Professor Bentoling

Professor Alice G. Bentoling is a so-called "nutty" professor who is known for inventing several types of weaponry, the polka music used for torture, Vortex Manipulator improvements and various other questionable inventions. She lives and works in her laboratory, a metallic building bolted to the 90-150 Ice Shelf. Alice also worked briefly for the Time Agency. She was the only person who understood how Vortex Manipulators worked, enabling the mass production of the Mark III Model. She was later fired after questioning Time Agency policies. The professor was Kwiksilver's scientific adviser, and taught him the right way to modify Vortex Manipulators. Professor Bentoling is also an Emoguin. She always wears a black lab coat.

Background
Alice G. Bentoling was born in the year 1986. She was abandoned by her parents at the Adoption Center and spent her early life growing up there. She was a loner there, with little friends. It is believed that this contributed to her Emoguin nature. When she was 9, in 1995, she was adopted by two extreme environmentalists. Alice breezed through primary and secondary school with straight A's, which gained her a spot at the developing Penguin University. It was tough, but eventually Alice completed a course in Physics and received a degree in Environmental Science.

The Impossible Thesis
Alice's university thesis was on the topic of time travel. This was something she had always dreamed of as a little chick because she always wanted to find her real parents and why they abandoned her. Time travel was something especially close to Alice's heart.

She set to work explaining why time travel could be possible, complete with easy-to-understand diagrams and brilliant conclusions. Coincidentally, she had created the exact mechanism of time travel that was used in the Vortex Manipulators, all on her own! Professor Bentoling was one of the greatest minds in the whole of history, and this was demonstrated in her ability to imagine something that she had never seen before.

One sunday morning, breathless and exhausted from a late night adding final touches, Alice slapped her essay on her lecturer's desk and went off to grab some breakfast. Her lecturer returned with his morning cup of coffee, and spotted her thesis on his desk. He placed the mug down, straightened his elaborate moustache and opened it curiously. He was astounded. The things he was reading were absolutely incredible, impossible, but yet it could be done! Flippers trembling, he grasped the precious document and ran to his car.

He hit the accelerator the whole journey, breaking speed limits and achieving seven expensive speeding fines. However, he didn't care. He was taking this fantastic thesis to the head of the PSA. Almost crashing his car in the carpark of the South Pole City branch of the Penguin Secret Agency, he scrambled out and entered. The receptionist thought him a raving loony, but the lecturer was persistent. He eventually grabbed an appointment with the newly appointed head of the Time Agency, the Director. The lecturer eagerly showed the Director the thesis.

The Director was as amazed as the lecturer, and thought of the original Vortex Manipulator he had taken from the Leader a couple of weeks ago. The Vortex Manipulator had puzzled every scientist in Antarctica, and nobody had yet found a way to duplicate it or adapt it. He found out that Alice had written it, and asked for her attendance immediately. The lecturer arranged for her to receive a High Distinction and full qualifications so she would look professional.

The newly appointed Professor's meeting with the Director went well. Alice was desperate for work, and accepted the job eagerly. She was instantly hired as the chief scientist and head of Vortex Manipulator Production.

Work with the Time Agency and Operation Casino Night
Professor Bentoling set to work almost immediately. She constructed detailed improvements for Vortex Manipulator, reverse-engineering the technology so it could be manufactured in the present day. Bentoling also created portable large-scale Time Portals, the famous Time Agency Pocketknife, and the Collapsible Tent (it's bigger on the inside!). As the Vortex Manipulators were made by the hundreds, Alice earned the respect of her fellow scientists and Time Agents while at the same time ignoring the implications of what she was doing.

She knew very well that giving the penguin race time travel could lead to disastrous consequences, but kept ignoring her conscience which was screaming inside her. She had a good job, she was respected, she was earning money. But something wasn't right. She wasn't happy at work, as much as she told herself she was. Eventually, over time, no more vortexes had to be made. She was stuck doing paperwork and spending time on committees where half the participants we asleep.

Along came Operation Casino Night. Professor Bentoling was assigned creation of gambling prediction codes. Again, her conscience raved at her. This wasn't right. Still, she persisted. However, one day a young time agent quit. This inspired others to quit, and soon the Time Agency had lost half its employees due to their misguided operation. Alice was left with a small handful of employees who were either too afraid or too proud to leave their jobs. One day, she decided enough was enough. She simply gathered up all Vortex Manipulator blueprints and her things and walked out of the building with a clear conscience.

Involvement
Professor Bentoling is famous.

Laboratory
Professor Bentoling's lab is a very strange building, much like its creator. It is a large three-dimensional rectangle, made entirely out of reinforced steel and aluminium with a slightly slanted roof. Solar panels completely cover the roof to provide power for the building and water from underwater bores is pulled to the surface via a large pipe which connects to the lab. Four strong and sturdy metal poles hold the lab up, founded 10 metres below the ice. Steel steps lead from the ice to the only door. There are only two windows on the stairs side of the building.

Trivia

 * Due to the annual moving of the ice shelves, a small crevasse has opened under Alice's lab. In about 20 years it will swallow the lab completely and Alice will have to move.
 * Kwiksilver told her that by 2030 magnets are very efficient, and has brought her "super-magnets" from the future. Professor Bentoling is reverse-engineering the magnets to adapt to today's technology so they can eventually hold up her lab.