Oui? Doc, c'est moi, LaFlamme. Ah, Pierre, ca va mon ami? It's been a while since we talked. J'ai bien, merci, et oui, it's been kind of while. Got some free time, Doc? Are you kidding, mon ami? Half of my time is for the lectures, other half is for the exams. It is unlikely I could do anything else at the moment. Why do y--- We could arrange some others to take your lessons, if needed. What? Wait, why do you need me this much? There are plenty of other scientists in the Division. Do you still remember Béziers? *sighs*Non... Non, mon ami, I won't get back to those things. Find someone else for those rese--- There is nobody else with as much knowledge about these aliens as yours.*pauses*Docteur Lavoisier, your researches on this subject are by far the most thorough amongst all currently accessible to us. Pierre, I --- Doc, you are irreplacable. Le Conseil needs your knowledge. Alors, alors. Bah, just give me some time. Time is what we currently lack. Hmm... I will need to have a look at the samples and the data about the latest experiments. How about a meeting at the warehouse? Tomorrow evening? I'll be there, Docteur. Moi aussi. Au revoir, Colonel. Au revoir.
Click.
Merde, not again...Charles thought to himself. He was tired, all he needed at that moment was a little rest. And what he got?
It has been a good few months since the accident of Béziers Space Port. Since then all Nomad materials, along with most of the data regarding the researches has been transferred to a storage depot on the surface of Planet Toulouse. But that has been ages ago.
Nobody cared about what was left in that warehouse. Nobody knows what will they find there.
The Bagatelle Mountains are kind of windy at this time of the year, this evening was no exception. It wasn't late for the docteur and the colonel to meet, yet it was already dark. These mountains provided a perfect location to hide stuff not meant for the public eye: with only three landing pads - each big enough for a freighter sized vessel, but nothing bigger - and a moderate sized hangar bay the facility didn't cause too much attention. Only who had to, knew what it contains.
Colonel LaFlamme arrived first. He carefully landed his swift Gecko and got out of it. Noticing that the doctor did not arrive yet, he started to walk towards the small door on the left of the hangar bay. He did not have to wait much to Lavoisier to arrive: A second vessel, a Tarvos-class freighter appeared over the mountains, approaching the site and landing on the pad next to the colonel's interceptor. He did not arrive alone, a young boy, looking geeky with mediocre glasses, probably one of his students was walking beside him. Pierre frowned.
Bonsoir, Docteur Lavoisier. I expected only the two of us. Eh, oui, bonsoir Colonel. Let me introduce you my assistant, Gautier Blériot. Bonsoir Colonel.- The boy offered his hand to the Colonel. Pierre didn't bother him. Is he trustworthy? So far he seems to be, and he better be. I assume, Gautier, you know you can lose more than your good grades if you prove to be otherwise?- Noticing Gautier's afraid looks he chucked a bit. -Furthermore he is a good asset of mine, being my assistent for about two months already. Excels at organic chemistry as well as at biochemistry, both which I assume we will in need of tonight. Alors, let's go then.
The colonel stepped to the door, typed in the security code, pressed his finger against the fingerprint scanner and leaned towards the iris scanner. After all the three security measures have been passed, a mechanical sounding semi-loud "Entrée allouée" announced that they can enter, and so the door opened. The three of them stepped in.
It was dark in the empty hangar, only a few crates were left here and there to somewhat fill the place. They walked along the wall to an other door, then through a corridor, in dim light once the doctor found and turned the light switches on. It took them a few minutes of walking until they reached the elevators. Nobody anywhere, the whole place is automated and fully operational, twenty-four hours of the day on seven days of the week... or at least they thought so. The elevator started to take them to the -8éme floor, but then around midway it suddenly stopped. All the lights gone out leaving the trio in confusion.
What the...? Oh, mon dieu. Whoaoh. Donc... umm... Anybody any idea what's going on? I'm not sure, monsieur, but...- The lights came back, the elevator continues it's way downwards. -... oh, here we go. What did you do? Nothing, Docteur. Strange. We may have to look around at the Command Room too after we are done down here. I want to check some things.
They arrived to their destination. Only a short corridor was ahead of them, leading to the main storage room. The doctor stepped to the door and did the procedures similar to what Pierre did up at the outside entrance. Once in they found themselves in darkness.
Meeeerde.- This was followed by various other nasty things coming from a man nobody ever heard of swearing on such a level as what he did just present. In the meanwhile Gautier started to look for a lightswitch. Sacre bleu, Doc, what's wrong?- Pierre was waiting for the answer, yet he recieved none as the doctor was still swearing uncontrollably. The colonel felt enough and shook him. -CHARLES! Calm down et explain, what's wrong? This god damn darkness, that's wrong. Back then, during the researches we found out that in darkness the K'Hara flesh rots extremely in darkness, regardless of it being in a NutriTank or not. Light is essential in keeping the samples at their original condition. And who knows how long were these ones in darkness? Do you think we would find anything useful here?
Pierre sighed in dislike and the doctor shook his head as well. Finally Gautier found that switch and turned the lights on. All of them looked around, the scientists being surprised once again.
Well, this is interesting.- said Gautier, and Pierre noticed too that the doctor too calmed down quite fast, instead he looked confused. This made Pierre nervous. Alors, you two, you may know what's going on, but hey, je suis ici aussi, how about you keep explaining things to me? Unlike you, I'm not a scientist, but I still would like to know--- D'accord, Pierre, we got it. Gautier?
And Gautier started to explain to the colonel what their recent discovery was. The samples did not look anything like a fresh piece of flesh from a Nomad, yet neither looked like anything rotten of such kind. Most of the samples were looking like a dense piece of transparent plastic, way smaller and way more dense than they originally were. Nobody in the Division was expecting such level of degradation, not even Docteur Lavoisier himself. During the explanation an idea approached the doctor.
Gautier, could you find a database access terminal in this room? Un moment, Docteur. Alors.
It didn't take much for them to find the terminal: it was right next to the cargo elevator, which was opposite to the corridor leading to the personal elevator they arrived by.
Could you check if all the data is still available? Oui, Doc. Do you need anything in particular? I'm curious if the samples remained sorted by type and size or we have to do it all over again. They are, as I see. Even the various brain-type samples are listed separately. Wow, so the real brains are down here?
The doctor answered with a serious look.What?
Alors, I think we are done here. Within a week I will set up a scientist team to restart the researches. I don't want to bring all this stuff to the labs of the academy, that would just draw too much attention. In regards of this and that we have no other place to work--- Docteur, what about the Curie, the Marignac et the Marseille? Those are not enough big to house all of this researches, and would be separated anyways. And you know, the Marseille is currently far from us. I was thinking about if we could set up a laboratory for the Division here, on any of the unused levels. Colonel? What are your thoughts on it? I will mention this to the High Command, but currently I see no obstacles which could delay us. At least not from the authorization part. Bon, good to hear. I guess we can go. D'accord.
During leaving, in the elevator Charles remembered something he almost forgot. Pressed the button next to the only number above zero: 1ére floor. Once up there they found the Command room quickly, the level itself wasn't too big.
Et Doc, what exactly are you looking for?- asked Pierre while Charles stepped to the main console. I just want to know why and where does the electricity fluctuate.- meanwhile searching, he continued -That power-cut in the elevator shouldn't have occured. Even if it was only seconds, it was long enough to make me worry. Ah, c'est ici. Did you find the source of the problem? Oui, there is something wrong with the cables between the main circuit and the auxiliary generator. If we will work here, I will need that fixed. Don't worry about it Doc, I will get people to deal with it as well. Ah, merci mon ami, mais non, we can deal with such things too. I bet the tech guys at the Division would be eager to fix it. Gautier, it will be your job to look for the experts to fix this place. Alors, Docteur. D'accord.
They were done for today. It was getting late night and by this time the temperature went quite lower outside, and neither the wind calm down. The cold, icy wind, which stabbed their face like the flows of air would be knives each. They were up in the mountains after all.
Au revoir, Docteur, Blériot. Á bientôt, Pierre. Au revoir, Colonel.
Pierre went towards his snubcraft with haste because of the cold weather while the other two approached their freighter. The two vessels left the site about the same time, leaving it to the cold night. Leaving it alone. But not for too long.
The swift interceptor landed on the third pad smoothly. After the colonel got out of his fighter did he realise he was not the only one arriving to the site: the massive doors of the hangar bay were just opening up for an incoming vache-class hauler, the CLT Merlot. This place was dead silent last time Pierre been here, but that was months ago. The nearest guard greeted him as he stepped in, busy hoardsmen approached the transport quickly, to empty it as fast as possible. Scientific material, mostly equipment, liquids, alloys, stuff Pierre knew little of. Amongst the hasteful mob, a familiar face greeted him.
Ah, bonjour Pierre, nice to see you again. Bonjour, Doc. I see the tech division wastes no time to work. Oui, indeed. Come, let me show you what we did so far.
The two men began walking on the corridor towards the laboratories.
Where is your ship, Doc. I don't recall seeing it anywhere. Oh, I parked the Courtois on the main starport. There is no use of flying it if I can get here with the regular shipments too.
Men moving crates on repulsor plates passed them.
So, Docteur, could you tell me a few words about what was done here in the last months? Few words, mon ami? You don't know what you are asking for. I can't tell anything in few words. Well, I was expecting some sort of introduction, after which we could dive into the details. If you want, I can tell you about a few things, but showing it would be better. I hope we will be able to have a tour around too. Oui, I intend to escort you around. Donc, where to start. Ah, oui, as you may know, probably remember too, the K'Hara material stored here changed extremely in the dark. Of course we had to precisely determine what changes the tissues were going through. This included the examination of physical properties, density-- Docteur!
As they passed a junction, where a corridor joined their from the right side, a white coated figure rushed after them.
Oui? Docteur, les Yeux Un et Deux ont pret pour les experiments avec les combustibles differents. Vous voulez assister á lá? Ah, non, je crois en votre connaissance. Envoyer-moi les résultats en finir. Bien sur. Au revoir Docteur. Adieu Joseph. Did I miss something? I know of nothing else than your experiments with this Nomad material, et it seems illogical for me to call a possible cloaking device "Eye". Qui est-ce que sont cette Oeil Un et Deux?
The doctor answered Pierre while they continued their way.
A new project we were working on parallel to the K'Hara experiments. As you most probably know, Docteur Simon Marseille has moved out to the Omicron systems with a small team of scientists to conduct on-field researches.- Charles got out his touchscreen notepad, and started to browse the database. -Docteur Marseille is only able to send data packages every few weeks due to the huge distance. About a month ago he sent me data and partial scans of a vessel he encountered in those distant systems. Well, in his transmission he rather described it as some sort of drone due to it's shape, size and lacking room for any sort of cockpit. Upon recieving the schematics we've decided to review them and pull something useful out of it, ending up with the idea of some sort of spy drone, capable of slipping past enemy lines and gathering intelligence without the need of risking the lives of agents out there in space.- He finally found the relevant files. The wireframe of an AI Drone appeared on screen. -Ah, here it is. Small, compact and now we are testing the engines. Oui, so I've heard. And where are these drones at the moment?
Right upon finishing the question a convoy of technicians towing repulsor plates carrying shrouded hardware appeared in front of them, coming out from an other corridor joining in from the left side. These repulsors were a bit biggers than the ones Pierre saw earlier. The hardware slowly began to hover towards the opposite direction. Towards the main hangar. The doctor, chuckling a bit, answered: Ici, mon ami.
Smaller than I expected. - The convoy passed them. Ah, non, these are disassembled for easier carriage throughout the facility, they will be put together again in the hangar. I'd like to have a look at them once you showed me your advance at the Nomad subject. Of course, Colonel.
They finally arrived to the laboratories. The large door opened.
Three months has passed since Pierre's last visit, and during this three months the place changed much. Firstly, due to the unused state before, the warehouse was weary a little bit, fixing the whole place was the very first thing to do for the people of the Division working here. The next thing was sorting out the stuff they had, also finding the place of every hardware they were working with. Refitting the facility to properly operate as a science laboratory included a little refurbishing here and there as well. Summed up, what used to be a hidden warehouse is now a hidden science facility. Every level has it's own field of research, by which the labs and storage rooms has been designed. They were on the minus second floor, top floor of the laboratories.
The top two floors are designed for theoretic and applies physics, where- explained Lavoisier while they were walking towards the cargo elevator -, due to our main profile, we are currently studying the K'Hara tissues and their optical and wave mechanicla behavior. In addition to this, quantummechanical researches are being conducted here as well, you know, mon ami, we suspect that the Slomon K'hara has alternative ways to gather energy, for example from any of the fifth to eleventh dimension, or from a parallel brane... Doc, you are getting into gibberish for me. I'm not having a headache yet, et I'd like to keep it this way. Ah, of course, well, let's move on then.
They got into the cargo elevator and started to descend. The doctor continued.
The next two floors are for chemistry. Mainly phisical chemistry, organic- and biochemistry, with a little analytical chemistry. Here we studied the behaviour of the tissues, their reaction to various chemicals, protochemical properties, electrochemical properties, the materials they contain. Many other things I could dive into if I would have two more hours for that.- They descended further. -These three floors were for the biologic researches, including biophysics, bionics, xenobiology, biotechnology, physiology, and I believe there are still several fields of research we could explore regarding the K'Hara. Such as genetics, morphology... Sacre dieu, Doc, when did you get used to swear like this? Past months, Pierre, Past months.
They were at the height of the minus ninth floor, still descending.
These two floors are for the mechanics, technicians, basically the guys making the device itself. Every piece of K'Hara tissue gets down here once they passed the tests up in the physics labs. Here we experimeneted with several alloys fitting for circuits, but against or expectations, pure gold is what gave the best results. Oh, also the drones has been made down here. And, mon ami, this is our assembly hall.
Finally they have reached their destination. The -12th floor.
Two floors have been opened into each, giving up double the height to work with.- explained Docteur Lavoisier while the door of the elevator opened. -Here we made the final assembly and the minor adjustments needed after it.
The device was in the center, surrounded by computers and robotic arms. It was not too big compared for the size of the room, but enough big for leaving only room for two people when carried in the cargo elevator. The shape of it was weird, it had an oval core with symmetric extensions towards the sides. The device posessed similar but smaller cores than the main ones, one the edge of those extensions. These cores were being covered with two layers of round, opaque, blue-ish lens, possibly of K'Hara material, the outer layer being tied to the device by tiny protrusions. The whole was covered with removable glass panels aligned to it's shape.
Et all of this on the bottom floor?- Pierre asked while they moved closer. Non, not the bottom, there are still huit floors below our feet for storaging. Ah, oui. Hmm, it looks weird.- he noted, while approaching the device. The looks weren't our priority so far, but if you insist, Colonel, it could be. Non, c'est sufficant if it works, we can care about the looks later. IF it works... it does work, n'est pas? It does indeed. We have just finished a phase of testing yesterday, which resulted in success. We successfully produced a cloaking effect around the device for ten seconds, the amount of time it recieved energy from an outer source. But that wasn't the only success yesterday.- he chuckels at this point, resulting in Pierre frowning in lack of understanding -The following test was about increasing the size of cloak field generated around the device. We tried to adjust it to the maximum, which resulted nothing observable, at least not for us. Later I've recieved reports from our physicists that around the time of our test everything on the first floor of the physics department dissappeared downwards from belly. This also revealed a huge part of the mountain below their feet, causing some female scientists to freak out due to agoraphoby.
They both had a laugh.
That sounds like the size of a battleship.- Pierre noted after they calmed down. Oui, it does, yet it did not last that long. Such adjustment caused a higher need of energy to maintain the field. Because of this, I had something smaller in mind. George, Quentin, allez-ici! Alors, Docteur. Prepare the device and put it on the repulsor plate. We will bring it to the surface. D'accord, Docteur. Will anybody else fit into the elevator if that thing gets in? Just toi et moi. Et I assume we will bring it up then, oui?
The doctor nodded. In the meanwhile the two other has managed to place the device on a repulsor plate, hovering centimeters (yes, not inches, centimeters) over the floor. They towed it into the elevator. There was barely any space left.
Et where do we stand? Just step on the plate. Sure? Sure.
The repulsor plate descended five millimeters (because for science we use SI) once the two of them got on it. The doors closed and the elevator started to ascend slowly.
Sooooo... what is your current plan with the device now, Doc? As I said, yesterday we closed a phase of research, I think it is a good day today to start the new one. I've scheduled the installment of this neat piece of hardware into one of our vessels. Once done, we will begin testing various fuel types and compositions. Because of this, I've chosen a Vache-class vessel to test on. Good choice, however I would like to see other vessels of us cloaking too. Oui, Pierre, we won't finish our researches here. For now, a Vache will be good. Do you want to be on board the vessel during the tests. Sounds exciting, why not?
A small beep sound indicated the arrival of a new message to the colonel's PDA.
Ah, merde, I almost forgot this. Docteur, I fear you will have to continue without me. How so? I have got an invitation from Docteur Van Mojo of the TAZ for a meeting, et I don't want to make him wait for me more. Ah, Hodge Van Mojo, I've heard of him, it's been said he is a good scientist. Sure thing, mon ami.
They arrived to the top level and said goodbye to eachother. Technicians helped the doctor to get the device out of the elevator while Pierre walked towards the outside landing pads with haste. While leaving, he glanced at the transport still waiting in the hangar bay. He knew it was the same vessel which he saw arriving, yet it's freshly painted new name indicated that it is the CLT Spectre now. He knew the reason behind the change of name. It was obvious.
Blinding beams of the Roussillon star were trying to melt the ever-snowy peaks of the Bagatelle Mountains when Pierre took off with his Gecko. Upon leaving, he saw a swift green comet cut the skies above his head - one of the experimental drones.Ah, I've got to check those too, once I'm back.The colonel set course to planetary orbit, just to head to Baffin right after getting out of the atmosphere and the gravitational pull of Toulouse. Shortly after he recieved an other message.