March 2, 2019, 9:59 am. One minute before taking one small step.

Earth.

It's so far away, but there's something about the reflection of the spinning rings, the way light dances across their surface that reminds me of home. Which isn't going to be easy to get to. Even if we're able to get the city-ship flying, we still need to get it out of the barrier surrounding Akilo. The information Theglia gave Wyonna has a solution, but she indicated we need to get everything working first because we're probably only going to get one attempt. At least, if we want the city-ships to be in working order after we leave.

As I draw closer, I focus on the odd silence of the rings. There isn't so much as a whisper to betray their motion. No swishing, swashing or whirring.

Instead of teleporting, I decide to poke around first. I mean, maybe the Builders who flew these city-ships to Akilo didn't have teleportation. In that case, they probably had another way to get inside the pilot's sphere.

The fact I have zero desire to teleport myself into the midst of hundreds of rings spinning at speeds that could reduce me to itsy-bitsy pieces might, possibly, maybe, be contributing to my decision to inspect the sphere carefully.

Totally not procrastinating further, I look over my status.

STATUS

Class: Cataclysm Seed

Level: Iron-10

ATTRIBUTES

Strength: 90

Constitution: 90

Agility: 105

Endurance: 105

Intellect: 125

Spirit: 125

Perception: 125

Resolve: 125

Storage: 11.9 Cubic meters

Bonded Armour: 6/8

Iron Rank Points

Integration Points: 0 > 627

Progression Points: 0

Advancement Points: 0

RESOURCES

Health

Pool: 662/686

Edge: [103.3]

Regen: (592/day)

Stamina

Pool: 645/702

Edge: [110.6]

Regen: (627/day)

Mana

Pool: 1220/1277

Edge: [140.6]

Regen: (1216/day)

Focus

Pool: 1102/1277

Edge: [126]

Regen: (1216/day)

Matrix Resources

Facet

Pool: 365/434

Edge: [58.6]

Regen: (372/hour)

Class Abilities

Increased Facet Pool: 0/10

Increased Facet Edge: 0/10

Increased Facet regen: 0/10

IFF (tethers): 1/1

Elemental Cascade: 0/1

Elemental Chakram: 3/3

Lingering Bonds: 2/2

Shifting Tides: 1/1

Echo of Agony: 0/2

Entropic Shift: 1/1

Sympathetic Overflow: 2/2

Limits of Mortality: 1/1

Eye of the Storm: 1/1

Anchor: 1/1

Lesser Cataclysm: 1/1

Seed: 1/1

Channeled Casting: 3/3

Closing out, I weigh the risk of approaching the sphere again. I may be level ten with maxed out attributes, but it still hurts if I run out of Health.

Instead, I send thousands of strands of Facet into the sphere, each one tracing part of the device as I perform an advanced scan.

"Object analyzed: Odeon Sanctuary Node-Sphere V2.031”

“Originally designed by the Creator Odeon, these serve as the central node of control for many Creator devices that would otherwise overwhelm users. This Node is currently connected to Sanctuary Pelwerd.”

Even as I read the description, I glean a deeper understanding of the sphere. It's supposed to be governed by its own central intelligence. But the intelligence seems to be missing or dormant.

Theglia neglected to mention that part. I'll have to bring it up at our next monthly business meeting that we totally have.

My analysis confirms the glimmering rings are as sharp as I thought they'd be. A single touch would leave an offending digit considerably shorter. Or at least tear out a significant amount of Health.

However, the knowledge my scan jacked into my brain indicates a safer path forward. There's a trigger at the base of the sphere that'll allow me to halt the spinning.

When I flip the trigger with a small exertion of earth magic, the rings slow before converging into a single upright circle. Within the sphere-turned-circle, there is a collection of free-standing shelves floating in the air. Most of them are roughly the size of my forearm, except for a larger section that floats in the middle. Their drab appearance contrasts sharply with the shining rings, each 'shelf' a different shade of dull grey.

"Whoa. A command chair," Rose says, stepping forwards beside me.

"Ha. Looks more like target practice," Rufka opines from the opposite side.

"You think everything looks like target practice," I point out, doing my best 'Rufka's aiming face' while shooting a finger gun at the floating shelf-chair.

"Only the things that are."

"So, do you think…." I cut myself off as Rose steps forward, placing himself where the rings were spinning half a minute earlier.

I panic, hauling him back with an excessive gust of wind. But other than sending him flying, nothing happens.

Right. I probably shouldn't be surprised. It's not like Citizen Tech responds to Rose's presence. Well, unless it's shooting at him.

"Damn," Rose grumbles as he picks himself up from near the console. "Having powers is cool and all, but this whole, 'not a Citizen' thing is annoying."

"Ha. Demo's still jealous," Rufka takes his arm, helping him up before turning to look at me expectantly.

Nodding, I swallow the lump in my throat before floating forward. The moment I'm inside the rings, the shelves start moving, stretching, and contorting themselves as they reorient themselves around me. Then they clamp down around my arms and legs, locking me in place as the rings spin back into place blocking the others from view.

I don't even have time to panic before I'm greeted with several screens flashing to life. The text filling the screens isn't in a language I recognize. Before I can attempt to decipher them, the screens flicker, then go dark. A second later the screens light up with the word, "Processing" clearly displayed in English.

After a few more seconds, there's a loud grumbling as the screens display "Citizen Status verified. Connection established."

As if in response, alerts start popping up, filling my interface as the screens go dark once more.

"Wow. You've taken quite the beating," I note as I look over the compromised systems and performance values.

"Uh, Lexi? You okay?" Rufka asks. Strange. Despite not being able to see them, I can hear her clearly.

"Yeah. I'm fine. The interface is weird."

"Weird how?"

"Kind of aggressive. Not as intuitive as it usually is?"

"You don't sound sure."

"Like I said, it's weird."

Rose interjects, "That's cool and all, but you're forgetting the most important question."

Rufka chuckles as she asks, "Oh, and what's that?"

"Does it fly?!" Rose's enthusiasm is infectious, causing a smile to creep across my face as I try to decipher the status of the city-ship.

I make a list in my journal, as I relay my findings to the others. "Apparently, two of the engines are completely offline, and there's a warning about the atmospheric shields. The other engines are mostly functional. If we really want to, I think I could manage to get it in the air. Not sure how long it'd stay there though."

"Damn."

"Yeah. Theglia was right that it was designed for a oneway trip. But that's why we've spent so much time running around farming dungeons."

Rufka laughs, "And here I thought it was ‘cause you loved getting stomped at Desh’mersa."

"That was not my favorite," I admit.

"I'm still surprised Tipan didn't try to get us all to keep playing," Rose adds while making a mock throwing motion.

"Anyway, with all the extra essence and spare parts, we should be able to finish the repairs fairly easily," I say as I flip the trigger on the floor, prompting the sphere to shut down, releasing me. Then I create a table to the side of the room as I create physical notes about the city's problems, sorting them based on the guidance from my Voidcraft Engineer subclass. Even with the interface, I appreciate the tactile feeling the metal sheets give me.

"Can’t believe mum let me go to Atun’s dungeon so soon after meeting you. Kept me home for years," Rufka grouses as she plucks the first page out of my hand.

"Wish I could find my mom. I bet she'd be able to get us into the Great dungeon," Rose sighs while I try to grab the page back from Rufka so I can put it in its proper spot.

Rufka finally surrenders the page after I enter accelerated time to get behind her. "Yeah, cause that's going to happen. Mum needs to take the defences offline or we need another way in. Love how we’re responsible for taking out the ‘great hero’ now too. She blew herself up!"

"To be fair, Beth was going to kill Ivicka if that explosion hadn't beaten her to it," I point out as I set the page down, holding it in place with tabs of shaped stone to keep her from yoinking it again.

"Yeah, but she's the one that started the war. We just happened to be there. They should be thanking us. The M’tari know better," Rufka grumbles, crossing all four arms while glaring at the table.

"So you've said," Rose sighs. "But if they're not willing to listen to your mum or the K’mintar, how are we going to convince anyone?"

"Still think we should get Demo to 'turn us in' for the bounty. A couple thousand more essence would be- Hey, does that say, 'requires artificial intelligence'?" Rufka asks, pointing at the centre of the drawings.

"Yeah. Apparently, the AI was removed."

Before I can continue, Rose has already sent a group message to Wyonna, informing her of our not so pressing need.

[Wyonna] "Does a goof like apple pie? Of course, I’ll help!"

[Alexis] "Yeah. Wasn't sure you should jump right in. What if you get stuck or something?"

[Rufka] "Like getting changed by the System."

[Rose] "Or being deleted!"

[Wyonna] "Hmm. Your arguments are annoying, but worth considering. Really ruining the whole, ‘I can be a city!’ vibe."

[Rose] "Being a city would be cool!"

I chuckle as Rose and Wyonna keep chatting about what they'd do if they were flying cities.

"There's a lot of stuff here that essence isn't going to solve on its own. Pretty sure some of these components are rarer than the mana de-condenser," Rufka says, bringing my attention back to the table.

"I was afraid of that,” I sigh, studying the parts. Most are kind of familiar, my class and codex hinting at how I could build them. It’d only take me a few dozen years.

"You're lucky mum is one of the best artificers on Akilo."

"Demo can probably help too."

"Soon as he finds his ship. He's still pissed the Saratesa's not where he left it. Think he said the dolls were giving him a ride somewhere nearby."

I shake my head as I start packing up the pages. It'll be better if we go over them together. Maybe rope Trellani into helping. Raz too. "At least Demo’s agreed to start doing dungeons."

"Not anymore. Now that we're all level ten, he changed his mind again. He's going to be focusing on searching for Saratesa until he finds him."

"Damn. He never mentioned."

Rufka shrugs as I finish putting the papers in my backpack. I can store almost twelve cubic metres now, which is both crazy huge and never enough. I tap Rose on the shoulder, getting him to follow along as we descend through the broken elevator. Once we’re outside, I stretch out, taking a deep breath before flying towards one of the broken engines. All the alert said about this one was that the ripple drive was 'not-responding', so I want to take a look to see if there's anything obvious.

It's nice that we don't have to dig down a couple hundred feet to find the entrance this time. Not that it would take long if we did.

When the door slides open, I flinch at the sight of a skeleton. Surprisingly, it's not one of the giant Yrken, but a K'tharn.

"By Vaus's left tit!" Rufka exclaims beside me.

"Wha-Oh… Explorer?" Rose asks.

"I didn't think K'tharn could get inside these engines." I analyze the skeleton as I step closer, kneeling next to it. My analysis confirms its origin. It also tells me how it died. "Looks like they got in but weren't able to get out. They starved."

"Damn," Rose says before muttering a quick prayer to Astra.

As I'm standing, ready to head down to the engine compartment, I notice Rufka's still standing in the doorway.

She's just standing there staring. She doesn't move until I take her hand.

As she follows me inside, I feel a shudder run through her. "I… I've never seen a user's skeleton before. Not a real…"

Rose nods, looking back at it. "Yeah. I remember mom had some. She got real angry when my little sister Celthi broke the emitter where they were being stored. They disappeared before mom could get it running again. Celthi was banned from using magic for a month."

"Think we should move them outside?" I ask. There aren't any funeral rites amongst the K'tharn. Not anymore. Not much to mourn when your body turns into a bunch of blue dust then fades away.

Rose nods while Rufka stares blankly. I wait for half a minute before I realize neither of them are going to touch the bones. So, I reach out with a barrier of water, carefully maneuvering their remains out of the entrance.

The second they pass through the barrier; the bones begin turning to manadust.

Once the remains are gone, I turn to Rufka. "Hey, you okay?"

She nods, all four eyes closed. Then she opens her lower eyes, offering me a rueful smile. "I haven't been that uncomfortable since mum took me to the Wilved Festival in Aethire when I was ten."

"A festival made you uncomfortable?" I ask as we continue down to where the Ripple-drive is housed in engineering.

"It was the dolls. Mum used to tell us stories about the Daughters when we camped at Theria's. Every-user else was running around with these dolls, but all I could think about was how they were going to take me away and turn me into one of them."

"Wait, what? I thought their attacks just transmuted part of your body?" Rose asks as we pass through the first of the massive doors sealing the engineering section off from the rest of the 'silver bullet'.

"Well, yeah. But I was a kid. I assumed the worst."

"You know. Now that I think about it, mom never talked about the Daughters. If it wasn't for Bem, I probably never would’ve heard of them."

I'm about to ask how Rose's last visit with his father went when a loud screech emanates from the second door leading to engineering. The door seems to have gotten stuck in place, only half-open. Which is fine. It's more than enough for us to fit through, considering the entrance is designed for the giant Yrken, who're at least twice our size.

"That's not a good sign," I say instead.

"Better the door than the drive," Rose crosses his fingers while peaking around the edge. He’s not wrong.

We move past the door, emerging on the scaffold that runs around the upper level of the Ripple drive. It's a monster that takes up the entirety of the bottom eight levels. There's a central chamber only ten metres across, but the support infrastructure is a convoluted mess of pipes, wiring and rune-scripted beams. There's no guard rails on the scaffold, but it'd be tough to find room to fall more than three metres with how tightly packed the chamber is.

"Anyone see anything that might be broken?" I ask as we start exploring.

Rose leans slightly over the edge, staring down. "Nope. But I'm not an enchanter or fancy engineer."

"There's active mana running through that conduit. Might connect to a console," Rufka suggests, pointing to the left. I can’t tell at a glance what she's pointing to, so I nod and let her lead the way.

Following Rufka, my gaze drifts as I admire her from behind. I'm not sure why, but the more time I spend with her, the more I appreciate the subtle lines of her body. The tightness of her calves and the way that her legs meet her back, I kind of want to…. Right. Not the time. That's for later Alexis.

Still, I do 'accidentally' bump into her when she stops at the console, running my hand along her leg as I 'catch' myself. Rufka responds by giving me a retaliatory squeeze, causing me to yip. A self-satisfied smirk creeps across her face as she accesses the console. The smirk falls a second later, replaced by a frown.

The console is blinking with red light, highlighting a dozen different locations. Honestly, it doesn't seem that bad. They're all located on the outer ring and should be easily accessible. "What's the problem?"

Rufka points to the corner, a message I hadn't read yet since it wasn't blinking like the rest of them.

"Ripple Drive Locked by Citizen Uthica of Clan Halterin."

Rose beats me to the punch. "Astra's Great Temple! Uthica? Like, founder of the Aetherium, Uthica?"

"Looks like," Rufka nods.

"What do you think the odds are we'll be able to fly if the Drive is locked down?" I ask.

Rose chuckles as he says, "Hopefully, it's approximately 3,720 to 1."

Rufka and I exchange a glance before looking at him blankly.

"Seriously, Lex?"

"What?"

"You know what, nevermind. Let's see if we can bypass this lockout."

We spend the next half hour trying to find a work around, even getting Wyonna to try hacking it, with no luck.

Looks like if we want this engine online, we need Uthica's approval. Either that, or we replace the entire Ripple Drive.

Like I said, stealing a city. Easy.

Getting it running again? That's the hard part.