Transmissions from Mars: Silica's Lab and Answers

Something about Silica's lab always creeps me out. It sorta looks like a mix of the Bridge on the Deathstar and Frankenstein's Lab. It was dark, lit almost entirely by the lights of all the strange devices that jam packed the room. Old and contemporary computers were connected by everything from modified midi cables to what looked to be branches or vines. Giant tubes full of strange multicolored liquids were scattered around the room, most connected to computers, but some connected to devices that bore strong resemblance to EKG machines. The room was at capacity with rows of machines that whirred, hummed, and blinked. There were Tesla coils and dramatic balls of static electricity lightning shows that I'm positive were there for effect. Silica does has a flair for dramatic.

There are machines that I don't even like to stand next to because while I wasn't sure where they came from, I knew they didn't belong here. Ones that looked like reel-to-reels sat quietly unplugged in the shadows, covered in moss and what looked like coral. It would sit there dead like that until... Well, until it didn't, then it would spin back to life and on a small thin piece of fortune cookie size paper it would spit out some cryptic apocalyptic message. I don't know what they meant, I don't know if these things ever came true, I'll be honest I didn't really care - for whatever reason, that machine scared the hell out of me.

Despite the fact that this menagerie of weird had helped to solve many cases, and save maybe millions of lives, as sure as my name is Dynamo Susan Marz, everything in that room was absolutely wrong. Mixed in with all the wrong were musical instruments from every hour you could imagine. Mostly percussion and keyboards, but there are also ancient looking lutes and primitive looking harps. Don’t even get me started on the weird mishmash steam punkish amalgams. Near the middle there's a giant pipe organ that seems to be hardwired into some sort of glowing, pulsating giant diamond. As you might expect, touching a key makes the diamond light up. To make matters worse, there is always at least two or three Silica’s wandering around banging on this stuff. Yea, this place is fucking weird, and keep in mind some of the other crazy shit I've seen when I say that.

In the center of the room there is a cluster of card tables covered in maps and scribbled on notebook paper. Above it hung a grouping of fluorescent lights that looked to be hardwired directly into the ceiling.

Tiny and I made our way through the labyrinth of crazy stuff towards the center, which was unfortunately comparatively an oasis of sanity. We could see Silica and Mz. Matrix waiting for us. I knew she had to be exhausted - she's been working on this as long as we had - but she didn't look it. In fact, she actually looked happy. When I went to step into the clearing, one other Silica sidestepped into my way, and scanned me with some weird device that looked like a Star Trek tricorder.

"Ask ‘em if it's a boy or a girl!" Tiny shouted over the din.

He probably couldn't hear what I said back, but he understood the sentiment.

As we stepped into the clearing, all the noise stopped. I've been through this 1 million times, but it didn't make any less weird. I once made the mistake of asking how it worked - I ended up with a headache for a week. Whatever the explanation, the whole area illuminated by the fluorescents blocked out the sound of the crazy, crowded lab.

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything important," she started. "As I said, we found something." Cutting off our customary bullshit responses.

“Not only do we have an idea of who our absentee attacker is, I also BELIEVE I know where he is,” she said.

Her words hung in the air like a piñata full of blowjobs. I was fucking ready.

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