//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 // Story: After the Nightmare // by CORACK //------------------------------// Luna paced back and forth, she still needed more answers before she decided what to do next. "You were mentioning that this pocket dimension is collapsing. I am able to sense a sort of decay in everything here, it is hard to put into words but it feels like everything is worn out. Is this related somehow?" "Instabilities in the pocket dimension cause degradation of not only matter but the laws of physics as well, everything inside the singularity starts to slowly break down, if this is what you mean then yes. This degradation affects all matter inside this pocket dimension. You can see evidence of this on the surface, the planet's climate has been thrown into chaos as the star we orbit slowly dies. 98.35% of the planet's life has been killed off in the last 100 years, partially from the climate change and partially from the degradation." "Would that also explain the night sky, the almost complete lack of stars in the night sky?" "Yes, the external universe is entirely cut off in this dimension, the only stars that are still visible are the few left that are inside the singularity. There used to be more, but they have been lost to the collapsing boundaries of the bubble." "Why didn't Vohaul simply leave this dimension before it started to collapse?" Luna asked. "In order to make sure all of Vohaul's ships were trapped, the bubble was made as large as possible, 10 light years in diameter. This also meant that Vohaul, who has no faster than light sensors, wasn't able to detect that anything had happened for 10 years. This is also why it is taking so long to collapse, the larger the dimension the longer it takes to collapse," Decima said. "Why wasn't it collapsed as soon as Vohaul was trapped?" "It doesn't work that way. Using the full output of the generator I could slow the collapse down, but I don't have any way of speeding the collapse up." "What happened after he arrived?" Luna asked. "AIs don't generally have physical bodies, when we need to move from to another system we are uploaded into a ship. Vohaul and Xenon each had a flagship that housed their processing nodes, but Vohaul also constructed a body, like those crystalline golems, but far more powerful. He moved his central node into this body. After arriving at Karzel, Vohaul began to attack the surface. Zax had enough forewarning that he was able to prepare some of the most powerful defenses the Eternals had available. In the ensuing battle, most of Vohauls' fleet was destroyed but not before he was able to teleport himself and a large portion of his ground forces down to the surface." "Zax had focused all efforts on anti-ship defenses, the minimal surface defenses soon proved to be inadequate and the world soon fell. Without his ships to provide transport, it took Vohaul years to destroy every remaining city on the surface, it was during this time that he discovered that he had been trapped. He had sent what remained of his fleet to go back to Thaiden Prime, and start to rebuild, but when they reached the edge of the bubble they were destroyed, only a single scout ship returned. He was furious, he knew that the energy required to set this trap had to come from somewhere on the planet, but before Zax could destroy the generator, Vohaul found his way inside the facility." "I am Zax's backup, if Vohaul was able to take control of Zax or the generator, I was supposed to destroy the planet. During the fighting, Vohaul somehow managed to bypass our front line defenses and teleport directly to Zax's control center. He destroyed Zax's central node but in the battle my link to the generator self destruct system was severed. As a final attempt to stop him, I surrounded Zax's control center in a time field that slowed time down to a fraction of normal speed. Vohaul is still trapped in that room, but it takes nearly the full output of the generator to maintain the field." "Where exactly is Vohaul trapped?" Luna asked. "I can show you," Decima said. The screen to the left lit up and a map of the planet's surface appeared. The view zoomed into the ground and the wireframe representation of the complex appeared. "This area highlighted in blue is where you entered this base," Decima said. The map shifted again, going deeper underground. A green room with a red dot came into view. "This is where you are now, the red dot is you." The map shifted again, it went farther and farther down, for the first time Luna could see the scope of this underground labyrinth. It stretched for miles in all directions, there had to be thousands of rooms and tens of thousands of passageways. She couldn't imagine having to keep track of where everything was located. "Why is this place so large?" Luna asked. "Originally it was intended to be an emergency shelter for the entire population of Karzel, in case Vohaul ever attacked. From there it was expanded during the construction of the planetary thaumic generator." Finally the view stopped moving, a half a dozen corridors all converged on one large room that was shaded black. There was a red dot in a large circular room, a few miles down one of the branches. "That black room is where Vohaul is trapped," Decima said. "What about that other red dot?" "I'm afraid to say, that is your friend, or at least her last known position." "WHAT?" Luna shouted. "I thought you said she was safe, she's trapped on the same level as Vohaul?" "She should be safe, first, she hasn't moved, I believe that she is unconscious. Secondly, the last I knew, the entrance to the control center was locked. Even if she gained access to the corridor which is locked on her end as well, she shouldn't be able to open the door." "The last you knew? Can't you check?" "This facility is thousands of years old, and the same degradation that is slowly causing the rest of this pocket reality to fall apart is affecting me and my systems. Over the last thousand years I've lost access to over half the systems down here, I have minimal coverage of that area, the only thing I know for certain is your friend is down there, and that the time field around Vohaul is still active." "Is there no way I can get to her?" Decima's eyes looked at Luna sadly. "I've been trying to think of a solution ever since we started talking, but I can't bypass the security field. It's specifically meant to prevent teleportation down to that area." "Well then how did Selene get down there, or Vohaul for that matter?" Luna asked. "Since opening that portal, Vohaul has demonstrated abilities to use thaumic energy that are far beyond Eternal knowledge. As for how your friend got down there, I do not know. It does not make any sense at all. I'm checking every sensor and log I can right now." Decima closed her eyes for a moment as she ran though the teleport logs. "Something is wrong, something doesn't add up," she said nervously. "What do you mean?" Luna asked "None of the internal teleporters should have the correct permissions to move anything down to the core levels. Selene should not have been able to make it down there at all, but somehow she did. The central logs for that teleport pad agree, she stepped on the pad, it activated and she was teleported into one of the core loading bays. It is possible but highly unlikely that there was some sort of security glitch that is allowing that pad access to the core levels, but as far as I can that teleport pad has been disconnected from the thaumic grid." "Was it disconnected after Selene was teleported away?" Luna asked. "I can't tell, the data I have is incomplete. There is a chance that if you could restore power to that pad, you might be able to teleport down to the core levels, and to Selene." Luna's ears perked up. "How would I do that?" she asked. "It is a fairly complicated procedure but I can show you the steps here." Another screen lit up, displaying some schematics. Decima spend the next hours running Luna through procedures to check on the teleport pad. Luna to disassemble the thaumic distribution node and check each circuit. To make matters worse, Decima warned Luna that the distribution node was located in one of the zones that had recently been attacked by remnants of Vohaul's army, and that she had limited working sensors in the area so she could not check if it was safe. "The distribution node for that level is located here." A section of the base map flashed in green. "There is a security field to prevent teleportation into that area, so you will have to make the trip by hoof. The main corridor of that level has collapsed here and here," Decima said, as more sections of the map lit up. "You will have to take this route to bypass the collapse." "Will we be able to communicate outside of this room?" Luna asked The door opposite to where Luna had entered slid open. "There is a supply room down the hall, second door on the right. You can pick up a communicator in that room, that will give us audio communication only. It looks like this." Luna studied the image on the screen for a moment before galloping down the hall to retrieve one. She returned minutes later, a communicator in tow. "How does it work?" "The communicator uses a small thaumic charge to convert radio signals directly into audio signals that only the user can hear," Decima said. "You can place it in your bag, you do not need to carry it directly, as long as it is within a small distance of your body, it will still work." Luna slipped the communicator into her saddle bags. "I'm ready to go," she said. ##### Even with directions from Decima, it still took Luna nearly 6 hours to make the trip. The damage to the base was even more extensive than Decima had warned her. More than once she found her way blocked and had to backtrack to try an alternate route. Finally she reached the junction that lead to the room containing the distribution node. It was clear that there had been a battle here, and recently by the looks of it. Fragments of crystal were strewn about the floor in front of the door and the wreck of a turret hung haphazardly off the ceiling, still smoking from whatever had destroyed it. She approached the door, and found it inoperable. "Decima, the door to this junction appears to be stuck, it's heavily damaged, it looks like there was some fighting in this room, is there another way around, or should I try to force the door open?" "It would take far too long to backtrack, just force the door, but be careful." Luna's horn lit up as she pulled the door out of its frame. She tossed it to the side and it clattered down onto the ground. Stepping through the now empty frame she looked around. The damage was even more extensive on this side. The walls were cracked and pitted with small craters, it looked as if something had exploded. Shadows flickered on the walls as the lighting blinked on and off. About half way down the corridor Luna found a large hole in the wall, she trotted over and peered inside. Only her quick reactions saved her as she jumped back dodging a large fist that came hurtling towards her head. A golem stepped out of the hole and immediately took another swing, missing Luna by a fraction of an inch. She threw up a field around herself and then let off a blast of magic, the magical wave hit the golem dispelling the magic that drove it. The now inanimate lump of crystal collapsed to the ground with a loud thud. A jet of flame washed over her shield, filling the rest of the corridor around her. The heat was so intense that the crystalline structure of the fallen golem started to melt away. Finally the flame died away, revealing a new type of construct deeper in the hole. Luna fired off another dispelling attack but it had no effect. As it prepared to fire again, Luna studied the changes in the magical field around its central spire, quickly she cast another spell directing a powerful cutting beam at the spines surrounding the spire. One by one the spines were lopped off, until the last one fell. The glow surrounding the central spire faded away as the construct lost the ability to focus its magic. It took two more steps towards the princess before she fired one more beam, cleaving the monster in two. At the end of the hole she found a room completely overgrown with crystals. "Luna, what happened?" she heard Decima ask. "I was attacked, I destroyed two of the monsters and have found a room full of dark crystals." "A spawning room, I don't know how they function, they seem to draw thaumic energy from the surrounding environment, it is concentrated in those crystals and they slowly grow replacements for Vohaul's army. There are dozens of them throughout the base, I haven't figured out how they spread yet." "Is there anything above this room?" Luna asked. "Just rock why?" Luna's horn flared brightly. The walls of the room began to shake and with a loud crack the ceiling collapsed. The black crystals were crushed under weight of hundreds of tons of rock. Luna turned around and made her way back into the main corridor. "Are you OK Luna? My sensors just registered a seismic event right in your area." "I'm fine, I collapsed the ceiling on top of the spawning room, no more constructs will be grown there." Luna reached the end of the corridor and opened the door to the distribution room. Following Decima's instructions, she removed the paneling that covered the distribution node and started to check each circuit. Finally she found the one for the teleport pad that had taken Selene and turned it back on. "Power has been restored to the teleport pad, I'm checking the pad's internal logs now," Decima said. There was a brief pause before she continued. "That's strange, according to these logs, this pad has been powered down for months. I've also confirmed that it does not have the proper permissions to teleport anyone to the lower levels." "I saw Selene vanish before my eyes, I checked, I know it was teleportation magic, are you sure it didn't come from the pad?" "Absolutely, the internal logs do not agree with my logs. My logs show this pad was used, the internal logs show that it was powered down. There is one more thing I can check... this is very strange." "What is it?" "Well, I am very sure that the pad wasn't used, there's no matching power draw in the generator logs, and that's one of the systems I still have good access to." "What else could have teleported her down there then?" "The only thing that has been able to teleport down to the lower levels is Vohaul, but he couldn't have grabbed your friend, he's still trapped." "How sure are you that Vohaul is still held in your trap? You've said you don't have much coverage on that level of the base," Luna said. "The time field still reads as active... but... well I just don't know... If Vohaul was free, I would think he'd have tried to take control of the generator... I need time to process this information. Can you head back here, hopefully I'll have some answers when you arrive." Luna made the return trip in silence. When she finally arrived back in the control center, Selene had been gone for nearly 10 hours. As soon as she walked into the room, she heard Decima speak up. "Ok, while you were headed back here, I've done checking on how I might be able to get you down to that level. I might have found a way, but it still wouldn't get you to Selene, at least not directly..." "I'm listening" Luna said. The screen with the map lit up, centering on Zax's control room. "As you can see there are six ways into Zax's control room." One of the corridors lit up in blue, four of them in red and the last in green. "The blue corridor leads directly to the main generator control center. The red corridors all lead to loading bays. Selene is currently in loading bay number three... here" The map zoomed out showing the large room with Selene's red dot. "The last of these corridors, the red one, is the main entrance to Zax's control center. At the end of the corridor is an elevator has access to levels 36 theta all the way to 16 theta, the top of the secure section. There is a maintenance tunnel in level 16 theta where the local security field generator is damaged, it goes on and off intermittently. The next time it goes down, you might be able to teleport to that location." "The problem is even if you can get to level 16 theta, and even if the elevator is still working, that would only get you to the main entrance to 36 theta. That corridor doesn't have any access to the loading bays, so you still wouldn't be able to reach your friend. The only direct way to get to the loading bay would be through Zax's control center. If you entered that room, you'd be trapped just like Vohaul is... hopefully." "There is a small chance that you might be able to do a very short range teleports without tripping the security measures, and ending back up here in another holding cell. If you go right up to the door to the control center, you'll be as close as you can possibly get to the without entering the control center. You might then be able to teleport from one corridor to the next, you'd have to teleport 3 corridors over to reach the that leads to loading bay three. The problem is if you trip the security measures you'll end up back on this level in another holding cell and have to start all over again." "You said the field was fluctuating, when will I be able to try again?" "It isn't consistent, but on average there is a 1 minute window every 16 hours. The last one was six and a half hours ago, so you're stuck here until the next one happens." "One last thing, the communicator may or may not work on the lower levels, I won't know until you get there, so you should memorize this route, just in case we lose contact." "Thank you for your help Decima, I really appreciate it," Luna said with a smile. She spent the next few hours going over the maps with Decima and planning a number of routes in case she found any of them blocked. When the time approached for her to leave Luna galloped out of the room and back to the teleport pad so Decima could send her down to the lower levels.