Tiona (a sequel to "Vaz") (23 page)

Tiona turned back to look at him, trying not to frown.
Is this because he thought I looked sexy the other night?
she wondered with some irritation. Then,
Come on, don’t be so paranoid. He probably just wants to be friendly with his lab mate.
“Okay. Noon?”
But, he’d better not tell me that I should dress up more often.

Nolan smiled and nodded eagerly. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

Tiona had struggled all morning to rekindle her interest in superconduction. She’d begun repeating a lot of her experiments without the irregularities in her set up that her dad had discovered. However, she kept wondering whether, at their next lab meeting, Dr. Eisner would tell her that he had been expecting her to start working full-time on the thrust phenomenon rather than continuing on superconduction.

She had made little progress other than plotting out the experiments. In fact her mind was going around in circles when Nolan said, “You ready to head out to lunch?”

Tiona said, “Sure.” She stood up.

Nolan stood uneasily, looking like he was waiting for something. His eyes darted around her desk, then he said, “Don’t you need your…”

Tiona gave a little snort, “Purse? No, I don’t need a purse.” She tugged at her baggy pants. “Got plenty of room in my pockets.” She turned and went out the door, assuming that he would follow.

As they walked across campus Nolan said, “I’ve been realizing that I don’t really know you. What do you do for fun?”

“Well, I’ve always been a runner, and I like that. I like music too, that’s how I wound up down the rabbit hole with Ronnie Winters.” She pursed her lips, “And physics too. I’ve always liked math and physics.” She turned and eyed him, surprised once again by his good looks. Nerdy good looks. “What about you?”

He looked a little uncomfortable. “I like music too, but I don’t think I’m as much of a fan as you. I play some golf, but it takes so much time I don’t get out very often.” He looked a little embarrassed, “I like anime too.”

“The Japanese cartoons?”

He nodded, though Tiona had the impression he thought calling them “cartoons” was an insult. “I read quite a bit of science fiction.”

“Oh yeah, I read sci-fi too,” she rolled her eyes, “though I
hate
it when they get the physics wrong.”

“Um, well, it seems to me that for them to have an interesting story they’ve got to have some fake physics. If you can’t go faster than light, you can’t meet any interesting aliens.”

“I’ll grant you FTL, but protagonists that land their FTL spaceship on an alien world and then pull out their sword to do battle drive me crazy!”

“Oh, yeah. And he dodges a laser beam too, right?”

She snickered, “
She’s
one fast woman!”

They’d arrived at Cosmic Cantina, so their conversation took a break to place their orders. To her embarrassment, he managed to pay for her lunch again while she wasn’t paying attention. Then she remembered that Dr. Eisner had said that Nolan thought she had financial problems because her dad was unemployed. It wouldn’t be too surprising if Dr. Eisner hadn’t talked to Nolan about what he’d learned of the Gettnors’ financial situation during the patent discussion. That was the kind of embarrassing incident Eisner probably didn’t want to talk about.

She decided that Nolan worrying about whether she had enough money to buy lunch was kind of sweet. Probably that was why he’d offered her part of his lunch so many times last semester. She frowned at a new realization,
He was offering me lunch before he knew that my dad didn’t “have a job”! And… he was trying to be nice to me before he’d seen me dressed up at New Year’s too…
The realization that he was trying to be nice to her before he’d seen her looking sexy made her glance warmly at him.
He’s not like a lot of other guys…

They talked for quite a while after they’d finished their lunch and during their walk back to the lab. Tiona was surprised to realize that despite the fact she’d been thinking of Nolan as a complete nerd, he was actually pretty funny and… interesting to talk to.

They were almost back to the lab, when Tiona said, “So what are you planning to do after you finish your PhD? Teach and research at a university? Work for industry?”

Nolan got an embarrassed look, “Can you keep a secret?”

Surprised that Nolan had an ambition he might want to hide, she shrugged and said, “Sure.” She had a sudden and uneasy feeling that he was going to tell her that he was going to go to Hollywood and try to become an actor.

Without looking at her, he quietly said, “I’m going to make an application to NASA. My lifelong dream has been to be an astronaut.” He shrugged, “Embarrassingly enough, I’ve never even tried to figure out
how
you apply. I guess I’m afraid I’ll figure out I don’t qualify for a whole list of reasons.”

Tiona glanced at him in surprise. Thinking about how she and her father were building the proverbial “spaceship in a garage,” she suddenly giggled.
If it works, I’ll have to take him for a ride!

Nolan snorted, “I
should’ve
made you promise not to laugh!”

“Sorry! I wasn’t laughing at
you
, I was laughing at myself.”

“Sure,” Nolan said, rolling his eyes.

She bumped a fist on his shoulder, “I think you’d make a great astronaut. Besides, inventing this graphene precipitation method should make you kind of famous. They’ll probably fall all over themselves to have you on the team.”

***

Ralph swore as he struggled with a set of the power cables on the big ion engine. They were the cables that went to the unit he had dismounted. Houston had suggested that if he doubled the power input to one of the units, by connecting both of the power runs intended for two units to a single unit, that it might run hot enough to burn off whatever impurity was depositing on the electrodes. It might also destroy the engine, but at this point that would be a small loss.

He could really have used Zack’s help on this hot wiring project, but Zack had declared the entire scheme to be, “A horse-shit attempt to keep dying minds busy.” Since he and Zack had finished filling the big bladder with icy gases for the ion engine there hadn’t been that much to do. Zack had become more and more depressed. His black moods had overtaken the living capsule. Ralph had gotten advice from Houston to increase the lighting in the capsule in case seasonal affective disorder was contributing to Zack’s funk.

Unfortunately, despite Ralph’s efforts to keep more lights turned on in the capsule, Zack kept turning them off. Ralph felt like most of the time the capsule was dimmer than it had ever been.

Ralph had actually been relieved to have this assignment in hopes that it actually would keep Zack’s mind busy. When Zack had refused to go, Ralph had been relieved to get the hell away from him. He felt somewhat guilty, as if he had deserted his compatriot, but nothing he had been doing to try to cheer Zack up had had any noticeable effect.

Suddenly, Ralph’s AI spoke up in his helmet. “Houston requests a direct connection to you here in your suit.”

Ralph said “Okay… Go ahead Houston.” While he waited for the message to go back and forth to Earth, he kept working, trying to get two power leads connected to a lug meant for one.

“Mr. Abbott, this is Dr. Dumars at the Houston Space Center.” There was a pause while the Dr., obviously not used to speaking over distances long enough for a time delay, awaited Ralph’s acknowledgment, but then he continued. “Um, about ten minutes ago we received notification from Bellerphon’s AI that the capsule’s medical drawer has been opened. We have tried to reach Astronaut White, but he has not responded to our contacts. We are concerned that, in view of his mood, he may be trying to use the medications in the drawer to harm himself. Would you be able to check on him?”

Ralph was already pulling himself along the cable that led to Bellerphon. “On my way,” he grunted. “If he
has
taken something, would we have an antidote?”

“It would depend on which medication he may have taken. Hopefully he
hasn’t
taken anything and we’re all worried about nothing.”

“Hopefully,” Ralph grunted. He’d arrived back at Bellerphon and a minute later he cycled through the airlock. Seeing Zack’s still form snugged up in his sleeping cocoon, he yelled, “Zack, you stupid son of a bitch!” He pushed himself across the capsule to Zack, “Houston, I think he’s done something, he’s not reacting. What do I do?”

He jerked the Velcro loose on Zack’s cocoon, spilling Zack out of it. Grabbing a hold of the front of Zack’s jumpsuit, he pushed himself across the capsule toward the open medical drawer.

“Does he have a pulse? Can you see what’s missing out of the medical drawer?”

Ralph grabbed Zack’s wrist to feel for a pulse while he looked in the drawer. The seal had been broken on the small chamber labeled morphine and it was no longer full of little ampoules. “I do feel a pulse. The only medication obviously missing is morphine.” Ralph looked at Zack. He looked a little blue. The pulse seemed very slow, though Ralph didn’t want to take time to count it. He didn’t think Zack was breathing.

Ralph had just grabbed Zack’s head and given him a breath mouth-to-mouth, when Houston came back, saying, “Are his pupils small? Is he breathing?” After a momentary pause, Dumars voice continued, “If he isn’t breathing, give him a breath.”

Ralph looked, “Pupils are very small. Wasn’t breathing, I gave him a breath” He gave Zack another breath.

Dumars said, “Keep giving him a breath every few seconds. Look in the medical drawer for a medication labeled naloxone.”

Ralph gave him another breath, then looked in the drawer. Over the next few minutes Dumars walked him through administering the narcotic antagonist and told him he’d need to re-administer it because it wouldn’t last as long as the morphine did. Shortly, Zack started breathing better on his own and pinked up.

Ralph eyed his partner warily; then looked around the capsule. He saw a note taped to the bulkhead next to Zack’s sleeping cocoon. Since Zack seemed to be stable, he pushed across the capsule and grabbed the note.

Ralph,

Realized that if I was gone, you’d have enough food to make it back to earth even at the low accelerations you’ll be able to get. I sent you the calculations in an email. Sorry I didn’t have the balls to just go out the airlock, but I always wanted to know what an OD felt like. Don’t waste any juice trying to bring my worthless carcass back home, just push it out the airlock and leave it here on Kadoma.

Good luck buddy,

Zack

Ralph’s eyes shot back across the capsule to Zack, widening slightly as he realized that by saving Zack, he may have killed himself.
Shit!
He pushed himself back across the capsule to Zack, wondering guiltily whether Zack might still not make it.

Suddenly Sophie’s voice came over the link, “Ralph! How is he?”

Ralph grabbed the front of Zack’s jumpsuit and pushed off to pull him back over to the sleeping cocoon. Zack’s eyes opened blearily and wavered around. “Too ornery to die,” Ralph responded to Sophie.

Zack blinked a couple of times; then said, “Aw crap. Shoulda had the balls to go out the airlock.”

Ralph pulled the Velcro of the sleeping cocoon over him and pressed it shut. “You should not, you dumb son of a bitch! I’ll never make it back home if I don’t have you around to be such an
excruciating
pain in my ass.”

After a few seconds for his words to reach earth and Sophie’s to return to Bellerphon, he heard Sophie say in a horrified tone, “Ralph!”

***

Tiona’s AI told her she had an email from her dad. She glanced up at her HUD. “Habitat module has arrived. Am bolting it into place. When can we test fly?”

Tiona frowned, typically cryptic. “Saturday?”

“Need to fly at night. Can you come home tonight?”

Tiona rolled her eyes. Her dad reminded her of Dante as a kid around Christmas. Excited and impatient. “Will you have finished pressure testing?” Part of their plan for being sure the saucer was ready for high altitude flight included pressurizing the cabin to two atmospheres and making sure it didn’t leak.

Vaz’s response was a simple, “Yes, by 7 PM.”

“Saucer has hovered in garage for an extended period?” Another part of their testing regimen involved having the saucer hover for a long time to make sure the fusion plant, cable runs, current generators, and membranes didn’t fail under load.

“Yes, times twenty-four hours. Have also run higher power opposition test times twenty-four hours.” This test involved running a triangle of three discs lifting, with the other triangle of three discs holding it down, running at a higher power to make sure everything would tolerate the bigger loads.

Tiona sat thinking for a minute, wondering whether there were any other tests that could be run in the garage to make sure the damn thing was safe. Control must be pretty good if the AI could keep it from bumping the walls of the garage while it was weightless and the discs were running high loads in opposition for twenty-four hours. Finally she replied, “Okay. Will be home by 11 PM.”