“Well it’s rite stuck.” Tormund said. He prodded all over the door trying to get it to work. Jesse’s focus was on something else. A rectangular tablet on a pedestal, a few feet wide and tall. It rested just at about chest height. It was completely blank but it looked like a touch control computer. The pedestal below it was solid and made of metal. He tapped at it a few times but nothing happened.

  “I think this was meant to control it.” Jesse said.

  “How’s that supposed to work?” Tormund asked.

  “I’m not sure yet.” Jesse replied. He frantically prodded at the panel, mindful of the quickly approaching spiders. Lucky this passage was so long.

  “That does appear to be a type of control panel, Jesse.” Golem spoke up. “There are wires leading to the door and internally within the panel. Whatever source of power it once had is long diminished. No trace of it remains.”

  “Okay let’s open it up.” Jesse said, repositioning behind the pedestal holding the tablet.

  He found the back of the pedestal was covered by a panel that simply slid off the back. He assumed it was designed this way for easy maintenance, though it would allow non-maintenance personnel or visitors to access it which seemed like a security lapse to him.

  Unless there are other security measures in place. He thought with a spike of alarm.

  Inside the pedestal were a complex arrangement of wires, leading up to connect to various points within the panel and then running down into the floor. Jesse tracked each path, just observing for now. Eventually his eyes came to rest on the power source. It was a crystal, much like the ones he still carried in his bag. This one however was blackened and no longer emitted light.

  He gently touched it and found it cold, unlike the odd warmth that came off the ones he had. He decided to call it a dead crystal and the ones he carried live ones. It seemed fitting. He unscrewed the housing that held the crystal in place and took it out. He held it up to Tormund. “This is the problem I think. Though what would cause one of these to burn out I do not know.”

  “The internal structure of this crystal is unusual.” Golem chimed in. “Typically the energy they produce prevents me from scanning the internal structure but with this one no longer producing energy, I am able to. It appears to be a type of organic crystal lattice of a material unknown to my database.”

  “Fascinating.” Jesse said as he examined the dead crystal. “Well we need to get moving though.” He said, retrieving a live crystal of relatively the same size from his makeshift bag. It glowed a soft blue. No perceptible decrease in flow occurred in the days it was in the bag. Jesse idly wondered how long the power source would last. The crystal piece powering golem still hadn’t shown any sign of decreasing either.

  Jesse inserted the crystal into the console and instantly it lit up. Jesse rounded the podium and found glowing symbols scrolling across the console. The big problem was that he couldn’t read any of it. “Uh Tormund, does any of this mean anything to you?”

  “No, it just looks like scribbles.” Tormund responded. That was a pretty accurate description of the language. It had lots of round characters with flowing lines. Kind of like cursive but not that of any earth language.

  Golem, can you make anything of this? He asked the AI.

  “Without a reference there is little way for me to determine what the word's meaning would be. If we can translate a few words I could likely predict a portion of the language.” The AI answered.

  Jesse grunted. Okay so what should we do?

  “You could connect the crystal in my power module to the power source within the pedestal.” Golem suggested. “The risk of doing this is minimal unless we suspect the device houses some type of virus.”

  Uh I don’t really have any reason to think that but I don’t know Golem. I really can’t afford to lose you. Also you are tied directly to my nervous system so I don’t love the thought. Jesse said.

  “You can’t turn back. The creatures I detected will be here in 3 minutes.” Golem replied.

  Yeah that logic is sound. I could just start randomly pressing buttons and see what happens. Jesse suggested.

  “That could trigger some type of lockdown or alarm as well.” Golem countered.

  Fine. But just… be careful. Jesse said back.

  “Did you and the voice in your head come up with a plan?” Tormund asked, smiling. “You always get this far off look when you are talking to Golem.”

  “Yeah I’m going to connect him to the door control. The spiders will be here soon.” Jesse said, once again rounding the pedestal.

  “Jesse, I’ve detected soldiers coming in the entrance.” Golem chimed in.

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  “Shit the soldiers are here too. They are coming this way.” Jesse told Tormund. The arcanescent turned and faced the hall, back to the door.

  Jesse took a wire from their earlier salvaging and connected it to the crystal in the power module housing on his arm. He then ran the wire to the crystal inside of the podium. His HUD flashed for a moment when the connection was made. A moment later the door slid open.

  “Complete.” The AI reported.

  “Thank you Golem.” Jesse said as he disconnected the wire. He breathed a sigh of relief that nothing had happened to the AI and that he was able to so easily open the door.

  Jesse picked up his torch and moved through the door. The room opened up into a massive chamber with a tall domed ceiling. In half circles in both directions were archways on platforms with ramps leading to each one. Next to each archway was a podium with a tablet like the one they had just interfaced with. On the opposing side of the massive chamber was another shut door like the one they had entered from.

  Behind them the door slid shut with a loud crack of stone on stone.

  “Well there is no going back.” Jesse said with a sigh.

  “Not that I’d want to.” Tormund commented.

  The ceiling had large chandeliers with light bulbs in them hanging. In several places these had fallen, along with sizable chunks of the stone they were hung from. At several places there were tablets on podiums placed with no doors nearby, perhaps an information kiask, Jesse thought.

  “This is fascinating!” He exclaimed.

  “I don’t know. I think we should just find a way out, and fast.” Tormund said.

  “I detect multiple energy signatures in this room.” Golem reported. “One belongs to the spectral creature you encountered previously.”

  “Oh good.” Jesse said. “Of course it can’t just be easy.”

  “I believe if the entity tries to force another vision on you I could prevent it from doing so.” Golem told him.

  No, if it wants to show me something I think I want to see it. These visions could give us some information on this place. Jesse said quickly.

  The apparition appeared in front of them once more. Was it less blue than before? Maybe it was the light. It stared at them once again. Jesse stepped forward, figuring speaking to it was worth a shot again.

  “Hello, uh are you trying to show us something? What are we looking for in these visions?” Jesse asked it.

  “I think I should just blast it with some lightning.” Tormund suggested. “I’m not fond of these visions it forces on us.”

  “No, there is a reason it’s trying to show us the past.” Jesse insisted.

  He stepped forward a few steps. “We just want to know more. Is there a danger you want us to know about? Is it what killed those people and destroyed this place?”

  “Jesse, the other energy signature is coming from beneath the rubble about twenty feet in front of you. I detect wire and metal surrounding it. It’s buried in stone however so my sensors can’t determine exactly the function.” Golem told him.

  That’s the moment the entity shot forward and passed through Jesse. There was a blinding light and he felt ice cold. When the light cleared he was standing in the same place, only surrounded by life.

  Again he saw the same manner of dress, with flowing clothes and coats that were clearly manufactured and not hand made. Dozens of constructs darted throughout the crowd. Several large humanoid ones towered over the moving people. These carried large shipping containers and moved with grace that belied their bulky appearance.

  Nearby Jesse saw there were guards, only they weren’t human. They were humanoid constructs with gear and crystal emblems engraved into their chest piece. They scanned the crowd with glowing ruby eyes.

  Around the archways, the consoles were lit up and scrolled with information that Jesse couldn’t read. He watched as some people pressed the icons on the console and a shimmering effect happened in the center of the archway next to it. It then resolved into a blue rippling color. They stepped through it. It was a portal. Teleportation magic, or maybe technology.

  Maybe this could get me and my family home some day? Jesse thought to himself, overwhelmed.

  In a moment all of the constructs froze. They halted mid step. Many dropped the heavy loads they had been meticulously balancing before. What was happening?

  A bright flash happened once more and Jesse came out of the vision. He fell to his hands and knees gasping for air. Behind him Tormund did the same. Aegis ran back and forth between them, licking their faces.

  “What in all the hells was that?” Tormund said

  “I don’t know. Something is definitely off though. Those portals are the important thing for now. Maybe we can get one activated and get out of here.” Jesse suggested, feeling a sense of dread overwhelm him. Of course the creature was gone once more. Jesse felt as though he didn’t want it to return this time. That vision was more intense than the last and he worried the next might actually be harmful.

  They stood and started to move towards the archways but stopped when they heard yelling on the other side of the door they just entered from.

  “It seems the soldiers found the spiders.” Jesse said to Tormund, who nodded grimly. “We should hurry, just in case.”

  As they approached the archways, however, they heard the loud clatter and crumble of shifting stones. Jesse could feel the vibrations in his feet.

  “Well that’s not good.” Tormund said turning around.

  Jesse groaned, also turning. One of the large constructs from the vision stood a couple dozen feet away from them. It had glowing rubies for eyes. It looked worse for wear, its rounded metal sheeting that covered its chest and stomach areas was tarnished by scratches, pockmarks, and in a couple of places large dents. Dirt fell from it as it moved, leaving the machine looking dirty and old and rusted. One of its arms looked like it caught every few inches of rotation at the shoulder before it jerkingly continued on its path. It rose to its full height of a little over 10 feet to Jesse’s estimation.

  “Maybe it’s friendly.” Tormund said, his voice wavered showing his confidence in that statement.

  Jesse unslung his shield, dropping his torch and bag with the crystals on the ground. Tormund dropped his as well and readied his club, his other hand free for casting his magic.

  The construct stepped a couple of steps closer and turned its head towards them.

  “Uh hello. We don’t mean any harm here. We… uh we were just leaving.” Jesse said to the machine. It continued to stare at them passively. Heart racing, Jesse’s knuckles were white on the grip for his shield and around his spear. The wraith that had flown through them earlier streamed into the room in a flowing blue blur, stopping near the construct. It looked at the construct and then back at the group. It’s color slowly shifted to red and it let out a high pitched wail. Screaming, the apparition descended towards Jesse. The sounds of screeching metal followed as the construct shifted into motion.