Even the best and brightest of minds can easily fall victim to bigotry and hatred. In the name of fear, whether justified or not - although it usually is not - the intelligent mind is even more adept at justifying its emotional response. Intellect is not sufficient by itself to realise and correct this flaw. No lesson can be learned to undo it; the bias is too ingrained and any form of reason can be justified around like water flowing around a rock in a river. Removing that rock requires more than intelligence. It requires wisdom.
Wisdom comes when one is reflective about one’s own thought process. Wisdom comes not from merely asking questions about the world, but searching for deeper truths about oneself. Without this introspection, without this self awareness the most studious and otherwise observant will fall victim to the same trap time and time again.
This is the story of one such girl. A rare scientific genius who was mired in fear and hatred for a people from whom she had precious little to fear. A girl who would change that fear into something to be truly afraid of, and then come to hate herself for her own creation. This is the story of Nina Einstein, and the day she made a miscalculation that would inevitably lead her to reconsider everything she had ever believed.
But not quite the miscalculation you’re probably thinking of.
<hr>
It was approaching three in the morning in Area Eleven, but a young girl was not remotely near sleep. Not quite yet. Her room was pitch black save for the low humming light emanating from her laptop, which was perched upon her desk. The girl removed her glasses - and was it any wonder she needed them given this working habit? - and rubbed at her eyes. She was close. So close to figuring it out. 'Reach out and stroke it on the head' kind of close, but she was almost there!
Nina was betrayed by a surprise yawn, but she shook her head to clear it off. No. This was no time for sleep. Not when an important discovery could be made at any moment. Not when the implications were of this magnitude!
Another yawn took her off guard as she ran the simulation. The idea had popped into her head some time ago. Uranium-235 <i>could</i> be used as a viable energy source, she just knew it!
The simulation ran to its conclusion, and Nina smiled faintly as sleep finally took her and her head rested neatly atop the desk next to the laptop. Yes, now she could properly begin her experiments. Now she would be able to provide Britannia with a new power source!
But as she slept, the simulation went on unheeded. Had she remained awake another hour to see it, the reaction begun by her developed procedure would have undergone a sudden and inexplicable twist that the simulation had not been programmed to understand. She would have learned that more research was required before it would have even been remotely safe to attempt what she was planning. But alas, she slept on while bathed in the light of her laptop, until a motion by her arm pulled its power cord out and its battery ran low….
<hr>
Nina was not an idiot, it must be said. Regardless of how careless her actions may have been while she was half asleep, in the morning it was another matter entirely. She was up and about - albeit eventually - and re-ran her simulation to ensure all was well. It appeared to be as she recalled last night, and since it was apparently stable she would restart it, watch it again to be sure, completely unaware of the irony that her precautions were biting her in the ass.
Not that they were the only precautions she was taking. No, Nina was quite aware that she was dealing in very dangerous substances. Which of course was why she wore protective gear before entering the Academy’s laboratory a few hours later. Protection from radiation, ensuring she did not spill or breathe any hazardous chemicals - basic and sensible precautions.
Her simulation last night was not for the entire procedure, it must be understood. Simply a simulation of a small section of it, a safe test to be employed long before the actual uranium became involved in the process in any way. Across the bench she was working on was a camera to record what happened - a perfect way to illustrate to those with the authority that she was safe and careful and right enough to be given more funds, some assistants and whatever resources may be required for future experiments. To that end -
“Um… Hi! I’m N-Nina Einstein. Th-thank you for watching this experiment. The end g-goal is to demonstrate a po-possible technique for using uranium-235 as a f-fuel resource!”
She held a beaker full of murky liquid up to the camera. “To that end I ha-have developed a solution that sh-should stabilise the uranium and permit both greater levels of control and g-greater levels of energy retrieved by the s-system!
“This is sakuradite,” she said, switching her grasp from beaker to a picture of the stuff. “For safety reasons it is not being stored here. A sm-small chip was broken off remotely by a machine earlier on, and I will be editing that into the video any moment now. That small chip will prove sufficient in demonstrating the safety of this liquid, but for the sake of precautions the test will be conducted inside the reinforced chamber behind me.”
A reinforced chamber capable of withstanding this experiment… Truly the Ashford family’s research capacity was amazing! Of course, if she risked using anything larger than the tiny grain she’d retrieved the results probably would be rather catastrophic… But… never mind that for now! She was about to make a massive leap forward in science. Something that would even ultimately benefit the Elevens, not that they deserved it.
With the flask carefully placed within the room, Nina remotely operated the robotic arm she had placed inside of that same room. The beaker had been placed directly underneath it, with the sakuradite securely placed right on the top. One flick of a switch and that was no longer true. Another button press and the sakuradite was - carefully, carefully - tipped into the beaker, where the reaction was immediate.
“As you can see, the reaction has begun. The Geiger counter indicates no increase in radiation, exactly as the simulation indicates. Now we can add in the electrodes and observe how much electrical power is given off.”
The second robot hand plunged the two electrodes into the mixture, and that’s right around where things got a little mad. The Geiger counter began to fluctuate wildly as though unable to determine whether or not there was any radiation in the room. More to the point was the flashing rainbow of colour that left Nina slack jawed and staring while wondering what the hell was going on in there?
The flashing was giving her this awful headache the more she stared at it, but for some reason she couldn’t quite bring herself to look away… The colours were changing faster and faster with each one creating a painful contrast to the last, but she still couldn’t look away and it was making her head hurt and -
Nina slumped to the ground and started to twitch. The rainbow still flashed above her, and she cursed the luck that made her fall over and land on her back so that she could still see it. There was little else for it but to relax and stare up at the colours, and once she did that the pain began to subside a little. Nina rarely smiled but she did so now as the colours ate away at her vision, leaving nothing but brightness behind. Nothing but the flashing lights, nothing but the pretty flashing lights.
At the same moment that she let a contented sigh pass her lips was the same one that the transformation began. The protective helmet of her containment suit began to recede, becoming little more than a collar. The remainder of the top portion of the suit changed as well, growing tighter around her body with the protective layers appearing to melt away in favour of a tight white shirt that made absolutely no attempt to hide her navel. The trousers portion made what looked like a retreat up her legs, revealing more and more bare flesh as it went until finally reaching her thighs, becoming extremely tight, white shorts that hung to her as though their very existence depended upon it.
The dramatic alteration of her attire went completely unnoticed by the now glassy-eyed Nina; and speaking of her eyes, those were the very next feature to change. They remained the same colour, but became considerably more slanted. More, shall we say, stereotypically Japanese in appearance? The rest of her features followed suit rather rapidly, leaving no trace of the bigoted Britannian behind.
“Nina” sat up a little while later, feeling that same uncharacteristic goofy grin on her face. She stared down at herself and gasped at the clothes she was wearing. “Kawaii!” she squealed, giving herself a bit of a spin to get a better look at herself. <”Much cuter than that ugly suit!”> she said in perfect Japanese. Unfortunately, the room didn’t have a mirror in it - but it did have a camera!
<”Oh! I’m even more cute than I thought!”> she cooed at the recording, adopting a few silly poses for posterity. And because she felt like it. And because she couldn’t stand still if she was chained to the spot. <”I shouldn’t hide away in a laboratory like this! Not when there’s a whole world to see! And so much injustice to fight, and so many cute boys to have fun with! Look out world! Here comes Ni-”>
In what would soon become a rare occurrence for this girl, she stopped in her tracks. <”No,”> she said, “<I am not that shy bitch. Not anymore. I am… Let me think… I will be known as Sakura! Enough stalling, time to play!”>
<hr>
Nina stumbled in through the front door while rubbing her temple with her spare hand. She’d had such a headache and it felt like it had lasted all day. The experiment had been a success… she thought. The memory of it working as expected lingered on, but she couldn’t quite put together what happened next…
It was probably nothing. Drawing together plans for her next experiment? Possibly. She would need to repeat the results before asking for further assistance, just to prove it was not a one-off event. A shudder shot through her spine. Yes, for some reason she could hardly wait for the next experiment…
She flopped onto her couch and turned the television on to check the news, eager to relax and catch up with the events of the day. What she saw made her tut in annoyance.
“Today has been labelled The Day of Sakura, after a hyperactive Eleven engaged in what officials are describing as a chaotic rampage throughout the city. The girl, calling herself Sakura, engaged in several publically outlawed activities in willful defiance of Britannian law. Witnesses described her as follows:”
“I haven’t seen anything like it in years!” an elderly and shaken Eleven stated. “There we were, all minding our own business when this slip of a girl skips down the street, speaking the old language -”
“Pardon me, sir!” the reporter interrupted. “But by the old language, you don’t happen to mean…?”
“The language we used to speak before Britannia in its infinite wisdom courteously convinced us all to start speaking English,” the old man said. “But it didn’t stop there! She kept on trying out all these old - illegal - customs! We tried to get rid of the troublemaker, but she was too quick for us. Or for the guard! She heaved a car at them and dashed off. They all ran off after her, and that was the last we heard of it until just now!”
The news report showed a picture of the smiling girl, accompanied with a warning not to approach or interact with her. It was unusual for a story like this to take the lead over something involving Zero or the Black Knights these days, and Nina found herself wishing that had been the focus of the news report instead. Look at her! She was barely wearing anything, and was smiling like she hadn’t a care in the world!
And yet, when Nina turned the television off she could not help but feel a little jealous that someone could be that unrestrained and happy. For now, all she had was her work, work she would use to change the world.
Little did she know how right she was.
- Meanwhile, Lelouch has watched similar news reports and is interested in this Sakura girl. She could be a potent ally, if reined in…
- Same as above, except Lelouch sees her as a potential threat to his plans.
- Cornelia is infuriated by this turn of events, and conducts her own investigation.
- Nina views her recording of the experiment and becomes Sakura again.
- Something else
No comments:
Post a Comment