Novosibirsk Research Lab, Tarsus
18:24 / May 30th / 0018 AC
God the elevator music was corny. She couldnt wait to get of this damn elevator but it was moving so slow, like someone planned to torture people in this way.
"Ugh if I ever meet the designer of this elevator, I'll shoot him in the foot.....with a cannon."
The elevator stopped suddenly with a obnoxious screeching sound.
"Oh you got to be sh***in me..."
Selene tapped her codec device and adjusted the calling frequency.
"Cmon answer you demented scientist."
"*khzzzt* Ivan here."
"Ivan it's Selene, the elevator seems to be stuck."
"What, stuck again? Majku mu....I'll notify the maintenance man."
"You do that. Selene out. *khzzzzt* Kozmos was right, it is a plot by the maintenance men. I wouldnt be surprised if there was an underground organization of maintenance men. They are obviously up to no good."
Few minutes later, the elevator started to move again. It gently slid into position and the doors opened. Selene stepped out, her electric blue eyes showing a great deal of annoyance. Ivan greeted her.
"Selene, you look beautiful as always."
"Dont flatter me, please. So what did you want to show me, mr. scientist?"
"Yes. Follow me, right this way."
As they walked down the countless halls and research departments, Ivan blabbed about the numerous toys he has been working on. Selene paid very little attention, instead she looked around at all the complex machinery and bizarre projects in the lab.
"...that's how we built those 60 zettabyte mp9 players. Anyway here are some of the gizmos I made for the CIA. It's an improved Spy Drone, it is 300% faster, much smaller and has an EMP self-destruct trigger, meaning it will disable or at least damage electronic devices in it's vicinity when it goes off."
"This should be useful. Is this all you wanted to show me?"
"Oh no, more awaits you. For example the spiderbot."
"Spiderbot? I hate spiders."
"But you'll love this little mechanical arachnid. Well not exactly arachnid since it has four legs. Either way, I call him Sparky."
"What can 'Sparky' do?"
"He's small and can get into ventilation without any problems and thanks to biomaterials it's legs and umm...ass can secrete an adhesive paste which allows it to climb walls and hang from a ceiling much like a real spider. He can also discharge a weak electric bolt to harm it's attackers or to tamper with electronics."
"Not bad Ivan, but I still hate spiders. What's this little thingamabob do?"
Selene walked to another table, the sound of her high heels steeping on the floor ever so pleasant and bone chilling at the same time. She picked up what seemed to be a small metallic vial. Pushing a button on the vial itself, it expanded and a purplish glow emanated from behind the protective glass.
"NOOOOO!"
Ivan rushed over to Selene and snatched the device out of her hand, pushing the button once again and sealing the vial.
"This little thingamabob is a prototype nanite disintegration bomb. It's a basically a programmed gray goo. Has enough oomph in it to turn an entire city into ash before going offline! Darn expensive too. I dont know what it is doing outside here, it should should be in the lab behind a containment field."
"Okay Ivan chill, I get it, grey goo bad for health. Shall we move on?"
"Yes, yes. Must show you the newest augmentation project."
"Our furry friends from Sirius Prime transmitted to us the information of large scale genetic modification. They also gave us some examples of their biomodification which I mistaked for furry porn and deleted it instantly. Really how was I supposed to now, bunny ears? Disgusting bleh!"
"Did we really need that information?"
"Yes, our standard nanotech architecture was only accepted into one of twenty individuals."
"That's a 5% rate."
"Yes. Which is exactly why we needed the tech to transform the host DNA to make it 100% compatible. Now we can pick up any fool from the street and turn him into a six million kredit man."
"These augmentations for my agents...what kinds are there?"
"A lot of things, strength enhancement, ballistic resistance, cloak, regeneration...trust me, your agents will kick a lot more ass."
"Good, can you hand me the list of available augmentations? I would like try some of them myself."
"Sure I'll upload it to your PDA, contact me later when you have decided on which ones you want."
"One last thing before I go Ivan. How is the Symbiosis project going?"
"We are one step closer to it's completion. The human neural networks are complete, so far it's been tested in only a few subjects....but the way and ease with which they interfaced with technology was....awe inspiring to say the least. I'm uploading the full report to your PDA right now."
"Thanks for the tour of the lab. I'll make sure to put in a good word to Kozmos."
Ivan escorted Selene back to the elevator.
"Out of curiosity Ivan, any way to shut down the elevator music?"
"I dont know the maintenance man deals with that, but he's on a break now."
"Nevermind, have a good evening."
"Right, you too Selene."
The elevator doors closed and the contraption went up. Ivan turned around and started to go back to his lab. Gunshots echoed from the elevator shaft. He simply shrugged his shoulders and continued down the long white hall...