Tours

 

Dyna wasn’t sure what she expected Tartarus to be like.

The Carroll Institute topside was a relatively modern school campus-like area. It had fairly standard dormitories, overly artistic administrative buildings, auditoriums for lectures, advanced medical facilities for testing and research, and a variety of meditation rooms.

Underground, Psychodynamics had an elegance to it. All the wood and brass fixtures made the entire facility feel like a high-class lounge from the early twentieth century. The psionically shielded glass had almost a strange violet tint to it, giving it an air of abnormal intrigue. About half the machinery and equipment had fancy casings and coverings to roughly match the aesthetic of the rest of the department while the rest of the machinery looked bare-bones.

Phrenomorphics, being a newer department, lacked much of the aesthetics of Psychodynamics. It was all in the same facility, so it was all probably going to be wood and brass in the end, but right now, the majority of those areas were hard cement walls. Dyna honestly had no idea how they were digging out new areas down there, but presumed they had fancy equipment to do the work.

A small part of Dyna wondered if she had any hand in either the design, architecture, layout, or aesthetics of any part of the Carroll Institute, Psychodynamics, and Phrenomorphics. Surely not much, right? If her power was constantly changing everything around her, it seemed like it would be impossible to get any work done. And her power was supposed to be a secret as well, even from people like Doctor Cross. Cross wasn’t a stupid or even unobservant man, he would have noticed and had questions.

Still, she did wonder.

Tartarus, on the other hand, had no topside component. Topside was the wrong word. It didn’t have a public facing component like the Carroll Institute campus. It was a large, windowless building positioned in the wilderness south of Dallas, Texas. It took a high speed train about twenty minutes to reach, crossing nothing but flat terrain the entire way.

The building itself was a monolithic obelisk jutting high above the otherwise flat landscape. It looked beyond conspicuous. It was the kind of place that should have more conspiracy theories about it than Area 51. Yet, watching Walter’s reaction as they approached in the train, Dyna would have bet money that he was surprised to see that Tartarus was so close to a major population center.

The hydraulics of the train hissed as it came to a stop.

“All ashore that’s going ashore,” Id said, standing.

“Ashore?”

She shrugged, glancing to Dyna. “I don’t know the train equivalent of the phrase.”

“Is the train the only way to reach the building?” Walter asked, looking outside with a frown.

“I mean, you can walk. There might be a road or there might not. I’m not here to tell all our secrets, you know.” Id stepped onto the platform as the train doors opened, then up a few steps to the only windows on the entire building, those surrounding the lobby doors. “Come along. Do you all have your golden tickets?”

Dyna rolled her eyes, but noted the confused look on Ruby’s face. “It’s a movie thing. We’ll watch it next movie night.”

The lobby was a fairly standard affair. Several monitors behind the front desk displayed spinning red hexagons and a pulsing Tartarus underneath. There was no one actually sitting at the reception desk, but Dyna didn’t find that particularly surprising. She doubted they got many visitors.

“Phones, watches, and any other electronic devices into the box, please,” Id said, reaching behind the counter to pull up a small box. “You’ll get them back at the end of the tour.”

Dyna placed her phone in the box without complaint, but kept her watch on her wrist. First of all, it was far too valuable to give up. She would rather sit out the tour than be without the ability to turn back time. Second of all, it wasn’t an electronic watch.

Ruby dropped her phone inside with a scowl, but didn’t say anything.

Walter, on the other hand, started putting item after item into the box. His phone, his watch, his tie clip, two cuff links, his wallet, a keyring with two fobs, and finally his belt. Id simply stared, radiating amusement. Once he finished, however, she brought up a finger and tapped the center of her mask. With a small frown, Walter reached up and removed his mirrored glasses.

“Do any of you have any pacemakers or other electronic life-assistance devices?”

All three guests shook their heads.

“Wonderful. Elevator is this way,” Id said, turning.

Large, multi-paneled doors slid open to reveal a wide freight elevator. The Carroll Institute’s elevator was a fancy thing designed for people to see it. This looked like something pulled from the back of an industrial factory. Dyna’s eyes moved to the buttons. A quick scan showed that the lobby button was all the way at the bottom, but…

“There is no way there are that many floors. The building isn’t that tall.”

“Yes, there are about ten more floors than there should be. We’re not quite sure how that works.” Id turned her head to face Dyna. “We’re pretty sure it has something to do with you.”

Dyna clamped her jaw shut. She was about to ask how that was possible, but decided that would be a futile question. How was it possible that Emerald could stop time or… anything, really.

As soon as the door slid shut, Id slammed her fist into a bright red button to the side of the floor controls. Dyna tensed, half expecting the floor to drop out from under them, as did Ruby. However, aside from a tingle and the hairs on her arms standing on end, nothing happened.

Nothing except for Walter sighing. Reaching into his vest, he pulled out a thumb-sized plastic box that was connected by wire to one of his buttons. “Can’t blame me for trying,” he said, dropping it on the floor.

“I could, but I know you well enough to have expected this.”

“How do you know him?” Ruby asked before Dyna could.

“I’m interested in discovering that as well,” Walter said, making Dyna’s eyebrows raise.

“You two aren’t old coworkers that fell out over some disagreement?”

Id laughed while Walter shook his head.

“I know everyone I see. It is as simple as that.”

“Are you a tulpa?” Dyna asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Your hair,” Dyna said, motioning toward the long black ponytail. “It doesn’t move like real people’s hair. Most tulpa, aside from the grunts Ignotus has been using, have some odd characteristics that are obviously inhuman.”

“Ah.” Id reached back and ran her fingers through her ponytail. “I’m pretty sure that’s your fault as well.”

Dyna pressed her lips together. “Is that what Tartarus does, blames everything on me?”

“Not everything,” Id said. “Just… say, eighty percent of things.”

Her tone made it sound like a joke.

Dyna just shook her head, not sure what to believe.

The elevator dinged, reaching the floor Id had pressed after the red button. It wasn’t the floor directly above the lobby, nor was it the next ten floors. She almost asked what was on those floors, even knowing that they weren’t going to get a full tour, but stopped herself as she stared out into the large open room they found themselves on.

It looked like a factory. Maybe the same one the elevator had been pulled from. Harsh and industrial with metal catwalks stretching over conveyor belts that ran through the room like a maze. Robotic arms picked up pieces from the belts, welding them, assembling them, or simply moving them from one belt to another. Dyna couldn’t see their end destination or form, but she could see where they were coming from.

Behind a large glass panel, concentric rings attached to robotic arms swept back and forth. The interior of the rings glowed a bright white light that hurt a bit to look at, even through the tinted glass. However, it provided enough light to see bits of machinery, circuit boards, and metal panels just appear as the rings swept back and forth. At a certain point, the rings finished and moved to one side, letting the completed product drop down onto a conveyor belt that took the item into the rest of the machine.

Most interesting of all was the feeling. While those rings were active, it was almost as if they were magnets drawing Dyna closer.

“The Prototyping Room,” Id said, voice filled with pride. “It is not something that Dyna magicked up, but instead came from the genius mind of our resident engineer, Ado. I believe you’ve encountered her.”

As the ring machine started up again, Dyna walked as close as she could before a railing kept her from reaching the conveyor belt leading out of it. “There is something about this…” she said, frowning as she stared at the light. “Is it teleporting things in from elsewhere in the facility?”

“You shouldn’t stare quite so much, the light is too intense,” Id said, placing a gentle hand on Dyna’s shoulder. “As for your question, no. That is the Psychofabber.”

“Psychofabber.” Dyna closed her eyes, still seeing those bright lights burned into the back of her eyes. Id guided her around, away from that side of the factory. “It feels familiar.”

“I’m surprised you can tell, but not that surprised. It is based off you, after all.”

Dyna snapped her eyes open and tried to turn back, only for Id to keep her hand on Dyna’s shoulder, stopping her from fully turning.

“It’s what?” Walter whispered, staring toward the machine with one hand held in front of his squinting eyes.

“It is forming objects from pure psionic energy, based off principles identified within Dyna’s use of her ability.”

“But how… We haven’t even…” Walter trailed off, not taking his eyes off the bright light.

Id just shrugged. “I truly cannot overstate just how much of a genius Ado is. It would not be incorrect to state that the Continuity Engine she designed is the only reason this place is not falling to pieces. If she had any interest in actually running an organization like Tartarus, I would abdicate in an instant. Lucky for me, she only wants to be left alone with her machines.

“As for the Psychofabber, Ado could explain it better, but basically it uses psionic energy to generate alterations in reality in the form of programmed items. Like a supercharged 3D printer. It isn’t just a magic solution to everything. Unfortunately, the complexity is limited, which is why we’re soldering chips to a circuit board rather than just printing an entire completed board. The items created are also unstable, dissipating back into psionics after a few hours. But, for those few hours, it is the perfect device to rapidly prototype whatever new inventions Ado comes up with. We can fabricate ‘real’ versions later without spending all the money of wasted parts.”

Dyna felt flabbergasted. A sentiment obviously shared by Walter—it was strange being able to see his brown eyes—though Ruby didn’t look quite as impressed. Maybe because the Carroll Institute could do a similar thing, if in a slightly different way.

Mel, Dyna thought, could act as a fabricator with the fog machine. Of course, she was human and would tire while these machines wouldn’t, but she had the added advantage in that her creations didn’t vanish. At the moment, the Carroll Institute wasn’t using her like that, but Dyna wouldn’t be surprised to find Walter suggesting it upon their return. Hopefully they paid her well because it sounded like the perfect way to turn a fantastical ability into boring, repetitive work.

“By showing this to us, might I take this as a sign that you would be willing to share the designs and blueprints?” Walter asked, almost timidly.

“Unfortunately no. The principles it relies on can only function within the area of effect of the Continuity Engine, a device which you will not be seeing or even allowed near for the duration of your stay. It is too integral to the continued functioning of Tartarus.” Id held up a hand before Walter could say anything. “However, in light of our current collaboration, I might be persuaded into prototyping some of your designs and returning the results.”

“Thus granting you access to our blueprints,” Walter said with a frown.

“Business comes at a cost,” Id said with a shrug. “Now, shall we move on? I’m afraid much of the rest of the facility isn’t anywhere near as fascinating as here, but I’m sure you would be interested in viewing our tulpa containment unit.”

From there, the tour continued. True to Id’s words, the rest of the tour was almost pedestrian in nature. They went through a few offices—most of which were either empty or had been emptied out in advance of their tour group arriving—a few other rooms with experimentation equipment that wouldn’t have looked out of place at the Carroll Institute, and even the tulpa containment unit wasn’t that special. In fact, Dyna was quite surprised to find it nearly identical to that of Phrenomorphics. Lots of psionically shielded glass tubes filled with a gel-like liquid with floating entities inside them.

The entities themselves were of far more interest.

Much like some of those stored in Phrenomorphics, they came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some weren’t even vaguely humanoid. One was a black spider with bright red eyes the size of a penny-farthing’s larger wheel, another was a woman with paws instead of hands and feet, a bushy black tail, and burning eyes. Literally burning eyes. They had flames jetting out the corners despite the entity being contained in liquid. Dyna wasn’t quite sure how that worked, but it was far from the strangest thing she had seen today, let alone ever.

All the containment tanks had metal placards, but the only identifying information was a serial number. Presumably one much like the Carroll Institute Internal Database’s identification strings. Id didn’t let them stop at any of the consoles and she didn’t explain what any of the tulpa were.

Eventually, after another trip in the elevator, Id brought them down a long hallway and to a room made entirely of glass. Id stepped inside first, followed shortly by Walter, Dyna, and Ruby. It wasn’t a very large room. Maybe the size of her dormitory bedroom. Four people standing around quickly became uncomfortable, especially once the glass door slid shut. Id, facing away from everyone else, carefully removed her mask and placed it in a small receptacle on the far wall of the small room.

As soon as the receptacle closed, the glass in the room dimmed, becoming opaque.

“No electronic devices, no cameras, no microphones, no way for anyone outside to see inside. What is said in this room won’t leave it,” Id said, speaking softly before slowly turning around.

Ruby started shouting something while Walter remained impassive.

Dyna just stared, narrowing her eyes. She didn’t speak for a long moment. When she did, it was barely more than a whisper. “You are a tulpa.”

“Hello, Dyna-Prime,” a copy of Dyna said, spreading her arms wide. “Nice to finally meet face-to-face.”

Dyna closed her eyes, breathing slowly. She honestly couldn’t decide if she was shocked or if she knew this had been coming. She tried to occupy her thoughts with thinking of when this tulpa, this stray thought of Dyna’s had branched off. “When we met in my mind and I told you to get out, was that when you started existing?”

“Good guess, but no. How would I have sent those men after you before I existed?”

“You’re Id. The subconscious. My subconscious sent them after me.”

“Specifically so that I could break away from you?” Id shook her head, hair drifting behind her. “What you want and what your subconscious wants aren’t always the same thing, but that is a bit much. Trust me. I know these things.”

Dyna narrowed her eyes, unconvinced, until she remembered discussing her ability in a similar situation following the most recent mountain man incident and her mountain man-self splitting off from her. Glancing to Walter, Dyna turned her attentions back to Id. “The first time I learned about my powers. I don’t remember it, but I bet you do?”

Id smiled. Dyna had to suppress a shudder. It was her smile. Like she was looking into a mirror, except not mirrored. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she let it back out.

“Do I want to know?”

“No,” Walter said, shaking his head.

Id nodded, agreeing. “Probably not.”

“Though,” Walter said with a slowly deepening frown. “This does answer some of our questions. But now I need to know, can you—”

“Only Prime here seems to have the ability to affect changes in reality,” Id said with another shake of her head. “But my knowledge of what happened and how was what allowed Ado to create the Continuity Engine and the Psychofabber, among other things.”

“Did you come up with Prime all on your own?” Dyna asked.

“Why? Has someone else been calling you that lately?”

“You could say that,” Dyna said, then paused and added. “Would it be arrogant to say that great minds think alike in this situation?”

Id just laughed. “You’re taking this quite well.”

“As you said, you aren’t the only one who has called me Dyna-Prime in recent weeks. I guess I got used to talking to myself.”

“Well, I’m not sure what my counterparts might have gotten up to, but I will not be making any attempt at rejoining you,” Id said. “A year and then some is far too much time. We’re different people. And,” she nodded to Walter before looking back to Dyna, “you having my memories might turn out the same way it did last time. Something all of us would like to avoid, I imagine.

“Instead, perhaps we can continue our conversation from the plane? You do have something to say, I know these things.”

Dyna pressed her lips together and nodded, then turned fully to Walter. “It’s Alpha.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Alpha is the one behind Ignotus-33,” Dyna said.