Not even twenty metres away a scientist by the name of Charles was working on the same project. For he to had seen the potential behind Julian's claims and was the first to volunteer to help on this project. Although he had volunteered to help Julian in his studies, they rarely saw each other. They were the two geniuses with odd personalities that did not like to mix. They respected each others personal space and only shared information at a weekly meeting. Despite the lack of communication and secrets they kept from each other, progress was being made at an acceptable rate.
Charles was a kindly middle aged anthropomorphic hedgehog. On this planet of Mobius, anthropomorphic creatures were considered the norm. Not many humans existed on Mobius. Which made Julian rather unique and certainly made him stand out in the labs. He wore only his worn from years of use leather shoes. They were originally black but age and wear had stripped them of their colour and now they were a faded shade of black. The colour of his fur was an unusual brilliant blue, a rarity that affected only three in every thousand anthropomorphic hedgehogs. The only patch of fur on his body that was not blue was his stomach where an oval shaped light brown patch of fur stood out on his form. His spines were fused into dangerously razor-sharp points. This made wearing clothes impossible for him. Not that he had any external apparatus to cover up anyway.
His eyes were large and at the centre of them were brilliant blue iris's surrounding a black pupil. The skin around his eyes were showing signs of wrinkles and stress.
He wore pale grey gloves all the time. No-one had bothered to ask him about this curious habit of his. They seemed to serve no real purpose other than making him appear more "unique" to the other lab workers. He did not know that he was the topic of discussion on lunch breaks amongst his co-workers as he always ate his lunch in his office.
Charles office was a mess. Paperwork lay scattered about the place. His oak desk had long lost its shiny furnish and had darkened with years of being neglected. The walls and floor were made of tough titanium and only served to add to the dull atmosphere. A picture sat on his desk half buried with papers. The picture was of a younger looking Charles with his late wife Julia. It was taken two months before her sudden unexpected death at the hands of an unknown virus. She was smiling whilst Charles embraced her in front of the entrance to the great forest. She had blond hair that was neatly brushed back behind her head over her dark brown spines. Her smile lit up her face. Charles looked much more content with life in that picture than previous years.
Charles tweaked his aged spectacles absentmindedly as he always did when confronted with a tough question. He flicked his eyes over a detailed blueprint of what could make or break his career. It had to have been twenty four hours since he had last slept and the drawings on the blueprints were starting to swim around hazily and mix together until Chuck could not read anymore.
'Time for some rosehip tea…' Charles muttered to himself stroking his greying moustache thoughtfully. He stood up from his aged oak chair and stretched his arms above his head. He yawned loudly and walked across his office. Eyes beginning to show an 8 o'clock shadow he opened the heavy steel door and stepped out into the corridor.
A well lit corridor greeted Charles making him blink a few times against the harsh white lights.
'I really should get some sleep soon, and maybe go home and see how Jules is doing' Charles rattled onto himself about his son he had not seen in several months due to his work schedule and irregular sleeping patterns.
He nodded politely to a co-worker striding past him with coffee in hand. Then almost jumped as Julian nearly ran head first into him stuttering excitedly.
'I've done it! It's finally happened!' Julian cried to Charles.
'What? What has happened?' Charles asked confused at his colleagues irrational behaviour.
'The discovery that will revolutionise the world'