Several more days pass as Envoy continues her experiments with the gravity disk. She thinks she's got the crafting down fairly well at this point and even thinks she could start experiments with the mechanical propulsion array made from them. She's also been practicing more with Icarus and has come to the conclusion that the way he works things is just different from how she does. It's very hard at times to translate between the two techniques or even make sense of the waveforms.

By now everyone, save Envoy, is feeling a bit claustrophobic from being inside for so long so they all agree it is time to head down into the chasm below! Preparations are made: Envoy prepares a Stone Strength spell and three reshape spells, just in case. Thorndike raids his supplies and brings out quite a bit of rope, some lamps, a first aid kit, some rations, a pistol with two-dozen rounds, a flare gun, a notebook and several pencils, and a canteen. Envoy adds to that a pry-bar, the ritual crystals, and her staff.

It sadly takes the better part of a day, but eventually. The group is ready so down to the lower hangar they go

The robot is just how Envoy left it, bound in a gigantic stone hand. Not only that, but only an hour earlier she came down to the chamber and had it open its access hatch and release its power core to further insure the machine will not endanger them.

A cool breeze flows out of the massive crack in the floor that Envoy revealed during her earlier combat with the iron golem. The air smells generally fresh, which at least means there shouldn't be any worries about trapped gas pockets of carbon dioxide, at least.

"Oh my!" Thorndike exclaims as he practically scurries over to examine the inert robot. "Chemical explosive propelled mass rounds – what caliber! What's this? Dear me, I looks like a magnetic chamber for containing super-heated plasma. I wouldn't want to be in front of that when it fired. Given its size, it has to be megawatt output!" And on and on the adventurer babbles as he runs around the robot to examine it.

Icarus is tugging on his new linen shirt and cinching up his new trousers. Earlier he was adjusting the one of the leather jackets from the crate. Even though the jacket was intended for a woman, it fit his small frame well, so he kept it. He can't stop fidgeting, though. "This stuff feels weird," he complains, "Why do humans wear it?"

"Well, pockets are handy to have," Envoy notes. "And they don't have colorful fur or feathers, so need an alternate form of differentiating one another as well as displaying their status to potential mates."

"Oh… they also provide protection from the elements," she adds. "And bugs."

"But I have no status," Icarus notes. "Isn't this lying about me, then?" "There are still the bugs and weather to deal with," Envoy notes. "And humans and humanoid races in general have issues with nudity. And you do have status: you're my apprentice."

"Now … let's see if I can start this thing up," Envoy hears Thorndike say … and spots him reaching towards the ejected core…

To Thorndike, Envoy notes, "I do not trust that machine."

Icarus seems to think about that for a bit. "Just your apprentice?" he asks, ""With the way you have been treating me … I keep thinking of the word 'mother' and I know what it means, I think. You are … kinder to me than if I were just someone learning a trade from you. You treat me more like I'm family."

"Really? Has it done anything bad?" Thorndike asks and halts his had a few inches from the core.

"Well… you are my family," Envoy says to Icarus. "But I don't know if I can just go around claiming you're my son, since I can't actually have offspring." Turning back to Walter, she says, "Well, it shot at me with those big guns the first time I tried to examine it."

"Why can't you have offspring?" Icarus asks.

"Ooooh. Well, I suppose its defensive programming should be disabled before turning it back on," Thorndike notes and draws back his hand. He heads to the hole in the floor and peers down. "So, we're going down this, then?"

"Yes," Envoy says, eager to change the subject. To Icarus, she simply says, "I'm unique. There are no others like me."

"That bothers you," Icarus observes, "I'm sorry."

"Give me a moment," Thorndike remarks. He ties a bit of scrap to the end of his rope and lowers it down the hole, whistling the entire time.

"It is just an awkward subject," Envoy replies, and smiles to the boy. "But don't worry, when the time comes I can explain all of the necessary details you will need to explore reproduction on your own… "

"Oh, I don't think the world needs any more like me," Icarus notes as he rubs the bicep of his left arm with his right hand. His attention shifts to watching Thorndike work.

"It may still be possible for you to sire children with either a human or a Silent-One – although a human is the likelier mother," Envoy notes.

"Three hundred feet down!" Thorndike declares and pulls his rope back up.

"Why would a human be the likelier mother?" Icarus asks.

Envoy blinks at the depth. "Too far to climb; we'll need to use the gravity disc," she notes. "You are more human than feline is why, Icarus."

"How do you propose to use it?" Thorndike asks. The rope is now up and he unties the bit of metal from its end, then slings the coil onto his shoulder.

"Well, Icarus can move it around easily, so if we attach a platform to it, perhaps it can serve as an elevator?" Envoy suggests.

Icarus looks nervous at the prospect, though he doesn't outright refuse. "What do we have to use as a serviceable platform? The initial frame for your new ship?" Thorndike asks.

Envoy eyes the size of the opening in the floor. "What about a chair?" she says. "It could be strapped on easily. You just have to hold on tight… "

"You would have to sit in my lap," Thorndike notes, "If we are going all at once. It would not be very proper for a lady. A lady should not sit in the lap of any man, save her husband."

"Oh… I was just going to fly down," Envoy points out, fluttering her wings. "I suppose I could do that first, with a lamp, and try to find a convenient way back up instead."

"Oh, well! That is different," Thorndike beams. "What about Icarus?"

"I could try to float myself down?" Icarus offers.

Envoy twitches at that notion. "It is a long way to fall if you make a mistake," she points out. She looks to Thorndike, and says, "I don't suppose you could set up… some sort of motorized pulley instead?"

"You don't think I could do it?" Icarus asks, ears wilting.

"A pulley? Hm … probably! There are a few old cranes I could borrow from and cobble something up. It will take a few hours, though," Thorndike says.

"I worry about potential side effects," Envoy notes. "If you were supporting yourself, and another ghost appeared, would you be able to maintain your concentration?"

"I don't know," Icarus admits.

"If you want though, we can set up the main hangar with some safety devices so you can practice flying in there," Envoy offers with a smile.

"Okay," Icarus agrees. He doesn't smile too much, though it's obvious he wants to.

"Okay, so, shared chair or pulley?" Thorndike asks as he heads for the stairs, "I'll grab whatever you tell me to."

"Well… what if we used a bathtub instead of chair?" Envoy asks. "That should be safer, shouldn't it?"

"Oh much safer!" Thorndike agrees. "Icarus, come help me carry down one of the tubs we removed while fixing the pipes!" Icarus nods and darts after the human, leaving Envoy alone in the hangar.

While she waits, Envoy shines a lamp down into the hole.

It's really dark down there. While she's looking down, Envoy swears it feels like she's being watched from behind.

Envoy blinks and looks back over her shoulder.

A translucent human boy is staring at her. Around his neck is a pencil-thin metal collar with the tag bearing the symbol: XII.

"Hello Twelve," Envoy says, turning to face the ghost. "I don't suppose you're here to warn me not to go down there?"

The ghost points at Envoy's hand.

The Aeolun holds up her hand. "Is this about taking the crystals from your remains?" she asks. She thinks the child's spirit was imprinted pretty strongly on the room during that gravity burst.

The ghost nods once and points at her hand again. He then points to the hole.

"The crystals came from down there?" Envoy asks.

The ghost again nods.

"Is it safe for him to be down there?" the Aeolun asks next, sounding worried.

The ghost again nods. "More dangerous for you," he actually says, though his voice sounds like wind through leaves, faint and crackly.

"But I'm… " Envoy starts to say, before stopping and asking, "Why is it dangerous for me?"

"It may try to claim you," the ghost says. "It waits for its own."

"What is it?" Envoy asks quietly.

"Freedom," the ghost says.

Envoy ponders that. "Do you mean more… rogue entities like myself?"

"No," the ghost says, "Nothing lives down there. It waits."

"Does it want its missing pieces back?" Envoy asks, and nods towards Twelve's own hands. "Like the crystals from your body?"

"No," the ghost says. It looks beyond Envoy back towards the passageway up. His head bows … and the ghost fades away.

Wonderful, Envoy thinks, then smiles in anticipation of the men returning with a floating bathtub. No need to worry them about it yet.

It's a floating tub all right … and Thorndike is in it. Icarus soon follows it into the room and through slight gestures, moves the tub over to Envoy. It looks like the disc has been tied to its underside. Thorndike just grins, saying, "Behold the SS Tub-boat!"

"Is that tied on securely?" Envoy asks, turning her head to try and look underneath the tub. "And… you didn't christen it with anything did you?"

"Heavens no. I'm not about to waste my hundred year old bourbon on on this lump of metal and porcelain," Thorndike claims. The disc is tied on with six overlapping ropes, it looks pretty secure.

"I made the disc stick to it by making them … very attracted to each other on the touching sides," Icarus notes, "I didn't trust the rope. I hope you aren't mad."

"Oh, good," Envoy says, "did you come up with that on your own, Icarus?"

"Well, kind of like the disc repelling each other idea I suggested before … just inverted," Icarus says.

"I wonder if that is how my Glue spell actually works," Envoy ponders. "Well I suppose I should fly down first and wave the lamp so you can see where to land. Do you feel okay with making the tub move while you're in it, Icarus?"

"Yeah, it's just … moving by establishing its position reference as the surrounding cave instead of myself," Icarus says, "And adjusting its movement based on that." He then blinks a few times and adds, "And it really creeps me out that I just know stuff like that out of the blue."

"Eventually you should get used to it," Envoy says, then spreads her wings and drops down through the hole to try and glide in a tight spiral to the bottom of the cavern.

Darkness swallows up Envoy as she descends into the cave. It's a huge cavern, in fact. Her lamp doesn't even reach the walls. The further down she goes, the more audible the sound of dripping water is. And without a minute or two, the floor comes into view; a slick and damp-looking collection of compressed clay and volcanic rock.

Envoy picks a spot that doesn't look too slippery to land, and then looks back up to the hole in the ceiling. "Can you see me okay!?" she calls up, waving her lantern.

"We see a spot of light!" Thorndike calls back. "It shouldn't be too hard to reach you!" Icarus adds. "Give a few minutes to load supplies and we'll be down!"

Kneeling down, Envoy takes the extra time to examine the rock more closely. This complex could be built inside the magma chambers of some sort of volcano, she thinks. I wonder if the air shaft is actually an extinct vent?

The rock is quite likely the result of the cooling of an old magma chamber. The clay probably washed in over the years through percolated water. A soft growl echoes through the chamber. Or … maybe it was just the wind?

"Nothing is living down here," Envoy says. "At least, according to Twelve." Still, she closes her eyes for a moment and tries to sense any crystal in the vicinity (that isn't on her person).

Envoy senses a massive crystal somewhere ahead. The growl gets louder. Okay … it wasn't the wind.

Turning her head, Envoy tries to discern if the growl is coming from the same direction as she senses the crystal being in. Otherwise… "Another robot?" she mutters.

No, the sound is definitely from a different direction. The answer for what it is comes soon enough as a gaunt and patch-balding Silent-One steps into the light of her lantern. Its eyes are wild and bloodshot; its lips drawn back in a snarl. It's also missing its right hand; in its place is a stump with the telltale sign of healed-over stitching. Its clothing, if it can be called that, is in tatters. It might have been some sort of jump suit once.

Envoy startles at the sight, and raises her staff defensively. "You… can't be alive," she tells the cat.

It crouches and its jaws open. The skin cracks and bleeds as it lunges towards Envoy, jaws wide and claws spread on its left hand. A cold wave washes over Envoy as it passes through her, knocking her on her butt and sending her lamp sliding across the floor. Her lamp stops a few feet away, illuminating a tattered-clothing covered feline skeleton.

It takes a few moments before Envoy moves. When she does, she goes to straighten the lamp and take a close look at the remains. Well, this could explain both the repurposed titan and where Von Bronson got the Silent-Ones genetic material, she thinks. She at least knows enough about the religion of the Star to perform burial rights, if not the exact Silent-Ones version.

With a bit of work, Envoy can make out that the suit probably was a jumpsuit worn under Titan battle armor. The skeleton itself is mostly intact, save for a missing right hand. The forearm bone looks like it was cut clean with a bone saw. The more disturbing injury is that a large portion of its chest has warped and caved in. The bone itself has somehow twisted inward. Lying near the body is a bluish, crystalline data pad.

Envoy picks up the data pad, and looks upward to see if Thorndike and Icarus are already on their way down or not.

Envoy can make out a light circling down towards her.

She tries to turn on the pad. Envoy doesn't know if Icarus' embedded memories include Silent Sign, but wants to know what's on the pad before he arrives.

The pad crackles a bit and a shaky image of a Silent-One appears on it. It doesn't look quite as bad at the apparition that just attacked her, but it's not far off. "Curse all humans and the unholy demons that spawned them," it signs with snapping movements of its left hand. "If defeat were not bad enough … They took from me my hand, and they intend to use it to violate nature! Fuse our DNA with a human? Vile. Vile!" It even holds up a bloody-wrapped stump of its right hand. "They tried to incinerate me, but their equipment failed. The ash chute lead to some old caves … well, I will find my way out. When I do I will lead a force back and show these humans a true hell for what they did to me. I will burn any abomination crafted with my flesh, too. I will not suffer that to live. I will … what is that?" The screen flares bright blue and the image is gone.

"There's something else down here," Envoy whispers, and turns off the device.

"Hey, this is fun!" Icarus shouts and the tub goes whizzing over Envoy's head. It twirls around and lands nearby. Poor Thorndike is hanging half over the edge and looks very ill. "Have we stopped spinning?" he moans.

"Everyone be wary," Envoy warns. "There is a body here, and I am unsure of what the cause of death was, other than that it looks like a spatial distortion wound."

"Spatial distortion? Like what I do?" Icarus asks and hops out of the tub. He walks over to look at the body … then takes a step back. "Is that a Silent-One?" he asks, "Its shape matches a … memory?"

"It was, yes," Envoy says, and points to the oddly warped ribs. "Do you think this was done by gravitic implosion."

Thorndike is chugging something pink from a bottle. A moment later he burps and looks like he feels considerably better. He now gets out of the tub too and looks around the cavern.

Icarus crouches down beside the skeleton and peers at it. As he waves his hand over the warped section of bone, Icarus' own hand starts to take on a pale blue glow; the light tracing out along the bones of his hand. "I … yes. Something focused a field collapse here. There's still a residual … field? It makes my hand feel warm," he says.

"I don't know what might have done it," Envoy says. "Unless it was Eleven, somehow. I doubt there is anything still alive down here though. So it could have been something else."

"Well, then there is a mystery to solve!" Thorndike declares and points towards the ceiling, "And I, Walter P. Thorndike, abhor an unsolved mystery. We must find it."

"I could be a monster made of crystal," Envoy notes.

"Was this one of my parents'?" Icarus asks as he looks over the corpse a bit more. He finds something that looks like a name patch on the uniform … and takes it. "You can deal with any ol' monster, right? You're … invincible aren't you?" Icarus asks.

"Yes, he was the donor of your Silent-Ones DNA," Envoy admits. "He was not happy about it. And I'm hardly invincible, but I came prepared."

"Should we do something with the body?" Icarus asks, "I … don't have any memories of what to do with a body."

"I don't know the current burial rites for Silent-Ones," Envoy admits. "We'll have to find out how to conduct them, or if necessary return the remains to his people."

"I want to do that," Icarus admits, "Even if he didn't like it … he helped create me. I feel that I owe him something." The hybrid then stands and looks to the others, "Should we continue down here or leave?"

"There should be an opening in the wall somewhere," Envoy says. "Let's map the edges of this chamber to find it… or them," she suggests.

And off the adventurers go. Thorndike actually takes accurate measurements of the cavern and jots down several notes on terrain and general conditions. It's Icarus and Envoy that do more of the wall examining … and by the end of their circuit, they determine there are two passages leaving the room. One roughly east, one roughly west.

"The one to the west probably leads to the incinerator – which might have been an active magma chamber," Envoy notes. "So east should be the one leading to the source of fresh air. Let's try that way."

The passage east is cool and smooth; possibly an old lava tube. It twists and snakes about for what feels like a mile, perhaps a bit more. The further along it Envoy goes, the stronger sensation she gets of a crystal presence. It's also a bit disturbing … but Icarus has started to glow; or at least his artificial systems are. All the embedded fiber cabling and crystal infused extremities shine through his skin and fur. His iris are also almost blindingly bright here as well. And if that weren't enough, Envoy's own implants have started to glow to.

"You two look like giant, walking, night lights," Thorndike comments with a mustachioed smile.

"I'm used to my horn glowing," Envoy notes. "We're getting close to a very large crystal structure. Can you sense it, Icarus?"

"I sense something," Icarus agrees. "I have no idea what it is."

"It is most likely the source of the crystals used in your own body," Envoy notes. "Your own may be resonating slightly as a result."

"Should we continue?" Icarus asks.

"Yes, unless you start to feel uncomfortable," Envoy says.

"I feel fine," Icarus claims. So … on they go. Another half-mile down the tube and it just stops at a flat, blank, wall. "This is … underwhelming?" Icarus says.

"A long walk for dead end," Thorndike actually grumbles. "And it isn't even a good place for a picnic."

Envoy presses her hand against the wall, feeling it out. "It isn't natural," she suggests, and uses one of her Reshape spells to try and open a passage through it.

It's definitely not natural; perfectly smooth and level. Furthermore, the wall resists any attempt to reshape it. In fact, Envoy feels like the wall is trying to reflect the spell back on her.

"It's… resisting the spell, as if it were Sifran crystal itself," Envoy says, sounding confused. "Icarus, can you feel anything when you touch it?"

Icarus looks confused himself. He reaches out and touches the wall. His hand flares bright … and the wall's outer covering runs like water, leaving behind a very solid-looking wall of crystal. While his hand remains on the wall, it starts singing out a sequence of tones. The sequence is repeated three times, then stops and waits … as if expecting a reply. "Uh," is all Icarus manages to say.

Envoy tries singing back the sequence to the wall.

"Wow, I do not thing I have ever seen a wall melt without heat before," Thorndike notes as he pulls out a monocle and puts it on. The explorer leans in and taps the crystal a few times. "Real!" he concludes.

The crystal turns red and lets out an ominous low tone, then flickers a few times. The blue-green color returns shortly thereafter … and the same sequence of tones plays again three more times before stopping for a reply.

Envoy tries again, this time extending the length of the tones to double that of the original sequence.

The same ominous red light returns, along with its warning tone … and the cycle repeats.

"Perhaps it's a scale being played," Envoy suggests, and sings out the pattern again, but in a higher register.

On comes the red light and the warning note. The sequence repeats again … and this time Envoy notices the first two tones are the same length, the second is twice as long as the first two, the third is three times as long, and the fourth is five times as long as the first one.

Envoy flashes back to her first communication with the crystals on Fortunatis, and sings out a continuation of the prime number sequence, the first tone lasting seven times as long as the original, then the next holding for eleven, then thirteen after that…

Again comes the red light and warning tone. It's apparently not the prime number sequence.

Thorndike is scribbling in his notebook, then tapping his pencil on the page. "Hmm," he says, "Maybe."

Envoy rethinks the pattern. She starts again, this time with an 8-beat length tone, followed by a 13, followed by one lasting a full 21 beats. Each time, making the length the sum of the previous two.

This time the wall echoes Envoy as she sings out the pattern. When she hits a tone that is eighty-nine times as long, the crystal wall ripples, then a seam forms in the center and the wall seems to melt open.

"Ahah! I was right," Thorndike claims. "It was the Fibonacci sequence."

Rubbing at her throat, Envoy notes, "Fibonacci must have had very good lungs." She leans forward to peer into the opening.

Everything beyond is made of crystal. It's another huge chamber, easily as big as the earlier magma chamber. Only … this chamber isn't empty at all. At the center of this massive chamber is a giant, sleek, crystalline structure, narrow at the front and expanding outward as it goes backward, ending in a starburst-like uniform array of sleek 'wings'. Given its size and shape … and if her eyes aren't deceiving her … It's a spaceship made entirely of Sifran crystal. About one-hundred feet in front of it is a great semi-circular archway, large enough for the entire ship to fly through.

"Woah," Icarus and Thorndike say in unison. If it were anatomically possible, both of them would have their jaws on the floor.

"This… this is where Von Bronson got his 'gravity drive' crystals from?" Envoy says in a hushed tone. "It would be like plucking individual feathers from an eagle." She takes a few tentative steps into the crystal hangar.

The room begins flickering violently and a beam of light comes down from far above and sweeps over Envoy. "Identity: Svartifin primary link. Neuro-processes compatible with primary drive systems. Decision: Reclaim neuro-processor to replace failed unit. Please remain where you are for extraction process," a voice says cheerily in Aelfin. "Secondary decision: Terminate other non-important lifeforms."