"So,
what's that?" I asked for the fifteenth time as I tried to look through
the observational glass into the laboratory the size of an airplane
hanger while still maintaining the brisk pace of my guide.
Without slowing down or even turning his head, Mr. Vincents replied, "On our left, Ms. Noin, we have a team of scientists working with black hole technology. At the moment they are working on manipulating gravitational pull within just a short radius, 2 meters max." Just as he finished speaking, an invisible hand yanked me several steps to the left and I had to fight to keep my balance. "As you can tell, they haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet," he said, the slight air of disappointment in his voice. Amazingly, his steps didn't detour from the straight line he walked down the corridor.
I turned the corner to follow and my eyes immediately found another set of observational glass on my right. Inside there were maybe fifty people all seated in rows of five with one man in the front of them all. Though it was the same size as all the other rooms I'd seen, it looked more like a classroom than a laboratory. For the moment at least.
I turned to Mr. Vincents but before I could ask, he went into another explanation. "In this room, Mr. Carvers is working on a cloning program using hypnosis to override one identity with another." He walked a couple of steps before adding, "I don't particularly care for it myself."
After two or three more corridors, I asked Mr. Vincents if we could take a short break. He obliged by merely stopping in his tracks and standing stock-still, his arms behind his back and still not facing me. We'd been walking through the halls of The Monolith Company for probably close to an hour now, just looking into the different labs and projects. At first I was hesitant about asking so many questions, especially since most of these projects seemed to require some sort of clearance level to even get into the laboratory, but Mr. Vincents seemed okay with answering in at least some general detail about ALL of the projects I had questions about. Honestly, what kind of place did that! It was almost as if I was on a grand tour of the future of military advancement rather than the job interview I thought I was being offered.
"So, what is it you guys actually do here?" I asked Mr. Vincents, "After I got your job offer in the mail, I tried to do some research into the company but I really couldn't find much."
"The Monolith Company is a purely Research and Development company. We specialize in the advancement of military technology," Mr. Vincents answered promptly as ever, though he still refused to turn to face me.
"Yeah, I got that much from the website's homepage. Well, the website's only page. The strange thing is that no one else I talked to had ever heard of The Monolith Company." Even stranger, which I didn't want to say aloud, is that whenever I tried to show someone the website it wouldn't appear anywhere except on my home computer, when no one was around.
"Yes, well, we do try to keep our existence on a need to know basis. You've seen many of the projects we research here and it is for the best that we not broadcast our presence to the world."
He was definitely right about that, the projects I'd seen here were one of a kind. I'd seen the typical projects I expected to see on a tour of a military R&D lab: new types of rifles and ammunition that could adapt in the field to a variety of mission parameters; single-man vehicles able to travel across a broad spectrum of terrains and even hover for (allegedly) several hours; body armor that fully absorbed the impact of large caliber rounds and kept its wearer on his or her feet. There were also projects that I thought were closer to the realm of science fiction, ideas only a mad scientist could dream up: a machine that could create and harness lighting; an earthquake machine; a bomb that incinerated only organic life.
At that moment, a squad of eight guards in all black marched in two columns, side-by-side down the hallway. They separated when they got to Mr. Vincents position, flowing around him like water around a rock. Not wanting to take my chances, I pressed myself as close to the wall as possible as the columns came back together and continued marching down the hall and around the corner. It was impossible to tell the gender or age of any of them with all of the body armor they were wearing, but the one thing I could ascertain was that each one of them was capable of taking my life if Mr. Vincents so much as suggested I might be a threat. Honestly, because there were at least two guards outside the doors of every lab, one at every corner, and three at each elevator, I almost forgot they were there. Thinking back on it now, I must've seen over a hundred, fully-armed guards basically loitering all over the facility. However, seeing the squad marching past me on patrol just now brought me back to reality. It wasn't that I had a problem with armed guards, after all, my last project was kept under almost the same kind of secrecy which some of these projects fell under as well.
"I assume that The Monolith Company is interested in my work with prototype armor, especially the one the military just bought the patent on. If I do decide to sign a contract with you, I want to have a say on who is allowed to have my products. Does the Monolith Company have any contracts with any government agencies? Or are you strictly a for-profit company?" Thinking about it now, this should have been one of the first questions I asked as I didn't want my developments in the hands of just anyone.
At this, Mr. Vincents stopped in his tracks and turned to face me. I hadn't made eye contact with him since I shook his hand at the door, and his glare was unnerving to the point that I almost regretted even having the question. "First of all, Ms. Noin, The Monolith Company has no loyalty to any government or flag, nor cause or creed. We cannot be bought with gold coin or silver tongue. The people here are the best and brightest in their respective field. Our only goal is research, and our founder frowns upon putting our advancements into the field." Insulted, he turned and continued walking down the hallway at a pace that I needed to sprint to catch up once the shock had faded.
"What exactly is it that The Monolith Company wants from me?" I asked, almost out of breath. After all, I'd already developed the new, light-weight steel I'd been working on for the past 7 years. Easily 5 times stronger than the current metal being mass-produced and it could be developed at half the cost.
"You may not be aware, but you're technology is currently being used to develop a new generation of exo-suit. We estimate that it will take their research team roughly 4 years to create a working prototype. Once their project is finalized and the suits are put into mass production, a new type of warfare begins. Battles in which individual men and women are transformed into human tanks." Mr. Vincents stopped walking and turned to a door on his right. He swiped his key card in the card reader and then put his face to the iris scanner. The door swung open and he stepped inside. I followed.
As we stepped in, the lights went on and revealed an entire room the size of a small airplane hanger. "As I was saying," Mr. Vincents continued, "we predict a very grim future for humanity if these juggernauts are allowed loose on any battlefield. We want you to make the obsolete." Seeing the confusion on my face, he continued, "We want you to develop another metal not only able to pierce the metal you just created, but also be developed at half the cost. We don't care what form it takes, whether it be a new type of armor, or perhaps a bullet. We just need to be able to make it obsolete before they are used."
I looked at him, confused. "So you want me to develop a new material to counteract the material I just created? That's absurd. What makes you think I can do something like that?"
Mr. Vincents just shrugged, as if he'd heard this argument many, many times before. "Why do we think you can do something like that you ask? The same reason the team in Lab 5047T, after they find a way to stabilize the black hole machine, will create a material so dense and heavy that the gravity device will not affect it. The same reason the woman in Lab 66F, after she finishes her hovercraft, will begin work on a landmine capable of detecting hovercraft vehicles. The same reason the man in Lab 443P, after he creates his clones through hypnosis, will develop a way to undo the mind-alteration, whether it be through psycho or chemical manipulation. Because The Monolith Company ordered it done."
I know, it's been awhile since I've written anything, but that's the goal this year, just like every year: Write more. I'm hoping to do one story a week (I know I started late, but at least I'm kind of on it). At least, from the multiple notebooks I've received recently, I guess you guys want me to keep doing that. Though to be honest this is actually the second story I've worked on this new year. The other one is crap so that's not going up until I work out all the questions I have (so many plot holes). Anyways, this one, like most, was based on the reddit Writing Prompt: "The Monolith is an R&D building the size of a mountain dedicated to the advancement of military technology. They have their own army and their work is kept secret. They offer you a job." I actually went back and redid this story because originally it was very, very dialogue heavy which I don't care for (I don't know, it's probably just a stupid pet peeve). The stupid thing is that the scene is a job interview, of course it would be dialogue heavy, but still I couldn't do it. Oh, I do want to say that idea about "cloning through hypnosis", yeah, I stole that idea from "Raw Shark Texts" by Hall in which one of the characters uses this technique to basically obtain immortality (he really could have done so much more with this idea, but it wasn't really the main point of the story so it felt more glossed over than anything). But back to my writing. Something else that I was trying to figure out how to add was supernatural elements, but in the end I decided to cut that out (I think it just would've been too much). Hopefully I'll mark time to do this again. And maybe I'll start doing pictures again (probably not). I've also got a couple of posts that I've been sitting on since the New Year, they're not stories but I've just been lazy to write them but I'll try to get them out too.
Without slowing down or even turning his head, Mr. Vincents replied, "On our left, Ms. Noin, we have a team of scientists working with black hole technology. At the moment they are working on manipulating gravitational pull within just a short radius, 2 meters max." Just as he finished speaking, an invisible hand yanked me several steps to the left and I had to fight to keep my balance. "As you can tell, they haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet," he said, the slight air of disappointment in his voice. Amazingly, his steps didn't detour from the straight line he walked down the corridor.
I turned the corner to follow and my eyes immediately found another set of observational glass on my right. Inside there were maybe fifty people all seated in rows of five with one man in the front of them all. Though it was the same size as all the other rooms I'd seen, it looked more like a classroom than a laboratory. For the moment at least.
I turned to Mr. Vincents but before I could ask, he went into another explanation. "In this room, Mr. Carvers is working on a cloning program using hypnosis to override one identity with another." He walked a couple of steps before adding, "I don't particularly care for it myself."
After two or three more corridors, I asked Mr. Vincents if we could take a short break. He obliged by merely stopping in his tracks and standing stock-still, his arms behind his back and still not facing me. We'd been walking through the halls of The Monolith Company for probably close to an hour now, just looking into the different labs and projects. At first I was hesitant about asking so many questions, especially since most of these projects seemed to require some sort of clearance level to even get into the laboratory, but Mr. Vincents seemed okay with answering in at least some general detail about ALL of the projects I had questions about. Honestly, what kind of place did that! It was almost as if I was on a grand tour of the future of military advancement rather than the job interview I thought I was being offered.
"So, what is it you guys actually do here?" I asked Mr. Vincents, "After I got your job offer in the mail, I tried to do some research into the company but I really couldn't find much."
"The Monolith Company is a purely Research and Development company. We specialize in the advancement of military technology," Mr. Vincents answered promptly as ever, though he still refused to turn to face me.
"Yeah, I got that much from the website's homepage. Well, the website's only page. The strange thing is that no one else I talked to had ever heard of The Monolith Company." Even stranger, which I didn't want to say aloud, is that whenever I tried to show someone the website it wouldn't appear anywhere except on my home computer, when no one was around.
"Yes, well, we do try to keep our existence on a need to know basis. You've seen many of the projects we research here and it is for the best that we not broadcast our presence to the world."
He was definitely right about that, the projects I'd seen here were one of a kind. I'd seen the typical projects I expected to see on a tour of a military R&D lab: new types of rifles and ammunition that could adapt in the field to a variety of mission parameters; single-man vehicles able to travel across a broad spectrum of terrains and even hover for (allegedly) several hours; body armor that fully absorbed the impact of large caliber rounds and kept its wearer on his or her feet. There were also projects that I thought were closer to the realm of science fiction, ideas only a mad scientist could dream up: a machine that could create and harness lighting; an earthquake machine; a bomb that incinerated only organic life.
At that moment, a squad of eight guards in all black marched in two columns, side-by-side down the hallway. They separated when they got to Mr. Vincents position, flowing around him like water around a rock. Not wanting to take my chances, I pressed myself as close to the wall as possible as the columns came back together and continued marching down the hall and around the corner. It was impossible to tell the gender or age of any of them with all of the body armor they were wearing, but the one thing I could ascertain was that each one of them was capable of taking my life if Mr. Vincents so much as suggested I might be a threat. Honestly, because there were at least two guards outside the doors of every lab, one at every corner, and three at each elevator, I almost forgot they were there. Thinking back on it now, I must've seen over a hundred, fully-armed guards basically loitering all over the facility. However, seeing the squad marching past me on patrol just now brought me back to reality. It wasn't that I had a problem with armed guards, after all, my last project was kept under almost the same kind of secrecy which some of these projects fell under as well.
"I assume that The Monolith Company is interested in my work with prototype armor, especially the one the military just bought the patent on. If I do decide to sign a contract with you, I want to have a say on who is allowed to have my products. Does the Monolith Company have any contracts with any government agencies? Or are you strictly a for-profit company?" Thinking about it now, this should have been one of the first questions I asked as I didn't want my developments in the hands of just anyone.
At this, Mr. Vincents stopped in his tracks and turned to face me. I hadn't made eye contact with him since I shook his hand at the door, and his glare was unnerving to the point that I almost regretted even having the question. "First of all, Ms. Noin, The Monolith Company has no loyalty to any government or flag, nor cause or creed. We cannot be bought with gold coin or silver tongue. The people here are the best and brightest in their respective field. Our only goal is research, and our founder frowns upon putting our advancements into the field." Insulted, he turned and continued walking down the hallway at a pace that I needed to sprint to catch up once the shock had faded.
"What exactly is it that The Monolith Company wants from me?" I asked, almost out of breath. After all, I'd already developed the new, light-weight steel I'd been working on for the past 7 years. Easily 5 times stronger than the current metal being mass-produced and it could be developed at half the cost.
"You may not be aware, but you're technology is currently being used to develop a new generation of exo-suit. We estimate that it will take their research team roughly 4 years to create a working prototype. Once their project is finalized and the suits are put into mass production, a new type of warfare begins. Battles in which individual men and women are transformed into human tanks." Mr. Vincents stopped walking and turned to a door on his right. He swiped his key card in the card reader and then put his face to the iris scanner. The door swung open and he stepped inside. I followed.
As we stepped in, the lights went on and revealed an entire room the size of a small airplane hanger. "As I was saying," Mr. Vincents continued, "we predict a very grim future for humanity if these juggernauts are allowed loose on any battlefield. We want you to make the obsolete." Seeing the confusion on my face, he continued, "We want you to develop another metal not only able to pierce the metal you just created, but also be developed at half the cost. We don't care what form it takes, whether it be a new type of armor, or perhaps a bullet. We just need to be able to make it obsolete before they are used."
I looked at him, confused. "So you want me to develop a new material to counteract the material I just created? That's absurd. What makes you think I can do something like that?"
Mr. Vincents just shrugged, as if he'd heard this argument many, many times before. "Why do we think you can do something like that you ask? The same reason the team in Lab 5047T, after they find a way to stabilize the black hole machine, will create a material so dense and heavy that the gravity device will not affect it. The same reason the woman in Lab 66F, after she finishes her hovercraft, will begin work on a landmine capable of detecting hovercraft vehicles. The same reason the man in Lab 443P, after he creates his clones through hypnosis, will develop a way to undo the mind-alteration, whether it be through psycho or chemical manipulation. Because The Monolith Company ordered it done."
I know, it's been awhile since I've written anything, but that's the goal this year, just like every year: Write more. I'm hoping to do one story a week (I know I started late, but at least I'm kind of on it). At least, from the multiple notebooks I've received recently, I guess you guys want me to keep doing that. Though to be honest this is actually the second story I've worked on this new year. The other one is crap so that's not going up until I work out all the questions I have (so many plot holes). Anyways, this one, like most, was based on the reddit Writing Prompt: "The Monolith is an R&D building the size of a mountain dedicated to the advancement of military technology. They have their own army and their work is kept secret. They offer you a job." I actually went back and redid this story because originally it was very, very dialogue heavy which I don't care for (I don't know, it's probably just a stupid pet peeve). The stupid thing is that the scene is a job interview, of course it would be dialogue heavy, but still I couldn't do it. Oh, I do want to say that idea about "cloning through hypnosis", yeah, I stole that idea from "Raw Shark Texts" by Hall in which one of the characters uses this technique to basically obtain immortality (he really could have done so much more with this idea, but it wasn't really the main point of the story so it felt more glossed over than anything). But back to my writing. Something else that I was trying to figure out how to add was supernatural elements, but in the end I decided to cut that out (I think it just would've been too much). Hopefully I'll mark time to do this again. And maybe I'll start doing pictures again (probably not). I've also got a couple of posts that I've been sitting on since the New Year, they're not stories but I've just been lazy to write them but I'll try to get them out too.
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