The camera carrying the scientists traveled through the Omicrons, it's set course known to all but the two guests with them: Dr. Steel, a Gaian medical practitioner and entrepreneur of science, and Will Foetsch, the Professor of Xenobiology for the SCRA. The two sat in the back of the small freighter, waiting to reach their destination.
The door opened from the cockpit and a young man entered the waiting area where the passengers sat. He wore a light cloak from his ankles to his neck and had bandages wrapped around most of his face save his eyes. He looked at the two as they looked back.
"We'll be arriving shortly. When we do, follow my instructions."
He quickly dashed back into the cockpit and slammed the door behind him.
The freighter had landed, and the scientists were awaiting the expedition's beginning. The man that had came in earlier stepped back into the room with the guests.
"Alright. Here, put these on."
He handed them both gas masks then promptly put one on himself. He looked at them cautiously as they did what they were instructed to do, though with some hesitation. Once they were finished, he activated the lift that would send them down to the planet. The floor disconnected from the rest of the ship as they began to descend several feet into an orange atmosphere. The floor of the ship hit the ground, and the three stepped off it. The one in charge turned and activated the lift again, and the floor was sent back up to the ship to re-connect it with the rest of the vessel.
"Forward."
The two guests looked around at their location as they walked, trying to make out where they were but unable to due to the thick atmosphere clouding the area.
"Gentlemen!"
A man in a wheelchair, along with several armed guards approached them, appearing out of the dusty atmosphere in front of them.
"Welcome.. To Malta!"
The guards drew their weapons and surrounded the two guests.
"You are now my hostages. Come, there is work that needs doing!"
He rolled himself in a spin and began going back, followed closely behind by his guards.
"Like I said, just do as instructed and you'll be fine."
The cloaked man had positioned himself beside the scientists and was walking with them, keeping a close eye on their movements.
An eyebrow arches up over Phineas Steel's welding goggles as Nurse Hatchett's nails dig into his tricep.
He is unflapped.
Surprised more by the destination than the subterfuge;
a) He is a Gaian. His natural instinct is to come at his adversaries crabbed, sideways. No surprises for the surprising. b) Any real scientist would have data-dumped terabytes of reference work, proudly overwhelming any perspective partners with a dearth of accomplisments, papers, and recognitions. This "professor" had sent none of this. Not a byte. 3) His recent research has so steadily surprised and shocked him - daily and hourly - he was in good practice for the punchline.
He'd said as much to Nurse Kynde before answering the initial communique, days ago. "Great science comes with great risk, darling. To study the crocodile, you must lie very near to one of them for a long while. And be very still and quiet."
And so he stands quietly still, helping to ease the fear of his assistants with a barely audible whisper and a few gratuitous pats on the fannies.
As they fall in with the wheeled stranger, Dr. Steel pantomimes a wink at Nurse Hatchett, and twists around mid-stride, speaking to the cloaked figure behind them.
"We are clearly not dolts, my good man." he drawls. "I don't expect you to fully understand higher thinking, but I can assure you that all parties present are more curious than frightened."
As he turns forward, he casts back over his shoulder, "You can relax your watch. Surely present company is not unhinged enough to do anything foolish."
With a wry smirk, he finishes, under his breath; "At least at this juncture."
Building a Utopian Playground - One Smile at a Time
The man smiled to himself at the Doctor's remarks and let out a slight chuckle.
"I am no fool, do not belittle me. You may not enjoy my response.. my good man."
The group continued moving on, with minor tension now built between several of them. They approached a set of large metallic doors in the middle of the dust whirling around them, clouding their vision. The man in the wheelchair rolled forward and had his guards open the doors. He turned around to face the guests.
"If you want to turn back.. Now is the time.."
He looked at the two, especially the SCRA professor that seemed to be leaning back, ready to make an escape.
"Just kidding. Let's go."
The guards surrounding the two scientists shoved them forward, though taking care to be more gentle with the ladies that accompanied Dr. Steel. When everyone had entered the dimly lit corridor the doors shut abruptly behind them. The hall was more of a staircase downward, with only a small amount of light emitting from the roof. They continued walking several minutes in silence. Only their footsteps were heard echoing off the dark walls.
"Ah, here we are."
The man in the wheelchair stopped in front of another pair of large steel doors and again had his guards open it for him. The halls lit up from the light that was in the underground bunker. There were people moving about, hauling what seemed to be weapon crates and working busily, not even taking notice of the new arrivals. The group entered and turned right, where there was a small section blocked off from the rest of the large complex.
"Right, first order of business!"
The man in the wheelchair spun around and faced his guests.
"My name is Death Runner, though you may call me sir, boss, oh supreme leader of everything - just kidding, or whatever you'd like. I'm a nice man.. Pleased to meet you!"
He gestured towards the cloaked man that had flown them here.
"And this is one of my most loyal soldiers, Torro Trait. He is pleased to meet you as well."
Death Runner smiled and opened his arms in a friendly manner at the guests.
"Come, present yourselves my guests! I of course do not know everything about you, only what that false transmission sequence gathered."
Foetsch thrust his hands into his pockets nervously, and shifted his gaze around the room. "W-well... I'm Doctor Will Foetsch, Ph.D., professor of Xenobiology, personal assistant to Doctor XiaoBei, expert mechanical engineer, if I do say so myself... And I want to go back to Zhukovsky. It's icky here. W-where are we, precisely? I mean, I know we're on Planet Malta... But..." The Doctor trailed off.
Foetsch bent down and dusted off a small spot on the floor, before seating himself awkwardly, nearly collapsing. One of the soldiers quickly leveled his rifle at the doctor, and with the distinct "Clack-CLACK" of a rifles charging handle, the doctor was on the floor in a heap.
"W-what? I didn't even fire..." The guard stammered out.
Foetsch peeked out from the gaps between his fingers, and realizing he was still alive, nervously righted himself. "Sorry about that, I don't exactly like fools with guns... They make me nervous." Foetsch switched his gaze at Death Runner, and awaited a response...
"Hmm. Where are we? Excellent question Professor Foetsch! We are currently in one of my underground complexes located in a deserted section of Malta. The one we're in has many uses. Generally weapons and cardimine are smuggled through here, though, we've established a new section to fit the purpose of you and Dr. Steel's being here. I'll get to that 'purpose' soon enough."
Death Runner raised a hand at his guards, then dropped it slowly. They lowered their weapons and backed up a few steps.
"Just to show I mean no harm. Simply do as I say when I say it, and all will be well.. You know, Professor Foetsch, if I were any other Outcast I would have killed you already or done something very.. painful.. to you. But I will not, for I am merciful and forgiving."
He smiled warmly at the men in front of him, then turned to Doctor Steel and his companions.
Dr. Steel squares his shoulders, raises his chin, and begins to wax eloquent;
"I am," he drawls, "crazy." "It's official." he says, spreading his hands. "There's paperwork on it. Graphs and everything, so, it - it must be true."
A smile bristles his beard. "And let me tell you, it's a real load off my mind. I mean, it relieves a lot of responsibility for me.
I always have a ready excuse if I begin talking to myself in public - or if I decide to crawl around the floor of the cafeteria barking and whistling - so be it. I'm bonkers.
It's very convenient, and fun!
So, for me, you see, there are no longer any rules - no strangling societal 'boundaries', mores, values and such, to keep me from objective truth.
There is literally nothing I cannot, or will not, use my 'instability' as an excuse for in pursuit of the deepest truths."
He stops, breathes deeply, then continues.
"You see, while I am not clinically 'sane' per se, neither am I stupid. I am quite aware of my foibles and frailties, and the scientific benefit that they offer me.
Because I lack the filters of a 'restrained' mind, I can see truths where your subconscious self-protection makes the rest of you blind.
In short, I can see things that your hind-brain refuses to let you see."
This, of course, is the basis for my grandest work, myTrans-Static-Inversion Multiverse Principle."
Pause
"I can see from your faces that you are unaware of my work - as you should be. I have only shared it with my Nursing staff, and of course my imaginary friends, Tom and Ralph.
And they'd never talk.
They can't! They don't exist outside of my own perceptions.
Of course, the Nurses are real..."
The Doctor waggles a gloved hand in the air, shaking his head to clear it.
"Sorry to ramble like this, but you see, as I mentioned earlier, I have an excuse."
"I shall offer you an appetizer, an amuse-bouche, of my work shall I?
Well, I must tell you, my work is creeping inexorably closer to a stupefying truth about our Universe, it's place in the Pluriverse, and how they expose the causal relationship between the Multiverse itself, and - this is the exciting bit - and our own bodily atomic structures.
Consider a solar system - Consider an atom. Now compare. Expand this model through micro and macro to full plurality, flip it then invert it.
Wheels within wheels..."
He raises an eyebrow. "See?
No?
Not surprising.
It would take far too long, at this juncture, to fully explain it to you - and telling you just the salient bits would only confuse you, I'm certain."
He holds up a hand to forestall comment.
"I mean no insult to your intelligence, but I can clearly see that you are 'sane', and as such, your own ego-filters would obviously preclude you from divining emergent truth from partial datum. Yes?
Yes, I am quite sure of it.
Perhaps soon, when Dr. Foetsch and my Nurses are not drunkenly reeling from their own fear-toxins, we can sit down over a Cardi n' Cola and further discuss my important work - fully - in a manner that you can understand."
"Now.
You have brought us here for a purpose, I assume.
And I, for one, should very much like to get on with it."
Dr. Steel smirks.
"Unless, of course, your purpose is interrogation...
In which case I can tell you about the puppy I had as a boy, how my parents never understood me, and how I cannot stop pining over being spurned by Maggie-Mae Marsh in the twelfth grade....
...but something tells me you have brought us here to help you seek out data that eludes you, not to simply provide it."
Building a Utopian Playground - One Smile at a Time
"My.. That's an intriguing tale. You are quite the character, aren't you, Dr. Steel?"
He smiled to himself.
"You're right, though. I am of course not of scientific nature myself. I am more of a.. politician.. if anything. I do not do the science, I hire the men to do it for me. See, with the power I hold.. I can obtain anything. Just as I have obtained you two fine gentlemen that are here to, yes, 'seek data that eludes me' as Dr. Steel has put it. Now.. Even though I am clearly not the one to be conducting any sort of research and engineering myself, that does not call for insults, Dr. Steel. We all have our specialties. Ours our simply difference. Thus it would be wise for you to watch your tone. That is the only warning I will give. If you are as smart as you claim to be, heed it."
Death Runner turned to look around for a moment, then suddenly clapped his hands together and smiled at his guests.
"So! Let's see here.. Hmm.. Ah, yes. Dr. Steel, how skilled are you in the subject of.. human anatomy?"
A mischievous grin creeps up one corner of the Doctor's mouth. "Anatomy, you ask?"
With an incline of his head, he indicates his nurses.
~
~
"I am familiar with it, yes.
Skilled?"
He spreads his hands.
"Are we ever truly finished learning? In that light, 'skilled' is a fairly presumptuous term.
Let us just say that I am an advanced student."
Wink
"And yes, I have 'disassembled' more than a few humans.
Cut, peeled, dissolved...
If there's a bit of the human anatomy I do not have extensive experience with, well then, it must be an after-market part."
His grin becomes frozen, steely.
Building a Utopian Playground - One Smile at a Time
"Excellent! Now then! It's time to reveal what exactly you two will be doing.."
He looked behind him at a nearby table and waved his hand in the air. Lights turned on above the table, illuminating the contents. Everyone moved closer to see what it was, and discovered some sort of set of metallic armor.
"This.."
The man in the wheelchair approached the table and put a hand on some of the gear.
"Is stolen Rheinland Military Power Armor. Interesting, yes? Now what would someone like me want with a thing of power armor? Well, do you see my men wearing power armor? No, you don't! Exactly my point! So essentially manufactured outcast power armor is what we need.. Though lets.. go a little further beyond that. Sure, fine, we can make some usable gear. But what if we.."
He moved a little further along the wall and reached another table. With a wave of his hand, the light shined on a pyramid of cardimine.
"..enhanced, the wearer with the suit.. "
He smiled to himself a bit, then faced his audience.
"What do you think? A feasible project? I would think so. Anything is possible with science, isn't that right gentlemen? You would of course not be alone on this project. I have my SiC, head of the science department, that will be aiding you, as well as all his little worker bees underlings. Hm? Heheh!"