Part 1: Earthly/Unearthly


1-1. Overseer

The young woman could barely contain her excitement as she leapt up the stairs of the country inn for the first time. She dumped her suitcase and her heavy backpack--stuffed with thick bound notebooks and textbooks in cellular biology, protein analysis, genetics--on the floor by the table and ran back out to collect the next armful of baggage. At the head of the stairs she almost crashed into a tall man carrying a load of luggage, and leapt back, stammering apologies. The man glanced at her and nodded curtly in acknowledgement. He had short blond hair, a broad face, and wore a dark blue suit. The student hesitated for an instant, unsure what to say, until an unmistakable nasal voice cut through the awkward pause.

"Get moving, you thick-necked wretch! I don't have all day!"

"Yessir," the man in the blue suit muttered, and strode past her toward one of the other rooms of the inn.

Behind him a smaller figure scuttled out from the top of the staircase, a man with short, slick dark hair, clad in a dingy white lab coat despite the heat of the day. He regarded the girl with scornful eyes, then demanded, "Who are you? One of the students?"

"Y-yes, sir. I'm--"

"--apparently not smart enough to get out of the way when your superiors pass by. Gast must have brought you."

She chose to ignore the insult for now, though her anger flared up silently. "Yes, sir. I'm from the genetics division."

"How many of you little twerps did Gast bring?"

"Two, sir. I'm covering Genetics and Cell, and there's another grad student, from Chemistry."

"We don't need Chemistry."

"But Dr. Gast thought we might--"

"We don't need Chemistry," the man repeated harshly. "I will be assuming any research that might come up in that area."

"Sir--"

"Shut up!" the man barked. "Do not question my judgments!"

The student said nothing, shocked and irritated. She was under no direct order of his, technically; she had been selected by the department and by Dr. Gast. But it would not be good for her career to make an enemy out of Gast's associate.

Daring to stare back into the man's slitted eyes, she realized that that decision may have been a little too late. The only thing she could think of to do was to go about her way. "Sir, if you'll excuse me." She nodded her head courteously and passed him, toward the stairs.

His voice froze her as she stepped on the third stair. "What is your name, girl?"

She turned, with perfect politeness, toward him and answered, "Lucrecia, sir."

"Do you have a last name, Lucrecia Sir?" the man asked sardonically, now able to look down his nose at her.

"Gainsborough."

The man in the lab coat turned toward his room, following the blue-suited man who had passed by before. "Good afternoon, Miss Gainsborough," he tossed over his shoulder.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Hojo."

Lucrecia glared at his retreating back for a moment, then turned and continued down the stairs. She couldn't let him distract her. She had far more important things to do than to deal with that arrogant weasel.