//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Contact Harvest // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I had been sitting in the cold metal room I had been given for weeks now, the only times I got to leave being when I got to visit the mess for food. There were only a few people 'awake' apparently as the humans seemed to have a system that froze their crews on the long voyage between stars. Luckily, there had been a maintenance engineer that had struck up a conversation with me in the mess hall early in the journey. I had been instructed to leave her in the dark about my heritage but even then, the friendly face to make conversation with had been very much appreciated. That said, the month had still been very lonely and most of the time I had been working on putting the basics of magic theory on paper for the ONI agents. But that would now stop as we had apparently arrived at a planet that belonged to the humans, the idea that the humans in this dimension had achieved the capability to travel between stars still baffled me. The planet we had arrived on was called Reach, the Crusaders had already told me about it as they had apparently trained here but the stories only did it a small justice. The Planet was a marble of green and blue along with snowy whites at its poles, cities on the dark side of the planet were lit up with so many lights that they were clearly visible, even from space. "Miss Shimmer?" A voice asked from behind me, I recognized it as one belonging to one of the agents that had accompanied me on board of the spaceship. "We're leaving in thirty minutes, get your possessions ready to move." The warning was more of a courtesy as the entirety of my possessions could be carried in one hand and would not take thirty minutes to pack. "Thank you, I'll be ready." The agent nodded and left, leaving me to my own devices again. The next few minutes I stuffed all my belongings into the backpack I had been given and made sure my room was clean before waiting for him to return. When he did I was once again led to the hangar where a small transport ship called a pelican was waiting to pick me up. The journey down was relatively uneventful, the re-entry had been a bit nerve-racking but I was assured by the others on board that the flames and shuddering of the craft were normal in those circumstances. While on the way down I was informed that I would be brought to a research facility called Sword Base, not that this was of any real use of me as I had no idea what to expect regardless. "Would you three mind If I practice my control over my magic a bit?" I asked, the agents that were with me in the hold had seen me practice on previous occasions so they weren't completely oblivious to my abilities. The leader of the group, one the others had been calling lieutenant but never by name, nodded and allowed me to continue. Practice with my hands had initially been tough as making the spell matrixes with fingers turned out to be tougher than anticipated, though after figuring out that each finger essentially worked as a separate horn the magic became much easier. Hands still had the disadvantage of being less powerful than a single horn, the two hands did open up the possibility of multicasting maybe even the ability to cast different spells with each finger. This was still far beyond my ability to do but at least I was essentially back at my former level of casting, only with a much-reduced power level. I channeled magic into my right hand which I held out in front of me. A glowing orb of light appeared in my hand which lit up the inside of the cabin, playing around with the energy levels I manipulated the intensity and color of the light. The others in the back of the craft were eyeing me suspiciously as I worked, not that this was unexpected as these humans had no experience with magic other than myself. After a couple of minutes of practice, I cut off the flow of magic again and killed the light, deciding that it was time to try something more complicated. My magic affinity had always been more in the area of fire than pure arcane energy, teleporting and such didn’t come as natural to me as it did to Princess Twilight, but pyromancy was something I excelled at. A smile formed on my face as I felt the spell matrix form between my fingers, the agent next to me curiously observing whatever I was cooking up now. Just as I felt the matrix complete itself I poured more magic into it, a flame shooting up in my hand as my eyes glistened at my creation. “Miss Shimmer I’m going to friendly ask you to stop doing that right now for safety reasons, we’re still on an aircraft,” the lieutenant told me with a calm voice but the way he and the others had tensed clearly signaled that if I didn’t stop they would make me do so. "Sorry," I apologetically said as the magically fueled flame dissipated as I closed my hand, the flame only feeling slightly warm as the magic couldn't hurt the caster herself. For the rest of the flight, I refrained from using more magic as not to put the others on edge, not that the flight took that much longer but the idea counted. "Arriving at Swordbase, standby," the pilot reported from up front. I felt the pelican decelerate and the noise from the engines increasing, something that persisted for a mere minute before the craft powered down. "Please follow us, miss Shimmer," the lieutenant said as the agents formed up around me. We had landed in a hangar of sorts, the door in the roof that had allowed entrance to the pelican already closing steadily. The hangar itself was full of other pelicans and there were various maintenance crews walking around the craft and working on them. The scenery quickly changed though as the roomy environment of the hangar was replaced by the more cramped environment of the hallways. Sure, they were still large enough for a vehicle called a 'warthog' to comfortably drive through it but the lack of windows made it feel a lot more cramped. "Where are we going?" I asked but the agents wouldn't answer me, it sent a wave of dread through my body as we continued walking in silence. Was that ONI captain back on Harvest lying to us? No, she was genuine... but why do I feel I'm just a prisoner or a lab experiment? We arrived at an elevator and after the lieutenant pressed a couple of buttons and flashed a card of sorts across a panel, the elevator closed and we were sent down into the base. The elevator just kept going and going, and without a display to show what floor we were on I had no idea how much longer the trip was going to take. This meant that when the elevator suddenly started decelerating I wasn't prepared and nearly fell over. Once again I was led through a hallway but his one was already much narrower than the one further above, two people would be able to pass each other in the hallway but no more. "Wait here, I'll get the doctor." I was pushed into a chair and the other agents sat down on the chairs next to me. I nervously winged my hands, as I waited for the lieutenant to return with this 'doctor'. A doctor? Are they going to dissect me to figure out how my magic works?! I felt a bead of sweat running down my forehead as I was internally panicking. Did I really know anything about these humans? The Crusaders seemed to be distrustful of them and they hadn't exactly given her good reasons to trust them. Before my train of thought could derail too much the lieutenant returned with a lady following right behind him. She had short black hair that reached to her shoulders and a long white lab coat over her clothes, the coat—unlike the jackets of the ONI agents—had a name tag on it: Halsey "You can leave, lieutenant. I'll take it from here," she said without even taking her eyes off her tablet. "Ma'am, I'm..." "Lieutenant, ONI is paranoid enough as it is. I do not need one of your men looking over my shoulder while working as well." The doctor cut him off, shooting him a glare that could kill a full-grown dragon before looking me in the eyes. "You, follow me." I couldn't help but follow the authoritative command from the doctor, she had a vibe around her that she would not tolerate the wastage of time. Quickly following the doctor to her lab I suddenly found a coat similar to the one the doctor was wearing pushed into my hands. "Put that on, if you're going to be working here then you're going to at least look the part." "Working?" I questioned, the doctor immediately froze in place and glared at me, my eyes immediately found something interesting to look at on the floor as I averted my gaze away from the death glare. "I have to split my time between researching your 'special abilities' and fixing the failed augmentations of my children and you don't even know that you would be working with me?!" She growled with barely controlled rage, clearly thinking that I was not worth her time. But that wasn't what caught my attention, as she said something about her 'children'. Fixing failed augmentation on her children?! What has this lady done to them?! "What's wrong with your children?" I asked, the doctor suddenly looked like she had said something she was not supposed to. Halsey took a step closer into my comfort zone and looked me straight in the eyes. "Some questions are better left unanswered," she coldly stated before turning around and walking into a small office, drawings of a signature double helix and other things that she couldn't immediately identify hung on the wall of the small chamber. Halsey had connected her tablet to a console in the wall and downloaded something onto it before walking out of the office again into the hallway. Not knowing what to do, I followed the doctor as she entered another room. This one was significantly larger than the office and house all sorts of equipment. "Doctor, what am I exactly supposed to do?" Halsey didn't respond as she was looking at the content of her tablet before glancing at me, her venomous expression having faded and one of curiosity having replaced it. "Show me." The simple order, once again, caught me off guard. What had caused this sudden shift in attitude? "Y-you mean my magic?" "Magic is the power of apparently influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces, which is not possible. I want to see it and figure out what makes it tick." The doctor was already holding up her tablet, obviously having started recording her for study. I nervously brought my hands up and started feeding magic into them, an orb of light forming between them. One glance at the doctor revealed that she was anything but impressed at this sight. Come on Shimmer, you can do much better than this. You might be out of practice but you personally studied under Celestia herself! I remembered the reaction the ONI agents had given to me creating fire, if they were impressed by a flame that small than what I was about to was surely going to impress the doctor. The orb of light disappeared as I started creating the required matrix for a fire spell. Just before completion, I closed both my hands into fists. With the fingers next to each other, I could put much more magical energy into the matrix at once than if I had my hand open. Halsey nearly jumped back in surprise as I punched my fists forward, a small sustained beam of fire flew off towards the far wall of the lab. I deliberately missed all the scientific equipment and let the smokeless fire impact on the metal surface. In a bid to make sure the doctor truly appreciated the kind of power I held I released the maximum amount of magic I could funnel through my fists into the spell. The air shimmered of the intense heat my flames were giving off as the beam nearly quadrupled in size, a bead of sweat running down my forehead as at the rate I was expending my magic I would only have a couple of seconds of casting left. Not wanting to push myself to complete exhaustion I prematurely stopped casting, falling onto my knees and panting hard at the exertion. The far wall was red hot as the metal was heated to a ridiculous temperature, though it hadn't molten the metal it probably wasn't that far off of turning into a liquid. Halsey was staring at me, utterly shocked at what she had just seen. Not that I cared for the moment, I had slightly underestimated how much energy I had actually expended in those short few seconds. Lying down on the floor I closed my eyes for a moment, that wasn't too bad... right? I could really use some sleep right about now... The covers to my bed were nice and cozy as I pulld them... Wait, why am I in a bed? Shooting up I found myself in a room that looked similar to doctor Halsey's office, excluding the fact that this room was completely bare. Getting off the bed I found that I was still dressed in the same clothes as the previous day. Looking around the room I found a pile of new clothes ready for me, since my clothes kind of smelled a little burned I redressed into them. Now looking like the doctor I stepped out of the room into the hallway, directions to various locations painted on the wall. Mess hall, sleeping quarters, laboratory, ah that's the one I need. I followed the arrows that were marked laboratory, there were a few scientists that passed me as I made my way over to the location where doctor Halsey most likely was located. It didn't take long for me to recognize the hallway I had walked through before and entered the same lab I had used my fire spell in. "Doctor listen to yourself, are you seriously..." "Look at the wall, Professor Hunter. If the impossible is proven possible it becomes merely improbable, even though I don't know how this 'magic' works I can't deny it exists," Halsey cut her colleague off, the man grumbling something but not raising another point. This was the moment I thought it a good Idea to announce my presence with a cough, both Halsey and this Professor looking over at me. "Ah, miss Shimmer, I was wondering when you were going to wake up. You were quite firmly asleep after your stunt so I had you brought to your sleeping accommodation," Halsey said as she picked up her tablet and approached me. "I already reviewed the work you did while in slipspace, though I would like some explanation on some of the concepts you described. But I still must commend you for the rigorous work you delivered, I take it you have an academic background?" I nodded in confirmation. "I'm an expert in various aspects of Thaumic Theory and I have studied biology, chemistry, physics, and math but am not an expert in those." "Interesting..." Halsey said while tapping a few buttons on the tablet she was holding and held it out for me to grab. "This will allow you to interface with the machines in the lab, though that's something we'll get to somewhere in the future. Right now I want you to do the tests that have been readied on there." Looking down at the tablet I found a whole list of tests ready to be made in front of me. "Thank you, doctor, I'll get right on it." "Please do, you have been attached to me as an assistant. I want to know if you're just going to be dead weight to me on my projects other than the thaumic research program. Now go and do those tests, I have work to do," Halsey responded before continuing to work on whatever project she had been working on before I had walked in. Not really wanting to disturb the Doctor with any more pointless questions, I made my way back to my room where I started up the tablet again and opened the first test. I sighed as with the number of tests she had given me I would be occupied for quite the while. Come on, Shimmer, you were Celestia's personal student as well, let's show Halsey why that was the case!