Ash Haven: Descent Chapter 6

The prana battery slid carefully into the foam lined slot left for it in the hardened leather carrying case, and soon disappeared, shut away from everyone’s sight.

“Let us begin the disassembly, begin with the visible consoles,” Adherbal said. “Immediately report any still active circuits, backup battery arrays are always possible.”

“Got it.”

“No prob.”

“Easy!”

Our less than formal answers brought a dissatisfied rumble, like an engine running without lubricant from the chief engineer, but he still turned away to take to his section and left us to it.

“Think I’m wearing him down,” I said quietly to Vee

“Yeah keep at it, you’ll be inviting him to dinner around the time you deactivate from wear and tear,” Vee said.

“C’mon, I bet I can manage while I still have some color in my hair,” I jibed back, kneeling down by the side of a console, my fingers were already slipping into a pouch to slide out tools, beginning to work on disassembling the outer casing. Detaching the interface was probably the best place to start, less chance of accidents.

It was repetitive work, but this sort of thing was part of delving too. Unenhanced folks could handle the parts, but having a feel for the energies running through the components much reduced the chance of accidents, big and small.

Under our hands, the console room, preserved for countless years, came apart into neat stacks of salvage. Getting the stuck doors cut away was the Head Engineer's first task, and the now open hallway soon received visitors, a hauling platform with sturdy little wheels pulled by several workers, with Dimitris playing lazy guard. Salvage was piled up, Adherbal gave handling instructions to the haulers and back down the way it went, pulled instead of pushed now. They’d return in time, ready for the next load.

Down to a science really. Soon every console had been pulled apart, wires and interfaces and chips and crystals all taken leaving only the bare metal frames which had contained them… and the holes leading down into the floor where they had been hooked up to the deeper infrastructure.

It’d probably taken a few hours, all told.

“That will be sufficient for now,” Adherbal said stiffly, brushing his hands off on his smock as he finished stacking the last load of salvage for the haulers. “We will break here and you will recover your focus.”

“I could keep going, this ain’t nothing,” Amara said, stretching her arms overhead.

“Organic individuals require rest cycles at regular intervals to maintain optimal work conditions,” Adherbal rumbled. “There is no overriding need to hurry this.”

“Suppose I could use a bite to eat,” I said. “C’mon Amara, let's get back out in the sun for a bit.”

“Ah, guess you’re right,” she said, letting her upper pair of arms come to rest behind her head.”...Guess I have to face the music though.”

“Do not disrupt the site,” the Chief Engineer said.

“Course not,” Amara snorted.

The wheels on the hauler squeaked as it rolled down the hallway, and the four of us set off to follow it

In the entrance way of the ruins though, there was a new face.

I recognized him from the previous day. I’d only seen him in passing but the tall man with his nearly shaven and heavily tattooed head was hard to mistake for anyone else. When I first spied him past Adherbal’s bald frame, he was facing away, arms folded stiffly behind his back as he spoke with Li Zhi, who was still perched atop that fallen column, though cross legged now.

I saw Adherbal visibly pause ahead of us, a flicker of unhappiness crossing his face.

The man turned to us a moment later, his cold solidly colored eyes sweeping over us before fixing on Adherbal.

“Head Engineer.”

“Inquisitor.”

Vee burrowed under my cloak a little further. “Well this is gonna be fun.”

Understatement. Adherbal stepped out of the doorway as the hauler pulled away, moving toward the shaft of light shining down on the elevator. I glanced at Amara, who looked back at me and shrugged. I followed after her as she walked out herself, looking more at the slight woman on the column who had now fixed her with a piercing gaze.

Talk about feeling out of place.

“I have been impressed with what I have seen emerging from your delve,” The inquisitor said quietly. He stepped down from the stone he had been perched on to speak Li Zhi, his polished boots did not disturb the dust and sand.

“It has been a fruitful excavation,” Adherbal replied shortly. “It is not like you step out into a site.”

“There is no purpose in it. This is the work ashlanders and gardenborn are suited for,” the inquisitor replied, his dark eyes briefly flicked over us. “But there is an important matter we must speak of. The urgency demands I speak with you directly. “Leave the menials to their rest. But do not leave this chamber. Come with me.”

The towering gholam let out a deep rumble, filled with the whine of grinding gears, but nodded shortly. “Refresh yourselves down here. I must speak with our sponsors.”

Adherbal strode off toward the dim interior of the chamber, following after the Inquisitor.

“Oh yes, why don’t you. You must have been working hard,” Li Zhi said lightly. “There is water and food by the elevators. Please partake.”

“Thanks,” I said warily, heading on over.

Amara was staring the small woman down with a grim expression.

“Oh you’re very welcome,” she said sweetly. “So polite, not at all like someone who storms out in the middle of the night without an explanation.”

“The fact that you needed an explanation is the problem Zhi,” Amara said stonily.

I chose the better part of valor and left that alone as they descended on each other.

“Well that’s clearly more complicated than Ama let on,” Vee grumbled. “Come on, let's go use that column over there, there’s some daylight shining through, so I can extend my charging panels too.”

“Should be about far enough,” I said, shading my eyes as I scooped up a heavy waterskin and a sealed mealpack.

With those tucked under my arm I head away from the sound of quiet bickering and heaving ropes. Whatever was going on I hoped it wouldn’t get in the way of disassembling the rest of the console rooms, some of the arrays were really…

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck tingle and my hand flew to my knife as the meal tin clattered to the floor. There’ behind and left, eyes like coals burning in the dark…

“Where do you think you are going.”

Vee’s back arched and sparks crackled on his teeth. My heart thundered in my chest… but I took my hand off of my knife and glared.

The girl glaring at me from the shadows of a column stump was even shorter than I was. Her blonde hair was all swept back into a single braided tail, the rest of her head shaved and the scalp inked with complex circuits, just like the inquisitor. However the points of her ears were shorter and duller, and her eyes had pupils, rather than being nothing but solid color. Hers were narrow as she looked up at me suspiciously.

An apprentice, or junior officer? Something like that. It was the same uniform armored inserts and all, but with less markings and lower quality.

I kept my hand well away from my knife. “To that rock right there to eat. Don’t want to intrude on any of the conversations going on here, do I?”

She regarded me suspiciously, eyes flicking to follow my pointed finger.

“So, is there a reason you’re on edge here…?”

“This is a valuable site, and the Magistocracy is heavily invested,” she sniffed. “One would think you all would be more respectful of your sponsors.”

“Riiiiight,” I replied, not quite able to keep the drawl out of my voice. “So, I’m going to eat now, if that’s alright with you.”

She looked me over, again, gave a sniff and nodded. “Very well, you may take your rations.”

Like I was supposed to ask permission? This was why nobody liked these guys.

Figuring that was it, I gave a careful nod and turned away, heading toward the cracked pillar.

The girl was still there trailing a half dozen steps behind me.

“Fun,” Vee muttered under his breath.

“Can I… help you with something,” I asked.

“No.”

Yet she didn’t go anywhere. I stared at her dully, and she stared back. Finally, I shook my head and climbed up onto the smoothest part of the broken pillar to sit down cross legged. Setting the tin with my lunch down, I cracked the seel, pulling back the lid. Hard biscuits, dried meat and a little bit of some preserved fruit. I didn’t recognize the type, but unsealing the packet they were in, I found the first little cube sweet and moist.

Well, guess that was one thing the Magos were good for. I savored the bite  for a long moment, looking back at the girl staring me down.

“So, there’s something you’re worried about us smuggling out, huh?”

She was silent, though her eyes widened. This one… was kinda naive, huh?

“No. It is simply unwise for anyone to be alone in a ruin. One would think a delver would know this.”

“They’re not alone,” Vee said dryly, he’d scampered down into a sunny patch, wriggling around onto his back. His ‘ribs’ split down the center, opening up his internals to expose the solar panels there to the sun above. The sparking prana core core in his center whirred and crackled as it began to draw in energy.

“How useful, a drone in charging mode,” The girl scoffed.

“Right, This humble ashlander appreciates your noble kindness ma’am.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You are mocking me.”

“And you aren’t mocking me?” I scoffed. The little fruit cubes were gone, so I set about splitting a biscuit down the middle and layering in strips of meat.. “C’mon, at least come up with a good lie. I figure the Inquisitor’s chatting up Adherbal cause you want to search us all on the way out, right?”

It’d be a pain, the guild would probably go along with it, just to not rock the sandskiff. “Does make me wonder just what you all are looking for all of sudden though.”

“Uncle- The Inquisitor is just beginning the arrangement of checkpoints, this site has become too vital to leave too-” she began, crossing her arms. It was kinda cute honestly, and had the energy of kitten flashing claws. Especially with the way she snapped her mouth shut before she could say anything else.

“...So, you wanna let me eat in peace, or should I keep poking you until you say something you’re not supposed to say?”

She turned around and marched away without another word.

“You know she’s still gonna be keeping an eye on you right?” Vee said lazily.

“Sure, but it’s easier to ignore if she’s not right in my face.”

What the heck had the Magos so riled up?

***

I never did find out. Adherbal was even more tight-lipped than usual after the break, all but grinding his teeth as he informed us the guild would be checking all of us on the way out. That there were not to be any ‘souvenirs’ or personal grabs at all. Usually there was some tolerance for that kind of thing. Nobody cared if you snapped up a crystal or two for yourself or an interesting looking bit of metalwork. Not so for this site. My thoughts drifted back to the little crystal card I’d given to gramps. Like hell I was gonna say anything about that though.

He wouldn’t give any more detail than that though, and with Amara in a bad mood too after her own conversation, returning to the dismantling of the console room came under a gloomy kind of cloud. But work was work, once you had the panels open and the tools out, you could shrug off all the awkwardness and just focus on what your hands were doing. I liked that, and I was glad there weren’t any more interruptions as we started, pulling apart the floor panels to get at the machinery beneath.

But it went quickly enough. And the inspection wasn’t so bad. Being passed under the divining rod a few times and carefully patted down was annoying and uncomfortable, but there were worse things.

“Ugh, Glad to be past that,” Amara grumbled to me as we climbed back to camp. Adherbal was remaining on site, and Dmitris had split off to join up with some relations in the drovers.

“We’ll be here all week at least, and that's assuming no other chambers get uncovered,” I replied, amused.

She glared at me. “C’mon don’t be like that.”

“Sorry, sorry,” I replied, waving my hand dismissively. Glancing at her, I came to a decision. “You want to get that drink tonight?”

Amara’s eyebrows climbed almost to her hairline.

“Don’t. You just look like you need someone to complain too,” I said flatly. “You’ve had my back on enough delves that I can do that much.”

“Ugh, I guess that’s fine, I can just finish recharging on the roof,” Vee grumbled without heat.

“Hah, I must really be out of it,” Amara chuckled. “Yeah… Yeah maybe I got a little too attached this time too. Sorry if I can’t tease ya like you expect.”

“You can skip that part all the time,” I said. We were almost back to the rise that led to the camp. I could probably manage a boosted jump and skip the walk to the top.

“Nah, every girl deserves to know she’s pretty, even grumps like you,” Amara laughed. “You gonna jump?”

“I’m not crippled today, duh,” I replied. “See you at the top.

***

The delve continued day by day. By the end of the second we’d dismantled most of the console room, and discovered a few other chambers connected by the paths left for wires and pipes. The Inquisitor wasn;t back that day, but the scowling little girl was there overseeing men in their colors, watching our every move as we entered and exited the ruins.

As the days passed, and they began to sprout up at the exits of the camp above too, I was feeling a little unsettled. But work continued along we excavated chambers and maintenance ducts, dug in the innards of the ancients and carted out treasures that’d fill the Guild coffers and our own pockets. By the end of the week, we’d cleared all but the scraps.

Today even the scowling Magos presence was less. Whatever they were looking for they seemed to be convinced it wasn’t at our site. Tomorrow was probably the last day of work at the site I’d scouted.

I stretched my arms overhead as I approached home. I was glad that work was wrapping up at the site. Spending a little time working with my hands was nice, but I was getting the itch to go out beyond the edge of the map again. There wasn’t much of anything left in the section of halls I’d cataloged, not that it needed any real attention.

I’d eyed the assignment boards when I got back today. There was one I liked the look of, infiltrating on the smaller and more intact towers a ways out from the city center. It’d be a hotbed of wasp drones and worst, but who knew, if it had managed to hold up all these years there had to be something interesting in it.

Vee wanted to hit the sinkhole further east and farther out from the center. Divinations marked it as a collapsed delivery tunnel. Probably a bunch of old precursor vehicles to scrap. I wasn’t so sure though. There might be something interesting, but the basic delivery vehicles were all pretty well cataloged even if we couldn’t produce the prana density to make ‘em viable these days.

Home was dark as we approached, talking back and forth about the options. The sun was touching the horizon, casting long shadows over the mostly empty streets as folks made their way to their evening haunts. I didn’t think much of it. Gramps had probably just worked himself into rest mode again, he’d been in a real manic swing recently.

I wasn’t expecting to see him pacing back and forth in the front room, gears whirring and muttering to himself. There was a massive pack strapped up tight to his back, it looked like it might weigh more than I did. It was his travel pack, the one he wore when we were walking the wastes.

“Kazimiera!” he boomed, his metal foot screeching across the stone floor as he spun to face me, the moment the door cracked open. “Come in, come in child, and be sure to shut the door.”

I shared a concerned look with Vee, but shut the door behind me. “Gramps, what’s going on? You look like you’re ready to bug off.”

He let out a laugh. “Nothing so simple as that I’m afraid, child. But yes, yes we’ll need to be moving on soon!”

“...Why? Is this about the Magos? They’ve been kinda pushy, but you never seemed worried about them before,” I asked dubiously.

“If it were only that, I’d just stay in my workshop and let those charlatans squabble with the Guild,” Gramps replied, laying a hand on my shoulder, he guided me further inside, toward his workshop. “How has your array improvement settled?”

“It’s good, my channels are fine. Not a twinge when I project anymore.”

“Old man, what are you up too,” Vee said bluntly.

“Up too! Hah, I am up to many things, little drone. But no, were it not for you my child I would be still spinning my gears, instead of standing on the verge of a revolution in my research!” Gramps laughed. “But… thieves have a sense for treasures, I'm afraid. I do not know if it were divination or elsewise, but I am suspicious of the Magistrocracy acting as it is, just as I find my breakthrough.”

The workshop door slid shut behind us, and Gramps shoved a pack into my hands. Nowhere as big as his, but still, it was one made for holding everything. “Okay, Gramps slow down, I’m not in your head, you gotta explain, remember?”

His irises spun, glittering with bright actinic light as he turned back to me, a wide grin on his wrinkled face. “The card dear child, the access card. I had always suspected that there might have been one of the failsafe laboratories here, but this! This proves the matter. And with it, we shall not have to breach defenses which would withstand anything this fallen age has to offer!”

I blinked, stopping dead as he rummaged through the now mostly emptied shelves muttering and stuffing what he could fit into the bulging pouches about his waist. “A failsafe…what, some kind of sealed bunker? That’s great Gramps," I said as my eyes widened. He made it sound like everything would be fully online too.

“So why are you acting like we’re gonna leave? Tell the Guild and we’ll be set for life,” Vee said, eyeing Gramps dubiously.

“Pah! Let them scavenge for scraps after, I will not have greedy fools who can only think of coin and cobbling together trash for the petty wants of scavengers to ruin the last legacy of our makers,” Gramps boomed. “No, the guild and the Magistocracy cannot know this little drone, Kazimiera. Within this vault will be a treasure, a treasure meant to restore them. That is what truly matters!”