Summary: Siebren tries to recover physically and mentally while working for Talon but a visit from Dr. O'Deorain stirs him up more than he thought it would.
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
- T.S. Eliot
It was hard to say that there was steady progress. Progress, in general, was at times questionable.
Usually other test subjects were more… stable, so Moira had at least a standard towards which she could measure any changes, positive or negative.
But this time her project was everything but stable or standard in any way.
‘Specimen Sigma continues to float around in self-induced zero gravity in the secured quarantine with unpredictable bipolar outbursts’ she dictated to the tiny drone flying next to her head ‘No radiation has been picked up by the sensors so far, not even during the most violent outbursts, so it is safe to assume that no protective gear of such sort will be needed.’
The older man floated by her observation window curled up in a ball and suddenly jolted up, looking straight into her eyes. His eyes were colorless, almost lifeless, but he held her gaze and slowly uncurled.
‘How are we feeling today, Siebren?’ Moira asked in a factual tone, no pity in her words.
‘I have to go to work. They must be expecting me.’ Siebren gently said. Moira cocked an eyebrow and let out a tiny, annoyed sigh.
‘You cannot return there, Siebren. You have to remember, we went through this already’ she said coldly ‘Do you want them to treat you like they did before? Tied down like an animal? Well?’
He was looking straight at her, but his body started floating up in a clockwise motion, only his head remaining at the same place.
‘Yes… well, no… I mean…’ he mumbled, and his eyes became unfocused again, then he looked to the side ‘Soon we will reach escape velocity. Everything is prepared. I can’t wait!’
‘For your experiment?’ Moira asked with a curled up lip, her voice dripping with malice.
‘I will succeed’ he said with warm confidence, looking back at her with an honest smile, and her evil grin faded. What a flawed creation, she thought, a genius in a husk of a body.
‘Physical condition is poor but stable.’ Moira then continued, turning to the drone ‘We are slowly introducing heavily processed foods into his diet along with the IV liquids that were registered upon his check-in. However his mental state altogether is highly unstable. It is impossible to hold a conversation. Maybe…’ she looked around the room, and started patting her lips with her index and middle fingers ‘Maybe some kind of anchor would be welcome to stabilize his focus. Some item from his past… Siebren!’ she turned around, looking at the older man who already muttering something in one of the corners of his chamber.
‘Siebren, I decided to give you something for your... great progress… A gift, if you will. What would you like?’
He slowly turned towards her, completely silent, as if deep in thought.
‘My coat!’ he then said, his features brightening ‘Yes, my coat! I quite need it! And some stroopwafels, please.’ he smiled to himself, then started humming abruptly - a cue for her that this conversation was over. It was something, at least.
So Moira got a coat tailor made for him, complete with a nice little name-tag.
For days, he did not even look at it, did probably not even realize it was there.
One day she walked in only to see him have it on and sitting cross-legged, dangling from the ceiling of his cell. Two weeks from then they could finally hold a shorter conversation, although when Moira tried to press for details regarding his research, they were often sidetracked. Siebren complained about the food, or would go on about how nice it was to finally not be obliged to wear shoes. In the middle of a discussion about supermassive black holes, he suddenly asked her if she was a dog or a cat person. With a resigned sigh she said she preferred dogs - he seemed very pleased with this answer and replied he deducted as much.
Night after night when Moira left, her impatience towards Siebren grew - she needed a breakthrough.
Then one day, about a month later, he had made something. They were tiny black holes that sizzled up and out of existence between his fingers.
‘Hawking radiation’ he said, bursting with pride. His color has been improving as of late, Moira noted matter-of-factly ‘You see, if we want to keep them stable, we need a force field around it that keeps the mass of the black hole from decreasing.’ he stretched his hand and a small, grey, hollow shape appeared in it. He summoned another tiny black hole, this time inside of the shape and it remained as stable as a hard black marble.
Moira’s eyes grew huge with wonder. ‘What is that material?’
‘Not sure. It’s not from this galaxy’ Siebren shrugged as if it was the most natural thing in the world. ‘I just came up with it. I call them Hyperspheres.’
‘Can you make more?’ she asked with hungry eyes.
***
She was a genius after all.
From the matter Siebren created, out of thin air, countless unstable materials could be stabilized. Uranium, Azidoazide azide, you name it. Materials no chemist in their right minds would ever touch returned to a stable state when encompassed which this slightly flowing, grey matter. It was an immense breakthrough - but Moira was not content giving all of it over to the weapons department of Talon.
There were bigger fish to fry, a more important thing to keep stable.. Siebren himself.
It took some more weeks, but with the help of some other medical personnel she could build some basic equipment that could to latch onto a person’s cerebral matter and stabilize it. During her research she noted that the material needed a continuous source of energy to handle extreme outbursts, so for now they attached a basic biothermal battery to charge itself and the stabilizer with Siebren’s own force. It was not an elegant solution with wires dangling everywhere and the design being unpolished, but she felt an insatiable hunger to try it out.
Of course, for best results, she wanted him to be awake during the operation. She regretted it halfway through, with Siebren sobbing and begging her to stop. And then at one point when half of the equipment has been neatly latched onto his sticky brain matter, he finally retreated into his own mind and started gently humming.
This, Moira found, was immensely more unsettling than the screaming.
***
One day passed, then a week... Siebren was back to his catatonic state, not truly talking.
Moira stood in front of him for hours, staring at him, trying to will him back to his active state. Then the awful realization struck her in the gut.
I have failed.
No, no, no, no she told herself, she was a GENIUS, A PRODIGY, she wouldn’t make mistakes like this! She screamed at herself, threw about all the papers and equipment, yelling and cursing in Irish.When she stepped out of her laboratory door she was already her collected self again.
‘Clean up that mess in there’ she barked at the two guards at the entrance and left.
For the next few days, she did not even go down to the quarantine zone, she could not bear to look at her failure.
But a couple of days later her assistant drone was flying to her and chirping with a warning. She couldn’t believe her eyes - the security camera footage showed Siebren, floating upright and examining something. His expression seemed clear and collected.
Moira caught herself rushing through the Talon base, and was completely out of breath by the time she made it back to the lab.
And there he was indeed - looking collected and lucid, carefully eyeing a medium sized black hole in front of him, with one hand making turning motions and the black shape following them obediently.
‘Siebren’ was all that Moira could say in disbelief.
He started, looking over at her, and - smiled.
‘Doctor! You look a bit ruffled. Is everything alright?’ he asked in a conversational manner, floating close to the sliding bulletproof doors of his cell.
‘Khm, yes, a busy day’ Moira said, brushing back her hair with her fingers and quickly collected herself, stepping closer to him. ‘How are we feeling today, Siebren?’
‘I do feel much better, doctor.’ Siebren assured her in a nice, courteous manner ‘Please, let me talk to you outside. If there is something wrong, surely you can call the guards.’
Moira furrowed her brows. He was not wrong, but she did not necessarily like this sudden turn of events. The man looked at him sheepishly.
‘Did I not do everything you asked so far?’ he said in a low, sad voice and the black hole retracted into nothingness in his hand. A pang of fear gushed over Moira, a deep, clawing fear of losing more ground on her research.
‘Fine’ she said quickly, maybe even too quickly; but as she opened the door to the confinement chamber she reminded herself of the small tranquilizing gun hidden in her lab coat pocket.
‘My’ Siebren said with a slight smile, floating out of the chamber and stretching out, his neck giving a loud crack ‘Thank you. It is quite pleasant to be out.’
‘Why don’t we conduct a little interview?’ Moira offered matter-of-factly, pulling close a chair while telling herself to calm her breathing.
‘Why of course.’ he did not budge, but he was still courteous and calm. No time to lose, she thought.
‘Can you elaborate on your current state a bit more, Siebren?’
‘You have no idea, doctor... You have truly done something incredible. This stabilizer has worked wonders for me in the last few days. I have never been more… focused in my entire life.’ he said, his half-smile turning into a delighted, almost evil grin.
‘I am glad to hear that’ Moira said in her evil-silky voice, crossing her legs ‘Can we go a bit into detail about how you experience this focused state?’
‘Well, doctor, before that, I have a confession to make’ Siebren said amused. Moira squinted at him inquiringly ‘I have to confess… that I have killed you.’
Moira kept staring at him, trying to follow his train of thought.
‘Hm, you mean in a dream?’ she asked coldly.
‘No doctor’ Siebren said in a level tone, with a knowing smile that made an uneasy knot form in her gut ‘No-no, just now. And an hour ago. And half a dozen times yesterday. But you just… keep coming back. Dead, and still alive. My elusive Schroedinger’s Cat.’ he stretched out his hand, and ever so lightly touched Moira’s cheek. She looked back at him coldly.
So he is still unstable. She quickly concluded that it was a mistake to let him out and took mental note of the possible courses of action. She took care to use exactly the same tone as she did before:
‘Siebren, I am deeply disappointed about this bluff. Tell me, is this some game to get my attention? If so, I am not amused, you have to know.’
Siebren broke out in laughter, his joy floating him up and up, and when he was done, he carefully raised one of his hands, making Moira slowly float up next to him.
‘Oh, but Doctor O’Deorain, so far it was all about your pleasures, was it not? But now I have seen you quiver and plead for my mercy, and it gave me unspeakable satisfaction, I have to admit. And finally I was the one dissecting you, hearing your screams and torturing you, and not the other way around.’ he said all this with a still, serene look, with a hint of amusement in his tone.
Moira weighed her chances. He was still all bark, no bite. If she called a code red and armed forces would storm the lab he might become unstable, more aggressive. The best course of action seemed to remain confident, even if floating in mid-air.
‘And how would you have done that?’ she finally asked, consciously using the same tone of slight amusement as he did, and she gestured at herself ‘I am here, aren’t I? And I do not recall you doing anything to me at all. These things were only in your head, Siebren. You need help. I will help you. I am helping you.’
‘The forces of the universe, in fact, the multiverse, Doctor, are far beyond humanity’s grasp. It also took me a bit of time to test out my hypothesis. I doubt you could even grasp it with your puny mind.’ he said all of this with an elevated calmness still, as if he was giving a lecture of some kind.
Something snapped in Moira at that moment, her pupils dilating and her hands clenched in fists. Nobody, especially not this miserable creation, was ever allowed to degrade her genius mind.
‘Kill me then!’ she snapped, her eyes on fire ‘Torture me, kill me, show me that you are a man true to your word and not just a mumbling idiot that you have been for years now! I am not afraid of you!’
Siebren let out a small chuckle and floated close to her. This was her cue - once he made a move, she would knock him out with the tranquilizer.
‘Doctor…no, Moira…’ he said in a low voice, bending down his head a bit ‘I will be honest with you. I did not just kill you before. There were also… other things.’ he whispered suggestively. Then, out of nowhere, he started absentmindedly humming that eerie melody. Moira found that she was shivering, and the knot in her gut extended up, up, up, all the way to the back of her throat now. What was he saying…? That… he and her…?!
‘Once I killed you after, just to test my hypothesis’ Siebren then said dismissively, not looking at her, something resembling shame in his eyes ‘I admit, that was not my favorite part of the experiment.’ And then he perked up a bit and looked back at her, deeply into her mismatched eyes ‘But yet here you are, dead, and still alive and well, just like the cat in the box.’
This was a good enough moment as any. He was close enough so she grabbed the gun and shoved it right into his side… or she thought it was his side because her hand was stopped by something big and immovable. But glancing down upon it she could see it was frozen in mid-motion, bound by an immense force that completely paralyzed her.
‘Oh, we did play this game before, I remember, my good Doctor’ Siebren said amused, and started trailing his thick fingers down her sharp, oh so sharp cheekbone.
The knot in her throat was choking her now. She tried to clear her head, to think of a solution, because there always is a solution. But adrenaline rushed through her spine and exploded in her head, and his touch just made it worse, because she was sure he will snap her neck in the next second.
‘I remember this…’ Siebren then says with a hint of surprise, tilting his head a little bit and observing her as if she was some sort of complex equation ‘But now... it’s different. There is a note, a slightly different note in the background. If I wouldn’t know the melody by heart, i would miss it, I think. But I was here in this moment a thousand times with you already, so I know all the scenarios. And now, there is that small addition… Yes, your pulse, the way its throbbing in your head, and throbbing in my head... You say you are not afraid, but I have never felt you to be so terrified for your own well-being before. It is… excruciatingly wonderful.’ he says with great pleasure and bends down, kissing her gently on the lips.
Suddenly it’s as if she is ripped out of existence, floating in the middle of space. No sound, no air, no warmth, no energy to concoct a logical idea. Just. Him.
The only strand to life, to sanity feels like where his atoms press against hers.
When he pulls back, she is unable to open her eyes. She feels dizzy, cold and numb.
He lets out a sigh as if released from some grave worry and gently takes one of her still paralyzed hands.
‘Moira’ he starts, his voice like silk, and all the deep lines in his face seem to be easing out as he explains ‘I am here with you, but also I am at my experiment the moment it is failing. I am at the birth of the galaxy and at the moment where the very last photon dies out in the entire galaxy. I am limitless. But… when I kiss you, when I pleasure you in any number of universes, I feel… wholly united for a moment.’ What a strange confession, she thinks sluggishly. She blinks sense back into her eyes, her brain. It is hard, she notices, because it feels like she is being sucked into an event horizon, losing herself.
Dead.
Alive.
Both.
At.
The.
Same.
Time.
Is this how He feels?
And then she sees her chance for a grand experiment.
‘Kiss me again’ her lips move with barely a sound, her eyes half closed, hazy and inviting. But Siebren hears it, and his features light up instantly.
‘This is new. What a delight!’ he purrs in a low voice, and gently reaches over her tiny waist with one bulky arm while hugging her back with the other, wholly encompassing her before bending his head down and kissing her again. This time she opens her mouth and kisses back, slowly at first, then more demanding. The force field binding her lets up a bit and she pushes her body against his.
The sensation of floating in emptiness returns, but Moira does not fear it this time, and concentrates solely on Siebren. Her invisible bounds dissolve and she is free to hug his neck and pull him closer, ever so closer with one arm. She feels him melt away at her touch, her response.
And then she rips out the cord powering his stabilizer with her other arm.
There is a sudden shock and pain in his eyes, she can see it up close. No, not physical pain, rather the pain of betrayal, maybe even a small teardrop. But she can’t observe better, because in the next moment she falls and hits the ground hard and Siebren’s unconscious body crashes down on her with full force.
***
She does the inventory:
One adjusted stabilizer, calibrated for a less lucid and focused Sigma.
One invaluable secret report of his true abilities, stashed away for the future.
A great deal of recent memory loss but also an increase in cooperation from the specimen, both welcome advancements.
A broken leg and a few broken ribs on her part, but who’s counting?
All in all, great success.
Yes, there are nights when she cannot sleep, and thrashes around with a tantalizing longing in her body that no amount of stimuli can quench.
But we must all make some sacrifices for science, she tells herself - over and over, and over again.
‘Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel’ - Moira said, each word rolling off with more delight from her tongue ‘You have really outdone yourself this time.’
She picked up the tablet from the table and a wide smile spread across her face. Unintentionally, she let out a strange little chuckle of excitement, one she usually reserved for significant scientific breakthroughs.
‘We must bring him here at once so we can start our research.’ she said, her voice matter-of-fact with a dash of that lingering delight.
‘Tomorrow evening at 2200. I heard you two know each other?’ Gabriel growled and turned around and headed to the exit ‘Spare me the whole story. Just be ready. I heard he is unstable, our best bet is that he will react favorably to a familiar face.’
Moira looked at him leave but did not say anything. Then she carefully lifted up the tablet again, looking thoughtfully on the profile picture of a man in his sixties.
‘Siebren… you’ve really done it this time, old fool’ she muttered, then discarded the tablet and turned around to make preparations.
***
It seemed like a lifetime ago when she first met him, even though it must have only been 15 years or so, but her life had taken quite many turns since then.
Back then she was still working on her paper about DNA alteration, but skill, knowledge and diligence - as she had to find out - did not bring progress after a certain point in the scientific community. You needed connections, mentors and sponsors, the more influential, the better.
Moira in her younger years was never quite good at socializing. There were a few peers she could tolerate from her long years of studies, but that network only got her so far. Her funding, and hence her research, was halted for good without some influential backers.
Therefore, albeit unwillingly but she started reaching out to other colleagues across the globe and got to attending some science conferences. These were mostly bland and boring, bound by the shackles of ethics, not a true innovator among any of the people she met. Even worse, all that socializing, small talk and fruitless network-building were making her sick to the stomach.
She was in Rotterdam now at a conference where the overarching theme was gravity. Physics were normally not in her field of interest, but she was quite intrigued by the biological findings of the Horizon Lunar Colony, and anyway, the event was just a short plane-trip away.
‘I should be up there’ she thought to herself annoyed, standing in one of the lobbies by one of those tall, skinny tables and taking yet another piece of dry salty pastry form a bowl while glancing up at the sky with the pale moon up. ‘I should be up there, making actual, daring research, not those pansies with breeding monkeys and hamsters.’
‘Excuse me, madam’ someone said, stepping into her line of sight. She looked up unamused - it was a surprisingly tall man about a decade older than her. He had muscular, broad shoulders and a friendly expression on his face ‘I saw you were here all by yourself so I thought you could use some company. Please let me introduce myself, I am Dr. Siebren De Kuiper, astrophysicist.’
‘‘Dr. Moira O’Deorain, genetic engineering.’ Moira offered restrained and held out her hand. Dr. De Kuiper had a nice handshake - Finally someone, Moira thought - not too aggressive, not too limp. She was not a short one herself but she found she needed to tilt her head up if she wanted to look into his eyes.
‘So, Dr. O’Deorain, what brings you to this conference, if I may ask? Surely not the awful break-time snacks.’ he said, taking a piece from the bowl.
Moira snickered, but instantly checked herself.
‘I mainly came for the session about the Lunar base and to hear the findings about the genetic level influences of low- and zero gravity.’ she offered in a measured tone ‘But I don’t want to bore you with the details. Surely, an astrophysicist has a broader interest here than me.’
‘Oh, good Doctor, but that is the thing! The theme of the conference is Gravity. Such an overarching power, so many fields influenced... From the very stem cells we all come from, until the super-massive black holes at the center our our Galaxy… Gravity is everywhere, governing our existence, our very fate!’ his blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as he was talking and gesturing ‘Such a force to be reckoned with, uniting so many people… I must admit, it makes me quite happy colleagues from other fields also find interest in this event today. But-- forgive me, I am rambling. Dr. O’Deorain, do tell more about your research.’
Moira took a slight breath and gave her elevator-pitch on her current research about custom genetic programs. She had several of these speeches perfected out for each type of listener - one for patrons who knew little of science, one for scientists from other fields and the most elaborate of course, for genetic engineers. She thought the pleasantries would end after her short speech, but to her surprise de Kuiper was very inquiring and before long they struck up quite the conversation. He was a strange person: wise and thoughtful, yet also eccentric and quite jovial - and above all, very polite and thoughtful.
Moira felt intrigued and, after the last year or so full of long and tedious of forced networking, she found herself enjoying the conversation about their researches just for the sake of it.
A bell rang somewhere and Siebren perked up, then quickly apologized and told Moira to come to his seminar that was the last one of the day.
‘I really hope you will come. I’ll do my best to make it interesting’ he added with a smile, and Moira caught herself smiling back and nodding.
Once he was out of sight, she angrily bit the long nail of her thumb, contemplating why the hell she agreed to go. It was not like she had to gain anything from this connection.
Why would she even be interested in something else than her own agenda?
And still - some time later, there she sat in the seminar room with the rest of the crowd. Just to observe him, she told herself. There was something to learn from this elderly man.
Siebren was commanding the small stage with his posture, gestures and charismatic but friendly voice. He sometimes stammered just a bit, looking for exactly the right words, like a teenager confessing his love, and wanting to get the feelings across just right. He had a simple, old-school whiteboard behind him and scribbled some equations Moira did not grasp at all, and now and then used some impressive holographs to prove a point. Amidst all the gravity-related puns (of which there were more than what Moira was comfortable with as a geneticists) Moira couldn’t help but think how the power of harnessing a black hole’s energy was quite as exhilarating and a morally grey area like her own research of DNA alteration on the cell level.
If one could create black holes at will… maybe even use the immense power of gravity to shield oneself and to assault enemies… Surely it could be done, with the right circumstances. But the issue of stability…. well that was agreeably the greatest risk of this hypothesis.
Moira found herself feverishly noting down some raw ideas, mixed with observations she made from Siebren’s presentation. He was captivating everyone’s attention in the room with his words, tone and gesture - and she wanted to possess such a power as well.
There was a roaring applause once the Dutchman finished and several members from the audience went down to shake his hand and speak a few words with him. Moira lazily scribbled in her notebook as the line in front of Siebren just got longer and longer.
She stretched and let her thoughts run wild in her head - not quite sure how much of these she could actually include in her current research, but it was a refreshing change to be considering new possibilities after being bogged down in her laboratory for such a long time. She found she was not tired at all, and was not in the mood to return to her dull hotel room just yet.
At one point a strange chill struck her, and she looked up, seeing Siebren staring directly at her from the podium with a wide smile.
‘How did you like it?’ he asked cheerfully. They were the last two people in the enormous hall.
‘It was… educational’ Moira said teasingly as she gathered her notebook and slowly walked down the flight of stairs next to him.
‘Educational?’ he seemed a bit disappointed ‘O mijn God, even my completely stoned students have stronger opinions than that, Doctor. Was it that bad?’ he asked, stepping next to the whiteboard and wiping it off with a concerned look.
Moira stepped next to him and picked up a whiteboard marker.
‘It actually made me think of a few new things.’
Siebren’s face instantly lit up. ‘Happy to hear that!’ he exclaimed ‘Do you wish to discuss?’ he asked eagerly, gesturing towards the whiteboard.
‘Before we do, Dr. De Kuiper…’ Moira started in a silken voice ‘I am quite inclined to ask you about your views on ethics. Both you and I seem to be exploring quite the moral grey zone, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘Hmmm’ the man replied at first with a light smile as he looked thoughtfully into the heterochromic eyes ‘I can of course give my opinion… Under one condition.’
‘Yes?’ Moira frowned. She did not like conditions.
‘Let’s be on a first name basis, Dr. O’Deorain. Such conversations are more suited with closer acquaintances’ he said with a warm smile, and she smiled back at him.
‘Very well... Siebren. So, your views?’
‘Well, Moira, twenty years ago everyone thought me for a fool for even mentioning harnessing black holes’ Siebren chuckled and sat down on the table on top of the podium ‘It took some convincing, some funding and a lot of work to change how people perceived it. Let me put it this way - gravity and ethics both keep something together. Only the latter is not absolute, it is not a rule of the universe. You can slowly chip away at it. Two hundred years ago women in science were unheard of. And now, here you are. Ethics change. We are the ones changing them, Moira.’
They talked for hours, discussing hypotheses about utilizing black holes and gravitational force on a cellular level. There was no topic too daring, no idea too unethical for their conversation. He even promised to get her in touch with some important people.
Around 2 a.m. he called a taxi for her, holding out an umbrella until she got into the car.
The contacts he introduced her to ended up being the founders of Oasis, which, after the fall of Blackwatch provided to be a stable means to fund her research.
Later they emailed each other a few more times, but never quite managed to meet up again. She occasionally read articles about him, but in the last few years, all but forgot about him - until today.
***
The facility was unassuming on the outside, but a fortress on the inside - but it all mattered not with Gabriel’s planning and Talon’s sheer force.
‘Daaaamn, this security is top-notch’ Sombra pouted ‘Just sayin, I ain’t goin’ in there to see granpa if this is the level of security he gets.’
‘Just get this thing open and disable the alarms’ Moira snapped at her ‘I’ll take care of the rest.’
‘Be sure you do, Doctor…’ Sombra replied, giving out a little snicker.
The door to the cell was a huge one, protected not only by electric locks but also a huge mechanical valve. After the screeching alarms went down, Akande tore off the whole door and flung it to the side as if it was made out of paper, then glanced into the small room beyond it, padded from floor to ceiling.
‘Not going in?’ Sombra teased him.
‘Doctor, this is your specialty’ Akande gestured towards the room, but as Moira passed him, he grabbed her arm and whispered into her ear - ‘I want you and him BOTH in one piece and in a usable form.’ The woman removed her arm from his grip and brushed it off with an annoyed expression. Then, with a sharp inhale, she stepped into the confinement room.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimly lit room, but once they did, she saw a figure standing in one of the corners, hunched and muttering something inaudible. The silhouette she recognized but it has changed, the broad shoulders and confident stance broken and shaking. He looked like he was on the verge of imploding on himself.
‘Siebren.’ she called out softly. The figure twitched but did not turn her way.
‘It’s all the same! Life, death… it doesn’t matter!’ he suddenly said, then fell abruptly silent.
Moira took a step closer. Suddenly, the floor gave away beneath her and the air was instantly pressed out from her lungs. She slowly fell to her knees - the floor was still there, but the sinking feeling in her stomach just kept getting worse. She was panting, trying to fight this invisible force, somehow.
So this is his power, she thought to herself. She needed to get closer, within reaching distance… but it was impossible to stand, so she resorted to crawl towards him inch by inch - she would have felt immensely humiliated if she wasn’t completely oxygen deprived and fighting for each and every breath.
‘It’s me Siebren... Moira… Dr. Moira O’Deorain. You need to calm down for me… Siebren, can you hear me? Do you remember me?’
‘I don’t remember what went wrong’ Siebren muttered ‘My calculations… my life… everything was coming down to that moment…’
A bullet swished through the air, abruptly stopping right before Siebren’s head, then it bounced right back where it came from with a loud PANG. Moira couldn’t decide if she felt relieved that this ragtag group of idiots were looking out for her or disappointed that their efforts were worth absolutely nothing.
‘THAT MELODY, I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE, WHAT IS IT?!’ Siebren suddenly yelled out. Moira felt her body rise uncontrollably and then be abruptly smashed back into the floor. She growled; every inch of hers hurt like hell, her head was spinning and she was on the verge of throwing up, passing out, or worse enough, both. She needed to end this, now.
With her last bit of strength she hoistered herself up onto her forearms and saw De Kuiper collapsing a few feet away from her. He was completely silent now, just slightly twitching and staring up at the ceiling, never blinking.
Moira slowly crawled next to him and felt the pressure on her lungs lift with every passing second. Gently, she held out her left hand above his head and released a tiny amount of healing biotic energy. Then, she placed her hand on Siebren’s forehead.
‘I’m here’ she said in the gentlest tone she could muster. He twitched a couple more times, then slowly closed his eyes.
‘Doctor O’Deorain’ he muttered, only half opening his eyes, his gaze unfocused. ‘May I ask, what brings you to this conference? Surely not the awful break-time snacks.’
After her initial shock, Moira forced a smile on her face and while whispering a reply, carefully reached into her pocket for the tranquilizer she’s stashed away.
‘I came to see your seminar on gravity, Siebren. I heard it was quite the event.’
‘Someone once said it was... educational’ Siebren chuckled to himself, then tensed a bit as Moira pressed the tranquilizing shot onto his neck.
‘Well, we can’t all be great astrophysicists like you’ Moira said lightheartedly, leaning back a bit.
‘I have a great experiment lined up…’he said, dozing off, then twitched, and looked at her sharply ‘Help… m-’ then another twitch ‘So nice you ca…’ and then he closed his eyes and remained still.
Moira felt her hand weighing down on his forehead heavily, as if bound by a tiny but powerful gravity field.
And now, Keybladeless, I must depart this land to fulfill my final task. This means casting my own body aside and sojourning my heart in vessel after vessel—as many as it takes.
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