Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5 ) (6 page)

“Good.
I wanted to talk to you about three
issues?”

“Shoot.”

“Item one. Did you know Emma defended her doctoral thesis last week?”

Ell brought her hand to her face, “No! Oh, I feel terrible! We should have gone to it!”

“Well, we
were
a little busy last week.”

Ell grinned sheepishly, “Yeah, I guess.”

“Anyway, she may be looking for a job but too proud to ask you?”

Ell’s eyes widened, “Oh yeah! I’ve just been sitting here thinking
about how
we needed a circuit wizard! Let’s call her
!”

“What! You’re not going to make her apply and drive out here to find out that
you’re
running things like you did to me?”

Ell rolled her eyes, “It might be fun but she already knows about me and D5R.”

Roger said, “But…
”
He arched his left eyebrow, “
she knows nothing about ‘
Quantum Research
…
”

Ell grinned, “You’re evil to want to spread your misery around like that.” She rubbed her hands together. “Let’s write a solicitation keyed at her.”

They worked for a minute or two to put a job posting up on the net that matched
every one
of Emma’s characteristics that they could think of.

Roger leaned back in his chair. “Next item on my agenda?”

“OK?”

“How’s your finger?”

Puzzled for a moment, Ell realized that he meant the one she’d inadvertently put through a port. “Fine.” She held it up and wiggled it. “I can’t tell it ever happened.” She rolled her eyes, “Not in any big hurry to put it back in a port again though.”

“Yeah, neither am I.”

“What
?
You put a finger in a port too?”

“Yeah, seems like if I’m the guy looking into the effects on biologics I should know what it feels like. I
only
put the
tip of the
pinky of my left hand into the port though.” He grinned
at her
, “Didn’t get it in very deep
at all
. Holy crap! Felt like I was sticking it into a fire! Pulled it out and couldn’t believe it wasn’t blistered.”

“How are
the
worker bees that went through the ports doing?”

“Fine. One bee in the control group died, so far none in the group that went through the port
. But next week they’ll be reaching the end of their expected lifespan and we’ll have more data
on whether their life spans were shortened
. The mice that went through the ports all seem fine. I tried to drop a rat through a 5cm port. Once his nose touched the interface he managed to turn around, grab the edges and
hold on
for dear life in order
to
avoid going through.”

“Dang!”

“Also I’m concerned about the
fact that
the mice
flopped around
after they went through
. I’m wondering if they were having seizures
.”

“So what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that the port interface does something to nerve fibers to stimulate them. So when your finger is in the port
the
pain fibers
in the nerves
are tripped
and send
a pain message to your brain.
Well
, maybe
all the fibers are tripped but we notice the p
ain fibers more than the others?
”

“Why don’t the muscles in your finger twitch from having the nerves to them stimulated then?”

“Well,
” Roger grinned,
“
I wondered about that and looked it up. The muscles that move your fingers are
actually
in your hand and fo
rearm, not in the finger itself. They move the fingers with tendons that go down into the finger
from the forearm
. S
o putting the finger in wouldn’t stimulate
any muscles, or rather wouldn’t stimulate the nerves going to any muscles
.”

“Oh!
I had no idea.”

“You mean you
don’t
know everything?”

“I o
nly
know about
stuff I’m interested
in,” she grinned, “which means I’m
kinda
ignorant
.”

Roger grinn
ed
back at her
, “
Yeah, I’ve noticed.
Anyway, I’m thinking that when the animal’s head goes through, all the neurons in the brain get set off and
it might be
ca
using
a seizure.”

Ell frowned, “Oh
, that’s not good. I wonder if seizure medications
might
prevent the
seizures.
Well if t
hey
actually
are
seizures
?”

Roger leaned back in his chair, “I don’t know but that brings up another problem. I’ve been looking into regulations about animal research. We might be
at risk of
getting in
trouble for just dropping mice through the ports without proper animal research protocols, approvals and permissions. But we
certainly
can’t start giving them anti-seizure meds without such approvals. Besides that kind of stuff is way outside our field of expertise.”

“Hmmm. What do you think we should do? Hire an expert?”

“Could be painful. We’d need to
build animal
facilities
, get them
approved and have veterinarians
. A
ll kinds of other stuff would have to be worked out
...
I’m thinking we should work with someone at one of the Universities that already has all that stuff. Maybe a neurology researcher at the
Med
School
or something like that.”

“Great idea! They’d probably have better ideas than seizure meds too. Can you try to find someone there to talk to?”

“Will do.” He raised an eyebrow,
“Third issue?”

“Shoot.”

“How about dinner and a movie Saturday?”

Ell grinned at him, “Yeah! That’d be fun. You OK dealing with reporters if they haven’t given up yet?”

Roger’s eyebrows rose, “They hassling you?”

“Some. Not bad so far.
I’m hoping they’ll give up once they figure out just how boring my life is.”

“Well, I for one don’t think you should let it affect your life. Live like you want and ignore them.”

“Dinner and a movie Saturday then!”

Chapter
Two

When Ell left D5R that Friday evening the reporters were waiting outside the gate.
The weather had been cloudy and pleasant for
late
August so they were standing outside their cars talking to one another. When Ell’s Focus turned out of the parking lot the
y
all scrambled to get in their vehicles and follow her.

Ell
drove directly to her farm
.
After
she
turned
in she saw the reporters
parking outside the gate. In her rearview
screen
she saw one leap out of his car and throw something on the ground in frustration.

***

Saturday evening
Ell heard a knock on her front door and went to open it. “Dr. Emmerit I presume?” she grinned up at Roger.

“Yes Ma’am.” Roger said, doffing an imaginary cap and staring at Ell. It being
late
August he had on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. He felt distinctly underdressed. His eyes narrowed, Ell actually
had on
a simple cotton t-shirt and
shorts
too
. He realized she wasn’t
actually
“dressed up.” It was just that she looked
so good
in whatever she wore and the
little
khaki shorts
were
an upgrade from her usual jeans. Her long legs and narrow waist meant that
shorts
that fit her
hips
, having been designed for other women
were
relatively
short
er than they would have been on
those
women
.
H
er
long,
slender
but
shapely
legs looked
stunning
!
Hard to believe they were hiding under her jeans every day!
He swallowed, “Your chariot awaits, Ma’am.” He waved in the direction of his car.

Ell bounced down and off the porch, “Were there many paparazzi at the entrance this evening?”

“Four cars.”

“I’m sure hoping they get bored with following me around pretty soon.”

Roger thought
to himself
,
if you wanted them to get bored
,
those shorts
may
not have been a
great
idea.

As they pulled out
of the driveway
,
a
paparazzo
peered into the car
,
saw Ell and
leapt for his vehicle. Soon
Roger and Ell
were headed into
Chapel Hill
trailed by
the four reporters’ cars

“Where are we going to dinner?” Ell asked.

“I had a friend tell me he likes to
just
walk down Franklin Street, stopping in to have a little of this and a little of that at
several of the different restaurants.
I thought we should try
it
?”

Ell tilted her head, “
S
ound
s
like fun. I’m up for it.
”

They got out at the corner of
Columbia
and
Franklin
and Roger’s car left to park itself. The reporters’ cars stopped as well and they scrambled out
to follow Ell
. As
Ell and Roger
walked down Franklin
,
Roger noticed
peoples
’
eyes
, especially
the
men’s
,
turning to follow Ell.
He thought to himself
that it
must be
pretty
weird to be the focus of s
o m
uch attention
.
But if she noticed it
she gave no evidence.
Musing he pondered,
I think
those guys would
be staring
at her
because of her
looks even if she weren’t famous.
He glanced back and saw the paparazzi following
,
easily
recognizable because of
the noticeably larger
camera
lenses on their AIs
’
headbands.

“Oh! Pepper’s Pizza!” Ell exclaimed, “
It’s been here forever!
I’ve heard people talk about it but I’ve never been in. Shall we get a slice?”

“Sure,” Roger said and they turned in.
He was surprised to see
a paparazzo
follow them into the funky little restaurant. Then he was amused when Ell and Roger were seated at the last table in their section of the restaurant.
The frustrated looking paparazzo
was seated in a different section where he couldn’t actually see or
video
them.

“Shall we split a pizza?”

“My goodness no! We each have a
“
slice
”
and save room to get something different to eat at another restaurant.”

Ell raised her eyebrows. “OK.” She looked at the menu, “I’ll have a slice of pepperoni, black olive, artichoke, pesto
…
”

When they left the r
estaurant, one of the reporters stepped in front of Ell, “Ms. Donsaii, could you comment on President Teller’s promise that…”