Brad's tried to lift his finger off the box, but it wouldn't (or couldn't) come free.
Next he felt a tightness in his finger and watched as his whole hand gradually sank into the box through the button which was only marginally wider than his finger. Next his whole arm slid in, and he tried to grab it and prevent it's movement. This only led to both arms being encased in the box and his face accelerating toward it. He felt pressure on the sides of his head as it was squeezed into the hole and then he was inside, the rest of his body quickly followed after leaving the room completely empty.
****
Dale heard a beeping from her computer and turned his attention to it. The map displayed on the screen was completely clear of the Gas. He activated the base Intercom and tried to contact Brad but the computer could not locate him. "Must have teleported off base he thought." So he told the intercom to raise the Medical Bay and spoke to Grace.
****
Brad found himself in a white space which extended as far as the eye could see in all directions. The floor below him was composed of Hexagonal tiles, each 6ft across.
"Am I in the device?" He thought
"I bet you're wondering if you're in the device?" said a voice behind brad.
Brad turned round to see a man in his 40's with a neatly trimmed beard and dark hair and dak eyes.
"Yes, I was" Said Brad "and whom might be?"
"Professor Jonathan Steinwick at your service - Lead scientist of Corsetbone 2 and you are?"
" I'm Brad the new commander of Corsetbone 2"
"Ah-ha, we awaited your arrival for he last 3 months but no show. Glad to see you finally made it"
"Yes I was kidnapped by... ...wait dd you say three months?"
"Yes"
"Professor it's now been 6 months since my kidnapping"'
"Nonsense, I've only been inside this device 10 minutes."
"I promise you, that you were reported missing 3 months ago and the base was mothballed 1 month ago - only when I gained my freedom was I allowed to open with a skeleton crew."
"So they didn't investigate the device further?"
"No After your disappearance it was deemed too dangerous and your lab was sealed off"'
"Dangerous?"
"Yes, I nearly lost two team members investigating it"
"Was one a woman?"
"Yes, not that I see it matters."
"of course it matters, wouldn't have asked otherwise"
"Go ahead"
"I suspect this is some sort of Alien IVF machine."
"I'm still Listening"
"It can operate in two major modes tissue sampling - which is what brought us here. And implantation which has happened to your team member."
"What's tissue sampling?"
"well it's just a theory but Imagine a society where males are the only gender - you use cloning and IVF to implant a fetus into a different person's/species'
womb - Or at a push you could grow the fetus within the device although that will limit your production rate."
"So how does that lead to our being here?"
"In any cloned society the biggest problem is genetic degradation - you make a clone of a clone of a clone and there's not much left of the original - Its why other than single cell lifeforms nature uses two partners to increase Genetic Diversity."
"This device seems to store the original person and then create the clone from the DNA of the original."
"SO you're saying Grace is pregnant with a clone of you?"
"I guess so."
"Very good, now how do we get out of here?"
"Well I can't find any way to operate the controls from in here - and I don't have any other technology to help us, what about you?"
"I have a Teleport, but without knowing the coordinates of the outside world it's of no use to me."
"If I can calculate a set of relative coordinates, can you use them to program the teleport?"
"Yes, I think so."
"One last question , do you have a pen I could use?"
****
Some time later, Steinwick stood back up. Around them the floor was covered in massive equations designed to model the interior of the device including the Entry/Exit point.
"Ok, these equations should be right"
"Here goes nothing" said brad. Steinwick held his shoulder and they dissapeared only to appear.
Go back - Go to the parent episode.
Fri Jan 23 06:10:28 2009
Linking Enabled