Tiona (a sequel to "Vaz") (11 page)

Tiona grinned back at him, “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Not me. Michael Lewis is the guy that said that.”

Tiona snorted, “Okay, whoever that is,
he’s
probably right.”

***

Eisner returned from giving his lecture and stepped into the lab. To his relief Marlowe wasn’t there. Tiona looked up, “Yes Dr. Eisner?”

“How’s it going?”

“I’m precipitating some new membranes, this time doping with titanium. Nolan pointed out that he thought it fit our theory. I ran the calculations and, embarrassingly enough, it actually fits very well. It’s pretty sad that I didn’t think of it myself.”

Eisner looked up at the periodic table; then got a distant look as he considered the possibilities. “You’re right, we
both
should’ve thought of trying titanium. I’ll have to give Marlowe a pat on the back for that one.”

Tiona grinned at him, “Careful now, we don’t want him to get a swelled head.”

“No, no, that wouldn’t do, would it? Say, one of the reasons I dropped by the lab was that Dr. Weitzel has been looking for someone to run some measurements over the Christmas break. His grant would pay a pretty good hourly wage for it so I wanted to see if you or Nolan were interested?” Actually, Eisner knew that Nolan wouldn’t be interested, but he’d immediately thought of the girl who had to eat at the shelter.

Tiona shrugged, “Sorry, but I’ll be in Raleigh over the break. Do you want me to ask Nolan if he’s interested?”

“No, no, I’ll send him an email. Thanks for considering it.” Eisner turned and left, feeling irritated that a girl so poor she had to eat at the shelter hadn’t snapped up the extra work like he’d thought she would. He’d felt like he’d really be doing her a favor, finding her this job. After a bit, he realized that he actually felt a little angry that a girl who was leaning on the charity of others by eating at the homeless shelter would turn down a chance to
earn
money.
I’m turning into a conservative!
he thought to himself.

***

Tiona carried her tray over and sat down next to Shelley. The social worker was talking to one of the homeless men. It sounded like Shelley thought the man could get a job as seasonal help for the Christmas season. He would need a shave and haircut as well as some nicer clothes which Shelley could provide. The man seemed reluctant, but Tiona couldn’t tell whether he was just lazy, or might be reluctant to be identified. No doubt some of the men were wanted by the police, or to pay alimony, or for back taxes, or as undocumented illegal immigrants.

Tiona lost interest in that conversation and started looking around the shelter. Her eye caught on several sets of children that were new to the shelter. They and their parents had that shocked and dazed look that newcomers to the shelter often had.

Shelley finished her conversation with the man and turned to see who was beside her. “Hey Tiona.”

Tiona said quietly, “I see we’ve got some new families.”

Shelley sighed, “Yes. It’s a sad time of year to run into a stretch of hard luck.”

Tiona chewed her lip for a moment. “I’ll put a hundred dollars into the account for each of the kids.” She paused, “That’s to get the kids something for Christmas. I’ll put $200 in for the parents too. I’m sure they can use a little something to spend on their families.”

Shelley gave her a wry smile, “Aren’t you breaking your rule about only helping people who are actively trying to get a job?”

Tiona snorted; then said, “Yeah, I’ve suddenly gone all sappy sweet over little kids at Christmas.” Until then she’d been speaking quietly and out into the room, so that it would be hard for people to tell she was talking to Shelley. Now, for a second, she looked Shelley directly in the eye. Then she turned back forward and said, “I
do
feel a little guilty about it.” She shrugged, “and I
would
rather help them get back on their feet, but I’m hoping that one nice gesture for the kids at Christmas won’t encourage dependency.”

Shelley looked around the room, “I’m pretty sure those new families really
have
just had some bad luck. I don’t think they’ll be here in the shelter very long.”

Without looking at Shelley again, Tiona said, “I’m going to be gone for a few weeks over Christmas. I’ll put some money in the account for you to spend at your discretion. I
would
like
that
money to go to people who are trying to get a job and just need a little help to do it.”

“Sure,” Shelley said, as she wondered once again just where Tiona got all the money.

***

Tiona hauled her suitcases up the steps into her parent’s home, thinking about her plans to sleep late, go out with her friends, and generally take it easy. Lisanne met her at the top of the steps and gave her a hug. Taking one of the suitcases, Lisanne spoke to the house AI, “Please tell Vaz that Tiona’s home.”

As they carried Tiona’s stuff up to her room Lisanne said, “What’s new in your life?”

Tiona laughed, “Well, my research is crap! I’ve made exactly zero progress on finding the superconductor our theory predicts.”

Lisanne smiled, “Well, if physics was easy, everybody’d be doing it.”

Tiona gave a horrified look, “Would not! They’d
still
think it was boring!”

Lisanne grinned, “Well then, what about your love life?”

Tiona grimaced, “Ronnie’s got a new band and so far they’re doing pretty well, but I’m not seeing him very much.”

“Any other prospects?”

Knowing that her mother thought Ronnie was a terrible choice; Tiona grinned at her and winked, “All the other guys are boooooring.” She turned toward the door and cupped a hand to her ear, “And I think I hear Dad coming up to rescue me from this conversation.”

“You don’t have to hold a hand to your ear,” Lisanne laughed. “He’s coming up the stairs so fast the whole house is shaking.”

They heard the door to Vaz’s basement lab open and Vaz shouted, “Tiona!”

Tiona and Lisanne both looked at each other for a moment in surprise. Vaz was rarely demonstrative and neither one of them would have been surprised if he’d just stayed in the lab and waited for Tiona to come down, rather than coming up himself. Tiona called out, “I’m up in my room Dad.”

“Come down to the lab!” Vaz called excitedly. “You’ve got to see this!”

Tiona and Lisanne looked at each other again and Lisanne rolled her eyes.
Of course Vaz wasn’t excited to see his daughter. He wanted to show her some experiment!
Tiona said, “I guess I better get down there before he comes and
drags
me down there.”

Down in Vaz’s basement lab, Tiona saw an almost exact replication of her own experimental set up. She recognized her current generator, wiring, electrodes, and etcetera. The glass dish that she had had her membranes lying in was notably absent. Instead, she saw what looked like a plastic disc lying there with the electrodes attached to it. Surprisingly, instead of the electrodes being attached on opposite sides of the disc, they were attached one next to the other.

Vaz excitedly pointed out the features. “Instead of just laying the membranes in a dish, I’ve attached them to both sides of this acrylic disc with spray adhesive.”

Tiona frowned, “But with the acrylic disc between the two membranes there won’t be any conduction.”

“Ah, yes, that’s true. But I’m not interested in conduction like you are. I’m interested in the movements your membranes make!”

“How can they wiggle when they’re glued to a rigid disk like that?”

“Watch this!” Vaz switched on the power. The acrylic disc immediately flipped up into the air, trailing the wires attached to the electrodes. The drag of the electrodes flipped the disc over and it immediately shot down and hit the desk.

To Tiona’s astonishment, it then appeared to be trying to burrow
into
the desk! “Wha…!” Tiona trailed off, staring at the disc in consternation. “How can that happen?!” She stepped near to the lab bench and started looking at the disc from all angles. Absently she reached over and switched off the power. The disc immediately relaxed from where it had been bowing itself as it tried to push itself down against the desk but was held up on one edge by the electrode. She turned to look at her father questioningly.

“Amazing, huh?”

“But how does it do that?!”

Vaz shrugged and rubbed his hands together excitedly, “I don’t know! We’ve
got to
find out!”

For a fleeting moment, Tiona thought longingly of her plans to hang out with her friends. Then she looked back at the disc that lay in all apparent innocence on the desk attached to the wires and her curiosity took over. “Are you running the same current that I was?”

“Well, yes. But when I measured the current the generator in your lab was putting out, my meters showed that it wasn’t putting out the balanced sine wave that its settings would have indicated. The current had a large bias. So I’m running the current that you were, though I’m not running the current you thought you were!” He looked extraordinarily pleased.

Tiona blinked, “Does the disc still move if there’s no bias?”

Vaz grinned, “No!” he exclaimed.

“So you’re saying,” Tiona said slowly, “that not only were my electrodes screwed up because somebody had insulated one side of them, but my current generator was faulty and producing a biased current?!”

Vaz slowly nodded a huge smile on his face.

Irritated, Tiona continued “So all the measurements I’ve been making and carefully recording are probably wrong and need to be repeated!”

Vaz looked disappointed, “Serendipity Tiona! Serendipity!”

“That’s not serendipity! It’s a monumental screw-up, and a lot of work that I’ll have to repeat!”

“Who cares about superconductors Tiona?! Feel this!” He picked up the disc, turned it over and held it out to her.

When she took it, he flipped on the power. At first she jerked back at the thought that she might get shocked by the current, instead she was stunned when the disc started pushing up into the air. It pushed hard enough that it slipped out of her grip and flailed around on the end of the wires until her dad turned off the power. She frowned again, “How is it
doing
that?!”

“
That’s
the question! And it’s a
much
more important question than whether you can make a superconductor that’s based on graphene. How is it moving? There isn’t a magnetic or electrical field for it to react to. It
shouldn’t
flop around like that!”

Father and daughter stared at one another for a moment; then turned to look back at the innocent looking clear plastic disc.

***

Tiona did go out with a couple of her friends that night, but the next morning she found herself lying awake thinking about the membranes and trying to understand how they could possibly do what they were doing. Her dad had spent the rest of the afternoon yesterday showing her what he had learned about the membranes’ unusual properties so far.

It required at least two membranes that were somewhat parallel to one another, overlapping, and energized on different limbs of the circuit. The circuit had to deliver a biased alternating current in the gigahertz frequency range. Separating the two membranes a little bit to put them on each side of the acrylic disc had resulted in an increase in the force produced.

Tiona heard someone moving around downstairs in the kitchen, so she got up, stepped into her shoes, and walked downstairs hoping that they’d already made coffee. Her dad was in the kitchen with a frying pan on the stove. “Hi! Want a breakfast burrito?”

Tiona nodded. “Is there any coffee?”

“I don’t drink coffee.” He turned and looked at the coffee maker. “But your mother set up the coffee maker last night. I think all you have to do is turn it on. It comes on by itself at seven.”

Tiona flipped on the coffee maker then turned to watch her father. “Can I do anything to help?”

Vaz looked at his ingredients where they were laid out and pursed his lips. “I don’t think you should. Whenever anyone tries to help me cook… it turns out
awful
.”

Tiona said, “Well that breaks my heart. I guess I’ll just have to sit here and watch you make my breakfast then.”

Soon Vaz had scrambled eggs with chopped ham, onions, olives and salsa. He spooned this on to tortillas hot from the microwave, sprinkled on cheese, rolled them up and put a couple of them on a plate for Tiona. She poured herself some coffee and they sat down to eat.

Vaz said, “So, there are lots of things we need to find out.”

“About the membranes?”

He blinked at her as if wondering what else she could
possibly
think he was talking about. “Yes.” After a moment in which Tiona said nothing, he continued, “We need to know whether it works with some of your other membrane doping schemes or only with the copper and lithium doping. You already told me that if they aren’t doped they don’t move, but is it
any
doping scheme? Is there a doping scheme that works better?” He paused again as if waiting to see if Tiona had any comments about that; then continued. “They work better if separated by that thin acrylic disc. Is it just the fact that the disc provides an insulator and any kind of thin insulating disk works, or does it need to be acrylic? Does it work better if they are closer together, or farther apart?”