Seele Quest: 2.5
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
It's quiet around you. There's no hiss of ventilation, and while the lights are on, they feel dimmed. It's not like the ship is dead, but how should you put this? It's sleeping, perhaps. In that case, if there's anyone trying to fix it, they'll be in engineering. You think... well, you don't remember what happened, exactly, but you think you remember someone there trying to help. An annoying redhead.
Vel is quiet. You think she'd want to make sure you go in the right direction, but you know this ship forwards and backwards, so there's no way you'd get lost.
You walk through the silent hallways, heading inwards. Main engineering...
You've only been there once, when the captain gave a small tour to you and your friends. You remember it being huge, and definitely nothing like the small, cramped rooms that make up the rest of the ship. It's where all the magic happens, as your... Ehem, as Bronya would say, but it has to be huge. Geometrically it's in the center of the ship, running longitudinally down its long axis with the nuclear reactors attached to the sides. About half its volume is taken up by the main gun, an enormous railgun.
In other words, all you have to do is walk inwards. You'll get there.
You enter an axial hallway, which splits into a Y shape as you get past the outer layers. Turning left would eventually take you to the bridge, and turning right leads to the residential and storage areas, but still inwards. You head right.
The ship is eerily silent. You take a breath, and begin walking towards engineering.
"Hey!"
You turn your head. Vel was following you, but she's stopped walking.
"Vel..." You begin.
"No, I just want to say this." She's turning on the spot, fidgeting. She looks uncharacteristically like... you. You could be twins, if her eyes weren't red. If she wasn't your shadowy demon half. Though she's not all that shadowy right now. She's flickering, the light behind her shining through like usual, but she looks almost entirely human.
You look at her quizzically. You've never seen her like this. She's usually so certain, so confrontational, always leading you somewhere. Now she's... not herself.
"I just wanted to say, you're making the right choice by going back. Everything will... Just that you should know."
You stare at her. You sense... Something. Something's off.
"Vel, are you OK?" You ask.
She stares at you, a little sadly. "Yeah, Seeley. I'm OK. Just... Just go. Find your friends."
You frown at her, before nodding slowly. "If you're sure..."
She smiles at you weakly. "I'm sure."
You turn away from her, and continue walking into the depths of the ship. After a while, you reach a large metal door with "ENGINEERING" stamped on the front. You push through, and find yourself in the engine room. The lights are dim, and the room is dark; however, you can see a little bit.
You walk forward slightly, staring around. Vel squeezes in behind you.
"This is like a horror movie," she hisses. A shiver runs up your spine, but you focus on the task at hand. You walk forward intently, staring around. The room is large and empty, with a huge multitude of consoles along the walls. You walk forward towards one, and examine it. It has several knobs, a few dials, two keyboards, and several displays. You look at the top, and frown.
You have absolutely zero idea what to do with it.
Well, at least it's on. You look around the room, pondering your next move.
The ship is, admittedly, huge. In this dim, emergency lighting there could be dozens of people right here in the room with you, and you'd never see them. You could shout, but--
But what?
There aren't any monsters. Don't be such a coward, Seele. Well, okay, *yes* you're scared of the dark, so what? That's not why you're feeling uneasy, that's--
Okay, that's almost entirely why you're feeling uneasy.
"Hey!" You shout. "Is there anyone here?!" Your voice echos, and you wince at the sound of it. You almost jump when you hear Vel shout as well:
"Hello?! Anybody?" Her voice is much softer than yours. She sounds worried that she'll wake up her neighbors or something.
You hear a startled curse, and the bang of metal on metal. You're about to call out, but Vel beats you too it:
"Hello? Sorry, we didn't mean to disturb you. We're... well, I guess you could say we're lost."
You hear light footsteps approaching. A moment later a young woman steps into view. A redhead. Oh no.
It's Tesla. She's wearing a red, sleeveless top and shorts. Her long legs have stockings that go up to her mid-thigh, and she's wearing tall boots. The rest of her is... well, you're not really into looking at her.
"Hello," she says, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't expect anyone to find me here. Especially not," she looks at you, and smiles knowingly. "You."
You don't really know what to say. You hadn't expected her to actually be here.
"It's extremely convenient, I'll give you that. So? Ready to start earning your pay?"
You nod numbly. You watch as she heads back to her work area, and nods for you to follow her. Vel is at your side in an instant, and the two of you follow closely behind.
"So what do you need us to do?"
She whirls on her heel, smacking Vel in the face with a metal covering. Vel is slow to react, finally hunching down and snarling.
"Ow! What was that for!?" Vel snaps, rubbing at her cheek.
"Well, that's unexpected." She turns to you. "It seems she's acquired a bit of extra physicality. I'd apologize, but there's no time." She starts walking again, beckoning you to follow.
You pause, grab Veliona's hand and make to follow, shaking your head before she does something stupid. This, however, is why you dislike Tesla. You've been told she reacts better to compliments, but you've never managed to make yourself talk that much. You're a lot better with your body than with your mouth.
This part of engineering is better lit, with the regular lights lighting up at least dimly, but it's nearly empty, and you soon realize what's missing. The entire central railgun is gone. In its place is a network of steel girders and cables, surrounding something that your eyes shy away from looking at.
You soon reach her work area, and are immediately hit by the amount of noise and activity in the room. The room is large, lights brightly, and filled with tables covered with machinery, tools and half-finished projects, not to mention half a dozen active robots. One of them walks up to her with a small metal ingot, which she snatches from it, before looking back at you.
"Welcome to the repair bay! The area where all the magic happens! I'll be with you in a moment, I need to finish some calibrations! We're on battery power right now, I can't waste any time."
She turns and walks over to a row of large machines, all hooked up to an incomprehensible amount of wires and covered in switches, dials and buttons. She starts flipping switches and pulling levers, doing... stuff.
You look around the room as she does this, and spot something that immediately catches your attention. A row of metal devices, a huge stack of various widgets and gadgets, and an entire wall covered with guns of every shape, size, and purpose.
You see an armor-piercing round designed to go through power armor, suitable for a anti-material rifle. It's the kind that Bronya uses, you're pretty sure.
You see a box full of concussion shells, perfect for using against light vehicles.
You see rows and rows of fireworks. Why would there be an entire wall of fireworks?
Because this is Honkai Impact 3, that's why. You're struck by the sudden urge to try and steal some.
"Leave that wall alone," Tesla says idly, and you snatch your hand back.
She continues flipping switches and pulling levers, before stopping and leaning back. The entire machine makes a whirring sound as it comes to life.
"There we go. I've pushed the auxiliary balancer as high as it'll go without overheating the batteries. In half an hour they'll run out, and everyone will die, so you better get cracking," she says.
You almost expect her to wink and add "Just kiddin', I've fixed the ship!" but she doesn't.
You step toward the machine with a deep breath. You look at all the flashing lights and the dials, trying to make sense of them. You see a dial marked 'Output'.
"Toldja, no touching stuff," she says.
"Can you... Can you at least tell me what all this stuff does?"
She shrugs. "The blue ones turn on, the red ones turn off, and the black ones are just for looks."
Right...
Okay...
You take a deep breath. If you kill her, it would almost certainly lower your odds of ever seeing someone you like ever again. You might be exaggerating that slightly -- besides, Vel is right here -- but only slightly. You just can't deal with this woman.
"What should I do?" You ask, resisting a sigh.
Tesla looks at her papers.
"We've got three real problems," she says. "The quantum balancer is broken, the reactors are all off, and the power couplings are frozen in time. I've pushed the prototype here as far as it'll go, so it'll burn out in a couple of days, but like I said, the batteries will fry first. Everything else..."
"Hang on," you say. "Why don't we start from the beginning?"
"Sure. What do you want to know?"
"What's the quantum balancer, exactly? Why do we need it?"
"... Okay. Imagine a seesaw. On one end there's you, and on the other end there's a basketball. The basketball is heavily magnetized, and you are not. There's a rain of sharpened knives, and you don't want to get cut. The quantum balancer is what makes it so the basketball stays above you. If the seesaw's stabilizers fail, then you'll end up on top of it, and you'll get shredded. Hypothetically speaking, that is. I suppose you'd be fine, but I'm not so sturdy."
You stare at her.
"That's an odd example."
"It was a... specialized piece of technology," she says, looking down from your eyes. "Almost worked. Like I said, we'd better get the nuclear reactors running. At least one of them should be in range of the balancer."
You're tempted to press the issue, but you let it go. The less you know about this, the better off you'll be.
"So what do I do?" You ask, simply.
"You'll start the generators. There are three of them, and I can kickstart the reactor so long as at lest one works. If you get two or more working, then hook the power couplings up to them.
"And then?"
She shrugs. "Then we'll be safe. Well, safe from immediate destruction, at least. The other systems need work, and there's the whole issue with being stranded in a broken down ship hurtling away from anything resembling reality, but we can worry about that later. I'll be able to get the main balancer out of failsafe mode, and we can unfreeze the crew. There might be a few more functioning safe zones. They're probably going mad by now."
"...And if I can't?" You ask.
She gives you a good, long look.
"If you can't get any of them running in twenty minutes, come back here. I'll have a few bits and pieces to give you."
She hands you a strange metal disk, about the size of a large coin.
"What's this?" You ask.
"The magnetic locks between the reactors and the balancer are at least operating," she says. "It's a key."
Oh. Er... you don't think you'll be needing that, but you stick the key in your pocket instead of telling her. She's given you a basic idea of what to do, and points you in the direction of one of the reactors.
"It's... that way," she says, pointing in a slightly different direction than you expected. "If you get lost, just... keep going until you find it. Or come back. I need to stay here, to keep this from exploding."
Right.
"The generators are easy to start. No locks, just press the 'on' button. The power couplings are in the ceiling, they -- you know what, forget about those. I'll handle it from here."
You nod, feeling as if you're heading into the mouth of a terrible beast. You can feel your heart racing already... what will you do if you can't turn it on? What if something's broken?
Tesla turns away, half-walking, half-jogging back towards the device. She speeds up a little midway, hitting one of the buttons practically at a run.
Right... you can't stand around thinking about this.
You turn, and quickly begin making your way towards the reactor. It's easy, whatever Tesla may have thought -- there are signs. Big signs. With arrows. And they're not lit for the hell of it, either. They're lit to help lost physicists find their way.
It takes you less time than you thought it would to reach the reactor, which is good. You're still nervous about the task at hand.
The door is-- actually, it's not even a door. It's just an opening in the wall, large enough to walk through. You can see machinery just beyond, as well as another opening on the other side of the circular wall. The doors are... open, including the one to the reactor chamber.
You'll worry about that later.
You walk into the room, and immediately hit a wall of hot air. The room is kept at a temperature slightly higher than the core of a star... to keep the energy from leaking away, you think. You walk through the room, peering up at the ceiling. Vel peels off, and starts studying the machinery. You walk past endless banks of computers, and towards the back of the room. There's a small door there, the only thing in the room that could be considered a "door." Or rather, an airlock. It says 'auxiliary power'.
"Vel," you say, "I think we have a problem."
"What's up?" she replies.
You peek through the door, then immediately pull your head back. A furnace-hot blast of air follows you out.
There's a fire in the generator room. A big one. One of the big diesel engines is burning, the fire spreading out along all the wiring running through the room. The heat is enough to distort the thick glass of the windows.
The fire's spreading quickly. You can see it racing along the walls.
= = =
I suppose simply telling the AI who Tesla is made it far more likely we'd find her. We also found out a lot more about what's going on. Isn't that nice?
[ ] Run away
- [ ] Back to Tesla
- [ ] To another reactor
[ ] Try to put the fire out
- [ ] With fire extinguishers
- [ ] With brute force
[ ] Write-in
Vel is quiet. You think she'd want to make sure you go in the right direction, but you know this ship forwards and backwards, so there's no way you'd get lost.
You walk through the silent hallways, heading inwards. Main engineering...
You've only been there once, when the captain gave a small tour to you and your friends. You remember it being huge, and definitely nothing like the small, cramped rooms that make up the rest of the ship. It's where all the magic happens, as your... Ehem, as Bronya would say, but it has to be huge. Geometrically it's in the center of the ship, running longitudinally down its long axis with the nuclear reactors attached to the sides. About half its volume is taken up by the main gun, an enormous railgun.
In other words, all you have to do is walk inwards. You'll get there.
You enter an axial hallway, which splits into a Y shape as you get past the outer layers. Turning left would eventually take you to the bridge, and turning right leads to the residential and storage areas, but still inwards. You head right.
The ship is eerily silent. You take a breath, and begin walking towards engineering.
"Hey!"
You turn your head. Vel was following you, but she's stopped walking.
"Vel..." You begin.
"No, I just want to say this." She's turning on the spot, fidgeting. She looks uncharacteristically like... you. You could be twins, if her eyes weren't red. If she wasn't your shadowy demon half. Though she's not all that shadowy right now. She's flickering, the light behind her shining through like usual, but she looks almost entirely human.
You look at her quizzically. You've never seen her like this. She's usually so certain, so confrontational, always leading you somewhere. Now she's... not herself.
"I just wanted to say, you're making the right choice by going back. Everything will... Just that you should know."
You stare at her. You sense... Something. Something's off.
"Vel, are you OK?" You ask.
She stares at you, a little sadly. "Yeah, Seeley. I'm OK. Just... Just go. Find your friends."
You frown at her, before nodding slowly. "If you're sure..."
She smiles at you weakly. "I'm sure."
You turn away from her, and continue walking into the depths of the ship. After a while, you reach a large metal door with "ENGINEERING" stamped on the front. You push through, and find yourself in the engine room. The lights are dim, and the room is dark; however, you can see a little bit.
You walk forward slightly, staring around. Vel squeezes in behind you.
"This is like a horror movie," she hisses. A shiver runs up your spine, but you focus on the task at hand. You walk forward intently, staring around. The room is large and empty, with a huge multitude of consoles along the walls. You walk forward towards one, and examine it. It has several knobs, a few dials, two keyboards, and several displays. You look at the top, and frown.
You have absolutely zero idea what to do with it.
Well, at least it's on. You look around the room, pondering your next move.
The ship is, admittedly, huge. In this dim, emergency lighting there could be dozens of people right here in the room with you, and you'd never see them. You could shout, but--
But what?
There aren't any monsters. Don't be such a coward, Seele. Well, okay, *yes* you're scared of the dark, so what? That's not why you're feeling uneasy, that's--
Okay, that's almost entirely why you're feeling uneasy.
"Hey!" You shout. "Is there anyone here?!" Your voice echos, and you wince at the sound of it. You almost jump when you hear Vel shout as well:
"Hello?! Anybody?" Her voice is much softer than yours. She sounds worried that she'll wake up her neighbors or something.
You hear a startled curse, and the bang of metal on metal. You're about to call out, but Vel beats you too it:
"Hello? Sorry, we didn't mean to disturb you. We're... well, I guess you could say we're lost."
You hear light footsteps approaching. A moment later a young woman steps into view. A redhead. Oh no.
It's Tesla. She's wearing a red, sleeveless top and shorts. Her long legs have stockings that go up to her mid-thigh, and she's wearing tall boots. The rest of her is... well, you're not really into looking at her.
"Hello," she says, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't expect anyone to find me here. Especially not," she looks at you, and smiles knowingly. "You."
You don't really know what to say. You hadn't expected her to actually be here.
"It's extremely convenient, I'll give you that. So? Ready to start earning your pay?"
You nod numbly. You watch as she heads back to her work area, and nods for you to follow her. Vel is at your side in an instant, and the two of you follow closely behind.
"So what do you need us to do?"
She whirls on her heel, smacking Vel in the face with a metal covering. Vel is slow to react, finally hunching down and snarling.
"Ow! What was that for!?" Vel snaps, rubbing at her cheek.
"Well, that's unexpected." She turns to you. "It seems she's acquired a bit of extra physicality. I'd apologize, but there's no time." She starts walking again, beckoning you to follow.
You pause, grab Veliona's hand and make to follow, shaking your head before she does something stupid. This, however, is why you dislike Tesla. You've been told she reacts better to compliments, but you've never managed to make yourself talk that much. You're a lot better with your body than with your mouth.
This part of engineering is better lit, with the regular lights lighting up at least dimly, but it's nearly empty, and you soon realize what's missing. The entire central railgun is gone. In its place is a network of steel girders and cables, surrounding something that your eyes shy away from looking at.
You soon reach her work area, and are immediately hit by the amount of noise and activity in the room. The room is large, lights brightly, and filled with tables covered with machinery, tools and half-finished projects, not to mention half a dozen active robots. One of them walks up to her with a small metal ingot, which she snatches from it, before looking back at you.
"Welcome to the repair bay! The area where all the magic happens! I'll be with you in a moment, I need to finish some calibrations! We're on battery power right now, I can't waste any time."
She turns and walks over to a row of large machines, all hooked up to an incomprehensible amount of wires and covered in switches, dials and buttons. She starts flipping switches and pulling levers, doing... stuff.
You look around the room as she does this, and spot something that immediately catches your attention. A row of metal devices, a huge stack of various widgets and gadgets, and an entire wall covered with guns of every shape, size, and purpose.
You see an armor-piercing round designed to go through power armor, suitable for a anti-material rifle. It's the kind that Bronya uses, you're pretty sure.
You see a box full of concussion shells, perfect for using against light vehicles.
You see rows and rows of fireworks. Why would there be an entire wall of fireworks?
Because this is Honkai Impact 3, that's why. You're struck by the sudden urge to try and steal some.
"Leave that wall alone," Tesla says idly, and you snatch your hand back.
She continues flipping switches and pulling levers, before stopping and leaning back. The entire machine makes a whirring sound as it comes to life.
"There we go. I've pushed the auxiliary balancer as high as it'll go without overheating the batteries. In half an hour they'll run out, and everyone will die, so you better get cracking," she says.
You almost expect her to wink and add "Just kiddin', I've fixed the ship!" but she doesn't.
You step toward the machine with a deep breath. You look at all the flashing lights and the dials, trying to make sense of them. You see a dial marked 'Output'.
"Toldja, no touching stuff," she says.
"Can you... Can you at least tell me what all this stuff does?"
She shrugs. "The blue ones turn on, the red ones turn off, and the black ones are just for looks."
Right...
Okay...
You take a deep breath. If you kill her, it would almost certainly lower your odds of ever seeing someone you like ever again. You might be exaggerating that slightly -- besides, Vel is right here -- but only slightly. You just can't deal with this woman.
"What should I do?" You ask, resisting a sigh.
Tesla looks at her papers.
"We've got three real problems," she says. "The quantum balancer is broken, the reactors are all off, and the power couplings are frozen in time. I've pushed the prototype here as far as it'll go, so it'll burn out in a couple of days, but like I said, the batteries will fry first. Everything else..."
"Hang on," you say. "Why don't we start from the beginning?"
"Sure. What do you want to know?"
"What's the quantum balancer, exactly? Why do we need it?"
"... Okay. Imagine a seesaw. On one end there's you, and on the other end there's a basketball. The basketball is heavily magnetized, and you are not. There's a rain of sharpened knives, and you don't want to get cut. The quantum balancer is what makes it so the basketball stays above you. If the seesaw's stabilizers fail, then you'll end up on top of it, and you'll get shredded. Hypothetically speaking, that is. I suppose you'd be fine, but I'm not so sturdy."
You stare at her.
"That's an odd example."
"It was a... specialized piece of technology," she says, looking down from your eyes. "Almost worked. Like I said, we'd better get the nuclear reactors running. At least one of them should be in range of the balancer."
You're tempted to press the issue, but you let it go. The less you know about this, the better off you'll be.
"So what do I do?" You ask, simply.
"You'll start the generators. There are three of them, and I can kickstart the reactor so long as at lest one works. If you get two or more working, then hook the power couplings up to them.
"And then?"
She shrugs. "Then we'll be safe. Well, safe from immediate destruction, at least. The other systems need work, and there's the whole issue with being stranded in a broken down ship hurtling away from anything resembling reality, but we can worry about that later. I'll be able to get the main balancer out of failsafe mode, and we can unfreeze the crew. There might be a few more functioning safe zones. They're probably going mad by now."
"...And if I can't?" You ask.
She gives you a good, long look.
"If you can't get any of them running in twenty minutes, come back here. I'll have a few bits and pieces to give you."
She hands you a strange metal disk, about the size of a large coin.
"What's this?" You ask.
"The magnetic locks between the reactors and the balancer are at least operating," she says. "It's a key."
Oh. Er... you don't think you'll be needing that, but you stick the key in your pocket instead of telling her. She's given you a basic idea of what to do, and points you in the direction of one of the reactors.
"It's... that way," she says, pointing in a slightly different direction than you expected. "If you get lost, just... keep going until you find it. Or come back. I need to stay here, to keep this from exploding."
Right.
"The generators are easy to start. No locks, just press the 'on' button. The power couplings are in the ceiling, they -- you know what, forget about those. I'll handle it from here."
You nod, feeling as if you're heading into the mouth of a terrible beast. You can feel your heart racing already... what will you do if you can't turn it on? What if something's broken?
Tesla turns away, half-walking, half-jogging back towards the device. She speeds up a little midway, hitting one of the buttons practically at a run.
Right... you can't stand around thinking about this.
You turn, and quickly begin making your way towards the reactor. It's easy, whatever Tesla may have thought -- there are signs. Big signs. With arrows. And they're not lit for the hell of it, either. They're lit to help lost physicists find their way.
It takes you less time than you thought it would to reach the reactor, which is good. You're still nervous about the task at hand.
The door is-- actually, it's not even a door. It's just an opening in the wall, large enough to walk through. You can see machinery just beyond, as well as another opening on the other side of the circular wall. The doors are... open, including the one to the reactor chamber.
You'll worry about that later.
You walk into the room, and immediately hit a wall of hot air. The room is kept at a temperature slightly higher than the core of a star... to keep the energy from leaking away, you think. You walk through the room, peering up at the ceiling. Vel peels off, and starts studying the machinery. You walk past endless banks of computers, and towards the back of the room. There's a small door there, the only thing in the room that could be considered a "door." Or rather, an airlock. It says 'auxiliary power'.
"Vel," you say, "I think we have a problem."
"What's up?" she replies.
You peek through the door, then immediately pull your head back. A furnace-hot blast of air follows you out.
There's a fire in the generator room. A big one. One of the big diesel engines is burning, the fire spreading out along all the wiring running through the room. The heat is enough to distort the thick glass of the windows.
The fire's spreading quickly. You can see it racing along the walls.
= = =
I suppose simply telling the AI who Tesla is made it far more likely we'd find her. We also found out a lot more about what's going on. Isn't that nice?
[ ] Run away
- [ ] Back to Tesla
- [ ] To another reactor
[ ] Try to put the fire out
- [ ] With fire extinguishers
- [ ] With brute force
[ ] Write-in
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