Rescue Fantasy (28)
"It's true, but..."
Celestia trailed off. I understood what she was worried about.
Sewage treatment facility. A sprawling underground plant, its countless corridors were tangled and complex. And now, we had fallen somewhere inside it.
To get outside, we wouldn't just have to pass through dark passages but would need to make our way through a veritable maze.
After repeated expansions, the facility naturally became more complicated. Normally, once the expansion level reached a certain point, a redesign process was supposed to follow.
That way, work efficiency would increase, and at the same time, old sections would be replaced, raising the facility's safety.
However, the mining outpost Heaven, even with a rather high expansion level, skipped such processes. It was because the SSTC had ignored regulations to save money.
Their claim was that the facility linked to the base just fine, and, anyway, there was almost never a reason to venture underground.
At the time, everyone had cursed them as crazy cheapskates, but now that I thought about it, it could have been to conceal something else, not simply to save credits.
Those were the guys who built a hidden room in the medical sector to run a clone incubation chamber. Now that I'd learned there were several such chambers, the probability of there being one underground bordered on certainty.
"For now, I have the underground layout. I already downloaded the file, so there shouldn't be any viewing restrictions. I can't share it since I'm not connected, though."
I brought up the file Licorice had given me as a hologram. I'd forgotten all about receiving it, but it turned out to be really useful now.
"Ah, you should've said that first! I was scared for no reason."
Celestia let out a sigh of relief, saying at least she wouldn't have to wander a maze.
"But the map isn't perfect. There will be some blank spots. And some parts may have been built differently than shown."
"I'll go back to being scared, then."
Celestia sighed again at my explanation that, without sync, our current location wouldn't show up. The feeling in her sigh was the opposite: still, some of her anxiety was eased.
Groaning, Celestia awkwardly forced herself to stand up.
"Let's get moving. Everyone will be worried."
She said this, holding out her hand to me. Her blue eyes showed a conviction that, together, we could find our way back. Even if she claimed to be scared, she always made quick decisions in unexpected situations.
"You could rest a little more."
"I said confidently we'd return, so we should get back before they really start to worry, right? If we're late, Carry might scold us."
"That's for sure. It's looks terrifying when it's angry."
I took her hand and rose to my feet. I didn't actually pull myself up with it—if I had, we'd probably both have toppled right over.
"Whatever Lobelia's after—"
I was about to say, 'we can't just let her win so easily,' when Celestia bit out the name.
"Ah, Lobelia."
She muttered the name with chilling venom.
"If I'd known this would happen, I should have killed her the moment I set eyes on her."
"......"
She sounded so menacing, it sent a chill down my spine for a moment. Of course, I had not a shred of good feeling toward Lobelia either, so I understood her completely.
"Sorry."
"Huh? For what? Hyun-woo, why are you apologizing?"
"I feel like I might've provoked things."
Maybe it was because I'd stirred her up that things turned out this way. When I said that, Celestia blinked in a daze, then shook her head.
"I was the one who sent the warning sign. I didn't act out of nowhere; I only moved because I thought it might be more dangerous to go back to the town together as things were. Isn't that right?"
"Yes."
"Then that's it. Let's not talk about this any more. We got the biocell, just took a chance and hit a jackpot, that's all."
From Celestia's experience, she said if the two people involved kept blaming themselves, it could become endless.
"More importantly, you said our location isn't showing, yes? We should check that first."
Our best landmark was underneath the eastern tower of the hydroponics facility. But for escape, we needed a more precise landmark. Depending on elevation, the available corridors would change, and so would the potential routes.
We decided to head toward any passage that was open for now. I flicked water droplets from my flashlight and clipped it to my shoulder. I surveyed the surroundings in the beam.
We stood on the outskirts of a vast cavern. The only space to move was the narrow ledge along the perimeter. If we went even a little off to the side, we would drop straight down.
Below lay pitch-black, water-filled depths. Further below, I could barely glimpse the roots from the ceiling—probably roots from that giant tree in the tower.
The roots had all different thicknesses and textures, winding this way and that.
'Should I collect a sample of the water?'
If the plants' mutations had started because they absorbed this water, then it was well worth taking a sample. Analyzing what was in the water would help us find solutions if anyone ended up ingesting it by accident later, so I decided to bring some.
I unconsciously started to call Carry before realizing it wasn't with me. Its absence, after always being there, felt strange and empty—almost as much as Nadia's.
'Carry got out okay, right?'
I could still clearly picture it barely escaping through the hole I blasted with the polar impactor at the last moment, even fending off the vines that had surged forward to catch it.
Had Kanna's team joined it at the north tower, or had it made its way back to the town alone? Either way, neither would be easy.
The former meant heading to the reactor chamber room, the latter meant crossing the titanic ice fields that could turn treacherous at a moment's notice. Still, the second seemed more likely.
Carry's transport box held spare refined blue crystals, so it shouldn't be short on battery.
'I'm worried, but...'
It was smart, so I could only trust it'd manage. For now, the best I could do for Carry was silently pray it would. I quietly pulled out a sample container from my belt bag and filled it with water.
While Celestia waited for me, she looked around and shared her thoughts.
"Feels like we're in a mangrove forest."
"Mangrove?"
"Trees that live in water... The ones here are way bigger and thicker than Earth's, but the overall vibe is similar. Or rather, it feels like the only thing they brought over was the creepy part."
Her voice was thick with unease. A disturbing space—her words fit perfectly.
Sticky humidity filled the air, the smallest drip of water somewhere set my nerves on edge, and every step made a wet sloshing that echoed all around.
At least there wasn't a thick fog. There was a faint mist, but it was light enough that visibility wasn't seriously affected.
"It's dark, but the water's actually clear."
"It's like there isn't even the usual impurities."
Contrary to how I'd expected sewage treatment facility water to be filthy, this water was startlingly transparent. When I shone my light on the calm surface, I could see right down into the depths.
If not for the occasional ripple or shifting of roots, I couldn't even guess the water's depth. That just made me more wary.
Just watching, I felt like I might get sucked in at any moment.
'Lake.' Yes, calling it a lake was accurate. Celestia and I stuck close to the edge so we wouldn't fall in. The space was so huge, we kept walking for a while without finding another passage.
'Maybe there's something below us?'
Even for a sewage treatment facility, it shouldn't be filled with this much water. Normally, there'd be constant flow, with water sent somewhere else.
But the lake isolating us now was absolutely still. If it weren't for the clearly artificial structure, I'd believe we were inside a cave.
"Celestia, how much oxygen do you have left in your pack?"
"Enough for one person. Actually, it's not full. Although, there were some in the supply box, so we have some spares. Why?"
"Just in case we need to go underwater, I thought I'd better ask."
"Ah... I suppose we really might have to..."
Celestia gazed at the silent lake. The reflection in the crystal-clear water perfectly mirrored her blue eyes. Her mirrored face was drawn and anxious.
"... Honestly, I really don't want to go in there. But if someone has to, I'll do it. I went swimming a lot as a kid, so I'm decent in water."
"Oh..."
"That's 'oh,' nothing. You really don't expect anything from me, do you?"
"No, I just... hope we don't end up having to do that."
If the lake was this tranquil, it probably meant there was no opening anywhere below. Breaking its surface without machinery would be hard.
Even if I broke it by force, it would be risky. When water under pressure starts moving one way, the current turns violent fast.
Once caught, you could be swept away by a torrent no one could predict, and the suit—already battered after all the shocks—might give out.
The only reason Celestia and I could keep our body temperature now was that the suit's heating was still working. If that died, escaping would become exponentially harder.
'Communications are already down—if we start having to worry about hypothermia, too...'
It occurred to me that the temperature was low. Not as cold as outside, perhaps, but definitely chilly.
Since the water wasn't frozen, I guessed there was at least minimal thermal management. Still, it should have been iced over. There must be some other reason it wasn't.
As I mused and walked, my flashlight beam finally hit something at the far edge of the cavern—a door, not a dead end, firmly closed.
"Good, at least we won't have to swim,"
I said.
"We didn't have the feeling of going down, so maybe this is an upward passage?"
"We'll have to get closer to find out."
Soon, we reached the heavy iron door and saw large letters engraved on it.
SB-LV6.
This meant an SSTC-managed underground sector. But the number was odd. The moment I saw it, I couldn't believe my eyes. Up to now, level 5 had always been the bottom floor—supposedly.
"... Level 6?"
"Hyun-woo, what's wrong?"
"It can't be... I was told there were no levels below five."
Level 5 was the bottom. There might be a few other treatment facilities beneath, but not a whole additional floor.
That was what the schematics showed, and what the safety briefing said before I ever undertook cleaning in the sewage plant.
Back then, the administrators had said, 'There's nothing below level 5. If you ever find yourself lost and encounter levels beyond that, get out immediately.'
They'd added that undispersed chemicals might linger in the air and induce hallucinations if inhaled, so it could be dangerous.
Maybe it was a prank to scare the newbies, or maybe a real warning—I wasn't sure. Right after telling the story, the administrators would always giggle at the workers' stone-faced reactions.
At the time, I'd dismissed it as an urban legend, but seeing it right in front of me now, I knew that the idea of it being a hallucination was pure nonsense.
Celestia and I weren't experiencing any hallucinations, nor had we come here by choice. This was a real, nerve-wracking obstacle.
"Then we must have fallen from the upper tower all the way to level 5, at least. No wonder the drop felt so long. If there hadn't been water below— No, if you weren't here, really..."
Celestia's expression turned grim. Mine was no less serious.
We were currently standing at the entryway to something below what was supposedly the bottom: level 5. Either we were already inside level 6, or opening the door would mean entering it.
The heavy blast door displayed no welcoming holograms—the system wasn't greeting visitors at all.
It simply kept its mouth tightly shut.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Lobelia's lab, maybe?
【「(°ヘ°)?】