Interesting... albeit inconvenient. Gaster watched, out of sight, as the king wrote down his plan onto a sheet of paper amongst a disorganized stack. The letter, addressed to Gaster himself, demanded that the doctor show more signs of progress from his research. Time was limited, It seemed; the lifespan of the human specimen would be less than the doctor had hoped. From king's writing, it was apparent that a set date was not planned, but it would undoubtedly be with the near future. Gaster would have preferred more time; the preparations had only recently been finished. Still, as long as the prince was not told yet, getting him to cooperate would be much easier.
Gaster switched from his view of the throne room to the prince's. The specimen in question was asleep on the bed. The shoulder wound it had seemed to be healing nicely. However, there was one problem with the tray of half-eaten food on the floor. It contained a piece of bread with various bite marks, a few stray vegetables, no meat; Insufficient nutrients. Still, its' body would likely be strong enough for the experiments.
Gaster's fragmented perspective faded in and out of darkness to various other parts of the castle. The main hall, the garden, all the different rooms in the small house within the castle. Yet he still could not locate the young prince. It was approaching the appointed time, but the prince and the human had not yet disembarked to the laboratory.
With little else of value to gain, Gaster let the visions of the castle fade. His field of view returned to its' normal, fragmented perception of various parts of the lab. The physical body of the doctor was standing in the cramped office that was used on many occasions for performing tests on the specimen. However, the doctor was able to view the currently unnamed machine. The doctor was about to begin another test on its' systems to insure it worked without fault.
Gaster willed the floating arsenal of hands to the dials. As each one moved, the corresponding portion of his field of view moved with it along with the actions and locations of every one. The hands were a sort of eyes, more efficient than the biological ones given to him upon his time of creation. After the check, he concluded that everything was in perfect working order.
After another peek into the inner walls of the castle. He noticed the prince had finally returned. Unfortunately, Gaster's coverage did not extend to the whole of the Underground. It covered most, but not all. This was something the doctor wanted to remedy at some point, but It was low on the list of priorities due to the presence of a live human specimen.
The prince was proving to be vexing. Now he was in the presence of the human but no action was being taken to escort it to the laboratory. But soon. Soon. The doctor needed to exercise patience.
Finally, the prince and the human only now decided it was time to leave. It was already five and a half minutes passed the designated arrival time. How very unprofessional. All Gaster was able to do at that moment was to do the inefficient practice of letting his mind wander. Daydreaming. The machine had undergone various checks, all resulting positive and Gaster had reviewed his notes many times. No errors, nothing to be tweaked. Just waiting, and thinking. Thinking of how this day would be a breakthrough for science as a whole. Yet there were other thoughts that picked at the doctor's complex mind.
Gaster recalls the conversation with a former assistant over her theories on the concept of magic. Magic was used to describe the extra-ordinary actions some monsters could do at a distance, like the royal family's mastery of fire. Yet it was also used to describe the complex chemical and physical compounds that comprise monster anatomy. Magic was also used to describe the undefinable like the concepts of love and happiness being considered a form of magic. The assistant presented the Idea that all these separate concepts of magic were interconnected with the physical as an overarching power that governed the universe.
It was likely the single most non-sensical idea Gaster had ever heard. This was the realization that the assistants were only a burden. This conversation would be remembered simply as "the twenty four," after the number of times the former assistant grossly overused the term. After the twenty four, Gaster herded all the assistants to the lower levels of the lab and delegated them all to position of "test subjects." Their contribution proved more useful than that of their unfinished experiments.
The human specimen sat on the table and the prince stood by the elevator doors.
"I'm going to need both of you to remain completely silent for this next part." Gaster said.
"Why?" Said the prince somewhat defensively. Gaster willed a few of the extra appendages to grab and turn on a handheld mechanism.
"Sound will interfere with the device. It is very important that you remain quiet." Gaster noted the glances among the prince and the specimen.
"Fine," the prince responded flatly.
Gaster then preceded to do the most mundane and redundant tests he could think of. Basic medical practice such as tapping the human's knee to test reactions or even taking measurements that the Doctor already had on record. Things were beginning to take effect.
The young prince was beginning to get a bit antsy, fidgeting with his fingers and tugging at his sweater. Gaster waited a few more minutes before turning off the device.
"My prince, the test has ended Gaster began. "However, there will be another similar one shortly. You may leave now if you wish to no witness something that bores you."
"I'll stay," was the frank, unexpected answer. This would not do. The prince needed to be in a position where he could not interfere. Murder would not be useful to the doctor since it would only lead to investigation from the Royal Family, along with decreased cooperation from the human specimen. If the prince were to leave and not witness the experiment, he would be more likely to return with it another time.
"Very well," responded Gaster without missing a beat. The doctor, of course, already had his backup plan, albeit slightly more contrived. Roughly another hour passed of complete and total silence. During which, Gaster took what was essentially a powered, but unused, drill and held it up to various parts of the specimen's body as if pretending it was an important instrument for study. On multiple occasions, the hand controlling the device would subtly jostle the battery, causing it to emit a piercing warning sound. After a time, and with the knowledge that the prince had taken notice of the sound, Gaster spoke.
"It appears this instrument is not performing its' function. My prince, I believe your presence is causing interference with the measurements." Gaster said matter-of-factly.
"And…?" responded the prince, hints of confusion pulling at his face.
"Would it be too much to ask you to leave for a time?" Gaster noted the long gaze that the prince and the specimen held.
"It's okay," said the specimen, breaking, what Gaster presumed to be, an uncomfortable silence. "I'll be fine."
"... are you sure?" The prince responded hesitantly.
"Yeah, It doesn't even feel bad. Actually, I don't even feel anything at all. We can talk later, okay?" Which the specimen followed with a reassuring smile. The way the muscles in face moved told Gaster that the specimen was being genuine. The prince wrapped his finger on the wall he was leaning against before he pushed off from it.
"If you say so. So how-" Before he could finish the thought, Gaster willed a hand over to the control panel on the door. It rapidly input the sequence to have the elevator go to the upper level of the lab and not come back. The prince's tensed up only for a moment, took one last long look at the specimen, then walked inside the opened doors.
As soon as the elevator doors close, Gaster wasted no time. The specimen, unsurprisingly, jumped as two of Gaster's hands raised it to its' feet. Another opened the small door at the corner of the room.
"H-hey, wait-" the specimen protested as Gaster willed the hands, still holding the specimen's shoulders, to move toward the dark opening. Finally, It was time. The door closed behind the specimen.
Still in the first room, a hand pushed a switch. Gaster was facing the glass window on the same wall as the door. A control panel slid out of the wall and rested on the table. At the same time, the metal plates covering the glass slowly slid to the side and the lights of the newly revealed room flickered on. The size was much bigger than the small excuse for an office. Yet it looked small due to the giant machine that took up most of the space. In the center, where the specimen was now being dragged to, was an operating table.
"What are y-you doing?" the specimen continued to ask, the genuine sense of safety from the earlier smile completely gone. Gaster did not have the time to waste on pointless answers.
Gaster, focusing on manipulating the particles in the air into more useful states of matter, summoned more hands; one for each limb. The total of six hands, two under the shoulders, one for each wrist, and one for each ankle, grabbed the specimen and set it, arms out, onto the table. A hand inside the office pressed a button on the control panel on the wall and metal clamps restrained the specimen's arms and legs.
Over were the days of the mythical and the unexplained. Everything happens for a reason, or complete randomness. Soon, Gaster would hold the knowledge of all living things. The soul, the very essence of life, soon all its' secrets would be quantifiable. Physics, chemistry, logic, all things can be explained.
The specimen was continuing to orally protest and physically struggled, exhibiting increasing signs of anxiety, but Gaster paid it no mind. A hand pressed a series of buttons and the machine initiated its' start up procedure. Various metal plates, covered in lights and instruments converged over the specimen. When it was fully surrounded, one might say the machine resembled some sort of jaw of some wild beast, on the cusp of biting down on its' prey. Observations could still be taken as the inside was visible through a small gap.
Another series of buttons was pressed. Two metal rods descended from the roof of the machine and pressed firmly into the specimen's shoulders. Otherwise the squirming and movement would throw off the machine. It seemed the specimen was completely immobilized. Everything was in place.
Gaster very rarely indulged himself, but on the edge of learning such wonderful information, the doctor decided he would relish a small act of sentiment. He wanted to see his grand experiment with his own eyes, not those of the artificial hands he often uses for sight. Still ignoring the specimen's cries, Gaster concentrated. The fragmented vision that he perpetually saw faded into utter darkness. Then the doctor felt something.
The various parts of Gaster's face cracked and popped as it elongated. It felt like the mouth and jaw were being awkwardly pulled to the floor, and the crown of the head to the ceiling. There was even the odd sensation of the cracks widening in his eye sockets. Then vision slowly returned, blurry and out of focus. The head slowly moved around, joints in the neck popping from extended disuse.
Gaster looked through the windows with original, non-imitation eyes and saw that the specimen had managed to gaze back. The angle was awkward, as the specimen was still strapped to a table, but the two beings still locked eyes for a moment. The only difference was the specimen looked like it was on the edge of insanity, while Gaster had never felt more sobered.
One more series of buttons was pressed and the machine reached its final stages of preparation. A red light began to bathe the specimen, even spilling into the surrounding room and the office where the doctor stood. The machine emitted a low hum that resonated through the very floor. Gaster could feel the vibration through the wall. So relaxing was the hum, that even the panicking specimen ceased its' movements and lay in pacified wonder for a moment.
So relaxed, Gaster observed, that it did not even notice the swirling red matter emerging from its' chest at first. Of course, it tensed when it became aware its' own soul hovering above it. Gaster was no longer focused on the specimen, but instead the physical manifestation of a human spirit. The shape of the organ was hard to define, but resembled what earlier experiments had predicted it to look like. Strands of red wove around one another, weaving back down into various parts of the specimen's body. The strands, like veins, along with the red mass in the center, the soul resembled that of the human circulatory system.
Gaster's painstaking efforts of using low powered beams of various particles to map out the soul was finally paying off. Even the one specific substance the soul possessed that seemed to extend into the fourth dimension was accounted for. Yet, the doctor noticed something odd when checking a graph on a computer monitor.
The Chara specimen appeared to have more of the specific substance that allowed for this spacial and temporal abnormality than was predicted. Perhaps Gaster's calculations were wrong, or maybe it varied from human to human? If Gaster extracted samples of this substance would the specimen lose control of some special ability associated with it, and could Gaster gain it instead? Questions, questions that could be answered. How very interesting. Gaster wanted all of it.
Magic, impossibility, faith, emotion, love; all vices created by the weak-minded in an excuse to not search the for clear and hard truth. Gaster would not let such things as the monster king's desire for surface domination to get in the way of research. The doctor would tear the specimen's essence to pieces before giving up the opportunity for study. Asgore would take notice and actions would be taken by him at some point, but the pros far outweighed the cons.
The preparations were complete. Gaster with original physical hands pulled the lever. What looked like hundreds of hair-sized tubes immediately shot out of the various insides of the machine's inner chamber and converged on the mass at the center of the soul. The noise assaulting the doctor's sense of hearing was somewhat annoying. Not the sounds the machine and its various components made, but of the loud sounds the specimen was making to express its increasing discomfort.
But yes, yes! Gaster watched through the window at the corner of the room as a glass tank slowly filled with an ethereal red solution. The doctor let his natural limbs go slack, returning to the almost lifeless form of greater efficiency. Now multi-tasking; checking charts, various components of machinery, the previously mentioned glass tank, all like it was a normal run-of-the-mill day of testing.
There only difference was that this experiment did not end horribly, unlike when the doctor performed this same experiment on himself a long time ago, back when he could truly consider himself a "he." In fact, to add onto what he would gain from this event, Gaster learned a little bit about the capacity that the human lungs and vocal cords had for maintaining a strong tone for an extended period of time.
After the first hour, the wild cries had diminished but were still very clearly audible. By the second, It was a fit of labored breathing, wheezing, coughing and more attempts at continuing their likely involuntary expression of their current state. By the third, it was a few moans, whimpers and half-hearted attempts to still struggle free. By the fourth, its' expression was completely slack, there was no noise what so-ever. Gaster knew from experience that the sensation was not any less severe for the specimen, even if the body could not accurately express it.
The glass tank, was now almost completely red with solution. Readings seemed to indicate there is still much more available for extraction. However, the doctor decided to deactivate the machine, using the more efficient floating hands. He had already gone over the scheduled time. The last thing he wanted was to be searched by the Royal Guard due to lack of punctuality.
The various tubes removed themselves from the specimen's soul. The lights faded, and the humming stopped. The various metal plates that made up the small chamber retracted. Now the machine looked like it was nothing more than some thing that had unused for years. The only light now was the brilliant crimson which emanated from the nearly full tank.
Oh, what answers it held. One could almost call the sight beautiful. One of lesser intelligence, of course. The doctor had no further use for the human at this time. The clamps that held down the specimen's arms unlatched with a click. It still did not move. Gaster, almost lazily, used the extra appendages to scoop up the specimen, type in the correct code onto the elevator control panel and dump the human inside when the doors opened. There was not even any concern as to its' survival. Perhaps a fresh specimen such as it could be useful later, but for now, even if it was dead, the Royal Scientist was more than content.