I See it All Needs Questioning
Joan's new research team included child development specialists, educators, psychologists, and a handful of pediatricians just in case. The children were dubbed "the Quads", short for quadruplets, by most of the scientists. Although they didn't share any genetic material save Chemical W, they were being raised together and could be considered siblings. Watching them learn and discover was fascinating to Joan. She had yet to figure out how they'd been born with the ability to speak, but during the two weeks she'd kept them secret they became even more articulate, using proper grammar and expressing their wants and needs in a more refined manner. This made it easier for the scientists to communicate with the children, but there were still many things to puzzle out such as why Tvaer had yet to talk. An exam revealed that her vocal chords, larynx, and frontal lobe functioned correctly, but she only opened her mouth to eat or laugh.
One of the chemistry stations was turned into a makeshift classroom where the children were taught the same basic subjects as preschoolers. They absorbed information so quickly that Dr. Anderson half-jokingly referred to them as having sponge brains. They were much more intelligent than children their age, but Sai was especially impressive. "Pretty sure that kid's a genius of some kind," Anderson said to Joan after giving the boy his weekly MRI. "Here's his brain activity last Wednesday, and here it is currently." She admired the comparative images. "He's really good with the tablet. We gave one to each of the Quads to do homework and he completed all the modules in one day. Every subject, like nothing was a challenge for him."
"Let's try giving him one. Put him on a first grade curriculum," Joan suggested. Anderson nodded and left to confer with the teachers.
Where Sai excelled at academics, Natt was the most physically adept of the four. His constantly-increasing height and musculature were abnormal but they weren't due to a hormonal imbalance or any other measurable factor. He never complained of growing pains either, only that his clothes didn't fit right; to that end, Joan assigned one of the underlings to shop for him on a weekly basis. Sitting still for hours on end didn't agree with him, but his fidgeting and pencil-twirling annoyed the educators. Joan held a meeting with them and two of the psychologists. "What can be done to alleviate Natt's boredom?" she asked outright.
"Are you sure it's boredom and not ADHD?" the elder psychologist inquired. "Has he been tested for learning disabilities?"
"He isn't disabled," Joan stated, "he's a superhuman child who generates too much energy and doesn't have an outlet for it."
"Then maybe more hands-on lessons would be beneficial," the younger psychologist suggested, "or educational games with a competitive aspect. I'm sure the other Quads would enjoy those types of stimulation as well instead of being talked at for hours on end." The handful of teachers frowned at her criticism of their methods.
"It wouldn't hurt to try," Joan said in an attempt to prevent tempers from flying. Over the next couple weeks she observed the addition of games akin to Family Feud, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune to the Quads' curriculum. Natt seemed to enjoy them for the sole reason that he got to stand up and move around, and even though Sai had already surpassed most of the material, he participated because it let him interact with his siblings. Une preferred acting as the hostess who read the questions, which threw off the symmetry of the arrangement, but Sai was more than a match for Natt and Tvaer combined. Joan hoped the need to provide vocal answers would prompt the girl to speak, but she still presented her responses on her tablet. Half the time the words were spelled wrong which made Joan wonder, and worry, if perhaps she had a learning disability like dyslexia.
Joan decided to step away from the long-term study and take some personal time off, just a week to get out of the lab and relax. She was the kind of woman who would rather order takeout and catch up with her favorite TV shows than go to the spa or on a shopping spree. She had a backlog of emails to respond to as well; she couldn't help that her children took up all her time and energy. Her children. She wondered if she should inform her parents of them, then thought better of it. They'd only ask why she didn't have them "the old-fashioned way". Honestly, their beliefs were archaic. They thought producing offspring was the greatest feat a woman could achieve in life. How utterly laughable.
The day before returning to work she discovered an influx of emails from several members of the research team. One started off innocently enough with 'Natt grew another two inches!', then: 'I tried drawing his blood but the needles wouldn't puncture his skin. He broke a whole pack before I gave up.'
The next message concerned Une. 'I lost track of her for a solid hour. She disappeared from her room so I had everyone search the lab and corridor in case she got outside. When she finally reappeared she claimed she'd been in her room practicing cursive the whole time. We went through the security feed and confirmed she wasn't there, but when we showed her the video she got upset and kept saying she never left.'
'Professor Newtronium, I can't tell you how much of a pleasure it is to work with Sai. He is the most brilliant child I've ever encountered during my teaching career, and I've been at it for thirty years! He excels with the tablet and continues to complete homework modules with almost no errors. His penmanship needs work, though, and I believe he's ambidextrous. The other day I asked him to write an equation on the whiteboard and he did so with both hands! But I could write an entire essay on why I adore him. The point of this email was to ask your permission to start Sai on a second grade curriculum. I'm positive he can handle it.'
'Still no luck getting Tvaer to talk. The speech therapist thinks she's slow but I disagree. There are no physical explanations for why she remains mute so it must be her choice. I feel she's actually the most perceptive of her siblings. She had a cute moment with Tom the other day. He was futzing with a projector and Tvaer kept handing him the tools he needed without him having to ask, like she just knew. She is definitely paying attention to her environment and the people within.'
Joan kept an eye out for the described behaviors when she came back. Sai did seem overly attached to his tablet, carrying it with him at all times, but one of the specialists said it was normal for children to have a favorite toy. Tvaer continued making herself useful around the lab, gravitating toward scientists who struggled in some capacity even if they didn't express any signs of it. Joan personally witnessed a dozen needles fail to pierce Natt's skin, frustrating the physicians who had to update his bloodwork. Une was the one who fully convinced Joan that her children had changed in a fundamental manner. While going over an equation, the girl embarrassed that she hadn't understood it at first, she abruptly vanished from sight. Joan stared at the spot where she'd been sitting. "Une?" She looked around but was alone in the storage closet that had been converted to her bedroom. "Where did you go?"
"I'm right here!" came her panic-tinged voice. "I'm here, Joan! Can you see me?!"
"No, I can't. Put your hand on my arm." Joan felt her small fingers trembling on her forearm. "Has this happened before?"
"Yes!" Une answered. "When you were on vacation, Mister Mack yelled at me 'cause he thought I wasn't in my room! I was but he didn't believe me!"
"I believe you. I know you were trying to get better at cursive." Joan thought for a second. "I'm going to run some tests on you, Une. We'll figure out how you turned invisible."
She should have suspected the Chemical W was responsible. Once again its effects proved unpredictable by mutating the children's genomes. Joan could only chide herself for not sequencing them sooner. "Told you they were different," Anderson quipped.
Their lab didn't have the necessary equipment to run the full gamut of tests, so Joan had to smuggle her children to other departments within the facility. Natt turned out to be impervious to epidermal damage. Knives, saws, hammers, and even diamond drill bits failed to penetrate his skin, but Joan was unwilling to let him take a bullet in the name of science. He could also weather extreme temperatures and pressure.
Une could manipulate light around her. Her cloaking mechanism seemed to be related to her emotional state; when she wanted to disappear and be alone for a while, she did exactly that. She had greatly enhanced vision, she could withstand fatal doses of radiation, and if she really focused she could refract beams of light with her bare hands.
Sai's abilities were already apparent; everyone knew he was wicked smart and had a penchant for figuring out how things worked. Now as developed as a six year-old, Sai made his way through subjects taught in junior high. Joan was content to label him an example of Chemical W's complete neurological benefits.
Three more months went by and Tvaer still hadn't uttered a word. She listened attentively to her instructors and responded with "hmm" or "ah" during certain discussions, but around her siblings she was silent as a stone. "Aren't you sad that Tvaer doesn't talk to you?" Joan inquired one day while her children played with Legos.
They faltered briefly. "…She does talk to us," Une replied.
"Really? I've never heard her. What does she say?"
"All kinds of stuff!" Natt answered.
"Can you be more specific? What do you talk about with her?" Joan caught the glances they exchanged and narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"We talk about animals," Sai said. "Tvaer likes animals. She really likes cats and dogs."
"Can we get a kitty, Joan?" Une asked. "I think it'd be fun to have a kitty. Or a puppy."
She shook her head. "I'm afraid we can't have animals in this laboratory."
"What if we went somewhere we could have one?"
"I'm afraid we can't do that, either," Joan said. "We have to stay here."
"When can we leave?" Natt wondered. "I wanna run across the Golden Gate Bridge!"
Joan gave him a long look. "How do you know about that?" Geography was the one subject they had not been taught. That was done purposely to limit their scope of the world. If a team member had let something slip, Joan would have to let them go. Natt only shrugged in response to her question so she tried a different one. "Do you know where we are right now?"
"Under the ground," Une answered. "Everyone has to come a long way down to get here."
"That's correct. Do you know how far down we are?"
"Eight-thousand feet," Sai provided.
"Very good." Joan thought she was on to something. "How do you talk to Tvaer without anyone else hearing her?"
"We hear her in our heads," Natt explained.
That threw her for a loop. "What?"
"In our heads," he repeated, pointing to his temple. "Tvaer talks to us in our heads so she doesn't need to say stuff out loud."
"I'm not sure I understand. How is her voice in your heads?"
"It just is." Une frowned at her confusion. "It's been there for a long time. I first heard her telling me to wake up, and when I did, I saw you."
Joan could scarcely compute what they were saying. "Excuse me for a minute…" She all but ran from their designated play area, seeking her lead neurologist. "Doctor Anderson!" He whirled to face her. Joan never raised her voice but she sounded frantic. "Are there any precedents for telepathy?"
He arched an eyebrow. "Come again?"
"Mental communication, the transmission of thoughts, telepathy! What do you know about it?"
"Uhh… nothing?" He regarded her like she was crazy. "Telepathy isn't real."
"What if it is? What if Tvaer has it and that's why she hasn't spoken since she was born, because she doesn't need to?"
"That would be… something," Anderson said.
Joan grinned. "Something miraculous. A mutation caused by Chemical W!"
He held up his hands. "Let's not jump the gun here. What reasons do you have for suspecting Tvaer of being telepathic?"
"There's the fact that the children spoke as soon as they were born. It was rudimentary but they had the ability. What if Tvaer could hear the thoughts of those around her, hear us, and we inadvertently taught her? What if she communicated her knowledge to her siblings? That might explain her issues with spelling too, if she gains knowledge telepathically instead of really reading her textbooks."
"I…" Anderson slumped. "I don't know. It sounds crazy, Professor. But there are people who claim to be experts. Maybe one of them could be of use."
Joan invited a few to the laboratory. One woman wanted to test Tvaer using a deck of cards with symbols on them. Her job was to point to the matching card on her side of the divided table. Joan and the other scientists were astounded that she got through the whole deck with 100% accuracy. Another woman simply sat across from Tvaer and read a children's book in silence. It could have been coincidence that Tvaer laughed at the pages containing humorous plot points.
Lastly, an elderly man conversed with her in a secure observation room. "Hello, m'dear. What's your name?" he asked. A pause. "That's different, but pretty. Could you be a dear and write down my name?" Tvaer scribbled on her notepad before holding it up. "Dwight, that's right." She giggled at the rhyme. "Could you write down the names of my kids?" There were three. "How 'bout my grandkids?" Five of them. "Do you know where I was born?" Tvaer looked thoughtful. She spelled it "Filladellfeea". "Close enough," the man chuckled. "Can you draw the famous historical object found there?" She doodled a bell with a crack in it. Dwight nodded before rising to his feet to leave. "Well, I've seen enough. This little gal's got the gift."
"What can we do about it?" Joan queried. "Can we foster her ability?"
"Make sure her mind stays healthy. Interact with her, don't just leave her in a corner." His expression grew critical. "I don't know exactly what you people are doin' down here, but for god's sake give these kids some air. Let them see the sun, at least."
Joan ignored that bit of advice and also the fact that Dwight hadn't laid eyes on Tvaer's siblings; she must have told him. If the children went outside the facility they might develop habits that would hinder the study, but perhaps she could improve their accommodations. They were surely the world's most well-behaved six year-olds and deserved some form of recreation to burn off their increasing energy, but moving shop meant Maximilian had to be informed of the children's existence. Joan could only hope he reacted favorably.
"He hates us," Sai thought.
"He doesn't hate us," Une refuted.
"Then why is he staring at us like we're aliens or something?"
"Bet he's never seen kids like us," Natt mused.
"No one has. Don't you remember how Joan's friends reacted when she introduced us?" Sai folded his arms as the big orange man and Joan left the lab to confer. "They called us abominations."
"What does that mean?" Tvaer asked.
"An abomination is something that shouldn't exist, shouldn't have been made." His siblings didn't like the sound of that. They tensed when Maximilian mentioned Tvaer. In addition to hearing her voice in their heads, they could hear each other when she was nearby. They could also feel what she felt. "What's he saying, Tvaer?" Sai wondered.
"He wants to send me someplace… where I can train?" She tilted her head. "Train my powers?"
"To do what?" Natt pressed. "Talk to us from father away?"
Silence for a moment. "Joan doesn't want me to go where the orange man wants to send me."
"Do you want to go?" Une asked. "It might be fun to learn new things!"
"Do they say where the place is?" Sai questioned.
Tvaer nodded. "Nev… Nev-ah-dah. Where's that?"
"It's the state directly east of us, not too far."
Joan and the orange man returned. "Children, this is Maximilian Morbucks. He's the person who made it possible for me to create you." They offered a collective "hi". "Tvaer, you have an important choice to make. Maximilian would like you to go to a different facility for specialized testing, but it would mean leaving your brothers and sister for a while. And you would have to talk to strangers."
Her silver eyes flicked between the two adults. She didn't really like the feeling she got from the orange man. He thought of her like the people who came to fix stuff thought of their tools. He intended to use her for something. "Don't go," Sai pleaded. "He's a bad man."
"You should go," Une and Natt urged. "You'll get to see outside!"
Tvaer sensed that Maximilian didn't want to hurt her, and being able to leave the lab sounded pretty cool. "I want to go," she said in her new small voice. She caught a wave of disappointment from Sai.
"Very well. You'll leave tomorrow morning." Joan was weird; she always felt different than she looked. She was worried and kind of mad at the orange man. But he was taking Tvaer outside for the first time in her life so he couldn't be that bad.
She rode in a car, a really long one called a limo. There were tasty drinks and snacks and also a big TV in the back. "What do you want to watch?" Maximilian inquired.
Tvaer mulled it over. Sai got his homework tablet to play shows even though none of the other ones could. They only watched TV at night when the scientists went home and they left a few security guards posted outside the lab, but they didn't pay much attention. Une, Natt, and Tvaer snuck into Sai's room to check out the new shows he found. "Animal Planet!" she exclaimed. It was her favorite.
She fell asleep to a documentary on penguins, and when she woke up she was led into a big building surrounded by nothing but sand. It was hot and dry and she didn't like it, but inside was nice and cool. A group of people in white jackets looked excited to see her. "Here she is!" one woman grinned. She had dark skin like each of her siblings. "Gosh, you're such a pretty little girl!"
"Thank you…" Tvaer mumbled, because it was good manners to say that when people complimented her. The people she helped at the lab always gave compliments, but Joan, her teachers, and the doctors never thanked her for doing what they asked.
The woman held out her hand. "I'm Jessica, the head researcher at this facility. What we're going to try to do is measure your psionic output through a variety of tests."
"Sai-on-ick…" Tvaer repeated. "What's that mean?"
"Consider it like… the strength of your mind. Hopefully when you leave here, your brain will be stronger than it is right now." Jessica beamed. "How's that sound?"
She lifted one shoulder. "Okay, I guess."
"Ugh, you're just too cute! C'mon, let me show you around."
Tvaer got her own room. She had one in Joan's lab but this one was huge and it had a big, comfy bed as well as stuffed animals, bouncy toys, books, a slide, and a tablet with even more games on it than her other one. When she went to bed that night, she wished Sai were there to make it so she could watch Animal Planet.
The next day Jessica outfitted her with a metal headband. "This is made of sensors to tell us exactly what your brain is doing when you use telepathy. It's just a coincidence that it matches your eyes." Tvaer giggled. "Looks good! Now, if you'll follow me into this room…" She closed the door. "Professor Newtronium told us how you answered personal questions from a man who visited you."
"Dwight," Tvaer said. "He was nice."
"Glad to hear it! There's actually a boy in this facility with powers like yours. What I want you to do is tell me things about him even though you're not in the same room. Do you think you can do that?" Tvaer considered it, nodding. She always sensed a lot of people outside Joan's lab, but they were too clustered to hear their individual thoughts. "Great! Do your best!" Tvaer had no idea what it was like to encounter another telepath. She ignored the curiosity from the adults gathered beyond the room, zeroing in on the thoughts emanating from a lone person on the opposite side of the facility. As soon as she pressed him for information her head started hurting. "You okay, sweetie?" came Jessica's voice through a speaker. "We're reading a wave change."
"I'm… okay." The boy really didn't want to communicate with her, fighting her off. Tvaer struggled to articulate. "His name is… David. He's ten. He has… blond hair and… green eyes."
"Who're you?! Get outta my head!"
"He has a… a big scar on his leg that he broke playing s-soccer." Her headache intensified as he tried shutting her out completely. "H-he doesn't like school… the other kids are mean to him b-b-because his dad did something bad…"
"Alright, that's enough," Jessica cut in. Tvaer gasped as the mental pressure subsided. David had a lot more willpower than her, leaving her sweaty and shaky. She'd never been shoved away like that. The fact that he didn't even try talking to her made her a little upset.
Thankfully Tvaer never encountered him again. Jessica asked her to sense other non-telepathic personnel and describe what they were thinking. Sometimes she had to pinpoint people with weapons who were trying to break in and hurt her or the scientists, relaying their movements and plans of attack. Other times she had to seek out traitorous members of the team who intended to sell information to bad guys, or locate someone who had snuck in to steal data. Unknown to Tvaer her exercises coincided with actual simulations. The facility was used for training members of Maximilian's privately-owned paramilitary force.
He eventually came to take Tvaer back to Joan and her siblings. Jessica hugged her and said she hoped they'd meet again. Tvaer did, too; she liked this place except for the fact that it was in the desert. Joan's lab was right next to the ocean, something she hadn't known until Sai told her they lived in a city called Townsville in the state of California. California had a long coastline and Tvaer made sure not to fall asleep during the drive so she could see the ocean. She smiled broadly at the vast expanse of blue with sunshine glittering across the surface, hoping she'd be able to convey her sense of wonderment to her siblings. There was so much to discover in their own backyard, if Joan ever let them play in it.
Sai had been asking a lot of questions since Tvaer left, questions regarding things he shouldn't know about. "What's gene editing?" he inquired of Joan one day, completely out of the blue.
She gave him a long look of consideration. "Gene editing is what I used to create you."
"So we weren't really born, we were made." He owlishly cocked his head. "Why did you make us?"
"There is an ingredient in your genome that no other person in the world has."
"The ingredient that gave my brother and sisters their abilities," he deduced.
"Correct." Joan wondered why he didn't say "our abilities".
"And this ingredient…" Sai went on, "you needed Mister Morbucks' help to get it? Was it expensive?"
Joan sighed and set down her reports on the still-living criminal subjects, whom she no longer cared about in the least. Her children were all that mattered in the grand scheme of things. "What do you really want to know, Sai?"
"Why did you make us?" he asked again.
"Because I wanted to prove that Chemical W can change humankind for the better, and you are living proof that it has. You, Une, Natt and Tvaer are unique in that you'll never get sick like other people."
Sai hummed. "So I'm smart because of Chemical W? It's not because I pay attention in class and do all my homework?"
Joan planted a hand on her hip. "Are you being rhetorical?" Sai rolled his eyes and looked away. Where on earth had this attitude come from? "Chemical W helps facilitate the way you acquire and process information," she explained. "When you learn something new you commit it to memory, and memories are formed by the exchange of neurotransmitters across synapses. At any given time you have more synapses active than anyone else, even your siblings. Doctor Anderson gives you so many MRIs so we can track your activity."
"Got it," was all he said, and walked away.
When Tvaer returned Sai grew moody and withdrawn, the exact opposite of how the adults expected him to greet his sister. Tvaer was even talking more, sharing stories of her experiences at the other facility. She mentally relayed all that she'd seen to her siblings, their way of maintaining some privacy since literally every aspect of their life was under surveillance. About a week afterward Joan informed them that they were moving to a new lab where they would each have real bedrooms and toys, but still no access to the outside world much to Natt's disappointment. Their collective desire to run and play was alleviated by an indoor jungle gym that Maximilian had installed just for them. It was situated in a rotunda with screens mimicking a green field on a clear summer day, simulated sunlight shining down from above. Sai reasoned the vitamin D they were missing out on was a main ingredient in the supplemental pills they took every day, and he deduced the play area was the orange man's way of attempting to buy their affection.
Maximilian came around more often, observing the Quads alongside the scientists studying their behavior and development. They were equivalent to seven years old now and had established a group dynamic. Une was the leader, no question. She knew what each of her siblings liked and disliked and came up with ways to accommodate everyone so they rarely got into disagreements. When one of them used their abilities to gain an advantage over the others, Une scolded them for cheating. She had a strong sense of right and wrong but it was a black-and-white morality as a result of being told how things worked by adults. Sai knew better, knew a lot more than he let on. Their very existence was a grey area, one that mankind as a whole might not tolerate because of the way Joan made them. She'd done something called "playing God", and throughout human history people had killed fellow men and women in His name. Joan was a "blasphemer" and Sai couldn't help but wonder if people would want him and his siblings dead for being her creations rather than God's.
It was Dr. Anderson's turn to watch the Quads on the playground. Morbucks' paramilitary facility had been kind enough to send over a headband to monitor Tvaer's psionic output, which remained steady all day every day and increased at night for some mysterious reason. His colleagues wanted to figure out why, but the Quads evaded their questions. Anderson was going over Tvaer's previous data when he received a notification that her output had spiked, right there in front of him. He didn't see anything other than her and Sai lying side by side while playing a game on his tablet. "Hey, what're you two up to?" he casually inquired.
Not casual enough, apparently, because Sai immediately tucked the device of sight behind him. "Nothing," he answered.
"You working on a new math puzzle or something? I know you're learning geometry now."
"Yeah, math," Sai said dismissively. He stood up with Tvaer's hand in his own to lead her away.
Anderson waited until it was time to return to the lab, bringing up the rear. "Hey Sai, can I see your tablet?"
"No."
He kept playing nice. "I'd like to see how many modules you've completed."
"Thirty-three."
"Wow, you're over halfway done! Can I see which ones you have left?"
"No."
The amicable smile fell off Anderson's face. "Why can't I take a look at your tablet?"
"Because it's mine and there's nothing on it for you." Quicker than the boy could react, Anderson snatched it from his small hand. Sai instantly leapt at him. "Give it back!" he shouted, reaching for the device like it was his lifeline. "Give it back, you'll break it!" When the doctor saw the homescreen, his eyes went wide the second before Sai kicked him in the kneecap much harder than a seven year-old should've been able to. He took the tablet and ran off to his room.
Anderson sucked his teeth and limped after the boy. "Get back here, you little shit!" Several other scientists stopped what they were doing to stare at him. Cursing was highly frowned upon in Joan's lab. The woman herself rounded a corner and leveled him with a hard look.
"What's going on, Doctor? Why are you yelling at my children like that?" Une, Natt, and Tvaer stood stock-still. No one had ever directed outright anger at them, and Tvaer's emotional response had paralyzed her siblings.
Anderson attempted to straighten but his leg was in too much pain. "I'm only yelling at Sai," he said. Joan quirked an eyebrow. "He kicked me."
"'Cause he tried taking Sai's tablet!" Une piped up. The doctor shot her a nasty glare and her cerulean eyebrows furrowed in return.
"Why?" Joan asked simply.
He proffered his own work tablet for inspection. "There was a noticeable shift in Tvaer's mental output while she and Sai were playing a game or something. I just wanted to find out what caused the spike."
Joan spared Tvaer a glance. The woman then spun on her heel and marched into Sai's room, determined to get to the bottom of everything right then and there. "Where is it?" she demanded.
They both knew he was too smart to play dumb, but he still tried. "Where's what?"
"Your tablet. Give it to me."
Sai briefly met her gaze with a look of defiance, then drew his knees to his chest and buried his face in them. "No."
"Sai…" Joan loomed over him. "Give it to me." She noted he wasn't scared of her, just very reluctant. That was a good thing because Joan didn't want the children to fear her or anyone else on her team, that way they'd be more compliant. They never objected to the exams and tests they endured, never shied from being poked and prodded. Until now, none of them had openly defied anyone. "Let me see your tablet, Sai." He removed it from his pillow case, keeping his head lowered.
Joan spent a minute studying the homescreen. There were a few different web browsers, a language suite, translator, video streaming services, and apps for Wikipedia and Google Earth, none of which had been installed when Sai received it. It was for educational purposes and didn't even have the same operating system as a typical tablet. "What is this?" Joan demanded. "How did all these programs get installed? Did someone do it for you?" Sai muttered a "no". "You need to tell me."
He mumbled and grumbled before lifting his head. "I did it." Joan raised an eyebrow for him to elaborate. "I made it into one like you have."
"How, Sai? Tell me." Surely he couldn't have… hacked it or something. He was highly intelligent but hardly a technological genius.
"I… I saw inside it when Mrs. Helen gave them to us." She was their primary educator, the woman who wrote the glowing email about Sai.
"What do you mean you saw inside it?" Joan pressed. "You took it apart and put it back together?" He was partial to Legos.
Sai shook his head once. "No, I mean, I saw inside it. Like I went inside it. There was this weird noise, like buzzing, and I fell asleep listening to it. When I woke up, I was inside. Everything was all white and tingly, and there was light zooming past me with stuff in it like… like messages in bottles."
Joan continued staring at him for at least ten seconds. Her children had said a lot of odd things since their awakening but this was by far the strangest. "I don't understand."
Sai groaned and clutched at his hair. "That's because you can't! No one can! I tried explaining it to the others and they don't understand, either!"
"Why don't you try drawing me some pictures?" Joan suggested. "You can use the whiteboard." They left his room and crossed the lab, the other children attempting to follow. "Stay," Joan ordered, pointing a strict finger at them. She wasn't happy they had encouraged Sai to mess with his tablet, to access knowledge he never should have been exposed to. Obviously he'd shared his discoveries with them.
What Sai scribbled due to his lackluster artistic talent didn't really help Joan comprehend what he was trying to convey. He heard all kinds of electronics buzzing, not just the tablet but cell phones and computers and other equipment connected to the facility's network. If he focused on the noise, he blacked out and became able to see and hear inside the network. After a few occurrences he discovered he could navigate the light paths and travel to sources other than the one he'd entered, and from them he requested information. It was one of the most far-fetched explanations Joan had ever been presented with… until she recalled what Maximilian said about uploading human consciousness to machines. Suddenly everything clicked.
Sai could connect his consciousness to the internet.
He wanted more than the limited information Joan and her team was willing to provide, so he went in search of things that would help him understand the world beyond the laboratory. First he had to alter the tablet's programming to function like a personal computer, which he admitted was difficult and confusing. Once he'd installed a new operating system alongside the factory one to fool Mrs. Helen, he educated himself on culture, language, religion, politics, and academic subjects outside his current curriculum. His knowledge reservoir was theoretically bottomless and for that Joan couldn't quite be upset with him. She was, after all, a scientist with a duty to help unravel the enigma of life. Sai went about doing just that in his own unique way.
Joan still scolded Sai for kicking Dr. Anderson, but she was more angry at the man for swearing at her child. The apparent force Sai had used warranted a new series of tests for all the children, and the results were fascinating. So fascinating that Joan wanted to reach out to the one man who would truly appreciate what she'd accomplished with Chemical W: John Utonium.