Private Shifting Sands

[Persephone Dashiell]

Persephone listened to the entire explanation of how and why something like this could be sealed. It was more than what she suspected, which was merely sealing away a poisonous product so no others could unleash it on the galaxy. Liin Terallo spoke of terrors that were potentially waiting for them on the other side. Locked away to not be found.

Perhaps the reason the laboratory was abandoned in the first place.

Not something she encountered often in archaeology. No, it was more a seal to keep people out from looting, not for protection of those who may stumble across.

"So, do I continue cutting or do we go another route?"

Stepping back a moment, the teenager regarded the structure they were trying to break in to. She had an idea where two different scenarios were running in her head.

"We can either break open the front door and get Zee in here. He can do this for us while we safely wait. Or I can use the plasma cutter and cut a window so we may peer inside. Or maybe a combination of both ideas."

Persie paused and shrugged.

"Its your call, I'm not the expert."

 

[Liin Terallo]

Liin studied the sealed entrance for a long moment after Persephone spoke. Not the structure as a whole. Not the canyon. Not even the practical problem of entry. Just the seam. The place where intent had been layered over intent until it became difficult to tell what had originally been built and what had been imposed afterward.

At length, she exhaled softly through her nose. “You are correct,” she said quietly. “You are not the expert.” There was no sting in her words that she was using. Only an acknowledgment. Her gaze shifted briefly toward Persephone, then back to the plasma cutter, still humming faintly in the younger woman’s hands. “But neither am I,” Liin admitted. That, more than anything, seemed important to her.

She stepped closer to the sealed doorway again, lowering herself slightly to study the junction where the older stone met the newer reinforcement layers. Her fingers hovered just above the surface without touching it this time. “Breaking it open is the most direct option,” she said after a moment. “Which does not make it the safest.” Her eyes narrowed faintly as she followed a faint irregularity along the edge of the seal. “And caution is not the same as avoidance.”

A brief silence settled between them, filled only by the low hiss of the cutter cooling. Finally, Liin straightened. “We do not know whether this was sealed to contain contamination,” she said. “Or to prevent interference.” Her gaze flicked toward the corridor behind them, then back again. “And we do not know whether whatever is inside has remained stable.” That, more than anything else, seemed to guide her decision.

“Cut a window,” she said at last. Calmly. “Small. Controlled. Enough to observe without committing fully to entry. And have Zee ready,” she added. “If something inside reacts poorly to observation, I would prefer to have an immediate exit that does not involve improvisation.”

Her attention returned briefly to Persephone. Not in an unkind way. Not uncertain. Just steady. “If there is a combination of both ideas,” she finished, “it should be the one that reduces the number of surprises we are exposed to at the same time.”

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

"Understood."

Unlike her journey with the Jedi, especially Colette , it was nice to work with another without an ego trip. A sharing of ideas. Someone who maybe didn't see her on equal footing but at least took her life experiences and thoughts into account. It made for less friction and an easier time in getting things completed. As it stood she would have to go back to that library on her own to finish doing what she needed to research.

Setting down her tools for a moment, she quickly messaged Zee.

[ Miss Terallo wants you on standby. I know the door is blocked out front, any progress? ]

[ Half way through clearing it Miss Persephone. Another ten minutes and I believe I can cut through the hinges. ]

[ Alright, we are still in the main chamber. ]

Putting away her datapad, she looked to Liin Terallo .

"Zee is halfway through clearing the door then will cut through the hinges. I am going to start cutting that small window. It should take me some time as this is all new. If anything is amiss we should hit the door just as Zee is cutting his way in. Going to cut that window again."

Picking up her equipment, Persephone started the plasma torch once more, beginning to cut a small window at face level so she and Liin could peer inside.

 

[Liin Terallo]

Liin gave a small nod as Persephone relayed Zee's progress. "That should give us enough time," she said quietly. There was something reassuring about knowing they had another route available if circumstances deteriorated unexpectedly. Scientists often worked under the assumption that experiments would eventually surprise them. The important part was ensuring that those surprises remained survivable.

She stepped back to give Persephone room to work. The steady hiss of the plasma torch soon filled the chamber once more, accompanied by the occasional shower of orange sparks that bounced harmlessly across the ancient stone floor before fading into darkness. Liin watched in silence, more interested in the material itself than in the cutting process. Whatever had sealed this entrance had been intended to last. Years. Perhaps centuries.

She found herself wondering who had stood here last. Who had decided that whatever lay beyond this wall should remain unseen. And whether they had believed they were protecting the galaxy or protecting whatever remained inside.

The final section of metal surrendered with a dull metallic click. The small square shifted inward only slightly before catching against something beyond.

Liin instinctively raised a hand. "Careful." She waited. Nothing happened. There were no alarms. There was no movement. And no rush of contaminated air, either. Only silence.

Slowly, she stepped closer, stopping just short of the opening. The beam from her glowrod slipped through the narrow aperture first, sweeping carefully across the darkness beyond before she allowed herself to look inside. For several moments she said nothing. She simply observed. Her eyes moved deliberately from one detail to the next, resisting every temptation to focus on whatever first caught her attention. Entrances. Structural supports. Dust accumulation. Signs of collapse. Evidence of recent disturbance. Anything that suggested the chamber had not remained untouched since it had been sealed.

"If anything is still active," she murmured, almost to herself, "it has had a very long time to wait." Her voice remained calm, though noticeably quieter now. She glanced briefly toward Persephone. "I don't see any immediate movement." Not yet. Returning her attention to the opening, she leaned just enough to improve her angle without placing any part of herself beyond the wall. "Let's learn everything we can from here before we decide whether to open the door." The words were less an instruction than a reminder. Afterall, there was no prize for being first into an unknown room. Only consequences for entering it too quickly.

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

By the time Liin Terallo was done poking around in the small hole she had cut, Zee had muscled his way in through the door. At least if they needed to escape it was a more straight shot rather than zig-zagging for their escape route. That was on the second floor. Zee was quiet as he regarded the pair but Persephone could tell he was mapping the room, taking things in, searching for signs of life. He would interrupt if there was a concern that involved injury or loss of life.

Grabbing her flashlight as Liin moved aside, it was then her turn to look. Flashlight carefully entered the small hole and her one eye peered through the rest of the space. Clearly experiments had occurred in the space. They were looking for a rare orchid that had poisonous potential. There were no living plants as far as she could see but that was to be expected. Desert and orchid did not mix.

"I don't see anything sentient. Experiment tools left out. Not seeing any seeds or tissue samples of the orchid we came for....might be in a cabinet. Or back further that we cannot see. Looks like it was raided before being sealed up honestly."

 

[Liin Terallo]

I listened without interrupting, with my attention remaining fully upon the narrow opening; rather than immediately accepting the conclusion. "Perhaps," I said quietly. "At first glance, it certainly appears that way."

For several moments I remained silent, allowing the glowrod's light to sweep slowly across the visible portion of the chamber again. "Something doesn't quite fit." My eyes settled upon the edges of the reinforced doorway before drifting back through the opening. "If the laboratory had simply been raided..." I said thoughtfully, "...why seal it afterwards?" The question was directed as much toward myself as anyone else. "Removing anything valuable and then investing the effort required to permanently close the entrance seems unnecessarily deliberate." I lowered the glowrod slightly. "Unless whatever remained inside was considered just as important as whatever had been taken." Or just as dangerous. I kept that final thought to myself.

Instead, I studied the limited view again, becoming increasingly aware of how deceptive a single angle could be. "We're seeing the room through a very narrow frame." I gestured lightly toward the opening Persephone had cut. "Perspective has a habit of encouraging premature conclusions." My gaze drifted downward. "What does the floor look like? Not the equipment. Not the benches, either, but the floor. If people searched this room thoroughly, I'd expect to see signs of disturbance. Drag marks. Scattered debris. Uneven dust accumulation. Broken glass where cabinets had been emptied. Things like that." I tilted my head ever so slightly. "If the dust is perfectly uniform..." My voice remained thoughtful. "...then whatever happened here may have occurred before the room was sealed rather than during a raid."

I stepped back from the opening. "I think we should cut another observation port." My attention shifted toward the wall a short distance to one side. "Lower this time." I indicated a point roughly knee height. "And offset from the first." A faint smile appeared. "Two viewpoints are considerably better than one." Looking back to Persephone, I folded my hands loosely before me. "If both openings tell us the same story, then our confidence in that interpretation increases." My eyes then returned to the sealed chamber. "But if they tell us different stories then we'll know the room is trying to deceive us."

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

"Maybe its sealed up because they couldn't take everything? Planned on coming back later and ended up dying. Or forgotten. Directions lost."

Unwise on all fronts but Persephone could see these events occuring. Liin Terallo was cautious, and rightly so, but she was ready to toss Zee in and see what came of it. What good was a reenforced bodyguard droid if one couldn't use it? Yet she wasn't going to rock the boat. Did that last outing and the Jedi got snippy, causing her to hurry. Persephone didn't want to come all the way back when she was already here.

"Zee, go ahead and cut a new porthole roughly shin high on myself."

[ Of course Miss Persephone. ]

Sparks started to fly as the droid cut. He was faster and more efficient than herself. Maybe she should start practicing more. Within the span of five minutes there was a solid thunk as the metal fell on the other side. To make things easier, Zee directed his photoreceptors into the upper port to allow for more lighting.

"Do we draw straws on who gets down to look?"

 

[Liin Terallo]

I considered Persephone's suggestion for a moment before giving a small, thoughtful nod. "That is certainly possible," I admitted quietly. "People abandon unfinished work for all sorts of reasons. War. Accidents. Changing priorities. Sometimes they simply never return." My eyes lingered on the sealed entrance. "And history has a habit of misplacing intentions. But I don't think that we have enough information to decide which explanation is the correct one just yet."

The fresh-cut opening still glowed faintly around it's edges as Zee finished his work. The section of metal landed somewhere beyond the wall with a solid metallic thud before silence reclaimed the chamber once more. Zee's photoreceptors shone through the upper aperture, casting a much stronger beam across the room than my glowrod had managed.

Persephone's question drew my attention downward. "Neither," I answered. She was already standing beside the lower opening, while I remained a step back. "You've earned the better view. And besides," I added with a small smile, "you're already at the correct height."

I folded my hands loosely before me while allowing her room to kneel. "The floor is what interests me the most." My voice remained thoughtful rather than urgent. "Dust rarely lies. If equipment was removed in haste, it should remember. Drag marks, foot traffic, broken glass; reas where sediment accumulated differently after objects were displaced." I tilted my head slightly toward the opening. "If, instead, everything has settled uniformly..." My eyes narrowed just a fraction. "...then whatever happened inside may have been completed long before this doorway was ever sealed."

I glanced briefly toward Zee before returning my attention to Persephone. "Tell me what the ground is trying to say."

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

"Sounds like I'm just younger and my knees are better."

Kneeling down, she was thankful Zee had strong optical sensors. The small square piece of metal cut off of the door was still faintly glowing red as she came eye level with the opening. The room in question was extremely dusty, coated in various layers. Flashlight was in her hand, poking through so she could get a better look at where some of the shadows had cast due to Zee's lights.

Dust was thick but there was a clear drag mark that was coated in less dust leading to an unknown room. Possibly more laboratory equipment? She found it very difficult to tell. Brows furrowed and she used the beam of the flashlight to point it out to Liin Terallo . The scholar focused on showinf her the drag area.

"Very thick but this area looks like something was drug. It is also dusty but not as thick as the countertops or even around the sink. So someone was here after it was sealed up and went to that side room."

 

[Liin Terallo]

I crouched slightly beside Persephone, following the beam of her flashlight toward the disturbed section of floor. For several seconds, I said nothing. The difference was subtle, but unmistakable. The surrounding dust had settled into a thick, almost undisturbed layer. Yet the narrow path leading toward the adjoining room was noticeably different. Not clean, exactly. Whatever had moved through there had happened long enough ago for dust to begin settling over the disturbance again. But not long enough for it to disappear entirely.

"You're right," I murmured. "That's not consistent with simple abandonment." I lowered my glowrod, allowing Zee's illumination to do most of the work. My attention followed the trail carefully, from it's beginning near the laboratory equipment to the darkness beyond. "Something was dragged." I glanced toward Persephone. "Or someone."

That thought lingered for a moment. I didn't particularly like either possibility.

"Zee," I said, turning toward the droid. "Can you scan that adjoining room? Thermal imaging, if you have it. And life signs, if your sensors are capable of distinguishing them."

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

[ No thermal imaging but I have other means of scanning for life. ]

Zee set to work. Scanning for life beyond where they were. The seconds ticked by, silence beyond his servos and mechanics whirring in the room. Persephone didn't interrupt despite knowing Zee could handle multiple things at once. Just seemed stupid to interrupt his work when they didn't even know what was going on.

[ Unknown results. ]

"What does that mean Zee?"

[ The walls have some sort of metal alloy preventing my scans from penetrating beyond the initial room. Reinforced and/or too thick for a mere droid to scan. Military grade equipment would be required. My suggestion is to enter the first initial room and investigate further since all openings are fully closed. ]

"I have no objections. Clearly nothing has disturbed the lab in some time. It will give us an idea of the next mysterious room."

Liin Terallo ​

 

[Liin Terallo]

I considered Zee's assessment for a moment before giving a small nod. "That seems reasonable."

My attention returned to the darkened laboratory beyond the openings we'd created. The inability to scan through the adjoining wall was frustrating, but hardly surprising. Whoever had constructed this facility had apparently taken security rather seriously. If anything, that made the reinforced walls more interesting.

I glanced toward Persephone. "And I agree. We've learned what we can from this side of the door." I straightened slowly, brushing a little dust from my clothing before looking toward the sealed entrance again. "We know the room was disturbed after it was sealed. We know something was dragged from the laboratory toward that adjoining chamber. And we know that whatever separates us from it is substantial enough to defeat Zee's sensors." A faint crease formed between my brows. "Which means I think we've reached the point where another hole in the wall isn't going to tell us much."

I looked toward the original entrance. "Could we open the doorway instead?" There was a brief pause before I added, "Not completely, perhaps. Just enough for us to enter safely and maintain an obvious route back out." My gaze moved over the ancient metal and its surrounding framework. "If the mechanism is still functional, I'd rather use whatever remains of the original doorway than start cutting through another section of the structure." I glanced down toward the narrow opening at shin height. "And I would very much like to see where that drag mark actually leads." My eyes followed the faint trail disappearing into the adjoining darkness. There was something deeply unsettling about evidence of movement in a room that had otherwise been left to gather dust for so long. "Though," I added quietly, "I'd prefer that we don't assume whatever made that trail is still there."

The little biomass creature shifted against my shoulder, apparently taking that as a reasonable precaution.

I looked toward Zee. "If you can assist with the doorway, let's open it enough for both of us to enter. Once we're inside, you can continue scanning the laboratory and the adjoining passage." My attention returned to Persephone, and a small smile touched my lips. "Then we can finally stop trying to understand the room through a collection of increasingly inconvenient holes."

I stepped aside to give Zee room to work, my glowrod already in hand. "After you."

Tag: Persephone Dashiell

 

[Persephone Dashiell]

Liin Terallo
​

[ Sounds reasonable. ]

Zee examined the door for a long period, focused on the hinges. A moment of calculations and he set to work, sparks flying once more. Bits of metal were dropping to the floor, molten against the ground. After a lot of groaning and metal scraping, the door was quite literally removed from its hinges. Zee was working on propping it up next to the laboratory.

[ I took the hinges off. When we leave I will weld it back in place. ]

"Sounds great Zee."

Liin was giving her first go ahead so she did, stepping into the laboratory in question. Immediately when she entered some lights came on, no doubt on an ancient sensor. Low lights and only some worked.

"Getting power from somewhere. Back up generator...maybe running on solar or geothermal."

[ Given the area I would say geothermal. ]

"Some of these tanks are broken. Glass all over the floor....maybe the orchids were grown here after all. Tanks would suggest pollen collection, the most deadliest part."

Eyes glanced around, Darkness was more difficult for people with Hapan lineage to see in. She wasn't as bad as her adoptive father but it certainly took an adjustment to see properly.

 

[Liin Terallo]

I stepped carefully through the open doorway, pausing just inside. The sudden activation of the lights drew my attention upward. Several flickered uncertainly before settling into a dim, uneven illumination. Others remained dark entirely, leaving portions of the laboratory concealed beneath heavy shadows.

My eyes adjusted slowly as I took in the room. "Geothermal," I murmured in agreement with Zee's assessment. "That would explain why anything is still functioning at all."

I didn't move toward the adjoining chamber. Not yet. Instead, I remained where I was for several seconds, allowing myself to observe the laboratory as a whole before deciding where to begin. Old habits die hard. A laboratory was a system, and examining one component without understanding the larger arrangement could lead to very misleading conclusions.

My gaze moved first toward the tanks. The broken containers immediately caught my attention. I approached one carefully, keeping my feet clear of the scattered glass. The glowrod swept slowly across the floor, illuminating fragments that had been dulled by years of accumulated dust. "Orchids are certainly possible," I said quietly. I crouched near one of the damaged vessels without touching it. "But I'm not convinced yet." My eyes moved across the interior of the tank. "If these were used for cultivation, I'd expect evidence of the plants themselves. Organic residue. Root structures. Dried substrate. Pollen accumulation. Depending upon how long the facility has been abandoned, even degraded biomaterial should leave something behind."

I shifted my light toward the floor. "And there's another problem." I pointed toward the glass. "Most of it is inside the containment vessels." I looked towards Persephone. "If the tanks simply shattered from age or structural failure, I'd expect the distribution to be much less orderly. Glass should have been thrown outward." I paused. "Instead, most of it appears to have remained where the containers were." My attention moved toward the surrounding workstations. "Which makes me wonder whether these were broken deliberately." I stood again and began moving slowly around the room. "Or whether something was removed from them first."

That possibility made considerably more sense when I noticed the cases. I approached one of the storage units and examined it without opening anything immediately. Dust had accumulated across the exterior, but the pattern wasn't entirely uniform. I crouched again, studying the base. "Persephone?" I gestured toward the cases. "Look at the dust here." My glowrod moved along the lower edge. "There should be considerably more accumulation beneath something that's been sitting undisturbed for this long. But there's a difference in the dust around the storage compartments."

I straightened and examined the shelves. "Whatever was stored here may have been removed. And if I'm right, the broken tanks might not represent destruction at all. They could have been opened. The contents removed. And then the containers deliberately damaged afterward."

For a moment, I simply stared at the laboratory. That changed the story considerably. "This doesn't look like a laboratory that was abandoned. It looks like a laboratory that someone finished with."

I turned towards Zee. "Can you examine the storage cases? I want to know whether their locks were forced, opened normally, or simply left unsecured. And scan for any surviving labels, identification markings, or residue."

I then looked towards Persephone. "We should document everything before we touch anything." My attention then moved over the benches, the tanks, the storage cabinets and finally toward the narrow passage where the drag mark disappeared. "Especially before we follow that. If something was stolen from this laboratory, I want to know what was here before we start asking where it went."

The little biomass companion remained perched against my shoulder, its eyes moving independently across the darkened room. It gave a quiet chirp.

I glanced towards it. "Yes. I noticed that too." My gaze settled upon the adjoining passage. "We'll get there. But first, I want to know what someone went to all this trouble to take."

Tag: Persephone Dashiell