In the Arms of Fate
by Mercutio
Nimue wandered in through the door, Heero bundled up and clutched to her
chest. They were in a dull hallway with whitewashed walls and a tiled
floor. A secretary sat behind a desk filing her nails.
"Excuse me," Nimue said. "I have an appointment with Professor I. I was
told to meet him here at three o' clock."
"Just a moment," the secretary said unpleasantly. She could tell clearly
what Nimue's profession was, and disapproved of Professor I seeing her.
"Professor I will see you in the first room on your left after you pass
through those green double doors."
"Thank you, miss," Nimue said. She pushed open the large doors, which
lead her too a hallway with surroundings that starkly contrasted with
those of the lobby. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all made of a
strange mirror-like substance that tossed Nimue's reflection around the
room and bounced it off the other walls. There were no light fixtures
to be seen, rather, it seemed that the light was coming from within the
walls. Heero giggled in her arms at all of the shining images that
surrounded them. Nimue could not find the door that the secretary had
spoken of, but there were panels at various intervals on the walls,
some on the floors, and a few even hanging from the ceiling. She turned
to the first panel on her left, and pressed the button.
[Please scan in your security card,] a calm voice said.
"...I don't have a security card," replied Nimue.
[You should have received a security card at the front desk,] the voice
responded.
"But I didn't! The secretary didn't give me one! Can't you just let me in?"
[You should have received a security card at the front desk,] it repeated.
Nimue realized that it was a recording and there was no use arguing with it,
and turned away to return to the lobby.
"Wait, please don't leave!" a different voice said. "Don't mind the security
system. It doesn't seem to like visitors."
Nimue turned once again to see an elderly man with gray hair and goggles.
Looking over him, she noticed that under his white laboratory coat he had a
mechanical hand and leg.
"My name is Doctor J, assistant to Professor I. Are you the one that he has
been waiting for? Are you Nimue?"
"Yes, that is my name," she said. "What is this place? Why was I called here?"
"We are sellers of fortune," Doctor J said. "People give us money, and in return,
we deal them their fate."
"...What? Are you some kind of fortune-teller or something? If so, I'm not
wasting my time here." Said Nimue.
"Oh, goodness no, we don't tell people their future. We give it to them."
This guy's insane,> Nimue thought.
"I was beckoned to talk with Professor I, not some senile apprentice," Nimue
said.
"Humph. No need to be rude. Although I'm pretty sure you'll be disappointed
when you meet the good Professor. He's just as deranged as I am, hehehehe..."
"Oh, dear God," Nimue said. "Just take me to him."
"Right." Doctor J hobbled over to the door that Nimue had been told to enter
from the beginning, and pressed the button on the panel.
[Please scan in your security card.]
"Oh, you know who I am. I don't need to scan in my card," the doctor grumbled.
[Yes, you do.]
"Oh, fine." He pulled a card out of his pocket and ran it through the scanner.
[Level Black security card approved. Please come in.]
"Level Black?" Nimue asked.
"Our security cards are arranged by colors. White denotes minimal security, such
as for a restroom or broom closet, and it goes from yellow, green, blue, and red
until it gets to maximum security, black."
One of the mirrored segments slid up and let them through. The new room that they
were in was yet another shocking change. The mirrored walls were gone completely.
They had been replaced by a material that resembled sandstone, and were draped with
medieval tapestries and oil paintings that looked centuries old. She could not see
the material of the floor as it was carpeted with many elegant Persian rugs. Along the
walls and in every corner were large Greek and Egyptian urns filled with exotic plants
that Nimue couldn't even begin to identify. At the end of this long room was a wooden
desk with a comfortable-looking chair behind it. And in this chair sat a man who was
dressed like Doctor J, but was a bit younger and lacked J's cyborg appendages. He had
a completely bald head and striking green eyes.
"Hello," he said cordially. Nimue Yui, I presume?"
"Yes, sir," she said. Already she had more respect than for Doctor J.
"I am Professor I, the dealer of fate." Nimue was about to complain before he interrupted
her. "Hush. I don't know what Doctor J told you to make you think I'm so insane, but
whatever it is, it's probably less than accurate. We specialize in taking people in and
making them more than what they were before. Let me show you."
He stood up, and hooked his arm around Nimue's to direct her, and J followed closely behind.
He led her out of the office and back into the mirrored hall.
[Good day, Professor I,] the mechanical security voice chimed. [Are these your guests?]
"Yes, they are. Please allow them to travel through with me," he said. He then turned to Nimue.
"Since this is my organization, I am the only person allowed to pass freely into any room without
a security card. You did get one, did you not?"
"No, the secretary never gave me a card. If it wasn't for Doctor J, I could have never gotten into
your office."
"Hmmm... we'll have to arrange for a card for you soon, Nimue. In the meantime, you can just hang
around with me and use me as your pass."
They next entered a room that was a little ways down from Professor I's office. "Here at Fate, we
specialize in giving people a better future through the wonders of science and psychology. We call
these people the Fated, although it's really no more than an ominous and fancy term for 'test subject'."
Upon seeing Nimue wince a bit, he quickly corrected himself. "Of course, we never, ever involve humans in
tests that could be potentially dangerous. See, look in this room that we're in right now. This is the
quarters of the Fated."
The room was metallic like the hallway, but had a soft gray carpet on the floor. There were at least a
dozen columns made of a jade-colored glass that reached from the floor to the ceiling. Upon closer
inspection, Nimue realized that the columns were hollow and filled with a bubbling liquid. She then
realized that a couple of the columns contained... people?
Upon seeing Nimue's shocked expression, Professor I quickly tried to calm her down. "These tubes are the sleeping quarters of the Fated. They provide an optimum environment for the people when they are at rest, and can keep them sleeping for a month at a time. It pumps nutrients, oxygen, and other necessities in and out of the tubes. The founder of Fate, Chief Scientist A, invented them. Quite genius, actually."
"Will... I have to be in one of these?" Nimue asked tentatively, afraid to hear the answer.
"At first, no, you may sleep in a bed in the room next door. However, you will quickly grow adjusted to Fate's systems and the way we run things, and will eventually find a bed uncomfortable and prefer the tubes instead."
Nimue stared at the floating bodies. I wonder if they dream in there,> she thought.
"No, I don't believe so." Professor I said nonchalantly.
"How did you do that?" Nimue demanded, as shocked as if someone had broken into her house or molested her.
"You sent it," Professor I said. "We have experiments here at Fate that attempt to give people telepathic capabilities. However, it's extremely dangerous, and the results seem to vary. I had the test and I black out every once in a while. Doctor J, however, lost the use of several limbs and his eyes, requiring cyborg implants to correct it. One of our test subjects, Olivia, who you can see here in Tube 3," he said, pointing to a tube that contained a peacefully sleeping woman who looked normal except for the fact that her skin was changing colors. It reminded Nimue of her childhood when she used to hold bubbles up to the light and watch the swirling colors change. "has lost control of her skin pigmentation as a result. We don't know how it happened or why it happened, but it most certainly did. In fact, Chief Scientist A is the only person to undergo the operation without any side effects.
"That is why we need you. We think we have devised a way to give the ability without the side effects by channeling it through a machine. It would limit the capabilities, but would hopefully open up many more. People like the Chief Scientist A and I are able to send messages to people- although they often don't realize it, so it's more like planting ideas in their mind- and receiving messages that people offer to us... thoughts that they want to speak, but don't. With the machines, it would still be the receiving, but the sending would most likely be lost. But there would be amplified reflexes, improved instincts, and many other qualities. It would be especially useful in a battle. We already have one test subject that we're using," he said, indicating another tube with a blond infant inside. "This young lady, codenamed Dorothy, has currently only been undergoing psychological influences to help achieve our goal, since she is too small to do any real tests of capabilities. However, we are a bit impatient, and would like to know its effects on an adult who can do all of the tests. That would be your role, Nimue. How about it?"
Nimue had to think for a minute. While it could be potentially dangerous -she didn't care what Professor I said, the possibility was always there- it also offered free room and board, and hopefully a home and education for Heero. Plus, the offer of telepathic powers? How could she resist? "I'll do it," she said.
~ ~ ~
Nimue and Heero were beginning to get used to daily life at Fate. They both spent their days in the columns, occasionally awakening to participate in telepathy tests. Heero was not involved in any tests, but Nimue was often in the same room as the young Dorothy. She was at most a year older than Heero, and was the most serious little baby Nimue had ever seen.
Nimue never got to see the actual machine that she was being operated on to work with. All of her tests were run with a blindfold on, or if they involved any movement, than with a screen in front of her face depicting a serene field blooming with flowers to run through. It was unlike anything she had ever seen in nature, as Kushrenada was a stormy, rocky country. Most of the fields were in Djuuji to the south.
Nimue also received a blue security card. Although she was rarely awake to use it, it gave her limited freedom and allowed her to access all of the Fated rooms, including the library and art gallery. The Fate building was one of those kinds that were much larger on the inside than the outside. Judging by all the staircases, it extending for God knew how far underground. Of course, the only underground room she was allowed in was the library, so she could not begin to imagine what sort of strange things were kept in those forbidden rooms. Only Professor I and Doctor J were allowed to pass through.
However, as grateful as Nimue was, there was a deep curiosity within her that could not be sated with a simple 'It's not for me to know.' What was kept deep within the vaults of Fate? Why was it forbidden to gaze upon the machine that she was being tested with?
What was Fate hiding?