A Final Word from the Doctor
Nov. 26th, 2003 02:02 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logs“Well Nathan, I can’t say I’m all that surprised to find you back here.”
“Really, General Michaels? Displaying your famous clairvoyance again?” Essex said, sitting down
across a board of six officers, all of General rank and looking both apprehensive and irritated.
Glen Michaels ran a hand through his short cropped grey hair and scowled.
“This is not the time for jokes, Nathan.”
“If you would, General Michaels. This entire panel is something of a joke for being here. A simple
meeting in Lester’s office would have sufficed.” Essex noted, pointing to the general for emphasis.
Major General Lester Martinez-Lopez cleared his throat and set down a thick stack of files. As
the commanding officer of USAMRD, he often had to sign off on some truly bizarre initiatives,
but this one was beyond the pale. More so, the pressure was coming from Rumsfield on down,
and that meant that he was the one with his ass in a sling if it didn’t work out.
“Colonel Essex, you should know first of all that your personal standing has taken something of a
blow since your time away from the service.” He said carefully.
“I still contend that he’s a security risk, General.” David Langstrom said, slapping the tabletop for
emphasis. “He left a government position to join a terrorist cell. He then misused military
resources for some bizarre experiment and he is still withholding results from an army funded
project.”
“Langstrom? CIA, I wager?” Essex said.
“Yes.”
“I should have known. Intelligence officers always displays the least sense.” Essex sniped and
David went red. Martinez-Lopez killed the conversation with a wave of his hand.
“That’s enough, David. Despite the claims of the CIA, we can run our own house here.” He said.
“However, Colonel Essex, Mr Langstrom raises a good point. I know that your transition to
monitor the Xavier situation was authorized, and you have stated that you’ve advanced your
studies there, but none of that has come back to benefit the Army. Suffice to say, we feel you owe
us.”
“Come now, General. You are well aware that argument won’t work.” Essex snorted. “So, that
tells me that you want me for something and are trying to position yourself to demand it on the
cheap. Why don’t you tell me the situation?”
“Orders from on high, Colonel. They want to reactivate the SUPERSOLDIER program.”
“Oh, not again.” Essex rolled his eyes. “Lester, you know as well as I do that the program is a
giant bureaucratic white elephant. I think this is the third time I’ve been asked on it.”
“This time is a little different, Colonel.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, Doctor, it’s like this.” Beefy General Stockton leaned forward. “We just happen to have
the son of a bitch that started it all.”
“Nonsense. The doctor was killed by a spy back in–“
“Not the doctor, Colonel. We’ve got Rogers.”
“His body?”
“Perhaps. He’s been incased in ice. Labboys think they can bring him back.”
“Nonsense. The cold alone would have ruptured the cells of his brain.”
“Not if he froze quickly enough.” Martinez-Lopez leaned forward. “Potentially, this is a huge
boost for the war effort, Colonel Essex. Bringing back Captain America and a team like him, us a
NATO driven operation. All the lights and hype we can find? That’s a re-election ticket for the
president and he knows it. They want this to happen, and we need our best people on it. You’re
the best man for the job of replicating the serum. Even if we can’t, you can ‘re-introduce’ the
procedure that created Grey Crow and his team.”
“The Marauders model is flawed. You cannot induce past the beta range. I made that quite clear
to Wraith before he killed himself.”
“So fix the model.”
“And if it can’t be?”
“Colonel Essex,” General Stockton spoke up again. “We are willing to make some concessions to
you in exchange for this work. However, if you don’t want to be involved, you can just walk
away. You have every right.”
“Indeed.” Essex said carefully, waiting for the shoes to drop.
“In fact, that school of yours might provide us an excellent starting point for moulding a new
strike team of SPBs.” Stockton said. “We’re rather have your cooperation, but we have to narrow
the gap somehow.”
“So, unless I agree, you will shut down Xavier’s?”
“Terrorists fall under the preview of Homeland security, Doctor. I think Mr Langstrom would be
the man who would decide what action to take.”
Essex looked at them for a moment, before laughing. “Oh, you all believe yourselves to be real
bastards, don’t you? I’m amazed, Lester. I didn’t think you had it in you. Very well, I shall return
to your little stable, but only under my terms.”
“The school–“
“Stockton, have you ever read my psychological evaluation? Allow me to enlighten you.” Essex
leaned forward, and his voice went cruel. “I would happily see the deaths of those children, the
staff, the invading force, this table and the city of Boston if it advanced me even a picometre
closer in my research.”
“But–“
“Such amateurish nonsense.” Essex said. “So, we have Rogers then? Where? Triskalion?”
“Yes. Full reactivation of the facility. We can move your team there as soon as–“
“No, I don’t think so. You are opening it as a NATO facility?”
“Yes, but the president wants most of the advanced work kept for home use.”
“Won’t happen. What you need is a satellite centre, under the control of a single person, that is
tied in with the data. Something outside of official scrutiny and channels.” Essex nodded to
himself. “And I have just the place. Linked with all official international research and ready for
multinational reactivation. Muir Island.”
“That’s not a military facility.”
“Hence the advantage.”
“Essex, we won’t have proper control over it.” Lester pointed out.
“No, but I will. Gentlemen, if you want your strike teams and research; if you want to beat the
Iranians and the Chinese and who ever else is trying to make the next mutant WMD, you will have
to let me do this my way.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Good luck with the super soldier program.”
“You can’t possibly be thinking about–“ Langstrom started.
“The president sent this clusterfuck down to us, Mr Langstrom. If we can even hope to meet his
schedule, we need Doctor Essex. So, Doctor, is that the sum of your terms?”
“Not exactly. Muir Island works as an independent research centre, even though, of course, I will
be sending you results without the knowledge of the researchers or the media. I will need to be
tied into intelligence assets on other mutagenic activity and research. Finally, the school is a
resource I plan to draw from. No military interference in it. Is that clear?”
“Those terms are acceptable to me. Gentlemen?” Lester asked the panel. Everyone nodded save
for Langstrom, but even he held his tongue. “So Doctor Essex, you have your facility. The one
problem is that we will have to promote you to Brigadier General to be allowed to assume
control.”
“How terribly troublesome.”
“If this is an independent facility, how are we going to maintain production?”
“By results, General. If you want schedules and timesheets, find someone else.”
“Enough. Essex, we’ll trust you on this. We’ll even give you your amnesty on the school. But,”
Martinez-Lopez said coldly. “If we see even the slightest hint of deception, we will be on you like
a plague. Is that clear?”
“Crystal, General.”
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*snorts*
Date: 2003-11-26 04:16 pm (UTC)“So Doctor Essex, you have your facility. The one
problem is that we will have to promote you to Brigadier General to be allowed to assume
control.”
“How terribly troublesome.”
*snorts* I can just see the expression on Essex's face...
Re: *snorts*
Date: 2003-11-26 07:50 pm (UTC)Re: *snorts*
Date: 2003-11-26 07:55 pm (UTC)Re: *snorts*
Date: 2003-11-26 08:13 pm (UTC)Re: *snorts*
Date: 2003-12-03 09:11 pm (UTC)Also, it's the only community that allows for non-friends to post, IIRC.
*makes note to add this to rules/guidelines list*