The Dragon of Dreams

Chapter 416: Unrecognizable Rot

Mid Evening - Mid Winter : Acardi Research Facility | Eastern Bahamut

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*Thump* *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* Carefully walking across the large docking bay, heavy, hollow metal thumps echoed through the facility while the stale scent of sulfur, heat, and minerals dug deep into my nostrils.

It was the inescapable scent of magma that had engrained itself in my nose, mixing with the familiar, sterilized air of the facility. -Dang.. for even the docking bay to be sterilized...-

*Vwoom* Idly using my aura to look just inside the surrounding walls, I quickly found a rather complex network of vents, filters, heating and cooling units, as well as huge dehumidifiers similar to upscaled versions of those in the crawler, clearly indicating a serious amount of precaution when dealing with the contents the crawlers were transporting.

But that just made me more curious.

Finally making it to the largest door in the bay I swiftly cut it open with space mana before finding my gaze aimed down a rather large, fifteen meter tall hallway covered with straight metallic lines I instantly recognized as magnetic rails. -Woah...-

Compared to the facility off Siratha's coast, this place was so massive and so sturdy it almost felt like it was made for dragons.

Even if it was still a bit too small for me.

*Flash* Quickly changing to my humanoid form, I made my way inside to begin exploring, peeking through the many, multi-story storage rooms connected to the hallway before using my aura to shortcut the process and find things like specimen rooms or the main control room.

To put things bluntly, the facility was absolutely massive on the inside, to the extent that it could fit a deep-sea laboratory in just the storage area by the main gate, but regardless of its size, it was almost completely empty as if deliberately cleaned. Even after looking through what my aura could see, the only things that still remained were a handful of massive slabs of black mythril laying on specimen tables, and some samples of lava rock. -Those must be samples from the grave...-

They were clearly still in the process of studying them when the place was evacuated. However, unlike the Sirathan lab, everything here was orderly. Outside of simple material decay, damage was rare, storages were empty, and even the chairs and tables were orderly and neatly organized, looking less like there was some abrupt evacuation and more like something planned. -It just feels so.. off...- Especially the empty specimen rooms. -I hope the data on the computers is still readable... I'm sure this place will have logs of some kind...-

Wondering if this facility also had an AI or if I would have to manually look through computers for logs, I used my aura to check out the power network, gauging just how hard it would be to get everything back online before stumbling across the control room at the very top of the facility and inadvertently noticing a few of nearby rooms that were far less tidy than everything else in the facility. -It doesn't seem like the mess is from the reactor though... Maybe I'll check those out after I get this place back online...-

By the looks of things, the facility used a pretty simple thermal generator, using a network of massive heat pipes in the outer walls that not only acted as insulation and cooled the inside of the facility, but powered everything on its own. -Such a comparably low energy output makes me wonder if this place can even house an AI... But it looks like an easy fix...-

Finding a rupture in the large reservoir acting like a water tower above the generator, besides cleaning the gunk out of the reactor itself, all I needed to do was patch a hole and fill the system with water again, and it would automatically start running thanks to the intense heat of the magma. -How lucky...-

But, as I made my way into a huge electromagnetic cargo elevator and cut my way through the ceiling to head directly to the control room, more of my aura started filling the disorderly rooms around it and almost immediately my urge to check them out went from idle interest to an irresistable mix of curiosity and discomfort.

The rooms were also specimen rooms, just like the ones downstairs, but dealt with much smaller pieces of material and used many more, far more precise tools and equipment. However, while the out-of-place disorder was what caught my attention initially, upon a closer look, I found that one of the rooms was completely trashed and covered in a dirt-like organic gunk...

Gunk that amounted to many times what could have come from an organic sample being studied in the room. -What the...-

Thinking it was something I needed to check on before I could power things up again, I made my way to the top floor of the facility before going down a long, large hallway and turning into a small offshoot just before I reached the reactor, where a slightly discolored metal door greeted me. -Ah.. this.. might be worse than I thought...-

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*Tink* Cutting it open with a grimace, a puff of dust wafted up to me before greeting my nose with a surprisingly earthy smell, similar to rock that had been baking in the sun.

However, while the ground was covered in an unrecognizable dust-like filth, composed of essentially raw minerals, mixed in quantities I had never seen, I knew exactly what it was...

Looking at the slightly corroded desk and chair next to the central specimen table, I found damaged plastics filled with more organic gunk.

A container of food.. and next to it.. a bottle...

However, while sharing a similar composition of minerals, the accumulation of gunk on and around the chair, didn't have plastic in it, but rather metal pieces I could recognize.

It came from the body of a person; the single remaining scientist in a facility that had most certainly been evacuated, with countless pieces of equipment damaged by both the rot of his own flesh and the intense heat that filled the facility after the generator failed. -This must be the owner of that crawler in the docking bay...-

Having hotwired several pieces of equipment, and moved things into the room from neighboring ones, he was most certainly an Acardi expert of some kind. -His work is too neat to be done by just anyone...- And now that I was able to tie the organic gunk in the crawler storages to being food, it was quite clear that whoever the scientist was, chose to remain here instead of simply leaving with the crawler. -So why...-

Looking at the specimen table, I immediately found two sealed small flakes of black mythril, perhaps only a few centimeters wide, that were sampled from the god's grave up above, a preserved piece of muscle fiber, and a piece of bone. -Did he really give his life to study these..?-

Looking over at a wall covered in illegible math, writing, and runic patterns, my gaze sharpened.

If I turned on the power as things were, I would put every electronic in the room at risk, and in turn, run the risk of destroying the data this man gave his life to collect.

And I couldn't risk that.

Just like in every other specimen room, beneath the specimen table, there was a simple quantum computer, and a series of data drives submerged in a viscous liquid just like in the Sirathan lab.

Thankfully, the computer and its drives seemed unharmed; however, many of the electronics scattered around the room weren't so lucky.

So, before doing anything, I went and cleaned up what were essentially the researcher's ashes and set them aside before getting to work, fixing and repairing everything that even had a chance of causing a short circuit before quickly finding that.. it wasn't just that one room that needed work.

Oddly enough, what really needed cleaning up wasn't the corrosion, but rather the seals and insulation used in most of the electronics and equipment. With how hot the inside of the facility had become after losing power for millennia, many of the seals and insulators had grown dry and brittle.

And that meant not only did the seals in that room need replacing.. the seals throughout the entire facility did.

And well, after contemplating whether I should tell Hera that I'd be down here a little longer, I just burned a day walking throughout the entire facility replacing everything I could find while also lowering the temperature of things so the facility's systems wouldn't panic and overload to cool it all down the second I gave it power again.

Thankfully, for the most part, the facility was still in extremely good condition, and with no antimatter batteries or reactors that ran the risk of exploding, after patching up the hole in the thermal reactor's reservoir, all I had to do was fill it with pure water and reseat a few seals before...

*click* *click* *click-click-click-WOOMMMMM* After a short startup, the pumps got power and the reactor roared to life.

*flash* The lights instantly kicked on. -Wow.. it's not screaming at me?- Having expected it to yell that its systems were damaged, I was quite pleased with the silence.

However, that was only because it was filling the house-sized capacitors at the back of the facility.

*BEEEP* *BEEEP* *BEEEP* As soon as the caps filled and the other, non-vital systems in the facility started getting power, the lights turned red, and a deafening automated voice ripped through the air. "Dangerous temperatures detected. Damaged systems detected. Main server: Unable to connect. Error detected with connection array modules. All External Systems: Offline. Running deep diagnostic and recording to logs." *BEEEP* "Identification of faculty member detected. Mister Borealis, as areas of the facility are subject to extreme conditions, it is advised you do not leave room 401. Entering lockdown and attempting to signal server for a rescue team through alternate methods." *CLANG*

Jolting as the deafening sound of hundreds of locks slammed closed throughout the facility, I kept a close eye on the electronics throughout the reactor to make sure nothing was breaking before looking to my side and watching the computers meant to control the reactor light up. -So far so good...-

While the reactor kept screaming about errors as more of its systems came online, after giving it a moment, it eventually ended, and I made my way over to one of the computers and logged in just as I would have at the Sirathan lab.

*Beep* This time the computer was the thing to beep before the loud, facility-wide automated voice spoke up again. "Identity verified. All faculty please treat-" *CrAcKLe* "SuBjEcT #0-" *CrAcKLe* "With respect. Failing to do so will result in-" *CrAcKLe* "Death."

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