Chapter 45:Banana S.P.L.I.T
The single worst job that all feared was to go down to the mines.
It was always said to be a death sentence.
They said the mines smelt like death, and the floors were wet from tears.
In the beginning, only prisoners were made to work in the mines.
That was… until they decided to build the Noah.
At first the goal was simple we dug straight down, it seemed as if they were looking for something and used us to find it.
Then the ship that stupid ship.
A woman stood atop a mound of rocks stacked high above. Her hands were wide open, and all that hung in front of her was a microphone.
Below was a group of individuals.
Some held pickaxes, shovels, hammers, and wheelbarrows.
Some were on their knees, their hands trembling,one by one, the first of them collapsing to the floor.
"Why is it that we dig?"
Her words reverberated through the mine.
"Is it because we want to journey deep and find the unknown?"
Silence. Nobody answered.
"Or is it because of the riches this mound of dirt we live on can give us?
Is it to fill our pockets… and in turn, fill our stomachs?
"Maybe we find joy in it,our life's ambition, our happines and pride?"
Still, no one answered.
Tears began to fall from one miner's eyes as they collapsed from exhaustion, their body giving out. The mask slipped off, revealing brown, soft hair.
The woman smiled.
"No, no, no. We do it because... I told you to."
And a smile formed on her face.
A sharp gasp,Mara shot awake, looking around the room. Sweat clung to her body, soaking the sheets. She swallowed hard and rubbed her eyes.
She was in one of the many rooms in Stella's castle. The room was large, with a table made of hardened chocolate accompanied by a chair of the same make. On the table was a plate of assorted candies with a note that read:
Eat it all up :) — Stella
Next to it was another plate,this one with bacon, eggs, and warm soup. A second note read:
If you eat only what my dumb sister gave you, you'll get fat and die. — stello
The bed was soft as marshmallow, with cotton candy sheets,red and blue,on a bed frame made of the same material as the chairs and tables.
The opposite wall was made entirely of transparent hardened sugar, giving her a full view of the outside.
Mara stood, walked around the room, then clenched her fists.
"I will do it," she said.
Earlier, the previous day
"You lied to me," I said, confused beyond words.
"The Noah is a ship," Mara explained. "It was built by the elves,but it was never for the elves. It was made by order of Lady Madulla, meant to be a weapon or something like that. We never got to see the blueprints long enough to figure it out. All I knew is that it worked by absorbing the light around it.
"Many elves died making that stupid ship… until one day, one of them figured out a way to destroy it,along with Glass Beach."
A gasp filled the room.
"Destroy it? Why?" I asked.
"Because if it got out into the world, whoever owned it would be invincible. And one thing we knew for sure,Lady Madulla could not get any more power in her murderous hands. We couldn't allow it."
She leaned forward. "By design, the battery the Noah uses is extremely powerful. Now… if I can build the device I designed, it can channel that energy and… well, boom."
"What about the people of Glass Beach? Your friends… your family?" I asked.
"We swore an oath that night… that even if it took all our lives" Her voice grew quieter, trembling, breaking. "…If it saved the world, then it would be worth it."
She finished with her voice louder now, filled with conviction.
"But then here you are, Maddox,knowing nothing about me except for what that book of yours showed you,and you're willing to risk it all to save us."
That's when I had the thought… the sick realization… the selfish realization: I don't want to die.
Tears began to fill her eyes. "In the short time I've been with you and your friends, I've seen so much joy… so much stupidity." She smiled faintly through the tears.
'Which is why I don't understand it…why the grand elder gave me my secret mission, one more important than even the noah its you maddoxx he said no matter what make sure maddox makes it to glass beach.' she said with a wobbly voice.
The room went quiet.
"I realized… all my life I spent in a dark hole underground, digging… and I never lived. Not a single day of my life. And for it all to end just like that, I–"
"I can't do it." She burst into tears.
"So if this lie I hold in my heart were to take away your freedom, I'd never babel to live with myself."
What she had told me shook me to the core, why did this old man i'd never known want to see me but non of that matters right now mara was a good person i could see that now so even if it was a trap or there was more at play here more than i would ever know i still anted to help her and that exactly what i was going to do.
Words I'd thought I only said in my head seemed to have been spoken out loud as they all looked at me and smiled at me.
I'd make sure she got to live.
Present time
I burst into Mara's room.
"Hey! What the hell, Maddox? Aren't you going to knock? I could have been naked, you freak… pervert!"
"Err….wait, what? No! I'm sorry, I just got excited"
"You got excited? What's wrong with you? Maybe I don't know you after all, you sneezy, sly old perv!"
"Hey now...., I'm NOT old!" I shot back, defending myself.
"That's the only label you got offended by?" She backed away, putting distance between us.
"Wait, what? No….err…look…" I cleared my throat, trying to hide the shame.
"I meant I got excited because the scientists have arrived. We can finally get started."
Her face lit up. "Oh! Well, that's great!" She jumped around happily.
"What are we waiting for? Let's gooooo!"
She grabbed my hand, and we ran out the door.
She quickly turned around and ran back into the room
Never in my life have i seen someone inhale food so fast it was actually impressive ,she slapped her hands together and bowed slightly thank you for the food before bolting back out the room
Sweet Point Laboratory for Innovation & Technology (SPLIT)
Or, better known as Banana Split by Stella, was a huge lab in the Sugar Spires. The building itself was made of hardened marshmallow brick and reinforced white yogurt cement, with a s'more roof that dripped chocolate on hot days. Beautiful wide and tall windows made of sugared glass lined the sides.
A group of giants in white coats, each wearing huge glasses, stood around a desk that Mara and I stood on top of as she drew a diagram of the blueprints.
"Alright, focus. The eviscerating chamber needs to channel its crystalloflux in a triple-vortex fold. If we skip that step, the detonation will produce a praline echo instead of a neutralizing wave," Mara explained.
"Praline echo… that's catastrophic, isn't it?" Dr. Crumblestash thought aloud.
"Catastrophic… yes. But its a risk we will need to take if intend to bring down all of Glass Beach,including the mines underneath. We're not trying to just destroy the weapon; we're trying to reduce the whole island to a crisp," Mara said.
It was amazing,Mara had just been introduced to the giants' technology and here she was already making a prototype based on what they could offer. It all sounded like silly words to me, but still… impressive. I thought to my self.
Prof. Nougathelm tapped the blueprints. "If we weave the licenium strands around the fractal helix, could we amplify the dissonance field? I'm worried the neurocore's frosting lattice will absorb too much of the initial flux."
"Exactly my concern. That's why I've introduced a layer of spun-sugar capacitors. They'll hold the ionized marzipan for precisely six point seven seconds before releasing it through the inversion gate," Mara said.
"Brilliant. But your inversion gate here,won't the jelly-torque cause oscillation collapse?" Marshwell, the engineer of the project, asked.
Mara smiled. "Not if we calibrate the jelly-torque to just above the candescence threshold. Think of it as walking the line between melting and crystallizing."
"Ahh yes… candescence influx," I said as I rubbed my chin in complete and utter confusion. They all turned to me,an awkward second of…is this guy for real? then turned back. I wanted to die in that moment.
"So we're looking at an eviscerating pulse in the 40–50 gigagum range," Prof. Nougathelm said.
"Fifty-two. I want to overcompensate, in case there are any unknown variables I don't know about in Glass Beach," Mara replied.
"By the Great Pudding… you're actually planning to do this, aren't you, Miss Mara?" Dr. Crumblestash said, eyes widening.
"Exactly. We don't just destroy the weapon; we unbake Glass Beach from reality," Mara said, smiling.
They all laughed while I stood there. It took me a moment to understand, but these people were scary. They were talking about making a bomb that could level a whole island,and still had time to make cheesy puns in the process. Smart people are scary, I thought to myself.
"And you say this is… stable?" Marshwell asked.
"If by stable you mean a seventy-two percent chance of not folding the entire lab into a candy singularity while we build it… then yes. Stable enough," Mara replied.
"Fine then. A seventy-two percent chance is not too terrible. We've had worse. Boys,are we ready?"
I looked at the blueprint after they had finished planning. To me, it looked like an overcomplicated jawbreaker. It had wires sticking out of it, a hollowed center that fit a spear-like ball, and bolts to secure it all in place.
And just like that, it was done.
Code name: Demon Core 1
The storm that would sink the Noah
Notes
Digging straight down?? I guess the elven people don't know the number one rule of minecraft smh :(