Posted by Lieutenant Alexis Bonner (Scientist, Medical Researcher) in When the Chemistry is Right

Posted by Lieutenant Dr. Solomon Kane (Chief Science Officer/Research & Development) in When the Chemistry is Right

(snip)
That was too much. He was always pushing and most of the time it was slightly uncomfortable but didn’t bother her. But for some reason this topic bothered her, a lot. She set the plate down, untouched except for a single bite. Alexis stood up walked over to her bag, pulled out some piece of clothing, heading for the bedroom. “I’m going to the lab.”

Bonner

Kane didn’t stop eating or try to stop her, but he picked up his glass and as she reached the door he said “Ok… but why?” and then looked at her intently. He knew she was running away… but he wanted her to know she was as well. Not to stop her… but so she knew she didn’t have to; but could if she needed to.

Kane

Alexis stood and looked at him, trying to find a way to explain it, and her eyes fell on the sketchbook. “You said you get angry, and you draw because it helps you not be angry.” Her mind was racing on a thousand different tangents, faster than she could consciously process. It was like the neurons were misfiring. “I work, I research, I experiment. I can’t do that in here....It helps me think…to…to make sense of everything in my head. I need to do something with everything that’s up here,” and she waves at her head, “so I can think.”

Bonner

Kane looked at her in silence for a moment, and then simply said “Huh. Okay. See you later, Lex. Luv ya.” and went back to his burger as if nothing had happened.

Kane

Some how she knew that was going to be his response, but at the same time she was confused by it. She went into the bedroom, changed into her uniform and then put her clothes back in her bag. She paused, she wanted to tell him what was in her head but she needed to figure out what was up there first. “I do love you, Solomon.” She turned out the door leaving Frigga with him. Down the corridor to the turbolift and soon she was standing outside the lab. “GALEN turn up the lights in the R&D lab.” Then she entered and locked the door. “GALEN initiate biological hazard protocol for the lab.” She moved over to her work space and turned on the console, picked up the ear buds, and then moved into the back donning an environmental hazard suit. She moved over to the containment unit examining it and the access panel for the Pneumolysin. Tapping in her access codes there was a blue swirl and the Pneumolysin samples appeared in the containment unit. “Lt Bonner would you like Music?” came GALEN’s voice. “No Galen, no music. Place bio and chemical forcefields around the area I’m working as a 3rd layer of protection.” Alexis worked for Hours.

She looked at the results, it was flawless. The Eden’s Apple file was…she had to admit she was impressed with herself. It was the largest load of BS she’d ever seen and it would past muster to anyone who didn’t know it was fake. She hoped. She took the extra Pneumolysin and placed it into a small biocontaminate container. “GALEN Eradiate this container and then dispose using biofilter protocol Omega. Then initiate the hazmat scrub program.” Alexis sat down on her stool arms crossed, head on arms and breathed. The cycle took half an hour before she could take the suit off, assuming something didn’t go wrong. She occupied herself with creating the paper trail Taylor requested. And there was the edginess from earlier, but now she knew what was causing it and why. “Procedures Complete.” Alexis removed the suit and stored it. It was late or early depending, but she tapped her combadge anyway, =/\=Lt Bonner to Lt Kane. Please come to the R&D lab.=/\=

Bonner

There was a slight pause and a drowsy voice said =/\= Yeah, ok. On my way. =/\= Ten minutes later the doors opened. Kane walked in in a pair of shorts and a very worn gray t-shirt and no shoes. His hair was a mess and he yawned as he walked in scratching his head. “Heya, Lex. How’s it hangin’?” he asked as he came and plopped down on a chair next to her.

Kane

She looked up at him as he came in and there was something in her gaze. As he sat down she passed him a PaDD. She didn’t look at him while she talked, she looked at her hands, clasped and resting on the table, but her voice was steady and clear. “It’s finished. The file, the Pneumolysin, all of it. It’s already in the containment device. And on the orange too, so don’t touch it either. Taylor said to keep a paper trail, so I‘m testing the orange peel to see if it protects the fruit from the Pneumolysin. The Pneumolysin is a linked chain now. Individual cells can’t survive without being attached to the others. Once injected the whole chain will empty into whoever gets injected. I never married him, so no he didn’t ruin the idea of it for me. There are too many positive examples for me to base my feelings off of what he did. Once the Pneumolysin chain reaches the hippocampus through the blood stream it will be over very quickly. I’ve designed it to feed and reproduce normally but the impulses from hippocampus neurons will create a frenzy. I can’t promise it won’t be painful, but it will be quick. If this doesn’t work, he’s going to know I did, and he’s going to kill me or worse and there will be no someday. The logs are ready to be recorded so you can back date them and then send it all to whomever you need to.”

Bonner

“One shot delivery and one dose poison, no risk after. Nice, thats brilliant. Im glad he didn’t ruin the idea, because if he was the only thing that kept that from being a possibility I’d have killed him. Quick is good , painful I don’t care about. And if this doesn’t work I’ll kill him. Thats always been my fall back position. And no, he isn’t going to do anything. You are too smart, too good to have this not work. I’ve already recorded logs, so I’ll just paste them in and send them out. Figure a week for everything to be set, forty-eight hours for him to review the ‘data, another forty eight hours for him to come up with a plan. Figure ten to twelve days from when we send the files and then he’ll be going after it. Sound about right to you? And you can go work whenever you need to, Lex. I’m not your jailer or your babysitter. I know that’s how your brain works. So just do that… but when you’re done come home and talk to me about whatever it is, okay?”

Kane

“No, no risk, the whole dose will transfer, and what doesn’t will die. There is nothing stopping it from being a possibility except me, and only if I want to stop it.” That statement brought with it a small hint of the stubborn, confidant researcher that had argued with him over Borcheck that day. “You can’t kill him. Not here anyway. It would be safer, but if anyone decides you shouldn’t have you’ll end up back in a hole.” She got up walking over to the plants and carefully started taking the fruit off. “To make sure he doesn’t take the plants instead. No fruit no benefit.” She considered the math. “My logs contain some....personal entries. Psychology isn’t an area in which I excel. They....they are truthful and personal, but they should send him over the edge. Make him act faster than he should. I don’t think…I don’t feel like you are my keeper.” She paused, the hours of intense work had helped to order everything in her head. It didn’t stop, it didn’t turn off, but it was ordered. “I told you I was coming here not because you required me to do so, but because if it was me and you left in the middle of that conversation I would…worry I guess is the word.” She sat back down on the stool. Talk to him, “The idea of marriage doesn’t bother me, it’s someday that bothers me. If everything goes as planned, the probability of someday is low. Taylor and Miqian can’t reconcile their morals. Intel can put us both in a hole if they decide he’s more valuable than either one or both of us. That is not the more I want.” Okay maybe that wasn’t clear, but she was talking.

Bonner

Kane listened, taking in what she was saying before thinking about. He just listened. When she was done he thought for a moment and then said “Okay… couple of questions. First, what do the logs talk about? How much faster do you think he’ll react? Second… not so much a question. You and I react differently, and that’s ok. I know you’d worry if I just up and left, that’s why I won’t do that. I know you work differently, so you doing it is okay with me. I trust you’ll come back and talk to me once your brain has organized itself. And last… if the thought of someday bothers you, then let me tell you this. I’d marry you right now, right here in the lab. Dont care. Doesn’t matter to me. In fact…” and he held up a finger and went to his station and opened a drawer. He came back with a small red box. He s in front of her and said “There. Open it up.”

Kane

Alexis looked at the box and then away and at him. Whatever was in there, didn’t change the fact that someday, whatever that meant, could be lost because other people could ruin it all. It wasn’t the waiting that bothered her, it was that someone else could take it away. But all that ran through her head while she began to talk. “First…they are about you, or us.” She turned really red, “How I feel about it. When I started making the project logs, I starting thinking about how obsessed he was with augments and being better than everyone. So I made sure to mention you in the project logs and how capable and intelligent you are. I didn’t create the personal logs for that purpose, but I realized that he would want to compare you to him, or…” she paused searching her mind…”he wants my mind but he doesn’t want me to have anyone else. I don’t know how much faster. Maybe I’m wrong, but I just feel like if he knows you are the one who bested him in a fight and with me…” she shrugs not sure how else to put it. “Second I know we’re different, but I won’t ever not tell you where I’m going.” And last…the box. She looked back at it, he’d marry her in the lab, wouldn’t that just make everyone laugh, Bonner got married in a science lab. But it didn’t matter to her either. Good things happened in this lab. She glanced over at his table and could see them sitting there cutting cards. She smiled a little and picked up the box and with a deep breath, she opened it.

Bonner

Inside the box were two rings. One: a brilliant blue solitaire diamond in a white gold setting. The other: a piece of deep green jade carved into the shape of a c9met with he tail wrapping around the hole for the finger, and scattered throughout the tail were small sapphires and diamonds.

They were beautiful. She adored the jade. She wasn’t one for jewelry but she really liked that one. It was jade. She expected that if she took either out and looked he probably had some Mandarin on it somewhere.

“The diamond is for now. You can put it on. I inserted a micro-transporter scrambler in the setting so if he tries to beam you out, he’ll go and you’ll stay. I also put a radiographic isotope in the crystalline structure so if he does manage to get you off the ship, I can track you.”

Kane

Just like with the light, Alexis simply couldn’t…she looked from the box to Solomon. Then very carefully put the box down, before she dropped it, little shocks running down her back and her arms to her fingers, making them shake slightly. She opened her mouth once or twice but no sound came out.

Bonner

Kane smiled and chuckled. “It’s part of the ruse, Lex. Diamond solitaire engagement ring? Really? Like I’d go with something like that. So go ahead, put it on. May as well get used to wearing it. When he shows, you need to be natural with it on. Like its always been there.”

Kane

The hard won calm and order the hours of work had granted her was so precarious. “It’s not the pressurized carbon....it’s the rest of it. You wouldn’t have made it if you didn’t think he’s going to take me too.” She wasn’t sure if it made her feel safe or terrified. She supposed the ring itself made her feel safe but knowing she needed it…games, it was all games she didn’t know how to play, but Solomon did. She took it out of the box and slipped it on her finger and fidgeted a bit with it and then slipped it off. “It’s too big, not by much but enough it could fall off.”

Bonner

“I made because I don’t believe in leaving things to chance if it can be avoided. Period. And no, I don’t think he is going to take you… but I’m not so arrogant as to think that isn’t a possibility. Now give it here.”

He took the ring and went to his bench and brought out some tools. A few minutes passed, and then he returned and said “Here, try it on now.”

Kane