Chapter 14: The Machine
Waking up the next day, Charlotte got ready and went out to receive the last package.
As it was a highly dangerous material, it couldn't be delivered normally and it needed a person to go to the delivery office so there wouldn't be any problem.
Once taken, she brought it to her warehouse and put it under the machine. Providing it with the four different forces of nature, the last material was, hopefully, the one which could bring forth the mysterious fifth force.
*Fuu
Taking off her protective garments so she wouldn't be intoxicated by the reactive uranium, she closed the warehouse and went to her home.
She arrived at around 10 in the morning.
Now to tell him where the locker is and its password.
After telling him all the necessary information, she went to an ATM to withdraw at least half her money.
The reason was obvious: The government could freeze all her accounts and be tracked if she was to use the money once they announced the hacker matter.
Heck, they could track her and apprehend her before announcing anything.
She could only hope they'd be a little more open with this.
At least I'm still free.
Finally deciding on the withdrawing amount of one hundred thousand Gers on cash, she tried to withdraw it but when she was on the 20 thousand mark, it said that it was not possible to withdraw that kind of money.
Despairing inside, she put the 20 thousand Gers she got and was about to leave when she saw a man in front of the ATM with a shotgun at hand.
Freezing in the spot, she couldn't dare to open the door, it wasn't until he personally opened it with a key that she started to panic.
W-w-what do I do, it was too fast, why why, didn't they say I still had a week! It's not been a week! Why did you lie to me! I trusted you!
With tears in her eyes, she was hugging her satchel as hard as she could without any room to move.
"Uhm, lady, can you please calm down, I'm not a mugger. I was sent by the bank when they realized there was an ongoing withdrawal from this particular ATM using the same account."
"Uh, w-what?"
No understanding completely, it took the guard some minutes to try to explain it to her and for Charlotte to calm down.
*sigh…
"I'm really sorry mister guard, I thought I was being robbed, eheheh…" She scratched her cheek in shame.
"It's not a problem, Missy. From what I understood, you wanted to withdraw more, right?"
"Uh, yes, how…?"
"The bank informed me a moment ago. You should go to the bank directly and make it there, we can then escort you to your place so there wouldn't be any problem. Of course, that's if you want me to."
"Uh, yes, then, where can I go?"
"Please, follow me."
Had he not shown her his identity card, she wouldn't have trusted him completely. Even then, she called the bank to confirm it.
Once on the nearest bank, she went to talk to the clerk the guard told her to. Once seated she was asked why she needed all that money and how she was planning on transporting it. She said that she needed it to buy a vehicle to her family and that it was best to do it on cash, as that was what the other person suggested.
As for how would she be transporting it, it was in her satchel, of course.
Right now, she had 20 thousand in there and it was occupying that much space. Heck, it wasn't occupying anything at all.
Sighing to themselves, the clerk and the guard couldn't believe how innocent this lady was being. After talking a bit more about the money and how she got it, they allowed her to withdraw it.
The guard accompanied her to her neighborhood, she said it was not necessary to come to her house as she knew it was pretty nice place to live and there wouldn't be any problem.
Once in her room, she put the money under her bed and sighed.
"I didn't know it was so complicated to withdraw money…"
It was close to 3, she had taken 5 hours in this little endeavor!
Eating something, she now was left with nothing to do in her room, so she just surfed the net and let the day be over with.
Tomorrow's the big day…!
She woke up at 4. She had gone to sleep early so she could be full of energy today. She didn't think about waking up this early, though.
She looked at Laurent's laptop and saw that there was a message in there:
"James:
All good, you can do your thing, we've checked it all and there's no danger."
It was sent 3 hours ago.
So they did it at midnight, uh?
Getting ready and making herself a sumptuous breakfast, she went to the location of the locker she had rented.
Once there, she opened the padlock. Inside she saw a black bag and a note.
Reading the note, she froze.
"Please be more careful with your
actions, you're still too innocent.
Yesterday too, while withdrawing
the money I had to change things
so they wouldn't suspect you.
Again, be careful,
little hacker.
With regards: James."
"H-he was the o-one who alerted me…"
While crushing the note, she put it in her satchel along with the bag where the problematic material was.
Fuck it! I was dancing in his hands! And I even went to request this thing from him! … Now that I think about it, there were signs there was something wrong, I just didn't think about it. Fuck, I never told him I was a girl in that conversation and he knew I was a woman! I'm an idiot, idiot!
"Sir, she has retrieved the package."
"Oh finally, she really took her sweet time… She's really carefree huh. Monitor her, don't do anything excessive. If you need something call me at once."
"Understood."
After she was sone deriding herself, she took a taxi and made it go around for some time.
After thinking that it was enough to distract anyone following her, she made the taxi go to her warehouse. She paid an extra bit for the trouble.
Opening the front door of the warehouse, she put everything on the floor before closing the door again.
She then went to the middle of it and appreciated the machine, she was proud of it as it was something she had made from scratch. She knew every little part, how they worked and why it was supposed to be where it was.
The machine was not big, it was not conspicuous in the sense that it just appeared to be an engineering machine a mechanical and chemistry student would make.
It was made of the best materials someone could get, everything but one thing was already in its place.
The machine had an anti-seismic base, to avoid any unnecessary disturbance from the exterior.
Around the machine were numerous carbon pipes of the best quality with a diameter no bigger than two centimeters, at the end of each pipe was a test tube that had the liquid form of different elements in its purest state, such as hydrogen, neon and sulfur. To maintain it, each needed a specialized device. In total there were 10 different tubes.
Along with the tubes was a trail with some weights in it, it was made so it could rotate.
Inside it were uncountable sensors and wires to keep it all connected. Its purpose was to monitor any anomality and to maintain a fixed flux of elements.
At the top of it was the rich uranium she had brought the day before. It was covered by a layer of lead to prevent any unnecessary leakage. It was also connected to two other devices, the first one was to monitor it and the second was to produce a reaction to augment its radiation.
The only thing that was missing now was in the central most part of the machine. It had a door that was currently open but had screws on it to secure it. On it was enough space to put something equivalent to a litter of volume.
It was the problematic material that went there, the only missing part and where all the energy was supposed to go.
"Really, such a beauty…" She murmured before opening her satchel.
Inside was the bag containing the problematic material.
Looking inside the bag she marveled at what she saw. The problematic material was in the form of a crystal, having eight sides like a diamond, four in the upper part and four in the lower.
She took it outside and studied it, it was almost as big as her head.
"This thing is the core part, uh? It's pretty, like a really big jewel"
It was translucent and without any color if one only looked at it for a second. But if one studied it attentively, there could be seen various colors. It varied depending on the angle one was looking from.
From the part below one could see the colors violet, dark blue, light blue and green on each of its faces; on the higher part it was yellow, orange and dark and light red, similarly. Each color faded into the next face, combining them on the tears, making it look even more wonderful.
She put on her working clothes and placed the crystal on the machine, she wondered if there was a meaning in the colors and if there was really an upper and lower side of it.
Shrugging her shoulders, she simply put this strange and problematic material inside the machine in the same way she was holding it: Blue at the bottom and red to the top.
She initiated the machine and waited until all the elements were circulating, she then initiated the gravitation part. It wasn't really that hard, just some movement in the trail could stimulate the force that was needed.
Once everything was going smoothly, she started to radiate the uranium. This was the most dangerous part as it could generate an explosion if not done right and without sufficient precautions it could be poison to all living things near it.
When she saw that all was doing its intended part, she turned on the last button. She didn't know what that button did that well, but it was the beginning to collect the energy and transfer it to the diamond shaped material.
"Uhm, hello? Nothing's happening…?"
She said after waiting for a minute. According to the theory she got from her desktop. It there should be an instantaneous reaction...
After waiting a little more, she decided to start changing the position of the diamond shaped material.
"From now on, I'll call you Crystal Core? Yes, it's the most important part of this machine so that name fits."
When she finished changing the position of the crystal, she gave it a name as it was too bothersome to always describe it as 'problematic material' or 'diamond shaped material', or similar ways.
…
*Thud
"Damn! It doesn't work at all!"
She hit the machine after the nth try she had made. She had spent the last three hours trying to make it work, changing the position of the material, changing the rates of the elements circulation, changing the speed of the moving weights… Nothing worked.
She didn't have any more ideas when it came to it.
She was in a dead end.
"I might as well go eat something, it's lunch time anyway…"
Feeling despondent, she left the warehouse, leaving it locked.
Arriving at a restaurant not even 10 minutes away on foot from the warehouse, she ordered some food and waited while amusing herself with her phone.
"He can gimme some inspiration… I hope."
"Charly:
Hey! You up yet!"
When the food arrived, she finally got a response.
"Jean:
Hey, yeh, I'm here."
"Charly:
How dyd?
"Jean:
Good, I think, too tired from work."
"Charly:
ReallY? I can relate…"
"Jean:
How so?"
"Charly:
Ive been doing smng and it doesn't work!
So frustrating!"
"Jean:
Yeah, it happens a lot. So What're you doing?"
"Charly:
I'm creating a program and it doesn't work as intended…
Can you imagine?!"
Charlotte paused while answering as she didn't know how to answer, taking some seconds to hit the send button.
"Jean:
It's rare for you to be stuck on something like a program, is it a game?"
"Charly:
Yes!! I want it to do smtng and it just wont do anything, like at all!!"
Riding on the excuse of a game, she continued to describe it in a way that could be understood.
"Jean:
Hmm, and everything else is working? That's weird…
Maybe you forgot something that was obvious or that you thought could be avoided but at the end couldn't?
What's it you want to make your character do?"
"Something that could be avoided…"
She whispered trying to think about it when a light opened in her mind.
"Right! That freaking force!"
"Charly:
OH! THANKS! I THINK I KNOW WHAT'S IT! SEE YA!"
She stood up from her seat, leaving a bill on the table, and ran to the warehouse.
"But now that I know it, how to make it work… I don't know anything about it."
Bringing all the information she had about the fifth force, she made a staring contest with the machine. In physics, this force was unknown, or at least, there wasn't an explanation to it but observed anomalies through some experiments, so she couldn't use anything scientific.
But according to the ancient Durinn culture, for things to come alive there were needed some things.
So, there are things that I can try… Hmm first off, to give it a name, I think?
One of the fundamentals of it all was giving important things a name. Fortunately, she had given a name to the crystal before.
"From now on, you're called the Core Machine!"
She said as she patted the machine on where she had hit it before, giving it a mental apology.
The second one was to recognize it as a 'living' thing. Something she was familiar with as she talked to all her things…
Finally, was to give it breath.
How do I give breath to it anyway? Do I need to breath on it until it does something?
Starting again the Core Machine, she started to breath on it for some time, until… Nothing happened.
Hmm, that first book was called 'breath of the meridians', was it not? And it talked a lot about meditation… Maybe giving it breath is meditating on it? Or thinking about it while meditating?
Even if she felt a little silly, she had nothing to lose while doing it. She had already spent all her efforts to do this Core Machine, and if it didn't work, then that was it.
Sitting beside it, she started to meditate while thinking
C'mon Core Machine, come to life… C'mon~ C'mon~!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
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-- Power
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