Tabula Rasa
CRV
[ESTABLISHING LINK TO DATABASE]
[Success::/User/Sysadmin22=true/Link Request=1. Syadmin Passcode Override]
[Overlander State Space Program, Bernal Sphere, Codename "ARK"]
[Timestamp June 6, 3187, 1414 Standard]
Dr. Gerald Kintobor strode alongside one of his coworkers within the bowels of the massive space research facility. His glasses stood perfectly pinched onto his nose, and his researcher's coat was wrinkle free. This was a day of business to him, and he liked to conduct his business as professionally as possible. "I would like you to make sure that Dr. Grant has begun the mass spectrometer analysis of 18's bio-luminescence. I want to make sure that what we're seeing is most certainly not what we're getting."
"I'll ensure that Dr. Grant gets that message. Are you to be visiting Project 1 now?" His coworker, Kendra Petrovic, asked him. She was one of the secondary research heads in this department. She was a pretty woman, but she sometimes seemed to take her job way too seriously. The dark circles under her eyes was an indicator of that.
"Yes, I think so. It's certainly that time of the day. I'll let you get to that. Let's see what he has to talk about today." He waved off Petrovic and walked down a branching hallway that ended in a security door. A Centurion stood guard at it with his rifle held in front of him at the ready. Gerald snarled behind his mustache. He was never a fan of the military. In fact, he despised it. For too long the people of the planet below had been divided between one another by virtue of race and race alone. As a scientist, he was an outspoken speaker for the unity between Overlanders and Mobians. How he had managed to land the job at one of the foremost laboratories in the known world with that reputation upon his head was something that he would never find out.
The Centurion asked for his card.
"I come here every day, son." Kintobor growled handing over his ID chip which the soldier scanned with the device on his bracer.
"Security clearance is always required when accessing upper echelon subject labs."
"Yes, yes, I know protocol." he groaned. "Would you mind letting me in now?"
"Of course, Doctor." the man tapped on the door controls which hissed open leading to a small airlock.
Kintobor stepped inside and let the door seal. Gas hissed out of pores in the wall which served to kill bacteria and ensure that all who entered the chamber would not be carrying any sort of infectious disease. Gerald was especially careful around Project 1. He had worked on him ever since this facility had been completed. From this safe haven beyond the orbit of the moon, he toiled for years building his dream project. Five years to gain authorization from the central government, a full year of genetic sequencing in order to get all of the kinks worked out, and another year of artificial gestation to hand-make every single aspect of his body. Kintobor was proud of his work, and would be even prouder of the work that he believed he... they could accomplish.
The airlock cycled open and the Doctor stepped in. Inside of the chamber was something approaching a utilitarian room. A bed was neatly tucked into a corner, a bookshelf sat in another, and a wide space interrupted only by a table for two sat near where the door was. Kintobor looked around to see where he was. Gerald was about to call out before he saw a shadow stirring on the bed. Shadow indeed.
"Good afternoon, my boy." the scientist called entering the room through the secondary door. The wall behind him was opaque and solid, so observers could see in, but not out.
The Shadow, appearing to be a jet black Mobian hedgehog stood to greet the doctor with a smile on his face. "Good afternoon, Doctor Kintobor. How are you today?"
"Quite well, quite well myself. And how are you doing today, son? You appear to be in a fine mood."
Shadow shrugged. "I suppose I slept well. They also let me watch several movies last night."
"Did they now? I hope they didn't addle your brain or make you think movie romances were realistic."
"No, of course not, Doctor. They were several documentaries."
"You don't say? Here, have a seat and we will talk."
The pair took their places at the nearby table and the spoke for a great length. Shadow was particularly fond of talking about his experience to others. Kintobor had to smile though at the collective effort that made up Shadow. Of course, that was something of a pet name for the project, based off of a comment a scientist had when they first saw his fully completed form. The name stuck however, and Kintobor couldn't do anything about it. However, at the conclusion of the project, he would fully allow Shadow to choose his own name, the ultimate symbol of free will was the choice of identifying one's self as one's self.
"I had a strange dream last night."
Gerald's eyebrows bobbed. "A dream?" he grabbed a pen and notepad out of his pocket. "Tell me about it. Maybe I can make some sense of it."
Shadow looked curiously at the man, but began. "It... was... uh, last night. I was sleeping here, but I had a very strange dream. I was surrounded by something green. I could see my hands, my feet, the rest of me and all of that but I couldn't move."
"You don't say? Tell me more."
"I could hear noises, but they sounded distant."
"Muffled." Gerald suggested.
"Yes." Shadow nodded. "How do you know?"
The scientist smiled. "Because that wasn't really a dream – it was more of a memory. You were remembering a time shortly after you were born."
Shadow seemed somewhat troubled by this. "Just after? I can remember those things?"
"Well, not everyone can, but you can, Shadow. That's because we created you with the ability to recall things with exceptional accuracy. Even when you were in the tank that held you."
"But why?"
Gerald had heard this question several times before and he had no problem answering it for the curious mind. "Because Shadow, you are going to be an instrument for progress and scientific development. If we raise you right, we can repeat what we did with you and hopefully help people?"
"People that look like me, or people that look like you?"
This was an unusual bout of an argument. Gerald had a quick mental question of just what the other scientists aboard the station were showing Shadow when he was not in the room. Regardless, he gave a little chuckle. "Shadow, that's irrelevant. We're scientists. We don't care what people look like. What matters is that we can actually use the gifts that we were given to help the world become a better place. Take you for example. I could have made someone that looked like an Overlander, but I decided to make someone that looked like you. Think of it as... well, trying to make peace for what we've done in the past."
"What do you mean?" Shadow asked, now very curious and inquisitive.
"My people have never really been at peace with the Mobians. Both sides despise one another and have hated one another ever since we've known each other, but war is a bloody business and I don't like to talk about it." Gerald coughed and shuffled the papers in his hands. "Have you been doing your reading exercises?"
"I have." Shadow responded.
"Good, excellent. What did you read this week?"
"Well, I was originally reading some of Clive Morgenstern's fiction novels."
Gerald smiled. Morgenstern was a very well thought of Overlander writer. Gerald had read several of the man's adventure stories growing up.
"I made it about halfway through the Blades of the Mountain before I got bored of it."
"Excuse me, bored?" Gerald said surprised. "He's won several awards for his fiction!"
"I know, but Doctor, that's all it is: fiction." Shadow shuffled in his seat. "Fiction is fake, correct?"
"Yes." Gerald answered.
"So by its nature is not of this world. Would it not be better to read something based in non-fiction?"
"I suppose." Gerald shrugged. "So what did you read instead?"
"I didn't really know who he was; I was hoping you could help. Who was John Locke?"
Gerald raised an eyebrow. "Why would you be reading his work?"
"But who was he?"
"John Locke was a philosopher from a very long time ago. He was a Human from the planet Earth."
"But there are no more Humans. They're extinct."
"Well, not on Mobius, but I believe some still exist on Earth somewhere out between the dimensions. We're both descended from them; me physically and you more genetically. But that's not the point. Shadow, John Locke spoke of the nature of Man and whether he was good or evil."
The hedgehog nodded, but focused on the table instead of Gerald. "I understood that, but what did he mean really by his writing?"
"Well, Locke was somewhat inconclusive on his verdict, possibly on purpose. He believed that there was no such thing as good or evil. We're born into this world as blank slates."
"What purpose does that serve though, Doctor?"Shadow inquired. Perhaps Locke was a bit beyond his reading comprehension for the moment.
Gerald shrugged. "In itself, not much. However, that's the point. There is no purpose to serve. There is purpose to create. What Locke meant was that Man was meant to forge his own destiny, free of a good or evil. We are who we want to be, not what we are told to be."
Shadow was silent for a second. He tried to comprehend what Kintobor had said. Understandable since technically speaking he was only a few years old. He had the mental capacity of a teenager, not yet the being that they hoped he would become.
Then he asked a question that Gerald was not prepared for: "Am I a man, Doctor, or am I a beast?"
He took note of Shadow's word choice. Beast as in animal, Gerald noted.
"You are as much a man as I am." the scientist said. "A man has free will. He chooses, if I may. An animal obeys. Who you want to be is up to you. I hope that you will become a beacon to both the peoples who call this planet home. I hope you can help them one day realize that fighting is trivial and that we can indeed walk hand in hand with one another." Gerald smiled. "Truth be told, I am glad you decided to pick up Locke first and not Hobbes."
"Doctor?" Shadow asked.
"Nevermind, nevermind, just the rambling of an old man." though secretly he breathed a sigh of relief in his own mind that Shadow had not even discovered the work of Niccolo Machiavelli. "Just think for yourself, Shadow. Don't worry about who came before you, but yourself. If you're ever in doubt, just think it through."
"I... will try, Doctor." Shadow nodded and tugged at the sleeves of his shirt unconsciously.
Gerald was about ready to get up and leave, but the intercom chimed.
"Doctor Kintobor?"
Gerald recognized it as the voice of the Centurion outside. He rolled his eyes. "Yes, what is it, Sergeant?"
"Doctor, I am sorry to bother you, but your granddaughter is here."
Shadow's ears twitched.
"Maria?" Gerald asked rhetorically. "What's she doing here?"
"Minster Kintobor is on the station today, she wanted to see Subject 1."
"Of course she did." A faint smile crossed his face. His son Bertram was an important figure of governance in MegaCentral and often came to the station to inspect the government's investment so that it remained safe from Mobian attack. Gerald was proud of Bertram for taking the role of a politician and hoping to change the world for the better, though Gerald was often concerned. More than once someone had tried to assassinate his boy, but it was thanks to his own training that he survived. He was worried though, because assassins learned from the mistakes of their peers.
But it was his daughter that was the light of Gerald's life. Maria Kintobor was a young lady, not even thirteen yet, but already dealt a blow which worried her family. Maria had been diagnosed with Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, a catastrophic brain disease believed to be a fatal offshoot of Alzheimers. for which there was no known cure. She was one of the reasons ARK was built. Gerald wanted to save his granddaughter with all the money, power, and talent that he could muster and gain from the government. Scientists of all calibers, geneticists, biologists, and neurologists, all of them were brought here to work for the cure. Seven years though and no progress. That didn't faze Gerald though. He knew that there was a secret locked within the Human mind that could spare Maria, and thousands of others that shared her fate.
He chuckled to himself. The Human mind.
The door slid open and a pretty young girl walked into the chamber. Maria Kintobor had her mother's beautiful yellow locks and her father's bright blue eyes. She wore her favorite blue dress with puffed shoulders. Antiquated fashion that still had some hold in MegaCentral."
"Grandpa Gerald!" She cried and skipped into his waiting arms to hug her tight.
"Maria, Maria, my sweet princess!" Gerald held her close, beaming at his granddaughter. "How are you today?"
"Papa brought me to the labs today! I needed to see you both! I've been taking my medicine before you ask."
"Good, very good. The medicine will help you, I promise." Of course it would. He made it himself. He didn't trust the pharmaceutical companies with something as important as this. "But I know you're here for someone else too."
The minute Maria locked eyes on Shadow she ran towards him, grabbing him around the neck and hugging him tightly. Gerald could only shake his head and smile. Just as Maria was the life in his own life, she was also the light in Shadow's. The two of them were talking energetically with one another. Gerald saw how much Shadow's eyes lit up whenever he saw Maria. The way his brows moved, the way his ears folded in delight, the way that his expressions seemed much more vibrant.
Maria too seemed to brighten up whenever she was in the room with Shadow.
"My teacher wanted us to draw a map of the planet, and I thought that I was having some trouble with the Afrikan horn as well as the Southamer Islands."
"Well I could help you." Shadow said. "I've been reading maps in my spare time. They're interesting to me. One day I may go traveling to those places."
"We will! You and I! We'll see the whole world together! See all the wonderful people and all of those wonderful places, right grandpa?" She gave her wonderful, infectious smiles and soon Gerald was grinning ear to ear. Maria did that to people. She gave them hope. Maybe Gerald needed Maria as much as Shadow needed her.
"Thank you Shadow! I can't wait to tell everyone that you were such a big help! Thank you so much!"
Gerald's grin faded. "Maria my sweet, you know you can't tell people about what we're doing up here. Some people may not like it."
Maria didn't lose her smile though. "We can't hide the wonderful things we're doing up here for everyone Grandpa Gerald. If people learned about Shadow, I'm sure we could live in peace with the Mobians."
"I wish." Gerald said under his breath. In truth, there were things on the ARK that Maria didn't even know about. Things that not even Gerald knew about, and that concerned him. If the Mobians heard about Shadow, he wasn't sure about how they would react.
The door opened a second time and a man with a sharp suit, short hair, and a Kintobor red mustache appeared with others behind him. Officials, Gerald guessed.
"Father." Bertram said. "I was hoping I would find you. I need to talk to you in private." He seemed worried with his brow furrowed, but he saw Shadow and Maria and he smiled. "I knew she would be here too."
"I can't believe you approve of this." Gerald noted.
"She needs a friend more than anybody else right about now. How can I disapprove of my daughter being happy? It's what her mother would've wanted for her." the smile vanished, leaving a tired and worried looking man. "We need to talk about the opposition to our movement."
"The Sentinels?" Gerald asked.
"This room isn't secure." Bertram said. "We must speak where nobody will interrupt us."
"Son, please tell me though, what of them? You haven't been attacked again, have you?"
"No." he said truthfully, "But they are not happy with the rumors of peace with the Mobians. It's not safe in MegaCentral anymore."
"Private. Indeed." Gerald nodded. Before leaving, he looked back and saw his granddaughter still playfully talking with Shadow. "I need to go with your father for a few minutes, my sweet."
"Hello papa!" Maria waved, to which Bertram returned it with a grin.
"Sweetheart, are you alright?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" She gave her father a telling look while still keeping her own smile.
Shadow could tell that there was something important going on. "May I look after Maria while you attend to your business, Minister?" He addressed Maria's father directly instead of Gerald, which took the doctor by surprise.
Bertram had not been addressed by Shadow before. "Ah... well, by all means." The guard started to come into the room. Standard protocol after all. "That won't be necessary, Sergeant. Remain at your guard post."
"Minister?" the Centurion asked, looking perplexed.
"Stay guard. Maria will be fine."
"You can trust me." Shadow said honestly with his hand holding Maria's. "I will keep her safe."
"I know, my boy." Gerald said. "Have fun."
Then he turned to leave at his son's side, listening to the rumors of discontent in MegaCentral. The happiness that he had felt seemed to be replaced by that of anger and hate of the Sentinels and their ultra-conservative views of hatred and segregation, not to mention the assassination attempts. Gone was his warmhearted demeanor. If anybody laid a finger on his son, his dream, and most of all Maria... there would be hell to pay.