NOVEL FROG Chapter 31: Valterion Heavy Industries
Chapter 31: Valterion Heavy Industries
Location: Solar System; Earth; Lake Michigan; Small yacht
“That’s a giant lake!” I exclaim when we are nearing our destination. The ship is currently flying above a ruined city. I first thought we were heading there, but Maja didn’t slow us down, so I guess we have to go a bit further. With a quick glance at the map on my tablet, I identify the city as Chicago and the giant lake as Lake Michigan.
A minute later, we leave the city behind, and Maja finally begins our descent – right toward the surface of the lake. I glance at Maja. “Is it an underwater facility?”
She shakes her head. “No, it shouldn’t be,” she points at a spot on the lake’s surface before us, slightly to the left. “That’s our destination.”
I have to squint my eyes. It’s very small and still a good distance away. When we get closer, it becomes bigger, but it’s still pretty small, around two times the size of our yacht. Maja slows down the ship when we’re at our final approach. When I take a closer look at the surrounding water, I notice giant structures below the surface. Only the platform at the top is above the water level. A landing platform?
“Didn’t you say it isn’t an underwater facility?” I ask Maja with a raised eyebrow. “Because for me it looks that way.”
She shrugs. “I can’t say. It’s strange, the information I got out of the Magicon computer always calls it Valterion Island… That’s why I said it shouldn’t be underwater. Maybe it sunk? It shouldn’t matter anyway we can land on the platform and enter from there.”
If it sunk does that mean half of it is flooded? That’s not a good sign. “Let’s hope we can open the doors this time.”
“True, now be careful, we’re about to touch down.” Maja sits down too and seconds later we land on the platform. The yacht powers down and we suit up. Probably for the last time. We’ve gotten pretty fast and less than five minutes later, I step down the ramp and enter the landing platform. Maja is right beside me and immediately walks toward a control panel at the edge of the platform. I look around, searching for an entrance. There, a five-by-three-meter rectangle is painted with warning stripes. An elevator? It has to be, how else is someone supposed to enter after landing on the platform?
Maja turns back to me with a big grin on her face. “We’ve got power!” Just when she says that the elevator rectangle begins to slowly move downwards. I quickly jump on it and Maja joins me a second later. Slowly but surely, we enter the facility.
When the elevator reaches its destination, I have to rub my eyes. How is this possible? Maja too releases an audible gasp. The warehouse we are now in looks… intact. Shelves full of cardboard and plastic boxes line the walls, and the floor is clean without a speck of dust. Everything looks like someone just cleaned the room an hour ago… How? And why? Right before us, in the middle of the room, stands a table with a box on top of it.
Maja walks over and takes a peek inside the box, while I am still taking in the room. It’s just so impossible. Why isn’t everything in here destroyed like almost everything else on the planet? Even the sealed Armortec complex wasn’t that well preserved. Maja lets out a loud laugh. “I can’t believe we’re this lucky.” She takes out a tablet and holds it in the air. My eyes go wide. This looks like it was left behind to be found! I rush over to the table just as Maja presses down the power button.
When the tablet has finished powering up – it took quite a long time – a video automatically starts to play. A middle-aged man with red hair and green eyes stares at the camera. He wears a suit with a purple tie and the background is filled with a giant V with a starship flying through between it. The Valterion logo? Has to be. Everything else wouldn’t make sense. He sighs.
“Welcome my descendants, my name is Conor Valterion, and when you are seeing this, more than 20,000 years should have passed.”
I tap the screen, hoping to stop the video. It works. I turn to Maja. “They planned for someone to come back here after 20,000 years? That’s insane! Why would they wait so long?”
Maja just shrugs. “I can’t tell you more besides that we are clearly early and not the intended recipients of this message. But let’s continue watching, I’m very curious where this leads to.”
I nod, she’s right. The man said descendants. This message is intended for the Valterions from almost 9,000 years in the future! Wait, did they prepare this whole complex to stay this way for 20,000 years? That does sound impossible. But on the other hand, everything looks as good as new right now and over half the expected time has already passed… It has to be some very complex magic. I can’t imagine any other possibility. I wish I was that strong… Soon, I won’t stop!
Now let’s continue with the video.
“You are probably wondering about the secretive message you found inside the family’s vault, leading you right here. For that, I apologize, and I hope you forgive me for not telling you the exact reason right away. For now, just know that everything we prepared here for you concerns the war of Earth and how it ended. Everything else is confidential information I can’t just leave lying around here in the open. Head down to the main vault where your identity will be checked to receive what we have left behind for you. It is extremely important, and I hope 20,000 years weren’t too long, but we can’t risk coming back here earlier.”
The video ends with Conor Valterion smiling into the camera tiredly. Maja and I stare at each other. That does sound big. Maja is the first to find her words. “Should we continue and try to get into the vault below? I’m very curious what all this is about.”
“Yeah, I think we should at least try. If we can find out what happened here and bring it back to the Valterions, they will probably be very grateful. Also, I want to find out what this is about. It has to be something about that Worldender Ship Serena talked about.”
As we are both in agreement, we decide to continue further down into the facility. Maja puts the tablet into the backpack, and we walk toward the double door just ahead at the end of the room.
What I see beyond is what I actually expected to see inside: 11,000 years of abandonment. It’s now clear that only the entrance room was specifically preserved, probably by some magical means. The hallway and rooms look just like what I’ve seen inside the Magicon headquarters. Piles of dust and scrap pieces of metal are everywhere.
Maja sighs. “That’s disappointing, I had my hopes that the whole thing would be worth exploring.”
“True, finding out more about the facility would have been cool. At least we have something to do here. We just have to find the central vault.” Let’s just hope it’s not that hard to find… and not too secure. “Uh, by the way, did the Conor guy include a map to the vault on the tablet?” That would be beyond helpful.
This time Maja manages to keep walking while checking data, even if it’s a bit stiffer than normal. Progress! “Yeah, he did. It’s quite the distance, we have to go deep. Almost all the way to the bottom. Keep your eyes open, maybe we will find something of interest on the way down.”
With the discovery of a stairway, our descent begins. When we’re a few floors down, I notice metal badges on the walls of each floor. They count the floors, but what’s strange is that they call each floor a deck. Just like on starships! Hmm, the facility wasn’t built for underwater usage… Could it be that it wasn’t a simple artificial island but a floating island instead? I mean it could be possible, right?
When I share my thoughts with Maja, she nods. “Yeah, that’s plausible. Energy hungry, but entirely possible. If I were a company that builds starships, I would definitely flex a bit with a floating island.”
After a while and way too many steps, we take a quick break. I sit down right where I am and relax a bit. Maja throws me a protein bar out of the backpack. “Thanks.” I happily eat it and drink a big sip out of a water bottle afterward. “How’s your power level looking? Need a recharge?”
Maja declines. “Nah, I’m good. Still 64% charge left in the batteries. Shall we continue? We’re close.”
“Give me five more minutes. I want to be at my best in case there are robots too.” I shudder at that thought. I’ve seen enough of those things already. Closing my eyes a bit, I must have dozed away because when I open them again, clearly more than five minutes have passed. Oops. Luckily, Maja doesn’t care. I stand up again and stretch a bit. The stairway isn’t a great place to fall asleep… My back pops audibly.
True to her word, we arrive before a giant vault door that looks like it can withstand a full salvo of a modern warship. This section too is different from the rest. Like crossing an invisible line, everything again looks like it was just placed there hours ago. Next to the vault door is a control panel. That’s probably where the Valterion descendants confirm their identity.
This is going to be a problem. I can’t magically conjure one of them right here beside me. I wish I could. They’re probably rich and can buy me some upgrades to get me out of Novice rank.
I walk over towards the panel and turn my head back to Maja while pointing forward. “Think you can hack it? I don’t think we get inside any other way.”
She walks over and bends down to take a close look at the panel. I stand right beside her. “Hmm, it’s similar to the ones inside the Magicon facility, but quite a bit more secure. I don’t know if I can get inside. At least I’m not sure if I can do it without alerting security. Should I try?”
“Yeah, we have to get inside, otherwise we wasted our time in here. And after hearing what the Conor guy said, I really want to find out more.” I hold up my arm. “But wait a moment, I want to be ready in case there are robots too.” With that, I first relieve Maja of the backpack and put it down on the other side of the room. Next, I draw my energy blade and push magic toward the shield-watch I got from Armortec. I don’t activate any of them yet, as I don’t want to waste power. If there are robots, I should be able to react in time. They’re not that fast.
“Okay, I’m ready. You can start.” Maja goes completely still. This takes all of her concentration. This time I can’t even blame her. She can’t make a mistake here. Time seems to crawl and I turn around every minute, just to be disappointed every time. Nothing changes. At least she hasn’t alerted security yet. I’d hate to fight more robots.
When I look back in the future at this moment, that’s probably when I jinxed it again. Maja swears. “Fuck, I messed up, get ready!”
That’s all the warning I get, and I immediately will the shield-watch to activate. I’m not fast enough. The time between Maja warning me and me reacting was too long. Twin turrets pop out of the roof and start firing away.
My Space Sense goes haywire and shows me possible safe spots. There aren’t many. My shield is still forming, when the first bullet reaches me. It hits me straight in the shoulder and goes right through. My blood splatters on the wall behind me. “Aaaaahhhh” I fall backwards from the force of the shot. The shield has finally formed and stops the next bullets.
A hand grabs my uninjured shoulder and pulls me to the side. Maja! Tears start filling my eyes. It hurts so bad. I’d kill for a spacewalker suit with integrated painkillers. The bullets keep coming and home in on our new position. Fuck, we’re going to die. I feel my magic drain at an alarming rate. I look at Maja, she wears an expression of horror. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.
Then suddenly, everything stops. The turrets retract and I can hear the sound of gears turning and pistons retracting. What’s happening? Why did the turrets stop? I stand back up and immediately get dizzy. Right, blood loss. I point at my shoulder, then at the backpack. It hurts too much to talk. I’m not built for being shot! Maja nods and runs toward the backpack. She understands, good.
I sit back down when my legs get wobbly. Then I glance at the panel. It’s splattered with my blood, but that is not what has my heart skipping not only one beat but three beats.
It’s the words written on the panel!
DNA match confirmed. Security measures deactivated. Welcome Miss Valterion!