by Ivan Svogor
Jess signed the document with her neuro-implant and puffed some air in her chin, turned around and left the room.
* * *
Lee looked over at Dr. Quill with, somewhat surprised expression, and said. “You weren't completely honest back there sir. We know it can communicate, why didn't you want to share this information with Dr. Winson?”
“Dr. Winson is smart”, he replied, “in fact, one of the smartest there is, she will figure it out. Maybe this is too much for her, maybe she needs to absorb the information gradually.”
As Jess took a short walk to grab her equipment as she remembered she actually left it in the lab where Dr. Quill met her that morning. She walked off the frustration and calmed down a bit, and she decided to go back to Dr. Quill's office.
“Dr. Quill?” - she asked. “Yes Dr. Winson?” - he replied very officially.
“I apologize for my previous behavior, I hope that you know what you are doing and that it is for the best. I have a lot to process and I'm thinking of resigning for the rest of the day” - Jess said calmly.
Dr. Quill smiled a bit, and said, “of course, please do, see you tomorrow then.”
Jess nodded and left.
Chapter 8
The following day, as Jess woke up, her mind didn't change, however this time she was curious. It is still bad to keep the data away from the eyes of the world, however, what might actually be so important, she thought to herself. Dr. Quill is a smart and honest scientist, he certainly wouldn't approve of this, unless, there is something else. That's right, there must be more, and because of my reaction, he probably didn't think I was ready. Lee mentioned LGM, I wonder what that is.
“Computer, would you please look up what LGM means?”
A holographic image of a woman appeared along with a bunch of answers organized in images around her. The computer answered,
Dr. Winson, I have found more than 1000 appearances of different meanings of LGM, and hence sorted them into multiple categories; Science, History, SciFi Novels, Medicine, etc. Would you like me to tread the most common ones?
“Please do”, confirmed Jess.
The most common occurrences of LGM are such as Last Glacial Maximum, Lattice Glass Model, Linearised Green-function method, Laparoscopic Gastritic Mobilisation, Loop Group Multiplexer, and Little Green Men.
Jess paused for a second there, to think about the last one, and asked, “Little Green Men? - Computer, could you please elaborate?”
Certainly, in the early 21 century, humans very often intercepted radio waves that weren’t completely known at the time and hence could not be easily interpreted. One of the scientists back then referred to those signals as signals from the little green men, hence LGM became a very popular term for science fiction.
“OK, OK”, Jess interrupted the computer. “Could we limit the search to scientific publications?”
Yes, the computer replied. The most common usage of LGM is Last Glacial Maximum.
Jess thought about it for a second and considering she was at the South Pole, this was a pretty obvious interpretation. “Computer”, she said, “explain Last Glacial Maximum within the context of the Rock”.
Yes, Mrs. Winson. The last glacial maximum is the most recent time during the last glacial period, where ice sheets had their greatest extent covering the plant. According to scientific records, it is estimated with 99% probability this was 33500 years ago. Unfortunately, Mrs. Winson, there are no straightforward associations to be made with the Rock.
Jess thought about this for a moment there and concluded that this must be it. There is something about the last glacial period that made the Rock so interesting. Of course, the computer cannot make associations with Rock as Dr. Quill has been slowing down the data stream. As Lee said that they were able to work with the Rock, thanks to LGM. In the context of the Rock, it would probably die upon hitting the Earth and heating up if the place where it hit wasn't cold. So probably, Lee meant that thanks to the Last Glacial Maximum, polar caps didn't melt and now we all have something to do.
However, something was off with that explanation. Maybe, a chemical footprint of the ice from the LGM left something that makes the Rock thrive, they are probably keeping quiet about it, so a bunch of people don't show up here with their drills.
* * *
Jess took a shower, and as she did, she thought of Hank and immediately made a phone call.
“Hello Jess”, Hank answered, “How about yourself?”
“I’m doing very well,” she replied, ”I'm doing very well, thank you. I'm calling you to say that just now my brain compiled what you were saying the other day as you took me here. So, now all of a sudden I'm a cutie pie, huh? Making fun of me?” - Jess said knowing now that his smooth-talking will not save him this time.
Hank was silent for a second there, and asked “what?”
Jess smiled and said, “the other day, you said you think I am cute and too busy with chemistry, but now when you’re rethinking your future, I suddenly come up as interesting?”
Hank smiled, and replied, “I was just giving you some morale boosts before your new deployment. However if this is your way of calling me, to tell me you miss me, I accept it.”
“You my friend, are an asshole”, Jess replied smiling.
Hank continued, “well, if you're cold down there, I could stop by for a coffee, however, I am stuck at the space station at the moment.”
“Well, when you're back to Earth, figuratively and literally, give me a call”, responded Jess. “What are you doing up there by the way?”
“I'm training the next generation of hotshots to be able to fly through the asteroid belt with all the new equipment we are preparing. We can't get enough people for what's coming. It seems I was wrong about autopilots.” -he responded.
Jess frowned and asked, “what's coming?”
Hank continued, “well, rare Earth metal demand has skyrocketed. Apparently, The Council made a huge order and it needs to be delivered to our facilities on the Moon. Apparently they are testing new propulsion types. So, we need more people capable of space isolation, flying, and good engineers. Back in my day, you also had to be good looking for this, and now, we take everyone that doesn't puke after the first flight we take.”
Jess laughed out loud and said, “The Council seems to have its hands all wrapped up these days. Seems to me that they are interested in a lot of things.”
Hank said, “well when you've got a planet to run, you need a lot of eyes and ears. Anyway, I need to go now, my work here is done pretty soon, so maybe we can catch up this weekend?”
Jess proudly said “we'll just have to see if there is time in my schedule.” She winked and hung up.
* * *
After a long meeting with Dr. Quill, Jess made a working plan for her visit. As it turned out, her numbers from the current research were off, just because she didn't know the correct parameters. In fact, while she is here, she will get access to real-time data and adjust the models in accordance. Finally, she stepped into her office to start working.
Her office had a view of the South Pole on the one side, the main hall on the other. The backside of her lab was a big metal wall covered with writing surfaces and screens, while the opposite one, was in fact a glass wall overseeing the lab.
As she made a connection to the local network, the data started pouring in. Just as this happened, she received a holo-call from Lee and Carlo.
“Hello Dr. Winson”, they said almost in sync. Jess looked up at their projections and said, “well now, after the pizza party we had the other day, I think you guys should call me Jess. Every time you say Dr. Winson, I think of my grandfather”.
Carlo “asked, was he also a scientist?” - Lee looked at him, as if he was a complete idiot, and asked “ the w-networks, hello W is for Winson? How do you think we are managing to handle all the data streams now?”
Carlos yaw almost dropped, as he realized that Dr. Winson, a late Jess’s grandfather, was a bri
lliant physicist who was working on information theory and came up with breakthrough spiking neural networks. He also pioneered hardware that increased network data flows ten-fold. Carlo said, “I am sorry, I didn't realize there was any relation. This is amazing, did you know him well? Did you use to hang out? Did he tell you how he managed to figure out the encoding principles on the actual hardware?”
Jess, a bit annoyed by this, replied, “of course, I hung out with my grandfather. Why would you think he would speak about encoding principles with his 10-year-old granddaughter?”
“Stupid!” - Said Lee too Carlo, who realized how dumb his insertions were. “I'm sorry”, he said.
Jess’s eyebrows slightly lifted at this, and asked “is there any point for your call gentleman?”
“Yes”, said Lee, “we noticed that you've connected to the network and started pulling data.”
“Yes”, confirmed Jess, “I did.”
“OK, Jess”, said Lee carefully, “you are using your own equipment, and as we talked yesterday, whenever you will be leaving the facility, I would need to inspect it, or you should leave it here.”
Jess frowned at this and murmured something to her chin. “Also”, continued Carlo, “we have great news about the sensor grid, it’s finally up and running at 100% capacity. The data so far is mindblowing, and very different to what we have been getting so far. Unfortunately, we will need to shut it down for a few days to recalibrate it.”.
“Perfect! Thanks, I’m looking forward to it”, replied Jess, and closed the connection.
* * *
After several days of working, Jess realized how wrong her models were. Nothing was up to scale, and some constants she assumed were actually variables. The work was amazing and as the data was coming in, she realized how complex the actual prediction models have to be. Even the complex synthetic datasets she used to validate her model weren't complex enough.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed by this, she took a slower day and decided to relax. As she was walking down the corridors, her doodling board followed her and displayed a call. It was her brother Dave.
On occasion, he gave her a call because she was the only one who accepted him as it was. As in the current society it's frowned upon to kick back and just live, he didn't get much approval from either friends or family.
“What's up, bro?” - Jess answered.
“Hi”, Dave replied, “how is my big-shot sis doing?”
Jess sighed and said, “well, it's a bit complicated, however at the moment I'm a bit indifferent. A lot of stuff to process. What's up with you?”
“I just wanted to let you know I'm starting working soon”, he said.
Jess was a bit surprised and curious, and asked in delight, “oh is that so, how’s that?”
Dave smiled and said, “that's your first question? Really?”
Jess, a bit confused asked, “what was supposed to be my first question?” She paused for a second and hit her forehead with her hand saying, “ah, yes, what are you going to do?”
“Aha, bingo!” - responded Dave. “That's a good question. In fact, I'll maybe be seeing you soon. I will be taking photos of the Climate Control Association. They liked my traveling experience and offered whether I would like to take more photos, of anything rare or hard to see.”
Jess said, “good for you, are you happy with that?”
Dave threw his hands in the air and said, “well, why not. It seems to me that hunting for rare phenomena, animals, and sites fits my lifestyle completely.”
“Great, then I am happy for you”, said Jess. “Did you tell mom and dad?”
“Nope, you're the first to know”, said Dave.
“That is great, thanks!” - said Jess. ”But you know that now I will have to call everyone and tell them my brother, the family outcast finally came to his senses, right?”
Both of them laughed at this remark, and Dave continued, “I'm giving mom and dad a call after.”
Jess said, “good, now dad will finally have nothing to rant about.”
Dave smiled and said, “yes, except for everything else. Anyway, as I said, I could probably visit you up there in the lab as I will have some shooting in the South Pole. It's a great time of year to catch the South Pole mirages, along with auroras.”
Jess asked, “isn't that already documented fairly well?”
Dave replied, “sure it is, however, I'm getting some new equipment that will make the shots feel as if you are here, with aurora sounds and everything.”
“Sounds cool, sure, well, when you're here, just give me a call, there are some awesome croissants here with spectacular views. See you soon bro!” - replied Jess.
“Cheerio”, said Dave and closed the connection.
Chapter 9
Days went by and Jess was working hard on her models. Here math was getting in better shape with each day, however, Lee and Carlo were also helpful. Though they can seem a bit dopey, when it gets down to work, those guys know their stuff. However, Dr. Quill kept a firm eye on her. Although it was not obvious, now and then, one of his assistants Kent Garcia or George Newman, would come in to offer help, and then ask about the Rock. Jess knew something was a bit off with that, and that probably, old Dr. Quill wants to keep track of things. The guys were good at what they were doing, Kent was also a chemist, but judging by their looks and questions it was pretty obvious they were there to report to Dr. Quill. Jess didn't care at all and focused on their work while giving them humiliating chores like washing the beakers or hard modeling and visualization tasks. While they might have learned something from Jess, indeed, they almost looked down a bit on her work, and just because of this, she was finding new ways to annoy them. Those moments, Carlo and Lee enjoyed and high-fived each other when Jess would screw them over.
So the weekend came, Jess was feeling a bit stressed out, a lot of new information pouring in. She had to learn a lot of new data analysis methods, brush up on her math, physics, and engineering, while chemistry was the least of her problems. Younger guys seemed to be on top of things with their engineering and data processing, while she always felt a bit slow for them. She almost got the impostor syndrome, but luckily she was confident in her chemistry. She didn't like weekends and woke up almost depressed. However, she spent the morning reading the news and planned out her day.
She is going to have breakfast, and then finally take a bike ride in one of the holo-rooms. She knew that one of the best drugs for keeping focus and spirit is through release in sport. Exercise always helped her relax and focus. She planned to create a medium-hard race, somewhere in the high mountains, with beautiful scenery.
“Ah, time to wake up Jess”, she said to herself, as she was undressing and going for a shower. Afterward, she got dressed and headed outside, however, she stopped just as she grabbed a door handle. I'm making breakfast myself, she thought to herself and went to check out her fridge. There was milk, some eggs, a couple of cricket-paddies, some cheese, yogurts, butter, or pretty much whatever one could expect from a fridge. Poached eggs on a toast and coffee, Jess thought to herself. This will kill an hour, and I'll enjoy it with a view of the park in the hallway.
With a press of a button, a hot stove surface appeared. Jess buttered it up a bit and added some bread to it. Pressing another button, the pot came out from beneath the stove, and she added some water to it. It boiled pretty soon, and she spun it and added a couple of eggs.
Perfect! - she thought to herself. She finally took a plate and served everything up, while in the meantime the coffee maker just completed making her favorite blend, no sugar, 80% coffee, 19% milk, and 1% foam.
Just outside her place, there was a bench with a beautiful view of the park. Though the lighting system was emulating morning light impressively well, today a view of the outside was particularly nice. So someone shut down windows projecting the artificial view, and the outside was stunning. Sunset, frozen in time, with clear clouds and a beautiful gradient of dark blue and orange colors.
&
nbsp; Jess enjoyed her breakfast, which was suddenly interrupted by a call from Carlo.
“Hey Jess, are you doing OK?” - Carlo asked.
“Yes, I'm just enjoying breakfast, I suppose you are doing well yourself?” - Jess asked curiously.
“I am OK, thanks, so are you coming after breakfast?” - asked Carlo.
“Where?” - Jess asked.
“Well, to the lab”, replied Carlo, ”Lee and I are already working on the circuit board for Silicon impulse management, so pretty soon, we will need your inputs.”
“I am a bit confused, it's the weekend”, Jess said.
Lee joined Carlo's holo-image and said, “well it is the weekend, however, it's the first weekend of the month, and we are on duty this weekend. Every third weekend, we are on duty to be more efficient while we are here, so on Wednesday, we get a day off. Didn't you get the schedule?”
Jess, a bit confused, said no, “I was not made aware of that. I'm sorry guys, but I was not informed, I wonder how that happened. I'm finishing my breakfast just now, so you can expect me in the lab about 10 minutes from now. See you soon!”
She took her final bite of the toast and sighed. She really needed some time off, and now, she needs to go to the lab. Though this will make the weekend pass quicker, Jess had no issues with going to the lab, however, she already planned the bike race and she will need to mentally readjust her plan for today.
