"A DIFFERENT BEGINNING"

"It would not matter if you came into work early. Something always seems to get in the way." The man sighed.

His name was Dr. T. Richardson. He stood about 5'8, had short blond hair, yet was a little lengthy at the top that had waves. It was mostly untamed most days. He wore glasses that never sat well on his face. He hated fixing it often and making another appointment to get them adjusted was time wasting to him. He was thin, broad shouldered, never really smiled much, and always looked tired. He was one to overwork himself after all. By his side was a child the age of ten. This was his niece. Both of them had stepped onto the train.

Her name was Lira. She held onto his hand wherever he went. Getting lost was easy with so many coats walking around. She wore glasses as well but mostly for reading. She kept her long blond hair tied up in a ponytail. Her past was a bit complicated as a child. Her father was never at home. She did not know where her mother ended up after her birth. Her own brother who was five years older than she, would never speak of her. Her brother, Matthew tried his best to raise them both, but it was too much for a child to do. A father that was never around, a mother that went missing for whatever reason, they were left to fend for themselves. Lira begged her uncle to help out.

Dr. T. Richardson hated his own brother. He, himself could never start a family due to complications of his own. He was awkward in social areas and behavior, never found anyone he could connect with, mostly kept to himself, yet he let his mind wander on things no other human would normally think about on regular levels, such as aliens and other worlds. He was curious. When Lira reached out to him, there was no way he could say no. Matthew chose to stay with his own father while Lira wanted to be out of a depressing situation. Richardson did not know how to take care of children.

Dr. Richardson was good friends with Eli Vance. He would get tips once in a while since Eli's daughter was just 4 years of age. Lira did love hanging out with Alyx when given the chance. The train came to a stop a few minutes later to let on another scientist at his usual spot. The scientist got on as soon as the doors opened.

"Good morning, Dr. Freeman!" Richardson greeted. "You are late today as well. No worries. I have been seeing a lot of other scientists scrambling about. Today has been such a mess."

Before Gordon could answer, the train began its movement again with a bit of a jolt causing the three to lose a bit of balance before setting themselves straight. Gordon looked at Lira and waved while she waved back. As the intercom played its message it does on a daily basis, the visuals they passed by were in production. Barney banging on his door to be let in, rockets being built, and lasers being checked to make sure the readings were right. As they came across the last area, there was a toxic spill. On the other rail system was another train at a halt that had two passengers inside. One being a scientist reading a paper and the other being a man in a blue suit carrying a briefcase.

Lira pressed her face against the glass keeping her eyes on that man as they went on by, her pressed face leaving behind a very odd impression. Dr. Richardson pulled her off gently yet with haste.

"Don't do that to the glass, they will have to clean that now," he lightly scolded her.

"Sorry," was all she mustered before pointing out, "I just saw someone new."

"We don't need them thinking we are weird then, do we?"

"What is normal?" she asked her uncle.

Gordon only smiled. Richardson looked at him hoping that he would be backed up, but Gordon said nothing as he kept his focus on the stop they were approaching.

Once their train came to a stop, they were greeted by a guard that let them out. Richardson gave his goodbyes to Gordon as they headed in different directions, Lira being right by her uncle's side. He went down a path to get to a different desk once passing a door and greeted by another guard.

"There you are, Dr. Richardson! Seems everyone is running late today."

"Dave, do you have an explanation with that toxic spill we just passed to get here? That was too close to us and I'm sure it was radioactive."

"Shit! That happened?" Dave checked his computer to confirm it. "Yeah, that is recent. Just happened, sir. Sorry about that... We will have to get you both checked out now."

"Will I still have kids when I get older?" Lira asked, butting in.

"I don't think you need to worry about that right now," Richardson answered her.

"Come on, you two." Dave got up and let them in to get checked out. He then got on the phone to get someone on down to help out.

There were no signs of radiation on either of them. It may have been a relief for them, but not so much for the scientists in the lower section that were trying to escape the spill. They were too close to it without protection. Richardson and Lira were on their way walking to the labs. Another guard let them in after greeting them.

"I'm gonna miss my show," the guard complained.

"You have the monitors to be keeping an eye on, Earl," a scientist scolded. "How can you watch TV at this given time when you are on duty!"

"It's called lunch break." Earl shrugged.

"Not to jump on on this," Richardson butted in. "I need to know if the weapons department has anything to report while I'm up here. I know I have a meeting I am late to."

"Sorry, Dr. Richardson. The system has been down for a while now. I can't access any files."

Richardson glared a bit. "Dave was able to check on the spill that happened earlier. Care to explain why he could access files?"

Earl sighed in irritation. He tried once more and then moved the monitor to show to Richardson, he still had the blue screen of not getting anywhere. "Look, doc. Some areas may not be affected, but we sure are and the main lobby is as well. A few locations are lucky to have a connection!"

Richardson nodded. "I apologize..." He rubbed his temples.

"Sir, it's ok. Many are on edge since this place seems to be having more issues than usual, especially on the big day."

Richardson watched the other scientist walk away before facing Earl again. "Wait, what big day? What was I not told?"

"All I know is, Freeman is helping out in the test chamber with a new sample. A bigger sample at that."

"We can already go to Xen... What is the point now?" Richardson waved it off before the guard could answer. "Forget what I asked. Is the conference room open?"

The guard nodded. "Yes, sir. I don't know if they are still in there however."

"I will have to risk that chance."

Richardson took Lira to the only unused room and turned on the lights. "You can have fun in here while I am in my meeting. After this, we can go see your friend, Alyx, ok?"

Lira nodded with a big smile.

"Your toys should be in the metal closet then. I rather you do this than being part of a boring meeting that would lul you to sleep."

"I can draw on the white board though."

"I know," he reassured. "Although I don't think they want to see dinosaurs eating each other and they might have it in use as well. Room could be needed. I am sorry they are very boring and a little mean."

"It's a waste of ink..."

Richardson recalled those very words from those scientists. The way how Lira said it was sad. "I will sneak in a marker for in here! How about that?" He saw her nod. "I don't mind sneaking some things in here just for you. Oh, thank Gordon on this, but check the vent panels when you can. If you get hungry, there is a snack and a soda right there when you open the panel not screwed in. Just... don't go crawling through them...again..."

She giggled and went for her toys in the closet. He left the room. Lira pulled out her plastic dinos and godzilla toys. She had one small box that had cardboard cut outs of effects and background sets like fire, water and trees. Small models of mountains and forests were pulled out next and carefully. Her uncle helped make those with her some time ago. She checked the door to make sure it was locked. Then she started to move the tables over to a wall and began stacking chairs on the table. Lira climbed up those to reach for a camera on the wall. She knew not to mess with the security cameras, but she did it anyway. She checked to see if it was screwed into the wall and she she saw it was never fixed for that purpose, she got back down while carrying that camera and set the camera on the ground. She then set her toys in line of sight of the camera and started to set up a scene.

"Larry, the dino is on another adventure today!"

Earl was snacking on a thing of chips, watching the monitors carefully. His focus was on Dino Adventures. Godzilla just met with Larry and already a fight broke out.

The meeting Richardson was supposed to attend had fewer members since the testing was today and he was running thirty minutes late. He felt like he was the only one not informed on this matter. Everyone he walked passed seemed to have been busy and talking about the test. He sat in front of the three only present around a desk that was supposed to have paperwork present. There was nothing out today.

"Since the others are at the test chamber, there will be nothing much to discuss, but what we can remember off hand," spoke one scientist. "This can resume after it however. The design of a new weapon seems to be going rather smoothly!"

"Your niece's suggestions on an idea sparked creativity," another chimed in. "A gun that shoots high focused energy blasts in a sphere like structure and can be charged for more power making the sphere larger! We have a weapon in development already that is still in questionable works with the same sort of mechanics in mind. Her idea may be able to assist us better by design."

"It's not a very good prototype," the third one spoke out.

"Both are being worked on nonetheless," the first one said with a bit of encouragement in his voice. "When she gets older, she could have a bright future here."

"Indeed. What was that game called again that she told us about?" the third on asked. "Super... Meteor or something like that? We could use more ideas like that."

Richardson sighed silently. This was just a waste of time without the rest around. Seeing the designs of the weapon they were talking about would be so much more helpful. This was the report he needed, but that computer just had to be blue screened. He finally spoke up. "So I hear this sample is being tested... How big is this one? I know this topic is about Lira, but if we have to wait..."

"It is the largest one we have ever seen!" the first one told him

"About a head and a half I would think..." the second one chimed in.

Richardson lightly shrugged. "We can already go to Xen. What is the point in all this?"

"You think our technology can handle doing this every time?" the third asked him. "We want to make a better way without things blowing up or being set on fire! Just because we can get there now does not mean casualties are not at stake. We have the means to go there, but we need to make sure we stay up to date and even be improved. It's progression. It's science, Richardson."

"But using just a crystal," Richardson slightly asked in a way. "It may take years with the size of the one found. Who found this? We have had a hard time collecting anything bigger than our own hands."

"You are not the first to ask this and I understand, this is not really your field of work," the second one spoke up. "This one was brought to us. He refuses to tell us how he was able to get it."

"Who?" Richardson asked.

There was only silence and the look of confusion on all their faces.

One spoke up. "We do not know his name. Any information is classified and is withheld from us."

"The man in blue," Richardson muttered as a guess, yet was still able to be heard.

A scientist nodded. "The very one. He shows up from time to time."

"He asked about the new weapon," one scientist said to the others. "I am not sure why he has taken interest in it or how he found out about it."

"But it's still in development. It is far from being complete."

"I don't like this guy," Richardson told them. "Already giving us things we cannot use that would make our equipment not work or get set on fire... Now requesting something he should not know about as of yet or even if it will be finished with time to spare! We need funding to fix all the problems we have going on right now. We need safety."

"Believe it or not, that is a meeting waiting to happen soon. We have been trying to contact Dr. Breen for this very problem for some time. He keeps reassuring us that he is looking into it and there is nothing to worry about."

"He has been saying this for a year to this day," pointed out a scientist. "Things are getting worse as we continue waiting. We are with you on this, Dr. Richardson."

Richardson shook his head. "I am not liking this one bit. If we are not careful, we will start seeing creatures from Xen come here."

"That wont happen. We are taking extreme caution. This test should not take too long so we can continue this another time."

Richardson got up and walked out the door without saying another word. The meeting was too short. He thought of getting Lira and taking her directly to see Alyx. Perhaps talking to Eli would help. He needed to get some things off his mind. All of this was reading bad news to him. He had never even seen this man that Lira was able to spot ealier. Maybe he can talk to Gordon and see if he saw this man as well. Maybe he did get a glimpse and paid no mind to it. He usually was distracted a lot, spending too much time thinking and not enough to engage into the world of what is going on around him.

The lights flickered. He stopped in place, then stood there for a moment as he glanced up at the lights in question. Then the lights shut off and the area around him began to shift and shake with pipes breaking and splitting. He could feel the steam pouring into the hallway with haste.