Good Intentions

[Tachyon 0]

"Good Intentions"

October 21, 2155

Lieutenant Dave Grey

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Grey sat in the science lab at the console, continuing to look at the model on the screen. It should work—it should all work. He glanced back at the MACO, Fynra, who was tinkering with the hand scanner they were trying to modify. They had been at this for about an hour now, and so far their best efforts had borne no fruit.

 

It was clear that a "dampening field" would probably not work. After some discussion, however, they struck upon a new idea—environmental suits. It was nearly perfect, in fact; environmental suits were designed to block radiation in the first place, and the simplest solution was often the best. With a few modifications, they would protect the wearer from people such as Rufus—or so Grey hoped. He still was not sure how Rufus did what he could do, let alone how to block it, so the defence was guesswork at best.

 

They went over the theory for another few minutes before hurrying down to the launch bay and grabbing some suits. "Let's modify them to polarise the outer layer of the suit," suggested Grey.

 

Fynra gave him a look that either meant, "You're a bloody genius," or "This'll all end in tears," or perhaps a bit of both. The MACO shrugged expansively and replied, "Wouldn't that be sort of dangerous to anyone who comes in contact with them?"

 

"It'll be a very small electrical charge," Grey said innocently.

 

Fynra looked doubtful but proceeded to help Grey modify the suits anyway. The work proceeded relatively smoothly and soon the suits were ready. There was just one problem: testing them.

 

Grey looked up at the chronometer and thought about that cloaking device stowed Murphy knows where on the ship, filled with this "omega molecule." He wondered if they could afford to lose any more time.

 

That "omega molecule" worried him. It was one thing to be fearful of a device because of its destructive capability; it was another thing entirely to fear a device because you know how it works. Scientists had theorised about such a particle for decades, but nothing had really come of it due to the fact that they did not have the right technology to even begin duplicating these particles.

 

The particle had the potential to completely disrupt subspace. Grey wasn't sure exactly what this would do, but he was pretty sure it would have nasty consequences for all parties involved. Whoever was behind this scheme was clearly insane, in Grey's opinion, because whatever ends they wanted to achieve did not justify placing the universe itself at risk. If there was one thing Grey hated, it was when egotistical people completely disregarded the natural laws of the universe for their own personal gain.

 

It was sort of pushing it. And, as physics dictated, when you pushed something, it pushed back.

 

Now they had one of these molecules sitting in their cloaking device—a cloaking device that, up until an hour ago, Grey had not known existed. He turned that over in his mind. Obviously Moore was not happy that the secret had been revealed, because there was a reason it was secret—the less people who knew about it, the less of a chance that an enemy—or even a friend—would discover it. And knowledge was power.

 

Yet Grey hated classified information. That sort of red tape irked him even more than having to fill out so many forms. With a soft sigh, he glanced down at the environmental suit in his lap and pursed his lips.

 

He hoped this worked. Otherwise his resumé was starting to look very bleak indeed.