Dr. Mercury tapped on the obsidian wall with two fingers, as the mechanisms within the wall clicked and retracted, undoing the forces on the 12 meter tall door in response to her previously entered code and voice command. Her stomach was sated for the time being with steak, eggs, and of course coffee. She couldn't run the science operations of the Tower on an empty stomach, after all.
Finally, the three spiral arms of the door retracted, revealing another hallway covered with reinforced obsidian walls and security sensors. It always irked her how slow that door opened, but she understood more than most why it was necessary, given the trade secrets and nigh-irreplaceable technology it contained. At least this was one of the smaller doors; the bigger doors took even longer to open.
Dr. Mercury stepped through the doorway. A pair of heavily armored guards stood on either side. One of them nodded quietly as she walked forward without a word, the spiral arms of the door slowly sliding shut behind her. This part of the Tower was safer than most, and as such she wore her lighter gear, thin armor plating reinforced with an energy shield, and only the research utility attachments for her two supplemental robotic limbs, which were neatly folded away behind her back. In regions of the Tower with less security, she would either don her heavier armor and combat attachments, or request her personal enderman guard, whose prideful demeanor was admittedly slightly irritating, depending on the situation and her mood.
She went over her day's schedule in her head. First, she would visit Command & Control to monitor the acquisition of certain key off-world resources. Acquisition of dimensional crystals was always the top concern, especially since the Entity began probing more frequently about the deadline. A salt used for the coolant in the reactors powering the southwest military wing was also running low. A substitute could be used, but the maintenance toll would be high, and Dr. Mercury was not fond of those kinds of managerial distractions. She would have to invest in some bureaucratic wrestling during the visit to ensure that resource was prioritized.
Second, she would visit the recently constructed portal room and make sure things were still working smoothly. That project was being managed by Dr. Kenson from the dimensional mapping and modeling department. Dr. Kenson was generally reliable and amicable, so Dr. Mercury anticipated it would be a much shorter meeting than the first one and probably the highlight of her day, aside from reanimating that dead prisoner later, time permitting.
Third, she would meet with the Entity to discuss the project and the Tower operations. Dr. Mercury had significant respect for the Entity, as a no-nonsense boss who understood the value of fundamental research, and who guaranteed that her pay was proportional to her extensive knowledge and expertise. She also recognized what the Entity was capable of, all the more reason to stay on the Entity's good side.
Last on the work agenda were some brief visits at the various other research divisions throughout the Tower, both scientific and magic-focused. She usually visited the biology division last for the occasional dead research subject, and every once in a while a refill for the venom chamber for her robotic utility arms.
And, if all went well, she would retire to her personal laboratory, and see how that former Tower prisoner looked as a zombie.
After several flights of stairs and careful choices of long hallways - a few wrong turns through this dimensional labyrinth could turn a short stroll into an hour long hike - Dr. Mercury arrived at the enderman-guarded security door to Command & Control. One of the endermen recognized her and immediately teleported to the other side of the door, causing the door to open shortly afterward. The inside of Command & Control was similar to the inner chamber of the project, although somewhat smaller, and the center hallway was a straight shot to the room that Dr. Mercury was trying to go to.
Dr. Mercury walked briskly through the hallway and entered a large room where every sound including her footsteps echoed slightly on the walls. The walls behind her and on either side led to a hallway, and the back wall had a giant screen with the white insignia of the Tower on a black background, a four-pointed star with a line crossing it along the diagonal, a symbol of the Tower as a locus of economic and military power, not just for the three dimensions of Nexus, but also for the many worlds which lie beyond it. In the center of the room was a round table with approximately one eighth of the seats currently occupied. At one of the seats was the Head of Acquired Worlds, General Forgelight, a regular attendee who was often one of the first in the room. At another seat was an armored enderman who Dr. Mercury guessed was one of the Ender's commanding generals; they were hard for her to tell apart.
Dr. Mercury sat relatively close to General Forgelight, hoping to be nearly adjacent to the head of resource logistics when they arrived, but also far enough away that she wouldn't look out of place sitting away from the other representatives of research and Tower operations.
The room filled up slowly over the course of about ten minutes. The head of resource logistics sat adjacent to Dr. Mercury as she had hoped for, and on her other side sat the oddly disarming Clark Belmont and the frequently tardy Arch Mage Wisp, head of magic research.
At the end of the table closest to the screen, General Marcus, head of Command and Control, leaned forward in his chair and pulled out a silver remote used to control the screen. He cleared his throat.
"Are we all accounted for?"
No response came from the rest of the room, so General Marcus clicked on the remote, causing the screen to change to a topological map of the Tower and the surrounding biome.
"First order of business, as usual, is Tower security. What's the status of the prison cleanup and the security amendments?"
The enderman general spoke, "All prisoners with the exception of the four involved with the failed negotiations have been recaptured, neutralized, or confirmed dead. A select number of low-value prisoners have been framed as the rogue negotiators and killed to serve an example. Damage cleanup is proceeding as planned, as is retraining for the first fraction of security guards and augmenting the perimeter security. Punishment for leaders deemed delinquent during the breakdown was approved just this morning."
"Sounds like you're recovering well," General Marcus said. "Operations, what's the status on the energy and logistics side of this?"
The head of engineering spoke, "All main energy sources are operational, dimensional conduits are working normally, security systems are up, et cetra."
"Research, how's the machine?"
Dr. Mercury tried to speak but was cut off by Arch Mage Wisp, who was speaking very quickly.
"The latest phase of testing is almost done. We're still working hard to increase the energy efficiency but it's turning out to be more difficult than last time."
"Is there some new issue in the research process that's preventing you from improving the machine?" General Marcus asked.
"Well, no, not exactly," Arch Mage Wisp said. "The shield plating is about ready to be replaced, but that's routine. To be honest, we've already picked the low-hanging fruit in terms of what to improve, given our arcane and physics knowledge. Dr. Mercury will speak with the Entity later today about the project."
Dr. Mercury spoke, "I think what Arch Mage Wisp is trying to say is, since our knowledge and expertise is composed of the top experts of over fifty dimensions, we are reaching the limits of what is possible with the laws of reality. The machine is close to being done."
"Yes, that's exactly right," Arch Mage Wisp said.
"Well, in either case, I guess it's the Entity's problem," General Marcus said. "Dimensions, what's the status on new worlds?"
The head of reconnaissance, General Issa, spoke, "Before we go over new worlds, I want to share some especially strong dimensional readings. Can you hand me the remote?"
General Marcus threw the remote over to General Issa, who clicked a few times on the remote to make a dimensional map appear on the screen, consisting of variously sized dots connected with lines. In the center of the screen, there were a lot more dots, representing the many worlds which had been discovered by the Tower. In the center was a large circle with the insignia of the tower on it, representing Nexus. General Issa clicked on the remote again, and the dots on the screen shrunk, revealing other, sparser dots even further away from Nexus, with two concentric circles marking distance from Nexus.
General Issa activated the laser pointer on the remote as she spoke. "We detected a series of strong energy readings a few days ago, at converging distances to Nexus, one in each world on the way. We were unable to determine how far out this chain started. After those readings, just two days ago, our sensors picked up an off-the-scale negative energy reading within Nexus that made us suspect that the sensors were malfunctioning. And when I say, 'malfunctioning,' I mean that the behavior of our sensors was so unusual that they very well could have been completely broken. We had to spend a day inspecting our systems from top to bottom. During this inspection we detected another reading, a strong signal of multiple dimensional crystals, close to where the negative energy signal was recorded in Nexus…"
The entire room seemed to quiver slightly at the mention of the crystals. The details of the machine's purpose were a secret only fully known by Dr. Mercury, Arch Mage Wisp, and the Entity, but everyone knew about the dimensional crystals. More than a few promotions, as well as executions, revolved around the success or failure of their acquisition.
"Were there any crystal retrieval missions in progress?" General Marcus asked.
"No, this was in between retrieval runs," General Issa clarified. "More importantly, after our inspections completed, it appeared the dimensional crystal readings were authentic. The other readings are still being analyzed."
Dr. Mercury's interest had been piqued. She stood up from her chair. "Excuse me, I need to go. Arch Mage Wisp will cover any research questions."
Dr. Mercury walked quickly out of the room. She knew her absence would cost her time later on, but opportunities to study dimensional anomalies like this up close came rarely, especially ones involving the machine's principal resource.
Time was of the essence, so she went straight to her guard's quarters. She knocked on the dark wooden door, and shortly after the door was opened by the room's armored inhabitant, Steelborn. Steelborn, an enderman, was a specialist in marksmanship and assassination, and could neutralize threats rather than kill them as the need provided. Dr. Mercury did not often make full use of Steelborn's skills during research trips like these, but Steelborn's precise approach to combat was preferable, as it meant that for the most part Steelborn stayed out of her way. But more importantly, she needed quick transportation.
"You're here early," Steelborn remarked, with a hint of disgruntlement.
Dr. Mercury had no interest in policing Steelborn's tone of voice and went straight to the point. "There was a strong dimensional crystal reading in Nexus. You're going to take me there."
###
Dr. Mercury's feet landed upon the soft soil of a forest. She let go of her enderman bodyguard and took note of her surroundings. The air was fresh, the trees greener than usual thanks to newly sprouted leaf buds coaxed to life from several days of intermittent rain. There were no buildings in sight, suggesting to Dr. Mercury that the source of the crystals was either mobile or underground. A less likely possibility was that this was not the location of the crystal signal, but Dr. Mercury was relatively confident in the reconnaissance team's analysis, and she considered Steelborn's navigational abilities to be reliable. Just to be certain, she confirmed the veracity of her location with her dimensional compass and copy of the sensor reports. Everything seemed to be correct. And according to the sensor data, the crystal signal was detected very close to where Dr. Mercury was standing.
Dr. Mercury inspected the ground until she saw three adjacent, faint square aberrations. She raised her eyebrows briefly, slightly amused. She reached behind her back and pressed two buttons, activating the two robotic arms she had outfitted with grappling tools and sensors. The arms unfolded quietly.
"There's a sealed underground bunker here," she said. "There's some redstone wiring, but otherwise it appears to have been completely cleaned out. Let's take a closer look."
Steelborn teleported Dr. Mercury into the bunker. It was completely dark. The air smelled faintly burnt.
Dr. Mercury fumbled for the flashlight clipped to her belt, turned it on, and unclipped it, beaming its light across the small room. The entire room was carved into stone, with some of the stone elevated, presumably to serve as tables. At one end of the room, exposed, extended pistons hoisted soil up against the forest floor, sealing the room shut. Dr. Mercury observed that the stonecutting of the walls and tables was precise, and the dimensions of the carved out room conformed to whole meters. She surmised that this bunker must have been built by a miner from one of the more sparsely populated dimensions who often manifested this type of digging ability.
Dr. Mercury's robotic arms lit up with blinking sensor lights and homed in on the holes in one of the stonecut tables. According to the sensors, the holes contained strong traces of metals and other inorganic solids that were familiar entries in the Nexus archives. Most notably, Dr. Mercury recognized traces of magic-suppressant compound. In smaller quantities, there were coal combustion byproducts and oxidated metals, and in even smaller quantities, the byproducts of nuclear reactions, and in quantities smaller still, exotic subatomic particles that required even more energy to produce than the nuclear reactions.
"Whoever created these holes had a great deal of firepower," Dr. Mercury concluded. "And a shift in redstone energy levels appears to have activated a radio transmitter in the wall. Ugh, this is so inconvenient! I didn't bring my drilling attachment."
"It could be a trap," Steelborn said.
"It could be," Dr. Mercury reasoned. "I'm going to keep scanning."
Dr. Mercury stepped in front of the other table and continued scanning, first scanning the table, and then the walls, and then the ceiling and floor.
"There's no trace of dimensional energy readings, although there were signs of low-tech potionmaking. I don't think there's much more to be gained here. The alarm will shut off when we leave. I want to do a quick scan of the surrounding area."
Dr. Mercury resolved she would have some choice words for Reconnaissance. Dimensional readings, even if unconfirmed, she reasoned, ought to be investigated immediately, and the investigation results submitted immediately for verification. Any delays risk compromising valuable intel. I should write that up in my report...
Dr. Mercury took the enderman guard Steelborn's arm. After a few chained teleportations through the surrounding forest, she was transported one last time into the outer sanctum of Command and Control. Upon checking the time, she realized she was late to the meeting with Dr. Kenson, from the department of dimensional mapping and modeling. It would have to be postponed. There was another, more important meeting to attend to.