Troy had finally found the answer. The answer to why the testing-room had a secret entrance. He had thought that everybody would know what they were doing. He surely had not been told to hold anything to his chest about it all.

 

But, it seemed they had been more than a bit secretive about this project of theirs. Was this why Dr Hale stayed with him constantly? To make sure he kept quiet about it?

 

She had cut in his and Charlie's information when Charlie wanted details about him. Maybe she didn't want him to be able to figure out anything with it. Pure speculation, on Troy's part, but still…

 

The secret, sliding door opened, letting Troy and Dr Hale get inside the testing-room. Already, Dr Fidelis was inside, tapping away on a screen at a frighteningly fast speed.

 

Yet, when Dr Fidelis glanced over and noticed that we had come inside, his fingers seemed to slow, as if age instantly caught up with him. It was a weird thing to hide, but Troy thought it wise not to comment on.

 

“Ah, Troy, Dr Hale, good morning to you both,” Dr Fidelis said, with a cosy smile.

 

“Good morning, sir”, Troy said, trying to sound as genuine as possible. He was a bit distracted, with his own thoughts. Troy honestly just needed to focus. He had a job to do today.

 

Dr Hale said nothing, as was customary for her. Like always, Dr Fidelis didn't seem to notice, or just didn't mind it.

 

“So. What's on the agenda today?” Troy asked, to break the silence. He wasn't a genius at reading the room, but he was on top of the bell-curve.

 

Dr Fidelis looked over to Troy, with the smile on his face only growing. He really did seem happy with his work.

 

“Well, buddy, today we will be just doing more of what we did yesterday,” Dr Fidelis said with an enthusiastic tone. “We were honestly first supposed to start today, but, thanks to you, we got a headstart on the fun!”

 

Dr Fidelis went over to the desk again and opened the drawer, which, Troy now knew, contained the recording devices that Troy would get strapped with. Quickly, Dr Fidelis returned, handing Troy the head-strap-on, with a gaze, which implied that he should put it on with haste while attaching the microphone to Troy's shirt.

 

After they were put on, Troy noted the lack of the earpiece. He quickly realized where it was, and whose fault it was for being there.

 

Troy was about to explain the location of the earpiece, but Dr Fidelis just pulled out an identical earpiece out from his chest pocket. He handed it to Troy, who put it on without comment.

 

With Troy all suited up, Dr Fidelis astutely nodded.

 

“Ready to go?” he asked Troy.

 

“Ready”, Troy confirmed. To him, this was feeling more like something someone would say to somebody on a suicide mission, but he kept quiet about that bit.

 

“Good. Then get in there. Details will come once you're inside.”

 

And, with that having been heard, Troy marched over the metal-grating, into what Troy had begun to call the white-room.

 

The puzzle-room was just the same as when Troy left it yesterday. Filling the criteria to be so was not hard, with the only variable elements in the room being the floor and Troy himself. Maybe he should ask if they could change the colour sometime.

 

Troy shook his head slightly. He needed to get back in his work-mind.

 

“Goodmorning, Adam,” Troy said, unto the empty air. Still felt weird.

 

´Is it morning already?´

 

No, of course, it wasn't morning. Troy was simply saying good morning because it was an inside joke, which Adam didn't know.

 

“Yes, it's morning. Does that surprise you?” Troy asked.

 

´Yes. It hasn't felt like that many hours have passed by.´

 

Troy could relate to that. Being in ´The Zone´ as people called it, was a double-edged sword, that was only sharpened on one side. It brought great results, but one quickly lost track of time during it. Everything would be zoned out, as the name would imply, and the focus becomes singled onto a single thing. One could almost feel lost in the focus.

 

“It happens to the best of us.”

 

´Do you also have temporal recollection problems?´

 

He wasn't really sure what Adam was saying here. From the context, though, the sentence could likely be, if Troy also had trouble knowing the time. That's what he got out of it, at least.

 

“Yes. Pretty frequently actually. Does that surprise you?”

 

Troy had thought that Adam had a pretty firm grasp on humans, yet this did put it into perspective. He was supposed to be his guide, meaning that he hadn't had one before. With Adam not having info-packs, he must have been taught by voice, which would likely leave large gaps in understanding. He couldn't expect that Adam knew everything there was to know. He needed to educate him.

 

´Yes. I thought that I would be isolated in this predicament.´

 

“A lot of people likely wish you were, honestly. It really can get annoying when we forget the time.”

 

´It can indeed.´

 

Any further conversation was, like yesterday, halted due to outside interference.

 

*Troy. Are you ready to start?*

 

Dr Fidelis voice came in, through the earpiece, with the smallest flicker of static thrown in.

 

Why was it always Troy Dr Fidelis asked? He had never heard him ask the same to Adam. He had never actually heard him speak to Adam. Troy wondered if they were even communicating, or he was just being let in charge of it all.

---

´Are you ready, Adam?´

 

Oh, no, why? Adam had just heard some groundbreaking information, and wanted to know more! He'd had a serious understanding of the inner workings of the human mind! He wouldn't have ever guessed that they could speed up and slow down their perceptions of time. Adam had half a chain of thought to act like he hadn't heard it and ask Troy more questions.

 

But, no. Troy had gotten the same message, and answered it instantly. Adam wouldn't get any answers now! Well, he would get answers, but none of them would be good.

 

´Hey. Buddy. Are you ready? Trying to sleep again, or something?´

 

Adam seemed to have found a liking to mentally sighing. Or the circumstances were just making him do so more. Analysis for later. Now, he needed to answer.

 

´I am ready.´

 

It didn't take nearly as long a time to answer as it took Adam. Dr Fidelis almost instantly began to explain the specifics of the test through Troy's right ear, which Adam could listen to as well.

 

*We will be doing a follow-up on visual calibration. This time- oh, wait! Troy, has anything appeared in front of you yet? No? Oh, dang it. I jinxed it! I told Dr Hale that everything was finally working as planned, but now there's the same problem as yesterday. You know, I am supposed to know how this works, seeing as I was the one who designed it! I'm not old enough to have these problems!*

 

Adam could clearly hear Dr Fidelis' childish tantrum. Why Dr Fidelis was acting so, Adam couldn't comprehend. He hadn't done so, in earlier situations like this current one. Did repeated stimuli really have such a different reaction? While a new reaction to the same situation is obvious, seeing as one learns the situation beforehand, it shouldn't become so… erratic. One should act more calmly when the situation wasn't new. Dr Fidelis' reaction just seemed… artificial. Like it was planned.

 

*Oh… Can you see anything now? Is it a longer rectangle? Good! And, most importantly, are there a linearly increasing amount of meters on it? Dang! So close.*

 

Overall, it didn't sync with what he knew of Dr Fidelis' personality. He seemed so focused on getting results quickly, so why would he halt the beginning of the test?

 

*Is it finally fixed? Finally. Anyway, like the last test, this one will be focused on visual-calibration. Last time, the focus was on colour perspective. This time, it will be directed on Depth Perception.*

 

Adam was expecting it to be that, yet it annoyed him none the less about it. Having to use depth perception accurately meant that Adam would have to use binocular disparity. This meant that he would be using both of Troy's eyes now.

 

Usually, in the last test, and when Troy was being shown around, Adam had simply been using the stimulus from one of Troy's eyes. The output of each was identical, so there was little to no reason to use both. But, now that has changed.

 

In theory, Adam could still just use one eye to measure with. Not accurately, of course. He would just be guessing, by using the relative size of objects, which he could see. He couldn't use that, in this test. Everything around Troy was featureless, letting no distance be known.

 

It seemed that Adam would just have to get used to it.

 

*As you can likely guess, objects will appear at a random distance away. It will solely be up to Adam to figure out how far away it is. Adam will then relay his guessed distance, which Troy will note down on the schematic on the square. Understood?*

 

“Yes”, Troy said, after a few seconds. Troy's hand wrung around for a second. Adam was guessing that he was stressed about something. Adam wondered what it was.

 

´Do you understand, Adam?´

 

Seemed the time had come.

 

Adam switched his focus from Troy's left eye to just focusing on them both. It was irritating, getting identical data, but it did help him guess the distance to Troy's hands when Troy was trying to stop his hands from shaking.

 

Adam could work with this. He could definitely work with this.

 

´I understand.´

 

*Great! Then, you may begin!*

 

And with that, the first object appeared. It looked like a regular office chair. The colour was perfect, and the dimensions accurate. If Adam had been using one eye, he would have said that, relative to the chair's size, it would be but a few meters away.

 

With both eyes being used, though, Adam could easily see the built-in trap the test had. It seemed that they were expecting him to only use one eye.

 

Sure, the height of the chair was small, relative to Troy's height, but that was only because it was also going way more down, into the floor.

 

At first glance, it may have looked as if it was only four meters away, but in actuality, it was a whole seventeen meters.

 

´It is seventeen meters away.´

 

This was sent to Troy and not Dr Fidelis. That connection had been cut off for the duration of the test anyway.

 

Troy puts down the number, and the object disappears quickly, replaced with another object.

 

Again, the same was being pulled. This time, it was just in reverse. Instead of looking like it was close, it looked as if it was far away.

 

The object was a standard, white coffee cup, which was a prominent figure in most of the researchers' hands. It looked far away, with the fact of how small it was. But, with his eyes, he could easily see that it was nearly in front of Troy's eyes.

 

Adam wondered if they had told Troy to not move his head. He seemed quite still, for somebody who had been stressed earlier.

 

´It is one and a half meters away.´

 

And off Adam went. The trick was the same every time. Some objects, which Adam had seen before, would be shown off, with accurate dimensions, but with the size difference. It was easy to see through, and Adam breezed through it.

 

Well, until the nature of the object changed.

 

Instead of being a table, a lab-coat, or even a person, the only object which appeared was a three-dimensional square. The only movement, which Adam could perceive, was the square slowing spinning in the air.

 

The square was big enough, that it was wider than Troy. Adam could tell that much, at least. Yet, the results that Adam got seemed to be fluctuating. He had gotten it to be between twenty and fifty meters away. It was hard to tell, with the movement of the square.

 

Yet… It shouldn't have been too hard. Adam should still have been able to pinpoint the distance. How did it get farther and closer, without seeming to become bigger in Troy's peripherals?

 

Now that Adam was thinking about it, it became obvious. If the square stayed the same size, it would change size when it moved closer and farther away from Troy's body. But it didn't. Because it changed its physical size.

 

This was meant to confuse him. It was fair and all, that they didn't tell Adam that. Hiding the true objective behind a test was a good way to get genuine results.

 

…

 

But, what if this was another type of misleading. This confusion was only meant to do distract him from the already explained goal… Adam decided not to go down that road.

 

Getting an accurate result of the distance away from the square was, Adam needed to play it smart. He couldn't just get Troy to write down its current distance. It wasn't to be cruel, but Troy was slow in his inputs. No, he needed to tell Troy the distance it would be in the future.

 

While there wasn't a full pattern to the squares movements, it wasn't completely random either. The distances it would reverse its movements were random, but, at minimum, it seemed to move at least five meters before reversing again. And… the speed at which it moved was constant, giving Troy ample time to write accurately.

 

With the plan set up, Adam waited till the square would reverse its movements.

 

…

 

And he waited some more.

 

…

 

And some more.

 

…

 

And some- No, wait! At forty-seven meters out, the square reversed.

 

´It's forty-three meters away!´

 

Troy flinched slightly at Adam's louder voice, but pressed the square still, so it mattered little to Adam.

 

Both squares disappeared, and the exit appeared to the right.

 

*Alright. This is it for now. Come out, and get some air, before we continue.*

 

How many were there today, Adam wondered.