by S. R Russell
“Ahh, it’s nothing,” he said, stepping back as he pulled his paper hat from his head. “Just had more years to learn to deal with life’s little bumps.”
“Well, thanks. You’ve been a great help.” She smiled at the man. “Have a great night.” Anne exited the mess and Jinx joined her as they headed home.
After a few failed attempts Seshat said, “I’ve been researching the type of adhesive you are using. It appears to need time to become effective. I recommend leaving it in contact with the ruby overnight. You can check if it has cured in the morning.”
Anne sighed as she stood and arched her back to relieve her cramped muscles. “I’m tired enough that calling it quits now sounds really good, regardless of whether the paste sticks or not.”
—
The next morning Anne woke to a strange sensation. Jinx wasn’t in her normal spot against her back.
“Jinx?” Anne called.
Common room, came Jinx’ reply. And don’t worry, Seshat ran the simulations and convinced me that I have a very small chance of success pulling the gem from the hole.
>>A ten-point-three-two-percent chance of success, to be exact.<<
“How did you come up with that?” Anne asked her.
>>I have an image of a canine skeleton in my database. I calculated the depth of the hole and then animated the skeleton to calculate the probability of that structure succeeding in pulling the skewer straight up for the required distance.<<
Anne had wandered from the bedroom to the common room while Seshat answered her question. Seeing Jinx lying on the floor with her nose just inches from the skewer sticking out of the hole, Anne jerked to a stop.
“Seshat, please tell me you have video of this,” Anne asked, then bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at her friend.
“What?” Jinx chuffed. She jumped to her feet, then shook vigorously.
“You… You looked like a cat guarding a mouse hole.” Anne needed two attempts to answer because she wasn’t completely able to hide her mirth. She took a deep breath to calm her giggles. “Come on. I’m not going to attempt this until I get a cup of tea.”
“You’re addicted to that stuff,” Jinx exclaimed.
“Two words. ‘Chewy Bones,’” Anne responded.
Jinx looked around the room and saw three different toys that she’d chewed on. “Forget I said anything,” she grumbled.
>>Are you two always like this?<<
“Like what?” Anne wasn’t focused on Seshat’s question at first. “Oh, you mean us teasing each other?”
“Is that how you define the behavior?” Seshat replied aloud.
“Pretty much,” Anne set her tablet on a stand so she could see the screen while she worked in the kitchen. “You can tap into that tablet, right, Seshat?”
The tablet flickered once, then Seshat’s avatar looked into the kitchen. “Easily,” the EI confirmed.
“Good.” Anne smiled, then turned to finish putting some water on to boil. Remembering how young Seshat was, Anne hoped she could come up with a good answer. “As for your question, when people live together—or maybe I should say when biologicals share living space—they sometimes don’t understand certain behaviors. My morning cup of tea, for instance. Jinx doesn’t understand my enjoyment of tea, or how the caffeine affects my body. Likewise, I can’t relate to her need to chew on something from time to time. I can understand it from an intellectual standpoint, but I can’t relate to it. So, on occasion we’ll make comments about each other’s behavior in a non-offensive way.”
“That was not arguing then?”
“No, arguing usually includes a lot more negativity from one or both parties,” Anne explained.
“I think I understand,” Seshat responded. “I’ll research the differences between teasing and arguing.”
“Just make sure you use valid sources,” Anne told the EI.
“Explain, please.”
“There have been stories, or possibly rumors would be a better word, about TOM’s early days with Bethany Anne. Apparently he could hear entertainment vids that Bethany Anne’s crew were watching. Entertainment vids are not known for factual accuracy.” Anne chuckled at this point. “The story has it that this led to some misunderstandings between TOM and Bethany Anne.”
—
Anne had made her tea while talking with Seshat, so she lifted her cup and followed an impatient Jinx back to the common room.
“Did it work?” Jinx asked.
Anne ended up slurping some of her tea because it was still too hot to drink politely, then knelt at the skewer. “Let’s see, shall we? Fast or slow, Seshat?”
“Considering I cannot find any hard statistics on the adhesive you used, my models indicate that a slow pull has a higher probability of success.”
Anne took several deep breaths. “Let’s do this, then.” She carefully put her finger in the loop of the skewer and slowly lifted as straight as she was able. Both she and Jinx gave sighs of relief when the skewer cleared the hole with the ruby stuck to the end.
Jinx yipped her delight, then sat and looked at Anne. “Do we need to see if you can repeat the effect?”
“Probably not a bad idea,” Anne acknowledged. “But just now we need to get ready for school, so it’s going to have to wait until we get home this afternoon.”
—
Anne and Jinx didn’t get home until suppertime. Mid-morning Anne’s tablet had received a message reminding her that she and Jinx were expected for training after school. Anne wasn’t happy about it, but since her work for Bethany Anne was supposed to be secret she couldn’t beg off by saying she had an experiment to conduct.
A limping Anne followed a limping Jinx into their apartment. They had become such a good combat team that they had held off two Guardian Marine teams. When Peter sent a third team at them, Anne had put together a plan that allowed her and Jinx to break through the perimeter the Guardians had established. Getting out so they weren’t surrounded hadn’t come without hits. It had been worth it, however, when they’d made their way to a corner of the room and proceeded to eliminate all nine of their opponents.
“You want one of these?” Anne asked Jinx after she’d gone to the medicine cabinet to get a bottle of painkillers.
“That would be great,” Jinx confirmed.
“Let’s see what we have to cover it with,” Anne said as she checked the refrigerator. Anne was pleased she didn’t have to try and trick Jinx into taking a pill the way people did with Earth dogs, but that didn’t change the fact Jinx wasn’t well equipped to swallow pills. They had found it easier to wrap pills in something Jinx could swallow whole. Anne cut a piece of what was considered cheese on Yoll and held it to Jinx to smell.
“This work for you?”
Jinx took a quick sniff. It wasn’t her favorite thing to eat, but it tasted a lot better than the pill would if it got stuck in her mouth or throat while she tried to swallow it dry. “It’s a lot better than nothing,” she admitted.
Anne molded the cheese around the pill, making sure it was completely covered, then offered it to Jinx. Jinx accepted the blob, and threw her head back and swallowed.
Thanks, it went down, she gratefully informed Anne.
You’re welcome, Anne responded as she used some water to swallow two of the analgesics herself.
“Can we see if you can get the ruby to burn through the table again?” Jinx asked once the two of them were settled in the common room.
Anne stifled a yawn. “Sure, but let’s see if I can stop it from burning a hole in the floor this time.”
Anne set the ruby on the table and confirmed that Seshat was capturing video of the experiment. She started to feed Etheric energy into the ruby, but at a lesser rate than she had used the previous day. It took longer this time, so both Jinx and Anne were somewhat startled when the ruby suddenly flared red and started burning through the table. Anne stopped the energy flow immediately, and she was surprised when the ruby glow died without cuttin
g all the way through the table.
“Can you activate it again without actually looking at it?” Jinx wondered.
“Dunno, let me see,” Anne replied, then focused on mentally sending Etheric energy to the gem. Another red flare, followed by a ping as the ruby hit the floor. Anne had cut the energy as soon as she saw the ruby flare, so it was inert by the time it fell through the table to the floor.
“Now what do we do with it?” Anne pondered aloud.
“What about the gun and armor lady?” Jinx offered. “Didn’t my dad’s person say you could go to her for help?”
Anne reached under the table to pick up the now-cold ruby. “Jean Dukes.” She identified the person in question and gave Jinx a hug. “You’re right, Bethany Anne did tell us to go to Jean for help if we needed it.”
—
Anne and Jinx took their sample to Jean Dukes’ workshop.
“If you’ll just make yourselves comfortable, I’ll inform Jean that you’re here,” the young man who led them into an office informed them.
They only had to wait five or six minutes before a no-nonsense-looking woman marched into the office. “Jean Dukes,” she said, offering Anne her hand.
Anne had gotten to her feet quickly when the door opened, and she took the proffered hand. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am. I’m Anne, and this is my partner Jinx.”
Jinx came up beside Anne and wagged her tail in pleasure as Jean went to one knee and held out a hand in greeting. Jinx sniffed Jean’s hand briefly, then pushed her head against the hand. “You can scratch behind my ears,” Jinx told the woman.
Jean Dukes put one hand over her mouth to stifle her laugh. “You sound like you’re part cat.” She snorted, failing to fully contain her mirth.
Jinx growled faintly and moved away from Jean’s hand. “See if I offer stress relief again,” Jinx chuffed indignantly.
“What?” Jean didn’t know what Jinx was talking about.
“It’s a proven fact that petting a dog reduces stress in a human,” Jinx haughtily informed Jean.
After a few seconds Jean got her expression under control. “How does she know stuff like that?” she asked Anne.
“Probably from talking with Matrix,” Anne suggested.
Jinx chuffed her agreement.
“All right. All joking aside, what can I do for you ladies?” Jean inquired.
“Do you have a secure location with a hard surface?” Anne asked.
“How hard are we talking about?” Jean’s face wore a puzzled expression.
“As hard as you have, but it needs to be something that won’t matter if it’s damaged,” Anne told her.
Jean raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “Follow me,” she said, and led her two guests into her facility. On the way to a secure room, she picked up one of the ten-inch by ten-inch by two-inch pieces of titanium her group used for penetration testing.
Jean led them to what looked like a small machine shop. She waved them through the door, then closed and locked it behind them. “This is as secure as it gets around here. Whatcha got?”
Anne looked around and found a clamp, she motioned to Jean to give her the titanium plate. Anne clamped the plate to a bench with half of it hanging over the edge, then brought the ruby shard from her pocket and placed it on the overhanging section. She figured this way she wouldn’t have to worry about it burning through Jean’s workbench.
Jean hovered close by, watching Anne’s preparations.
“You’ll want to move farther away,” Jinx warned.
Jean looked at the workbench, then down at Jinx and raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
“No fresh whiskers off my muzzle,” Jinx chuffed as she and Anne stepped away from the bench.
Jean looked at where the two of them had moved and then back at the bench. With a shrug, she went to stand beside Anne.
Jean watched the girl and the dog, curious about what was going on. Several seconds went by, then a bright red light and a strange sizzling sound drew her attention back to the workbench.
“Gott Verdammt!” Jean exclaimed, using the swear phrase that had been adopted by the Etheric Empire. The small red gem she’d seen Anne place on the titanium wasn’t in sight, although there was now a nice neat hole in the metal where the gem had rested. She looked at Anne with raised eyebrows.
“It should be cool in a couple seconds,” Anne advised her. “It burns so quickly that it really doesn’t have time to heat up the surrounding material.
“What the hell is it?” Jean asked, then looked at Jinx. “Oh, and thanks for the warning,” she earnestly told the dog.
Jinx nodded in response, and Anne explained what they’d been testing for. “And then we hit on this. It’s a manmade industrial ruby. Add enough Etheric energy, and…” Anne nodded to the piece of titanium.
Jean carefully held her hand over the metal, and when she could not detect any heat she moved closer and looked into the hole. “I assume there’s a hole in a table back at your place?”
Jinx snorted. “And about ten inches deep into the floor.”
“We weren’t expecting a reaction like that, and I was so surprised at what was happening that it took me a couple seconds to cut the power flow.” Anne looked chagrined as she confessed to the older woman.
“She had to get a skewer from the mess and put some glue on the end of it to get the ruby out of the floor,” Jinx happily informed Jean.
Jean undid the clamp and inverted the piece of titanium over the workbench. After a rap with her knuckle, the ruby dropped out. Jean took the clamp, the ruby shard, and the metal slab and imitated Anne’s setup.
“Can you repeat that while I’m watching?” Jean looked questioningly at Anne.
“Sure thing. Three, two, one.” Anne pointed at the ruby.
Jean watched the ruby closely. About a second after Anne pointed it flared red and started to quickly burn into the titanium. Once the ruby had disappeared into the metal Jean sensed Anne relax, and the glow disappeared. Jean left everything where it was and dragged a couple office chairs over to the bench. Waving Anne to one, she sat on the other.
“What do you want from me?” she asked the young woman.
“Well, it isn’t the answer to Jinx’ armor I was trying for, but I was wondering if we could build some sort of weapon.” Anne looked at Jean. “I’m thinking something like those laser energy swords in the science fiction movies.”
“That’s an interesting idea,” Jean admitted, “but again, what do you want from me?”
“Bethany Anne said I could come to you for help.” Anne looked confused.
Jean nodded. “She told me the same thing. The problem is, I’m clueless as to how to help. If you’d brought me a system and said, ‘Can we build a weapon from this?’ I could possibly help you.” She held up a hand to stop Anne from speaking.
“The honest truth is, I don’t have a clue how this works. The only Etheric energy stuff I work with was provided by TOM. I can’t see, manipulate, or even measure Etheric energy.” Jean nodded to Anne to let her know she had finished.
“What do I do, then?” Anne was almost in tears with frustration.
Jean reached over and took one of the young woman’s hands in her own. “If it was me?” She waited for Anne’s nod. “I’d want my own R&D group. A group of nutty people whose job was to come up with crazy ideas, hoping to find something that works. Remember that what you have here isn’t what you were trying to produce.”
Jinx stood and placed her head on Anne’s leg. “That sounds like a good idea.” She tried to project positive feelings at her person.
“How would I do something like that?” Anne wondered.
“I’m guessing your work is going to be top secret, if it isn’t already. That means going to Bethany Anne and explaining that I don’t know how to help you and you are looking to form your own R&D group. I’ll message her and explain why I can’t be any help.”
Jean took a deep breath, then blew it out and continued, “Then I’
d suggest going to William of Team BMW and asking him if he’s heard of anyone who’d be a good fit. He’s a wizard at what he does. I’d be surprised if he didn’t have an ear to the ground, so to speak, about prospective people. Then, once your team is going, my team and I could make time for a brainstorming session or two if you need ideas.”
Jean was relieved to see a more positive expression on Anne’s face. “No promises on results, however.” Jean shrugged. “Might be a case of ‘garbage in, garbage out,’ but we’ll help you if we can.”
Seshat, would you please contact ADAM and ask for a meeting with Bethany Anne?
>>Certainly. Standby. ADAM says that Bethany Anne can meet with you tomorrow for fifteen minutes at sixteen thirty, local Meredith Reynolds time.<<
That would be great. Thank you, and thank ADAM for me too, please.
>>You are welcome, and done.<<
CHAPTER FIVE
We probably need to get to school early today, Jinx suggested to Anne during breakfast the next morning.
Why’s that? Anne smiled at her ability to carry on a conversation with a mouthful of pancakes. She could almost hear a mental snort from her four-footed partner when Jinx deliberately took another mouthful of kibble before answering.
I know there is that saying about asking forgiveness instead of permission, but in this case, since we don’t want any issues with leaving school early to make our appointment with Bethany Anne, we should probably talk to the principal this morning.
Anne’s hand stopped halfway between her plate and her mouth, syrup dripping off the piece of pancake on her fork. Crap, thanks! I hadn’t thought of that. She swiped her forkful of food through the syrup on her plate to reload the sweet coating and quickly transferred the dripping yumminess to her mouth.
Well I did, which is why I’m suggesting an early departure.
Anne looked down at Jinx, then at the pancake left on her plate. She set the plate on the floor and ran her fingernails down Jinx’ back when her friend came over to finish the sticky food. Thanks! You’re the best friend a girl could ask for.
