It's been four hours since I had the most incredible and satisfying dream of my life. Any man or woman would be intrigued; dying to know the details of such a high acclamation; only to be disappointed by its innocent, child-like content. I can't explain it; immediately following that dream was I compelled to re-analyze the data concerning one of the biggest, boldest attempts in the history of modern warfare. I can't even explain why after six gruesome months of hard work, late nights and heartbreaks—one particular morning I would wake up at the crack of dawn to solve the mystery to the riddle that stands between man and the dawn of an evolutionary prototype. My name is Lorna Shire—research specialist for Neotech Industries.
"Morning Einstein… you look like crap", he said as he peered through his thick spectacles. "Johnston…We need to get everyone prepped immediately", I said still rubbing my head. "Okay… why the rush?" "I think I found it". "Found what?" I looked into his magnified peepers—purposely keeping silent as a hint to him. His mouth hung open. He took off his glasses and stared at me. "You fou—you mean you found it. How?" "I don't know. We kept our focus on the Nanites—thinking that they weren't responding to sub-atomic electro-frequencies but in actuality they were perfectly functional. They were waiting on specific instructions—a guide". "Geezus. Of course! They were blind. How could they repair something if they never even knew what it looked like? "They needed in-depth details of the alloy's original structure before they could initiate a repair sequence. They can't use images like a contractor would use a blueprint but we can set up a laser imprinted grid on the surface of the alloy that would initiate the repair sequence if it were broken". "My God Lorna. If this works you'll have streets named after you". "A permanent vacation in Sicily and a briefcase packed with cash would do just fine", I mumbled.
I walked into the lab with my heart in my throat. "There better be a good reason you got us all here at the crack of dawn's ass boss lady!" "Well, it's nothing more than a hunch that today can very well be our day of reckoning Patrice". I saw sparks fly from my team as they scrambled in every direction and manned every station in the lab. "Not to be a buzz kill or anything but we've been down this road at least a thousand times. At what point would you realize that it's just one big, curvy circle?" "It doesn't matter Steinz. History clearly demonstrates the persistence of evolution time and time again", I said. I didn't let Steinz get to me. Not this morning. I had something far more important to be worried about. I knew this project would be shut down and this was the very last chance I would have at it. I'd never failed in meeting my own deadline and knowing Neotech would only let the project simmer until they felt they'd found another bright, young genius to finish where I left off would just make me a bitter girl. While everyone else warmed up machines, typed in access codes and tweaked knobs on high-tech consoles, I pulled Johnston in for a huddle.
The same program that I had at home on my desk top was here on the lab computers. As I went over the steps as to how I'd found the link to the repair sequence I couldn't help but think about Alex. Parts of the conversation we'd had a while ago started to haunt me. I couldn't help but think of his eyes when I'd decided not to let him back in. he was truly crushed. I shook it off quickly and came back to reality. I had to focus tremendously if I wanted to make history. "…so I patched in the specifications of the same alloy when it hadn't sustained any damages". "The guide", Johnston added. "The guide", I mimicked. "Okay ladies and gentlemen… let's do it", I said. "…Laser scanner?!" I asked. "Hot and bothered", Steinz called out. "Dispersal unit!?" I asked. "Thirty seconds and counting", Patrice yelled. I turned to Johnston. "Wait for my instructions. I want this to be perfect". His glasses nodded to me. "Dispersal unit ready in ten seconds and counting", Patrice yelled out again. I'd held a pen in my hand and found the spring loaded button at the top of it to be a great stress reliever as I pushed and snapped constantly. I felt Johnston looking at me.
I walked towards the glass barrier that encased the million dollar equipment and stared at the vial of nanites that sat inside the mechanical arm. I was already handling technology that should not exist to the world. In a way, I was the perfect candidate who should work with such things. My development was just as other-worldly as it. "… and three, two, one… Dispersal unit ready", said Patrice. I didn't bother turning to anyone anymore as I gave order after order. From the time Patrice had begun counting down I'd slipped into the confines of anticipation, anxious and vulnerable towards the results that were to come. "Stienz?!" "I'm on it", he said. "…Initiating laser scan". The laser took some time to scan every nook and cranny the alloy had. Eventually it sent all the data back to Johnston. "Laser scan complete", said Stienz. "Data received", Johnston called. I walked over to Johnston to take a look at the data readings. The screen showed an in-depth layout of the alloy—density readings, atomic numbers, and a digital illustration of the damaged alloy from a microscopic view. He tip-tapped the computer keys until it loaded the specifications of an undamaged alloy onto the laser scanner's guiding system.
"Guide downloaded", Johnston confirmed. "…Sending grid coordinates", he called. "Coordinates downloaded". "Coordinates received", Steinz called. "Initiate the grid burn", I ordered. "Grid burn initiated", Steinz called. The laser wrote across the alloy—swiping it in small proportions. It was the most tedious of tasks. "Grid burn successful", Steinz confirmed. "Patrice?!" I asked. "I'm on it. Initiating dispersal unit". The mechanical arm containing the vial of silver liquid whined as it moved into place to spray the damaged alloy. Some kid out of Tokyo had designed an interface that would monitor the interactions between the nanites and a focused compound via a wireless microscopic network. Neotech had it integrated into its latest development project. Typically the interface would produce a real time digital reading of a work in progress. Of course, the interface had never been successfully tested because we'd never gotten this close to closing the gap. Today was judgment day. The machine dispersed the nanites in concentrated puffs until the alloy was completely saturated with liquid silver. Johnston tapped into the interface to get a reading. "It would take at least two minutes for the network to get a reading on any activity and then another two for our hardware to pick up the signal", Johnston reminded me. He'd set his stop watch as soon as the nanites were dispersed. Those were the longest four minutes of my life. "May be we should make the nanites a cup of coffee", Steinz mumbled out loud. "Very funny, Steinz", Patrice said, whacking him on the forehead with a wad of paper she'd thrown from across a lab table.
I kept my eyes glued to the computer screen; hoping to see some type of activity from the interface but I got nothing. Johnston watched nervously as the stop watch raced towards the time limit. Come on damn it, I whispered. A burst of heat ignited from my insides out. My arm pits did their thing again. The pressure and anticipation weighed on me like a lead jacket and looking at my teams faces only made it worse. "One minute and counting", Johnston projected. I'd taken the last minute to go over the entire project in my head; checking off all the steps taken to ensure that everything was done right but the fact was I couldn't focus anymore. I was trying my best to keep it together; I was trying not to break down in front of my team. They'd come to know me as a pretty tough girl and would have thought the world was coming to an end if I'd been caught sniffing and sobbing. I turned away from the screen and thought about what was next in my life. I knew I couldn't do this forever. May be there was some way I could get the project funded again; but the fact was it would take too long and would be even more difficult to get a fire going again. The government handed out funds to projects based on its results over a period of time. Needless to say, we were finished. "…Time", Johnston confirmed. My heart sank like and old battleship.
The interface showed no activity. The screen read -99.9% in red at the right of the screen. The digital illustration of the alloy was still showing it as damaged. Hell, I wasn't even sure if the network was online. "…Nothing", Johnston said to me in disappointment. My team showed respect by keeping quiet for a second. Even Steinz held off on his urge to pop out a wise crack. Johnston bought some time for me by telling everyone to shut down the machines. I stood with my back to the laboratory. This can't be the end. I thought about my dream and the feeling I had earlier this morning. I'd done something I'd never been able to do; not even after a thousand tries my dreams. That had to be some kind of omen. For Christ's sake I'd caught a falling star. My self-loathing was shattered by the bing coming from the computer behind me. I turned to see Johnston heading for the switch that would shut down all of the lab computers that were synched to each other. "Wait!" I yelled to him. The numbers had changed from red to green. The readings were at 0.00 percent. I looked at my watch. Seven minutes had passed since the repair sequence was initiated. "Oh my God!" Steinz hopped over the lab table in a craze. Patrice and Johnston fled the consoles without thinking twice. The interface started talking and wouldn't stop. Subsequently, the numbers had begun to climb like the digital display at a gas pump. I didn't breathe. "Son of a bitch… I can't believe it", Steinz mumbled. "My God… look at em' go", Johnston said in excitement. Patrice grabbed my shoulder and pulled me close to her. "You did it", she said smiling. "No… we did it", I said. Steinz and Johnston burst into laughter. A progression gauge showed the alloy being forty percent repaired and we'd only been watching for two minutes.
"…you ready for that vacation in Sicily", Johnston asked. I was still in disbelief; it didn't even sink in yet that I'd accomplished the greatest achievement of my life. "We still have a hell of a lot of testing to do… there's a million—", "hey… You did it. Breathe a little bit huh?" I nodded my head. He was right. For the first time in six long months I'd finally earned the right to breathe. I'd dedicated every minute of every day to beating my brain into bridging the gap between a dream and reality. My celebration was cut short by an unexpected call . "Is everything okay", Johnston asked. "Yeah", I lied. "Look, I have to go. Set up a detailed file for this morning's procedure and test results. We have to be ready if we're asked for a demonstration". "Sure thing", he said. It felt like my life had taken the strangest and longest roller coaster ride ever. So many twists and turns; I must've blanked out from reality at least twice this morning. I was at the mercy of surprise and there was no telling when this ride was going to end. I was beginning to wonder how long I was willing to try to control the sequence of events that were playing out in front of me before I'd caved in to destiny's overwhelming inevitability.