Subnautica - Cave of Secrets

Cave of Secrets - Part 6

After making introductions to a team that was just as stunned as Sam at the surprise visitors, Maida set about showing the two their places in the executive cabins, and showed Avery where he would be working. With everyone else busy with their duties, Sam had a chance to look at her cabin for the first time. When she walked inside, she was impressed.

Sam gave a low whistle. "Nice work, Robin." At one end of the room were windows with stylish curtains that looked like they were still thick enough to block out the light. Critical for taking quick naps between shifts. Below the windows was an executive desk with a framed picture of her, Robin, Maida, Riley, Potato, and Preston in front of the primary research platform taken the last day. they were all together. They were smiling, goofing off, having fun. Sam knew these days were gone for the foreseeable future. There was work to be done.

At another end of the room stood Sam's bed with the group's logo, an Alterra symbol that was circled with a slash through it, like you would see on a no parking sign. Above this hung a poster that said: Take Back Your Lives, the motto the group had adopted. A bookshelf hung on the wall, and at the other end of the room were lockers that housed miscellaneous things salvaged from her old cabin in sector zero. The most important thing she saw, however, was a purple necklace, with a circle and two triangles sticking out of that circle on it.

Sam gasped. "My necklace!" Next the necklace was a note from Robin:

Looks like you lost this. I found it next to the frozen Leviathan.

Sam put the necklace on and touched it lovingly. "I never thought I'd see this again," she murmured.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging at the door. Sam stalked across the room and tore open the door.

"What the heck is wrong with..." the look on Avery's face. Stopped her cold. "What's wrong?"

Avery's face was pale. "You might want to take a look outside," he said.

Sam looked around and it was at this moment that Sam realized that her window was actually a very realistic picture of sector zero.

"Nice touch," she huffed. She followed Avery to the entrance to the cave, where she was confronted with something very unnerving. An Alterra base, much like the ones she had worked in, with the Γ symbol on it.

"Gamma base," Sam whispered.

"I've been working on this new spy drone..." Avery began.

"Wow," interrupted Sam, I took like a 20 minute nap and all of this is here?"

"It's been five days," Avery replied, "we all knew you were exhausted and just let you sleep."

"Oh."

"Anyway," continued Avery, "I've been working on this new spy drone - would you like me to send it in?

"Yes, please do," said Sam.

Avery ran inside for about five minutes and then emerged with a small drone with a camera.

"This is small enough to sneak into the base crack under left gamma there."

"Perfect," Sam said, "send it in."

Avery did so. Placing it within the crack he then motioned to Sam to follow him, and they went inside Avery's lab where Riley was controlling the drone.

"Watch the monitor, Sam," said Riley.

Sam looked where Riley was pointing, but at first she saw nothing interesting. As the drone moved farther inside she saw a kitchen with a few cabinets, and a bathroom. As the drone moved on, Sam saw a door entitled Julia Catherine. It was cracked open.

"Riley," Sam said tensely, 'go in that door." Riley did as he was asked.

This was the first time Sam actually saw Julia as an adult. She was a Caucasian woman with brown hair with blonde streaks and striking green eyes. On the side of one eye there was a scar. She was wearing a violet coat buttoned in the middle with a strange flower pin.

Underneath the coat she wore a blue and yellow striped shirt, paired with pants the same color as her coat. The drone was small enough that she didn't notice as Riley slowly maneuvered it into the corner.

Julie was sitting at a desk, looking at a computer.

"Riley," Sam said slowly, "see if you can get a look at what's on that computer."

Riley slowly inched closer, and on the screen was a picture of a rockgrub, on the sidebar was a picture of a Kharaa pistol, and at the bottom they saw a banner that said W.R.E.C.K project.

Sam turned to Riley. "What do you suppose that means?"

"I don't know," Riley said, "but I think it's an abbreviation for something."

Riley slowly inched the drone out of Julia's cabin. As they continued down the hall, the next interesting thing they saw was a large room with a keyboard on the side. When the drone got closer, the monitor of the computer flipped up, obviously motion activated.

"Piece of junk computer must be on the fritz again, said a male voice from the background.

"Quick, hide!" Sam grabbed Riley's shoulder and squeezed.

"Hey, take it easy!" Riley pressed a few buttons and activated the clanking mechanism. The drone instantly went invisible. "The cloaking effect will only last for five minutes, we have to get to the corner."

Just then, two human males appeared. They couldn't make out the features of one, but the other had short bronze hair sticking up at all angles and dark blue eyes. He was wearing a lab coat over an Alterra logo T-shirt with blue jeans.

"Listen, Fred," the blue-eyed man said, "I have to get back to work on the W.R.E.C.K project."

"Listen, Mason" the other voice shot back, thick with sarcasm, "what you need to do is brew your famous coffee first."

"No!" Mason shook his head and walked away.

Avery looked at Sam. "W.R.E.C.K. That's what we saw on Julia's computer."

Sam nodded and turned to Riley. "Follow Mason," she said.

The drone crawled slowly across the floor as the invisibility effect slowly wore off. It was still small enough as to not be noticed. Riley navigated the drone onto Mason's shoe and activated the anchoring function.

"There," Riley exhaled heavily as he sat back in his chair, "The drone is secure. As long as it's not discovered, we go where he goes."

As they watched, Mason went into a cargo teleported where he entered a complex series of characters, and suddenly teleported himself–and the drone–into W.R.E.C.K. headquarters.

Once inside, Riley disconnected the drone from Mason's shoe and started snooping around.

"They're experimenting on rockgrubs, and is...is that Kharaa?" Sam looked at the other two in amazement. "You've got to be kidding me!" Sam turned around and walked to the window.

Avery walked over to where she was standing. "Sam," he said softly, "you've got to keep it together. You've got a whole team relying on you."

Sam whirled around and glared at Avery with fire in her eyes, but quickly softened. "You're right. Thanks."

With a quick squeeze of Riley's hand, Sam set her shoulders and walked back over to where Riley sat, waiting for instructions.

"Get the drone back here" she said. "We have to go investigate that."

Riley nodded his head and got to work. He pressed a series of buttons of buttons on his workstation, and the drone started its return to the cave." Riley swung around and pressed a button on the wall.

Sam frowned."What does that button do?"

"It opens a special flap at the entrance of the cave that will let the drone in," grinned Riley. "And now we wait. I'll go grab some coffees and I'll meet you guys back here in 15 minutes.