U: Unexpected Readings

This is a continuous story.  To start from the beginning, go to entry A.  You can also find the whole story to date on this PAGE.

Unexpected Readings

The science lab was a flurry of activity over the next few days.  Layla coordinated the efforts of the engineers effortlessly.  Adam admired the way she asserted her authority, and he couldn’t deny her intelligence.  She was confident in what she did.  That quality about her, which he may have initially perceived as arrogance, didn’t seem so abrasive now.  He wanted to use every excuse he could to find to be around her.  Unfortunately, he knew nothing about nanotechnology, so he could hardly justify getting in her way.

The Knights of the Order of Knitting occupied their own part of the station.  They were tasked with knitting as many blankets as they could.  The knights would work their magic as a large, infuriating distraction.  The more they knitted now, the better their distraction would be.

The rest of the rebellion, an awkward conglomeration of humans and several other species, were studying the schematics of the DULL offices.  Since Adam wasn’t officially part of the shoot ’em up segment of the plan, they didn’t want him around.

That left him spending his time with George, who’d finally recovered from the frat party.  “When smart people get drunk, they become even more eager to prove how smart they are,” he explained as they walked down the same corridor they’d been pacing for hours.  “Parties are a hotbed for recruiting the best and brightest these days.”

“What role did the tutu play in your strategy?” Adam asked.

“That was just a side effect of my strategy.  I had to assimilate to the environment, and playing beer pong with physics and engineering just made sense.”  George shrugged.  “It was also fun.”

“I didn’t know gloomy George could have fun.”

“Only when I’m too wasted to know who I am,” George replied nonchalantly.

When they passed the science lab, Adam decided to pop in to say hi.  He hadn’t been there since breakfast, after all.  George rolled his eyes and continued on his stroll down the corridor.

Layla was in the middle of an intense conversation with several engineering students.  Seeing this, Adam felt a bit awkward about his timing.  Yet when she caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, she waved him over.  He joined the group, astonished at the amount of technobabble being tossed about between them.  Determined to look like he was keeping up with the conversation, he casually put his hands in his pockets and nodded as people spoke.

After about a minute, Adam noticed a young man in a lab coat wandering toward him with a scanner.  The scanner chirped and screeched, and the young man’s eyes widened with wonder as he stared at the readout.  “Oh wow.  This is unexpected!” he declared.

“Emmett, I thought you were supposed to be monitoring the nanos,” Layla said pointedly.

“I was,” Emmett replied off-handedly, “but when he walked in, the readings went all whack-a-doodle.”

“I suppose that’s a technical term,” Adam jested.

Emmett ignored the comment and held the scanner within an inch of Adam’s ear.  “His bioelectrical readings are bizarre.  These are the same measurements that one would expect of the theoretical Ludicrous Field.”

“What?”  Adam, suddenly the center of attention, felt distinctly uncomfortable.

“Are you serious?”  Layla rushed to the young man’s side and craned her neck to look at the readout.  After several long moments of astounded silence, she muttered, “Oh my.”

“Adam, have you led a disturbingly illogical life?” Emmett man inquired.

When Adam nodded, the motion of the entire room shifted dramatically.  Before he knew it, he was sitting in a corner recounting every embarrassing and irrational moment of his life while a small group of eager students took notes.  He silently regretted that Layla was hearing this too.

“This discovery could win us the Nobel Prize,” one of the students whispered excitedly.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” another cautioned.

After hours of interrogation and measurements, they all seemed to agree on one fact.  Adam Evans was the biggest scientific discovery of the century, and all the absurdities of his life could be reasonably explained.

“We could use this to our advantage,” Emmett said.  The excitement oozed from his words like ink from a broken pen.  “This data shows that he’s had a mixture of both good and bad results from this unique bioelectric field.  If we could calibrate it properly, we could guarantee that the bizarre events that befall him during this mission would only be positive.  If things were to go wrong in there, it might be enough to save them.”

“Could you really do that?” Layla asked.

“I think so.”  Emmett paused.  “Of course, if I got it wrong, it could also kill him.”



Proceed to entry V.