The Black: Arrival

by Paul E. Cooley

  “But you calibrated the machine this morning?”

  “Yes. Like everything else,” Marie said.

  “The instrument has to be broken. There’s no way there’s no water in the oil,” Jay said. “That just doesn’t happen.”

  Kate clucked her tongue. “There is one possibility. Maybe the oil is so light that the water molecules just don’t, well, cling to it.”

  “Cling to it. You mean the hydrocarbon rings somehow push the water out?” Jay shook his head. “Bullshit.”

  The chief chemist shrugged. “It’s all theory, of course. We’d have to run a simulation on that.”

  “Right. But before we start treating it like some new compound,” Jay said, “perhaps we should run through the other more pedestrian tests?”

  Marie lifted the clipboard off the table, wrote down the results from the API and hydro tests, and then began crossing off test after test. “Well,” she said at last, “that gets rid of a lot of time-consuming, useless analyses.”

  “So what’s next?” Kate asked.

  “Sulfur.” Marie reached for the beaker and stopped. Several bubbles popped on the surface of the black liquid. “Jay? Why is it doing that?”

  Jay and Kate exchanged a glance. A swarm of bubbles popped. He flicked his gloved finger against the Pyrex. The bubbling stopped at once. “I have absolutely no clue.”

  *****

  After hours in the chem lab, the break room smelled like heaven. Kate took another bite from a golden brown samosa. Her plate of chicken tikka was little more than bones and smears of sauce. She hated the fact she’d eaten it so fast, but it was just too damned good.

  Maeve sat next to her, sniffling from the spicy curry she’d devoured. Her dexterous fingers dipped a piece of naan into the remaining curry and then disappeared into her mouth. “Wow, Mom,” she said, “Mr. Beaudry pulls out all the stops, doesn’t he?”

  Jay laughed. “That’s nothing. Just wait until breakfast arrives.” He dabbed a napkin at the corner of his mouth and stifled a belch. “Hope you like omelettes, girl. Because they’re great!”

  “That was Tony the Tiger.” Marie shot Jay a withering glance. “I thought you only mimicked Looney Tunes.”

  “I like all of them,” Jay said. “Besides,” he pointed at Maeve, “it made her smile.”

  Kate grinned. All through the meal, Jay had made small talk with Maeve about games, school, music, anything to interrupt the silence between mouthfuls and chewing. As much as Jay loved kids, Kate wondered why he didn’t have any. Then again, after working with him for so many years, she knew how much he hated awkward silences.

  She turned to Maeve. “You get your homework done?”

  Her daughter paused in mid-chomp on a popadom. “Sort of,” Maeve said through a crunching mouthful.

  “Maeve?” Kate said. “It’s nearly ten o’clock. You should have everything done by now.”

  “Mom,” the teenager said after she swallowed, “I have until Monday. It’s still Friday. Cut me some slack.”

  Kate sighed. Marie was staring into the dab of saag paneer on the plate in front of her. “Marie? You okay?”

  She looked up at Kate and frowned. “I’m fine. Just wondering about our samples downstairs.”

  Jay cleared his throat. “The break room is for breaks, Marie.”

  “I know,” she said. “But—”

  “But,” Kate finished the thought, “you can’t get it out of your head.”

  Marie nodded. “The report Sigler sent us from Leaguer mostly checks out. We thought her readings were off, or her equipment wasn’t properly calibrated. But our tests prove her right.”

  “No,” Jay said, “our tests prove hers were off. But not in the direction we thought they would be. This stuff is too sweet. Too perfect.” Jay tapped a knuckle on the table. “Beginning to think they’re fu—messing with us.”

  Maeve laughed. “Love how you changed that sentence, Uncle Jay.”

  Jay’s cheeks flushed. “I sometimes forget there’s a little girl sitting with us.”

  “Little girl? I’m 13!”

  “Always going to be my little girl,” Kate said and brushed a lock of Maeve’s hair from her face. Maeve flinched away from her mother’s touch, but grinned all the same.

  “Messing with us,” Marie said. “Right. That’s what it’s like. Either that or the sample was contaminated with something else.”

  “With what?” Jay asked. “I mean, what kind of contaminants would give us these kinds of readings?”

  The table went quiet. Kate’s mind filled with molecular chemistry, hydrocarbon rings, methyl attractors, and hydrogen stabilization patterns. She shook her head and looked at Jay. “I can’t think of anything that explains this. Contaminants wouldn’t change the bonds between the molecules.”

  Jay nodded. “Right. Unless there’s something we’re missing.”

  Maeve giggled. “You guys are studying oil, right?”

  “Yes,” Jay said. “It’s, um, unlike anything we’ve seen before.”

  “So why do you think it’s oil?” Maeve asked. “Because it came from an offshore rig?”

  Kate’s jaw dropped open. Occam’s Razor, a voice said in her mind. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” she said. Kate beamed. “And I think you may be on to something.”

  “Not oil?” Jay said aloud. His eyes focused on the fluorescent lights. “That is crazy.”

  “We could perform a molecular study,” Marie said. She tented her fingers on the table surface. “Stephen, I mean Chuckles, should have the NOC up tonight, right? We could run an NMR analysis on the makeup and then have the new programs model it.”

  Jay shrugged. “That would work. But since that’ll take hours to run, we might as well first prove that it’s not oil.”

  “Agreed,” Kate said. “We need to check with Chuckles on the NOC status. I know the switchover is scheduled for tonight, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to get it done.”

  Jay giggled and then dabbed a paper napkin at the side of his mouth. “Considering the state of the new building, I wouldn’t be surprised if those idiots screwed up some wiring.”

  Marie shook her head. “Stephen’s a professional when it comes to that stuff. That’s his baby. No way he’d let them screw that up.”

  Jay cast a suspicious glance toward the chemist. “‘Stephen?’ Not ‘Chuckles’?” Marie blushed. Jay smiled and looked at Kate. “I think our little Marie has a crush.”

  Kate laughed. “Good. Marie? Before we go back into the lab, I need you to check with him regarding the switchover. Let’s see how soon he can get the computers up.”

  “Okay.” Marie’s voice trembled.

  “You’ve got programs that can do that?” Maeve asked.

  Kate nodded. “Yup. Neil and the bio-team have their software for pulling apart DNA and looking for analogs in the known gene banks. We have something similar.”

  “Similar, but not as powerful,” Jay said. “Afraid no one cares what a hydrocarbon looks like.”

  “Except us. And except for now,” Marie said.

  Kate laughed. “We can perform a simple film test. Or let the machine do it. At least then we’d have an idea of the length of the molecular chain.”

  “All right,” Jay said. “Sounds like we have a plan. But first we need to perform the distillation. I mean all this other sounds hypothetical and we’re going to feel pretty stupid if it ends up spewing hexane at the first cut.”

  “Geek geek geek,” Maeve mumbled.

  “It’s our job,” Jay grinned. “And you might learn a thing or two if you listen.”

  Maeve’s expression soured. “Right, because my grades in chemistry are so good.”

  Jay hissed through his teeth. “How can you have a chemist for a Mom and suck at chemistry?”

  Kate threw up her hands. “Because she’s incapable of listening. Oh, and her earth-science teacher is terrible.”

  “Tsk tsk. Obviously you need a better teacher.”
He pointed his thumbs at himself. “And I’m available.”

  “Right,” Maeve said. She grabbed another popadom and crunched on it. “Because that will make me more interested.”

  “At some point, you’re going to want to know how the world works. And that’s science,” Jay said.

  Maeve swallowed. “And what do you do when science doesn’t explain things?”

  The three chemists grinned.

  Chapter 3

  The new NOC was on. Chuckles grinned as he walked down the aisle of blade cabinets and storage arrays. Green LED lights shined from each slot. The hum of the fans was barely audible through the noise-canceling headphones.

  Chuckles finished his walk of the aisles and returned to the NOC entrance. He closed the inner door, placed the hearing protection back in its cradle, and opened the outer door. He started to walk forward and then stopped. Marie stood a few feet away, an awkward smile on her face.

  “Um, hello,” Chuckles said.

  She blushed. “Hi.”

  His brows scrunched together. “Can I, um, help you?”

  She wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. “We are running the analysis for PPE.”

  He waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. “Okay,” Chuckles said. She didn’t look well. Her cheeks were flushed, but her skin was paler than usual. “Is there a problem?”

  “Yes,” Marie said and smiled. “We want to use the new molecular modeling programs.”

  For a second, Chuckles wanted to say no. He wanted to make comments about how the NOC hadn’t yet been battle-tested. That he didn’t know how it would perform. But that was bullshit. Chuckles had smashed the systems with several genetic analysis runs. The processors were burned in, memory tested, and all power supplies in the green. Plus? The new NOC was damned cold. In other words? There would never be a better time.

  A lopsided grin appeared on his face. “We can make that happen,” he said. “You guys give me an hour or two and I’ll have it ready.”

  Marie nodded. “Thank you, Stephen.”

  “You feeling okay?” he asked.

  “I think so. Probably got a cold or something.”

  Chuckles reached and touched her forehead with the back of his hand. Her flesh felt warm and clammy. “I think you need to take a break. Get some drugs. And maybe a nap.”

  She shook her head. “Not on a hot-shot. Sleep when you’re dead and all that.”

  “Let’s hope not.” He put his hands on his hips. “What happened?”

  “What?” She followed his gaze to her bandaged hand. “Oh, that. I cut myself opening the PPE barrel. Stupid mistake.”

  Chuckles frowned. “Any chance you got something on you? Like, what is that shit, fracking fluid?”

  She giggled. “No fracking fluid. Not in offshore exploration, anyway.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. Something that ain’t oil?”

  “Don’t know,” she said. “I washed it in the emergency chem shower and covered it with iodine. And it’s not like crude oil has a ton of bacteria or viruses.”

  Chuckles grunted. “You better go take something. That cold is creeping into your chest.”

  Marie nodded. “Okay, Stephen. I’ll do that.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’d hate it if you got sick.”

  “Really?” Marie’s smile widened.

  Chuckles’ expression returned to a thin line. “Yeah. I’d like to, um, take you out some time. For drinks or something.”

  Marie blushed and looked away.

  “Sorry,” Chuckles said and stared at his feet. “Guess that was too—”

  “No,” Marie said. “I would like that.”

  He raised his eyes, cheeks hot with embarrassment. Chuckles shifted on his feet. “I have to get back to making sure the NOC is ready for you.”

  “Right.” She stepped away from him. “And I have to get back to the lab.”

  “When’s your next break?” he asked.

  “Two a.m. Why?”

  A smile tugged at his lips. “Just wondering when I’d see you again.”

  Marie opened her mouth to say something and then stopped. She swallowed hard. “See you then?”

  “Hopefully,” he said. She turned and walked back to the skybridge. He watched her head down the hallway, eyes straying to her perfect ass. Beautiful. Smart. And not afraid of geeks. He sighed. And way above my station. Chuckles shook his head and walked to the stairwell.

  As he took the stairs down to the loading dock, he couldn’t get her out of his mind. A cigarette or two and he’d be level again. Just talking to her had been a chore. He’d no idea what he’d say at break. He’d no idea he wouldn’t get the chance.

  *****

  As she walked to the skybridge, Marie stared upward at the exposed ductwork. The construction company still hadn’t connected most of the ventilation for the second floor. The lights weren’t all on either. Like the rest of the scientists at the company, she wondered if the damned building would ever be finished.

  A sudden wave of fire hit her lungs. Marie doubled over, explosive coughs wracking her body. Tears squeezed from her eyes. Lightning bolts of pain shot through her skull. She lurched and placed one hand on the nearest wall to keep her upright as she gasped for air between each cough. Just when she was certain she’d suffocate, the fit abated. She spat a large wad of mucous to the concrete floor and wiped at her mouth. Marie didn’t see the flecks of red in the yellow-green blob of mucous.

  She panted in the gloom. Sick. I’m sick. Marie slowly stood and then leaned against the wall. Eyes closed, breath slowing, she whimpered as a flush of heat spread over her skin. Beads of sweat oozed from her forehead. Marie opened her eyes. The skybridge was no more than a few steps away. And in the break room? Drugs.

  A wave of vertigo hit her as she entered the skybridge. She halted until it passed. A thin thread of mucous drizzled from her left nostril. She wiped it away and started walking again.

  The skybridge portion in the older building was much brighter. As were the hallways. The normally soft, blue-white fluorescents burned her eyes. Through squinted slits, she made her way to the break room.

  From inside Kate’s office, she heard the sounds of music. Maeve must be playing a game. Or jamming out. Marie smiled and then coughed again. Another jolt of pain spread through her lungs. She shook her head to clear starlight from her mind and entered the break room.

  The remnants of dinner had already been cleared and stuffed into the garbage cans. She’d no doubt Darren had done it. Whenever there were overnights, Mike and Darren took care of the food and making sure everything was as spotless as could be.

  The medicine cabinet hung on the wall near the refrigerator. An emergency eye-wash station hung next to it. Marie opened the cabinet and sniffed back another snail-trail of snot.

  Antihistamines, fever reducers, ibuprofen, bandages, antiseptic… She scooped up four anti-inflammatories and a blister pack of cold medicine.

  Between sips of bottled water, she managed to swallow all the pills. As soon as her throat allowed her, she shotgunned the rest of the cold water.

  That was all she could do. She couldn’t leave Kate and Jay shorthanded. Not unless she was on her damned death bed. Marie tossed the empty plastic bottle into the recycling bin and headed for the stairs to the lab level.

  *****

  Kate sat at the computer terminal. While she and Jay waited for Marie to get back, Kate decided it was time to enter some numbers. Not that there was much to enter.

  The API, water content, and sediment readings were beyond bizarre. PPE was never going to believe the results. And if the strange nature of the oil continued to play out, she wasn’t sure Simpson would even accept the report.

  But first, they had to run distillation. The first cut would require them to heat the oil and then siphon off any gases present at different heights in the distillation tower. In a normal sample, any hexane, butane, or light hydrocarbons would evaporate from the crude and ri
se to the top of the tower. Heavier hydrocarbons would be captured by the trays set at different heights. Any heavy, nasty stuff would remain in the bottom of the tower. In a normal sample, she thought. With this shit? No telling what’s going to come out.

  Kate entered text in the fields on the form. She put notations for their observations next to the absurd numbers. Absurd. Yes, that’s the word.

  She looked up as Jay moved to the sample beaker sitting on the shelf. He was in profile, but she could still tell he was frowning at the Pyrex container.

  “What’s up?” she called.

  He flinched and then turned to her. “The oil. It’s still bubbling.”

  “Still small bubbles?” She hit the save button on the report and stood from the workstation.

  Jay grunted. “Not exactly.”

  She walked toward him with quick steps as Jay backed away from the sample. “What’s wrong with it? I know it’s strange, but why do you look like you’ve seen a—” The words died in her throat.

  Tendrils of dried oil clung to the sides of the beaker. But they no longer looked like liquid. Instead, the threads bore a strong resemblance to burned chocolate. In the beaker’s center, the oil wasn’t bubbling. It looked like it was boiling.

  “Let’s throw this shit out,” she said.

  “Yeah. Maybe we left it on the heater too long?”

  “I don’t care. It needs to go in the waste.”

  Jay grabbed a long pair of stainless steel forceps, put them around the beaker, and squeezed. He lifted the container from the shelf and carefully stepped toward the waste trap.

  “If you’d do the honors?” Jay said. His voice quivered with nervous tension.

  Kate moved to the bright red barrel inset into the floor. She pressed a handle on its side and the lid swung upward.

  She stared down into the interior. The trap was still closed. “Okay, go ahead and pour it in.”

  “If it’ll pour,” Jay said. He walked until the beaker was above the hole and twisted his hands. As the container tipped, the oil slid free of the Pyrex and streamed into the barrel.

  Jay kept twisting his hands, bending at the waist, until the beaker was upside down. Remnants of the oil dripped at a slow pace. “Sufferin’ succotash!” Jay yelled. “Just go already!” Droplets of his saliva flew out of his mouth, some landing in the barrel.