Ava stepped onto the ship, relishing in her newfound autonomy. She had not been released right away, as she’d expected. Instead, it was decided that she would only be released some time during the following day. People needed sleep and guard details needed to be properly organized before she could be unleashed upon the world. The Tribunal convened again during the morning to discuss the deal negotiated between her and Cyrix.

  While she wasn’t privy to the details of the discussion, the proposed deal was accepted, which is how Ava found herself boarding her ride down pnet-side. Inspecting her surroundings curiously as she followed along behind Cyrix and Irric, Ava relied on the mental map she’d made the st time she was on the ship. She took careful care not to stray from the group, lest the guards behind her riddle her full of holes.

  Unfortunately for her, she was brought to the ship’s holding cell, far away from the bridge. Cyrix was taking no chances by allowing Ava anywhere near the ship’s controls. The heavy door smmed shut behind her and Ava was forced to wait in silence. She tried speaking out loud in hopes that they might be able to hear her but received no response for her efforts.

  A short while ter, the door to her cell opened back up. Ava stepped out to the same group of soldiers that had escorted her earlier, armed and at the ready. She smiled and greeted them, but didn’t receive any acknowledgement. She huffed, unimpressed that they wouldn’t even so much as say hello. Still, she followed along obediently and was brought the ship’s exit.

  She descended the ramp into the familiar hangar that housed the gru’ul ships. Parts and pieces were scattered around the floor near the gutted ships for future study. Some were being actively inspected and a pair of soldiers worked carefully to move a rge piece of metal out of the way. Ava mented the waste of perfectly good ships, but she understood the logic behind ripping them apart to reverse engineer them.

  Irric and Cyrix were already waiting for her on the ground. They walked in silence through the facility, ignoring the curious stares of the soldiers stationed at the checkpoints. Some of them remembered seeing her when she was being escorted out of the facility. The rest didn’t recognize her face and wondered what her retion to the operation was. Seeing her alongside Irric and Cyrix, however, deterred them from voicing their questions.

  Dressed in military fatigues, she didn’t stand out much save for the fact that she wasn’t wearing any body armour. Being the only person not dressed for combat did raise a few eyebrows, but apart from that, none suspected that she wasn’t an a’vaare.

  Ava paused when they arrived at the checkpoint to enter the restricted section. She eyed the empty pod that had clearly been there for a while, wondering what its purpose was. The machinery behind it certainly didn’t look like anything back on Earth and drew her attention away from her musings.

  “We have no idea how they function,” Cyrix said, noticing that Ava had stopped walking. He raised a hand, motioning for the soldiers escorting them to wait. “Our researchers are worried about damaging the machinery if they attempt to do anything to it.”

  “It requires a terminal to activate,” Ava replied, moving closer. One of the soldiers moved to intercept her, but Cyrix silently motioned for him to stand down. “I can’t see any other form of controls near the pod. Very strange. It’s almost as if they wanted to activate this pod remotely.”

  “Would you be able to operate one, given the opportunity?” Cyrix asked. He kept the topic away from any discoveries made in the restricted section, not wanting information about the operation to be leaked, even to his own guard detail. It had been a close call when the room with all the bodies had been discovered. The soldiers that had entered that room had been discretely pulled aside and very carefully instructed not to say a word. They figured out very quickly that bad things would happen if they discussed what they saw with anyone. Cyrix thanked his lucky stars that any humans had been almost impossible to spot from the entrance, preventing that secret from being uncovered.

  “I’m not certain. It would depend on the controls,” Ava replied. “I must admit, I have absolutely no idea how to make this particur one function. The controls for it could be anywhere.”

  Cyrix nodded. “Let’s move on then,” he said, bringing them to the checkpoint. The once circur opening had now been transformed into a proper, door-sized aperture, allowing for a single person to pass through as a time. Ava was stopped before she could cross, the guard asking for identification.

  Cyrix frowned and expined that she was to be permitted to traverse should she be accompanied by either him or Irric. He made a mental note to get Ava some form of identification to prevent any mix-ups in the future. Once everyone was through, Cyrix directed them to the control room where Irric had previously spent his time trying to undo the corruption.

  When the wall opened up to let them into the room, Cyrix gave the guards their new orders pertaining to how to guard Ava. Nadi protested, ciming that leaving Ava alone with Irric was a security concern. She demanded that at least one guard be pced inside alongside the pair while they worked.

  She was shut down. Hard. Cyrix would risk no insubordination and made it clear that any soldier who stepped foot inside the room unless there was an emergency or directed to do so by Irric would find themselves back on the fgship and in a cell. Many eyes went wide when the soldiers heard the threat. Satisfied that they understood, Cyrix turn back to Irric. “Let’s head inside with Ava and leave our safety to the guards out here,” he back slightly towards them, “where they’ll stay,” he finished meaningfully.

  With that, Irric approached the door way and watched it melt away thanks to his badge. Sometimes it felt strange, having the highest clearance for the mission. He’d been entrusted with the Highest’s badge, granting him unfettered access to the facility. He was the one that got to order others around with regards to his research now and it unsettled him. The secrets he was uncovering were nothing short of an impossibility and he was the one finding proof. He wondered when it had all changed as he stepped through the newly formed opening.

  Irric waited near the door with his badge until both Ava and Cyrix had entered before distancing himself from the wall. Matter fluctuated into existence as the door reformed with the same melting, bubbling suctioning sound until only smooth wall remained, exactly as it had been before.

  “Where are we?” Ava asked as she inspected the destroyed terminals. She took in the impressive amount of damage around the room. “And what happened?”

  “This,” Irric gestured, “is the control room – or so we think. It was like this when we found it. We’ve been trying to get information off of one of the few intact terminals.”

  “That doesn’t expin why everything is destroyed,” Ava frowned.

  “We’re not certain, but we suspect that Adrian somehow did it during his time in captivity. He hasn’t admitted to it, though, and has been remarkably tight lipped about his time here.”

  Ava inspected the floors with a hum. “There’s quite a lot of bloodstains on the ground. It’s hard to tell how old they are. Did many gru’ul get injured when you first raided the facility?”

  “No. There were bodies that died in this room, but through some kind of suicide. There was no bloodshed, apparently.”

  “Whatever happened here spilled a lot of blood. What I don’t understand is why it’s pink in some pces. If it had been Adrian’s blood, it should be red.”

  Irric jolted. “What do you mean, pink?” he asked. Ava pointed out the very pale pink stains, as well as some where the blood mixed. “We thought that was just a discolouration. You’re certain that it’s another substance?”

  “Wouldn’t the discolouration apply to more than just certain spots? No, this is definitely something else. I’m not sure what, though.”

  “Is there any way we could take a sample?” Irric asked excitedly.

  Ava shook her head. “Not really, no,” she said, dashing his hopes. “We would need a fresh sample. Or something well-preserved. There’s no point in thinking too hard about it if we can’t do anything about it yet. How far have you progressed in hacking the files?”

  “That’s where the problem is. Rather than kill itself, one of the gru’ul corrupted the data on all the terminals in the restricted section.” Irric made no mention of their prisoner. “We’ve been trying to either restore it or find any non-corrupted data that survived after the terminals got corrupted. And as you can see, we can’t exactly use the other terminals. We’re stuck. Are you able to do anything about it?” He showed her a sample of the data. Cyrix watched silently, observing Ava’s interactions with Irric.

  “I don’t even know what I’m looking at,” Ava said after some time, shaking her head. “Trying to undo something like this is going to take time. Lots of time.”

  Irric sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that. Would you be able to help us find any non-corrupted files?”

  “I should be able to do that, but again, it’ll take time. At that point, it’s basically a game of chance. Is there anything else I could work on first or are these terminals the priority?”

  Irric hesitated. He gnced at Cyrix, who gave him a near imperceptible nod. “We have discovered two other terminals that aren’t infected. We picked one and focused our efforts there. We haven’t checked the other one yet,” he said.

  “How are they not infected like the rest?” Ava asked.

  “We’re not sure why. All we know is that they were terminals only the Highest could access.”

  Ava’s eyes widened and her jaw went sck. “You’re talking about terminals only the Highest could access? You have no idea what that means. You were right, those ones are more important than the corrupted ones. The secrets they’re bound to hold,” she trailed off. “Why did you bring me here first?”

  “We wanted to get your thoughts on the corrupted terminals before showing you the rest. It’s what we’ve spent most of our time on,” Cyrix said.

  “This room also seemed important to the gru’ul,” Irric added. “It has the highest concentration of terminals compared to any other room we’ve found.”

  Ava looked around the room at the other terminals. Her gaze fell on the green bloodstains, and she frowned. “Speaking of,” she said. “If gru’ul died in this room, where are the bodies?”

  Irric and Cyrix looked at each other.