Chapter 10: Clearance
COMBAT TRAINING EVALUATION
25 March Sorean 6
Evaluator: Keldon, James
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Name: Antiqua, Melia
Gender: F
Race: High Entia father, Homs mother
D.o.B: 22 February Entirmina 232 (age 74)
Height: 152cm
Weight: 46.7kg
Specialisation: Ether staff
STATISTICS
Note: Due to low magnitude, all provided values are estimates. Each value is scored on the related Eryth Combat Scale.
Physical Strength: 8 As with all of her other attributes, Melia has demonstrated a surprising leap of progress here this year, though this one sees the least improvement.
Ether Attenuation: 38 This value is top percentile, and may in fact be a record for female adolescents.
Agility: 10 Melia seems to be improving in co-ordination in addition to pure speed.
Resilience: 128 This value is quite deceiving. Strictly speaking, it should be in the 50-60 range, as it is at this point that Melia becomes too beaten to stand. However, she seems to have developed an uncanny ability to keep fighting beyond this point, unable to physically defend herself yet capable of continually deploying ether arts with little impairment. The amount of damage she can sustain in this state before finally submitting is proportionally far too large to attribute to a traditional last stand sort of behaviour, so it has been added to her total resilience score.
Overall Combat Level: ~0.89 Melia's massive leap in ability this year is quite shocking, especially in the area of resilience. I presume something major has occurred in her life that I am not aware of.
ARTS
Elemental Discharge: A+ Burst aura now activates in 17 discharges, the part of her repertoire that seems to be slowing down the most. On the other hand, she has maximised her tripling abilities, which by itself is an incredible achievement.
Summon Bolt: A- Summoning time varies between 3 and 4 seconds.
Summon Flare: A- Summoning time varies between 3 and 4 seconds.
Summon Aqua: A- Summoning time varies between 5 and 7 seconds.
Burst End: B- The defensive drop of this art has reached usable levels, measuring approximately 4%, and leaves about 2 discharges worth of burst aura left over.
Hypnotise: B- Casting time varies between 7 to 12 seconds, and can withstand minor interruptions.
Shadow Stitch: B- Casting time ranges between 4 and 9 seconds, with trivial target selection, and ensnares targets for a total of 7 seconds.
Healing Gift: D+ While Melia has no problem extracting vitality from herself, she seems unable to control how much is extracted, almost always ending up in going overboard and fainting before being able to deliver it to her target. It is unclear what can be done to remedy this.
Spear Break: F This art has taken a rather unusual turn: Melia remains completely unable to break targets, but instead is quite adept at slowing them. While the addition of a new effect is interesting, the fact remains that she continues to fail at the art's primary purpose.
Overall Arts Grade: B- Melia's surprising year of improvement extends to her arts, with her only issues being a recent addition and a consistent problem.
Once every year in July, the entire palace was scheduled to undergo a mass cleanup and restoration. The procedure was marked for two days: Saturday for the outside, and Sunday for the inside. Due to the strength of the cleaning materials used on the outer walls, as part of the process, the entire palace underwent a full hermetic sealing, with every door and window being rendered completely and irrevocably airtight for exactly eight hours. With nothing but the duct system providing fresh air to the interior, it was recommended - but not required - for most occupants to spend the day outside.
While the rest of the royal family each left to pursue a different activity, Melia had chosen to remain inside for the day. It was a rather hot day outside and she didn't want to spend it wandering around in her stuffy headdress - with the transporters also shut off for the day, she couldn't have snuck into public as a citizen.
With Healing Gift not being a staff art, Melia was capable of practicing the real thing whenever she wanted, though it was generally unpleasant to do so. Still, she found the constant fainting to be somewhat of a blessing during days like this, when she wanted time to pass quickly.
Lying in bed after half an hour of self-induced fainting, she looked at the clock to determine she should probably do something else. As benign as it seems, it is probably not healthy to be abusing this art like this.
Moving from her bed to her desk chair, Melia extracted a gossip magazine from the drawer that she had snuck from her most recent excursion. She found it intriguing, if a little insulting, to read sensationalist stories about herself, most of which made mutually exclusive claims of zero credibility. It was amusing to flip through the ridiculous theories of what she did in her spare time, the pointless guesses of the nature of her hairstyle, or the nonsensical reports of her trying to undermine Kallian's position for the throne, but this particular issue had a story that caught her serious attention.
IS MELIA ANTIQUA TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE HOMS WORLD?
By now, any self-respecting purveyor of information is fully aware that, less than a year ago, princess Melia Antiqua led a daring cadre of half-bloods to fight a Mechon squadron on the Bionis' lower left leg, as part of rescuing a hundred Homs from Colony 7. But the question has always been: Why? Why would the princess risk her stature for such a triviality of lesser lives?
After consulting with several psychology experts, we believe we have found the answer, and it takes the form of three P's: Primitives, Persuasion, and Power.
We start with the last one on the list: Power. It is of no doubt that princess Melia is starved for power - everything in her life is overseen by the emperor, and prince Kallian blocks any opportunity for her to advance in the ranks simply by existing. Desperate to have something to control in her life, where can she turn to?
Why, the Primitives of the lower Homs colonies, of course.
Common knowledge outlines that no Homs below the Bionis' waist has an inkling of our race's existence. Any one of us can secretly travel down there and present themselves as a god using our superior technology, and none would have any evidence otherwise. Indeed, it would take very little effort to Persuade them to submit to one's rule, quickly and cleanly taking control of an entire colony in one fell swoop.
So, where does this lead us? Putting the pieces together, it is easy to assume that princess Melia has proclaimed herself ruler of Colony 7, occasionally returning to ensure she is being worshipped correctly. But why has she not simultaneously done so for Colonies 6 and 9, the other two that currently exist? One of our experts suggests that she wishes to cover her advances with other events, such as the Mechon attack she fended off, while another rationalises that visiting one colony in secret is difficult enough to keep hidden from the emperor. We shall see soon enough which of these is true, assuming that reaching adulthood grants her extra privileges.
Melia's brow furrowed as she prepared to turn the page. Clearly, at least one of the half-bloods we recruited for that mission was unable to keep his silence. If it was one of the poorer ones, I would not blame him. Still, while I did not explicitly listen for it, I do not recall hearing any gossip of this sort during my excursions, and its degree of mutation is quite...impressive. I wonder how much of the public actually believes-
Suddenly, there was a loud bang. It sounded like it originated from just outside her bedroom door.
Getting up to investigate, Melia slowly opened the door a crack. This was one of the few times she was grateful to have a door of physical locomotion as opposed to simply phasing in and out of existence; normally she was miffed at the inconvenience of having to push or pull a handle to open or close the three doors in her room, something the architects claimed was a request made by her mother with no further reason given.
A silver canister was on the floor in the hallway about a metre away from the door, spewing a thick green gas into the air. It gave off a dreadful stench.
Slamming the door closed again, Melia leapt backwards. It's a gas bomb. Whatever it is, it is likely unsafe to breathe, and no door can block its passage forever.
As if on cue, the green gas started slowly seeping through the cracks around the door. With little airflow in the room, it mostly hung near the door as it began to thicken.
Moving slowly to avoid stirring up any currents, Melia carefully removed one of the flowers from the vase on her desk and tossed it towards the door.
Passing through the gas, the flower curled into a black husk before it hit the floor.
Toxic or corrosive, doesn't matter. I'm getting out of here. The thought barely had time to exist before the realisation sunk in that there was nowhere to go; the door was her only exit, the window was too high off the ground even if it weren't sealed, and the wardrobe backdoor couldn't be opened from her side.
Wait...the wardrobe...the vent!
Melia scrambled to extract the Chozo interface from her sock drawer and activate it. As the map display booted up, it drew about half the palace pipes in a blazing red.
What does the red mean? The mental question was immediately answered, with the screen displaying "Noxious gas alert, unsafe to travel here".
Wait, shouldn't some sort of emergency system be using the vents to pump the detected gas out of here? She knew she had read something to that effect in a book not too long ago. The Chozo interface didn't help, all it could say was "No information available". Well, regardless, I'm not sitting around here to wait for it.
Melia inched into her closet, trying to not produce extra air movement, closed the door to buy more time, and dragged her suitcases to under the vent in the ceiling. Giving the Chozo interface the call to open it, she stood on the suitcases and leapt upwards, barely grabbing hold of the swinging grate. She then proceeded to hang there for several seconds, unable to pull herself any higher.
"...nnnnnnnnNNNNNNgh!" Melia could barely do a chin-up, let alone lift herself into the duct. The Chozo interface caught her eye as three more pipes turned red.
She didn't want to make a huge wind, but she ended up having no choice. Take me to the central control centre, maximum speed!
The ductworks sprung into life, stirring up a massive gale that sucked Melia into the vent and sent her rocketing through the pipes. It took just over a minute for her to make the long journey across Alcamoth to her target.
Popping out of the port in the central control centre, Melia unrolled to see five men, all frantically trying and failing to keep their consoles from showing more and more alerts. She recognised Jim and Rob from her previous visits, where she offered help at maintaining the most difficult-to-access parts of the system one or two times a year during some of her excursions.
"Mel oh thank the Bionis it's you." Jim was the first to notice her arrival, he was clearly a bit rattled. "Listen up quick because this is the big time. Some sort of gas bombs went off in the palace. Whoever did it cut communication to Substation 3 and initiated a security lockout, we can barely see what's going on and can't do a thing about it. They're all sealed up for their annual cleaning so everyone in there's as good as dead. Get up there to sub 3 and do whatever you can to either restore our connection or start the detox yourself. GO!"
Melia didn't need to be told twice; she dove back into the duct and was off in an instant.
Substation 3 must be inside the palace somewhere, she thought as she blasted through the network. Jim's description implies sabotage. Hopefully the perpetrator is absent to give me a chance of fixing it.
After not much time at all, Melia rocketed out of the exit port and immediately crashed into what felt like a person, followed by a sickening crunch. Standing up, she took stock of the scene. The substation had a single monitor and console with nothing but "LOCKOUT IN PROGRESS" plastered across it; one of the thick wires attached to its rear was cut and sparking. The door was locked and jammed with several planks of wood; she had no chance of opening it. The room had two other people in it. One was unconscious in a chair and looked like the maintenance man whose shift it was before he was interrupted by the saboteur. The other was the guy she had bashed into and looked very much like the chief manager of the palace's janitorial crew, though it was difficult to tell with his face on the ground and bleeding from impact.
Stepping around her accidental knockout, Melia stood in front of the console. A keyboard was present, but nothing else. She tried pressing the return key, space bar, and escape key to no effect.
"Hello? Is this system voice-controlled?" It was worth a shot.
"Affirmative." The flatness of the artificial voice made it slightly difficult to understand.
"Activate all emergency detoxification systems." That is a word, right?
"Unable to comply. Lockout in progress."
"Then terminate the lockout!"
"Authorisation required. Please provide: Royal clearance."
Melia was stunned. Royal clearance? That means whoever activated...never mind that for now, how do I provide such clearance? Do I even have such authority? "Er, this is Melia Antiqua, First Princess, daughter of Emperor Sorean."
"Insufficient biographical info."
"...and Second Consort Clara?" Haven't needed to say that in years.
"Voiceprint accepted." A blue panel extended from the console's right side. "Please provide handprint."
The easy part. Melia placed her hand on the panel, which glowed as it scanned.
"Handprint accepted." The scanner retracted. "Please provide correct response to security query: What is the origin of Princess Melia's name?"
...uh-oh. It had been a very long time since Melia had last had this particular piece of information refreshed in her mind. She stood thinking hard for several minutes, trying to ignore the map on her wrist turning redder and redder.
Having gone over all the possibilities and hazy memories, she put together her best guess. "My name comes from an ancestral word for the scuppertree." Hopefully the system will not lock me out if I get it wrong, and allow me to use my second guess upon restart.
There was a long pause as the system processed the natural-language answer.
"Security query accepted and validated. Royal clearance confirmed. Lockout terminated. Detecting unsafe levels of hazardous gases in palace, activating emergency detox procedure."
The screen began displaying a large three-dimensional map of the palace, colouring about three quarters of all rooms in alarming red. Melia could hear a lot of machinery starting up as she looked across the map to confirm that the entrance hall and throne room were still clear, while her own room was mostly okay. As the system kicked into life, the smaller rooms were the first to clear, while the big ones followed rather quickly. In no time there were only five dangerous rooms left, which looked like the ones where the bombs were initially set off, given that one of them was the hall just outside her room.
Melia let out a massive sigh of relief. While there was almost certainly a few casualties, she had managed to avoid complete disaster. Her relief was interrupted by knocking on the door, followed by it being unlocked, but the wooden planks still barred entry.
I should get out of here. I'm not supposed to be in the maintenance rooms. Melia ducked into the vent and fired herself down to the central control centre. She arrived to see the five men even more relieved than she was.
"You're a lifesaver, Mel," Jim said breathlessly. "Listen, there's probably going to be an investigation into what happened here. If you don't want to be part of it, we'll cover for you. Just say the word."
I can't have an investigation revealing my presence here. "That would be appreciated."
"Got it. We'll tell them we have a few volunteers working under condition of anonymity. You needn't worry about a thing."
"Thank you."
"Oh no, thank you." He walked to the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, we need some coffee. Pedro, you hang back, we'll get you some."
Jim left and took three of the men with him, leaving one behind who simply acknowledged Melia with a nod as she crawled back into the ductworks and headed back to her room.
Arriving in her closet, Melia landed awkwardly on top of her pile of suitcases. No time to relax just yet, I have to make it seem like I was here all along. Put the suitcases back and close the grate, hide the Chozo interface back in the drawer. Now what would I have done if I had no escape? Probably left the wardrobe door open, knowing that's where the vent is, so the eventual detox process would get done faster. Then I would hide in the washroom and close the door. Perhaps in the shower, ready to turn on the water and run the gas down the drain as a last resort?
Footsteps could be heard in the hall outside. Having finished hiding the evidence of her adventure, Melia dashed into the washroom and closed the door. Now I must simply wait. I have been hiding in here the entire time; all I know is the gas never penetrated this far in.
It only took about half a minute for the "rescue party" to enter the washroom, a cadre of three guards equipped with hazmat gear and medical equipment. Seeing that Melia was perfectly safe, they flashed a thumbs-up to an unseen person outside and walked back out, being quickly replaced by Denzel, the active captain.
"You are well, princess?" the captain inquired.
"Yes. I retreated quickly upon the...er, event occurring, and did not encounter any difficulties."
"Very well. Please come with me to the ground floor. The Emperor is outside awaiting news, and seeing you will ease his main concern."
Dinner was a little thin that night, with many ingredients having to be thrown out due to the kitchens being partially contaminated. With the palace's sealing broken only ten minutes prior, Sorean received his report at the table alongside the rest of the family.
"At approximately two thirty-two this afternoon," captain Denzel began, "multiple gas bombs were detonated in various locations around the palace. All occupants were immediately directed to the largest rooms as hazmat personnel attempted to locate and dispose of the charges; a total of twelve minor injuries have been reported, with no serious injuries nor deaths. A total of five charges were located and neutralised. In order of discovery, they were placed in the hall outside the kitchens, in the training facility, at the top of the third-floor stairs, outside the hospital wing, and immediately outside princess Melia's chambers."
Sorean shook his head in disgust at what was clearly a second attempt on Melia's life in just over a year.
The captain continued. "During most of the rescue and disposal process, the ventilation system remained completely silent, only activating after three of the bombs had been dealt with. It was later discovered that the system had been sabotaged by none other than Roleg Ferk."
Sorean's disgust turned to anger in an instant. He pounded his fist on the table. "What?! Roleg Ferk, the manager of the palace's sanitation team for the past seventy years?"
"The very same. He was found in the palace's ventilation control substation, having boarded himself in and knocked out the worker attending to the system."
"The cowardly traitor. What did he have to say for himself?"
"Well, Your Majesty, this is where things get a little mysterious." Denzel flipped to the next page of his report. "Upon forcing the door open, Ferk was found face down on the floor, unconscious in a pool of his own blood. He is in the hospital wing and has yet to re-awaken, diagnosed with a fractured skull from impact with the floor. We have not even a guess as to how he was attacked."
"Why did Central Control take so long to realise there was a problem?" asked Kallian.
"Ferk had not only placed a lockout on the system, but cut the communication to all other stations. Central Control immediately knew there was a problem, but could do nothing but watch."
"...Then who disabled the lockout?" Kallian had no idea he had accidentally put an elbow in his food; Melia had to try very hard to not laugh.
"We don't know. In all likelihood, the same mystery man that knocked out Ferk. And here we come to the biggest mystery of all: According to the system logs, the lockout was initiated by royal clearance, before being terminated by royal clearance."
A deadly silence fell over the table as everyone stopped eating in shock.
Wanting to finish his report, Denzel broke the silence. "As we can safely discount the possibility that anyone at this table was present to initiate or terminate the lockout, this means that the logs have been falsified somehow. This is corroborated by the fact that the lockout initiation time has been erased, something else that only royal clearance can do without some sort of hacking. Investigation is ongoing as to what kind of hacking must have been necessary to precipitate these events; currently there have been no results. That is the extent of my report."
Sorean gave a heavy sigh. "Very well. While we are waiting for Ferk's testimony, I want three things done. First, seek out whoever was in charge of security when Ferk entered the palace today, and find out why he was insufficiently supervised. And I will not accept "he was trustworthy" as an answer. Second, find a temporary replacement for Ferk that is not part of the current team. He will handle tomorrow's interior cleaning and be a candidate to take the position permanently, which I want done in no more than a month. And third, find a place in the palace to construct a second ventilation control substation, to operate independently of the existing one, and do so immediately. That will be all."
"Understood, Your Majesty." Denzel bowed and left the room.
"This is madness." Kallian surreptitiously brushed the food off his sleeve. "Two attacks in the palace in less than twenty months, via two completely different mediums. And we have no hope of hiding this one from the public; it was all too obvious that something was awry."
"We may be able to claim it was a malfunction with the system, drawing poisonous fumes in from a waste disposal building." Sorean shook his head. "But even that may be optimistic at best." He turned to Melia. "Melia, you are the only one of us who remained in the palace today. Should you have any information of these events that Denzel did not report, speak now."
Melia was ready for the question; she had spent the past few hours making up her mind how to answer it. "I retreated to the washroom immediately upon discovering the nature of the problem, and remained there until I was rescued. I have nothing to add." In the end, she had decided that revealing her role in the day's events would leave just about the same number of unanswered questions, and she was not at all confident that the results of her actions would exonerate her from stealing around in the ductwork.
A grim nod. "Very well." Sorean began discussing with Kallian what kind of story they would give to the public the next day. Melia ignored them, paying more attention to her food, before realising something was amiss. She stole a glance at Yumea, who was eating slightly quicker than usual, with a look of disgust on her face.
She always participates in these discussions about public relations. Why not today? Have the potential consequences of today's events affected her that much? She doesn't seem to care that much about the welfare of the palace staff normally, or for that matter me. Odd.