Episode 40
Sharp was thinking. His eyebrows were furrowed. Deep, serious thoughts were drifting through his consciousness. Figuring out how to get internet connectivity through the biohazard shields that protected the rest of the world from the weirdness inside this lab was a daunting task. He couldn’t compromise the shields. As much as he disliked being quarantined, it was a sound protocol. He needed some time to think of an elegant, efficient solution.
He was glad the current portal was still the serene world of the jellyfloats. They made no sounds and didn’t interfere. Isabelle had turned down the speaker volume on the intercom so the torrential roar of the villagers talking amongst themselves was now a soft babble. He was in a perfect position to think uninterrupted from all extraneous sounds.
“I cannot plait your hair.”
Maybe if I ignore her, what she said will make more sense.
“Your hair is rather short, except for the crown of your head where you have this lone blonde lock. How curious. ” Cattleya began to study his hair from different angles. He couldn’t determine if she was trying to irritate him or distract him. She was doing a good job on both fronts.
The internet…through the walls…quarantine shields…
“Even your hair bridges the divide,” she said with interestas she came closer to his face and examined his bangs. He could smell her scent again now that she was in his personal space.
A simple matter…focus…quantum…
“It is tradition for a maiden to plait a warrior’s hair so that he is prepared to ascend to heaven should he fall in battle.
entanglement…transmodulator…focus…wait.
“Ascend? That’s it! You’re a genius! I could kiss you!”
Cattleya covered her mouth in shock.
“The service elevators! They’re probably shielded up top, but if I can get some drones into the access space outside of the shaft all the way up to the top, I can setup a repeater relay that will give the lab internet access again!”
Cattleya looked at him with an exasperated stare, but Sharp was too excited to worry about it. He rummaged through his gear bag and pulled out a container filled with golfball sized spider drones. As with the drones in the hallway that he used to repeat the network from the employee elevator, these drones also carried internal repeaters. Usually, they were used for cable crawls since they had built in cameras and tool arms for splicing and repairing cables remotely.
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Retrieving the hammer and crowbar he had unsuccessfully used earlier, he ran to the back of the room to the space between the wormhole generator and the back corner. On the other side of the wall was the service elevator shaft, but there was a outer box that surrounded the elevator that housed the magnetic repulsion apparatus. He gained access into the wall with the hammer and made the hole wide enough for the spider drones, then sent three of them into the hole.
They were programmed to position themselves equidistantly, which made Sharp’s job easier. He monitored their journey up the outer box as they scrambled over wires, pipes, and through magnetic arrays and .
“If I am unable to plait your hair, how else may I be of service to you?”
“Cattleya, I’m really busy here.” Sharp’s irritation was reaching a peak, but then he realized that he had some time before the spider drones reported success. “You know what? On second thought, I’d love to know what on earth you’re up to. You’ve changed from a raging bull to a meek lamb. What is going on?”
“A raging…”
“Okeh, maybe that was a poor choice of words. It’s just an expression we use to describe someone charging into a situation without thinking. You’ve clunked my head with your horns, poked me with your tail, and you keep trying to get my attention. It’s driving me crazy. What do you want?”
Cattleya sniffled quietly for a moment, then composed herself. “Dear Sir, I must make amends exactly because I acted rashly when we first me—as a veritable ‘raging bull’—and nearly harmed you with my cricket bat. It was not seemly behavior for someone of my station. Please forgive me.”
Sharp was puzzled. He was better equipped to negotiate contracts than hearts, but he was certain she wasn’t being entirely truthful with him. He took his focus off Cattleya for a second and noticed that his spider drones had traveled 200 feet. They would reach the top soon.
“You’re a princess. You don’t have to apologize to me. It’s forgotten. Why wouldn’t you be scared when somebody opened a doorway to another world in your closet‽”
“Yet, my conduct was most impolite. Travelers are regarded highly in my society, and I should have shown you proper deference.”
“Um…okeh, but I’ll remind you that I’m trapped in here with you. Not so respectable, is it? So please don’t cry. I’m trying to reconnect the network to the outside world so we can start solving this problem and get you home. My first goal is to reconnect to the cloud servers on the network.” Sharp pointed to his coworkers on the other side of the lab.
An alert popped up in his display. The drones had successfully created a wireless network relay with Bloop’s campus network. Sharp was relieved that he could continue keeping his secrets.
He quickly configured the spider drones and verified that they were fastened securely in place. Then he left Cattleya to her thoughts as he created a wireless connection across the WMD lab to get the Observation Room online. With that assignment completed, he turned his attention to the wormbox.
The room began to announce the arrival of a new portal with its usual commotion. Sharp stood still and watched with caution as the serene world of jellyfloats transitioned into a new vista.
A field of orange grass extended from one side of the portal to the other. Sharp poked his head through the portal after determining it was safe and saw that the fields of grass went on for miles in every direction. The grass wasn’t light brown like wheat, but seemed naturally orange—bright in hue and healthy.
“Cattleya, would you bring me the shovel? This is probably as good a place as any to get rid of the tentacle sludge.”
Sharp began to scoop up the sloppy mess and toss it as far as he could over the grass to the left side of the portal. After a few minutes, he was done.
He turned back to the wormbox and continued repairing its workstation CPU, completely missing the dark cloud gathering in the distance behind him. The cloud hovered over the orange fields, stretching and contracting as if alive, then moved its way against the wind, closing in on the portal.