[Daniel] The Crux of the Matter
Who: Daniel, Blaise
Where: Medical Facility: Control Room
When: Day 20, afternoon, picking up from Close Encounters with the Dead Kind
Invited: Locke, the Doctor, Megabyte, Scott, Alex (Dean, Sam, Jon and May when they return from their recon with something to report)
Status: Complete ( Read more... )
Where: Medical Facility: Control Room
When: Day 20, afternoon, picking up from Close Encounters with the Dead Kind
Invited: Locke, the Doctor, Megabyte, Scott, Alex (Dean, Sam, Jon and May when they return from their recon with something to report)
Status: Complete ( Read more... )
In the long run, it would likely be better than when the time came to decide what to do with them in the long term. The fact that May, Jon and Kenzaki found a jail helped, but even that would only be a short term solution.
"All right then," Daniel said. "We check out this jail. We make certain that it is truly secure. The last thing we want is for them to escape, especially with everything they know about us and our operation. Separate questioning for each of them, starting with the guards, then the nurses, then the doctors."
No one questioned why he listed them in that order and Daniel was pleased. That meant that they understood his reasoning.
"We need to know about the supply drops, how they got here, how they'll leave, and anything that we can't glean from these files. Alex," Daniel looked at the teenager, "Now would be a very good time to tell us anything that you know that we haven't all ready figured out."
Alex shook her head. "I can't."
Daniel felt the ripple of discontent in the room, and waved the others to quiet. He walked over and knelt in front of the girl, his voice soft and soothing. "No one here is going to hurt you. They can't hurt you. You said that you're trying to help us, that you want to help us. Now is a good time for that help to start."
"You don't understand," Alex looked up. "I could talk to you forever and tell you who sleeps where or who has a horrible secret or what the drugs are listed in their files, and I still might not tell you what you need to know. I'll help, I will. But you have to ask me questions. If I know the answers, I will answer them."
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"Alex," Blaise said, "I'm not sure I'm understanding you, so let me see if I can get this straight." He paused, working out his question. If he was wrong, he'd feel a little foolish for asking. But things here were strange enough that his suspicions didn't strike him as ludicrous. And his daddy always said, "better to ask a stupid question than to make a stupid mistake."
"When you say you'll answer questions but you can't tell us what we want to know otherwise, are you...are you saying you can't offer unasked for information? Or just that you have no idea what we'd find important?"
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Alex gave Blaise a beaming smile, one that reminded Daniel of a parent lavishing praise on a child who just figured out a particularly difficult problem. "I can, but not in a way that you would understand."
Daniel frowned. He actually paused and considered before asking his question, "Why is that?"
"My brain is wired differently. I can see it and say it, but it doesn't make sense to anyone but me. But if you ask, I can put all the sensible parts together."
"Alex," Daniel lowered his voice sympathetically, "Is this -- wiring of your brain -- is it natural or was it done to you?"
She considered, then nodded. "Yes."
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"Alex, do you know of a way we can get off the island? One we haven't discovered or thought of yet?"
Dr. Jackson's raised eyebrow wasn't entirely unexpected, but hell--every once in a while the "it can't be that simple" solution actually worked.
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She shook her head, "I don't know what it is. People leave, or left, I think, but it's been a long time. And I've been here forever. Most of them have too."
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No pen and paper was at hand other than Daniel's, so Locke moved to one of the computer terminals and sat down. He'd spent far more time staring at a computer screen than he'd ever wanted working at the box company. Consequently he was reasonably familiar with Windows-like... (What was it Larry called them? Operating systems?) machines. This one wasn't Windows, but it was close enough. (Probably the Linux stuff swore by.)
"John, what are you doing?" Daniel sounded a bit worried.
After a few mouse clicks Locke brought up a text editor. "Writing out questions for Alex." Then he started typing -- fairly quickly, too.
A short time later he'd typed out all of the questions that came to mind. Some of them had probably already been asked, but a little repetition wouldn't hurt.How did you suddenly appear to us outside the bunker?
How many bunkers are there? Where are the others?
What is the smoke creature? Did DHARMA create it? Does DHARMA control it?
Do you know of any other unusual creatures on the island?
How did DHARMA acquire the time bubble technology?
How many people have you known here over the years? How long do people stay here? Are there rotations of personnel?
What sort of personnel does DHARMA hire?
What kinds of weapons have you seen DHARMA personnel carrying?
Do you know of any non-humans that may explain the strange bodies in the graveyard?
Have you encountered the Others?
Have you encountered Danielle Rousseau?
Locke glanced up at the faces reading over his shoulder. "Anything else to add?"
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Daniel and the Sargeant looked down at her in surprise, but she was focused on the list of questions.
"I was already outside. I tried to help them - Ami and Rose - no one let me near Claire or Daisy, but I wanted to help. I didn't know what to do except what I did, so I went outside and waited and - oh!" Alex's mind sharpened as she suddenly understood the true question. "You mean the cloak."
"The cloak?" Several voices asked at once.
Alex nodded. "Mm-huh. That's what they call it. I borrowed it from … from Ethan … and I went outside. I didn't know how you'd react or what I would say so I got in close with the cloak. When I knew it was safe, I turned it off."
"You turned it off?" Daniel repeated, but not in that way that people repeated things when they didn't understand, but rather in that tone that said he was making connections and clarifications in his mind. "This cloak, is a device, I take it? One that seems to turn people invisible?"
"It bends light around the object creating an illusion of empty space when -"
Daniel held up a hand. "I'm familiar with the concept and how these things work. You're saying that DHARMA has one of these devices then."
"Not one. Two. Maybe more. I've only ever seen two. They gave one to Ethan so he could . .. work. . . and Dr. Carlson has one. Do you want me to get it?"
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"Yes!" Scott exclaimed. He was eager to see how the device worked. The partially amused, partially impatient glances a few of the others gave him caused him to rein in his curiosity. "Um, when we're done here." He glanced at the list of questions John had written up. "What about other bunkers?"
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Alex tilted her head at Scott's question and blinked, then began counting on her fingers. "This one, the Pearl, the Arrow, the Flame, the Sunburst and . . . I don't remember the other one. Oh, and the Swan, but you know about that one."
"Seven," Daniel counted as she named them, then blinked as she finished. "Um, no, we don't know about any bunker called the Swan."
Surprise and disbelief filled Alex's face. "But . . . it's … right by your camps. Close enough. You've . . . never seen it?"
"I think I can safely say that we'd know if we'd seen another one of these bunkers."
"Where are they located?" Mr. Locke asked. "Can you draw us a map? Are they in the computer?"
A shake of Alex's head. "Not in the computer. I've only heard of them, I don't know where they are. Only this one and the Swan and the Sunburst."
"All right then, where is the sunburst?"
"You can't go there." There was a sudden, defiant set to her jaw. Her back stiffened and she bristled, but not as though threatened - as though she was afraid of something.
"Alex, we're trying to find a way home. A way out of here and any information that you can give us -"
"Tell me you won't go there! You can't. It's dangerous and you can't go there! You'll die and even if you don't die, you won't come back. Tell me that you won't go there or I won't tell you where it is!" Her voice rose and she looked around wildly, hugging herself. "I won't let you go there!"
The room began to vibrate with a low buzzing hum.
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He reached out to touch her arm. He knew his mental touch tp any psychically gifted human would be less that soothing. But he tried to project an aura of calm without any psychic ability. It wasn't like he was an empath, anyway.
"We've got a lot to handle here, anyway. It'll take us a while to sort through what we've found here, and what we can learn from our prisoners. I don't think there's an immediate danger of anyone looking for the Sunburst just yet." He looked deliberately at Daniel.
If the girl thought it was dangerous, they did not have the personnel or resources for a further raid right now. Not for something better secured, not while they had physically and mentally wounded to tend to.
He was not promising there wouldn't be looking in the future. Even if Alex didn't tell them. Unless she could actually convince them otherwise.
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Alex hugged herself, looking down at the floor. Her words were heavy and it was easy to see that she was trying not to panic more. "Not illness. Not traps. Things. It's not all about . . . science. It's not all about what . . .you can . . .explain. You can't explain it . .. all with science somethings . . . just exist next . . . to science . . .and with . . .science and they're not science just . . . magic and myth and things that shouldn't."
Alex's voice took on a strange cadence and pacing as she spoke, breaking for pauses in places where he wouldn't have expected pauses, almost as though she were speaking a new language. "Some . . . people call . . . them demons. Or . . . monsters. I don't know what . . . they are but . . . they're nightmares. Even . . . with guns no . . . one goes in there."
Daniel decided not to press the issue right now. The Doctor was right, they didn't have the resources or the need to go looking for this Sunburst bunker quite yet, and the prisoners might give them more information.
"All right, Alex," Daniel said soothingly, "We won't talk about it anymore. And we won't go there. Let's talk about something else. The rest of the questions? Can you answer them?"
"Inaminnit," Alex didn't look up.
There was a moment of silence.
"What about the Swan?" Locke asked. "We know that one's near camp. We could radio Faith and George and have them look for it."
"Northeast, three miles off from your caves," Alex stated. "There's a man there. He's been alone a long time."
"DHARMA?" Daniel prompted, a bit concerned to hear that they had someone so close to their camp and didn't know it. But their perimeter sweep had only gone out approximately two miles.
"Kelvin got tired of keeping the world safe so now he's on the ceiling," Alex explained as though she'd just said the most logical thing in the world. She frowned and shook her head, muttering in a combination of French and Greek, "Focus, focus. Make the words come together."
Just as quickly, her head jerked up, and she addressed them in English, though her voice kept that odd staccato pacing. "Not DHARMA, he's not part of DHARMA. He's just unlucky. Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications Initiative, that's DHARMA. They hire scientists, Ph.D's, researchers. Research is what they are supposed to do. Pushing the boundaries of science. They're unrestricted. They like that. Dr. Carlson is in charge, but I think someone else is in charge of him.
"There used to be lots of people here, working, researching, but something happened four years ago and most of them left. Only some stayed. About fifty were left I think, then we went backwards and forwards and more left and we didn't go anywhere for a long time, and then you started to come."
"You're speaking of the time bubble?" The Doctor asked.
Alex nodded. "I don't know where it came from. I'm not allowed to know. I only know what she knows and she doesn't know everything. No one knows everything because Dr. Carlson won't let everyone know everything."
There was a pause and during it, Daniel recalled Locke's questions in his head, and tried to figure out which ones Alex was answering in her own unique way. "So, there's not a personnel rotation?"
"Not anymore," Alex shook her head. "There used to be comings and goings all the time, but everything changed four years ago. I remember because that's when I talked to it. It comes from the Dark Place," Alex shuddered but seemed unaware of it, "But it's not part of the Dark Place. And DHARMA doesn't have anything to do with it."
"It?" Several voices prompted.
"The Guardian."
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"Hey, don't everybody get up," Jon greeted. "We can just lean on the door for a little while longer."
"How long have you been standing there?" Daniel asked.
"Couple seconds," May answered, taking a swig of water from the bottle she'd grabbed. A bit of her wrist wrappings had come loose and a glint of metal could be seen on her right wrist. She didn't notice. "Sorry to interrupt, but is this 'Guardian' big, made of smoke, eats trees like toothpicks?"
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The second thing was a packet of crackers left on one of the desks. He honed in on them, seating himself in the space they'd once occupied, and snagged a few before throwing the rest to May. Hungry didn't even begin to describe how he felt, but there had to be a reason for this many people crammed into one room - and it looked like her name was Alex.
"Is this 'Guardian' big, made of smoke, eats trees like toothpicks?" May asked.
Jon nodded, hastily swallowing mouthful of crumbs.
"What the hell is it guarding? Not some dingy old bunker, that's for sure - it chased us right past another one. And who's this she you know all about? Carlson too. Are they in there?" he pointed to the monitors, then grinned innocently as his belly rumbled loudly. "Anyone got more food?"
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Turning his thoughts back to the Guardian, Locke sobered. "Yes, that was the Guardian," he told May. "You... outran it?" May nodded. Locke wasn't too surprised considering the young woman's acrobatics. Strangely, Jon looked sheepish.
"I don't know what it's guarding," Locke continued. "I communicated with it not long after arriving here." That earned him a few surprised looks. "Actually, it communicated with me telepathically, and I'm not psychic.
" Something else 'spoke' to me a few weeks ago." He nodded at Blaise and Scott. "They were there. If it was the Guardian, it wasn't there physically. It was like I was dreaming while awake. It said that 'there are good ones and bad ones.'"
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
Locke shrugged. "I don't know. I'd say that the Guardian is one of the good ones, but it killed the pilot." He looked away. The man's needless death weighed on him.
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Still, she first offered the remaining crackers to Kenzaki. He shook his head. "You sure?" He held up a hand, trying to make it clear he didn't want any. With that, she shrugged and tore into the rest of them herself. She'd attack whatever was left in the kitchen later; the crackers would hold her over in the meantime.
"Yes, that was the Guardian," Locke told her. "You... outran it?"
Reluctantly, May nodded, glad for the mouthful of crackers that prevented her from elaborating as Locke steered the conversation back to the actual 'Guardian.' Jon looked embarrassed, which was something of a relief; he wasn't going into any details either.
She listened to Locke's story, growing more and more creeped out as she did. Her only experience with any sort of waking dream had involved a vision of her own death. May shuddered at the memory.
"If that's one of the good ones, I don't ever want to meet one of the bad ones. And for something that's supposed to be guarding things, it seemed way too intent on turning us into mulch. Would have, too, if Kenzaki hadn't gotten its attention," she added.
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