Tiona_a sequel to Vaz

by Laurence Dahners

  Zack White turned to Ralph Abbott and winked. “They might not hold it against us, but if we don’t volunteer this time, they might not ask us next time.”

  Ralph grinned back at him, “I’m signing up. Sounds like a blast, as long as I don’t get assigned to live with a jerk like you in that little tin can.”

  Zack rolled his eyes, “I’m volunteering too, as long as they agree to pair me up with Sophie.”

  Ralph frowned as if considering, then shook his head, “I’m pretty sure the poor girl hasn’t offended anyone badly enough that they’d assign her to a mission with you.”

  The two young men, roommates since they’d started in the astronaut program, continued giving each other shit as they got up to go submit their applications.

  ***

  Tiona’s AI opened her apartment door for her and she stepped inside. The curtains were pulled and some kind of movie flickered on the screen at the other end of the room. A couple of dirty dishes sat on her table and she could see the back of Ronnie’s head over the top of her couch. I should never have let him stay here last night!

  “Hey Babe,” Ronnie called lazily from where he sprawled in her recliner, fingering the guitar in his lap. “This is a great place you have here,” he grinned. “No beer in your fridge though.”

  How did he get his guitar here?! He didn’t have the damn thing with him last night! “I thought you were going to be gone by noon?” Tiona said, hoping she didn’t sound as plaintive as she thought she did. She’d intended to say it assertively.

  “Sheeit man, I didn’t even get up ’til two. I was starving, so I made myself some eggs and toast, you don’t have much else in your fridge, you know? While I was making that, I realized there was this Clint Eastwood special on and I got hooked on it. Besides, I wanted to see you. That was some time we had last night, wasn’t it?”

  “How did you come to have your guitar here?” Tiona said, as icily as she could.

  Either oblivious to her tone, or deliberately ignoring it, Ronnie said, “It was in my car. So I just had my AI tell the car to come over here.”

  “So, you’ve just been sitting around my apartment, watching flicks on my screen, eating my food, and thinking that it’s a shame I don’t have any beer for you?”

  “Aw Babe, relax, don’t be treatin’ me that way. I care about you, and I know you care about me. You know someday, when I’ve made it big, I’m going to take care of you.” He leaned up and looked over the back of the recliner at her. His eyebrows went up, “Hey, you’re all dressed up! Lookin’ good woman! Wanna fool around?”

  “What I want, is for you to get up, clean up this mess you made, and get the hell out of my place!” Tiona stalked across the room, jerked open the door to her bedroom, stepped inside and slammed it shut behind her. After shaking with fury for a moment, she went in the bathroom and took a couple more Tylenol. She threw herself down on the bed and rubbed her temples, giving Ronnie time to leave.

  Tiona woke with a start and looked muzzily around. She’d fallen asleep, which hardly ever happened to her. From the dimming light outside, it must be late afternoon. She got up, took off her interview clothes and put on her customary jeans and T-shirt.

  When Tiona shuffled out into the living area of her one-bedroom apartment she bit back a curse. Ronnie was on the couch, asleep. Tiona walked over and took a breath to yell at him. His face, relaxed in slumber had a boyish innocence. This contrasted with his muscular lankiness. In his sprawl, he looked pretty sexy. She’d blinked once and started to steel herself to throw him out anyway when he opened an eye and smiled at her. “Hey ‘T,’ hope you’re feeling better?”

  He actually sounded like he cared. Going with him often left Tiona feeling like she was being whipsawed between selfish Ronnie, who thought only of himself and caring Ronnie, who was a great boyfriend. But she’d had enough, “Ronnie…”

  Ronnie had pulled himself up on an elbow. “I cleaned up my dishes and ran your dishwasher. That was really inconsiderate of me,” he said, looking abashed. “I shouldn’t have eaten your food either. I went to the store and got you some more eggs and bread and a few other things.” He teared up, “I’m such a jerk…”

  Tiona struggled to hold on to her resolve.

  Ronnie rose to his feet and sniffed, his head hanging, “I only stayed to tell you I’m sorry. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

  Against her better judgment Tiona let him step over and give her what started as a little hug. It finished with Ronnie clinging to her like a drowning man with a life preserver.

  ***

  The next morning Tiona arrived at her classes feeling like her world was spinning. Ronnie had been incredibly sweet last night, taking her out to dinner at Carrburritos, then to a park. Getting out of the car, he’d reached back and pulled out his old acoustic guitar. At first Tiona was pissed. He was always playing his guitar, practicing, working on new songs. Having just had a nice dinner and gone to a park at twilight and he was going to play with his guitar instead of talking to her.

  He’d strummed a couple of chords; then launched into the Beatles’, “With a Little Help from My Friends.” He’d followed this with a couple of soft love songs. Songs she’d been surprised to find he knew. He usually played pretty hard rock with his band and she had always assumed that he despised the kind of romantic pop he’d played for her.

  Ronnie, she thought, one half sweetheart, one half asshole. But last night he’d been all sweetheart…

  Somehow, he’d wound up back at her place where they’d watched a sappy romance on her screen. She’d drawn the line when he’d tried to work his way into the bedroom with her afterwards, telling him that he had a ways yet to go to get back into her good graces. She’d told him she wanted him to go back to his place and closed the bedroom door in his face.

  This morning, he’d still been on her couch! When she’d opened the fridge to get milk for her cereal she’d found that he had indeed bought her bread, eggs, grapes, lettuce, and a case of beer.

  She hadn’t had time for a fight, so she’d eaten her cereal and left him a note on the table saying she expected him to be gone by the time she got back from her classes.

  Dammit!

  Still fuming about her personal problems, Tiona wasn’t paying attention. So of course, to her dismay, the professor called on her.

  “Ms.… Gettnor,” Professor Weitzel said, glancing up from his list of students to see who would respond.

  A startled looking young woman with alarmingly bright red hair and an oversized T-shirt lifted her hand uncertainly.

  “Can you explain the galactic rotation problem and how it led to the dark matter hypothesis?”

  Not realizing just how panicked Tiona felt, Weitzel watched in bemusement as the young woman got up and walked down to the whiteboard at the front of the class. Rather than simply trying to describe the issue verbally as students had always done in the past, usually with confusing explanations full of misunderstandings, the girl began by drawing a rough sketch of a spiral galaxy. Then she explained how, based on the known mass of such galaxies, the outer parts of the arms should simply fly away because of centrifugal force.

  In his previous classes Weitzel had always stopped the student after a brief attempt at an explanation had gone awry. Then he had gone on to explain the issues himself. This young woman, however, began explaining the problem so clearly that Weitzel realized that he wouldn’t be able to do any better.

  He let her go on.

  After a few minutes, she also explained MOND, the theory which attempted to resolve the rotation problem on the basis of modified laws of gravitation.

  Next, to Weitzel’s astonishment, Gettnor appeared to be preparing to discuss the relative merits of dark matter versus MOND theories. He interrupted her, thanked her, and turned back to the classroom. “And, when I call on each of you in the future, that’s the quality of answer that I expect you to provide.” After a few nervous titters, he gave them all a broad wink and turned back to Gettn
or, “Excellent job Ms. Gettnor. I’ve never had a student explain it quite so well.”

  At the end of the class, Weitzel asked Gettnor to stay behind. “Ms. Gettnor, I assume that you’re a grad student?”

  The girl nodded, seeming uncomfortable.

  “I was very, very impressed with the answer you gave there in class.”

  “It was all in the reading that you’d assigned,” she said, apparently nonplussed to hear that her response had been anything but ordinary.

  “Well… yes. But most students haven’t read the assignment on time, and the few who have, usually didn’t understand the material very well.” He paused, eyeing her, “Do you have a research assistantship yet?” Weitzel felt a little odd to be asking her this. He usually waited for people to apply, but this young woman’s preparation and insight made him feel like she would be a valuable addition to his lab’s research program.

  She shrugged uncomfortably, “Not yet.”

  “Well, I have a spot open in my lab right now. If you’re interested, I’d be delighted to interview you for it?”

  “Oh!” She seemed surprised. “I’ve applied to work in Dr. Eisner’s lab and I’m very interested in some of his work with graphene conduction. But, I really appreciate the offer. Can I let you know if I don’t get a spot with Dr. Eisner? Or is it kosher to apply for both spots at the same time?”

  Weitzel smiled, “If Bob Eisner is fool enough to pass you over, just let me know. I’ll keep the spot in my lab open for at least a few more days in the hopes that he does.”

  ***

  Tiona resolved to stay on campus long enough to be sure Ronnie would have wake up and go back to his place. She got ahead on her reading in one of the study halls and finally headed home just in time to stop at the shelter for dinner.

  She stopped at the ATM on Franklin Street which issued her $300. Her nimble fingers made quick work of folding the bills into three little macramé cubes containing $100 each. Then it was on down the street to the shelter where she shuffled into the line of homeless waiting to eat. Tiona said nothing, merely listened to the conversations going on around her.

  They were serving one of Tiona’s favorites, day old pizza donated by pizza places around town. She got a slice of cheese pizza, a handful of slightly soft grapes and a piece of overcooked broccoli. At the tables, she sat next to a woman with a black eye and two young daughters.

  Probably married to someone like Ronnie, Tiona thought. It wasn’t hard to imagine Ronnie getting drunk and hitting a woman.

  Hollow eyed, the woman looked like life had overwhelmed her. Her two girls were abnormally quiet and Tiona suspected that they had just become homeless. Judging from little bits of dirt and grass clinging to the youngest daughter’s jacket, it looked like they might have slept outside last night, if not for a few nights. Tiona’s suspicion was confirmed when the youngest girl looked up at her mother and asked, “Will we get to sleep inside tonight Mommy?”

  Tiona thought the young mother was going to tear up when she looked down at her daughter. Instead, she blinked a couple of times, then said, “I hope so Bonnie, but I don’t know much about how things work here yet.”

  The older daughter said, “Couldn’t we at least call Daddy? He’s always got money.”

  For several long moments, the girls’ mother didn’t say anything, though her throat worked a little. Then she said throatily, “We can call if you like. But remember that daddy said no money unless we live with him. Do you want to do that?”

  The girl immediately shook her head as if frightened. After a bit she said, “What are we going to do?”

  Staring down at her plate, the young mother said, “If we can find someone for you to stay with during the day, then I can work. If I can work, we’ll have the money to rent an apartment. I’ve asked your aunt if you can stay with her, but I think she’s afraid of your Daddy just like I am. I’m hoping that the social worker I’m supposed to talk to tomorrow might have some ideas for me.”

  Tiona had finished her pizza and the grapes. She’d even eaten a bite of the lifeless broccoli. Reaching in her pocket she found the three cubes of folded bills. When one of the homeless men sat down next to her and said, “Hi, I’m Jimmy Ray…” Tiona got up, lifted her tray and turned. Palming the little cubes of cash into the young mother’s jacket pocket, Tiona headed for the trash receptacle.

  A minute later, Tiona was walking north on Martin Luther King Blvd., the hand in her pocket firmly gripping her little can of pepper spray.

  When Tiona got to her apartment, Ronnie was gone. The relief she felt at his absence made her wonder why she put up with him.

  ***

  At the tiny chime in his ear, Zack glanced up at his HUD. He looked over at Ralph, “Well, well, well. Guess who’s going out to lasso Kadoma and bring her back? Now all I’m waiting for is the follow-up message saying that Sophie is going with me!”

  Ralph stared at Zack, horror in his eyes.

  “Oh come on, don’t go looking all upset. You know they couldn’t have picked a better man than me!”

  Ralph breathed, “I told them not to put you on my mission! I mean, I’m a pretty mild-mannered guy, but there’s no doubt I’ll be shoving you out the airlock long before we’ve spent our first month in that little tin can!”

  Zack’s eyes widened, “They picked both of us!”

  Ralph slowly nodded.

  Zack’s eyes crinkled, “Well, this calls for an epic drunk!” He stood up, “Let’s go burn down Washington Avenue.”

  Ralph said, “Good idea. When the word filters back to NASA about how shitfaced you get on a couple of umbrella drinks, they’ll bump you right off this mission!”

  Before he closed the door, Zack turned quizzically back to Ralph, “Wait, did you put on your big girl panties?”

  ***

  Nolan looked up as Dr. Eisner shepherded the new graduate student into the lab. Slim and medium height, she had a buzz cut of blonde hair about a quarter of an inch long. She wore an oversized black T-shirt with “E=MC2” written on the front of it. Talk about your super geek, he thought to himself. He stood, “You must be Tiona Gettnor?”

  She nodded.

  Eisner grinned and said, “Yep, this is her. Weitzel was trying to recruit her to his team. Lucky I made my offer in time.” He waved at Nolan, “This is Nolan Marlowe. He’s been working with graphene for a while, so he’ll be a great resource for you. If you two can get along and work somewhat as a team we’ll make a lot more progress than if you’re each trying to go it all alone?”

  Nolan remembered getting a similar talk when he joined the lab a few years ago. He and Frank Ehrlich, the other grad student in the lab then had gotten along well, but Nolan thought that Eisner must’ve had two grads that didn’t like each other at some time in the past or he wouldn’t make such a point of it. This girl looked a little weird, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get along with her. He stuck out his hand, “Hello, welcome to the lab.”

  She shook his hand while glancing around at the equipment, but said nothing in response beyond a simple, “Thanks.”

  Eisner launched into a description of the equipment available in the lab and how it might relate to the part of his grant that Gettnor was supposed to work on. Knowing that he would be expected to help Gettnor get up to speed, Nolan listened to Eisner’s spiel. He kept an eye on Gettnor who said very little. When Eisner asked her if she understood something, she always answered, “Yes.” Either she was really smart, or, more likely, she was afraid to display her ignorance by saying, “No.”

  Nolan had always thought he liked long hair on women, but as he watched Gettnor he began to think that short hair looked good on her. It gave her kind of a pixie look. If her clothing hadn’t been oversized she might have looked like one of the anime characters he liked.

  Eventually Eisner wound down and left the two of them in the lab. “Did you get all of that?” Nolan asked jokingly, jerking a thumb in the direction Eisner had left.

  A s
erious look on her face, Gettnor merely nodded, “What kind of music do you listen to in here?”

  Startled by the question, Nolan said, “Usually don’t. Don’t mind if you play some though, as long as it’s not really loud.”

  “Okay,” she said, eyeing Nolan. The look gave him the feeling that she thought he was a complete dweeb. She went over and sat down at the small space assigned to her and began going through the drawers.

  Nolan normally felt like he was a pretty sophisticated guy. He wondered just what it was about her that made him feel so “un-cool.”

  ***

  As Tiona shuffled through the line at the shelter to pick up a sandwich of cheese and two day old bread, Shelley, one of the shelter’s social workers caught her eye. Tiona chose a seat that put her next to a woman who was new to the shelter. It also had an open seat on the other side of Tiona.

  A few minutes after Tiona took a seat, Shelley plopped down in the empty seat. “Hello ladies, I’m one of the social workers that serve the homeless here. Are there any issues I might be able to help you with?”

  Without looking up from her plate, Tiona gave a sharp little shake of her head. The new woman on the other side of her gave a hopeless laugh, “Not unless you’ve got a couple grand in your pocket?” she rasped.