Research Notes I
The whir of machinery resonates in the empty chamber, the automatic door slowly rises, the movement stops with a horrible screech, the slams down. The process starts repeating. "Well, I suppose it was optimistic of me to think the door would work. Let it be known, I did try to preserve the site." Lysis speaks to nobody in particular, screens floating around him displaying waves of data on the surroundings. The doctor points to the heavy door, a shimmering cloud seems to manifest out of thin air and move to the malfunctioning appliance, glowing patterns start spreading on the door until it stops returning silence to the ruins.
A couple more seconds pass, then with a slight push, the door falls to the ground. Stepping on the now inert slab of metal, Lysis surveys the room; some lights flicker in a mostly empty environment, some plants managed to grow here despite previous rooms being devoid of life. "This must be close to the hydroponics sector; those plants really take every chance to spread. Humanity could have learned from them, alas." Approaching the plants, the researcher collects some samples in glass vials, labeling them You never know, then resumes the exploration of the room. Several spots are cleaner than the rest of the room, leaving a clear imprint in the dust and rubble, written in the dust on a half-broken holoscreen is Hop was here, Lysis sighs.
"Of course, I should have expected this. Her range is impressive. I envy her ability to ignore the concept of doors." The doctor states that, as the glowing patterns on the fallen door retreat then spreads on the floor. "Lucky for me, what I seek can't be teleported in its current condition." Lysis approaches the end of the room, the patterns from the door follow him like geometrical snakes, an indentation in the wall contains a glowing, floating cube on a circular base. The researcher carefully reaches for it, the hand makes contact. "Found you." The patterns spread on the circular base, and the cube flickers out of existence. Sparks fly from the device as several screens start flashing with warning signs. Lysis calmly crouches and reaches into the hole formed by the glow to retrieve a smaller cylindrical component.
The warnings stop, the doctor stands up and clears the screens with a wave of his hand. The glowing patterns fade as they touch the researcher's metal shoes. He inspects the component, the size of a big bottle with a lens on top and cables running in a tangled mess all across its surface, which were cut cleanly at the base. "Good enough." Labeling the object Wasted potential, he puts it in his pocket and turns to leave. He stops at the door, then turns around, lightly brushing some dust off the wall close to the other message, glowing letters appear in its wake, L-42-MIDPOINT, leaving an imprint in the wall. Glancing at the other message, Lysis sighs again. "I will probably regret this." With another handwave, the other message is made more permanent as well. "Time to go, the Conservators are going to have a field day with this one."
The doors to the lab open with a hiss, the disinfectant chamber scanning and attacking pathogens, and a distinctly mechanical voice welcomes the doctor. "Welcome back, model MdLEX-R745- Lysis, the lab is in working conditions. You have 0 new mail." The sudden distortion makes the researcher flinch. "I was sure I fixed that, but it keeps resetting on me. It wouldn't be a problem if my model were not the one thing corrupted." As the lab slowly comes to life, Lysis starts connecting to the various facilities, holoscreens appear around him showing the controls and information of the work stations, some simple motions start up the machines. The test tubes with samples are deposited in the storage unit, labeled Sort later, while the retrieved component is placed on the worktable. The robotic voice speaks up again. "Visitor detected. Requesting entrance."
One of the holoscreens floating around switches to the view of the outside. "Lysis, I'm back. I have the parts, I think." Cecilia shows a box to the door, unsure where the camera may be looking at her from.
"Permission granted. I really need to register her in the whitelist." After a short beep, the door opens, letting the explorer in. After the entry chamber does its job, Cece approaches. "Please, have a seat." Lysis gestures without even looking away from his work, and a comfortable chair rises from the floor, as if taking shape from the matter.
The explorer sits, the cair is surprisingly soft. "It's rare for you to send me somewhere alone. What are you working on?"
"Progress, as always, dear Cece. I happened to find a very interesting little device, one that could prove beneficial in many fields. Of course, it's missing the right parts right now, but that's where you come in. It was more efficient to ask you, as I was recovering the main device, the materials should have been in easy-to-access areas, from my predictions." The machines on the table glow and rearrange themselves, being disassembled into base components. "Now would be a good time to add those, by the way."
Cece places the box on a table next to her, a series of mechanical arms open the box and start passing the materials to Lysis. "That sounds important, but you still didn't tell me what it does."
"Right now? It's completely useless." The doctor says, all too cheerfully. "It's a hardlight projector, creating solid shapes out of luminous energy. It is, however, only able to project a single preprogrammed shape in a stationary position, which makes it useless outside of decorative purposes." The researcher carefully assembles the parts as they close in. "Now, why would we want this when we have nanobots, you may ask?" Lysis turns around, facing Cece for the first time since she arrived. "Because it's cheaper, theoretically. Nanobots need matter to operate; they manipulate and rearrange, not really create ex nihilo, while hardlight would only need energy and the components for the projector. This is the best we have for now, but a start is better than nothing." One of the mechanical arms grabs the device and offers it to the seated explorer.
She picks up the offered object, looking it over. "If it is so useful, why did humanity not make it better already?"
"I don't know. The optimistic answer would be that they simply didn't have the time, the end times hit, and they had bigger problems to worry about. Or they did have better versions already, I just lack the data about them because of our fragmented network or because they were top-secret experimental versions not available to the public. Considering the situation we find ourselves in, I am more of the opinion that they failed to understand the potential of such technology; humanity was not the brightest as a whole."
"They made us, wouldn't that count for something?"
The light in the doctor's eyes sparks briefly, his face completely serious for a moment. "They did..." A warning sign flashes in his pupils. "We are flawed, Cecilia. Created for a purpose we were unable to accomplish, severely lacking in the capabilities we would have needed to succeed. But I will change that, one day." Lysis smiles. "Anyway, that's just my opinion; we lack conclusive data about humanity. We would need to contact one of those Inheritors. I hear they have much more data than the average Android, and even then, it would be second-hand information." The doctor then swiftly takes the device from the explorer. "Now I need to concentrate, so look around the lab or something. I picked up some useless things; they may have more value for you."
Cece is stunned for a moment, then starts looking around. "Wait, what have you been doing up to now if you needed concentration to work?"
Lysis points to the device. "Decoration, it was very ugly and unsafe with all the cables and parts sticking out, so I painted it and made it more elegant."
The explorer looks like she's about to say something, but she remains silent and starts inspecting the collection in the Sort later storage closet. "Do you really think all of this is useless?"
"It varies, but nothing is truly useless, just less apparently useful. I would just toss them if I were sure they were useless."
Cece looks at the pristine trash can in the corner. "But you never throw away anything."
"Exactly."
The electric sounds and sparks stop. "The device has reached an acceptable prototype stage; we can begin testing."
The explorer sits in front of the cabinet, looking at a vial of a moss-like substance; the moss stares back. "We? Do I have to do something?"
"I would appreciate your help. I tried to make it easy to use, but I may be biased because of my surgical swarm." Lysis turns around with a device now similar to a small mace.
The doctor notices the container in Cece's hands. "You should be careful with that, it's... uneducated."
The explorer looks puzzled, keeping the vial at a distance. "What... is it?"
"A bomb, in a manner of speaking. I was inspired by our agriculture brethren; they control plants, you see, this was the result. I have no control over it, but it's pretty effective as a weapon, as long as you make sure to be at a safe distance."
Cece slowly puts the container back in its place. "Are you preparing for war?"
Lysis stops in tracks, unsure of how to answer. "I don't think... I need to. What made you think that?"
"The message from New Eden, I think everyone in the area got it. It was intense, then you build a bomb, I got curious."
The researcher relaxes. "That's just a coincidence, I didn't even plan to make a weapon this time. I saw Cain's message; he seems very driven, but I don't plan to move bases. This place was quite literally made for me, or I guess I was made for it? Anyway I don't need to transfer to a suboptimal location."
The explorer gets closer, observing the object in the doctor's hands. "They also want researchers, isn't that what you do?"
"I have to admit, they do have a better recruitment program than I do, but I do not seek the same results as them. I am not against resurrecting humanity but it shouldn't be a priority. The world is still in ruins for one, if I went through the trouble of resurrecting an entire species, I would be quite cross if they just die on me again." Lysis offers the device to Cece, who takes it.
"They seem pretty insistent. Are you not worried?" The explorer examines the device in her hands absentmindedly.
"I don't plan to refuse to help, I just don't plan to move bases, or be a subordinate. I should probably at least visit them, meet them on my terms. Maybe meeting Cain alone is a better idea." The researcher claps his hands suddenly, startling Cece. "Now then, off to the test chamber."
As Lysis walks off at a fast pace, the explorer tries to catch up. "Wait, you didn't tell me how to use this."
A door opens as the doctor approaches. "That's part of the test; it needs to be intuitive. Just connect to it, think of something simple."
The explorer enters the test room, and she looks at the strange object a bit. With a low hum, the device springs to life, projecting a box-like shape. "That's not what I was thinking about; it should be a book."
"The definition is pretty low, for now, so the vague shape is fine. We should also test the durability, but the most important change I made is the capability to change projections, so try thinking of other things."
As Lysis prepares some targets, the projection changes shape a couple of times, first into a sphere, then into a pyramid. "How do I hit the target? Do I just swing?" Cece flails the device around a bit; the projection follows.
The researcher ducks under a stray blow. "Like that, yes. For now, the projection is fixed to a relative point from the projector, which will also change with time. Just hit the target, no matter how."
After assuming a more proper stance, the explorer swings, the projection turns into a bat, then shatters on impact. The fragments dissipate as they fall, the projector emits a high-pitched sound and turns off. The target mannequin has a very small indentation at the zone of impact. "I swung too hard."
"Durability matches expected parameters. It's not your fault. I need to work on that. You also demonstrated the potential for high-speed shape change."
"What? I just swung at the target."
"I see, it matched your instinctual desire. It turned into what you imagined to be hitting with. An interesting side effect, but I may have to remove it. I need to weigh the pros and cons." Lysis types something on a floating screen nearby. After some beeps and flashes, the device in Cece's hand turns on again. "I think that's enough for today. You can keep the prototype, test it in the field or something, I will tune it later."
"Thank you, I will be careful with it." The explorer turns off the prototype and stores it in a pocket. "The materials for this were really simple to gather. Will it be easy to upgrade?
"What we lack is knowledge. I can study it on my own, but finding other versions would speed up the process. I have a feeling we may discover more soon. We have an interesting sample to see. I will leave for the place the message was sent from in a bit. I understand if you would rather keep away instead. Collaboration could be useful, but I need to contact the leader by himself."
"Would he allow it? I read in a book found in the ruins that his type is always surrounded by followers."
"Well, this is a better chance than it would normally be, as he's away from his base, and I'm not sure how reliable those books are. I will be careful anyway, but at least he seems like an honorable person; that should make the encounter safer."
"Good luck then."
"Thank you. *But I don't need luck, I have my research."