"Fringey…"
Summary: Sarah and her sisters see there's an even darker side to Dyad's little cloning-fest…
(Not sure about this one but while I await more details for "Nessun Dorma" I'll play round with this darker one and see how it goes. Afraid you'll have to consider this the Allison-Donnie-friendly corner of the OB multiverse. After all, she can't be veering toward insanity and he can't be a rat in every universe…)
Disclaimer: No copywrite infringement intended.
Part XI…
"So you're sure about this?" Art eyed Allison who looked around, somewhat nervously trying to affect a poised, policewoman Childs pose.
"Yeah, from what…I…" shrewd look… "Was told. The guy was locked up in here." Both looking about the rather decrepit place… "Tomas or Tomasz or Thomas or whatever…" she nodded. "Jesus freak, you know the type, Art. Natural crapplace…Uh, shit-hole…for a lowlife to hole up…" Shrewd, streetwise nod…
"Uh-huh." Repressed sigh… "And there was no sign of him or Helena later when…Your source checked?"
"None. But she was sure about him being here. And the cage is here." She noted, eyeing the cage in which Sarah had locked Tomas.
"Ok…Assuming Helena didn't finish him as well…Beth? Are you sure about Helena calling?"
"Well…Uh…Yeah, no question, Art. I was there and got the call. She survived, somehow."
"A bullet, you think, in the head? She survived that?"
"That's what it looked like to…Me. Of course, it was a pretty confused situation and stress you know can cause people to…"
He eyed her, frowning…
"I'm sure of what happened." She nodded. "Someone put a bullet in that psycho's head but she's lived to see another day."
"Ok." He sighed. "I don't think we can call in support on this one so lets just have a careful look around and I'll try to get a fingerprint for this guy, whoever he is. Give me the kit?"
She looked at the bag at her feet…Hmmn…Only thing around, so…? "Sure." Handing it to him, observing…Rather eagerly…As he set up.
"Childs? Why don't you have a look around while I do this?"
"Sure, Art." Nod.
He wagged a finger, drawing her close. "Don't touch anything you find…" he hissed.
"Right." She nodded, whispering back. "It's copacetic…Ok…" she raised voice… "I'll go and case the joint while you dust for prints, Art."
"Right…" he replied, drily.
"Art?" she'd come back in close, whispering… "Why can't we have support here?"
"Because they might want to know why we think Helena was shot in the head, Beth." He explained in low tone, patiently. "And since it wasn't with your police revolver, we would have to bring in a whole new person since we both know your other sisters Sarah and Katja are dead and ghosts don't shoot people that we know of." Hard stare.
"Ah…Right…" she nodded, sagely. "Good thinking. Well, I'll be about my look-see." She rose and went off…As he shook head.
Pausing to reach into his pocket, pulling out wallet…Photo tucked inside…He and Beth, grinning at each other on the steps of the station…She with mischievous look, holding a clip from his empty gun which she'd apparently snatched from him.
"This wasn't fair, Beth." He told the photo, stroking Beth's image. "And I won't let them get away with it." He put the photo back and opened the kit.
Sound of metal clanging far back in the chamber… "I'm ok, just a trash can…" apologetic call…
He sighed. "I'll do my best to protect your sisters…Of course a little help from you right now couldn't hurt." Wan smile.
FBI Lab, LA…
"So as you can see…" Amy lifted Louise's open head up slightly… "Sheldon? Hand me that paperweight I need a prop for the head here…" she reached for the paperweight as the lanky, frowning Sheldon handed it over. Placing it under the raised head…
"Her brain was severely underdeveloped…At least in the cortex and midbrain areas…It's actually amazing they were able to make her function as well as she did."
"Yeah…" Sarah stared at the open skull.
"The eyes of course never developed properly and were replaced by these artificial ones…First rate video cameras with a feed to the computer processors." Amy indicated the connection, moving the "eyeballs" with scalpel…Her gloved hands passing over exposed brain…
"Really quite a wonder, this one…"
"Lovely…" Sarah frowned. "They turned one of us into a walkin' remote control Barbie doll, is that the size of it?"
"Oh, hardly…" Sheldon cut in. "This is much more complex…And when you consider the integration of the computer interphase with the remains of her brain…Penny ought to consider getting one of these, Leonard, if they ever become commercially available…"
"Sheldon…Even I'm offended by that one…" Amy frowned as Leonard glared. "This is a hideous abuse of a disabled human being…And if they deliberately created the congenital damage to her brain…You people are monsters." She eyed Delphine.
"Delphine's not with Dyad anymore…" Cosima cut in. "And she never knew what they were doing, as far as they goes."
"Don't ask, don't tell, eh?" Sarah eyed Delphine who regarded her silently.
"Only following orders?" Amy suggested.
"Amy…" Howard urged.
"I agree with Amy…" the latest member of the group to arrive, Howard's rather petit blonde wife…Likewise a Ph.D, Sarah noted with sigh…Is every girl I'm gonna meet in this but Allison either an incredibly competent professional or a supergenius?...Bernadette Rostenkowski, said firmly. "Howard, this is what they did to your relatives seventy years ago…With less technology…"
"I know, Bernie…But…"
"But nothing…My husband is Jewish and my children will be half-Jewish. I'm not sitting back while some new group of techno-Nazis comes to power."
"And I'm part-Jewish…" Amy nodded in agreement… "And regardless of that, if I hate anything, it's scientists who sell out to Nazis or their ilk." She eyed Delphine.
"I'm sure Delphine here isn't a Nazi…" Leonard tried.
"Leonard." Sheldon, firmly. "You're a good person and you mean well but this woman ought to be in prison for this. Amy is right and I'm sorry for doing a Penny joke here, my bad…This is horrible…It's not Science…It's everything we should hate as scientists."
"Sheldon?" Raj stared.
"There are limits, Rajesh…And as my mom would say…We are the guardians of those little ones with no voice whom Jesus entrusts to our care, whether one actually chooses to believe in Jesus or not…This is not Science, it's torture and crime and abuse. Miss, I don't use the term often or loosely…" he eyed Delphine… "But your people are Evil…Off the scale of those I consider mortal enemies, even…And you are not a scientist. You've no right to the title shared by the likes of Galileo, Newton, Pasteur, Ehlich, Hawking, Crick, and of course, me."
"That's my boyfriend…" Amy beamed proudly.
"Please…" Cosima, desperately. "Delphine's risked her life to help us. She hates what's been done to us."
"Really?" Sheldon eyed Delphine. "I read the file on her Agent Broyles gave us. She worked for Dyad Institute and this project for years, she was involved with Aldous Leekie, that truly Evil man also wrongfully calling himself a scientist, and she's been lying to you and watching you for months. And this is the result of her work…" he indicated Louise…
"Sheldon…" Leonard, gently… "Point made and noted and you're right and I for one am very proud and impressed…But, lets back off a little, please?"
"Wait…You're right Dr. Cooper...Dr. Fowler. You are, truly…" Delphine nodded. "I did believe once, this work might benefit…That no one, especially the clones would suffer…And now, I see…I've helped create this…" she eyed Louise…Her voice quavering…
Cosima patting her hand…
"Then you must do everything you can to put an end to it." Sheldon, quietly. Amy nodding solemnly. "And we'll do everything we can to help you all do that."
Delphine nodded, quickly.
"What can you tell us about how the clone might have been controlled?" Broyles asked… "She wasn't independent, certainly?"
"No, not at all…" Amy nodded… "Our engineer Howard's been examining the interphase with Drs. Hofstadter, Cooper, and Koothrapali and they're convinced at the technological end as well that it was indeed almost a completely remote form of control…The computer here…" she indicated the body… "Only functioned to integrate and connect the various systems at a basic level, actually mostly relying on the remaining human brain elements. After all, much of our brain function is autonomic and involuntary, controlled at a fairly low level of neural organization. It's only the higher activities involved in cognition…And fewer of those than you might think…" pleased smile… "That's a pun of sorts…It's only those that are really done consciously."
"Then some sort of signal must have been utilized to control the woman…" Broyles suggested.
"A very unusual signal…" Sheldon noted. "Too much information was required to control her for any tasks for a mere radio or microwave signal…No, this was done on the quantum level…They had very sophisticated physics involved here. This is years beyond anything in the mainstream. Though I've done some theoretical work on the subject myself..."
"But not outside fringe speculation?..." Broyles eyed the group.
"Something like this has been kicked around for years…" Howard noted. "Quantum computing, quantum teleportation, it's all related."
"What Howard is trying to say in his limited, engineer's way…" Sheldon began…
"Sheldon…" Bernadette glared.
"Yes, Sheldon's interest in the field being his desire to upload his consciousness into either a near-immortal, near- indestructible android or an orbiting space platform." Howard noted, with grin.
"He'd only experiment on himself, though..." Amy insisted as Cosima and Sarah eyed Sheldon. "Really..."
"I see…Highly advanced and the sort of thing only a cutting edge place like Dyad could have employed." Broyles noted, cutting the spat off quickly.
"Assuming Dyad has a rather excellent biophysics department…" Leonard noted.
"Which they do…" Cosima sighed.
"This is so sad…" Rajesh eyed the corpse… "Your sister never had a life and was nothing but a tool to these people."
Rather makes me want to be a hair kinder to our tragically repressed serving class back home...He did not say.
Maybe I could get Dad and Mummy to do an appreciation day or something...
"I'm afraid that's all any of us are to them, Rajesh." Cosima noted quietly. "It's looking like Dyad decided to do a full range of genetic manipulations at a time no one had a very clear idea for what genes controlled or affected what…"
"But not satisfied with lying to us and making our lives a mockery, even killing us on some experiment schedule, they're using some of us to kill people. Just to prove they can, it looks like…Seems." Sarah, grimly...Quickly correcting a slip to Sarah tone…
"Schedule…" Cosima pondered. "Yeah…You know…The more I think about Helena's killing spree and her not killing you, Beth, when she could've…I can't help thinking there was more than some bizarre religious nuttiness at work there. After all, we have no proof Tomas' group was really independent of Dyad. Maggie Chen worked for Dyad, at least in the past."
"This Helena was killing you on a schedule?" Broyles eyed Cosima.
"Is, maybe…We thought she was dead but Beth got a call…After her supposed demise…"
"Unless Tomas and co had a back-up, at least voicewise…" Sarah noted. "So Dyad might be using Helena with Tomas' group as a front?"
"I can't see why else they'd care to do it in order…" Cosima sighed. "Kill the ones who are reaching the end of their usefulness…Maybe they even meant to be merciful, in their twisted way."
"That would mean whichever of you is ill would be next on Helena's kill list…" Howard eyed Cosima.
"Yeah…I'm expectin' a visit… she nodded wanly… "Though Helena's motivations may have changed since…" she eyed Sarah. "…Beth told her Tomas and his group were just using her."
"Yeah. But it might not be just those of us with that kind of aliment." Sarah noted. "One of us Helena came after wasn't sick like Cos or Katja…But she was severely depressed, even suicidal."
"Depression and bipolarity have genetic markers…" Sheldon nodded. "And the details are still a mystery. Yes…It stands to reason they would want to take advantage of the opportunity to do some advanced testing." he noted. "You're the perfect experimental group for genetic manipulation…Identical clones but for whatever Dyad and nature did…And Dyad probably did its best to rule out Nature...Except…"
"Except in Sarah and Helena's case." "Beth" nodded. "And we've seen evidence that had a big effect on their development."
"Yeah, I agree, Sheldon…It would make quite a study, however immoral. Was? Is she dead? I'm sorry…" Leonard eyed the two…
"Actually, no…I got lucky…" Sarah smiled. "Guess surviving Helena and getting a handle on everything brightened my outlook." She was startled at Sheldon's gentle pat. As were, apparently, his own friends…
"You are a child of the light, Beth…A radiant angel, my mom would say…Like my Amy…" he smiled. "And that light will destroy this darkness…Not meaning to suggest I'm a member of any nutty religious group apart from my coerced non-participatory membership in my mom's church."
Dyad Field Facility, outside NYC…
Leekie, Olivier II, and Olive, looking reasonably alert and friendly…Along with a fourth individual in a body suit…What appeared to be a vast net of electrode point connections covering the suit…
"Well, here we are, safe and sound." Leekie noted. "Simon, get Olive comfortable on that couch and disconnect."
Simon, inwardly sighing…Kinda enjoyed being Olive for a bit…Nodding in suit which caused Olive to nod with same look as well. A moment later she sat quietly on the couch and seemed to go immediately to sleep…Simon pulling off the suit, a latex affair rather like a full cover scuba diving suit…Revealing him a slight, dark-haired figure, a bit sheepishly staring at his companions.
"Must be quite a trip with the improved interphase…" Leekie grinned. "Wish I had time to try it again myself."
Sound of a car pulling up…
"And here she is…Our next best operational choice after my dear wife…" Leekie beamed.
Firm knock… "Aldous?" call.
"Rachel…" he opened the door to view a calm and composed Rachel Duncan who eyed him coolly.
"All ready for your little amusement park ride, sweetheart?" he beamed, indicating Olive, head back on the couch.
"A pity Mother can't see the forest for the trees, Aldous…" she noted, glancing at the body suit on floor.