“She?”
Ell shrugged, “Or he. I always seem to think of any additions to our family as girls because we’ve never had any boys in our family. Well, except Dad who I barely remember and Jake who I hated too much to consider family.”
Kristen got up and stepped to the couch, sitting down beside her daughter. She put her arms around. “Oh Ell,” she sighed. “I’ll admit I hadn’t thought very much about this, but even if you hide it from the outside world, she or he is still going to be the child of wealth and privilege you know.”
“Not if she doesn’t know either.”
Kristen leaned back, a startled look on her face. “You’re kidding, right?!”
“I don’t think so,” Ell said quietly, leaning her head on her mother’s shoulder. “Not until she’s older anyway…”
They stayed like that for a minute, Kristen comforting her daughter with tears rolling down her own cheeks. Then with a sniff she drew back and said with a voice that cracked, “Well then, let’s plan you a wedding, ‘Raquel.’”
***
Kant Fladwami sighed and thought back to the days when he’d thought that the Presidential Science Advisor would simply advise the President on science issues. “How can I help you, Dr. Ementhal?” Fladwami already knew that Ementhal would badger him and he knew what Ementhal would badger him about.
“Straighten your president out!” Ementhal began. “Allowing that Donsaii twit to monopolize Earth’s access to the stars is absolutely the most preposterous thing I have ever heard of! She has no idea what she’s doing. What if this teenager encounters an advanced and inimical civilization? The first thing we may know about it could be when their invasion fleet arrives! You should consider yourself lucky that the first civilization she encountered turned out to be the primitive Teecees!”
“Francis, what would you have the administration do?”
“Turn that technology over to a vetted committee of seasoned scientists. People with scientific credibility. That girl doesn’t even have the stature to obtain a grant!”
Knowing he would regret it, but unable to stop himself, Fladwami snorted gently, “She does have the scientific genius to get results.”
Silence emanated from the other end of the link. Just when Fladwami thought Ementhal might have disconnected, he said, “Kant, I can see I’m going to have to go over your head on this. You may think this is trivial and funny… but the destiny of the human race cannot be allowed to depend on the frivolous whims of this… this girl child.”
“Francis,” Fladwami sighed, “she’s hardly a child and certainly not frivolous. I’d like to remind you that she has a Nobel Prize? You should try talking with her.”
“I’ve tried! Since I first talked to her, her AI’s rejected my calls.” In an appalled tone he said, “I don’t think she even knows who I am!”
Trying not to snort over Ementhal’s indignant disbelief that anyone might not know who he was, Fladwami said patiently, “Francis, Francis, I suspect the problem came when you lectured her, rather than conversing with her. I’ll bet you browbeat and sermonized her, just like you’ve been doing to me.”
“Well… I had to make it obvious how completely inadequate a wet behind the ears airhead without a real degree to her name would be as the ambassador of our planet. Surely she can’t expect to represent us in our encounters with the other intelligent races out there amongst the stars!”
Fladwami sighed, “Dr. Ementhal, I would remind you that Ell Donsaii invented that technology you want us to turn over to your committee. She doesn’t want to share her tech with any committees. She doesn’t want anyone else to have access to that expertise for exactly the same reasons you just forwarded. She, like you, is also afraid that some idiot might piss off an advanced race and get us in real trouble. President Flood and I have discussed this at length and we’ve concluded that, as our world’s most preeminent genius, Ell Donsaii is exactly who we want to be out there deciding how to handle our encounters with advanced aliens.”
Ementhal spluttered, “Just a damn…”
Fladwami rode over him, “Don’t interrupt me, Dr. Ementhal. I have one last thing for you to chew on. Nobody, and I mean no one at all, knows how to open ports to the stars except Donsaii. None of the people who work for her. None of the physicists who’ve studied her papers. No one! So… we cannot take this technology, technology that only she understands or can build, away from her or turn it over to you or your committee. Go over my head if you want, but it won’t get you anywhere unless you can convince Donsaii herself.”
“Just take her funding away from her.”
“Francis she’s self-funded. She doesn’t need us, and she certainly doesn’t need you. Good day.” Fladwami broke the connection, both tremendously satisfied and personally horrified at how he’d handled the conversation.
***
Just after midnight, Ell stepped into the small “lab” at her farm. She reexamined the small wafer she’d worked on the night before. It consisted of one disc of a standard 3mm two ended port, glued to the disc of a single ended port. When both ports were opened, the two ended port connected to its other end which sat in a mechanism on the lab bench behind Ell. The one ended port on the other side of the wafer opened to a point in space in front of it. Ell could designate, through her AI, the distance at which the one ended port opened. Working in conjunction, the one-two port would connect the “first end” of the two ended port where it sat on the bench mechanism, through the one-two wafer, to a point in space in front of the one ended port. That point in space would be at a distance to be chosen by Ell.
This one ended port wasn’t constrained like the one ended ports D5R had admitted to the public that they could make. Those would reach either less than 5mm for medical use or more than one AU for space exploration. Ell was claiming that the intermediate distances weren’t accessible, but actually she just didn’t want people weaponizing the one ended ports. However, this one actually could open at any distance Ell chose and communicated to her AI—because she did intend to use it as a weapon if forced to do so. Unfortunately, the distance accuracy of the one ended port remained plus or minus about 10% which could present some problems.
All in all, the wafer with the two ports was 3.2 mm in diameter and about 3mm in thickness. She mounted it in a small vice in front of the dartboard she had in her lab.
Ell turned to her lab bench where she had a number of devices mounted under a motorized pivoting ring that Manuel had built for her. The “first end” of the two ended port in the vise was mounted on the ring. She gave the ring a quick once over then said to Allan, her AI, “Load succs four, two.”
The ring spun quickly and put the end of the double ended port over an injector.
“Fire.” The injector pump pushed succs, or succyinylcholine, forward into the double ended port. Two ccs of the paralytic agent went through the two ended port, into the single ended port and out through it. With a tiny spark of light from the opening of the one ended port, a spray of fluid appeared in space four centimeters in front of the vice, where the single ended port of the one-two wafer had delivered it.
“Load Versed ten, one... Fire.” The ring spun to a different location and another spray appeared in the air ten centimeters in front of the wafer, this time comprised of one cc of the powerful sedative midazolam.
“Load pepper fifty, two... Fire.” The ring spun to a different location and another spray, this time with two cc of capsaicin solution sprayed into the air fifty centimeters in front of the wafer.
“Load Taser four... Fire.” The ring spun over a Taser dart gun which fired as ordered. From a point in the air four centimeters in front of the vise, the Taser dart shot through the air to stick quivering into the dart board.
Ell took the wafer out of the vise and carefully inserted it into a small, thin walled titanium canister with a metal stem on one end. She screwed a back onto the canister and tightened it. She put the canister in the “inserter” she’d had Manuel
make for her. She sprayed it down with ethanol.
While she waited for the ethanol to dry, she closed her eyes and considered whether there was any way to further reduce the waste energy that produced the little spark of light when the one way port opened? She’d tightened things up through multiple redesigns now and the spark was much less than it had once been. But, she would like it if nothing called attention to the location or existence of the ports for this weaponized use.
Also, if she worked on the spark issue for a while longer, she could avoid this next step.
She shook her head and took a deep breath. She felt confident she couldn’t make the sparks disappear completely. The time had come to do it. She’d done trials with wooden dowels and chicken bones. The inserter worked reliably. The “one-port/two-port” wafers functioned consistently. She took a deep breath and put her left index finger into the inserter up to the second knuckle. Bending that knuckle she snapped down a metal bar behind it that she’d designed to keep herself from jerking her finger out of the inserter in reaction to the pain she expected port implantation to produce.
To Allan, her AI she said, “OK, install port in finger.”
In response, within a twenty millisecond period a one ended port opened and closed hundreds of time within the middle phalangeal bone of her finger. Each opening and closing moved a little farther into the bone. The port opening and closings cut through the spongy bone inside the phalanx, fragmenting the bone into tiny spicules. Finally two ports opened, one at the far end of the section of fragmented bone and another at the beginning. With the two ports open, the “one-port/two-port” wafer was punched through the distal port. The bone chips and marrow were forced out the proximal port leaving the wafer in their place. When the last port closed, it cut off the titanium stem that the wafer had been mounted on, leaving only the wafer and its canister snugly installed inside the bone of her finger.
To Ell it felt like someone had smashed her finger with a hammer. “Shit!” she exclaimed, popping the bar loose that had held her finger in the inserter. Gritting her teeth she squeezed and rubbed her finger. “Hitting her finger with a hammer” wasn’t an unrealistic description she thought, since the driver that punched the port into the bone delivered a significant impact. Ell had wanted it to happen fast enough that she couldn’t involuntarily move her finger and the one way port delivering the wafer into her bone couldn’t shut off and cut the wafer in half. It would be terrible to have half a useless wafer embedded in her finger. There aren’t a lot of nerve endings inside the bone so the pain wasn’t horrible… but she definitely wasn’t looking forward to installing another in her right index finger.
For now she took a couple of Aleve and went back over to her house.
***
Shan stepped in the door of 411 West, an Italian restaurant on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Before the hostess looked up, Shan saw Raquel sitting at a table in the back corner with another woman. Waving off the hostess he made his way back to their table. “Hey Raquel.”
She smiled brilliantly up at him, “Hey yourself. You remember my Mom, Kris Blandon?”
“Of course, so good to see you.” Shan said, while thinking Kris Blandon? Ell’s Mom had a blond wig covering her auburn hair. The wig had long hair, but it was piled up on her head in some kind of bun. “What are we celebrating tonight?”
“Celebrating?” Kristen said, “Hah! This is a working dinner. We’re planning your wedding young man.”
Shan looked at Ell, “I thought all this planning went on in the background and then I just got my marching instructions, ‘show up here, do this, etcetera?’”
She grinned back, “Yeah, you’re right. You aren’t making any decisions here pretty boy, we just need your help understanding of the ‘lay of the land’ before we embark on our campaign.”
Kristen winked at her, “Careful girl. You don’t want to get too bossy before the wedding, you might scare him off.”
Ell quirked an eyebrow, “He doesn’t scare that easy.” She turned to the waitress who’d approached. “Let’s place our orders.” They busied themselves with the menus for a moment.
When the waitress left, Ell turned to Shan, “So, what we need your help with is, how many people? Small family wedding? Big deal with lots of your relatives?”
Shan raised an eyebrow, “What does my bride want?”
“That’s the right answer.” She turned to her mother and winked, “See, I told you how perfect he was!” Then Ell turned back to Shan and tilted her head, “Sadly I don’t have a lot of close relatives. Both my Mom and Dad were only kids. The only grandparent I still have alive is my Gram on Mom’s side. I have some distant cousins but none that I’ve had a lot to do with.” She shrugged, “And of course,” she said quietly “‘Raquel’ doesn’t actually have any relatives.” “I do have friends who know both sides of me, but not all that many. The distant relatives I have, I don’t know well enough to trust with the secret of Raquel.”
“Sounds like ‘small’ would be better then?”
Ell shrugged, “Doesn’t have to be. You can invite hordes of relatives and I can have just a few. It’ll be OK. I don’t mind if your relatives feel sorry for me and my itty bitty family.”
“Let me talk to my parents. If we’re going to have a big wedding, mostly for my relatives, maybe they’d pitch in for the costs.”
Ell’s mother looked at her with a puzzled expression. Ell shook her head at her mother, then turned to Shan saying. “Let me talk to you about that issue later.”
Kristen said, “Find out whether your family wants to invite a lot of people or not. Don’t worry about the cost. But, if we want to limit the numbers we could call it a ‘destination wedding’ and have it on the island.”
“Oooohh, having it on the island would be cool! Would your company really let you do that?”
Kristen again looked curiously at Ell but didn’t say anything. Ell said, “We’d be able to work that out.”
“But how would people get to the island? There aren’t any commercial flights are there?”
“That could be worked out too.” Ell turned to her mother, “Maybe Gram could pose as my rich grandmother?”
Shan looked from mother to daughter a very puzzled look on his face. “Huh? How would that solve anything?”
Ell sighed, “Let me explain later, OK?”
The waitress arrived with their dinners which forestalled further questions.
While they ate Ell asked, “Are you wanting your family to know about… the other me?”
Shan nodded.
“Can they keep a secret?”
“Yeah, in fact they’re keeping a secret about one of our family members at present.”
“Really? What kind of secret?”
Shan grinned, “Well, now, if I were to tell you that, we wouldn’t be very good at keeping secrets would we?”
Ell laughed, “I guess not. Do you think they could keep my secret with the same degree of confidence?”
“I’d make them promise to hold it to that degree before I told them.”
Ell tilted her head, “I guess that’s good enough for me. Who do you want to tell?”
“Just Mom, Dad and my two sisters.”
“I can live with that.”
After dinner Kristen headed back to her home in Morehead City and “Raquel” went with her fiancé to the little house Shan and Ryan rented. When they stepped into the apartment Ryan said, “Hey guys.” He was sitting at the small dining table eating chili directly out of a small frying pan.
Shan said, “That chili straight out of a can?”
Ryan snorted, “Nope! You can see for yourself I put it in ‘dis here fryin’ pan and done heat it up.”
“Well, I’d like to say thanks for acting so low class, it keeps me from worrying about you making any time with Raquel.”
“Oh, you can put your mind at ease. I’ve given up on Raquel. She’s exhibited the poor taste required to get engaged to you. Nope, I’ve set
my sights on her boss.”
“Her boss?”
“Oh, yeah. Workin’ with Donsaii on my neurotrodes and that prosthetic hand—I’ve realized I’m in love.” He waggled his eyebrows. “It’s just a matter of time before Ell realizes she loves me too.”
A smile started spreading across Shan’s face.
Ell grabbed Shan’s arm and started pulling him back towards his room. “Shan and I need to talk.” As they turned into the little hall to Shan’s room she said back over her shoulder to Ryan, “Good luck with that ‘tangled web’ you’re weaving.”
As Ell closed Shan’s door, Ryan called out, “Raquel, you’re pretty hot, but no one holds a candle to Donsaii.” He muttered, “I just have to figure out how to make my move.”
As Ell shoved Shan onto his bed he snorted, “That’s rich! First he’s trying to steal ‘Raquel’ from me, now he’s setting his sights on Ell?!”
“Oh, he was never serious about stealing Raquel.”
Shan put his arms around her and pulled her tight, “Couldn’t blame him if he was. It’d just show he had amazing taste.”
“He’s a nice guy. I just wish he’d go for Bridget. She really likes him.”
“Really?”
“Um hmm.” Ell said snuggling her head into Shan’s shoulder.
“Raquel, is it OK if I tell him that? He thinks she’s pissed at him.”
“No kidding?” Ell said. She appreciated how careful Shan was to always use her “Raquel” name when she was done up as Raquel. He didn’t ever want to mix up and call her the wrong name in public. “Sure, tell Ryan… It’d be nice if they got together.”
After a pause Shan said, “So, are you going to explain that stuff about your Gram posing as your ‘rich grandmother’? ‘Pretending’ she’s rich isn’t going to fly my relatives out to the island.”
Ell sighed, “We could have her charter a plane to fly everyone there.”
“Oh, why didn’t I think of that?” He raised his eyebrows as if surprised, “Oh, maybe because we’d still have to come up with the money to charter a plane. Charters are pretty expensive Raquel.”
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