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Taking over the facility from Xellky, Gabriel made several significant alterations not only to the equipment, but to the architecture itself. The entry staircase now leads to a grid of iron catwalks spanning the entire cavernous chamber, safely away from most of the experiments.

A few minor adjustments to the portal device redirected it to Gabriel's extensive cache deep within the cosmic mortuary beyond the rim of normal space, wherein is kept his collection of relics, weapons, and souvenirs of his travels before joining the Chasers. His library, however, has been moved into the chamber, mounted along the longest available wall, and several shelves have been secured with chains, not to keep the books from being stolen but to prevent them from escaping on their own.

The area devoted to experimentation has been enlarged threefold in every direction, with containment units for virtually any specimen conceivable, including those of non-corporeal or extradimensional form. The holding table for said experiments has been altered to allow expansion or reduction as needed for the size of the specimen, and can be rapidly fitted with a variety of restraints.

The vast majority of the lab, however, is a diverse collection of tissue, material, and chemical samples of every imaginable variety. Rare and alien ores of unknown properties, magical and alchemical solutions of all flavors and functions, scraps and remains of bizzare and loathsome fauna, including a few complete creatures preserved in foggy glass capsules. One section is merely a rack of metal containers, each with a few hookups meant for an exterior unit of unknown purpose, though one gets a sense that their contents may still be conscious...

With the exception of the library and the "examining" table, everything in the lab is secured out of human reach, accessed by means of a boxy, hovering, Igor-like robot called a scuzzer. One of Gabriel's most prized finds in his excavations in the charnel void, it serves a multitude of functions within the lab, including retrieving and storing the many objects kept on their distant shelves, subduing and securing unruly test subjects, and the inevitable and unenviable cleanup duties. With only minor modifications, it can also be used to enlarge and fortify the available room within the lab, as the room's present dimensions clearly demonstrate.

Of personal space, there seems to be none. Gabriel's present situation prohibits sleep as a matter of personal safety, and his sense of relaxation does not fit the usual need for "a room of my own," as that need is best filled by the cockpit of his ship.

Gabriel slid down the railing, far easier than trying to hop down the stairs while his boots were laced together. The knot was undone by the time he reached the floor, however, and he was skimming across his library at a full run until he found the two he was after - the complete Ansem Report, including the secret additions made by DiZ, and a gem-encrusted tome from his chained section called the Book of Dyzan. Once these were safely in his voluminous pockets, he took a moment to make some adjustments to one of the largest of the specimen containers. Something in its foggy depths seemed to writhe as Gabriel twiddled the assorted switches, levers, dials and buttons whose function he alone could fathom.

He was aware of the alarms before he was aware that he was out of the tank. The moment his shadow had felt the jolt of the forced entry, Gabriel's shadow had dredged him out of the recombinant gel and hosed him off. His clothes lay nearby, along with his weapons. In less than a minute, Gabriel was dressed and heading up the hall to investigate.

A shadow wavered into shape in the center of the lab. It turned its eyeless gaze about slowly, scanning the specimen containers until it found the one reserved for it. With a ghostly pseudopod, it flicked on a bright light behind the container, illuminating the nascent, human-shaped life inside. Its shadow fell upon the other, the two slowly merging, the ancient sentience becoming one with its new form.

The lab was indeed abuzz as the three Chasers returned. Rather than risk the stairs from the catwalk to the floor, Gabriel helped lead Thrais over to a service elevator near the library shelves. It creaked a little as they descended, like the ache in one's muscles who has just awakened from ages of slumber.

Jon stood with his back to the three, facing the examining table. Several devices had unfolded from the suit's heavy, hunched shoulders. Whatever he was working on was concealed behind him, but each tool clinked in a wholesome metallic way as he worked.

"I should laugh, if I could remember how it works." He turned to face them at last, letting the scuzzer free of his repairs. It zoomed away among the specimen tanks like a firefly, good as new save for the scuffed paint. It had originally been the same ugly industrial yellow that Gabriel had inflicted on the carrier, though now it looked more like a block of very old cheese.

The heavy, tool-filled shoulders of the suit almost enveloped the head, and what little face there was on the mask was made almost entirely out of the complex array of optics, scanners and sensors mounted roughly over the fat beak of the respirator array, which hissed in perfect time as it taught Jon to breathe in rhythm. "As you may have guessed, I am even more out of practice than Gabriel."

"I am glad that I was able to be of assistance, but it was not by my strength that you returned. Your bond to those around you, the strength shared between your hearts brought you back from the abyss. There would be more truth in saying that you have saved me as much as I have saved you." One of the myriad dozens of compartments in the suit opened, and Jon extracted, on a gilded chain, the piece of Gabriel's heart that had secured his liberty. Even though Thrais could not see it, she could feel its light and the precious feelings that powered it - Gabriel's last feelings of fellowship, brotherhood and belonging.