The elevator down is painfully slow. This is likely due to the fact is it also completely silent; so much so that even an Eeee would have a hard time hearing it move through its hidden shaft. It's also possible the speed is to obscure just how far the elevator moves, too. In any event, it does give plenty of time for Envoy to wonder about the sanity of her decision to go into the elevator .. alone. Dcotor Demara remained upstairs.
It's a full twenty minutes later before the doors open slowly. The passageway outside is dim, lit by what looks like red emergency lights at intervals. The air down here is humid and the temperature is well, warm. It reminds Envoy all too much of a swamp in its climate. The walls outside the elevator are a mix of smoothly carved stonework and power-coated steel supports.
"Hello?" Envoy calls into the hall, a bit hesitantly. She takes a few steps out of the elevator and listens for a response. From the heat.. she wonders just how far underground she might be.
"Hello ... hello ..." echos Envoy's voice. The only reply is the sound of dripping water and the faint sound of machinery somewhere up ahead. Pumps, perhaps.
Envoy heads for the sound of the pumps, stepping carefully. She thinks of the booby-trapped corridors of Babel's Undercity, and figures Dr. Daedalus has to be at least a bit paranoid, so she checks for seams that might hide sliding panels or pressure plates as she goes.
There are no obvious seams that Envoy can can find as she walks. She's too busy, looking down at one point, though, to notice she's about to walk into something gauzy-looking. Splut. Envoy feels something went and rather .. icky, drape over the top of her head and onto her wings.
"Ack!" she goes and reaches up, stopping herself before plunging her hands into something potentially sticky. Instead she backs up to try and get a look at whatever remains hanging in place.
It looks like cast-off plastic ... almost. Thin strips of something translucent. Perhaps an old vapor barrier? It's hanging from the support beam above, at any rate.
After deciding it isn't an active trap, Envoy uses her fingers to see if anything other than condensation got on her head. "I wonder if that's what's left of a quarantine barrier," she mumbles.
Just some stagnant water and perhaps a bit of fungus or algae. The water that wipes off her head is a bit slimy.
"So much for looking professional," Envoy notes, and ducks down to move past the hanging plastic. "Hello!" she tries calling again as she continues. "Dr. Daedalus?"
"Who are you?" a voice in the distance finally replies. The voice is ... odd. Hollow-sounding, perhaps. It's also hard to pinpoint quite where it is coming from.
"I'm Envoy," the Aeolun replies. "Err, we may have met when I possessed Theseus.. that is, Number Twelve.. for a short time. That is, if it really happened. Quantum entanglement time-travel is tricky, but.. it seemed real to me."
There's one of those uncomfortable pauses when everything seems to go silent. A bright light flares up in the distance, illuminating a spot on the floor. It looks like it is probably right at the entrance to a larger room. "Come forward and step into the light," the voice commands.
Envoy hesitates a moment, then steps forward, telling herself it's just so the doctor can get a look at her.
The electrical hum that Envoy can hear makes it even more uncomfortable ... but it's probably just the buzz of a magnetic ballast in the light overhead. "You are a strange-looking creature," the voice states, "Not one of the prime species. But, I suppose that is to be expected if one can interface into the quantum fields of the Sifras."
"You do remember me then!" Envoy says, sounding happy. "How did you fake your death? And especially.. how did you get the data pad into the wall behind the bullet hole? Can I see you?"
"Molecular vibration; more or less. Liquefying mass temporarily, you could say," the voice answers, "As for seeing me; I am not sure that would be ... prudent. I am not as ... pleasing to look at as I once was. Time is not kind and dealing with free-radical cellular decay has cost."
"You didn't clone yourself a new body or replacement parts?" Envoy asks, a little disappointed. "When I ran into Von Bronson recently, he seemed more mechanical life-support system than human.. if he ever was human. But he was mobile. He's managed to recreate some of your research, I'm afraid."
"Too much risk in trying to close a new body around a cerebral cortex and nervous system; simpler to slow down the rate of decay in the body through judicious grafting of gene sequences," the supposed voice of Dr. Daedalus answers, "Complete tissue regeneration is a last resort." Again, there is another uncomfortable pause before she says, "So, he does still live. I assumed as much. And still pursuing research that should best be left forgotten. You had best come in and speak with me then. But ... tell me, is Thirteen with you?"
"He's here in the city, on.. well.. on a date," Envoy notes. "He has chaperones I trust, however. I hope that you and he can meet - he hardly knows anything about you except for your sacrifice to save him.."
"I am not sure I could face him; not with what I did to the others before him," Dr. Daedalus says. The light above Envoy shuts off and the light-level in the room ahead increases a little bit. It's .. an eclectic collection of oddities, from ornate antique furniture and bookshelves ... to an odd-array of what may be computational devices, gene sequencers, and little machines that make noise due to the electrical arcs that snap and crackle between tines of metal. "Please, come sit," Dr. Daedalus repeats. "I suppose we have much to talk about."
Moving carefully so as not to disturb anything, Envoy sits on the edge of an antique parlor chair. "I wish I could help you," she notes to the room at large.
"Why?" Dr. Daedalus asks. Envoy can now tell that someone is circling her ... in the shadows. "I am no innocent. I have done much to atone for the sins of my past; I have tried to save lives. But ... that does not redeem me for the crimes I committed."
"I am not someone who can answer that objectively," Envoy admits, turning her head to try and catch sight of whatever is moving in the shadows. "I am trying redeem myself as well for hurting others. Perhaps you should be asking yourself: how much more good can I accomplish, given the chance?"
"How much good can any monster accomplish?" Dr. Daedalus answers with a question. The shadow finally steps forward into the light; revealing herself. Thin and about five foot five tall, Dr. Daedalus is about as she remembers her in height and build ... but the rest of her is quite ... alien. Gone is the light-skin tone of a human, replaced with ruddy, heavy, scales. Fingers have long since changed to talon-tipped claws, though they still flex with the dexterity of a human. Her face is still thin, jut her jaw now extends into a short, scaled, almost-hook-beaked reptilian face, complete with two small fangs that just poke out from under thin lips. Resting right on the tip of that odd nose are a pair of half-height reeding-glasses. The eyes embedded in the re-shaped skull, while clear, seem old and tired.
She still had hair, but it lays more like a mane that goes from mid-forehead down to the base of her neck. Her once small human ears are also gone, given way to fin-like structures as well, the tines flexing and spreading the membranes. All that she now wears clothing-wise is a stained and worn white lab coat that has certainly seen better days.
"You don't seem all that monstrous from where I'm sitting," Envoy points out. "You could blend in unnoticed in several regions of Sinai. A rather clever solution to the problem of both DNA degradation and metabolic longevity though."
"You could use some better clothing though," the Aeolun does advise, leaning forwards to whisper it, as if in confidence.
"Reptiles do not age rapidly," Dr. Daedalus notes as she lopes forward to reach a chair sitting across from Envoy. She has to push her heavy tail out of the way before sitting down and leaning forward slightly for balance. "A few borrowed sequences from the celestials, more or less," she adds as she lifts and looks at her own odd-hand. "You gave me the idea," she says, "Long ago."
"Really?" Envoy asks, looking.. proud? "You know the Celestials aren't in their own original forms, right? They were more draconic in their past, but genetically stagnant. Their current forms were the result of infusing genes from Terran reptiles."
"I am aware they are a grafted species. It's obvious in their genetic chains. There are sequences of immense age mixed with ones of lesser evolutionary period; you can tell by the cross-chain complexities," Dr. Daedalus explains. "And yes, when you told me Thirteen ... Icarus' name. Mythology. A woman exiled; the gorgon. Thankfully I do not turn those to stone who look upon me."
"Do you want to?" Envoy finds herself asking.
"Not particularly," Dr. Daedalus says. "You are very strange."
The Aeolun ponders this for a moment before asking, "Is.. is that a compliment? I try to see things from a mortal perspective, which sometimes causes me other problems, I admit. But.. anyway, I don't think Icarus would mind seeing you like this."
"I'm a hideous, old, monster who is the cause of much pain in his life," Dr. Daedalus says as she adjusts her glasses using a hooked claw, "Yes, he would. He is better off without knowing that his m ... creator lives."
"You created him, and.. I'm very grateful to you for that," Envoy says, smiling. "If you really do not want to see him, I'll respect your wishes. But if there is anything I can do for you, just ask. Also.. well, Von Bronson's Fourteen was crude but powerful, and incorporated some sort of artificial Sifran crystal. If you can tell me what you think he would have needed to accomplish this, it might help discover his new base of operations. I really do need to stop him."
"Of course I want to see him," Dr. Daedalus admits and looks down. "I .. kept myself alive because of what you had told me. I thought maybe some day I would see him all grown up. But that does not mean he would want to see me."
"I could ask him?" Envoy offers. "Or.. well, you don't have to tell him who you are."
"And there has been a fourteenth sequence made?" Dr. Daedalus now asks as she looks back up. "Von Bronson, while a genius in many ways, did not completely grasp genetic theory. His skill was with machines, not the building blocks of life. If he made another one ... please describe it?"
Envoy takes time to draw a verbal picture of the often mismatched features from various species, and the terrible electronic control system that turned the poor creature into a virtual puppet.
Envoy gets the rather peculiar feeling as if she's watching a sage dragon consider this with the way she strokes her scaled chin. "It sounds like his resources were lacking. If i had to guess, he had access to one of the Eeee bio-pods they use to grow their insect-based lifeforms and probably used it to force-graft together aspects. It is also likely that the poor creature was normal once and was just augmented over time. It would have been horribly painful. This was." She gestures to herself. "He may have also had access so some celestial technology. The control harness is likely basic terran; pain inductive control. None of it outside of the graft sounds like Silent-One; they do not deal in bio-research."
"The Terrans have standard pain induction systems?" Envoy asks with a gasp. "What about the crystals? They were either reproductions or.. severely damaged from the feedback they produced. Extremely chaotic."
"You do understand that crystals can be grown, I assume? You need a seed crystal and the appropriate material to form its lattice. It's likely he didn't have the exact materials ... and produced something vastly inferior ... or at the very least, dangerous," Dr. Daedalus answers. "And of course there are standard pain induction systems. It is how violent criminals are kept under control."
"That's right, you don't have mind mages.. yet," Envoy says, looking thoughtful. "Seed crystals. As much as everyone refers to Sifran crystal as crystal, I never actually thought of it is as such. That may explain the discordant nature of his replicas." She pulls back her sleeve to expose the crystal on her right forearm. "I'm still trying to decipher the communications protocols the normal type uses."
One of Daedalus scaled brows arches slightly. "You have been grafting to yourself?" she asks, "I see then that you have also been reverse-engineering my work, then. To what goal?" The last question sounds rather icy.
"Sorry? No, the crystal grafted itself to me," Envoy explains. "I didn't do anything. I was modified by the Sifras.. or their servants.. when I arrived in this reality. To be more compatible. I also resemble their higher servitors, the Svartifin. I'm classified as one of them now."
Dr. Daedalus curls one of her talons to beckon Envoy to lean closer as she leans forward. "Let me see something?" she asks.
Getting up, Envoy approaches the reptilian chimera. "What do you want to see?" she asks when she's before her.
Dr. Daedalus takes a firm grip on the horn protruding from Envoy's head! The doctor's ear-fins flare and then she flicks the horn, hard, with one of her talons. Her brow rolls, then she releases Envoy's horn. "You have a quantum nexus control unit inside your skull? There is something that resonates when your horn is struck, at any rate. Not unlike Icarus was designed; what the project was trying to design."
Envoy waits for her head to stop ringing. "I have.. well, it's sort of.. a universe," she notes. "A very small one, all folded up in a special way to be like matter. It's called timestone, and it forms my ansible - where I keep my memory and.. other information. It can resonate of course, that is necessary. It uses entanglement lines - the quantum wormholes in the 'foam' of spacetime. I think that is how Twelve was able to link my mind back through time.."
"I have no desire to cut your skull open to find out whether or not is it true. Therefore, that will be the working theory for now," Dr. Daedalus remarks; then briefly flicks a forked tongue. "You must have been near a focus point where a massive quantum shift had occurred. One of the gravity bursts from the experiments would suffice for that. It does warp spacetime, obviously."
"It was on the battle simulation floor, and Twelve's spirit was there with me," Envoy explains. "It had appeared before and released its burst, and again in the vivisection room where a reenactment of him destroying a technician occurred. That.. well, I was lucky to have increased my molecular density before being hit by that."
"Spirit?" Dr. Daedalus inquires. "A ghost?" There's a break in the rather solemn expression of the strange reptilian chimera. She almost looks sad. "Stories always claimed that ghosts stayed behind in places where they suffered the most," she says quietly, "So that means even in death Twelve did not find peace."
"He did," Envoy says. "I laid him to rest, along with all of the others that were killed there. I was a bit suspicious when your spirit was notably absent, however, which is why seeing a photo of Dr. Demara in the newspaper made me think you might still be alive."
"I couldn't die knowing Thirteen was still ... trapped," Dr. Daedalus admits weakly, "Even with the family I did have later; with this hospital; all the children I helped." She leans forward, cupping her face in her scaled hands. "I couldn't leave my son alone," she adds, voice cracking, "Not without knowing for certain that someone in eighty years would find him and give him a chance at a real life."
"He's still learning," Envoy says. "And I have limited experience to share with him. Are you sure you do not want him to know you? You are his birth-mother."
"Have you ever had children, Envoy?" Daedalus asks.
"Ma'am.. I'm ten years old," Envoy relates. "I was never a child, I will not age, have no genitals and don't even have genetic material as you know it. My closest personal relationship is with a Sifran artificial intelligence that controls the planet Morpheus.. in other words, I have no real ingrained concept of family or motherhood, but I do try my best."
"Then you cannot understand the fear that your child may tell you that he hates you. Or curse you for the pain he had to endure," Dr. Daedalus says wit her face still in her hands. "It would be like losing him all over again."
"I.." Envoy starts to say, but can't find the words. "I don't know what else to do, Elsa," she finally says softly. "I can't lie to him. I believe if he knows you are alive, he'll feel very nervous about meeting you as well. But he'll know you held on all this time just to see that he was able to live. At least give me a message to bring him?"
"I ... " Dr. Daedalus says just before she sits up. "I will be the message. I'll go with you. I also need to see the remains of Fourteen; to see what new horrors he may be attempting with my research."
"Oh.. ah, the remains could be a problem," Envoy admits. "He imploded the building on top of himself after I destroyed his control system. Icarus might be able to uncrumple it all though. And.. do you have something clean to wear?" she asks, gesturing to the ruined lab coat.
"I ... no. I don't really need clothing any more. No visible parts to make people uncomfortable," Dr. Daedalus admits with a small laugh. "But I do suppose I cannot walk in public in my, ah, scales."
"I went through that issue myself," Envoy notes. "But people respond to you better if you have pockets; clothing is a sign of sapience."
Blinking, Envoy then realizes, "I'm sure there are hospital scrubs up above you could wear."
"Then you will have to get me some. Preferably some with electric heat built in," Dr. Daedalus says. "I find I prefer warm places now."
"This is New Zion," Envoy says, standing up. "If we can't find electrically heated undergarments in a city this big.. well, I'll have Walter invent some for you. He's good at inventing!"
"Walter? Who is this?" Daedalus asks. "Hopefully someone with strong morals and honor if he is around Th ... Icarus."
"He is a Gentleman Adventurer and Inventor, Walter P. Thorndike the Third," Envoy says. "He has a machine that can navigate the Sifran energy portal network, and has been teaching Icarus how to build things and act properly. I hope his date doesn't manage to undo all of that.."
Daedalus blinks. "You are allowing him to date?" she says, aghast. "What if he ... kisses or ... worse? His genetic diversity also makes him compatible to several of the prime species! Didn't you read his bioprint data I left in the data pad?"
"He's on a date with an Eeee girl," Envoy notes. "I don't think anything will happen, as they are both young. It is more because he wasn't repulsed by the girl's scarring that she asked him out. And they are being chaperoned by the daughters of the Silent One's emissary to New Zion."
"You're allowing him to associate with the Silent-Ones?" Daedalus blunts in a rather undignified way, "They might kill him for what he is!"
"They've sort of adopted him," Envoy notes. "The emissary is Born-in-War, the great grand-nephew of the original Silent One sample used to create Icarus. They consider him family, and are willing to help with his education."
Daedalus rubs her scaled hands over her face again, knocking her half-glasses askew. "Perhaps you had best go find me clothing before I hear something that makes me more worried," the chimera admits. "I'm old, my heart might explode. Or worse, I might molt. Which, I must say, is quite disturbing the first time it happens."
"Oh, does your outer skin stay in one piece, or sort of melt?" Envoy asks. "Mine melts if I don't get enough sun. But that's not really important right now. What size lab coat do you wear?" she asks, her old cheerful self again. Dr. Daedalus is interesting! I'm sure Icarus will like her. I wonder if she still likes humans though? She's been cooped up for a long time.. I wonder if I should warn Walter to be wary of advances? And can she still enjoy ice-cream without becoming torpid? So many things to keep watch for.. but I'm sure it will be worth it, she thinks.