Chapter 2
The next morning, she was up early, and her dream remained in the back of her mind. In the cold light of day, her plan seemed frivolous, risky, fragile…
And yet, it lingered in her thoughts.
Before attending her scheduled meeting, she took a detour down to the laboratories. The scientists there had been working on something: an interrogation compound that had been ordered weeks ago.
"Good morning, Mistress!" the Head Researcher greeted her with the utmost respect.
"Good morning, Hoskins." Gel Sadra smiled in return. "I gather you have been making progress on the compound I requested?"
"Yes, Mistress!" Hoskins reported, pleased to be able to impart good news to the Galactor Leader. "While there is nothing that can force someone to tell the truth, we have managed to create a serum that fogs the mind from anything else."
"Fogs the mind… What does that mean?" She was intrigued.
"Essentially, the serum disrupts the neural receptors for imagination, and creativity." Hoskins explained excitedly, "Effectively, it prevents the subject from creating a lie. The brain is forced to rely on familiar knowledge: its most basic information."
"But, suppose the subject refuses to speak?" Gel Sadra questioned the Head Researcher. "The Science Ninja Team are known for their resolve, and even if they cannot form a believable lie, they are not easily compelled to speak, if they do not wish to."
"The serum also serves to stimulate the most basic emotions the brain is capable of." Hoskins replied. "That is: pleasure, and fear. The interrogator can choose to use various methods to bring forth these feelings, to manipulate the subject. Subjects who are filled with abject terror, or facing the denial of immensely pleasurable sensations, can be encouraged to speak, particularly if their minds are past thinking about the consequences of their actions, and they are focused on immediate repercussions."
Past thinking about the consequences of their actions… That had a nice ring to it.
"Very good. Excellent work." Gel Sadra was saying. But she was no longer listening to Hoskins' explanations.
The idea that the serum enhanced pleasurable sensations… this opened up many interesting possibilities, all of them linking back to the plan she had so recklessly begun the previous night.
Yes, it could be done.
As the Galactor Leader made her way through the base, her agile mind played with the possibilities, like a child exploring all of the facets of a new plaything.
That was all these dreams were, after all, a plaything… nothing to be concerned about… just base desires to be satisfied.
And once they had been satisfied, Galactor would conquer the Earth. Perhaps… perhaps even the very act of achieving these desires would bring the Science Ninja Team under her control.
Leader X would be pleased. He would not care how she did it, as long as she subjugated this planet for his rule.
Yes, this was going to work out perfectly.
88888
She began inspecting the latest Beam Cannon. This was the fourth one Galactor had managed to successfully install (she didn't count the ones located in bases that had been destroyed by the Science Ninja Team before they were completed) so she was used to the setup by now.
Quickly, Gel Sadra ran her eyes over the device, checking its design, construction, and installation. All looked as it had in Leader X's original prototype, except…
"What's that?" she asked the Base Captain, pointing at an unfamiliar panel.
"That's to get rid of the bats." the Captain replied. "The caverns above us are filled with numerous species of bats. In our tests, they interfered with the deployment of the Beam, weakening its signal."
"So, what does this do?" She was getting impatient. Why couldn't these people just tell her what was going on, instead of explaining too much, to make themselves sound important?
"It emits various high level frequencies, based on the Leapwave technology Leader X gave us a few months ago." the Captain rushed to explain. "It basically makes the bats think there are large predators around, and keeps them away. We need to initiate these frequencies about an hour before the Beam is to be activated."
"An hour?" Gel Sadra huffed. "That seems like an excessive amount of time. Can't you do any better than that?"
"No, Mistress." the Captain bowed low. "Since this base is located so far underground, we require that amount of time to ensure that the bats do not interfere with the Beam."
"Leader X will not be pleased." the Galactor Leader grumbled, staring at the device, but not really seeing it. Almost unconsciously, her mind returned to her plan for the Condor.
A sudden thought occurred to her.
"Keep working on it." she told the Base Captain curtly, as she swept from the room.
She walked as fast as she could toward her office. It wouldn't do to run, not with all of the men staring at her as she made her way through the Base. After a few excruciatingly long minutes, she reached her destination, shooed out the soldiers performing routine maintenance inside, and locked the door.
It was only then, that she felt it was safe enough to call up the file on her console.
She had been reading it just a few days before… just before she had begun having these dreams. The file contained information on Dr. Rafael, and his cybernetic experiments.
She knew that the Condor was a product of those experiments: in fact, he was Dr. Rafael's crowning achievement. None of Rafael's other subjects had integrated their cybernetic components so successfully into their human bodies. Galactor was therefore doing everything possible to gather information on the Doctor's work, in order to discover what weaknesses the Condor possessed.
Unfortunately, they had not been able to find a weakness, but there was something in this last report that she had recalled, when the Base Captain had been explaining the issue of bats.
Dr. Rafael had also discovered the Leapwave! She confirmed it, looking through the old reports. But more than that, he also used it to send out high-level frequencies that were virtually undetectable.
Galactor's information suggested that Dr. Rafael had placed Leapwave receptors inside all of his cybernetic creations. The supposition was that he used Leapwaves to summon and communicate with his cyborgs, no matter where they were located.
That meant that the Condor likely had such a receptor in his body!
If only she could determine which frequency was the correct one, Gel Sadra could summon the Condor to her, as easily as pressing a button.
Her plan was coming together, after all.