Disclaimer: Characters are not mine. All is the property of DC Comics. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Artificial Scion

Chapter Seven: Back To Space Lab

Tim would have liked to say that he couldn't believe he was on another shuttle on his way back to Space Lab. But, really it was the next logical step in the investigation. As loath though he was to admit it, he was the original investigator whom discovered the conspiracy of the secret lab in the station's core. He was the one to find Kal-El's son aged to almost full adulthood. And, he was the one whom already had established contact with the kryptonian/homo-sapien hybrid. Tim -or, more accurately, Red Robin- was the one Experiment 13 knew. Bruce couldn't send someone else. No one else would do.

That still didn't mean Tim had to like it.

His hands tensed when the shuttle jettisoned its secondary thrusters. His nails digging into the vinyl of the armrests. How did people like Dick find this fun? If it wasn't for the fact that Tim was on a mission and had to stay alert, he would have taken something to help him relax and/or sleep through the shuttle ride -like how some people might take a sleeping pill right before getting on an air plane. But Red Robin couldn't afford to fall asleep. Red Robin had to be ever aware of himself and his surroundings. 'Relaxing' was a luxury Tim did not get to have while on the job.

He jumped again when the shuttle docked with the station's tail.

Cursing himself silently, Tim suppressed the urge to sigh as he unbuckled his safety harness. There was no need to hang back this time. Bruce had what data he needed on who was working the shift with Tim; pardon, who was working the shift with Alvin Drapper -he was Alvin Drapper again. Using the seat backs like the rungs of a ladder, Tim pulled himself along, keeping up with the rest of the group disembarking. He had one short burst of anxiety when he entered the transfer tube.

Made of a composite of kryptonian crystal-tech and terrestrial space-glass, it was so clear and blemish free, Tim had to remind himself that he hadn't just glided right out of the shuttle and into the open void. If it wasn't for the nylon netting provided for people to pull themselves along in the zero-gravity, it would have been easy to believe he was free-floating in vacuum.

Luckily, the exposed portion of the tube was only about a meter long, and so Tim was able to just close his eyes, grab a fist-full of net, and hurl himself the rest of the way into the space station proper. Not for the first time since re-boarding the shuttle he wished Bruce had selected Dick for this mission. Dick loved space travel. Dick loved maneuvering in zero-gravity. Dick wasn't afraid of being sucked out an airlock into outer space where no one can hear you scream.

But then Tim thought about Experiment 13 -about Kon-El, his name was Kon-El.

Isolated and alone in that little cube of a tank. No actual human contact. Sure, he could talk to people, but it wasn't the same! The closest thing he ever even got to a hand shake was that weird pressing of hands to the glass of his tank. That just wasn't right. Even Damian and Jason -as antisocial and unpleasant as they were- got hugs. Experiment 13 didn't even get his own name!

Well, Tim was gonna fix that!

As soon as he settled back down into his cover as a maintenance technician, and when an opportunity presented itself so as not to arouse suspicions, Tim was going to sneak into the secret lab in the core and give Kon-El his name.

Experiment 13 never thought he'd be so happy to see the inside of his tank as he was when he returned from his latest training exercise.

He was tired -he'd never been tired before. His muscles ached from unfamiliar and excessive use -he'd never had muscle pain before. His stomach groaned, begging for protein -he'd never been hungry before. And he just wanted to down a whole gallon of water -he'd never been thirsty before.

Roquette told him that these were normal things for a person to feel after a particularly intensive workout. It was his body responding to the strain and telling him what it needed to recover and grow stronger. Rest, stretches, food, and water. It was one of the things that made him human.

After he was back in his tank, however, he heard her speaking to one of the other scientists about how kryptonians weren't supposed to need sleep, food, or rest so long as they got plenty of yellow sunlight. Guess he wasn't kryptonian enough to be immune to those needs. He thought about Red Robin and how he managed those human needs and still managed to do his work for the mysterious Batman. Like, did he pause in the middle of his sneaking, and hiding, and pretending to be an inspector to have a protein bar and a bag of juice? Or did he schedule his spying around his human bodily needs?

Where was Red Robin anyway? Experiment 13 hadn't heard him in a while. He hoped the mysterious masked and gloved human would come back eventually. The demi-kryptonian knew he probably shouldn't trust the anonymous intruder that was crawling around the air ducts. He knew he probably should tell Roquette about him. Turn the spy in. That was what you were supposed to do with spies, right? Turn them in. But Experiment 13 didn't want to. Maybe it was his even heartbeat, or level breathing, but the demi-kryptonian liked Red Robin. He seemed nice.

Besides, if the spy were to be believed, he was sent here to help Experiment 13. Find him. Help him. Return him to his father.

He had a father. The demi-kryptonian had a father.

Not just a genetic donor but a parent who wanted to raise him as their natural offspring. Experiment 13 would be lying if he said he wasn't curious. He wanted to meet this Kal-El, his father. His... dad? No, the kryptonese word for father was... He ran though his programed knowledge, information from the combined libraries of all the planets Earth had contact with, searching for the answer. 'Ukr-kah.'

Kal-El was his ukr-kah.

His ukr-kah sent Red Robin to find him.

Find him. Help him. ...Help him with what? This new training they were making him do? This accelerated schedule Westfield was pushing on Roquette? Experiment 13 didn't know. He might have the combined knowledge of half a dozen worlds shoved into his subconscious, but programed knowledge aside, he knew next to nothing about the actual real world.

A much as Tim wanted to pull on his Red Robin uniform and rush off to see Experiment 13 -Kon-El, his name was Kon-El- right away, that was not possible for Alvin Drapper. His cover had to be maintained, and so 'Alvin' made his way to the Mess to grab a bite to eat and sit with his fellow technicians. It had been two weeks since Tim's shift had been on Space Lab. He needed to aquatint himself with what happened while he was away. There was no better way to do this than innocent gossip.

"Got your space legs already, Drapper." One of the other techs who came in on the same shuttle as Tim sat down next to him. "That's faster than last time. Glad to see you're getting used to it up here."

"I told you, I've been in space before." Tim rolled his eyes. He took a bite of the meat-like option they were serving and waited an appropriate space of time before asking, "I wonder if we missed anything interesting."

The other tech gave a shrug. "Apparently, they've started testing some new weapon out in the debris field. You could sometimes see the flashes of explosion from the station -depending on rotations and such."

Now it was Tim's turn to shrug. That wasn't so interesting. "Lex Corp. and Ferris Aerospace are always testing new stuff out there. Heck, sometimes even Queen Industries and Wayne Enterprises get in on it." There was nothing spacial about another major industrial giant trying out their new technologies in the safety of a remote orbiting junk yard.

"Yeah." Agreed the other tech. "But, according to Linda from Logistics, one of our own lab teams checks out an EVA pod and leaves the station right before the fireworks start, and they don't come back until its over. We're the ones testing something out there."

That was concerning.

"But Cadmus Labs doesn't develop weapons." What could they possibly be testing out there? Clearly, Cadmus was keeping secrets. Kon-El's very existence was proof enough of that. Were these weapons test somehow connected to him? Or was it another unconnected project? Nothing to do with Experiment 13, but still a Cadmus conspiracy. Tim would have to find out.

His companion gave another shrug. "No. But we do develop armor and shield platings. They could be testing those."

Somehow, Tim's gut told him that just wasn't the case. Somehow, and he didn't know how, it would come back to Experiment 13 and Kon-El. Maybe not directly, my it would be the demi-kryptonian himself. But, somehow, every detective fiber in the young Red Robin's being told him that the new weapons testing was connected to the secret lab in the core. He just needed to find out how.