"Ironwood should be back a couple days before the election."
"That's good, cause he's got Robyn with him." Qrow said, mildly irate. "We should get a handle on these murders before then."
"Do you want me to look into it?" Clover offered. "Ironwood took a large bulk of the muscle with him, but I still have Harriet and Vine. We can-"
Qrow shook his head. "There's no evidence that it isn't something the police can take care of. I don't want to get into overreach. I mean, it's no real secret I don't entirely agree with the way Ironwood runs things, and I don't want to start going further than he does."
"Sending your best to deal with serial murders is not overstepping your bounds." Clover reassured him.
Qrow was silent for a few moments, then sighed and nodded. "You might be right. I really don't want to mess up, but part of me just wants to hunt down this guy myself. I can't do that, though. I have to be up here, doing my job, the job I was entrusted with, not the job I want to do. I hate saying it, but I have more important things to do than stop a murderer. And so do you."
Clover looked almost dejected. "Well, when you put it that way..." He shook it off. "You're right. There's no reason to believe the police can't take care of it. Anyway, we've got a date downstairs."
"Yeah." Qrow shut off the screens in Ironwood's office and followed Clover out. "How is Piper doing?"
"Seems like she's fine. Kali has been keeping an eye on her." Clover paused, then gave a smile of admiration. "That woman is a mountain of stability. Endlessly patient. It was a good idea to ask her to help with the Relic research." He cocked his head awkwardly. "I also get the sense she can be extremely dangerous when she wants to."
Qrow grimaced. "I make it a point not to test the mothers of my nieces' friends." They took the elevator down to the vault, where the new research division was being built. Qrow looked out over the work being done before them. It was quite amazing, but it was also a little scary. "We're really going to go out there and collect these things, huh? I don't think this vault will be big enough for long."
Each of the Relics they collected would be getting its own miniature facility for containment and study, a vault, and all of them would be within this one vault. That was another part of the design, filling this cavernous space with smaller vaults to obscure the door at the back, making it harder to reach and eventually impossible to see until you were right up to it. Right now, the Flute and the Cradle were the only Relics whose vaults were complete. It had been a rush job, but it was a high quality rush job. The Flute was on a pedestal in a box big enough for a person to walk around it. There was one door, and currently only Ironwood, Qrow, and Piper had access to it, a noxious sleep gas waiting to be deployed in the event anyone else attempted to enter the box, or anyone attempted to take the Flute out. There was a hallway across two sides of the box, one side ending in the door into the box, and the other ending in the door out of the vault, with an observation window looking into the box. The whole thing was soundproofed, which they'd discovered greatly negated the Flute's effect on anyone nearby. Piper spent most of her time in the box, but they were filling it up with various expensive pieces of equipment to try and discover what the Flute was made of and what it actually did. No luck so far.
The Cradle, on the other hand, was in a sealed container. Ironwood had left a mandate that only three people could have access to any of the Relics, and that at least two of those people only have access to one Relic. As such, the sealed container could only be opened by Qrow, Clover, and Pietro Polendina. That was fine by all of them, but Qrow was bothered by the fact that he was the one who had access to both, as opposed to Ironwood. The general apparently planned on spending more time sorting out the protocols for the Relic vault once he returned from the current mission, though. Hopefully that would result in a little less responsibility on Qrow's shoulders, not that he had any idea who would be the best choice to take his place.
Qrow stepped into the Flute vault, Clover joining him as he stood in the hallway looking into the box where Piper was seated on the pedestal and playing the Flute. Neither of them could hear what music, if any, she was making, but just seeing the Flute seemed to have some effect. Not nearly as much as it had when they could hear it, but still noticeable. The fact that their heads were clear enough to notice it was affecting them was a statement to the effectiveness of the soundproofing.
Kali stood next to them, looking between the two men and the woman in the box. "I think she's trying to ween herself off of it. She's been steadily, slowly, spending less time in there and more time out here. She's a lot stronger than she looks."
Qrow sighed. "I hope you're right." He watched the woman silently playing music for a few more moments, then shook his head. "I wish we had any idea what the purpose of this thing was. Jinn should have told us more."
"I don't know. I thought it was pretty clearly just meant to calm people down." Clover said, offering what he figured was a reasonable answer. "It's hard to imagine it's a weapon."
"Yeah..." Qrow frowned. "I wonder... could it stop Salem?"
Clover thought about it for a few seconds, then shrugged. "I don't see why not. It's older than her."
Piper finished and got up, setting the Flute back on its pedestal and exiting the box. She rounded the hallway corner to face the three observers. "Clover. Hi."
"Hi." He gave her a friendly wave. "Something wrong?" He asked, noting her apprehensive expression.
She shook her head slowly. "Not really. About our agreement. Where I would be able to take the Flute outside? I think... well, General Ironwood has made that rather impossible for the time being, but..." She motioned to Kali. "She's been helping me with being able to step away from it. I think we can forego that agreement. I'd like to help the research department as much as I can, though."
He gave a genuine smile. "That's good to hear. We'll be glad to have you on board."
"Thank you. It's... it does help a bit to know that General Ironwood and Mister Qrow are the only others who can even go in there to touch it. Knowing that no one is going to steal it helps with feeling like I don't have to spend every waking second with it." She was focusing on a spot in front of her, not any one of them or any real thing, and her hands were moving to try and help express what she was saying. Clover realized she was trying to admit to being addicted without actually saying it; trying not to make a personal connection by looking at anyone and constantly moving to hide any anxious tics that might appear. She was subconsciously trying to hide it while saying it out loud. It was a good step for her, and he was glad to see how far she'd come in such a short time, but before he could speak, Qrow interrupted.
"Qrow is fine. It's my first name."
"Oh. I didn't... actually I think I should have caught that somewhere..." She shrugged it off. "Well, anyway, I'm hungry. Anyone else?"
"Okay, so there's no telling when the situation might arise that you'll need to do this yourself, so you girls should pay attention too." Marrow said, bringing up a holographic diagram of the deep sea platform. "The pressurization chamber is small, smaller than the one we were in before, only fit for five or six people at most." Ruby, Blake, and Amaranth huddled close, paying close attention to everything he was saying. May was seated close too, trying her best to pay attention because this was going to be something she needed to act on quite soon. The problem was that staring at these schematics was just so unbelievably boring. Marrow seemed like he was forcing himself to be interested in explaining it. "The water pressure is much higher at the deeper platform, so the automated systems won't be working. You'll have to climb to the top of the sail, wearing the suit, and seal yourself into the uppermost chamber. Then, you need to manually attach all six clamping arms onto the platform."
"Manual docking? Is that risky?" Blake asked, looking concerned at the prospect.
"It is, but that's the only option we have." Elm said, continuing for Marrow. "The air pressure inside the platform is much higher than on the submarine, so you will need to open the pressure valves very slowly, incrementally, so that the air pressure between the upper sail chamber and the platform's pressurization chamber can equalize. The process should take about ten minutes. Fatal for a person, but you'll be in the suit. And you definitely do not want to start that process before the clamping arms are secured."
May couldn't look at the display. She had to focus on who was talking and only them, or her mind might wander and she might miss something. Her life was on the line if she screwed something up. "Okay, get in the suit, climb up the sail, seal myself in the upper chamber, manually attach six clamping arms, open pressure valve slowly over ten minutes. Correct?" Elm nodded, giving her a thumbs up. May took a deep breath and closed her eyes, mouthing the order of events to herself over and over, burning them in place.
"Okay, then once you're in, you need to seal the pressure chamber behind you. Then, there's a special pressure valve next to the door. It'll be maybe about as big around as your arm. Do not try putting your hand in it. You need to seal it onto the Nautilus' sail, and then slowly open it. That'll take another ten minutes before it's fully open, at which point you want to keep yourself away from it until it's time to close it up again. If you get too close the air pressure will... suck you in." Marrow frowned. "I don't think I need to remind you how poorly you'd fit through a space that size."
"You saying I need to lose weight?"
Marrow gave her a disappointed look. "Just don't. Got it?"
She took another deep breath. "Get in, seal the door behind me, seal second valve onto the sail, slowly open valve over ten minutes, keep away from valve opening." She nodded. "Got it. What next?"
"Well... that's pretty much it." Marrow shrugged. "There's no need to go into the rest of the platform, though you should be able to because of the suit. Once the valve is open and pressurizing the Nautilus, you'll be in there for several hours. If you want to go look around, take ten minutes to pressurize the inner door, then open it and go in. Another ten minutes to properly seal it again when you get back, but again, you'll be in there several hours. Plenty of time."
"Sounds wonderful." She didn't want to ask, but she had to. "What happens if I screw up?"
Elm clapped her hands together suddenly, loudly. "Any mistakes will either be something you can remedy easily enough, or will be completely catastrophic and we'll all die so quickly you'll never even know you messed up."
May was silent for a moment, then nodded. "At least there's that. No one will know it was my fault."
"There you go. That's positive thinking." Ruby held up her hand for a high five, which May declined to give her.
"Okay, let's assume I get all of that right without crushing us to death in an instant. Let's talk about getting back onto the sub." May tried to go back over her objectives, hoping that they went in the same order. "Close the valve, unseal it, open the pressure valve for the door slowly for ten minutes, open the door, enter the sail, close the door behind me and seal it, then manual undock the clamping arms. Is that right?"
Marrow thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. That should do it. Then we can equalize the pressure between that chamber in the sail and the rest of the Nautilus, open the door and bring you back down."
"Okay. Sounds easy enough." May said sarcastically.
Robyn joined them at the table, holding up a clipboard. "And you'll have me in your ear to guide you."
May slumped forward, letting out the breath she'd been holding the entire time. "You have no idea how much better that makes me feel."