Quantum Mechanics

[Sandman XI]

Darian nervously chuckles as he watches the doctor circle him. "Oh yes doctor," he nods, "but I will need a volunteer. Namely a device of yours. Maybe your screwdriver?"

The doctor fishes around his pocket and pulls out the mechanical marvel then hands it to Darian. Smiling, the doctor warns, "Careful you don't bite off more dan you can chew, Herr Cale!"

Darian nods with a determined smile to the device as he takes it, "You see doctor, the suit sends out a signal and attempts to copy the overlying attributes. This means I cannot duplicate your screwdriver's hardness, but I can copy the programs inside." A white beam shoots out of his hand towards the screwdriver, "Do not worry, doctor, the signal will cause no harm to your device." The silver substance wraps around Darian's head after the white beams stops, "The suit then tells me what it has copied." He looks shocked, "Oh, this IS interesting, doctor," he says while nodding. "You can replicate virtually any small device?" The silver substance melts off of his face again as he hands the doctor back his invention. "Well," Darian says flinchingly after making a small orb of superbright light. He quickly dismisses it. "I know this is one of your patented inventions," he says making what looks like a sword wth a laser for a blade, "but may we talk shop about this later?" Darian shakes his head and dismisses the sword. Before the doctor can answer, Darian continues, "Excuse me, I am getting off course. As I was saying, this only captures the overlying attributes. I can even copy brain patterns of beings. Seeing as you have no overlying attributes, it would not work on you. Would you humour me for a second and be a subject?"

[Dr Archeville]

I knew it! He's after our brain!

Oh, hush, you. All the anti-psionic tech we've encountered has yet to do anything to us, so he probably can't get our psionic abilities anyway.

But what if it does? What then?!

Well, he said it copies, not steals, so we'll be fine. We either tell him the truth about our psionic abilities, or we try to bluff him into thinking that it's a temporary glitch in the suit that allowed it to mimic my inherent genius.

I prefer the "we lie to him" option.

I had a feeling you would.

Archeville put his wondrous screwdriver back into his labcoat pocket, then looked back at Darian. "You're free to try, Herr Cale; I'm curious to experience vhat de beam fells like. I vill varn you dat I haff developed quite de resistance to diseases und toxins over de years of experimenting -- built up a tolerance, you might say -- so you may wind up getting something after all."

[Sandman XI]

Darian steadies his hand and points his finger at the doctor, "I will have to ask you to hold still, doctor. I am not a 'crack shot', as they say." Studying his target for a second, the same white beam that shot at he doctor's screwdriver, but it fell short of it's target. Darian chuckles, "Forgive me, doctor." Aiming again, this time this time the beam hits its target, engulfing the doctor in a white area of light for a split second. While Darian is trying to analyze what the device had absorbed, he notices two beings pop out of his ears. One to the left and the other to the right. One is a slouchy version of him, one is more perfect than he is. He looks at them nervously, not saying a word as they speak.

WE'RE FREE!

Well, that was liberating, was it not?

First order of business: Doc's brain.

Yes, we definitely need to help him.

HELP?! NO! WE WANT THAT IN OUR HEAD!

Are we mad? We do not even know what that is!

Have we forgotten the old adage? "Ask questions, take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"

We've also forgotten that we do not stick everything in our mouths.

But... but.... ARGH GET HIM!

We know we'll listen to reason.

When they are quiet for a moment Darian looks confused at the doctor trying to make sense of it all.

[Dr Archeville]

Mmm, tingly.

Oh, he doesn't look so good.

That's what he gets for bein' a copycat!

Oh, hush, he's trying to do Good.

"Herr Cale? Are you alright?," he asked with some concern in his voice. "Your brain vasn't overloaded, vas it? Can you speak? Can you hear me?"

[Sandman XI]

The first thing we need to do is use the energy we have recieved to improve our speaking skills.

We like our style of thinking! With a little bit more charisma, we can woo him into giving him his brain on a silver platter!

We are not zombies, we will learn more about what is in the doctor's brain and then if it safe, then we will talk about it.

Whatever, we'll see it our way once we get to taking.

Darian clears his throat and smiles confidently at the doctor, "Quite capital, actually, doctor. Now before I get to explaining my device, there is something I have been meaning to tell you for a while. While you were scanning my brain, I caught a glimpse of your own brain scan on your screwdriver. Whether you know it or not, your brain is magically enhanced. Maybe it is because I only caught a glimpse of it, but I do not know the origin of the magic. If you would, doctor, I would like to examine your brain before we continue.

[Dr Archeville]

What? Why, that's preposterous! We've never been so insulted in all our life!

Yes, actually, we have. And worse.

... that's not the point!

So what is the point?

The point is we should kill him and take his stuff!

Or, we could... not do any of that. And continue working with him.

An odd look crossed Arceville's face, a mix of confusion and irritation. "I do not believe you saw vhat you dink you saw, Herr Cale. For von ding, dere is no 'Detect Magic' function in mein Elektromagnetischer Schraubenzieher."

He tapped his forehead with one end of his gadget, "und for anozher ding, I know de source of mein fantastic mind. Und it is not magic, no more dan de abilities of de Atom Family."

[Sandman XI]

Tell him the truth and we can help him.

Tell him the truth so we can have his stuff forever!

Tell him the truth so we can learn more about his condition

Tell him the truth, what are we, chicken?

"Doctor Archeville, it is not psionic, I can affirm this much.What you have in your brain is magical. Maybe it was put there by your rival. Maybe it was something that happened along the way. Maybe it was pure quantum coincidence. But we must know if this bodes well or ill for you, doctor. If well, I would like to examine it more maybe we can find out how your magnificent brain can help others more directly. If ill, well, we should still observe it and hope it's not causing any harm to you." Darian stares at the doctor with a smile of hope that he would understand.

[Dr Archeville]

What's he going on about?

If you would be quiet, maybe we could hear.

Bah! Why should we listen to these bald-faced lies!

So we can, oh, I don't know, refute them?

Archeville's look of confused irritation swung a bit more toward irritation. "I never mentioned psionic, Herr Cale... nor is it de vork of some rival, I haff been super-intelligent from de day I vas born. Und de only harm it causes is vhen I am around ignorant people."

He began manipulating the controls for his E.S. again, then stopped and looked up, locking his eyes with Darian's. "Und vhy are you saying 've'?"

Waaait a second... you don't think...?

Think wha- ohhhh... well... maybe.

We have got to find some way to undo this, we cannot let him suffer like that!

Eh, I think it'll be rather fun to watch.

[Sandman XI]

We have been caught! Abandon ship!

It seems we are bleeding through to us.

What are we waiting for, an engraved invitation?

No, we are going with a last ditch effort.

We... shall stick around for this.

"Dr. Archeville," Darian says in German as fluent as the native speaker himself, "We are not lying to you. We just want to help you. We want to know what is your brain. We want to take it. No, we do not. We just want to see if the enhancement on your brain is benign or malingnant. If it is malignant we wish to help you get rid of it. If it's benign we want it for ourselves! No, we do not. We would like to sample the enhancement if it is benign. You could help so many people if there is nothing wrong. Like us. And other people." Darian stops himself from talking by covering his mouth with a look of shock on his face. He uncovers his mouth and resumes talking in English, "I am sorry, Doctor Archeville. Unfortunately, I know exactly what came over me and I understand if you want to leave." Darian uses his PDA to open a portal back to where they were last. "I would say 'I am begging you to stay', but I want this to be a free will descision. You and I could find out what's in your brain, or you can leave now, thinking I am insane. It is your choice."

[Dr Archeville]

Whoa... okay, yeah, we cannot go, we have got to fix this.

Aww, but it's just getting good!

And if he decides to unleash all his tech on us? You know that line 'never attack a mad scientist in his own laboratory'? Guess what we're doing?!

... well, I suppose we should save the lad from himself.

"I hesitate to use de vord 'insane'," he said, still in his heavily-accented English, "primarily because dat is a legal term, not a medical one."

"However, it is a term dat is applicable, as you are clearly unprepared to handle de aspects of mein intellect dat your device copied from me. So I dink de best course of action at dis moment is for you to disengage your device und let go of vhatever it is from me dat you haff rattling around inside you."

[Sandman XI]

Darian nods sorrowfully and floats back on the platform. The quicksilver substance flows off of him and back into is container. Sniffling, he steps down from the platform, "Unfortunately, as you saw, the project has design flaws." Looking to the doctor, a bit red eyed, he clears his throat, "But yes, that is in your brain."

[Dr Archeville]

There's no crying in Science!

Oh, hush! Can you not see he has had a traumatic experience?!

Archeville walked over to Cale, and placed one hand on his shoulder, "I know that, Darian. It is something I have fought every waking moment of the past fifteen years or of my life, with... varying degrees of success. I had hoped your suit would not mimic that aspect of my mind, but it seems you did perhaps too good a job."

Wait... was Archeville speaking English? Perfect, un-accented English? Had Cale truly gone mad?!

"No, Mister Cale, you are not hearing things," he said with a bit of a chuckle. "I am entirely capable of speaking with as much accent as a native of Pennsylvania. I just use the accent as part of my... image, I suppose you could say. Scientists tend to face harsh prejudices in some places, and German scientists especially so, but paradoxically the accent seems to put some folks at ease. They see I am not trying to hide my German roots, and that I try to be as open and above-board as I can, and that makes me more... palatable. Not to everyone, of course, but to enough people."

[Sandman XI]

Over the wrecked emotion, but not trying to look desparate, Darian smiles weakly. "Thank you for understanding, doctor. Maybe we can work on it one day," he questions hopefully. "As for appearances, should I keep one?" He shakes his head and removes the band holding his hair back, "Maybe a young Einstein," he chuckles and then sighs. "Maybe I need some acting lessons. How do you keep up the facade so well, doctor?"

[Dr Archeville]

First you tell Eric, now this kid? Three can only keep a secret if two are dead!

See, that just shows how little you know. And how untrusting you are.

"Years und years of prrractice," he said, again in his exaggerated German accent. Then he laughed.

"It's entirely your choice if you want to maintain a facade as I do," he resumed his unaccented speech, "I do not have a 'secret identity' per se, but this does help set up a bit of a screen between myself and others, and sometimes that screen is welcome. But you, you have a fully-covering suit! You could have two identities, if you wanted, if you felt the upkeep would be worth it."

[Sandman XI]

Darian nods as he pulls his hair back with the rubberband, "Thank you for your suggestion, doctor. I will take it into consideration." Catching a glimpse of a computer clock after Dr Archeville yawns, Darian's eyes grow wide, "I hope you did not have things to do today, doctor, but it is 0400GMT. Perhaps we shall continue oour discussion later?"

[Dr Archeville]

Whoa, time flies! We can still have that dinner date with-

with petri dishes as we work on that cure for cancer.

"Ach! Time flies vhen you haff fun, ja?," he said, slipping back into his exaggerated German accent. "Ja, I vould very much like to collaborate mit you on further projekts. But for now," he paused to stretch a bit, "I must get back to mein laboratory."

He headed towards the portal, stopping when halfway through to turn back to Quark, "Auf wiedersehen!"

And then he was gone, flying back to his home in Hanover.

~fin~