Balance of Power Shifted

by Karl, Victor

  For the next couple of hours Bill told me story after story of his most recent trip. It sounded like a fantastic vacation as he gave the details, but I knew that he worked his butt off on that ship 95% of the time. His crewmates were all good guys and they enjoyed their infrequent port stops barely staying out of trouble. The skipper was hard-nosed about leaving them in jail if they screwed up and got themselves arrested. Talk eventually turned to our friends. We all were Facebook junkies so we were familiar with what everyone else was doing. Bill finishing his master’s degree working on the boat, meant we were all out of school and now all into our careers…well all except Bill, who had to make a choice in the near future with two solid but different job offers on the table. The biggest news items were, the engagement of Taylor and Kristen and Fiona getting her master’s in Computer Science with a minor in business administration.

  “Dude” I said to Bill, “I think I am going to head back in and jump into the shower.” “What time is it my benevolent landlord” Bill asked? “Just around 8:30” I said. “Yeah you’re right”, Bill responded, “Anyway I think my eyeballs are swimming about now. If I wasn’t so relaxed I would have went in earlier.” We extracted ourselves from out lounges, killed the music and let the motion sensor lighting take care of itself.

  The shower felt good and helped shake off some of the lethargy from the brewskies. Grabbing a pair of jeans, a NY Yankees tee shirt and a pair of leather boat shoes, I was dressed in 2 minutes. While I waited for Bill, I cracked a cold can of AMP and took one out for him. I became hooked on AMP back at Georgia Tech and it had helped me deliver all my work on time. In addition, the Mountain Dew flavor was tasty.

  Bill walked out wearing jeans, flip-flops and a yellow Tommy Bahama linen shirt. With the long straggly hair his was sporting, he looked like a Jimmy Buffet reject from the Florida Keyes. Without a word, he grabbed the can of AMP off the counter, popped the lid, and downed half of it without taking a breath. Whew, that is just what I needed and then continued to finish the can. Seeing that we had everything in order, we went downstairs, out the side door and headed for the Whine Not. A couple of blocks later, I patted Bill on his back and told him, “Just so you know Bill, you already have one strike against your man card, so be careful you don’t get the other 2. “What do you mean?” he asked. “You looked like you were humping the truck today as you squirmed back into it at the post office,” I said with a laugh. “Screw you,” he said with a grin and added, “I never liked that commercial anyway.”

  A couple of minutes later we paid a five dollar cover charge, which was normal when they had live music. We wandered in towards where the bands played and headed to a bar on the right. This place had six bars strategically located throughout the complex. The place was bustling, but had not filled up yet and we were able to score two bar stools. Both of our heads were going back and forth, as we looked for anyone we knew, but did not see anyone. Keeping in character, Bill ordered a Margarita with a salt rim and I ordered my normal rum and diet coke.

  The band was originally from Louisiana and called itself Blue Flame. There were three guys and a girl in the band all in their early to mid-thirties. They played good classic Southern Rock and the girl could belt out some Stevie Nicks tunes back from the Fleetwood Mac days. I thought they were excellent since they did not just mimic the original bands but also put their own flare into each song and in some cases ended up being better than the original. They had a good reputation and attracted a wide demographic of people from early 20’s to 40’s. With shoulder length, auburn hair, Jesse, looked great and her hazel eyes, tight jeans and brown pointy-toed boots did not hurt any. I must have tried three times to get her to come over to the dark side and hang out with me to no avail. If she had said yes, I think she would have qualified as my first older woman.

  An hour later the band was rocking, Charlene was cruising by every few minutes as she worked, and Bill made up for time spent on the ship by talking to anyone and everyone. Derrick and a couple of others guys from work showed up and joined us at the bar. That is about the time the shots started flowing. I really enjoyed times like this, the social aspect of hanging out with different people and enjoying good libations. This went on for a couple hours with the last hour a bit of a fog to me. I did remember Charlene grabbing Bill for herself, Derrick passing out in a booth, and me crashing and burning once again with my favorite singer Jesse. I think she would be disappointed if I did not try to hit on her every time I saw her. Eventually I exited the bar, headed back to my pad, and crashed for the night.

  Chapter 6: A Shocking Discovery

  My internal clock woke me up a little later than normal which means I missed the 8 o’clock mass at St. Thomas Church and would have to go to the 9:30 mass. This would normally not be a problem except my Spanish understanding skills were um poco. The 9:30 mass was held in Spanish since the majority of people living in proximity were Hispanic. Even though I spoke only spoke it a little, I actually enjoyed the mass and liked interacting with the parishioners. I took a quick shower grabbed a cold Pepsi and nuked a bagel from the freezer, which in my mind constituted being the “breakfast of champions’.

  With about 45 minutes to kill, I wandered downstairs with no particular goal in mind. The bag that held Bill’s original specimen was sitting on the shelf next to the utility sink near a window. The bright sunshine was managing to burst through the grime and bars on the nearest window and the rays appeared focused right on the sink area and the bag. After walking over, the first thing I noticed was that the liquid in the bag was a much deeper shade of green than what I had seen yesterday. Picking up the bag, I could see a small one inch piece of the plant that Bill had shown me which must have broken off. Placing the bag in the sink so not to spill anything, I unzipped the bag and started to reach in to retrieve the piece. The next thing I knew, there was a major jolt that went from my fingers to my shoulder causing me to jump back but not without first hitting my head on the wooden shelf above the sink and sending the shelf, laundry detergent and other cleaning aids flying all over the place.

  For the next 30 seconds I shook my right arm to get the numbness out while forcibly yelling shit, damn, shit damn. Peering back into the sink, the unobtrusive bag and contents looked harmless. By now intrigue had set in, I remembered that Bill had had a similar experience when he first touched it. With some determination, I searched the workbench for something with an insulated handle to pick up the plant with. Finding a pair of channel locks with blue rubber sleeves over the handles, I retrieved the piece from the bag and carried over to the table we used yesterday to package up the largest piece. With the light shining down on it, there was really nothing to see. The plant was the same color as yesterday, which was interesting since the fluid in the bag seemed a much darker green shade. Making those stupid decisions, which are all too common for me, I decided to reach out and touch it, however, I would do it with a quick flick of my hand. Taking a deep breath, I quickly touched it with my right hand and immediately withdrew it. With my adrenalin pumping, it took a second to realize that nothing had happened. Touching it a second time, but with a slower motion, resulted in the same.

  I sat down on a rolling stool to think about it a moment, and thought that maybe it was something that charged over time and discharged in a second. I thought this was plausible and decided to put the piece back in the bag and wait until after mass to try it again. Walking back to the sink I reached down for the bag that was still open. As I reached down to pick it up, my pinky encountered the fluid. Zinnnggg went my arm. My finger and arm had that now familiar feeling of painful vibrations which was as best as I can describe it. Cursing again, I waited until my arm got back to normal and carefully zipped the bag up and carried it to the workbench and placed it under the bright light. Mmmmm I muttered to myself, the fluid is certainly a more noticeable shade of green today and not so brown. Looking at my watch, I saw I had ten minutes to walk to church, which was just enough time. Finishing off my forgotten soda and
eating my bagel as I walked, I was there in eight minutes.

  I was so distracted at church that a little kid had to tap me on the shoulder to remind me to get up so they could head to communion. After communion, I decided to walk out the door without going back to the pew, which was actually a pet peeve I had regarding those who did that every Sunday not staying for the entire mass. In my excited state, I must have fast walked, since I got back home in less than six minutes. Putting the pieces together in my head, I had concluded that the liquid was the key and held some kind of organism that reacted to sunlight. When we had messed around with the specimen yesterday, it had come right out of Bill’s duffle bag and from what he told me, it been stored in his dark locker onboard ship. So how to be sure…

  Walking back in to the downstairs shop area, the first thing I thought I should do was to move the liquid from the zip lock bag to something more reliable. I was operating under the idea that I needed to preserve this stuff so that Bill could claim a second major discovery. My thinking was that I thought the second discovery would be more significant than the first since it had characteristics of electricity associated with it. To my amateur mind, it was much more interesting than a plant that did nothing such as the one he sent off to his professor.

  Looking around the shop, I found a box of plastic bottles similar to a sport water bottle, except that they had a basic twist on cap and was made of a semi-transparent material. The bottles looked like they were brand new. Carefully opening up just one side of the zip lock seal, I poured equal amounts of the fluid into the containers until the bag was empty. When done, the bottles were two thirds full. I then ran up the stairs to get my laptop and on the chance he had gotten home while I was out, I gave a yell for Bill but only heard silence as a reply. Grabbing my laptop off the desk, I returned downstairs and opened it up at the same table I had been working. Connecting over my own secure wireless network, I spent the next hour and 15 minutes immersed in web searches involving electricity in living organisms and nature. The only thing close were a number of articles on bacteria, the Morey Eel and how lightning works. This only re-enforced my feelings that Bill had really found something special.

  My thinking then turned to the concept of electricity and reviewed what I knew, which admittedly was not much. The articles I read seemed to create more questions than answers. How could a liquid holding some kind of living microorganism generate enough of an electric current to jolt my arm in a comparable fashion to getting shocked by a sticking a finger into a 120v light socket. My basic understanding is that electricity needed to flow between two poles of different polarity being positive and negative. I visualized a car battery with the large poles and labeled + and -. I know that the metal frame of the car acted as the ground or negative and it all worked using direct current or DC 12 volts. In many cases, cars have accessories that will always put a low drain on the battery, when the car is not running and when the ignition key is turned, it puts a much larger load on the battery to start the car as well as use other electrical systems. The alternator of the car when running will take the kinetic energy from the engine spinning typically using a pulley/belt system to turn the alternator, which will create electricity. This electricity from the alternator will recharge the battery to ensure the battery reserve remains viable and that the car will start the next time.

  I was scratching my head, because there did not appear to be any correlation between what I knew and what the liquid was exhibiting when Bill walked into the shop whistling. I turned to him and said, I guess Charlene has figured how to get the barnacles off your hull after being at sea for a few months. “Aye aye mate, she sure took care of that problem,” he said with a smug smile knowing that I had struck out again with. “What are you doing down here,” he asked. Well, I said, while rolling a stool to him, I said, “You better sit down for what I am going to tell you.”

  “You have my interest,” Bill said now sitting on the edge of the stool. With Bill expectantly listening, I spent 15 minutes re-stepping everything I had done since I got up this morning including the sink incident, my thought process about it in church and the research that I had accomplished. The entire time Bill said not a word, but his face did go through a range of emotions from amusement, surprise, incredulousness and finally a look of excitement mixed with determination. When I was done, he walked over to one of the jars, opened it up and just stuck a couple of fingers into the solution. With a hiss of breath, he whipped his hand away from the jar and immediately started to laugh as he shook his hand up and down. “That was freakin amazing,” he said. “Rico do you know what this means? This could put me right out there in the marine biology world as a ‘made’ man. I should be able to pick any job that I want and even get a university position.”

  “Bill, take your 6 foot 4 inch bod and sit it down again. I need to talk to you about an idea I had while digging up information on your find. I think there is a bigger, no huge other opportunity you are not considering. Think about this for a moment. What if this is the renewable energy source that the world has been searching for? What if we can reproduce this stuff and harness it just like solar energy is used. Just look at the jolt you took from something that came up from deep in the ocean about 2-weeks ago and not protected or stored in any special way. This stuff must be very resilient. I say we don’t publicize this discovery until we can figure out what it is, and if it has any useful purpose.”

  I could see that Bill’s mind must have been running a million miles an hour as he thought about what I just said. Turning to look at the two containers of the mystery juice, he said, “Rico, I feel really good about what you said. I think we may be looking at one of the greatest discoveries of all times, but it could take months if not years to get to the bottom of it with some specialized gear and we may have to consult with specialists that are much smarter than us in certain areas. You know that I do not have a cent and or a job yet. Are you willing to put up the money we need to see this through?”

  Without a second of hesitation, I shouted “Hell yeah” at the top of my lungs and high fived Bill with a resounding smack. Starting to get a bit hungry and eager to get started, Bill and I both agreed that having Thai food delivered and a cold beer was the way to go. While I headed upstairs to call in the order and fill a cooler with beer, I left Bill staring at the containers.

  Man, Rico has sure rocked my world Bill thought to himself. I do not think I would have thought it though the way he did. With a shiver of excitement to an extent that he had never felt before, or maybe not since Christmas as a kid, he smacked his fist on the table and started to think about next steps. First thing to accomplish is to protect the specimen from contamination or extreme elements he thought. Next, we need to figure out exactly what it is and how it lives so that it does not die out on us and if possible reproduce it. Things started to flash in his mind from all the classes he took over the last few years. As Rico came back, he was ready to sketch out some basic steps for him.

  “You got it all figured college boy,” Rico said. “No but I do think that my education may pay off a little earlier than expected,” a thoughtful Bill responded. Cracking a beer and taking a long pull before speaking, Bill started to lay out his strategy, but first asked Rico to capture everything said and take notes on his laptop. He also added, “I think we need to keep detailed accounts of every test and observation going forward from here on and we should turn part of the first floor into a formal lab environment.” Rico immediately agreed with the concept recognizing the wisdom of Bill’s words especially if we were going to take this seriously. Pulling his laptop to him, Rico typed in everything that Bill identified as needed. The laundry list of items included:

  Dedicated network and PCs to capture data and connect test equipment to

  High-end microscope with the options to capture photos

  A couple of sensitive volt/ohm meters

  Glass specimen jars in a variety of sizes

  Specialized thermometers that can output read
ings to a PC

  Identify a lab that can analyze of the composition of the mystery fluid

  Rico, since you have done the most observation and thinking about this so far, I think you should jot down all your observations no matter how important you think they are. I will add in the information from when I was on the ship about coordinates, water temperature and water analysis, from the information stored on the University’s servers.

  The rest of the evening involved searching the Internet for supply houses that stocked the items that we needed. It was amazing how many places sold this kind of stuff in the area. We agreed that Bill would run around Monday and start acquiring the equipment since I had to be at work. It was not a good time to take off since I was the lead on a very tricky project for one of our customers to back track who had been behind a professional attempt to compromise their systems to gain access to the company’s Intellectual Property. I gave Bill my debit card and PIN to make the purchases as well as my American Express Platinum card. I was already thinking ahead on forming a Limited Liability Corporation so that I could pay Bill some kind of salary and potentially write off some of this stuff no matter what the outcome would be.

  Chapter 7: In or Out

  The offices of Clavis Aurea occupied the 7th and 8th floors of a nice looking glass office building on Main Street in San Diego. From my cubicle on the eighth floor, only the CEO and head of human resources had offices, I could see west to the bay and the early sunlight playing off the water. We designed our entire space with high security in mind. None of the employees had laptops; everything was developer class workstations running Windows 7 and using the 64-bit operating system. In addition, we had a full range of Linux and UNIX systems at our disposal.