Gravity Rising (The Parallel Multiverse Book 2) Page 22

  Having completed the assembly of the gravitic test rig, he flipped the power on and studied the readouts. Most of the equipment in the lab required a connection to a separate computer to provide intelligence. In fact, Larry had hacked together a lab network so that his own computer could host all of the data collection chores necessary. When he was accepted at MIT, he had purchased a computer far more powerful than he needed or could afford. However, Maggie had urged him to buy it, and he now no longer regretted the decision. His machine had plenty of power to handle all of the chores in the lab, plus his own personal tasks. And because he could disconnect the machine and carry it home every night, his personal paranoia was somewhat assuaged.

  The Gravitic Detector, however, had its own internal computer, and he could not find a set of functions to measure what he would be looking for in the experiments. He wondered if he was going to have to figure out how to write scripts for those functions himself. Alternately, he supposed he could troll the Global Net and find an updated operating system for the device. The thing had to be forty years old. However, it was up and running, so he moved on to the next piece of equipment. He would get everything necessary more or less operational before he determined what level of customization would be required for his work.

  Maggie interrupted him in the middle of the day when she brought in a cheese sandwich, a bag of potato chips, and a bottle of Squirt. They sat on the lab stools, ate their lunch, and talked.

  “Have you accomplishing anything today?” he asked her.

  She tilted her head. “The text of my dissertation is almost complete. Then I have to finish the citations and put the charts together. Another couple of weeks of hard work and it should be ready.”

  “I feel like I’ve hardly started,” he complained. “One step forward and two back.”

  “Oh, nonsense, Larry!” She leaned forward and put her hand on his arm. “I think that once you get the lab together things will move quickly.”

  “I sure hope so. But, I have no idea where I’m going with this.”

  “How much longer until you’re operational?”

  He looked around the lab. “I’m planning to set the cells this afternoon. That will take the rest of the day. Tomorrow I can begin calibrating the equipment. The gravitic detector remains a problem.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It doesn’t do what I need it to do. I’m either going to have to find an updated OS for it on the net or write the scripts myself.”

  “I had to write the scripts for some of my test equipment. Nobody has merged global temperature data for eighty years. It’s not a big deal. I can do it for you.”

  He grinned at her.

  “What?”

  “I learned a lot of bad words watching you work on those scripts,” he said.

  “Those weren’t scripts,” she retorted. “I wrote that stuff in bonehead C. Honestly, I don’t know why people still use that language. Land sakes, Larry, you have to manage your own dynamic memory with C. I think I learned about fifty ways to shoot myself in the foot with that stupid code.”

  “Will you keep from saying all those dirty words if I let you write my scripts?”

  “Compared to coding statistical analysis in C, doing the scripts will be child’s play, Larry. Besides, I wasn’t that bad.”

  Larry looked down and grinned. She reached out and cuffed him on the back of the head. “Behave.”

  “Yes, Mother.”

  Maggie once again proved she was adept at barnyard invective when she stormed out of the lab. Larry laughed and finished his last bite of the sandwich. He knew he shouldn’t provoke Maggie like that, but sometimes it was just too much fun to resist.

  § § §

  “What’s Fluffy got against you, anyway, Larry?” Archie Larch asked.

  Larry looked up from his cards and scanned the group. He and Maggie were huddled around the table with Seb Sylvester and Archie Larch in Archie’s flat in Maseeh Hall. They had come to a consensus that an evening off was called for. Seb had produced a new deck of cards to facilitate the poker game. They played for grains of corn since nobody had any significant funds to speak of.

  “What do you mean?” Larry asked. “Fluffy’s all right.”

  “Ha!” Seb exclaimed. “And I’ll take a card.”

  Archie dealt him a card and watched to see what he was going to say.

  “Fluffy’s been grumbling ever since you came back from Indianapolis,” Seb said. “We all thought it was just because you got a vacation and a new stipend to boot. Nobody’s that lucky.”

  “I don’t think he was terribly happy about that,” Larry said. “But, Dean Rathgille promised to finesse it for me.”

  “That’s probably what did it, then,” Larch said. “Fluffy and Wrathful hate each other. When they are in the same room you can see the fur raise up on the back of their necks.”

  Maggie laughed in her melodious way. “I’ve never thought about it that way. But, now that you mention it, I know what you mean. They are excessively polite to each other.”

  “Exactly. Exactly,” Archie said. “When we were kids, our dog and the neighbor’s dog hated each other. We used to try to get them into the same yard to see if they would go after each other.”

  Maggie raised an eyebrow. “Did they?”

  “More often than not. Ma would come outside and throw chunks of firewood at them to get it stopped. Then she would beat us with Da’s belt. But, it was fun.”

  “Except for the last part, I imagine,” Larry commented dryly.

  “Right. But, back to the topic at hand. Fluffy is always fine until you walk in. Haven’t you ever noticed how he glares at you?”

  Larry shrugged. “I figured he was just in a bad mood.”

  “Oh, he was in a bad mood all right. And what in the world did you say to him this morning?”

  Larry glanced at Maggie. “What do you mean?”

  “He mentioned he was going down to the High Energy Physics lab to make sure you weren’t getting ready to blow up the place. When he came back, he went straight to Wrathful’s office. A few minutes later he came out and retreated to his office. We didn’t see him the rest of the day.”

  “He must’ve had a lot to do,” Larry said.

  “Come on, Old Man,” Archie said, “give over. The whole lab was talking about it. We just figured that you had finally put Fluffy in his place.”

  “He came into the lab and yelled about the paint,” Maggie said. “When I told him I paid for it, he shut up. That may have been it.”

  “That must’ve been it,” Larry said.

  Archie looked down. “Dealer takes one card.” He shoved two kernels of corn into the pot.

  “I’m out,” Maggie said.

  “Me, too,” Larry said as he tossed his cards on the table.

  Seb looked at his hand, and then over at Archie with disgust. “I think you’re trying to buy the pot. Okay, I’ll call.”

  After Seb shoved two kernels into the center, they laid down their cards.

  “Two pair,” Seb said.

  “Seven high,” Archie said as he tossed down his hand.

  Seb laughed as he raked in the small pile of corn. “Maggie’s deal. Give us something interesting this time, Mags.”

  She snorted as she gathered up the cards. “You probably don’t want me to do that.”

  “Forget I said anything.”

  “Is that all you’re going to say about Fluffy?” Archie asked Larry.

  Larry shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. Okay, I’ll admit I’m really frustrated with Dr. Pournelle right now. He’s got a rock in his shoe about something, and I don’t know what it is. I basically told him to either call the game or shove off. That must be when he went to see Dean Rathgille.”

  Archie cocked his head as he looked at Larry. “I somehow think there is more to it than that.”

  “Let’s just play cards,” Seb said.

  “Five card draw,” Maggie said. “Deuces and one-eyed Jacks
are wild.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Archie groaned. “This isn’t poker, it’s Go Fish.”

  Maggie just smiled and dealt the cards.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  “You haven’t stopped him.”

  The statement came from the man in the shadows.

  “I’ve done everything I could think of.”

  “Have you?”

  The person standing in the middle of the dim room waved arms in frustration.

  “I got his stipend revoked. I frightened him and his squirrely friend out of town. How was I to know he would come back with a new benefactor?”

  “That is simply your problem to solve, and not mine,” the man in the shadows said. “You recognize the consequences of your failure to perform.”

  The person standing hesitated. “I suppose I do know. And, I will do better. I promise I will do better.”

  “See that you do. Lawrence Berthold is a critical part of the plan for moving this civilization back to its technology-based roots. We must not allow that. We have made great progress since the Carrington event. But, if we allow a high-energy-based era to take hold again, it will destroy the Earth.”

  “I understand that. The dean is now deeply suspicious of any attempts to derail Berthold.”

  “Then stay away from the dean. Perhaps you should explore turning the other students against Berthold. He apparently is not paying attention to you.”

  “I will do whatever is necessary.”

  “Very well. Remember our agreement. If you do not deliver…”

  The conversation closed with the sound of the man in the shadows snapping a pencil into two. His assistant placed a cloth bag over his guest’s head and led him from the room. The man in the shadows sighed. Things would be so much easier if he did not have such substandard material to work with. But, the mission was everything. Moreover, the Earth was more important than a few insignificant humans.

  § § §

  “Ooookay,” Larry said. “That is more like it.”

  He studied the graphs from the tracking equipment as he ran the Osiris Cells at low power. Maggie, through some feat of technical wizardry, had cajoled the gravitic detector to follow the results of the experiments. After feeding the results into his computer, he began to see a complete picture of the forces generated by the cells.

  He quickly scanned the results and then fed it to storage. He then initialized the next set of tests on the equipment. Not only had Maggie tamed the gravitic detector, she had helped him automate the experiments so that he could run the things repeatedly without having to continuously stay in the lab. For several weeks he had set up a group of tests and locked up the lab for the evening. On the following mornings, he would fix his cup of tea and sit down to sift through the results. And, they were interesting. He wasn’t sure what he was seeing, so far, but it was far more than any of Clenèt’s speculations had suggested. His current arrangements had gravitic fields acting on the device itself, rather than focusing on a reactive mass at the center of the cells.

  Maggie stepped into the room. “How’s it going, Larry?”

  “You know, Mags, I am starting to get really excited about the experiments. I not only have a locus for my dissertation, but there may be some amazing practical applications.”

  “That’s outstanding, Larry,” she said. “But, we’ve got another problem.”

  Her comments broke his concentration and he spun around to face her. “What now?”

  “Fluffy is on the warpath.”

  “What is the problem with him?”

  A couple of students are complaining about you hogging all the time in the High Energy lab?”

  “Nobody has been in here for years!” he yelled. “Who is shoveling out the horse barn now? And who are they, anyway?”

  “Fluffy wouldn’t say. But, I expect him to be down here almost anytime.”

  Larry stood up. “For pity’s sake. I am finally making real progress, and somebody is putting a stick in the spokes.”

  “Let me see if I can slow him down, some,” she said. “I would like to find out exactly what’s going on.”

  She began walking to the door. Larry sat down and put his elbows on the workbench. He rested his head in his hands with a sigh. It just never seemed to stop.

  “And don’t expect to just sit there and sulk.”

  He whipped around to look at her. She pointed her finger at him. “I’m getting ready to stick my neck out for you, Larry. Your job is to focus on your experiments and writing a dissertation.”

  She turned again and left the lab. He stared after her for several moments, then turned back to his work, and tried to concentrate. He shook his head. This was getting to be very hard. His fear of Maggie forced him to concentrate and to begin thinking about his achievements.

  When Maggie stepped out into the office area of the lab, she carefully locked the doors into the lab. For some reason, Fluffy was afraid of her, and she knew it. She felt like she could stop the current problem, whatever it was before it gained momentum.

  With a bang, Dr. Pournelle shoved the door open and marched into the lab. Completely ignoring Maggie, he headed towards the door to the lab itself. He had maintained his pace, expecting to burst through the doors into the lab. His hand hit the door with a smack and then he connected with his face.

  He stepped back with a couple of strong epithets and put his hands to his nose. “That really hurt!”

  “Can I help you with something, Dr. Pournelle?” Maggie’s sweet voice intruded into his facial pain.

  “You can unlock the door, Maggie!” he snarled.

  “I’m sorry, but Larry is busy. If you would like to tell me what you need, I would be happy to pass a message to him.”

  “Come on, Maggie, this is not funny. I need to talk to him.”

  “What about?”

  “Other students need the lab,” he said. “Larry is going to have to share his time.”

  “Who needs the lab?” she asked.

  “I really cannot tell you,” he said. “That is school business.”

  “We will all see soon enough,” she replied. “But, why now? Nobody has used the lab in years. Larry just spent a week cleaning this place up and all of a sudden, people need it? I am sorry, Sir, you are not making sense.”

  “Just open the door.”

  She got out of her chair and walked over to where she stood in front of him.

  “Do you want to know what I think? I think somebody does not want Larry to complete his doctoral work. For some reason, somebody does not like him, and they have tried repeatedly to run him out of here. You are going to tell me who is behind this, and then we are going to put a stop to it. I’m getting tired of this constant tension.”

  Pournelle shook his head and tried to back up. But, it was a few short steps to the door into the hallway. He stopped when the door came into contact with his back.

  “I can’t tell you. I mean to say, that you are being paranoid. Nobody is out to get Larry?”

  “Really? Do you really believe that? Which student wants to use the lab?”

  “Oh, If you must know, it is Archibald Larch.”

  “Then you tell Archie Larch to come see me. I will make arrangements for him to use the lab.”

  “Oh, I couldn’t do that,” Pournelle said.

  “Oh, yes you could. Listen, Dr. Pournelle, I know that you are very busy. I will take over the scheduling of this lab for you. That way you won’t have to worry about it.”

  “But you are Larry’s friend. You will take advantage of that,” Pournelle sputtered.

  “Oh, nonsense. You just go back and tell Archie that I will get him set up in the lab. You won’t hear any complaints from him.”

  Pournelle reached his arm behind and pulled the door open. Once again, he fled into the hallway.

  “Well!” Maggie brushed her hands together and walked over to study the lab door. She made up her mind not to unlock it just yet and returned to her desk. She
had things to do, as well. Her dissertation had come together well, and she was working through it again to do the basic editing.

  The afternoon dimmed towards evening, and no one else visited the lab. Maggie closed up her computer and then unlocked the door into the lab. She peeked through the door and saw that Larry was absorbed in his work. She padded quietly into the lab and stepped over to look at the apparatus. The soft blue glow indicated the Osiris Cells were in operation. The air seemed to vibrate with the forces Larry studied.

  “Oh, hi, Mags,” she heard Larry speak.

  “You ready to head for home?”

  “Is it that time already?” he asked.

  “You’ve been busy.”

  “And I’ve accomplished a lot. Let me get the overnight runs started, and then we can leave. I wonder what it’s like outside.”

  “I haven’t left my desk all afternoon,” she said. “I have no idea. But, it’s winter time, if that gives you a clue.”

  “Oh, thanks. Give me a hand with this?”

  She helped him move the cables between his computer and the storage deck. He then closed up his computer and grabbed his coat. They left the lab area together and walked the long hallway to the main part of the school.

  “Seems to be dripping more this afternoon,” he commented as they ducked around the spot where the leaky roof allowed snow to drift down from above.

  “They are simply going to have to find the money to repair that,” she said. “The whole building is probably going to fall down.”

  “There’s a happy thought. Hopefully, we will be out of here before that happens.”