[u]Rescue Mission 4,323
|Stranded Pilot:[/u] Ace(?)
[u]|Location:[/u] Kerbol, Desert Temple
[u]|E.M.T.:[/u] [0Y:0M:0D:7h:23m.17s]

Hadma stared at the smooth sandstone wall of the mysterious desert temple. Ace wasn't anywhere to be found outside the temple, and there wasn't anything significant around the area for hundreds of kilometers. Not even an oasis.

"Try pushing on the walls," Nedry said. "Maybe there's a hidden door."

Seemed as good an idea as any. After several hours of randomly pushing parts of the wall and nothing happening, Hadma was ready to admit defeat. Nedry was already back in the plane, presumably enjoying snacks and nice, cool, refreshing water.

In fact, Nedry had fallen asleep. In the plane's cockpit. Leaning against the throttle.

The plane's engines started with a whoosh.

"Uh-oh," Hadma said. She turned around. The plane was pointed directly at her. "Uh-oh," she said again. After a moment's paralyzing shock, she leaped to her right and ran for all her legs were worth.

The plane impacted the wall, exploding spectacularly. A wing went sailing over the temple, lodging itself in the sand several meters behind the far wall. As the smoke and sand cleared, Hadma could see a hole in the temple wall. Inside was a big, empty room. [i]Good enough,[/i] Hadma thought. She said a few words commemerating Nedry's noble sacrifice, carefully not looking in the suspiciously gooey and mangled cockpit, and then made her way to the hole. She paused to warily eye the remaining airplane parts. They seemed to have exploded as much as they wanted to for today.

The temple was much smaller than she'd thought from the outside. It was still pretty big, though. It would probably-
"Echo!" she shouted.
Nope, no echo.

Hadma turned around. Ace obviously wasn't in here, and- wait. Had this little pedestal always been there? And since when was the floor glowing blue. Interesting. Hadma eyed the pedestal warily. She reached out a finger and poked it. Designs on the wall glowed brightly; text lit up on the pedestal, too.

"Oooh!" Hadma said.

When things seemed to stop lighting up for the moment, she went back to the pedestal. Squiggly lines and strange symbols flashed before her eyes. Nope, she had no idea how to read this. But it was obviously some sort of computer. Hadma randomly pressed a symbol. The text disappeared and the pedestal glowed brightly before receding into the floor. The ground rumbled, and a spiral staircase lowered around Hadma. Apparently a squiggle with a line through it created staircases. Well, at least she thought it did. There weren't any other squiggles with lines through them that Hadma could press to find out.

Happy to at least have more things to explore, Hadma bounded down the staircase. Minutes later, she found herself in a black chamber. Something blue beneath her feet caught her eye. Symbols were spreading around the room. Now [i]this[/i] was a massive room. Her head craned up, she could only just make out the circle of ight, far above, that was where the staircase originated. She felt sure that this time-

"Echo!" The room politely echoed her voice. Immensly warm and fuzzy feelings erupted throughout her head. For once, a room was actuall cooperating. A loud sound snapped her attention from the ceiling. It hurt her eyes! She clamped her hands over her eyes, trying to keep the sound out, until it abruptly stopped. She turned around and discovered a see-through alien standing as if it were always there. It started speaking to her in gibberish. On a whim, Hadma grabbed her glove and threw it at the figure. As the glove arced through the air, the alien abruptly stopped talking. Somehow it seemed surprised. It said something again as the glove sailed through it. Interesting. Hadma pulled off her other glove and threw it, too. The alien watched the glove pass through itself, and then turned back to Hadma. It was garbling quite a lot, now.

"Have you seen Ace?" Hadma interrupted.
"Language scanned and analyzed," the hologram said. "We have left behind, for you, the greatest treasure that you could ever hope. The fountain of knowledge, where every single answer is stored. Physics-"

"Excuse me, but have you seen a Kerbal called Ace?" she asked. The hologram seemed taken aback.
"No," it said.
"Hmm, that's too bad," Hadma replied.
"Physics, Biology-"
"It's just - sorry for interrupting again - it's just that I'm supposed to find him."
"I haven't seen him. Sorry. Now then, Physics, Biology, Mathmatical... Life and Death... every answer has been stored." it said.
"But not," Hadma said, "where Ace is."
"Aren't you interested in infinite knowledge?" the hologram asked.
"Not particularly," Hadma replied. "That seems like an awful lot when I just need to find Ace."
"But this is my creator's legacy! Secrets to space, time, and life itself! Surely if you aren't interested, someone else of your species would want to know. Or perhaps you'd be more attracted to the monetary value of this knowledge!"
"Well," Hadma said, "could I make a rocket with it?"
"Certainly! You could travel across the universe in a second, if you wanted to."

Hadma considered this for a moment.

"All right, then," she said.
"However, only those with the purest of intentions are going to access this knowledge. The last thing we want is to grant infinite knowledge to insane dictators."
"That seems very reasonable," Hadma agreed.
"I-. Yes." The hologram was speechless. Whatever response it had been expecting, Hadma clearly wasn't giving it.
"Oh! Before we get much farther- I was wondering if you'd like to play cards. I found some outside. They're a bit old, but I think only the Ace of Spades is missing, and it'll be a while before I get rescued."

The hologram debated whether or not Hadma was being serious. In the end, it decided that it didn't really matter. All it had to do was fufill its creator's programming, and then it wouldn't have to deal with this strange, disproportionate humanoid.

"Why not," it said. "But first, behold, the location of the fountain of all knowledge!"

A holographic map of the galaxy exploded around Hadma. Kerbol was highlighted, with lines spreading from star to star around it. A prominent line was linked to a flashing dot in the Big Glowy Cloud near the center of the galaxy. A laser shot into Hadma's skull, burying schematics for a ship drive even greater than the Alkubierre drive in her brain. Or maybe it was just equivalent. Hadma wasn't a rocket scientist; she didn't know. Abruptly, Hadma found herself in the Kerbol space center near Kerbal City. She had a rocket to convince the engineers to design, and a new mission to the Big Glowy Cloud to convince Eva to start.