Disclaimer: I do not own She-Ra or its related characters. All is the property of Noelle Stevenson, Dream Works Animation, Netflix, NBCUniversal Television Distribution, Filmation, Larry DiTillo, and J. Michael Straczynski.
Inconvenient Arrangements
Chapter Sixteen: Arrival at the Crypto Castle
Arriving at Etheria was slightly less chaotic than leaving Horde World. But only slightly.
Monstron was too large to land on a planet. They had to place the ship in a stationary orbit around it. Which in and of itself was a difficult bit of calculating, since they didn't want to have to keep correcting for every lunar orbit they might cross paths with. Etheria had twelve moons. Most of the stable orbits were already taken.
That was just taking care of the ship.
The Princess' ship and the Prince's own shuttle were packed with the royal couple's personal effects, as well as all the souvenirs the Princess had acquired on their journey. The mutants' body parts lone took up most of the shuttle's cargo bay.
Entrapta was energetic but scatterbrained. Bouncing from one end of Monstron to the other. Making sure everyone she encountered knew just how excited she was to start work in her lab with the new resources the Empire had placed at her disposal.
Imp was a disruptive and disobedient mess. Every officer he was given to for supervision became frustrated and exasperated, their carful and disciplined Horde Academy training cracking and breaking under the child's wordless tantrums and screeches. Only the clones seemed able to withstand Imp's behavior without breaking. But the clones were barely better than dolls and could not think creatively. Imp escaped and evaded them too easily.
Hec-Tor had the absolute worst headache.
Catra, with the help of Scorpia managed to herd Entrapta into her ship. Hec-Tor had to take over management of his son himself and delegate all of his own tasks to his lieutenants, Grizzlor and Mantenna.
Finally, the royal couple and the Princess' entourage made it onto the ship and were on their way down to Dryl.
Monstron would be manned by a skeleton crew of clone units. The enlisted would beam down to Dryl once the ship was settled and running smoothly.
Grizzlor and Mantenna went over the Prince's study and quarters with a fine toothed comb to make sure nobody forgot anything.
Mantenna picked up a broken piece of one of Prince Imp's toys. The room was littered with broken pieces of toys. It looked like the arm of a hard acrylic action figure. Mantenna wasn't sure. He tossed it in a small storage box anyway. Who knew, it just might be a vital piece of the child's very favorite toy and he might throw a tantrum until it was reunited with the rest of the figure and repaired. One could never be sure with children. Even children who could communicate verbally were mercurial at best.
In the adjoining room, Grizzlor was doing his final sweep of Hec-Tor and the Princess' shared room. Making sure none of them had left anything behind. Hec-Tor was usually quite fastidious, so he was not expecting to find anything of his. But Entrapta was decidedly less disciplined and did not keep as good track of her items that were not directly related to her scientific experiments and projects.
Grizzlor found several body products and grooming tools in the shared bathroom, a number of discarded pairs of ladies' undergarments, an entire drawer of the Princess' overalls, and one sad lonely sock. He checked the harder to reach areas of the floor searching for the poor sock's mate. The seam between the bed and floor panels, and the gap between the bedside table and the bed.
He did not find a lost sock in the gap between the table and the bed, but he did find a datacard.
Picking it up, Grizzlor was surprised to find it labeled as one of the ones on the now-cancelled search for Keldor. It was one of the older ones. Dated around the time he noticed the Prince had stopped reading them. Grizzlor didn't know if Hec-Tor had read this one or not, but if he took it with him from Horde World –saving it from being scrubbed- then he definitely wanted it.
Grizzlor made a special point to take the datacard with him. He would return it to Hec-Tor once the Prince was settled.
…
It was raining when the ship and the shuttle landed in Dryl.
The whole region was tall mountains and jagged rocks. The landing cradles for space vessels had to be constructed hanging from cliffs, like the nests of birds of prey. From afar, they looked like silvery-gray nets, jutting out from the rock face. Up close they were a layered series of interlocking steel bands. They were set in rails so that when a ship docked in the cradle, it slid into a hangar inside the mountain.
The rain did not make the docking process any more difficult. Rain was a common enough occurrence in Dryl that the designers and the builders took it into account when making their spaceport. But the rain did make everything uncomfortably wet.
It sloshed when the rails brought the ship and the shuttle inside, splashing on the hanger floor and forming puddles where the cavestone was uneven. The rain beat down outside, and Hec-Tor stepped out onto a we floor when the gangplank lowered.
He lifted the hem of his gown to keep it from getting waterlogged.
Imp came flying out after him and dive-bombed the first puddle he saw, kicking the water with his feet, splashing with his wings, and complexly soaking his father from head to toe.
Hec-Tor growled wordlessly and glared at his son. Imp just smiled up at his father, silently letting him know this was vengeance for keeping him cooped up in a tiny room for almost the entire voyage.
He might have reprimanded the toddler, had Entrapta not come tumbling down the gangplank. Smiling from ear to ear and laughing in a way that Hec-Tor was not going to call 'maniacal'. She intertwined her hair around both of them, sweeping Hec-Tor and his son off their feet and whisking them away.
"I can't wait to show you the castle!" She exclaimed.
There were no formations of soldiers lined up for the Prince's arrival. No fanfare, no pomp, no pageantry. Just Entrapta and her hair carrying them down the mountain from the space port to the castle below.
The Crypto Castle was on a cliff ledge of its own.
The whole castle balanced on an outcropping from the cliff face, and held up with extra support pillars underneath the rock. A wide wall encircling the building, with a pair of double doors in an arch. The castle itself looked a little cobbled together with little planning. A tall spite just off center, with a shorter platform next to it with a glowing orb perched on top. Most of the castle was just short stound little structures, interconnected with passages of dark violet stone.
Entrapta did not take a passage, or pathway, or anything resembling an established rout down to the castle from the space port. She just swung them down the open cliff face of the mountain, holding them in her hair, and used a catwalk that connected the tallest spire to the cliff wall.
Hec-Tor experienced a small heart attack the whole way down.
Imp loved everyone moment of it, giggling and shrieking with glee as the wind whipped his hair. He was gonna love flying in these mountains so much. (Assuming he could get away from Dad long enough.)
Hec-Tor latched onto the first solid –smooth and clearly not natural cliff- wall he could reach after Entrapta set his feet down on the ground. Leaning on it for support as he clutched at his chest, talons scraping against his armor and fingers bunching up the fabric of his gown. He breathed heavily, trying to come down from what was definitely a panic.
"Are you tired already?" Entrapta asked, completely misinterpreting his body language. "Do you need to take a nap before we continue? I can show you to your room. But I really should put the tracker app on your datapad before you start walking around on your own."
Still breathing a little heavy, Hec-Tor turned his head to look at her. She was on her hair, using it to raise herself up to be closer to his face, and looking at him with mild sympathy. She also understood the need to take a nap on account of over-stimulation.
He remembered her telling him that this castle had lots of secret passages and crawlspaces that Imp could hide in and get lost in. If Imp was going to be exploring this place, then Hec-Tor wanted to ability to be able to find his son no matter where he was. He did not want a repeat of the week before his wedding to Entrapta when Imp got stuck in the wall and Hec-Tor was unable to get to him.
"No. If there is business that needs to be taken care of before we rest, then we'll get it done." He told her. Hec-Tor straightened his back, reassuming his straight posture, looking at if he had not just been leaning against a wall, feeling panicked and faint from excitement.
"Okay, the software is in my lab." She was about to take off down the corridor, but paused, then wrapped a tendril of hair around Hec-Tor's and Imp's wrists. "Since you don't have trackers, you should probably stick close to me. It's easy to get lost."
Entrapta lead them down a series of corridors, and turns, and switch backs that Hec-Tor could not follow and was sure he would never be able to navigate on his own. He was also pretty sure they past the same painting twice.
Finally, Entrapta typed in a code on a keypad on the wall and a door slid open.
All three of them stepped into the lab.
It was darker in the lab than the rest of the castle. The Crypto Castle was dimly lit as it was, but Entrapta's lab was even dimmer. It got brighter when she booted up a series of computers against the far wall. Their multiple monitors lighting the room.
Lining the walls on either side were various robotic prototypes in varying stages of assembly.
Still holding onto Imp and Hec-Tor with her hair, she pulled them closer to the computer array. "It's over here. Do you have your datapad on you?"
Hec-Tor pulled it out and passed it to her. He felt a stab of embarrassment when he unlocked it for her.
His lock screen was perfectly fine. Innocent and wholesome. A photo of Imp playing in the dirt of an empty planter in the Imperial gardens. He was looking up, smiling at the camera. A real smile. It was so hard to get good pictures of Imp smiling. Any time a –nice- photograph of him was staged, he always put on a long-suffering grin. Just a stretching of his cheeks to expose his teeth, sharp and pointed like Hec-Tor's but white in color like Keldor's. He didn't look happy in formally staged photos. But playing in the dirt, a streak of mud on one cheek, his clothing smeared, Imp could give a real smile.
The picture Hec-Tor had as the background of his home screen, however, was not quite so wholesome.
It was a photo of Keldor. Wearing only an Eternian style loincloth in black leather and a pair of belts crossed over his chest. He was reclining on the sofa in their sitting room, thighs spread, one hand running through his ebony hair. His eyes fixed on the camera, lips slightly parted. A sultry, seductive expression.
But Entratpa did not comment. She didn't even pause. Almost as if she didn't notice just how… provocative his home screen image was.
She plugged a cable into her computer, and then into his datapad and began a download. Every now and again the screen would go dim, and she would tap it to make sure it didn't go to sleep. Every time she did, Hec-Tor was afraid she was going to make a comment about his home screen.
But she didn't.
The download completed and he had the ability to not only navigate, but also track anyone else in the Crypto Castle.
Then she turned her attention to Imp and gave him a tracker that was already paired with the app. It was mounted on a band small enough to fit on his wrist and be worn like a bracelet. Imp shook his arm, trying to dislodge the tracker. But it just bounced around on his wrist without slipping off his hand.
"Your staff should also come to the lab some time to get trackers of their own so they don't get lost." Entrapta said. "In the meantime, I told my staff to help them get around."
…
Catra was Entratpa's handmaid, that meant she as Entrapta's servant and lived with her at the Crypto Castle.
Scorpia, however, was a Princess of her own kingdom, and she was anxious to get home. But she liked Catra and enjoyed spending time with her during their journey from Horde World, so she made a point to say goodbye to Catra. It was awkward, and involved a lot of blushing.
"…Oh! And- hey! Have you ever been to Princess Prom?" Scorpia asked after the initial wave of awkwardness. It was still awkward, but she seemed to be finding her groove.
Catra crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against a wall. "Well, I'm not a princess, so, no."
"Oh. Well. Princesses are allowed to have plus ones, so, if you wanna go to Princess Prom… you can be my plus one." Scorpia told her. "That is, assuming you wanna go to Princess Prom with me."
"Sure." Catra shrugged. It wasn't like she'd ever get another opertunity to go to an event that was exclusively for the Princesses and royalty of Etheria. And she liked Scorpia well enough. She spent weeks trapped on a space ship with her, spending one night at a party with her should be easy. "Sounds like fun."
"Really? Great!" Scorpia smiled from ear to ear. "I'll pick you up a little bit before, so we can get ready together!"
Scorpia left.
…
When Grizzlor and Mantenna finally beamed down to the planet, they were not expecting any sort of pomp or ceremony. The pomp and ceremony was supposed to be for royalty, not the royals' assistance who were coming in later.
But there were people to greet them when they beamed down into the main entry way (the only place in the Crypto Castle that Monstron's energizer sensors could get a clear read on). Three people. A tall woman with muscular arms, mint-green hair, and a pink smock. A short, lithe woman with her dark teal hair piled on top of her head in a tight bun. And a slender, waif-like man with light lavender hair and pointed ears.
All three of them were laying down colored tape.
"Um… hello?" Mantenna ventured, unsure.
The larger woman straightened first, standing up and cracking her back. She heaved a sigh. "You must be the Prince's assistants, right?" She said. "We figured you might need some help getting around."
They looked down at the tape on the floor, assuming that was the 'help' she was referring too. Three lines of tape, three different colors. Purple-violet, electric green, and neon yellow.
"Violet is for Princess Entrapta and will take you to her lab." She explained. "You should probably head there first to get trackers so you don't get lost. If you don't wanna pick up your trackers first, the green tape will take you to the rooms we've prepared for the Imperial party. Not just the Prince and his son, but his attendants and staff too. In case you wanna take a nap first. The yellow tape will show you where all the bathrooms are. Since you just arrived from a long journey and might need one."
"That's very considerate of you, Lady…?" Said Mantenna.
"Baker." She supplied for him. "And I'm not a Lady, I'm just the cook. I also serve as head of the household staff." She waved a hand to indicate the two other people with her. "This is the household staff, Soda Pop." The slender man with the lavender hair and pointed ears gave a slight bow. "And Bus Girl." The waif-like girl offered an awkward grin at them.
"Just the three of you?" Mantenna blinked at them. The Crypto castle was very large. It could not be cleaned, maintained, and staffed by only three people.
"Just us three organic staff." Soda Pop corrected, taking a step forward to stand next to Baker. "Everything else is done by Princess Entratpa's robots."
The two Horde officers exchanged a look. An almost fully automated castle. No hired servants, enlisted soldiers, or even clones. Just three organic staff and a host of robots.
"Doesn't that get lonely?" Mantenna asked. As a general rule, he didn't get much free time. Being one of the Prince Imperial's lieutenants was not just a full-time job. It was two full-time jobs, demanding more of his time than here were hours in a standard Imperial day. But, in between tasks, he always managed to find time to chat-up other members of palace staff. Scuttlebutt could be passed at any time.
Baker only shrugged, not offering further comment.
There was the beat of a pause in which the five of them just stood there, in the dim entry way, staring at each other.
Someone coughed.
Bus Girl cleared her throat, but said nothing.
Everything about this was so informal. The Prince's attendants didn't know what protocol to fall back on for instruction on how to act of what to do.
Finally, Mantenna said, "So, the violet tape will take us to get trackers from the Princess?"
"Yup." Nodded Baker.
"And we need trackers to work in the Crypto Castle?" He just wanted to clarify.
All three of the staff gave almost identical long-suffering smiles. "Yes."
Mantenna nodded, accepting the answer at face value. Different cultures and races, across all the different planets and stars in the Empire each had their own customs and traditions. If the custom in Dryl was for residents and staff to wear trackers within the castle, then the Prince's lieutenants would observe and adapt to local convention. "Then I shall report to the Princess' lab, as is expected of me."
Grizzlor was about to follow his colleague, but remembered the datacard in his pocket. A file on the search for Keldor. The Prince would want it returned to him as soon as possible. It shouldn't take too long to just drop it off in the Prince's suite before reporting to the Princess' lab for his own tracker.
"I'll meet you there." He told Mantenna.
They each began marching deeper into the Crypto Castle. Mantenna following the violet tape that would take him to Entrapta's lab. Grizzlor following the green tape that would take him to the room that had already been prepared for the Imperial party.
…
Neither of them got to their destinations. At least, not in any kind of 'timely manner'.
Mantenna followed the tape to two doors at the end of a corridor. Between the doors was a single computer screen that booted up, flaring with light as he drew near.
'A choice lays before you.' Announced a set of speakers set in the wall just under the screen. 'One door leads to where you want to go, one door leads to unimaginable suffering! You may ask me which door is safe, but-! I always lie!'
Someone had posted a sign on one of the doors with the same violet tape saying 'This is the Safe Door'.
"I'm good. Thanks." Mantenna brushed past the computer and pulled open the door that was labeled 'safe'. But before he passed through, he leaned back and addressed the computer. "If you 'always lie' then are you lying about 'always' lying? Or do you only lie some of the time?"
Three dots scrolled across the screen. Apparently, the computer did not feel like answering.
Mantenna was about to just ignore it and continue on, but another question occurred to him. "Why even have a door that leads to 'unimaginable suffering' at all?"
Those three dots scrolled across the screen again. But this time it was just a pause. A moment's hesitation before the computer just repeated. 'One door leads to unimaginable suffering.'
"Fine. Don't tell me." He snapped at the computer. "I'll find out anyway. That's what I do."
Passing through the door marked 'safe' he found the violet tape continuing on the other side. The tape that would lead him to the Princess' lab. He was still on the right track.
…
Grizzlor was following the green tape, which was supposed to take him to the room prepared for the Imperial party. And he could only hope that, that was what it was doing.
It led him to a door at the end of the hall. But when he passed through the door, there was only a tight and small, empty room on the other side. Grizzlor wheeled around, thinking perhaps they had laid the tape down wrong. But on the back of the door he'd just walked through was a sign taped to it with the same green tape that said 'Wait 3 Minutes'.
So, he waited until his personal chronometer had counted three minutes, and opened the door again.
Grizzlor stepped out into an entirely different corridor from the one he had just walked through. Apparently, things in the Crypto Castle shifted. That was good to know.
He continued to follow the tape.
At least, until a large robot that took up almost the whole hallway came barreling at him. With giant round brushes in front of its wheels that looked like they were meant to scrub the floors. Grizzlor had to jump out of the way and flatten himself against the wall to avoid it.
The robot passed him without incident. But after it past, the tape was all pulled up. Grizzlor had no idea where he was going now!
He looked up and down the corridor. It wasn't like it was too hard to navigate. Just keep going in the direction he had been. Pretty straightforward. He shouldn't get too lost. How hard to find would they make the living quarters anyway? Grizzlor continued down the corridor.
Until he came to an intersection. The passage branching into three different directions.
Staring at the options before him, he hesitated. There was no tape on the ground now. He did not know which passage to take.
But he was an officer of the Great and Eternal Horde Empire. He was a graduate of the Horde Academy on Horde World, top of his class. He could figure this out. It was just a new place. Once he got the hang of it, he wouldn't need tape or a tracker to get around.
Picking one of the three, Grizzlor headed down one of the corridors.
It very quickly ended in a dead end.
So, he doubled back, intending to pick a different path of the three. But when he got back to the intersecition, there's weren't three choices, there were now four.
Grizzlor scratched his head. It was impossible for him to have taken a wrong turn. He didn't take any turns. The passage he chose was a straight line and it dead-ended very quickly. But, somehow, he managed to come back to a completely different intersection than the one he left from.
Tapping his communicator, he called someone. "Mantenna, do you have a tracker yet?"
"Almost." His answer came back. "Even with the tape I'm a little turned around. I swear I passed this same painting before but in a different spot. Do you think the Princess has two copies of it?"
Grizzlor didn't know. Already the castle had outright changed twice while he was walking through it. He supposed it was entirely possible for the painting Mantenna was talking about had moved of its own accord.
"When you do get your tracker… can you come get me?" Grizzlor asked over the channel.
"Sure. Where are you?"
Grizzlor looked around. In the time that he was talking, his attention on his communicator, the intersection had changed again. Without his notice. Without making a sound. There were now only two passages. "I don't- I don't know."
…