"And so…" Cosima said, leaning over Kira's shoulder. "All you have to do is attach the wire here and here, and you've got yourself a fruit battery."
"But how does it work?" Kira said, holding the lemon in her hands.
"Well, remember how we rolled the lemon around and squished it real good?"
Kira nodded.
"We did that to make sure all the juices are loose and free flowing. The lemon juice acts as a conductor, and do you remember what a conductor is?"
"A conductor carries the electrical current like a bridge."
"Exactly!" Cosima said, walking to the light switch on the wall. "Now, are you ready to test it out?"
Kira nodded, perched on her knees on the lab stool. She leaned forward in anticipation. She held the franken-lemon in her hands, a copper nail sticking out of one end, and a zinc nail sticking out the other.
Cosima flipped the light switch and the lab went dark, save for the dim sunlight that filtered in through the gothic windows.
"What are you waiting for?" she said, walking back to the table. "Let her rip!"
Kira wrapped the loose wire around one nail and then, looking to Cosima for approval, she held the second wire just above the second nail.
"Go ahead," Cosima said. "A little electricity is nothing to be afraid of."
"What if it shocks me?"
"It won't shock you," Cosima said.
"How do you know?"
"Well, first of all, there isn't nearly enough voltage coming off of this squeezed lemon. Secondly, your skin has very high electrical resistance."
"What's electrical resistance?"
"Let's see," Cosima said. "You know how a conductor is like a bridge? Well, resistance is like a guardsman, and won't let the electricity pass through your skin."
"So, it won't shock me?"
"No, it won't."
Kira looked at her doubtfully.
"look, if you don't believe me, then I'll do it."
Cosima reached for the lemon, but Kira pulled away.
"No," she said. "It's okay. I want to do it."
Cosima stepped back, shrugging her shoulders. "By all means…"
Kira leaned forward over the table, biting her lip and bracing herself as she slowly brought the wire to the nail. Cosima held her breath.
But then the circuit was closed and the strand of Christmas lights they had strung along the table flickered on, lighting up the lab.
Cosima laughed, because Kira's smile was brighter than all the lights together. She watched as Kira touched the wire to the nail and then removed it, making the lights flicker on and off, on and off, giggling in her excitement.
"See?" Cosima said, "Did you get shocked?"
"No," Kira said. "It was nothing!"
"Exactly!"
"Electrical resistance," Kira said, looking at her own fingertip in contemplation.
"That's right! Once again, you win at science!"
Just then the lab door swung open. Delphine stepped in, a flashlight in her hand. She pointed it right into Cosima's eyes.
"Whoa!" Cosima said. "What's with the headlights?"
"Oh, thank god you guys are okay," Delphine said, out of breath.
"Okay?" Cosima said. "Why wouldn't we be okay?"
"The power failure…" Delphine said. "I thought...I thought Kira might panic."
"Power failure? What power failure?"
"This entire wing of DYAD is down. Surely you noticed the lights were out?"
"Yeah," Cosima said, glancing around the room, "but that's because I turned them off…"
Delphine was right. Every light was off. No beeps, no buzzes, no swishing or pulsing sounds coming from her computers or equipment.
"Shit!" Cosima said, running to her incubators. "No! No! No!"
Delphine followed Cosima, pointing her flashlight straight into the incubator.
"Cosima, what's wrong?" she said.
"It's my stem cell cultures. I mean, not mine. I mean, you know what I mean. I have to keep them at a constant temperature, or the whole experiment is off. I'd have to throw away days — maybe weeks of work."
"Don't panic, Cosima. I'm sure this power outage will resolve itself in the next few minutes."
"We don't have a few minutes!"
Delphine knew it was true. She bit her lip and glanced around the room.
"There is a backup generator...I think...maybe..." she said, hesitating.
"You think?"
"No, I know," she relented. "It's in the cabinet under the sterilizer."
"Oh my God, you're an angel!"
Cosima ran to the counter, opening the cupboard below, and pulling out the generator. It was smaller than she had expected. It was so small, in fact, that it fit easily in her arms; and it was no heavier than a shoebox.
She carried it to the incubators and set it down.
"Huh..." she said. "It's smaller than I expected. Where's the gas tank? We'd better check to make sure it has fuel."
"There's no gas tank," Delphine said.
"No tank?"
"No, it doesn't run on petroleum."
Cosima looked up, confused. She smiled. "Well, then...what does it run on?"
"That's classified."
Cosima scowled. She was in no mood for teasing.
"Delphine, we are running out of time."
"I know," Delphine said, pulling the generator toward herself. "So let's just hook this little puppy up, shall we?"
Cosima watched Delphine pull a cord from the back of the machine, and at the end of the cord was a universal outlet of sorts. Delphine ducked under the counter, pulling the cord with her. Cosima listened as Delphine struggled below, grunting and cursing under her breath.
Cosima leaned over, still confused.
"Delphine?"
"Yes, Cosima," she said, exasperated.
"There's something you're not telling me."
"I'm the director of DYAD," Delphine said. "There are a lot of things I'm not telling you."
Just then the incubator fan buzzed to life. Cosima breathed a sigh of relief as she leaned her forehead against the glass window, peering in at her precious specimens.
Delphine stood up and dusted off her hands.
"There," she said. "That should hold you over for a while."
"How long is a while?"
"Long enough," Delphine said, turning away. "Wow! Look at these Christmas lights! So pretty!"
But Cosima was not in the mood for a change in subject.
"Oh, no, no, no!" she said, slipping herself neatly into the space between Delphine's body and the edge of the lab table.
Delphine sighed and looked away, her face reddening beneath the glow of the lights.
"Delphine," Cosima said.
"Cosima," Delphine said, just barely able to look up.
"Where'd you get that thing?"
Delphine glanced up at Kira, who seemed content, building another lemon battery. Cosima squeezed her hip.
"How does it work?" Cosima said. "What's the tech? Is it fusion? Isomers?"
"Cosima, you know I can't tell you that…"
"Come on. Just give me a hint."
Delphine laughed and touched Cosima's cheek. "I can't."
"Are you guys going to kiss?" Kira asked.
Delphine pushed away and cleared her throat. Cosima sighed, slouching in disappointment against the edge of the table.
"Non," Delphine. "In fact, I was just thinking that you could come with me, Kira, to find some more flashlights."
"Okay," Kira said, slipping off the stool. "Do you have enough batteries for your flashlights?"
"That's a very good question. I'm not sure."
"Well, do you have any extra lemons? Because I know how to make a battery now."
"That is another good question," Delphine said, escorting Kira to the door.
She looked over her shoulder at Cosima and smiled. But once Kira was out in the hall, she leaned back into the lab, her expression suddenly serious.
"Cosima," she whispered.
Cosima spun around, her hands already itching to examine the mysterious generator.
"Huh?" she said with her hands behind her back.
"Please, don't touch that thing," Delphine said. "It's still in the prototype stage, and it can be...unpredictable."
"Unpredictable, huh? You mean like your loyalty?"
"Very funny, Cosima," Delphine called as the door closed behind her.
Cosima turned back to the generator, which was little more than an unlabeled metal box.
Jesus! she thought. Who can resist an unmarked metal box?! Who?!
But Cosima could already hear Delphine's voice in her head, I'm serious. It's dangerous.
She bit her lip and stepped away, deciding to focus on her salvaged cultures instead. She should be thankful they were able to save them. She shouldn't look a mysterious gift horse in the mouth.
And yet…
She couldn't stop thinking about it. She set her charts down on the counter and stared at it, tapping the tip of her pen against her lip.
If only I could take a peek inside, she thought. If only I could figure out the power source...
She reached out. She pulled the thing closer to herself, sliding it gently across the table. She tapped on the top of it with her pen, listening for any hollow sounds.
Ding!
She heard a high, bell-like chime. Surprised, she leaned her ear very close and struck the thing again, once on each side.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
"What the hell?" she muttered to herself. "It's completely hollow!"
She set the pen aside and picked the thing up with both hands. It was so light; as light as air. Against all her better judgement, she shook it up and down, convinced that the only weight she had felt before was the weight of the cord, which Delphine had pulled out the back. Even now, the cord was the only thing that kept the thing from resting in her hands as light as a party balloon.
"This is just...too heavy," she said to herself, goosebumps rising up on her arms.
She was about to set the thing down, and forget about it completely, but then the lights flickered on, and no sooner had the room lit up, that the computer screens flicked on as well, and the rest of the equipment in the room. There was a crescendoing sound like feedback from an enormous amplifier, and the thing in her hands vibrated with great intensity.
Then everything silent and still. She was afraid to move.
The door opened. Delphine stepped in smiling, but as soon as she saw the generator in Cosima's hands, her smile melted into an expression of terror.
"Cosima, don't!"
But it was too late. An electric shock shot right through her. It started at her hands and moved right up her arms, down her spine, and up through her eyes.
She must have blacked out, because she woke up on the lab floor, looking up at Delphine's concerned face.
"Cosima! Cosima!" she said, tapping against Cosima's cheek. "Cosima, wake up!"
"Whoa!" Cosima said, sitting straight up.
"Are you alright?"
"What a trip, man," Cosima said, rubbing at the ache in the back of her neck.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Delphine said.
"More than I care to count at the moment."
Cosima pushed weakly at Delphine's hand, but as soon as their hands touched…
Buzz!
A shock between them! They both jumped.
"Oh, no…" Delphine said, standing up and taking a step back.
Cosima looked up, more than a little annoyed.
"Oh, no? Is that all you're going to say? Aren't you going to help me up?"
Delphine crossed her arms just as Cosima reached her hand out. She took another step away and bit her lip.
"Alright," Cosima said, helping herself off the floor. She leaned against the table, expecting to be tired, but the funny thing was...she felt great.
"Cosima, I think we should get you to medical. We don't know how much voltage you incurred, and, there might be side effects…"
"Side effects? Like what?" Cosima said. "I mean aside from the obvious like cardiac arrest, internal organ failure, or third degree burns, as are the usual side effects of being electrocuted...but as you can see, I did not have a heart attack, and no burns, either."
"What about your internal organs?"
Cosima paused. "Nope, those are good."
"But how do you know?"
"I just know," Cosima said.
She looked to the incubators, and her face lit up. She ran to the counter and picked up the chart, not even noticing the shock that moved between her hand and the clipboard. She flipped through the pages, static electricity popping and crackling from her fingertips. She mumbled to herself, pacing back and forth.
"Of course! Of course!" she said, again and again.
"Cosima…" Delphine. "Cosima! Listen to me!"
"Wait," Cosima said, raising a finger in the air. "I'm, like, riding the waves of intuition right now… I'm, like, having a serious eureka moment…"
"Merde," Delphine whispered. "You've been contaminated."
Cosima twiddled her fingers in the air a moment longer, her mind lost in complex mental calculations. Then she stopped suddenly and turned toward Delphine.
"Wait," she said. "Contaminated? By what?"
"By the power source."
They both looked at the metal box which still lay in the middle of the floor where it had fallen. Cosima kneeled down next to it. Her entire body tingled with energy, she couldn't deny that. And it wasn't just her body. Her mind tingled, too, and it raced ahead in a million directions at once. Even then, as she kneeled there, she was working out old calculus problems from her undergrad days.
"The source? Is that what this is?"
"Yes," Delphine said. "Pure energy—an anomaly—we discovered it completely by accident. But we managed to contain it in that casing."
"Pure energy?" Cosima said, standing up.
She rubbed her forefinger against her thumb, and she felt it. She was throwing sparks.
"Cosima, I think we should get you to medical."
"Yeah," Cosima said, her mind racing. "I think you're right."
Cosima woke up in a darkened room, and she was thankful for that because her head was aching something fierce. She tried to sit up, but she was restrained from the chest down. She lifted her neck to get a better look. She didn't see any restraints, just a shiny metallic blanket that glistened in the low light.
She shimmied her shoulders back and forth, and found that the blanket had simply been tucked very tightly around her body. She shimmied some more, until finally she could pull her arms out and sit up straight.
The door opened. The light was blinding. But when the door closed, she saw Delphine's tall silhouette move across the room.
"You're awake," Delphine said.
"Yeah," Cosima said. "Though I hardly remember falling asleep."
"That's because you didn't fall asleep. I sedated you. As soon as we left the lab."
"Excuse me?"
"I had no choice," Delphine continued. "You were a walking hazard. I couldn't run the risk of you coming into contact with the main power grid. You would have blown out this entire half of the city, most likely."
Cosima looked down at the aluminum blanket.
"Is that why you've got me wrapped up like some sort of astro-burrito?"
Delphine smiled.
"Oui, but not for much longer. With most of the other subjects, the side effects wore off after approximately three days."
"Three days?"
"However, those were controlled experiments, and we knew the exact voltage, but with you, well, I have no way of knowing how big your shock was."
"So, you're going to keep me wrapped up like this for three days? What if I have to pee?"
"Cosima, you've already been here for five."
"Holy guacamole," Cosima whispered.
"But it seems like the source has run its course with you, and you are no longer a threat."
"No longer a threat, what does that mean?"
"It means, you might still experience sensory over-stimulation and rapid thoughts. You might also experience hyperactivity and electric shocks, but nothing that would cause harm to yourself, or to anyone else."
"Electric shocks?"
"Oui, like this," Delphine said, reaching for Cosima's hand.
Buzz!
Cosima's first impulse was to yank away, but Delphine held it tight, running her thumb over the back of Cosima's hand.
Buzz! Crackle! Pop!
"Whoa…" Cosima whispered.
"See," Delphine said. "Nothing to be afraid of."
"Who says I'm afraid?"
No, she was the opposite of afraid. She was intrigued. She reached out with her other hand, grabbing Delphine by the shoulder. The material of her shirt sent little pops and crackles into her palm.
"You feel it, too, right?" Cosima said. "This can't be a one way street. I mean, it's electricity..."
"Oui," Delphine whispered. "I feel it."
She leaned over then, puckering her mouth slightly before laying a kiss on Cosima's forehead. And though Cosima knew it was meant to be a sweet and innocent kiss, an affirming and consoling kiss, the sensation that shot through her body was all sweetness and no innocence. She tingled in her very core.
She grabbed Delphine by the neck and pulled her closer, kissing her right on the mouth.
Buzz! Pop! Buzz!
Delphine flinched for a moment, but Cosima held her still. And then, she leaned forward, a curious moan escaping her mouth. There were sparks and tingles running up and down her neck, tracing her jaw, and lining her lips. Cosima kissed her harder, and when she opened her mouth—when Delphine opened her mouth, too—sparks jumped back and forth between them, like passing Poprocks beneath their tongues.
Delphine pulled away, out of breath.
"Merde," she whispered with her eyes closed.
"And, did you feel that?" Cosima asked, a smirk on her face.
"Yes," Delphine said. "But, ehm…"
She looked over her shoulder at the two-way mirror. They were being observed.
"Ehm, yes…" she continued, standing up and stepping back from the bed. "The electric shocks, they seem to be within a safe range, and so we have no need to keep you in observation any longer. I think you are free to go at any time. In fact...in fact, why don't we go get your stuff right now."
"Get my stuff?" Cosima said. "But I don't even know where it is."
"Oh, I know," Delphine said, walking to a closet, pulling it open, and pulling down a hanger that held Cosima's dress and lab coat. "It's all right here. You can change in the bathroom. And, ehm, whenever you're ready...just let me know."
"Okay…" Cosima said, pushing the aluminum blanket away.
"The sooner the better," Delphine said at the door.
Cosima nodded her head, her lips still buzzing at the memory of Delphine's kiss. And though her knees were wobbly, she made her way to the bathroom and changed into her own clothes. She was surprised at how clean she felt. Clearly, someone had been taking care of her during her five day induced coma. She thought she had a good idea about who that might be.
Once she got into the hall, Delphine was already waiting with her coat on.
"All set?" she said.
"Don't we have paperwork to fill out or something? Some confidentiality agreement? Or, I don't know...a statement promising not to chew on any public power lines?"
"Non, non," she said. "I just want to get you home where you are safe and sound."
"But…"
"No more questions, Cosima," Delphine said.
She said it there, in the hallway at DYAD, and once in the car on the way to her apartment, and once again, as soon as they got inside the door, and Cosima asked again what all the hurry was about.
"No more questions, Cosima," Delphine said, pushing her up against the door.
And where her hands pushed against Cosima's wrists, electric currents swirled between them.
But Delphine didn't stop there, she pushed her whole body up against Cosima's, and as she did, little sparks and shocks passed between them; between their stomachs, between their thighs, between their chests.
Cosima caught her breath.
"Oh…" she sighed, but she was caught off guard by Delphine's kiss — her electric kiss.
Sparks flew between their tongues; Cosima melted and Delphine moaned, her hands pulling up on her own shirt, slipping it off over her head. Then she reached for Cosima's shirt.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Cosima protested. "Are you sure everything is okay? I mean, I don't feel exactly kosher."
"Yes, you are okay," Delphine said, working now on the button of her own jeans. "Everything is okay. Now take off your clothes."
"What?"
"Just do it, Cosima. We are running out of time!"
"Hold on, what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you, and your energy. It's dissipating as we speak, and once it's gone, we will never get it back."
"We?"
Delphine paused at that, still leaning over with one pant leg in her hands. She blushed.
"Oui," she said. "You and me."
Cosima touched her own mouth, her fingers tingling where she touched her bottom lip. She remembered Delphine's Poprock tongue. Every hair stood up on her neck. She swallowed hard.
Delphine stood up straight, now nearly naked.
"If you don't like it, we don't have to…" she said, looking suddenly shy.
Cosima felt a shock right through her, a shock like blue lightning that ran from her bellybutton to her crotch and back again.
Immediately she pulled off her own shirt, and before the thing was even over her head, Delphine had her wrapped up in long, electric arms and headed for the bed. Cosima fell back. Delphine tore the rest of her clothes from her, growling low in anticipation.
Cosima couldn't remember the last time she had seen Delphine like this; the last time she had seen that spark in her eyes. Her toes tingled, and her fingers too, as she reached them out, as she pulled Delphine down over her.
They kissed, fast and hard, no gentleness here. They kissed and each kiss sent a shock all through her. Everything she touched shocked her; Delphine's lips on her lips, Delphine's hands on her her neck, Delphine's breasts against her breasts, Delphine's thigh grinding against her crotch...even the mattress beneath her popped and crackled in time with their shifting rhythmic weight.
Cosima felt herself growing hot, very, very hot. But the perspiration between them only intensified the currents that were coursing back and forth under their skin.
Overwhelmed, Cosima pushed Delphine.
"What?" Delphine huffed. "What's wrong?"
"It's too much," Cosima said. "It's too much!"
Delphine leaned back, her forehead soaked with sweat, and her cheeks flushed red with heat. She huffed and puffed as she furrowed her brows in concentration.
"It's too much surface area," she said. "We can fix that. If we reduce the contact surface area...if we touch in just a few places...maybe that will be less overwhelming?"
"Yeah, sure," Cosima said.
And even as she said it, the only place their bodies were actually touching, was the place where Delphine's knee rested between her legs. And, for a moment, it was as if the energy inside her knew it, as if this energy had a sentience of its own, because as Cosima looked down at Delphine's long thigh, just inches from her crotch, waves of electric pleasure rushed to the spot. Yes, waves and waves rushed down from her chest, and up from her knees.
Delphine watched her, her eyes growing wide with surprise.
"Cosima," she whispered. "You're glowing."
"No shit!" Cosima shouted. "It's like the Fourth of Fucking July in here right now!"
"Do you want me to stop?"
"No!" Cosima screamed. "It's too much now. I need you!"
"How?" Delphine said, leaning further away. "What can I do to help?"
"Close the circuit!" Cosima shouted. "Close the circuit!"
For a moment Delphine thought, a look of genuine concern on her face. But then her concern gave way to sudden insight and she made her move.
She grabbed Cosima's leg, barely able to handle the sensation of shocks as she did so. She pushed Cosima's knee down and away. Then she swung her own leg around so that she straddled Cosima at an angle. Cosima watched in anticipation as Delphine lowered herself—slowly, carefully—until their centers were pressed together in a haphazard sort of alignment.
Cosima cried out! She closed her eyes, because her vision was fading anyway; everything was tunneling in—sights, sounds, smells…
Everything was collapsing and tunneling into one sense...everything was heat...everything was touch.
The desperate sounds of Delphine's moans, the messy sounds of their bodies rocking together, the feathery sounds of her own breath and pulse in her ears — they all touched her.
And when she opened her eyes, the sight of Delphine's breasts and hips, the sight of the ceiling behind her, the sight of her bouncing curls and heaving chest — those touched her, too.
Everything moved in hot blue shocks and swirls that she could almost see in the air.
And there, the one place where their bodies touched, there was a sensation that she could hardly bear — pure energy, passing back and forth between them, and it was building.
It kept building and building, as if all the energy that was left inside her was rushing there, as if the moment of exhaustion was upon her soon.
She raised her hips. She pounded against Delphine. She cried out, but even her cry only seemed to feed the thing. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, and still the sparks passed beneath her eyelids.
"Delphine! I'm dying!" she cried out. "I'm scared!"
Suddenly she felt Delphine's hands on her neck. She felt herself being pulled up. Quickly, efficiently, Delphine shifted her weight, and the circuit between them was lost.
But only for a minute.
Because then Delphine straddled her waist and pulled her into an embrace. And as soon as Cosima's mouth was close enough, she kissed her, mouth open, moan rising up.
Cosima felt the jolt, the electric jolt from the electric kiss, and her eyes shot open. She watched Delphine's face. She watched in amazement, as Delphine's skin glowed a warm amber. Her eyes closed, her brow furrowed in pleasure, Delphine moaned into her mouth and held her still by the ears. Cosima watched the little swirls of light beneath Delphine's skin; swirls of red and blue, yellow and gold; swirls under the thin skin of her eyelids, swirls that shot up from her eyebrows and disappeared in her hairline, swirls that shot down along her nose and spread out across her cheeks.
For a moment, Cosima wanted to break the kiss, wanted to see everything, wanted to see Delphine's whole body. But she knew she could not break away. She felt Delphine's mouth against her own and she felt all the energy that had been building deep in her pelvis move up, up, up!
Until finally!
Delphine gasped. Cosima gasped, too. They clung together as the energy that had been building up between them finally exhausted itself in one last, bone-shaking shock. The buzz resonated right out of their mouths and left them breathless. They fell backwards and away from each other, their legs tangled up in the center of the bed.
"Holy Tesla! Cosima sighed, her hearing coming back in strange wave-like crescendos.
"Oui," Delphine whispered. "Holy Tesla, indeed."
Though she couldn't lift her body up even if she had wanted to, Cosima reached her hand out, and naturally, she found Delphine's hand also reaching for her.
As they intertwined their fingers, Cosima still felt little pins and needles, but nothing like the shocks and tremors of only a few minutes before.
"So, I guess that's that," Cosima said.
"Perhaps," Delphine said. "But you may still experience minor shocks for the next few days."
"Mmm, I like the sound of that," Cosima said.
Delphine giggled from her end of the bed.
"So that's not the end of the mysterious source of pure energy?" Cosima said as something started to swirl in her stomach again.
"No, but you can expect a decrease in intensity over time."
"Well, in that case, we'd better not waste any…" Cosima said, gathering her strength, lifting herself up.
She crawled over to where Delphine lay.
"Waste any what? Time?"
"Or those electric kisses."