Go after Mandrid.¶

“You and Rovvak had time to talk and get your Eye before I remember waking up,” you begin. “What happened while I was out? Was I – did I –”

“I’m not sure,” Lydia says, gingerly adjusting her jaw. “It could have been some facet of Milo’s personality asserting itself. You were still suffering effects from transit, and you weren’t making a lot of sense.”

“Is the local loop still open?” you ask.

“No,” she says. “You’d notice the effects.” She quickly checks the back of her glove. “We’re still within radio range. I can restablish the link from here if we need to.”

“Good,” you say. “Do you know where we are relative to where they’re keeping Yavor’s Eye?”

“I don’t know where that is. Even Doctor Rovvak doesn’t know much about the layout of the vaults. Normally, only Chxta would ever come down here. We’re fortunate the ceilings are so high.”

“Did Chxta dig the chambers we were in above?” you ask. As you look up at the vaulted ceilings, your latent art history senses begin to tingle. Occasionally that degree comes in handy. “They like confined spaces, don’t they?” This place looks like someone mashed up an alien cathedral with the warehouse from the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

“As far as I know they did, yes,” Lydia says. “And, I guess if I had to describe the stuff they tend to build, yeah, they’re not comfortable with big expanses or heights. The tunnels above are pretty representative. Just watch a Chxta on the surface of a planet, sometime. Not all of them freak out, but it’s very obvious that none of them like it. Why are you asking me about architecture?”

“It just stuck out, is all,” you say. “The scale is so different.”

“Maybe it’s functional. Better use of space if they stack the shelving.”

“Maybe,” you say. The shelving stops well short of the ceiling, though, and it doesn’t really match the feeling of the room. “So what about Yavor’s Eye?”

“We recover or destroy it before the mellivores get to it,” Lydia says. “If we can get there first.”

“Do you think Mandrid knows where it is?” you ask.

Lydia snorts. “I doubt he knows that kind of thing,” she says. “He’s a lab assistant. A functionary.”

“Yeah,” you say. “So look, if we run into him, hang back and let me talk to him. He’s terrified of you.”

“He should be,” Lydia says.

“Yeah, so… take it easy.” You look at Vireen and Doctor Rovvak. “Vireen, are you okay staying here with Doctor Rovvak?”

She nods.

“Well, then –” you begin. You’re cut off by a tremendous unseen explosion that rocks the floor.