Serenity wasn’t able to start searching A’Atla’s surface immediately; he didn’t even have a way to get to the surface. What he was able to do was explore more of A’Atla’s interior. The doors that had once been blocked with warnings of death were now easy to open; he could travel through miles of underground tunnels and mysterious rooms if he wanted to.

He expected it to look like the inside of an old half-buried ship, filled with mud and tiny sea life, probably partially covered in barnacles, but it didn’t. There was a slight smell of decay, but Serenity couldn’t even identify its origin; all he saw was a thin layer of salt in places and even that was not significant. It was more like a bucket that was filled with sea water then dumped out and allowed to dry than anything else. Slightly gritty but with no obvious signs of its past.

Strangely, other than the grit, everything seemed to actually be in better shape in the formerly flooded areas than in the original area. It was like the cold ocean water had acted as a preservative. Things were intact enough that Serenity could tell a lot of the furniture was made for people with tails or wings and of widely varying heights; even more tellingly, there was nothing obvious that required significant manual dexterity, like a doorknob. Almost everything was handled with magic and Intent, requiring little more than a touch. The ship seemed to have been designed for a widely varied crew.

There was a lot of magical stuff scattered around that was still magical, far more than in the area he and his parents had started in. While much of it was built into the ship, even more of it wasn’t. Blaze was thrilled when they found a fully stocked hospital that included tools he’d never heard of. It was a good thing that Blaze was more interested in actually healing people than figuring out how to heal people he’d never met; otherwise, Serenity wasn’t sure he’d ever dig Blaze out of the hospital.

There were no weapons in the entire facility, not even decorative ones, until they figured out which of the rooms were armories. They were all over the place; about half of them were located near shooting ranges or sparring rooms, but the other half were simply heavily secured rooms. Many of the armories were completely empty, clearly stripped when everyone was sent away from A’Atla, but there was still a surprising amount in some others.

It was a strange range of weapons; there was everything from Tier Zero knives that looked like stamped out pieces of decorative junk to weapons that were high enough Tier that Serenity couldn’t even lift them, much less use them in a real fight. Even stranger, there was little in between. Perhaps the cheap stamped junk was left behind because it was useless, while the rest belonged to people who stayed behind or died at the beginning of the Event? Wherever they all came from, it was clear that the world was an armed one and probably not all that peaceful.

The higher Tier weapons seemed to more or less line up with the Tier Serenity suspected Earth had once held, a world where a ship like A’Atla could easily keep itself charged and move around. A world where the mana level everywhere was higher than the level in a ley line nexus on Tier Three Earth.

A world where the mana limits in the previous Captain’s orders made sense. Yes, they were mostly about stability, but Serenity had compared them to what he got while they traveled. The stability portions were well within the range, but the moment they left the nexus they were out of range, even in the ley line. It was close enough that another Tier or two might well have brought them into the very bottom of the range and allowed A’Atla to surface on its own as long as it followed the ley lines, but the top of the range was so much higher that Serenity wasn’t entirely certain what Tier it was equivalent to. Probably somewhere in the twenties, though it was hard to say for certain.

A’Atla would likely have risen on its own after Earth hit Tier Four and then stabilized; at the latest, it would have been after Tier Five. That was from the numbers, but Serenity still estimated Tier Five. A’Atla hadn’t risen on his first time around, after all, and he thought Earth reached Tier Four. It was so long ago that he couldn’t be entirely confident, but it sounded right.

Other than a hospital and armories, they found a wide range of areas as they searched. Many were mysterious, marked on the maps only as ‘production,’ ‘refinement,’ or ‘general use’, but others were clear. Training areas often looked like schools, ‘exchange’ areas looked like markets and stores, and recreation areas didn’t require any explanation; the specifics might be lost but the name alone told the story. A’Atla’s underground areas were easily spacious enough to be a city and were set up as if they were one.

It wasn’t until the fourth day above water that they found an exit. It wasn’t even Serenity that found it; instead, it was Bethany. It wasn’t a surprise; while the others had set out to confirm the maps they had and found that they were incomplete but generally mostly accurate, Serenity’s mother had set out to explore the undamaged areas of the map in the hope of finding a way out.

Naturally, they all had to go check it out.

The first person out would be Serenity, in his chimera shape with full armor and weapons. None of them expected danger, but he was the best person to face it if there was any. Even his parents didn’t argue about that.

Much.

The door didn’t want to move at first, but after Serenity yanked hard on the manual assistance wheel, it jerked loose and slid forward along its track. Serenity had to assist it two more times before wet mud slumped through the crack at the bottom of the doorway. It became easier after that; the enchantment on the door was soon able to move it without assistance. The door became a sort of odd overhang when it was fully open. Serenity made sure to engage the manual lock; the last thing he wanted was it accidentally closing on someone.

The air smelled of salt but not much else. The mud didn’t seem to have any particular smell. Serenity suspected that was because it came from the depths of the ocean where it was too cold and dark for most things to live. It almost certainly wouldn’t last.

The mud looked to be over a foot deep; Serenity was glad that was all it was. It could easily have been deeper than that if A’Atla had ended up in a spot where currents dropped a lot of sediment. It was also definitely lucky the doorway didn’t open into a stairwell headed up or something, but was instead completely above ground.

“This looks like fun.” Serenity was certain the sarcasm came through. It didn’t look like fun at all. His boots weren’t magical anymore, and that meant there was a decent chance they were also no longer waterproof. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any other options that fit the digitigrade feet of his chimera form. Human form wouldn’t be any better; while he had good hiking boots, they weren’t designed to wade through mud that was over a foot deep. He triggered the Footwraps of Air Glide he wore under his boots and slid forward, avoiding the mess as much as possible.

“You say that, but I don’t see you getting your feet dirty,” Blaze commented dryly. He moved up behind Serenity, on top of some of the mud that came in from the outside. “Do you see anything other than mud?”

Serenity took a few steps farther out and looked around. “There are piles of mud. Some of them look like they’re over structures, but that’s no surprise…”

Somewhere in Russia, a few hours later

The analyst stared at the latest satellite images. He didn’t know where they came from and he didn’t care; what mattered to him was that they were clear enough to tell what was happening, and these were certainly good enough.

Good enough that what he was seeing didn’t make sense. The island that rose from the sea, the island the Voice called A’Atla … it had people on it. How did they get there so quickly? More importantly, were they Russian or not?

He knew there were negotiations happening for an “international team of experts” to explore the giant island, but he also knew that wasn’t going to stop anyone who could land people there. There were already at least three groups on the island, but two were near the shore; they’d seen them approaching over the past day. They weren’t surprises. This new group, however, came out of nowhere.

This was worth bothering his supervisor over. He’d get in more trouble if he didn’t say anything than he would for the bad news.

Sometimes he hated his boss.

Moving around the mud-filled rubble was bad for everyone except Serenity; he just had to put up with a constant mana draw that was a little irritating but not truly problematic. At the same time, no one wanted to stay in the underground area when they could be outside, at least not now that they’d confirmed that the connection to A’Atla worked above ground as well as below.

Blaze had jokingly suggested that Serenity carry each of them in turn to give them a rest and “spread the mud around.” At least, Serenity thought it was joking; in the end, it didn’t matter whether it was or not. Serenity was now muddy up to his knees from carrying people. Sometimes it was just ferrying them over obstacles, but a lot of it really was letting them rest. Walking in mud was hard.

They hadn’t found anything when a ringtone surprised everyone. Serenity narrowly avoided dropping his mother; he hadn’t even realized she was carrying her satellite phone, though he should have. Why would she leave it behind?

Serenity slid over to his father and set Bethany down next to Lex. It would be far easier for her to get at her phone when he wasn’t blocking the pocket.

She quickly had it out. “Hello?”

“Miz Rothmer?” The voice on the phone wasn’t familiar to Serenity, but Bethany nodded.

“Carl. It’s good to hear from you.”

“I wish I could say the same.” Carl sounded apologetic. “Are you by some chance on the island’s surface? Or rather, were you there about six hours ago?”

Bethany paused. “You’re telling me we were seen, aren’t you?”

“We have eyes in the sky, yes. Unfortunately, either we’re not the only ones or it’s already leaked. We know both Russia and China know something, so we’re about to bring others in on it.” He paused, then continued. “There are three other groups on the island that we know of already. One is ours, one is British, and there are several others on the way that we know about. Unfortunately, we’re not sure who the third group belongs to yet; they could even be a private venture. We’ve directed our people in your direction and I fully expect the British will do the same once we bring them up to speed.”

Bethany sighed. “We’re a private venture. We can’t be anything else.”

“You know as well as I do that not even our allies are going to believe that.” Somehow, Carl managed to say that completely seriously, almost like he actually wished it were otherwise.

Lillene

Carl avoided saying "A'Atla" or "Global Hawk", but I think the meaning was still quite simple to figure out.