'It would be best, if the next test is started, instead of continuing the previous one. There is an unknown trigger, which will have to be figured out at a later date. If this trigger shows up in the next test, I presume that I will be able to disconnect myself quickly enough, for it to not affect me. Please resume following my earlier request. I will begin my own process of preparation, Troy got in response from Adam.

“He doesn't want to continue this one. Adam thought it would be best if we just moved anyway from any further repeats of this problem of ours,” Troy relayed, yet again thinking, why Dr Fidelis couldn't just read it himself. “Can't say I blame him, with whatever's he's got going in there for himself. Mind taking over for me on your screen, so I can go change?”

Any further motivation was unneeded, as Dr Fidelis was quite obviously in need of something to do. The hushed conversation, between him and Dr Hale, had long ago ceased, making each stand in silence. Several times, Dr Hale had tried to rip out her notepad, before realising the state that her prized possession was in. And, upon realising who had been the cause of this reimagination of structural damage, a stern look was given, before the usual neutral expression was put on.

However, the true perpetrator of the damage was entirely nonchalant about the whole thing, putting a much more dedicated focus on the screen now in front of him. Troy was almost worried when it came to how quick his movement had been.

“Doing what I always do, when you aren't out here with us, shouldn't be too hard for me”, Dr Fidelis stated, going through a few of the image morphing, before returning to the page, which Troy had originally used. What had just been done, was up for discussion, with him having no personal idea.

A swear emanated from the large doctor, after but a moment of Troy looking away.

“And, there goes my job security”, Dr Fidelis muttered, clearly not too happy with himself. “The delete button for those logs were not supposed to be within pressing distance. Dr Hale, did we remember to have the automatic backups integrated?”

Oh, good. It wasn't something, which the least important person in the room needed to worry about. Certainly wasn't something, that Troy could help with, even if he really tried. He had never gotten himself to learn anything of the technical aspect of life, leaving him dependent on the charity of others. It wasn't too bad, honestly. Even if he didn't understand when people discussed the crystal-fission method against using the comic waves as portable batteries… or, something like that.

“I do not think we ever did, sir”, Dr Hale said. Just like before, she had started the movement, of checking her notes, before being forced to remember it from pure memories. Not a viable record-keeping method, but it was most likely only temporary. “It seems that the data shall be lost forever.”

Troy took that, as the best moment, to get behind the curtain. Just standing around, watching it all unfold, was fun and all. But, it also bore the risk of him getting shouted at, for not doing his only task.

“Maxwell”, Dr Fidelis began, stopping the quietly retreating figure in his tracks. Being soundless was not the most viable method of survival, it seemed.

“Yes?” Troy inquired, his feet slowly nudging his body further toward the safety of the curtain. The distance was but a few meters, at most. Maybe ten, if he was unlucky. It wasn't like he had the ability to look, where he was going, as he had to hold the eye-contact, between him and his superiors.

As they always said; 'Don't let the predator out of your sight. It is when it thinks, you're not paying attention, that it will strike.` Having gotten a strong slap in the back of the neck, right after being told as such, the lesson had been deeply ingrained in Troy's fragile head.

“Did Adam mention anything about what exactly caused this trigger of his?” Dr Fidelis asked, folding Troy's expectations, of what was going to be said, by a lot. It made sense, what he was asking, but he hadn't thought it would be asked about so soon. “Knowing the causes would allow me to make some last-minute changes to the test if needed. If this is the kind of delay that we get every time this happens, it would be best, if we avoid it completely.”

How right Dr Fidelis was. If they had another delay, like this one, Troy would be feeling lucky, if he actually got to sleep more than five hours. His body was running on fumes, as it was. If he didn't get sleep, in preparation for tomorrow, he would be forced to use caffeine pills, by the handful. He was relatively sure that he still had a bottle or two of them in one of his pant pockets, in his room.

Then, what had actually caused this delay to occur. Going further into this questioning, what had caused so many problems for Adam? Troy had not been told anything worthwhile about it. And, if he had, he hadn't picked up on any of the clues holding onto it. Most of Adam's first statements had been eerily cryptic, requiring extensive background-knowledge about it, which he just didn't possess. And Troy had no ability to get anything about it, without further questioning him.

“Can't say he did”, Troy honestly answered. “At least, not anything, that I could understand. He only mentioned the effects, with him trying to keep it all equal because it wasn't so, or something. Adam also mentioned his perception of time is all wrong, but you already knew that.”

“Not the most helpful thing to be said today, but I can't really blame you, for not having the needed information, when I didn't ask you to get it,” Dr Fidelis said in response, looking to desperately trying to backtrack his earlier actions. A search had apparently been started, where he was trying to reinstate any deleted date. From the multiple warnings, which Troy was still able to see, it didn't look to be going favourably. “Yet, with that, we must go over to the speculative side of things. And, oh, Troy, you can change while we're doing all this talking. With how fast Adam supposedly was able to fix this problem of his, we shouldn't waste time being unproductive.”

“Of course, sir”, Troy immediately said, instantly regretting his imitation of Dr Hale's speech patterns. I had come out instinctively, trying to be as respectful as possible. This was a stressful situation, which they had gotten themselves in, and pushing any buttons now was just asking for something to happen.

… Well, was it really? Troy had done all kinds of dumb things now, and there hadn't been too large of a reaction. Physical objects and the worth that most people had on them wasn't too much of a problem for Dr Fidelis. He had seen Troy lose hold of a five hundred dollar lense, smashing it on the floor in the process, before laughing his ass off not a minute later. The only real indication, that he had a temper, was due to what he had seen just an hour or two ago, but that had been due to the stopping of his tests. The oh so precious tests. They were likely the only real thing, which Dr Fidelis worried about, with most other concepts coming second to it. Time-management was not so far behind, of course, with that comment about Troy needing to hurry up not putting any doubt on that.

Seeing no further reason, for delaying his final walk over to the mystically designed curtain, Troy began his short trek yet again. Quickly getting behind the synthetic, coloured sheet, he got all the unessential clothing-articles off himself, making sure not to disturb the earpiece, which still rested in his ear. Dr Fidelis had handed it back to him, at some point, without him putting too much thought into it, at the time. It was for the best, that Troy was having it on constantly. With Adam having the known problem, of using the ports, getting constant information sent from him should be helpful. And, it would allow for the time of completion to be sent instantly.

Being left in but his not-at-all thin boxers, Troy got himself on to the process of getting the suit on. Luckily for him, and as a criticism to the work ethic in the facility, it had been left completely untouched, from where he threw it. It was still in its outstretched form, with nothing stopping him from putting it on.

That wasn't too say, that he did so quickly, though. No, he was near-instant distracted by a certain voice asking him very hard-to-answer questions.

“So, we don't know what Adam is fully dealing with, with him not telling us. And, even further, he has said, that he is incapable of putting any focus on my questions, due to him being occupied with more pressing matters,” Dr Fidelis surmised for Troy, having clearly done something, while he had been changing in. “This leaves us, with having to clue some it together ourselves, and piecing it fully together, when Adam gets done, with what he is currently working on. Which means, Troy, that I will have to get you your own, little, mini-task, while you get that suit rightly on.

With your own observations, while the original trigger happened, what do you think caused it all?”

A rather complicated conundrum to process, while simultaneously wriggling his digits, in the hope of getting the skin suit properly on. Troy wasn't actually sure if the need for constant regulation of movement really made the questioning any harder than it already was, but the current task was as good an excuse as any, and he desperately needed one.

But, thinking about good excuses, for taking a long time to answer, was not a good pastime, when he had better things to think about. Such as, making the actual answer. Getting back on track, of the whole ordeal, Troy tried to remember, what had gone down, in the moments, before Adam went blast-mode on his ears.

It had been a rather uneventful time if one used the number of words said as the scaling measurement. Those disgustingly-thin wolves had finally gotten the jaws around their target, both figuratively and literally, with one holding on with just the tip of its jaws. Troy had been rather surprised at the acrobatic stunt, which had been performed. While the gazelle hadn't jumped too high up, the speed at which its actions had been copied, spoke volumes about the sheer experience, which these predators had gotten over the years. Not that they actually had, of course, seeing as they were fully simulated, but, still, it had been impressive to witness.

If his memory had served him, as well it normally did, the other wolves have begun closing in on the felled prey when Troy had heard a noise to his side. It had interested him, sounding something akin to glass cracking.

Adam didn't seem to have heard it or just wasn't interested in any further distractions, having near-instantly asked Troy to refocus back on the situation in front of him. Something about the climax soon being reached, and the need for not missing it. The words had been scrambled, not at all up to the standard, which Adam usually had for himself. Troy hadn't wondered about it then, but, now, it should have been a telltale sign of something being wrong.

The wolves had increased in their density, the feast had truly begun, and everybody likely knew the rest. The gazelle began making some noise, and Adam had suddenly decided to go all out in copying it.

Even now, Troy wasn't exactly sure, what it was, that he heard. It hadn't sounded like anything, which he had heard before, yet it was also extremely familiar. One could call it deja-vu, with not much of any objection from his side.

So, what had caused the even to begin? Was it everything, in its entirety, or was it something more specific? With a sigh, Troy realised that he would have to emulate Adam, from the first time that they met.

He would have to use the well-used process of elimination, through the perspective of contradictory information. It wouldn't turn out nearly as great as hoped for it to, but it was the best that he could think of.

Okay, what exactly would Adam, when starting it all off? The preliminary stuff had already been set up, of course, but, Troy wasn't sure, what area of the environment would have been best to start up with.

Having no way to imitate the AI to the needed level, Troy did the age-old method of picking at complete random and hoping for the best result.

The trees! Anything even hinting at a reason for why they would cause Adam a mental breakdown? No, there wasn't. And, if there was, they should have caused it in the first or second test. The type of tree wasn't even up for debate, due to it being near-identical to one, which had shown itself in the first test halfway in.

Already here, Troy stopped himself, in his, now-discovered, in-efficient method. Instead of picking at random, and taking those that didn't have any reason to cause disturbances out, he should pick all the things, which had been shown before. As he had thought just before if they didn't cause anything before, why would they cause anything then?

There was, of course, several reasons why the potential of triggering Adam would change. But Troy didn't think such thinking was simple enough, for his current purposes.

With this new way of thinking, he was able to rapidly rule out the most obvious things. The trees were already out, of course, so they were further ignored. The bushes? Same fate as the trees? The grass? More sparse than the usual, but the lack of it should have caused anything like that. The ground, lack of clouds, near-out-of-sight sun, and the blood from the creatures were also ruled out. Most had been seen readily before, especially the blood part of the spectrum. Just before the environment, which caused Adam to break, Troy had been one of two witnesses, when it came to two mountain goats fighting. While one had been pushed off quickly, leaving only slight bleeding from the side, they had still been able to see it descending the mountain. With the steeps angle, the still-conscious body of the goat had picked up a greater amount of momentum.

When it hit a spurt of natural growth, or, for lack of a better name, a solid stone-wall, it had positively splattered its insides, with the outside fur likely the only thing holding it together. Adam hadn't even commented on the state of the body then, likely ignoring it as a whole. Which would make a lot of sense, since it hadn't been a large part of the test, meaning that there was no reason to observe it any more than necessary.

So, with this kind of outlook, Troy wasn't able to understand what exactly his process of elimination had told him. The only thing, which was still on the potential trigger-list, was the wolves eating the gazelle. Adam had witnessed such an amount of gore before, and it hadn't even fazed him.

Why did it faze him now? What was so different about this? Was it the closeness of the gore, maybe? That splattered goat had been a good hundred meters down, only its flattened shape giving any larger indication, as to how it had been doing down there. With the gazelle and the wolves, they could have been more than thirty meters away, giving Troy a great look into the anatomy of such a creature. And, a live dissection at that, done by obvious amateurs, who had had no respect for keeping the individual pieces intact.

Then, with the answer not coming forth, Troy just had to give a rough estimation. His prediction about it had come true, at the very least.

“My best guess would be that his reaction came from the gazelle being devoured alive. By the way, please press that handy button of yours,” Troy said, trying to explain it all, in as little time as possible. While his thoughts had run wild, he had reached the point, in putting on the skin-suit, where outside assistance was needed. As in, the suit needed to get its tightness rolled in, so it fit its own name. “Watching an animal front up is the most likely trigger for it, in my opinion. I could be wrong, though.

A drawer was opened, something fell to the ground, a few swears were made, and, after a surprisingly loud click of a button, Troy suit slithered itself into place.

“An animal dying huh?” Dr Fidelis said, repeating it to himself, as if he was putting a tasting to the words. “Not the easiest thing in the world, to plan around. Troy. Do you think it includes you dying? Not literally of course. But, more, as in, you being in danger of dying? All simulated. No real danger of death, which can be proven.”

If Troy hadn't already heard extremely disturbing things that day, such a sentence uttered would have brought him running from his position. Now, though, he just thought it about carefully, like he was choosing between decaf or regular.

“My personal well-being hasn't really been too much of a focus, as long as it didn't impede the testing quality. So, no, I don't think Adam would be mindful too much if I had the potential of brutally dying. He would probably give me advice on how to run efficiently, but not much than that, honestly,” Troy surmised. The worst thing about his answer was, that he was being fully honest in his words. His opinion might have been extremely biased, but he still didn't believe in Adam fully caring about him. He was a variable, a cog in the manipulation schemes, and generally nothing to put too much thought into. A pessimistic view, but Troy fully believed it was the most realistic one as well.

“Perfect!”, Dr Fidelis proclaimed, way too enthusiastic about the current approval of the subject. “I can work with this. I can definitely work with this. Troy! Get inside there, and wait for Adam to contact you. Or, just talk out loud, until he answers back. Just… do something, while you're there, so I have an explanation for management. We can call it a mental health exercise, and I will have the needed five minutes to hardcode the manipulation of this test, that we're doing.

…

What are you waiting for? Get inside there, and blabber on about your favourite triangle in the Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification system!”

Having no idea, what that last part was about, but understand the general message of it, Troy put one well-suited foot before the other, hurrying the trek over to the puzzle room up.

He hoped that it wouldn't be too long, for Adam to answer. His throat was already sore, thinking about what he needed to be saying. If needed, he could always sing the lyrics of Bach over and over.