The two of us left the labs and the Director locked the place up again after giving me the password. It didn’t take us long to walk over to Alice’s bedroom from there; the girl was already in bed when we got there. She quickly got out of her blankets when she saw who was by her mom’s side, although I could tell that she was starting to doze off.
Now that I had a closer look at the room, I realized that it was pretty standard in terms of furnishings. Most noticeably, there were boxes of various toys around that looked like they were well loved, and Alice’s bed was filled with stuffed toys and pillows. She was practically buried under a mountain of blankets and quilts. Off to the side, in her own bed, lay Molly. She seemed to have already fallen asleep.
“Hey Alice,” I said with a wave, “Thought I’d say good night one final time, sorry if I’m keeping you up.”
“Hello Uncle Walter, hi mom,” she waved back enthusiastically, “And you’re not keeping me up! Do you want to see my toys?”
“Not now, Alice,” the Director interrupted, “You can show him all your toys tomorrow, you need some sleep right now.”
The girl nodded. She really was exhausted if she didn’t fight back on that front, but she did help out quite a bit with Henry today, so that wasn’t unexpected. She’s been running around the whole day practically.
“I need some sleep soon as well!” I added, “My old bones will break if I don’t get my beauty rest.”
Alice chuckled, “You’re not that old, Uncle Walter!”
“No, he’s not,” Abigail said with a smile, “But he does need his rest. We just wanted to make sure you’re doing ok, dear. Are you…”
“I’m all good mom,” she said, “I had a lot of fun today! I’ll tell you all about it in the morning!”
“I’ll be glad to hear it,” the Director said as she helped her daughter back in bed, “I’ll make you your favorite pancakes as well, you did great catching the bad patient today.”
“She gave all the orders as well!” I added in with a smile, “I just had to follow her instructions. Captain Alice was a great commander!”
“Well,” the Director answered, clearly amused, “You’ll definitely have to tell me all about it then. Now be a good girl and get some sleep, ok?”
“Alright mom,” she said with a yawn, “Good night, Uncle Walter, g’night, mom.”
The Director gently closed the door behind her and turned off the lights.
“She’s stable at the moment,” the Director said after a moment, “Thank god… I haven’t seen her so calm in a very, very long time. I wish she’d be like this all the time.”
I gave the Director a gentle pat on the shoulder, “Hey, Alice is doing great now, so don’t be so down yourself, kids are sensitive to their parent’s emotions you know. We’ll get that pal made for her, and she’ll be like this all the time.”
Abigail nodded, “You’re right, sorry, it’s just been so long since I’ve seen her like this. I’ll… I’ll go make some pancakes for her now.”
I chuckled, “It’s the middle of the night, love, they’ll get cold if you make them now. How about you get some rest as well, or at least go play with those rule breakers and destress a bit.”
“You’re right,” she said finally, “I’ve been too strung up lately, especially with my daughter waking up out of the blue… I’ll take your advice.”
“I am a doctor after all!” I added with a smile, “I have your health in my best interests!”
She returned that smile, although I could still see the fatigue underneath it, “Thank you, Will. I’ll let you have free reign at the hospital after hours as well; the dogs’ll know to not bother you. I’m not sure how much prep you have to do, but know that you have my full support for your project. You know where to find me if you need anything.”
“Thanks,” I said, “And I’m serious when I said to take better care of yourself, ok? Alice is awake now, and she needs her mom with her more than ever in the next few days. Don’t burn yourself out when we’re so close to the finish line.”
She nodded gently, “I’ll try, although I think you’ll be busier than I will be. Take care as well, Will.”
She gave me one final hug before excusing herself; the Director simply vanished from the spot and I was once again alone with my own thoughts in this hospital. There was a lot to do in the upcoming days, and I hope I could get everything I needed done.
Since I was given access to the entire hospital, I did want to do a little bit of exploring. Nothing too suspicious, since I had a sneaking suspicion that my actions were being watched, but at least see a better layout of the other wings and wards that I didn’t check out today. But first, I checked the registry in the Administrative building to see where I would be sleeping for the foreseeable future. The staff dorms were right around the corner, so the first thing I checked out was my room.
The room was barebones, all things considered. There was a small single bed, a desk that didn’t look like it had been used in ages, and a closet that housed identical surgeons uniforms. I did use the small bathroom on the side to wash off all the accumulated grime and dirt, however, and change into a fresh set of clothing.
I was honestly tempted to just lie down and sleep, but my rational mind won out in the end, and I quickly left the room to check out the rest of the hospital. I always did my best planning when I was on the move, and I had a lot of planning and thinking to do.
Let’s gather all that I’ve learned today with what I already know from my interactions with Central. First of all, the Overseer’s not a well loved individual, and although I don’t know how he, or the Trash Matrix, chooses the worlds and dimensions that are used for Trial grounds, it’s clear that the natives of those places are not fans of this intrusion. They’re also not taking the abuse lying down either; no wonder everyone’s calling the Central Collective a doomed enterprise.
What’s good to know is that I can be fairly confident that most places that we’re sent to, as long as there’s intelligent life there, will house some kind of resentment to the Overseer if Rogue and Big Bob’s words were true. If I can use that to my advantage and gather enough supporters of my own, then waging war against that Trash Matrix and the even Trashier Overseer’s not just a pipe dream.
However, even if I go from Trial to Trial fostering relationships with other people who hate Central, I had no way of consolidating those forces into one group. Without that ability, we’d just be a collective of small entities that are just waiting for the Overseer and his slimy ass to squish one at a time. There has to be something that I can exploit so I could connect all these separate people together…
It shouldn’t be impossible, since all these Trials were connected, at least loosely, via the Origin Matrix. Perhaps Noe can usurp more of the Trash Matrix’s functions when she’s stronger, and use its own abilities against it?
“I am not yet capable of such a feat, my Host,” she answered for me, “But I may be able to do so after my upgrade is complete if you provide me with access to some of its source code.”
What do you mean?
“If Unit Noe has access to a more detailed understanding of how the Trash Matrix operates, especially its abilities to link Pandora with the various Trials together, then it is theoretically possible for me to modify its functions to suit my Host’s wishes.”
Do I… plug you into the Trash Matrix or something? Sorry Noe, I’m not really sure how you access information from Central.
“Negative, my Host,” Noe answered with a hint of amusement in her otherwise clear voice, “That is not how I function. Unit Noe simply needs my Host to be close to one of the Trash Matrix’s databases, or Nodes, when it transfers information between Trials, and I can do the rest.”
Well, that’s good to know, although I can’t put that into practice for a while longer. I’m not sure if Q’s still in charge of Site 1104, or if the Overseer expedited his transfer as well, but I’ll have to make a stop back to his office once this was over. Hopefully he can show me the local servers or Nodes or whatever it is Central uses to house the Trash Matrix; I don’t think he’d mind breaking a few rules for me now that he’s fired from his position. Plus, I’m pretty sure Q said they had local ones for each Site during one of our talks in the second Trial. Worse case I could still rely on Xalla to help me out.
I was so distracted with my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed that I had already arrived at the patient’s ward. Strangely, none of the doors had been locked when I was walking alone in the hospital, nor had there been any guards roaming around like I thought. In fact, it wasn’t until I reached the patient’s ward that I saw any other signs of life.
By the gate leading into the other side of the hospital was two little dogs lying down on a small cushion. Now the Director did say something about letting the dogs know I was out and about, but I had thought they would be a little more… monstrous? Maybe something like Cerberus or the like, but these two were wiener dogs. They had stubby little legs and barely reached past my ankles, and their chubby tube-bodies were flabby.
The two dogs looked up at me before coming over to sniff my hands. I gave both of them a good patting down before they showed me their bellies to scratch. There was no way I could say no to that! But… were these the guard dogs in charge of keeping people inside at night? The Regressor did stress how dangerous it would be to operate outside work hours, but there’s no way these two were anything other than small dogs.
I rubbed one of their chubby heads before picking the other up to look at it closer. The dog didn’t struggle and even tried to lick my face. Now, I knew that Noe was slightly altering my perception, but surely she couldn’t alter my perception of the size and shape of the dogs. No matter how I looked at them, these were wiener dogs.
I shrugged, no point trying to figure out who those little guys could do anything other than look cute. I gave them one final pat on the head before walking past them and into the next segment of the hospital. I made a mental note of the rooms and general layout of this part of the hospital, in case I ever needed to rescue Jae-Hyun if things go really wrong, but once again, I was mainly here just as an excuse to move around.
And speaking of Jae-Hyun, what the hell was I supposed to do when I meet up with him tomorrow? How much was I supposed to tell the guy? I’ve basically completed all his tasks, so I can’t imagine clearing this Trial would take too long, but I still needed to prolong my stay in this Trial for at least 2 more days. I’ve only interacted with the patients for a limited amount of time, but even that much told me how horrible it was to be a patient in this hospital. I can’t imagine what kinds of treatments the Regressor’s had to endure.
Which ultimately meant that I had to lie to him again, or at the very least omit some of the truth. I didn’t want to do that to the man, but the alternatives were not things that I wanted to explore. But I was getting ahead of myself again, I still need to ask him what the clear conditions were in the first place. Maybe they’ll take him more than a few days to accomplish even with my part out of the way.
I walked around the ward one final time, just absentmindedly looking at the phantoms of the days activities, before heading back to get a good night’s sleep. I had a general idea of what to discuss with the Regressor in the morning, and I had a few different scripts I could play out depending on what he tells me. But ultimately, planning things with imperfect information can only get a person so far.
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VOLUME 2 IS COMPLETE ON PATREON!
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The two of us left the labs and the Director locked the place up again after giving me the password. It didn’t take us long to walk over to Alice’s bedroom from there; the girl was already in bed when we got there. She quickly got out of her blankets when she saw who was by her mom’s side, although I could tell that she was starting to doze off.
Now that I had a closer look at the room, I realized that it was pretty standard in terms of furnishings. Most noticeably, there were boxes of various toys around that looked like they were well loved, and Alice’s bed was filled with stuffed toys and pillows. She was practically buried under a mountain of blankets and quilts. Off to the side, in her own bed, lay Molly. She seemed to have already fallen asleep.
“Hey Alice,” I said with a wave, “Thought I’d say good night one final time, sorry if I’m keeping you up.”
“Hello Uncle Walter, hi mom,” she waved back enthusiastically, “And you’re not keeping me up! Do you want to see my toys?”
“Not now, Alice,” the Director interrupted, “You can show him all your toys tomorrow, you need some sleep right now.”
The girl nodded. She really was exhausted if she didn’t fight back on that front, but she did help out quite a bit with Henry today, so that wasn’t unexpected. She’s been running around the whole day practically.
“I need some sleep soon as well!” I added, “My old bones will break if I don’t get my beauty rest.”
Alice chuckled, “You’re not that old, Uncle Walter!”
“No, he’s not,” Abigail said with a smile, “But he does need his rest. We just wanted to make sure you’re doing ok, dear. Are you…”
“I’m all good mom,” she said, “I had a lot of fun today! I’ll tell you all about it in the morning!”
“I’ll be glad to hear it,” the Director said as she helped her daughter back in bed, “I’ll make you your favorite pancakes as well, you did great catching the bad patient today.”
“She gave all the orders as well!” I added in with a smile, “I just had to follow her instructions. Captain Alice was a great commander!”
“Well,” the Director answered, clearly amused, “You’ll definitely have to tell me all about it then. Now be a good girl and get some sleep, ok?”
“Alright mom,” she said with a yawn, “Good night, Uncle Walter, g’night, mom.”
The Director gently closed the door behind her and turned off the lights.
“She’s stable at the moment,” the Director said after a moment, “Thank god… I haven’t seen her so calm in a very, very long time. I wish she’d be like this all the time.”
I gave the Director a gentle pat on the shoulder, “Hey, Alice is doing great now, so don’t be so down yourself, kids are sensitive to their parent’s emotions you know. We’ll get that pal made for her, and she’ll be like this all the time.”
Abigail nodded, “You’re right, sorry, it’s just been so long since I’ve seen her like this. I’ll… I’ll go make some pancakes for her now.”
I chuckled, “It’s the middle of the night, love, they’ll get cold if you make them now. How about you get some rest as well, or at least go play with those rule breakers and destress a bit.”
“You’re right,” she said finally, “I’ve been too strung up lately, especially with my daughter waking up out of the blue… I’ll take your advice.”
“I am a doctor after all!” I added with a smile, “I have your health in my best interests!”
She returned that smile, although I could still see the fatigue underneath it, “Thank you, Will. I’ll let you have free reign at the hospital after hours as well; the dogs’ll know to not bother you. I’m not sure how much prep you have to do, but know that you have my full support for your project. You know where to find me if you need anything.”
“Thanks,” I said, “And I’m serious when I said to take better care of yourself, ok? Alice is awake now, and she needs her mom with her more than ever in the next few days. Don’t burn yourself out when we’re so close to the finish line.”
She nodded gently, “I’ll try, although I think you’ll be busier than I will be. Take care as well, Will.”
She gave me one final hug before excusing herself; the Director simply vanished from the spot and I was once again alone with my own thoughts in this hospital. There was a lot to do in the upcoming days, and I hope I could get everything I needed done.
Since I was given access to the entire hospital, I did want to do a little bit of exploring. Nothing too suspicious, since I had a sneaking suspicion that my actions were being watched, but at least see a better layout of the other wings and wards that I didn’t check out today. But first, I checked the registry in the Administrative building to see where I would be sleeping for the foreseeable future. The staff dorms were right around the corner, so the first thing I checked out was my room.
The room was barebones, all things considered. There was a small single bed, a desk that didn’t look like it had been used in ages, and a closet that housed identical surgeons uniforms. I did use the small bathroom on the side to wash off all the accumulated grime and dirt, however, and change into a fresh set of clothing.
I was honestly tempted to just lie down and sleep, but my rational mind won out in the end, and I quickly left the room to check out the rest of the hospital. I always did my best planning when I was on the move, and I had a lot of planning and thinking to do.
Let’s gather all that I’ve learned today with what I already know from my interactions with Central. First of all, the Overseer’s not a well loved individual, and although I don’t know how he, or the Trash Matrix, chooses the worlds and dimensions that are used for Trial grounds, it’s clear that the natives of those places are not fans of this intrusion. They’re also not taking the abuse lying down either; no wonder everyone’s calling the Central Collective a doomed enterprise.
What’s good to know is that I can be fairly confident that most places that we’re sent to, as long as there’s intelligent life there, will house some kind of resentment to the Overseer if Rogue and Big Bob’s words were true. If I can use that to my advantage and gather enough supporters of my own, then waging war against that Trash Matrix and the even Trashier Overseer’s not just a pipe dream.
However, even if I go from Trial to Trial fostering relationships with other people who hate Central, I had no way of consolidating those forces into one group. Without that ability, we’d just be a collective of small entities that are just waiting for the Overseer and his slimy ass to squish one at a time. There has to be something that I can exploit so I could connect all these separate people together…
It shouldn’t be impossible, since all these Trials were connected, at least loosely, via the Origin Matrix. Perhaps Noe can usurp more of the Trash Matrix’s functions when she’s stronger, and use its own abilities against it?
“I am not yet capable of such a feat, my Host,” she answered for me, “But I may be able to do so after my upgrade is complete if you provide me with access to some of its source code.”
What do you mean?
“If Unit Noe has access to a more detailed understanding of how the Trash Matrix operates, especially its abilities to link Pandora with the various Trials together, then it is theoretically possible for me to modify its functions to suit my Host’s wishes.”
Do I… plug you into the Trash Matrix or something? Sorry Noe, I’m not really sure how you access information from Central.
“Negative, my Host,” Noe answered with a hint of amusement in her otherwise clear voice, “That is not how I function. Unit Noe simply needs my Host to be close to one of the Trash Matrix’s databases, or Nodes, when it transfers information between Trials, and I can do the rest.”
Well, that’s good to know, although I can’t put that into practice for a while longer. I’m not sure if Q’s still in charge of Site 1104, or if the Overseer expedited his transfer as well, but I’ll have to make a stop back to his office once this was over. Hopefully he can show me the local servers or Nodes or whatever it is Central uses to house the Trash Matrix; I don’t think he’d mind breaking a few rules for me now that he’s fired from his position. Plus, I’m pretty sure Q said they had local ones for each Site during one of our talks in the second Trial. Worse case I could still rely on Xalla to help me out.
I was so distracted with my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed that I had already arrived at the patient’s ward. Strangely, none of the doors had been locked when I was walking alone in the hospital, nor had there been any guards roaming around like I thought. In fact, it wasn’t until I reached the patient’s ward that I saw any other signs of life.
By the gate leading into the other side of the hospital was two little dogs lying down on a small cushion. Now the Director did say something about letting the dogs know I was out and about, but I had thought they would be a little more… monstrous? Maybe something like Cerberus or the like, but these two were wiener dogs. They had stubby little legs and barely reached past my ankles, and their chubby tube-bodies were flabby.
The two dogs looked up at me before coming over to sniff my hands. I gave both of them a good patting down before they showed me their bellies to scratch. There was no way I could say no to that! But… were these the guard dogs in charge of keeping people inside at night? The Regressor did stress how dangerous it would be to operate outside work hours, but there’s no way these two were anything other than small dogs.
I rubbed one of their chubby heads before picking the other up to look at it closer. The dog didn’t struggle and even tried to lick my face. Now, I knew that Noe was slightly altering my perception, but surely she couldn’t alter my perception of the size and shape of the dogs. No matter how I looked at them, these were wiener dogs.
I shrugged, no point trying to figure out who those little guys could do anything other than look cute. I gave them one final pat on the head before walking past them and into the next segment of the hospital. I made a mental note of the rooms and general layout of this part of the hospital, in case I ever needed to rescue Jae-Hyun if things go really wrong, but once again, I was mainly here just as an excuse to move around.
And speaking of Jae-Hyun, what the hell was I supposed to do when I meet up with him tomorrow? How much was I supposed to tell the guy? I’ve basically completed all his tasks, so I can’t imagine clearing this Trial would take too long, but I still needed to prolong my stay in this Trial for at least 2 more days. I’ve only interacted with the patients for a limited amount of time, but even that much told me how horrible it was to be a patient in this hospital. I can’t imagine what kinds of treatments the Regressor’s had to endure.
Which ultimately meant that I had to lie to him again, or at the very least omit some of the truth. I didn’t want to do that to the man, but the alternatives were not things that I wanted to explore. But I was getting ahead of myself again, I still need to ask him what the clear conditions were in the first place. Maybe they’ll take him more than a few days to accomplish even with my part out of the way.
I walked around the ward one final time, just absentmindedly looking at the phantoms of the days activities, before heading back to get a good night’s sleep. I had a general idea of what to discuss with the Regressor in the morning, and I had a few different scripts I could play out depending on what he tells me. But ultimately, planning things with imperfect information can only get a person so far.
Want to read ahead? Check out my Patreon! It's what's keeping this project alive and well!
VOLUME 2 IS COMPLETE ON PATREON!
It's currently 29 chapters ahead with a new chapter uploaded daily!
Check it out if you want to support the author, and as always, thank you for reading!
