(no subject)

[ask_the_right_questions]

Erik wanders through the maze of corridors at... at wherever the hell SHIELD had brought him to. He follows his chaperone, making sure he's never too far behind, while still trying to take it all in, the depth and scale of this base, the shear number of people working here, it's astounding.

Of course, for all he knows, 'here' could be anywhere, he was given absolutely no reference points, except that it's somewhere within a 10 hour flight of Culver, but to be honest, that could be anywhere in the western world.

When the Agent had first approached him about this meeting, Erik had insisted on checking the presented ID badge thoroughly, and then said he could make any date with a few days notice, or else a weekend, in order to get his teaching calendar sorted and cover arranged/classes rearranged.

Which was why, at 5pm on a Saturday, he now stood looking at his chaperone wondering why they had stopped by a door.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I don't have clearance to go through this door, sir," the young Agent replied. "You do. Just, hold you pass up to the scanner, and look in the retinal scanner. The system'll do the rest. When you're through, go down the stairs to the fourth level, head right, then it'll be the first corridor on the left."

Oh. Right. Maybe they were going to 'neutralise' him, or whatever euphemism they wanted to put on it, after all. Nothing to be done but to try it and see what happens.

With that, he tried his pass and looked in the scanner. The door duly opened, and he headed down the stairs. Level four turned out to be the bottom of this particular set of stairs. Maybe this place was deeper elsewhere, maybe this was as deep as the rabbit hole went. Either way, Erik looked around, as he headed down the corridor that branched off to the right.

He walked a short distance, looking around. He walked passed one technician (or agent, or something, he looked like a technician, though,) and was looking at the right wall of the corridor, as he passed a branch off to his left.

Comments

[the_man]

Out of the shadows, there's a voice.

"Doctor Selvig."

[ask_the_right_questions]

Erik turns as he hears his name being called. Ah, yes. First on the left. This must be it. Erik pauses for a moment, looking down at the man who called out his name. At least, he assumes it was this man who is looking back at him, rather than one of the assistants in lab coats who are now walking away.

"So you're the man behind all this?" he asks. "It's quite a labyrinth."

"I was thinking, they're taking me down here to kill me..." Erik tails off into a small depreciating laugh at his own line of thought. Which still hasn't been proven invalid.

As he looks up again, and notes the man has barely moved, if at all, he stops laughing and pauses, about half-way between the corridor he'd been in and where Fury stands.

[the_man]

Fury's footsteps echo in the empty corridor as he approaches.

"I've been hearing about the New Mexico situation," he says. "Your work has impressed a lot of people who are much smarter than I am." The look he aims at Selvig is clearly meant to be a significant one.

[ask_the_right_questions]

Erik does note the look, but, at the same time, he knows he needs to put that work into context.

"I have a lot to work with. The Foster theory, a gateway to another dimension?" He gives a small shrug of the shoulders.

"It's unprecedented."

And with unprecedented experimental evidence, should come unprecedented theoretical work. That's how science works. Sometimes there's greater lag between the two, but they always come. Erik was just the right man in the right place at the right time to get the jump. At least, that's how he sees it. He got lucky.

[the_man]

Fury wordlessly tilts his head to the side. He waits.

[ask_the_right_questions]

It must be. He'd have heard the rumours if something like New Mexico had happened before.

But, Fury's reaction to the claim means he has to question his assumption.

"Isn't it?"

[the_man]

Fury turns, and leads Selvig further down the corridor.

"Legend tells us one thing, history, another. But every now and then," he says, circling around behind a metal case set on a lab table, "We find something that belongs to both."

He flips it open. A blue glow pools around them.

[ask_the_right_questions]

Erik follows hesitantly, though, whatever Fury's talking about, he's interested.

When the case opens, Erik looks down at whatever is causing the glow. What he sees is a cube, blue and glowing with some internal light. Sparks flicker through it, as if caught in a thunderstorm made solid.

The clear security measures placed around the cube, notably the keypad, which presumably requires a specific code to release the cube, make Erik wonder.

"What is it?" he asks, looking back up at Fury.

[the_man]

"Power, Doctor," Fury says. The blue light reflects off his teeth when he smiles. "If we can figure out how to tap it. Maybe unlimited power."

[ask_the_right_questions]

Power. Various questions rattle around his mind.

What sort of power? Do you have any idea of the risks? What's been tried already?

But, they're all really rather irrelevant. Because Power can be made to do Work. And Work can be converted to Electricity. And there is a clear need for clean energy.

"Well, that's got to be worth a look."