Criticism is welcomed. Address criticisms to [xazqrten@cox.net]
******************************
In Dr. Hobbs' office:
Dr. Hobbs' assistant had taken all morning to retrieve and assemble the
information she had demanded after seeing the results of the blood tests and
medical scans that been conducted on Donna Howell. She was infuriated that
Captain Lochley had allowed the woman to leave the station. Now there would
never be any follow-ups on what she was looking at.
The data she had been examining was, in her mind, nothing short of
fantastic. She was looking at archive footage of a shooting that had taken
place in the Earth city of San Francisco. She had been replaying that footage
for fifteen minutes when Captain Lochley walked into her office. She had spent
an hour before that examining and reexamining the medical files, including
medical scans associated with that shooting and the people who were taken to
the local hospital.
"What is it that you want to see me about, Dr. Hobbs?"
"I want you to see why you shouldn't have allowed Donna Howell to leave the
station."
"As if I could have stopped her, doctor. Even if she had killed someone,
because of her diplomatic status, I could only have forced her to leave on the
next flight to Glenthor. Getting angry with me is futile."
Doctor Hobbs offered Lochley a seat then began going over Donna Howell's
data, what there was of it. After making sure that Captain Lochley fully
understood the Howell situation, Dr. Hobbs showed her the data from Earth.
"I see your point, Dr. Hobbs, but even if we had known this before the woman
departed, there would have been nothing we could legally have done differently
than what we did. I honestly appreciate what you have shown me." Lochley
shrugged her shoulders in a sign of resignation as she spoke.
"At least you won't go off thinking I'm half nuts. There is almost nothing I
wouldn't give to know how the healing was done. It defies all that we know
about the human body and its capacity to rebound from injury."
As Lochley was leaving, she hesitated at the office door. "I think it just
shows how little we really know, doctor, in spite of our thinking otherwise."
******************************
In a testing facility in Grey Sector:
Lochley entered the lab director’s office. The director, Brian Kendel,
looked up and said, "I'm glad you could come down, captain. I want to rerun a
couple of the tests we conducted for you. I think you'll find them most
interesting."
Kendel accompanied Lochley back into the testing areas of the lab. Forty-
five minutes later, he was showing her the results of all the tests that had
been conducted. "The long and short of it, Captain Lochley, is that this
material can't exist. As you can see, the thermodynamic tests we conducted
produced results that simply are impossible at least by our present
understanding of physical science. We poured enough energy into it to burn a
ten-meter hole through the outer hull of the station, and as you can see the
thermocouple attached to the opposite end of it registered only the tiniest
temperature increase. For an object of its mass, as dense as it is, that isn't
possible, assuming we've managed to measure its correct mass."
"Do you have a theory? Even a half-baked one will be accepted."
Kendal looked crestfallen. "I can't even begin to imagine one, captain. If I
didn't know better, I'd say it's magic. Look at the intersection of the edges
that have been bent back on one another. It looks like it was cast as a single
piece. There are no marks that you'd expect from a grinding, burnishing or
polishing process."
"I suppose we should return it to the Glenthorian ambassador. After all, it
was removed from one of his quarters areas."
"Are you sure, sir? The alien technology section of Earthforce will be
wanting to get their hands on this."
Lochley used her link to get a circuit up with the Glenthorian ambassador.
He sounded more than happy to let her keep the strange material. "That's that
Mr. Kendel. You have my permission to wrap it up, and send it to whoever wants
to play with it. I don't think they'll have any more luck than you have."
"Captain Lochley. Between the two of us, I was involved in testing the
limits of the Shadow bio-armor that Clark had installed on his advanced
destroyers. The power we used to test this stuff would have vaporized an equal
quantity of the Shadow bio-armor. That armor was built by the oldest and most
advanced race in the Galaxy. Compared to this material, it's not much more than
tissue paper. Whoever made this didn't use any science we would presently be
capable of understanding."
Unknown to anyone, but himself, Draal was observing the discourse between
Lochley and Kendel. He had monitored the tests that had been conducted by
Kendel's personnel, and Kendel was correct. The method used to manufacture the
material was beyond present human understanding. To Kendel it would appear to
be magic. He smiled to himself. The humans would waste many tens of thousands
of man-hours and hundreds of millions of credits trying to unravel a secret
that might have made even the Shadows and Vorlons give up.
******************************
On Glenthor:
Lyta made her initial landing at the local spaceport, and bid Donna Howell
goodbye as she walked away with the Telepaths' Guild member who had met her on
her arrival. Howell would be assigned to a different embassy within a month or
so. She would probably never be allowed to return to Babylon 5. There were many
interesting posts on the worlds that were now doing business with the
Glenthorians.
At home, Lyta quickly contacted Maya's school and got permission for her to
spend the upcoming weekend at home. Maya had insisted on bringing her roommate
home with her, if her roommate's parents gave their permission. This caught
Lyta by surprise. Her experience with aliens was that they usually didn't rush
into situations with other aliens, especially where their offspring were
concerned.
******************************
In Maya's room at school:
"If your parents give their permission, you can go home with me and mom for
the weekend. You will have a ball."
"Have a ball?"
"It's a Human expression that means you will enjoy yourself very much."
"My parents were impressed by you when they visited. They had never met a
real alien before. I don't think they were prepared for you."
"I tried to be on my best behavior."
"Your computer and what you had running on it astounded them. I've never
seen a computer anything like yours before. My dad is a computer systems
analyst, and he hasn't ever seen anything like it before either."
"It is very advanced compared to what is available to the general public.
Remember, this planet didn't have much in the way of space flight before my
mom, G’Kar, and I first arrived here. My computer is a couple of hundred years
ahead of anything available here. It is an advanced Minbari device. They are
way ahead of what's available on my mom's home planet, Earth, too."
"You said your mom's home planet. Isn't it yours also?"
"I don't have a home planet as such. Officially, I'm a natural born citizen
of Minbar. In reality, I was born in the toilet of G'Kar's ship somewhere in
deep space, that's why I say I don't have a home planet, and my mom agrees with
me."
"You were born in a ship's toilet? I find that hard to believe."
"When my mom comes to pick us up, ask her where I was born."
Sila looked at her friend and lay back on her bed. It was hard to believe
that Maya was not joking with her.
"My mother used a large pan with a folded towel in it to catch me as I
exited her body. Then she put me in the sink, so she could deliver the
afterbirth. After that, she cleaned me up and named me after my biological
grandmothers."
Sila rolled over and looked at Maya again. "Why didn't you tell me this
before?"
"You've never asked me before."
******************************
In Jason's and Emily's great room:
Emily was sitting on the couch in their shared front room. Jason was sitting
on the floor in front of her leaning his head back between her legs so that it
rested on her lower belly. The video displayed on the large screen was about
cultures of several of the states on Glenthor. The data was overviews of
language, foods and interpersonal relationships. If his training proceeded as
it had in the past, each of the overviews would be followed in the coming days
and weeks by very in-depth videos of each country and its various customs. This
was how Jason had been receiving his language/customs/cultures training, since
he and Emily began working together, shortly after their arrival on the planet.
The door chime interrupted the lesson. Emily paused the video and used a
remote control to unlock the apartment door. She had sensed that the person in
the passageway was Lyta Alexander. The absence of stray thoughts was the give
away. She had learned from experience that Lyta was the only person she had
ever met, other than Susan Ivanova, who could completely shield her thoughts
from outsiders. And last but not least, Lyta was punctual about when she would
arrive.
Lyta came through the door and took in the entire room in one quick glance.
The relative positions of Emily and Jason were not lost on her.
"We're watching a training video, Lyta. We'll be finished with it in a few
minutes," stated Emily.
Lyta took a seat in a large comfortable recliner type chair and
said, "Continue."
Lyta watched Emily and Jason while lowering her barriers. In spite of what
she was seeing, the thoughts she was hearing were devoid of any sexual
connotations. After the video ended, Jason lay down on the couch with his head
in Emily's lap. Emily was concentrating, and it was obvious that sex wasn't
part of what she was concentrating on. Lyta mulled on the thought that adding
customs and cultures to Maya's training wouldn't be a bad idea. If she was
going to learn enough about a species to dissect them, she might as well learn
what made them tick socially.
Almost a half an hour later, Jason got up and went to make a pot of tea.
Coffee plants had been imported from Earth, but they hadn't had time to be
cultivated to a point that made the beans readily available. The trees only
grew well in the mountainous regions of the planet. Lyta owned half-interest in
the various coffee plantations that were being established. She had discovered
that coffee was almost like a mild narcotic to the Glenthorians. It made them
feel good and had no side effects.
"Want to tell me what you and Jason have been up to these last couple of
months?" inquired Lyta.
"He, working with the Glenthorians, has set up a training system for
investigators. He's had modern off-world equipment imported to train the
Glenthorians and Humans in the use and abuse of advanced computer systems. The
investigative/security business is coming along fairly well, all things
considered. We had to start almost from scratch. I've been getting him up to
speed on language and culture as fast as I can. He is fluent in the two major
languages on the planet, and writes them as well as the average high school
graduate. He is coming along with five others. I've had to work very hard to
get him to this point. If you will give me another year, I might even manage to
get him up to a working knowledge of Narn, Centauri and Minbari, with a
smattering of Drazi and Brakiri. However, if all you want is for him to be able
to interact with the locals, he's already there," explained Emily.
"She's worked wonders for me, Lyta," commented Jason.
"Both of you know this is temporary at best. If Emily is satisfied with your
progress, there are other places I can employ her abilities," replied Lyta. She
no sooner finished her sentence than she picked up feelings of discomfort from
both Emily and Jason at the prospect of being separated.
"I've already been in conference with my Glenthorian business associates.
They're very impressed with what you have already managed to get started,
Jason. Your mastery of the two major languages has them ecstatic about what the
future bodes. As for you, Emily, they are aware that you have been working with
him. To say that they are pleased would be the understatement of the
millennium. They are mystified about how he could learn so much in such a short
period of time, especially considering that portions of their spoken speech is
outside the hearing range of the average human."
"I'm using a few tricks I picked up when I was still with Psi Corps. They
are tried and tested. The results are permanent."
"I want to discuss those techniques with you. I'm impressed by your results."
"Boss, don't forget me. I'm still here," noted Jason.
"I haven't forgotten you, Jason. Tomorrow, I want you to get a complete
hearing exam. If what I think is correct, well, I'll talk with Emily about
that."
Jason looked at Emily and saw her expression change to one of extreme worry
at that statement.
Pouring tea, Jason said, "Since you girls have things to discuss, I'll just
take my tea and go to my room."
After Jason went into his apartment, which was through a door in one side of
the front room, Lyta looked at Emily and said, "I'm all ears. I know what that
hearing test is going to reveal. I want to know how you managed it. I have your
Psi Corps file, and nothing in it hints at these abilities that you apparently
have."
"There's a lot the files didn't have in them. I'm listed as a P-12. That's
not entirely true. Actually, I'm a bit off the regular Psi Corps scales. I saw
a file that listed me as a P-13, but that's all it had in it. There were none
of the normally expected comments. You already know about the attempts to
get a male psi cop to mate with me. I was so strong that none of the men could
get an erection. I could mess with their minds and prevent it. That's why I was
beaten, strangled or drugged into unconsciousness before they had sex with me.
The fact that I managed to abort all their efforts made me a risk. They
couldn't make a psi cop out of me, so they put me to work in research,
specifically, research in what makes a brain tick. I was trying to learn how to
reprogram a person's brain by making the brain itself do the programming."
Lyta said nothing. She just stared at the wall and considered what she was
hearing. "You reprogrammed Jason's brain."
"Yes. He's the same man he has always been, and he has a wonderful mind.
It's just better when it comes to problem solving, remembering data, and he is
perfectly normal, except for the ‘being better’ part."
"What did you do to him and how?" Lyta didn't like what she was
hearing. "Exactly how did you learn to do these things?"
"Have you ever thought about mental retardation? How about autism? Have you
ever wondered how the brain's behavior might affect a person if it were less
than optimum? Assume you meet someone who has suffered a bad head injury.
Imagine that you are introduced to them, and as soon as they look away from
you, they forget who you are. What can we do about that at present? Nothing,
right? Wrong!"
Emily had Lyta's undivided attention. She went over to the tiny kitchenette
area of the front room and put on a pot of water for tea. She turned and looked
at Lyta. "There are many ways to approach a problem, Lyta. I prefer the subtle
finesse method. Brute force wastes resources, and in most cases, causes
unwanted collateral damage."
Lyta had turned to look at Emily, and continued to listen. Her friend was on
a roll, and it was an interesting one.
"Let me tell you about some experiments that managed to not be properly
recorded and accounted for." Emily waited for a response from Lyta, but all she
got was silence and a look of intense interest from her friend.
"I was assigned to a research division for almost three years before the
corps collapsed. In that time, I worked with eight different people with as
many different mental problems. Most of them were children, but two were teen-
agers. I spent an average of four months working with each one. In all, but one
case, when I finished with them they were at a point that they could function
in normal society at a minimal level, independent of any other support. I felt
so proud of what I had accomplished. I had managed to use my telepathic
abilities for something good." Emily halted at this point in her story as she
fought to hold back sobs and tears.
"There's a downside to this story, isn't there?" asked Lyta quietly.
It took Emily almost five minutes to regain her composure. In a voice hardly
above a whisper, and still fighting to control her emotions, she
continued. "Lyta, I got to know these people as well as I have ever known
anyone. I learned to love them. I worked very hard to help them. I learned a
lot from them about being alive in a hostile world. I gave them my very best,
and you can't imagine how I felt about their accomplishments, limited though
they were."
Lyta watched the young woman fight with her emotions harder than she had
ever seen anyone do so before. She was beginning to feel that there was a
horror aspect of Emily's story. She would not be disappointed, although
disappointed would not have been the word Lyta would have used.
"It was about six months after the last of my subjects were taken from me
that I finally learned how they had made out." At this point, Emily completely
lost her composure and began to sob uncontrollably. Through tears, sobs and out
and out blubbering, Emily choked out the words. "Lyta, they killed them and
dissected their brains. They wanted to see what changes I had managed to make
in them. They killed them like you would butcher lab rats."
Lyta kept her expression neutral. She had been expecting this. She was aware
of other horrors Psi Corps sanctioned in the name of research. She got up and
went to Emily and put a consoling arm around her shoulders. Slowly she pulled
the young woman into an embrace and let her cry until she had no more tears.
When Emily had cried herself out, Lyta released her and moved to make them
some tea.
After they had gotten themselves seated again and began sipping their tea,
Lyta said, "Now I understand your reluctance to leave Jason. We aren't going to
harm him, Emily. We aren't the corps."
"Lyta, I've been very close to Jason for several months now. I'm even closer
to him than I was the people I worked with at Psi Corps. I have deep feelings
for him. No, I'm not sure what they are. I don't know if they're the feelings a
mother would have for her offspring or what. I just know the thought of being
separated from him depresses me very much."
"I have something to do that will keep me busy off-world for about six
months or so. You and I will discuss this some more when I return. In the
interim, you can continue your work with him. I suggest that you decide what
your feelings for Jason are. Is this how you feel about all your subjects, or
what?"
Emily looked relieved. "I'll have an answer by the time you return. I
promise."
Lyta finished her tea, gave Emily a hug, kissed her on the cheek, and left.
Lyta hadn't been gone two minutes before the door to Jason's suite opened and
he came back into the room.
"Was your conversation fruitful?"
"Like most of my exchanges with Lyta, I got some answers, and she has left
me with even more questions. Some of them are really hard, personal puzzlers."
Jason could see that Emily's eyes were still red and puffy from crying. Her
sparse make-up had been badly streaked by the tears she had cried.
"I ran out of tea," he noted. "May I have some of yours?"
******************************
In the home of Ms. Beverly Wiseman:
"What do you have in mind, Sis?" asked Doris Frank. "You haven't had your
hair fixed up since before Daniel was killed."
The mention of her late husband's name caused a look of depression to cloud
Beverly's face.
"I'm sorry, sis. It's just that it's been years since you bothered to get
yourself fixed up. What's the occasion?"
"Mr. Garibaldi invited me and some other employees over for dinner tonight."
"Have you lined up a babysitter?"
"He said I could bring the kids. He said his daughter would be there. I
didn't even know he had any children."
"I'll watch the girls. You want to make a statement at this dinner. Let them
know who you are."
"I've never worn anything but loose baggy clothing to work. I think a dress
will make a better impression on them even if I'm a little bit on the fat side.
After all, I am a woman."
Doris looked at the outfit her older sister was wearing. It was a silk
blouse, vest, skirt and jacket ensemble that Daniel had bought for her when she
had received her first advanced degree. The high heels made her legs look like
they went on forever.
"Beverly, you are a hundred seventy-three centimeters tall and weigh sixty-
four kilograms. That is almost the perfect height to weight ratio for you."
"I have ninety-three centimeter hips, a seventy centimeter waist and a
ninety centimeter chest with a 'B' cup. That's not the kind of measurements a
man finds pleasing."
"Sis, the only things wrong with you are your legs."
"What's wrong with them?"
"They're not on me." Doris laughed after she said that. "Whom are you going
after, anyway?"
"I'm not going after anyone."
"Yeah, and this isn't Mars either. Get real. You look devastating. I feel
sorry for the object of your attentions. He doesn't have the proverbial
snowball's chance."
******************************
In Garibaldi's home on Mars:
Garibaldi and Bryson were sitting in chairs in his study. They had been
discussing the search for data that Lyta had requested. Michael changed the
subject.
"Do you know that I invited Beverly Wiseman to dinner tonight?"
"I'm not surprised. You won't be satisfied until she has me skewered on a
pike and displayed in front of her office. Mike, this woman wants my skin very
badly. I mean she could make lampshades out of me."
"Maybe you should have thought about it before you sent her back to
personnel."
"I never treated her any differently than I have treated any of the other
people who have worked for me."
"How many of your people could have faked running your department while you
were gone and gotten away with it?"
"How did she get away with it? You must have known that I was not making the
decisions she was making. Hell, several of those decisions were made while I
was incommunicado. I was in the hospital trying to survive when at least two of
them were made."
"I know. The truth is I noticed one of them was made while you and Lyta were
not communicating with us. It was only a week after you left."
"You knew and just let her continue? Does she know that?"
"Nope. She thinks she got away with it cleanly."
"What am I missing here, Mike?"
"Have you ever read her hardcopy record?"
"No. Why?"
"When I checked, I found that there were a number of discrepancies between
the one in the computer files and the hardcopy one in file archives. That's
right, you didn't know we keep a hardcopy of each personnel record in a secure
archive. Nothing is ever removed from those records. If there is a mistake, it
stays in the record along with the hardcopy of the corrective action, if there
is any. The electronic file only has the most recent data, except for
performance evaluations and internal transfers."
"I'm getting lost here, Mike. Lay it out for me."
"Before I do that, what happened to Beverly's latest performance evaluation?
You were supposed to do one for her transfer out of your department."
"I did what you told me. I reviewed my email and other communications before
I wrote her transfer evaluation. You were right; she deserved a thorough
evaluation. I can pull it up on your desk terminal, if you wish. Be advised,
it’s unsigned by her. I haven't had a chance to submit it to her, and
considering how she feels about me now, I'm not sure I want to."
"Pull it up. I'll approve it. She should be here shortly. If you prefer, I
can wait until she gets here."
"There is one other thing, Mike. In spite of my ineptitude, I truly wanted
to make an honest apology to Ms. Wiseman when I went to her office earlier this
week."
"I believe you."
"There is something I've never told you, Mike. It concerns the civil war
with Earth. It was what was screwing me up in my everyday relations with
people. Your friend made one hell of an effort to help me get over it."
Michael looked at Bryson with a confused expression on his face.
"Lyta reworked some terrible memories that had been driving me crazy since
the war. She said it would take awhile for the changes to make themselves
evident. No, she didn't remove any of my memories. She said she just rearranged
how I would see them. The one's that were as clear as if they happened
yesterday have seemed a bit harder to picture over the last month. They’re
still there, I just can't pull them up like I used to."
"Where did she get off doing that? You aren't a guinea pig. Did she have
your permission?"
"No, she didn't. She told me in passing one day. She told me that my
depression was on a downhill spiral. She said I'd have been lucky if I didn't
blow my brains out within the next few months. Mike, she put me together after
I was shot. I believe she had my best interests in mind when she did what she
did."
Michael thought about if for a few minutes. Lyta had saved Bob from
horrendous wounds. She had more power and abilities than any other human or
other non first-one in recorded history ever had. If she said Bob was on his
way to self-destruction, she was probably right. It just irked hell out of him
that she felt she could do whatever she wanted to whomever she chose. What
irked him even more was that she damned well could. If he didn't owe her so
damned much, but if frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their asses when they
hopped.
The doorbell rang and Michael checked his watch. "Come in Ms. Wiseman," he
heard Lise say. It was 1900. Beverly was punctual.
Lise walked into the room followed by Beverly Wiseman. "Michael, your first
guest has arrived."
Michael's jaw dropped. Standing just inside the doorway was a knockout
mature woman. It took him a few moments to regain his composure. Lise smiled at
his obvious discomfort at reacting like that to a woman in front of her. She
didn't blame him. The Wiseman woman was dressed to kill. It only remained to
identify the victim. If the conversation she had overheard between Michael and
Robert was any indication, Robert was the intended 'target'.
Bryson had kept his eyes averted. He really didn't want to face Beverly
Wiseman. The woman was going to make a fool out of him. Lise broke the tension
when she said, "You can look up now, Bob."
Bryson looked up at Wiseman who was still standing just inside the doorway.
He had trouble equating the woman standing there with the woman he knew as
Beverly Wiseman. He stared without saying anything. "She won't bite you, Bob,"
said Lise.
"That's all you know," replied Bryson, without thinking. Immediately, he was
sure he could taste his shoe in his mouth.
"Is anyone going to ask me to sit down?" asked Wiseman. Not getting an
immediate answer, Beverly turned and walked out of the room. She was already
exiting the front door when Michael caught up to her. "Don't go, Ms. Wiseman."
"You have a funny way of interacting with your guests, Mr. Garibaldi."
"You caught me and Bob off guard."
"Why would you feel you need to be on guard when I'm around?" When Michael
hesitated, Beverly smiled and turned to continue walking away. Over her
shoulder, she said, "If it's my request for information about how to file a
harassment suit, don't worry. I only wanted to get Mr. Bryson's attention."
"You did that, Ms. Wiseman. This has nothing to do with that."
Wiseman turned and looked at Michael. "I've overstayed my welcome, Mr.
Garibaldi. If you need to communicate with me, I'll be in my office at 0700
sharp, Monday." She turned and began to walk away again. She hadn't noticed
Bryson watching the exchange from Michael's front window.
"Beverly. Don't go," called a feminine voice. Wiseman turned to find Lise
standing just behind Michael. "Stay for me. I get tired of Michael and his
employees always talking shop at dinner and after."
Beverly turned around and returned to Michael's home. Bryson had been
observing the exchange. He was still trying to come to terms with the fact that
this woman was Beverly Wiseman. She would never win any of the regular beauty
pageants because she wasn't a baby-faced skinny kid. She was a mature woman and
had too many curves. He was keeping his mouth shut to hide his drooling. When
she had walked away from Michael, the way she carried herself screamed
unconscious sexuality. It crossed his mind that he had not given women a
thought since that day he had identified what was left of his wife and
daughter. He and his wife had promised one another that if anything happened to
one of them, the survivor would get on with his or her life and find someone
else. He hadn't been able to do that before Lyta had 'helped' him. Now he was
looking at a woman, one who hated him, and felt things that he had kept buried
for years.
With Lise and Beverly sitting on a couch sipping cups of tea, and Bryson
sitting in a chair across the room, Michael said, "Beverly, I want to you and
Bob to become acquainted with one another, without a war breaking out between
you. I want you to explain to Bob about how you lost your husband, and what you
have done to cope since then. Bob, I want you to tell Beverly about what
happened to your family and how that has affected you. You go first, Beverly. I
think you are two of the most important people in my organization. I need you
to be able to work together without injuring yourselves."
In short order, Beverly explained about her war loss and its effects.
Bryson's story took a bit longer. Wiseman took it all in. She never changed
expression when Bryson recalled the gory details. Inside she felt sick. If she
had been required to see Daniel like that, she didn't think she could have
handled it as well as Bryson had. After Bryson finished, Michael said, "Now,
it's my turn. My story is a bit longer and involved, but you might find it
interesting. It'll help you understand my point of view, even if you don't
agree with it."
It took Michael twenty minutes to give Bryson and Wiseman the abbreviated
version of the last ten years starting with leaving Lise on Mars to follow
Jeffery Sinclair to Babylon 5.
"As you can see, perceptions can get you into a lot of hot water. They can
ruin friendships and they can get you killed. I wanted the two of you to have
enough common ground to at least act civilly toward one another. Bob, explain
about your attempt to apologize to her."
Bryson explained what he had intended and how he had screwed it up. Wiseman
accepted his apology as honest and sincere. Michael looked at the two of them
and said, "I want to read to you Bob's final evaluation of you. He didn't get a
chance to have you read and sign it before we sent you to school. After I read
it, you can protest any parts that you think are unfair."
Michael read the various grades and comments that Bryson had written. Then
he read the overall comments. Looking at Wiseman, he asked, "Which parts would
you like to contest?"
Wiseman said nothing. She never changed her expression. She thought about it
for several minutes. Lise could see signs of the struggle Wiseman was going
through. Beverly had heard the finest performance report she had ever heard or
seen in her years at Edgars' Industries, and she had gotten it from a man whom
she made no secret of the fact that she despised. "No changes, Mr. Garibaldi,"
was all she could say and keep her composure.
"Bob, I'll tell you now. Beverly has a PhD in Social Economics and a MS in
Social Engineering Logistics. It's all in her hardcopy record. Someone has
removed it from her on-file personnel file. I intend to find out who is or was
responsible. We've been wasting her talents for too damned long. Now you know
why she could do your job as well as you did."
Bryson looked at Wiseman and what he saw was different from the image he had
built of her. No wonder she had seemed to be so damned smart and educated. She
was probably more qualified for most of the department head jobs than the
people who presently held them. "I don't suppose anyone else knows about her
educational qualifications, do they?"
"Only the person who originally altered her on-line file. What I don't
understand, Beverly, is why you kept working as a secretary all this time?"
"I have two young children. I took what I could find at the time. Remember,
I came here from Earth. The ‘Marsies’ didn't want any jobs going to Earthers,
if it could be prevented. What happened to me has probably happened to others.
How many and who they are may never be known, Mr. Garibaldi. I was lucky you
happened to look at my file."
"Luck had nothing to do with it. I reviewed your assignments and your
evaluations when Bob was gone for so long, and discovered that you always
performed far above what could be expected of someone with your background.
That's why I took the time to look up your hardcopy file. That's when I made
the discovery about apparent inconsistencies in the files. I have already
assigned someone I trust to review all our files."
The doorbell rang and interrupted their conversation. Michael quickly moved
to greet his guests. As they entered the study, they greeted Lise and Bryson.
Lise and Bryson elected not to introduce Beverly. They wanted to see if any of
the other guests recognized her. Beverly, for her part, sat silently drinking
her cup of tea. When it was empty, Lise said to her, "Let's go get another cup
of tea."
Lise and Beverly left the other guests and walked into the dining room.
There was a teapot and cups sitting on a tray on a self-serve table.
In the study, one of the guests asked, "Who was the stranger?"
"She’s Michael's guest. I'll let him introduce you to her."
"She looks very familiar. I get the feeling I've met her somewhere before. I
just can't remember where," said Kelly Benton.
"You aren't likely to forget someone who looks like that," commented his
wife, Ellen.
"I thought this was going to be a friendly employee and boss dinner,"
commented Alice Lowell.
"It is, Alice. The woman works for Michael. Hell, you've even met her
before," said Bryson.
"I don't think so. Like Ellen said. You aren't likely to forget meeting her."
Bryson smiled as several more people arrived. After everyone was present,
Michael said, "Let's move to the dining room. The food is waiting to be served."
Everyone moved to the dining room and found their assigned seats. Lise and
Beverly had left the dining room and were on a veranda, which had a glass roof.
They were sipping tea and enjoying the view of the stars. They heard the other
guests talking in the dining room. "I suppose we should go back inside," said
Lise.
They other guests were seated. There were only two open seats, one for Lise
and one for the last guest. Lise and Beverly entered the room. Heads turned and
jaws dropped as Beverly followed Lise to the table and took her seat.
Michael looked around the table. "For those of you who don't know her, this
is Beverly Wiseman. Some of you met her at the security briefing a few days
ago."
Beverly looked around the table and smiled. "It's a pleasure to be here."
She wished she could have a picture of the expressions on the faces of the
people at the table. Michael and Lise were immensely amused. It was obvious
that the people who had been at the briefing had not recognized her.
The dinner went off without a hitch. Wiseman listened to the table talk, but
did not take part in any of the exchanges. To an outsider, she appeared to be
an unbiased observer, not a participant.
After dinner the men retired to the study and began talking business.
Beverly trailed along with the women. She did not discuss work on her own time.
"Shouldn't you be in there with the others, Ms. Wiseman?" asked Ellen
Benton. "After all, you are an employee."
"I don't talk business in my off hours, Mrs. Benton. It's rather obvious
that my presence here makes you and the other women her feel uncomfortable.
I'll just sneak out while no one is looking," replied Beverly.
Without further delay, Wiseman walked to the front door and quietly left the
house.
Lise looked at Ellen Benton and said, "That was very rude and uncalled for,
Ellen."
"Lise, she is Michael's Assistant Head of Security. She is one of the most
powerful employees in the company because of her position. I hear rumors that
she may even replace Kelly," replied Ellen.
"Michael and I always talk about those things before any decisions are made.
They’re going to reevaluate her position and responsibilities. I think Michael
is going to create an entirely new division for what she does. Kelly will keep
his present position. There will be some personnel reassignments, but they
won't affect him. He will lose some people, but he will gain some others. The
net effect is he will have the same number afterward that he has now."
"Are you serious? She goes from secretary to having her own department in
less than three or four months."
"I can't tell you any particulars, because Michael hasn't cued in any of his
department heads yet. If any of this gets out, I'll know whom to fry. Besides,
Beverly doesn't know anything about it. She won't learn of it until it's a done
deal."
Less than a half an hour later, Bob Bryson stuck his head into Lise's study
looking for Beverly. He was surprised to learn that she had left a few minutes
after dinner was over. He returned to Michael's study and said, "I'm afraid
Beverly left, Michael. Lise said the girls let her know she wasn't welcome in
their group. They felt she should have been in here with us."
"That makes sense," noted Alice Lowell. "After all, she is one of us. She
isn't an employee's spouse."
"It seems that she told Kelly's wife that she doesn't talk shop after
working hours."
"Does she thinks she’s better than us?" asked Lowell.
Michael looked at the people present and asked, "How many of you have a
primary PhD and a minor MS from accredited colleges or universities."
He waited and was rewarded by no hands being raised. "What's the purpose of
that question, Michael?" asked Kelly Benton.
"Would it surprise you to know that Beverly has a PhD in Social Economics
from Stanford and a MS in Social Engineering Logistics from Harvard? She came
to Mars from Earth with her husband. He was recruited to run one of our larger
companies. He came here to take it, but he was killed in an accident very
shortly after he arrived. Since he hadn't formalized all his connections to the
company, there was nothing for her to collect, except a small insurance policy.
There isn't a great requirement for her degrees either here or on Earth, so she
had to take what she could get. She pursued them for personal growth. You will
learn more about this later. Needless to say, she marches to her own drummer,
and I like the music she has him play. So, if she doesn't want to talk shop
after working hours, I can live with that."
"I honestly didn't recognize her tonight, Mike. She looks so different,"
noted Benton. There were other murmurs of agreement.
"She admitted she hasn't dressed up like that since before her husband was
killed. Since none of you had ever seen her in anything but baggy clothing sans
makeup and with her hair worn in a plain fashion, I'm not at all surprised. Bob
and I didn't recognize her at first either. It should be interesting to see how
she dresses for work from now on."
The other guests had all left. Lise and Michael were having a last drink
with Bryson. "If I wasn't at least fifteen years older that she is, I think I'd
have to make a try for her, Mike."
"You won't have to, Bob," said Lise.
"What makes you say that?"
"I'm a woman, Bob. How many unattached men were here tonight?"
"Just me."
"I rest my case."
"Michael, what's she been drinking tonight?"
"The only person that Beverly was sure was going to be here was you, Bob. I
made it plain to her in a manner of speaking that I wanted the two of you here.
I just didn't tell her you two would be here an hour earlier than the others."
"You set me up."
"No, I didn't. I only wanted the two of you to accept that you needed to be
civil to one another on the job. That was my only plan. It seems that she may
have plans of her own. She didn't get dressed up like that for giggles."
"I'll admit she got my undivided attention from the very start."
"Yours and everyone else's," added Lise.
******************************
In Beverly Wiseman's apartment:
"You're back early, sis, everything go all right?"
"More or less. I left after dinner. The other employees only wanted to talk
shop, and the wives didn't want me around. They felt that I belonged with the
other employees. So, I called it an early night."
"Were they impressed by your outfit and appearance?"
"If you count the fact that no one recognized me, and all the men's jaws
dropped to the floor, in spite of their wives' presence, then yes, I'd say they
were impressed. Bryson drooled all over himself, metaphorically speaking."
"Isn't he the jerk who threw you back into the secretarial pool?"
"Yes he is. However, I learned a great deal tonight about a number of
things."
"Care to elaborate?"
"I think I like him, a lot. It would seem that he and I have much in common."
"You are kidding? Right?"
"Not at all. He's fifteen years older than I am. He lost his family, a wife
and daughter, in the war."
"Sounds like you more than like him."
"We'll have to see, sis. We'll have to see."
*******************************
At Lyta's Farm:
"What is that?" asked Sila excitedly.
"That's a horse, Sila. It's an Earth animal that is used as a work animal.
Sort of like a sother. The big difference is that Humans like to ride horses,"
replied Maya.
"It must have cost a fortune to bring it all the way from Earth."
"It did. We have three of them. This mare was very pregnant when she was
shipped out here. She carried another embryo to term after she gave birth to
her own foal. My mom has some of her people working on a way to have a female
sother carry a horse embryo to full term from a fertilized egg. If it can be
done, it will be the beginning of making many fortunes. It will give mom's
business partners a real advantage in a number of markets."
Maya lead the horse and her friend to an outbuilding that was a stable.
There she had the horse saddled and made ready to ride. Looking at Sila, she
said, "It's time for your first horse ride."
The stableman helped the girl to get upon the horse and sit in the saddle.
With Maya walking alongside, the man lead the horse and its rider out of the
building and around the building until they returned to their starting point.
"What do you think?" asked Maya.
Her friend smiled a big smile and laughed. "I like it. It's fun. Can I do it
again?"
The two girls kept the stableman busy for the next two hours, until Lyta
rescued him from their evil clutches.
After lunch, Lyta consented to taking the girls on a ride around the farm.
It was the beginning of a wonderful weekend for both girls. Lyta, knowing how
long it would be until she could do anything with Maya again, was determined to
make the most of the time she had.
******************************
END PART 12