9. Standstill
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Gaster never drank coffee. Contrarily, he held a strong affinity for tea – tea of any sort, but always tea. He insisted different tea flavors could satisfy the needs of any mood or part of the day: there were morning teas and evening teas and energizing teas and sleep-inducing teas and happy teas and comforting teas and bubbly teas and sophisticated teas and all sorts of teas. Yet the scent that wafted from his cup this morning smelled distinctly non-tea-like. Sans caught a pungent whiff of coffee as the doctor shuffled past.
There were bags beneath his eyesockets. His expression was not the typical unfeeling ice, but a glum and cracking ice. Even his typical straight posture had been compromised by the slightest slump of his shoulders. Oh, he tried to hide it, as he always attempted to hide his personality beneath a proud and passive decorum. But Sans could read past the feigns of dignity – and besides, there was the coffee.
Gaster did not glance as Sans as he shuffled around the laboratory equipment and examined Rain's mechanical work on "the Machine". He would sip at his drink, grimace at the gross taste, then continue mulling over the technology. It appeared to please him as little as the coffee. Sans had to outright tap on Gaster's shoulder – quite a reach, given their height difference – before the Royal Scientist turned around and paid him heed.
"hey. you doing okay? you're looking rough."
"I feel a slight fatigue, but the day should progress smoothly enough."
Sans had to grab Gaster's should this time, as the doctor had again begun to turn around. The coffee sloshed angrily in the thermos.
"that's not an answer," Sans insisted. "look. you're always checking up on us. you can't get away with this. what gives?"
Gaster set down the coffee on the work table and gruffly responded, "You are accountable to me in the workplace, and not vice versa."
"quit being stubborn and lay it on me. good leaders are accountable to their followers too. isn't that what you're always saying?"
They glowered at one another, neither budging, neither speaking.
"okay. so. i don't like knowing other people's business," Sans said, finally breaking the staring contest. "hell, i really don't. but i'm also not in the mood to have a grumpy boss all day. spill it."
Not many individuals could have forced Gaster open. In normal circumstances, Sans would not have been able to crack the doctor open, either. However, Gaster must have secretly held a desire to communicate about the situation, for after studying Sans' eyesockets a moment, the Royal Scientist said, "I made the decision to shut down Marlett's project last night, and have been in the process of filing paperwork finalizing the end of the research."
"whoa. that's a… big deal." Doctor Marlett had been grinding at this topic for many years, far longer than Sans had even worked at the Royal Labs. "marlett? her team was trying to take human magic from the barrier, right?"
"Indeed. To clarify, it is not the substance that constitutes the barrier, but the residual human magic that lingers from when the magicians erected the barrier. That substance could be successfully extracted. Initial tests appeared promising," said Gaster. "We successfully extracted the human's source of power from the barrier region and could store it indefinitely without apparent deterioration to its properties. Because there is no purpose discarding the magic, we shall still maintain several containers of it in the laboratory storage. Regardless, from there, the experiment reached a standstill. This magic cannot be harnessed like direct SOUL power to open or influence the barrier. In its attempted use, it only returns to the barrier and mingles again with the rest of the magic. The only manner by which to prevent its reabsorption into the barrier is by applying the magic directly into oneself."
"you actually injected that stuff into you?" Had he heard the doctor correctly? Wings Dings Gaster might have allowed Rain to wear hoodies despite dress code policy, but he always strictly enforced safety measures. Injecting some foreign substance from another species into a monster's body sounded disturbingly…
And yet Gaster answered, "Yes. In limited quantities. Don't look at me like that." Gaster rolled the orbs inside his eyesockets. "Chemists in the CORE Laboratory carefully assessed the properties of the magic before any injection experiments occurred."
Sans continued staring. "magic can't be defined by chemistry. i'm not a chemist, but even i know that. kids in grade school know that."
"We evaluated the properties of the substance as best we could with both magic research specialists and chemists. Sans, please. It is no use pressing me on the matters of a cancelled project, especially one in which you were not involved, and therefore could not understand the carefully laid out logical details of our process."
"ok. you got me there. what were you saying about the project?"
"The magic could be utilized when injected into the body. It could be used against the barrier in the same manner as direct human SOUL power. Even then, readings indicated monster bodies could not successfully contain the magic in large enough quantities to be advantageous. The varying nature of monster and human anatomies restricts what monsters can absorb of the human's source of power. Applied in too large of amounts, and our simulations indicate a monster's physiology would be… compromised. The simulations were not definite, but they indicated that a monster might even be able to dust if they received too much of the substance."
"that's not too good."
"The magic is therefore useless. It cannot be utilized in any means to break the barrier. Our resources, funded by the monarchy as it is, can only extend so far. We much put all monsters, resources, and efforts into productive and promising research. I had hoped this would be a critical development and a means of escaping the underground. Yet I cannot deny the truth." Gaster shrugged, looking – for just a second – despaired. "The project heads nowhere. And thus, it is canceled."
Gaster had completely forgotten about the coffee. But he appeared as though he needed it, now more than ever. His face had again returned to its typical neutral countenance, yet his hangs hung glumly from stooped shoulders.
Sans rubbed his head, thinking. He never meddled in others' business and he preferred people kept their secrets to themselves. He rarely handled rants and he never understood how to comfort people. Whenever he tried, he felt as though he were fumbling in the dark. Yet he could not let this conversation hang in the air like this. He signed, "things aren't going well anywhere, are they?"
"I would say not." An icy response.
"i mean. we're pretty stuck here, too." He gestured toward the equipment Gaster had been prior examining. With all the modifications to the machinery, it appeared more like a porcupine of switches, knobs, and tubes than legitimate physics technology. "rain still can't figure out how to get enough power out of that thing. but… hey." He thought of something. "what about those blasters?
"those are sick.
"you're making progress on those."
The two of them, since Gaster's last public sparring session, had engaged in weekly private lessons. It had been slow progress teaching Sans how to use Gaster's invention. Sans had yet to successfully shoot one of the blasters, though he had at least progressed far enough to conjure one on command. His supervisor, meanwhile, increased the power efficiency and damage output of the blasters yet again, and could have taken out an army of humans with a single sweet of his tools. Sans would not have believed anyone could be a fraction so powerful had he not seen Gaster in the act.
"The blasters do consume my most attention currently," the Royal Scientist admitted. He seemed momentarily encouraged by the thought, but then finished glumly, "they, however, are no means of breaking the barrier. They can assist in killing humans. They cannot bring a seventh SOUL down to us."
Sans raised a hand to respond, but then realized he had nothing to say. Gaster had a point there. The blaster project alone could not open the underground.
"There may be only one way." Something strange sparked in Gaster's eyesocket. Something stubborn. Something adamant. Perhaps something not completely safe. "The project between you, Rain, and I would not be on hold if we proceeded to connect this machine to the CORE and adjusted its power output beyond cautionary calculations."
He had made his mind on it. Sans could already tell. He still poked back, "you mean break safety regulations." If Gaster were going to make a decision like this, he needed to avoid the euphemisms and take full responsibility and acknowledgement for what he was doing.
"We will go beyond the guidelines," Gaster admitted, if still selecting words that softened the questionability of his choice, "yet we shall still carefully monitor all equipment and research procedures."
"ok." At least this reinspired Gaster's motivation. And on the plus side, Sans would no longer be loitered about the office space, half-reading articles while wondering if his team project would be cancelled. He did feel some internal excitement they would now proceed forward to something new. Their next task would be to try to transport someone living – an incredible feat, if it were successful.
"Can you inform Rain of the motion?" Gaster asked. He glanced toward the door. Apparently, there were other matters to which he needed to attend. "I can send him official paperwork on the machine's transfer by the end of the day. In the meantime, I would be pleased if the equipment's transport could begin arrangements immediately. If at all possible, see to it that Rain installs the device before the start of the new month."