Chartreuse || ONC 2022

▪︎ Digi Log 10 ▪︎

The Night Mare
Micro-Tokyo, Neo-York
09:30

Upon their return from the Chartreuse Factory, Saito and Mina found their room at the Night Mare to be doubling as a chem lab. The desk was covered in equipment, and holographic charts were projected onto all the walls displaying a myriad of complex equations.

"Really, Ava," Mina sighed. "Did you have to bring out all of your toys?"

"Mmph," Ava-1 mumbled absently. She scribbled down the results of beaker onto her electronic notepad and took a series of digital photos of a bubbling green liquid.

"Care to educate us on what you're doing?" Saito asked. "What is all this?"

Ava-1 looked up from her work, her eyes shining with the promise of victory. "It's Charteruse," she said. "Stripped down to its most basic form."

"Come again?" Mina asked, quite startled.

"All these products," Ava-1 said, her tone elevated with excitement. "That huge factory. Right? Everything is Charteruse. It's everywhere! But what is it? Well, now I know. Or don't know, actually. Which is just as crazy!"

"Slow down and explain," Saito said.

Ava-1 took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling only on her right side. Her synthetic left lung did not expand as the organic right one did. "I took a sample of seven different Chartreuse products, including the hand soap and shampoo from our ensuite. I used an advanced process of reverse distillation to separate the various substances and ingredients within each product. Then I employed accelerated selective evaporation and condensation to increase the concentration of trace elements—"

"Ava, darling, this is fascinating," Mina interrupted, "but I'm afraid you've lost us both. Perhaps, come to the point?"

Saito nodded his consent.

"Right," Ava-1 said. She scratched the fiberglass side of her head sheepisly. "Right. Sorry. Okay, so, no matter the product — cleaning agent, hand cream, shampoo, whatever — there are no unusual, surprising, or dangerous active ingredients. Everything is exactly what you would expect. But every product, regardless of its purpose, has one ingredient in common. An ingredient that doesn't seem critical to the successful function of the product at all."

"So, why is it present?" Saito asked. "Why put it in the products if not for functional necessity?"

"Exactly," Ava-1 said. "Why?"

"Good Google," Mina said, putting a hand to her unbeating heart. "It's not harmful or poisonous, is it?"

"Not at all," Ava-1 said. "Just completely unknown. In all my data bases, casting as wide and deep a net as I'm able, I can't find any proof of its existence. It shouldn't exist! Even Alniscient doesn't know what it is. Isn't that right, Al?" she asked the room at large.

"No data available," the dulcet tones of Alniscient sang out all around them. "Substance has no record of origin or usage. To draw conclusions of any nature would be non-scientific speculation."

"See?" Ava-1 cried in triumph.

"So, this...substance that should not exist and appears not to be harmful," Mina said, gathering her thoughts as she spoke. "What does it do?"

"It's a suppressant of some kind," Ava-1 answered. "It works in a variety of ways, but it must be taken in through the respiratory system, topically, or by ingestion."

"For instance, breathing in the fumes from an aerosol can," Saito suggested. His eyes widened in realization. "Or the scent of perfume. Or applying lotion to skin."

Mina gasped. "Or taking medication!"

"Yes!" Ava-1 exclaimed.

"Genesis, my interviewee, had a Chartreuse brand inhaler," Mina said. "I thought that very odd, and she told me that Chartreuse is in the process of breaking into the pharmaceutical market."

"Asteroids and gigs..." Ava-1 breathed. "That's officially next level."

Saito rubbed his chin between his thumb and forefinger. "Trip-san, my interviewee, told me that Chartreuse products are inexpensive and readily avaliable everywhere. The factory employs aproximately forty percent of the adult working population. If the information you've gathered is true, the citizens of Neo-York are creating the means to distribute this suppressant to themselves."

"Big Sister certainly understands delegation, I'll give her that," Mina remarked. She shook her head in disbelief. "But what, exactly, is this mystery concoction suppressing?"

"Did your interviewees tell you about the daily sweep?" Ava-1 asked her comrades. "And about Dorian Gray, Oliver Twist, and Major Tom?"

Saito and Mina nodded their heads.

"Good," Ava-1 said. "I say we go to the sweep for some observation and reconnaissance. See if we can't find out exactly what Big Sister's objective is."

"Agreed," Saito said.

"I'd like to observe her in the flesh," Mina concurred. "Get the smell of her. The members of her inner party, too."

"Dorian Gray and Oliver Twist are willingly loyal, by report," Saito said, recalling his conversation with Trip. "However, I heard a very different story in regards to Major Tom."

"As did I," Mina stated. "His reasons are far more complicated. Whatever happens, he is to be spared."

"We'll assess each of them this afternoon," Ava-1 said. "I've already asked Nova and Whitlock to meet us there."

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