The Alchemist's Lair: Part 9

“Looks like we found our alchemist”, I said, staring at the skeleton on the floor.

“Not where I hoped we would end up”, Iocasta seemed less than impressed. “But at least we’ll know where our goal is, for future reference”.

“It seems K’rnyatcha soldiers didn’t bother looting or destroying the place”, Civet chimed in. “They probably used some sort of poison gas to take Nestor out and left”.

“I don’t understand”, inquired Rhombus. “I don’t see anything resembling research here. Why are you so sure it wasn’t destroyed?”

“Because it’s probably in there”, I pointed at the screen.

“Your knowledge impresses me”, said Civet, “Did you take a particular interest in High Borchian tech since you arrived?”

“I had similar devices back home”, I clarified, then approached the console. I pointed out a yellow knob with some text above it, and a hieroglyphic resembling a lightning bolt next to it:

“Professor, what does this say?”

Balthazar squinted at the device.

“’ Auxiliary power’, if I’m not mistaken”.

“Everyone, pray this works, or else we’ve likely come here for nothing”, I said and turned the yellow knob.

The entire facility sprang to life. Machinery started buzzing, and dim electric light filled the air, pushing the darkness back. The screen lit up, displaying rows of text in High Borchian alphabet. A sound of a horn started blaring periodically, along with a badly garbled voice message that I didn’t need the professor to realize meant something akin to “intruder alert”.

There were two more alarming things happening at that exact time, however. A sound of footsteps started coming from the corridor, and the tube-like contraption in the corner began opening up, its mechanism, unmaintained for centuries, screeching in protest.

Those two events came to their culmination with perfect synchronization. As the first of the bandits entered the doorway, a vaguely humanoid metallic construct stepped out of the tube. There were several key differences between it and a man, however, outside of its general crudeness. It had no hands, with two scythe-like blades attached to the arms instead. Its head was a simple horizontal tube, with a single glowing red dot functioning as an eye. On its right shoulder, a gun-like device was mounted.

It was incredibly fortunate for us that the automaton noticed the bandits before it noticed us. As soon as its eye focused on the intruder entering the room, the weapon on its shoulder took aim, rotating slightly to the left, and unleashed several bolts of white-hot energy. The bandit fell to the ground, his face melted, with a scorched hole in his chest.

I wasn’t familiar with how Borchian automatons differentiated between friend and foe, but my intuition told me the machine was unlikely to consider us allies. So I leaped at it, attacking from its left flank, unwilling to expose myself to its deadly weapon, and swung my metal rod at its head. The blow knocked it down, but was unable to disable it. Quickly, I pinned the automaton to the ground, occasionally hitting it with my weapon whenever I got the chance. Those chances were precious few, however, as it took my full strength to keep the thing from breaking free. It kept shooting its gun occasionally, but thankfully, we were positioned in such a way that its shots could only hit the walls.

While I was busy wrestling the machine, two more bandits burst into the room, where they were met in melee by Gandor and Rhombus. The young noble parried an attack from his enemy, channeling lightning into his blade and taking his opponent out of the fight instantly. He then turned to the duel between his henchman and the other bandit, waiting for the moment to strike. The remaining foe lacked the skill to fight two opponents at once and was quickly cut down.

“Hey, Rhombus!”, I shouted as soon as the fight was over, “Can you come electrocute this thing? It’s damn sturdy, I don’t know how much time it would take for me to bash it open”.

He carefully paced around the room, avoiding the machine’s line of fire. As soon as he was in position, I rolled away, and he swung his blade, a few seconds' worth of shock disabling the automaton.

Standing up, I remarked, “I thought you duelist types were all about fair play, but you had no problem ganging up on that fellow”.

Rhombus scoffed. “It takes two to duel, and only a fool would fail to discern between a sporting event and actual combat. Putting that aside, what do we do next?”

That was, indeed, an important question.

“We should stay here and transcribe what we can from the machine. I even brought some paper from the storage”, suggested Civet. “That is, after all, what we came here to do”.

“While leaving our comrades at the mercy of bandits and machines? There’s no time to waste; we need to get the others out. Afterwards, you can transcribe to your heart’s content”, Iocasta countered.

“That may not be possible”, I pointed out. “This laboratory has lain dormant for millennia. It’s a miracle that it powered up at all, but it’s a matter of time before it shuts down on its own”.

“Borchians built things to last, and this isn’t the first functioning piece of their machinery we’ve found, but Clossar is otherwise correct. The facility probably has enough energy for, at best, a few hours”, Civet was quick to support me.

“Nevertheless, I don’t like the idea of sitting here idly”, Rhombus was next to speak. “Maybe we should split up our forces?”

“Leaving one combatant here, just in case, should probably be enough”, I said. “Especially if the doors are still working – then we could get them shut, and I doubt the bandits would be able to figure out how to open them. Aside from brute force, that is”.

“Then I will stay”, Iocasta volunteered. “You aren’t likely to run into any fights where my sharpshooting would make a difference, and I did promise to keep an eye on this idiot”, she pointed at Civet, “until we are safely back at Hieropolis”.

Civet, Balthazar, and I spent the next few minutes figuring out how the machine on the wall worked, and they were able to find the research we were looking for without issue. Iocasta took a sheet of paper from Civet’s stash, drew a quick sketch of the laboratory’s layout, and handed it to Rhombus. “This should help you keep track of where you are”, she added.

I dragged the remains of the automaton to the door, then toyed around with some buttons. The metal sheet eventually started lowering until it reached the machine, where it stopped. It was either unable to crush its sturdy carapace or was designed not to do such things, for safety reasons.

“This should keep you relatively safe”, I said, “and should the power go out, you can crawl beneath the door. We’ll be back for you as soon as possible”.

Leaving the scholars to their work, and Iocasta to guard duty, the rest of us returned to the corridors, intent to use the confusion caused by the laboratory’s activation to liberate our companions.