Chương 204: LOG-195.

I stood in a vast, spherical chamber covered in swirling lines of black, blue, and white paint. Muddied reds and browns depicted what could only be magnificent auroras, even as countless little bleached dots acted as what I could only assume were stars.

"And uhm… this is the central reactor array. As you can uhm, see, we've kept it in as best condition as we could…" Turning to regard the person that had volunteered to take on the role of bearing the brunt of my investigations, I inspected the Gem that had apparently taken to calling herself Paint, for what I could now determine were fairly obvious reasons. … Gentle, was certainly a way to describe her, even for a Pearl.

Generally peach coloured in lightform save for her almost pink uniform and more than a little soft spoken, she'd quietly led me from abandoned offices that had been converted into living quarters, to what I could tell at a glance had once been the Quartz barracks, now set to serve as a storage area.

And with each location, the depictions of stars and the night sky had lingered, all the way up until now, where I found myself glancing between the evidently artistic Gem and the walls coated with what could only be her works, rather than the spinning orb powering the entirety of what was left of her Atoll.

"Uhm…is there…is there anything else you would like to see-""The sky." The Pearl flinched slightly, misunderstanding my meaning and shaking her head with a sorrowful look.

"Oh no. I'm uhm, afraid we can't do that. Because of the Burning you see-" Cutting her off with a wave of my hand, I focused on the detailed drawing of what could only be a pair of moons, quirking a brow slightly as I spoke.

"Not what I meant. This is the sky of this world, isn't it? This…painting, that you've made here." My counterpart seemed to almost visibly perk up at that, and for once the bizarre verbal tick that seemed to infest her every sentence was utterly absent as she nodded, a sparkle visible in her orange eyes even while her voice rose to just beyond the usual whisper that seemed to act as her default volume.

"Oh yes! It's…not quite the exact same, I think. I could only draw what I remembered. But I've spent a lot of time working on it. Most of our home has one piece or another, which took a while because sourcing the correct dyes was extremely difficult-" The Pearl paused as she presumably realised that she'd gotten carried away, visibly reigning herself in before turning away from her creation to me, a demure look on her face that felt distinctly amateurish compared to what my own Batch had grown capable of.

"I mean-yes. It's the sky. Why do you ask?" Clicking my tongue, I tried to wrest the imagery of screaming mouths and mindless eyes out of my thoughts, and found myself only somewhat successful.

"The Burning, as you call it. The swarm of Pearls that blanket the sky. You saw it before they were around, then?" Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Somehow, a mixture of enthusiasm and sadness seemed to compete for space across the peach figure's face as she looked up at the faux stars, voice somewhat wobbly.

"Oh yes. We all did, before. Not for very long though. It's why there's only seven of us left now. A lot of the others thought that they could…leave. Khaki doesn't like to say it aloud, because it makes everyone sad, but she thinks it's their fault that the Burning found us." Cataloguing the fact that a significant number of Paint's Batch had likely been murdered by the anomalous entities hovering about outside, I pursed my lips, uncertain.

"And…you're certain they can't get in here?" My question earned a firm nod from the soft spoken Pearl, even as she stepped towards the exit, waving a hand towards me in an unmistakable gesture to follow.

"Quite certain, oh yes. Though I… worry." Catching up to the quiet Gem with quick strides, I followed along beside her as we passed through a quiet hallway that held the vague but pretty shapes of dancing figures, each of a different colour. Twenty six distinct characters are present, with three depicted as being of a larger size. This is most likely an artistic interpretation of Batch Two.

Face twitching slightly in irritation at how natural the analytical thought felt, I cast it aside in favour of leaning forward just enough to look back at Paint, feeling like a tall, looming bird as I did so.

"You worry. Why?" The Pearl hesitated, and I allowed a disapproving frown to settle upon my features, causing her to flinch slightly and shake her head.

"It's just-Khaki doesn't like-uhm…" At my persistent stare, Paint stopped entirely, leaving us standing in the hallway as she seemingly tried to stop falling over her own words, finally taking a quick breath before closing her eyes and nodding.

"We used to have access to the upper levels of the Atoll as well. It's why we know lots of things. Shell taught us. Back when she was… still around." Upon hearing the familiar term, I glanced up towards yet another surveillance visor, the intricate crystals of its surface completely dead and dark. And yet its morbid presence, and that of what its lifeless kin implied for the whole Atoll, didn't really make the silent, empty corridors of the facility feel any more inviting.

Watching the device for a moment longer, I slowly turned to look back at my glorified tour guide, tilting my head slightly as I did so.

"But the Burning got in?" Her hands rose to tug at the sides of her short hair at the question, a somewhat panicked expression on her face as she nodded.

"Oh yes! Shell always said that they 'could not bypass hardcoded restrictions' and 'could never breach a designated safe zone' but that didn't last! You've seen them, haven't you? The screaming ones with the melted fingers and the strange heads?" Thinking back to the various figures that lacked hair, or faces, I nodded, which only seemed to invigorate the Pearl.

"They weren't like that! There were less of them, and sometimes they were trying to call us outside, or demanded that we dance with them! But then the new ones came, more…distorted looking, and they were able to get into the upper levels!" There was no small amount of anguish in her eyes as she spoke, and I found myself stilling slightly as she spoke her next words.

"They… they burned Shell and probably everyone else and the only reason we even made it down here was because Eyes, Head and Horn pushed them back out! Now only they go up there to-to clean and make sure they don't break in again!"

Mentally making a note to forbid both Violet and Patina from going upstairs without me (the former was hanging out with the blue Gem creatively named Blue, and the latter with Khaki), I stood back up straight and considered everything I had learned, along with the potential source of information I'd literally been hiding in my gemstone this entire time. Shell. My Shell. The Reef's controlling AI…

or Pearl, rather, had been effectively in control of an institution that had spawned all other Atolls from its own procedures. She had been in a position to both overhear verbal gossip and have access to any and all data forwarded through imperial networks from other production facilities, potentially including this one. The main reason I hadn't pulled her out yet for questioning was an uncertainty regarding the current situation, and a desire to release her in an environment I could control.

And judging by everything Paint had just told me… right now was probably as controlled as I was going to get, seeing as the Burning could potentially escalate and flood the lower levels at any moment…

Features twisting in annoyance at the apparent horror movie scenario I'd found myself in, I resolved to try my hand at investigating the upper levels at some point (preferably with Eyes accompanying me, seeing as the creepy but apparently benign Pearl could counter the swarm outside somehow), even as I nodded my head, smoothed out my expression, and turned back towards my guide." Very valid concerns, dear. Tell me, do you think there's a spare room I could borrow for a while? I have something I need to do."

It was time to see if I could pull some answers from the first voice I had ever heard in my new life. With any luck, I wouldn't need to be too rough about interrogating her, but if she decided to be stubborn about things… well, I still had a few destabilizers sitting in my storage space, along with some other Gem related tech. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that though.