Strange New World

"Almost there... Just a little more code to debug and the transfer process should be fully operational once more..."

"How's it coming?"

The man at the central computer access panel turned to face his comrade standing in the doorway. The two were both cloaked, all in black and hooded; unable to see each others faces. Despite this, he smiled as his comrade entered the room and stood beside him, who eyed the numbers that flashed across the computer screen.

"Come to check on me?" he asked, smirking under his hood.

"I came to see the progress, not you." he said without any emotion in his tone. He touched on the leftmost computer panel and many graphs and scanners pulled up on the screen. He stared at the screen and sighed heavily.

"How's the signal?" he asked.

His comrade only shook his head as he pushed in a few keys and watched the screen change to another set of graphs.

"Not as I had hoped..." He stood back and watched the screen once more. He turned and said, "It's getting stronger."

"Well..... I'm almost done debugging the TR," There was hesitation in his voice. He began to type in more information at his center panel. "It'll be up and running again in four or five days." He looked back up at his comrade. He was still eyeing the screen before him. "Is that him?"

"Yes..."

The man got up from his chair and stood beside his comrade. They both look upon the screen which now showed vital signs, body mass, weight, and other calculations relative to the human body. It was all normal. The individual was healthy. It was the typical state of health for a teenager.

"So... When is he going?"

"As soon as the TR is fully functional again."

"Really? That soon? Don't you think..."

"The signal is growing in strength as we speak. We need to act as soon as possible." His comrade only shrugged. Not much sense arguing with his superior.

"How's he looking?"

"You're staring at the screen aren't you?" the comrade said sarcastically.

"I meant his training. Is he prepared?"

"He's not being trained. He's not even aware of the mission, nor our very existence."

"What?!" the man turned to his comrade in shock, his silver chains that dangled from his neck lining clanked together. "What do you mean he doesn't know?! We're sending a Civi there?!"

"Exactly." the comrade nodded his head.

"Why the hell are we doing that?"

"Take a closer look at the screen."

The man, now starting to sweat, took another look up at the computer screen. He searched for anything out of the ordinary rather than the obvious. He knew how his comrade...Master... worked. However, he could find nothing.

"I don't see what you mean......and I don't understand why we're not going in ourselves besides sending a Civi."

"Well... he's unique. See here..." The Master pointed to the bottom of the screen. Everything there was in code; in many lines of it. Usually, it was just gibberish. The man was confused.

"Look, I'm good at debugging and the computer crap I deal with and what not but I'm rusty on reading the shit."

"He's unique in one particular way... Remember a few years ago... we had found a study on a set group of particular individuals? It read that, rarely, some persons are... built for some worlds?"

The man gasped. He faced the screen again; getting closer and squinted at the code. He stepped back after a few moments.

"Huh..."

"This one is especially powerful... when placed in the world, of course. However, he'll have to discover his power while he's there."

"Why's that?" His Master only shrugged.

"It's still unknown where this special power comes from. It's also unknown on how to trigger it. The study doesn't elaborate too well. All it says is that it comes to the chosen when they are ready to receive it."

"Odd enough."

"Although, its true, I would like to send some of our own into the world, but I'd think it'd be wise to try and stay out of affairs as long as we can. Don't want to get into any more trouble than we need to. Also... I'd like to see what this person can do... But, if anything does go wrong, and things take a turn for the worse, we will come go in and deal with it."

"Some experiment." the man said. "Do you think he'll be able to handle it?"

"I think he be able to. He won't be alone, though. I'll be monitoring him all the while he's there and will be pointing him in the right direction."

"So he won't be completely blind?"

"Precisely." The Master leaned over and brought back up the scanners. A blip appeared on the screen. The Master sighed. Then silence flooded the room. The two cloaked figures stood and stared at the blip for a long time; not saying a word to each other, until, finally, the Master spoke up, "There's something odd about this, though..."

"What?" the man asked.

"It's just odd that, before, there were no signs of activity anywhere in this quadrant," the Master gestured to a certain part of the computer screen. "And now, there happens to be a signal."

"Isn't that how its always been?"

"Sure... but never this far from a past outbreak..." They both stared, again, at the screen for a few more moments until the Master leaned over and turned it off. "Well... anyway... why don't you go and round everyone up. I think it's time they knew of what the plan is."

"Yes, sir."  The man nodded and ran out of the room with much haste.

August... the Master thought.