Bright.
In nothing but his boxers and a pair of cotton socks, Doctor Bright reclined in his large, tiered office space overlooking the lab adjoining. It was a real luxury set-up, with banks of glass monitors lining the walls, and projected monitors winking in and out of existence. He had his feet up on the lab's control deck and staring up at several of these monitors, reviewing yesterday's notes and recorded video while low grumbles and electronic clicks of an eclectic assortment of music crackled around the room.
A notification window sprung up, light blue and transparent. It hovered near his face, listing the names of several of his consorts; DRw!n, Jinx, Pr4g^n, and N;;n. The first name was blinking.
[5:52]DRw!n: Check weapons system configuration Ξ΄ right away for human dna compatibility, possible complications with the Bellier mutagens we found yesterday. Also go over all ΞΆ prototypes.
"Uuuugh it's not morning, it's not morning." Bright mumbled when he noticed the time stamp. His hands dragged across his face and rubbed his tired eyes, causing his voice to be muffled. Unfortunately, he still had his chat client set to translate speech to text and what came out was:
[5:52]N0lt5: UUuuHJRGhiieissmmmmrgggg
Which, he could proudly say, was quite accurate.
[5:53]DRw!n: Sure thing. Just get that done before your nice little Moor buddies start looking like Jabba the Hutt.
Bright chuckled at the little historical film reference. But his old friend was right, there were holes in system Delta that they had not quite considered before. Zetas weren't as important, more of an experimental project pushing the boundaries of machine versus human cognitive decisions. Bright hopped down into the lab space and orally commanded for system Delta to be brought out.
Walls slid around, rearranging themselves as out from his lab's storage chambers came long transparent containers and platforms. Bright plodded over, his socked feet making little pattering echoes in the large space. Most of the platforms that hovered around him held different bits of metals, peculiar little mechanics that whizzed to life pulsating or cycling to display their functions. They were just additions or enhancements to Delta, so Bright waved them away, back behind the wall panels and into storage.
The transparent containers were cylinders of various sizes, encasing their subjects in glass and liquid. An arm here, a leg there, many organs and delicate nervous systems. Each equipped with tiny cybernetic enhancements, for Delta was, and still is, his closest effort at making a near undetectable system. He liked to imagine that one day he would be installing a finished system Delta to an assassin. It would be glorious.
Bright waved over the largest container. It contained a tall, lank human, supposedly male, but without any defining genitalia. Most of his systems were displayed with these non-gendered blanks. He liked to keep the itty bits in separate containers.
Pressing his finger to the glass, he intoned, "Weapons system configuration." A bright red light switched on within the container, and suddenly the subject's skin became translucent, allowing Bright to view the network within. Readouts began flooding the surface of the glass, so he slid his finger along the surface and flung them out into the air, allowing more and more information to be displayed in glowing blue projected panels about him. The configuration was in place to give the Moors specific readouts while in combat, advanced targeting systems in the eyes, and general compatibility with the vast assortment of tools put in use. Pretty much anything was plug-and-play. The problem here was when manufactured mutagens are deployed, they start to eat away at the host cells, confusing them and causing them to reject the enhancements.
He spent the next few hours going over every part of the Delta project, moving from one lab table to the next. If the Bellier mutagen would be able to affect Delta's weapons system in any way, it was possible the whole thing would go kaput. Bright cursed Parv Bellier for his stupid invasive viruses, but the only way to progress was through testing. And that would require more parts.
After a quick shower, some nibbles, and actually remembering some clothes, Bright exited his residential suite. He grabbed his lab coat from his office and donned a strange gauntlet that had been hanging from its charger. He had to roll up the sleeves of his white coat to allow room for it on his arm, but they allowed him to continue projecting information into the air whilst outside of his work space.
Bright took the office exit, meaning he had to pass through a much smaller corridor than the lab's exit. Machines scanned him up and down and inside out as he walked through, searching for any anomalies that would not do to reach the outside world. At the end door, a pop up appeared in front of him, merely saying he should drink more water and take a day off. He shrugged and waved it away. The door slid open to reveal that, in fact, it was an elevator. An elevator with a single button. It was pushed and so he went up.
Sun flared through floor-to-ceiling glass walls when he stepped out. Bright checked the digital display on his gauntlet, which had turned clear and hovered around his arm in geometric pieces. 11:03.
It was so radiant and all he wanted was to grab the pieces and get back underground. He grumbled for the storage area. His device lit the way. His lab was located at the very center of the Moorden property, but the storage area was not far. A few minutes and he stood before a door. Someone's dog gave him a curious stare as he waved at the door's keypad.
When he entered, Bright was surprised that he was not alone today, though the pet dog should have clued him in on that. "Alright?" he greeted. "Haven't seen your round these parts before. New? Contract work?"
Navigating his gauntlet's display interface, Bright brought up the list of items he would need to acquire to continue his research downstairs. "Scan" he muttered, and when held out his left hand, a blue pulse of light swept over the piles of junk. And then, "Locate", and many objects glowed blue. They were all the items that fit the description on Bright's little shopping list. His program had done half the work locating all the possible ones for him, but it would take some astute work to find and choose the best bits.
Bright cracked his knuckles as readouts began popping up all around him, displaying the specifications of each object. "An expedition in the search of buried treasure. Great morning, hm?"