[Issue] Go West

[Acala]

"It is still in your system, albeit dissolved."

"And I am trillions of nanites."

[Will Stanton]

"No, nonono.

You," he said, pointing out Acala, "have kept me awake and running on high steam for the past two weeks after your modifications. Unable to collapse form and relax. Nuh-uh, not happening.

The administration has had me running 18-hour days as I jump from classroom to classroom, sitting all day in a humanoid form and listening to people rattling on about aerospace dynamics and environmental design and computer architecture. I'm drained, I'm tired, I'm beat, I'm having an awful time. Whatever this stuff is that's in my system has reinvigorated me. It's like every nerve in every cell in my body has been cranked up not to 11, but to 111. Everything is sharper, crisper, more wonderful. And I'm so very sorry if my body makes you uncomfortable, Samantha, or if my personality seems weird and strange to you, Tosh, but I'm not letting any of you take this away from me. Period. End of sentence."

[Samantha McManus]

"...well you certainly don't do anything by halves."

[Acala]

"Okay." Acala says, her improvised eyebrows tilting the other way before she floats over to where the chair residue sits in a sample flask and she picks it up with a nanite-tendril, working to separate the Will-produced MGH from the traces of the rock he ate.

"I am sorry my attempts to improve your energy levels were detrimental."

[Will Stanton]

Will just harumphed and crossed his arms again, staring to one side.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh was trying really hard not to be hurt by what Will was saying to defend his addiction.

"When have I ever judged you for any of that?"

[Will Stanton]

"Like, just now, on the plane. "Oh, Will, you should do that in private. Oh boy, don't you think Will is acting strange? Looks like he's tripping balls,"" he said, mocking Sam and Tosh's voices in turn.

[Samantha McManus]

"You did just admit you're tripping balls, Will."

[Will Stanton]

"Entirely besides the point!" Will flailed.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"That wasn't judgment Will. The fact is you aren't your usual self right now. You're defensive and, frankly, hurtful. That wonderful feeling is why this stuff is so addictive and you're already doing and saying anything you can to keep your fix. Surely someone with your wealth of experience can see that."

[Will Stanton]

"How do you know what my 'usual self' is like? I've been here a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the time, and have had at least three different major personality-altering events in that time. Don't think you know me just because I used to live down the hall from you all."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Okay, fine, maybe I don't know you that well. But I do know for an indisputable scientific fact that I was right. You are under the influence of drugs. A drug illegal in most civilized countries for good reason. And a drug that is apparently of a far stranger origin than anyone realized, which only makes it more dangerous. So we're going to help Muir treat you whether you like it or not, because we like you. Deal with it."

[Will Stanton]

"I'm going to remember this, Tosh. You can count on that," Will grumbled.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I like to think you'd do the same for me, so you're welcome," he answered.

Without another word, he turned to Acala. " Any theories about where the inorganic protein came from, or how long it was buried there?"

[Acala]

As people were talking Acala has managed to extract enough of the trace amounts to produce a tiny chunk of materiel. About the size of a grain of rice but still managing to catch the light in odd ways.

"Hard to tell. Excavation and the general age of rock formations in the area would suggest somewhere around a hundred years. More if they dug particularly deep. The actual substance itself appears to be no more than a couple years old at most."

"Best I can figure right now is that it formed inside the surrounding bedrock from a discharge of energy transforming rock to biological compound. Almost like the reverse of MGH prompting the emergence of mutant abilities."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Is it possible that the drilling unleashed residual energy from leftover from whatever event took place?"

[Will Stanton]

As the scientists started going over their science works, two guards from Muir entered to escort Will to a more permanent observation room. They took him by the arm, though he yanked himself free, and instead allowed himself to be led deeper into the facility.

[Acala]

"It almost certainly prompted a response and a release of energy in the form of a power manifestation, yes."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"But was the specific power due to the material affected, or something inherent to the energy itself?" he thought aloud, "And is exposure limited to the MGH stimulation?"

"Is there any energy left in the sample you retrieved?"

[Acala]

"Not as far as I can tell."

"But we could bombard it with different kinds of energy and see if we can provoke a reaction!"

[Samantha McManus]

"...it's not going to be purely physical," Sam says distractedly, remembering what she saw when she was in the ground.

"It's not just going to be chemistry and biology and energy."

[Acala]

"Of course. Physics! Thank you, Samantha." the robot chirps.

[Samantha McManus]

"I mean there's a missing factor here. It was eluding them when they were researching this stuff."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"What sort of factor? A psychic one?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Maybe? I was able to affect that thing and it didn't even have a mind."

"And in the memories bound up in it they wondered if psychology didn't play a role."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"It had memories? But no mind?"

[Acala]

"Memories?"

"A singular kind of protein can't contain memories." the robot huffs.

[Samantha McManus]

"A singular kind of protein can't spontaneously become a rock monster."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"So, the energy and not the protein must be responsible. What were the memories?"

[Samantha McManus]

"It was something about the cause of mutation, or why mutations take the form they do. I think they were trying to make mutants."

[Acala]

"That would not bode well. It is true that MGH folds into different shapes based on the specifics of a person's X-Gene and transmits that folding to other MGH molecules like prions. Which is why blood transfusions between mutants does not lead to a transference of power. Or that is the common assumption."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"'They' being West Industries? No, that wouldn't make any sense given the age of the surrounding rock."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye, but the memories I picked up weren't ancient, Tosh."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Then how did the memories get there. It couldn't have experienced any of them."

[Acala]

"If it somehow stored memories then there has to be more to this protein." Acala states and her lens starts emitting a hard-light image of intertwined ribbons and bulbs and different shades of colors.

"This central area in the middle is the only thing that could reasonably interact with any kind of energy flow but certainly not hold any significant charge for extended periods of time. At most it could modulate energy coefficients, like an enzyme propagating certain molecular energy transfers. But I've tried to calculate electrical currents, thermal interactions, electromagnetic or gravitational waves and even plugged in what little solid data I have on telepathic interactions form the Cerebra Project and none of them produce a stable form."

The projected image changes with each thing she lists, demonstrating the various ways in which energy patterns make the whole thing wobble and break apart in various ways.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"You know... that almost looks like there's a pattern," he said, walking around to look at it from all angles, "Try expanding the distance between points."

[Acala]

"That would just separate it into loose amino acids." Acala scoffs, misunderstanding Tosh just wanting a better look but complying anyway. The outer layer disperses away but the central area somehow continues to retain it's general formation and instead of dispersing almost looks like it's glitching out, shapes intersecting itself and folding in strange but consistent geometric patterns.

"This can't be right. I'm increasing the spatial distance but it won't separate. It unfolds into some kind of interstitial space."

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh perked up, making one of those leaps of intuition that AIs couldn't.

"Given everything else, that could... Acala, scan for dimensional frequency."

[Acala]

"It's not protruding into any alternate realities."

"It's aligning on a higher dimensional manifold. I... cannot calculate this." she says in the closest tone a robot can come to being stunned as the projected image dissolves into a flickering ball of fractal images.

[Samantha McManus]

"I'd like to say I told you so, but that seems somewhat rude."