How they made it, Troy had no idea.
He gasped for breath, holding himself up on his feet. A balance was upheld, as his arm clung itself to the wall corner. Dr Hale nearly put Troy out of his misery, as she pushed him forwards, right into the testing room. Sure, it was a reasonable choice, seeing as the door would have crushed him through sheer force.
But, the choice being reasonable didn't help his unstable physique in any meaningful way. Troy was nearly ready to be daydreaming about his failings, and where he fell short, in the last few days. Yet, he was catched, before such a thing could become a reality.
Dr Fidelis made a loud oomph, as he quickly deaccelerated Troy's body. To him, it didn't sound as if it was hard, though, making him second guess the true age of that mad scientist. Sure, he looked ready to be sixty, but was that just because of the unkempt scruffy, which only a blind person could be called a beard? Troy couldn't be sure.
“Do keep our little testing rat a bit safer, Dr Hale. We can't have Troy here breaking his neck on something,” Dr Fidelis said, as he helped Troy balance himself on his legs. They felt unequal in length, yet, when he looked at them, he could see no difference. “I don't think the HR department will let us use a cripple again.”
Forsaking the mention of another person being used, Troy wasn't too confounded, as he was only talked about, as if the things he did was his only worthwhile features. He was a person, but Dr Fidelis seemed to pointedly ignore that obvious fact.
“Of course, sir”, Dr Hale said, as she stepped inside the room herself. “I will try to restrain it to a broken arm, at most.”
With their previous conversation, out in the hallways, Troy was more than a little afraid of the halcyon tones that she was using. She was just joking, of course… He hoped.
“Keep it to a few fingers. He needs to be able to type quickly”, Dr Fidelis corrected, as he walked right back to his chair beside the desk. “Are we ready to have you strapped into the suit, Troy? We've even gotten that curtain, which you were so dedicated to getting.”
Troy looked to, where Dr Fidelis was pointing. His blood pressure increased, after seeing, what was before him.
In the far-back, right corner of the room, a quarter round curtain had been set up, already folded out to its maximum. Troy could live with the small design choice in it. He would be struggling to keep himself inside its boundaries, sure, but this wasn't designed to be pleasant. No, it was designed to do its job.
Though, the colour pattern could have been a little better. On the shower curtain as a whole, flat sheet, there had been printed on a low-quality picture of a sloth climbing, what looked like the empire state building. Troy wasn't too sure about the realism of the building, or if it even was it, as he had only looked at it from the pictures on the web. What was important, was how utterly terrible it looked.
He didn't let the rather distracting, new addition to the room distract him too largely. After a few seconds, of trying to process the monstrosity before him, Troy finally gave up, and went back to the question, that he had been waiting to ask, for the last twenty minutes. Dr Hale hadn't known the answer, so he better gets a good one now.
“Why exactly did you think it was a good idea, to start this testing up at so early in the morning?” Troy asked, trying and failing at sounding tranquil. “Couldn't you have had the decency of waiting until after breakfast, before calling us in for this whole debacle? Then, I would at least be in the right mood for things, such as this.”
Dr Fidelis didn't look surprised, at being bombarded with Troy's words. And, instead of answering anything, which Troy had asked, he just looked over at Dr Hale.
“You must know the reason for our early start today. Right, Dr Hale?” Dr Fidelis asked, his tone sounding like a mix between wonder and confusion. “I complained about the subject several times, during the analysis hours of our workday.”
“I must have been too distracted in our work, sir”, Dr Hale answered. “If you would be so kind as to answer Troy's question. I have been wondering about the same thing, since the moment, where I was stopped from having a single hour of sleep.”
At least, Troy knew he had a sure ally when it came to being annoyed at Dr Fidelis. Though, at this point, he just wanted to get back in bed and sleep his frustrations away. His body may have been healed of the more serious ailments, but his mind had not rested nearly enough. He could only imagine how Dr Hale would be currently feeling.
“Studies have shown, that doing menial work before the first meal of the day is a great motivator for starting up the metabolism,” Dr Fidelis said, as if it would defend anything he had done.
“I don't have the largest interest in that particular part of my bodily process,” Troy stated. “What I am interested in is my body being well-rested. Please explain why this focus was overlooked today.”
Seeing that no minds would be changed today, Dr Fidelis finally seemed to capitulate, showing his hands in surrender.
“Listen”, Dr Fidelis began. “I value sleep as much as you two. But, when it comes to furthering the knowledge of my field, or anyone getting a full seven hours, I will always value my work the most.
As you two may remember, Adam has shown rapid improvement in nearly all introduced fields. This has caused me to accelerate more than a few of the already planned tests. It means that some have been merged, some have been shortened, and some have been removed altogether.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
But, most importantly of all, a single new test has been introduced. It is a massive test, which I have needed to get permission to even dream of performing. It is something, which will bring everything we have tried into one, long, wide-spread learning format.
Now, I can't tell you much else, other than the colossally large level of the near-project. It will all be known to you when the time to perform it comes. Wait, no, that only holds, when it comes to you, Troy. I'll be telling Dr Hale all about it, the moment you step inside the puzzle room.
Anyways, the extreme amount of time, which the new test will take to be performed, will likely take up a full day of testing. Because of this, I have been forced to… ahem… quicken things up a bit. And, I would never try to put any haste on the tests. That would be asking for worse results. No, I have been forced to… add more tests for today. To be more specific, we will be doing two whole days worth of tests today.”
Troy couldn't believe, what he was being told. After yesterday being oh so hectic, and his body nearly giving him the full middle finger because of it, Troy was now being told he would be doing double that today. It had to be a joke.
Looking over at Dr Hale, he already knew, that wasn't anything to place his bets on. Her face was slowly being twisted into an expression of recognition. Most likely, she was currently scouring her memory, trying to dig up anything about any overly long tests, which Dr Fidelis has been talking about yesterday.
“Surely, you can't be serious,” Troy said. He couldn't believe it. No, he didn't want to believe it.
“I am serious. And, don't call me Shirley”, Dr Fidelis instantly responded, cracking a smile while he was at it, for whatever inane reason one could think up. “Get that into your hands, and get over to get changed. If you want to sleep before the day is over, you better hurry those little legs of yours up. And, no falling asleep behind the curtain. I'll know if you try.”
A button on the desk was pressed, and the platform slowly descended from the ceiling. This time, Troy was smart enough to step away from the landing position. Even his sleep-addled brain knew, that being brain-damaged wouldn't make this day pass any faster than it already was.
The skinsuit looked just as utterly traumatizing, as it did yesterday. Yet, it looked…
“Did you get it resized?” Troy asked, as he picked it up from the scrawny thing, which could only just be called a pedestal. It was important to know, as he wasn't sure if he needed to strip wholly down, to avoid losing complete blood circulation. That it was even made so, to start with, was absolutely horrendous thinking, but Troy, unfortunately, didn't have any input on that topic.
“It was a hasty job, and we got a few warnings in the mail”, Dr Fidelis began, drawing out the answer very plainly. “But… it did get increased a good bit. So, you should be able to wear it comfortably, even if you suddenly gain ten more kilos.”
That was all Troy needed to know, as he hastily walked over to the curtained off area. Pulling it slightly, so he could get inside, he gained even further insight, into how small his new changing room really was. He could reach everywhere, with just one hand, while his body remained in the same position.
It was terribly small. But, as stated before, it could still work. As long as Troy could get his large bottom inside the suit, there would be no problems to discuss.
Speaking off…
“Stretch the thing out, please!”, Troy shouted through the curtain. No way, was he getting inside that thing, without the whole thing being stretched out.
A mild exclamation was heard trough the covers, followed by a lot of shovelling fabrics around. Lastly, a 'there' was heard, and, with a low-volume click, the skinsuit grew more than a few sizes, letting Troy easily get himself inside it.
Even now, when his mind was an at near-all time low, the suit was still as terrible to look at. Whoever had made this thing, had to be one something bad. And, not any of those things, which apparently boosted creativity or something. No, it just had to be cracked together using nothing but crack.
At least it felt comfy.
Troy stepped out from behind the curtain, the rest of his clothes placed in a neat little pile in the corner of his changing area. Dr Fidelis was well on his way in splitting into a pile eating grin.
“Looks beautiful!”, Dr Fidelis proclaimed. Dr Hale simply noted a few words down on her notepad. Troy guessed it was his less than stellar reaction, to their expectations.
“Can you just hand me that earpiece I need, so we can start up this whole debacle?” Troy asked, more than ready to get out of their sights. Not due to fear of anything. It was more on the scale of, being embarrassed due to his worse than revealing clothing.
Dr Fidelis quickly spared himself up at this point. A solid first, if Troy would ever have the guts to say such a thing.
“Speaking of earpieces”, Dr Fidelis began. “Did you remember to bring your own today?”
Yes, Troy had, for once-
“He has”, Dr Hale confirmed, before Troy even had the chance of opening his own mouth. “It was initially forgotten, until it was mentioned by me, during our brisk walk over here.”
She could have refrained from mentioning that part. Yet, he knew how little his opinion would sway her actions.
“Great!”, Dr Fidelis exclaimed, seeming to fully ignore the last bit of criticism against Troy. It just seemed as if the potential for better conditioning was a more worthwhile focus than whatever else could be said. He looked back at him, at this point. “Troy, where did you put the earpiece?”
Troy quickly tried putting his right hand down in his pocket, whereupon he realized his lack of such things currently. The momentary shock was felt before the reason for this was realized.
“The earpiece is in my pants, which are lying around in the corner”, Troy answered. After, the opportunity for a question appeared. A question, which he had been thinking about for quite a while. “Dr Fidelis. When do you think that your repairs will be finished?”
To this, Dr Fidelis only shrugged.
“It will all depend on the condition of the thing,” Dr Fidelis simply stated. “If its just slightly in disrepair, from the longer use, it will take a few minutes. If it's been stepped on, or anything like it, it will take a few days, so I can get new parts for the whole thing. Just because the earpiece works currently, doesn't mean, that it will continue to do so.
A lot of small bits in the contraption are very fragile. And, I mean that in every sense of the word. If their placement gets shifted by the tiniest amount inside it, chaos will begin slowly unfolding, like a clockwork going out of tune.
Leisurely, every single slightly complex thing in contact with each other will get destroyed. Its why I wanted you to even hand it over, to start with. If I notice it now, I'll be able to stop it in time. Else, it would be costing us much more than our budget would allow.
Now I can tell you how long this whole operation will take if you go over, and get me the earpiece including handing it over to me. With these old eyes of mine, A quick look should tell me just enough, to give you a good estimate.”
Troy did as requested, bringing it over to Dr Fidelis.
After handing it over, the carapace earpiece was slipped off, and the inside was revealed. Troy had been trying to gain even the slightest understand, of how Dr Fidelis was managing to get it off, and much more just, where it was being slipped open. The thing looked like one solid chunk of plastic, so the sides had to be so much more than just formfitting.
The humming was heard coming from the bearded earpiece-holder.
“A few things aren't, where they're supposed to be”, Dr Fidelis informed Troy, much to a certain somebody's chagrin. “But, it shouldn't take me too long to get the placement back in its place. Nothing has had the time to break, so no parts need to be traded away. The only hard thing about this will be to the setting of few things back correctly. If I mess it up, which I most likely will a few times, the faults will simply return with time.
All in all, I should be done by this afternoon. Is that alright with you?”
The last sentence saved his heart from falling out. Troy couldn't have been happier, as he gave a swift nod in ratification.
“Perfect”, Dr Fidelis said. “Now, get inside that puzzle room, like you're supposed to. We're already behind, and we're getting further away from having any chance of sleeping tonight, with each passing second.”
No threat was bigger than a lack of sleep. At least, from the furious pace, his legs were beating, it would seem so.