for complicated her plans somewhat. It would no longer be a simple infiltration for Ortega to come and get her. He would need someone to help guide him into the base, to make sure that he didn't get caught up in any of the myriad levels of surveillance across the base.
She knew of an option, but she didn't like it.
She reached out through her strings toward the nightsea again. She needed to know what Ortega had decided. She left the room behind, rushing through the lines of aether throughout the base and out its top in an instant and leaving Commander Milton and the two captains behind.
----------------------------------------
As the presence left the room, Commander Milton shook his head. WPN One was snooping around again, proving precisely why he did not trust it with his base's security. Technology, cold hard, circuits, and crystalline processors with a massive network of cameras were more reliable than some accursed experiment with a will and mind of its own.
It was all the more reason to finally be rid of it if he could convince his higher-ups that his technology was the better solution. Having WPN One on his base was simply a liability. Even if she was absolutely loyal, placing all of your defenses in the hands of such a thing was a recipe for disaster. It was like sacrificing the queen to a pawn.
"Wait a moment, gentlemen." He raised his hand to the two departing captains. "I wanted to share something with you in light of this report."
"What's that?" Captain Grayson asked, his fuzzy eyebrows furrowing.
"In here, you have a description of this ship." Milton pointed down at the folder. "And I must say, it matches the description of one we picked up with one of our new reconnaissance buoys today. I hadn't thought much of it and was going to keep an eye on it due to its strange design, but with this report, I think there's a chance it is the ship you're looking for."
The two captains shared a skeptical look, but Milton could understand that. Technology like his information network was not something that many in the service had seen yet. Not even civilians had access to the intricate network of cameras and monitoring systems that he had worked to install in the base over the last few years. However, he could show the two men precisely what he meant.
"I can see that you are in doubt," Commander Milton said as he instantly stepped the distance between the desk and his door, reappearing in a burst of movement with his hand on the doorknob and the yellow folder in his right hand. "But if you come with me, I have something amazing to show you."
The two captains shared a second look before Captain Drake huffed out a puff of smoke, and Captain Grayson sighed. Finally, they both nodded, coming to a decision.
"Alright," Captain Grayson said, stuffing his fists in his jacket. "I can't say I'm not wary, but chasing our tails across the islands is getting us nowhere."
"We'll see what you have to offer," Captain Drake finished. "It is time for this chase to end."