[color=green][b]Alcântara Space Center, Maranhão, Brazil[/b][/color] "VLMP-5, you are go for launch." [i]To late to turn back now,[/i] Chikako thought, turning her head from one side to the other, glancing at her fellow astronauts. She was about to head into orbit for her first time, aboard one of the most top-of-the-line space stations in orbit... And she was nervous. Not about the launch itself, of course - she'd always wanted the chance to be in space, after all - but about the reason [i]she[/i] was being sent up. "VLMP-5, we're go for launch." Major Guimarães, the mission commander, replied. "T-minus thirty seconds." That reason, of course, was the cargo. Several thousand pounds of containment, all to protect one single, tiny little alien artifact that she hadn't even had the chance to look at yet. She was set to be the first person to see it - but what if something did go wrong? What if looking at it killed her? "T-minus fifteen." It was an opportunity she couldn't afford to give up, though. "Ten." "Nine." "Eight." "Seven." "Six." The rocket began to rumble and shake beneath her, engines abruptly igniting. For the next six seconds, it continued to shake - not violently, but certainly enough to discombobulate Chikako, scrambling her thoughts. It was her first launch, after all, and she felt her hands reflexively tighten around her seat, muscles tensing. "Five." "Four." "Three." "Two." "One." A great force thudded into her back as the solid boosters fired, like the sensation of being violently kicked at the center of her spine. Suddenly, they were rocketing upward into the sky - and not dying, she realized! "We have liftoff!" Whatever the artifact was, the violence of being launched into the air hadn't activated it and killed them all, though the shaking didn't stop until they'd shot well past most of the atmosphere, light blues and clear skies giving way to darkness, and, eventually, the twinkling of stars and the emptiness of space as the boosters decoupled. [hr] Chikako watched, transfixed, as a sextuplet of robotic arms locked into the six red locks on an unassuming, matte grey box with a dull *clunk*, servos gently whirring as they lifted away the lid with perfect precision. That was a relief, at least - despite being virtually weightless, Chikako felt as if she were wearing a suit of lead armour. She'd been handed the enormous responsibility of overseeing the testing and analysis of one of, if not the most valuable things in the world, with full knowledge that Artifact EVGD-1 could just decide to kill her and everyone else on the [i]Stella Maris[/i] at any moment. She didn't understand it, the government didn't understand it, and the universities didn't understand it all that well either. It was all guesswork, but, thankfully, removing the lids on containment wasn't. The first was gently secured in a second series of locks as it was set aside - and then the arms slid right back in, unclasping the second set of locks. Chikako watched with bated breath, reflexively clenching her teeth, and then... Nothing. She wasn't going to be shot into space or crumpled into a thin, red paste by a mysterious alien artifact. Not yet, anyways. It wasn't even the first time she'd exposed the thing, or even tested it, but it was still an enigma. Today was another battery of extensive tests, designed by Kawaguchi and that fancy new AI, all occuring in a fancy new tungsten-lined testing chamber, designed specially for NLC artifacts too dangerous to be kept on Earth. This was one such artifact. Still, watching the camera feeds of the testing chamber, some nagging part of her mind couldn't help but feel as if it was staring back at her. It was a small, unassuming little... triangle-shaped thing, indescribable script etched into various spots along its surface (serial numbers, perhaps?), what looked like a large display taking up most of one face. "Computer, please expose the langium sample." She said, again reflexively clenching her teet, expecting to die violently.h in anticipation of a violent death. She couldn't close her eyes, however, even if some part of her desperately wanted her. There was a point to placing her at the controls of the testing chamber, a mere handful of feet away, even if other station personnel were themselves watching from even more distant camera systems, ready to evacuate the moment things went horrifically wrong, unlikely as that was. Slowly but surely, a small blue rock was revealed from behind a tungsten panel, secured tightly in place with a dozen tiny graspers, and a socket fitted exactly to its shape. Chikako turned her eyes to the laser interferometer console, waiting for something to happen... And, surely enough, it did. Almost instantly, it returned a signal, indicating that the lasers had arrived a fraction of a fraction of a second too late. “I have been ordered to inform you that this is sufficient confirmation of the artifact’s ability to manipulate gravity.” Intoned O7’s artificially chipper voice through her headset. Automatically, the tungsten panel slid shut once more, and the interferometer display went dark once again, just as expected. [i]That’s that, then.[/i] Chikako thought to herself, another sigh of relief escaping her lips, gently pushing her back against the hard chair she was strapped into. She finally allowed her eyes to close, just for a moment, long enough to suck in a deep breath and- “However, I have detected further irregularities.” [i]Goddamnit.[/i] “What’re the irregularities, Oh-Seven?” She said, audibly groaning, though her frustration failed to entirely suppress the excited hitch in her breath. "My visual sensors are detecting a fine layer of NCL-AG on the surface of the device. During the test, I noticed that it was not repulsed from the surface, and remained on the devious with no noticeable motion." Chikako blinked, shaking her head. She instinctively reached up to rub at her eyes, only to stop her hand mere inches in front of her face. "And you didn't- I-" "I didn't tell you because it seemed that you needed time to process the results of the test." "...Right." She replied, releasing another labored exhale. "...That's interesting, to say the least. We'll need to sequester the particulate matter before we continue further - Oh-Seven, is everything else in the testing chamber secure?" "Yes." "Please evacuate the material from the chamber." Just as well, Chikako thought - it'd take time to remove the material, since the testing chamber was already in vacuum, but she needed a few moments to rest regardless. [hr] "I've finished sequestering the antigravity particulate as requested.” Chikako jumped - or she would have, if not for having been strapped securely into her seat to stop herself from simply floating toward the ceiling. “...Right. Repeat the last test, please.” ...And again, the Langium was exposed, and... Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened. And again. And again. And again. Over and over, a whole lot of [i]nothing[/i] happened for the next hour. “Well, that’s... Interesting.” Chikako hummed, narrowing her eyes as she stared at the display before her, showing little more than a strange little object and a fairly blank testing chamber. “Oh-Seven, reintroduce the anti-gravity compound, please.” Slowly but surely, a small, glassy tube lowered into the chamber, practically invisible crystals flitting about inside - and the interferometer instantly lit back up. And again. And again. And again, Chikako watched the tube cyclically retracting back into the ceiling before being pushed back down again, the interferometer lighting up each time, without fail - but only when the Langium was also present. If either were absent... Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She'd spent hours whittling away at the mystery of the device, staring, typing, recording and relaying results, listening... [i]One more thing to try.[/i] "Oh-Seven, remove the Langium from the testing environment. Give me an X-ray of the artifact - minimum dose." "One moment." Once again, Chikako's eyes were drawn to the interferometer display as the X-ray emitter warmed up, moving into position around the artifact. Servos whirred and gears turned as it moved, and the display remained dark. "Initiating dose. Point zero zero eight millisieverts." Suddenly, the display flashed.