IMPALA (Farside Saga: Book One)
Chapter Two: Frankie

For a second, Jason swore his life was over. He just knew the Government troopers had finally come to reclaim their prize and exterminate him for being involved. He slowly lowered his arms and tried to focus through the wall of light, but then it hit him as he slowly turned a complete 360 degrees. Its a SOLID wall of light. He was encased in an 8' oval cocoon of light, but that's not what had him intrigued. He didn't hear an arc generator. Arc generators are the drive motors that stabilize the molecules of light sources and solidifies them creating a hard surface. Even a portable one has a distinct whine to it. You could basically, with the right tools, hook a flashlight to one and use its beam as a bridge or hammer, or if you can focus the beam to a narrow range, it can become an ax or sword. It all depends on the light source, but the arc gen provides the force behind the physics. A military scientist found a way to turn a strobe light into a pulse rifle, in which Jason anticipated seeing at least 10 of its barrels pointed directly at him. The wall of light began to fade off before shattering into a shower of neon blue sparkles. The last of the light display faded off leaving Jason in pitch black once again.

"What ya think?" An almost airy voice came from the darkness.

"Frankie?" Jason called out questionly as he turned towards the sound of the voice. He tried to focus his eyes but only came up with a silhouette that seemed like it was dimly lit from within. Just then the silhouette seemed to split in two as a string of light formed in the middle then spread wide revealing a dim but brighter neon blue shirtless Frankie standing in the middle of the living room. The light coming off him gave the room a soft blueish hue that Jason took advantage of and headed for the light switch.

"What the hell Frank...." he said as he waved his hand over the sensor. The room was instantly bath in a soft yellow light. The only thing in the living room was Jason, Frank and a metal workbench that held a jumble of wires and a few various electronic components, but no arc generator. Jason took note as he looked around, finally ending on Frank. He bit his lip trying not to laugh but couldn't help the initial reaction.

"What?" Frank asked, but then caught on as he brought his hands up in front of his face to run through his hair. He looked at his dimly illuminated hands and chuckled to himself.

Franklin Monroe Davenport was a scientist that became his own unintentional experiment. Being the son of the scientist who discovered the physics of solid light, he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and started working with bioluminescence. In his last year in Cal Tech 6yrs ago, working in his garage on a midterm science experiment, he came with the idea of the lumitrack tires. That invention landed him at the National Space Administration (and a lot of money) where he met Jason. Jason was the lead project designer on a newly advanced explorer class starship named Impala. A new prototype interstellar stardrive was being tested and Jason designed the ship it was supposed to take on its first manned mission past our own solar system. They worked together on the ship that sorta started a teacher/student type bondage. They instantly became best friends the first time Frank played chess with him and beat him in 3 moves. Jason has played chess all his life and became a prodigy in strategic planning and advanced movent tracking so as a result has only run into one other person to beat him before Frank and that was his uncle but even his uncle has a difficult time ousting him now. For the 2yrs since the accident, Jason has yet to make it past 8 moves before Frank checkmates him no matter what he does.

"Eventually ill tell u what you're doing wrong....." he would tell him. ".....I just have to figure it out myself." I just have to figure it out myself......that night....that moment!!

Frank was working late that night. He fell asleep trying to figure out a way to use nanites as a base component for internal arc gens within luminescent molecules. He awoke to the sound of his computer alerting him that the nanites had been preprogrammed and were waiting for confirmation to proceed to the next step. He hit the enter key then rolled his chair over to the small observation chamber. Peeking through the glass, he saw as the bio pouch was lowered from its compartment then slightly shaken to activate the luminescent molecules in the fluids. The little robotic pincer then attached the pouch to a prop stand to hold it steady before moving away and melding to the wall of the chamber. He looked up and slide his chair a little further over to a refrigerated incubation tank. He put on a thick leather glove opened the door and reached in, grabbing 1 of the 20 test tubes that had a black oily liquid slushing around as he moved back over to the observation chamber. He pushed a button on the side of a small door next to the looking glass. The door slid up and a platform holding a smaller prop stand emerged. He placed the test tube in the prop stand and pushed the button again. The platform slid back in and the door closed. He looked through the glass again just as a pincer molded itself from the wall and moved towards the test tube. Another mold began to form on the wall across from the pouch that looked like 2 fingers pointing. The top one had 3 needles of different sizes that began rotating as the pincer brought the test tube to it. It turned the tube horizontal and inserted it into the bottom finger which had started opening as it approached. The pincer disappeared into the wall again as the rotating needles stopped spinning and extended towards the pouch. The needles punched through the bag and a slight hiss could be heard as the black substance was injected. It looked like a black shadow was swirling around against the soft blue hue before disappearing. The bag began to get brighter and brighter to where you couldn't see the pouch anymore and Frank was forced to close the tinted cover over the looking glass. He slid over to his computer and opened another screen showing the internal readouts of the chamber. He watched as the power output indicator climbed almost to the green, then suddenly drop all the way down as the other readings dropped right along with it. "Damnit" he mumbled to himself. He hit a few keys on the keyboard then stood up and walked over to the back of the chamber. He put on the protective overalls hanging next to the entryway then opened the pneumatically sealed door and stepped inside. He stood inside a small outer room with a rectangular looking window in front of him. He stepped to the side of the window in front of a blank wall and pulled out a small black box placing it against the wall. The wall slowly began to envelop the box as an archway began opening allowing him to walk into the testing chamber. Unknown to Frankie, Jason had just walked into the lab with another scientist and proceeded to the computer terminals. "Its already primed and ready sir...." the scientist said as he studied the screen. "It looks like there was a previous failed attempt and is already set up for the next one." Jason looked around the room for any signs of life but found none. "Ok, start the next step....where are you Frank?" he said the last to himself. "No...wait!!" he exclaimed as he looked and noticed the tint down on the observation chamber. The scientist looked up in frustrated shock as he had just hit the enter key on the computer.

Inside the chamber, Frankie paid no attention to the archway as it silently closed behind him. He reached for the used bio pouch and placed it in his side pouch just as the pincer formed and was lowering a fresh pouch to the same prop stand. He watched in curiosity as it went thru the same previous steps. Flight took over when he looked and saw the needles forming out of the wall again. The inner chamber was too small for him to move out of the needles way, he discovered as he turned towards the non-existent archway. Flight turned to panic as the needles punctured his suit and entered his side just under his ribs. He felt the ice cold nanites being injected into his body as he began spasming. He reflexively reached and grabbed the fresh bio pouch, snatching it off the stand, and squeezed it bursting the illuminated contents all over himself and the chamber as his body spasmed again just as the needles removed themselves and retracted back into the wall. He fainted at the sudden release of pressure and collapsed as much of his body to the floor the small room allowed him to fall to. The illuminated substance began to glow bright neon blue then disappeared as it was being absorbed thru the suit and into his skin.

Outside the chamber, Jason watched in horror as the needles injected the nanites into Frank making him jerk around in the small room. He ran to the back of the chamber ordering the scientist to stop the test and get help but to no avail. Disregarding the safety protocols, he stepped into the chamber, picked up the box that had been ejected from the wall when the archway closed and reopened the chamber just as the room lit up in bright blue causing him to shield his eyes. Regaining his vision, he reached in and grabbed Frank by the back of his suit and dragged him out the chamber and through the outer room back into the lab. He removed the plastic helmet and tried to revive him just as a group of scientist and a medical team came running through the lab doors. Just as he stepped back to let the medics treat him, Frank bolted up into a sitting position, opened his mouth and took a long deep intake of breath to scream, but before any sound came out he literally exploded into a thick shower of neon blue sparkles leaving everyone in the lab in terrified shock. For weeks the corporate office and local police investigated the incident but turned up nothing. Jason and the scientist were found innocent but was fired from the N.S.A. under grounds of neglect of safety precautions resulting in loss of life.

The guilt took a toll on Jason and drove him to the point of suicide, but it was the night he committed himself to follow thru that his life literally changed. He had driven around all that night, about a month after the investigations, and finally parked at an old fishing spot that he and his father went to in his childhood days. He had a chrome 6 shot colt .45 revolver that kinda held a family heritage and now sat in the driver seat holding it in his lap as he stared teary eyed out at the dark waters of the lake. He was just about to raise the gun and pull the trigger when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise and a sudden weight drop into his back seat casting the inside of the car in a bright blue hue. The rearview mirror reflected the bright light right into Jason's eyes causing him to throw his hands over them. "Damn, sorry. Keep forgetting." an airy but familiar voice said. "Whoooa, what's going on here?" the voice said, taking in the gun still clutched in Jason's hands. Jason slowly regained his vision and looked into the mirror at a now dimly lit light source in the shape of......."Frankie?" he said as he quickly swiveled in his seat to look at the source itself. Frank shrugged his shoulders with a smile saying "in the flesh....sorta!!" He was just about to leap over the seat and bear hung him when caution took over as he studied Frank. The first thing that popped in his mind was Mr. Manhattan from an old movie called Minute Men except Frank had hair....if you could call it that. His naked body looked like a neon blue glow stick. His hair and eyes pulsated a lighter shade of blue and his voice still held its quality but sounded distant almost ghostly when he first begins to speak before it quickly returns to its normal sound but still holds an airy texture. If it wasn't for the fact that he felt the weight in his backseat and Frank sitting as solid as a rock accompanying that weight, he would've sworn he was staring at a spirit. "What's up buddy....." he said like he was having a normal conversation. "U look like you saw a ghost," he said jokingly. Jason recovered from his initial shock. "What the hell happened?......" he asked with a mix of excitement curiosity and fright in his voice. ".....everyone thought you died right there. I felt so bad. I'm so sorry. I didn't think to check the chamber until I saw the tint down but by then it was too late. I didn't expect anyone to be there that late anyway. Man, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry....." he said, trailing off in a stream of tears. He threw caution to the wind and reached out to embrace Frank in a tight hug. Frank, at a loss for words, slowly returned the hug. "Its ok, I'm alright, I'm right here....sorta." he said as he patted Jason on the back. Jason cried into Frank's shoulder for a moment before pulling away and composing himself. "So what the hell happened.....we saw you just....blow up!!" he said as he held Frank at arm's length examining him again. He took his jacket off and handed it to Frank, who refused it. "To be honest, I really don't know......" he said as his body began to dim even further slowly returning to its normal light-skinned complexion. His lab coat dress shirt and trousers were revealed as he completely returned to his normal looking self, except for his hair and eyes, which still held their light blue hue but more detailed. You can see his pupils and the strands of each hair but they still glowed giving him the appearance of a blue Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball Z. "I just woke up in extreme pain like I was about to....explode you said? Huh! Anyway, I didn't feel no explosion...probably a good thing but it felt like I was just snatched by something and being pulled through all kinds of weird shit....man I can't even begin to describe the shit I saw.....but it was sooo cool......"