Issue 23, Page 22
Transcript
1: Xijo stands alone within a testing chamber, facing a small sample of Black Mass. He stands over a control panel as Rav speaks to him through his suit.
Rav: So far, there has been no consistent correlation between the radiation waveforms and their effects on the samples. Even small, subtle changes to the equation can create drastically different effects.
2: Xijo looks down as he listens, tapping at the touch screen of the control tower.
Rav: I’d like you to run through different waveforms. The effects will be recorded. You will be able to study the visual differences more closely, you’re the only one who… um, you’re not like us, you… *clck*
3: He looks up in confusion as the comm has gone silent.
4: Outside the testing chamber, in the hallway, Rav had been standing and leaning against the wall near an emergency control panel. She is bent down a little, holding her head through the hazmat helmet, tears dripping against the visor of her suit.
Xijo: Doctor Ravolontsimitovy?
4:Now knelt on the ground, she taps the communicator on her wrist.
*clck*
Rav: …Just begin the experiment, please.
Ah shit, here we go again.
I think in this case she’s just having a hard time emotionally dealing with remembering a certain fact. If it weren’t for the situation on the Moon, I’d say that everyone should be given a leave of absence to emotionally sort things out.
one of the “samples” could have been someone she knew
Has Xijo not been informed as to reason why he’s “not like [them]”? If he is to do his job right, he must have access to all the necessary information.
For that matter, why are they so convinced that Martians aren’t also manifestations of the black idol??
None of the suppressing radiation on Mars, I think.
Mars has no Shankar radiation, which is the energy field which can suppress the BI, it should also be noted that the BI will NOT assimilate non-anthro biomass.
If you give it a chunk of feral rabbit meat, it will attack and digest it like any other complex organism/predator on earth should. If you give it a chunk of anthro-rabbit meat, alive or dead, it will fuse with and assimilate.
Lastly, when an anthro is placed in a shankar free environment, he/she will transform into a BI from the inside out.
When Xijo encountered the Sedjhet-Idol, he tried to mail him, not assimilate. Also it is now recorded fact, from the same situation, that he can directly observe the idol with complete immunity to it’s mind-warping effects.
All of this evidence, which they have access to, confirms that(barking some forth dimensional chess board moves on the BI’s part) Martians are effectively immune to control and assimilation.
It’s not right to call it ‘immune’ like it’s a disease he’s resistant to or something. An alien radiation is making the Black Idol suffer from multiple personality disorder,, how many thousands of years suffering identity dissociative disorder. It’s more like his kind is immune to the RADIATION since Martians don’t twist into creatures that resemble earth life when exposed.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Oh geez here we go.