Casper approached Astrid, taking a look at what she was working on. He was deeply interested in that heart, and if that was what he supposed, he needed to bow deeply to that genial woman.
It would be not just a simple science advancement, but something that could change the world entirely.
Astrid had pale skin and was underweight, probably because 90% of her diet was based on cereal bars and other snacks. She preferred food that would be consumed quickly and without occupying the hands for too long.
Like Adam, she always worked her ass off to be able to accomplish her goals. Once her mind started to operate, nobody, even she, could stop it.
Casper once tried to ask her if she slept, but she acted like she did not know what he was talking about.
Rumors had spread for a long time, saying that she did self-hypnosis to be able to forget the need to sleep and keep working for days and days until her mind stopped and she fainted.
By the way, fainting by exhaustion was common at the laboratory, particularly when it came to Astrid and Adam, and whoever the crazy person that tried to copy their behavior.
The only one in the laboratory that seemed always very well composed and that did not enter into burnout every day was MMA.
Anyone knew how, but that guy could pull through everything he had to do during his days in the laboratory way faster than anyone else could.
He was the definitive image of efficiency. Nobody could catch up with him. And, although he himself never denied or agreed with it, everyone shared the same opinion: of the three geniuses, he was the smartest. Now, between Adam and Astrid, was a more controversial question, and people preferred not to talk about it often to avoid the possible fuss that could come.
"So, if I am not blind, and I am sure I can see very well, you are making a prosthesis of a heart!?" Casper got really carried away by the moment and let himself be happy and excited about that.
"Yes." She said in a tiny and cute voice.
Astrid was a petite lady, with a body that seemed to be made of glass and delicate hands that served perfectly for the meticulous works of a mechanic like her.
"It is a prototype, though."
"After all this month I can say for sure that your prototypes often work better than the final products of 50% of the laboratory."
Astrid seemed to not be so fond of compliments, maybe because she already received lots of them all the time. Every moment when someone talked to her like Casper did, she would get a bit pissed off.
However, in fact, it was very difficult to not praise someone so intelligent as her.
"Please, don't get me wrong, okay? I don't want to tease you or anything, but… You can even imagine the big advance you are doing? I mean, if you can replicate vital organs perfectly as Prosthesis, probably the mortality rate for a lot of diseases and tragedies would be, at least, halved."
She looked at him in confusion, tilting her head to the side in deep thought.
"I never thought about this point once. I just imagined what I wanted to create and then I am doing it now." She looked at the prototype, then towards Casper again. He was sitting in a chair next to her.
"I think you are great, thinking in these sorts of things, but I don't do it. I just want to do what I think is interesting."
"Yeah, yeah, I got it. And that's the huge difference between me and you.
"Now, let me see how the confection of this prototype is going. I want to know how far you could go on it."
"Sure, I am about one week and a half working on it secretly. They just let me bring it to the Lab today, and to always be quiet about it. So, because of this point, just two-thirds of the prototype is done…"
Astrid was talking with Casper and working on the prototype at the same time. She stopped to move her eyes away from that and just heard what he had to say, answering straightforwardly.
"Two-thirds in a week and a half is pretty much, don't you think?" Casper giggled.
"No. If I could bring it to the laboratory I would be doing the second prototype with the necessary adjustments."
"You could be called a beast acting like this, you know? You little addicted in work…" Casper gave a flick on her forehead. She blinked several times, finally looking at him, dumbfounded, just to shrug afterward and start to work again.
Casper thought that now was time to be more serious about everything, so he asked some well-calculated questions.
He was lucky to be dealing with a peculiar person like Astrid. She could be a genius at work, but in truth she was very naive, like a kid. Casper theorized that she had a type of mental condition to be like that.
"So, how do you came with this idea?"
"Hmm, well, look at the internal structure of this prototype. Studying the natural operation of a real human's heart I…"
She kept explaining the details of the work itself and how she idealized its operation. That was not the information Casper was trying to discover, but he did not stop her, since it could make her upset.
"Hmm, that's… quite interesting! And what about the idea of artificial organs overall, what kind of thing motivated you to do so?"
"We are collaborating with a Laboratory."
"It's the Third Lab, possibly?" Casper inclined his body forward.
"I can't say." She waved her hand quickly.
"No?"
"No."
"But I bet that it's the second now since you refused it so fast."
"No, it's not the second, although they have their researches turned to medicine and biology."
And that was another flaw of a naive genius like her: they were extremely perfectionists, and because of it they could not hear misinformation being spread or see failures.
Now, Casper was sure that the Third Lab had something to do with it, since the Second Lab was totally excluded, alongside with the Fourth, which had nothing to do with that sort of researching.
"Well, if you can't say to me who it is that brought you to it, no worries at all. Now, let's see…"
Casper passed some more hours with Astrid, trying to understand what exactly she did to make that thing come to work someday.
He usually visited that section because it was of his major interest. He could understand way better how everything worked.
The soldier was also very interested in how powerful and useful those things could be. Prostheses were not so uncommon in Casper's world, but it was not half as advanced as those they made in District 42.
The response of the prostheses to the neural commands for example was so accurate and quick that one needed to wonder if it was not a real limb.
Several hours passed, and he found himself so absorbed that he almost forgot that that was not his original group of research.
…
When Casper returned from his little (but not so little) stroll over the laboratory, it was rush hour already.
Very similar to an enterprise, there would be always specific days in the week or hours in the day when everyone would have lots of work to do.
Katarina was among some other scientists, yelling at everyone. Casper wished that he did not take part in the mess they probably did, because the best way to decrease self-esteem was to take a scold of her.
A small group that was working on a project seemed to be in a rush to finish everything. It looked that they were running out of time. Each scientist had a time limit to accomplish certain achievements and finish specific works, and it could vary depending on the difficulty.
Thankfully, Casper did not need to work, actually.
He had a special contract made by the Princess, in which he just ought to show up at the laboratory every day and do not make a mess.
However, Casper was not the type of person to just lazy around without doing anything productive, so he kept trying to find new knowledge and sneaky here and there to make his own projects.
In that part of the day Casper generally tried to avoid everyone to not be got by that frenzy. These times he preferred to be with Adam.
Adam was a good friend. He answered all the questions that Casper had, except for the masks.
Vick seemed to trust him enough to teach Casper the most relevant things about the world (and, at times, some irrelevant ones as well).
Adam always stopped for some minutes to meditate at that rush hour, which was quite strange, but also… cool?
Then, Casper would approach and start to talk.
Thanks to it, the White warrior was not a layman on the most important issues regarding that society.
Something was bothering Casper since he arrived at the laboratory, but he prevented himself to say anything, but now was a different matter.
"Hey, Adam, what about those new people here in the Castle? I am seeing a bunch of newbies nowadays entering the Main Lab…"
"Hmmm…? Ah, I didn't notice it. Well, it's always good to have new people to help out, isn't it?"
"Y-yes… But they weren't even introduced…"
"I wasn't introduced as well. Because I didn't want."
"Hmm… I see…"
They got silent for a bit.
"So… What do you want to talk about, Adam?" He said in a monotone voice.
"Women."
"You are the man, Adam… You are the man."
Then, they spent some time talking about nonsense… and women.
…
The shift finally had ended. A small part of scientists were heading home. A lot of them would stay the night to do their things.
Casper had to give them his best compliments since it was just crazy how many hours of work they had.
He wondered sometimes if they had family or something.
"Well… indeed it's a hard path to take, to be a scientist. They are nearly like monks. No, I think above monks maybe…"
He took a brief look to a specific corridor that led to the only block in the Main Lab that Casper could not visit.
Some people often would enter there, and then exit hastily. Some of the most influential and smart scientists worked there. He even identified scientists of other laboratories, particularly the Third Lab.
Adan, MMA, and Astrid once get there as well, but neither of them said to Casper what was going on, except for the name of the project: Project Jormungand.
Anyway, the focus was not that section now. Casper was trying to sneak out of his section. If she could notice him, everything would be lost.
"Hey, Casper! Don't you dare to do the same thing again, move your ass to that chair. Today is the day when we will do a check-up on you! It's on the contract, got it!? So stay still!" Katarina yelled.
"Hmm, no." He waved at her and then started to run.
She tried to pursue him, but it was useless. Casper was, now, an ex-military, while she was just a sedentary scientist. Nobody at that building could match him in speed.
That way, once again, Casper could run away from the check-up.
He was excited to get out of the laboratory all day. Now that he had what he needed, his plan to invade the Third Lab was officially ongoing.