rivaan

Frozen Darkness

"It always seems to be so indeed." She nodded at the people comment. She sighed and thought." Well that might explain the ferals... my apologies, but on our way here we've encountered a few ferals that have been caught by the cold wave. If they've fled via the reactor, some of them might have been irreversably changed. You have any news on your daughter's fate?" Cat asked, her voice soft and rather friendly. There was more to this conflict than it seemed. She had thought something was wrong when she heard the briefing mention that the people who fled took seeds of all things. So starting a new colony was one explanation, now the sole question was if there were any of those who fled that still retained their facultries. What the man said suggested there was and that not all of them had turned ferals. There was still too little information overall for her liking though. They'd have to proceed carefully from here on out.

She caught of course the scent of his alcohol. That smeleld rather strong. Unusually so, it was hard to get access to proper spirits for the most people. It required specific equipment to refine alcohol and most settlements didn't have that. Cat had no intention of griling him about it, alcohol was pricey commodity and it was his. Asking about it would likely make him defensive and she didn't want that. A conenction with him seemed like a good thing to have.

"Hey, since I've got no plans to stay at one place for too long, even if I was accepted in Underhaven, I'd always be scouting and exploring the tunnels. Maybe I will keep an eye out for anything useful and of note that might help if things get bad. Like another place for a settlement for example or at least one that would make a good refugee center temporary in case a conflict begins?" She suggested. It didn't hinder or cost her any to keep an eye out for such locations." We are at the edge of the known region, right? I doubt even Underhaven has explored much further beyond, there could be anything out there and I imagine a good resource producing location might ease up the requirements for entry and ease the tension some, a farming outpost of sorts for example?"

She'd have to talk with Donny about this, he had a rather decent head on his shoulders, so he'd likely have a good insight on this situation. Still she now had some suspicions on the sides of the conflict, she wouldnt' be killing the escapees if they weren't ferals. Theyd' need to proceed carefully indeed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey it's a nice story... just a bit too kind for some." Ellie reassured him." I know the other kids I live with will like it, I mean they are younger than me, would appreciate a good bedtime one." The kid smiled at Donny. Seems there were other kids around that were likely homeless too. Urchins, question now was if they were orphans and urchins when they arrived or if they were abandoned afterwards. Either could be, or maybe their parents died while trying to earn their keep here.

"No worries, if you get any good information or stories out there, do make a note to tell me some later, okey? It's not much, but dealing in rumours, information and stories at least earns some cash." She was essenitally living as a novice bard from the pre cataclysm fantasy tales. She entertained bar patrons with stories, bartered in information and rumors. Ellie was already learning how to play a guitar from one of the other refugees, but it was slow and she didn't own one." Well... it will have to do until I'm old enough to also explore the tunels or start selling myself out." Honestly grim to hear a child speak about these things, isn't it?

"Hmmm?" She made a sound, turning her head to the burning barrels." Well... maybe? I assume you don't just want some brief sparkle..." Ellie added, thinking." Well I can probably find you some... and a decent knife will be a fine barter. Fine... give me a little while and I will return with some." She finally stated and walked away, though her dog stood behind, tilting it's head at Donny, patiently waiting for it's owner to return. About 5 minutes later, the girl returned with what appeared to be a a small beer keg that she was dragging behind herself since it was heavy and she wasn't able to carry it." Here, this should burn properly for a good hour and will give of heat for at least another one afterwards while the embers settle. Guy wanted 2 knives for it, but I tlaked him down to one, though I'd take the second one as commision, if you don't mind." The kid grinned. Hey she had to make a living too and while she wasn't well of herself, she knew the place and who had what and where to deal with different items.

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

Everything could have went better, different actions could have been taken, a single decision might have been enough to alter everything, but ironically unless they used their time machine to push the metaphorical domino chain of reactions, the gameboard had been set and Lisa had to live with her decisions. The good, the bad and the ugly. She watched Rhia get back into the car, swalloing heavy tears and taking another couple of moments to steel her mind, she wiped the last few budding tears away from her eyes and followed her wife back into the car.

"Of course. However long you need." She replied simply and nodded, turning back the car's engine and resuming the drive. Certainly not what she had wanted to happen. In fact till last night it was all rather fine, it wasn't until this morning that the illusion had started to unravel when she saw the experiment's results. Well, truth to be spoken, Lisa kind of knew this might happen, with a brilliant wife as Rhia along on the project, how could she expect them to fail. It's been over a decade.' Guess teh fact we stabilized the machine this time around, should have suggest to me that we might have managed it in advance.' She thought.

It didn't take too much longer for them to arrive at the research complex. Passing through the massive guarded gates of the walled off complex, the dozens of massive buildings located inside. It was a veritable walled of village on itself. Hell there might be villages and small towns that were smaller than this place. The congregation of the best and the brightest that the governement had managed to rope into their web. Some of these people would complete their projects in peace, never to know the true nature of it. Some would face their struggles. Still she drove off to the parking lot of their research building and pulled a mirror and a small makeup kit from her purse, quickly masking small redness around her eyes. A bit vain, but she preferred not to till of people of what's happening.

Passing through the entrance required a full credentials and biometrics check. FIrst was the personak keycard, then there was both fingerprint and retina scanners along with a facial recognition just in case. The guard on the security check, a middle aged man in uniform, armed with a submachine gun, greeted them as he had done for years now since he was assigned to their facility. He was just one of dozens for their building alone. Following the halls and corridors, the two had to separate for a bit as Lisa moved to engineering to get her equipement and files.

Over in the main hall of the experiment chambers, the place was already a hive of activity with their colleagues all working. Some were cleaning the sensitive machinery, otehrs were attaching the new equipment to replace the burnt out ones from the last experiment. Now it wouldn't be too outlandish for it to be happening, it usually was how thing went in their labs, what would pull attention however was the inspection crew that were all dressed in white labcoats, safety equipment and of course the badges they had to carry." Ahh, Mrs Windsor, good morning." A man greeted her. They called her by her maiden name because with both her and Lisa being technically Mrs Johnson, it was confusing. Still at least he was a familiar face, in different to the other inspectors. None of them were returning faces. That said the inspection group this time was significantly bigger than usual. Usually a team of 4 people would come, ask a lot of questions, get the explanations and carry off the flashdrives with the reports. This time there were 10 and even carried their own equipment crates too." Sorry for the mess, but we got some orders to bring some sensory equipment to take readings when you reassemble the device. I hope you wouldn't mind too much? "

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"Hey, we've both got our own copies of the contract... it's the official business contract after all. I also had laywers check it for loopholes we can use, spend months on it, but every lawyer I turned to said the same thing ,it's an iron clad one." She replied, she never did anything illeagal, she went through all proper channels, it just never worked out.

"WHAT?! NO!" Lisa replied horrified at Rhiannon's accusation of sabotage." I NEVER SABOTAGED THE PROJECT! How can you even think that when I've stayed along you for all those long hours sometimes without sleep for days on end just to complete parts of it!? All those sleepless nights, struggling with the roadblocks we've struck! I never sabotaged anything, I worked just as hard as you, but because of our slow progress and roadblocks, I hoped that by the time we've actually acomplished it, they would have dropped us. I swear, I NEVER did anything to hinder it. If I did, I wouldn't fucking have just admitted to you right now that we've succeeded damn it! Hell I didn't know it until you were dressing up before we left! I've done this tests a number of times throughtout the years whenever we've thought we've might acomplished something and it never worked! Can you imagine my shock when I checked the phone as I've done over a hundred times before, but this time instead of the same old state, I see we've done it!?"

"So yes, I had to figure out somehow to branch into the topic of discussion. What could have I said? 'Honey, look, look, we've succeeded in the project! We are probably going to get dropped of it before long once they realize, but anyhow, do you want us to stop for donuts on the way?' I never expected us to actually have a working prototype within the next few years!" She gripped, still a bit incesned Rhia even suggested she was sabotaging their project." We were technically kids back we we signed those contracts, Rhia. Just like countless others who've gone through the same thing, our heads were into the possibilities and hte dream." She said tiredly in the end.

"Look... we've got a bit of time still... even if we finish connecting the blink drive and secure all the systems, we won't have enough of time to actually run a proper test today. We can discuss more how to proceed back home after we prepare... Even if we don't announce the success, next test would show it. I can probably stall any force requests for an experiment from the government for a few more days with technicalities and safety regulations after the last burnout. Maybe we can figure something out... might be able to get them to keep at least you with the project as it's lead... " She said, rubbing her temples.

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"There's no excuse for me to give... by the time I realized it, it's already been years into the project." She replied ,running a hand through her raven hair." I hoped it would stop, if they thought that the project wouldn't succeed, eventually they would have just left it alone, drop the funding and allow us to move on, pursue it on our own, a fool's goal and all that. We could have made it work by our own two hands, without the oversight, but... yeah... they aren't dropping it and because of a foolish decision made straight out of highschool, we are in this situation and in a way it's my fault. Given my family's history, I should have noted the possibilities for backstabbing in those documents we signed back then. It's nothing illeagal, but I was so... blinded by the possibilities so notice them. I tried, you know. I tried to find a loophole from the contracts, something to allow us to leave with the research in our own hands, but there wasn't one. WEnt through every page of that mountain of papers that we signed back then, combed through all the fine print and there was nothing."

"What changed...?" She mumbled, biting her lower lip, it was a very specific subconcious habit of Lisa's when she was nervous. Something that Rhiannon would know after over a decade as a couple." The device worked... for a brief moment during our last test before the drive burnt out and the whole thing suffered a catastrophic collapse. I had set a pair of burner phones the moment the experiment was on and the device operational, I sent a mesege from one of the phones to the other that was turned off and in my room. This morning while you were getting dressed I checked it. There's the messege that I send... that was recieved twice. One two days prior the experiment date."

"We've succeeded even if it was only for a fraction of a second, enough to send a SMS through. You are right, we can bring the machine to work within acceptable parameters likely even today. I... panicked... my plan to wait this out and just get us dropped and freed means nothing now. I... have no idea what to do anymore." She was nearly to tears." 5 years, I hoped for five years that they will free us, I made sure to point out to them every bad turn out at every experiment, just trying to get them to stop caring, to convince them the oposite of what we know. To convince them that this was impossible and they shouldn't care to have the research under state secrets, but for some reason they only cared for the possibility... I'm sorry..."

"I don't know... I... maybe... just..." She had tears in her eyes now.

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"We are replaceable, Rhia. Especially after we make it work." Lisa replied tiredly." Sure we are the leading people in the project, but we aren't alone. All the additional staff we work with, all of them are experts in the field also. The theories, the idea and the execution, those are all us, but the people we work with, they know enough so they will be able to maintain the machine's state and maybe in teh future even improve some aspects without us around also. Also those interns? Yeah, all of those are young raising scientists with PHDs that are being groomed, just as how we were. You enver thought it was weird how the governement just suddenly popped up when we graduated and offered us a frankly too good to be true deal? Government will want sole control over the time machine and we do not facture into that control."

She sighed and tiredly drove off the side of the road, stopping there and walking outside, letting the cool air hit her face as she waited for Rhia to join her by the front of the car. She softly sat on the edge of the front of the car, looking at the science complex in the far distance." Look at it. What do you see? A place of learning? Place of advancement?" SHe asked and shook her head." I knew something was up from the moment they approached us all those years back, Rhia. I've been carefully monitoring everybody that got assigned to the project, checking their backgrounds, educations. Granted we needed people of such education to complete our work, but... I've noted an increase in activity from some of our colleagues. Have you noted how some of them are studying the project a lot more intently than others? Some of the fresh recruites, young people straight out of university... I've gotten polite requests from the Research Complex Management that I require a proper assist team and I should handle their training. That's the lil group that follows me around lately, they ask a lot of quests... very specific questions. They even askemed if you've got a preference when it comes to your 'interns' they plan to hire. Somethign about ensuring the next generation of minds or some nonsense like that. I checked some of the intern's graduation projects... they were on very familiar topics too..." She rubbed her temples.

"We've seen it happen, I mean history is filled with it, our quantum physics professor was kicked out of his project after making it work for crying out loud. Sure they gave him all credits back then and he was famous for it, but his research was made a state secret and he was under strict non disclosure agreements about it... the same type of agreements we signed back then, blinded by our enthusiasm." Lisa let out a dark chuckle." I've backed all the date up, you know... Every thing for the last decade, I've backed it all and if they knew, I'll likely end in prison. It was part of the agreement we signed, all research stays as secret with them unless the state approves it's full disclosure, we get credit of course, it might be publically mentioned in some capacity what we've acomplished. Fuck... it's the atom bomb all over again." She added and bit her lip.

"I MAY be paranoid, I'd love to just be paranoid about this and it will all be fine, but... I don't see it, Rhia. The small clues are all there, the very capable senior staff that's serving us our helpers while we lead the project, staff we didn't hire ourselves. Strick monitoring at the complex, frequent inspections, detailed research logs, shifty nature of our government when it comes to powerful and or useful inventions. Hell one of the newer members last week had an idea that I shot down, lil shit must have called somebody cause half an hour later I recieved a call from the government that I should use the guy's idea and check the results. That was the reason why we nearly blew half the lab by the way. Fact is, the more we advance and get near completetion, the more authority and control we are losing."

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

Lisa stayed quiet for a moment, waiting for Rhiannon's speech to be over with. Once her wife got heated up and began her ranting, it usually took a while to stop if the topic was something she was passionate about. Best course of action was to be patient and calm. She understood her attitude and opinion though. It was after all similar to Lisa's own, but unlike Rhia who was a bit more of an idealist and dreamer, Lisa was always more of a realist. There were many issues with their creation and should it be completed there'd be even more. There was absolutely no way they were going to be allowed to freely use it to explore the past. If anybody was going to be using it, it would be select people from the government that were specifically selected and more likely than not attempt to alter select points in history to their ends. Granted htere was absolutely no guarantee that they'd be able to. After all, will altering the past, erase THIS future and replace it with another or would it make the two exist parallel to one another? There was still much that wasn't explored and understood. She did agree with the possibilities and benefits of transportation technology based on the project however. That would certainly benefit their civilization!

"I..." She began, hearing her love's question. Lisa's fingers tightly wrapped around the wheel, causing the leather on it to make sounds from the force." Don't think we will be allowed to continue much forward on the project after we bring it to proper working state." She finally let out quietly." We can dream all we want, Rhia, but fact is that they can and most likely will cut us off our creation once it's working. Tampering with the past is already too much an issue that might happen, if anybody is allowed to venture through or even use the machine, it would be carefully selected people that our 'superiors' have perfect trust in." She sighed, a bit tired honestly and not for being hungover still.

"That is the reason, I just want to know what we should do after that happens. I mean persuing stable portal technology that can be widely avaible for hte public is a nice next goal. It would make space exploration and colonization viable and the possibilities go further beyond that indeed. But tinkering with time? I don't see us being allowed to do so." She said quietly." I bet it would be part of the things to happen today, they will likely be bringing more 'interns' and staff. They are already having US train our replacements..."

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"Well they do pay our bills so they are free to annoy us to the best of their capabilities... it's part of the contract or something." Lisa shrugged with a smile." Besides, how can they NOT when you amuse them to no end every time with different costumes?" She was amused at her wife's antics. that said, she was still miffed at that one time she walked around in a bikini in the lab with nothing but a labcoat on top. That was sight that Lisa much preferred to keep for herself, but had to share. She got her revenge though, next time she slipped laxatives in the coffees of all the dogs that drooled and leered after her wife's almost naked form. Then she blamed it on one of the janitors that were also monitoring them, cause no way in hell was she believing anybody tied to the lab was not in cahoots with the government and whatever agencies were involved. Call her paranoid, but she'd take paranoia and preparation before being caught unprepared anyday.

Smiling and returning hte kis for a moment, she watched after Rhiannon's distancing form as the woman left to get back to the bedroom to get changed. Once she was alone in the room, Lisa sighed and covered her face with her arms for a moment. How long could they continue this blissful life? Especially now that the project was once more advancing, it was a matter of time before their bosses decide that the two of them were no longer neccessary. Honestly Lisa's pessimism was grounded in reality and logical conclusions. There were many cases where promicing scientists were denied their success because the government made sure to privatise the research under one excuse or another. Especially since she pulled one of her phones from her pocket and stared at it for a while. At the messege on it... They were a lot closer than anybody imagined, likely even than Rhia thought. Lisa hadn't mentioned it to anybody and was one of the reasons to get shitfaced drunk last night. She deleted the messege from that phone, pulled the card, snapped it a few times, and flusehd it down the sink. Then snapped the phone in two and tossed the pieces out.

She was already dressed for going out, so she wasn't going to change. Her negative mood and expression evaporated the moment she heard steps approaching and by the time she turned around to face her wife a wide smile had replaced it, like nothing had ever happened." Of course! Let's go, if we manage to finish a good deal of work today, we can go out earlier." She replied and stood up, moving the dishes into the dishwasher and setting it to go. Afterwards she grabbed her coat, her purse and her keychain before heading out to the garage. Their car was already waiting and with a simple flick of a switch, came to life. Their house wasn't too far from the research complex and they were neighbors with quite a few of their colleagues, both from their pojects and other projects that worked around the massive research complex.

The drive as quite pleasant and calm, there wasn't much traffic on their roads and in the near distance you could see the monumental complex." Hey, Rhia, have you ever thought what we should do when we complete the project?" Lisa asked suddenly when they were about 10 minutes drive away from the labs. It's been their dream and passion since they were still colleage students and now she feared the point that they'd have to step away from it for one reason or another was fast approaching. Either as a result of completing it or as a result of them being booted out of it.

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

"One glass of cool water, coming right up." Lisa replied, pulling a bottle of cooled water from teh fridge and pouring a glass of it for her wife, bringing it over to her and then returning to finishing the breakfast. Finally with the omplets complete, she began plating them and placed one in front of her wife and the other in front of her seat when she sat down."You're welcome. I know you like omlets. If everything goes well, tonight for dinner we can go out to eat at a nice fancy romantic restaurant. Red, wine, moonlit walk through the park afterwards..." She grinned." Ooooor... I can prepare your favorite things myself and we can just focus on having the best possible time instead."

"Well blink drive's very much important, I do agree with you, however don't forget the electromagentic field generator... Without the magentic containment field to stabilize the portal and protect anything inside it from the effects of the portal, who knows what might happen." She pointed out, after swallowing a mouthful of breakfast. The field was important to counteract the likely negative effects that time travel might have on the human body or any organic really. Though even it was a theoritical more than anything, but without it they could very well be certain that nobody would make it through the device without harm.

"Well, that said we don't need to worry for the electromagetic emitters, I fixed them yesterday when we fixed the powergrid. They now work off their own separate powerline and even if the rest of the prototype begins to fail, they would at least hold strong." Lisa grinned." I suggest we begin off 30% tops, we can increase the power after we let it run stable for abit with that amount. Honestly we are playing with some rather dangerous stuff and I'd rather not cause a time rift or something of Chernobyl proportions."

"You can tell it to me every day of the week, every hour and every minute and my heart will always skip a beat just as the first time you said it." Was Lisa's reply, a bit of a flush making it's way on her otherwise quite noble appearance." Besides, you are beautiful too, Rhiannon. You're the best thing that ever happened in my life. This I will always tell you, even ify ou get tired of hearing it." The raven haired woman let out a small grin.

As their meals rapidly vanished from their plates, an alarm was heard from the terminal in the room. She saw a messege appear on the screen on the wall. A code flashed for a moment and Lisa sighed." Sadly I think we've not go much time more to spare... let's go before the fools do somethign stupid and wreck what progress we finally made." The code in the messege indicated that external supervisors were going to be visiting today. Usually the government sent some people every now and then to spy on them, ask questions and generally be a pain in the ass.

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

Lisa had just about made herself most comfy and drifted away into dreamland completely, when a lovely soft voice pulled her attention back into the land of the awake. She let out a soft moan and a few impossible to make out mumbles that could have been anything from a string of swears to a poetic confession of love, it was a mystery that was likely going to sadly remain unsolved forever." Fineeeee..." She eventually let out as she very slowly pulled herself into a sitting position." We could have stayed in bed longer though..." She grumbled and looked at the equally sleepy Rhiannon. After a surprisingly for a half asleep person string of thoughts, she gave her wife a quick kiss on the cheek." Good morning, now wake up, sleepyhead. If ya wanted to stay napping, shouldn't have woken me up." And content with that, at least for the time being, she stood up and shuffling her feet dragged herself into the bathroom.

With head pounding, eyes hurting, stomach twisting and limbs feeling like lead, she just made her way under the shower and let the lukewarm water she set just fall on her for a little while. A cooling relaxing shower always cleared her head from many things nad luckily hangover was one of them. Didn't make all symptoms go away, but it helped enough that she was adequate afterwards as she went through the morning routine after the shower. After finishing in the bathroom, she walked out with with her still wet hair, nicely wrapped in a towel." Shower's free. Go freshen up, I will prepare breakfast in the meantime." She called out, walking over to the closet and a few minutes later walking away from it dressed in very simple trousers and a turtleneck blouse.

Lisa then proceeded to quickly fix up some eggs for omlets in the kitchen, keeping an eye on the digital display on the wall that had the time. When she eventually heard the pitter-patter of her wife's steps, she smiled." breakfast's almost ready. Want me to prepare some fresh orange juice to go with it or would you prefer water?"

Discordance in the Clockwork[Riv and Benzaiten]

Lisa groaned quietly as she very slowly became aware of her surroundings. Yeah last night she might have overdone it on the alcohol, but in her defense it was a major celebrations and a drinking shots game seemed like a good idea at the time. Hey they had done a small breakthrough in the project after a long stretch of nothing, they finally made progress, it was worthy of celebrating. Granted blasted device wasn't working, but she wasn't discouraged. They will get it to work eventually.

She turned slowly around and made herself comfortalbe in the presence of the other person in the bed with her. Rhiannon, the love of her wife and the most important person in Lisa's life. It wasn't a stretch to say that this beautiful perfect woman was what kept her from going off the deep end all these years. Between general life annoyances, her family always causing her problems and stress and finally some underlying psyhological issues stemming from said family that her psyche eval had discovered, Rhia's presence was the lone solitary harbor that she knew would always offer her safety in the storm that was her life. Now that's not to say that Lisa was crazy or unstable, she was actually quite well when it came to her mind, but without her lover, things all these years, she might have been a completely different person.

It was early morning, she had woken well at the crack of dawn it seemed. Rhiannon's sleeping face always made her smile. Her eyes traced the long eyelashes, the currently wild brown mane of bed hair and the adorable freckles. She never got tired of the sight and it did sooth her hangover some. So in the end she decided to just make herself more comfortable and try to get back to sleep until the time they had to leave for work later. With the breakthrough yesterday, they might actually be able to at least start the machine without fearing it burning out this time around! With a not malfunctioning machine that stays working instead of sparking, exploding, burning or anything else of the kind, they might be able to finally get somewhere. That was her hope. She knew their theories should be on point, now htey needed to test them properly. As her eyes closed down and she slipped in the land of dreams once more, she thought how perfect her life was currently. She had everything she wanted and the best part right now was that they had flexible working schedules, so it meant they didn't need to go early in the morning to work. As long as they met the required weekly quota, they were good, so even if they slept in this morning, they could fix it by staying a bit later or going early for the rest of the week.