ii. Misinformation

Gerald rubbed at his face as he left his quarters and headed for the mess hall. He ignored the soldiers along his path, pretending not to see them, and they returned the favor. Guarding the Think Tank was a favored position but usually dull; most of the scientists, having seen the guards and gates on the way into the facility, focused on finishing their tasks rather than trying to break out early. Gerald had spent all day trying to decide what to do with the Gizoid. His first thought was to try to damage the core in some fashion, so he could display the damage and declare himself unable to repair it; he wasn't certain what would happen to him if he did that, but at least the Gizoid would no longer be a threat. Unfortunately it had proved impossible to damage the robot's core "brain" unit by any method in the past, so that wasn't feasible. He had re-sketched the circuits and was wondering if he could apply a bit of an old experiment of Mary's. She had been trying to work out a way to not merely emulate but generate emotions. If he could instill some sort of 'care' into the Gizoid's core - he could alter it some, even if he couldn't destroy it or make it destroy itself - but if he could make the robot actually care about others rather than merely respond to power, or military might, perhaps he could make the robot restrain the destruction itself. He'd spent most of the day wrestling with variations on that theme and hadn't realized until dinnertime that he'd missed lunch. He was still turning the problem over in his head, so it took him several minutes to realize something was very wrong.

It was his first time in the mess hall, but everyone else kept stealing glances at him and looking away. Looking around, he saw that some faces wore rather shocked expressions, others were sympathetic. And everyone kept whispering but stopped when he looked at them. Was it because of what the Gizoid did to Kauai? Perhaps some of them had been there or had friends– He jumped as a hand tapped him on the shoulder. There was a soldier behind him.

"Would you come with me, sir? The commander wishes to see you." The soldier was absolutely deadpan, his face and tone giving no clue as to what was going on. Gerald began to feel the first stirrings of anxiety overcoming his bewilderment. He nodded dumbly and followed the soldier out the door and down the hall.

Like the soldier that had escorted Gerald, the base commander was completely expressionless as he watched the scientist enter the room, merely indicating with a gesture that Gerald should sit in the chair opposite the desk. Gerald sat, the soldier saluted and left, and the commander continued to regard Gerald silently for nearly a minute. When he cleared his throat, the sudden noise almost made Gerald jump.

"Professor Gerald Robotnik, it is my unfortunate task to provide you with some rather unpleasant news." Another pause followed. Gerald sat unmoving and as expressionless as he could manage, but his mind jumped into full panic mode. 'Unpleasant news' surely had to mean a 'disaster' of some sort; had something happened to Ivan or Katherine - or the baby? He knew the Gizoid was in his lab and powered down, this sounded too serious to be some of those injured in the destruction of the ARK dying - he pulled his attention back as the commander spoke again. "There has been an accident on the Space Colony ARK. Another research project went out of control. We were able to evacuate most of the civilians, but your granddaughter, Maria Robotnik, was regrettably not one of those we were able to save." Another pause, the commander regarding Gerald closely.

Gerald blinked, not quite comprehending, "You couldn't evacuate her...so she's still up there? The lab, the whole wing can be isolated in case of a colony breach–"

"–No," interrupted the commander, "we were unable to evacuate her because the Project: Shadow had already killed her." He slid a paper across the desk, Gerald automatically picked it up and looked, though it felt like his brain had gone numb. 'Known Casualties' was across the top, followed by a list of names. One leapt out as if printed in neon - 'Maria Robotnik'. Somewhere a still-functional bit of brain pointed out that nearly every other name on the list was either a researcher or a doctor. The few that were not were the patients that could not be evacuated to Earth without risking their lives.

Wait. Did he say "Projec-" His voice gave out. Gerald swallowed against a totally dry throat and tried again. "Project: Shadow?"

"Yes. For the second time your Project: Shadow has gone rampaging through the Space Colony. You had designed the colony supposedly to ensure weapons could be tested safely, and you had allowed this...creature, this unstable weapon to wander at large despite it's prior rampage.." the commander went on but Gerald wasn't listening. Prior rampage? They can't mean the Biolizard got loose again! I made certain... But SHE never had freedom to wander around the ARK, only Shadow did... But if they mean Shadow - he never threatened anybody. Or anything, except when he was defending soldiers from the Artificial Chaos, and then it was the attacking robots he went after. Anyway, Shadow wouldn't- he couldn't harm Maria! They don't know the difference between the prototype and the current Project. Or they're overlooking it... What did he just say?

Gerald gave a start, saying "I'm sorry, sir?" He had the feeling he'd just missed something.

The commander frowned. "I said, would you care to speak with the soldier who witnessed your granddaughter's death? He had asked to extend his condolences in person."

"Umm, yes." She couldn't really be dead. It had to be a trick, for some reason, maybe to make him more cooperative about the Gizoid...

The commander tapped a button on his desk and after a moment another soldier came in. This one was not expressionless, he wore a look of sorrow that triggered Gerald's nervousness again. It's an act. He's putting on a show for me, Maria CAN'T be dead, Shadow would protect her. Part of him wasn't buying it though...

"Professor Gerald, sir? I– I'm Lieutenant Graves. I– We were on a training run in the fizz-field when we got the alarm from the ARK. Other squads were dispatched to evacuate as many people as possible; our group was detailed to try to access the Research and Medical areas, where there was apparently some sort of disturbance. We landed in the hangar and proceeded towards the sickbay. When we arrived we found that many of the medical personnel had already been killed." The soldier fidgeted with his belt a moment then detached a small picture viewer, holding it so Gerald could see the screen. A button-press and it lit up showing a scene of one of the medical lounges, with several bodies visible, lying in blood. As the soldier hit the button a few more times, more pictures flashed up, some of the bodies appeared to have been beaten, others the cause of death was unclear, but the blood and postures made the fact that they were dead all too clear.

"While we were searching the area for survivors or the attacker, one of our troops spotted the Project fleeing with a girl, dragging her after him." Another click, another picture- this one of Shadow himself, dragging Maria after him as she looked back in fright towards the camera. That's a security shot, from the camera in the hall outside the observation room. It's not Shadow she's frightened of, it's something out of view of the camera. But it's a beautifully selected shot. If I didn't know she was fleeing with him, I might think she was trying to get away from him. The soldier continued, "We followed them to a lab where the creature pulled the girl in and locked the door. By the time we got the door open, the thing had already killed the girl and made good its escape in an emergency pod." Another click, and--

"NO!" Gerald yelped, snatching the viewer from the soldier, "MARIA!" He couldn't believe it, it was a fake, it MUST be a fake! And yet... Maria was sprawled on the floor in his lab in her own puddle of blood, one hand stretched in the direction of the missing escape pod. Gerald could see a trail of blood down the console that controlled the pod; she'd been injured before they'd gotten to the room. She must have been dead before Shadow left - he couldn't imagine the hedgehog leaving without her for any other reason, but he still did not believe that Shadow had killed her. "No!" he repeated, "It's a trick, it has to be a fake!"

I'm terribly sorry, sir," said the soldier softly; he actually had tears at the corners of his eyes. "It was too late by the time we got there. There was nothing we could do to save her...but, she said - before she died - she said to 'Tell Grandfather, to bring hope to humanity.'"

Dimly, out of the corner of his eye, Gerald caught the commander sitting up suddenly and frowning at the soldier. The soldier appeared not to notice the commander, or the tear that now slid down his own cheek, as he repeated. "'Bring hope to humanity', she said. There was nothing we could do, but stay with her. She didn't suffer for long, sir, I promise." He stopped, apparently overcome, glancing at the commander for permission to leave, which was granted.

Gerald looked down at the viewer which he had in his hand. The horrible scene was still there. He shoved it at the commander's desk - it must have made it, he didn't hear it hit the floor - and stumbled out the doorway. He wasn't aware of his escort until a hand caught his arm and kept him from walking into a box someone had left in the hall. The soldier - he thought it might be the one that had escorted him from the mess hall - tugged at his arm and he numbly allowed himself to be led back to his room. His brain seemed to have shut down, only that ghastly image of Maria, the long-ago memory of finding Mary dead in her own lab, and the certainty that Shadow was NOT involved cycled through his mind endlessly; but even that was at a remove, as if he was watching a slide show through a window, or hearing a story about someone else. There was food on a tray on his desk, he found himself sitting in the chair in front of it. The soldier was saying something, but there was no sense, only sounds. There was food there, so he started to eat. There was no taste, no odor, only the feel of the textures and the muscles in his jaw working. The soldier seemed satisfied, at any rate he left. When there was no more food, Gerald sat and stared at the empty dishes for a while. Eventually he got up and went to the bed, lying down fully clothed and pulling the blanket entirely over his head, like a child hiding from monsters in the dark, even though he'd left the lights on.