Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Location: Solar System; Earth; Former Nation of China

The Star Juice is as good as the first time I tried it. I almost gulp the whole bottle in one go and only stop because a burp comes knocking. I suppress it and then continue to drink the rest of the bottle. Now a bit slower though.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Nick calls out between sips.

"I agree! Do you have more of it?" That's Alina asking with a big smile on her face.

I nod at her. "Yup, got a whole shipload packed away on the Stargazer."

The others cheer at my words. Well, everyone except Lucy… She's following my example and drinks the bottle in one go, albeit a bit slower.

We take a moment to check out our new suits and then walk toward the exit of the yacht. Clara opens the airlock and extends the ramp. We catch our first unobstructed view of the outside. Alina and Nick shove me forward softly while Tim grins at me and beckons me outside. "Come on, go ahead. You deserve to be the first to set foot on the planet. You brought the team together after all."

Both Lydia and Lucy chuckle knowingly from behind them, and I shrug. "Fine, but don't keep me waiting outside. We've got much to do!"

I take three steps down the ramp and then make a dramatic jump that lets me land on the real ground. I do a quick pirouette for show and stop facing the entrance. Tim is the next one out, followed by Lucy, who shoulders her way through Nick and Alina. She takes a deep breath. "Ahh, fresh air!"

I let out a laugh and put an arm around her. "You know that's still filtered air, right?"

She shrugs. "Sure, but it still tastes better than stale shuttle air."

"Hey, don't insult my yacht!"

In the meantime, Lydia, Nick, and Alina have exited the shuttle as well and look at me expectantly. "What now?" Nick asks.

I point in the direction of the still-standing buildings. "Now we head over there and check the place out."

"Sounds good," Nick says, giving me a thumbs-up and starting to walk.

"Wait, Nick!" I call out. "Let's use our standard formation. There shouldn't be any dangers, but better safe than sorry."

"Right… Sorry," he stops and waits for us to catch up.

Then we form up and start walking in proper formation. Lucy goes first with a Shield spell at the ready. She's followed by me and the three other non-A&D Mages while Alina brings up the rear.

"Keep an eye out for anything interesting," Lydia says as soon as we're underway.

We walk for a while until Lydia calls out and points to our right toward a pile of debris. "I think I see something!"

"What is it?" I ask, and we all head toward where she points.

Lydia climbs the pile and pushes a few larger pieces away. In the end, she lifts something that looks like copper tubing and frowns. "False alarm, I guess… It looked different from a distance. I don't think we have any use for copper tubing."

Nick holds up his hand. "Not so fast… Copper is a good thermal conductor and was often used for heat exchangers before we invented better compound materials… This might have been part of a cooling loop for something. I think we should investigate a bit further." He looks at me. "We have the time, right?"

I shrug. "I guess so… Yeah, we can spend a few more minutes here. Can you come down, please, Lydia? I can move the rubble away."

She jumps down from the pile and lands next to us while I cast the Telekinesis spell. It's a bit of a stretch to latch on to so many pieces, but I manage. With a mental command, the pile starts floating, and I move it to the side before setting it back down. "All yours, Nick!"

He walks forward and kneels. The others and I move closer and watch what he's doing. Tim joins him on the ground shortly after, and they start discussing a few things. A small Wind spell moves the remaining dust away, and one thing becomes obvious: This place looks like a bust, as the whole floor is solid concrete.

The boys get back up and dust off their hands. "Well, we can't be lucky every time," Nick says with a slight chuckle.

"I guess so… Sorry for wasting our time," Lydia sighs in defeat.

I put my arm around her and try to cheer her up while we fall back into formation and continue to walk toward our original destination. "Hey, don't worry about it. Who cares about a few minutes wasted? It could have very well been the discovery of the century."

She chuckles slightly in response. "Sure, we just discovered the copper pipe of world domination."

A smile appears on my face. Success! She's not feeling so down anymore.

Our path winds through the ruins of Song Medical, around piles of rubble, and on two occasions even over them. Twenty-five minutes later, we make out our destination after walking past one final pile. It's crazy how long it can take to travel some 500 meters if you have to walk in zig-zag and watch your step the whole distance.

It takes another five minutes before we stand in front of the first of the few still-standing buildings. Unfortunately, any indicator of what the past function of this structure was is long gone, as only the building itself is made out of sturdier materials. "Any guess what this might have been?" Alina asks while reaching out to touch the wall before us.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I can only shrug. "Maybe R&D? It would make the most sense, I guess, with corporate espionage and stuff, you want to have your research as protected as possible."

Tim chimes in. "Good idea! I was thinking maybe a vault, but yours makes more sense… Anyway, should we look for a way inside?"

"Yeah, let's," I confirm, and we start circling the building in search of an entrance.

Our search lasts for a while before we have to admit defeat, and I teleport a few chairs and tables over from the yacht so that we can have lunch. We keep it simple and only use pre-packed rations…

"I don't think we'll find an entrance around the building," Tim states the obvious.

We've circled the whole complex three times and only found smooth walls. Not even an indication of a possible entrance. Simply trying to teleport inside also feels too risky. For once, I don't have a clue what's inside, and Clara cautioned me from doing a jump into an unknown place when I asked her for coordinates. Apparently, this isn't done. That's why jump rooms exist and why we only teleport to places we can see or have been to already.

"Why don't we just teleport inside?" Lucy asks. I haven't shared with them yet that I already tried to do that.

I sigh. "Clara, can you explain, please?"

"Certainly. Simply said, it's too dangerous. While Sara's Space Sense can lower the risk by adjusting our arrival point on the fly, it's an unwritten rule that Space Mages don't jump into the unknown. There have been too many accidents over the years. That's also why I won't supply the coordinates if you make the foolish decision to try anyway. We also don't know if this place is protected by anti-Space magic Magitech, or similar things. If this were a secret research lab, such things are pretty much a certainty. And lastly, why don't you simply try to scan the ground for hidden tunnels? I mean it would make the most sense if there isn't an obvious entrance."

A shudder runs down my spine when I hear Clara's more thorough explanation. I'm lucky to still be alive after my Hail Mary jump away from Orin and his pirates. Lucy looks at me and blanches. She knows about that risky teleport, too!

"I understand, thanks for explaining, Clara. That's something we definitely don't want to do if we have other ways to try," She replies, then looks at Nick, our resident researcher. "Do you have a spell for ground scans or something, or do we have to try the yacht's limited sensors?"

He thinks for a moment, then nods. "I think I'm able to help out. The Analysis spell is versatile in use… The range won't be great, but that shouldn't be an issue if we slowly circle the buildings once more and stop every few meters."

I stand back up and start teleporting our stuff back to the yacht, as we're finished anyway. "Great, then let's do that!"

I might or might not have teleported Lucy's seat away while she was still sitting down. Let's just say she falls on her butt without any external interference. I whistle innocently when she glares at me. She deserves that as retribution for pranking me with a wet pillow a few weeks ago!

We walk back toward the building, and Nick kneels. He casts a spell and waits for a moment. Then he shakes his head and gets back up.

"Nothing?" I ask, and he nods while walking a bit further.

Ten meters later, he kneels back down, and the process repeats itself. It becomes some kind of running gag because every time he stands back up, someone else asks him, "Nothing?"

He always nods with an increasing frown on his face. Two hours later, we're done with the first building and well into the second when Nick kneels again. He casts his spell, as always, and we wait. Meanwhile, we silently decide who gets to ask him this time. In the end, Alina wins, and we wait for him to stand back up.

But that's not what happens… Instead, he casts his spell a second time and then a third time. "Guys…" He starts and gets up. Alina is about to start with her question when Nick continues to speak. "I think I found something!"

"Noth… What?" Alina stops and looks at Nick with wide eyes. "Really?"

He grins. "Yeah, I believe so," he points away from the building, toward the heaps of debris around us. "I think there really is a tunnel down there… At least I'm detecting a hollow space below us, and it leads right there."

Lucy jumps into his arms to hug him. "That's amazing, Nick!" She finishes with a quick kiss for her boyfriend and turns to me. "Okay, boss, what now?"

I point back at Nick. "He's the expert, but I'd say we follow the tunnel and look where it surfaces."

Nick gives me a thumbs-up. "Yup, that's what I was about to suggest, too. Can you guys clear the way while I check for the tunnel's path?"

Tim steps forward. "Sure, no problem. This one?" He points at the ruins right before us. Nick nods and kneels a few meters down the hidden path to check again.

Tim stands next to him and casts a Telekinesis spell. I shrug and support him with my own spell. Together, we're quick to move everything to the side and clear a path for Nick.

The tunnel continues for a surprisingly long distance, but fortunately goes mostly on a straight line. Still, we have to move a lot of debris and cycle through the team so that no one gets too exhausted. Luckily, we all have a Utility core…

After about 300 meters, the tunnel makes a sharp turn to the left and heads straight toward a building that looks a bit better preserved than the others around it. Sure, the roof is completely gone, and the walls are in pieces, but they are still recognizable as walls. Nick stops before the building and casts his spell again. A grin appears on his face shortly after. "That's it!" He exclaims. "The tunnel ends inside, I think we've found our entrance."

We work with renewed vigor and start moving the debris away. There's surprisingly much within the ruin, and we almost spend ten minutes just moving stuff – and that with six people working together.

Finally, we're done, and we climb over a hip-high piece of wall into the ruin. Right in the middle of the room is a big slate of shining metal. Tristanium! Our entrance! Now we just have to open the hatch.

We assemble around the hatch on the floor and think about how to open it. Our orders were quite clear: We are not to cause any unnecessary destruction to the ancient sites down here on the planet. That's why we didn't simply cut a big hole in the walls of the buildings here way earlier.

But the rule complicates things as we don't find an obvious opening mechanism. "Is there anything electronic still there, Clara?" Lydia asks after a moment of silence.

"No, I don't detect anything. If there was an electronic mechanism once, it's long degraded."

Here goes option one. I kneel and feel along the seams. A quarter of the way around, I stop and lean further down so that my eyes are level with the seams. Success! There are hidden hinges on this side of the hatch. That at least confirms that the plate of tristanium is a hatch indeed.

"Nick, can your Analysis spell also discover deadbolts? If there are any and we know where, maybe we can move them with our Telekinesis spells."

His eyes brighten. "Brilliant idea, let me check."

He kneels next to me and puts his hand on the middle of the hatch. I feel a spell being cast when he closes his eyes. Seconds later, he speaks up. "Do we have a marker? There are a lot of bolts."

Alina pulls one out of her pocket and removes the cap. Nick takes it and begins marking the edges of the tristanium hatch. When he's done and gets back up, there is a total of twelve deadbolts, three on each side of the hatch.

"Wow, they really didn't want anyone unauthorized getting in there," Lucy mutters.

I nod along. "True… So twelve bolts, that's two for each of us. Are you ready?"

I get a round of affirmations, then put my hands on two of the marked locations. The others follow along, and we all cast our Telekinesis spells. It's a bit tricky to reach the hidden bolts, but with our hands right above them, we all manage. In the end, it just takes a slight nudge, and my two bolts slide open. I remove my hands, now that the spell has latched on, I shouldn't lose it anymore.

The others step back too as soon as they are done, and Tim points at the hatch that should now be unlocked. "You have the honors, Sara?"

"Okay," I put my fingers under the seams at the opposite side of the hinges and pull upward. My muscles strain, but I feel the resistance getting lower. The hatch starts moving, and a bit of air rushes past me, down into the darkness below. I straighten my legs and flip the hatch fully open.

Darkness awaits us.