Work Text:
Erased From Memori
Memori still had ringing in her ears as she stepped into the labs. It was hard to hear the silence.
I started work at the Soleanna Labs in Aquatic Base yesterday. The wait to get a pass was lengthy. It needed approval from the Royal Family directly. However, I also heard through the grapevine that there was a secret entrance from the Castle Town that required no passes or checks. Apparently, it required ringing the bells of all 3 clock towers simultaneously and the entrance would open for a brief window. Curious someone had built it like that…
Especially since they expect me to work on something to top secret… Most people not in the know believe it to be nothing more than an energy generator project for the Rimlight Corporation. But I am in the know of what the project is meant to be…
“So… The rumours were true.” The indigo hedgehog muttered. The ringing finally stopping. “I didn’t even need my replica emerald for this.”
There was a slight metallic flavour in the air among the familiar scent of sea water. It was cold, and it was dark. She could see her own breath in soft white puffs as the cold damp air clung to her fur. The only light to show her around was a flashlight she was smart enough to bring.
As she looked around to get her bearings, she saw lots of rust and decayed machinery. Many panes of broken glass, lower levels completely flooded, everything metal eaten by saltwater. It was a haunting, dystopian environment.
Shining her light into the black pools, she saw various plants and fish happily making their home among the abandoned labs.
“I just hope… I find nothing here…” She mumbled, her faint voice almost echoing slightly in the dark void, before being absorbed by the silence and light buzzing of possible electricity that still ran through the facilities.
It was an eerie feeling. Logically, there should be nobody and nothing left behind in the long-abandoned facilities, but there was still the unshakeable, eerie feeling that she wasn’t alone and something was still there. She felt her body shudder, and not just from the cold.
She gripped onto the diary more tightly for a sense of stability and security. It was one of the few mementos of her father she had left, and her most important asset for understanding the science that time had forgotten…
She checked through the entries she bookmarked for referencing the Aquatic Base labs once more, making sure she didn’t miss any important details.
My expertise is Chaos Energy research. This project feels both out of my expertise, yet also exactly what I am qualified to work on. Fortunately, I am not working alone in this endeavour. They’re beginning construction and research in the deepest room in Aquatic Base. The room is watertight in the event of flooding. It may outlast even me from how durable the construction is in here. When it is sealed, only Chaos Control would be the only way in or out of here… Which isn’t a problem for me…
“Alright… Let us see if these labs have anything to hide…” She mumbled to herself as a reminder of what she needed to do.
Closing her eyes, and risking vulnerability in the darkness to anything residing, she focused her powers. A third eye began to manifest on her forehead, before it split from her body and leapt off her head as a starfish-shaped manifestation.
This was one a power of hers that would come the most in handy for her mission, her “Mind’s Eye”. When she concentrated hard enough, she was granted the power to see great distances away from her own body through a strange projection not unlike the eye of Black Doom himself.
Granted clairvoyance, she sent her third eye into the middle of the room, just suspended above the cold waters. It was too dark to see, even with the mystical apparition she was looking through.
“Just need to see what happened before this place got flooded…” She muttered to herself.
She dreaded the possibility of what she may find, but she steadied her shaking hands and focused her breathing to slow, deep, and calm breaths. She needed to concentrate. She had to look not just deeper into the labs, but also deeper into the past it once held.
Letting the cold air around her sharpen her senses, she sent her Mind’s Eye back in time, looking through a window into a world she never tread. Watching carefully, she saw the seawater before start to slowly drain away as windows mended and the room began to brighten. She could hear voices and footsteps of people. She heard machinery starting up in deep whirs and loud buzzing. She just needed to look into the moment before Aquatic Base was abandoned. The last time people were inside. After all, it was abandoned when a certain project failed. At least it did in another timeline once…
Wasting no time in her viewing window into a time she never lived, she dived down, down, down, down, phasing through the walls, through the floors, passing empty rooms, strange metallic spheres and liquid metal floors. Eventually, she finally found a room that seemed to fit the description of something large and fortified. Phasing through the walls with her starfish apparition, she saw what she hoped (or dreaded) to find…
A large machine of construction more complex than anything she could understand.
‘No… Please don’t be what I think you are…’ She thought to herself, carefully assessing the mechanical menace.
She searched around the room, looking for evidence of what the machine could do.
The true nature of this project, despite the secretive nature of it, is known as the Solaris Project…
If the timeline was changed… If Solaris is truly erased, save for the brief mentions she has in the diary she salvaged from the old timeline, then what was she looking at?
Unfortunately, for all her knowledge of the Solaris Project, she didn’t know how to find out the answers so easily.
Looking for other clues to help her, she tried using her eye to search the room for anything relevant. Eventually, her eye landed on what seemed to be a pile of various papers and reports.
Letting time tick forward in her vision, she saw the papers being moved around the room, and being left in a dark corner until the labs became abandoned. Unfortunately, she had no means to interact with them with her Mind’s Eye. It was just a projection, and not a physical presence after all.
If there was any way to check what was in them, she had to see for herself.
With the knowledge of where it was, she recalled her eye and braced herself.
“I can do this…” She shuddered, taking in deep breaths and hugging herself upon realising she may need to dive into the water to check the levels below. While she could swim perfectly fine, she never liked submerging herself underwater. She hated it, and would always avoid it whenever she could.
But she had to power through.
She took in a deep breath, and dived into the black waters, feeling the icy slap across her whole body. Using her chaos powers to give her a source of light and guide her, she pressed on. Fortunately, there weren’t terrifying monsters in the dark abyss waiting to devour her. Just some curious fish and aquatic plants obscuring her vision.
It was difficult to hold her breath under the pressure, the cold, and the stress of her head being below the water, but she didn’t have a choice.
She thought of her daughter, who was likely appreciating the festivities above, unaware of what lied beneath.
‘I am doing this for Freesia… I am doing this… For my family!’ She looped over in her head to try to take her mind off it all.
Coming up to the watertight sealed door, she teleported to the other side using Chaos Control and her replica emerald.
She was finally inside.
Taking in deep breaths and shaking off the saltwater from her fur, she searched the room. Chaos Energy lit up her palms, allowing her to see the terrarium of dust and machine decay. Soon, she came across the papers she found before.
The first thing she noticed was the dark stamping of Classified! in large bold letters on the front page. A good sign it has the information she is looking for.
“The statute of limitations for this should have expired over a hundred years ago by now…” She muttered to herself as she flicked to the next page.
The moment of truth…
Solaris Project.
Acknowledgement – We give honour and thanks to the sun who gives light, life, and protection over the kingdom of Soleanna for generations.
May we never take such blessings for granted…
Her blood ran cold, but she flicked to the next page.
NOTICE – THE SOLARIS ENGINE IS A WHOLLY-OWNED ENTITY OF RIMLIGHT CORPORATION. ANY UNLICENCED USAGE OF PATENTED TECHNOLOGY OR SHARING OF DOCUMENTS OUTSIDE OF CLASSIFIED PERSONNEL WILL RESULT IN SEVERE PENALTIES UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGIES ACT 1996 AND THE INFORMATION CLASSIFICATION ACT 2006!
USE OF ANY RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS OR SUBSTANCES WITHOUT EXPLICIT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE SOLEANNEAN CROWN, FOUND TO HAVE TAKEN PLACE WITHIN THE BORDERS OR JURISDICTION OF THE PRINCIPALITY OF SOLEANNA, WILL ALSO RESULT IN PROSECUTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NUCLEAR, RADIOACTIVE, AND BIOHAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES REGULATIONS ACT 2001, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO FINES OR IMPRISONMENT OF UP TO…
She skipped over the legalese and flicked up to the reports and information.
The mentions of radiation occurred often. The mention of Rimlight implied that the project was just an energy engine of sorts from the Great Tech Race between Soleanna, the United Federation, Spagonia, and even Eurmany.
“Maybe… It’s just a nuclear generator of sorts…” She whispered.
As if the words had weight, she felt an air of calm wash over her. In this timeline, the Solaris Project happened, but only in namesake and nothing more.
Perhaps, the God and the harm it caused once were truly erased in all but her mind, and the diary that led her to seek the labs for herself.
She hoped deep down, she was the last remnant of that old timeline. That world of flames and destruction…
And that when she dies, the last traces of it will be completely forgotten.
A one-way ticket to oblivion for a god who should never exist.
True erasure of all memory…