"..." I walk into the academy’s lab, passing by the various scientists rushing from one side to the other adjusting equipment. I stop in a room, seeing the cube resting on a platform, being analyzed while Ashlyn is inside.
Normally I would avoid this whole cube situation, but something makes me curious — maybe the fact that the cube is a Kaira from the past?
"Hey, what’s she doing in there?" I ask a man with graying hair who presses a button and slides it up, increasing something.
"Zenith... you’re not a commander anymore. Do you really have clearance for this?" He asks in a questioning tone, but he doesn’t try to kick me out.
"Of course I do. If I didn’t, Astrid wouldn’t let me in here and you would have already sent me away. Besides, that girl in there is my student. I think I should know what you’re doing to her, don’t you?" He glances at a report beside him and then hides it from me.
"Whatever. We’re running resonance tests, trying to make the cube react. After extensive research... we’ve confirmed the cube is alive. We called in some retired Kairas who had mental powers, but most require something conscious. Ashlyn is one of the only ones whose power depends on her target being asleep or unconscious."
"So she’s necessary and irreplaceable. However, since we’ve confirmed through tests that the cube is alive, that means we now have to make it react."
"Is there anything new? I already knew it was alive. It was obvious." I say, rolling my eyes.
"...Zenith, do you really want to get involved in this? You know the procedure. If you get involved, you won’t be able to leave or back out, and you’ll be tied to any news released to the public because you’re the one who noticed this problem."
"Tsk... whatever. Fine, I still want to know." I say to him with disinterest. I already imagined this and was ready for it.
"Alright, so now you’re part of this... we have three interesting things we discovered with Ashlyn’s help. First, the cube can hear us."
"Our devices detected that she is capable of hearing and understanding us, although she doesn’t respond. So this cube has already heard and understood everything said near her."
"Second, she’s capable of reacting if she wants to."
"Reacting?" I ask, curious.
"Yes. When ’rewarded,’ the cube split into two as a response. She can mold the form she’s in, though we don’t know if she can make more complex shapes or if that’s all she can do."
"Her reward was something she liked in the past, before she died. We gave her some things that might make her happy. Even though she can’t use anything we gave her, she seemed to like it, so we considered it a success."
"And third... we discovered that certain things awaken her aggression. Since we used her for testing for years, we never thought much about whether the cube could be dangerous."
"It doesn’t emit radiation, doesn’t emit toxicity, and doesn’t harm anyone, so we always deemed it safe. But there are certain contexts where the cube reacts with signs of anger."
"You can’t exactly call it dangerous, but the fact is she has emotions — happiness, anger, hatred, etc. Although these are more basic emotions, and she has no brain, there’s no way to know how she’s even capable of feeling anything."
"Besides, detecting these changes is extremely difficult. You see that camera over there? It cost almost 20 tons of pure gold. Since the gold exchange rate is still used to calculate all currency, I think you know how absurd the price of the equipment to capture this is."
’Wow... they’re really committed to this. That’s a lot of money to study a simple cube.’ I look into the room, seeing four of those wave-capture cameras positioned alongside the machine that emits resonance into the cube.
With the vector energy we have now, there’s a new form of resonance far superior to magnetic resonance. With vector resonance, you can discover many things about someone — far more than magnetic resonance was ever capable of.
Vector resonance is capable of creating almost a complete cellular map of a body, every tiny piece that exists, every neuron and every atom of the body. Although the processing equipment is limited and loses 63% of that data, the remaining 37% is still a lot of relevant information.
Even someone’s "emotional state" is shown through the various responses of the "body" at the moment the machine is used.
"If the cube is alive and can understand us, why not try talking to her?" I didn’t get that. He just said she understands us and can even react without being touched by splitting in two. Wouldn’t it be possible to use that to get "Yes" or "No" answers from the cube?
"Because understanding doesn’t mean she will react. So far, she’s only reacted to three out of over a thousand questions we asked, and all three were questions about her family. Just that. Plus, we can only ask questions within a limited context because we don’t know the risks yet, so no one has asked very personal questions or talked about problematic things."
"In other words, she understands, but she doesn’t react to anything. There’s no way to know the state of her mind. She’s been trapped in this cube form for many years."
"We don’t even know if she has spatial or temporal perception. If she doesn’t have temporal perception, she doesn’t even know how much time has passed or the context of new questions because so much has changed."
"Meanwhile, if she doesn’t have spatial perception, she won’t even know how to mold her body because she can’t understand that she is a cube."
"There are so many complicated questions... Hey! You can’t go in!!" He shouts at me as I reach the door and open it.
"I have a few questions. Just ignore me and turn on that machine. Also, I’m going to say some things that are pretty... intense to the cube. I suggest activating some security." I say as I see Ashlyn in here, collapsed on the floor. I grab her and push her out of the room, closing the door afterward.
"..." I approach the cube, seeing that the security system has begun locking me inside.
"...Haa... really?" He didn’t need to lock me in here, but whatever. I have a few things to think about regarding this cube.
’How do you talk to a block...’ There are cameras recording me, so I can’t just spout any nonsense, but I have doubts about her reaction.
"[Hey, you stole that!]" I hear the voice from outside speaking to me as I look at the small device I grabbed to see the cube’s emotional response.
"Stole? How rude. I took it because it was beside you unused, and now I’ll give it a use." I ignore them in there while I think a little about the first question or statement.
"Did you know you’re dead and have been completely replaced?" When I say that, I look at the device. There’s a reaction, but it’s very minimal.
"That’s right, no one in 70 years has cared about the fact that you died! That’s right, you’ve been a test block for 70 years. I myself broke you several times testing my powers in the past."
"Your family probably wasn’t even informed that you turned into this. After all, it was just a solid block of unidentified material." I say, looking at the device’s screen.
"..." The reaction is still weak, so I decide to press a little harder.
"Everything you did was useless. You didn’t change anyone’s life in any meaningful way. Your only use was as a test dummy. It sounds pathetic."
"If I were you, I’d rather be dead. Spending years like this is ridiculous. Do you think being this cube changed anything in anyone’s life? Even as a test dummy, you’re replaceable."
"Anyway, your family probably died because you’re now a cube. Congratulations, you killed them all—" I jump backward as the cube shifts form toward me, looking more like a liquid than a solid.
"!!!?" I look at the screen, seeing an extremely aggressive reaction. The scientist on the other side watches curiously, no longer complaining about anything.
"Oho! So you can do more! So you’re being a passive coward? That’s why your family died." The liquid isn’t very fast, but it drags itself toward me while the device in my hand beeps.
’I think that’s enough. She clearly doesn’t like me talking about her family...’ I throw the device at her, but to my surprise, all the liquid "shrinks," fusing itself to the device. Everyone looks at the small device, which has changed color to a matte metallic tone similar to mercury.
’Seriously? She can fuse with technology? Or is it the material?’ The current state doesn’t last long. The cube soon returns to the shape of a giant cube, staying still. The device, from what I can see, still works, and the "emotional" response has stabilized again.
"[...Incredible, what a breakthrough!! She can fuse with other materials!!! And the fact that the emotional response stopped instantly implies that although she listens, her emotions are no longer processed like a normal human’s!! They’re closer to a computer’s — a single continuous phase that ends abruptly!!]" The scientist speaks, opening the door as I move away from the cube.
’What... was that...’ I look at my hands. Was she trying to drag herself toward my prosthetics? I had that impression because of the liquid’s movement, but I’m not sure.
’Maybe... she wanted an object that’s in constant motion...’ I come up with a senseless supposition and decide not to think about it anymore. I’ve seen what I wanted, so I’m leaving for now.
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