Terraform (an Ell Donsaii story #15)

by Laurence Dahners

  Carley laughed. “I guess I’d need to ask them to bend over… ‘Sir, if you’d just put your head right here,’” she said, holding her hands out to indicate a spot she’d be able to easily strike with a knee.

  Zage laughed with her, “You could talk them into it, couldn’t you?” He tilted his head and got a serious look, “But maybe, if you were grappling or something, you might find yourself in a position where knee to the head would be your best weapon.” He snorted, “Though I agree, probably not.”

  ~~~

  On her way home, Carley mulled over what she’d learned. A surprising amount, she decided. Especially considering she’d learned it from a little kid. She glanced behind her and saw no one was nearby. She darted her hand into her pocket, pulling out her new pepper-spray and releasing the safety with her little finger like she’d practiced. She shot the telephone pole she was walking past.

  At first, she was pleased that she’d hit the spot she was aiming for. Then she seriously regretted walking past the pole and into a faint mist of downwind spray that had deflected off of it. Holy crap! That stuff’s awful!

  ***

  Zage said, “Osprey, let me listen to Gordito’s message about the Nobel Prize.”

  ***

  Zage had been in the basement lab working on his phage project since he got home and hadn’t seen his parents.

  Ell called him up for dinner. As he walked into the kitchen, his dad was saying, “…my son won’t have any reason to idolize me anymore.”

  Ell sighed, “Yeah, it’ll be hard to get any respect from a six-year-old kid who’s already won the same kind of prizes we have.”

  Zage looked uncertainly back and forth between his parents. Detecting sly smiles, he said, “Are you guys giving me grief about the Nobel?”

  Shan guffawed.

  Ell was grinning at her husband, “How messed up are we that we’re hassling our son for secretly winning a Nobel Prize?” She turned to Zage and dropped to one knee, gathering him into a hug. “We’re incredibly proud of you Zage.”

  Zage hugged her back. When she let go, he went over to hug his dad. “You guys’ll always have my respect. You got your prizes for doing science.”

  Ell tilted her head and gave him a curious look, “You’re getting yours for saving millions… probably billions of people. That’s a pretty big deal. Besides, it took a lot of science to do it.”

  Zage shrugged, “I might’ve helped the CDC get there a little faster, but Dr. Kelso was going to solve the problem anyway.”

  Shan said, “Getting there ‘a little faster’ during the epidemic’s period of exponential spread probably made a difference of millions or billions of people’s lives.”

  Zage grinned at his dad, “Okay, you’re the mathematician…”

  Shan rolled his eyes, “Are you giving me grief about my profession?”

  Zage grinned again as he got up onto his chair, “Maybe a little.” He looked down at his plate, “Oh! Hamburgers! My favorite.”

  Ell snorted, “We thought it was the least we could do.”

  “Can we have ice cream with chocolate syrup for dessert?” Zage asked, taking an enthusiastic bite of his plain hamburger.

  Shan laughed, “Your mom thought you might make that request. We thought maybe we’d take you out to Ben and Jerry’s?”

  “Awesome,” Zage mumbled around a mouthful.

  Hesitantly, Ell asked, “Are you wanting to go to Oslo and collect your prize?”

  Zage gave her a surprised look. Once he swallowed, he said, “I thought you’d be against me getting that kind of publicity? That’s the whole reason for ‘Gordito,’ right?”

  “Well, we do think publicity like that’d make your life a lot more difficult. But, if you want to go accept it, and are willing to accept the problems that kind of publicity might cause, we’ll figure out how to help you do it.”

  Zage shrugged, “I’m fine without it. I don’t really think I deserve it anyway. Unless you think it’s rude of me not to go accept it?” He tilted his head curiously, “I’m not sure what to do about it though. They’ve called the Gordito site a couple more times and seem a little freaked out that no one’s responding to their announcement.”

  “You haven’t even had Gordito call them back using his synthetic voice?” Shan asked.

  “No, I wasn’t sure what to say.”

  Shan gave a little laugh and looked at Ell, “It’s hard to remember that our little science genius isn’t necessarily a social interaction genius, isn’t it?”

  Ell nodded thoughtfully. Looking at Zage, she said, “You said you thought Dr. Kelso deserved it more than you. Do you really feel that way?”

  Zage shrugged, “Sure. I couldn’t have done that stuff without her. And, all I really did was help her be a little faster at what she was doing anyway.”

  “Well, you remember how I’ve told you that sharing credit around with other people gets you a lot of good will?”

  Zage nodded.

  “You could have Gordito call the committee and tell them you’d like Dr. Kelso to accept the award on your behalf. Since you don’t need the money from the award, you could tell them to give the money to her.”

  “Oh!” Zage said excitedly. “That’s a great idea. Or,” he got a thoughtful look, “maybe some of the money could go to the CDC’s research on obesity viruses?”

  Shan nodded, “The money in half of a Nobel prize probably won’t make a big difference to that kind of research. But, having someone as prominent as Gordito bring attention to it might actually get that kind of research more funding in the future.”

  ~~~

  As they drove to Ben and Jerry’s, Zage said, “Osprey, connect me to Dr. Kelso at the CDC. Use Gordito’s synthetic voice.”

  A few moments later, Laqua Kelso’s voice came on the line. She sounded a little excited. “Gordito! Congratulations on your Nobel prize.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m hoping you’ll do me a little favor…”

  Chapter Five

  Getting off D5R’s Gulfstream, Ell walked across the tarmac with a small gaggle of ETR employees. As she neared the gate to the parking area, she saw someone standing beside it. Her eyes narrowed as she recognized Jillian Pardo. The lady’s persistent, Ell thought with a mixture of irritation and admiration. Mentally, she queued up her “no comment” response for whatever questions Pardo might pose.

  But, as Ell stepped through the gate, Pardo asked a question she hadn’t even considered. “Dr. Donsaii, is it true you have a 3 to 6-year-old son?”

  Stunned by the question, Ell stopped and faced the woman. She hoped she kept the shock from registering on her face as she tried to form a surprised but incredulous expression instead. “Whatever gave you that idea?!”

  “A credible source revealed he’d been kidnapped.”

  Probably that damned FBI agent, Calder, Ell thought as she calmed herself so she’d stay out of the zone. She’d never liked Calder, though she’d hoped that giving the agent the win on rolling up the Chinese kidnapping ring would’ve left Calder on her side. Trying to look even more startled, she responded to Pardo’s statement with a series of her own questions, “Really? Kidnapped? Just now? Or a while ago?”

  “A while ago,” Pardo said. “How long did they have him?”

  Ell widened her eyes, “Have who?”

  “Your son,” Pardo said, sounding irritated.

  “My goodness,” Ell laughed, “you’re the one telling this astonishing story. Perhaps you’d better check your notes?” She turned and continued toward her car, still trying to calm herself.

  ~~~

  Jillian ground her teeth as she watched Donsaii walk away, looking amused. Well, that went just great. Another couple of days wasted.

  ***

  Oslo, Norway— There have been a few days of confusion because, initially, no one responded to the announcement of Gordito’s Nobel Peace Prize. Today, we’re told that the famously secretive Gordito finally returned
the committee’s call, from an untraceable number using a synthetic voice. Apparently, the only two methods by which Gordito communicates are synthetic voice phone calls or responses posted on its website.

  In the call, Gordito informed the committee that Dr. Laqua Kelso of the CDC had agreed to accept the award on Gordito’s behalf. Apparently, Gordito says that Dr. Kelso and the CDC were the ones most responsible for resolving the epidemic and that they deserve most of the credit. It’s Gordito’s wish that the CDC split the monetary award between Dr. Kelso and the support of research into the obesity viruses.

  For those of you unaware, there are a number of viruses that are associated with obesity. Though there is disagreement as to whether they are actually the cause of epidemic obesity, apparently Gordito believes that the question deserves more attention than…

  ***

  Will Davidson ushered the representatives from Bayer into the conference room. Though Bayer was quite excited about the weight loss peptide, they’d wanted to have an actual face to face meeting with the research team who’d discovered it before proceeding farther. Will felt a little bit worried because he himself had only met Marcus Turner and Vanessa Jenkins so far. Actually, he’d only met Jenkins once.

  Turner seemed to understand the importance of appearances, having worn a sports jacket to a meeting with Will in the past. And, Jenkins had been dressed nicely the one time Davidson had met her. Nonetheless, Will couldn’t help worrying. He’d occasionally had a scientist dress casually for a meeting with industry. Some of them seemed to believe that the only things that mattered were their results. They didn’t seem to recognize that a professional appearance could instill subliminal confidence in those results.

  Nonetheless, this Zage Kinrais was the most junior member of the research team. Surely, he’d dress well, or at least as well as his professor.

  Although they weren’t actually late yet, Will turned back to the door, saying, “Please, take your seats. I’ll just check to make sure Dr. Turner and his team can find the conference room.” In truth, Will had suddenly had a deep-seated premonition Kinrais would be slovenly. If so, he wanted to turn him away from the meeting. Surely, we don’t actually need the most junior member of the team at the meeting, he thought.

  However, before he got to the door it opened and Dr. Turner stepped in. Turner was followed by Vanessa Jenkins and… Oh my God! She brought her child?! To a meeting with representatives of a major pharmaceutical company?!

  Will glanced toward the door, thinking, Carol’s going to be really pissed if I ask her to babysit this kid, but better Carol is pissed than the kid pitch a tantrum in the middle of a multimillion-dollar meeting. “Um,” he said, wondering where Kinrais was and reaching for the child’s hand, “let me—”

  “Hi Mr. Davidson,” the kid said cheerfully, “I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to meet you before. I’m Zage Kinrais.” He took Will’s hand and shook it.

  “Um, hello…” Will said, not knowing what further he might say. “Um, just a moment,” he said letting go of the kid's hand and turning to the professor. “Um, Dr. Turner?” he said, almost inaudibly, “A word, please?”

  Turner stepped closer and, speaking just as quietly, cut immediately to the crux, “I assume you’re worried about the boy’s age. I think you’ll find he handles himself quite well. He really is an important member of our team.”

  “Um, but I didn’t warn…” Will gave a weak wave toward the Bayer representatives.

  Turner gave him a little grin, “Probably just as well you didn’t. They might not’ve come.” Turner turned and introduced himself to the Bayer people. He introduced the child as a “prodigy and a co-investigator,” raising their eyebrows just as high as Will’s wanted to ascend.

  Will did his best to pretend he’d known about it all along.

  ~~~

  To Will’s great relief, the child sat quietly, saying virtually nothing and causing few if any problems. He didn’t even get fidgety while Jenkins made a relatively long presentation regarding their study of the effects the peptide had on obesity in rats.

  The meeting hadn’t gone terribly far beyond Jenkins presentation before it got to the issue Will had been worried about. Mr. Schmidt, the leader of the Bayer delegation, said, “As you might imagine, we’re somewhat concerned about the fact that the sequence for the peptide was actually developed by Gordito, whoever Gordito might be. We’ve reviewed your documentation of the claim that Gordito’s relinquished any claim it might have to the peptide. It appears sound, but we remain concerned about Gordito’s nebulous legal status. After all, no one even seems to know whether Gordito’s an individual, a group of some kind, or some other entity. We don’t even know what country Gordito resides in or what effect that national residency might have on any agreements.”

  Will turned to look at Dr. Turner, wondering how he’d respond. To his dismay, he saw that both Turner and Jenkins were looking at the child.

  The boy turned to Mr. Schmidt and said, “I don’t think it’s a problem. You could, if you wanted, contact Gordito yourself in order to confirm that it’s relinquished its claim. In addition, if you’re worried about the legal ramifications, you should be aware that there’s a recent legal precedent. Vickers v. Centers for Disease Control determined that—using much the same language you’ll find in our documentation—Gordito had, in fact legally relinquished its claim to the antibody against the modified smallpox virus.”

  “Oh,” Schmidt said, shooting a glance at one of his juniors, presumably a lawyer. “Joseph, can you pull up that case and tell us whether you believe it applies?”

  The lawyer nodded, looking embarrassed that he hadn’t known about the precedent. He quickly began murmuring to his AI.

  “Meanwhile,” Schmidt said, “I think it’d be good if we all contacted Gordito together and confirmed that Gordito’s relinquished said rights to you.”

  Now, Will found himself worrying that Gordito would simply say it’d relinquished the rights. Perhaps, those rights were now freely available to anyone and not actually the property of the University either.

  To Will’s dismay, the boy had gone out to the bathroom by the time that Gordito replied to Schmidt’s call. Since the kid seemed to know more about Gordito’s relationship to the intellectual property than Turner, Will feared his absence might be problematic. He also worried about Gordito’s reputation for answering in its own good time. However, in what was obviously a synthesized voice, Gordito responded clearly and unambiguously that it had relinquished its rights to Turner, Jenkins, and Kinrais, as governed by any agreements that they might have with the University.

  At that point, Schmidt’s legal advisor reported that the legal precedent appeared solid. Apparently satisfied with that, Schmidt said, “Moving on. Though your presentation on the effects of the peptide on rat obesity was quite impressive, we were hoping for a little more detail on how the peptide works, as well as whether it’s likely to work in other animals, and, of course, humans.”

  The kid had just come back in the room and Will had the distinct impression that Turner and Jenkins were relieved to have him there. Certainly, they looked hopefully at him. Before Will’s sinking feeling got too deep, however, the boy commandeered the big screen in the room and began pulling up diagram after diagram. Although Will didn’t know much about proteins, he’d certainly seen some of those same types of diagrams in the news about Gordito and the protein work it’d done. Kinrais calmly and clearly explained the diagrams, showing what he called “receptor sites” and showing the Bayer people that the rat receptor for the peptide was quite similar to the human and porcine receptors. “In fact,” he said, “though it’s likely the rat peptide would work in humans, Gordito also provided this slightly modified peptide that should attach to the human receptor site with higher affinity.”

  Will couldn’t tell the difference between the two peptides, but Schmidt’s scientific expert looked appropriately impressed. With some unease, Will noticed that Turner and Jenkins
looked similarly impressed. It’s as if this whole thing’s the kid’s project, not theirs!

  ~~~

  When all was said and done, they left the room with an agreement in principle for the University to do pig model testing of the peptide on Bayer’s dime. They also had an agreement in principle for Bayer to fund the patents and develop the peptide as a human drug.

  Assuming it was successful in the pigs.

  ***

  When Carley walked into her apartment complex, she saw Eli sitting by her door in one of the chairs from the pool. She pulled out her pepper-spray and positioned her little finger on the safety. “Hello Eli,” she said warily.

  “Hi Sis,” he said, looking remorseful.

  Wondering if he was just putting on a show for her, Carley stopped some distance from his chair. “Where’s Marnie?”

  Eli shook his head dejectedly. “She left me. Not that I can blame her. I treated her like shit.” His eyes left Carley’s and wandered around the apartment complex, “I’m such an asshole. I didn’t deserve her.” He looked back at Carley, “I don’t deserve you. I’m really sorry about how I treated you the other night.”

  “Yeah,” Carley said, holding up her left wrist. “You left some bruises.”

  Eli closed his eyes, “I’m so sorry.” He opened them and looked directly into Carley’s eyes, “I want you to know I’ve had my last drink, for sure this time.”