Beta Project

Agent Brown is walking through a warehouse with a shorter man carrying a clipboard. Both men wear glasses. The warehouse looks normal enough, with various sized crates stacked neatly and plenty of room to move. However, there is more space than crates and the presence of several soldiers and cameras prove that this is no obvious warehouse.


Brown: So all of the equipment and experiments too dangerous to simply dispose of are now safely ensconced here?

McCauley: Yes, all safely secured in this location now. 128 separate crates but I know of several containing a minimum of 35 biological hazards each.

Brown: Do you know what is in each of them?

McCauley: I don't have the security clearance to look into even half of these boxes. That's why I'm glad you came for an inspection. You have clearance to look into all but three of these and....

Brown: Surely you don't think I'm going to let you go on a hunting expedition here?? Your job is to oversee the safeguarding of the various devices and experiments left here after Department H was shut down. You don't need to know anything about what you're safeguarding, just know that it's important.

McCauley: But what if something goes wrong, something happens to a crate and we don't know what was inside? How do we deal with the consequences if anything biohazardous gets damaged, or leaks, or if something is stored improperly? We can't run away, we can't enact the proper measures to deal with any issue! I don't like being left out to dry like this.

Brown: There is nothing to fear. When SHIELD forced the government to close Department H nothing was half-done, all storage was done doubly and correctly. You know as well as I do that this facility has fail-safes linked to specific crates in case of a change in their state. If something truly bad does 'get out', the whole place will be incinerated instantly.

McCauley: Comforting thought.

Brown: What was brought here from Department H had to be saved. Too dangerous to dispose if safely maybe, but most are just too valuable.

McCauley: And yet if one get out the whole lot gets destroyed. It makes no sense. Should all the bacteria, viruses, fungi and chemicals be stored in various Hazmat facilities, or give to someone who can dispose of them properly?

Brown: You should have more faith that nothing can go wrong.

McCauley: Never say never. Bombs, HYDRA, AIM, even mutants would work very hard to get in here and take what they could, if they knew it was here. I'm sure some of them have an inkling that Department H just didn't disappear, and they know what H was working on right up to the power being shut off. It's no wonder that the downing of the Prometheus Pit didn't cause a catastrophe.

Brown: In a perfect world H would still exist, the building would still stand, and this would not be happening.

McCauley: This from a CSIS man!

Brown: I know what H stood for and what it meant for Canada. I did not support closing it and moving its assets to CSIS. We don't have the expertise to move forward like H did, we're too limited in scope. How we handled Pointer is proof of that. No, this isn't a perfect situation but it's a whole lot better than any alternative that was proposed.

McCauley: Such as?

Brown: Taking our chances destroying all the equipment and hoping nothing went wrong, giving it all to SHIELD, creating an agency tied to the NRC to handle the assets...

McCauley: So why not destroy everything, why take thses risks and waste all ths money storing the stuff?

Brown: Because a lot of money went into these, most if not all, could still prove very useful, and assets should never be given away without a fight.

McCauley: You gave away Pointer and Walker easily enough.

Brown: I said don't lose assets easily. Pay attention. Protecting these resources is part of protecting our sovereignty.

McCauley: We have the best tech available but CSIS only gave me ten people to watch the place. 24 hours a day for 10 people to keep an eye on everything is asking a lot. If this is so important we should have proper guards and even weapons installed outside...

Brown: Finesse, my dear sir, finesse is all we need. No need to call attention to ourselves. If we put out a sign, expect your worst fears to be realized. If we stay subtle, they'll have to be smart to get at us if they know we exist.

McCauley: So what do you recommend?

Brown: Stay the course. Loose lips and all. CSIS has no indication that anyone knows this facility exists. With all that's going on in the world we can stay out of the way, that'll be good enough for now.


Brown leaves the facility. Hours later we see him meeting with an older man but that's all we know. Later that week a clearly disheveled Brown goes to the apartment of Walter Langkowski.


Brown: I"m apologize for the lateness of my visit, Doctor Langkowski. I have little choice. I, I,... I,.... We need to talk. It's about Department H, history,....

Langkowski: Then let's get to it. Sit wherever you like.

Brown sits on the big chair in Langkowski's living room. Langkowski himself sits on the couch across from him.

Brown: I"ll get right to it. Director X is dead and what's left of Department H is about to disappear.

Langkowski: OK, you've only made two statements and you've lost me on both.

Brown: Fair enough, what choice do I have? Honesty and all that. [Brown is clearly becoming more agitated]. I've been keeping secrets for so long that telling the truth is an anathema.

Langkowski: Do tell.

Brown: I did my best to play it straight when we worked together at CSIS, honestly. But secrets are part of my soul now. OK. [he takes a deep breath]. My name is not Jeff Brown. It isn't Oculus, though that was my tag at Department H. Yes, I came from there, I was head of security there for 5 years, not that you'd know that. I know all its secrets too.

Langkowski: OK, you worked for CSIS, you're in the business of telling lies but now lying is the worst thing you could do, and?

Brown: When Department H was started it was by Hudson but not your Hudson. Two months before James Hudson jumped to Canada his grandfather started H. He knew what James had planned and he wanted in on the ground floor. He had a lot of people in the government and military under his thumb. When he talked to his grandson about leaving Can-Am Warren Hudson went to the PM and convinced him to give him the secret Directorship, the total final say, and let James think that H was his baby. Director X wanted his grandson to succeed badly but he felt someone with a cloak and dagger military background needed to be in charge.

Langkowski: I never met the man but James did think his grandfather was a bit of a control freak.

Brown: He certainly was. Up until SHIELD forced it to dissolve he micromanaged it; trust me, everything H was Director Hudson was. Nothing happened without his say so. Even when it's 'charter' was taken away H was under his control, it never was shut down, just hidden deeper.

Langkowski: I'll take it on that on faith, keep going.

Brown: Director X, way back in the beginning, wasn't all that involved in the Flight project but he wanted to use its assets. The ones that matter now are Gardiner Monroe and Alec Thorne.

Director X wanted to know if Flashback's duplicates could be made to tell him the future. Monroe couldn't get them to talk but he let H try, which meant Director X. He learned his favorite grandson was going to die within the year. He never learned how or when, the duplicate was as frustrating as Monroe after all. So he had scientists working on a way of integrating Flashback's temporal power into the Guardian suit, to give James an out. They went to James to try and make it work, he had his doubts. It worked, sort of.

When James' was distracted by Heather an is suit exploded the temporal program kicked in, but there were no tests, it was just a program. James was killed but three copies were split off, three duplicates. You've met all three, and all three are dead. One was the 19 year old version, passed off as some sort of synthoid. He lacked a lot of James' skills and memories. Another version was the cyborg, killed by Galactus. The one you knew the best kept being bounced into orbit, the emotionless one that died at Pointer's hands. All of Director X's plans to keep James alive failed. But he didn't put all his eggs in one basket.

Langkowski: So he used Thorne.

Brown: If he wasn't the smartest man around, you were. Do you remember RE-STH-5?

Langkowski: Of course. Reverse engineering synthetic template human, 5th iteration. It was a plan Alec and I were working on to create a human not simply by cloning, but matching a superior genetic template with genetic material from anywhere. But the odds of it succeeding were astronomical. It was a pure waste of time, energy and money. We saw no need to pursue it to an experimental stage................ The Beta Project. That's what the Beta Project did!

Brown: I'm impressed! You gave up on RE-STH-5, THorne gave up on RE-STH-5...

Langkowski: But Smart Alec didn't.

Brown: With the encephalohelmet Thorne thought he saw a way to actualize the process and make it work. The Beta Project started under his eye a month before the New York incident. Director X saw to it that it was never stopped.

Langkowski: Surely even both of you can see that it couldn't recreate James, it wasn't a strict cloning project.

Brown: But it could create something like James, someone who could carry on being James, or a very good facsimile.

Langkowski: I can't see any way for it to succeed.

Brown: Maybe it can't. But that's why I'm here. We need to find out....

Langkowski: You want me to try my hand at RE-STH? It still won't work even if I babysit it. Besides, even if a sample gets actualized and goes onto stage one it would take over a decade to get to the result and see if it worked.

Brown: Sir, if you know anything about the Beta Project trust me, it was all smoke and mirrors. It was RE-STH-5 through and through all these years.

Langkowski: But it can't work! Yet you are here defending it....

Brown: Department H, under Director X's explicit orders, made the Beta Project the one experiment that never ended, even with all that went south, all the failures and pain, all the money. One sample started well and gave him hope that RE-STH-5 could work, somehow.

Langkowski: One sample worked? It had a success?

Brown: We have one, one in progress. Listen, when H was truly closed down Director X worked hard to save and store its assets, including the one Beta Project that was still working. Only General Chassen was kept informed, Director X only trusted him to follow through. But Chassen died last year...

Langkowski: I know, three days before Pointer....

Brown:.... so the Director made me his confidant. The Director died last night and I need you to, to finish the job, the one job that matters now.

Brass tacks. You can't run a Beta Project without a lot of failure, and the secret wasn't kept well. Everyone found out about RE-STH-5 and tried their hand at it. We learned everyone failed. HYDRA tried over 200,000 iterations and only got 113 actualizations before they gave up. AIM had over 150,000 and only 512 actualizations before they gave up. SHIELD went 505 and 2, Weapon X gave up after 5 iterations, Weapon Plus only tried 15 samples and gave up. Only HYDRA and AIM were willing to go for the long haul and they had no success, never got a stage one.

Langkowski: But H did.

Brown: Sample #3. The Beta Project tried over 10,000 times , got 237 to actualize, three even reached day one of stage one. But #3 lasted, for some unknown reason. They tried DNA from over 5000 people, maybe even you or me, and a lot of the time they used a Hudson sample as their starting point, even young Marie, but only one sample worked. Nobody had a clue why, nobody even knows now what the initial conditions were that could've created this result. But we have one.

Langkowski: And it's ready to be released, isn't it? That's why you need me, someone to finish the job. Assuming I believe even one word.

Brown: CSIS has stored all of what we could save from H. There are three large crates side-by-side housing the Beta Project. One has the subject. One has the control and growth system. One has the security system. I need to get you in there to finish this job. We have a life to save.

Langkowski stares long and hard at the sweating Brown. He has Brown go over the pertinent details again, and again, before agreeing to go with him to the Department H warehouse.

Coming up: Alpha Flight is back online!

Agent Brown takes Walter Langkowski to the Department H warehouse. Brown goes in suit and tie as usual, carrying his usual clipboard of notes and information. Langkowski is in a lab coat, meant to impress upon the security why he's along for the ride. Brown gets him in with ease, but meeting up with McCauley may create a problem

McCauley: Agent Brown! I was not informed that you were coming back so soon? And with Doctor Langkowski?? Are you going to fill me in?

Brown: In a word, no. Langkowski is here as my scientific adviser...

McCauley: I must protest, I have my own people I need....

Brown: MY scientific adviser and he's here on CSIS authority to fulfill an obligation of the company! I am in no mood to deal with any nonsense. I have the authority to investigate your establishment and take measures as I see fit. Go away.

McCauley: I shall not! I'm in charge here and I don't care what your clearance is or authority, I'm responsible for what happens here and I will not allow you to waltz in here...

Brown: Doctor, the floor is yours. I will deal with McCauley.

McCauley tries to use his cell but Brown is carrying a jammer. Frustrated, McCauley marches off to get help. Langkowski locates the crate he needs and changes into Sasquatch to open it. No security personnel move to interfere, to them Brown is in charge.

In the crate is an archaic computer with fibre-optic hookups to a modem. Langkowski reverts to human form and checks the computer. He nods to Brown and once again changes into Sasquatch to open a second crate, one with a green glowing container. Langkowski stays as Sasquatch and studies the crate and its contents. He again nods at Brown, who moves to collect a case from the row across. Sasquatch then opens the third and final crate. White smoke drifts out the bottom, flowing like a liquid, revealing a human form encased in a plastic shell, semi-translucent. Langkowski opens the shell, revealing a slim, dark-haired woman with sharp features, looking 19. She shudders and awakens, but does not leave the shell.

Langkowski (Back in human form): How do you feel?

Woman: Tired. I feel like I've been asleep for days.

Langkowski: That's an understatement. Can you tell me your name, your age, tell me about yourself.

Woman: (stretching and yawning): I'm Jaime Hudson, I turned 19 last month. I'm the leader of Alpha Flight, my code is Guardian. Do you happen to know where my uniform is? I'm quite chilly.

Langkowski: You are remarkably aware and well adjusted! You aren't disoriented?

Hudson: Well, you're here, and you're familiar. Being in a tube isn't a surprise, I know what I am. My AI learning cell and a few holes in it that I could 'see' through. Ive been aware of my condition since I was 15, and 4 years is a lot of time to come to terms with what you are.

Brown: A design flaw in the AI?

Langkowski: More likely an age failure coupled with a mind that surpasses anything you could expect. Ms. Hudson, are you saying that you feel like a fully-functioning human being?

Hudson: What do I look like? OK, so I'm not at my best until I've had a cup of coffee. Agent.... I don't know you. Is that my uniform?

Brown: I'm Agent Jeff Brown, and it is. Do you want to try it out?

Hudson: Try it out? I've been using it for two years. It's my 'going out' suit.

Jaime gets out of her shell and takes the Guardian uniform. It fits perfectly. She puts on the helmet and gains full control instantly, immediately rising off the floor.

Hudson: This new superconductor e-m suit may have fewer options than the old model but it handles like a dream. Doctor, did you know that the electric pulse strength is 15% stronger, the plasma beams are 22% tighter and 18% more efficient, and the force field is 128% stronger? And without the extras of the old suit the neurological pressure is 35% less while the battery power is 211% longer. I appreciate getting the upgrades.

Langkowski: I didn't even know this newer Guardian uniform existed until last night, and the first I've seen it is on you. In that, at least, you have all the knowledge.

Hudson: Do we have work to do here, or can I go to Department H and meet my team?

Brown: Your AI, in that respect, is about 2 years out of date. Department H was closed down a while ago and Dr. Langkowski here is the only surviving member of Alpha Flight proper. You'll have to get acclimated to your new situation and what the world is like as you go.

Hudson: So there is no Alpha Flight? That cannot be!

Brown: I'm afraid so. All we have for agents are the Doctor and an American code-named Arachne. We haven't been able to work on a new iteration of the Flight....

Langkowski: Sorry to butt in, but I'm afraid this is one instance in which you, Agent Brown, are uninformed. I haven't been sitting on my hands these last few months.

Brown: Spill.

The soldiers are spellbound, even McCauley has remained motionless since Guardian first appeared.

Langkowski: Ever since Pointer did his deed, something you'll learn about soon enough Jaime, I've been in contact with various interested parties about restarting the Flight, whatever is necessary. Most of my old comrades want nothing to do with super-hero antics. Only Aurora, Northstar, Talisman, and Snowbird would listen. Aurora won't join without Northstar and he won't join until Hell freezes over, or he gets sick of being an X-Man. Snowbird wants to remain solo, but she'll help if called on. Talisman wavers but she wants to stay with her tribe, she feels more valuable there. She too will join for missions if warranted. Chuck Moss and Yukon Jack are nowhere to be found, which I know is bad, really bad.

Hudson: Sounds like it's you and me and that American...

Langkowski: Not quite. Arachne is with us for now, I can't say for how long. But I do have two surprises. Eugene Milton Judd's life ended before its time, his mystic energy won't let him go so easily. I've had him working in Vancouver. In Halifax is Nemesis. Yes, the mantle has been passed and I had a hand in the choosing. That makes 5.

Brown: Nemesis? Who did you choose? How did you manage....

Langkowski: Best if you don't know Brown. You aren't the best at keeping secrets, really, and Nemesis needs her privacy if she's to work with us for the next decade or more. THis time Alpha Flight isn't going to be pushed around.

Brown: So Guardian, you, Puck, Nemesis, and Arachne?

Langkowski: I want people who want to be one of us. I need loyalty, I need commitment. I'm a scientist and I need this to work, call it my latest experiment. Jaime understands, she's a Hudson.

Guardian: I understand. We have a duty to fulfill. What do we need to do first? Train? Start on the hunt for Yukon Jack and Earthmover?

Brown: Eat. Then meet your teammates and train, while CSIS starts laying out mission parameters....

Langkowski: Guardian, we'll have to inform the good agent here about how Alpha Flight works. CSIS people will be working for us.

Guardian: Exactly my thoughts. We don't want bureaucrats trying to run the ship, again. Hasn't worked yet.

Guardian and Sasquatch smile at each other, leaving Brown flabbergasted. Little does he know how right they are, CSIS supports Alpha Flight, it does not give the orders. Once Guardian meets her team they get to work team training but soon enough they are called upon. Threats don't wait for the opposition to appear, after all.

Next up, part 3. How do you like it so far, Mr. Brevoort?

Brown and Langkowski took Hudson out and cleaned up, leaving a flabbergasted McCauley and his staff to wonder what they've been missing. After filling her in on the world she now lives in, they discuss... her.

Brown: So you feel fine? Nothing out of the ordinary?

Hudson: No problems, except that I still feel a slight chill.

Langkowski: I can explain that. You aren't a typical human being, after all.

Hudson: Growing up in a test tube and preformatted using the DNA of other people, I'd say I'm not your average bear.

Langkowski: It's more than that. You are as healthy as possible, truly a marvel. And what pushes you beyond just being 'healthy' is your molecular radius.

Brown: What now?

Langkowski: Jaime's atomic structure is based on a unique wave-particle model. Her carbon atoms are 3.58776 atrometres smaller, in terms of diameter, than any other carbon-12 atoms. The rest of her atoms should have adjusted to have tighter diameters too, 2.08998 atrometres to be exact. We are basically looking at a human being who takes up 5% less volume than she should.

Brown: You used Judd as a template?

Langkowski: No, I used Schrödinger's equations and pushed them to their biological limits. I never applied anything about Eugene to RE -STH-5. It was all original science.

Hudson: So I'm smaller than I should be? What does that really mean?

Langkowski: You are 21% stronger, 38% more durable, 12% faster, and have a, well, better neurological make-up than most anyone on Earth. If that makes you smarter, well...

Hudson: Better neurology? Does that mean I learn faster than anyone or what?

Langkowski: It means you retain and recall information better; it means the normal neurological pressure the helmet puts on a person is lost on you, you won't suffer from the stress of the helmet; it means you should be immune to outside influence...

Brown: So Xavier can't touch her?

Langkowski: Can't read her mind, that's for sure, and any kind of control may affect her but she should be able to fight it off. Her increase in density isn't mystical like Judd's, so the benefits of increased density are more readily acessible.

Hudson: What are the drawbacks?

Langkowski: You're shorter. Oh, and you can't eat carbohydrates, or rather you can't digest carbohydrate molecules. Limits your diet quite a bit but you will need 24% less sustenance, no, make that 59% less sustenance than normal, even when exercising hard.

Hudson: So I don't really need to eat?

Langkowski: If you eat once every two days you'll be fine. And you may have noticed that Brown and I see to breathe at a higher rate than you do. Well, you need 85% less oxygen at peak efficiency than a sleeping person.

Hudson: So I"m a marvel, or freak.

Langkowski: Unique. That's why the Beta Project, my and Thorne's RE-STH-5, really had to fail. Even if everything worked perfectly you wouldn't exist.

Hudson: Yet I do. How do you explain it?

Langkowski: The only theory I have is that you are a fluke, some completely random event, maybe a stream of beta particles, a glob of W bosons, or mystic energy, changed things at the right time in the right way, unseen by anyone, untestable, and unrepeatable.

Hudson: Nice to know I'm valuable.

Langkowski: You're still human, just a really, really well-built one.

Brown: Doctor!

Langkowski: Yes, I'm a doctor, we get to say such things with impunity. Honestly, young Jaime here is the rare person who should take risks, what you find risky is much less of a threat to her.

Brown: So if the Hulk shows up...

Langkowski: Leave him alone. But if it's one of those other, unstable Hulks then put her, puck, and myself in there. We actually have an awfully useful anti-hulk squad. Not that we should encourage a conflict with them

Hudson: And that's that. I need to get on the job. I'm not comfortable sitting with this little tea party discussing my lab results. I need to go to work!

Langkowski: I'm not stopping you. Let's find the others and get to work. Maybe we can start with a big fish...

Brown: I keep telling you, Doom has diplomatic immunity. There is that Master problem, that a big enough fish?

Langkowski: Lord is making a move? Have we got intel on whether Earthmover has joined the Hardliners?

Brown: Not yet, our estimates are 56% positive that Moss works for Lord now.

Hudson: starting to use her suit and rise up: Bring me up to speed, Lord is the Master?

Brown: Always was. He's the richest person in Canada, maybe the world, and he's the man behind the Master. He's used the Master dopplegangers to push his agenda for years but CSIS has tid his DNA to the doppelgangers. Hard to believe Department H fell for it, someone that smart putting himself in the line of fire to further his goals. Now we know the truth but we can't touch him; he still runs the show, though, and his Hardliners are his personal army to help reshape the world. The man can't keep still. His old mutants have been absorbed into the elite of the Hardliners.

Hudson: We need to cut them off at the knees, then. The more time we let Lord maneuver...

Langkowski: The harder it gets. We have targets, time to shoot.

And if I can do it, we'll read about the first time the Hardliners cross paths with Alpha Flight!

As Guardian meets her teammates, and goes over mission specs with Puck, Arachne, and Nemesis, Langkowski is called away by Brown.

Langkowski: I can guess why you want to see me, Oculus. The story I told Ms. Hudson.

Brown: What I knew of the Beta Project doesn't jibe with what you said. I know nothing of the loss in density....

Langkowski: That's the beauty of it. My analysis of her physiology agrees with what I told you, she is more compact than a normal human, and I did use Schrödinger's equations. Just not to create the template.

Brown: Excuse me?

Langkowski: She is as 'small' as I said. The explanation is that the RE-STH-5 process, to work, required a decrease in atomic radius, and I know that's right from Schrödinger. What I told her is true. Why the workup on the Project did that I can only speculate; possibly as a response to the low energy environment, or her evolved genetics.

Brown: About that; why does she think she's a Hudson?

Langkowski: Because she is. I need to do more tests but from the cells that sloughed off I can see that her genetics match almost exactly with James Hudson's, but with the X chromosome duplicated. Due to her environment she developed differently than him, but the fact she even survived this whole time leads to a most interesting conclusion.

Brown: Which is?

Langkowski: For years I, and other scientists, have speculated that humanity would eventually come to a crossroad with mutants; either nature would embolden the mutant gene and it would become the dominant breed, or remain the same. If it remained the same then the natural path of humanity would be to develop, genetically, to move forward in self-defence, such as it is. Vargas is one example, Daisy Johnson another. I have long suspected that Heather and James' child is one too. Jaime is a fourth. She just was lucky enough to have the bonus of lower atomic radii to add to her already amazing repertoire.

Brown: You're saying she is a new type of human being, the next evolutionary step?

Langkowski: Precisely. In a thousand years most of humanity will be new types like her and Vargas; I have discussed this with Reed Richards, we both feel that in 1000 years 65% of humanity will be new types, 30% will be mutants, and 5% will remain as you and I are. All thins being equal, of course.

Brown: Won't that lead to more human-mutant division?

Langkowski: It could. Especially if mutants keep talking of themselves as a different species.

Brown: They're not?

Langkowski: Are people with extra chromosomes a new species? People with 6 fingers on a hand? Brunettes? Of course not. X-gene mutants are as human as we are, just because they have a couple of different mitochondrial and one different standard gene doesn't make them a new species, just different. I can throw a football farther and more accurately than 99% of humanity, baseline or mutant; does that make me a new species?

Brown: So Guardian is that much better than us?

Langkowski: She isn't as intelligent as I am, not as elusive or deductive as you. She is strong her her ways, we in ours, she just has more strengths. Being able to fend off mutant espers and their ilk isn't due to her molecular density but her genetics. Vargas isn't as immune to espers but he has his own strengths and defences against mutants, as does Johnson. Some days I wonder if Puck is a new type as well.

Brown: Could he be? Three new types in such close proximity?

Langkowski: It would be astounding, but no he's not. He is something special.

They rejoin the team and find Puck and Guardian debating how best to deal with the Hardliners. Langkowski had to smile, Puck finally had someone to talk business with. In 22 hours they would be heading to a Hardliner staging area to deliver an ultimatum: Stand down or face arrest. It was time to fire a shot across The Master's bow!