On the lower floors of the Dawn base, work was in full swing. On Bondrewd's orders, a subject, was prepared to conduct experiments. He was inside a huge room, the ceilings of which rose eight metres from the floor, illuminating the space with a dim neon light, and the steel walls of the room gave off the faint smell of fresh paint. In the middle of this room, a tailless scorpion lay belly-up on a huge pedestal, more like a huge surgical table encased in steel rings.
Everything was ready for the beginning, "praying hands", actively fussing around were waiting only for the initiator of this action. And he did not make himself wait, one of the doors opened, and accompanied by several more subordinates, the "Lord of Dawn" entered the room. He walked quickly and did not slow down, giving orders to his subordinates. One of the 'hands' bustling around the subject approached Bondrewd and gave a brief report.
"Subject immobilised and placed in an artificial coma, condition stable, injuries sustained during the fight have been repaired as far as possible, awaiting further instructions."
Bondrewd nodded in the affirmative and took a seat in the elevated observation platform, so that he could see the process better and coordinate his men if necessary. In the few days that had passed since the attack on the base, he had time to think, calculate and instruct his subordinates, in principle his personal presence was not required at all. But he could not deny himself the pleasure of being present at what was probably one of the most important experiments of his life.
Breaking the awkward silence one of the "praying hands" asked Bondrewd for permission to begin the operation, even through the hiss of the microphone one could sense a certain excitement, and it was more than justified. Experiments on this scale have never been conducted before.
"You may begin." Bondrewd's voice came through the speaker.
The process was underway. Two of the "hands" stood on a movable platform with a huge saw fixed on it. And with the help of levers in a couple of minutes were near the belly of the creature.
"Beginning autopsy." said one of the subordinates mundanely.
The revived saw quickly entered the flesh of the subject, sprinkling all around with a stream of dirty brown blood, after a couple of minutes the cut took its final form, exposing part of the creature's innards. The surgeons reached for the apparatuses hanging on their backs, they were huge needles connected to satchels with liquid stopping the bleeding, after ten minutes there was no trace of the blood flow, only brown stains on the floor reminded of the flood that had happened earlier.
"Beginning disclosure." Two of those "praying hands" who were on the hoist, swiftly handling the platform, fastened the edges of the wound channel prepared carabiners with steel cables, which stretched to the far ends of the room.
"The cables are secured." After this phrase, the mechanisms rattled and the cables began to tighten little by little, the pressure increasing. The crackle of taut flesh filled the room. The edges of the wound began to part with resistance and soon revealed the "rich inner world of the subject".
"Beginning removal of internal organs." said one of the "hands" in a calm voice.
The saw started to buzz again and in 30 minutes they removed everything from the creature: the stomach, it was too heavy even for two men, so they pulled it out with the help of a winch, the intestines they pulled out of the carcass for a long time, piling up all 10 people, pulling them to the floor, the liver, kidneys - everything ended up scattered on the floor, and were already being pulled apart by the "hands".
The floor of the room gradually turned into a bloody mess, but no one really cared. Having decontaminated the wounds and stopped the blood loss, one of the newly trained surgeons probably wanted to wipe the sweat from his forehead, but he couldn't because of the helmet completely covering his face, a little confused and catching a few questioning looks, he hesitantly said.
"We're done, we can start loading."
Bondrewd was satisfied, his plan was going as smoothly as it could, the idea was quite simple, if when you descend to the 6th level of the abyss, you automatically get cursed, then you need, how to put it correctly - a "lightning rod". And he had one - Prushka, but unfortunately, it would be almost impossible to recreate its analogue in a short period of time.
And he had an idea why not try to put the test subject inside another living organism, as a parasite, in this case the curse should affect the "host organism" and perhaps theoretically ignore the insolent traveller. Can it? How? And most importantly, how? - all these questions were swirling in Lord of Dawn's mind. One thing he was glad about was that he didn't have long to wait.
The "Praying Hands" were already carrying a thick-walled capsule with their fellow man inside on a winch, carefully placing it in an empty space inside the belly of the creature, they began the process of stitching the wound channel. The whole thing took ten minutes.
"We're ready." was the answer Bondrewd was waiting for more than any other.
"You may begin the diving process." ordered the Lord of Dawn.
The metal winches were quickly hooked to the rings restraining the beast and having lifted it 3 metres up, began to transport it to one of the corners of the room, where a hatch had already been carefully opened. Not just a hatch, but a hatch that could fit two such monsters at once, and a little space would still be left.
Everything was in place, the test subject was above the hatch, the "hands" stood waiting for the last command, which for some reason did not come. Bondrewd hesitated, which, let's say, happened to him quite often, in his head, like an annoying dragonfly, one single thought was flitting about: whether I had calculated everything correctly. After a little more writhing Bondrewd shook his head and threw the thought out of his head.
"Begin the dive." Bondrewd's voice was full of confidence.
The chain restraints were removed and the carcass and the stowaway were quickly rushed down - to level 6. 10... 15... 20... seconds, the time passed, but the chains did not even think to stop and with a metallic clanking sound they went down. Suddenly everything went quiet - the chain stopped, there was a sepulchral silence in the room, it seemed that if you listen closely, you can hear the confused breathing of "praying hands". The moment of truth would soon come, the "hand" that had gone down inside the monster had a piece of paper with him, if all went according to plan he should summarise the situation below and lift the piece of paper on the rope that had been carefully fastened to the chain.
The situation began to heat up, about 10 minutes passed and there was no answer, Bondrewd was about to call off the operation when suddenly the rope moved, the eyes of all present were fixed on it, as if it were their last hope for survival. Minutes flowed slowly and the rope kept moving upwards little by little. Several of the "hands" couldn't stand it and grabbed the edge of the rope hanging, at their feet, but Bondrewd stopped them.
"Don't touch the rope, we don't know exactly who is pulling it, it might be one of the local inhabitants and as soon as someone grabs it from our side, the opposite one will pull it sharply, hoping that you won't be able to hold on and fall down. Level 6 dwellers might have enough intelligence for such a manoeuvre."
"Praying Hands" didn't bother to contradict their superiors, and jerked aside, and time was still dragging, just like an old gondola. Bondrewd was already regretting that he had not given his subordinate some small motor to speed up the lifting of the message.
From behind the edge of the hatch a rolled up scroll began to peep out, without waiting until it was level with him, the "hand" standing next to him knelt down and snatched it up in one motion, without pausing he untied the rope binding it and stared at the contents, his speaker was switched on and everyone present could hear it over the radio channel.
The message read: "The descent was normal, no signs of the curse, due to the mutation of the object, the exit from the capsule was complicated, the situation at the place of descent is calm, no local inhabitants are observed." The end of the message was crowned with the code phrase "Heart of the White Desert."
The reader lowered the parchment, showing that there was nothing else in the message, the "hands" stood as if dumbfounded, either because of surprise or because of the lack of realisation that reality was real and not just their dream from yesterday. The awkward silence was interrupted by clapping, clapping that came from Bondrewd's observation platform, quickly realising the situation those standing below quickly joined in the applause. "Lord of Dawn" waited a theatrical pause and his voice boomed over the speakers of his subordinates.
"Thank you all for your participation, the experiment was a complete success," he added after waiting a few moments. "And one more thing, tomorrow we go hunting."