Putting the ball back on the rack, Danny turned around and smiled at the four people who had joined him for a pleasant afternoon bowling. Ella winked at him, her friend Clara smiling prettily. "That's it for me, I'm afraid," he said. "I have an appointment, so I need to get back to the hotel and change. Thank you for a nice time."
"Thank you, Danny," Clara said, taking her bowling shoes off and replacing them with her street ones. "This was fun. You taught both of us a lot."
Ella nodded, glancing at her husband, who along with Benny was sitting at the far side of the row of seats for this lane. Both men seemed oddly depressed. Danny couldn't work out why, really. But they certainly hadn't seemed to enjoy the bowling nearly as much as their wives had. "Rudy, say thank you to Mr Hebert and stop being so down. What's wrong?"
"Nothing, Ella," the man said, sitting more upright and putting a look on his face that wasn't all that convincing. He smiled weakly at Danny. "Thanks for inviting us to share your lane, Mr Hebert."
"Yeah, thanks very much," Benny added, not sounding like he was being entirely sincere. Danny put it down to the amount of nachos the pair had eaten. They weren't very good, an upset stomach was definitely a risk in a place like this.
"It was no trouble, I enjoyed the company. Bowling alone can be a little boring." He looked up at the scoreboard hanging over the lane, nodding in satisfaction. "Although I'm quite pleased with the results."
"I've never seen anyone bowl a perfect game before," Ella said, following his eyes. "That was amazing."
"I think I got lucky," he said modestly. "I've never done it before either. I might have been inspired by the company." He smiled at Ella, who looked pleased.
Bending down, he removed his own bowling shoes, stuffing the laces inside them. Pulling his normal ones out from under the seat he sat down to put them on. Clara did the same next to him. Benny and Rudy watched them, sighed faintly, and started to do so also.
Those nachos really hadn't agreed with them, Danny thought sadly. Poor guys.
"Ow! Fuck me that hurts!"
"Jesus, look out!"
The shouts, in an urgent tone, made everyone whip their heads around. In the next but one lane, a quartet of young college age men who had been becoming more and more enthusiastic about their game, lubricated by probably more beer than was sensible, had been horsing around with the balls. One of them had apparently attempted to juggle two of the lighter ones, with the fairly predictable result that he'd dropped one.
It had landed on his foot, and by the look on his face as he hopped around yelling and swearing, done some damage. This led him to a certain amount of waving his arms about, although in his pain he'd apparently forgotten he was still holding the other ball. Very quickly the situation had turned into one where he wasn't holding the ball, instead having managed to fling it in a high arc over the next lane, the users of which had seen it coming and ducked. The ten pound sphere of plastic was now plummeting towards the back of Benny's head, the man only just turning around, much too slowly to do anything about it.
"Benny!" Clara shrieked, easily able to see what was about to happen from where she was sitting.
Danny didn't even pause to think about it.
Linda followed with her friends as the entire group of people left the huge testing room and went back to the elevator, ascending several floors and exiting into a corridor lined with doors. They ended up in a large room with a table in the middle of it surrounded by chairs, various telephone and computer terminals in the middle of it and accessible from either side. She looked around with interest, deciding it was a cross between a conference area and a discreet interrogation facility. There were cameras in a couple of places, but as far as she could see they were wide-angle security ones that were merely monitoring the area, not something set up for interviews.
Even so, she was sure that everything that happened in here was recorded, and decided to be careful what she said and did. When she glanced at Saurial, she saw that the lizard-girl was looking around as well, before meeting her eyes and nodding slightly to her unasked question.
"Please take a seat, everyone," Miss Militia said, moving around to the other side of the table. Both scientists sat near one end, putting down a collection of notepads, recording equipment, and the other data from the testing area. Armsmaster and Dragon ended up next to Miss Militia on a pair of reinforced chairs that were obviously meant for power armored people, while Linda herself sat opposite the military cape with Saurial and Metis to either side of her.
"All right, let's see what's next," Miss Militia said, flipping through some paperwork in a folder she put on the table. "Definitely a high level Tinker based on the preliminary results. Doctor Ikari thinks there is also a Thinker rating involved, based on the ease with which you calculate the requirements of your designs, and how well you operate them."
"Probably only around Thinker 1, but it's definitely present," the scientist in question put in.
"There is also a Mover rating, since the end result of your specialization allows rapid transportation," Armsmaster added. "Even with what we've seen so far, it's a fairly impressive rating, and I can imagine that it could go higher based on later work. All in all it's a significant number of categories that you occupy."
Saurial raised a finger. "You may also be missing a couple," she said in a good-natured manner. Linda looked at her, making her grin. "We want to be completely open with the PRT about your abilities, don't we, Vectura?"
"I suppose so," she replied, inwardly amused about how they were managing to be open yet still tell them nothing truly important. "They'd find out sooner or later anyway."
"Find out what?" Miss Militia asked somewhat suspiciously. The PRT scientists were watching them with what looked like intrigued interest, as was Armsmaster. Dragon was remaining silent but Linda thought she was if anything finding this all funny, as she had been for some time.
Saurial made a steel rod in the half an inch thick and two feet long, then handed it across the table to the Protectorate hero, who stared at it for a moment then accepted it. "What's this for?"
"For you to satisfy yourself it's a real steel bar." Saurial looked at her as she studied the metal object.
The woman seemed confused, but examined the bar carefully, tapping it on the table. "It's definitely solid metal, I assume steel."
Armsmaster produced his tricorder and scanned it, then nodded. "Standard high carbon tool steel. A very good alloy, actually. The purpose of this exercise eludes me, though."
Saurial nudged Linda, who reached out her hand. "I think I know what she wants," she said. Miss Militia gave her the rod. "Something like this?" Linda asked, glancing at the reptile next to her who was looking like she was enjoying things, then bending the steel bar into a circle with a distinct creak of stressed metal. It took some effort but nothing like as much as it should rightly have done. Putting it gently down on the table in front of her, Linda smiled over it at the three people across from her.
Everyone looked at the circle of metal.
Then everyone looked at her.
Then everyone looked at each other.
"Oh, for god's..." Miss Militia sighed, rubbing her forehead. "A Brute as well. You didn't mention that earlier."
"We never seemed to get around to it," Linda apologized, although she found the reaction funny. "We were enjoying ourselves too much with the Tinkering. Sorry."
"We should go down to the Brute testing facility, we can get some accurate..." Doctor Ikari began. Metis shook her head, making him stop.
"There may be no need for that, we've done our own tests, and we can tell you the results if you want."
"That is probably a better use of time for now, since we've spent considerably longer in the Tinker assessments than we planned for," Dragon said. "Not that I think that was a bad thing, it was very interesting."
"OK. I can dead-lift about two tons, according to Metis my reaction times are at least five times faster than those of a baseline human, I heal a lot more rapidly as well, and my overall speed is also several times quicker than a normal person."
Doctor Ikari was writing this down, nodding absently. "Impressive. Mid-range Brute, low end Mover, healing factor as well… An effective package." He looked up from his notebook. "I would still be interested in testing you further at some point if you're agreeable, to get hard numbers on these abilities. But there's no pressure on you if you don't want to."
"I'll think about it, Doctor," she said, privately not thinking she'd take him up on it. They had enough information on her already.
After a moment, she reached up and unfastened her helmet, lifting the back of it and pulling it forward while leaving her prototype HUD visor in place. It had been quite useful during the testing session, but she'd also thought of a lot of things it needed added to it as a result of the same thing. It covered the upper half of her face nearly as well as her mirrored faceplate though, so it worked as a mask.
Not that her current face was one that could be associated with her 'normal' one anyway, of course. It didn't really matter if they saw it but she wasn't about to mention that to them.
All of the others looked at her curiously. "It was getting a little uncomfortable, I'm not used to wearing it yet," she explained, which was partly true. Another part was that she'd discussed this with Metis and Saurial earlier. They needed the PRT to think they had more information about her than they did, so that they could hide some truths about her in plain sight. This was part of that plan.
"An interesting helmet design," Armsmaster said approvingly, looking at the helmet. "Your work, I assume, Saurial?"
"Yes, it's based on a commercial one I came across, with my own improvements," the reptilian girl nodded. "I'm going to talk to the company about some sort of cross-licensing deal."
"May I?" he requested, transferring his gaze to Linda, who pushed it towards him. Picking it up he examined it closely, inside and out, then scanned it with his tricorder which he seemed to enjoy using. "Very nice work."
"Thanks. We're probably going to work on something like this for law enforcement, or even just motorcyclists," Saurial replied. "We have a lot of simple but useful ideas for that sort of thing."
"The PRT would undoubtedly be interested as well."
"We're aware of that. We'll be in contact fairly soon."
He nodded, handing the helmet back. Linda took it and put it on the floor next to her chair. She flicked an ear at them. "Just to get it out there, since you're all obviously wondering… No, this isn't my real face. Or, to be more accurate, it's my real face, but not the only one I have."
"A Changer too?" Doctor Ikari asked, apparently intrigued. Linda nodded, while noticing that Miss Militia had an odd expression in her eyes for a moment. She wondered what that was about, but ignored it as she turned to the scientist.
"A limited one. I can change between this feline form and a more normal human one at will. Nothing very spectacular but it helps with my identity and keeping it private."
"I see," he replied, nodding as he made yet more notes. "Very impressive collection of abilities. Nothing other than the Tinker one is at what I'd term a high level, but the aggregate effect is definitely quite potent."
"So we have Tinker, Changer, Brute, Thinker, and Mover powers, then," Miss Militia said, jotting down some notes of her own. Armsmaster was watching and listening with interest but appeared content to let the woman do most of the talking.
"The transportation specialty of her Tinker talent would significantly raise the Mover rating," Dragon pointed out. Miss Militia nodded absently, still writing.
"That's fairly normal for any Tinker who can make vehicles at all," she commented after she finished, looking up. "Although I can't recall meeting anyone, or even hearing of anyone, who could do something as impressive as we saw downstairs, certainly not that quickly."
"Saurial helps me a hell of a lot," Linda pointed out.
"Granted, but the designs are yours," Armsmaster nodded. "And they are very good ones. That projected hard-light multi-form vehicle is extraordinary."
"I'm happy you think so. I'm going to have fun with that one," she grinned.
The way he looked at her made her think he was, as Saurial had suggested would be the case, more than a little envious. It made her oddly happy in a way.
Turning the page in her folder, the military cape read it, then looked at her again. "The last part of this for now, unless you want to come back and put yourself through more testing with Doctor's Ikari and Wilson here, is some general background information. We won't pry, but we're interested in anything you are willing to tell us about yourself."
Linda inspected the three people facing her, glanced at the two scientists who seemed fascinated by her although in a good way, then looked at Saurial. The lizard girl made a small sign indicating it was her choice. Metis, when she checked, did much the same. She sighed a little, thought for a moment, then started carefully giving them some of the mostly made-up background of 'Linda' that they'd come up with. It took some time.
"Jesus, look out!"
The near scream from behind them, following on from all the laughing and shouting from those football players or whoever they were, made Benny jerk, then turn around. He barely registered the sound of Clara screaming his name as he saw a bowling ball out of the corner of his eye, implausibly in mid air and closing fast.
Before he had time to do anything other than begin to recoil out of the way, something that was clearly futile considering it was about a yard away, there was a solid smack of flesh on hard plastic. A rather awed silence fell as everyone who had been tracking the flight of the rogue ball to its inevitable end gaped.
Boss Hebert straightened up from where he'd lunged sideways, transferring the ball he'd somehow caught at arm's length to his other hand. Standing, he fixed the idiot who'd managed to throw it with a hard stare, which even though it wasn't aimed at him made Benny gulp.
"That was a very stupid thing to do, young man," the DWU boss growled, sounding dangerous and pissed. "You could have killed someone with this." He walked around the end of the row of seats and over to the group of people watching him nervously. The ball-tosser was still standing on one foot, but lowered the injured one to the ground with a wince when Hebert neared him. "Please think about what you do before you do it next time," he added, handing the ball back. The guy took it numbly, apparently lost for words. "If I'd missed you'd be in serious trouble."
"Sorry, man," the man said, sounding very guilty. "It slipped."
"Because you were being foolhardy." Boss Hebert reached out and tapped his forehead, hard enough to make him wince. "Think!"
His friends were glaring at the idiot. "He won't do it again, mister," one of them said with a look that promised a lot of shouting later. "I'll make sure of that." He brightened up after a moment. "Fucking amazing catch, though. You play football or something?"
"No, just have good reflexes, I guess, and I was in the right place." Hebert shrugged, smiling now. "Luckily for Benny."
"Guess so." The other student looked over to where Benny was sitting with his heart hammering, Clara now holding him. "Really sorry about that."
The other two also apologized, then all three of them scowled at the perpetrator, who looked very guilty and mumbled something conciliatory. Boss Hebert studied him for a moment, before shaking his head a little. "Just be more careful, OK? This could have gone very wrong. Bowling balls aren't meant to be juggled, especially if you can't juggle. And I'm afraid that you can't."
The man's friends all looked like they were now trying not to laugh and the guy himself was sweating a little. Benny had calmed down slightly, and found himself to his irritation almost feeling sorry for the one who had come close to killing him being pinned in place by Hebert's gaze.
Eventually, the older man nodded. "We'll say no more about it. I'd advise laying off on any more beer, though."
"Yes, sir," the student said immediately and respectfully. "Sorry again." He looked at Benny as he said this, who merely moved his head in a way that was more or less a nod back. He still felt very unnerved about how close the call had been.
Boss Hebert rejoined them, immediately being hugged by Clara, who was nearly in tears. "Thank you, Danny," she said in a tremulous voice. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," he smiled, patting her shoulder comfortingly. "It was my pleasure." He looked over at Benny and smiled more widely. "We wouldn't want anything to happen to your husband, would we?"
Benny met his eyes, feeling cold. What did he mean by that? Clara took it at face value, but he knew better. There was always a deeper game with people at this man's level.
Glancing back at the four students, three of whom were berating the fourth in low but angry voices, he shivered.
If it really had been an accident, it was way too fucking close for comfort.
And if it hadn't… A demonstration? Those four guys didn't have local accents. More like they came from somewhere around Boston, which was quite close to…
Slowly he turned to look at Rudy, then both of them looked at Boss Hebert, who nodded calmly to them with a mild smile, apparently entirely over his earlier anger at the event. "I must be off. I don't want to keep Uncle Tony waiting," the Brocktonian said, picking up his coat and putting it one. "Perhaps we'll bump into each other again some time. Look me up if you're ever around the DWU."
He felt around in one pocket, pulling out a couple of things, then putting them back. "Now where did I put my keys?" he muttered, checking another pocket. Benny was pretty certain he saw at least one knife come out and go back in again. "Aha! There they are. Had me worried for a second." Looking pleased, he grabbed the bowling shoes, raised a hand in farewell, and left.
All four of them watched him walk towards the exit.
"What a nice man," Ella said when he'd disappeared. She looked at the two men. "I have no idea what you were worried about, he's great."
"I like Danny," Clara added. "And he saved you. He's got incredible reflexes. That was amazing to watch." She still looked shaken.
Benny looked at Rudy again, who seemed speechless, then both of them stood. It was definitely time to go, before anything else happened.
"That went well," Metis remarked as they strolled out of the PRT building several hours after they'd entered it. Saurial had stayed behind, having requested a meeting with Director Piggot, and said she'd meet them back at the yard later.
"I thought so," Linda agreed, smiling to herself. "It was a lot of fun too."
"Feeling less nervous now?"
"I am. Thanks to you two, aside from anything else. It would have been pretty bad on my own." She looked at her scaly friend, who was watching her with a look of understanding. "It was pretty bad on my own," she added much more quietly. "Thank you for everything."
"You're welcome, of course," Metis smiled. "Any time. But you realize now that everyone at the DWU is going to want one of those light-vehicles, right? Hell, I want one, although it'll need to be a little larger..."
Linda grinned with glee. "That can be arranged. I'm amazed how well it worked. Without your cousin I couldn't have done it, aside from it being her idea in the first place. Leet is going to love it too."
"Oh, that much I think we can bank on," Metis laughed. "As we can assume that Zephron will be asking you for one every day until you give in. And Alec, of course."
She shrugged. "We'll need to order in some more parts, then."
"We'll make a list when we get back." Metis looked around at the crowd of people who were watching them, some of whom had followed them out of the PRT building, and most of which were holding cameras. "Looks like you've hit the public now for sure. Wave to your admiring fans." She waved herself, quite vigorously, making Linda chuckle then follow suit.
All in all it had been a good afternoon, she thought. Very productive and a lot of fun.
When the knock on the door came, Emily was staring at the small container of off-white roughly round flat things that Saurial had left behind, having spent a while explaining what they were and what they did. She was still reeling from the implications that had been casually dropped on her by the mad reptile, like they were nothing.
"Enter," she called, not looking away from the bottle. The door opened to admit Colin, Hannah, Dragon, and two scientists she recognized as powers experts, although the names escaped her for the moment. She looked up at them, frowned a little, then put the bottle into her desk drawer. Colin noticed, she saw, although he said nothing.
Wilson. That was it. Wilson and Ikari.
"I assume you've finished with the preliminary report on the DWU Tinker Vectura?" she inquired as they all took seats, Dragon standing off to one side since there weren't enough chairs and none of them would fit her power-suit anyway.
Hannah nodded, putting a thick folder on her desk. "Any surprises?" she asked, opening it.
"You might say that, yes," Doctor Wilson said, shaking his head in wonder.
"What's her rating?" Emily asked, flipping pages.
"You remember when you joked about Tinker: Yes?" Hannah asked dryly. She looked up, meeting the other woman's eyes.
"Oh, god. Really?"
"She's probably around a Tinker 3 to 4 on her own, with Brute 3, Thinker 1, Mover perhaps 2 to 3, and Changer 2 as well," Doctor Wilson commented. Emily's eyes widened, then she looked back at the report, turning to the summary of the power testing and scanning it.
"Changer? Brute? Where did that come from?"
"She's got enhanced strength, speed, and durability, with a healing factor, according to both her and Metis, although we didn't thoroughly test any of them," Doctor Ikari replied for his colleague. "We might be able to persuade her to come back for that reason although I'd suggest not pressing it. The Changer rating is due to her feline additions, which are apparently something she can control. It would be one of the major reasons we've been unable to locate any Tinker meeting her description, I would expect."
"The Thinker rating is down to the way she can clearly learn to operate her own inventions at an accelerated rate," Doctor Wilson added. "She is an exceptionally good driver in my opinion, and we saw her design something new completely from scratch and end up driving it around the test room with complete confidence in only minutes. I would put some of that down to inherent skill, some to practice, and some to her powers, although without further testing I can't break down the ratios."
"That's not particularly important at the moment," Emily replied, looking at some photos with raised eyebrows. "She made this in how long?"
"Under three hours from conception to working prototype," Colin said, holding up the deactivated form of the multi-vehicle that she was looking at a photo of. Emily felt somewhat shocked.
"She let you keep it?" Most Tinkers were very protective of their inventions, especially ones that were entirely new.
"Borrow it for examination. And I was somewhat surprised she agreed myself," he replied. "I will endeavor to return it promptly. Dragon and I both feel that it is worth investigating in depth, though, it contains some remarkable technology I've never encountered before."
"I would suggest that, bearing in mind who her friends are, you are careful with it," Doctor Ikari remarked. Colin nodded, apparently not offended. He put the rod back into the case he'd removed it from and put that in turn on the floor.
"I made a promise and I will keep it," the Tinker replied.
"All right, she's a high level Tinker, definitely, I can see that from the report," Emily said, turning back to Hannah. "So why is her rating comparatively low? And what did you mean, 'On her own,' Doctor?"
"Both things are related," Doctor Ikari replied after a glance at Hannah, who waved a hand to him to do the talking. "While it's not my field of expertise, I suspect she is somewhat psychologically dependent on the Family, specifically Metis and Saurial, at least to some extent. She was definitely quite nervous when she arrived, and at various points during the testing. Their presence gave her a noticeable confidence boost."
"I noticed that myself," Dragon agreed. "I was talking to Saurial about it. They are aware of it and intend to get the woman some professional help."
"Good. That is always an issue with Parahumans, and some have severe need of such help. I don't think Vectura is quite at that point, but she has some deep issues that need therapy, I have no doubt. That's not unusual considering the nature of Triggers."
All three Parahumans in the room nodded thoughtfully, Emily noticed.
"However, that aside, there is also the fact that Vectura's abilities work in a synergistic manner with Saurial's. They're virtually made for each other, in my opinion. Without access to the Family and their matter creation ability, many of Vectura's designs would be difficult or impossible to realize," the scientist carried on, looking intrigued. Doctor Wilson was nodding next to him.
"She discussed, briefly, some of the ideas she'd had. Thinking small is not that woman's problem, I can assure you. The things we've seen so far are essentially toys."
Emily wasn't sure whether to be worried yet, but could feel her stomach contracting just in case.
"Her inherent ability, limited by what she can access if she's on her own, would put her at a Tinker 3 to 4, as my colleague remarked. With sufficient resources, for example if she joined the protectorate, I would judge that would go up to Tinker 6 or better without much difficulty. However, with access to the abilities and techniques Saurial can bring to the table, including her frankly astounding mathematical expertise..." He shrugged. "Tinker Yes is not far off the mark. I have no idea how far they could take things as a team but I would be prepared to bet we have never seen anything close to what they could do if they decided to really try."
"Oh, good lord," Emily groaned. She leaned back and massaged her brow, feeling an incipient headache coming on. "Another one we can't properly categorize. Where the hell are they coming from? And how do they all end up, one way or another, working with or for Danny Fucking Hebert?"
"I cannot answer that, Director," the Japanese man said regretfully. "Although I will add one interesting note, for what it's worth?"
"Am I going to want to shoot myself when you do?" she asked with a scowl.
"Hopefully not," he replied with a tiny smile. "Saurial speaks perfect Japanese, I discovered."
"And?" Emily looked at him, somewhat puzzled.
"Her accent is… archaic. Easily understandable, but there are words and phrases she used that are extremely old. I've heard something similar on pre-war recordings of elderly people in Japan, people who were ancient in the twenties and thirties. It's an interesting data-point, I thought." He looked around at them. "What it means, if anything, I couldn't tell you. Perhaps she learned the language from a very old person."
Thinking about it for a moment, then firmly pushing the thought back to where it belonged, Emily decided she wasn't even going to attempt to work that one out. It was merely yet another oddity of a group that was composed entirely from them.
"All right. Based on this information and testing session, does Vectura present a threat?"
"If she was pushed, very much so," Dragon replied immediately. "She could easily make a number of weapons based only on the technology we saw today. However, I would also hasten to point out that from what she, and her friends, said, she has no interest or intention of doing so. Except maybe in self-defense, of course, but that's always a possibility. She was at pains to explain that all her current projects are intended as construction equipment and were heavily based around safe working practice. Saurial made the same point, and I believe both of them."
"I concur," Colin said. "Unless forced to, I personally doubt she has any real interest in making weaponry, or for that matter involving herself in any conflict at all. She appeared much more interested in creating new inventions with her friends. Which is, from all appearances, a definite theme with the Family."
"What about her background?" Emily asked, looking at the report again. "Do we have any idea where and when she Triggered, for example?"
"She was unwilling to go into details on that," Hannah explained. "Not all that surprising. The impression is that it was a particularly unpleasant Trigger. She was open about the fact that she paid a significant amount of money for an entirely new identity, mostly to disassociate herself from any possibility of her previous associates tracking her down. It's not the first time I've come across something similar, I have to admit. While we might be able to track down more information, I would strongly recommend against it. It's a blatant breach of the Rules aside from anything else, and we already know that the Family takes a dim view of that sort of thing. I can't see any purpose to it."
"I would agree also," Colin nodded, as did Dragon and Doctor Ikari. Doctor Wilson was reading some of his notes at the moment and didn't seem to notice.
"All right." Emily rocked her chair from side to side as she thought, then she picked up a pen and signed the relevant page of the report. "Thank you all for dealing with this."
"It was very interesting," Colin replied, looking down at the case by his feet in a way that made it clear he was itching to get it to his lab and start poking around trying to figure out how it worked.
"In that case, you can all get back to what you were doing," she said. "Miss Militia, will you stay behind for a moment, please?"
The others, aside from Hannah, all stood and headed for the door. Dragon and Colin turned left, towards the elevator to the lower floor and presumably the ferry to the Rig, while the scientists went the other way, already deep in discussion. When the door closed, Emily rubbed her eyes tiredly. "They've done it again, haven't they?" she asked rhetorically.
Hannah smiled sympathetically. "Apparently so, Emily," she replied. "Ah… I'm not entirely sure how to say this so I'll just say it. Saurial said that Über and Leet have both joined the DWU..."
Dropping her hand, Emily stared at her for several seconds in silence, before opening her drawer and pulling out her brandy bottle. "For fuck's sake," she sighed, pouring some into a glass she also took from the drawer. A glance at her companion resulted in a shake of her head. "What next? More aliens, I expect. Or spaceships. Or god knows what."
"I doubt spaceships are on the cards, Emily," Hannah said soothingly as Emily tossed the small shot back then screwed the cap onto the bottle again and put it away.
"They have a transportation Tinker now," she replied darkly. Hannah looked worried for a moment, but shook her head.
"There are limits, though."
"You'd think so. I'm not so sure." The PRT director tipped her chair back and tried to relax. "Tell me that Vectura isn't another alien?"
"Colin scanned her DNA with a new device Dragon made," Hannah replied. "He said she was human, with some feline DNA mixed in. Nothing out of the ordinary for a low level Changer. We've seen that sort of thing before."
"Did he happen to scan Saurial or Metis?" she asked, abruptly curious.
"He did, actually," Hannah said with a small frown. "Metis matched the results we already had. Not even vaguely human, never has been, or related to anything on the planet. Saurial was inconclusive."
"Which means?" Emily asked after a moment's thought.
Hannah shrugged. "I have no idea. Neither did he or Dragon. Dragon theorized that Saurial's matter creation power may produce some sort of effect that scrambles or blocks the scan, but she's not sure. The results didn't suggest anything less weird than Metis, though."
"OK. Fine. Aliens it is. I don't care any more, they're good citizens and keep to themselves most of the time." She reached into her other drawer and pulled out the bottle that Saurial had given her. "Next question. What the hell do we do about these fucking things?"
Hannah leaned forward and looked closely at the bottle. "What are they?"
"Family biotech, apparently. Ianthe made them when she found out how fragile we poor humans are." Emily swilled the bottle around, listening to the little clinks the things in it made on the glass.
"What do they do?" Hannah asked with a suspicious look.
"If Saurial is to be believed, cure people."
"Of what?"
"Everything, she said."
Hannah stared at her for some time, then looked back at the bottle which Emily had put on the desk.
"Oh. Oh, dear, that's going to cause some… issues." After a pause, she added, "I wonder if they work?"
Emily couldn't help the snort. "Of course they'll work. Family tech always works, even when you wish it didn't." Her companion nodded thoughtfully. They both studied the bottle, then she retrieved it. "Back to the isolation lab, I suppose," she said as she stood up. "We need to test it even so. This is going to get weird, I can feel it."
"Max Anders will pop a gasket when he finds out," Hannah said as she also stood.
Brightening up, Emily smiled nastily. "Oh, that is a very good point. A very good point indeed..."
If nothing else, she was going to be able to share the headache.