Eve Andromeda left heaven behind.
Now she stood in a dome vast enough to be its own world. Gears spun, machines shifted, ower surged through plasma conduits and humming cores. Electricity crackled across the chamber like restless serpents.
The cieling streched so high almost felt like staring into clouds or a gray sky, pulsating with energy beams and shimmering auras. A low hum of power filled the air.
She fired her thrusters and flew toward the center, where a gap yawned. In that gap hovered a central structure, isolated from everything else like a citadel.
Suddenly her exosuit died. Power suddenly drained, systems shut. She dropped hard on the floor.
"Well, that was anticipated," Eve huffed. She manually unlatched the armor, left it on the floor, and walked to the edge. The gap kilometers wide.
She scanned the chasm. 'How do I get across?'
Her compass crawled out of her pocket and hovered before her. Carlista had modified the Syndicate Badge, and it seemed to be the only piece of working tech she had on her.
Clearly, tech jammed here. She couldn't imagine fate of Kai, Hannah, Cesnas or Axel coming down here.
'I wonder if my xenomorphesis will work here,' she thought. "Alright, quit floating and tell me what now?"
The compass emitted glitchy noises as if thinking. Then it stretched, transformed into skateboard like disc and lowered beneath her feet. She stepped on.
It glided toward the central structure that radiated strange energy.
"Badgy, can't you go a little faster?" Eve asked, looking down at it.
With a jerk, it sped up. Eve had to brace into posture, arms out leaning forward, to counter sudden inertial surge.
The floating fortress drew near, she jumped off and landed on the floor, a strange composite of marble, graphite, and stone. The material she had already seen on the surface: blackish gray and off-white, dust clinging to every groove.
Hovering stone platforms studded with glowing gems drifted among electrical veins that snaked through the chamber, some leading toward a doorway a few hundred meters away. It looked like the entrance to a castle.
"Classy," she muttered.
She leapt for the nearest platform, but it sat too high; without the exo she could only manage thirty meters. She hit the floor with a thud. "That didn't go well. I need a boost… or something."
Badgy clasped to her wrist and transformed into an extendable grappler. "Nice! I didn't know you could do that."
Eve vaulted again, firing the hook at her apex; the spear-like hook punched into the stone. Cable went taut, she hurled forward, swung up, and landed on the rocky ledge as Badgy's hook retracted just before impact.
"I wonder if this enhancement is Carlista's doing, or if you can do this outside this place," she said, eyeing the wrist-mounted grappler.
Badgy emitted a series of glitchy electronic chirps.
"Yep. We've got to work on your communication. Okay, keep rolling." She leapt again, firing the hook from rock to rock without touching the ground, swinging toward the mysterious door.
"Last rock." She fired; the hook speared, but the fiber-like rope slipped under tension. Before she could fire again, she fell and slammed her back on the stony floor. "Ouch! What was that?"
"Uh-oh ooooh," Badgy replied in a glitchy whine.
"Was that… I don't know?"
A holographic panel lit on the grappler, displaying a heart followed by a thumbs-up.
"Emojis. Really?"
Dots and symbols scrolled across the interface as if trying to say something. Eve inferred Badgy was trying to develop a language. She hoped Carlista's gifts were permanent.
"You'll get there, buddy. Keep at it. Now let's see what the Maze has in store for me… or you."
This time the hook held. The cable reeled in, drawing her the remaining distance until she reached the door.
She climbed up and walked to the half-open portal. Inside was first complete darkness, then a blinding light. She shut her eyes. "Let me guess — another simulation. Carlista! You there, sweety?"
"Carlista can't come here." A deep electronic male voice reverberated, layered with a faint echo that reminded Eve of Razmos. She opened her eyes.
A vast room unfurled before her: white-tiled and brightly lit, walls lined with holographic displays, each screen showing moments from Eve's life. At the center, a man sat in a chair.