Magical Engineering

Alex

“How sure are we that everything Dane said was accurate? I know he helped Sanquar, but was he really trustworthy?” I hoped he was, but somewhere inside of me I doubted it. Was that just the depression manifesting in another way?

Dad likely would have trusted the man. But I wasn't my father, and I had met few people who were as trusting as he was. Hell, it was hard to believe he hadn't been screwed over far more in his life.

“Dane's a good guy. Kind of. Let me put it this way: the man won't screw us. I've known him longer than I've known most people. And I've sailed some cosmic seas with him that would make even Yorela shudder. Now, that's not to suggest he wouldn't screw others, but he is generally on the up and up when it comes to me,” Squidlen answered.

“That whole experience on that planet seemed a little weird, didn't it? Everything we needed was just there. I'm not the only one who noticed that, right?” Maude asked, looking around the captain's meeting room. Her eyes met most of the people present.

“You shouldn't ask questions like that. Those just aren't the answers you want out here,” Squidlen replied. “But from what little I know of you already, I don't think that's going to stop you. The System doesn't have the greatest pull out here in chaotic space. But fate does. No one knows why, but the more you set your sail to chance, the better your odds will be.”

“And to be clear, what Squiddy is saying there is just a theory. Hell, probably closer to a religion than a theory,” Yorela added with a roll of her eyes.

“If there's a god governing this, I ain't met him yet. All the people I've met claiming to be gods have fallen pretty short any time in our actual meetings. Though what Yorela isn't saying here is that I'm still alive, and most people who do what I do are long dead.”

“Wait, gods are real?” Maude asked, dropping her earlier topic entirely.

“Did you even listen to what I just said?” Squidlen replied.

“Uh, some of it.” Maude looked away sheepishly. “Sorry, got a lot on my mind now. So back to the chaos dungeon then. What's the plan?”

I liked Maude, but there were times she was completely lost in her head. Though sometimes I suspected she did it as an act. This didn’t seem like one of them. Whatever she had experienced on that planet had left her unsettled, and I wasn't sure if she liked Squidlen's answer about how fate worked out here either.

Not that I really did either. But I wasn't willing to fight about it at the moment. William was within our sights, and I had to be prepared. If only I knew exactly how to be as prepared as I was worried I would have to be.

“How long is it gonna take ya to get us ta this chaos dungeon anyway?” Mel asked, a bit of annoyance obvious in his question.

“I think I can get us there in a week. The fun part is going to be navigating this ship into the asteroid field. I promise I'm better at it than the jesters, but I ain't a miracle worker. So this could be a pretty big mess,” Squidlen answered.

“Which means in a week, we need to be ready. The dungeon isn't going to be a walk in the park, and neither are whatever traps are waiting for us,” Yorela added.

That wasn’t something I had considered. Obviously, I should have. If they were going to use somewhere for direct transport, of course, they would secure it in some fashion. That was just natural.

But I was still having trouble thinking of the jesters as real living creatures. To me, they were just the stuff of my nightmares. They were horrors who had kidnapped my son, monsters I would one day put down. And it seemed that time was rapidly growing nearer.

“Yer all gonna damn well listen ta everything I say once we’re inside that thing too, got it?” Mel said, in a tone that brooked no argument. Then again, if I had disagreed, it wouldn't have been enough to stop me. He just didn't need to know that right now.

“Mel, I want you to understand before I say this, you're one of the few people I actually kind of respect as a fighter. But none of you have been into a chaos dungeon before. I have, and I've lived through it. So your asses are gonna listen to me. That's not to say don't listen to Mel too, but if I say something, trust me, it's to keep us all alive,” Yorela countered.

“She ain't lying. Seeing as how I can't go with you, she's going to be your best source of information once you get inside. Just remember, chaos dungeons tend to fuck with your mind a bit. And the worst part is it's very hard to explain what that feels like until you feel it. Everything out here comes tinged with this insidious digging madness. And you've got to try to ignore it.”

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“As terrifying as that sounds, Squiddy is entirely right. I've been there on that edge before. Hell, the only reason I'm here right now is because of him. And frankly, some nights I kind of wish he hadn't pulled me back, but he did, and I'm here, so I will keep you all alive, and we're going to get that damn kid back,” Yorela continued.

She sounded like she meant every single word. And I was grateful for it. I didn't even know how we'd become such close friends in so short a time, but here we were together, about to fight for the life of my son.

“Thank you, everyone,” I said quietly. The words were incredibly difficult to force out. But I thought it was important that everyone knew how much I appreciated them. The numbness had faded enough, especially now that hope was in sight, that I truly understood what they were all risking for William and me.

“Alright, everyone out of the room. I got to talk to Squiddy in private for a bit. Why don't you all go get some last-minute training in with Mel, preferably something focused on training your mind against distractions,” Yorela said, with a nod of dismissal.

I had already been planning to squeeze as much training as I could during this last week. But I appreciated the focal point nonetheless. I quickly joined the others in filing out of the captain's room.

Yorela

The moment the door closed, Yorela turned back to Squidlen. There was a lot that had been unsaid to the rest of them, and for good reason. Hell, she wasn't very big on the idea of bringing it up now, but it was a discussion that had to be had.

Yorela eyed Squidlen and let the question that had been burning in the back of her mind since they learned about this dungeon into the open. “Squiddy, I appreciate you not saying it in front of them, but what the hell is the plan to get out of here once this is done? I know you aren't stupid enough to think that they're just gonna let us go.”

Squidlen dropped the smile that he used for his usual pep talks and gave her a shrug before answering. “That's a problem for once everyone survives it and gets back to the damn ship. But I got a few ideas brewing, none of which are particularly good. But why are you asking? If you knew that I knew this was a problem, why bother bringing it up at all?”

“Because we need a goddamn escape plan. I've seen these people do some shit that shouldn't be possible already, so I believe wholeheartedly that we're going to find a way to walk out of there with the baby. And if we don't, Alex's dad is going to find a way to kill everything that stopped us,” Yorela replied, shaking her head in annoyance.

She had expected this. Squidlen rarely planned things out in advance to any sort of detailed level. But he also usually had at least an idea of what he was going to do. Which meant there was something he wasn't saying still, and she fully intended to drag that out of him.

“Ah. I suppose I should have known there wasn't much I could do to hide anything from you anymore,” Squidlen replied calmly.

“Exactly, so just what half-baked scheme have you already come up with? Because I know for sure you don't want Dave chasing your ass down to figure out what happened to his kids.”

“Kinda funny you assume I'll survive even if the ship doesn't. Then again, I suppose you've seen me do my own share of impossible things. So that dungeon we're heading for, it's not that far off from where that sapient black hole was sitting when it first detected us. I had one of the men acquire just a little bit of black hole remains while we were docked. Wasn't sure what I'd need it for just yet, but I was glad I did because now I have a plan for it.” His smile returned to his face as he explained.

“You're really gonna lure one of those things in as a distraction?” She had no idea if this was genius or the stupidest thing she had ever heard. It was just as likely to kill them as it was to deal with the other problem.

“I mean, what's the worst that could happen? We're already in the position where we all could die, so how does it really go worse?” he asked, his smile growing larger.

She hated it when he was like this. And the worst part was that the only times he got like this were before his plans actually worked. When the man actually seemed to know every detail of what was going to happen and had a plan for everything, that was when you got worried. Because that meant there was enough anxiety in his thoughts that he was actually attempting to figure something out.

There were a lot of ways that Squidlen reminded her of Dave. She hadn't been willing to ask Elody, but she suspected her fellow librarian had seen that fate ripple around the man. And she also suspected that if she had asked her to observe the captain, she'd see the same level of rippling. So just what the hell was connecting these two that made any of this possible?

“I swear, if you get us all killed, I'm going to torment you in the afterlife. And if someone resurrects you, I'm gonna be one of those things that chases you down and brings you back, dammit.”

Squidlen laughed. “I wouldn't have it any other way.”

Virtually everything I've said so far on these pages only applies to dungeons within Spiral-space. Should you find yourself venturing into a chaos dungeon deep within the ever-changing landscape of chaotic space, then almost any rule you've read here need not apply.

There are still dungeon cores, that much is true, and they do control the dungeons. But those dungeons often grow in much wilder and more unpredictable patterns. And the energies they produce attract strange and terrifying monsters. The core beasts within these dungeons are vastly more powerful than what you would expect to encounter within a dungeon of similar size.

And then there are the dungeon effects themselves. That powerful sensation that everyone feels the first time they go into a dungeon and eventually learn to ignore as they grow stronger is much more pronounced. From what little I've heard of these places, no one ever learns to truly ignore the pressures. And along with that force, apparently, comes a new voice whispering non-stop words of madness.

It is likely best that everyone, even the most seasoned dungeon delver, stay out of chaotic space.

A Dive Into Dungeons by Jerold Helmer