Strangerville Mystery - Ch 10 - The Door

Classified Ministry of Defense Research Facility, Rangerville Crater, Sunday, May 16, 2021, 5:15PM

"Ready to see what's behind Door Number One, Obi-Wan?" Molly asked, trying to hide her nerves. "If this works at all."

Eccentric Erwin has been thrilled with the dossier, practically giggling with excitement over the evidence they'd collected. He'd assured them that his mysterious contacts would be equally impressed and told them to come back the next day for the security card.

Molly had, once again, wondered whether asking a guy who wore kitchenware and holiday lights as a hat had really been her very best idea. Lucius, however, had been absolutely confident that Eccentric Erwin would fulfill his end of the bargain. Molly had wondered what Lucius's Luxurious Hair would look like under a colander. Of course, since this had been her idea in the first place, maybe she'd need a colander hat of her own.

Still, less than an hour ago, Eccentric Erwin had handed them a card with the confident assurance that it would work. 

"I have every faith that the card will work," Lucius said calmly. "Whether we're ready for what is behind this door, I am less certain of."

"Terrific," Molly muttered.

The door beeped, an oddly cheerful sound in the ruins of the abandoned secret lab. Then it announced, in a calm, recorded voice, "Access granted. Welcome, Major Duchovny." 

With a smooth hiss of well-oiled machinery, the doors slid open. A wave of cool, wet air rolled out of the open door, carrying with it a perfumed smell that reminded Molly of a flower shop.

"Oh, just terrific," she coughed as the sickly-sweet air caught in her throat.

Beyond the door, stairs descended into perfumed darkness.

At the bottom of the stairs, they found themselves in a dimly lit empty room with two corridors stretching deeper into the darkness. Down one, Molly could see distant light. Down the other...

"What do you think that is?" Molly asked.

Thick purple fog filled the passageway, hiding whatever was beyond.

"Here be dragons," Lucius said softly.

"Yeah," Molly sighed. "Wait, you don't think there are actual dragons down there... do you?"

With a wry smile, Lucius pulled what Molly could only think was a magic wand from his belt. 

"Let's see, shall we," he said.

He spoke again in those musical Words that sent a chill down Molly's spine. Motes of light, like conjured stars, spilled from the wand as he waved it in graceful arc. 

Molly held her breath, waiting. 

Finally, she said, "OK... what happened?"

"Nothing," Lucius said, almost cheerfully. "Absolutely nothing. I am accounted the greatest weather witch alive today, and my magic cannot touch that fog. Which is very interesting."

"OK, what does that mean?" Molly asked. "You said before that you couldn't magic the strange plants, or the zombies, because you didn't know their Name. So, the fog has a Name you don't know?"

"Precisely," Lucius smiled. "Which means we are definitely on the right track. I believe they are all parts of the same whole... the Mother."

"OK, I take it that's a good thing," Molly said. "Just, you seem really happy about it."

"Molly, I've been doing this kind of thing for a very long time," Lucius said. "I haven't encountered a truly novel and unexpected challenge like this since the Dark Ages." 

"OK, yeah... I get that," Molly nodded. "I enjoy a good challenge too. Just, this a little bigger than missing a project deadline and losing my bonus."

"Agreed," Lucius said. "I suggest we try the other passage first. I don't relish breathing in a mysterious fog. In my experience, that ends badly."

"Yeah, right there with you," Molly nodded. "Let's try Door Number Three."

Door Number Three, and the corridor beyond it, led to a well-appointed laboratory. White walls and tiled floor gleamed, and somewhere a humming ventilation system breathed cool, dry air - finally clean of the perfumed smell that had dominated the lower level. Computer towers and display screens lined the nearest wall and in the center of it all, a glass-enclosed clean room contained chemical analysis stations.

"OK, feeling more in my element now," Molly said. 

"I imagine so," Lucius replied, wandering around the room.

"Woah, this is interesting," Molly said. "They've definitely been studying those strange plants. I'm guessing this is like a life cycle... the ones we've seen might be an early stage."

"So I see," Lucius said from across the room.

"It looks like they were growing these before the explosion," Molly said, examining the data on the screens. "They tried to cultivate the plants... and they succeeded. If I'm reading this right, the plants reached maturity and started releasing some kind of spores... as well as growing those strange fruit." 

"They have certainly cultivated these plants," Lucius said mildly. "Or at least attempted to. These don't look healthy."

"These... ?" Molly asked, coming around the clean room to join Lucius. "Holy crap... those are the containment units Dylan and I found blueprints for."

"I believe so," Lucius nodded. "I credit your MoD for trying to take precautions, but I expect their experiment moved out of their control. It may be that once the plants reached maturity, they could no longer be contained."

"These look pretty contained," Molly said.

"Yes, but as I said, these don't look healthy," Lucius pointed out. "There may be another lab, like this one, down the other corridor..."

"Which might have had a better crop and be what caused the explosion," Molly said. "Once that happened, they abandoned the lab... but the spores got out. You know, Biobro Brian's crop is probably FutureTech trying to pick up on the MoD's work here after they abandoned this lab."

"Because making the same mistakes again is always productive," Lucius said.

"Except, Biobro Brian isn't using these containment modules," Molly said. "So, no explosion."

"Just more spores," Lucius pointed out.

"Right, that's bad," Molly said. "They'll contaminate everyth... Wait. Contaminate. Son of bitch! The sensor module. The project I got called in on... a sensor module to detect and analyze biological contaminants! They've got the same problem you do! They don't understand the plants or their spores... so they can't fight them... or guard against them! The hazmat filter team... they're waiting on specs from MoD for a new filter... to filter out the spores. They're trying to go down that corridor... back into the original lab." 

"We need to get to that lab," Lucius said earnestly. 

"Which means we need hazmat suits with upgraded filters," Molly said. "Which means we need an analysis of the spores. For that, we need a working sensor module."

"Do you have one?" Lucius asked.

"The prototype is in testing," Molly said, "but I have all the components I need back at FutureTech. I can build us one. Let's go!" 

Strangerville Mystery - Ch 9 - Eccentric Erwin

Rangerville Trailer Park, Thursday, May 13, 2021, 8:25AM

"You can't really imagine that this Eccentric Erwin really has a keycard to the secret lab's security door," Lucius said. "Can you?"

"Never underestimate the resourcefulness of nerds, Obi-Wan," Molly said. "Especially crazy nerds." 

"Obi-Wan," Lucius chuckled.

"Sorry, Star Wars reference," Molly smiled, adding, "It's a movie. Obi-Wan Kenobi is the wise old advisor character. You kinda have that vibe. Not that you're old."

"'When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not,'" Lucius quoted in a remarkably muppet-y voice. "My daughter is a Star Wars fan," he added. "So, I've kept up with it. I quite like Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"That's right, you mentioned you had a daughter before," Molly said. "Is she back in Henford?"

"She is. We aren't in contact," Lucius said a little sadly. "She's grown and has her own life. She doesn't want to see me... but perhaps someday."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Molly said. A sudden thought occurred to her. "Say... you're not actually 900 years old, are you?"

"No, no," Lucius replied mildly. "It's been a long time since I was only 900." 

"Welcome to Curious Curios and More," Eccentric Erwin greeted them.

"Erwin, I want to ask you about the 'and More,'" Molly said, interrupting him. 

"Uhhh... what can I do you for?" Eccentric Erwin said, looking suddenly suspicious.

Molly exchanged a look with Lucius. When they'd discussed how to approach this, he'd been insistent that they be honest with Erwin. From his expression, even the sight of Erwin in his holiday-light-colander-hat hadn't changed his mind (like she'd inwardly hoped it would).

She took a deep breath and said, "We're investigating the explosion at the government lab in the crater and the strange things that have been happening since."

"Right," Eccentric Erwin said cautiously. "So, you guys cops? Army? Agency? Aliens?"

"Molly is an engineer at FutureTech, and concerned about her friends," Lucius replied calmly. "I am a lord of the Tuatha de Danann and am investigating in service to the Witch's Council." 

"No shit?" Eccentric Erwin breathed.

"No shit," Lucius said earnestly.

"So, what can I do you for?" Eccentric Erwin asked again.

Pushing back the thought 'what the hell is a lord of the Tuatha de Danann' as something to be discussed later, Molly took a deep breath. In for a penny, in for a pound.

"You wouldn't happen to have a keycard for the security doors at the secret lab in your 'and More' inventory," she asked. 

"Are you kiddin'?" Eccentric Erwin grinned. "Ain't no way I could have somethin' like that in stock."

Lucius shrugged with what Molly felt was an annoying smug hint of 'I told you so.'

"I can totally get one," Eccentric Erwin continued. "But it's a strictly special-order item. Gotta talk to my contacts about it... and they's gonna want proof."

Lucius just blinked, clearly stunned.

"Proof?" Molly said. "Proof of..."

"Well, first off that you ain't workin' fer the gov'ment," Eccentric Erwin said. "An' second off that you's committed to findin' the Truth about Strangerville."

"Oooo-kay," Molly breathed. "How do we do that?"

"Well, you put together everythin' you know," Eccentric Erwin said. "Copies o' all the evidence you got, everythin' you know 'bout the lab, 'bout FutureTech's involvement, an' whatever you can find 'bout what they's lookin' for in the library ('cause I really wanna know 'bout that). Put it all together into a whatyachallit... a doss-ee-yay... an' give that to me an' I'll talk to my contacts 'bout getting you the keycard you need to get more."

"Right." Molly seriously wondered if this had been as good an idea as it had seemed.

"We give you a dossier of all the evidence we collect, and you give us the keycard we need," Lucius said evenly. Clearly, he'd gotten over his initial surprise.

"That's right," Eccentric Erwin grinned.

"Done," Lucius smiled. 

Molly hoped she only imagined the sudden chill breeze that blew up around them and seemed to settle in her bones. Probably not. She resolved to be very careful about making any more agreements with Lucius of the Luxurious Hair. 

Rangerville Trailer Park, Saturday, May 15, 2021, 4:30PM

"There we go, Obi-Wan; one dossier containing every clue we've found," Molly said. "Copies of every torn note, faded picture, newspaper clipping, scraps of local history and legend, printouts of blueprints and transcripts of conversations..."

"Courtesy of that contraption of yours," Lucius said.

"That 'contraption' happens to be the most sophisticated (and illegal) eavesdropping station I could build out of whatever I could find the local electronics store, plus some items of questionable legality Eccentric Erwin had in his 'and More' stock," Molly said with pride. 

"And let's not underestimate the considerable personal sacrifice I made in planting the listening device in the first place," she continued. "I mean, I let that creep Biobro Brian buy me drinks... and grope me... so I could get close enough."

"Your courage and fortitude in the face of such trials are noted and appreciated," Lucius said with absolute sincerity. "Even if they will not be included in song or story."

"Damn right they won't," Molly huffed. "We're not telling anyone about that part. Ever."

"As you say," Lucius nodded. "But you do feel that results were worth the trials."

"Well, we confirmed that Biobro Brian is growing those strange plants on instructions from the MoD, by way of Bonnie of the Bounteous Bosom," Molly said. "And there was that bit he said about 'not knowing anything about space rocks' which backs up that bit of folklore you dug out of the library.  The First Nations story about the purple light in the sky and a big explosion, which probably caused the crater. Strange plants from another world."

"Another Realm, I think," Lucius said. "You do understand that there are Realms other than this one."

"Is this the part where you draw a picture of Yggdrasil and explain about the Nine Realms?" Molly smiled. "Because I liked Thor too."

"Oh, did you know him? Entertaining fellow. We might do better if he were here. Alas, you have me instead," Lucius smiled. "Still, there are many more than nine Realms. 

"I have a dread suspicion," he continued. "I believe the source of all this... the Mother, your possessed friends called Her... fell to Earth thousands of years ago, through a great rift in the Veil between worlds. I fear She may have come from one the Far Realms, frightening places on the edge of the Outer Darkness where my people do not venture."

"That sounds bad," Molly said.

"An Elder Being from the Far Realms... yes, that could be very bad," Lucius said. "I hope I'm wrong. Regardless, I didn't include that particular thought in the dossier. It's only a guess and not, I think, one that would be meaningful to our Eccentric Erwin and his mysterious contacts."

"I don't know," Molly shrugged. "I'm guessing Eccentric Erwin has read Lovecraft. I hope you're wrong too, Obi-Wan. I'd really rather not fight any Eldrich Horrors this weekend. Let's get this over to Curious Curios and see about putting in our special order."