Chapter 130: Orientation Station

…

After returning to the Seventeen, Irleen explained that they needed to find a spot where the technoworks could be activated. When Luggard suggested going back to the Forest Realm, she elaborated that they needed to be far from the wreckage of Horizon's Eye in order for the plan to work. Link further explained that, due to having watched the remaining crew of the Horizon's Eye jump ship from over the ocean, their current theory was that the Sorians might have set up a haven for themselves further north of Hyrule's surface realms. Once they had their improvised compass working, Link would then have to tell the technoworks to ignore the blocks on the Horizon's Eye so that it would be inclined to point to another Sorian vessel, which would theoretically be at the new location the Sorians had chosen. During their discussion of the plan, both Valley and Luggard pointed out two of the major problems with their plan. Luggard expressed confusion as to how they planned to follow a compass with a lifespan of about a minute. Cale, once he was finished warming his hands in front of the firebox, explained that, once they had a direction, someone would have to mark it so that it could be properly measured. Then they would use the closest switches in the tracks to find where the compass itself would have been laid so that a proper course could be set once Link, Irleen, and Cale returned to the Island Symphony. Valley was concerned about the state of the technoworks. Irleen admitted that the plan would cause both blocks and her earring to die. Further complicating the matter was the fact that one block was still nearly dead already while the other was drunk (for lack of a better understanding of what exactly had happened to the second block). Once activated, though, they would not have much time before the technoworks died.

Luggard made their work a little easier by taking them to a site called "Disorientation Station". At first, it just looked like an abandoned platform in front of a set of tiered cliffs on the northern edge of the Fire Realm. One gravestone occupied the area just at the base of the platform's stairs, its surface worn of any sort of markings indicating who had been buried there. A moment of looking around did not change anyone's opinion of the location: abandoned, indescribable, and nothing but bare rock and scrub in sight. This probably made Irleen like it even more. Not only would there be a definite difference between the Horizon's Eye and the Sorian's new home, but the isolation meant that they should have a decent chance of success. But they were slowly running out of daylight; it was early in the evening by the time they had arrived.

Link's first task was to couple the two blocks together so that their life energy could be shared until the nearly-dead block could function on its own. The process was simple compared to some of the other things Link had had to do with the technoworks. With Irleen's guidance, he had the two sharing life in just a minute. Not that this was really apparent to him as he sat for the next hour in the shade watching the two blocks slowly pulse with what little light they each had. Although he wished that the process did not take so long, he knew patience enough from his days as an airman. And it seemed that putting together this compass was quite delicate; Irleen had instructed him to leave the earring on the Seventeen with Cale so that it would not come out of its hibernation on accident, something which would kill the small piece of technoworks instantly. It was not as if he was alone anyway. Irleen had been hovering near the blocks the entire time, her silence Link took to be an indication that she was focused on how well the process was going.

At the end of the hour (at least, that is how long it had felt to Link), Irleen gave a sigh and approached him. "Well, this may be trickier than we thought," she told Link.

Link shifted so that he could stretch his legs out. "How so?" he asked.

"Life isn't going to the other block like I expected," she said. "I mean, it is going. But it's so little that I'm not sure how well this will work."

"Could we leave it longer?" he asked.

"I don't think it'll do much good," she answered in a despondent tone as she turned to glance at the blocks again. She shook herself and turned back to Link with a stronger voice. "I saw the life flow from one to the other strong at first. But… now it looks like the flow has shrunk into almost nothing. As it is now, barely anything is moving to the weaker block. We could leave it here overnight and it wouldn't do much more than what it is now."

"Could the old block be full?"

Irleen sighed. "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe it's so damaged that it can't take in life this way as well as any other block. Then again, the other block may be so drunk that it can't afford to give over much of its own life without killing itself."

Link nodded as he took in the information. Then he asked, "So, what should we do? Should we wait and see if the process'll speed up again? Or should we just try it now?"

"I don't know, Link. I don't see any chance that the process will improve. But if we try it now, we burn up these technoworks and probably won't get another shot like this again."

"There's always trying to get to the Horizon's Eye and using technoworks out of it," Link pointed out, one hand indicating the west. "We could take the Island Symphony out that way if we don't get this right."

"I suppose…"

Link gave a shrug. "It's your call, Irleen. If not today, there's always tomorrow. We have a month to work on this. We don't even have to do this today. We could save it as a last option."

"No, it has to be soon, Link. It's a miracle these blocks held out for so long; any longer, and we could lose them." She sighed once more. "Go ahead and signal Cale. Let's do this while we still can."

"If you say so," Link said before giving a grunt as he stood. He stepped out toward the train platform on the other side of the rocky clearing, arms waving to get attention from the Seventeen. Someone, whom Link assumed to be Cale, stepped out and waved back. Then he, along with two more figures, stepped out of the train.

"Let's get this set up," Irleen said. "First, cut the connection between them. Just move one away from the other."

"Right." Link picked up the stronger of the two blocks and stepped away until the thin string of light between them disappeared.

"We'll wanna put some distance between these two," Irleen explained. "Maybe, if you just move it that way." She nudged her body to Link's right. Link started walking in that direction. "Some distance between them should make this more accurate, but we don't want them so far apart that one of the blocks doesn't hear the harmonica."

Link took just a few paces more before setting the block on the ground. "Will that work?"

"As long as one of these other directions is north."

"It's that way," Link said, pointing to the cliffs behind him.

They had to wait a moment longer until Cale, Valley, and Luggard were close enough to talk. Cale was the first to speak once they were a comfortable distance away. "Ah you prepahed foh this?" he asked, holding up the triangular piece of technoworks.

"Yeah," Link replied.

"Cale, I need you to put that in between the two blocks," Irleen said. "As close to the center of them as you can guess."

"Cale sai' ya nee' somethin' t' 'elp mar' direction," Luggard said while Cale moved to set the technoworks earring on the ground. He held up a metal pipe. "This wor'?"

"That'll be fine," Irleen said. "Just as long as you can lay it once we give the word."

"Go' it."

"I cans do what?" Valley asked.

"Uuuh…" Irleen droned for a moment. "Just… stand there and try to look smart."

"D'aaaw…" Valley moaned in disappointment.

"Does this look right?" Cale asked.

"That'll do," Irleen said. "Okay. Now, everyone needs to stand back. The idea is to link the technoworks together; anyone stepping in between them could cause it to fail, so we need some space." All four humans traded looks before taking a step back, even Valley despite being the furthest away. "Okay, Link. Let's do it."

Link pulled out the blues harp and held it out for Irleen to read again. After a moment, she indicated notes on the blues harp. After so much time memorizing longer sequences of notes, Link easily committed what Irleen showed him to memory. He moved toward the middle of the formation so that he was sure both blocks would hear the blues harp and played the note to activate all three. He immediately began the sequence that Irleen had just showed him, his eyes closed so he could concentrate. The whole piece was quite short, not even a minute by Link's reckoning. Once he finished playing, he opened his eyes again.

A transparent ribbon bridged the gap in between the two technoworks blocks, its movements rolling like waves on a lake. The earring hung suspended in the air inside the ribbon, although it actually looked to be arresting the movement around it. Its thicker point, the point with the gold stud pierced through it, had grown a small ray of white light.

Almost as soon as Link realized that it was pointing west-northwest, Irleen called out, "Link, quickly! The note on the far right! Play it!"

Link was jarred out of his appraisal and fumbled the blues harp until he dropped it. He immediately grabbed it up again and pressed it to his lips. Then he turned it around when he realized it was upside-down. He gave the note a hard blow, and two things happened.

First, the earring jerked away from the direction it was indicating. It wobbled within the ribbon, but Link could see that it was now trying to point north.

Then, the ribbon disappeared. The earring fell to the ground unmoving and relieved of its ray. Everyone gave a surprised utterance. Link quickly looked to the technoworks blocks, fearing the worst. And the worst had happened. The weak block, completely drained of its life as was expected of it, had turned jet-black in its death. However, the stronger of the two blocks had had a different reaction. In addition to turning black, the block had broken apart into a pile of jagged, black rocks.

Link strode forward to look at the earring. Just like the blocks, the earring had succumbed to necrosis and turned completely black. His heart began racing, however, when he realized that the earring was still pointing in its previous direction.

"What's happened?" Cale asked.

"Oh, no, we're too late…" Irleen uttered, her voice oozing dread. "Oh, no. We killed them…"

"Luggard!" Link snapped.

"Yeah?" Luggard replied.

"Your pipe! Quick!" Link turned toward Luggard just in time to see Luggard toss the pipe in a gentle pass. He grabbed it out of the air and placed it on the ground. He carefully set one end of the pipe even with the bottom of the earring and aligned it as best as he could to where he thought that the earring was still pointing. Then he stood and backed away. "Cale, hurry," he then said as he pulled his compass over his head. "Can you get an angle off that?"

"Yes, of couhse," Cale replied as he rushed forward. He accepted Link's compass and dropped to his knees so that he could place it on top of the pipe. He was careful not to disturb either the pipe or the earring as he rotated the compass to get an accurate reading. "I haaaaaave… between ten and fifteen degrees east of true nohth," he finally reported.

"What about height?" Irleen asked. "How high was it pointing?"

"I, uh…" Cale mumbled as he looked at her over his shoulder.

"Watch out," Link said as he stepped toward Cale. Cale rose and stepped away. Link hesitated before picking up the earring. He tried to recall how it looked when it had been in the air, holding it at eye-level to fit it into his mental picture. Then he held it lower when he remembered that he had been looking down on it, although it was a minor correction. Once he had it about right, he held it up to eye-level again and turned it to look at it from the side.

"Is that it?" Irleen asked as she hovered next to Link.

"I think so," Link said. He held up one finger to mimic the ray that had been protruding from the top point. "Something like that."

"Hold still foh a moment," Cale said as he approached Link. He positioned Link's compass on the opposite side of Link's finger and tilted his head for a moment. "Well, it's a little inaccurate, but my guess would be a five-degree incline from heah."

"Think you can remember those numbers?" Link asked.

"One moment," Cale said as he dug into his pockets. He pulled out a small piece of scrap paper and a pencil. He mumbled to himself as he wrote on the scrap. "Yes, I think that shall do."

"You smudge that, and I'll kill you," Irleen told him with such a sudden venom that Cale decided to roll the paper and carefully tucked it into his trousers.

Link sighed and put the earring back on the ground. "I don't suppose there's a reason for us to take this stuff with us," he told Irleen.

"Not really," Irleen replied with a calm voice. "It's nothing more than rock now. You couldn't even use it for fuel."

"I should get this to Leynne right away then, should I?" Cale asked.

"Everyone's still on shore leave," Link told him. "But I'd appreciate it if you'd at least get word to Leynne. Next week, I'd like to see if we can trace that course north on the Island Symphony." Then he glanced in Luggard's direction. "Unless there're tracks that go further north."

Luggard clicked his tongue in a show of disappointment. "Can' 'elp ya there, Link," he answered. Then he nodded back towards the Seventeen. "Where we goin' nex'?"

"Unless you two wanna go somewhere else," Link said to Valley and Cale, "I think we'll head back to Library Town."