Dusts of Avalon - Beastwithin.org

“Well, it's possible. ough on a qui look, there's no sign that this structurewould have ever experienced that.”“All right. Let's move on.”e “keep” had big doors on the side opposite of the main “gate” — again, avery human-like detail that reminded Dr. Grovepath of fortresses on Earth. Of allthings, they didn't expect to see a carving in the door that looked like an apple.Aside of the general “castleness” of the outside, there were few easily identifiabledetails in the walls and “courtyard” floor outside, so the clear, distinct, familiarshape was doubly striking.“Lights on, if you prefer to see anything”, Daleworth shouted, mu to therelief of the squad, who had been strictly instructed on refraining from anythingthat might aract undue aention to them. One by one, the floodlights on the bothsides of every squadmember's helmets fliered on, as were the lights mounted ontheir assault rifles. Dr. Grovepath took a flashlight from a compartment in his suitand struggled a lile bit to turn it on; he was still geing used to the suit gloves.“Define Suit Program, whole unit: Command words ‘contact’ and ‘movement’will kill lights and activate light amplification. End Program.” Daleworth said,waiting a second or two for the suit computers would register the voice-activatedcommands. “Just say either of those words if you see anything suspicious, doctor.”“So if I see any movement…” Dr. Grovepath began, and immediately regreedit.“Sorry,” he continued a minute later aer the lights were ba on and thekillword programming had been redone. “I will keep all this in my mind.”“Don't worry, doctor, this killword stuff will almost always bite us in the arsein most missions.” Daleworth sighed.“is does seem quite impractical”, Dr. Grovepath said. “How does it work inthe situations when you actually need it?”“Glad I'm not the only one who finds these a royal pain. Actually, it workssurprisignly well to protect our own safety”, Daleworth said. “We just need asafety procedure to kill the lights and hide in case the danger rears its ugly head.We could let the suit computers adapt to adrenaline levels, but we found that thatwasn't very effective.”“I see”, Dr. Grovepath said. “I've never seen a working mood detector…”“Oh really?” Daleworth asked.“We tested a few of these that the students built as part of a class project once.ey called it the ‘perfect living space’, we old professor fogeys just called it a‘not-so-smart house’. e systems basically toggled between serving coffee orpuing up romantic lights.”“Hey, almost perfect for my cabin in the ship”, Daleworth said.“Really, now—” Dr. Grovepath began and almost blushed.“—except I'm rarely at my cabin.” Daleworth laughed.