Booster made his way to the lab area to find Ceridwen. The lab was bustling with activity. It was clearly too small of an area to accommodate everything they were trying to study. The white, sterile area was filled with the buzz of conversation, the hum and beeping of equipment, and the clattering of test tubes and flasks. He spotted Ceridwen on the far side of the lab speaking with Arkana and made his way over.
“Booster!” Ceridwen called to him cheerfully. “Glad you are here. I’m sure you know Arkana.”
Booster nodded as he habitually if not halfheartedly pointed a couple of finger guns at her. Pretty much everyone knew everyone and had worked with or at least been in the vicinity of everyone else in the colony over the last 15 years.
“She is going to be working with you on the irragen core. Arkana is mostly a botanist and biologist. She can help you with any questions you might have on this or likely who to contact to get the answer you need. While I was going to work with you on this, I simply have too many irons in the fire now that we have a sentient species to study.”
Booster held up his hands. “I get it, I can only imagine all the ways you are being pulled. Arkana and I will get this figured out.”
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You have received a new quest! Ceridwen has shared a quest with you.
New Quest! Life, uh, Finds A Way. - Discover the properties of an irragen core to make use of the core. (Chain Quest)
-Examine the Acidvine Devourer and extract the core.
- Intact biology examined and documented.
- Core extracted from subject.
-Examine the properties of the Acidvine Devourer in relation to the location of the core.
-It was noted that the location of the core in the Acidvine Devourer included a plant like version of a circulatory system and nervous system.
-The Acidvine Devourer had an acid producing gland near the core that filled a bladder. That bladder appears to have been connected to a channel that doused the irragen core in acid at will.
- The acid from the subject does not seem to affect the core significantly. Steeped in acid for an extended period of time, the core has lost a few micrograms of mass. It is unclear what happened to the lost mass as it does not appear to have dissolved into the acid bath.
-Examine the properties of the irragen core.
-The irragenic core is not water soluble and seems highly resistant to most acidic compounds.
-Learn more about the physical makeup of the irragen core.
-Examine the results apply different substances and elements to the irragen core.
-Apply different metals to the core.
-Apply different alloys to the core.
-Harness the potential of the irragen core.
-Completion will award Irragen Points.
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“Thank you so much for your help, Booster!” Ceridwen said. She glanced between both Arkana and Booster. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”
Booster looked over the quest notification and then spoke to Arkana. “So did you have a next step in mind?”
“We are going to continue to expose it to other compounds as well as a variety of temperatures to see how it would react.”
“Hmmm, it can't be broken into smaller pieces?” Booster was thinking that doing each of these individual experiments was going to take a long time to complete. Yet, it felt like they were pursuing an incredibly slow and perhaps needlessly cautious path.
“We haven’t tried very hard to do that. We don’t know what would happen if it shattered. We have not been able to scrape any material off of it.”
“We haven’t tried to sunder it?” Booster raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, no, of course not.” Arkana was shocked at the idea. “I don’t think we should attempt that without knowing more about the core material.”
“Clearly, it’s durable. In fact, we haven’t been able to do anything to do any real damage to it. For all we know we might put it in there and try every setting and nothing will happen. I think it’s worth trying. I know Ceridwen was afraid of sundering it but to be frank, I don’t think it will work or at least the results will be unlike anything we expected.”
A screen popped up for Arkana and Booster.
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Quest update!
Life, uh, Finds A Way. - Discover the properties of an irragen core to make use of the core. (Chain Quest)
-Expose the irragen core to sundertech. Determine if the irragen core can be sundered and broken down into base elemental components.
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“Well, we know how the system votes.” Booster glanced at Arkana.
“Fine.” Arkana nervously rubbed her hand along one side of her face. “Ceridwen is going to be upset if we destroy this thing. But let’s see what we can do.”
“I’m sure it will be fine. What’s the worst that could happen?” Booster smiled.
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Later, Booster and Arkana briefed Ceridwen on what they had found.
“So far none of the more advanced sundertech has done anything significant to the core. It doesn’t react to various temperatures, not even hot plasma.” Arkana commented. “Well, we have made minor changes to the core. A few micrograms here or there. But no real reaction. These seem more like brute force reactions. It was sort of the equivalent of hitting it with a hammer. Oh, we did try hitting it with a hammer too. No reaction.”
“It seems non-reactive to a variety of radiation regardless of particle or temperature. The only result we’ve seen was an acoustic resonance. Yet, even at a resonant frequency it doesn’t shatter.” Booster added.
“You tried to shatter it?” Ceridwen raised her eyebrows.
“We were pretty sure it wouldn’t shatter.” Arkana shrugged.
“Mostly sure.” Booster added.
Ceridwen’s face twisted in concern. “Ok, why do you think that?”
Booster spoke up. “This is clearly unlike any matter we’ve seen before. In fact, it may not be matter. It’s more like solidified energy. That’s my theory. I feel like I’m a chimp trying to figure out how to get energy out of a chemical battery. I simply don’t have the framework to understand what the battery is and how to access the energy within. But that’s not to say I’m giving up.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Clearly this is more complicated than we thought it might be.” Ceridwen considered.
“We should try electrolysis. If that doesn’t work, maybe we could fashion up a particle accelerator? Or explore more with acoustic resonance? Those were our next steps.” Arkana said.
“You said the core has lost a few micrograms here or there. What happened to those fragments.” Ceridwen asked.
“Gone. Vaporized, perhaps? The core is definitively not shedding material.” Booster replied.
“Hmmm, go ahead and try that. If that produces nothing, we can gather more input from some of the other scientists. The sheer amount of data we are dealing with is staggering. Even as important as figuring this out is, it is just a piece of the bigger picture.”
“How is it looking? I mean, the suitability of Argyra?” Arkana asked.
Ceridwen looked pensive as she nodded. “It looks good. If this world had no plant or animal life, all the basic components are here to terraform this world into a near perfect planet for human habitation. Even so, the existing plant life can be either adapted to us or avoided or adapted to. It’s almost certain we haven’t even come close to understanding how microorganisms are going to affect us in the long term or even a passing understanding of pests, parasites, or potential viral vectors. But it seems likely that any of those can be mitigated.
We still have months to study and refine our understanding and it should be assumed we are working with imperfect data in the scrum. We will come up with a variety of tests we can run when we arrive to verify our findings quickly. Perhaps even before we drop a lander to the surface. So far, this planet is a dream come true.”
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Later That Day
Booster fashioned a very basic rig to hold the sphere-shaped core. He connected a tone generator so that he could send an electrical signal though the sphere and adjust frequency, voltage and current. They set up a camera to record the experiment on a table in the lab with a variety of other people working around them. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do for now.
As he held the core in gloved hands, he held it up to the light. It was translucent and appeared as if it was a gem. He reflected on his earlier statement that he felt like a chimp trying to get a battery to do something. The chimp would probably hit it with a rock. They had essentially done that. If the chimp licked the battery, he would probably get a result.
Booster chuckled to himself. Maybe he should lick the core. Then he looked at it. Maybe he should lick the core. He slowly moved it towards his mouth.
“What are you doing?” an amused voice broke in on his thoughts.
Booster looked over to see Arkana with a smirk on her face. He didn’t see any point in lying.
“I, uh, I was going to lick it.” he asked almost as much as stated.
“Uh huh. I saw that.” She gazed at him with open delight. “Well, go ahead. Maybe it’ll turn you into a giant plant creature.”
“Har har.” Booster went to lick it.
Arkana took a few steps back. He shot her a questioning glance.
“What? Just a simple precaution. You’ll be fine. Probably.”
Booster licked it. Nothing happened. He put it in his mouth and swished it around. He frowned.
“What?” Arkana giggled.
He spoke with the core in his mouth. “It takes like grass smells.” He swished it around a little bit more before taking it out. As he held it in his fingers Arkana snatched it and popped it into her mouth. She laughed at the shocked look on his face.
“What?” she chuckled.
“That was just in my mouth!”
“Yeah? And?”
“It had my spit all over it. I would have wiped it off for you!” Booster said clearly scandalized.
Arkana’s face scrunched in skepticism and waved him off dismissively, “Meh, scrum spit. Doesn’t count.”
Booster waggled his head side to side in understanding. “I guess.”
“You’re right, though. We had a dormmate in college who used to grow wheat grass and juice it to make shots that she said were super healthy for you. They tasted like this.”
Arkana removed it from her mouth, wiped it off on a paper towel nearby, and set it in the rig. “We are science-ing now, son.”
They laughed together.
Booster turned on the tone generator and was alternately increasing frequency, voltage, and amps. The core previously reacted to an acoustic frequency of several kHz. Booster was planning to keep the total wattage at about 2 watts. He believed the core could handle much more power. But 2 watts and 3 khz was equivalent to a handheld radio signal. Nothing big but enough to perhaps get a result.
There was a result. Booster set the tone generator to 10 volts with .2 amps. And he started dialing up the frequency. He turned it up to 1 kHz and let it sit for a moment.
“Anything? Heat, light, smoke.” Booster asked.
“Nope,” Arkana responded. She was watching the core with monitors showing the temperature of the core along with other spectrums.
Booster wasn’t surprised. Testing earlier showed that it gave no resistance to electricity. This was the opposite of what he expected. He expected is would give him infinite resistance. He kept turning up the frequency. And repeated the question to Arkana a few times. He was considering turning up the wattage when he hit about 1.6 khz.
“Whoa!” Lotus jumped back from her workstation. “What just happened?”
Booster stopped and looked. Several other people walked over. They were pointing and talking but didn’t seem too concerned. Nevertheless, he decided to see what was happening.
“...I was extracting genetic samples according to the new procedures for local flora and the plants started moving.” Lotus pointed over to her workstation. There were several samples on the workstation that were undulating side to side but angling toward the core.
Booster quickly moved over to tone generator and shut it down.
“They stopped!” Lotus exclaimed.
Booster smiled at Arkana. Arkana smiled back and clapped excitedly.
Booster turned the signal back on.
“There it goes again!”
A message screen popped up.
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Quest Update!
Life, uh, Finds A Way. - Discover the properties of an irragen core to make use of the core. (Chain Quest)
Updates
-Examine the results apply different substances and elements to the irragen core.
-Applying other materials doesn’t seem to affect the core.
-the core from the Acidvine Devourer tastes like wheat grass juice.
-Expose the irragen core to sundertech. Determine if the irragen core can be sundered and broken down into base elemental components.
-Different methodologies do not seem to affect the core.
-It seems apparent that the core is not truly matter in as much as the nature of matter is understood.
-In an attempt to affect the core via electrolysis, it has been discovered that applying an electrical signal can activate the core and can be used to affect plants near the activated core.
-Apply different metals to the core.
-No effect by merely applying a metal to the core.
-Apply different alloys to the core.
- No effect by merely applying an alloy to the core.
-Harness the potential of the irragenic core.
-Attempt to activate another irragenic core. Compare results.
-Completion will award Irragen Points.
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Arkana looked at Booster. “I’ll get the other core.”
Booster set up the second core that came from the shadowcat and turned on the tone generator. He left the setting the same as the previous core.
The core along with some of the rig around it, faded from view. It was as if it was going to disappear. Booster reached out and touched it with a glass stirrer. It was still there, but hard to see. He tried to get it to completely disappear like the shadowcat by altering the power and frequency, but nothing got it to completely go.
“Maybe there is some attached ability or skill or something.” Arkana posited.
Booster nodded. He turned off the generator and the core and rig returned to normal.
They both sat back. Tired from a long day and a bit stunned at the results.
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Quest Update!
Life, uh, Finds A Way. – Discover the properties of an irragen core to make use of the core. (Chain Quest)
Updates
-Harness the potential of the irragenic core.
-Attempt to activate another irragenic core. Compare results.
-By activating another core, it’s clear that different cores from different creatures may offer different benefits.
-Completion will award Irragen Points.
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Arkana sighed and leaned onto the table. She placed her right elbow on the table and propped up her head in her right hand. She beckoned him to come closer. He leaned forward.
She reached up with her left hand toward his face. “May I?”
“Sure.” He smiled.
She rubbed her hand on his cheek. “You know what I miss being in a scrum all the time?”
“What?” he said quietly.
“Scruff. Stubble.” She chuckled softly. “I know it sounds stupid. But there is always something about reaching up at the end of a day and feeling that rough feeling. So many guys just turn it off now. And in scrum it doesn’t grow one way or the other. It just is whatever you set it to. I miss it.”
Her hand lowered. They looked at each other’s eyes and face for a second. Just enjoying the presence.
She sat up. “We’ve been at this for about 22 hours. I’m tired and hungry. I’m going to get something to eat, take a shower, and get some sleep. Care to join me?”
“To eat?” Booster raised his eyebrows.
“Among other things.” She winked at him. “I promise we’ll get to sleep eventually.”
“Hmmm, slumber party huh?” He tapped his chin thinking and mock-frowned. “I don’t have any pajamas.”
“We’ll just have to make do.” She stood and took him by the hand.