Commander's Rounds Volume 1

Entry 124: The Old Ways

Sector A-14: One of the early hubs of cube research that worked on how to use cubes to create the Kansen. It was abandoned many years ago, and was undisturbed aside from one brief visit from Alexander Cochrane, the commander of Azur Lane.

However, it now had new occupants, and parts of the base had come back to life, its equipment being put back into use for its intended purpose by actors that did not have the interests of Kansen, or the world at large, in mind.

A team of scientists worked feverishly in one of the main labs, with the centerpiece of their work being one of the "black coffins"- a containment unit used to hold the results of the station's research while it was being completed and studied. At their head was Dr. Fuller- a tall, black man in a white lab coat over the suit he was kidnapped in. He was into middle age and had glasses, but was fit- the hurry and press of lab work meant he wasn't idle.

Admiral Kaine walked into the room with two more armed men, and looked at the chief scientist in the room. The Admiral himself was getting up in years, but he had kept himself similarly busy, and he turned his pale blue eyes on Dr. Fuller. "Dr. Fuller. I'm assuming you have news for me concerning this project I've asked you to complete? I hope you've found a way to make more progress than last time."

Dr. Fuller stood up straight. "Admiral. No matter how many times you've asked me this, my answer will be the same. We just don't have the people or resources to do what you want as fast as you want it done. A lot of equipment was stripped out of this place even though people were in a hurry to get out. Maybe if we had everything that used to be here and more people, we could make something of it, but..."

Admiral Kaine's hands clenched and shook. "Dr. Fuller, I was placed under the impression that you were brilliant. Was I wrong?"

Dr. Fuller shook his head. "It doesn't matter how brilliant I am if I don't have the tools to do the job the way you want it to be done. There are a lot of ways we can make do with what's still here, but there are some things that are just impossible. You can't just ask a starving man to "work around" not having food, and you can't ask a paralyzed person to "work around" having a fundamental disconnect between their brain and limbs. There's a difference between something merely difficult and asking me to eat the sun."

Admiral Kaine took a deep, sharp breath, and looked right into the doctor's brown eyes. "I think you're just not trying hard enough. Maybe you're doing this on purpose?"

"Maybe you should've given this a little more thought before you sent armed men in combat gear to find us in the middle of the night and "Invite" us over to this island to force us to be accomplices to your insanity!"

Kaine glared at the scientist, and with a quick, practiced draw he pulled out his sidearm, pointing his pistol right up to Dr. Fuller's forehead, barely an inch away. His voice quivered with barely suppressed incandescent rage. "Doctor, I don't like your tone. You know what'll happen next, don't you?"

However, Dr. Fuller didn't even flinch, and stared him right in the eyes. "Go ahead and pull that trigger, admiral. You'll still have all of the same problems after and one less scientist to figure them out."

The Admiral pushed the end of his pistol against Dr. Fuller's forehead. "...You think I won't do it?"

The doctor remained resolute. "I know you'd do something like this as soon as you brought us here, but killing me now will cause a lot more problems for you than it will for me. You're the one who's in a big hurry for some reason, and killing me will only slow you down. You've got a whole lot more to lose than I do right now- Even if I'm your prisoner, in some ways I'm a freer man than you."