Broouummm.

A loud humming filled the room as the tubes leading from the device shook and the objects the tubes led to begin humming. They were taking the heat from the reactor and turning it into electricity. Not how he would have done it, but he understood that all civilizations eventually hit the limitation before they jumped to things like warp engines or wave rider engines. The same limitation existed in his galaxy up until recently.

As he moved back the automated systems started kicking in as power began moving through the walls. So much power that he could feel it. The lights in the room were the first to brighten. Then somewhere below him something else triggered and gravity was suddenly a factor again.

"Woah." Shilla remarked as she turned off her helmet’s lights. Jace did the same a moment later. "Looks like the facility is functioning fine like you said. Even gravity automatically triggered."

"Cain, move the ship away from the facility for now. The facilities systems are automatically being triggered. We need to avoid the possibility of the place having automated defenses." Jace declared quickly before moving back to the door after demagnetizing his boots so he could walk around normally.

"Understood." Cain responded immediately.

Jace walked past several bodies that had slammed into the floor when gravity had triggered. There was still no atmosphere yet but the blood and other stuff that had been floating in space was already seeping into the floor. "This is going to be a pain to clean up."

"I mean, are we going to be here long enough to need to clean it up?" Shilla asked as she followed him out into the hall as he started leading somewhere else. "Where are we going now?"

"Main control theater." Jace answered as he pushed a container away. "We will be able to control everything from there and start up anything else. Only the reactor was on a separate system." Jace explained as they arrived at a hallway that was still engulfed in darkness.

Shilla switched back on her helmet flashlight and Jace did the same. Illuminating the heavily damaged hallway where it looked like a tornado of claws had passed through. "You never mentioned what was in that reactor?"

"I guess that means the Centuria do not have it." Jace chuckled as he stopped then jumped over a gouge in the floor that led to a lower level. "There is not an exact name for it. But the closest name to explain it would be a miniature sun engine."

"Engine? Not a reactor?" Shilla asked as she jumped over the same gouge but overshot the goal and bumped into Jace’s back. "Sorry."

Jace waved off the apology. "Yes, an engine. It is the conversion of energy, not the sustaining of energy. So calling it an engine is far more accurate of a depiction. Although both are odd." He explained as they turned down a corridor and arrived at a set metal doors. Jace pressed a button next to it and waited.

"Then why do you call it a miniature sun?" Shilla asked as turned off her helmet flashlight now that they were in an illuminated part of the facility.

"Because as far as we found the only element to create it is found inside of a sun." Jace explained as the doors opened to reveal a metal tube elevator. He stepped in and Shilla followed a moment later.

As soon as the doors closed the elevator began ascending. "Does extracting this yet unnamed element destroy the sun?"

"No clue. We never got a chance to try it. But clearly someone in this galaxy at some point either created an alternative, found an alternative, or extracted some. But once again I point to the fried digital records." Jace pointed about before shifting slightly as the elevator suddenly slammed to a stop. "Come on, we climb from here."

As Jace jumped up and opened a hatch in the roof. Shilla took a second before following him to the roof of the elevator. "Cain said there were two of these. Could they have made more?"

"Possibly." Jace answered with a grunt as he shined his light up as he looked up. Which explained why he never turned his helmet flashlight off. He knew he would just turn it on again so he kept it on instead. "Once again the records would have an answer but they were likely destroyed."

"Likely?" Shilla pointed up above the debris that was blocking the elevator at a protruding ladder that ran up the length of the shaft.

"Yes, likely." Jace answered before moving into position and holding his hands so he could boost Shilla up. "There is a slim possibility that their records are salvageable but I am not holding out hope."

"I will." Shilla answered with a grunt as she ran forward and jumped slightly onto Jace’s hand before he thrust his hands upwards and sent her up to the ladder. She grabbed on and then ascended a bit. She turned and watched as Jace took a few steps back before running forward and jumping.

As he did the elevator shook underneath him. He came near the wall but did not arrive anywhere near where the ladder was not damaged. So instead he kicked off the wall and flew to the other wall where he kicked off again and propelled himself upwards. He grabbed the lowest undamaged rung of the ladder before he began pulling himself up.

The rungs of the ladder ran along the entire shaft. But between twenty feet up and the elevator the rungs had all been destroyed by some debris from higher up falling and destroying it. Which was why they had to jump.

"Top floor." Jace told her and she began climbing. "I mean, we will know better once we are in the main control theater." Jace informed her as he followed.

"Jace, what are you going to do with Catherine?" Shilla asked after a few minutes of climbing in silence.

"Shilla-"

"I personally sealed our communications because I am not going to continue calling you Gladiator. That name the Victorium gave you as a title." Shilla told him quickly. "Now then, what are you going to do?"

Jace sighed as he was lost in thought for a moment. "I do not know. But I do know that Liz, the girl that I had the others picked up, has some type of grudge. According to Eduta, that Xenar, Catherine killed her parents in front of her."

"Why did you have them pick up Liz anyways? It is not like the girl is anything special. Although that mount of hers is interesting?" Shilla admitted.

Jace chuckled. "I sent her away with something of mine and I wanted to make sure I got it back." Jace informed her as he arrived at the top floor and moved horizontally to the door and began pulling it open.

"What was so important that you needed back?" Shilla asked as she moved over and helped him pull it open before slipping in first and turning to watch Jace slip through the door after her before they slammed closed.

Jace reached back and pulled something out and handed it to her. She looked in surprise at the leather back journal. It was small enough to fit in the equipment or ammunition pockets that Jace had on. She opened it and frowned as she instantly picked out sketches and coded writing. "That is all of my research on the lost times between the xenar’s fall and human’s arrival, the daemons, the mortella, Earth, along with a number of star maps that depict locations in our own galaxy where pocket dimensions and other goodies are hidden."

"What... how... when did you have time to find all this?" Shilla asked.

"When Cerberus was established. I had some time where I was busy, yeah." Jace admitted as he took the book back and walked toward an opening where a pair of doors had been torn open by something. He stepped through the opening to find the other side was covered in blood, guts, and other remains. "But between raising children and training recruits, I had a lot of time to train myself, tinker, and do my hobby which is research. I found that when I compared information from the Victorium and the human records, I was able to find blind spots and a bit of research revealed fragments of data that I put together to get all of that."

Shilla sauntered through the door and ran a hand along his back. "Are you sure you do not want to sleep with me again? Because you are doing a fantastic job in turning me on." She then stopped as she seemed to think of something. "Could these humans have kept physical records as well?"

Jace stopped as he moved to a console and then tilted his head. "Possibly. I will check in a second." His hands glided across the ancient keyboard. Typing this by using a mechanical keyboard might take awhile.