Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Location: Solar System; Earth; Outside of Shanghai; Song Medical

We stare at the words that have just appeared on the tablet. I can't believe it. There's still data left on the drive. How can I be so lucky all the time? It's been 11,000 years… Our ancestors really built the good stuff.

I follow the instructions on the screen and open up the file explorer. It takes a few seconds, and then a new window opens. It shows a list of empty ports, corresponding with all the adapters around the tablet's frame. I scroll down a bit and find our drive at the 27th position in the list. It's indicated by a symbol that looks very similar to the data drive I've plugged in. Next to the symbol is the name of the drive. It reads: "SM Research Security 03"

Nick snorts upon reading it, and Lucy whacks the back of his head while glaring at him. "Song Medical, you idiot, not what you have in mind!"

He blushes and rubs his head. I just shake my head and tap on the symbol on the tablet. The list of drives vanishes, and a green bar starts filling the top of the window. Once it's completely filled up, a list of folders appears.

Let's see… I start reading the folder names, looking for something interesting. Most of them start with "Guidelines" and then something else. There are guidelines for literally everything… Guidelines on how to deal with intruders, with employees, how to vet them, which spells to use, who to call in an emergency, and whatever else comes to mind. One thing is sure: There is a guideline for it on this drive!

A bit of disappointment enters my mood, and I sigh. "It's not really useful… There are only guidelines on this thing."

"Really? Can I take a look?" Alina asks and holds out her hand. I give her the tablet and look around the room afterward. Maybe I can find something else in the meantime?

While I stroll away from the group, I notice the others lose interest as well, and they return to exploring the security room too. Unfortunately, I don't manage to find anything of interest in the following five minutes, and I start to think that it might be better to just head further into the facility.

But then there's a shout of triumph coming from Alina. "I knew it! Hah, such a clever way to hide things. Guys, I've found something!"

We all rush back toward her and look at the screen. The file explorer has been replaced by something that looks suspiciously like a digital presentation. There's a picture that almost fills the whole screen right below the words "Welcome to Song Medical!" It shows a scene in a hospital with smiling doctors and nurses tending to a patient in a bed. Everyone is smiling, and one of the doctors holds up a bottle with the Song Medical logo printed on. I blink once and look at the doctor's face. It's Li-Ming Song, the founder of Song Medical herself!

"What are we looking at?" Tim asks the previously unspoken question after a moment of silence.

At the same time, Lucy blurts out. "What's Lisa doing in this picture?"

Yep, the Big Five with their tick to have everyone on the main line looking the same… Lisa, same as her mother Xin, is a spitting image of her ancestor Li-Ming.

As I'm pretty much the only expert on this topic, I answer Lucy's question before Alina can address what we see on the tablet. "That's not Lisa, Lucy. It is her ancestor, Li-Ming Song, the founder of Song Medical. They just look the same… Like the Valterions on Alina's posters."

She looks at me with a knowing grin. "Ahh, gotcha, thanks!"

I turn back to Alina. "Okay, with that out of the way, let's return to this presentation here… Oh, and what did you mean by clever place to hide things?"

She clears her throat. "Well, it wasn't really hidden, just at an unexpected place… You see, as the title here says, this is a guide for new employees… Therefore, I found it in a folder called Guidelines for New Employees. Also, to answer Tim's question, this presentation basically informs new employees about various things. Things like what to do, who's the boss, working hours, and so on. I know, not really interesting for us. But at the end, there's one thing that's useful for us, namely, a short description of this research site. And yes, if it wasn't clear already, this is indeed one of the main research sites for Song Medical! Oh, and one more thing… This guideline is for security employees, so don't wonder when most things address security topics."

Wow, that's a lot to unpack. Also, if the relevant parts are at the very end, how did Alina have the persistence to look through the boring parts until the end? Anyway, that's not important. I focus back on the tablet and beckon Alina to turn the pages.

She quickly flips through the boring parts where the new employee is informed about his duties, like patrols around the building and within the tunnel, shifts inside the security cubicle, and so on. The next slides describe how a security check here at the gate works. I find it quite interesting that people entering the facility had to pass a dozen different checks before they were allowed to enter the building. They really didn't want anyone unauthorized to enter this building. And here we are… About to do just that. Well, we could argue that we're authorized by Lisa, but I don't think that counts. Not that anyone cares for those old security procedures anymore. But still, it's fascinating, and it makes me wonder just what they researched here in this building.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

After that follows a lot of boring stuff, and Alina quickly skips those slides until she stops at a slide with the header "Research Center Alpha Zulu – Code 003"

Looks like things start to get interesting!

Alina looks up with a grin. "Anyone got any guesses?"

"No, get on with it," Lucy scowls a little when she replies.

Alina chuckles and taps the screen so that it switches to the next slide. It now shows a floor plan for six interconnected buildings. "That's the original layout… I don't think anything has changed too much, and if I'm guessing right, those buildings on the plans are the ones still intact we saw from the outside."

I nod along. "Those plans will come in handy!" Looking closer, I notice small text labeling each room. Neat!

"I sure hope so… Took me a while to find this presentation," Alina replies. "Anyway, the rest of the presentation isn't really interesting, so I'll summarize for you. From what I'm reading between the lines, this research center focused mostly on spell research, Healing spells to be exact. That's also why the layout of three of the buildings looks like a hospital, in case you noticed…"

I blink. She's right, a lot of rooms are even labeled with hospital terms.

"… I think they did live-testing on volunteers or something to refine the early Healing spells," Alina continues. "And lastly, we have one building just labeled as the lab, but I didn't find anything more, so I guess we have to take a look ourselves."

"Amazing work, Alina," I praise her with a broad smile. "Is there anything else, or shall we continue with the second drive?"

She shrugs. "I could probably find more, given enough time, but I don't think it would bring us much benefit… It's probably better to speed things up and start exploring soon."

"I agree, then let's switch those drives," I reply and pull out the first drive.

Alina visibly cringes, and Clara makes an annoyed sound in my ear. "What's wrong?" I send her over the AI Call spell.

You're supposed to press the disconnect button on the screen to securely remove the drive…"

I just shake my head. How can so advanced data drives keep their data for 11,000 years, but cause issues when removing them without pressing a virtual button? That sounds moronic… Anyway, even if there are issues, we've already copied everything that's on the drive, so no harm caused.

Tim hands me the other drive with a shrug. "Computers…" He says, the tone of his voice basically explains everything.

Anyway, I plug the new drive into the tablet. At least it fits into the same slot. Yay for consistency, I guess. I look at the screen, not expecting anything to happen, as the drive is almost U-shaped. That's why I'm very surprised when the tablet makes a slight sound, indicating that a data drive was detected. Huh?

I hand the tablet back over to Alina, she's way better at filtering through the data than I am. She immediately starts tapping the screen to look for usable stuff.

I take another stroll through the room and start casting a Communication spell, as I just remembered one very important source of information we've idiotically ignored so far. The spell connects, and I silently send my words along it.

"Hey Lisa, do you have a moment?"

"Hi, Sara. Sure, for you, always! What's up?" She replies with a cheerful voice.

"Well, we just managed to enter a building that's surprisingly still standing… We found some information in the security room at the entrance, and apparently, the building complex here is called Research Center Alpha Zulu – Code 003. Do you know anything about it?"

She's silent for a minute before she replies. "I've got nothing concrete besides the designation Alpha Zulu. Song Medical uses it for the highest priority and maximum security and secrecy. So, I guess you found one of our top-secret research locations on Earth… Expect traps, misdirections, and whatever else you can imagine that can be used to keep unauthorized people out. There's also a good chance that everything you're seeing is a fake front and the real research center is somewhere else, maybe deep underground or so. If you give me a minute, I can ask my mother if she knows anything about the complete designation."

"Wow, thanks, Lisa, that already helps a lot. And yes, please ask her, we've got time anyway. We're looking through some old data drives at the moment."

"They're still working?" She asks in surprise.

"Yeah, apparently," I reply. "Anyway, hear you later, it looks like Alina found something."

I cut the call and return to the others. Before Alina can show her new findings, I share what I've learned from Lisa. The news has Tim frowning.

"What are the chances that the floor plans we've seen in the presentation earlier are fake then?"

That has us all sinking into deep thoughts. Can we even trust the information we found here? Was it left deliberately to lure others into a trap?

Lydia is the first to speak up. "I don't think the plans are fake… At least not compete fake, I guess. Think of where we found it… It's a guide for new security guards. And if one group of people should know what's going on, then it's those who protect the place, right?"

Hmm, her words make sense, but still, maximum security… Maybe the Song Medical guys expected this kind of reasoning and planned accordingly? Ugh, this line of thought leads nowhere… I guess we just have to be very careful from now on.

That's also what we decide in the end, as there's nothing more we can do. Now, though, we have one more data drive to explore. I look at Alina expectantly.

She clears her throat again and taps the screen. "While it's a wonder that the drive is still working, it isn't of use for us… There are only movies on it. I guess the guards needed something to keep them from boredom?"

The screen now shows a list of different movie titles. Surprisingly, I recognize quite a few of them. It's the ones I watched with Thomas when I was little. "Let's keep it, I guess… Maybe such old recordings are worth a bit to an antique dealer."

Alina nods. "Alright, any news from Lisa yet?"

I shake my head. "No, not yet, let's wait a few more minutes and then head further inside the research center. We gotta be careful though!"

"Absolutely," Tim agrees. "I wonder what we'll find inside."