The deepest level of the Academy's archives.

Jonah had been here before, searching for information on beast biology. Back then, the rows of shelves and glowing data terminals seemed endless and intimidating.

Now they felt almost comforting.

"This way." Vanessa led him past rows of storage units, each one containing countless years of knowledge. "The Headmaster gave us access to the primary decryption system. It's normally reserved for translating ancient texts, but..."

"But desperate times and all that," Jonah finished.

They reached a platform at the archive. A massive runic symbol covered the floor, glowing with blue light. In the middle was a stand with places to put several data crystals.

Vanessa placed the Artificer's crystal into the main slot.

CLICK.

The runic symbols activated with a low sound. Light spread through the runes like water flowing through channels. Holographic displays appeared around them, showing streams of encrypted data.

"Okay." Vanessa cracked her knuckles and pulled up her personal workstation interface. "When we accessed this crystal before, we only managed to decrypt about five percent of its contents. Just basic blueprints and construction notes."

"So ninety-five percent is still locked?" Jonah said.

"The encryption is incredibly complex. It uses multiple systems and changes itself. It's like..." She paused, looking for the right words to use. "It's like the crystal itself is testing anyone who tries to access it. Making sure they are worthy of the knowledge inside."

"Great. A stone that thinks it can judge us."

Vanessa smiled despite the tension. "At least this rock might save the world."

She started typing commands into her interface. The displays responded, shifting and reorganizing.

"The Academy's mainframe is helping now," she explained. "With this much processing power, we should be able to break through the deeper layers. It will just take time."

"How much time?"

"Hours. Maybe a full day if the encryption fights back."

Jonah sat down on the floor and leaned against the stand. "Then I guess we are camping out here."

Vanessa focused on her work, her hands moving fast across holographic keyboards. Jonah watched the streams of data, occasionally pointing out patterns he noticed. It reminded him of their early days in the workshop, before everything got so complicated.

"Jonah?" Vanessa's voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"Are we really going to do this? Lead a research division? Try to build spaceships to fight Sterling?"

"We already created Nomad," he said. "If we can make one living ship, we can figure out how to make more. Right?"

"That's not what I'm asking." She stopped typing and turned to face him fully. "I'm asking if you are fine with this. With having this responsibility. We are barely seventeen, and they are asking us to..."

"To do what we have always done," Jonah interrupted gently. "Find out impossible problems and find solutions nobody else thought of. The only difference is the scale."

"The scale is kind of a big difference."

"True." He smiled. "But we have each other. That counts for something."

Vanessa's expression softened. She reached over and held his hand. "Promise me something?"

"Anything."

"Promise me that no matter how big this gets, no matter how many people are counting on us, we don't lose who we are. We don't become like Sterling."

"I promise." Jonah squeezed her hand. "We stay us. Always."

PING.

The sound made them both jump. One of Vanessa's displays flashed green.

"That's the first encryption layer breaking," she said, sounding a bit excited. She turned back to her work, typing fast on the keyboards.

"Come on, come on..."

The holographic displays shifted. New data streams appeared, these ones slower and more detailed.

"It's working!" Vanessa pulled up the new information, organizing it into categories. "Oh wow. This is... this is a lot more than blueprints."

Jonah stood and moved closer. The text was in an ancient language, but the Academy's translation algorithms were converting it in real time.

"These are history files," Vanessa whispered. "A complete record of the Artificer civilization."

They read together, pulling up document after document. What they found revealed a picture far bigger than anything they had imagined.

The Artificers hadn't been a single, unified people. They'd been divided into two major factions from almost the beginning.

The Life-Weavers believed in working with nature, in creating symbiotic relationships between magic and living things. They built cities that grew like forests. Tools that bonded with their users.

The Forge-Masters believed in control and perfection. They saw nature as flawed, something to be improved through engineering. They built cities of pure metal. Tools that obeyed without question.

For centuries, the two factions coexisted. They competed with each other. They made each other reach higher levels of success.

Then the war began.

"Look at this." Jonah pulled up a file marked with a red warning symbol. "The Forge-Masters started building war-golems. Artificial soldiers that didn't need food or rest."

"And the Life-Weavers responded by creating their living ships," Vanessa added, reading the next file. "Creatures that could survive in space and fight back."

The conflict escalated. Planets were destroyed. Entire star systems became battlegrounds.

The war lasted for generations. And in the end, nobody won.

Both factions destroyed themselves. Their advanced civilization collapsed. The survivors, the few who were left, sealed away their most dangerous knowledge and disappeared.

"This is insane," Jonah said quietly. "Sterling thinks he's inventing something new, but he's just repeating history. Following the same path as the Forge-Masters."

"Which means we know how this ends if we don't stop him."

"Galactic war. Total destruction."

PING. PING. PING.

Multiple alerts sounded at once. The encryption was breaking faster now.

"The crystal recognizes us," Vanessa said with wonder. "It's accepting that we've learned the lesson it wanted to teach. It's opening up completely."

New files covered the display. They were technical diagrams, star charts and manufacturing processes.

But one file caught Jonah's attention immediately.

It was a map.

It showed dozens of stars, connected by glowing lines. Flight paths, maybe. Or communication networks.

And at the edge of the map, in a region of space marked with warning symbols, was a blinking icon.

Vanessa pulled up the file details. Her eyes went wide.

"It's a location," she said. "Coordinates to a place called... Haven."

More information loaded. Jonah read it aloud as it appeared.

"Haven. The last secure location of the Life-Weaver faction. A shipyard and research base for emergencies. Sealed and placed in automated preservation mode following the final retreat."

"It's still there," Vanessa said. "An actual Life-Weaver base. Still intact after thousands of years."

"This is it," Jonah said. "This is what we need. If we can get there, if we can access their technology..."

"We could learn how to build their ships. How to create what Sterling can't copy." Vanessa pulled up the star chart, studying the coordinates. "But it's so far away."

"How far?"

She ran calculations, her face growing more troubled with each result. "If we use our usual warp speeds, Six months. To get there."

"That's a year-long journey just to get there and back."

"And we don't have a year." Vanessa closed her eyes. "Sterling will move before then."

Jonah wanted to argue and find a way out of the problem. But the numbers were facts. Even if they left tomorrow, they'd not he fast enough.

Unless...

"Nomad," he said suddenly.

"What about Nomad?"

"Remember what the crystal said when I created it? One of its abilities was something called spatial manipulation. The Phase Spider essence, the ability to teleport short distances."

Vanessa's face suddenly showed complete understanding. "You think we could scale that up? Use the same principle to create longer jumps?"

"I don't know. Maybe?" Jonah pulled up Nomad's creation data, comparing it to the files from the crystal. "The Artificer's living ships didn't use normal engines. They jumped between points."

"Like the Phase Spider, but cosmic-scale." Vanessa was already running her simulations. "If we could modify Nomad's systems, enhance the spatial ability..."

"We might be able to cut that travel time down to weeks instead of months."

"We need to show this to the Headmaster," Vanessa said, already copying files. "And to Princess Ariana. If we are going to do this, we will need support from both nations."

"And we need to find out how to upgrade Nomad without accidentally killing it," Jonah added. "No pressure."

WHOOSH.

The archive's doors burst open. A young messenger ran toward them.

"Weaver Jonah! Engineer Vanessa!" he gasped. "The Headmaster sent me. The Empress has made her decision about the research division."

They exchanged glances.

"And?" Vanessa prompted.

The messenger stood up straight, taking a deep breath "She's agreed. The Artificer Research Division is officially authorized. Full resources. Full authority. Both nations are now working together."

Jonah suddenly felt relieved. They had backing and support.

Now they just had to deliver results before Sterling's fleet arrived.

"Tell the Headmaster we are on our way," Jonah said. "And tell him we found something. Something big."

The messenger nodded and ran back toward the doors.

Vanessa began shutting down the decryption systems, carefully backing up all the recovered data. "This is really happening, isn't it? We are going to space. To find an ancient alien base. To save the world."

"Looks like it."

"Jonah?"

"Yeah?"

She turned to face him, a smile on her appearing on her tired face. "We are definitely going to need more coffee."

He laughed.

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