“What the fuck is that smell?” Esdee gasped as he activated his gasmask. “Smells like… Like a lot of things died down here…”
“I think that is exactly what happened…” Ksidee replied. The D-Class Ksa adjusted his shoulder torch, increasing the range and brightness so both he and his video recorder could see what was going on. “Killed and left in a pile to die.”
A voice crackled. Their communicator buzzed into life. “Was the Ξ-Class kid’s coordinates correct?”
Aydee was on the other end, guiding them from outside the complex. There were still various beings working here, so the Threans were exploring in secret. None of the elite D-Class Ksa had expected to be sent to the Cassid territories of Portalia so suddenly, but an awful conspiracy had been uncovered and they were the best at what they did.
“Spot on. Facility is still active. Cassid security in suits on top levels. Lots of scientists in the top levels. Whole place is weirdly open…” Ksidee talked Aydee through what was going on. “Typical Cassid use of space.”
A Cassid security guard wandered past. The two Ksa activated their mind-camo, a telepathic shield that hid them from all others.
“Floors have few walls. Just a massive staircase between levels. So far all the top levels have been labs and offices.”
Esdee sneaked ahead, checking that the stairs below were clear. He signalled to Ksidee, who swiftly followed. As they descended the stairs, the smell got worse and worse.
“Do the Cassids not smell this?” Esdee hissed, quickening his pace, his own camera recording everything they did.
“Don’t think so…” Aydee’s voice crackled. “From the video you’ve sent so far, all the workers are wearing filtration aparatus. Chemical analysis from your trackers is suggesting a mixture of sewage and corpses, both oxygen-breathing and dual-gas-breathing… Why have you stopped?”
Ksidee looked up and adjusted his camera. After three empty floors, they had come across something else. Rows of cells, each one made of clear plastic, containing some sort of twisted creature, living in the cramped, horrible spaces.
“What in the name of the Light…” Even Aydee was stunned. “W-what is all of that?”
“Experiments…” Esdee eventually answered. “Experiments on other races…”
Ksidee slowly approached the closest cell. Inside was… Ksidee couldn’t describe it. At first glance it sort of looked like an armoured Temthan, but as it tossed and turned, unable to sleep, he realised it was a Banikan, with horrible, bony spines growing out of its skin and heavy plates grafted to its limbs.
“We have to free them…” Ksidee whispered.
“We can’t…” Aydee hissed through the communicator. “We free them, we’ll end up with a situation just like Vriskera. The Cassids will just hunt them down and kill them. Gather your evidence and move on.”
Ksidee sighed, then did as Aydee asked. He lowered the light on his torch, not wanting to disturb the beasts. None of them seemed interested though. It was as if the life had been sucked out of them. Ksidee did a quick tally of how many of each species were there, then headed back to the staircase where Esdee was waiting.
“You want to go to the next floor?” Ksidee asked.
“No…”
“Why not?”
“This place is bothering me.”
Esdee shivered, then gave up and pointed his torch down the stairwell. The next couple of floors were either empty cells or empty offices and labs. All untouched and covered in various sheets to protect what little contents remained. The last floor though was sealed off with a heavy steel door, with a small, glass window built in the center of it.
“The smell is worse…” Ksidee muttered as he approached the door and gently opened it with a hint of his telekinetic powers. “Maybe we’re close to…”
“Close to what?” Aydee asked.
Both Ksidee and Esdee fell silent as the door creaked open.
“Ksa, close to what?”
The stench was nauseating. A weaker Rethan would have fainted. Ksidee and Esdee held their breath as they stepped forward. Aydee remained silent, unsure what to make of what their video recorders were showing him.
The stairs ceased to exist, stopping abruptly at a small, metal railing. Below that, there was nothing but bodies. So many bodies.
“We have to go…” Ksidee finally spoke, a tremor in the Ksa’s normally fearless voice. “We have to get out of this horrible place…”
Esdee silently nodded in agreement as the two Ksa turned around and headed back the way they came, the sight of hundreds of failed experiments still haunting their minds.