Time Passages (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

4. Don't Touch Anything

Danny

The elevator doors open to the basement floor, which is bunch of gray corridors winding this way and that.  It's kind of dark down here, and smells like the library at my school- except with way more cameras watching us from the ceiling.  There's numbers by the doors as we walk by, but for the most part, everything looks the same.  I stay close by K, listening closely as he tells me what happens in each room, sometimes even opening a door so I can see the stuff inside. 

I love visiting the college when K's around.  I like to pretend that I'm Fry and I'm following Professor Farnsworth around while he shows me all his inventions.  K even looks like the Professor, in a way, if the Professor didn't wear glasses; he's really old, and bald, with lots of wrinkles in his forehead, and he moves kind of slowly. 

We have a bunch of old friends, I just realized.  The Deacons are old, K's old- even Dr. Preus is in his forties, and he's Mom's boyfriend. 

Makes me wonder how old Dad was.

As we're turning down another hall, we walk past one steel door with no numbers and a funny- looking panel-box just above the handle.  Except for a big yellow sign with a "Radioactive" icon (the thing that looks like a fan with three big blades), the door's completely blank.

"What's in there?" I ask.

"Oh, that," K answers slowly.  "That's- just where we put all the waste until we can dispose of it properly."

"So that's where you guys put the needles?  You know, like for shots?"  I remember I've seen that picture before at the doctor's office- and I shiver.

"Oh, no, we have receptacles for that in each room."

"So you guys do give shots?"

"If we have to."

I nod, hoping he won't think he has to give one to me.  Strange, but there's two rotating cameras hanging nearby, trained directly on this door. 

After another little while, I ask, "K, what's T-Rod?"

K blinks.  "You know about T-Rod?"

"Just a little."

The old man puts his hands on his sides.  "Your mother promised me she wouldn't-"

"It wasn't my mom who told me."

"Then who?"

"My Uncle John.  He said that's how she met my dad." 

I don't go on to tell him how angry Mom became when she found out I knew the word T-Rod- or how upset she sounded through her bedroom door when she was talking to Uncle John on the computer a few days later.  She wasn't yelling, though; she doesn't do that when she's mad.  When Mom is mad, really mad, she doesn't yell or scream or get red in the face.  Her jaw clenches, and her eyes look hard and cold.  And she speaks very, very quietly.  I hate it when she's like that; it scares me to death.

"Has she ever told you what that meant?"

"No," I say.  "So what was it?"

K takes a deep breath and puts his hands behind his back.  "T-Rod, so they say, is basically VR, or virtual reality, on steroids."

"That's all?" I squint.  "Everybody has VR stuff.  I mean, I don't but only 'cos Mom doesn't like it."

"There's more to it than that, Danny," K goes on.  "It wasn't just a headset, it was a full-sensory experience.  Have you seen the Matrix?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Like that, but without the pink goo and the wires.  And your mother- was the very first person for it to be tested on."