[Book of Enoch] China RETURN TRIP

[aa_stark]

After playing around in yurts and burying a tiny body, the China group will trudge sadly back to NYC. They probably won't infect the entire city and turn Manhattan into a pile of shambling goo zombies.

Vance and Tony are gonna do some flybys of the blank areas after first cross-referencing them with SHIELD's database to eliminate known secret installations. (Not a total oxymoron.)

THIS IS FRUITFUL in that Tony comes back with a dead zone for them to investigate. Also he needs to poke at JARVIS.

Things to do:

• Tony wants to try hacking into Prometheus's servers, particularly that facility out west / northish.
• Also he needs to check on JARVIS after his misbehavior. What was going on with the power flickers / memory hiccups / etc. and is there anything to indicate lingering effects.
• JARVIS & his pet Tony's satellites are going to be keeping a closer eye on the dead zone in particular as well as the factory, any other areas of interest they have not had a chance to survey in person yet.
• Bruce is going to long-distance wrangle with the labs who have the sample to get:
  • Molecular, not just elemental, composition of sample. What were the mercury and silicon used for, what else is in there?
  • Does the DNA match any samples in databases?
  • If not, what about gender, ethnic origin, etc. etc.

AND SO WE GO HOME FOR NOW. FOR REAL THIS TIME.

Comments

[aa_loki]

* Also he needs to check on JARVIS after his misbehavior. What was going on with the power flickers / memory hiccups / etc. and is there anything to indicate lingering effects.
- As we spoke about and to reiterate here for future reference: JARVIS is back in service, besides being in the freezer while Stark makes sure he is okay. There is no evidence of anything that affected the hardware negatively (misfired power surges and the like). An unknown quality of magic can be detected by way of however these things are, hitting Tony's system just prior to the failures. Combing through finds no lingering ill-effects. The hacking attempts made on JARVIS are untraceable.

* Tony's satellites are going to be keeping a closer eye on the dead zone in particular as well as the factory, any other areas of interest they have not had a chance to survey in person yet.
- I'll give you a heads up if anything of note happens, and assume ongoing surveillance.

You can assume some helicopter sightings heading to and away from the dead zone, no visible markings, models that are used variously for civil and military purposes. Exactly one refueling tankar was seen in transit over a couple of the fingered blanked out coordinates (but those were confirmed as known secrets by SHIELD), a model that is also international but also unmarked.

Will work on the rest later or tomorrow. ASSUME IT'S TAKING TIME as these things do.

[aa_loki]

* Molecular, not just elemental, composition of sample. What were the mercury and silicon used for, what else is in there?

In analysing the mercury traces, it's determined that it was used for thiomersal, a compound which has featured in now outmoded ways of preserving vaccines. Obviously, its toxicity has made it obsolete in modern medicine. If it was used in this way then it may have been part of a carrier fluid in a vaccination. (As far as can be determined, the boy didn't suffer any mercury poisoning.)

The silicon is evenly distributed throughout the material and whatever it created is partially decomposed -- save for, of course, the silicon itself, being non-biodegradeable. Some searching finally turns up some silicon molecules in a partial structure, and this structure resembles an almost spider-like creation on an impossibly tiny scale.

* Does the DNA match any samples in databases?

Naup.

* If not, what about gender, ethnic origin, etc. etc.

The DNA samples turn up very similar. Most physical identifiers match up - the boy's two DNA samples both show, for example, a male with the same ethnic makeup, and the woman's is the same deal: female, same ethic makeup, etc.

However, one sample in each pair shows things like the presence/numbering of genes that indicate longevity, a tendency away from genetic dispositions like heart-related illnesses, obesity, cancer, etc.

There are also a couple of indicators that are completely mysterious, might account for the mutations seen in the subjects, might account for much more.

[aa_loki]

* Tony wants to try hacking into Prometheus's servers, particularly that facility out west / northish.

There is a system in place that matches any normal pharmaceutical factory. It produces vitamins, antibiotics, OTC medicines, etc.

However, there are other systems in place that match more a testing plant than a factory with a production line. Huge batches of testing chemical (all coded) and a lot of waste. Almost no output.

There is also a lot of computer activity in general, but that, along with its internal security system, remains out of reach. For now.