Chapter 12: Dark Secret

As Paradox proceeded down the darkened stairs, He was able to see the room below by degrees. First, he saw spikes. A cluster of long, stone spikes was near the center of the room, all of them pointing toward some invisible position in the air. There was a small, round podium nestled in the center of the cluster, which was sitting empty. Next, Paradox was able to see the far wall, which, contrary to the rest of the building, only had a few small lines of text written on it. A small door opposite Paradox led deeper into the building. Finally, Paradox was able to view the ceiling, which was a perfect mirror of the floor, spikes and all.
"That's where you got the canister from, I guess." Paradox said.
"If by that you mean the large, spiked pedestal, then yes." Kira said. There was a pause before she said "And before you say anything, yes. Hindsight is twenty-twenty."
Paradox hadn't been thinking anything like that, but he said nothing. Instead, he made his way around the room, reading the few lines of text on the far wall.
Project judgement Project Manager: Mallion Corello Project status: Defunct
"Has anyone read this yet?" Paradox asked.
"I think I established that our linguists are very busy." Kira said. "Why? What does it say?"
"Does 'project judgement' mean anything to you?" Paradox said.
"No." Kira responded. "What does it say about it?"
"Not much." Paradox said. "It says it's 'defunct', whatever that means."
Kira had no response.
Paradox tried the far door. It was locked, but a short psionic search found the interface. Paradox found himself staring into the pitch blackness beyond.
Paradox searched for something like a light switch, both physically and psionically, but he found nothing. He had decided just to go in and wait for his eyes to adjust when a glowing face appeared and charged him.
Paradox flung his arms into a defensive position, and he must have given off a small peep as well because Kira said "What is it? what do you see?" soon afterward. As Paradox's eyes adjusted, however, he found he wasn't in immediate danger.
"There's one of those ghost things," Paradox said, "But it's in a tube." The tube in question was a large, glass tube; bigger than Paradox. Along the bottom half was a metallic base with what looked like a control panel attached. As Paradox's eyes adjusted, he saw more tubes, all in massive rows upon rows. Several more tubes contained ghost faces and a few of the other tubes were broken, but most of them were just empty. All of the tubes were connected from the top to a system of vents or pipes that all led into the far wall. Beneath the pipes' exit point was a small door outlined with a faint incandescent line. that was just bright enough for Paradox to see it without being useful for seeing anything else. The ghost face nearest Paradox was repeatedly hitting the glass, trying to get to him.
"There's... a lot of tubes. most are empty." Paradox said.
"Interesting..." Kira said.
Paradox worried a bit about the way Kira said that to herself, but filed it away for now.
Paradox shuffled nervously toward the far door, looking back and forth nervously at the few glowing faces he could see. If any of these creatures got loose right now, There wouldn't be any light to throw at them. Luckily, the glass seemed sturdy enough to resist any attack on the part of the creatures and Paradox reached the far side of the room unscathed.
Paradox was grateful to find that the next room was lit, if dimly. The pipes from the last room ran in along the ceiling, coming to a stop near the center of the room where they connected with a large, partially shattered glass cylinder.
"This doesn't look good." Paradox said to himself.
"what doesn't look good?" Kira said, obviously annoyed that she couldn't see for herself.
"It's, like, a giant test tube." Paradox said. "It connects to all the others. It's broken, though."
Kira was silent for a bit. Then she said "Are there any controls nearby?"
"Uh- yeah." Paradox said. There was a console near the base of the contraption.
"Can you turn it on?"
Paradox went stiff, not sure whether he'd heard her right. "You want me to... activate it?"
"Yeah." Kira said. "Is that a problem?"
"uhh, maybe." Paradox said. "It just seems... dangerous."
"You didn't go for safety." Kira said. "you're there for answers, and we can't get any just staring at the thing."
Paradox's next thought was that neither Kira or Paradox would be getting any answers if he was dead, either, but refrained from saying so. Instead, Paradox took a tentative look over the controls, deeply hoping that the 'on' button was completely and utterly destroyed. Most of the controls seemed to be settings of some sort, used to preemptively control what happened once the machine started. they were labeled things like Pressure, Static, or Intake in dark runes. One button, however, had no label; and it was big, green, and begging to be pressed.
Why did it have to be so obvious which button turns the thing on? Paradox thought. Why couldn't they just tuck it into a corner where I could never find it?
Paradox stretched his arm out as far as it would go, keeping as much distance between himself and the machine as possible, and pressed the button.
Sound reverberated through the walls of the ancient structure as pumps and motors sprang to life. Multiple runes popped into existence on previously barren areas of the console. Error: Echo chamber 42 breach. Error: Echo chamber 28 empty. The errors kept popping up until there was no room left on the console. Paradox thought that they might begin spilling off the sides, too.
A few shouts of protest drew Paradox back into the dark room behind. What few ghost faces that had still been in their containers were wrapped in some sort of energy webbing and being shunted through the tubes one by one. Paradox looked back to the giant tube in the next room; ghosts were emerging from the opening in the top. Static forcefields had luckily sprung into place to keep them in. As more creatures entered the container, lightning began to arc across the container's interior, and the creatures cried out. Momentarily, Paradox felt sorry for them, but the feeling was soon replaced by horror as the creatures slowly began merging. twenty faces became ten, ten became five, five became two, all while they struggled against whatever the machine was doing to them. After a few moments, one bulbous mass existed in the chamber; and it turned towards Paradox. It's eyes held only anger, and it sneered at Paradox before giving a bloodcurdling shriek.
The building shook. Paradox stumbled and used the wall to steady himself. The thing was still screaming, but it was shrinking too. Lightning from the creature bombarded the container walls, but the energy flow was slowly tapering like water from a hose that was being turned off.
The horrific screaming thing shrank to the size of Paradox's paw, then to a thimble, then a grain of sand, and then into nonexistence. The errors disappeared. The forcefield around the container deactivated.
Paradox was breathing heavily. He became aware of Kira's voice on his earpiece.
"Paradox? Paradox! What just happened?"
Paradox took another deep breath and said, "It was a- I mean it made a- a thing."
"Listen, Paradox. I'm not in the mood for games." Kira said.
"It was a- Quantum Collapse... thing." Paradox said. "But- but smaller, maybe? I think- I think it died."
"He must have been created there.” Kira said, More to herself than to Paradox. “Some sort of weapon development facility.” Then she asked, “It died? could you be more specific?"
"It... shrank." Paradox said.
Kira sounded like she was about to say something scathing when the sound of a door slamming interrupted her. Then she said "Professor?"
Paradox waited in silence for a bit. Muffled conversation could be heard, but Paradox couldn't decipher any of it. After a couple of minutes, Kira came back on.
"It looks like Quantum Collapse has made another appearance." She said.
"He's not in the city again?" Paradox asked, worried.
"No, he's... The area is relatively uninhabited." Kira said. "He's not far from where you are, actually." she added thoughtfully.
"Oh." Paradox said, not exactly comforted. "How- how close is he?"
"A few miles north of your position." Kira said. "I think you could intercept him quite easily."
"And... die?" Paradox pointed out. "I'm not really feeling great about the direction this is going."
"I've got a plan." Kira said. "Grab one of those glass tubes on your way out. I'll be sending a drone to pick it up."