The conference came and went as more topics that Marth barely understood were preached. Marth could only drink some cold water to refresh her mind as the Rhodes Island team walked through the Rhine Lab facility.
"I'm kinda surprised that you were able to get clearance to let us study the cube. What strings did you pull?" Closure asked.
Alyssa could only shrug her shoulders. "The only thing I said is that sharing and working together would strengthen the connection between us."
"Then I won't complain, I'll send some information back to Rhodes Island so the other engineers can take a crack at it." Closure said.
The group didn't walk for long as they descended deeper into the lab, soon they reached a large metal door with various locks clear on display. Alyssa walked towards the keypad and entered a code, moments later the locks started to be undone.
As if it was a sci-fi movie the metal door opened fairly slowly as the steam coming from the door was clear as it was loud. Marth, Melantha, and Cardigan were stun locked at the sight they saw.
Expensive look equipment wrapped the crowded room along with the scientist operating them, but the thing to sell the picture was the objective of this trip.
In the center stood a large cube, as dark as an abyss. The mere presence of it dominated the room, permitting an overwhelming sense of authority.
"Amazing, this is so cool." Those were the only words Cardigan could say at the sight.
"Grand would be a better word to describe it, but I can't disagree with the words chosen." Warfraim said.
"I know. I truly wonder what is the origin of this cube. Imagine all the equipment we can build with this material." Alyssa said as she walked towards the cube. "I almost forgot, if you don't want to stand around there is the break room that way." She said as she pointed in a direction.
The operators not experienced in anything engineering related simply waited in the break room or helped move anything that the scientist asked. However Marth stayed with Closure, Warfraim and Alyssa as they brainstormed ideas.
"What about this?"
"We could try this instead?"
"What if we tried this instead?"
The three and other scientists threw idea after idea on the wall on how to break it, along with ideas on what the cube even is.
"Where did this cube come from?" Closure asked.
"Could it perhaps be from the Gaulish empire before they fell after all they did try to expand their reach around that part of the world." Alyssa said.
"Unlikely, whenever I visited the country nothing looked like this. Then again this could have been some top-secret military project." Warfraim said as she wrote something in her notebook.
"If that is the case then wouldn't Sami, Victoria or Ursus have their hands on it already?" Alyssa replied as she rubbed her forehead.
Marth was zoned out of the conversation as she approached the cube. The already imposing aura has only amplified the closer she got. From Marth's perspective it felt as if the cube was staring at her, no, it felt like she was being looked down on.
The feeling of insufficiency she always felt deep in her heart was only made great by the cube. She could tell if it was divine or demonic but being close to her made her feel as if it was a sin to speak around it.
Marth placed her on the cube and moved along it. It was smooth to the touch, no cracks, no seams, nothing at all.
"It's so smooth." Was all Marth could say as she planted her entire body on it letting the coldness of the rock travel throughout her body.
"How smooth could it be, after all, it's in the wild for a-"
Warfraim stopped talking the moment she guided her hand across it. Marth was right, it was smooth, impossibly smooth even.
"Closure, Alyssa, you might want to feel this too." Warfraim said.
The other two followed Warfraim's example and touched all the cube coming to the same conclusion. Alyssa even touched the edges of the cube where most wear and tear happen, yet even there nothing was jagged or roughness.
"Could it be done by a laser cutter, like the one used for computer chips or construction?" Marth asked.
"Unlikely, even the most high-tech of laser cutters will leave burn marks, and due to how durable the cube is for a laser to cut this it has to be a power laser which means even clearer burn marks." Closure said.
"Since there isn't any burning resaude inscribed on the Cube the idea that a laser cutter did this is unlikely." Warfraim said as she rubbed her head in annoyance. "How the hell does this thing work?" Frustration is clear in her voice.
"At that point screw it, I doubt this is going to work but at this point, I don't know." Alyssa said as she moved towards the wall.
"What are you going to try?" Warfraim asked.
A devilish smile could be seen forming on Alyssa's face, it was as if someone's inner child was unleashed upon the world. To Marth the face Alyssa is making was similar to a certain flamethrower-wielding child.
"You're going to set it on fire, why? If there is any technology inside, the heat could break the interior." Closure said as she hugged the cube as best she could.
Alyssa pressed one of the triggers causing a small wheezing sound to come out the upper side of the barrel. "Basically if this cube is holding something inside then perhaps I could melt whatever glue or similar substance is holding this thing together. That's the hope at least."
All the scientists in the room could only look at each other at the unorthodox approach to the problem that caused a varied amount of thoughts and opinions. 'Who hired this girl', 'That could work.' and everything in between was on everyone's mind.
Not before long, they all agreed to Alyssa's idea, the young scientist walked and pulled the trigger. As furious flames rushed out causing anyone nearby to feel the sudden increase in temperature, even the people in the break room rushed out as they watched what happened.
Five minutes passed before Alyssa cut off the flamethrowing. Smoke flowed off the cube but no clear changes were done, the cube just stood there unphased as if it was mocking not just Alyssa but everyone in the room.
"Damn, I really hoped that I would have done something." Alyssa said in defeat.
Marth walked closer to the cube and walked around it to see something. She placed her hand on the new seam that appeared, about 3 fingers wide with some dark green substance within the seam.
"Ms. Alyssa I think you were right, something is coming off of the Cube." Marth said.
The scientist crowded around the seam and wanting to understand more of the cube they decided to pray it open with machinery. As the cube was being pulled apart a slimy sound was heard until the slab was pulled off from the rest of the cube.
The slab tipped over smashing into the ground and causing small cracks to form on the ground like a spiderweb. Its impact resonated a low sound pushing the fact that the cube was not hollow in the slightest.
Alyssa stepped on the slab and saw something. "There are books, I'm counting four of them. Along with them is a weird set of boxes." Alyssa leaned forward and tapped on the slab's surface. "They are encased in ice but it doesn't look special so we can just melt it with the flamethrower it seems."
"Who knew that a flamethrower would be this useful?" Closure said.
After some time everyone managed to melt the ice and got their hands on the various items that were in case.
"So what do we have here?" Warfraim said as she picked up a book.
Reverse Side findings and testing
The human body and its limiters
Warfraim opened the book and quickly read the first page.
"It's a journal." Was all Warfraim said.
"So it would probably be good if each of us read a book and see what we can get from it." Closure said as she picked up a book.
Everyone in the room picked up a journal and began reading, all of them interested hoping to find something. Could we learn something about who made the cube, whether are they alive, what tools and materials did they use, can we still find them? Questions that in some of their minds could lead to advancement for the world in good faith, while others saw a way to get ahead of the world.
Entry 229
Subject #130
Name: Austin Park
Gender: Male
Place of Birth: Wales
Experiment result: Waiting
The young man's body was better than others with the core. Perhaps his family has a history with dragons. Good thing we found him on his last legs of life, if he was any younger I would have advised to leave him alone but at last, here we are.
The dragon core at first had positive effects on Austin, his body seemed to gain some level of vitality. Any sense of pain he gained from old age went away, he became borderline superhuman. He ran 100 meters in around 9 seconds, just shy of the world record. His strength increases along with it, allowing him to carry things more than four times his mass. If things continue to move forward then the possibilities are endless.
-BAS9
Warfraim and Ansel's harden as they read the entry. Both of them have similar thoughts.
"Human experiments, no matter how many times I see them, leave a bad taste in my mouth." Ansel said as he continued reading.
Entry 230
Subject #130
Name: Austin Park
Gender: Male
Place of Birth: Wales
Experiment result: Waiting
The experiment is heading in a predictable direction. While Austin is still receiving benefits from the dragon core as seen by his speed increase slightly along with his strength. His mind appears to be failing him; Austin is having trouble remembering basic information such as his birthday, where his belongings are placed, and so on. I quickly asked all relevant questions about him and his life before he forgot.
I learned about his family, his lifestyle in the woods, his dreams, his failures, and so on. Throughout the talk it seemed like all the worry and anxiety that built within him was going away. Further study will be done, and if things go well then he will be a good asset to the church or at least someone we can rely on.
-BAS9
Entry 231
Subject #130
Name: Austin Park
Gender: Male
Place of Birth: Wales
Unfortunately, the experiment didn't go well. The negative effects of the dragon core sparked out of control. His communication skills continued to get worse as he became more animalist, mixing in growling and roaring. Along with that, he talked about how he was getting spikes in pain near his chest around where the core was implanted, eventually, it seemed that all of it was too much, and lost control. However, his institution when I hunted him down was increased almost as if the dragon the core belong to implant knowledge of Austin. It was tragic to see the man die after how well things were going for two months but that is the way things are.
I gave Austin a quick and painless death or at least as quick and painless as possible. I'm used to hunting down large beings but even though Austin was respectable accounts a baby dragon his body was developed greatly to the point that many executors died trying to take the man down.
His body was retrieved and dissected to see what went wrong. We found dragon scales within his body and they caused a lot of internal bleeding when they came in contact with any flesh or organ. Seemed that the dragon core was healing him as it damaged him and his mind couldn't take the pain anymore. We savaged anything we could and were able to extract the majority of the dragon core from him but a decent bit of it fused with Austin's body.
I had to fight tooth and nail for the Church to make them give custody of the body to me. Austin was buried back in Wales in a place he told me he liked visiting.
Experiment Status: Failed - Austin Park is Dead.
-BAS9
Another one of the books was very similar, detailing more cruel experiments that happened.
Warfraim closed the journal and set it down on a table. "Whoever this BAS9 character is truly warped in the head. Whatever the dragon core experiment is bad enough but the other ones were just as bad if not worse." Warfraim could only rub her hair as she spoke.
"I believe that's enough, it's getting late and I need a breather after learning all this." Closure said as she drank some water.
The air in the room was thick, to say the least. Opinions formed in everyone's mind regarding the apparent spearhead of the experiments along with the questions.
Rhodes Island said their goodbyes and thank them for letting them have a joint operation with the cube. Once they reached their hotel they had dinner together, even Marth was sharing laughs with the team as they enjoyed a break from whatever madness is going to happen tomorrow.
As everyone retired for the night Marth was outside on the balcony resting in a lawn chair, while the air was nippy it wasn't anything a blanket couldn't solve. She watched the countless lights of the city and stars exist in harmony. Small moments like these allowed her to forget many things momentarily.
The world that took her parents.
The world that made her an infected.
The world that made her a Sarkaz.
The world that made her a Devil.
"I can see why Mr. Apollo likes the stars now." Any sense of worry or doubt about Apollo was being washed away. Marth was frightened that the person Marth considers her only family did such horrible things. The inhuman things that were done in that journal made Marth sick to her stomach. Experimenting on humans and torturing them would make anyone sick.
All those entries shot down any idea that the cube was connected to Apollo in any way. She couldn't tell if it was because there was no evidence pointing toward BAS9 and Apollo being the same or that she doesn't want her world turned upside down again. Either way, she didn't care because all she wants to do now is sleep, she heads back inside and retires for the night.
Back in the Rhine Lab building, Alyssa was studying one of the containers. Everyone else left with Rhodes Island leaving her as the only soul in the room.
Alyssa looks at the clock. "It's already 11 PM, I should call it a night." Alyssa said as she rubbed her eyes and cleaned her glasses from all the fingerprints knowing that they will be back in less than an hour.
Alyssa could only stare at the container as she used whatever she could think of to open the box. She hit it with various tools and even tried the flamethrower hoping that it would work to no success.
She places an ice pack on her head to cool her head. She continued to look at the container and noticed one key difference between it and the Cube. On one of the sides, it had various dashed lines in the shape of a large circle.
Alyssa leaned back in her seat keeping her balance so as to not fall again. While her body was tired and begging for sleep, Alyssa's eyes had as much life as a young child's. Her gaze zipped around the room hoping that something in the room would provide her with a new idea or perspective to handle this issue.
Soon her eyes landed on the door, more specifically the knob. Below the knob was the lock needed to open the door.
"Cube, journals, BAS9." Alyssa soon just said whatever was in sight or mind. "Container, can't open, door, knob, lock, key, content." Alyssa could feel something form in her mind, so she persuaded that train of thought. She fixed her chair and looked at everything on her desk.
"Container, journals, BAS9, door, knob, lock, key." A piece of the puzzle connected. "The container is locked and I need a key. Whoever made this box needed a way to open it and a fail-safe, maybe that's why something as common as fire was the first key."
Alyssa focused harder on the object on her desk. "Key, key. The key must be in the same area as the con..tain..er." Alyssa quickly snatched one of the journals and put it in the center of the dashed line circle.
Nothing happened.
Alyssa's excitement disappeared instantly, all the fatigue she felt only multiplied. She fell back in her seat as she rolled back.
"Damn, I thought I had it." She said "I guess I'll try again tomorrow."
Before she got up the container lit up. Alyssa's eyes widened as the intricate designs that were once hidden glowed in a soft teal light. A soft humming was heard along with various metal sounds as the sides of the container started to open.
Alyssa rushed out of her seat and stood tall above it. The container that mocked her all day finally seemed small to her.
"What?"
That was all Alyssa could say as she looked at the contents inside the container. Inside was a small dagger with small thin lines inscribed in both the hilt and blade. Along with it was a gemstone teal in color.
There were two items that were shaped like cards, they were IDs that you would see college students, or various employed people carry.
The last item was rather unremarkably simple. Alyssa felt like whoever made this had an odd sense of humor.
The object was a lone sucker in Minoan writing.