iii. Lost
Gerald woke up because the lights were shining in his eyes. I left the lights on? He blinked at his arm, still clad in shirt and lab coat sleeves. What? Usually if I work late enough to leave the lights and my clothes on its because I've fallen asleep at my desk. Surely Shad– oh!
Memory crashed around him like an avalanche and he sat straight up. He wanted to scream, to weep, to deny it all, but that one, final image remained with him despite all attempts to convince himself it was faked. "Maria," he whispered. He closed his eyes in agony as he remembered how close he had been, only weeks, perhaps days from a working cure– and all for naught. An accident had undone all his work and destroyed his purpose. He frowned, his mind skipping to a new topic from one that hurt too badly, So what WAS the accident?
Whatever had happened, it was not Shadow's fault, he was certain of that. Shadow and Maria had been fleeing something together, in spite of the careful picture editing. He couldn't figure out why Shadow had left without Maria, though. If the GUN soldier had been there when she died, she must have been alive when Shadow ejected... He wouldn't do that. Actually, I'd have expected him to take her body with him if she'd died that close to the pod, rather than leaving it to the 'enemy'. Her blood was on the control column, though, she must have been injured while she was setting it– Oh Lord! Gerald sat up straight. The automatic setting - if the attacker got in before she got into the pod, and Shadow was already in it, the door might have closed on him; even Shadow couldn't break out of an escape pod. He could imagine the hedgehog's distress as he saw his sister falling outside the capsule, inches away but out of reach. Poor Shadow. But where is he now? The pod should have brought him down to Earth...where? The pods were programmed to find safe landing sites and then emit a distress call as well as link up directly to the GUN satellite net and tell the Primary HQ exactly where they were. Suddenly motivated again, Gerald moved over to the computer on his desk and powered it up.
Access was restricted, of course, but he worked his way through the maze of passwords until he was able to access the Prison Island main data banks. What he needed was not there, but he was able to connect to the Eclipse Cannon's core computer, and through that access the ARK's mainframe. Security camera files had been wiped, there were no recordings in the computer anywhere that he could find, and the files had been overwritten so that they were unrecoverable. Suspicious. For a mere accident, why erase and overwrite ALL the security recordings? However, he was able to determine that the escape pod in his lab had indeed been launched, with a single occupant - a dokan of some ilk by the height and body temperature. Since there was only one dokan on the ARK, it was simple enough to deduce who had been in the pod. But he couldn't find where the pod had gone - either that part of the programming had failed, or someone had wiped the info. He was able to confirm that the Biolizard was still where she was supposed to be, suspended in stasis near the Eclipse Cannon; the monitoring for that was only maintained by the Eclipse Cannon's computer, and hidden from anyone who didn't know what to look for.
Gerald sat back, drumming his fingers on the desktop and thinking hard. Either GUN had traced the pod - using the ARK computer or by some other method - or they hadn't. If they had, they would certainly track the capsule down...and do what? They'd consider Shadow their property. He might come peacefully, if they didn't try to command him, but if they tried to treat him like a robot or some sort of property there'd be trouble. Maria - oh, Maria! - could order the hedgehog around, insisting it was her prerogative as his big sister, but he bristled at anyone else, who tried to command him, even Gerald. Although he was usually cooperative enough if asked. GUN won't ask. The military doesn't ask, especially when they consider something theirs. That he knew from personal experience. If GUN ended up with him, they'd probably bring him here. With Kauai destroyed and the space colony shut down, Prison Island was probably the best place to hide secret weapons. Or people.
On the other hand, Shadow might escape GUN, or they might not have been able to track down the pod. In which case, what? It will depend on where he landed. Some countries don't like dokan, but I think most places would try to 'return' him to the South, rather than imprison or kill him. I pity the person who tries either. If he ends up South... He'll probably try to get in touch with Todd or the Curls, or maybe Misty. He knows they're my friends, and would be able to get in touch with me - at least, if I actually was on Kauai - or Ivan. His best hope would be for the pod to come down in the South, I think. I doubt the dokan could tell he wasn't a 'normal' hedgehog, unless he showed off his powers. He snorted to himself. Shadow had demonstrated his abilities and the Chaos powers at Gerald's request, but once they knew what he could do he never really used them except– oh Maria, how could you be dead! Gerald dropped his head onto his folded forearms and sobbed, remembering the golden head so close to the black-and-red one as the two set up the next course for the hedgehog to run. Shadow had shown off his prowess for her - he would have fought for her, Gerald was certain. So what had happened up there that had resulted in him missing and her dead? There were no other projects that could have caused damage to the whole ARK; only Shadow, who would not have, and the Biolizard, who could not have, as she was still in stasis in the Core. So what could have gone wrong? A mechanical fault? But that would not be something you could run from, and Shadow and Maria had clearly been running away from something...had the Black Arms returned? The Comet was past perihelion and moving away, but if Doom had decided to change the course... No, he would have heard about that, the astronomers would have been in fits if the comet started traveling of its own volition. His mind continued to race around, scrambling to make some sort of sense out of what he knew, until he ran out of tears, and eventually a soldier turned up with a tray of breakfast and orders to watch Gerald eat it.
For the next several days, he moved in a trance, collecting bruises from walking into objects that he didn't really see, eating only if the food was placed in front of him. The frantic spin of his thoughts that first day gave way to a sort of blank numbness; thinking about anything was too much effort, so he spent a lot of time staring into space not really thinking at all. Orders to continue his work on the Gizoid fell on ears that were not exactly deaf, but registering more noise than sense. Then one morning he woke up with a sudden burst of purpose.
When the soldier showed up with the breakfast tray, he found Gerald's desk covered in heaps of papers, and the scientist himself peering into the Gizoid and jotting illegibly onto yet another page. He glanced at the soldier, looked at the tray and said "Oh, just put that somewhere," as he trotted into the lab proper. The somewhat bemused soldier placed the tray on the neatly-made bed, uncertain as to which papers could be safely disturbed and started to follow the professor only to backtrack rapidly as the scientist hurried back out, carrying boxes and trailing several cables.
"Um, sir," the soldier started.
"No time to talk lad! Yes I see it, I'll eat when I have a chance. Now if you wouldn't mind," advancing with a cable's plug in hand Gerald made the soldier move aside so he could hook it up to the wall outlet, "I'm rather busy right now." He proceeded to ignore the bewildered soldier completely until the other man finally gave up and left him to his work.
For work he had. He had woken up that morning with the idea that if he could give the robot emotions - not merely make it 'care' as he'd originally planned, but make it emulate the effects of a conscience, a soul, it would be much less likely to kill without reason. And the best soul, the most peaceable one he knew, was Maria's. Surely preventing the destruction of an entire civilization (if not all life on Earth, given the sorts of weapons the Gizoid might nowadays encounter) would fall under the heading of 'bringing hope to humanity'. A fitting tribute then, in two ways: it would let her legacy live on; and fulfill her last request. If he could get it to work. He had ideas, but it would take a great deal of planning before he could implement them, and a great deal of care that the GUN commander didn't find out what he was doing until he was done; for Gerald was well aware that effectively disarming the robot (which was exactly what his plan would do if it worked) would not be looked on with favor by the military. But with Maria dead...there was nothing to prevent him; if GUN kept him imprisoned here forever, well, Ivan and Katherine would miss him, but they didn't NEED him, not the way Maria had. And Shadow– If he's picked up by GUN he'll almost certainly be brought here, so that's all right. Gerald spared a brief prayer for his missing 'son' and continued his preparations.
A/N : I made a few edits to 6iii Modulation, mostly to fix some run-on sentences and other grammatical glitches. It looks like I'm going to go on into a tenth chapter as well, so there's more to come. I really appreciate all the comments and compliments, thanks!