iv. ...To Know I Was Mad
Gerald was frowning at the papers on his desk when someone knocked on his door. The figures were clearly complex equations, but he couldn't quite focus on them. "Come in," he called, automatically.
He looked up to see Shadow slipping quietly in, closing the door behind himself. "Are you busy, Professor?"
"No, no," Gerald sat up and pushed the blank pages away. "What's up, Shadow?"
The dark hedgehog walked across the lab and stared out the window. "So lovely...Maria always wanted to go back to Earth and live like normal people, you know. It's really too bad you didn't tell her how close you were. Especially when you left without telling her you'd FOUND a cure!" The scarlet eyes blazed into Gerald's as the hedgehog whipped away from the window and was standing in front of the scientist before he could blink. He had the impression that the hedgehog was glowing faintly, and tried to step back but realized he was still sitting down. Wait, I didn't tell Shadow about the cure... The thought was lost as the hedgehog continued.
"But now it's too late. And it's their fault, GUN attacked the ARK intending to kill everyone aboard, and the government must have set them up, since the government has been funding the project since the beginning. And no one cares. All those people out there, that Maria wanted to help, they're just going about their lives completely oblivious to the fact that a little girl was slaughtered for NO reason at ALL! WHAT are you going to do about it?"
Gerald managed to tear his eyes away from Shadow's, his line of sight skimming across the papers on the desk. He looked away from them quickly, he couldn't bear to see the pictures of Maria dying on the floor of the lab. He stared out the window as Shadow had done, watching the Earth floating serenely in space, clouds swirling white and grey above the continents and oceans. As he watched it seemed a speck of red appeared in the depths of the ocean and spread, until the seas were red as blood. In the back of his mind a gun went off, and a girl pirouetted and fell. What could he do? He blinked and felt the immensity of space around him, staring at the scarlet planet and the mote orbiting it with the central column of the cannon aimed at the equator. Like the needle of a bulbous dart. He reached out and swatted it, sending the space colony asteroid diving point first into the planet's atmosphere. No, too fast, he thought, as the asteroid exploded and the shockwaves crashed across the surface of the globe. He put it back the way it was and reached out to barely tap the back of the colony. This time the half-sphere progressed slowly towards the planet, then began to tumble out of control. It still caused a lot of destruction, and this time he watched the people realize what was going to happen and panic, running and screaming in terror as the gigantic projectile approached. Yes, give them time to see, to realize, to worry about their own loved ones. They will all feel my despair and grief. But that tumble needed to be stopped.
With Shadow by his side he began typing at the computer on his desk, calling up the Eclipse Cannon's computers and changing programs deep in the heart of the colony's mainframe. He altered the stabilizing programs that maintained the orbit before burying them deep and protecting them; now, when all seven Chaos emeralds were positioned around the cannon's core shrine, the stabilizing thrusters would instead become active thrusters, pushing the colony inexorably into the planet's gravity well. Just in case, he modified the Biolizard's restraint fields; once the Emeralds were in place any attempt to remove them would release her from her stasis, a few more keystrokes edited the restraint chip he had inserted while she was in stasis. She would awaken angry, and if defeated she would flee for the nearest solid ground, which would be the planet; her chaos powers might not be consciously controlled, but animal instinct would apply all available power to her escape. They won't stop that, he thought in grim satisfaction. What is that noise?
Alarms were going off all over the ARK - no wait, wasn't he on Prison Island? And Shadow was in stasis, wasn't he? - and the lights were flashing on and off. Shadow was gone and Gerald looked around in bewilderment at his room on Prison Island as soldiers burst in, guns at the ready. As he raised his hands he realized that he'd been typing in his sleep. What have I done, he asked himself, and shivered as he realized that he didn't truly care. They will feel my grief and despair, said the voice that he'd been hearing at the edges of his mind. Shadow will see to it. Suddenly memories came clear - had he been dreaming, or had he gone schizophrenic, one part of his mind unaware of what the other was doing? He suddenly remembered not only saving the new flash training for Shadow when he'd intended to erase it, but starting it running in the stasis bed's systems. 'Remember what they have done, these heartless humans who murdered a child to no purpose and for no reason. Remember what you saw the soldiers doing to those on the ARK they were supposed to protect...' No, oh no, he shook his head, oblivious to the soldiers' angry demands. Oh, yes. He felt his mouth curling into a grin of triumph. Too late for any of them now. (It is too late for any of us), came the echo. He shivered and stood up, raising his hands over his head as he felt his control sliding away like water down a drain.
The commander entered the room, visibly shaking with fury. "Professor Gerald Robotnik, you are hereby accused of treason and sabotage of military and government property. Do you have anything to say to this?"
"You won't be able to undo it. All you can do is hope that no one lets Shadow loose. He KNOWS his task. But if his systems are terminated, do you know what that cannon can DO?" Gerald started to laugh. The commander was staring at him, not quite open-mouthed, but several of the troops did have their jaws dropped. The cannon would do nothing if Shadow were terminated of course, but they couldn't prove that one way or the other. And there was plenty that he had done that they could prove; prove but not undo.
He was escorted out of his quarters, surrounded by armed guards that moved him quickly down, deeper into the installation. He was locked in a cell, still laughing like a madman, while a last desperate part of his brain watched, unable to regain control of his own body. Time seemed to go mad itself at that point: food came; or sometimes there was an empty tray, but no memory of eating; it was light, then dark; when things stabilized a bit the back wall was somehow covered with his own calculations, in his own hand, and the floor was littered with stubs of grease pencils. He found one that was still useable and made a few corrections automatically, looking around. The cell was one of several, actually four-sided cages of bars, the floor and back wall made of stone. The other cells were empty but a soldier sprawled in a chair near the door of the room that contained them, reading a magazine. Suddenly, the soldier sat upright, the magazine vanishing as if by magic.
As Gerald looked at him, the door opened and the commander stepped through. Though his face was nearly expressionless, Gerald could feel the fury emanating from him even across the room. The commander paced steadily across the floor to stand in front of the cell. "Professor Gerald Robotnik. You are hereby informed that you have been sentenced to death for high treason and theft and destruction of government property. We have found evidence that you have tampered with our computer systems, accessing files you had no clearance or permission to access and altering them. You have corrupted the Project: Shadow weapon and mishandled the Project since its inception as evidenced by the disasters on the Space Colony ARK, not to mention programming the Gizoid in such a fashion that it destroyed a military research installation. You have also stolen the Gizoid as well as the Chaos Emerald. If you tell me where they are, we may be able to lighten your sentence slightly."
"What is my sentence?" asked Gerald. He was still trying to remember what had happened recently. "Wait, when did I have a trial?"
"You were tried in absentia; it was considered a security risk to have a raving madman in the room during the case. Or don't you recall insisting that you would verbally order the Eclipse Cannon to pinpoint and destroy the island unless we returned your granddaughter? You have been sentenced to execution by firing squad, but if you tell us what you have done with the Gizoid and the Chaos Emerald we will commute your sentence to life on prison, with appropriate counseling and medical care, of course."
Life in prison, with GUN psychiatrists poking at my brains until I die? Neither part of Gerald found that option appealing. "Look anywhere on the island you want," he said, stressing the word 'on' just enough to draw attention, "you won't find the Gizoid. And the Emerald - it came from a floating island, so maybe it just floated away."
The commander's face grew harder, and he turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. "You have 48 hours left to live," he threw back over his shoulder as he passed through the door. "Use it well."
"Wait! I do get a last request, don't I?" called Gerald. The commander paused in the doorway, then inclined his head slightly without turning around.
"In my lab, on the computer desk. There's a video camera. I would like someone to film the execution and my last words with it. It's got some footage of Maria in it too so we can be together at the end." That last sounded more stupid than insane even to Gerald, but it was critical that they used that particular camera, it was the one he'd modified to link directly to the ARK. Or thought he had. ( No, he had, he did remember that now.) The footage would be stored until someone did awake Shadow, or put the seven Chaos Emeralds in the Eclipse Cannon of their own accord.
Unaware of Gerald's scrambling thoughts, the commander stated, "It shall be done. You and your granddaughter will... be together in the camera."
Definite note of patronization there, thought Gerald. Ah well, it will all be over soon.