Chapter 26: That's Massive!... Isn't it?
A/N: hey, guys, I hope you had a wonderful Easter, and it's nice to be back from the short break. Now I'll get on with the continuation of RED, and no I haven't dropped the series. As I've said before, I plan to finish through with Book One of the series, despite all the release complications.
Also I apologize for the abrupt hiatus I took without warming. I'm back now and here's an early chapter, picking off ftom wherr we left off the last time. Enjoy.]
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*Chapter 26 That's Massive!... isn't it?*
The day was quickly over, Huey spent his time waiting the conclusions of the council silently brooding from the waiting room. Once again Iroq and some other young men, stood to watch him.
The electrical sound and the grinding of the heavy steel doors alerted his attention towards the entrance.
"Hello." Right at the very door was a middle-aged man with full grey hair and pristine white lab coat. Professor Hathaway couldn't hide a smile as soon as he set his eyes on Huey inside. Behind him were, as always, his escorts.
The Professor shifted his gaze through Huey's guards before turning to look back at him.
"May I have a bit of your time?" He asked.
Huey cringed, but managed to not let it show. There was something about the way the Old professor looked at him ever since they first met. Huey couldn't help but feel like an adopted guinea pig, and this made him wary and cautious around this man.
"Is it about Lyra?" He stood up asking.
Earlier today during the meeting, Huey demanded to see his travel companion and there were a few talks about executing Lyra under the excuse that she was of the Walls, but Huey silenced all that with but a menacing glare.
"Yes. It regards that also."
Huey joined the professor in a walk through the subterranean tunnels, flanked by their "escorts". He was concerned about his travel companion, but his mind was mostly filled with replaying the scenes of the conversation he held with the council before.
He felt like he had been scammed for some reason. No, it was his innate rebellious characteristic — that personality of his that refused him to give into the flow of others around him no matter who they were made him irritable after everything that had happened.
Yes, he admits to have revealed just a little too much than he had expected, but the truth was, Huey hadn't actually exposed any tangible fact that could have been held as a form of weakness towards him along the run. His words had been vague and left room to multiple interpretation, like mixing a single lie in a hundred truths.
Information concerning his background and what exactly he was doing before he was 'transported', along with how he was and how he had survived and many other details alike were left with him and to the imaginations of the council.
But yet he still felt so irked. Like a child who had to swap a toy with another child's, instead of simply having them both for himself! It was his prettiness thatade him so irked!
"I know you have questions, so why don't you just let them out already?" Huey was peeved, and the odd silence of the walk wasn't helping, and eventually he said, suppressing a frown.
Professor Hathaway choked for a short second then recomposed himself.
"Well it seemed you were in no particular mood to indulge in my curiousity, " he admitted with a strained smile, then fixed his mood accordingly. " Plus I understand the implications of your story. If they are true, then I believe that isn't something you should casually go around and telling others. Especially those who shelter in the Fortresses."
Somehow a little relaxed now, Huey spared a side glance at the Professor. He liked the old man could respect his privacy compared to the other old coots.
"Well even if you say that, I've already said to much to these people. What they do with all that information depends entirely on them, and all I can do is act accordingly." Saying so, Huey's eyes became cold and lifeless as genocidal thoughts brewed in his head.
Professor Hathaway came to a stop and stood before Huey with resolute eyes.
"I assure you that the Ntuli Tribe will not disclose this information or happen to use it against you." He said and Huey looked indifferently.
Huey clearly understood what the Professor meant, it was for the same reason the Tribal Chief repeatedly brought up killing him instead and doing the rest of humanity an unintentional favor.
If his information got out to the rest of the world, best case scenario, Huey Blade would be hunted down as a public enemy, worst case scenario being he would be strapped down in a lab and torn open.
All of a sudden he felt tired.
"I want to ask on what basis you have for being so sure but I suddenly can't find the drive to care anymore." Breaking his aloof visage, he lazily admitted.
'Right now, I just want to find out why happened to my family. Then other things can follow. One thing at a time; I'll get to wiping out this tribe eventually.' he sighed again and continued walking forward.
"And? How is my companion doing?" He glanced back at the Professor and asked.
Hathaway adjusted his glasses and openly accepted the change of topic.
"When she arrived she was walking on a fine thread between life and death. The wounds she acquired after facing Barak's team had been fatal, but she was in already far worse condition than that." Professor Hathaway included almost grimly.
Huey lingered silently for a while, awaiting for the Professor to continue, while pretending to be ignorant of what he was talking about for the meantime.
"Will she be okay?" Understanding the Professor wasn't going to include anything else until he reacted, Huey eventually asked.
Huey was already aware of Lyra's condition being dire even before the clash with Barak and his companions. At that point, he had opted to silently observing the young lady, and since she refused to talk about it, Huey agreed to not touch the subject, at first. Either way, he had concluded Lyra was dying, and there wasn't much he could probably do about it anyway.
That was why contrary to his expectations, Professor Hathaway's reply demanded him to leak a voice of surprise.
"Yes. As a matter of fact, I've succeeded in stabilizing her overall condition since she arrived, but...how can I say this?" He appeared to be struggling to find the right wording, "... it's better you see for yourself."
Reaching the end of their walk, the two along with their escorts, walked through a sliding steel door into what resembled an operating theater.
It resembled a sleek, sterile chamber illuminated by holographic displays projecting vital signs and anatomical diagrams.
Quantum-entangled scanners provide real-time feedback, allowing for instantaneous analysis and adjustment during complex procedures. The entire environment was hermetically sealed to prevent contamination, and the atmosphere is regulated by sophisticated life-support systems to ensure the patient's stability throughout the surgery.
Huey and Professor Hathaway stood, staring from across a one-way mirror, at a laying figure of Lyra placed on a hospital bed and attached to tubes and several devices from the other side.
While so, professor Hathaway messed around with an interactive interface and brought up a holographic reading before them.
"Firstly, I'll have to admit your companion is perhaps as much interesting as you seem," Professor Hathaway began as he expanded the holographic images and readings of Lyra's vitals before, and after.
"I heard from Barak's group, when they faced her, she was apparently unarmed and unequipped. Completely bare to the atmosphere and unprotected. This lead me to assume she was perhaps a knight of the walls, but upon diagnosis was I proven pleasantly wrong."
Huey remained silent and continued to feign attentiveness and understanding as he stared totally lost at the holographic readings and diagrams. He felt the Professor was unto some really important and serious revelation though, that he struggled to hide his childish surprise and amusement at watching actual holograms interact right before his face.
Feeling the gaze of the Professor on him from his side, Huey side glanced and said, pretending to understand and to get the Professor to continue regardless.
"Are you saying she's..." He stopped, letting the Professor nod and finish off his none existent line of thought.
"Precisely. Your companion here lacks a Core — a " Mana Core". And yet, regardless, braved the world beyond the Walls without protection." Professor Hathaway turned to face the holographic images and display with severe interest in his clear green eyes.
At that moment, Huey feigned surprise and equal amusement.
"I see. Then that means..." He stopped once more, prompting the middle-aged professor to nod by his side.
'I don't really get it, but seems the Professor is unto something...? I'll just play along for now and pretend to be following up. More importantly...how did they get to make actual holograms?! The future is crazy!'
"Yes. This is something truly massive. At first I presumed she was perhaps a Native, but was wrong. Further diagnosis revealed subtle but significant alterations to the patients biological make up, specifically, the way her exposed body and organs reacted to the external "Mana" Radiation." At this point, Professor Hathaway's voice took an octave.
"Uhm... that's... incredible...?" Feeling his brain scramble a little, Huey could only say. He had totally forgotten he was responsible for altering Lyra's genetic make-up and reaction to the radiation the first day they met.
"Yes, yes, precisely!" The Professor's glasses jumped in excitement.
"Rather than attacking and imploding her organs and terminating her nervous system, the " Mana" Radiation instead is slowly running through her veins and blood vessels, while softly coalescing around her organs! This way, rather than destroying her from inside, the radiation is forcing a gradual mutation and tempering her entire system and biological make-up instead." Professor Bling enthusiastically explained, " she's gradually gaining immunity!"
Barely listening to the professor ramble by his side, Huey raised an arm and swiped away a part of the holographic screen from his face to get a clear look at Lyra from across the mirror.
His red eyes subtly glowed, as the white blackened. All of a sudden, Huey's world was dyed in red and lost all dimensions and substance. Such gaze pierced through Lyra's laying figure, rendering her entire internal system and condition bare and vulnerable to his gaze, from which he understood to an extent her current condition and confirmed it to be slightly more better than before.
"But?" Reverting his gaze, he said, forcing the Professor to put back on his head and sigh.
"But, at the same time, her entire system is weakened like from a virus, slowly eating at her life force.," he adjusted his glasses then continued, "Though her body is slowly being tempered and changed by the radiation, her system still struggles to fight against the external influence of the radiation. It's like the leukocytes fighting against external bacteria and viruses to protect the body, and this battle is causing a slow but gradual depletion of her overall life force."
Huey couldn't understand much from what the Professor had explained, but he had the ability to directly peer into Lyra's condition by a mere gaze, and from the solemnity in Hathaway's voice, he could tell the underlying gravity of the whole situation.
"How long does she have left?" Without moving his still gaze, he asked.
Professor Hathaway took a short glance a the holographic readings before giving a response as concise as possible.
"At the gradual rate it's going, she has mere days, but this could easily change at any moment."
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DBM's notes:
Ext chapter will be out in a few hours.