"So, Dr. Sorensen, I gotta ask you... Who's the Minotaura always clompin' down the hallways? That and why does she have full access to everything?" Nic asked, Nodding his head down the hallway where she had passed by them.
"Oh, her? That would be Alex, the other security guard around here, and I wouldn't recommend getting in her path... Most people have wound up with broken feet, and had to completely quit their jobs here due to the pain of walking afterward." Dr. Sorensen explained.
"Hmmm... She doesn't ever say much does she? I've seen her watchin' me when I'm coding for the security here, but as soon as I notice, she turns and leaves..." Nic said, slightly confused as to why.
"And then there's those gauntlets she always wears, those look like they allow complete and free movement of the wrists and fingers, quality stuff..." Nic commented, impressed.
"It's made of an unknown type of metal, that and the giant hammer she carries with her is attached to her arm via the cuff on her wrist, which all seems to be made of the same metal as well." Dr. Sorensen said.
"We found her wandering around out side the facility years before you ever came here, and she was unable to move due to her hammer weighting her down, and before you ask, yes she was malnutritioned enough to warrant that happening." Todd explained.
"As to the metal chains and gauntlets, she doesn't like to talk about them, as I surmise it has to do with a tragic past like so many others here..." The doctor explained further.
"Well, a small piece fell off the other day... I've been trying to make a small sample of the stuff, but I cant even chip a piece off with a diamond-tipped edge!" Nic commented. Dr. Sorensen stopped dead in his tracks, causing Nic to turn and stare at a frightened look on his boss' face.
"Make sure to give it back to her, please... Or you may not like her mood afterward..." Dr. Sorensen said with a haunted look.
"You... Okay, Doctor...?" Nic asked, concerned.
"It's nothing, just make sure to give it back undamaged, please..." Dr. Sorensen said in that same meek manner. Apparently he was truly afraid of what Alex would think of her missing chain link piece if it came back so much as scratched the wrong way. At any rate, Nic headed back for the security room, deciding to take a break, he had after all been up for the past 12 hours.
...
Nic woke up to the sound of keys being punched slowly and deliberately at the computer and slid one eye open carefully to see Alex, sitting in a rather large armchair that Nic normally kept to nap in, but had opted for a leaned-back chair with his feet propped up on the computer console. He then noticed she had moved his chair aside without so much as causing him to twitch, causing him to raise an eyebrow at that. He sat there for a moment looking at her work while remaining still and quiet until she noticed his breathing had changed, and she slowly turned around to look at him with a look that said simply, 'heheh... Hi...' She got up to go until Nic said,
"Well, let's see what you've been doin'... Just hang on a seco-Wow..." He said, noticing she had written a line of code that normally needed to input manually once every twelve hours, without any mistakes, no less!
"Is this why you were watchin' me all the time? You wanna learn this stuff I wouldn't mind teachin' ya... It would give me somethin' to do anyway, other than be an unproductive slouch." He commented, hoping she'd say 'yes.' Sure enough her face turned red as she grinned awkwardly and nodded and sat back down in the chair she had been in.
"Well, let's start with what you know and work from there, 'k?" He said cheerfully.
2 Hours later, Dr. Sorensen happened to walk by the Security office and catch a glance of Nic in Alex's lap, talking something about programming. It didn't register until he was already around the corner, which he wheeled around and ran back to the room, causing both Nic and Alex to jump, turning around sharply to see who had just scared them speechless. Finally Nic spoke up with,
"Eheh, hi boss.." He said sheepishly as the doctor came into the room, unaware of what was going on.
"Nic, why is she typing on the security computer? To my knowledge she's not qualified for that... Unless she actually knows how, then I would have no problem with it, surely." Dr. Sorensen said calmly, starting to catch on.
"Actually she's fixed 15 mistakes I made typin' in a certain line of code, it kept needin' entered into the system cause it was about 5 or 6 digits off... She managed to figure it out just by watchin' me every day and readin' a book on the stuff, she's a lot smarter than she's lettin' everyone believe, y'know..." Nic said as Alex chuckled to herself about it. Dr. Sorensen merely grinned and said,
"Very well, proceed then, but sooner or later one of you is going to have to teach me this stuff, I feel a bit left out of the loop..." He said, half-joking, half-serious.
"Haha, don't worry boss, I'll send her to your office here in a sec, how's that sound?" Nic said, taking the opportunity of his boss leaving himself open.
"Uhm... Oh... Kay... I'll be busy on my rounds in the meantime, but I have an hour or so break in roughly 30 minutes, so send her there shortly after that, alright?" He said, his face turning red. As he left and Nic was sure his boss was out of earshot, he looked up at Alex and asked,
"What's with the look he had? Ooooh waaait a minute... I know, never mind Alex..." Nic said, noticing she had the same look on her face as the doctor's.
"He's nice to me... He's always nice..." She said slowly in a slightly low but feminine voice.
"Alright, don't get too distracted, you've gotta teach him this stuff, mainly what I'm showing you here now so... He said hoping to get her back on track.
"Hey, tell ya what I'll do..." He said, reaching over into a drawer, pulling out an old laptop and blowing the dust off of it.
"You can show'im on this, and trust me it still works, I tested it myself, it's an oldie but a goodie, by a company a long time ago called 'Alienware,' and they made top-quality stuff." He said, handing it to her, also handing her the small carved stick she had been using to hit the keys with due to her fingers being far too large. She smiled sweetly and set back to work...
...
After awhile the doctor finally got back to his office to see Alex standing out side, clutching the laptop closely, apparently nervous about her teaching someone that had taught her for so long.
"Are you ready? I suppose Nic gave you that..." He said politely, pointing at the laptop. She merely grinned and nodded. They went into his office where a few hours passed of teaching material. Fortunately Alex phrased everything to where the good doctor could comprehend it all quite easily and soon the talk turned to mere conversation, mainly what other things Alex had been reading. Dr. Sorensen almost fell out of his chair when she replied,
"Lots of books called 'novels...' Not picture books, but word books... They're better 'cause they help me think..." She said honestly. It was soon apparent just how out of touch the Doctor had been with her lately.
"Alex, I'll be honest... I feel horrible that I didn't know any of this, I thought you were just a good friend, but The things you've been reading... What were these novels called if you don't mind me asking?" Dr. Sorensen asked, truly curious. When she began naming them off, she didn't stop until she was twenty-three titles strong and still going! Dr. Sorensen had to stop her politely to fathom all of this.
"All of those are classic titles, the likes of which are extremely rare... Where did you get them?" He asked, astounded that she could even read, let alone read such complex works of literature. She got a secretive grin on her face and didn't say anything further.
"Please, I have to know, Alex you must tell me!" He said excitedly. She got up and gently took him by the hand and started down the hallway with him, heading towards an older section of the building into the high-risk security wing, stopping at the dead-end at the end of one of the hallways. She took a small key from under the leather strap that covered her chest and stuck it in what appeared to be a mouse hole in the wall off to the side, and what happened next was amazing; The entire wall shifted back slightly and pulled apart vertically in the center, revealing a large cargo elevator, which they both stepped into as Alex pulled a lever to make it go down. They traveled along the shaft for about 4-5 minutes before coming to a stop. Alex pulled the hinged gate aside and walked down the hallway with the doctor in tow, leading him to a door that read,
"Hawethorne Military Library, All access below level 2 permitted..." Dr. Sorensen read aloud. Alex opened the door, walking in with him following after, when suddenly a voice chimed in with,
"Greetings, visitors, to the Hawethorne military-grade library... Please feel free to check out up to 4 books at a time, or browse around our large non-fiction and fiction sections..." It continues on for a while, stating historical facts about the rather large and dusty room, leaving the Doctor in a stupor.
"This... This is... Amazing..." He said, his breath nearly taken away by the mere sight of the place, forgotten long ago save for Alex. As he watched, she took two books out from the straps on her chest and placed them in a slot on a nearby wall.
"Thank you, book numbers 33-11G and 27-X have been successfully returned on account; ALEX... Please feel free to check or re-check out any of our 228.37 thousand titles we currently have on-hand, and please, have a nice day..." That same feminine voice said over some type of speaker.
"Alex, how ever did you find this place? It's really well-hidden..." Dr. Sorensen said quietly, almost as though afraid to do more than whisper. As Alex briefly told him, she had found a key jammed into the wall above in that same mouse hole, which was in fact a hidden keyhole. She could read some before she got to the library, but didn't really take off until she began from the ground up, learning first from the usual kindergarten-grade material, using comparison with the audio library then slowly working her way up the ladder. She had found some of the higher-learning books once she got a grip of the written english language and began immediately reading them one by one, until she had read nearly half the library itself! When he got done listening, he sighed and said,
"Alex, I'm sorry but I had no Idea you enjoyed books so much... Forgive me if I sound a bit rude but your type isn't very well known for that sort of thing, so naturally I couldn't have known... Alex, you've been doing this already but as long as you're okay down here by yourself you can keep coming here as long as you like, I swear to it." He said, holding up his hand boyscout style. She grinned widely and gave him a big hug, fortunately she didn't squeeze too hard being able to keep a small amount of control but a few pop noises could be heard from Dr. Sorensen's back.
"Yes.. *GASP* I-I like... YOu ToO, AleX...! CAn You *URK!* Put Me dOWn, Now, PLe-ease...? *Ow!*" He gasped heavily. There was one finale on the bull hug and admittedly, that was the one that got the crick out of his back, but the others did little more than stress him painfully. She gently set him back down realizing her mistake, and after stopping to check out another title or two, they set back towards above ground, with her happily clutching her new items. One of them was an old C++ Manual and the other was a book titled, 'A Wind In The Door' By Madeleine L'Engle. Truly that was her secret place, where no one could tarnish her enjoyment, and she could come to relax and forget about her past. The past didn't matter, for as long as she looked to the future, it was her light at the end of the tunnel. It was... Her freedom.