Much like before, Eric's team had settled in to the new office that they had to admit was extraordinary. It wasn't that North Wind Laboratories wasn't up-to-date, it was that this one seemed to be pushed incredibly far into the future. Eric couldn't determine where the ceiling was as it seemed to have been lifted stories upon stories high. Long production lines of robotic arms and machines fulfilled their duties, making equipment and other things Eric didn't bother familiarize himself with as he found it hard to really orient himself with his surroundings.
The magical green-yellow stone was laying under every microscope and was being studied to an intensity no one could comprehend. This was around the clock and unlike before, hundreds of scientists were hustling back and forth in this lab maximizing every penny out of their paycheck to figure out just what the hell this rock is.
Another thing that was different was the team itself. Nick was gone. Lance was back and forth in deciding if he was even going to work anymore. Eric and Joana's relationship was on and off because of time devoted to uncovering the stone's mysteries. Even when Joana would catch him in a utility closet every so often, she could tell not a hundred percent of him was in there with her. And she was not about to give herself to someone who's mind wasn't even in the same room.
When Lance did come, he worked diligently and never really did much communicating. Since they were the original members of the covert team, they operated different sections of the other scientists for their unique set of skills. Joana worked the molecular biological physics department while Eric had a whole other section of rock and earth researchers to keep his attention busy so all three of them never really get to interact.
Well, the only time they can ever really talk is when they have a meeting in one of the many meeting offices around the campus.
"We need Dr. Vault back in order to make real headway on this project." Eric shouted, frustrated. They sat around a small circular table in a meeting room. "Will someone ask Melinda what the hell happened to him?"
"I really doubt that's the best idea," Lance secretly smirked. "Besides there's a thousand Nicks out there; we don't need just the one."
"Well Nick would certainly know what he's doing," Joana chimed in. "These guys work exactly like the machines; it's like if I don't tell them to set the hyformatine confibulator to six thousand-HR1, then they'll do the whole study without the correct configuration and set us back a couple of weeks."
"Well it looks like he's not going to be available." Lance stated.
"Neither are you lately." Eric shot at him, but in a respective manor.
He shifted positions in his leather chair. "You know my niece is sick." he lied.
"Yes, I know, you told me," he said. "What did you say his diagnosis was again?"
"TK one-eighty," he stated. " The 'Sunkiss disease'."
"Yah, I heard they still can't make a vaccine for that kind of brain-triggered disease," Joana sighed. "I'm so sorry for him."
Their faces contorted with sadness.
Pity: check Lance thought to himself.
"I must go with you to see him one day," Eric said softly. "To send my condolences, of course."
This staggered Lance, but he didn't show it. Lucky for him, he was quick on his feet. "Yeah, especially for when Melinda betrays us and we are rather dead or might as well be."
"What are you talking about?" asked Joana. "She needs us."
"Not after we solve this crystal conundrum. Not after we give her exactly what she wants," he revolted. He thought back to how Stein told him that she had killed innocent men in frustration. "Trust me."
"You're too wrapped up in conspiracy, Lance," Eric sighed. "She's not just going to walk up and kill someone."
"Whatever you say boss." Lance mumbled.
"I don't trust her," Joana came out with. "I believe she will do anything to get what she wants."
"Joana!" Eric shouted. "Be realistic for five seconds, please!"
Joana didn't really care what Melinda was up to. She contradicted Eric simply to get his attention and make him remember that she exists, even if that meant boiling his pot a little. "She seems capable of anything, that's all I'm saying. You should be on your toes with her and don't trust a word she says."
Eric tried to reason with them. "I'm not saying that she is an open book but she is a professional--"
"Killer." Lance interjected with a sly tougue.
"In the business world and she wouldn't risk everything she has to just kill someone," Eric finished. "It's preposterous."
"Not when you have as much power as she does," Joana pestered. "Eric, you gotta see that she holds all the cards here; we're dogs on her leash."
"You both are overreacting. Until I see proof that I shouldn't trust her, I'm fine keeping my job," he finalized, giving them both hurtful stares. "In the mean time, that same job needs to be attended to right about now."
The scene faded behind the light haze of a holographic screen which Melinda was staring tentatively at. She seemed to analyze every person and word exchanged between them like there was an equation to be solved. She was sitting in her office chair and had the holographic technology applied to her office for ease of access.
She had her guards at the side of the room on the opposite end and waved to get their attention. They hustled over in moments and leaned in for her command. "Keep an eye on this Lance character, somethings off about him."
"Because he doesn't trust you?" the first guard asked. She gave him a devil stare with a side dish of menacing cold eye. He instantly wished he could take it back. "Umm. He wont know what hit him, ma'am!"
At that, they scurried out of the room and were replaced with two new guards right after. She shook her head in disgust. She motioned to the next two that appeared in the room with her. "Make sure I don't get any newcomers as my personal guards again."
He nodded his head in confirmation and stood back in his solitary guarding pose without a second thought.
"That's more like it."
***
Stein stood at the board of directors at the international North Wind Laboratories headquarters. He took his seat at the long oak table and mentally took a deep breath to ease his growing worries.
"It's been three months and it's time to determine which wing is the weak link leeching all of our valuable resources." The elderly man at the end of the table hissed, starting the meeting. The table was sleekly polished to perfection and the black walls and soft red lighting really made Stein feel even further uncomfortable. "So let's see what you all have been up to."
This should be great Stein thought to himself. Just great.
"Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that this is for the greater good and will push the company into the future, which by the way, is in everyone's best interest." Stein assumed this was his attempt at lowering the tension floating about the room.
A more reserved man sitting next to the older man spoke up in stern monotone. "We'll start with Dr. Martin and work our way left with the presentations."
Dr. Martin stood up and eyed the room slowly before walking up to the head of the table behind the elderly CEO. He straightened his tie then cleared his throat before waving his hand into the air, summoning the hologram of a three-dimensional pie chart. With the different combinations of hand gestures and swipes, the hologram bars and charts moved back and forth as he explained his idea lower the costs of energy. Another person proposed North Wind should ally themselves with other forefront companies to stay relevant while another spoke about how some sections are outdated and could use some attention.
The person right before Stein went all out with the holographic visuals, ultimately, to tell how some people need to get laid off and not an entire wing. Stein's name was then called.
He ambled to the front and exhaled once before beginning. "Gentleman, I don't have any fancy presentations to awe you into whatever I'm trying to cram down your throat." He knew that he was mudslinging at the man who went earlier but decided it was not personal, strictly business. "Depending on how far you want to take this company into the future, I just have two words you: free energy."
Laughs broke out among the meeting while Stein's face remained unmoved. The one's who's face didn't contort in laughter, scanned Stein's face for any trance of humor and when it found none, Stein knew he had them interested.
"And how would you suppose we obtain such a derisory concept?" the stern man from before asked. "This has to be pure delusion"
"Except it isn't, I had around-the-clock scientists who are beyond experts in their field to study a stone that never run out of sustainable energy," Stein boasted. "It's energy was on a nuclear level and let off a low trace of radioactivity so we could safely work on it until we learned how to amplify it's results."
It seemed no one caught him using the words 'had' and 'was'. For that, he was glad.
"You know we are going to need proof of this right?" the laughing old man croaked. With a wave of a hand, holographic screens showed the study tests and results in an easily understood format. The individual screens showed them as watched them blow back in surprise while appearing to be fools in the shadow of the holy results.
"Where did you get a hold of this rock?!" the stern guy choked. "It isn't apart of the periodic table."
Avoiding trying to lie for the first question, Stein focused on the second part of his reply. "It is not an element and it doesn't seem to be a compound of any of the elements of the table either. However, it does give off an energy similar to polonium and uranium though it doesn't show any sign of containing them."
"That's absurd!" one man shouted.
"Is this supposed to be some sort of magic stone?" another shouted.
"Look gentlemen, I can't tell you the fine details but I'm sure you can grasp the idea of never having to pay another electric bill and being able to power monumental machines without it having to cost a cent."
Stein walked up to the old man with the soft hints of a smile. "This is the part where you say 'Shut up and take my money'."
"You will watch your tongue with me Stein." he retorted. "But...how much...do you need to make this happen?"
Stein heard opportunity knocking.
"Oh, just around three million."
***
~Eric~
"Well lets get this show on the road!" Eric shouted at his fellow scientists as they scrambled back and forth throughout the laboratories and others we're making their preparations and last minute calculations in holographic panels and screens. A great deal of them were in a massive chamber that held one chunk of the green-yellow stone perfectly in between three pointed prongs. It almost looked like an over-eccentric center piece for a tempered glass table. The table, in which, stood in the center of a blast chamber underneath light cannons and positioned inside an electromagnetic force field.
Eric, Lance, Joana and several very important people stood behind an ultra-fortified box in the upper right of the chamber in perfect view of what was happening below, waiting in almost jitter anticipation of the show about to begin. Eric gave them a brief explanation of what was about to happen and in the outcome, a vast of amount of infinite energy.
"...The problem from before was that the stone gave off a low frequency of energy and couldn't be of real use until years and years into the future so the point of this project is to amplify it's effects to new heights!" Eric had to yell over the unseen engines roaring to optimum power. He and Joana had been going back and forth with the finer details to the commander when an echoing lock sounded across the complex. Eric and Joana bit back on their words as their hearts skipped a beat and they turned around to see the last of the scientists clear out of the nuclear chamber.
He and Joana glanced at each other and Joana was the first to smile. One side of his mouth twitched into a smile and he gave her an uneasy glance. Her face only portrayed optimism and soon his followed suit. A fully blossomed smile painted itself over any previous dark expressions and he rose his hands almost like a gladiatorial announcer as he spoke with renewed confidence. "Ladies and gentlemen, This is the final test to unlock the secrets of the universe a light-year faster than we ever could before." Eric pronounced.
Joana was standing near a long red lever that stuck out a couple inches behind her. With a deep breath, she flipped a vast array of switches on the wall and Eric stood next to her as they both plugged in a key into their corresponding keyholes on the wall and then turned them to the side. After that, Joana gripped the lever as she pulled it down to her waist and heard the click of the bar locking in place. "Let the future start now."
At once, a pulsing sound began to give way in the room and gradually grew louder and louder until it pounded through everyone's chest at a rapid pace. As this was happening, the light cannons fired a concentrated laser at the rock as it lit up into far brighter version of itself.
The stone was vibrating rapidly to different sides at such a lighting speed that Eric could see at least five separate stones only to disappear and return at a different position.
While the laser continued their blasts the stone shone brighter and everyone watching put on their assigned medical shades. Even so, the stone was just visible under a bright green and yellow glow and even then, the colors seemed to be moving around the spherical glow.
Eric turned around to show them the insane results they were getting from these tests and the officials nodded in approval. Everyone else was blown away beyond proportion and gawked at the amazement taking place before them.
"You're absolute genius!" one shouted.
"This will change everything!" another chimed in. "The whole world as we know it!"
"Thank you, thank you," Eric couldn't help but to feel a bit stingy over the credits he was given but decided it was childish. "I couldn't possibly have done it alone."
He gestured at Lance and Joana who looked fairly impressed with themselves as the crew of people barricaded them with their praises. He looked back at the ball of green and yellow down below and signed a breath of relief knowing he finally did it. He had changed the world. This was his moment of--
Alarms blared.
Everyone looked around in confusion as the calm pounding of the pulses intensify and the building began to shake. At once, the wall sized window that showed the stone below was crowded with people who wanted to see what was happening.
The stone was vibrating at insane speeds and sparks began to fly from the cannons until one busted and swiveled into a hanging rag-doll as wires ripped away and began to swing from the ceiling. The flinches and gasps of the people began to synchronize with the pops and cracks of the destruction of the room beyond the window.
The chamber was falling apart at the seems and Eric, Joana, and even Lance stared wide-eyed in pure horror as their project began to self-implode. Joana was the first to recover and hop to action to stop the disaster.
She ran over to the panel of manual switches and began flipping switches furiously all over the panel and yanked on the red and black lever to bring the madness to a closure.
But the bar didn't budge.
She struggled and struggled but it was ultimately futile. By the time she shouted for help, Lance was on the scene and assisted her in pulling up the bar. "One, two, three!" he yelled as they both put all their strength into pulling back up that bar. Slowly but surely, the bar rose and then swung back into the wall.
The pulsing stopped and the bright glow beyond the glass ceased immediately. Joana and Lance rushed to the window and saw the sparks shower from the ceiling and the fire-blasted room begin to calm back down to normal. The room finally stopped vibrating and Joana noticed the stone vaporized. The table was ash-covered but otherwise fine.
Eric stood to face the officials.
"That was an absolute disaster!" He yelled at Eric. Others jumped in to replace their praises with a vast array of insults and Eric stood there paralyzed, unable to really defend himself. He felt scarred and devastated altogether.
"I...I" he struggled.
"Their are many setbacks in science!" Joana hopped to his defense from behind them. They turned around to see her red-faced and upset at their hateful reactions. "This is called progress!"
"Or ultimate failure." the official contested. As if to back up his accusation, the broken light cannon plummeted into the ground with a glass-muffled crash. The scattering pieces were actually audible to the group inside the room.
"Give us one more chance, sir," Lance pleaded with a hopeful face. He worked just as hard to get where they were as anyone else was going to be damned if it just shut down because of what was probably a minor fluctuation they didn't foresee. "Like she said, you can't pick up a baseball bat one day and become world champion the next night."
"Well when you've been playing ball for almost half a year, you think they would know a few tricks." the official countered, manipulating the analogy.
"Consider the forces we are playing with here," Joana fumed. "This rock isn't even one the periodic table and we have to figure out what is, how it works, and how we can supercharge its capabilities."
"Well it is sucking money dry and so far, to a regular person, these unstable results add up to nothing." he finalized. "This project is being shut--"
"Unstable..."
Everyone paused to turn around to look at the lesser-paranoid looking Eric with his fingers doing some sort of equation on their own as his eyes dozed off into them. His mouth worked as a completely separate organ as he spoke some other mumbo jumbo.
"What are you talking about?" The official demanded.
Something seemed to click within Joana and Lance as the word sunk into the depths of their imagination.
"That was a power surge. Our experiment worked, it worked!" Eric yelled even though his eyes weren't on any specific person. "It just worked too much. But if we can--"
Joana jumped up. "Stabilize the ore before it power surges out of control--"
"Then we can have a controlled amount of output within the ore." Lance finished off.
"Translate please." the official commanded.
"If we create a machine that can control how much energy that rock is giving off, then we don't have to worry about the high amounts of energy overpowering the mechanisms feeding it the formula to make it grow stronger." Eric seemed to revert back to his original personality and was staring the official down.
"Try again." the official sneered.
"Have you heard the term, 'don't bite the hand that feeds you'?" Eric asked. The man nodded. "Well that exactly what happened in that room; the power given to the rock eventually was so much that it looped back into the system, over juicing it and well..." another piece of ceiling fell right on cue to prove his point. The destruction really needed to pick who's side it wanted to be on.
"So you can fix this?" He asked Eric. The official really got in his face with the question. "Can you do it?"
"Give us one more chance and I have a strong feeling that we'll find out."
"We can do it." Joana confirmed as she and Lance walked up next to Eric like some sort of verbal auxiliary. She clenched her fist and tightened her jaw.
"We have to."
****
A/N: Don't forget to vote!!!