A Mysterious Stranger of a Different Sort
This happens shortly after Episode 1.
Note: Henry Tilman is the name I chose for the gentleman who escorted Adrian Seidelman to his classroom in Episode 1. You know, the one Bethany can't stand.
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Cybersix carefully adjusted her "Adrian Seidelman" glasses as she sipped at her coffee, being equally careful to conceal the quick glance she threw across the table at Lucas, who was reading the sports section of the newspaper.
"This is a very strange relationship..." she thought idly. She had been grateful for Lucas' timely arrival when Lori's gang had accosted him a few days earlier. She wasn't sure at that moment whether to fight, run, or allow herself to be beaten. The first two options would have raised suspicions if they had proved too effective, and the third ran the risk of somebody grabbing at her shirt or tearing it open. His intervention was very welcome indeed.
She had no idea what Lucas saw in Adrian, but she appreciated the efforts Lucas made to forge a friendship with her as a man. She certainly was going to see a part of the male world other women would never see. "As long as he doesn't get into trouble again because of me." she worried, glancing down at the paper's front page headline that shouted, "COUNTERFEIT MONEY FOUND". Intimidating teenagers was one thing, but tackling fixed ideas with his bare hands was quite another. Yet, he put his plea to let him help her into action by his valiant, albeit fruitless, defense of her. That touched her deeply. The only other person who had done that for her had been the black servant who she had called father, who lost his life to the goons that Von Richter had sent so that she would live. She figeted with her glasses again, this time to hide the inevitable welling in her eyes when she thought of him, "Forgive me, father, but I can't mourn. Not here. Not now. Later. You'll understand." she thought.
She began to think of something interesting to get a conversation going, so she went over the day's events for subject material. It didn't take long for her to settle on something. She had met Dr. Zacharias in the faculty lounge earlier that day to thank him for getting the light ballast fixed. At the same time she took the opportunity to ask for advice about coping with Lori. Instead of giving a sober and reasoned answer that would have been more helpful than the advice Lucas had given, the good doctor had started laughing fit to bust a gut. He was no help, he admitted, because his age prevented him from having the "very VERY unique" problem Adrian was suffering from. After which the professor succumbed to another undignified fit of giggles. She had left the lounge even less enlightened than when she had entered, her curiosity throughly stoked. Now was as good a time as any to satisfy its buzzing, "So Lucas, what do you know about Dr. Zacharias?" she asked casually in Adrian's voice.
"Dr. Zack?" Lucas looked up from the newspaper, "Strange character for sure, but just about the best thing that's happened to the faculty."
"For sure." she thought. "Oh?" she asked aloud, "How's that?"
"Oh, he's a good guy to the kids and us, but the administration is another thing. Did you notice how stuffy principal Tilman is?"
"I couldn't help but notice!"
"Dr. Zack hates stuffy. His PhD intimidates Tilman, and he doesn't hesitate to leverage THAT for a good cause. Like releasing the raises the city had approved and allocated to us two years ago."
"Tilman held back raises?" Cybersix blinked, trying to imagine living on even less than what she was making now. And her expenses were rather unsual, running from fixing broken high heels on black boots to buying leather patch kits and bandages. Lots of bandages.
"The extra cash made the overall budget look good." Lucas shrugged, then grinned and said in a low voice, "I think Dr. Zack had threatened to add the numbers up in front of the school board." he winked.
She had to smile at that, "So what's a Ph.D doing in a high school?"
"Funny thing that." Lucas put the paper down and leaned forward, beckoning with his index finger. Cybersix leaned in, being careful not to push the material of her shirt in too much on the table edge, "You know I also work as a reporter at The Independent?"
"Yes. You told me that when we first met." She looked at him quizzically, then tipped her head toward the paper he had put down, "So why are you reading The Meridiana Times instead?"
"The Independent is a morning paper. The Times is the evening paper. I have to keep up with the competition."
"And the soccer scores?" She hazarded, smiling.
"Welllll, yeah!" He looked embarassed, scratching the back of his head. He then continued, "Where were we?"
"Dr. Zack."
"Oh! Yeah! Umm, I used my contacts and Internet connection at the paper to look him up. He's been all over the place. University, industry, even worked at ERL."
"Earl?"
"The Energy Research Lab. He started off at a certain prestigious university and got tenured. After several years of exceptional work, he suddenly got dismissed for some paper he wrote and circulated internally for review. Just for review! It never got published. The faculty council didn't utter a word in his defense or object to the dismissal. You've been to college, so you should know how strange THAT is!"
She did, pursing her lips and letting out a silent whistle in astonished agreement, "What could he have written?" she wondered aloud.
"Not a clue. His publishing record is impressive. It's all in the faculty information book. It's the fattest entry, of course."
"I know his PhD is in physics. What did he specialize in?"
"Theoretical quantum mechanics. Did you know that there are only six or seven people on the planet who really understand that stuff?"
"Let me guess. He's one of those seven?"
"You got that right. I found a web page put out by some physics graduate students characterizing each of the big people in physics. Our dear Dr. Zack's effect on the field was compared to a kid running around setting off M80s in ant hills. Repeatedly. That's a quote from one of the other six quantum wizards."
"But why come here? Why not go to another university?" Cybersix was puzzled.
"No clue there either." Lucas shook his head, "Instead, he went into industry working on nanotechnology."
"What's nanotechnology?"
"Its about how to build machines as small as viruses. Maybe smaller. He worked mostly on how to build nanofactories, which are machines designed to manufacture nanodevices."
"That sounds outside of his field." "And too close to Von Richter's," she thought nervously. Machines smaller than viruses crawling in the spaces between her cells almost made her own skin crawl.
"Which is probably why he finally ended up at ERL, working on advanced energy technologies based on Quantum Mechanics."
"That's government work isn't it?"
Lucas nodded.
"That's a plum job, then. How'd he lose that one?"
"He apparently pursued a rather expensive path of research that wound up being a dead end. They were cutting back the budget at ERL, so he volunteered to leave. He said teaching here might pay back his debt to society."
"But that almost always happens in areas of pure research, doesn't it?" she frowned, adjusting her glasses again, "It almost sounds as if he thinks he'd committed a crime rather than being mistaken."
"Funny thing is, that's the only thing he's willing to talk about. He's pretty tight lipped about his stints in the university and industry. Probably had to sign a nondisclosure agreement or something to keep him quiet. He's still writing papers on theoretical quantum mechanics, by the way. I guess you don't need a linear accelerator to do that." He shrugged, "His mailbox is always stuffed with invitations to all kinds of meetings in America and Europe. Even Russia. Those are tough guys to impress. I suppose its because he speaks Russian."
"Russian!"
"And German too, by the way."
"And what about the thermal underwear?"
"You noticed that too?" Lucas shrugged expressively, "I've no idea about that either. The air conditioning broke down a week before school started, during that really bad hot spell we had, and took two days to get repaired. Everyone was sweating like pigs, but he's walking around cool as a cucumber and happy as a clam."
"Curioser and curioser!"
"You got that right, Alice. Heeey! Don't look so shocked! That's just a joke! You know me. Live and let live. He gets me a raise, I'll leave him in peace with his mysterious past and wierd underapparel."
"Thanks for the information, Lucas." Cybersix said sincerely.
"No problem good buddy."
He returned to the sports page, muttering something about the hopeless Toreadors. Cybersix leaned back and sipped at her coffee. It had gone cold, so she waved to the waiter to get it refilled. "Yes, curioser and curioser." She murmured to herself as she waited for service.