"Raging Science"

[Kevin Kingswell]

The flight had been hot, stuffy and cramped which was nothing like her office back in Noval Sol Terra still it was worth the trouble to get just a glimpse of this "Raging Nostrum" that the Australians had produced. She hadn't been able to believe the reports when they described the effectivness of some of the Autralian troops and so she had made inquiries to the Australians politly asking if it was possible she could meet with them to see this "Raging Nostrum" as she was filled with curiousity about its production and its effects.

Eventually it seemed her request was accepted and she was instructed to fly to Brisbane airport where she guessed she would meet someone or some people who would take her to see the chemical or at least to talk about seeing it. So she had packed what little she could as quickly as possible and bought a ticket on the first airline to Brisbane from Nova Sol Terra. The tickets had been the lowest class and that was why she had been stuck in her present conditions still she was here now and she grabbed her luggage from the overhead storage before moving down and out of the aircraft.

The first thing that hit her was the heat which was staggering even compared to the inside of the aircraft which must have been air conditioned. Swiping her brow with her sleeve to get rid of the sweat there she made her way down the access steps and out onto the pavement where a shuttle waited to take the passengers to the terminal however, she also noted a woman in uniform standing by a limousine and she guessed that this was the person she who she had to meet.

Descending the steps she stepped away from the rest of the passengers who were busy glancing at the limo and the woman in uniform before muttering about privilges and getting on the shuttle.

Catherine meanwhile approached the guard with a slight smile crossing her face and extended her right arm in greetings to the uniformed woman. "Hello there my names Catherine Elizabeth Halsey its good to meet you I guess your my escort" said Catherine in gretting coming to a stop just before the Australian woman.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Valeria wasn't particularly happy with the circumstances that she would be giving a description to a foreign scientist about the Lillians' most prized military possession. But Nova Sol Terra did not have the capabilities to recreate the chemical, while it was actually quite simple to be made in the first place, being stolen from the Dranggian attack on Brisbane years ago. She waited inside Brisbane terminal with two other Lillian Guards for the woman to come off the plane and when she finally did, Valeria sighed and stepped up forward to her and gave a curt bow, taking off her hat and her lace gloves to shake the scientist's hand.

"Hello there my names Catherine Elizabeth Halsey its good to meet you I guess your my escort"

"Escort would be a bit demeaning to me Miss Halsey." Valeria smirked. "My name is Commander Valeria Sangral of the Lillian Guard. However I will, under instruction of the Queen, and your very long letter of desiring to see Nostrum in action and its effects on subjects. So you will be getting quite a surprise I assure you." She turned and beckoned Catherine to follow her. "However, our command center is north of her in Apophis, not in Brisbane, the Queen has made sure that Brisbane is near free of military installations. The trip will be a few hours so I do hope your comfortable." She led the scientist outside into a waiting limousine as they drove off through the former Hanseatic capital, across the glistening buildings styled in the model of the European Enlightenment, Baroque, Rococo, and Classical, before finally heading out onto beach roads towards the city of Apophis to the north.

[Kevin Kingswell]

"My apologies Commander Sangral I meant no insult" Catherine had replied cursing herself for making such a foolish mistake. Of course they would send someone important to meet her after all this substance had to be very important to the Australians. She had then listened carefully and she had perked up upon hearing about a surprise before following Commander Sangral into the limousine which thankfully was much cooler than the outside air.

As they had driven through the city of Brisbane Catherine couldn't help but admire the sights that passed her by. It was so much more different than Nova Sol Terra, here everything seemed so cheerful and bright whereas, back home people lived as if they had a watching presence over them at all times. Soon they left the city and were out onto the roads by the beach where the sun glistened beautifully off the sea and made the whole area seem to sparkle.

Realising that she was probally making a fool of herself and that she had come to Australia for a reason she pulled her gaze away from the sea side view and instead concentrated on the occupants of the vehicle they were travelling in. Commander Sangral was defiantly military and probally special forces considering the name of the unit she led and that meant they truly did use the "Raging Nostrum" or they at least guarded it and so she could hopefully answer some of Catherine's more basic questions.

"So Commander what can you tell me about this "Raging Nostrum"? All I had were basic reports which in actual fact were little more than rumours and as a scientist I prefer the cold hard truth than make believe and wild stories" asked Catherine resting both her hands in her lap and quietly awaiting Commander Sangral's response.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"I'm afraid that all I can tell you is that it is an adrenaline booster, or at least the versions of the serum that we will be looking at today. Personally, I am not a huge fan of allowing other eyes to even come into the area, but there is a first time for everything right?" She laughed quietly to herself. "But as I said, it is an adrenaline booster of high proportions to give our girls the edge in certain conflicts, however as of the moment, it has thankfully not been used besides in isolated occasions to preserve peace in the civilian atmosphere. Australia has been thankful that our continent has stayed peaceful and that most wars and global conflicts simply pass us by. As a military woman, I am thankful for that."

She sighed as they continued on the road. "As to the effects, they differ in most subjects. As the sudden drive of adrenaline has tendencies to turn people to mild rage or beyond. Hence its name. But strength, agility, endurance, and stamina are all increased by various amounts. You'll find that out soon enough Doctor, I assure you. I have already notified the resident technicians and they will be preforming a live demonstration for you. One of our Lillians has volunteered. However as to the structure of the chemical, I'm afraid that information is classified until perhaps our governments become better acquainted with each other. I'm sure you understand."

As she talked, the limousine entered in through the highways to Apophis which, unlike Brisbane, was a much darker. This had been Hannah's first capital before the Battle of Brisbane during the Unification Wars, large gray buildings of gray stone reached into the air, giving the city almost a medieval appearance. While the sun, since it was late in the day, had already faded under the mountains and the first stars began to shine in the sky. The limousine entered a large gated wall and a large stone building appeared in front of them. The green gardens of its courtyard sprawling in front of them, though they were abandoned by people, except for the local guards that strolled the grounds.

"Welcome to the Palac Pontus Doctor Hasley. This used to be the center of government of the Hanseatic Regime before total unification. Since then it has hosted one of our major laboratories for Nostrum production. If you will follow me. Valeria led her into the hall and through a series of large wooden doors leading to the hall's interior, stone floors and stone walls lead down dark corridors, lit by sconces. Heading deeper through the building, they descended into the earth itself, to darker corridors underneath the foundation and to metal hallways. As they came to the end of these corridors, the metal halls gave way into a rudimentary laboratory design, Valeria opened another door and walked Catherine inside to a large room with series of booths and tables with a metal table in the middle. In the corner of the room a man in a white lab coat bowed. His eyes were bright, but his face was wrinkled and his nose crooked.

"Doctor Cyaire. Catherine Hasley." Valeria introduced him.

Cyaire smiled and walked over to her. "So this is the young lady that would like to know about my work? We please what is it that you would like to ask me?"

[Kevin Kingswell]

Catherine had listened carefully to Commander Sangral mentally recording everything she said including every little detail so that nothing was missed. She was also surprised that the Commander was ready to reveal what information she had mostly had without too much complaint, the same couldn't be said for her own military commanders back home.

The prospect of a live demonstration sent Catherine's heart skipping as that must have been what her surprise was and truthfully she had never expected to recieve such an honour. Before she could even thank Sangral they were heading off the road and into the city of Apophis and again Catherine was distracted by the change in atmosphere and scenary as this time it was a lot closer to home though it still didn't feel as oppressive here.

It wasn't long before they came to a stop and Commander Sangral introduced her to the place known as Palac Pontus and its description as a main laboratory made her full of joy. This was where she belonged, where science lived and breathed and though she was paying some attention to Commander Sangral she was also quietly wishing they could make their way inside though she hadn't needed to wish.

She was swiftly led inside and Halsey was glad to see that the lab was partially underground at least which gave it some security though it was a bit drab compared to her liking but that could be ignored considering what she was here to see and eventually they came to a room which immediatly caught her attention as did the man who bowed on their arrival before he walked across to her.

"So this is the young lady that would like to know about my work? We please what is it that you would like to ask me?"

Catherine had many questions to ask, how did they first discover the serum, what advantages and disadvantages did it bring and how easy was it to reproduce but she was a proffessional and manners came first.

"Greetings Doctor Cyaire it is a pleasure to meet you. I have many questions to ask you but let us start from the beginning. Can you tell me where you first discovered this "Raging Nostrum" base substance or coding from?" she asked switching straight into her mature scientist like manner.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Sangral chuckled and looked at Cyaire. "I'm afraid Her Majesty doesn't want to divulging precious secrets to Madame Scientist. Nova Sol Terra is not allowed to reproduce such chemicals for their own use." Valeria looked over at Catherine with piercing eyes. "Unless you want to risk severely angering Her Highness' good graces. This is the first step in what is hopefully a long friendship between our peoples and as such you will get to see it in action and its effects, but not how to recreate it. Is that understood? Both of you?"

Cyaire bowed. "Lady Valeria, you do nothing but honor me and your anger and compassion is equal to you beauty." The doctor smiled, his lips curling up.

Valeria rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as the doctor looked back over at Catherine.

"Milady, it would be an honor to tell you about how we discovered Raging Nostrum and the beauty of that is we were gifted it by God. When the Dranggians invaded in Brisbane, their special forces carried it with them and by a stroke of luck we were able to recreate the chemical compound for use of our Lillian Guard. So to say that we created it would be misleading, but we did add a few enhancements to it." Cyaire paused and looked Catherine up and down. "You know, you seem to be a physically fit young lady, perhaps instead of dragging a Lillian down here, perhaps you would like to experience the sensation yourself?"

Valeria's eyes widened and she looked at Cyaire with a curious face. "Now that is a surprise."

[Kevin Kingswell]

Catherine allowed Sangral to warn the doctor without making any comment or facial expression to get in the way of the Commander's warning until Commander Sangral turned to warn her as well as make a slight accusation which made Catherine throw up her hands and shake her head from side to side quite viciously. "Oh no no I wouldn't dream of angering the Queen not with my life and my nation's relations on the line!" she said trying to throw a reassuring smile out as well.

It seemed to work as the Commander's expression was diverted to the good doctor as he made a pretty bad attempt at flattering the Commander which made even Catherine shake her head in disbelief thinking of how even the smartest of men and women were sometimes a little out of touch. Of course the doctor turned to her and explained how the Australians had gained the first samples of "Raging Nostrum" and then how they had modified it and through his whole explanation she was hooked.

So when he offered for her to take the place of a Lillian Halsey was both stunned and lost for words and whilst both Commander Sangral and Doctor Cyaire waited for her answer Catherine played the idea over and over again in her mind weighing up the positives and negatives and finally decided that whilst there were risks Science never gave results to those who waited in safety.

"Doctor, Commander I gladly accept your idea of using me as the subject for this demonstration. Shall we begin?" said Catherine looking at the two of them with a smile and a wink of her eye.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Valeria smirked. "So happy to go through with it. This is something. A bit too energetic." She stared at Catherine with darting eyes, suspicion rising in her voice.

But Cyaire was all but too happy to take Catherine by the arm and walk her over towards the metallic table. He gesture for her to step up and sit down on the board and then lay back. The table was covered in leather straps, which went over each ankle, across her waist, and over both her wrists. They were latched down as tight as possible, only slightly cutting off circulation to her extremities. After she was secure on the table, Cyaire walked over to another wooden table and out of a silver box pulled out a syringe with a crystal blue coloring.

"This is the Type A version of the serum. You should feel a quick boost in your adrenaline that with multiply your strength, endurance, blah, blah, everything I said in the past." He smiled. "Anyways." With a quick gesture, Cyaire plunged the syringe into her neck and fed the chemical into her blood stream. "Enjoy Doctor Hasley, the sensation should be something you won't soon forget."

[Kevin Kingswell]

Catherine uttered a quiet, controlled cry of pain as she felt the syringe pierce the skin of her neck not having been used to the feeling of pain she had been unable to avoid crying out and now felt like a fool in front of everyone. The whole incident reminded her of the time at university when she had made a fool of herself when she messed up a very important experiment and everyone had laughed and jeered at the simple girl who thought she could play in the big leagues. The meer thought of it made her furious and the more she lay there waiting for this serum to take effect the more angry she got.

This had better not be a fake serum because if it is then they are making a fool of me and I do not care to be made a fool of. Thoughts such as this and others raced through Halsey's mind as the "Raging Nostrum" began to take effect within her body. In her mind she slowly lost the sense of time and place as the Australian serum focused her thoughts on events and memories of the past where something had caused her pain, misery or anger which allowed the serum to work its magic without too much cause of alarm from its host body. Of course as Doctor Cyaire had stated it was a lower strength type of "Raging Nostrum" which meant that Catherine didn't go berserk as she would have with a higher dose.

Whilst her mind was going through its own series of changes her physical self also changed in accordance to the serum's effects. To Commander Sangral and Doctor Cyaire they would notice that on Doctor Halsey's arms, legs and neck veins that had once been unseen by the naked eye were starting to expand and flow with an increased blood flow making them begin to stand out against Haley's pale skin. This wasn't the only visible effect that they could see her muscles began to also expand and push against the skin spread across them, the process wasn't too painful but in Catherine's current state she felt no pain anyway just a sense of anger, against what though she couldn't exactly tell.

In a few short moments Catherine's muscles had expanded well past any point in her life previousally and she her mind had started to gain a measure of control over the memories that kept occuring and it was at this point that she truly felt the changes to her body and that small part of her scientific brain that was properlly functioning was amazed at the effects and made sure to remember to congratulate Doctor Cyaire on his work once the whole process was over. For now though her body and mind now worked on trying to move and found to its annoyance that it was restrained to the table it rested on.

Catherine's body had began to sweat with the strain of both the serum's changes and her attempts to pull herself out of the restraints, her eyes also began to dilate as the serum spread through her entire body. Clenching her fists tightly she began to pull her arms upwards attempting to bring them together and in the process destroy the arm restraints luckily for everyone present she had never been a strong woman physically and whilst the restraints did stretch they never broke apart no matter how hard Catherine tried. She attempted to break free for a fair amount of time just long enough for the serum's effects to start coming to an end, her muscles and veins reducing in size and her strength and endurance falling back down to her pre injection levels.

This of course meant that the full effect of the effort she had been placing on escaping the restraints quickly became apparent as her arms fell to table and she began to breath faster. Her mind meanwhile was also beginning to quiten down as the memories that had been so vivid and so active retreated back to the parts of her mind where they belonged and the rest of her mind that had been so quiet and dormant once again came back into focus.

It took a minute or so for Doctor Catherine Halsey's body to return to its normal state, leaving her at its end panting out of breath and her clothes drenched in sweat. It was an experience unlike any other she had ever gone through and she could see quite clearly now how useful the substance could be for the Australian military espically with the higher doses.

"Doctor Cyaire that was unlike anything I have ever experienced before, your work is amazing and I congratulate you on its creation and success. I believe that with you in the Australian's service they can expect much more advances in the future. Now if it wouldn't trouble you could you please remove these restraints. My body feels sore and I would like to get up. Thank you".