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The dim lights flickered on and the stream of curse words that shot from Callen's mouth would shock even the most veteran of sailors. The mess that was packed into this room was beyond anything he thought possible, and for him that said a lot. He worked best in a mess, as if he drew inspiration from the chaos itself. But, with that in mind, it did come back to one thing. This wasn't “his” mess.
With his headphones in, Poison’s Nothin’ but a Good Time helped him accept cleaning was the first thing he had to do to save his mother. With an irritated acceptance, he slowly looked over the assortment of equipment crammed into the room and spotted a pair of buried workbenches.
Only a narrow path snaked through the mess, which looked about the size necessary to accommodate the stride of a dwarf with dwarfism. He looked towards the bench that had the most monitors on it, and saw the makings of a chair beneath the mess next to it. The powered down computers beneath the bench looked old, but functional.
A variety of imaging equipment was easily accessible from the chair and there was a clear spot for him to work on the bench, once he removed the clutter. "I guess that's as good a spot as any to start with..." He muttered and took one last look before diving in. "A lot of dust...so I guess I'll be sneezing...but, at least the dehumidifiers keep out the mold...well, Mom...I guess this is for all the times that you told me to clean up and I ignored you..."
The first thing he did was clear the chair. When he sat down to start clearing the workbench, he had a moment of joy in how comfortable the chair was. He didn’t delay for long, his mom needed him to hurry.
There was a lot of dust as he began clearing things, and soon the hallway was beginning to house a lot of his overflow. However, as he cleaned he took note of what was there and did his best to keep an organizational system.
Among the mess, he found half complete prototypes, parts, busted Mavis bots, books, paper blueprints, and he scrutinized everything that he couldn't immediately identify. Along with the spare parts, this room seemed to be what Felix used as a depository for things his abandoned inventions. However, despite the aging technology and dates on some of the blueprints, the things he saw seemed like they were built from concepts from another world or the future. He could scarcely imagine some of their purposes. However, one thing was for sure. If they were finished, many would work.
Hours of cleaning rolled by, and after whipping the sweat from his brow, he picked up a multimeter he had found and began checking all the power nodes he had uncovered. Sure enough, most of them worked and the others would be ready once Mavis fixed them. He had just enough sockets to get the bench’s computers running.
Before plugging them in, he popped open the side panels with his multitool and looked over their internals. The towers were old in look, but the insides were very advanced and custom made. When he was sure everything was in order, he bolted them back together. Using some zip-ties, he re-ran all the cables and plugged everything in. The lights on the computers and old monitors blinked, perhaps for the first time in a decade.
Looking at the crowded bench, he shook his head. "I'm gonna have to get some flat screens and tablets for this place. These '90s cathode ray tube monitors take up way too much room." He sighed. "But at least they work...and with any luck, I'll have those sweet glasses soon..."
He plopped back down in his comfortable old chair and watched the computers boot up. He smiled and noted the lines of code that indicated the custom operating system. After a handshaking session with the Mavis system, he saw a string of updates begin loading. "Yep, these haven't been used in a while." He sighed and prepared for a long wait. He looked back at the mess in the room and realized he had a lot more to do. However, he was beyond tired of cleaning. He needed a break.
As the updates continued, he pulled out his own laptop and loaded up Shadowborne. He laughed when he saw that update as well, although they were quick. He logged on and began working his character through the series of quests he had last left off on. He began hunting mercenary monsters hired by Nazis to release zombie gas in French villages.
He had lost himself for a while in the game before he was pulled out by chime of the bench computers' operating systems flashing onto the screens above him. When the desktop software loaded, the wallpaper background image immediately caught his eye. Each computer monitor had a different pictures of him, his sister, his mother, and his father.
There were pictures of him as a baby, a child being carried by his dad and pictures of him playing on the beach. He saw Ania covered in food in a high chair, and many other happy scenes that seemed like they were clips from a movie he had no memory of. On the center, screen was a picture of his mother and father, together. They looked so happy. He felt tears, but wiped them away as fast as he could when he realized that this computer might contain something about his father.
He immediately looked over the programs and the files for any sort of clue. However, all the data that one would expect to be on a scientist's personal supercomputer had been cleared. Among the common programs and Mavis control icons, he found a shortcut that was out of place. It didn't have any text descriptor under the icon and it only was marked by a digital representation of the cross that hung from Callen's neck.
His hand instantly went to the actual cross and with the other, he moved the mouse cursor over the digital icon. He bit his lip as he double clicked. As the loading symbol circled, he continued to rub the cross. This was once one of his father's workshops. What exactly that meant, he wasn't sure. This could even be the place from his dream if it were cleaned up.
The program window opened, and images that looked like raw versions of medical diagnostic programs Callen had seen spread in the window. There was a graphical depiction of a generic body and the various sub-layers of organs, tissue, and bones that made up a human being. There were markers on the body that felt familiar and he remembered at least some of those spots were the locations that his father had placed medical implants in his most recent dream.
He shivered at the idea, and when he looked back at the screen, he noticed that at the top of the window, the program's name read Panacea Interface, alpha build v1.1. He clicked on the file icon, it instantly brought up one file and it was marked with his name. There was no choice but to load it, and soon his own medical data from years ago appeared on the screen. It asked if he wanted to remotely access another off-site computer system to update, he clicked yes. Where the computer he was connecting with, it wouldn't tell him, but he noticed this computer isolate itself from Mavis as it began to search for a connection.
After a few moments of searching, an error message appeared and indicated that whatever computer system the program was remotely accessing was unavailable. A few error messages exploded in one of the program's text boxes. The list was long and showed the program wasn't complete. In addition, there were errors related to machinery that wasn't here, pharmaceuticals he had never heard of, and the command to install a medical tank. The picture of the tank appeared on the screen and he looked back at the pair that sat among the mess.
He cursed when he realized the tanks didn't match the software. Upon further inspection, they didn't even have the connections that the computer program indicated were critical. His father had another secret laboratory somewhere. The excitement dwindled a little, and the reality of the task at hand resurfaced. As soon as he saved his mother, he promised himself finding his dad was next. Though, when he saw Felix's work orders begin lining up on his computer, which included a bunch of things that Felix needed for some other projects, he knew he couldn't waste anymore time.