Morgan spent some more time talking but voice was either engaging in techno babble or much more likely giving him answers he just could not comprehend with his current level of knowledge. After one particularly frustrating round of questions he gave up and started to look for somebody to either tell him how Annie was or to give him orders. Getting to her old room one of the staff told him she had been taken to the Medical Assessment Unit and so following signs for the MAU essentially wondered around the hospital.
After a while he found the unit, he was confident he had done so because Dr Scott was outside talking to Corporal Patel. As he approached he wondered whether with Function nodes hate and hostility could form a physical barrier. The two ladies certainly seemed to be trying to make it so as they stared at him. Undaunted he approached and asked Dr Scott “How is Annie?”. She pulled herself up and then visibly organised her thoughts. “Annie is suffering from abnormal clotting function and has an irregular heartbeat. These are serious but expected symptoms as part of recovering from septic shock and the team is working out a pharmacological regime to help her normalise. She will need to be observed for at least a week and then assuming no difficulties she will need medical supervision while we ramp down the pharmomedical intervention”. She took a deep breath and then continued at first calmly but her voice raising as she spoke “I understand that you wanted to help your daughter and even accept that you did but you need to warn medical staff before doing something like this” . “Can I see her?” Morgan interrupted. Dr Scott Dithered for a few seconds then turned to Patel “Helen, will you come with and for gods sake stop him from doing anything?”. Patel nodded and then reaching up and grabbing him by the shoulder tried to frogmarch him in, after a second of futile tugging she glared at him and said “MOVE”. Happy to do so as long as the direction was where he wanted to go anyway Morgan did just that and was soon in the MAU watching her. She was responding groggily to questions about of all things Good Friday prayer for the Jews. Dr Scott leaned over and whispered in response to his mouthed why and whispered “assessing her cognition. Heard shes a nun so asking her religious questions”. After a few minutes he had assured himself that she was okay and leaned in and said loudly “back soon darling” followed by all three of them trotting out.
Dr Scott directed them to the entrance and gave them a leaflet with the visiting times “Not sure how that fits with your training schedule – I understand that the Corporal is here to take you back to camp. Enjoy your trip.” Morgan waved his hand and said “you want to stay a sec, I want to try something and would like an observer. Corporal, may I touch you?” Patel looked blank for a second and then just replied “why?” “I just want to try something, to see if I can repeat what I did earlier assigning a core”. Patel looked alarmed whilst Dr Scott looked confused and Patel pushed them both into a side room. “Wendy, forget you heard that. Private Oxbridge consider yourself on a charge. Some things are confidential and for reason”. Well as bad as this was going Morgan decided to just rush through and get it done “Corporal. I want to put my hand on your forehead for a few seconds. After that charge me. Nothing I am going to do should hurt you. If something goes wrong Dr Scott can be a witness at my court martial. If nothing happens then I get to look like a fool and if something does happen Channing will want to know”. Irritation plain she snapped “That is Major Channing to you Private. Get it done” as she pulled her short fringe back and glared at him. Without words he put his hand on her head and said out loud “Status”
Current Status
Maximum capacity
Health
45%
60%
Senses assistance
Not implemented
Not implemented
Physical assistance
10%
18%
Build systems
Not implemented
Not implemented
Power bleed
6%
2%
Recovery systems
78.3%
80%
Status - other
Gamma Fast Mover
Gamma Fast Mover
Eighty six cores of which eighty are assigned to Gamma containment Fast Mover build. Six cores available for assignment.
Patel jerked back incredibly fast, “what the hell was that in my face” she demanded. Morgan turned to Dr Scott “Did you see anything like a table or menu or any sort of writing appear anywhere”. While she shook her head he looked at the corporal “Well that’s partly answered-would you let me try again and finish my experiment this time?” With a wild look in her eyes she asked “Wendy; you really couldn’t see anything odd?” “Other than him touching a woman without a rape whistle being used? No.”. Ignoring the slur Morgan raised his hand and raised an eyebrow at the Corporal who pulled her hair back again.
Current Status
Maximum capacity
Health
45%
60%
Senses assistance
Not implemented
Not implemented
Physical assistance
10%
18%
Build systems
Not implemented
Not implemented
Power bleed
6%
2%
Recovery systems
78.3%
80%
Status - other
Gamma Fast Mover
Gamma Fast Mover
Eighty six cores of which eighty are assigned to Gamma containment Fast Mover build. Six cores available for assignment.
Ok display assigned cores for me. The display listed all eighty assigned cores and Morgan scanned them quickly. He noted some absences and then completed his experiment speaking out loud. “Ok please assign three cores. Assign one Strength core, one sensory core and one healing core.” The Corporal collapsed like she was a puppet who had her strings cut. Morgan looked at her then looked up at the ceiling saying to nobody in particular “That was something I should have expected really”. Dr Scott looked at him then ran past opened the door and screamed for a nurse. Looking back she shook her head “you really are a bloody menace”.
As Morgan eyed the rent a cop trying to look menacing it occurred to him that before basic training he might have been intimidated by him. Whether it was lectures on the principles of sustained aggression or recalling parts of the you are easy to kill introduction to army life he was unable to work up much stress about this guy. People were still trying to find out what had happened to the corporal seven minutes ago and the main arguments seemed to be about whether to call the police or the army. Morgan confident that he had only to wait another few minutes for the corporals recovery and hopefully that would move things along decided instead to practice juggling. After a bit the guard noticed what he was juggling with and snatched his belt equipment back. Morgan beamed “my pickpocket core thanks you for the practice” and then started whistling the most annoying tune he could think of. If people were going to treat him like an asshole he could at least get the benefit. After some experimentation he found the thing that seemed to annoy the most was two overlaid tones on top of a jaunty folk tune.
Just when the rent a cop looked ready to kill him the corporal strode in and dismissed him. She then looked at Morgan “Private Oxbridge you and I are returning to base right ruddy well now. Shut up, walk behind me and get in the jeep”. So saying she left and he followed grinning from ear to ear. He wasn’t sure how best to work it but he knew his value had just gone up.
His good mood seemed to irritate the Corporal, but her ire really did not bother him. As they approached the grounds Patel radioed in that she needed an urgent talk with her commanding officer. Fishtailing into a parking space she ran out of the jeep and Morgan followed wondering about the rush. The desk saw her running in and tried to slow her down “He’s with the colonel, you’ll have to wait” at which she turned right and started to run up the stairs leaving the protests behind. Morgan shrugged apologetically and followed. Coming to an area he had not seen before a man in civvies behind the desk tried to stop her getting slapped out of the way for his efforts. She pushed open the large doors beside the civvies desk and walked in where she stopped and stood at attention. Morgan walked in after her eying the thoroughly dazed man and then stopped seeing Channing and the base commander looking up in confusion. Also coming to attention he heard Patel announce “Case vermillion sir. Reporting to my direct line command at earliest opportunity by all necessary means as per standing order 1489.” The base commander looked amused as he turned to Channing “well at least she is studying for her promotion”.
Channing got out of his seat and approached her “Corporal I am already attempting to justify a screwup to my commanding officer. Why have you come here and reported case vermillion. In what ways have your abilities gone out of control and what harm have you done” . Whilst her face went through several contortions trying to decide how to respond the Colonel piped up “Donal bring them here. Whatever shes done you will have to report to me anyway and I assume that this is the wild card that both you and the science team have been troubling me over. Might as well get a look.”
They were lined up all three in front of the colonels desk waiting as he calmed down the secretary outside. As they stood Morgan whispered “Can I touch her? Just want to check how it went.” Channing whispered back “shut up. How what went?” and Patel hissed “just let me report to somebody fast”. The colonel returned frowning at Patel. Sitting down he continued to stare as he said “ok corporal – report”. The report was swift, she had been sent to pickup the private who had been given permission to leave training to visit a family member undergoing major surgery escorted by Major Channing. Circumstances had arisen caused she understood by the private that required the Major to leave without the private and he dispatched the corporal .Once there she had found him with the aid of hospital personnel.. At the hospitals request she had escorted him to his family member and then started to leave. Whilst leaving the private had sought and been given permission to touch her forehead. He had done this twice. On both occasions he had brought up some sort of display in the corporals view which appeared to be related to her special status. On the second occasion he had requested to assign “cores” and she the Corporal had collapsed. Upon coming to she had found that she felt different being stronger and more perceptive than was normal. She had decided that it was a case vermillion and was currently reporting in.
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The colonel looked to Morgan. “Private” he started then shook his head. Looking at the other two he said “wait outside. Actually better Channing go to room 5 write an account, Patel room 8 also write a report. Finish within thirty minutes both of you. Patel after that go to evaluation, Channing bring both reports to me. I will direct you as to the private after I have heard what he has to say. Private at ease”. Both saluted and left leaving Morgan with the Colonel.
The colonel sat down eying him “ok private. Tell me about your day. Start with waking up, end with talking to me, leave nothing out.” Morgan talked for a long while, at some point Graham arrived with a clipboard and took notes. Finishing took more than half an hour and at one point when refreshments were brought in for Graham he saw Channing standing outside looking murderous. When he finally stopped talking Channing was waved in and the two reports were given to both Graham and the Colonel. Still standing at ease joined by the major they watched them both read both reports.
Reading done the colonel sat back after a while and stared at the ceiling humming tunelessly. After nearly a minute his attention snapped back to the pair “Ok Donal you did nothing wrong but it still blew up in your face. 5 days AP. Keep me informed of what you do with national assets. And in case that’s not clear I think he now is one. Dismissed”. Channing saluted and left. “Private you have given me a lot of material to communicate to my superiors. I will see you again in two days when we have had time to evaluate the corporal and confirm your details of charging times for the tech. Until then you will be detached from your training unit and placed under Mr Sinclairs authority”. A nod at Graham implied that he was Mr Sinclair.
Graham piped up “ok what can we do. Can he have access to other unidentified tech. Can he experiment on other recruits. Other specials. Can we ask for advice either off site or even internationally?”. The colonel frowned. “No live tests until the one already underway is evaluated. Show him to Tech that has no apparent value. You can consult in service but not civilian and certainly not international. In your evaluation bring in experts who include tactical analysis in their skills and game theory with regard to his upgrade revelations” Tapping his finger he hummed for a while then added “dont bring them in yet but we need some sort of think tank around the implications of the core deficit being there to prevent growth. That worries me and I don’t know why. Get a list of names for that think tank together”. They were then both dismissed and Morgan followed along behind Graham.
The next two days were boring. Morgan met a lot of people who all treated him like a lab rat. Every night he was given a box of junk to sort “in his own time” to see what he could say about them. On the first night voice identified 30 of the 34 objects and got only six of them working. Whilst he was worried about that everyone around him seemed overjoyed so he stopped apologising. The next night he got 12 out of 20 but got 8 working. The first day was spent discussing the four types of core, in the morning a purely theoretical exercise and in the afternoon discussing various distributions of upgrade points and how each would affect a specific cores effects. The next day was spent with a group of maths geeks who decided to play games where they tried out different builds in some sort of top trumps version of specials abilities. Whilst it seemed silly it was fun for a while and when he looked at the various different types of tactics and mathematical specialisations it had given him there must have been a lot more going on than he noticed.
Next morning he was taken to the disc that had been removed and asked if he could reset it to working. Voice claimed it was done and that the display would be set to English. Telling them it was done they seemed initially nonplussed that he seemed to have just looked at it then handed it back but took the disc and solemnly said they would test it.
He was escorted back to his quarters and given some free time to make sure his uniform was pristine ready for meeting the Colonel again. While polishing his buttons Corporal Patel came in and watched him. After a minute of silence she asked “Why three? It said there were six available, why three?” Morgan put down the brasso rag and replied “it was a test. I picked three cores that you did not already have and it seemed unlikely you would complain about having. I left three as choices for you because well you’ll be stuck with them. From what I understand once a choice is made its fixed. You might want to fly assuming that’s a choice or live longer or breathe underwater or any one of hopefully a million other options, I dint know and beyond proving the concept wasn’t going to make your choice for you”. She cocked her head to one side “and the collapsing?” Morgan started polishing again “as far as I can tell its part of the function formation. Presumably have to try with a few others to be sure but the next volunteer should probably lie on a bed”. She nodded “why hopefully a million?” Morgan started to put the polish away and then replied “just thinking about my problems rather than yours”. He laid out his uniform and looked at her “how does it look”. A mix between resignation and irritation crossed her face when she replied “like a raw recruit did it” and they both worked on it for a few minutes. Whilst doing that he asked how the evaluation had gone, though she had not seen the results she was confident her rating had increased and her healing had certainly sped up.
An hour later they both joined Channing outside the Colonels office. Channing looked at them both and said “Private Oxbridge just thought you should know. Pretty much exactly as you said the reader started to function. Furthermore its giving full displays and in English. It is the first fully functional reader we are aware of. Congratulations nobody wants to kill you. Well other than me”.
Patel winced and said “I’d heard you were on administrative punishment. What have they got you doing?”. Channing looked pained for a second then replied “I have to survey the sewers for security issues and structural issues. An hour after I finish theres a uniform inspection. Isobelle has thrown me out of the house for smelling and Trevor has started calling me poo daddy”. Morgan ignored Patels sniggers and started to apologise which Channing stopped. “Dont worry private, I console myself that in two days I will once more be your commanding officer” and that seemed to end the conversation. A few minutes later they were all ushered in to the colonel’s office.
The colonel was not alone. An elderly man wearing a generals uniform stared back and it took a moment for Morgan to recognise Charles the third. The King. He walked up and smiled a remarkably friendly smile at Morgan “I suppose you are our man out of time- how is your daughter?” Panicking Morgan replied “been cooped up here your majesty, no idea” and desperately wondered if he should be saluting. He stayed stock still and Patel was the next to get attention “oh and Miss Patel, I hear a lot of good things about you not all from the press so its probably true” There was a polite chuckle from the colonel and Patel was ramrod stiff and quiet. Charles looked round and mumbled “oh this will never do” and then told them all to sit down at a waved hand someone brought in a pot of tea.
The next hour was just surreal probably for everyone but the king who just seemed to accept that nobody was willing to relax around him. The only tense moment came when Morgan asked about parliament. Charles it seemed was the only one not upset, he chuckled and asked “do you want me to be a figurehead again” and after a hurried round of denials he added “it would be nice if things were going that well. Oh I have heard the attacks and from people considerably less deferential than yourself. Duty Mr Oxbridge, duty. It was my Duty to keep this country together and so far I have done that. This country is my families burden and one we are proud to shoulder. When we are not needed we will return to our irrelevance. Open doors fund things. And when the next hammer blow to our government comes we will take this commonwealth in our hands and rebuild it bit by bit.”
The meeting wound down and the king left but not before requesting no action be taken for “a friendly discussion”. The colonel escorted him to his vehicle leaving the three of them behind. Channing just raised an eyebrow to Morgan then as an aside to Patel “thought I told you to look after him – how did you let him talk”. Patel just stayed seated “any suggestions about how to keep his foot out of his mouth would be appreciated”. The colonel took a while to get back as it seemed the whole thing turned into a tour causing mayhem in every department as senior personnel tried to appear ready for the king taking an impromptu stroll through the building whilst enlisted just tried to be somewhere else.
The Colonel having eventually returned and beckoning them to stay seated paced the room until he sat himself. The silence become oppressive and he finally spoke “he likes to meet the unprepared, its probably as close to normal as he gets. Ok Private Oxbridge. Patient Zero. Mayhem itself. So far everything you have said checks out though our best teams still cannot find any evidence of these nanites of yours either internally or around any specials manifestations of ability. Have you given any thought to what this means?” Morgan realised the silence was a cue for him to respond and replied” No sir. I mean Mr Sinclair has kept me busy sir” Saluting whilst seated was a terrible idea as he quickly realised and stopped.
The colonel sighed. “alright well person or persons unknown have introduced technology that could be fairly described as magical for reason or reasons unknown to individuals across the globe selected again by method or methods unknown for purpose or purposes unknown. Its a clue, its more than we had before but I’m not sure it gets us anywhere.
Your prevention of level rises is more ominous though. It means either we are not trusted with real power or it is assumed that we will use it to thwart their purpose or purposes unknown. I can see the children need to be controlled argument. I can see the lab rats argument. What I cant follow is the claim that we are somehow convicts. Private Oxbridge have you any further information on this matter to share?”. “No sir” “well we are going to progress anyway despite the lack of clear information. Sometimes its just go for it. In that spirit. Corporal, having been under the effect of his upgrade once before it is assumed that you have volunteered for further exposure. Private Oxbridge will be taken to the Laboratories and there will perform the same upgrades on seven volunteers that you have received. Specifically he will assign each of them three cores. Those cores will be sensory, strength and healing. He will assign them in a sequence and manner laid out by the supervising staff. Is that clear?” All three recognised a cue and snapped “yes sir” in unison.
“Once that experiment has concluded he will then experiment on Corporal Patel. Corporal Patel it is anticipated that the private will be busy for three hours doing this experiment. At the end of those three hours you will tell him what you want as your remaining three cores and he will attempt to implement them. Other personnel may be further assigned by civilian authorities but after that we will stop whilst all experimental subjects are evaluated. Corporal Patel as the only subject who may be subject to “levelling” you will be monitored and expected to describe the process.” The pause was less obviously a cue but again they all yes sirred. “Donal you will be responsible for the safety of all test subjects until the experiment has run its projected course. Give my apologies to Isobelle but you are going to be on call for at least a month”.”Ok you are all dismissed and dear god private try to follow the protocols set down.”
Marching out nobody made any comment until out of the building and approaching the jeep. The comment consisted of Patel grinding her teeth and then spitting out “never volunteer. Basic training how did I forget never ******* volunteer”. As they got in the jeep Channing turned to Morgan “on the plus side after your procedure they intend to attempt to use the monitor disc on another group of volunteers and see if we need you. Maybe you get to be useless again”.
When he got to the lab he was surprised to see the remaining members of his squad all lined up in vest and boxers. At his confused look Channing spoke “seven volunteers, people likely to trust you and since you are assumed to have started to form bonds of friendship and camaraderie people you are less likely to purposefully harm”. As he got in they all smiled and waved at him, Ronnie shouted “we all wanted to join in on your skive” followed by laughter quickly stopped by the accompanying PFC. Worried and concerned about them he stopped and said “you know this is serious right. That its not a skive right.” Brody looked round and somehow electing himself spokesman replied “We know. We were told that this would help you and make us better soldiers but that more detail would be provided when needed so of course we all agreed”. All nodded so he shrugged and fell in with them whilst they were led to a briefing that more or less explained what was going to happen. Isaac made a joke about not letting old men touch him and then they went in. Taken to a lab the squad cued up outside and Arthur was the first. Morgan looked round the lab and asked where the bed was. A short delay and a bunk was made available. Told to do the first person one core at a time he did exactly that persisting after he lapsed into unconsciousness. As he was stretchered out all the volunteers looked much less keen.
Only Harvey and Brody caused any difficulties as each already had relevant cores. Harvey had a health core that nobody had noticed and Brody had a sensory core that apparently only activated during running. Attempting to duplicate cores failed and they were left with one extra core free each. Having no idea how long each one was taking he was surprised to see Corporal Patel waiting for him. “They told me about your million core problem whilst discussing my core plan. Only you. Only you could mess up becoming superman”. “Thats hardly fair, lots of people could mess it up. Have you got a plan?” Morgan replied.
She frowned, “ok check my thinking. Healing is good but health is better. So a healing core as well as a health core. A longevity core because of course I want to live longer. A spatial awareness core – I want to be aware of everything going on round me so I can identify and react to threats.” Morgan blinked then nodded “ok no obvious problems. You’ll continue to rely on your dome for kills?” To which she shook her head “Guns. So much better. The dome is a great sudden death and good for demoralising folks but it takes too long. I need a good 5 seconds to aim and deploy it. Eternity in a battle. So no sticking to guns knifes and explosives to kill people who need to be dead. If you notice most of this is defence”
Morgan agreed “defence is good. Do you regret my earlier choices? Strength does not seem to fit this concept you are going for”. She smiled “no, no it doesn’t but if I don’t use it much it becomes a nasty surprise for anyone who tries to pick on this helpless wee thing. Never been ill but assume the health core is good and the sensory stuff is really improving my marksman scores”. There being little else to say she lay on the bunk and pulled back her fringe. Morgan took her hand off and said “sorry but one of the things tested. Any skin to skin contact works” He concentrated and she passed out. He looked at her prone form “talking isn’t needed either”.
Two hours later she had not come round and the lab was filled with people who had no idea what to do. Channing had been asked to pull up her status but all he got was a screen that said busy and much to his shock hold music. He was dismissed and went to join his squad. They had all been appraised of the results of there intervention with both Harvey and Brody now being called Feeb 1 and Feeb2. When they saw his face they asked so he told them about Corporal Patel not coming round and the mood in the room became sombre. Not much was happening so they started to clean kit and talk shit. They had the rest of the day free and the only orders were to report any adverse reactions none of which occurred.
It was nearly eleven hours later that Channing entered and beckoned for Morgan to follow him. Once outside the barracks he took him to the labs where he saw Patel in a hospital gown drinking what smelled like hot chocolate. “Thought you might like the news good and bad. Good news she’s fine and apparently levelled to three straight away. Bad news only those you worked on seemed to have responded.” Putting that away for later consideration he approached and she turned to smile at him. “Hello Morgan – let me apologise if I seem distracted. Levelling up my senses core and getting a new spatial awareness at 3, its just a lot to get used to so if I seem distracted its because I am. Look these vultures are not going to leave me alone so I just wanted to say thank you. We’ll talk later just I’m ok alright” her gaze became distant and it seemed the conversation was at an end. After Channing also was reassured by her they were politely but firmly thrown out. At the barracks he called for the supervising staff and informed them that private Oxbridge had duties in the morning and that he was to be ready for pickup at 07:30 for an eight start. As he was leaving Channing whispered to him “you’re gonna try on today’s failures. See if its them or you”. In the barracks Patels recovery triggered a celebration which made him really late to sleep.
The next morning he was escorted to the labs and eight guys in PT kits all glared at him. “This the arse who was too busy for us yesterday” one of them asked sotto voce. Suddenly pissed he asked “are these my volunteers for the day?” and as the lab tech nodded he walked up and just ran his hands along their foreheads watching as they all collapsed. Only the last one tried to fight as he watched his squad all collapse but it was any skin contact so he went down too. The Lab tech looked at the pile of bodies and then turned to him” so... having a bad day then?”