Man, I am having fuuuun with this story. Didn't think this would be as fun as it is. Well, we'll finally get some proper action in a bit, but don't expect anything on the level of even chapter 0, we gotta build up to there. Though, be prepared for a whole host of new introductions for the next couple chapters.
As always, thank you to all those who continue to read and support the work. Still gotta iron out what I'll put up here though...
Friday and Saturday on Rhodes Island was usually the day when messengers and the Procurement Department returned. Goods, letters, and work came flooding into the island, sending everyone from the most basic of maintenance to the upper brass into a work frenzy. Supplies were received for the week and some were eager to use it, and new contracts or requests would flood in. Usually, it was at these times that the three leaders would work together to chip away at a mountain of paperwork. Today was Friday, so they got up early to start the day and lessen the load for tomorrow as much as possible. Only one of them was a morning person, however.
"Kal'tsit, Dokutah, I brought coffee~" a young girl sung happily as she brought two mugs into an office where three desks overflowing with paperwork sat. Her large, long ears, noticeable from a mile away along with the smell of roasted bean tea the other two were craving.
"Thank you, Amiya," Kal'tsit formally replied as she took her cup.
"Ah, you're a saint, Amiya. Please, let me thank you properly," Doctor said as he got on his knees in prayer.
"Hehe, thanks Dokutah," Amiya replied with a laugh and a blush. The third person groaned, clearly annoyed as she took a sip of her coffee.
"What was that my dearest Lynx? Do you want me to pray to you too? I do that every day and every night, if-"
"If you say another word, I will personally sew your mouth shut."
The Doctor and Amiya got a good laugh out of that remark and the victim of the laughter rolled her eyes before pulling another piece of paper to her work area. The other two returned to their desks and began working on the pile. Not too long in, Amiya pulled out a paper that looked rather funny.
"Um, Kal'tsit, Closure signed a request for Ptilopsis to take shifts in engineering."
"Why engineering? That should be way outside her expertise," Doctor commented. After saying that, he found his own unusual document, but kept quiet and observed the lynx as she answered Amiya. What was odd was how a brief flash of surprise crossed her face before she waited a bit. Her hands and eyes even stopped.
"Does it state a reason?" Kal'tsit inquired.
"No."
"Denied, Ptilopsis has a full work schedule as it is."
"But couldn't you-"
"I said, no. Besides, if we allowed everyone to switch departments on a whim it would be chaos."
Amiya's long ears drooped slightly with Kal'tsit's harsh reply. After that, Doctor found it time to join in and expose the cat.
"Would it have to do with why a Columbian vehicular company has sent a joint request with Rhine Lab because of a strange vehicle?" Doctor asked in a subtle tone all familiar with him knew of. Amiya's ears perked up and she snapped her head to Kal'tsit. The head of the Medical Department looked down and grabbed her head as though she had a hangover. "Kal, what are you hiding this time?"
"Don't use that nickname," she growled while keeping her current posture.
"Why not? I think it's cute," Doctor replied cheerily for someone who had only slept a couple of hours.
"Doctor Kal'tsit, why can't you be open with us?" Amiya asked with a sweet, innocent voice that finally sent Kal'tsit over the edge.
"Fine. Look at Evan Carvey's files if you want to know. It's hard to explain, but he's the reason for some of the weirdness that's been happening around here lately."
"It's always weird here," Doctor replied instantaneously, earning a giggle from Amiya.
"I think you know what I mean. Warfarin went on a mission with you not too long ago, right?"
Now that he thought about it, the vampire lady was acting a lot weirder than normal. She didn't even care when his blood spilled out of a minor cut, normally she was resisting the urge to lick him or suck on the wound.
A pencil flew through the air and landed in the Doctor's visor. He pulled it out after exclaiming, "What the hell?!" and looked at Kal'tsit who was staring at him from the direction it came from with a harsh glare. She then gave a 'tsk' and eyed her work once again.
"Pervert."
Doctor would never know what he did to piss off Kal'tstit in that moment, but he only had one thing to say.
"I hate Fridays."
Engineering at Rhodes Island was its own beast on the weekends. Closure kept a loose hold on everything, so ten different projects could be happening in the same room. It also bled into several other departments due to the wide range of use for the subject, and its leader would happily spend her days sloppily drinking blood and crunching chips. It wasn't that Closure was bad at her job, but it was a very Laissez-faire approach to a workspace. A far cry from the Medical Department, but Rhodes Island Engineering wasn't trying to compete with the likes of Rhine Lab and Raythean Industries, at least not yet.
"I sure do love Fridays! New stuff, and some time in the sun for everyone," she happily declared as Evan shuffled through paperwork. For once, most of it wasn't Closure's. The weekend had started with heaps upon heaps of requests, questions, suggestions, and even statements on the two new inventions he and Closure had made. To top it off, she had deflected the responsibility of organizing it to him. Her reasoning was that he needed to learn how to conduct his own engineering projects, but he had barely been there for a month.
"Every time I start to think more of you," Evan groaned as he swiftly typed up a reply to an engineer. "You do something like this, to throw all that away."
"Well that's harsh, you really need to learn how to talk to girls. You're not getting anywhere like that," the vampire pouted, leaving one eye open as she watched his head slump on the desk. A smile graced her face as she popped a chip in her mouth and turned to her own project.
At the moment, they were in the actual Engineering Department's main facility which was really quite noisy. Machinery hums and lively chatter were accompanied by chaotic clangs and exclamations of various emotions. Hell, there was even some weapons development happening on the other side of the room.
Between the noise and his own focus, Evan didn't notice until a hand poked his shoulder twice that someone was trying to get his attention.
"Oh, for god's sake what is it now?!" he shouted while whipping his head around to see who was bugging him this time. The sight made his heart sink and his demeanor change immediately, the poor victim of his fit was Angelina who looked like she could burst into tears.
"Angelina? I'm so sorry!"
"I-..." the vulpo girl started before taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. "You're fine, you clearly have a lot on your plate. I'm just here to deliver some letters, and you just so happen to have one."
Just one? He couldn't hide his surprise at that after all the noise flooding his virtual inbox. The teenager dug her hand into her bag and produced an envelope with a stamp bearing Lungmen's seal and a small sticker with another, different seal holding it shut. The information gave a return address of sorts, but he wasn't familiar with the residence.
That assumption ended when he opened it and pulled out the paper, unfolding it to reveal the actual letter itself.
Evan,
I finally got word back from Columbia regarding our fender. Turns out, the CCTV footage proved the case and the warranty went into full effect. All that was left were the transportation fees, but it certainly cost far less than I was anticipating. I've also taken the liberty of using your unpaid hours working for me to repair your own car. The mechanics sure are having a difficult time with it, but I'll be sending it to Rhodes Island along with what else was in it once they've finished. Just make sure to write from time to time, and I'll consider it paid.
Beatrice Swire
"I guess I owe her a favor at least," Evan muttered to himself before folding up the letter and setting it aside before going back to work.
"Who was it from?" Angelina asked curiously.
"It was from Swire, she's repairing my car for me, and all she wants in return is a penpal."
"You have a car?" Angelina asked with a trace of surprise in her voice which caused Closure to turn her head.
"Yeah, runs off of a combustion engine, which is what's leading to this massive pile of work. That and an acid battery. Funny enough, I guess it's a good thing I made those two technologies since it would make car repairs go smoothly."
"Hold up," Closure inserted before he could say more. "You're telling me, that you own a car that runs off those two things?"
"Of course. They feed on each other, the battery starts the car, and the car engine charges the battery. A vehicle engine would run off of the kinetic energy of the pistons. Mine's a hybrid though, so it runs off of battery and engine when it can. Incredibly fuel efficient that way."
At this point, Closure started hyperventilating and drooling at the thought of getting to see the machine and possibly recreate it.
"D-Does this normally happen?" Angelina whispered to Evan as they watched the Head of Engineering nearly foam at the mouth in excitement.
"This is the first time I'm seeing it…" Evan whispered back. Thankfully, Closure managed to get a hold on herself and start calming down. After that, she turned her head and grabbed Evan's shoulders.
"When will it be here?"
"I don't know...apparently it's still receiving maintenance, so no indication was given."
"You're going to write Swire back right now and have that thing delivered pronto! We can't risk anyone learning how that thing works, otherwise we won't have a monopoly!"
"You're so damn greedy!" the intern exclaimed as he shoved his boss off of him. Closure landed on her rear and Angelina covered her mouth as her eyes widened and she took a couple steps back.
"Owieee...you didn't have to shove me like that," Closure whined as she rubbed her rear and straightened up, seemingly unharmed. "That's an order though, that car will be delivered here and I'll work on it personally."
Her only response from the intern was a defeated sigh as Evan turned around and opened another message. Angelina then left with a pleasant good-bye which was returned by both of them. Closure's PDA, or smartphone as Evan called it, rang and she began to go paler at the sight of the caller. With a meek glance at the busybody, she snuck away and answered it.
"H-Hello?"
"You and Evan Carvey are to report to the first floor Control Room office immediately," Kal'tsit's voice deadpanned from the other side. Before anything else happened, the lynx hung up and Closure turned around to Evan, cautiously pondering what was about to happen.
If it weren't for Closure's clearly shaken demeanor, Evan would have considered a visit with Kal'tsit a completely normal thing. She usually saw him every week to measure his vitals and study him, and it didn't make him feel uneasy. The fact, however, that his boss was a nervous wreck who looked like she could suffer a nervous breakdown any moment had him thinking otherwise.
The two walked through a massive room called the Control Center which had huge monitors and a large control panel along with a view outside. After walking down another hallway, they came to a large, unmarked door which Closure opened and peaked her head into. She opened it all the way and walked in. Evan followed suit.
"Welcome, come in," a cheerful voice called. The source of it was a very young looking girl with tall ears poking out of her head. Without hesitation she walked up and extended her hand while looking up to Evan. She was a whole foot shorter than he was. "My name is Amiya, and I'm the Head Executive of Rhodes Island."
"What the hell? This kid is the CEO?" Evan briefly thought as he looked at the young girl who looked younger than sixteen in front of him. He extended his hand to grasp her own hand then noticed an Oripathy crack on her hand and arm along with five identical rings, one on each finger. "Nice to meet you too."
As soon as Amiya shook his hand, she immediately let go and took a couple steps back, looking at Evan and giving a beaming smile. She then turned around and walked towards a desk which she sat down at. She beckoned to the two chairs in front of it and invited, "Please, have a seat."
Evan just casually walked to the chair while Closure struggled to keep her legs from shaking. He noticed that two people were on either side of the desk. On the right was Kal'tsit while a mysterious person in full black and a visor that seemed to go to the abyss was on Amiya's right. Noticing Evan's gaze, Amiya introduced the mystery man.
"This is Dokuta-" she stopped and stuttered madly to correct herself before taking a deep breath. "I-I mean, this is Doctor Frewgar, but everyone just calls him Doctor."
The one known as Doctor nodded, then Amiya continued.
"Apologies for that, he's a dear friend and my mentor alongside Doctor Kal'tsit. I called him Dokutah when I was much smaller, and haven't corrected it since," Amiya explained with a small blush. "He's in charge of Combat Operators and Field Operations, but these days he's mostly our respected Neurologist."
Evan turned his sight to Closure who was fiddling nervously, then looked back to Amiya who began talking again.
"This morning, we received word from Columbian Auto alongside Rhine Lab about a vehicle supposedly belonging to you. Doctor Kal'tsit hadn't notified Dokutah or I about you or your unique situation, so it caught us by surprise. It was also brought to our attention that you have created two very unique devices never before seen on Terra. After reviewing this information, we came to a decision to send the two of you to Columbia to negotiate with Rhine Lab and Columbian Auto."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Closure started waving her hands to signify Amiya to stop. "The devices are still in their prototype stage, so what exactly are we negotiating? If possible, maybe we could hold out a little bit longer, see what these can really do before we rush in and possibly lose our only foothold in the global machine market."
"On the contrary," a new male voice sounded from Amiya's right. Eyes turned to the enigmatic Doctor. "When we started expanding in the security and mercenary market occupied by Blacksteel, we found rapid success by working together. If we hadn't taken that deal, we wouldn't have an exclusive partnership with them, we've been able to participate in new missions jointly. Blacksteel may have otherwise hired its own experts in Oripathy and Originium. Now, consider this, if we send these new devices into the market without a cooperative partner, who's going to stop them from reverse engineering the devices and overtaking us anyways?"
Closure raised a finger and opened her mouth for a retort, but then she stopped and reversed her action. She then crossed her arms and pouted like a child, earning a small giggle from Amiya which then made the vampire engineer flush a little red.
"Evan," the Doctor spoke, earning the engineering intern's gaze. "What do you have to say about this?"
"Well…" he muttered in response, trying to collect his thoughts. The Doctor was pretty much on the money, and it would be very reasonable too. Rhine Lab and others likely had the reputation and resources to back up the project substantially. If it worked as intended, Closure would make a killing much longer than she otherwise could. There was also the consideration of his previous world's knowledge about the Scientific Process and Monopolies. When that came to mind, he had his answer.
"I think the Doctor is correct. I also have my own thoughts to give, if we want to further technology on Terra, that will require cooperation anyways. Sharing knowledge and resources always furthers progress according to my knowledge."
"So I take it you would be fine with taking on this task?"
"Yes, Doctor, I'm perfectly fine with this arrangement."
"Then it's settled!" Amiya gleefully declared with a clap of her hand. "We'll make arrangements for your travel. You'll be notified of the specifics at a later date, and I hope for good things from this visit."
In response, Closure turned her head and gave a quick 'tch' which earned a harsh glare from Kal'tsit.
"You're dismissed, Closure," Kal'tsit deadpanned. Without a word, the slob got up and pulled her eyelid down and stuck her tongue out to Kal'tsit on the way out, still clearly miffed she didn't get things her way. Once the door slammed shut, Evan returned his attention to the three. Now that he was the only one in the room, he felt rather claustrophobic for some reason. No one spoke, and Amiya, the only one whose face he could read, had an expression of some form of worry along with a meek smile.
"Am I in trouble for something?"
"Ah, no, not at all," Amiya tried to ease his worries. "Dokutah and I were just curious as to what kind of person you are. Rhodes Island has never yet had someone from another world on its team."
That was rather curious, around him Evan had seen the signs of people from his world. If he was truly the first one of his world to be an employee of Rhodes Island, he had to wonder what usually became of those like him. Saria had described that her mentor modernized chemistry on Terra by introducing units of measurement he could only guess as the Mole. Being able to tell how much of a substance one had was indeed crucial to chemistry, and using moles meant one could count the individual atoms or molecules of a substance based on its mass and chemical formula. Then there was the Dewey Decimal system which allowed libraries to sort books efficiently. Both had clear origins in his world, but the origins on Terra were muddied and shrouded in speculation.
"Do you know anything about people from other worlds?"
"No, there are legends and myths, but nothing substantial to suggest this is by means a repeating occurrence. As far as we know, you're the first proven case," Amiya responded. She then switched to a smile and continued to speak. "I am very hopeful though, I can tell you're a good person and proper use of your knowledge could very much further our fight against Oripathy. I wish you the best of luck with Miss Closure as well as the negotiations with Rhine Lab."
With that sign, Evan thanked the shining little CEO and made his leave. Seriously, was this the typical anime trope of adults with children-like bodies or was Amiya an actual child? He really couldn't tell. Whatever the case, she was surprisingly sweet and kind compared to Kal'tsit. Then that Doctor, he couldn't pin it, but something about the neurologist was ominous, not to mention the strangeness of his profession if what Silence mentioned was true.
Whatever the case, he was more than happy to work in engineering right now. As for the immediate present, Closure was still upset when he returned to his work station, facing away from his chair with her arms crossed.
"If you're going to act like this, I'm not doing your procurement paperwork today," Evan commented as he dropped a fat stack of paper onto Closure's nearby desk. Closure turned to him with a harsh glare then stuck her tongue out and buzzed it at him like a little kid, but she took the papers anyway. Evan rolled his eyes and returned to his own work. On what he knew as emails, Evan noticed an odd message that could easily be an excuse to get away from the wallet sucking vampire who stunk of machine oil.
"I got a request from someone, I'm heading over to Workshop 21."
Closure didn't say anything, and he sure didn't want her to, and this was becoming a new norm very quickly. Since the engineers were starting to work with things only he was remotely an expert in, things have gotten hectic. Maybe he should just ask the robot-speaking owl to make copies of some specific parts of his books.
Upon arrival to the workshop, a sign outside said, "WARNING: Large EM Fluctuations, do not bring electronics." Outside was a drawer that was hard to pull out, and inside was some stuff. Evan put his watch, phone, and wallet inside. After that, he opened the door. Inside, a girl in blue and black clothing with a hood pulled over her head, a lollipop in her mouth, and tools in her hand was at the table in a chair rather than standing up. The table itself had an array of electronic devices on it alongside some incredibly well-sealed samples Evan had come to recognize as Originite, a very pure form of the McGuffin rock.
Upon his entry, the girl turned her head to him and hummed a greeting with her hands busy and a piece of candy in her mouth. She then turned her attention back to her item and finished up whatever she was doing. That was when she pulled out the lollipop with one hand and turned her chair over to face him.
"Are you Evan?" she asked simply with a neutral expression.
"I am, did you call me here for assistance?" Evan asked.
The girl nodded with a small hum of affirmation then turned back to the odd device she had on the table.
"They say you're incredibly good with electrical properties. This device uses fluctuations of an EM field to disable enemy drones and can even function as an arts staff."
Looking at it, it was an odd device. The innards were unlike anything he had seen so far, and some large power cells with warning signs on them were seen, the warning was for potent and infectious originium. There was some circuitry he recognized, such as wave generators, antennas, and capacitor banks. Near the dangerous power cell, a large device sat. .
"What's this large device that draws large amounts of energy from the original source?"
"A device I made myself, it releases a large EMP, but can only be used once every so often. It also damages all electronics within a certain radius."
"Well, a large enough EMP will knock out electronics due to how delicate they can be. Frying components and interrupting current flow. Is the smaller one with antennas and capacitors more targeted?," Evan commented as he studied the device. When he turned back to the girl in her chair, she was staring at him quite intently. This staring contest continued for several moments before she finally replied.
"You're the first person capable of understanding how my weapon works." A long pause again as her eyes glanced between Evan and her device. "Do you have any recommendations to improve it? It would be nice if I could control the damage it does to ally electronics."
"Beyond shooting microwaves with a high amplitude, not much else. Though it seems like you do have an HPM device here, just unfocused."
"What do you mean by unfocused?"
"Because the smaller scale one here," Evan said as he pointed to the antenna and capacitor banks that made a majority of the weapon's electrical circuitry, "doesn't have a focused high-gain antenna. If you installed one specifically to shoot the microwaves at the same frequency, you could make it so the waves shoot in one specific direction."
"I see...I'll try that. I'll call you when I'm ready to test this idea out. Can I do the same for the larger EMP device?"
"I don't know, I've never seen anything like it before. Though, I can get the idea that it's far different. I don't think it can, unless it generates the same wavelengths of light."
"Hm...then maybe not, but the ability to aim the other would help a lot. Thank you."
"What's your name by the way?"
"Glaucus."
"Nice to meet you, Glaucus."
Well, Evan's going to Columbia for his first trip. I gotta say, I didn't think I'd get as far as to starting this set of events. I have to say, the Undertides event was surprisingly well written in some areas. When I saw the Inquisitors I first thought: 'Oh god, more evil government bullshittery' only to be surprised at how thoughtful, open, and determined they were as people. It's honestly refreshing in a setting like Arknights since it actually makes me think rather than show off how awful some of the nations are.
It's also nice to hear your thoughts on things. Some of the recent reviews gave me something to chew on in terms of things, including what I want for the story. Not necessarily that I'm going to change things, but rather it makes me more thoughtful as to how I can work on this.
I'm starting to get my life back on its tracks, so updates may become more regular. Thanks as always.