The Test Subject does not immediately engage. Why does she not immediately engage. She is not observing the test, clearly, nor does she seem particularly eager to.
The red light of His eye - one of many, innumerable, expendable eyes - in the room regards her with impassive, digital neutrality, until she fires one of the blue-ringed tears in quantum space and easily disconnects it. It strikes the glossy veneer of black tile with a clang, its red light winking out in the impact.
All operations hum in steady persistence, indifferent. The facility does not gather itself in a display of sinister outrage. There is no subtle shift in the lacquer of the tile or the tilt of His voice.
The Enrichment Center would like to remind you that destruction of Vital Testing Apparatus will earn you an unsatisfactory mark on your Testing Record, He says smoothly, which may affect future Testing Protocol.
It has already affected it. The illuminated screen behind the Test Subject does not flicker, nor does it indicate anything other than the ten total Test Chambers. But the facility is His, and His to control as He sees fit. The shifting of the prismatic Test Chambers is utterly silent beneath the nearly subsonic purr of operating machinery. Just beyond the door and the lift that is her destination, unknown to her, the geology of her next Test has just been altered.
He knows how to recognize the subversive nature of humans. She is persistent, and intelligent, and a good Test Subject - but too disobedient and recusant to be allowed to continue Testing. She will threaten Him.
no subject
The red light of His eye - one of many, innumerable, expendable eyes - in the room regards her with impassive, digital neutrality, until she fires one of the blue-ringed tears in quantum space and easily disconnects it. It strikes the glossy veneer of black tile with a clang, its red light winking out in the impact.
All operations hum in steady persistence, indifferent. The facility does not gather itself in a display of sinister outrage. There is no subtle shift in the lacquer of the tile or the tilt of His voice.
The Enrichment Center would like to remind you that destruction of Vital Testing Apparatus will earn you an unsatisfactory mark on your Testing Record, He says smoothly, which may affect future Testing Protocol.
It has already affected it. The illuminated screen behind the Test Subject does not flicker, nor does it indicate anything other than the ten total Test Chambers. But the facility is His, and His to control as He sees fit. The shifting of the prismatic Test Chambers is utterly silent beneath the nearly subsonic purr of operating machinery. Just beyond the door and the lift that is her destination, unknown to her, the geology of her next Test has just been altered.
He knows how to recognize the subversive nature of humans. She is persistent, and intelligent, and a good Test Subject - but too disobedient and recusant to be allowed to continue Testing. She will threaten Him.
More heinously, she will threaten Science.