The recording studio is in the center of the palace basement. To get there, we have to pass the rooms the elder delegation would be assigned. I can navigate us through several secret passageways, but they all dead end on that same corridor. The only way to bypass that corridor is to take the central column through the center of the palace, where we will almost certainly run into someone.

There is no choice but to hope all the elders are otherwise occupied.

We swim through secret passages, wait until main corridors are clear, and then sneak into the next secret passage. It takes time, time we don't have, but if we rush we will almost certainly be caught.

We reach the end of the secret passageways just as the bell tolls to signal the end of the workday. I pick up Alyssa, and hold her like a small child, arms around my neck and legs wrapped around my waist, and then swim as fast as I can to the final corridor down that leads to the recording studio. As I fly through the corridor, I feel a current that can only mean one of the elder's doors open.

I redouble my speed, they are pursuing us, and make it to the recording studio with just enough time to slam the door shut and lock it. An elder bangs on the door just as the lock engages. They rattle the handle, and then start banging on the door. They won't make it in, the studio was designed to be a panic room in case the humans ever found us.

I gently disentangle myself from Alyssa, look into her eyes, and do my best to pull my thrall back. I won't be able to fully release her from it. My thrall is so powerful, if I speak at all it engages, but I need her to be able to think clearly.

Her eyes sharpen, though she still seems a little dazed.

"Where are we?" She asks, question muffled by having to travel through the suit.

"We are in the laboratory," I answer. The entire time I speak, I can see her fighting not to succumb to my thrall again. This is not going to be easy.

"Okay," she says dumbly, looking around, lost. Why couldn't Loki have stayed with us?

I steer her to a chair and make her sit. "Don't touch anything." She pulls her hands back from where they were heading towards the controls as if burned.

It will take around six hours for me to record the variations on the message. There are 24 time zones, and a message for each. Put together, they will give the humans a history about the balance, an introduction to the galaxy at large, and a method to reach out. Damian and I spent a full day creating the message and devising a math based language to encode it in.

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If I give the message with my thrall on full blast, and sing a song of unity and urgency beneath it in the static, then the humans will devote a large portion of their time and energy into decoding it. I pull the notes out of my bag. The messages are written in indelible ink on waterproof paper. Just to be safe, they have been in a waterproof dive bag until now.

I take my time recording the messages. There is no external key to the door and it will take them upwards of ten hours to breach it. I can hear them working on breaking it down in the background.

It takes seven hours to record everything, including the background music, and format the audio packages to send. Then another hour to set up each so they will play on loop to their assigned time zone and frequency.

All that is left is setting the signal to appear as if it is coming from beyond the solar system.

I turn to Alyssa, "Do you have the key?" The elders have made a hole in the door, and will soon breach. Maybe we don't have ten hours.

Alyssa nods, then pulls the key from a zipper pocket in her suit. I take it and look for the hatch my father described. I find it under kelp carpet in the middle of the room. The hatch opens easily without a key. Was the key a stalling tactic?

I take the key and order Alyssa to do everything she can to stop the elders if they breach the door before I am back. Then, I take a glow stick out of my pack and break it, the green light is eerie, but I'm glad I have it. The lights in the palace are all affixed to the wall.

The cavern below is huge, with machinery taking up all of it. But every machine is labeled, in ancient Greek, but labeled none the less. I search for the equivalent of an on button, and find it right next to an indentation that matches the shape of the key. I place the key in the impression.

Nothing happens.

I put my hand over the key and try turning right.

It does not budge.

Then I try turning left.

Everything whirrs to life and the lights come on.

We really did need a key. Loki did always say the best lies are the ones wrapped in truth.

Now that the lights are on, I can see an ancient screen I previously overlooked. It is all in ancient greek, and mine is a little rusty. I go through the settings and options, and I hopefully pick the right ones to make the signal appear as if it is coming from alpha centauri.

The door bangs open. I can hear Alyssa trying to stall. There is no time to second guess. I hit the selection button and then lock the controls. The message is being sent out to the world on all but the emergency ham radio channels, and no one can make it stop without shutting down the whole machine—a process that takes two days.

I turn to swim up to where the elders are, when they drop through the trap door.

"Hello," I wave with a smile plastered on my face, "What brings you all here?"

Loki, I hope you have phase two handled. I don't think we are getting out of this.