The build-up of Higgs-Boson particles was not only causing registered and growing anomalies near the ground, but anomalous behavior around the Prometheus. The med lab was fairly quiet until a quantum wave passed through space, interacting with the stabilized rift, causing light turbulence and some brief timeslip effects...
Several days ago...
On her way to the kitchen to fetch coffee for the researchers, Lina suddenly staggered, dizzy. Everything went dark. When she woke up, she found herself not in the Gearhaven kitchen, but in a very large bed. And wearing some slip of red satin that barely came to her hips!
"What the hell?" she cried out, and from the shadows, a sensual male voice said "Why, yes. Yes, you are."
She picked up the nearest thing as a weapon, grimacing when it turned out to be a pillow. A light in the corner slowly lit, revealing a dark-haired man with dancing eyes, a sardonic grin, dressed in a finely tailored red broadcloth suit. He seemed to be memorizing her, his eyes traveling up and down her form.
"Who are you and where the hell am I?!" she yelled.
He smiled, as if pleased. "Funny girl."
She repeated herself, louder, and watched his face grow concerned. And then he sighed.
"Did the two incompetents harm you, dear? I'll have them filleted."
When she just blinked, dumbfounded, he leaned forward, setting the glass of rich amber liquid aside.
"Did they hit your head? Rob your memory of...here?" He gestured to the room at large. "Of me?"
"What in the name of the Verse are you talking about?! And where are my clothes?"
He sighed. "My dear, you're quite safe, I assure you. Safe, and well, and your clothes are being cleaned, though...from your apparent state of mind...I fear you may not trust the help I offer by doing something as simple as that."
She leapt up, assuming a fighting stance. "Sir...who in the HELL are you? Why am I here?"
He placed an elegant hand on his chest. "My dear, have you forgotten me? Your dear uncle?"
"What? What are you saying??"
He stood as well, dark eyes flashing with just a trace of red. "Lina...it's me. Lucifer Morningstar? Or as you always used to call me, 'Uncle Lu'?"
Lina's eyes opened wide. "No...no, no, I NEVER met you...I've never been to Hell!"
He tsked in disapproval. "Lina, what are you saying? You were born here."
She reeled back, and the room went dark. Two days later she sat bolt upright--in her own bed. To wake up in her own home, when she'd been in that bed--with that man--and moving through Gearhaven's halls before that...It was jarring, to say the least.
Was it all a dream? Lina thought. Did I hallucinate the whole thing?? She thought frantically, and her eyes landed on two objects on the bedside table. A book, and a letter.
The letter was addressed to her in an elegant dark script, signed "From your Uncle Lu". And the book...She picked it up, inhaling. The cover said The Diary of Lina Starscale.
Lina blinked. I have a last name, she thought. Her blood ran cold. And then the alarm bells went off.
"Gearhaven is under attack!" said a female voice.
"Not on my watch," she growled. She tapped her wrist computer. "Alice!"
"Yes, mistress?" said the same female voice.
"Armor mode one!"
"Yes, madam."
"Next stop Gearhaven!"
The Higgs-Boson particles drifted on, obscuring the past again...
(Continued in part LVII.)
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