Generator Rex: The Modern Prometheus Chapter Four Directors Cut: "Schrödinger's cat "
Notes: On the matter of the title. I'm trying to take the theme of Schrödinger's cat (The idea that until a randomly determined event actually perceived it occupies all possibility at once. )and spin it into the idea that unless we actually bother to perceive the results we WILL end up with the less favorable outcome . Or in language normal people can understand If we leave things up in the air they will turn out badly because we didn't DO SOMETHING to at least try for a good outcome.
Does this make sense? OK on to the story.
Holiday looked at the skin-tight cotton thin weave of micro-circuitry Doctor Fell had in his hands.
"You want me to wear that? Am I jumping out of a cake?"
"Its is a sensor mesh suit Doctor Holiday we need readings now that you can move."
She snapped back.
"I've got swimsuits that give away less!"
Fell looked at her like it was still years ago, and she was just a lab assistant.
"If you will not cooperate, this is going to take longer."
"You want readings? Full body biometrics right? We have arm bands for that now, they are faster just as good, and I don't have to run around the zoo wearing a handkerchief!"
Fell lowered his head.
"You pulled out the STERILE testing lab and let Rex run about that horrid place? How do you avoid contamination?"
"The whole planets infected nothings sterile. . . except for Knights office. The entire building if fitted with a saturation alarm more than sensitive enough to let you know if theirs anything you need to worry about filtering out."
Fell looked up at her and for the first time since she'd known him he looked OLD.
"The whole world is just learning to live with the things isn't it? You'd think Schrodinger's cat would try to get out of the damn box."
Holiday hated herself more than a little, as she put her hand on the old mans shoulder.
"The cat can't understand its living and dead all at the same time, but I do understand Doctor. We are all trapped in a box with something that IS lethal and learning to just hope it doesn't kills us. That isn't right or natural."
The old man looked up at her, and for the first time smiled a bit.
"I suppose the rest of us will just have to fight that much harder to get out of the damn box."
Lying to him about what she could do was risky, and no matter what the reports said she couldn't be sure what he though until now. Holiday knew now he'd started to trust her, and that might be enough.
On a balcony high atop Providence Private Kenwyn Jones watching the sun go down, just talking on her cell phone and smoking a cigarette before going on shift. The phone however was playing an mp3 into an earpiece with the volume turned off. A tiny red glow light the growing darkness was easy to miss as a light on head set let someone whisper in her ear.
"Are you sure?"
Kenwyn took a drag of the cigarette, and answered.
"I'm positive she ripped into Six saying that her head was last years version of whatever Rylander put in the golden child's heart."
The whisperers response made her heart skip a beat.
"If this is correct my dear there will be a job offer extended you have my word."
"Thank you . . .my lord."
Rex rested his head on the mirror of the level 5 restroom room. He was ready to snap.
"Three weeks of this crap. I'm alone while I'm in the bathroom, and three, two, one."
As if on que a Providence grunt and enters a stall. The Evo glanced in the trash can at all the toilet paper he tossed in there a minute ago. If the grunt had to USE the toilet he'd have come back out to look around for a roll or at least asked Rex to toss him one if he needed it.
"Even in the bathroom."
He closed his eyes and tried to remember the last time he laughed it was when he was sneaking around with Holiday.
"She's in the same spot thanks to me."
Rex knocked on the stall with the grunt in it.
"Hay buddy, mind telling Six the dog needs a walk 'kay?"
Twenty minutes later Six was looking at him funny in the hallway.
"Everyone's still on the edge around here, you know that right?"
"You've had people in the room with me constantly for WEEKS. I've not gotten to ANY trouble."
Six shook his head so wanting to rip him a new one for running around with Holiday. That however was too risky to bring up, and Rex pulling this on him was either a dirty trick to try to get an ounce of freedom, or more likely he didn't think it was wrong and really did think he deserved a break.
"Yes you HAVE been behaving. One of these days we'll talk about that. I'm going to have to make some arrangements. Noah and BoBo need a break, so I guess you do too. The thing is this isn't over Rex not by a long shot, so do me a favor and tell me you won't do anything if I make this happen."
Rex looked confused.
"Umm what now?"
Six didn't blink.
"Doctor Fell has relaxed the restrictions on Doctor Holiday, and with the mole hunt on she's one of the few I can rule out. Shes still dealing with a lot Rex, so I want you to tell me you wont cause any trouble, because that will show badly on her. So if you do you'll have lied to my face. Understand?"
Rex to his credit looked him in the eye.
"I promise Six."
In the void Holiday labored at her command console.
" Status of all systems please."
The visual Holiday indicated all green, save for the eye. Her eye was a huge cost, and she'd need a prosthetic now. Her original was beyond saving and she'd need a replacement at this point. The cost she told herself was worth it.
"Reconnect left optic nerve, and give status."
The flashing symbol she now recognized.
"Oh yea that's what I wanted to see."
The work done for the first time since the system was "installed" resources became free and once labored processes began to speed up. Three hundred seconds later she sat up in bed feeling great.
"Oh yea today will be a good day."
"Here's to hoping I guess."
She sat up like a shot the bed sheet falling away from her and giving Six a quick show.
"WHAT THE HELL SIX!"
The man in green didn't seem to put off by her being angry and semi-nude.
"I wanted to catch you before you went to bed."
He took a pillow to the face, and excused himself from the room.
A minute or two later Holiday opened the door in long T-shirt reading "Angel Investigations" left over from college.
"OK AGENT SIX! Lets make this perfectly crystal clear! When I am in bed I am out cold unable to wake up for an amount of time related to the amount of maintenance I have to do. It is very disconcerting to wake up after being helpless to find someone in the room with you!"
Six leaned in whisper and drive a point home.
"Sorry I though that was another lie. Fell and approved you for lite duty, and Rex needs a sitter for a few hours at least. I suggest you get him straightened out because Callan and company have filled the void the past month."
She looked totally lost.
"You are putting this on me? How the hell do you do that?"
"I'm not, I'm just reminding you that regardless of whats going on we have a war to fight. You and Rex need to get over this, or rather he does. His biometrics have been all over the place, the rest of us have the luxury of just doing our job and letting the nights be however long they need have to. "
The Doctor started putting it together.
"Loosing sleep yourself Agent Six?"
"For a while yea. That's what you do when you lose someone. You ask yourself "how did I let this happen?", and I had to do that twice. I got over it, and I'm glad to have you back no matter how much you've changed, but we need to get back to fighting a war. Things can't stay up in the air with you two we just can't afford it."
She put her head down the last few years flashing before her eyes.
"So that's just it then?"
"I'm still on your side Sara, but we have just used up all the slack we have. Anything more and we will start judging our good days and bad days by the size of the casualty lists."
"Still the good soldier hu Six?"
He turned to leave.
"You can relieve me in the morning. I sent Noah home already he was looking like he needed it."
"Don't bother my sleep cycle is complete. I'll be ready in a few minutes Agent Six."
The door slammed as he walked up the hall.
Rex sat in the petting zoo wishing for a cheese burger from this dinner he knows two states over. Instead he sat underneath a tree with eyeballs on it.
"No Rex you need to behave! You need someone in the room with you all the time because you might run off or . . . .turn someone into something.. . . Blinky what I wouldn't give from just one person to say It's OK Rex I know your not Van Klies lite!"
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
"It's OK Rex I know your not Van Klies lite."
He looked up and say Holiday in her armor, he couldn't help but notice her eye was still not healed.
"Hay what are you all dressed up for?"
"I got half my job back, get up we are going out for some training."
Rex smiled and stood up.
"You mean they needed someone to take the dog for a walk."
"According to the paperwork it is an overnight desert survival training session. "
She watch him shake his head just a bit just like someone she knew.
"You know they are just giving us enough rope to hang ourselves right?"
"Hit the showers, I'll meet you out side in 20 I need to send an email then I'm good to go."
She winked at him with her good eye.
"Don't keep me waiting."
Doctor Holiday was so glad have this place back to being HER lab again. After cutting out her bad eye with the same level of care some people would give to plucking a hair she tossed it in a specimen try. Labeling it correctly to go with the emailed sent to Fell about an hour after the old man went off shift ensuring he wouldn't get it till morning. Placing the specimen tray where the email indicated he could find it to verify her findings she turned her attention to finding a replacement.
"Lets see what they have in green, don't want to clash with the one I have."
Looking though a choice of cybernetic replacement eyes meant for people who lost one in combat. Picking out an older model she held it up to her remaining eye.
"Here we go, nothing fancy, light weight, and it's even made by the Tyrell Corporation. Oh for the days when I was just an intern."
Attaching the implant to her optic nerve while sitting at her desk with the aid of a small mirror, activated the implant and shut herself down. Her body sat limp in an office chair while in the void the circle of light responded with lighting speed now that the repairs were complete, and its resources freed up.
"Reactivate left optic never turn the pain back on, and scan for new hardware."
The new organ popped up like she was installing a web came on a laptop.
"OK make sure nanotech repairs stop at the nerve, and reboot please."
One hundred and eighty seconds later she woke up and started getting use to not having one eye by looking at herself in the hand mirror.
"Oh yea, that's better. Wow the manual for this thing said 6 weeks of healing before turning it on. Being an EVO has its upside."
For the first time in a month she took a moment to just look at herself in the mirror. If their was a difference she couldn't see it. That didn't sit well with her.
"It's like looking at a picture of who I was really."
She pulled her hair out of that bun she'd been using for the past few years, and tied it in a pony tail.
"I love the long hair look, but something needs to change."
Another quick return to her circle in the darkness, and she entered a few alien symbols she hoped she understood.
"Now reset phenylalanine and eumelani levels and reboot please."
Rex met the Doc with a backpack at the main exit and smiled at the sight of a green haired Holiday walking over to him.
"Haha Did you play with hair dye or drop a test tube?"
"I was installing my eye and sent a wrong command. Which works perfectly by the way. "
She leaned in close and put her hand on his face. He blushed as she spoke.
"Maybe if your really lucky I'll show you my interface."
Rex looked like an anime character with a nose bleed.
A minute later they took off on his hover bike toward the valley below the base. In their wake it began with a tiny circle of red easily lost in the setting sun.
Rex shouted so he could be heard of the wind whipping in their faces.
"Sure you don't want a helmet? "
Holidays hair whipped in the wind as she answered.
"Nope I'm good! When you hit the river slow up and start looking for a wrecked pickup from the 20's. I've camped out here before."
Rex's bike machine stopped on a dime surprisingly, and she hopped off as it vanished.
At bit oblivious Rex tossed his backpack aside, plopped down on the dirt and spoke.
"Oh yea it's nice to see the sky again. I don't know how White does it."
She picked the pack back up, and started jokingly kicking him in the but to get him up again.
"Over here you! I have many fine rocks arranged around a fire pit I will lovingly compel you to find wood for a few feet this way. "
Rex muttered as he got back up and started rummaging around for scrap wood. With a thud he plopped a load of scrap into fire pit, as Holiday pulled off the top half of her armor revealing the same T-shirt she was wearing when she woke up today.
"There we go! Now pay attention this is how you start a fire in the field."
To Rex's amazement she pulled out the largest bottle of tequila he'd ever seen and poured a shot and a half worth on the dry wood, and fired a signal flare into the pit. It went up like lit match.
"Oh wait that's how you start a fire in A field not in THE field. We'll have to cover that next time."
The Evo's eyes got wide.
"Oh mi dios!"
She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him in for a kiss.
"Come on let's have some fun!"
Rex pulled back and his face turned grim. It was truthfully a new look for him in her mind he was always smiling.
"They are right to worry about you aren't they? It's not your fault I keep telling Six, it's all my fault. I'll make sure they take care of you and your sister. I promise you I will do whatever it takes to make sure your taken care of, and your sister."
She put her hand on his face, and smiled.
"How can you be afraid of your past? It's so clear you've nothing bad in you."
He replied in a heart beat like he was just waiting for someone to ask him that.
"I told you, I sold three people to a gangster. That stacks old school Rex in the jerk category. I'm different now because Six found me in a hole in the ground, and watched me like a hawk ready to. . . "
Her hand was still on his face, she knew he didn't want to pull away, and then she asked why.
"Ready to what?"
Then he answered and she knew she had him.
"Six never told me, but White told Noah it his job to kill me if I hulk out again. I know he looks at me like I can fix everything one day but I KNOW that I blank out because someone DID THAT TO ME to keep the damage I can do to a minimum. The people who made me knew I was trouble, and the put the dog on a leash before it bite someone. Fat lot of good that did them, but don't you worry I'm going to make it all right for you at least."
She smiled a sad little smile. She always knew Six was hiding something about the arrangement he made with White Knight, but she never guessed it went that far.
"Rex you didn't hurt me you saved me. The only thing I did was take a look at my life and decide I wanted to LIVE a little more. Do you really think I'd be out here id I didn't want to Rex?"
"No."
Six looked out over the desert from a balcony interned to house a rail gun if the base ever came under prolonged siege. The sun was rising, and he felt the weight of the past few weeks baring down on him. It had been a long road getting here, and after all of this the man in green couldn't help but feel tired, and just a bit alone. They where both still out there some where.
Foot steppes came up behind him.
"Hello Kenwyn."
"Sir, the Doctor doesn't need a babysitter anymore, and I haven't been given any new orders. I figured I'd check in."
He found himself smiling just a bit.
"Most people would take the opportunity for an easy shift. You're a good soldier Kenwyn."
"Thank you . . Six. "
She lite a cigarette and blew a puff his way without making it obvious she was doing it. As if on que he turned to leave, and she slipped one of three pistol like weapons into her hand. Kenwyn lined up a shot on Six's back and pulled the trigger. He ducked to his left the dart missing him by a mile as pulled his swords.
"It had to be you."
She pulled a second gun while firing off two more darts keep him at bay.
"It's nothing personal, Seven always said you where one of the good guys, but Daddy and his good wishes can't stop the future!"
He smashed the darts with his swords and charged. Before he was half way to her the second gun was brought to bear on him and she unloaded it at his chest. This time the projectiles where incendiary rounds designed to melt though the hide of the most powerful EVO's. Six's swords took them like rain on a windshield.
"Seven was a cold warrior, and Knighted agent of the British Crown. What do you think he'd think of a traitor?"
Kenwyn dropped the gun in her off-hand rolled to her right to avoid Six's charge. Her American accent went at the same time. Six could tell the neighborhood in north London were she picked it up even after all these years.
"I'd imagine it'd be something like "Tie her to the traitors gate and let them droned in the Themes". If only the old bastard had bough me dolly or some such I'd not be concerned with ending up on the wrong end of evolution!"
Impossibly he was closer to her then she though he could be and he kicked her square in the face making her regret not having her helmet on. To her credit she manged to stay on her feet, and put some distance between her and Six hoping he'd be looking to capture her and not go for the kill. She was right.
"Kenwyn put the gun down, and I'll make sure your father get a phone call. His connections will get you deported, and you'll probably not even see jail time, but don't be stupid enough to think Van Klies can turn you into anything more evolved than a slobbering monster!"
She opened up with her third gun, and again he blocked the rounds. This time the liquid nitrogen bullets shattered causing his super heated blades to shatter on contact with the cold just like the MI6 file the man in green suggested they would.
"Sorry love, but I get the star treatment."
Six was hit with a dart from the gun in her main had and it was over.
Three hundred seconds after she shutdown Holiday woke up in Rex's arms. It felt good waking up in someones arms even if she was only unconscious for a little while. Her time at her command console, her circle in the dark was uneventful. Considering it was the first time she'd done certain things since becoming an EVO that was a relief. She opened her eyes, and saw Rex's smiling face.
"That quick?"
She answered.
"That quick, on a good day. Some times things need fixing, or if I need to tell something to do something I can't tell them to do automatically yet. 45 minutes on a stair-master put me out for over an hour day before least."
"How the heck are you bothered by this?"
Holiday ran her fingers though his hair as she watched the sun rise.
"How are you bothered by something you can't fully remember? I just am, that's all."
"Yea will the suns in my eyes that bothers me so roll over!"
"It is not, I'm looking at the sun over your shoulder."
Rex stood up, and she felt a thud as she rolled out of his grasp and into the hard ground.
"Rex! Sheesh morning after behavior is another set of skills I'm going to have to teach you I guess."
He barked at her.
"The sun doesn't have a tower of smoke coming out of it!"
He was pointing towards the base.
Next "Void and Providence"