Uncomfortably Dark. Chapter 1. Part 2

“You’ve got a lot of equipment in here,” Monique commented, surprised, as she entered the lab.

   “Oh! Hi Monique!  I see Tyler has finally decided to bring you around.  I left it up to him,” Brad said with a grin.  “Welcome to the port of the future.”

   She looked back at Tyler with mock reproach over a smile.  “We were just working on our trust issue.”

   “To a suitable conclusion I see.”

   “Did you carry all of this stuff with you from the States?”  The lab, constructed back of the house and surrounded by trees, was large enough to be a hangar for a small jet.  It was filled with floor-mounted robotics and desk after desk cluttered with high-tech instruments.

   “Yeah, the heavier machinery we had air-freighted in parts to Montego Bay and reassembled where you see them.  Chose Mo-Bay because I like travelling on the north coast; great scenery.

   “Had the idea for this lab a few years back, before I made up my mind to leave where I was working.  Wanted to build the whole thing underground with a tunnel leading from the house to it, but the limestone in this area is too soft to have it above us.  So we just cleared the surface path from the house and used some heavy duty drills, Dexpan and a small backhoe that I bought to cut ourselves a really big niche half surrounded by rock.”

   “Who’s ‘we’?  And what’s ‘Dexpan’?”

   “Oh, I’m talking about your Tyler.  We’re from way back, you know.  He was a year ahead in the Marines.  He helped me get adjusted and looked out for me when some jerks decided to amuse themselves at my expense.”  His eyes lost their focus for a moment.  Tyler stood there silent.

   “The Dexpan is a powder that you mix with water for use as a demolition agent that works by expansion.  What we did was to use a drill mounted on the backhoe’s arm to bore one-and-a-half inch holes about 8 inches apart running in a lines.  Then we cleared the holes of dust with some compressed air, poured the Dexpan slurry into the holes, waited a few hours and presto!  We had blocks of cracked limestone to clear.”

   “We came back to the island every weekend and had this place cleared in three months,” Tyler added.

   “You travelled here every weekend?”  Monique asked, looking amazed.

   “Mostly,” Brad answered.  “It’s easy when you have a private jet.”

   “You own a jet?  No wonder Tyler’s worried about me being influenced by money.”

   “Ha, ha,” Brad laughed.  “He confided in me such concerns, and quite justifiably I might add.  You see, I’m not the owner of the jet.”

   She looked from Brad to Tyler in shock.  “You’re that rich?”

   “Actually the jet’s not mine either.”

   She shook her head.  “Is everything about you two lunkheads a big mystery?”

   “All the better to intrigue you with my dear,” Brad growled, waving his fingers and trying to sound like the big bad wolf.  “Hey, what can I say, sometimes it gets boring working in a lab.”

   “Speak for yourself Brad.  ‘One step at a time’, that’s my philosophy.  Some things I’d just rather not speak of until the time is right.  That jet belongs to my uncle who’s funding this venture.  We’re not as rich as it appears.”

   “That’s actually a relief,” Monique let out, breathing a sigh to emphasize it.

   Brad laughed.  “Speak for yourself, Tyler.  Come on,” he beckoned with his head, walking towards a door at the back.  “Let me show you the inner sanctum.  This compartment is just for the less sensitive stuff that we do here.  The real workspace at the back is spring mounted and totally insulated against external vibrations.  Don’t mind suiting up do you?”

   “Suiting up?”

   Brad led the way into an antechamber and when Tyler shut the door behind them a total silence began.

   “Oh,” Monique whispered.  “It’s really quiet in here… all I hear is a slight ring in my ears…and our breathing.”

   A ceiling-recessed orange bulb and the subdued blue glow coming from the glass doors on the left and right were the only light here.

   Pushing the door on the right open, Brad explained.  “This passage runs right around and comes back to that door,” he said, pointing back to the left door of the chamber.  “We use the various compartments of the passage for utility storage.  You passed the computer mainframe cluster when you entered the first lab.  We try to have as little electromagnetic interference as possible.”

   Behind another glass door ahead Monique could see the suits.  The doors were all glass and shut against a rubber lining.

   “The glass doors help to prevent sound accumulation,” Brad continued.  “Whole teams of scientists could be using each compartment and the accumulative resonance effect would be kept at a minimum.”  He opened the door and held it open.  “We suit up here.  No dust beyond this point.  You’ll have to replace those heels with slippers and wear a mob cap to contain your hair for the bunny suits.”

   “Oh,” Monique let slip again.  “They look like bio-hazard suits.”  They were pale blue, with clear face screens that had a honeycombed lower half.  They were zippered at the back and once she had donned the mob cap and slippers, Tyler helped her into one.

   “They are totally sterilized after each wear,” Tyler said to her.  “Don’t worry; they’re cleaner than brand new suits.”

   “How did you know I was thinking about that?” she whispered back, a useless reaction to the silence since Brad could hear every word.

   “You’re a bit of a germophobe.”

   “Trying to prove that you know me?” she asked, smiling.

   Working around, tucking and pulling until he was facing her, he looked into her eyes with the slightest smile of his own.  “This suit looks like rubber but it’s not.  It was fabricated at the molecular level to allow your skin to breath.”  Putting his arms around her he placed his left hand below the zipper, flat on her butt, and pulled the zipper up with his right.

   “I take it that’s not the usual procedure for helping someone into their suit.”  She began to giggle.

   His smile widened as his left hand gave her a pat.  “The breathing apparatus of the face screen was also nano-engineered.  You will be able to breathe quite freely.  The ear-pads will allow you to hear.  However, not a single cell cast from your body can escape this suit.”

   “You make a nice tour guide.  Shall I help you into yours?”

   “No worries.”  He flipped up and slipped the headpiece over her head, pulling the zipper now all the way to the top.  Then he grabbed one of the suits off the rack and had it on in a jiffy.  “Working alone it’s done like this.”  Clipping a thin plastic tether to the zipper he zipped halfway then pulled on the headpiece which had hung against his chest and used the tether to drag the zip all the way up.”

   “Ah, I see.  You said ‘nano-engineered.’  I take it that meant what you were saying about the materials of the suit being made at the molecular level?”

   “Yup,” he replied, sounding slightly muffled.

   Brad had on his suit and turned to them, then after a brief inspection turned to Monique.  “A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.  That’s eighty thousand times thinner than a strand of human hair.”

   “Who could possible work at such a small scale?”

   “We can.  It’s the kind of work we do here.”

   “What?” she asked surprised, turning to Tyler for confirmation.  He nodded.

   “Hey Brad,” Tyler said, still looking at Monique.  “She’s sexy even in a cleanroom suit.”

   Monique blushed and Brad turned around to open the door.  “Right,” he said.  “Moving right along…”

   He stepped through the door and they followed.  The floor of this compartment was a mat of stiff brown fibers and as soon as Tyler shut the door behind them powerful blasts of dry ionized air assaulted them from above and the sides.

   “Wipe your feet on the mat,” Brad instructed in a voice raised above the air blast.  “All the dust is being sucked through a grid in the floor.  It’s just overkill really.  All our more sensitive projects are handled by robotized arms in total vacuums and encased before removal.”

   They all shuffled their feet a moment before Brad led them to the next compartment.  This one had a hermitically sealed double-door to the left that parted when approached, revealing the dim recesses of the inner lab.

   “How do you see to work in here?” she asked after the door had closed behind them.

   “Not much to see in the traditional sense,” Brad answered.  “We look at what we’re doing through special microscopes.  We keep the LED lights low because, honestly, it’s cozier for long hours.”

   “When we’re done in here,” Tyler added, “final assembly of the sealed parts is done in the outer lab.”

   “What have you made so far, apart from the suits?”

   “You’re about to see,” Tyler answered.

   She looked again at the suits and mused on the technology that must be involved, while a thought nagged at her regarding a slight unease in Tyler’s movements and voice that she simply had to be imagining.  He was wearing a suit with a face mask.  Why were her senses firing up over his unease?

   “The primary project for the past year has been something that has made secrecy a necessary precaution.  So I’m going to ask that nothing you learn here today be repeated to anyone.”

   She looked at Brad.  She had been a bit preoccupied examining the texture of her suit and trampling her anxiety while he was talking.  He was looking at her through his face screen; his eyes seemed to be very serious.

   “Of course,” she responded.  “Tyler already saw to it that I understood just how important this secrecy is.”

   “Did he also explain that you’ll have to be more careful of your whereabouts and the persons you meet?”

   She felt a tension form in the pit of her guts.  Maybe you shouldn’t show me anymore, she thought, but figured if she said that they’d wonder just how committed she had been to the idea of secrecy coming in here in the first place.

   “I’ve assumed as much.”

   “Oh don’t sound so tense, I’m just playing with you.”  He laughed, but somehow she didn’t quite feel the mirth, or felt like laughing back.

   “Let’s deepen the tour, shall we?”  With that he turned and walked toward the first workstation.  She looked at Tyler and he was looking at her.  She wasn’t enjoying this anymore; even lost her curiosity.  Suddenly she wasn’t sure she was ready for whatever secret Brad was about to unveil.

“Mom… I can’t go to grandma’s house this summer.  I simply can’t.”

   They were in the car heading back home and her mother had been silent as she concentrated on traffic.

   “Why on earth not Haley?”  She slowed down at the entrance to the supermarket’s parking lot and made the left turn across the street to enter the premises.

   Haley slumped in her seat.  “You don’t believe me, what’s the use explaining.  You’re talking about taking me to a shrink already.”

   “Haley, you’re hallucinating, what else am I supposed to do?  A psychiatrist is a doctor who specializes in the workings of the mind and Doctor Francis is a good one.  He’ll figure out what’s causing you to see things and he’ll fix it.  Don’t you want that?  Don’t you want to not see bad things anymore?”

   “Yes mom,” she said; an obligatory answer.  She really wanted to be rid of this new and scary drama but she really doubted Doctor Francis could help her.  “What will he do?”

   “He’ll run some tests and prescribe some special medication.”  She found an empty slot and steered the car into it.

   “Do you really think some tablets can help me mom?”

   “Sure baby.”

   “How do you know mom?  How can you be so certain?”

   She put the car in park and switched off the engine, then looked at her daughter.  “Your father had that very same problem when I met him.  And I convinced him to go to Doctor Francis.  Now he doesn’t see things anymore.  It’s as simple as that Haley.  There’s nothing to be afraid off.  The hallucinations will be gone.”

   Haley contemplated that, mulled it over as her mom got out the car.  “Come along sweetie, let’s do some shopping.  It will make you feel better.”

   She released the seatbelt and got out, pushed the car door shut, followed her mom…the car chirped a couple times as it was secured.  Dad could see things…grandma can see things.  “Mom, is it something that’s passed down to me that causes me to see things…something wrong with my brain that I got from dad?”

   An elderly lady passing by heard and looked at Haley with concern.  Her mom noticed and smiled at the lady apologetically, stopping to let Haley catch up.  “There’s nothing wrong with you, Haley.  It’s not something that’s wrong, just something you’d rather not have, right?”

   “Yeah, okay.”  She felt a little better, and now began to wonder how soon Doctor Francis could make everything alright.

  

“At Morton’s lab, QuTech Laboratories, I worked in Nano Mimetics,” Brad began.  “Mimetics is all about mimicking nature.  Mother Nature has been perfecting molecular machines for millions of years.  We’re just getting in on the game so our best school is nature herself.”

   “I’m a mechanic basically, trained in what we’d call Newtonian mechanics,” Tyler added.  “But at the molecular level, some of the laws of physics we’re accustomed to stop being laws.  Different dynamics come into play, what we’d call quantum mechanics.”

   Brad touched a button at the console of the station and a screen slowly came to life, glowing softly.  She looked in and saw some flaky looking machinery with various cylinders and joints.

   “You’re looking at the surface of equipment we’ve been perfecting, magnified thirty thousand times.” Brad commented.  “Actually we’re done and about to conclude testing.  It’s mostly metal, with nano composite insulations.  At QuTech most of the fabrications used a lot of protein for mechanical purposes.  Here we scaled upwards in size, almost to the micro-fabrication level, and so entered an arena where Tyler’s expertise could have full reign, and so we increased the use of metals.”

   He pressed a next button and a recess opened up.  “Here’s a finished product.”  He reached in and took out what looked very much like a machine gun.  Monique froze.

   “You’re making guns?”

   “Yes and no.  Tyler?”

   “We encased what we’ve developed in this form for demonstration purposes and handling.”

   “But it’s a gun.  It shoots out something, right?”

   “Yeah, but we need to deliver this so we can get more funding to develop the technology to its intended potential.  This is just a stopover.”

   “Right… what do you kill with it?”

   “Any and everything,” Brad answered.  The troubled look she had seen growing in Tyler’s eyebrows took sudden form.

   “Except we don’t plan to use it or have it mass-produced…”

   “I’m sure Einstein didn’t plan to use the atomic bomb either.”

   “You’re missing the point here,” Brad interjected.  “Every powerful technology has powerful use for good or bad.  That’s why it’s so important for this to remain secret and not fall in the wrong hands.”

   “What’s a good use for that gun?”

   “Well apart from a more reliable defense against any possible threat, the technology is opening up our understanding of dimensions.”

   “Explain.”

   “Energy and matter comes in various levels of density,” Brad continued.  “These various levels we call dimensions.  Now all living things have fields of energy that surrounds them, emanates from them.  And when I switch on this device, which is not just a gun but a special torsion field generator, you’re gonna see those fields and the forms they compose.”

   “Torsion field…”

   “Yeah, the energy fields around us forms and moves in certain shapes… just let me show you.  The fields from this are not electromagnetic so it won’t affect any of the equipment here.”  With that said he rested his thumb on a pad on top of the ‘gun’ and her world ignited.

   She screamed.  The dimly lit lab was at once ablaze with brilliant light and color… and… she screamed again, there were people here with them in the lab, people made out of light, big people, little people, some looking at them with what seemed to be anxious looks on their faces!

   “Who are these people?” she shouted, feeling faint.

   “Some call them spirits,” Brad responded.

   Then she realized that the light was partially coming from herself…it surrounded her.  She looked at the light folks and it was coming from them too, and from Tyler and Brad.  It seemed to be eddying, flowing one way from the top of their heads then reversing its direction and flowing back in.  Around her feet the light seemed to pool, but Brad and Tyler had a field surrounding them that looked fully extended and kind of like… “It looks like an American apple.”

   “That’s correct,” Brad responded, observing her with concern.  “Are you okay?  I know this is a bit much but showing you saves a lot of time trying to describe it.”

   “Why do some of them look so worried?”

   “Because they know what the ‘gun’ part of it can do.”

   She looked at him, suspecting the horror of what he was saying.

   “This thing can kill spirits?”

   “It destroys a wide range of higher-dimensional bodies.  We are present in several dimensions you understand, even these spirits are.  In each dimension we have a body representing our energies in a different size and shape.  There is something left back after all the dimensional bodies are collapsed by the beam coming from this device, but yes, it does kill the representation you are seeing.”

   “The physical body included…”

   “Yes, it destroys the body without leaving a single atom behind.”

   Her mouth dropped open.  She looked at Tyler, and finally felt like fainting.  Her last vision was of Tyler lurching towards her.