Miss Fix-it
Posted on Thu Mar 7th, 2024 @ 1:45pm by Charles Xavier & Mara Ricci
2,525 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Episode 4: The Savage ConneXion
Location: Xavier Mansion
Timeline: August 30th, 1990
Mara waited patiently as the train slowed to a stop. It had been one hell of a journey to get here, but here she was. She also waited for others to get off first. She was in no real hurry and it was just easier to wait. Finally, though, she was able to get her bag and get off the train.
The professor had told her about her friends going missing, so she automatically looked around for Scott, knowing that Hank was probably still MIA. He had picked her up just about every time she paid a visit to Xavier’s school, so it was a little surreal that he wouldn’t be here this time.
And so, since she wasn’t exprcting to see him, her eyes slid over him three times before registering what she was seeing. “Hank?” she said, confused. He waved at her from across the platform. “Hank!” And she was off running through the crowd, dodging people and suitcases and children with stuffed animals under their arms. “Hank!” she exclaimed again, launching herself at him and throwing her arms around him in the biggest hug she could manage. “I thought you were missing!”
“You know about that,” he said, half questioning, as he returned her hug.
“Yeah,” she said, pulling away to look at him. “The professor kept me informed. He even told me when they found Bobby, but I didn’t know you were back, too!” And she hugged him again.
“It’s only been a few days,” he told her. “And it’s been an eventful few days at that.”
”You’re telling me,” she said, pulling away again. “I’m been so worried about you. All of you. I’m glad you and Bobby are back safe.”
”I’m glad I’m back, too,” he replied, picking up her bag. “We were a little surprised to get your phone call that you would be arriving by train. We didn’t think the trains would be running.”
”They very nearly didn’t,” she replied as they began heading out of the station. “The computers were down when I called to buy a ticket. So, having literally nothing to do, I offered to fix them.” She sighed and shook her head. “That was an ordeal. But I got the computers running again and then I go the trains running- at least in that station. Then I had to push the repair to corporate, who was able to push it out to the other stations and then…. Your eyes are glazing over.”
”Hm?” he said. “No, they’re not!”
She laughed. “I get it, it’s a boring story,” she said. “Anyway… yesterday was long. But, now they know what to do if the system fails again.”
”You are truly amazing,” Hank told her. “I don’t think I tell you that enough.”
”I’m not sure if you’ve ever told me that,” she replied, glancing outside as they approached the doors. “That’s a welcome change from yesterday.” While the day was buy no means beautiful, the overcast sky and light breeze were a welcome change from the storms that had plagued them.
”Indeed,” he replied. “Let’s just hope it lasts.”
After stowing her bag in her usual room, Mara and Hank headed to Professor Xavier’s office. Hank had been instructed to come along in case Mara needed an extra set of hands or someone who could easily lift heavy objects. He didn’t mind tagging along with Mara; in fact, he only needed an excuse and he was happy to do so.
Approaching the door, Mara knew the Professor would hear her coming, but she knocked all the same. It would be rude, after all, to just barge in.
"Come in, Mara!" called the Professor through the doors. He greeted her from the other side with a weary smile. "It's a pleasure to see you, as always. I'm afraid it's not a social call, though... as always." He gave a wry chuckle. "I hope you brought your full tool bag."
“Of course,” she said, holding it up. “As always.” There wasn’t much in it as most of what she did was with the programming, but sometimes hardware needed replacing. “Although, I had a cursory glance at the school computers on my way to my room and they seem to be all right. A little bogged down, but not bad at all.”
"True," the Professor agreed. "The closed network you put together is still operating well enough. We're just not able to dial out with any degree of reliability, and that may be beyond even your means to work around." Taking a breath, he prepared himself to reveal one of his bigger secrets. "I called you here to assist us with a different system altogether, a proprietary one that may take a bit to familiarize yourself with."
He backed out from behind his desk and said, "Come with me."
The computer down below, was the thought that flitted through her mind as she followed the Professor. She still had not dared to touch it- mentally, of course, since she hadn’t seen it physically. Now she would finally find out what it was. She was both terrified and excited at the prospect.
Guiding the two of them to the main elevator in the great hall, the Professor descended to the subbasement with a secret access panel.
"You may have surmised there is more to this place than meets the eye," the Professor said. "Perhaps you may even be unsurprised at what I am about to show you."
The elevator doors opened to reveal a stainless steel corridor that looked more like a military installation than anything even resembling the colonial exterior of the mansion. Guided by the Professor's hoverchair, Hank and Mara were led to a blast door that was protected by large blast doors that could have withstood an explosion.
"Behind these doors is the mainframe for Cerebro," explained the Professor. "It's an advanced mutant detection apparatus that scans for mutant activity on the psionic level. When interfaced with mutant telepathy, it can pinpoint the location of virtually anybody on the planet. I have interfaces connected to it throughout the mansion. Due to the atmospheric disturbances, Cerebro has been problematic. If there is any way you can help us overcome the interference, it could be the difference between life and death."
Mara gazed nervously at the door. The weight of the computer behind it felt heavy on her mind. “I knew something was down here,” she said softly, not taking her eyes from the door. “From my first visit to the mansion. But I didn’t know what. It felt huge- like the matrix of a billion billion computers all strung together. I didn’t dare touch it. If I ever did, I’m sure I’d be lost forever.” Her mind shied away from it even now and she chewed her lip apprehensively. “You’ll be able to pull me out, won’t you? If I get lost?”
"I don't think should be a problem," said Xavier, "seeing as how Cerebro is not operating at full capacity. Unless your power allows your consciousness to separate from your body, I see no harm in powering down the entire system if needs be."
Without further ado, he opened the doors and revealed the Cerebro mainframe. It was a large spherical room lined with large plates the size of windows that Mara would recognize as silicon-based semiconductors, making the entire space a gigantic supercomputer capable of unknown computations. There was a single terminal near the center which contained a helmet linked to it. Without any other terminal in sight, it appeared that the operator would function directly with the system without an interface.
"Only a telepath can make proper use of Cerebro," the Professor reiterated. "The War Room computer does collate passive scans, though, that can be of use to others. However, this mainframe is the heart of our intelligence apparatus." He looked at Mara. "What do you make of it? Can we override the atmospheric interference?"
I sure hope so, thought Mara. “We’re about to find out,” she said. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm her mind and found herself trembling at the mere presence of Cerebro. She felt a hand on her shoulder and knew it was Hank reassuring her. “Here we go,” she said softly and opened her mind the the impossibly huge computer.
At once, she felt as if she were falling and took a step back to steady herself. Hank’s other hand touched the middle of her back as if to steady her. “I’m okay,” she said, and Hank’s hands slowly disappeared. “It’s huge. It feels… alive.” She felt giddy and found herself laughing. Get it together, Mara, she told herself. Lives are at stake. ‘What is wrong?’ she asked the computer. “Metaphasic shielding?” she said aloud. “I don’t even know what that means. Oh! It’s just a firewall. Sort of. I.. I think I can repair that. The storms have also corrupted some of the hardware. It’ll have to be replaced. Just some memory chips. Nothing major.” She gave it some thought. “We might have to come up with some physical shielding, too, otherwise, I can’t promise it’ll stay working if the storms return.”
"The memory chips are all around us," Professor Xavier said, glancing up at the silicon plates. "But they have an ionic polymer that I obtained from a... proprietary source... that can't be replaced. Typically, however, a power cycle is enough to reset them. I just haven't done so until we can prevent another system failure."
The concept of metaphasic shielding was admittedly above his paygrade. It sounded transdimensional and thoroughly alien to him. And such was fitting for the progeny of Cerebro.
"Hank," Charles said, "could you devise a method of insulation that would protect the mainframe from external surges? Our current configuration protects from internal ones since Cerebro is entirely subterranean, but whatever is taking place seems to be disregarding the standard rules of grounding. Perhaps some sort of resistant layer that would shunt the interference and force it to ground at the lake rather than here?"
“The simplest solution would be lightening rods,” Hank replied, keeping one eye on Mara just in case. “Not one hundred percent effective, but quick. I think I remember seeing a couple in one of the storage sheds. It would at least buy us some time until a permanent solution can be found.”
“Or until the storms go away for good,” Mara added distractedly; she was attempting to rebuild the ‘firewall’ and only had one ear to spare for the conversation.
"That would be a fine preventative measure against a catastrophic strike," said the Professor, though he wished for a more direct solution to the greater problem of magnetospheric disruptions that all but crippled the world's satellite grids. "Run some ground wires out to the lake until this crisis passes. With those measures, I think I could risk taking Cerebro to full power without a risk of a blowout."
Mara nodded in agreement, but she was knee deep in code and didn’t trust herself to speak. Part of her mind reveled in this computer. It was so… a word had yet to be invented to describe exactly how… whatever it is the computer was, but whatever that word was, the computer was it. Joining with it was almost joyful for her. It was vast and complicated and somehow seemed to want Mara to work on it. The code was complex, and yet simple. She couldn’t explain it better than that if she had tried.
It was several minutes before she was satisfied that the code was repaired. She triple checked it and then nodded. “Okay, I believe that’ll do,” she said, finally withdrawing from the computer, which was a rush in itself. She shook her head.
“Are you all right?” asked Hank.
“I’m good,” she replied. “That was just… I can’t explain it. It was the best day of my life.” She grinned. “That doesn’t do it justice.”
“Of course not,” he agreed, returning her grin. He loved her smile. Hank, she’s your friend. Stop it.
“Okay, professor,” Mara said. “It’s ready.”
After Mara rebuilt the internal firewall to prevent Cerebro from scrambling its own operating system, Charles placed the helmet over his head. There was the familiar tingle of it responding to his mental commands. What Mara had previously likened to a sense of life and awareness was the digital recreation of synaptic processes, allowing for a direction mind-machine connection without need for an additional interface between commands and operations or input and output.
"So far, so good," said Xavier, his voice ephemeral as though half-asleep. But in truth, his consciousness was quite the opposite. It was stretching out from the confines of his nervous system into the synthetic construct of Cerebro which allowed him to peer far and wide with minimal effort. What would take moments or hours of concentrated focus could be done in seconds or even instantaneously.
Force of habit made him sweep the grounds. His X-Men were gone, leaving only students behind. That led him to reach out further. New York. North America. Western hemisphere. Jean.
Charles gasped. "Jean!"
“Jean?!” Hank and Mara said at the same time, shock in both of their voices as well as on their faces.
It was the sound of a volcanic eruption, a death rattle, a newborn baby's cry, a mother's laugh, a child's shriek, the keening cry of a bird of prey all rolled into one. But it was Jean. There was no doubt of that. Charles knew her thoughtform anywhere.
"Beast!" he called out, reverting to Hank's codename. "Prep the Blackbird immediately for full burn. We depart immediately!"
Hank blinked. “Full...“ he started. The jet had a top speed of close to Mach 5. Either Jean’s situation was dire or the Professor was afraid she would be moved. “Yes, sir. What about the students?”
“I’ll stay,” Mara offered.
"Thank you, Mara," said Xavier. "I hate putting you in this position but needs are what they are." He left her to her devices and hurried out of the mainframe. "I'll be in touch once we head back this way."
Mere minutes later, the Blackbird had ascended to a high altitude where the sound barrier could be disregarded with prejudice without setting the nose of the jet on fire. Cerebro had provided a heading but no true coordinates, but they were unnecessary. Xavier had a bearing on Jean's location; it had been seared into his mind. They would push the Blackbird to its utter limits as the crow flies. Whatever was happening, time was of the essence.
Charles would be damned if he let down his first students again.
Hopefully Mara would hold down the fort until their return.
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