Networking

[N/A]

The stone slab lowered Doctor Archeville five stories below the tunnel from which he entered. Like the points of an equilateral triangle, three heavy stone doors stood before him. The one that aligned approximately with the entrance tunnel slowly swung inward. Archeville could hear the grinding of more stone-on-stone as the door opened, but saw no one he could claim responsible for it.

What he did see beyond the door almost took his breath away. He found himself in a gargantuan chamber, lined with lotus-style pillars and filled with a collection of artifacts and works of art that would be the envy of any ten museums in the world above. There were pieces from nearly every culture that had walked the Earth in the last 5,000 years. He saw glass cases filled with jewelry, dozens of weapons mounted on racks, frames containing paintings and scrolls of calligraphy, sculpted statues, even a fully-intact Egyptian chariot.

Two doors opened to either side of the great hall at the far end. The door on his left swung open, again by some unseen hand. The room beyond abandoned all pretense of antiquity. On the contrary - it bore a greater resemblance to the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise on Star Trek than an Egyptian pyramid. A giant mainframe computer with at least a dozen terminals spread out before a massive viewscreen, lined by smaller sets. Some screens displayed various news programs and web sites from around the world, changing channels frequently. Others were obviously feeds from surveillance cameras. Archeville recognized some of them as areas of Pyramid Plaza. He could tell at a glance that this was military-grade hardware, at the least. No expense was spared.

Several of the chairs were turned away from him. A voice spoke up from behind one of them.

"As you can see, my setup would be considered 'beyond state-of-the-art' now, let alone when it was installed 40 years ago. This is the payoff. This is what you've been waiting for: Dædalus-tech."

The chair swiveled around, to reveal Elena Guerrero. She spread her arms outward, palms open to the sky.

"Welcome to the Command Center. Feel free to poke around to your heart's content."

[Dr Archeville]

Now, don't get to-

WAHOO!!!

Before Scarab spoke, Archeville had already darted off and was looking over the equipment, looking -- for the moment -- only with his eyes, not his hands (or sensory probes).

"Vait -- he installed dis all forty years ago? But... how... de internet vasn't even around back den, ARPANET vas just getting up und running! Unix vas just being developed, und so many fields vere still in deir infancy!"

He stopped and took a step back. Well, more accurately, he glided back to the center of the room. "Den again, consider dis: I vear a belt dat can varp gravity, permitting me to fly und to vithstand shellings from heavy field artillery. So it vould be hypocritical of me to chastise Daedalus for not sharing all his discoveries."

[N/A]

"You have relatively unfettered access now. You can come and go as you please. Feel free to take things apart and poke around inside, as long as you put them back together again afterward. And if you have any ideas or recommendations for upgrades or replacements, I'm all ears. I'm sure your mind is already racing with the possibilities. I can't wait to see what the intellectual offspring Dædalus and Archeville looks like."

"The first thing that comes to mind is the 'elevator.' As you can see, it's just a big rock. Which means that, at the moment, movement throughout The Lair is restricted to flyers, telekinetics, and the exceptionally nimble. We should do something about that. (Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking.)"

"Networking our respective headquarters together might also be a good idea. It would allow us to better coordinate our efforts."

[Dr Archeville]

Networking? Whoa, we don't know if we're ready for that sort of commitment yet. We barely know the chick!

... right, because she's so into you.

Hey, you're right - into her! We could access all her secrets! Oh, wait, she could access all ours! Dammit!

Yeah... you just sit there and work that out. We'll be talking things over with the grown-ups.

"Ja, linking our systems vould be prudent -- ve each haff access to und records of dings de other does not, und sharing vill only help our efforts. Plus, it vill help you in... helping me stay on de straight und narrow."

"So, de stone slab elevator really is just a stone slab? Vell, dat definitely needs to be addressed, ja. Vould you prefer a fairly simple mechanical system, or someding more complex?"

~fin~