7.i. Prelude to Tragedy
"The higher-ups are threatening to shut down this research facility. I have no choice but to hand them the Gizoid to buy more time..." Gerald sat in his lab, frowning at his own words recorded on the screen. Despite his best efforts the Gizoid was still at root programmed to equate weapons with power and to follow whomever displayed the most power. As he'd entered in his computer journal yesterday, he'd done everything he could to order the robot to absorb no more weapons or potentially lethal technologies; but as he'd also put in, all anyone had to do was show that they had greater power than he did.
Since he already knew that others had figured out how the link was formed there was no reason not to put his commands and concerns in the file, and good reason to put them in; it would suggest that he believed the file to be unbreachable. Theoretically no one could access it except him, but he had computer skills enough to know exactly how accurate that theory was. If no one else, he knew that both Shadow and Maria could have easily broken into the file had they desired. He was fairly certain that someone in the government or military did read the things, looking for signs of treason or other problems; he was absolutely certain that keeping everything "squeaky-clean" would be a dead give-away that he was aware of the discreet surveillance and might lead to the activation of more problematic monitoring methods. So he recorded complaints in his diary - the same sorts of things all miliary or government employees complained about - along with bits of carefully chosen "secret" information and personal joys and sorrows. The things he truly wanted to keep secret, such as Black Doom, went down only on paper and were well hidden.
Today he was here to enter joyful news: he'd received word that he was a grandfather again! Ivan and Katherine had called at about 3 am ARK time to announce the arrival of their son Ivo Robotnik. Gerald's whoop had brought both Maria and Shadow running into the room, where the hedgehog watched in bewilderment while Gerald and his granddaughter joined hands and danced around the room. We must have looked truly ridiculous, Gerald thought now, as he keyed for a new entry and started typing, grinning at the memory. Me, the "distinguished" elder scientist with my nightshirt flapping around my ankles and Maria in her pink nightie with one slipper missing. Although the look on Shadow's face was worth it. He didn't particularly care, the news was too delightful to be diminished by a little thing like a loss of dignity. He'd already had a seat on the evening flight, when he was taking the Gizoid down to hand over to be returned to ARKauai, but now the flight had a much more joyful aspect, for while he was on Earth, he'd be going to meet his new grandson and congratulate Ivan and Katherine. He planned to stay about two weeks, then return to the Space Colony ARK. He'd just typed that in when he heard the quick tapping at the door. Recognizing the sound, he smiled even as he pushed away from the keyboard and called "Come in!"
Maria bounced into the room carrying a carefully wrapped bundle. "Can you take this to Aunt Katherine and Uncle Ivan for me, Grandfather? I made it for the baby." She unwrapped the outer blanket to show a neat little one-piece outfit on which she'd carefully cross-stitched a pair of baby chao and a chao egg. The bib folded underneath it matched, and one corner of the blanket had the pattern doubled (four chao and two eggs) in a wreath of flowers. Gerald was impressed, and made certain she knew it. He knew that she'd been working on something ever since they'd gotten word that Katherine was expecting, but she'd refused to let him see it. If a few of the stitches on the tiny garment were a little shaky, the other two items were practically professional in appearance.
"I'll give it to them as soon as I get there," he promised, accepting the rewrapped package from her and placing it carefully in his bag. "Now, you be careful while I'm gone. Take care of Shadow, and listen to him." And odd combination of commands, perhaps, but he was quite serious. Shadow was not and probably never would be as good with people as Maria was; there were some people who suspected him of being a spy for the dokan, and there were some researchers on the ARK that Gerald did not trust. But the red and black hedgehog had a more mature perspective that his twelve-year-old sister sometimes lacked, and extra care was needed now. After the disaster with the Biolizard and the Artificial Chaos, Gerald had discovered to his horror that it was not only the Chaos Drives that had unbalanced, but all chao-cell derived items. The changes in the energy fluid had been fairly easily corrected by altering the flows, but the Heal Unit servers were mostly off-line. Maria now had access to only one or two Heal Units a week; so far they seemed to be maintaining her health, but all three knew that it would only take one infection depleting her immune system to put her at risk for a legion of secondary illnesses. Therefore Gerald had pulled her out of school and she had restricted herself without being asked to their rooms, venturing no further than the observation room. Gerald also tried to limit his contact with other people to avoid bringing anything back. Shadow, of course, rarely went among the other people on the ARK anyway, but seemed to have limited himself to the Loop and Gerald's wing.
Maria nodded solemnly. "I wish I could go see the baby too. Tell Aunt Katherine and Uncle Ivan hi, and that I love them. And take care of yourself, Grandfather." She hugged him, and Gerald hugged her back. He was going to miss her greatly, even if he was going to be with other family.
"Yes, Professor, have a safe trip," Shadow had come in through the door Maria had left open. He smiled at Maria as she passed him on the way out of the room, then frowned at Gerald. "Do you have to give them the Chaos Emerald as well as the Gizoid?"
Gerald sighed. They'd been through this several times already. "If I don't give them the Emerald, then the Gizoid will be non-functional. Either they won't believe I've given them the correct robot, that I've lied - which will give them a reason to come after me - or they'll think it IS the right robot only I've sabotaged it and they'll still come after me. And if they come after me, the ARK will be shut down and everyone will be returned to Earth...and Maria will die." In truth the scientist didn't like the idea of giving the Emerald to GUN any more than Shadow did, but he'd been unable to come up with an alternative. No one had been able to duplicate the Emerald, and he'd never managed to get the Gizoid to run on Chaos Drives or any other power source but the one. He hoped he'd be able to recover the gem at some point, after the robot had been seen to work.
Shadow looked grimmer than ever, reminded of the threat to Maria. "As you say, Professor." He didn't like it, but he didn't see any way out either.
"Take care of her, Shadow. I think the Heal Unit Servers may be recovering, but they still are terribly slow at regenerating. Avoid other people as much as possible, and remind Maria to be careful. She is to use a Heal Unit if she needs it, but otherwise, try to wait until the charge for the next is nearly full." When a Server's charge was nearly complete, a light would come on and a new Unit would appear ten to fifteen minutes after the old one was removed. Before the disaster, the complete regeneration time had been around half an hour; now, a full charge required three or four days. It did seem to have shortened by several hours in the last few days, which Gerald hoped was a sign that the power was coming back into balance. But for now, the process was still terribly slow and between Maria, who used the Server in his lab, and a couple of chronic patients in the sickbay who depended on the two there that remained functional, there were no Units to waste.
"I will see to it, Professor." Shadow flicked a glance toward the clock on the wall. "You'd better go now if you don't want to be late. I'll look after Maria - and she'll look after me, I'm sure."
Gerald smiled to himself, was there just the trace of a smile on Shadow's face at those words? "I'm sure she will. Well, au revoir my son, I'll see you in two weeks." He picked up his bags.
"Have a safe trip Father."
Gerald could feel the red eyes following him out of the room. He hoped things would be all right while he was gone - but then, the Artificial Chaos were confined, the Biolizard in stasis and the Gizoid already loaded onto the shuttle, so he didn't see how anything could go wrong. "Famous last words," he muttered. "Oh Mary," he sighed, remembering her playfully insisting that talking to oneself was the first sign of madness, "I hope you can see your grandchildren from heaven. And what would you make of Shadow, I wonder?"