Two Years, Five Months Since The Eastwood Event
She’d bought strategy books, she’d studied famous matches, she’d practiced against her computer at home, and she’d played masters over the internet. Mary had won tournaments as the president of chess club in college. Maybe she’d lost her edge since then, focusing on her Doctorate, but she was nearly as good now as ever. And yet, he was beating her. The losses weren’t painful—if anything, she was proud of Daniel—though she wished she could enter him into some international tournaments.
Daniel excelled in all his academics. He’d blown through all his video courses and re-watched them multiple times, supplementing with television shows about the natural sciences.
Though Daniel hadn’t lost the skeletal look of a starving urchin, malnutrition didn't impact his adolescence. His height was above average for his age. His broadening back would look strong if he’d had an ounce of muscle. The beginnings of acne showed, and his hair—which nothing could cut—grew longer and longer.
His bony face matured into sharper features, giving his youthful appearance a masculine edge and prominent cheekbones. Some things didn’t change. The shoulder of his robe constantly threatened to slip down his arm. And no one dared meet his doom-filled eyes.
Daniel’s ability was developing. Training with targets and dummies became routine, increasing his range and accuracy. Daniel had difficulty ‘hitting’ anything smaller than a cubic foot without annihilating everything within that space. However, he could place that cubic foot wherever he wanted in his line-of-sight. He could expand and even stretch the area of effect as long as he painted in broad strokes.
Unlike the gradual degradation taking place over minutes or hours when he touched something, this ability acted in an instant. Any material, whether concrete, organic, plastic, or metallic, turned to dust. Nothing tested could mitigate the damage.
As for social interaction… For the past two years, Mary advocated for the UEs to use the internal phone line or at least exchange written messages. ‘The UEs would need to be able to work together for joint missions’, ‘They would be easier to control if they had less incentive to escape’, and ‘Monitoring the UEs’ conversations could give us new information.’ These suggestions were unilaterally rejected as excessively dangerous.
She took her lunch breaks with Daniel regularly. At first, he’d stared at the food as if it caused him physical pain. Mary had almost insisted they cease, but he looked so depressed when she didn’t stop by. Eventually, Daniel learned to interact normally while she ate, though he always stayed a little distracted.
On her way to the Research Department from such a visit, Director M caught her alone. She opened one of the many annoying security door checkpoints littering the Facility’s long hallways with a hand scan to find her boss standing there on the other side, “Dr. Adelaide, I have something requiring urgent discussion.” M’s serious expression was no indicator of whether the topic would affect her subjects’ wellbeing or the number of designated smoking areas for the soldiers.
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“I need a timetable for the deployment of UE 007 against UE 000.”
Mary inwardly groaned. “Ma’am, producing such a document is going to be extremely challenging. The subject’s progression is nonlinear and unpredictable. I can’t honestly say when UE 007 will be ready for any kind of operation.”
The Director regarded her with flat consideration, “Preserving the UEs has become progressively more difficult to defend over the past year and a half. This is due mainly to the lack of tangible results coming out of this Facility.”
“My team and I are working on dozens of projects, each of which will revolutionize their respective field. You know advances on that level require time.”
“Those Above view this as ‘A hole in the ground we shovel money into.’ Their view is all the UEs should be terminated immediately and forgotten.”
“What about our research?” Mary asked, “What about all we stand to gain?”
“There’s been talk of forcing the appointment of a new Head of Research to obtain those tangible results. For instance, a more stringent Head of Research might experiment with the other UEs’ food dependency given UE 007’s lack of necessity.”
“Besides how inhumane such an experiment would be, it is a reckless use of our limited resources—the UEs! Every one of them is irreplaceable. If they die, we lose our chance to ever learn where they came from or their true nature. Those secrets are ours to lose through ineptitude.” Mary’s blood pounded in her ears.
“I understand your point of view, Doctor. I see the validity of your argument. It has always been my goal to use the disaster of the Eastwood Event to benefit mankind, and I have no intention of giving up on UE 000. However, there has also been talk of a new Director—someone willing to cut losses and detonate the warhead which could destroy all Entities utterly. To prevent such a regrettable occurrence, I need a timetable.”
“I could provide a loose schedule—”
“—The longer it takes, the higher the risk of intervention from up the chain,” the Director interrupted, “The prevailing mindset of Those Above is that UE 007’s destructive tendencies are a constant threat to this Facility’s security.”
“The table incident?” Mary rubbed her forehead in frustration, “How many times do I have to say I explicitly directed that use of power?”
“Dr. Adelaide, if you defend UE 007 so strenuously, some may question your objectivity.”
“Director Minos, I’ve told you before, I am a handler. If I don’t seem emotionally involved it defeats the purpose.”
“Noted. Then I’ll restate the point in other words—if there were something I could point to in my reports, it would be easier to argue for more funding and the UEs’ preservation.”
She finally got it, “If UE 007 or a combination of the others can break through to UE 000, I could take as long as I want with my research.”
“Precisely.”
“I’ll have the timetable on your desk by tomorrow.”
Two Years, Five Months Since The Eastwood Event
She’d bought strategy books, she’d studied famous matches, she’d practiced against her computer at home, and she’d played masters over the internet. Mary had won tournaments as the president of chess club in college. Maybe she’d lost her edge since then, focusing on her Doctorate, but she was nearly as good now as ever. And yet, he was beating her. The losses weren’t painful—if anything, she was proud of Daniel—though she wished she could enter him into some international tournaments.
Daniel excelled in all his academics. He’d blown through all his video courses and re-watched them multiple times, supplementing with television shows about the natural sciences.
Though Daniel hadn’t lost the skeletal look of a starving urchin, malnutrition didn't impact his adolescence. His height was above average for his age. His broadening back would look strong if he’d had an ounce of muscle. The beginnings of acne showed, and his hair—which nothing could cut—grew longer and longer.
His bony face matured into sharper features, giving his youthful appearance a masculine edge and prominent cheekbones. Some things didn’t change. The shoulder of his robe constantly threatened to slip down his arm. And no one dared meet his doom-filled eyes.
Daniel’s ability was developing. Training with targets and dummies became routine, increasing his range and accuracy. Daniel had difficulty ‘hitting’ anything smaller than a cubic foot without annihilating everything within that space. However, he could place that cubic foot wherever he wanted in his line-of-sight. He could expand and even stretch the area of effect as long as he painted in broad strokes.
Unlike the gradual degradation taking place over minutes or hours when he touched something, this ability acted in an instant. Any material, whether concrete, organic, plastic, or metallic, turned to dust. Nothing tested could mitigate the damage.
As for social interaction… For the past two years, Mary advocated for the UEs to use the internal phone line or at least exchange written messages. ‘The UEs would need to be able to work together for joint missions’, ‘They would be easier to control if they had less incentive to escape’, and ‘Monitoring the UEs’ conversations could give us new information.’ These suggestions were unilaterally rejected as excessively dangerous.
She took her lunch breaks with Daniel regularly. At first, he’d stared at the food as if it caused him physical pain. Mary had almost insisted they cease, but he looked so depressed when she didn’t stop by. Eventually, Daniel learned to interact normally while she ate, though he always stayed a little distracted.
On her way to the Research Department from such a visit, Director M caught her alone. She opened one of the many annoying security door checkpoints littering the Facility’s long hallways with a hand scan to find her boss standing there on the other side, “Dr. Adelaide, I have something requiring urgent discussion.” M’s serious expression was no indicator of whether the topic would affect her subjects’ wellbeing or the number of designated smoking areas for the soldiers.
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“I need a timetable for the deployment of UE 007 against UE 000.”
Mary inwardly groaned. “Ma’am, producing such a document is going to be extremely challenging. The subject’s progression is nonlinear and unpredictable. I can’t honestly say when UE 007 will be ready for any kind of operation.”
The Director regarded her with flat consideration, “Preserving the UEs has become progressively more difficult to defend over the past year and a half. This is due mainly to the lack of tangible results coming out of this Facility.”
“My team and I are working on dozens of projects, each of which will revolutionize their respective field. You know advances on that level require time.”
“Those Above view this as ‘A hole in the ground we shovel money into.’ Their view is all the UEs should be terminated immediately and forgotten.”
“What about our research?” Mary asked, “What about all we stand to gain?”
“There’s been talk of forcing the appointment of a new Head of Research to obtain those tangible results. For instance, a more stringent Head of Research might experiment with the other UEs’ food dependency given UE 007’s lack of necessity.”
“Besides how inhumane such an experiment would be, it is a reckless use of our limited resources—the UEs! Every one of them is irreplaceable. If they die, we lose our chance to ever learn where they came from or their true nature. Those secrets are ours to lose through ineptitude.” Mary’s blood pounded in her ears.
“I understand your point of view, Doctor. I see the validity of your argument. It has always been my goal to use the disaster of the Eastwood Event to benefit mankind, and I have no intention of giving up on UE 000. However, there has also been talk of a new Director—someone willing to cut losses and detonate the warhead which could destroy all Entities utterly. To prevent such a regrettable occurrence, I need a timetable.”
“I could provide a loose schedule—”
“—The longer it takes, the higher the risk of intervention from up the chain,” the Director interrupted, “The prevailing mindset of Those Above is that UE 007’s destructive tendencies are a constant threat to this Facility’s security.”
“The table incident?” Mary rubbed her forehead in frustration, “How many times do I have to say I explicitly directed that use of power?”
“Dr. Adelaide, if you defend UE 007 so strenuously, some may question your objectivity.”
“Director Minos, I’ve told you before, I am a handler. If I don’t seem emotionally involved it defeats the purpose.”
“Noted. Then I’ll restate the point in other words—if there were something I could point to in my reports, it would be easier to argue for more funding and the UEs’ preservation.”
She finally got it, “If UE 007 or a combination of the others can break through to UE 000, I could take as long as I want with my research.”
“Precisely.”
“I’ll have the timetable on your desk by tomorrow.”
