Prose:Amelia Rose Induction
“Pfft, Scott, I think you could’ve gone with bigger ears. Y’know, that fennec look.”
He chuckled, flicking his new vulpine ears. “Do you have any idea how annoying that’d be?”
She held up her PDA, showing him an image of a tiny fennec fox with the caption “He’s All Ears!”
“Could’ve been you. Just sayin’.”
A shadow rose upon the table. Someone was approaching. Both junior researchers turned around.
Her style of dressing and grooming told them everything they needed to know about who she was without needing to glance at her badge. She stopped, eyeing the two.
The junior stuttered, trying to find her words. “Uh, miss, er, I mean, Director, ma’am… Can I just say, uh… It’s an honour to… Meet you…”
“Junior Researcher Amelia Rose. L-7 infohazards, countermeasures division. Your work’s impressive.”
Neither spoke about what that work was. They both knew the cafeteria wasn’t the place. “I… uh… thank you. Thank you.”
“Would you walk with me?”
The junior glanced at her colleague, then back at Taylor. “Uh, of course, ma’am!”
The director had an unusually fast, almost inorganic stride that Amelia found it difficult to keep up with. Not because she was synthetic, but because she took every step with calculated purpose.
“You’re good at your job. Do you know why that is?”
“Uh, if I had to pick something, ma’am, it’d be hard work and, uh, complete dedication to the mission.”
“You really believe that?”
They approached the sector elevators.
“Oh, I… I mean, I suppose it’s just something you say.”
She stepped inside the lift and hit one of the hundreds of buttons on the panel. Sublevel -47.
“No. I mean the real reason.”
The two started descending. Amelia felt her ears pop as the lift approached maximum velocity towards what felt like the centre of Earth.
“L-11? But I’m not cleared for that floor...”
“You are now.”
Amelia felt a pit in her stomach. She’d already felt something wasn’t right.
“L-11. Substrate research. I’ve heard things.”
“Why are you afraid of your colleagues?”
“I’m not afraid. Just… uh…”
“Unnerved?”
She nodded.
“You should be.”
The lift stopped with a thunk. The doors slid open.
The sublevel entrance looked the same as all the others. The symbology on the firebreak blast doors told a different story. Boldly printed hazard symbols she’d read about, but never thought she’d see in person.
They crossed the threshold silently, badging through the doors. The doors that permitted them access would also seal them inside. Just like any other sector. But this felt different.
The lights in the corridors past the doors were dim. Unusually dim. She’d never been in a corridor with a red stripe before, but she know what it meant.
Sigma clearance required.
The director took a small rectangular device from her pocket and handed it to Amelia.
“E-rad dosimeter. Put it on.”
“Why, uh… why do I need this?”
She didn’t respond.
A few corridors later, they arrived at their destination.
The door to Experiment Containment Room 177 slid open. The true scale took Amelia’s breath away. Behind the shielding glass of the control area sat a massive pillar of an obsidian-like material, its surface shimmering as if it were alive. As it oscillated, she felt the power in her chest.
The director walked towards the containment door to the room beyond. A technician in an orange hazmat exosuit moved in front, blocking her.
“Ma’am, you can’t go in there. Where’s your PPE?”
“I know what is and isn’t safe. Get out of my way.”
As he noticed who she was, he dropped his stance and immediately stepped aside.
“Uh, ma’am, sorry ma’am…”
Amelia glanced at the warnings beside the door.
MACROSCALE PARTICLE SYSTEM
EXTREME E-RAD FIELD, DANGER OF DEATH
Taylor cycled the airlock.
The two walked down the gantry inside the containment room. Compared to the scattering workers in exosuit, Amelia felt vastly underprotected.
“Director, uh… I don’t have the training for this…”
She said nothing as they approached the obelisk.
Amelia’s dosimeter started ticking wildly, then went into alarm.
The director looked at Amelia’s neck.
“Pendant. Give it to me.”
She glanced down at her necklace. Her mother's gift, given to her on her deathbed. The last, and most important thing she had to remember her by.
“I… Uh…”
“You think you’re dedicated to the mission? Prove it.”
She hesitated, biting her tongue. Then she slowly lifted the pendant off of her neck. Turning it over in her hand to read the engraving.
I’ll never forget you. - Mum
Then she dropped it in her director’s open palm.
Director Taylor spoke in the direction of the control room.
“Raise the power.”
“But ma’am, we can’t do that till the room’s clear…”
“Raise the fucking power or I’ll do it myself.”
The supervisor gave the instruction.
“Overhead emitters to seven point five tera-electronvolts.”
The obelisk reverberated, the floor starting to vibrate. The dosimeters started ticking even more wildly as the surface of the monolith oscillated like scales. The exosuited technicians ran for the exit.
The director stepped towards the obelisk, and pressed Amelia’s pendant to its surface. Immediately, the obelisk absorbed the pendant, pulsing outwards from the contact point. A whirlwind of energy began to form around the centre of the room.
Taylor stepped back.
“Initialise primary impulse vocoder and put on bus.”
The words that echoed throughout the room made Amelia’s heart drop through the floor.
H… Hello?
Is anyone there?
“M… Mum?”
Amy?
Amelia’s mouth was agape. The emotions were impossible to process. This had to be some kind of cruel trick, or…
How am I… What’s happening…
I can’t see…
I can’t see!!!
“Mum… I…”
Please, somebody help me! HELP ME!
Electricity crackled around the obelisk.
“Ma’am, the manifold’s destabilising. The fieldgens can’t hold for much longer. We should-“
“Now, Amelia. You’re in command. Two choices: you can give the shutdown order and your mother the dignity of a final death. Or you can let the obelisk destabilise and destroy Black Mountain.”
“…”
“I… can’t…”
“Three seconds. Decide.”
“…”
“…”
“Shut it down.”
“Cutting power.”
Her mother’s scream faded into silence.
Taylor leant in close to the still-shaking researcher.
“That barely scratches the surface of what the Substrate can do. Do you understand now?”
Amelia lunged forward, landing a heavy right hook on the director’s right cheek.
She didn’t flinch. She chuckled.
“That rage is good. Like substratics, we control it. We use it. Because our adversaries certainly will.”
“You’re L-11 now. You report to this sublevel.”
“I’m watching you closely.”
Taylor left her standing there, alone, as the glow around the obelisk began to fade.