In a lavish pristine office, seated behind a master-class carved mahogany office table, Dr. Semyon signed documents furiously like a man possessed. His promotion to Project Head had brought with it more responsibilities that rapidly over-shadowed his true love; hands-on Research.
He eyed a desk clock nervously. There was still enough time. If he could clear his desk then he wouldn't have to miss it. Dr. Semyon gulped in nervous anticipation.
He had to look over and consider each document before he gave or denied his approval, while considering the operational requirements of the entire facility as well as mentally balancing supply and demand requisitions both for the entire facility and for individual departments, weighing immediate necessities against potential future needs.
He made it halfway through the document stash, reading and comprehending as swiftly as his taxed mind would allow; approval for use of their limited stash of Benzoan Piezoelectric Crystals in maintaining the Containment Department's Acoustic Refraction Prison for three captured Wraith like entities, granted; funds for hasty construction of a temporary cage to hold recently acquired Dark Matter specimen from a successful raid into the Portal Anomaly, granted; requisition for recruitment of new batch of soldiers and researchers, granted; 6 separate permissions to redirect Base generator to Research wing for Dark Matter experiments…
Dr. Semyon sighed, massaging his temple as he affixed his signature.
He pulled out a desk drawer and stared at a small vial that shone a swirling mix of black and purple ethereal light. He shakes his head, muttering, "One day, why not."
A few minutes later as he affixed his signature on the last document for the hour, Dr. Semyon received a digital reminder for a scheduled event. With a wide grin he pushed a barely noticeable button under his desk, next, he shot up to his feet making his way to the exit; after enduring the boring official duties, it was time for him indulge in a few experiments by himself.
As he approached, a stationed guard opened the door from the outside, while Dr. Semyon scanned for and found Petyr falling into step behind him. Together, they made for an elevator.
Dr. Semyon arrived right on time. He joined a group of three shocked scientists in a control room with a large pane of observation glass, looking into the main experiment room. In the other room, there was a large feathered mass sitting in the center of the room, bound by large iron chains to the walls and floor, various wires and tubes stuck in its body feeding back to the control room.
Dr. Semyon barely said anything. He immediately took control of the situation, taking the central chair within the observation room. With a glance, he familiarized himself with the controls and objectives of today's experiment.
"Beginning." He said, unable to hide a certain giddiness in his voice. He nudged his head as he spoke "Wake it up."
The researcher on his left typed into the wide control console. The chains that bound the creature began to light up; glowing etchings lit up along the chain links, moving in a sequence until it reached the feathered mass and the parts of its body the chains bound began to sizzle and smoke immediately. With a furious shriek it shot up, revealing itself.
The creature was a multi-limbed entity; its head carried strong avian features, it's feathers a mix of shades of orange and yellow, two sets of large wings spread themselves as much as it could within the confines of the room, while a third set of wings hoisted it up in place of legs or feet of any kind. It reached a height of about one and a half meters as the folded wings propped it up. In all, the creature was a six winged bird.
Its stretched wings suddenly flapped sending a gust of wind in all directions, the researcher was ready and reactivated the chains, burning the beast and forcing it to thrash on the floor in pain. When the chains stopped glowing, four clear black eyes opened on the creature's head, staring at the chains then following the links to the walls. It began to 'walk', using its folded wings to propel itself towards the wall. It sniffed the walls.
"Intelligent?" muttered Dr. Semyon. "What would you do?"
The creature suddenly jumped back away from the chain. It pulled its head back, a flickering blaze materialized in its mouth and it spat forward towards the chain with fury, launching a tennis-ball sized ball of yellow fire from its mouth and onto the chain. The flame burst apart over the chain and walls. A different configuration of etchings glowed over the chains and walls where the flames burned harmlessly until dissipating into nothing.
The creature snarled and launched another fire ball. Each of the researchers were soon lost in their own world; muttering theories of bio-mechanism, reasons for anatomical-impossibilities, potential weaponized applications, even cost implications were all considered within the next few minutes.
After the fourth fireball, the creature seemed unable to create more of them. It launched itself at the chains and attempted to claw at them. Dr. Semyon had ordered the researcher in charge of the chains to wait; they watched. The attempt was a failure. Whatever Baba Adenoga had etched onto their defensive mechanisms had so far proved extremely effective at containing these Dark Matter entities.
As the creature seemed to understand it couldn't destroy the chains, it relaxed and began to look around the room, scanning each corner with its four eyes. Eventually, it spotted the observation window and peered at it deeply. It leaned closer, pulling itself along the floor with its lower wings. Up close now, it began to observe itself in the reflective glass.
The creature began to preen, running its beak through its feathers in swift repetitive motions.
"It's just like a regular bird?" one other researcher asked no one with a disappointed tone. No one replied, an air of disappointment settled over the control room.
"Initiating language testing." Said Dr. Semyon clearing the air. He nodded and a researcher on his right flipped a switch.
Dr. Semyon cleared his throat, stopping the researcher who was about to speak into a nearby microphone. It was handed to his senior and Dr. Semyon spoke into it.
"Greetings." His voice boomed through embedded speakers in the experiment chamber.
The entity jumped up, startled by the sudden sound. It began to look around the room somewhat agitated as it couldn't find the source of the voice.
Unable to find anything, the entity began to caw and screech in a very bird like tone and manner.
"Can you understand me?" he asked. The creature continued searching for the voice, eventually, it seemed to give up and return to its preening activity, ignoring further attempts at communication. Dr. Semyon rubbed his brow. There was nothing he hated more than an unenlightening experiment.
"What level is its Dark Matter saturation?" he suddenly asked. The researcher who was supposed to answer jumped when he realized he had foolishly thought the Doctor was asking the bird another question. He quickly checked a few readouts on the screen.
"Feedback from the Talisman indicates Light Red color." He said, immediately adding the interpretation, "Grade One beast sir."
"Continue the experiment then schedule it for termination and Dark Matter extraction." Said Dr. Semyon as he handed over command of the experiment to its initial lead researcher. He left without another word.
The control room led to a hallway with Guards stationed at each junction. Security cameras lined the ceilings, the floors were marked with colored directions leading to various departments or sections within the facility.
After he turned at a junction, he stopped along the hallway and with a shrug, entered another door along the hallway. Inside, he entered another control room. The head researcher there looked up from his console, saw the Doctor and resumed his duties.
Inside the experiment room, there were six iron tables arranged in a double row, where upon which were set a different mineral material for each table. An attendant dressed in a hazmat suit allowed a drop of deep purple liquid fall into a box like machine. The machine would glow brightly, the liquid would dissipate and the attendant would place his sample mineral into the box through an opening in its side. When the light dies down, the attendant retrieves the mineral and places it on a device that appeared like a weighing scale made carved of wood with a rectangular glass screen on its center. The glass monitor on the weighing scale will then light up; usually presenting a simple gray color. After that information is collected, the attendant deposits the tested material in a bin, collects a different mineral sample and repeats the process.
Dr. Semyon said nothing. He strolled over to a center console and instructed the operator.
"Show me the testing log."
The screen began to display a series of titles, all of them bearing an added tag of [FAILURE] in bright red colors. He sighed and was about to leave, when, from within the experiment room, an attendant placed his sample material onto the testing plate and it glowed a flickering light, alternating between bright red and dull orange. This elicited murmurs of excitement from the entire team, a few attendants even leaving their station to see the second successful case to date first hand.
Dr. Semyon asked, "What material is that?"
The operator checked the read out and said, "Sample Number 24-."
"Not that, durak!" he snarled, "What substance was that?"
The operator checked again with shaking fingers, "Aragonite! A variant Calcium Carbonate!" he quickly added.
"Hmm… another fairly common substance…" Dr. Semyon muttered as he walked away. He left the chamber and entered the hallway. He felt his pocket buzz and he cringed. "Already!?"
"Not yet." He declared to no one but himself, "I need a good experiment, okay. Let me just find one good thing today."