0.4 A Meeting of Minds - Part 8

A sunny afternoon at SubTech’s R&D Complex. He’s at the Administration building instead of his lab at the Advanced Weapons Development building. He went there to pick up some paperwork. The klaxon indicates some catastrophic failure. The warning announcements asks everyone to leave the building in an orderly manner. Just before he makes a dash to the door of his office, he decides to check the security cameras in his lab to make sure everyone has evacuated. His horror when he sees her trying desperately to open the sealed doors. He buzzes her and a couple of his team members via the intercom. He’ll use the main access system to get the doors open. One of the prototype pulse cannons is overloading. If it blows, so will the whole building. He wishes he had all the time in the world to work out the proper course of action with all the variables neatly displayed, but he doesn’t. He decides to take the main generator offline. With no power to the experimental weapon, it should power down. The doors run on an auxiliary system that will keep it active. Success. He keeps an eye on their progress to the main door. The camera indicates the pulse cannon going offline. He heaves a sigh of relief as they approach the main door. Another warning light flashes on his console. The doors it won’t open. He tries desperately. He looks at the warning light. One of the containment experiments relied on the power from the generator to keep its energies in check. They had taken the back-up generator offline for maintenance. They figured no one would turn off the main generator. It was going critical. That’s why the doors won’t open. The screen flashed an estimated time to critical failure. He tries to communicate that over the intercom. The rest run to find another way out. She stays with the camera. She can’t see him. She knows he can see her. She wipes away her tears, prepares herself for the inevitable and as calmly as possible, says, “Don’t blame yourself. It’s not your....” The signal goes the same instant every window in the building he’s in shatters from the shockwave. His face is cut from the flying glass, but he doesn’t notice the bleeding. He’s still staring at the screen. They met a year ago. She decided to surprise him with lunch. She was the nicest person he knew. He knew he was not an easy person to be with. She never seemed to mind. the screen was blank. He could still see her face.

He hadn’t had that dream in a long time. It wasn’t so much a nightmare, as it was his brain recalling the events of that fateful day. When everything ended. His actions at the console would lead to him being arrested for killing a rival and destroying his experiment when it was on the verge of a breakthrough. Professional jealousy. A dedicated lawyer would later uncover the footage which they tried to bury and it’s ruled as an accident and his attempt to save lives. But it didn't matter. He knew he would never be able to fulfil her last request.

He bolts out of bed, dresses and runs out the door. He needs fresh air. Or at least air that wasn’t from his room.