Andromeda's Gates: The story of Yseult Brenneaux

Chapter 29: The Facility

Yseult navigated the Speedy Owl gently into the valley between the mountains; the stormy weather had made the descent difficult with cross winds and down-drafts buffeting the slender ship around. It was better in the valley, the peaks and ridges affording some shelter but when the gusts did come they swayed the vessel toward rock faces and sheer cliffs. The large canopy became covered in spatters as they passed into rain, the loud pattering of the drops on the canopy filling the cockpit. Visibility all but disappeared. Ellie surveyed the view, or lack thereof and returned to her instruments. The signal Riddaeon had asked them to track was dead ahead. "Five clicks." She announced. "The platform should be around twelve-hundred metres elevation." Yseult didn't respond. She was fixed on her instruments - now her only real way of telling where they were and where they were going. The cockpit shook as a gust bounced the ship around. She adjusted the lift throttle and steadied their course back out. "Three clicks." Ellie announced. Yseult reduced the drive throttle and pitched the nose up causing the ship to slow gently, the lift engines angling forward. She allowed the ship to descend on a shallow angle; there was no approach signal from the platform and their information as to its height being an estimation based on satellite data, it was better to find yourself too high than too low.

"Two clicks to signal." Ellie announced, The signal they were tracking was presumably somewhere inside the facility but they didn't know exactly where in relation to the platform they were now trying to put down on. Yseult brought their speed down to a slow hover, and with the ship creeping forward, focussed on counteracting the weather while she waited for a mountain or facility to appear in front of them. Slowly, shapes formed in the rainy mist before them and the straight edges told of a man-made structure. Yseult turned the ship sideways and watched her ground sensor display show a rapidly increasing ground-level as the ship gently drifted onward. Moments later the altimeter reading halted... A flat surface and she looked down out of the canopy to see the platform, its markings worn to virtually nothing. Wind pushed the Speedy Owl around and Yseult allowed the ship into a slow spin, the momentum helping to resist the effect of storm and keep it steady. Rotating as they descended. Yseult gauged the size of the platform and when she was confident of their position, aligned the ship facing back down the valley and let it set down in front of the disused facility.

With the Speedy Owl shut down, the rear hatch raised and Riddaeon climbed down out of the small aft compartment in which he had been travelling. Ellie and Yseult followed as Riddaeon walked towards the abandoned structure, the overhead beam giving little shelter from the rain as he moved to the aft section. Keeping himself in cover by the main engine intakes, he raised a scanner and checked its readings. "Well?" Ellie asked, having followed behind. Riddaeon lowered the scanner and looked at her.

The lights near them in the corridor slowly flickered to life, some flickering off again and some not having come on at all. The rest of the corridor remained pitch black. Ellie replaced the panel behind which she had just performed the rudimentary repair needed to make them work at all. With the main entrance and hangar locked off, this was the only entry point Riddaeon had been able to locate. They all stared into the darkness in front of them. "They're sensor activated." Ellie explained. "The others will come on when we get near them." Above them one of the lights flickered, struggling against age and abandonment to keep going until with a thin metallic pop, it went dull. Yseult and Riddaeon looked up at the expired light. "You are sure?" Yseult asked.

"Mmmmm. Yeah." Ellie responded in a tone that sounded more because she had to be than because she was. Realising she was going to have to be the one to show it, she stepped forward. As she approached the edge of the lit area, she hesitated, gently sliding her foot forwards towards the dark... More lights came on and she exhaled in relief, the sound louder than she would have liked but when she turned back to Riddaeon and Yseult, the relief had become a knowing smile.

As they walked a series of seemingly never-ending corridors, lights flickered on before them and off behind them, Riddaeon observed the reading on his scanner trying to gauge where it was coming from in relation to their current position. "Is Big Sal sure about this?" Ellie asked, her conviction wavering a little as they walked deeper into the stale air of the abandoned facility.

"I've been monitoring the Octan network with an application I was able to upload from the platform we got the Owl from." Riddaeon explained. "There were multiple results but this one is stronger than the others... And clearer."

"What if it's dangerous?" Yseult proposed. "Radioactive... Biological. A facility like this is for things you keep away from people... No?"

"If it's hazardous, the scanner will pick it up long before we're close enough to tell ourselves. Trust me. I don't do anything without a plan."

For fifteen minutes, they cautiously navigated the old building, Ellie hacking the codes to open some doors, her plasma torch opening others. Eventually, they came to a large blast door. "This should be it." Riddaeon exclaimed. "It should be on the other side of this door."

"Looks like a laboratory of some kind." Yseult said.

"Can you get us in?" Riddaeon asked Ellie.

Ellie looked over the control panel. "This one's different. Might take longer but I think I can do it." She said, already getting to work. Riddaeon checked his scanner again. Yseult noticed a twitch in his eyes that hadn't been there before. Nerves, she realised. "Are you sure we shouldn't wait for Big Sal?" she asked. "He shouldn't be far behind." There eyes locked... Yseult felt a tingle run up her spine... Suspicion. Can't be. She thought. This is everything Big Sal and Riddaeon have been working towards. This is why they wanted me involved. So we could be here without anyone knowing, Kawashita, Octan, even MANTIS. Yseult's whole involvement with MANTIS had been for this, for what was behind this door... Upsilon.

"I've got it." Ellie stated as she disconnected her device and pulled the door release. There was a hiss and a groaning metallic creak, then the door slid up to reveal the broken and disused lab inside. As the door passed half way, the party finally saw the source of the signal they had tracked here...

Standing alone in the centre of the room, his glasses buried beneath an unmistakable hairy facade, Big Sal looked upon them, relief upon his face. "Well." He said in a chipper voice as Yseult and Ellie stared back in disbelief. "This is a turn up for the books."