*(mood song: "Moloko - Sing it Back")

They started going downstairs, as Rose suddenly asked.

Rose: "by the way, saw that old crab tried to drug you, do you want me to deal with him?"

Erik thought it for a moment, but in the end, sighed and shook his head: "he did a good job in the end, and can't be denied he's quite talented so... more bombs, he needs more bombs and security measures, add more cameras too, he's been changing himself lately and getting ambitious, that can't be allowed... we might need to test him...".

Rose: "hmm... what about knocking him out and connecting him to a virtual reality simulation? we could safely test him that way"

Erik: "oh! that sounds good, we could add tests like me falling asleep on a side room and see if he tries to kill me, and if he does I would turn into a horrifying monster, that would torment him for life jaja~ do you have any ideas on that?"

Rose: "...yes..., I believe I know of an appearance that would definitely scare him hehe~" a smile forming on her face as she chuckled.

Erik: "appearance?"

Rose: "Ah, I meant a beast..., don't worry about it, we are almost there"

They then went past the third floor, and finally arrived at a ten by ten room, three smooth walls, and a smooth white ceiling with white lights all he could see".

Erik looked around and frowned: "isn't this place too small?".

Rose looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and rolled her eyes: "...this is just the entrance of course" and pressed a hidden button on the right wall.

A loud clanking sound was then heard, as the wall in front of Erik started ascending, revealing another wall behind descending, and when both were open, a gigantic 300x200 meter room was then revealed, loud noises coming from inside, as there were still dozens upon dozens of crab puppets, along with thousands of battle bots digging at the still rough stone carved walls, with six gigantic stone columns carved in the stone structure that was still being polished, as nanobots were slowly covering the floor.

An in the middle of the room, in a gigantic pool of water stood a gigantic submarine, with an axe like prow, and a structure composed of hexagonal shapes, with three visible side fins, one at the top and on each side.

Erik became slack jawed at that: "wow.... how?"

Rose: "well, it might seem impossible for organics, but time is way more fruitful when you don't need to eat, sleep or rest, every second and every minute there's work being done, only the puppets need to eat and some rest, as without a brain or a complete brain at least, their bodies use way less energy, so... do you like it~?"

Erik: "it does look amazing but..."

Rose: "but what?"

Erik: "there's something familiar about it..." pointing at the prow of the submarine.

Rose: "Oh... that..., that axe like prow you see used to be in the head of the armorlisk I killed, looks cool and can also break through the ice, I also used its scales, and forged them into a reinforced exterior, this submarine is a beast hehe~, by the way, that blacksmith crab man Maktar, also made some decent swords and armor out of it, that reminds me..." she turned her head from the submarine back to Erik "shouldn't we get the crabmen up here? the tunnel in their city would need some upgrades, as for now the refugee fire tribe blacksmiths and their families are the only males there other than the puppets, it's not good for their population growth, although... it has indeed improved their relationship with the octopeople and vice versa, the peace of sex I guess..."

Erik thought about it and came up with an idea: "I got it, we could make contests in different fields, and the winners would get to go to the surface and get cool mechanical upgrades like their queen, what about that~?" a cheeky grin on his face.

Rose: "wow, I guess you are talented at using people"

Erik: "and that's not all, at the next year the judges would be last years winners, that way everyone would see their wellbeing, and their upgraded bodies, see items that they would bring with them, and long for that life even more~, it would become a holy place in their minds..." he looked around "well, compared to their caves this might as well be called a holy place"

Rose: "I will get to it, it should be interesting" she then pointed at the submarine "by the way..., shouldn't we give it a name?"

Erik caressed his chin in thought: "I'm tempted to call it Neptune or Argonaut... but that would be too cliche... tell me the name of a tough beast on this planet"

Rose: "well, it is made out of an armorlisk so something similar would be appropriate, don't know if it still exist, but there used to be an animal that was born in the depths, they generated hydrogen slowly inside enormous thick shells, until the force was so strong it rips them off the stone and launches them at really high speeds to the surface, where they floated around, spreading billions of their larvae offspring all around, never sinking again as their shells were more than one meter thick and full of hydrogen the size of entire-"

Erik: "name Rose, name"

Rose: "*gibberish*"

Erik frowned: "that just sounds like random clicking sounds to me..., okay let's see... since it's like an armoured lizard... a sea turtle name maybe? Testudines family, testa means shell in latin, and mare sea so testamare? shell of the sea?"

Rose: "....hmmm the meaning is good but it sounds a bit long... don't they use simple expressions to name boats on your planet?"

Erik: "...hmm what about Aquilón then? it means cold northern wind, since it's made with a beast from the cold windy North"

Rose: "Aquilón... Aquilón... yeah! it sounds great! it sounds strong, I like it~, also good song"

Erik: "huh? what song?"

Rose: "the one you were thinking so hard about of course"

Erik: "...you know Rose, talking to you sometimes feels like talking to myself, but it's not a bad feeling overall..."

Rose: "glad to hear that, the researchers hated it and went crazy about it, even invented special helmets to stop it, it's like... like watching a movie without sound, really annoying not being able to read thoughts once I had already gotten used to it"

Erik shrugged: "Well, you are my friend so I don't mind" he then walked closer to the submarine "Aquilón it is then, so... is it ready to go to the ruins?"

Rose: "of course, watch this"

Suddenly, the bots working on it stepped away from the submarine, as two ten meter long robotic arms unfolded at the front sides of the submarine's prow, and then dozens of big bulky turrets came out from hatches with big cylindrical closed gun barrels.

Rose: "as you can see, it's ready to deal with lots of situations with hyper rotation plasma railgun turrets and kinetic energy turrets with APFSDS ammunitions, the submarine also has a solid core, so we can ram things without suffering much damage"

*(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_energy_penetrator)

*(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armour-piercing_fin-stabilized_discarding_sabot)

Erik whistled: "wow... but... how does it generate electricity cause those turrets must use a lot"

Rose: "it can be charged quickly, but for long voyages, I added a biogenerator, it works the same as my stomach, turning organic matter into electricity"

Erik: "Oh, we had those on Earth, either by capturing gases or by using digestors, but the gas could be stored so it was the most used, by the way, what about the power storage?"

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Rose: "well, I thought of using those sea slugs at the beginning, but there was the risk of them escaping so I was about to discard the idea, and so I threw one inside the digestor, and it generated a lot of electricity, and so I came up with this idea, they can be charged beforehand at the base, and then used any time to get some extra power"

Erik: "sigh... I just hope they never escape, they are worse than cockroaches... by the way, can you call the elders and others? I want them to see the submarine."

Rose shrugged: "yeah sure"

*(something 40% similar to this: https://www.pinterest.es/pin/462181980489262328/)

*(https://pin.it/6gv8cPZ)

--- One Hour Later ---

All the elders, Amanda, Amelia, Anhuka, Crabina, and her classmates, and Jana, and accompanying Jana, more than twenty other octopeople of their new forming caste, the engineers, they had different sizes, but were the brightest and better at crafting, a first step away from the caste system and into a system that values aptitude and talent more than brute strength and size.

They all stood in a semicircle as Erik and Rose stood in front of them, with their submarine at their backs.

Erik: "This will be our new moving base to explore this dangerous planet, it will allow us to rest and recover, and can also battle if needed to defend us against dangerous beasts, any questions?"

A small octopeople little girl next to Crabina then raised her hand enthusiastically.

Erik: "yes, speak"

Shukua: "yes Fifth Elder, this is called a submarine in your world right?" she was a fan of Erik, and one of Crabina's friends, now looking forward to getting praised.

Erik: "yes, that is indeed so, you are a clever girl right?"

Shukua shook in place as she shook the thin Nhasa, and Crabina beside her.

Erik chuckled, seeing how excited she was at a little praise: "another ques-"

Vickthy: "yes, Fifth Elder, I'm Vickthy quite the beautiful name if I say so myself, my parents don't have names but I do, quite strange isn't it? well, today we came here interrupting our metallurgy class, apparently, they have made something called a Forge for metals in the city, an idea of the Third Elder after your last expedition, isn't it crazy?! so now I see this suba... submarine? anyway, it's clearly made of metal, right? but the prow, I wonder why the prow looks like that? it has scratches and ridges while the rest looks really clean and polished, that is my question"

Erik sighed heavily and answered: "first of all... you only get this question... for everyone's mental health, now... the prow looks like that 'cause it belonged to the shovel face of a monster I called Armorlisk, they are way bigger than this submarine, in fact, lots of meat and materials were extracted, the exterior of the submarine was made by welding it's scales with manometrical precision using superheated plasma, thanks to Rose here next to me" Rose waved with a smile "any other questions?"

This time Jennifer nodded at Jana, and Jana came forward.

Jana: "Fifth Elder, just like you taught me how to make rifles" she pointed back "and I taught the others, I would like to be taught how a submarine is made"

Erik: "well, this is an electric submarine made by Rose, back on Earth military submarines like this one were first invented by the naval engineer Isaac Peral, who made the first fully capable military submarine, the Peral, powered by electric engines and batteries like this one, you can see how to make electric engines in the virtual classes later, this submarine is similar" Rose coughed "but with significant upgrades in performance, the submarine uses those electric engines to make helixes spin, and their rotation moves the submarine forward, as for batteries it uses arrays of monster core crystals recovered in the last expedition and a device that can be fed organic matter to generate power"

Erik: [Rose, does it have torpedoes?]

Rose: [Just 1, but more can be added at another time, you were in a hurry after all ( ͡°- ͡°)]

Erik continued: "but this submarine also can defend us by using rail guns that work by generating a magnetic field in a sequence to propel a projectile forward at extreme speeds and temperatures, and also torpedoes that some of you might have already seen the torpedo launchers installed around the entire cliff right?"

Jana: "yes, we saw and were also allowed to tear down an incomplete one"

Erik: "well a submarine is like a way bigger torpedo, any other questions?"

Shana: "you are making it sound so good, so let's see the interior already, shall we?"

Erik: "Yeah, you are right, let's go inside people!"

A door opened on a side of the submarine, as a platform then extended, and they went inside, they first came into a big empty room white room.

Erik: "Rose will explain from now on"

Rose nodded and started: "now we will first go to the back and then to the prow, and then the second and third floors in the same way, this room we are in will be the exposition room, and a storage room for things to take back to base, right below its a bigger storage room, now let's move to the next room"

The next room was similarly empty, except for some bare metal furniture, with a dozen of desks with computers, and two spherical viewports one at each side, made of super thick resin glass.

Rose: "this would be the saloon, or recreation room, still in progress... let's continue"

The next room had a big tube in the middle, while there were sealed transparent containers by the sides, with small swimming slugs inside.

Rose: "with the recent acquisition of a powerful super bioresin that hardens to UV light, I made these side containers, the slugs inside can be thrown into the bioreactor in the middle, and also any organic matter to generate emergency power"

Then they came to a huge room three stories high, with lots of metal containers connected to a big horizontal cylinder in the middle.

Rose pointed at it: "this is the energy storage room and main engine, now we will go back the other way, as only the propeller shaft remains this way"

They went back, and into the room past the exposition room, a room full of screens and seats, with seven central chairs around a slightly taller chair with a helmet.

Rose: "this is the control room, with chairs for the commanders or elders, and the captain chair with a neural helmet to connect to the submarine system and pilot it in emergency situations"

Then they came to a hallway full of closed doors.

Rose: "these are the commander rooms, there are ten rooms in total, at the end of the hallway there's a basic bathroom and the captain room, now let's go down"

They went down a circular staircase and came to a hallway with a door behind them that Rose opened, leading to a big room with an onsen, a sauna, and a shower.

Rose: "this place right below the captain's room is the main bath for him and the elders or commanders" they came out to the hallway again, everything a pure clean and shiny white color with lots of side doors "these are the crew rooms, with bunk beds for a total crew of thirty passengers of a warrior size, they have crew showers at the end by the right, and a bathroom to the left"

*(like this: https://i.insider.com/5776764e4321f122008b57ef?width=1000&format=jpeg&auto=webp )

At the end of the hallway, they came to a door that Rose opened, and to the left, there were two rooms and one to the right.

Rose: "here we have a storage room to the right, and a canteen and kitchen to the left, they are not finished yet so we will visit them at another time if you want"

Then they crossed a reinforced door and saw a clean and ordered armoury full of armor racks and weapons, a small elevator coming down from the slug power room upstairs, and another bigger elevator descending to the room below.

Rose: "this is the armoury, in case of an emergency the crew can collect their weapons here and use the elevator to go down, you can also use a set of stairs near the crew rooms, or another next to the canteen"

They then descended to the room below on two trips, in the tank sized elevator.

Rows of dive suits and propulsors covered the room below.

Rose: "this is the diving equipment changing room, with all the equipment needed for dives"

Then Rose opened a tightly sealed door with a thought, as they came to a bare white room and through another door, and into a big room with a pool in the middle sealed at the bottom and with a big robotic arm in the ceiling, and the mini submarine explorer was parked by the side, six big spherical viewports at the sides, three on each side.

Rose: "this room will be the deployment port, you will exit the submarine from here while underwater, for that same reason there's hidden defenses here in case something tries to come inside"

Then they went inside another hatch room and came to a big room divided into two sides, lots of machines and containers.

Rose: "this would be the life support room, with oxygen and water deposits, and the filtering systems"

After that they crossed another thick door and came into a small six by six room, containing a metal box at each side and a single tube with a rack with six torpedoes at the front right side.

Rose: "and finally, this is the weapons room, the rooms are extra thick for impacts, and to the sides, we have the controllers that power the two hydraulic arms outside, that would be all, any questions?"

Jana: "so... can we roam around to check?"

Rose: "...yes, but don't break anything" she looked at the kid's teacher "and you... better keep those kids in check, I allowed your class to come since Erik's daughter goes to your class, but if they break something... they will need a new teacher... understood?"

The teacher solemnly nodded as she slowly guided the kids away.

--- Hours Later ---

The kids and nonessential personnel disembarked, while guard soldiers embarked.

Meanwhile, Erik, the elders, Rose, and Amanda were in the control room, observing the 3D simulation Amanda and Shana had created previously.

Erik: "well then, let's start planning the rescue mission"

They all nodded solemnly as they started planning.

--- Far far away, on a Spaceship sailing the dark void of space ---

Sara woke up from hibernation, she first stretched as she came out of her cryo pod.

Sara: "ship, course status?"

/*Course maintained commander*/

Sara: "any anomalies?"

/*yes commander, there was actually one, but it's strange...*/

Sara: "what was it?"

/*there were changes in gravity affecting the ship in what felt like a morse code as our antenna then received a message... one thing is for sure, it didn't come from Earth*/

Sara's eyes opened wide "what was the message?"

/*it said "It's me Erik, I'm fine Sara, but don't go to Gliese, I'm not there, if you get the message when you are already there, then remember to install the..." and the rest are detailed habitat setting instructions commander */

Sara's eyes dilated "no... how? Erik doesn't have this kind of technology... and he said he ain't on that planet?... did he get captured by aliens scanning his memories maybe? this... what could this be?!"

/* do you want me to calculate the probabilities of that?*/

Sara: "no, it's fine, is there anything more?"

/*...there seem to be coordinates attached to the message but... when I checked with the onboard telescope, they lead to an anomaly commander, do you wanna change the course in that direction?*/

Sara: "... was it him or not... they know about us humans, so... be it a trap or not... I need to go get Erik, he would have done the same for me"

/*understood commander, new course set.*/

Sara held her chest feeling anxious: "please be safe Erik... please...."