Chronicles of Espiria Season 2
Episode 9 – The Experiments of Professor Silas
Written by the Dude
The shadowy figure nicknamed "the Abomination" by the Lightbearer forces, along with his lieutenant Ferael, burst through the door of a makeshift yet impressively advanced laboratory. He found the alchemist in charge of the laboratory standing at a window, staring at he cared not what.
"Silas!" the Abomination shouted.
Silas glanced at his two visitors, nodding to the eye in the Abomination's chest for a moment before returning his attention to the window.
"I suppose you want a progress report?" Silas absentmindedly asked.
"Our lord demands it, tinkerer."
"Tinkerer..." Silas exhaled with a frustrated smile. "One of these days you will come to appreciate my genius. In the meantime..."
Silas turned from the window and pressed a button mounted in the wall; with a sickening groan, a metal shield in one corner was lifted away. Behind the shield were three tanks filled with a green fluid, and floating in the fluid were three Hypogean imps with bizarre contraptions attached to their heads.
"Admittedly, the actual resurrection of these creatures is beyond me, but our spies in the Whispering Doom have uncovered many of Niru's secrets, including the process to resurrect the Hypogeans. Niru may be a stick-in-the-mud Spiritualist, afraid of the teachings of the Metamorphs, but as a fellow scientist, I must acknowledge his genius."
"We all know of your respect for Niru!" Ferael hissed. "Get on with it!"
"Our lord has taken the time to learn Niru's process, so we can now resurrect these imps with ease; but they still serve the hoard and try to kill all else, rendering them useless to the Graveborn cause. Hence our experiment today. Our lord will be here soon to raise these creatures to life. They will try to kill us, as they always do. But before they can, I will press this button," Silas produced a control pad from his pocket, "which will block the parts of their brain responsible for free will, placing them squarely in the power of whoever we please."
"And you can control whose power they are under?"
"To an extent. If my hypothesis is correct, it must be the first voice the Hypogean hears, like an animal imprinting on its mother. For the sake of this experiment, it will be our lord's voice; but in time, it will be the voice of Quadam that they imprint on."
"And have you created a failsafe, for when these puppets need to be released?"
"It's inherent in the technology. The delicate circuits in these devices are vulnerable to sharp blows to the head, the same sort that would kill the creatures anyway. In addition, they are susceptible to an electromagnetic pulse, which is technology well beyond any but perhaps the dwarves, who I doubt would ever think to try it."
Silas pressed the button in the wall and the metal shield was lowered back into place. He then turned his attention back to the window he was gazing through before.
"You are more than welcome to observe the experiment, so long as you do not interfere. Until our lord arrives, though, I have other experiments to attend to."
The Abomination glanced out the window, then sneered at Silas.
"Very well, play with your toys if you must. Just make sure that your experiment is ready when our lord arrives."
"Again, you underestimate my genius. What you see before you is a triumph of science and magic; necromancy and engineering intertwined as never before!"
"It's a brain in a fishbowl! I could destroy it by throwing a rock at it!"
"That brain was taken from one of the most cunning warriors the Lightbearers ever produced! Give it time to get used to its new body, and you will see that there is no limit to its capabilities! It will outperform even these Hypogean Graveborn you seek to make!"
At that moment, the door to the laboratory was thrown open. Silas and the Abomination both fell to one knee in the presence of this visitor.
"Lord Oden." the Abomination said in almost a worshipful tone.
"Is the experiment ready, Silas?" Oden asked.
"It awaits only your practiced hand, my lord."
"Then let us begin." Oden declared as he raised his wand.