Are you sure you want to know?

Humla was not usually much for being curious or to explore the unknown, but she had so many questions about everything. About all their plants, their origin, what the labs were originally intended for.

She had dragged her adoptive brother Salmiakki along as well, as she did not want to go alone. He was usually very supportive of all her endeavours, but this time he was only tagging along because he was worried that she might stumble upon something dangerous. They didn't know what could possibly be this deep within the facility, as they had never had a reason to go there before. 

They didn't know it yet, but slowly stalking them was Koi, another euoplo. He had overheard their plans to come here as they were working in the armoury, and he was also worried for their safety, but at the same time.. They were adults. They could do as they wished. So he followed along from a distance, for now, just so he could jump in and help if they needed him. 

As they got deeper into the research part of the underwater facility, Humla looked at everything in fascination. All the blinking lights, bright monitors, and even the scary looking test tubes filled with ominous liquids.. It was so mesmerising to her. 

Salmiakki was not nearly as intrigued, he was horrified to see the specimen tubes, especially the ones with undeveloped dinosaurs in them. It made his scaly skin crawl and he almost felt sick. It did however make him wonder how many generations of babies had been naturally produced in this society. How many generations ago did a relative come from a tube? He shuddered. Best not to think about it.. Wouldn't want to get an existential crisis down here. 

Koi silently observed both the sibling pair and all the specimens and machines they walked by. He was surprised to see so few plants had managed to spread here, but it was good news. It meant that their power supply had no risk of getting destroyed by their native flora just yet. 

The piebald euoplo looked to his left and noticed a specimen in there that caught his eye. It was eerily similar to himself, in terms of looks. He knew he himself was hatched from an egg but.. Seeing this euoplo made him think. What if there were.. Clones of other relatives? He quickly shook that thought out of his head, it was way too scary of an idea that maybe he would find clones of his deceased parents somewhere in this place. 

He looked back forward and noticed he had lost track of Humla and Salmiakki. “Shit. I need to find them.” he whispered to himself and started running, as quietly as he could. It didn't take him too long to find them, thankfully, so he once again kept his distance while also exploring what he could see in his surroundings. Some noted books and screens littered with information he couldn't fully comprehend. He was sure that all the answers they were looking for were here, they just would not be able to decipher any of it. 

Salmiakki wanted to leave, seeing all the tubes of dinosaurs and skeletons was starting to make him very uneasy and on edge. He accidentally knocked down a metal plate of sorts and jumped out of his skin with a loud eeek leaving him. 

Humla couldn't help but laugh at how tense he was. She was definitely a lot more composed and barely worried at all. She didn't feel uneasy at all, for some unexplainable reason. Or perhaps her curiosity just buried any fear she could possibly possess. 

She pushed around some documents with her broad brakes mouth, only to reveal a bunch of sketches and drawings. Most of them were of the very test subjects that the two siblings were currently standing by judging by the tube IDs, but there were also some sketches of people. Humla curiously tilted her head to the side as she observed the drawings. 

“Wonder what these are.” she said, as she looked at a sketchy portrait of a dark haired woman. 

Salmiakki reluctantly approached to take a look as well, and he was just as clueless as his sister. 

“I don't know. Do you think they were made here too, or did they make us?” he asked her, curious if she had any theories. 

“If they were made like us, wouldn't they also be around?” Humla asked. A very good question. But neither of them knew the answer. 

Koi wanted to chime in with his own theory, but chose not to. He didn't want to disturb them, so he chose to just look at the stuff he had by him instead. Some blueprints and sketches were hidden below a bunch of text documents even here. He wondered what it all was, what everything meant.. But he feared that the only ones with answers were long gone.