Part 8: Gravity-Assisted Navigation

Chapter 7: Gravity-Assisted Navigation



Amy hadn't exactly come prepared for combat. The only thing she was carrying that even resembled a weapon was a little scalpel. It was hard to imagine a weapon with a blade less than three inches long inflicting much damage, no matter how sharp it was.



Her healing techniques left something to be desired as well. She was fresh out of med school and it showed. Even Nei had already learned Anti, which cured poison; Amy only had Res and the protective Shu technique, although she promised she'd almost perfected several other techniques and she'd be ready to use them after just a little more practice.



Not surprisingly, the Biomonsters on our way to the Biosystems lab were among the strongest we'd encountered so far. The Locusta was a bigger, meaner cousin of the Locust, and the Kite Dragon was... some kind of giant walking tree that shot laser beams out of holes in its trunk. Don't ask me how that works, I'm not a biologist.



We all reached the lab alive: Amy still wasn't much use in a fight, but at least she was agile enough to keep herself from getting killed. Before we entered, though, I thought it'd be a good idea to visit other nearby towns and see if there was better equipment on sale. A little further south and east and we'd reach Zema, which wasn't far from Mota's largest titanium refinery.



That plan came to nothing when we found that the bridge to the south had been sealed off by heavy security doors, probably to prevent Biomonsters from migrating through it. There was a small indentation in the wall next to the door, probably for inserting some kind of passkey, but I didn't have one. We'd have to take on the Biosystems lab with what we had now.



On the bright side, Amy had learned the Deban technique, which created a wall of compressed air to reduce the impact of enemy attacks. Given the sheer number of Biomonsters in there, though, it'd be hard for her to keep up that wall all the way through the lab.



Our remaining dynamite was put to good use in blasting open the door to the Biosystems lab. Biomonsters were obviously escaping from the lab already, so one extra hole in the wall couldn't do much harm.



The inside of the lab had been thoroughly wrecked by its current inhabitants. The walls and floor were filthy, and the whole place stank of a vile mixture of spilled chemicals and animal waste.



The Biomonsters still seemed to like the place just fine, though. Jellies were filled with a soporific toxin, making them just that little bit more annoying than the average Biomonster. Even so, I'd still rather face one of them than a Blaster: if a disgusting protoplasmic life form is going to digest me, I'd prefer to be asleep while it's happening.



Amy finally perfected the Anti technique, and started branching out into offensive techniques. As much as I admired her initiative, plain old Foi wasn't much use against the swarms of powerful Biomonsters we were facing.



The Biomonsters just kept on getting worse as we pressed on further into the lab. The Mushroom was a giant, sentient fungus protected by a chitinous shell: strong, hard to kill, and generally bad news.



As I struck the deathblow to the last Mushroom I heard movement behind me and turned around, fearing that another one was attacking, but I saw with relief that it was only a Toader. Toaders were basically big hungry frogs, and not much of a threat compared to everything else in here.



We continued on into the depths of the lab, passing by row upon row of tanks filled with weird and not-so-wonderful life forms. How could the work being done here have gone so horribly wrong? Who even designed these monstrosities in the first place: Mother Brain, or the scientists working here? Why were they made? Were they meant to be food for the people of Mota?

Now that was a sobering thought. I don't think I'll be eating hamburger again for a while.



The number of gaping holes in the floor around here was starting to get disconcerting, but none of them looked deep enough to reach the basement. Maybe all these holes had once served some purpose in the lab's operations, but at the moment their main function was to allow flying Biomonsters to fly up from the floor below and attack us. As if there weren't enough giant bloodsucking insects on Mota already, the Biosystems lab was infested with Stingers. Every drop of our blood that they drained made them stronger; they weren't the deadliest Biomonsters in here, but they were frustratingly hard to kill.



In the middle of the room with all the holes was a first aid cabinet containing a dose of universal antivenom. None of the Biomonsters we'd run into so far were venomous enough that we needed one, but it never hurt to be prepared. It would have made more sense for that cabinet to have some Dimate to treat injuries from falling into all the damn holes in the floor, though.



Not that we needed any medicine right now either: Amy had finally mastered the Gires technique, a significantly more powerful and efficient form of Res. Despite Rudo's fears, Amy was becoming a major asset to our group.



Nei proudly announced that she'd learned another healing technique too, but it was one I hoped she'd never have to use. The Sak technique could fully heal one person's wounds, but only at the cost of its user's life. Why was she willing to make that kind of sacrifice to protect me? I should be the one protecting her!



We worked our way around the outer wall of the lab and were lucky enough to find a first aid cabinet containing Star Mist, which I stored safely in my pack.



There was also a stick of dynamite in a crate on the top floor of the lab. I don't know what a biological research laboratory needs dynamite for, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.



That dynamite didn't take long to come in handy, either: we found another sealed security door on the same floor. Dynamiting every door in our way might not have been subtle, but it had worked well enough so far. Given the state the lab was in, we wouldn't really be adding much to the repair bill by blowing up a few doors.



Behind the door was yet another large hole in the floor. I looked over the edge and saw a pit extending right down through the centre of the lab. There was no question about it: this was the maintenance shaft we'd been searching for.

I looked at the rest of the group, then back down the shaft, then back at the group. "Well, down we go."

Amy giggled.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Oh." Amy put a hand over her mouth. "You're serious."

A thick steel cable, strong enough to support my weight, hung down from the ceiling in the middle of the hole. I took hold of it and started sliding down...



... and down...



... and down, all the way to the basement. Rudo followed right after me, then Nei, and finally, reluctantly, Amy.

I now had painful rope burns on my hands and no way to get out short of teleportation. This recorder had better be worth it.



The mix of foul odours down in the basement was more chemical than biological, and it wasn't an improvement. Spilled chemicals formed puddles on the floor and filled the air with noxious fumes.



The fumes stung my eyes and made it hard to breathe, but somehow Biomonsters were thriving even in this toxic environment. The Insecta was the most resilient Biomonster we'd encountered so far: even Gifoi didn't kill it right away.



A chute in one corner of the basement led up to a side exit from the lab. Now we knew how Biomonsters had been getting out of this place. More importantly, we had an alternate escape route in case I was killed and couldn't teleport us out. I wish we'd noticed this entrance when we first came in; it would have saved us a lot of time. We couldn't leave yet, though. We still had to find the recorder, even though it meant fighting our way back through the basement.



In another corner we found a weapon that fired jets of contact poison. Amy volunteered to use it; apparently she'd had experience with similar tools used to tranquilise animals. It could hardly be less effective than a scalpel, anyway.



Meanwhile, I was broadening my own offensive capabilities with the Gra technique, which created a localised gravitational field to crush all nearby Biomonsters.



And there were always plenty of Biomonsters to test it out on; as soon as I'd finished dealing with that group, another came into view from around the corner. Despite their large size, Hit Tails were weak and easily dispatched. Pinchants were much more of a threat, with heavy armour and powerful mandibles.



Fortunately, Amy had learned the Sar technique, which could heal all of us at once. While less efficient than Res, it was useful in an emergency.



Finally we reached the Biosystems lab's main computer, leaving the bodies of countless Biomonsters in our wake. The floor around it was covered in spilled chemicals; there was no way to get to it without wading through them. We walked through the spills as quickly as we could without splashing or slipping over. I could feel the chemicals soaking through my boots and burning my feet. I'm probably going to end up growing an extra toe or something before this is over.



The recorder was a small, grey boxlike object. Looking at it, it was hard to believe that we'd come all this way just for that. Could the truth behind the Biomonster outbreak really be hidden inside it?



There was only one way to find out. I teleported us back to Paseo and headed straight for Central Tower.



In hindsight, I probably should have gone home for a change of clothes first. I don't think Commander O'Connor was thrilled to see me standing there with my acid-soaked boots burning holes in his carpet, but he was too relieved to see me back safely to say anything about it. Despite his relief, though, he seemed troubled.

"Is something wrong, Commander?" I asked.

"I have always believed that Mother Brain is absolutely right all the time, and that our life is protected by Mother Brain. But under the reign of Mother Brain, we have turned into weak and lethargic beings. Under the circumstances, we cannot help realising that fact."

The Commander's monologue was interrupted by a beeping noise from his phone.

"The data must be ready. You'd better get going to the library!"


was an overload of energy poured into the system all at once. As a result, the creature made a rapid evolution. This creature does not fit into the cycle of nature, thus should not exist. And because this kind of creature was created, the natural cycles went out of order."

The librarian pressed a few keys and a graph flashed up on her computer screen.




seems to have flowed into the Biosystems lab. Biohazard could be something that was schemed up by someone. Please find out why the energy leaked from Climatrol."

She handed me a small metal tube.

"Also, if you are going south, take this with you. The bridge over the west river can be passed with this. Good luck!"

I thanked her and left.



I held the tube in my hand and thought about what we'd found, and what was still ahead of us. My suspicions had been confirmed: the drought and the Biomonster outbreak were connected, and the explanation for both of them lay in Climatrol. The Commander's words had left me uneasy, though. To criticise Mother Brain after all she had done for us felt blasphemous, but it was impossible to deny that we'd become dependent on her. I wasn't sure what to believe any more.

"What the Commander said about Mother Brain... do you think he was right? Has life under her protection made the people of Algo weak?"

Amy shook her head. "It was Mother Brain who collected all of Algo's medical knowledge and gave me the opportunity to become a doctor and help others in need. If others don't take advantage of that opportunity, Mother Brain isn't to blame."

"It's not that simple, Amy," Rudo said. "Most people don't learn how to protect themselves, or even how to work for a living, because with Mother Brain protecting them they think they don't need to. And then, when disaster comes along, it finds them unprepared, and we all suffer for our complacency." I could see the pain in his face; talking about the destruction the Biomonsters had caused, even in the abstract, was difficult for him.

Nei closed her eyes and lowered her head for a few seconds, thinking deeply. "I... I don't know. I wouldn't even exist if it weren't for Mother Brain. I can't say if the world would be better or worse without her, because that would be a world in which I didn't exist."

A world where people were self-sufficient... but without Mother Brain, without modern technology and medicine, without Nei. It was hard for me to even imagine it, and I didn't want to try. Besides, if only Mota's current problems could be solved, the people could go back to relying on Mother Brain as they always had.

I'd be returning to the library soon to find out everything I could about Climatrol, but that could wait. First, I was going home to take a nice long shower and get a new pair of boots.



Just as I'd finished getting dressed, another uninvited guest came to visit. The latest arrival was a lanky young man whose face seemed permanently fixed in an expression of intense concentration.


quest. I value all life, including Biomonsters. I am willing to fight to defend weaker life forms, though. Perhaps my knowledge will be of help to you."



The data in the recorder from the Biosystems lab had answered some of my questions, but so much had been left unexplained. Thinking back on all the Biomonsters I'd fought and everything that I'd learned, there was one thing above all others that didn't make sense no matter how much thought I put into explaining it. Now that I had one of Mota's most promising young biologists willing to help me, maybe I could find the answer I was seeking.

"So you know a lot about biology, right? Mind if I ask you a question that's been on my mind for a while?"

"By all means, ask. I would be more than happy to help."

"How the hell does a tree shoot laser beams?"