25 – Freezing cold

The corridor opened up to a huge cave. Its walls were made of solid stone that reflected the orange light of the torches with its sleek wet surfaces, and through the forest of stalactites and stalagmites a bright light was visible at the center. The space was so big that a slight fog obscured the far walls from sight, plunging the place in a perpetual gray haze that became orange when looking at the center of the cave. On the walls and snaking around the stone formations were many brass pipes, hissing with pressure, coming out of the central light like a spiderweb. Every now and then a small station filled with valves and pressure meters was built into the stone, often almost invisible unless someone was looking for it.

At the center, still hidden from Cal and Julian, was the pulsing core of the Habitat. The cave was gigantic, and slanted so that the entrance from where the duo had arrived was actually at least a kilometer higher in altitude than the bottom, where the core was. Below such core was the other half of the asteroid, but it was all solid stone so that only half of the core was visible, exposed to the air of the cave if not for a glass dome surrounding it. Around the irregular crystal, pulsing a bright orange, the glass dome had been constructed by the original dwellers of the Habitat, and all the pipes converged on it. The core as it was now was used as a source of heat, and a gigantic pipe provided water from the top while the other smaller ones collected the steam produced when the water touched the crystal back to the surface.

The core also provided gravity, boosting the meager gravitational field of the space rock with its artificially generated gravitons, and in fact if someone were to dig underneath it they would suddenly find themselves upside down, falling up and back into the cave. This was because here the gravity was acting differently based on where a point was in space relative to the cave floor, pointing down when above it and up when below it. This way, back on the surface, everyone had the impression that gravity always pointed down.

The trek down took a few hours. By the time they reached the mid-point, from where the core was now visible, a small trickle of water was flowing below their feet, rendering the terrain muddy and slippery. After the initial awe at the sight of the gigantic piece of pure elemental unknown, lighting the whole cave orange with its pulsing light and ever present low hum, they proceeded fast.

“There’s too much water,” Julian said. The trickle had become a small creek that was washing away rocks and detritus accumulated here over eons. “W-where is it even coming from?” he asked, voice frantic and alarmed. The water was frigid and its flow intensifying, and his mind immediately thought about the water he felt in the corridor upstairs and the flooded room Cal found.

“I don’t know. The vent, wasn’t it in the direction of the river we crossed on the way to the village?” Cal said, confirming a hunch. Suddenly Julian was aware of his friend’s real capabilities, one among which was a good sense of direction.

They were under a river. Maybe it was the same Noctilucent River from Cal’s quest even.

“Shit,” Julian cursed, “Don’t tell me we dug a hole in the riverbed.”

They walked a few hours more, going as fast as possible. Around the glass dome was an elevated platform, and upon the platform overlooking the crystal was a huge rectangular machine. Below, the murky water was accumulating in a small swirling river as the flood increased its flow.

“Quick.” Julian said before increasing his pace yet again, to the limit of what he could safely do without slipping and falling on the muddy ground.

They had to jump when they reached the bottom, across the foamy river of mud and water. Before approaching the machine, Julian walked all around the dome surrounding the core and then back to Cal.

“No, this isn’t… it’s definitely steampunk. This is no space-faring civilization. Nor is it elves. This isn’t even the same people who built the vents and tunnels. This is all a patchwork of things.”

“I think that these are system-generated spaces. They don’t always make sense.”

“Right.” Julian said, and Cal smiled cheekily.

A wet sensation told them that the rising water level had reached the elevated catwalk they were standing on. Julian looked around, then at the machine, at the core, and back at Cal.

“I don’t get it. This is stupid.”

“What does the machine do, Julian? Is it the controller for the mirror?”

Hearing Cal talk about the mirror quelled his raging mind. Julian shook himself out of his stupor and waded in the chilly water until he was standing in front of the machine. He could see the two gigantic metal balls magnetically locked on top of brass tripods like two antennae. Meters, lancets and clocks made up the whole front of the machine, inlaid upon a vertical solid slab of grey steel.

Cal wandered around the machine as Julian studied its mechanisms. “This was made in a hurry, quick and dirty. It’s different than the rest of the technology. It’s of the same making but… not polished and refined. It lacks the aesthetic touch the rest of the place has.” he said.

Julian stared at him. “You know this stuff?”

“No,” Cal said, “But this is what I feel when I look at it.”

Julian nodded. “I see.” The water was reaching his knees now. He began to fiddle with the machine. “It’s similar to the toy I took from upstairs.”

He took it out and began to turn the dials on it. As he did that, he took note of how the dials moved on the machine.

“They have a radio bridge.” He said after a while, holding the little toy radio. “If I can make it so that this little miniature machine shit here can reach the actual machine from the surface, we are golden.”

“Are you sure the machine communicates with the mirror?” Cal asked, moving water with his hands to clear a zone around him of the floating debris.

“Yeah yeah yeah, I’m sure.” Julian struggled to walk around the machine in the chest-high water. “One-to-one on the dials: I turn them on the portable radio and they turn on the machine. See this huge ass pipe coming out of the machine and into the dome? It’s not steam or water, it’s analog signals. The signals hit the crystal in the dome, it resonates, hits the little stars around the asteroid, whatever they are, then the mirror turns.” He said, but had to stop to catch his breath. He was shivering, surrounded as he was with icy water. “Or so I hope. If I’m right then the people upstairs on the surface should see…” he checked his portable tool. “that it’s night right now. And they should have seen day – night – day – dusk – day – dawn – night before that. If I read this right. But we can test it later.”

The water level was getting dangerously high. A Freeze meter was ticking up in his vision, as was in Cal’s.

“You’ll have to figure out the rest on the surface.” Cal said.

“Yeah, good idea.” Julian fought to spell the words through clattering teeth. “You see an exit? There must be an exit.”

They searched, frantically, panic setting in, for an exit. The water was rising, gelid, and their Freeze meter was almost full. They could not go back they way they came, of course, as it was all flooded.

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“We need an exit! An exit!” Julian yelled as the water splashed. “Come on! There must be a vent, a door, anything, a service hatch, I don’t know? Cal, you see anything?”

“No,” his friend said. “We need to get to the dry part—”

“What if we get stuck here? The water’s coming in.” Julian protested. “Wait, I see something. Help me reach down, here grab my feet.”

Julian went underwater, looking at what seemed like an opening when his status meter filled up, and he reared in pain. He was Frozen, the debuff stealing all strength from his body. He went limp. He fought to move but his consciousness was so far away, his body floating in the water at the end of a long, dark tunnel where his thoughts were all muffled.

An arm grabbed him, pulling him out of the water.

“Julian!”

He looked at his dwindling HP. “Hmm…”

“Julian! Look at me! I’m going to need you to catch me too.”

“Hmm.” He protested.

Then his friend jerked and went limp, the Frozen debuff taking a chunk of health at once and paralyzing Cal’s body. Julian’s eyes widened, and he struggled and thrashed to regain control of his numb body. He dove in the water, grabbing Cal’s body and pulling him up.

“Cal! Cal!”

A white eye looked at him before rolling back in the head.

“Cal! For fuck’s sake!”

Julian cursed. His friend was not waking up, and the water was rising while he was struggling to keep the both of them afloat. He swam towards the dry part of the cave, uphill, struggling to drag Cal’s body through the water. He reached shore and pulled himself and his friend a good distance away from the water.

He cursed, taking everything out of his rings all at once. He rummaged through the stuff looking for anything he could use.

“Is he breathing?” he checked. Yes.

There was the Black Powder he could use. But on what?

“It explodes. Not… not really good?” he felt a sharp pain in his head as his HP plummeted ever lower. Tough to Kill activated, his skill that protected him once his HP dipped below zero.

Clarity returned.

“Firewood. Paper? Anything? Yes. Paper.”

He made a stack.

“Shoot the bullet. Shoot the Powder. Yes. Take aim.”

He took out his gun. There was a small pile of gunpowder below a misshapen pile of anything flammable Julian’s cold-addled brain could think of. He shot at it, emptying the magazine before a spark from a near miss ignited the powder. The explosion sent splinters, pebbles and dirt flying in his face.

“Son of a—”

A small fire caught at the edge of some important documents that were now irrelevant as anything other than combustibles. With shaky hands that didn’t feel like his own, he stoked the fire. Many times he almost killed it, but it resisted. The water drew closer.

He almost dozed off. “Close enough, yeah, he’s going to get all hot and nice.” He said, looking at Cal.

Suddenly his HP spiked to full as the invulnerability of the fire kicked in. Suddenly lucid, he ran to his friend and checked that he was warming up properly. The water was almost touching the fire, and it hadn’t stopped when he thought it would, making him move twice before Cal woke up.

“We… alive?” he muttered.

“Yes. We got fucking lucky my man. Leveling Arcane was worth it.” Julian joked. “But we need to go. Now. The water’s still coming.” He said, offering a hand. “I found an exit.”