Chapter 121: Gizmo’s Home
“This new contract to create three glyph factories on our world’s surface will bring in revenue for centuries. A new, prosperous era of Ganthelia is upon us, and industry is the light carving our path through the darkness.”
—Former Ganthelian Prime Minister Azu Ceea in a speech
The ship’s door opened to a cloud of dense fog. Zaina, warned ahead of time by Baeus of Ganthelia’s unlivable conditions, already had her mask on. The display on the interior was recalibrating to the new environment, combining heat signatures, radioactive decay, and sensory data to create a clearer picture of Zaina’s surroundings. In her arms she cradled Gizmo, who was still turned off.
Baeus floated next to her, his bed-pod closed with a glass covering. “Foreboding, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she said, unable to make anything out of the haze. They had landed on a platform near one of the glyph factories—that much, she knew. “Can’t see shit yet.”
Finally, her mask’s recalibration finished—not that it made much difference, illuminating little more than dim blurs of distant shadows.
“According to the map,” Baeus said, referencing a holo-screen of a map projecting inside his bed-pod, “we should only be a few hundred feet from our destination. Looks like that way’s east—that’s the way we need to go.”
“That map tell you anything about the terrain?” she asked.
“No, so let’s proceed with caution.”
Zaina nodded and took up the van, having slightly better visibility. Nothing was coming into view but rocks and dirt, much less a factory.
“That’s odd,” Baeus said. “The map registers us as going the wrong way. Let’s double back.”
“What?” she asked. “Having trouble reading that thing?”
Baeus blinked, unamused. “No, but Ganthelia is known for its magnetic storms. Probably just scrambling our sensors a bit. Shouldn’t be a problem.”
Zaina made her way back, leading her companion on the path. “Hey, is the factory we’re going to still active?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Last one on Ganthelia still pumping, from what I know. Not that they’re making Gizmo’s model anymore, of course—they’re making the new MRVs.”
“How is it working without any people?”
Baeus frowned. “I assume they’ve got a glyph workforce. Not too uncommon in the midworlds. Especially in Ganthelia’s case, after it became uninhabitable—whatever corporation had the factory contracts probably figured that they could keep operations running even if the sentient population had to evacuate.”
“That’s terrible,” Zaina muttered to herself. Demelia was destroyed by the Eldritch—but Ganthelia was voluntarily destroyed to make glyphs. She couldn’t imagine giving up her homeworld by choice.
“It’s not easy for a lot of worlds,” Baeus replied. “Ganthelia wasn’t particularly blessed in any department. To keep the lights on, their government had to make hard choices.”
“Well, the lights aren’t on now.”
“That’s true,” he conceded. “They traded their long term future for a short term solution. Though I suppose every effort to make anything last forever is futile.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she said as a large, dark object came into view. She reached out and touched it—the surface was sleek and cold to the touch. It was metal. “Here’s something.”
“You think this is it?”
“Might be. Now we need to find the entrance,” she said.
“The map says the entrance is on the north-facing wall,” Baeus replied, “but I’m not sure we want to rely on it to navigate. So, we have two options: walk around until we find the entrance, or we go up.”
“Go up?” she asked, pointing into the sky.
Baeus chuckled. “Yes. Onto the roof.”
“I mean, I have rocket boots. Do you have—well, you know, rockets?”
“Every scholar’s bed-pod comes equipped with a propulsion system for emergencies, yes,” he said.
“I did not know that. Okay, let’s go up.”
They lifted off at the same time and rose at the same rate. After climbing about a hundred feet they came to the top and landed. The facility’s roof was barren and flat, but visibility was slightly better—enough for Zaina to see there were no entrances up here, either. The entire building seemed to be one solid metal mass.
“Okay,” she said, “what now?”
He blinked a few times and said, “What, you don’t have any ideas?”
She looked around, then heard Gizmo—except she hadn’t powered him on.
“Giz—Giz—Giz—zzz—mo—mo—mo—Gizmo—home—home—home—”
“Gizmo? What’s wrong, buddy?” she asked.
“It’s the magnetic storm,” Baeus replied. “It must be messing with him. We have to make our way to the entrance—they must have some sort of shielding within.”
Zaina nodded and turned Gizmo off again. “Which way is your map saying is north?”
Baeus gave a defeated sigh. “The way we came.”
“All right, fuck. Does it show us there?”
“No. Apparently we’re to the west.”
“Okay,” Zaina said, then started walking over the building. She barely walked three steps before an alert blared on her heads-up display.
“Uh, Zaina?” Baeus said. “We have company.”
“I noticed.” She summoned her cipher, a glowing green beauty of a sword with a white guard and hilt, and waited. “Your scanner tell you what direction it’s coming from?”
“Looks like three directions and three active engines,” he replied. “Is that right? Or is the magnetic storm messing with my sensor’s calibrations, too?”
“Only way to know is to wait,” Zaina said, carefully scanning the ten feet that were visible through the haze in each direction. She kept a close eye on Baeus, not wanting to lose him to a surprise attack.
Then, out of the haze, three large glyphs arrived at a slow pace. They had no arms, and featured a rectangular body attached to a floating sphere; orbiting around the sphere were hovering triangles.
They spoke in unison. “Sentients. It is not recommended that the planet’s surface be occupied for any duration of time. Please follow us and make your way inside.”
“Affirmative,” Baeus said.
Zaina dispelled her cipher and stepped out of her combat stance. In a moment she snapped out of fight mode and followed the glyphs and Baeus, happy not to be in front for a bit.
They made their way clear across the building. Baeus and the glyphs all smoothly hovered to the bottom, while Zaina stopped and started with her rocket boots, falling ungracefully. Once they’d landed two panels on the wall in front of them separated just enough for them to squeeze inside the facility.
Zaina found herself in a barren room. It had the signs of once being some sort of office—there was a rusting metal desk for a receptionist, a few legs of broken chairs scattered across the empty floors, and rotting framed posters barely clinging to the light gray walls.
Behind the desk was a glyph, seemingly a series of increasingly smaller tubes stacked atop each other. The glyphs that had escorted them inside floated through a metal doorway, which then jammed shut.
The glyph behind the desk addressed them, “Hello, sentients. And welcome, visitors, to Ganthelia—Ganthelia—GANTHELIA—‘s premiere hub of industry and progress. Have you elected to take the guided tour?”
“Guided tour?” Zaina asked. How long had it been since this thing spoke to a person?
“Sequence unknown. Restart sequence. Hello, sentients. And welcome, visitors, to Ganthelia’s premiere hub of industry and progress. Have you elected to take the guided tour?”
“No,” Baeus stepped in. “No, we’ve come for information on a glyph that was created here. He’s malfunctioning.”
“Sequence known. Run sequence. Apologies, but all information regarding your glyph would be stored at the offworld site responsible for running this facility. Such information may be proprietary, so no guarantees can be made whether such information would be available to you should you choose to reach out to said site.”
Zaina shrugged—it was worth a shot. Besides, otherwise they came all this way for nothing. “What’s the site?”
The glyph sparked, then answered, “Tol-Vess. Blackgate Security Investments Incorporated Data Facility Three, in Industrial Sector Seven-Seven. Sequence ended. Have you elected to take the guided tour?”
“Thank you for your time,” Zaina said.
“Sequence known. Run sequence. Thank you for stopping by. Please be careful outside in case of magnetic storms, tectonic shifts, or any other planetary surface disruption events. End sequence.” With that, the glyph’s lights went out.
Zaina sighed and turned to Baeus. “Well, I guess we know where we’re going next. Probably to another dead end.”
Baeus chuckled. “You never know until you try. Come, let’s get to the ship quickly.”