by Ivan Svogor
* * *
“Good morning guys”, Jess said as she entered the lab. Carlo and Lee, along with several lab members, greeted.
She looked towards Quill’s office and it seems he was not here. Lee caught Jess’s look and said, “Dr. Quill is not here this morning. He usually doesn't join us on Saturdays even when the lab is on duty. He has meetings with people so he doesn't come in.”
“Isn't it easier just to do so from his office?” - Jess asked.
“Well, usually these meetings are with people high up, which usually don't just sit down and talk. Sometimes they join in on activity and casually discuss a subject. I know that Dr. Quill mostly spends his day in holo-rooms.”
Jess puffed, and said, “Damn, I planned out a bike race for today, then I found out that I need to be here with you. Anyway, since I'm growing fond of you guys, I don't mind. Where should we pick up the work?“
Lee and Carlo explained the circuit board they were working on, at which moment George Newman rushed into the office. George Newman was not a particularly distinguished fellow that always had a facial expression as he was ridiculing something. Jess found that extremely annoying but tried really hard to ignore this. Also, Newman was a chemist which was always trying to outsmart Jess and prove to her that he knows more. While Jess kept putting him down on a daily basis, he was still very persistent. So, as he came in he was pretty surprised to see Jess there.
Jess looked up and said, “good morning George, you're almost out of breath there, I wasn't aware you’re coming to work on Saturday.”
“I was sent here by Kent”, he replied, ”he told me that you are in the office today, and I wanted to oversee the experiments that are in line for today.”
“Great”, Jess said sardonically,” now I can stop worrying knowing that I'll have support from you.”
Newman mumbled something into his chin and sat down to his desk, and started working on something, while Lee continued.
“Anyway, as I was saying, the circuit board is designed in a way that it can directly connect to the rock. Carlo had this great idea that we should use quartz crystals to get the data, and then, we can easily create a two-way communication system. With quartz, as you know you would get small electricity when it is exposed to physical force, and it also works in other directions.”
“That’s an interesting idea”, responded Jess. “But how will we solve its connection with the Rock?
Carlo replied, “To be honest, this is where we would like some input from you, as a computational chemist you must know away…” At that moment, Newman came closer and interrupted Carlo.
“Of course, I can create silicon polymers that can be easily connected to the Rock and your circuit board.”
Jess said, “good, but you need to figure out the scaling, because based on our current numbers, this circuit, working with the currents you guys have here can be just a proof of concept. For the actual usage, this would need to be scaled by several factors.”
“That sounds like it might work, interesting, do you know how much?” - asked Lee. “Hum, I would need to think about this”, said Jess. “We still don't have great numbers on the scaling and the computer has been analyzing the data and training generative networks to provide us with some results. Unfortunately, the dataset I received seems to be a bit contradictory. But then again, this is an alien rock.“
Newman smiled a bit and said, “OK, I'll go to the lab and work on those polymers, while you can deal with the numbers.”
Jess nodded and confirmed, “alright, let’s get to work”.
Since most of the lab was made of glass, a room with chemistry equipment where Newman went was clearly visible and Jess could see what he was doing. As he started working on the compounds, it was also obvious that he was talking to Kent.
Jess sighed and whispered to Lee, a “happy couple is reunited again. Lee looked over and started giggling.”
While the day was fairly eventful, they managed to produce some results, with preliminary data Jess had, there was still a long way to complete the work. At some point, Carlo said, “guys, I'm done for today.”
Lee looked at Jess and said, ”Dr. Winson, I think I'll also be retiring for the day, and if you do so, maybe you can still go and have that bike ride.” Jess said, “sure, I'll be over pretty soon, have a nice evening guys.”
Jess was looking at the screen and after a while, just started randomly reading the news and watching fun videos, as she slowly fell asleep, the computer adjusted the lab lighting and her screen turned off.
At that point, Newman was still in the lab. Without a warning, the door to the lab suddenly and quickly opened, and the lights turned on. Jess was a bit startled by this, and she noticed that Kent came in. He proceeded to the neighboring lab without noticing her, and walking toward Newman.
While the chemistry lab was well isolated, by the gestures, she noticed that Kent was pretty upset and it almost looked as if he was threatening Newman. At that point, Jess lowered her head, as if to hide. They got out of the room, and indeed Kent was shouting. And when Kent is shouting, it's something you remember. He was a very tall and strong man, his head was shaved while his beard was long. He almost looked like a Viking back in the day. While he was a computer scientist by training, he reported every single action to Dr. Quill. He was his eyes and ears and he was a little bit scary. He had this unpredictable vibe surrounding him, and you never knew what he was thinking and how he would react. He was very unrefined, but actually, he was the guy that got things done. Rarely he cared about feelings, personal matters, and anything human, the work needed to be done and that was the top priority.
“We have an inspection tomorrow, and what the hell do you think we will show now?! What, give me a single piece of information so we don't look like a bunch of completely incompetent morons.” - Kent shouted at Newman.
Jess was a bit surprised to hear that kind of language, as people were never so aggressive, except the ones that might have a kind of military training.
“Well Kent”, Newman continued, “we would have results but you need to understand that processing is…”
Kent stopped and interrupted Newman saying, “I know all about the processing and this is where the old man is wrong. But, you don't need to worry about this. I will take care of it. You just make sure that we are on time because now is our opportunity to show that we are capable of running this facility without the old man and that it is time for him to step down.”
They both exited the lab, while they proceeded to walk down the hallway.
Jess didn't quite get what this was about, so she checked Dr. Quill’s schedule. The only thing that was scheduled for today was a meeting in the holo-room, while two days from today, on Monday, it just says Busy for the entire day.
From the context, she concluded that probably someone from the higher ranks is coming down to check how is the progress on the Rock research, and since Dr. Quill was slowing down the data output, that is expected. Good, she thought to herself. On the other hand, it looks that Kent Garcia has ambitions to take over the command of the facility, which she found pretty interesting. Mostly, whenever she met him until now, he was pretty quiet, and it seems that he was the right hand of Dr. Quill. He seemed very disrespectful to him, and that was a bit of a surprise. Dr. Quill is brilliant and handles the facility well and safely, she did have some disagreements but she still had respect for all he did.
She finally left the lab, by that time it was pretty late, however since tomorrow is a day off, she decided to visit a holo-room and have a quiet walk along a river on a full moon evening. Just what she needs, is a walk before bed.
* * *
Walking to the rooms, just across the corner she saw Dr. Quill and Kent talking. Kent has shown a bit of impatience and Quill just raised his hand as if to say, stop. Kent stopped talking and said, have a nice evening Dr. Quill.
As Jess was approaching, Dr. Quill said, “hello Dr. Winson, how are you on this good evening?”
Jess nodded and said, “Dr. Quill, Mr. Garcia, I'm doing pretty well, I was thinking of having a walk before bed. I hope that the two of you are not discussing work on Saturday evening.”
Dr. Quill replied, “well, there is a lot of work to be done, and Kent and I were discussing an important visit from the Council.”
Kent coughed a bit and said, “sir? I believe she is not authorized to know about this.”
Dr. Quill looked at Kent and said, “what? Dr. Winson is one of our top scientists here, I have personally granted her access to all the information and facilities she needs.” Kent seemed a bit tense upon hearing this, however the following Jess’s question made it even worse.
“Excuse me, but now when you’re mentioning it Dr. Quill, I do have some access issues with the computer. Today, I didn't receive a memo that it was our turn to be on duty this Saturday, while also, I had trouble accessing your calendar.”
Dr. Quill looked at Kent, “and asked, would you be able to look into that and fix it?” - Sir, Kent said, and visible agitated, he responded, “we did have some networking issues. As you know, parts of our compute-nodes were damaged during the recent earthquakes.”
“But, you are one of the best, right Kent?” - Asked Dr. Quill.
Quill looked at Jess and asked, “why were you interested in my schedule?”
“Oh, It’s nothing actually”, replied Jess, “just a moment ago, I was in the lab finishing some work, and Kent mentioned that there is an important visit soon, so I was just wondering if I need to be aware of it.”
Kent suddenly realized that Jess was in the lab when he was talking to Newman and started to be pretty nervous. Jess now knows his plan and she overheard everything. He looked at Jess with a dead stare, while Jess replied in kind, with a slight smile, and just as Quill was not looking, she gave him a wink. At that moment, Kent’s face was priceless and also a bit scary.
Quill broke the tension by continuing, “on Monday, we have a visit by a member of the Council to oversee what we have been accomplishing here. As you know, the information that we have is constrained to the computing we have here, so we are a bit slow in our schedule, however, the Council is perfectly aware of that. I am in pretty good relations with Thomas Krueger, and he is in the loop on what we do here. Also, he will be accompanied by some military personnel. Come to think of it, would you be able to prepare a presentation of your work, and what did we do so far with the Rock?”
“Of course”, said Jess, “it’s going to be a bit tight. Would you be able to give me a heads-up the next time?”
Quill looked at Kent, and Kent just said, “consider it solved sir.”
“OK, everyone”, said Dr. Quill dismissively, ”I wish you a good evening now, and as you might know an old man like myself, has evening rituals so I would proceed to that if you don't mind. Without waiting for replies, he walked away.”
Kent said “good evening” and walked away as if in a rush, while Jess just awkwardly stood in the hallway alone. She just raised her eyebrows in slight confusion, turned around and proceeded to the holo-room.
* * *
The computer-generated a beautiful alpine valley with a river meandering through the grassy fields. Also, the moon was full so it wasn't very dark in the room. The sounds and the artificial wind were perfect so Jess really enjoyed her walk. She never really understood how they manage to create such a good floor, and how it moves so you never reach the room. She briefly stopped to see the floor mechanism, and as she touched the floor, she looked at the moon. It was beautiful, and she closed her eyes and enjoyed the wind that was gently flowing through her hair. At that moment, she received a notification, Dave was calling.
She answered and his image appeared in the room. “Hello Jess! How are you doing?” - he asked.
Jess said, “ah, I am pretty tired, I'm just taking a walk in the holo-room. When are you coming in?”
“Hum, funny thing”, Dave said, “I had an earlier har in, so I've been here for the entire day. So, I've just been installing my equipment and it turns out, just near the facility there is a beautiful cave from which I suspect I will be able to capture some spectacular photos.”
“Alright, that's great, why didn't you call me earlier to get a cup of coffee or some food?” - Jess asked.
“I've come early and it turns out that I will be able to leave a couple of robots here and handle everything remotely”, he replied. “So, I'm sleeping this evening in a tent, something I always wanted to do, and I'll be testing the cameras on Monday. So, maybe, tomorrow, if I catch some time, we can have lunch?”
“Interesting”, said Jess. “What is?” - asked Dave
“All of a sudden you are a busy guy, that doesn't have time for lunch, it's a side of you I never met before. Is there anything else you have been hiding from me?” - and by the time Jess finished the question, she was smiling.
“To be honest”, Dave said, “I didn't want to tell anything to mom and dad because then, if I fail, they would be even more disappointed, so I was waiting for everything to go through well. I've been working hard for a while now, and I do keep one secret.”
“Aha!” - Jess said excitedly as if she solved a mystery. “I knew it! - So, what's the name of your secret?”
“Delilah, she is back at my place and we have been living together for half of a year now.” Dave admitted as Jess lifted an eyebrow in disbelief, while he continued, “she is a dentistry robot mechanic and she is currently in apprenticeship. She is doing well, and I am doing well with her. I think that she is motivating me to become more active in society.”
Jess smiled and said, “that's great! I am happy for you, good luck with your work!”
Dave said, “yep, please, no word to mom and dad, see you tomorrow!”
* * *
Just as Jess hung up, a few minutes passed and Hank was calling. Jess adjusted her hair, unbuttoned the top of her shirt, and answered, “good evening sir!”
Hank smiled and said, “hello, from where I'm looking, there is no evening."
“Are you at the station?” - Jess asked
“Yes”, Hank replied, “on Monday, I'm off duty, so I was thinking of picking you up, and maybe we can go and for that coffee or lunch that we were talking about.”
Jess said, ”hum, let me think.” She looked at him in a very dismissive way and replied, “yes, sure, and smiled a bit. However, I know a good place to hike near where my parents live, so actually, are you up for some mountaineering?”
Hank said, “actually yes, this is exactly what I need, and maybe we can stop by your folks and get one of your dad’s famous barbecues.”
Jess said, “OK, I would like to talk with old Mr. Holtzman so maybe we can pass by on our way.”
Hank said, “well then, it's a date!” - Jess smiled and replied, “you wish”.
Hank smiled and shut down the connection.
For a few minutes more, Jess was walking and decided that it is enough for one evening. She went back to her place and enjoyed some music until she fell asleep.
Chapter 10
An alarm clock started in the gentlest of ways, murmuring through the blanket, only the word stop was distinguished by the computer.
Good morning Dr. Quill, said the computer, a big day for you sir. Would you like me to start preparing a fruit smoothie?
Dr. Quill, though he was pretty agile for his age, was a bit slow in the morning, and he got up halfway. He looked around the room and realized it was Monday. Today was the inspection day. However, considering all he has been through in life, he didn't care much about it, and for him, it was a usual Monday, except he had to babysit politicians.
“I'll have a long day today, please, make an extra strong energy drink, please have someone bring me a fruit muffin, without added sugar.”
Yes, sir, the computer confirmed. Dr. Quill proceeded to wash up, and perform his morning stretching exercise. For an old man, he was pretty agile, however, the age is beginning to show. As he got
dressed more formally, had his energy drink, and headed to the lab. Just outside his door, his assistant was waiting for him. She was pretty excited about the visit from the Council member. She was pretty much more excited and nervous than he was.
“Good morning sir!” - Said Ashley, his young, and to be fair, attractive looking assistant, with a sunny disposition.
Dr. Quill, almost in contempt sighed and said “good morning, miss Green. Excited about today’s visit?”
“Yes, sir”, she replied, “so I would like to walk you through today’s plan.”
“If you really must”, said Dr. Quill, positively indifferent.
“OK”, Ashley continued, “so councilor Krueger will arrive at 11:00 AM, GMT and he will be accompanied by security staff and commander Hewitt. First, they will visit you in your office, and we will have a working brunch. After this, at 13:00 we will be visiting the lab facilities. Chemistry, biology, geology, each lead of the lab will briefly present what they have been working on, and the plan for the future. At 15:00 there will be an inspection of the Rock sensor grid and finally, at 16:00 there will be a working lunch. At 18:00 the councilor Krueger will address the research staff and leave the facility. Is this OK sir?”
