Cyril Sarnath
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Chapter 203 Desire
🕑 Added 2024-02-23 20:27:48 +0000 UTCKeynes tuned out the voices of his crew congratulating him. As much as he wished to participate in the celebration, his mission weighed on him. He thanked Jedd on the private channel and turned to the task at hand. Given the ridiculous cost of the mission and their dwindling supplies, they needed to succeed today.
He glanced back. Natalia stood in the pristine white spacesuit against the stark visage of the shuttlecraft. She was going through the safety procedures again. This and more could be handled by the AI but they wanted to conserve as much AI’s mana as possible. If they could do the work themselves, they would do it.
The shuttlecraft itself was motionlessly hanging in the air in the middle of a flat clearing on a rocky shelf somewhere in the lower part of a mountain.
Looking at it felt a little disorienting as its outer size was 10 times smaller than its interior. Keynes wasn’t a stranger to spatial space distortion but that much expanded space was unheard of.
The area Pierre and Roman had chosen as their landing spot had several important characteristics. It was flat, sheltered from erosive winds by a short, jagged rock formation and had the optimal position in relation to the rifts in the cluster. It didn’t mean the access to these rifts was easy. The terrain around them was steep and ridden with sharp rocks and deep crevices.
The spacesuit system as well as their spiritual auras scanned the surroundings for dangers like hidden potholes. The AI’s report had mentioned an extensive cave system, while Roman warned that the collapsing caves had been a serious obstacle in terraforming Venus.
A hundred metres from their position, the nearly vertical and grotesque-looking mountain formations began, splitting in three different directions, with some of its peaks reaching the low hanging clouds.
Everything about this place screamed at him to leave it.
Alice, can you check the spiritual realm here?
Already on it, Alice replied.
“Let’s check the perimeter, leader,” Natalia said but Keynes stopped her. He wanted to understand how the spiritual realm in a place like this looked like.
Oh, Alice muttered. The spiritual realm is even worse.
As dead as the physical plane? Keynes inquired.
I wish but no, there are spiritual creatures here and they seem to be drawn to lifelessness. They didn’t notice me but they may notice you if you decide to check for yourself.
I should be fine, Keynes said, though I don’t plan going there anytime soon. He didn’t belittle Alice’s warning but there were fundamental differences between him and Alice. Often, things harmful to her were harmless to him and vice versa.
Nonetheless, the presence of spiritual creatures on the otherwise dead planet was something they hadn’t known beforehand. It meant that physical life wasn't a prerequisite of spiritual one. He would leave figuring out the meaning of this to others who were doing research in this field.
“Ready,” Keynes said to Natalia. “We can proceed.”
With both of their high Strength and Dexterity attributes and agile spacesuits that didn’t obstruct any movement, Keynes and Natalia moved at a quick pace. They surveyed the flat expanse, about fifty metres in diameter, finding several potential but treacherous pathways. They led downward to where the closest rifts were located.
“Safety zone established,”Natalia said on the main channel.
“Confirm,” Keynes added.
It was the green light others waited for.
“One small step for—”
“Stop it, Roman,” Pierre interrupted him. “We are already past that.”
“We have never set a foot outside our solar system,” Roman countered. “This here is mankind's greatest achievement.”
Keynes hid a smile. Mankind had nothing to do with this achievement. Yes, human ascenders were here but not by their own power. Not yet. Perhaps not for several decades, though he could be very wrong in his assessment. Rifts turned technological progress upside down.
The friendly banter between Roman and Pierre ended with a bark from Natalia.
“Focus, you two. This is an extremely hostile environment. One mistake may cost lives, your fellows and your lives.”
Keynes didn’t disagree with her but their situation wasn’t as dire as Natalia made it look like. Still, he wouldn’t openly mention it. Leadership should always project unity, even if the leaders privately disagreed with one another on some matters. Or so the books on the subject said so.
“Yes, sir,” Roman and Pierre obediently said.
“Survey the area for the initial base. Kora will keep you safe.”
“Safe from what? There are no monsters here.” Kora asked, a little taken aback. “I thought I would join you to the rift.”
“You haven’t listened to the revised mission plan, Kora.”
Kora shuffled her feet on the dust-covered rocky ground.
“I might have been distracted.”
It seemed to be a common theme in the last couple days when they were finalising the mission procedures. Honestly, Keynes didn’t blame them. No one in their group was a professional astronaut. So they weren’t trained for this.
Natalia glared at Kora intensely. She didn’t admonish her but Natalia’s aura revealed her annoyance.
“You are thus responsible for their safety, Kora. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Natalia turned to the rest. “Trisk, proceed with the plan. Reinforce the landing zone then build an emergency shelter. Once you are finished with that, start shaping a single passage out of here. It must be defensible. We must have safe access to each of the twenty seven rifts in the cluster from here.”
“Why defensible?” Trisk asked.
“In case of a rift outbreak or a monster event.”
“A rift outbreak?”
Right. The information about Keynes’s Talent wasn't common knowledge. The crew somewhat understood that Keynes and others had means to open rifts but his role in the outbreaks was omitted. Jedd, Natalia and Keynes were working on a system that would fairly distribute required information to the crew.
While Keynes had gone through different stances on access to dangerous and sensitive knowledge, he was eventually advised by Jedd about issues with each approach. Keynes didn’t want for his crew to turn into yet another Untainted Paradise or worse, into the World Government, but compartmentalisation and different levels of access had enough merit to warrant a system in place.
The underlying foundation of their knowledge system was knowing Talent of each member of their crew. More than half of the crew had been chosen because of their Talents.
This led to a debate: who gets to know what? Should only the leadership have access to information about everyone’s Talents or should everyone’s Talents be common knowledge?
The answer to this question was going to shape their culture and future internal and external interactions.
Then the next question waited to be answered; how much information should be distributed among the crew? Too little could lead to distrust and rift between the leadership and the crew, too much could cause unrest or panic. Some people could handle truth easily, while others struggled with it. What would they do if they learned that Keynes had been responsible for the outbreaks? There was a high chance that everyone in his crew had lost a relative in the outbreaks.
“We must be prepared for every emergency. We cannot exclude it without understanding the cause of the outbreak.” Keynes was surprised how easily Natalia lied. She knew Keyne had caused the outbreaks and she wasn’t the only one who knew. Kora and Persephone knew as well but they showed no reaction. Croft on the other hand wasn’t as adept at controlling his aura and some of his emotions leaked out.
Lucky, Trisk, Pierre, Sellana, Roman, Ul were only Level 1 and at the Lowest spiritual stage so they sensed nothing in Croft’s aura.
“Yes, boss,” Trisk said.
Keynes had mixed feelings about lying to people who put their lives in his hands but he couldn’t risk distraction at a moment like this.
Natalia turned to Persephone.
“We need your Talent. Persephone.” Persephone’s control over her aura was nearly as good as Keynes’s, but he still sensed a sliver of irritation. “We need a rift with breathable air and soil for farming.”
“My Talent doesn’t work like that,” Persephone sniffed.
“I know how your Talent works,” Natalia replied. “So what do you desire right now that is of value to us?”
Persephone took a moment to reply but when she did, the reply put a smile on everyone’s faces.
“Meat. I want a proper steak, not the shit served by the ship.”
“Good.” Natalia nodded, then asked Keynes on the private channel “You ready?”
“Yep.”
“Ul, Croft, Persephone, me and the leader, will go and check the rift out. Sellana, work with Trisk on potential formations we could deploy here.”
Why does she boss everyone around instead of you? Alice asked as they left the landing zone.
Have you ever heard about delegation? Keynes asked.
Not really… but I can sense the vague intent behind the word coming from you. But why? It isn’t like you have much to do?
Because this is Natalia’s strength. She’s very good at micromanaging and tactical stuff. I’m not, yet, Keyne replied. Besides, going forward, this will be her role, rather than mine. I am a big-picture guy now.
What does it make me then? Alice sniffed, clearly amused.
Alice, an annoying spiritual companion? Keynes muttered, sharing her amusement.
Just you wait! I will be as strong as… Lem Solaris, her voice dropped to a whisper at the end. Keynes sensed terror through their bond. Alice was terrified of Lem Solaris even now when the alien being had left them for good.
The way out of the landing zone was treacherous and twice Natalia consulted Keynes about leaving Willow and Ul behind, but they were within margin of safety with their suits on. Also Natalia’s Talent was healing so even in case of an accident, she could heal most wounds.
What looked like a passage leading downward, turned into a steep fissure but with enough space for stable footing, so they didn’t need to climb down. The way down was surprisingly quick and took them only 10 minutes. The rift selected by Persephone wasn’t the closest one but neither was the farthest one.
Keynes swept the rift’s location with his aura, forcing it to reveal itself. It appeared in the recess inside a rocky formation. The way to the rift wasn’t difficult for someone like Keynes, Natalia or Persephone but they urgently needed to terraform the pathway if they wanted to have safe and easy access to it.
“This place is hardly an optimal place for fighting monsters,” Natalia said to Keynes via private channel. “Should I bring Trisk here?”
“Nah, no need for that,” Keynes replied. “Though it would be handy to have Kora here.”
“I can send her a message.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Keynes told her then switched to the open channel. “Persephone, Natalia, keep Willow and Ul safe while I clear out the rift and kill the boss.”
Keynes approached the shimmering distortion in the air.
Rift (Common, Stable)
Level: 1
Status: Sealed
Requirements: -
Modifiers: -
Details: This rift contains a higher number of monsters and a boss (overcharge effect). The monsters are immune to the planet’s environment.
AffininityAffinity: -
Special Status: Overcharged, Unexplored
The rift’s system window popped up and answered the burning question about monsters’ survival outside the rift. Apart from that, there was nothing different about this rift. On one hand it was disappointment, on the other one, relief. If other planets had Earth-like rifts they were going to thrive.
Do you wish to unseal the rift?
Yes/No
At Keynes’s current Level, unsealing a Level 1 rift cost barely any mana and no effort. If there only was a way to get rid of overcharge status but as far as Keynes knew, only rift orbs were capable of affecting a rift’s status. They had none.
Keynes picked ‘Yes’. Rift monsters didn’t appear though.
Huh? What’s going on? He mused.
“Keynes…” Natalia forgot herself and used his first name, which he preferred to ‘leader’. “Where are the monsters?”
“No idea. Stay here.”
Cautiously, he entered the rift.
Inside he found darkness. The spacesuit’s visor activated immediately, revealing a long, uneven but narrow cave with the passage too small for two people to walk abreast.
The air inside wasn’t toxic like on the planet but it was full of small particles, coal, metals, dust. A hundred Vitality was required to breath it without incurring any damage, although Keynes’s Pure Body buff should be enough according to the AI.
Where the fuck are the monster? He asked himself, while his spiritual aura spread around, moving through the stone with mild resistance. The rift was a single cave that randomly moved through a dense rock. It was a very strange rift, seemingly monsterless.
Then he sensed something stir within the rock. It was barely a perceptible shock but its source was elusive until a single spiritual signature started to coalesce all around him.
What the hell is going on? Keynes asked.
It’s some sort of rock serpent, Alice replied.
How are we supposed to eat rock? Keynes wondered, thinking about Persephone’s Talent. It might be that her Talent didn’t work correctly outside of Earth, which he doubted or she misunderstood what it was telling her.
The wall on the right side started to break apart as if turning into a fine dust. A monstrosity of a face took its place. A stub with a hole, surrounded by rows upon rows of jagged teeth.
Wielding [Chaos Aura] with precision, Keynes cut off the head with a single motion, killing the monster.
The suit immediately gave him analysis. Despite the name and rocky outer layer the monster was very meaty inside.
It seems Persephone’s Talent worked like a charm.
