Chapter Twenty-Two: Starfire Base

Starfire Base. Level Nine Security Building. Just a few select are allowed inside, allowed to see what the skyscraper in the middle of the Death Valley really holds. They do not rely on just computers here. If something goes wrong, a band of heat-seeking wyverns is released to run through the hallways and tear up any creature that gets in their way.

In the heart of the Starfire Base lies a nuclear reactor. Its power is used to generate and fuel a chamber that is located at the very pinnacle of Level Nine Security Building. The chamber contains two rooms surrounded by windows and a few dozen computers monitoring it all times. Inside the first room is a giant stone arch. The second room is a well-crafted, soft, goosefeather bed with dark mythril posts and a blood-red canopy.

The top four levels, including the pinnacle chamber, are owned by a man that is only known as "Red." They contain a training hall with wyverns and hazardous obstacle courses, a giant living chamber furnished with nothing less than mythril, blood silk, and Persian carpets, and a few test rooms. The living chamber is locked under Level Nine security clearance, and only "Red" is allowed access. The pinnacle chamber is swarming with Harvard and Yale graduates - scientists, chemists, computer engineers, astronauts, and the likes. Any outside knowledge of the compound is impossible. If a person gains, or leaks information, they are terminated, or disappear without a trace forever. All records are erased as if the person never existed.

Every scientist, chemist, computer engineer, astronomer knows what the risks are when they are recruited for the Starfire Base. The technology there is beyond that of the dawning Twenty-First Century, and it is that aspect of the base that intrigues most of its employees and inhabitants.

Now much is known about Red. There are no records of his birth, or any kind of existence up until only six years ago when he showed up and bought out a wealthy corporation to build a skyscraper in the middle of Nevada's Death Valley desert. His corporation - Starfire Industries Inc. - rose in fame for its new designs in rocket-space engineering and even every-day household appliances. Soon the market was booming with Starfire Inc. 800MHz processors and AI washing machines. But beneath it all, in the middle of the desert, is where the real operations of Starfire Industries Incorporated go on.

"Do you have the proper code to open the gate yet?" Red paces across the mirrored floors of the Base's pinnacle room.

"Negative, sir," a young bespectacled man answers. Red leans close to the glass window and peers out at the stone arch engraved with runes and imbued with magic. A few cloaked figures sit unmovingly around it, deep in meditation.

A tall dark-haired woman steps beside Red. Her heavy chains jingle and her leather rubs together as she folds her arms over her chest and stares out the window beside Red.

"Any luck?" she asks in a deep voice.

"You act as if you're the only one who wants to get back there, M," Red answers without taking his eyes off the arch. The woman turns around without a word and walks slowly, her leather rubbing together with a gratifying swoosh swoosh, to the control panel.

"He doesn't pay you millions for nothing, boys," she tells one of the younger engineers pounding on the keyboard of a rather large Starfire Inc. computer. She leans over his shoulder and the man stiffens as the aroma of her rose perfume reaches his nostrils. She looks at the monitor intently. It flickers in response, but that's the only thing that happens. Out of rage, M drives her fist through the workdesk and leaves in a flurry of leather and rose. The cleaning personnel rush over to the incident and the desk is replaced within five minutes. Red shakes his head disapprovingly.

"No, you're not the only one who wants to be back there again…" he finally answers. "I miss it too. And most of all, I miss her."

Back to Gems page.

Back to Main page.