Well, evening. I managed to steam through making a chapter.
I'm sure ya'll know the disclaimers by now.
Enjoy Chapter 9
Rhodes Island's upper sections were always quiet at night. With the landship parked at night and most duties over, all that was usually left for employees was to clean up their work stations and go to bed. There were, of course, late workers like a certain lynx feline entering a break room, holding a thermos. As soon as she entered the room, Kal'tsit sniffed the air a few times. Her gaze turned to her target, and upon walking closer the smell became stronger. Her sensitive eyes could make out the line of dark liquid in the glass pot. She set her thermos down and opened the trash can, gazing inside to see a few creamer pods dumped in the bottom.
Kal'tsit poured coffee into her thermos and briskly walked out, turning the other direction where she came from. Soon enough, she came to an open door with light streaming from the room. Upon walking up to it, she looked in to see a person in heavy black clothing sitting at a large desk with several monitors. A masked head lay on the desk, a small glistening puddle coming out from some spot that was hard to perceive. Kal'tsit walked around and looked at this person for a good long while. Her face barely shifted, but one could tell that her gaze held something.
Her feline eyes drifted to a stack of papers under the left hand and she picked them up. The following was highlighted in yellow.
Ursus' winters is a frightful beast, and few dare live in the north due to it. Such conditions mean that supplies must be imported, and with Lungmen parked near the border it should stand to reason trade would go well, so why is Yen making a fuss? As it turns out, several supply caravans in winter were raided. Ursus tried to blame the weather, but later it was discovered that Ursus had been hiring Columbian Mercenaries to help transport the goods. One such company leaked the information that a mysterious squadron had ransacked the caravan with Ursus Military tactics. Yen, in turn, demanded an investigation which was promptly denied. Many traders have halted trade with Ursus on the eastern borders.
Kal'tsit didn't even bother reading the rest, she rolled up the newspaper and smacked it on the head of the late night worker who promptly grabbed her wrist out of reflex and then gained consciousness. She just stared at the gripped wrist with a bored look in her eyes, as though she was very used to this transaction.
"Oh, Kal," a male voice called from the dark mask. He gave a stretch and a yawn then asked, "What time is it?"
"A little past eleven. What are you still doing up?" she asked sternly. Somehow, his gaze turned to the thermos and a small snicker escaped. "What's so amusing?"
"Seems we share habits still," he murmured in the right volume to make even her sensitive ears feel tickled by the softness. "Ow, don't hit me with a rolled up newspaper like some disobedient pet."
"Then go to bed, you know how you get when you lose sleep. Who do you think has to pick up the slack when that happens?"
The mystery man pushed his swivel chair from the desk with his feet and looked at Kal'tsit with crossed arms. "Then why did you wake me up?"
"I'm holding it."
After gazing at the item in her hand, the masked associate punched the side of his fist on his palm and said, "Oh yeah, I made a full pot of coffee. By the way your gaze just sharpened, I'll take that as a no."
Kal'tsit gave a hefty sigh before placing the newspaper back on the desk. She closed her eyes and grumbled, "You're so annoying when you're fully awake. It's also so hard for you to get back to sleep."
"And you, my dear lynx, don't want to sleep if you can help it. Why do you think I made a full pot of coffee?"
"Doctor," Kal'tsit called softly and calmly. "Why are you getting involved in this? I thought you swore off doing war work."
The Doctor's gaze turned to the ground and then his knees. He just looked at them for a while and Kal'tsit decided to sit on the desk, sensing she would be there for a while longer. After about five minutes she unscrewed her thermos and took a generous sip.
"You better not be asleep again."
Doctor looked up and gazed at the lynx, looking at her for a good long while before gazing out into the hallway.
"I'm just doing my job, why do you think Ursus is being so cautious with information? Clearly they're hiding something up there. The only things they hide up north enough where winter is a constant are prisoners."
"You think the north is connected to this? It's as you said, only prisoners up there. Guarded camps, protected by winter soldiers. Why would the soldiers go about raiding supply caravans?"
"It's not the soldiers. The Ursus Army has been conscripting as though it's wartime, but no signs of invasion have been seen. There's also been a massive influx to the supply of winter gear, some of that gear is also our own medicine."
Kal'tsit handed the thermos to him and he somehow drank it though his mask, the tip disappearing behind a veil of darkness before a sip was sounded.
"Something's happening in the north, and whatever it is, the army is having one hell of a time with it. It also isn't the first time winter caravans from Yen have been pillaged. The raids have also been getting worse each winter. Fascinatingly, of the conscripts there's none of the usual cannon fodder Ursus amasses from their infected population. Not since the second winter of these attacks anyways."
"I see, but what good will worrying do now?" Kal'tsit inquired. She crossed her legs and leaned her hand on one end of the table. As she stared, she could tell in his posture that something changed and a small electric tingle ran down her spine.
"I don't know, but something I do know now," the Doctor started as he leaned closer to Kal'tsit with a hand on his chin. "Is how much I missed you on my desk like this."
Bonk
Like lightning, the thermos swung and knocked his head back to the desk.
"You're tired, go to sleep!"
"Follow your own advice, it's a pity those bags have found residence under your eyes, however telling they may be of your perseverance," Doctor called as she walked out. Once out of the light of his office, she could feel her cheeks glow lightly in the dark.
Two busybodies rushed around Closure's office, hooking up wires and beginning a test. Early in the morning too, leaving Weedy cleaning Closure's office alone for the first time in a while. She looked at the newest addition to the morning routine staring intently at jars of her bioengineered combustion fuel.
The small Ӕgir's complicated gaze turned back to the the two eccentrics hastily assembling some kind of construction involving two beakers of fluid, a gelatinous bridge, and a lightbulb. Two rods were inserted into the beakers and the lightbulb suddenly went on. The spray bottle was dropped and Weedy ran up to it, making even Ifrit turn her head as she reached for a jar.
"What in the world is that?!"
"A lightbulb," Evan casually responded which made Closure giggle a little.
"No, what kind of freak contraption have you concocted to power it this time?"
"A battery. Most common form of portable power where I'm from."
The small bioengineer looked at the large setup and then back to Evan with a skeptical gaze as her eyebrows arched down.
"Clearly, that's not portable," she deadpanned. In response, he pulled out a small little metal canister with a little protrusion at the end.
"Well, this is the small version. Same general principles, just compacted and arranged differently."
"Give me that!" Closure yelled as she swiftly snatched the battery from his hand and ran over to her table. She pulled out a few tools from her beld and immediately dissected it with the precision of a surgeon, but she still did it shockingly fast.
"That was a perfectly good double A battery, you'd better replace it," the intern complained to his boss who was far too focused on looking at the dull chemical power source to respond. With no response, the babysitter turned his head just in time to see Ifrit open a jar of gasoline and make a fire in her finger. "Ifrit, no!"
The demon child gave a 'tsk' before putting out her flame and turning the lid back on under Evan stare. She looked at the jar still, clearly rather bored with the whole situation.
"Closure, do you have plates that can be charged to different polarities?"
"Oh I see, so this is that," Closure mumbled in amazement as she examined the battery. Evan repeated his previous question, except much louder and the vampire glanced briefly in his direction. "Yeah, in the middle cabinet on the north side of the office."
Over the days, Evan had gotten rather used to how to hook up wires to originium power cells, and he knew exactly where Closure kept most of her wiring and other such junk.
"Ifrit, could you bring me one of those jars?" Evan requested as he set up the two charged plates near each other. The demon's eyes lit up and she rushed her previously opened jar over to Evan. All the while, Weedy stared with upward arched eyebrows as she silently set her industrial robot to fire extinguishing mode.
"What are you doing?"
"Testing something."
The head of bioengineering felt a vein nearly pop in her head as he said that so casually. Such insufficient explanation before the demonstration, as usual. She watched, however, as Evan set the two plates on either side of a dish he poured a wee bit of gasoline into. Ifrit was given the honors of igniting it, which created a flame between the two. Nothing happened, until the power was flipped on and the flame split in two, gravitated toward either plate. Weedy's surprised expression had donned her face for the fifteenth time that week as she stared at the phenomenon.
"W-what did you do to the fire?!"
Closure turned her attention from dissecting the battery and ran up to the new thing her intern was demonstrating.
"Wow, what's this? What new wondrous piece of technology have you graced me with this time?"
"This isn't technology. Just a demonstration that fire is a plasma. It holds a charge, so the ions in it head for the opposite charge."
"What's an ion?" Ifrit asked as she stared at the split fire intently.
"A charged particle."
"A charged...particle?" Weedy repeated pensively as she watched the flame as well. "Like a dust particle or something?"
Evan looked at Closure who just shrugged in response.
"...I'm truly amazed. How in the hell did science in this world get so far without any concept of the fundamental units of matter. Ok, you know what, stay here, I need paper and books for this."
That was the last thing Evan said before leaving the room, leaving those he left behind stumped. Then Ifrit touched the negative plate briefly, causing a spark to flow into her finger. Nothing serious, just a light shock.
"What the heck! It zapped me."
"Well, yeah, electricity's trying to flow out of it. You sure Silence is your guardian?" Closure snidely replied, only to be met with Ifrit's gaze turning to the floor. After that, a stinging sensation hit the side of her head and she looked to see Weedy pulling her hand away, giving her the 'you really screwed up' glare Closure had seen more times than she could count.
The Ӕgir girl knelt down slightly to Ifrit's level and rubbed her back. A little surprised, the little sarkaz looked at Weedy with a wonder filled expression before looking back down, leaning into the touch a little. All the while, Closure stared at the scene with a soft smile on her face.
This went on until footsteps were heard outside the door before it opened and Evan returned, holding two text books, a notebook, and a small bundle of blank paper.
"I'm back, who's ready to learn about Atomic Theory?"
"You're sure he said that?"
"Affirmative, I inquired myself the reasons for him asking."
"Do you think he was lying?"
"He maintained eye contact, his line of sight didn't wander more than normal, and his pupils remained a consistent diameter. All signs point to negative, and he did not appear to be using methods to mediate those responses."
"I see..." Silence expressed in a whisper. Her attention shifted back to walking along the hallway.
"Silence," Ptilopsis initiated. "I have been thinking. If our objective is to allow Ifrit to live a normal life, then that would require she learns to make her own choices much like we do. Would it not be counterproductive to make choices for her as to who she can and cannot interact with? Does that not mean we're limiting her to-"
"I really don't want to talk about this."
Ptilopsis' right feather twitched and she turned her gaze to Silence for the first time in their walk. Her colleague did not face her like she normally did when speaking, but Ptilolipsis respected her and faced their walking direction again.
"Request received and acknowledged."
Their conversation had been about what Ptilopsis discussed with Evan after he had rudely hung up on Silence. Of course, of all the people wrapped in this situation, Ptilopsis was the most logical. Her thought pattern was definitely more machine-like than she cared to admit, and she was capable of recognizing that logic wasn't always correct. If logic could solve every problem, then she would rightly be the smartest person in existence.
She had also been searching for any trace of things in Evan's book even since Silence gave it back to Evan. If it was a matter of data, no one could hope to outperform her. The data around Evan hit a dead end though. His history was untraceable, his knowledge untraceable, and even his machinery couldn't be traced. Yes, she knew about this mystery vehicle he had appeared with. After all, she was the manager of the Rhodes Island Database. Special permissions were guaranteed, and she had looked at even his classified records. The only commonality is Lungmen, and totalling an off duty officer's private vehicle. That was the earliest record in his history.
Weeks, of course, wasn't enough to track a person's entire life history. This was especially so with those of unique circumstances. Some operators were already enigmatic, but Ptilopsis usually could construct a rough theory given enough time. She was by no means done looking into this situation.
As the two liberi approached a door they recognized as Closure's office, they heard a lot of commotion inside.
"This makes no sense!"
"What doesn't make sense?"
"It's not charged, look at it! It's supposed to be charged by definition."
The door opened and the sight of Ifrit holding a flame between two plates hooked up to wires caught their attention. The flame itself seemed normal, and nothing special was happening.
"It's magic I say, this violates so many Physical Laws! What on earth did I go to school for anyways?!" Evan continued shouting as he pointed at the flame.
"C-Calm down, what are you even talking about anymore?" Weedy tried defusing desperately.
"I'm saying, this fire is magic. Look at it, it can't even be called fire anymore."
"It's arts, not magic," Closure casually remarked from her desk, clearly enjoying the show.
"Tomato tomato, it violates physical laws of nature, it's magic. Arts is magic fuelled by your weird McGuffin rock."
None of them had noticed Silence and Ptilopsis. When Silence was about to announce her presence, she noticed Ifrit chuckling along at the situation. She walked a little to get a better look at her face and saw something she rarely got to see, Ifrit smiling and laughing normally. Not the scary sadistic ones that scared others, but a genuine content smile and laugh.
Ptilopsis noticed Silence by the way her expression sombered and chose to walk up.
"So, what you're saying is that fire is a plasma, and plasmas carry charge," Closure reiterated. Evan affirmed then she continued. "And you're saying Ifrit's arts fire is not a plasma, and therefore not fire?"
"Yes! Besides, what is she even burning as fuel anyways?!"
"That would be the originium in her body since Ifrit does not have her catalyst right now," Ptilopsis joined in. Everyone's heads snapped to the blank faced owl suddenly and in unison. "Infected can use originium crystals within their body as catalysts, allowing for casting without a device. However, this method also progresses the caster's oripathy. Simple spells don't progress much, and even increase progression at an almost negligible rate. Does this answer your question?"
"Wait," Evan started. "So, you're saying she uses her own oripathy crystals growing in her body to cast, and that makes them grow faster?"
Ptilopsis nodded.
"I never would have imagined, in my life, I would be the first person to witness the First Law of Thermodynamics be broken in such a spectacular way. Also, hello Ptilopsis, Silence."
At the mention of Silence's name, heads turned again and Ifrit, who had long since stopped putting her flame between the plates, walked over to Evan and tugged his shirt, staring at Silence with her head tilted down and her brows arched upward slightly.
"...Hello," the liberi researcher returned, surprised by Evan's greeting. She hadn't expected him to just greet her normally, as though last night's conversation didn't happen. It was clear though, that Ifrit's reaction showed she hadn't forgotten last night. "You said I could pick up Ifrit before lunch if I so desired. Sorry to disturb you during work."
The mystery man laughed at that response, and replied with a chuckle, "Work, yeah I guess that's one way to put it. I'd rather say it was us messing around, but in a way I was testing stuff."
After looking around, Silence noticed a lot of strange diagrams with circles and circle clusters along with chemical symbols scattered by text books.
"What were you testing?" Silence inquired, her body language and expressions returning to normal.
"Basic stuff. Charge, properties of charged material in an electric field, and reviewing some basic Atomic Theory."
Weedy, who had been quiet for a while, watched Ptilopsis' eyes widen to the size of saucers and her feathers start to spin slightly. What the heck did that mean?
"...I see, well is it alright if I bring Ifrit with me?"
"Ask her," Evan responded, drawing attention to the sarkaz.
Silence waited, looking at Ifrit who stared at her much like she did other researchers. A small girl in a lab held her jacket, staring at the other researchers as they prepared their experiment for the day. Ifrit always looked at them with great fear or concern. Whenever a researcher other than Silence or Saria walked up, Ifrit would scooch up to her or Saria, holding their jacket and trying to hide.
"I…" Ifrit struggled to speak. She tightened her grip on the shirt and looked at the floor. A hand patted her head and she looked up at its source.
"I'm sorry," Silence apologized as she caressed Ifrit who leaned into the touch. "I'm so sorry if I hurt you, that was never my intention."
"Will you let me see Saria?" Ifrit quietly pleaded. Silence didn't respond immediately, choosing to rub Ifrit's head more. She looked at Evan who smiled in response then turned her gaze back to Ifrit.
"We'll see."
"Do you mean it this time?" the child asked, looking up from the head pat and staring Silence in the eye, eyes full of hope.
"Yes, I mean it this time," she answered without missing a beat. In response, Ifrit gave Silence a hug, and the little devil's warmth flooded her core.
"Thank you."
The two just stayed there for a while, Silence's wing and arm wrapped around Ifrit. Once the two had their fill of hugs, Silence took Ifrit's hand, appreciating it more than she used to. Her gaze turned to Evan and she felt something warm seep from her chest to her lips. A smile graced her face.
"Thank you, Evan," Silence said before turning around and leaving the room. When the door closed, however, there wasn't an overall population decrease.
The three engineers watched in fascination as Ptilopsis stood there, her head feathers wiggling about in every direction as though the most exciting thing in the world had happened. Her eyes darted between directions, and her gaze was fixed on the various notes and texts Evan had brought in.
"Are you alright there? Your head looks like it could explode any minute," Closure asked with a raised brow and not much concern in her voice. Almost immediately, the head snapped and Ptilopsis' gaze bared down on Closure, her eyes focused as though she were a true bird of prey. Oh, and the neck quite literally snapped as it made an impossible turn. "Do we need an exorcist? I'm getting some weird vibes right now."
"Miss Closure, I request that I be allowed to have shifts in engineering as soon as possible."
Hey, we finally see dokutah-san. Took a while to consider how to characterize him. He's a happy kind of doctor, well somewhat. I will find a perv line for him to say 'worth it!' to. We're not gonna see much of Evan and Doctor interacting anytime soon. In the way I'm structuring things, Doctor has more to do with combat operators and security...well that's not a surprise. What might be surprising is Amiya's gonna be head of logistics, so the poor girl is gonna be swamped in work. I mean, she IS CEO of Rhodes Island.
And, yeah, that's the last of the Rhine Lab drama. It's not that Silence's problems are solved, but I see it as a way of her moving forward. I always wondered why Saria never told Silence the details of what happened with Ifrit. It's clear to me Ifrit thinks the world of two people, and Saria's one of them. Maybe she just has a tendency to avoid these things under the guise of 'let people think what they will' which would be in character for her.
As for next chapter, we're initiating a series of events that will lead to Evan leaving Rhodes Island for the first time. About time he learned how cruel the infected are actually treated. Well, at least in 2-3 chapters.
In chapter 10, the plot of Rhine Labs goes on hold until it's needed again. We also get to see Angelina again for the first time in a while. Grani though, she's still running around looking for treasure and having communication problems with a sea oreo. Time to check backstory and dialogues of a hot python mama for the next chapter.
See ya next time and thanks for reading.