Teatime

This also happens just before Episode 2, the next day after "Jose" takes place.

(Gawd!  I hate this title!  Anybody got any suggestions??)
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"Hi Jaques!" Cybersix, dressed as Adrian Seidelman, greeted the black man who ran the newsstand.

"Good morning Mr. Seidelman!" Jaques beamed at him and held out the morning paper, passing it to Adrian like a baton in a relay race, "Have a nice day!" he waved.

"Thank you!" Cybersix waved the paper in response.

Cybersix took every opportunity to give Adrian's business to any hard working native indian or black person.  It was such a poor way to repay the debt her father had incurred when he looked past her skin color and origin to choose her to save and protect.  She sometimes had to go without to make sure Adrian's credit was up to date with them, but she thought nothing of it.  She remembered the community talk around the fire about the bad dealings the poor fishermen had with some white businessmen.  She'd never be the subject of such talk if she could help it!

She unrolled the paper and glanced at the headline as she walked down the street.

She frowned at the front-page report of a failed robbery attempt at the Meridiana Museum last night.

She stopped when she read the description of the scene and the evidence left behind.

She scowled when she read about Dr. Zacharias' injury, "I am going to have a talk with that man!" she muttered resolutely in Adrian's voice, "Tonight!"

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Dr. Zacharias tamped the tobacco into his pipe as he regarded the four vials lying on the table beside him.

It was his favorite time of the day. He was in his easy chair in his study. A gas fire in the fireplace cast patterns of light and shadow across the walls of books surrounding him. A pot of tea was brewing in the small kitchenette/bathroom he had added to the study, and he had his favorite pipe in hand.

Normally, the clipboard holding the latest scribbles of his next paper would be in his lap, and he would start reviewing them after he lit the pipe. But the clipboard was still in the reading basket, mainly because of the interesting puzzle presented by the liquid in the vials. Instead, his notepad was in his lap and he had just finished scribbling down his observations.

He disliked scanning gasses and liquids: they seemed to give him more mental strain, probably because his talent had to compensate for the higher degree of fluid motion of the atoms. Solids were easier, and his speculations and theories could be moved over to liquids and gasses without too much trouble. Adding to the unpleasantness was the fact that the liquid glowed. Scanning glowing things felt like he was trying to read the label on the front of a fan that was blowing into his face at top speed. No idea why that was, but it was, and he had to live with it.

A gentle beeping sounded to his right. His heartbeat quickened as he swiveled to look at the security system readout set into the wall at floor level. Strange. The alarm was for the middle of the backyard, but there was no signal for the outer walls. A parachute attack? At night?

He heard a noise of something on the ledge outside, and the ledge alarm beeped. He swiveled around, ready to dash down the stairs to buy time to suit up.

There was a gentle tapping at the window. He threw a glance at it, and saw a black, caped form at the window, "Ah! A visitor!" he smiled, recognizing the shape of the face under the broad-brimmed hat, "House, Unlatch study window." he called out. The solenoids attached to the sliding bolts at the top and bottom of the window pulled the bolts back.

He lit a match and lit his pipe as Cybersix pushed the window panes aside and came in, "I DO have a front door." he remarked, puffing to get the pipe started.

"I prefer the window." she remarked. Her eyes slid to the table and took in the four vials, "I thought so. Are you okay? I told you not to endanger yourself for me!" she rebuked him.

He smiled and touched the bandage on his head, "Oh this? Just something I had to inflict on myself to avoid being questioned too deeply." he took a deep drag on his pipe, and blew it out toward the fire, "I was wondering when you'd hear about my little scrape with Jose and his charming band of vandals and dimwits."

"Jose?"

"The little brat that led that inept team. He was after the axe, claiming it would make him 'King Jose', if I remember correctly. I couldn't let him take it."

"Jose." Cybersix said to herself, memorizing the name.

"He got away without the axe. A good thing too. All the legends about it are true. I'm glad the Dilingas family reclaimed it and have it hidden away someplace."

She looked startled, "The ones about it giving power and insight to the priest after being used on a victim?"

Dr. Zack nodded, then made a face, "My dear Cybersix, I so rarely get visitors of the fair sex here that I am losing my manners. Please join me for some fruit tea, hmmm?"

She seemed torn between desire and caution.

Desire won. She smiled a little and slipped into the chair on the other side of the table.

"Excellent! Please excuse me as I get it?" He got up and went to the kitchenette.

He got the tea and laid out a set for two. He tore open a sealed tin of cookies and put them on a small plate. He then returned to the room.

Cybersix was still there, hands folded on her lap, looking around at the study. Dr. Zack was reminded of the daughter of a colleague who had insisted on dragging him away from a dinner party to play "teatime" with her.

He put the set down, moved the vials off to the corner nearer his chair, and laid out the service, "The tea is called Orchard Apple. Just take a little sip before adding any sugar." He advised, "I find I use much less with it than with others. No caffeine at this late hour for me, and I don't have anything that would help keep you awake." He poured some out into the cup she held out, "I have honey and sugar."

She took a sip, "Ummm! Very nice!" she nodded, "I'll just take a dash of honey if you please." she requested.

They sipped at the tea for a few long moments.

"So, what happened at the museum?" she asked.

"I was looking at the axe when I heard them blundering in through the back way. I hid behind a display. They got the axe, and Jose used it on an adult who was with him. I saw some kind of energy flowing from the adult to him through the axe. While the fixed ideas were occupied, I sneaked behind two and dispatched them. I disposed of the third that Jose sent after me. He used the axe to blow me across the hall, into the suit of armor. I returned to the fray, killed the last one and retrieved the axe."

Cybersix looked troubled and shook her head, "That's not what you told the police, and you definitely are hiding something. I've fought enough of those fixed ideas to know that the fight was not that easy."

"Well, the first two were." He defended himself modestly, winking.

She didn't seem too happy, "So, the axe really works?"

"Yes. It was what I call a monoregular crystal. They have very strange properties."

She blinked, then reached down and took a butter cookie, "The adult must have been a techno or a type not to have left a vial behind. They look very human, I should mention."

"Speaking of which, that's pretty strange stuff in those vials." Dr. Zacharias remarked.

"Oh?" there was a note of caution in her voice, "Like what?"

"The glowing is a surface effect. Only the atoms adjoining the glass walls are giving up their charges."

"Charges?"

"Yes. All the carbon atoms seem to be highly excitated, with both S shell electrons raised to the T shell. Very unusual. "

She blinked and nibbled at her cookie, "Go on."

"Funny thing is, they're not dropping back to the S shell. At least, the ones inside the liquid. Only the ones in molecules right next to the glass do that.  If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed it, since that seems to violate the Pauli Exclusion Principle."

"I'm sorry Dr. Zacharias, but I didn't do well in science." She apologized.

"Oh! I'm sorry for being so abstract. What I should say is that, um," He wasn't used to talking quantum mechanics at such a low level, "Every carbon atom in that fluid is charged in a way that violates one of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics.  Normally, nature would undo the violation by causing the charged atom to give up that charge.  This stuff should spontaneously flash, but it isn't. That energy is partially given off as light, but it also gives off a lot of heat. Sort of like how Goliath and his brothers depart this vale of tears." he glanced at the vials.

Her eyes followed his, "So, it shouldn't be a liquid?" she asked.

"It shouldn't be anything at all. It should vaporize by itself, but it isn't.  It’s like the core of a laser beam, always in a pre-laser state, but never lasing. With the right equipment, that stuff could be the fuel for a very powerful laser or bomb. It doesn't lase, except where it forms a surface. Very puzzling."

"So," she put her cup down, "how do you know all this?" she asked him.

"Want more tea?" he asked.

"N-" she paused, then smiled, "Yes. I think I will." she picked the cup up and leaned toward him as he poured more tea into it.

"A strange talent of mine. Somehow, I have subatomic vision, capable of focussing down to subatomic levels." He shook his head, "When it first manifested in high school, I was afraid I was going mad, like some earlier distant cousins of mine. Luckily, in our day and age, we have microscopes, so I was able to match up what I saw to reality. I think now that those cousins also had the talent, but did not have the scientific knowledge to prove they were not going insane."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I've made a good living from it, as you can see."

She nodded, "A nice house you have here, Doctor. How do you handle it on a high school professor's budget?"

"Oh, I have my little methods for bringing in extra cash." He smiled, "All quite legal, I assure you. Enjoying yourself?"

"Oh yes!" she smiled back, surprised that she actually was enjoying all this.

"Did you play teatime when you were a little girl?" He asked.

She paused for a long moment, "No. Half the time, I don't think I even played as a little girl."

"That's sad." he replied, then bit his lip.

She smiled a strange, sad smile that tugged at Dr. Zacharias' heart, "Yes. It WAS sad." she admitted.

They sat sipping at the tea and thinking private thoughts.

"Well," Cybersix put her teacup down and looked at Dr. Zacharias, "I just came here to warn you not to endanger yourself for me."

"Tonight makes two run-ins that I've had with these Fixed Ideas.  And with you, I might add.  You should probably conclude that I can fend for myself fairly well against them  As for you- Umm, do you mind?" he picked up his pipe and looked at her inquiringly.

"This is your house, Doctor."

"In which you are a welcome guest." He assured her as he started to tap out the ashes and refill it, "And by that, you should conclude that you have earned my trust to some extent."

She started, then laughed, "Doctor!  I kill Fixed Ideas to live!" she said, "How can you be so sure I won't kill you?"

"Your words and actions belie that threat." He said with a smile, noting that she sat up straighter, a look of astonished curiosity on her face, "First, you bandage my finger and warn me not to endanger myself for you.  Then you come in here for the sole purpose of rebuking me for risking myself on them.  While I was out of this room, you could have taken the vials and have been out the window before I returned.  Even now, I am sure you could do it, but you have not.  Do you know what that tells me?"

"No, what?"

He finished tamping the tobacco in and began to light it, glancing over at her silently, and smiling at his ability to get her in suspense.  She realized that, and began to laugh softly.

"Apart from being able to drink a liquid fit to fuel a laser capable of burning holes through tank armor, you've shown yourself to be am honest and caring person who shows concern for the wellbeing of others.  Such as myself.  Certainly you kill Fixed Ideas to live.  Lions kill and eat zebras and humans to live.  I cannot call you evil any more than I would the lion.  If I was a zebra or a Fixed Idea, then I would have a different opinion, but I am not.  You do not need to kill humans to live, for they are easier prey than a Fixed Idea.  I surmise that both you and the Fixed Ideas are artificial beings of some sort.  Am I correct?"

Cybersix had bowed her head.

"it helps no one to avoid the facts, Cybersix.  Unless, of course, you don't need help."

She raised her head and opened her mouth to speak, but her eyes fell on the vials, and she hesitated.  "Yes, we are." she said, closing her eyes.

"Then the Fixed Ideas should file a complaint specifying their grievance with their creators on this unusual dependency between you and themselves.  Certainly they are better able to do so than the Zebra can to it's creator." Dr. Zacharias puffed on the pipe, then added as an afterthought, "Umm, more or less."

Cybersix began to chuckle.  Dr. Zacharias sounded like the shop steward of a union.  Which he was.  Of a sort.

"Now, I, as the man, am intelligent enough to know about lions, so I take the prudent precation to always keep a zebra between me and the nearest lion." Dr. Zacharias continued as Cybersix tried not to giggle, waving his pipe as he spoke, "You, clearly being smarter than a lion, and perhaps smarter than me if given half a chance, can probably appreciate this offer."

He puffed on his pipe, watching as she demurely pressed her fist to her mouth.

"I'm ready, Doctor." she smiled, leaning over and helping herself to another cookie.

"This liquid interests me, as it does you, although for different reasons.  Given my unique talent, I only require one vial for research and you can have the other three now.  When your-condition-requires it, I will give you the last vial.  You will be free to come at about this time once every week or two and check on my progress.  If I am successful (and that is a big IF, I must add!)  I hope to be able to tell you how to manufacture it so you won't have to kill Fixed Ideas to live.  Unless, of course, they pose a danger to you or others.  What do you think?"

"Will we be having tea like this?" she asked him, eyes sparkling with amusement.

"I should certainly hope so!"

"Well, only if you promise not to tangle with them yourself!"

"Umm, do you think they're smart enough not to tangle with me?"

She sighed, "Good point.  Just don't go looking for them, okay?"

"Okay." He picked up three vials and held them out to her.

She looked at them then shook her head slowly and raised her hand to wave them off, "You keep them for me."

"They'll be in this box, where I keep my tobacco, to keep them from cracking." He indicated an ornate, inlaid wood box next to his chair.  He opened it and put all four vials there, "Don't wait until you're hurting to come.  I may be out of the country from time to time, and so will activate my home security system."

"It's impressive, Doctor Zacharias." She noted the console set into the wall, and remembered the voice activated window locks.  She wondered if the ornamentation on the walls and along the edges was really just for looks, "Ummm, why all the security?"

"I have my reasons.  Perhaps one day, when we feel comfortable enough to be open with each other, we can share our little secrets."

"Don't wait for me, Doctor."

"Funny.  I was about to say the same thing to you."

Her eyebrows went up, but she didn't say anything.  Instead, she arose and went to the window.

"House!  Unlatch study window!" Dr. Zacharias said.  The bolts slid open.

Cybersix stepped onto the window sill, then turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, "Thanks for the tea, Doctor." She then looked out the window, "Have a nice evening." she added.

"You too, Cybersix." He said to the empty window.

He shook his head at her speed, then got up to close the window.

"An unusual woman," he said to himself, "But quite the lady and charming in her own way.  I think I shall enjoy our equally unusual but charming arrangement."
 
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