Chapter Text
The teleporter howls and shrieks. They all do their hardest to stop Sylux’s struggles, but it’s like trying to keep a slippery and vicious eel still in their hands. Armstrong is holding on for dear life to the evil bounty hunter’s cannon, while trying to keep it firmly trained away from the master teleporter and from her own face.
Samus hesitates. They’re not blind to the twitching of her hand, or her fingers madly closing and opening, or her head imperceptibly zipping around looking for just one more clue, one chance that might save them all. Before the teleporter explodes and strands them all here or worse.
In the end, she has no time to figure anything else out. She has to push the button with an odd air of finality. Her hand slumps on it as she sends them a look that may rival the Lamorn’s when looking at Grievers.
“Samus!” Corporal Tokabi shouts, and somehow frees one of his hands to throw something at her. They can’t see it clearly, it’s just a streak of gold zipping through the harsh desert sunlight before Samus raises her hand and catches it firmly.
It’s the amulet he always brings with himself. Their grip would falter shouldn’t it be for their training and the adrenaline pumping through their systems, not allowing their muscles to relax for a single moment. It’s the thing Tokabi holds dearest, the only item he managed to salvage that reminds him of home.
“May Sollan be with you.”
And then Samus vanishes.
For a single moment, everything goes eerily still. Even Sylux seems captivated by the teleporter activating among streaks of deep purple and rogue electrical energy pulses. It shatters in a deafening explosion of light, leaving nothing but a fragmented platform and jagged architecture in its wake.
They all wonder, simultaneously, whether Samus made it through. Then they all work in tandem to keep Sylux still.
“No!” He shouts, the words scraping out of his throat as he lashes out with more force. “NO! How dare you, I’m going to kill all of you!!”
“You got yourself into this mess!” Armstrong can’t help but snark back, only to grunt and reposition her weight too keep him bound.
“You… stupid Federation lackeys! Lapdogs, absolute scum!”
“Mac, your pistol!” Duke exclaims over the stream of insults. The engineer is still dumbfounded, breathing heavily, staring at where their only way home once stood. He’s unfortunately also the only one with free hands. He snaps back around, his face red and pained, trying to wrap his head around everything. His hands are shaking, but he does get up and takes his service weapon out to follow orders.
Sylux struggles harder, trying to push them all off. Even if Tokabi’s grip momentarily slips, the others’ combined strength is more than enough to give him time to recover.
“Shoot him, now!” The Sargent bellows once more. MacKenzie grips his pistol with two hands and points it at the group.
“I… I don’t want to hurt you!” He admits among shallow breaths.
“Then come closer.” Tokabi instructs, voice level-headed even if he’s barely holding on, overpowering Sylux’s. “Take aim, inhale, hold breath, and fire.”
The bounty hunter tries to say a few more things, more insults, even with none of them paying him any mind. Yet his movements are getting sloppy, whatever happened with Samus must be tiring him out. And, with her gone and so the possibility of leaving, his resolve must be failing.
MacKenzie obeys. His aim steadies and he plants a shot right in Sylux’s abdomen. Then a few more, until he stops struggling and goes down with a pained gasp. Everybody except VUE-995 lets go, and the motionless body of Sylux slumps in his arms.
They observe each other’s faces. None of them have closed their helmets yet, and now there’s no reason to do so. Their faces are gaunt, they are all breathing rather heavily because of that last stretch. The consequences of what just happened start to creep up on them.
The destruction of the teleporter and their only way home, for example.
Sargent Duke gets closer to the limp blue armor. MacKenzie follows his gaze, even if he doesn’t dare trail closer.
“D… did I kill him?” He asks past a lump stuck in his throat.
“Vitals are… unsure. There is no way to check for them externally.” VUE-995 states. They share a worried glance, especially MacKenzie. It’s no secret that he’s the one with the shallowest experience. And everything he knows he learned because Tokabi decided to give him a crash course.
“That… doesn’t mean we should just leave V holding him all this time though.” Armstrong crosses her hands.
“That would not be an issue.” The robot replies.
“Sure, but we can find a better use for you, big guy.” Duke agrees, “Is there something we can use to restrain him or…” He trails off. He looks at the top of the tower, at what was turned into the arena of their final fight, at the barren surface that now can only offer a broken teleporter and debris. Nothing of use.
“I have some rope.” Tokabi says, pulling a thin and translucent roll of what looks like reinforced nylon out of a pocket.
“Oh.” MacKenzie continues, before he can think better of it. “You always travel with that on your person?”
“You never know when it will come in handy.” He replies.
“That will be perfect. Thank you, Corporal.” Duke says.
“We could also freeze him up.” Tokabi speaks up after a while, tying a knot. “The Larmons used criopods to stop their brethren who had turned into Grievers. Some of those are bound to be functional still.”
“Where do we find them?” MacKenzie asks, cutting a side of the rope with a tool that looks like it was made for piercing instead but that works fine anyway.
“In the Ice belt. Some were destroyed or damaged, but there should still be some that are functioning and empty. I imagine they’ll suffice to hold Sylux still for a while if they worked for the Grievers.”
“Good,” Armstrong comments, “so we won’t have to see his ugly mug again.”
“Agreed.” Duke mutters under his breath, barely sparing the blue armor a glance.
“Query:” VUE-995 asks, after leaving Sylux’s now constricted body to fall to the ground like a bag fo wheat. “How do we reach the Ice belt and acquire criopods?”
“Well, we get down and…” Armstrong says, but then she trails off, looking at where the elevator hologram once stood. She clicks her tongue.
It’s not there. Everything seems inactive.
“We got here because Samus interacted with it.” MacKenzie brings a hand to his head in thought.
“So we are stuck here.” Duke sentences.
“There has to be a way.” Armstrong rebuts, eyes flying around.
If push comes to shove, Duke figures they’ll have to use Tokabi’s rope to slide down. Armstrong would definitely get a kick out of that. MacKenzie wouldn’t. Perhaps VUE-995, using his thrusters, could get them all down? Duke doubts the small jet pack he’s equipped with can carry him all the way to the base of the tower safely.
“The robots!” MacKenzie snaps his fingers.
“Pardon?” VUE-995 turns to him.
“The robots. The psy-bots, however they’re called. Sylux had access to them so maybe… there’s a way to control them from the Chrono Tower?”
“Would it be through these?” Tokabi touches one of the large, spherical objects close to him. He moved there so silently they all snap to him and momentarily wonder whether they all had a group hallucination.
“As silent as Samus…!” MacKenzie comments under his breath.
Once he has their attention, Tokabi continues. “They seem to be healing pods. I used a similar one in the Ice Belt when my leg was busted, though these seem much larger.”
“Sylux exited those with chords attached to the side of his brain… and I don’t think he was entirely sane to begin with. I wouldn’t want to test possible side effects on any of us if it can be avoided.” Duke frowns.
Silence follows for a beat, until VUE-995 speaks next.
“There may be an easier solution to that. I will try to connect to the other robots, see if I can communicate with them. Without Sylux commanding them, they are most likely in a sort of stand-by.” He brings his steely hand to the side of his head, and subsequently he slumps.
“VUE!” Armstrong shouts. Duke jerks in place, surprised. Tokabi swivels around to glare at Sylux, but nothing about him has changed. MacKenzie elaborates:
“Don’t worry, that’s standard procedure. It happens when an android connects to the mech it’s supposed to pilot, for example… he looks offline but he’s really not. Now, if he’s still like this after five minutes or so, then we can start worrying.”
Half a minute later, VUE-995 regains control of his body. He turns to one side of the Chrono Tower, as if listening.
“You okay over there?” Duke asks.
“You gave as a scare!” Armstrong echoes. VUE-995 nods sincerely.
“Your concern is appreciated. Contact was successful, I believe I managed to tell them to go and retrieve a few criopods in the Ice Belt for us, and bring them here.”
Armstrong does a little jump in the air and then gently bumps VUE-995 in the side. It takes him a moment to notice, but in the end he does reciprocate her fist bump.
“I also believe they will be able to carry our weight and take us back to base camp if needed.”
“And you, big guy? Can they carry you?” Duke questions.
“Not these models, no. But there are more powerful ones that will be able to handle my weight when necessary.”
“So…” MacKenzie steps in but his eyes are cast on the teleporter, thoughtful. “We’re getting back to base camp and starting from there?”
“What do you have in mind?” Tokabi follows the specialist’s gaze.
“Don’t get me wrong I can’t wait to get back home, even if it’s just the one we built here… but, with enough time and resources… I don’t see why I shouldn’t give repairing the master teleporter a shot. It’s not the first time I’ve handled Lamorn tech.”
“You… you’d be able to do that?” Armstrong asks, splendidly hopeful.
“It… will matter a lot on what kind of damage we are talking about, of course, and what spare parts we can gather. But it’s definitely the most reliable way we have to ever get home.”
The low whistle of thrusters reaches their ears. The psy-bots are back. There’s five of them, holding five different criopods in various states of integrity. Checking that they all work, they opt for the one that seems the most structurally stable, have MacKenzie confirm that in fact it’s as sturdy as it looks, and unceremoniously shove Sylux in.
Seeing him curled up in that pod, looking uncomfortable, and knowing he will not be able to move at subzero temperatures, it’s mentally healing for the lot of them.
“Was is what you told them to do?” Duke asks VUE-995 as Armstrong makes sure the latch is firmly closed and kicks it (“Just to check for stability!”) for good measure.
“Precisely. My connection with them is stable and works. I can ask them to handle other tasks. Staying near the teleporter might be easier for now, they could transport base camp here if we need.
“That’d be a great help. I have plenty of notes and logs on how Lamorn tech works, if you can get them to me, I can start looking for a fix right away!” MacKenzie replies, with a smile on his face.
“Right… three liters of water a day, all of you. This is a desert, there’s barely any shade, so don’t let the heat get to you.” Duke states, pointing his finger at every member of the crew, even VUE-995. They all nod and reply with a unanimous ‘yes, Sarge’.
As soon as the bots bring MacKenzie what he needs, he wastes no time in prying the control panels around the teleporter open once again, the one he used to stabilize the power when Samus was here, and rummaging through them. Tokabi annotates his words and things they might need on a log he keeps in his hands, acting as his scribe for the time being.
“Sarge, there’s one more thing…” Armstrong states, approaching him and VUE-995 as they watch MacKenzie work.
“What is it?” He asks, immediately tearing his gaze away.
“It’s the teleporter keys. Samus spent all of her time here searching for them, and I’ve tried looking but they’re nowhere to be found around here. Repairing the teleporter won’t help us if we can’t make it work.” She states, looking down, having lost a bit of her cheer.
“I see. But do not lose hope yet, Private. It could be that they went back to their original spots.” Duke replies.
“What makes you say that?” Armstrong looks at him earnestly, and by Sollan or whatever other deity is watching over them, she reminds him of his daughter so much in this very moment. He hides his small chuckle as a cough.
“The Lamorns were very technologically advanced,” VUE-995 says, “they have already unlocked a form of long space-travel. Perhaps the teleporter did manage to send the keys back to their original position before it malfunctioned.”
“We have a breakthrough.” Tokabi calls them, with MacKenzie struggling to get rid of a particularly lengthy cable that’s tying him. The sniper offers him a hand and manages to heave him out.
“Thanks. So, thing is: some of this stuff is really badly damaged, but we’re in luck! I’ve seen these components before in Lamorn tech, and I know where we can get spare parts! I can’t create them from scratch, I wouldn’t even know how, but if we can extract functioning components from the bots and the Vi-O-La tunnels, or the Volt Forge, I should be able to put everything back in working order!”
“That’s great news!” Armstrong pipes up, “and we were thinking that the keys should be back where Samus found them!”
“We don’t know that, but checking doesn’t hurt.” Duke lightly scolds her with his tone, always taking long strides. One day, she’s going to bite off more than she can chew.
MacKenzie looks at another set of notes, nodding.
“Well, in that case… V, could you send some bots scouting the Fury Green area? I think Samus got the first key there, after fighting a monster in a clearing. I think I remember it being close to camp, even.”
VUE-995 nods, and a few more robots move out from behind them, where they stood still awaiting orders after getting them the pods. Armstrong speaks next:
“Oh! Do we know the position of the others?”
Duke doesn’t have any trouble recalling those moments. “I remember Samus wanted to get to the deeper part of the Flare Pool when she rescued us. Though I imagine that key will be harder to get than simply scouting the forest.”
“She showed me where she was headed in the Ice Belt. The quarantine zone, the furthest below the crust of the earth. But I can get there now.” Tokabi adds.
“I can show you the path Samus followed into the mines, if that can be of assistance.” VUE-995 states, showing a holographic map for them to see with an area lighting up, as deep as the map will go. “That should be much easier to get to now that the elevator is functioning.”
MacKenzie counts on his fingers. “Which probably means the last one is in the Volt Forge! I couldn’t get in contact with Samus because of the storm during her time there… but it’s the only area without one.”
“Very probable.” VUE-995 comments. Then he straightens, as if receiving a communication. he relays soon after: “Teleporter key confirmed. Though the bots cannot touch it because of their internal programming, they have located it in Fury Green.”
A moderate, bright smile appears on their faces as hope nestles in their chests.
“Well then, it means the plan is coming together.” Duke nods, focused. “MacKenzie will stay here and try to revamp the teleporter. Ask VUE-995 for any equipment you might need, and he will relay it to the bots to find. The rest of us, we’re splitting up and grabbing those keys with the help of the bots.”
They all nod and start to make plans. It’s quickly agreed upon that VUE-995 should be the only one to travel that deep into the Flare Pool – Duke and Armstrong both had enough of the intensive heat and do not with to repeat the experience, although she will follow him in as far as it’s safe. Another point they all quickly agree on, is that nobody should go try to retrieve a key alone.
VUE-995 and Armstrong also take the Great Mines, with Duke asking if she’s really sure because he does not wish to spark any frightening memories in her (and once more apologizes deeply for having let them go on their own. She raises her voice a little, but in the end she does understand his reasoning and forgives him. Again.).
Which means Duke and Tokabi are the other team. They will handle the easiest key in Fury Green, considering VUE-995 and Armstrong will have their hands full exploring such huge areas, and then the Ice Belt with the help and guidance of the Corporal.
“Considering we don’t know anything about the Volt Forge, it’s wiser we go in there altogether.” Duke states, sitting by the campfire as night is creeping by.
The bots have brought back tables and what equipment they could take, as well as food that Tokabi is cooking. It feels like a delicious roasted beast by the smell of it.
They managed to recreate their camp basically one-on-one, with the addition of a criopod shoved into a corner, that they take turns watching over. The Tower may be in the middle of the desert, but it’s centered and raised. No Griever or other predator will manage to get them all the way up here.
They eat their dinner around the dimming fire when Tokabi deems it ready, with chatter mainly monopolized by MacKenzie and Armstrong, like many of their nights up until now. It’s a comfortably familiar. Even the Corporal, who looked slightly put off by their words per minute the first time, sits relaxed in silent contemplation of the night sky.
“Sarge?” Armstrong asks by his side.
“Yes?” He answers, turning to her.
“I…” Words seem to escape her. She briefly looks down. “I wanted to apologize.”
All the other members of their circle turn to look at her, too. Some more subtly than others.
“For what?”
She takes a deep breath before speaking again. “I should have thought more before acting. But when Sylux hit us, and the teleporter… and Samus fell down, I… I didn’t really reason. I stepped forward and engaged with him, forcing the rest of you to follow suit. In a way, I also stranded us here. I should have heeded your warning, awaited orders. I’m sorry.”
Duke lets the words hang in the air for a moment. Lets them float around their little crew, their little family, and ponders on them. He feeds a few more branches into the fire.
“Private Nora Armstrong, you are one of the bravest soldiers I ever met.” He says, calmly, making sure he takes his time, giving each word exactly the weight he wishes to give them. “I can’t think of other soldiers that would have fearlessly dived on Sylux the way you did. You acted, to do what you believed was right. If I didn’t believe in your ideas, I wouldn’t have followed you out there.”
Armstrong looks at him, speechless.
“You game Samus the time she needed to activate the teleporter.” MacKenzie adds after a beat. “You let her complete her mission.”
“Yes, but I can’t help but wonder… if I couldn’t have done something else. Something better.” She replies.
“Don’t we all.” Duke comments quietly by her side, so only she can hear it.
“Had you not stopped him,” VUE-995 joins in, “Sylux would have fired again at the teleporter, or at all of us.”
“And we would have accomplished nothing. All of that would have been in vain.” Tokabi echoes, giving her half a glance from the stars.
Armstrong takes in their words and doesn’t comment on them further. She ends up looking at the sky again. She has to come to terms with her actions by herself, but Duke does believe in what he said. He would have followed Nora anywhere, he trusts her hotheaded and excited judgment, despite everything. She has a strong moral compass.
He slides a bit closer to her, and they both look at the alien sky of Viewros. She wordlessly leans her head on his shoulder, getting comfortable. He adjusts his hands back so he can support her weight and they spend the night like that.
As they get ready and check their gear for the day ahead, MacKenzie has already started working on what he can do for the teleporter. It’s hard to peek into large and deep panels though, especially without a flashlight. With all of them away from base for a while, it will take him much longer to individuate the most necessary fixes.
“A few of those maintainer bots would come in handy… they could certainly accelerate the repairs.” He murmurs to himself.
There’s a pop and tiny metallic footsteps coming from his right a moment later. He doesn’t even really have the time to question it or check, that a tiny maintenance robot appears right by him, exiting a really tiny conduit that he’d overlooked.
The others too, turn to him with a raised brow and their hands on the safety of their weapons.
But the tiny dark robot does not do anything harmful. Instead it crawls into the space, and using its red eye as a flashlight, brightens it just as much as MacKenzie would need to see clearly inside.
“What’s it doing?” Armstrong hurries to his side, pointing her rifle at the creature, who rotates its mechanical red eye around.
“I don’t know yet, but it doesn’t seem to mean any harm? I just thought it’d be useful to have one of these maintenance drones on hand, and it appeared out of nowhere. Scared me for a moment, but…” He observes as the tiny creature paws this way and that, cutting cables that are now beyond use and mending together some others that were not quite destroyed by the high voltage output of the Shock Coil when it hit the teleporter. “They might even be able to fix some of this by themselves!”
They delay their departure in order to observe the drone and how it interacts with MacKenzie. It really doesn’t seem to be equipped with weapons and it works diligently, even cooperating with their engineer on occasion.
Finally satisfied, they get VUE-995 to call them spy-bots and leave.
They manage to get the first couple keys all in one day. The one in Fury Green is already found, and Duke and Tokabi reach it with no problem. It helps that they already know the place, and make quick work of any Grievers that might try to get the jump on them. They head for their previous base camp and take any other equipment the bots might have failed at bringing to them, as well as the rest of MacKenzie’s notes from the terminal he used, storing them on a modded memory chip.
VUE-995 and Armstrong have somewhat of an easy time as well even if they decide to head for the Great Mines first. VUE-995’s sonic weapons make quick work of any substance that might stick to them and Armstrong remembers how to use the mining vehicles laying around to make quick work of any obstacles where the psy-bots fail. They consider departing for the Flare Pool after that, but it’s already getting late so instead they head back for the Tower.
The teleporter doesn’t look much different, but there are plenty more maintenance bots waddling around and rebuilding its external husk piece by piece now, as MacKenzie is elbows deep in wires and duct tape.
Dinner is made and served, and they consider the optimal route to take for the Ice Belt and Flare Pool for the upcoming day.
Armstrong leaves food out for MacKenzie before they depart the following days. He has a tendency to forget to eat and rest when he’s caught up in something, a thing they’ve all already noticed when during their time in the previous base camp, and he’s nothing short of laser focused in the moment. It doesn’t help that he also finds a way to keep going when the sun has left Viewros’ sky, with the bots providing all the light and tools he needs.
They can all sympathize, but as they come back, third and fourth keys in tow, and find him sprawled on the floor of the tower completely exhausted, that’s the last straw.
“Specialist MacKenzie. You are showing obvious signs of grave exhaustion.” VUE-995 notices as he picks the other up.
“I… I’m fine, really. I’ll have a power nap and then I’ll go back to work, good as new.” He tries to rebut, but even that sounds weak.
“You’re pushing yourself way too hard, Mac!” Armstrong opposes, “you didn’t even eat the food I left you this morning, and for all we know you might have skipped lunch too. That can’t be healthy.”
“Not to mention that your sleeping schedule leaves much to be desired,” Duke supports her.
“I… it’s just…”
“You did not rest, did you?” Tokabi says, his lower voice tearing right through the last of his defenses. MacKenzie sighs.
“I just wish to have this done as soon as possible.”
“As we do,” Duke crosses his arms. “But we will get nowhere if you don’t take time to rest and eat. You need energy to keep going, and we can’t go back home without your expertise. We’ve been here this long, we can wait for you to rest.”
They still have to pry MacKenzie away from his tools as the tiny robot helpers kep working, but in the end they manage to give him another easier and calmer task: watch the fire and cook. Mostly because they know he will not accept not have anything to do.
MacKenzie’s cooking may not be as delicious as the Corporal’s, but it’s pretty good in its own right. He puts a salvaged pot with water over the fire to boil, alien vegetables and pieces of soon-to-be steamed meat floating within it. It’s not much, but as far as Viewros stews go, he has the technique down to a fine art.
“Is it ready yet?” Armstrong crouches by his side, face alight with interest even as the evening creeps by over the Ice belt and the cold reaches their joints. Howling from far, far away echoes around them, but they’ve gotten used to it. The desert gets very peaceful at night.
“Almost. Wanna have a taste?” MacKenzie stirs the pot and raises his spoon, with a bit of the liquid inside. In the bat of an eye Armstrong has taken out her mess tin and is offering it to him.
“Don’t I!” She eagerly sips from the spoon, careful because it’s really hot, and her cheeks puff out in surprise and her eyes widen. “This is really good! I think you finally nailed the salt!”
“You really think so? Alright then, you heard Armstrong.” MacKenzie says, using a pair of mechanics gloves he had with himself to get the burning pot out of the fire. “Come on here, it’s ready!”
They eat in comfortable silence, this time. Sometimes Armstrong warms the atmosphere with a story or an anecdote echoed by Duke about their team, as MacKenzie really seems too beat to start his usual chatter. Little by little, even Tokabi decides to give them some insight on the kind of missions he takes part in… he leaves the most gruesome details out, and only relays the best tales, but he reveals himself quite the captivating storyteller.
The stars above them are alien and yet so familiar. They lean down on their backs and simply observe the sky. Those stars are different from Tanamaar, or from any other place they’ve ever been to. And yet, they are the same exact stars. Burning orbs of faraway light, shining in the darkness. Sharing a bit of their light and hope with the universe.
They can’t all help but wonder whether Samus is somewhere, in between those stars. Whether she made it home safely and is now navigating the universe in search of a new bounty. Or whether the teleporter malfunctioned in the end, and she’s just as stranded as them but alone, or worse.
The night passes by in mournful silence.
The following days blur together. Finding the key in the Volt Forge takes them the entire day, but they manage. They spend quite a lot of time with each other, making sure Sylux stays where he’s put and everything is in working order, foraging or gathering materials. They all even learn how some of the Lamorn tech works and basic electronics with crash courses from MacKenzie and a good dose of trial and error.
One day, Armstrong notices their specialist is a little more twitchy than usual. His hands tremble with every movement and he’s exceptionally careful in closing the lid he’s been working underneath for quite some time now.
“Hey, are you okay?” She’s by his side in an instant.
“Yeah…”
“You’re all twitchy,” she observes, “I thought the drones had repaired all of the exposed wires under there.”
“You think I got electrocuted again?” MacKenzie asks after a beat, in which he completely stops shaking. She nods. He shakes his head. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing like that.”
“But then…”
“Look, I simply don’t want to jinx it.” He moves away, leaving her hanging. He doesn’t sound like he’s keeping her out of the loop in malice, so she follows his movement and deep breath before he pushes one button and observes the rebuilt teleporter with a keen eye.
Sure, the sinusoidal outer shell was recreated from scratch by the drones as soon as they let them have the needed materials, but the internal circuity was not ready to be put to the test last she heard MacKenzie talk about it…
Or at least she thinks, because then the teleporter creaks and huffs, but is steadily enveloped in a soft violet hue.
“Oh my god.” She whispers under her breath. “Is… is it online?”
“It… it sure looks like it’s booting up correctly!” MacKenzie exclaims, excitedly circling it, checking every side. “There seem to be no leaks, everything is right where it should be, it did the same thing once already, it’s… I think it’s actually waiting for a command!”
He and Armstrong share a look before exploding in a chorus of cheers and hugging each other, fist raising high into the air.
“Now what is all this noise about?” Duke strides in from his previous post by Sylux’s criopod and the shade they’ve created around it.
“Sarge! Mac got the teleporter working again!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! It’s on!” MacKenzie continues, still running high. This time though, to be completely sure, he does take out his scanners to confront his data with other readings he has… that date back when Samus left.
It’s almost a perfect match.
“VUE! Where is the Corporal?” Armstrong waves at the android, who’s just reached the top of the tower supported by a handful of heavy-duty psy-bots. He gently leans down the electronic components he was carrying.
“I saw him in the desert. I contacted him and asked him to come back here. ETA: one minute.”
Duke firmly plants his hand on MacKenzie’s back, looking at him with a smile.
“Good work, MacKenzie.”
“Thanks, Sarge.” He replies, almost breathless. “Now, when we insert the keys, it should take us straight to Tanamaar!”
“Directly there, huh?”Armstrong asks, tilting her head.
“Exactly. I couldn’t rebuild the software or whatever that was that let Samus chose the planet she wanted to teleport us to, so in other words the User Interface is beyond saving. But that also means that we can only go to the last chosen destination, and that’s most likely Tanamaar!”
“That does sound hopeful.” Tokabi joins in, getting down from a psy-bot that was holding him. The rest are discharged by VUE-995 without as much as a tilt of his head.
“I propose we try it, then.” The android says.
They each hold one key, and as they’re walking up to the teleporter, they fly up and nestle into tiny holes made just for them. Creaking and huffing, the architecture of the shell turns on itself, raising from horizontal to vertical. Just like it did las time.
They can barely contain their excitement, even with fear and trepidation poking their nerves.
They go to touch the newly rebuilt access panel in the middle of the teleporter, with a faint but stable hologram of a Lamorn hand shining on top.
But nothing seems to happen. Their interactions bear no fruit, it’s like it’s not sensing them. MacKenzie takes his scanner out, confirming the normal readings once again, but it remains inactive.
“I… don’t understand. The master teleporter is online… there’s current flowing and all the checks are met, everything is going as intended… but it’s in standby.” He rambles softly. “What could I have done wrong…? Let me check my notes...” He gets back to the control panel and sits down, maintainer bots by his side watching over his shoulder carefully, intrigued. But they don’t move anymore, unlike how they did when there was work to do… so that’s yet another puzzle they can’t crack.
Armstrong stares at the floor in deep thought, as if it’s holding all her answers. She murmurs something under her breath, too low to be comprehensible.
“Private?” Duke questions, “you got any ideas?”
“Samus.” Armstrong replies. The Sargent raises a brow.
“What about her?”
“She could get it to work. The teleporter reacted only to her presence.” She reasons, quietly.
The group freezes.
“Her psychic energy powered the teleporter.” MacKenzie continues the syllogism, just as softly. Then he brings his hands to his head, sighing. “How… how could we forget about it?”
“We would need a powerful psychic energy source.” VUE-995 states, some gloominess creeping into his mechanical voice.
“We have one.”
The group turns to Tokabi, who’s looking at one side of the Tower. One corner they all know quite well, that they wordlessly decided were not going to pay any more mind than strictly necessary. Their eyes widen as they stare as Sylux’s criopod, the images of him conjuring a black hole out of nothing still freshly etched on their minds.
“You’re… proposing we take him back with us?” MacKenzie asks.
“He has powerful psychic abilities.” The sniper replies, matter of factly. “No report we ever received about him said that he could create black holes, and yet now he can.”
“I don’t see why not. We’ll simply put it on the teleporter, see if it reacts to him more than us.” Duke states.
VUE-995 lifts the criopod, checks that its contents are still inside and unmoving and carries it over with little effort. The hologram shines brighter as soon as he and his cargo step on the platform. If anything, it looks promising.
“Samus touched it with her hand.” Armstrong recalls.
“Take his limb out then, V.”
“Yes, Sargent.”
It does not take long to get his limp and icy hand out. Simply putting it over the hologram seems to do the trick. There’s a faint clicking sound effect and it disappears.
“Then… here goes nothing.” MacKenzie murmurs. They all hold their breath as the humming intensifies, and the teleporter starts twirling more rapidly around them, drowning the horizon in a blanket of purple electricity.
“Is… is it working?” Duke asks, looking over MacKenzie’s shoulder to scanners and numbers and graphs that honestly don’t make much sense to him.
“We… can’t know as of yet, but… yeah! It seems like it’s going! This might be it!” The engineer gleefully shouts. VUE-995 is quick to secure Sylux safely back inside the criopod and lock it shut again.
“Then, we can finally go…!” Armstrong smiles.
“Advice: do not say it.”
“Huh?”
“Well, last time you did jinx it. Hard.” MacKenzie explains, eyes still glued to his screen.
“Oh… okay?” Armstrong replies, tilting her head and with half a smile on her face.
“For what it’s worth, I appreciate the enthusiasm, kid.” The Sargent looks at her. She nods, and soundlessly moves closer to him, observing the tornado of purple energy that has by now surrounded them.
They all hope for the best.