Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book Two)

E9 Part 7: Lonely Stranger

Dummy Plug Plant
Central Dogma. NERV Headquarters.

At least ten identical giggling, drooling Rei Ayanamis hung suspended on the other side of the glass from Shinji, floating peacefully through the fluid that enveloped them. Each one wore the same blissful, vacant expression, their eyes wide and unfocused.

They were also, he couldn't help but notice, all very much naked. He felt his face go red.

"Ohhhhh...." The Doctor breathed. He stepped towards the glass, a fascinated expression on his face. "Look at you..."

"What the hell..." Misato stared into the tank. "What are they?"

"They're spares," the Doctor said.

"What?"

"Spare bodies. Mindless husks constructed from indeterminate matter. All connected to a central backup server." The Doctor nodded at a huge mass of hoses and tubes hanging from the ceiling, which resembled nothing less than a brain fashioned out of rubber and plastic. "Current body wears out or gets damaged, you just pop your memories into another head and off you go. In a way... you could say that this room is Rei."

"Are..." Shinji swallowed. He almost felt like he'd been hit with the pepper spray again, the way his face was burning. "Are either of you going to tell me not to look?"

"See over there?" The Doctor pointed to a handful of smaller figures grouped at the very back of the tank. "Transitional forms. Infant, toddler, prepubescent... they must've moved her up through the series. Gave her the experience of normal human development."

"You said something about indeterminate matter," Misato said. "What does that mean?"

"The stuff Angels are made from." The Doctor glanced back at the statue. "Well, big-A Angels, anyway. Rei and the Evas, too. Grown from tissue samples taken from Lilith, no doubt."

"Oh, fine," Shinji muttered. He pulled the fez over his eyes. "You're both terrible role models, you know that?"

"Imagine atoms that can't make up their mind if they're waves or particles," the Doctor continued. "Or, for that matter, which kind of particle. Control the observer effect properly, you can modify their physical properties on the fly -- mass, density, electric charge..." He took in a breath. "It's the Prima Materia. Dreamstuff. The ultimate form of programmable matter. Packets of energy that'll become whatever you want, whenever you want."

"I... I don't think I understand. What does that mean?" Misato crossed her arms. "What are the Evas, Doctor? What are they capable of?"

"Anything," the Doctor said quietly.

From somewhere beneath the floor came the sound of gears turning. Shinji peeked out from beneath the fez to see a metal cover retract from around the pillar at the center of the room, revealing a glass tube. A hatch in front slid open. Rei stepped out, her clothes and hair soaked with LCL.

Simultaneously, a section of the floor next to her rose out of the ground, exposing a tall cabinet beneath it. Rei reached into an open compartment and withdrew a towel. The cabinet sunk back into the ground.

"Rei." The Doctor turned to her, a solemn expression on his face. "Thank you. Bringing us here -- revealing this place to us -- that couldn't've been easy for you."

Rei lifted up the towel and wiped off her face.

"So what now?" Misato gave the statue an uneasy glance. "We can't just leave this thing here, can we?"

"They know to watch it now," Rei said. "These systems are heavily shielded. It should be unable to manipulate the lights."

Misato glanced at the Doctor. He shrugged. "Should be enough to buy us time, at least. Give us the chance to figure something else out."