Chapter 7

Claire leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, "actually no, I don't but I have a feeling your going to tell me iall/i about it." She drawled.

The doctor nodded and pulled up a chair next to her, his eyes gleaming with excitement.  "Everything in the universe was created in polarities.  There are protons and neutrons, each with an opposite charge.  Now everything on earth is created of matter and for years we have been trying to discover what its polarity is, the answer to that is anti-matter.  The problem is it only exists outside our solar system and is extremely unstable and thus impossible to manufacture in large quantities."

Claire looked at him blankly, however there was much going on in her head.  What did this have to do with her?

The doctor saw the blank look on her face and believed she didn't understand.

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"To put it in simpler terms, pound for pound, antimatter is over 10 times stronger than a nuclear warhead.  Where as nuclear power is about 5% efficient, antimatter is 100% efficient."

Claire's eyes widened at this, that would put a pretty large hole in the ground.  "Ok here's the million dollar question, what does this have to do with me?"

Dr. Kovic leaned back and looked at Gerald who nodded, resting a hand on Claire's shoulder.

"Claire, we believe that you hold a source of antimatter large enough to study."

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Scott looked at the folder that Hank handed him, "what does this mean Hank?"

Hank McCoy cleared his throat, "in layman's terms it means if you break a vile of her blood, your going to have one hell of an explosion on your hands."

Scott looked at the computer read out unable to believe what it said.  He remembered studying about antimatter in high school, but that was over 15 years ago, and in many respects a lifetime. 

"What I don't understand is how she survives with this kind of substance in her body?"

Hank took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "I do not totally understand myself, but I have come up with a couple of hypothesis. The best one being that her body naturally produces it, requiring an efficient energy source to be able to adapt so quickly to her environment. However I will not be able to test it until she returns." He didn't say if, because right now, 'if' wasn't even an option.

"Hank, she has been injured before, why wasn't there an explosion then?"

Hank sat there silently for a moment, he had been wondering the same thing, so he gave Scott the only explanation he had.

"I believe it is because something happened that forced her body to produce more of the anti-matter than it ever had before."

Scott and Hank looked at each other, they were both thinking the same thing, something like being nailed to a cross when the bombs dropped.

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Claire stood up, "hold on, I'm not about to become someone's guinea pig, so you can forget that."

Kovic's gaze flew to Gerald's.  Gerald gritted his teeth, she was not cooperating like she should and it was proving increasingly tiresome.

"You seem to think you have a choice my dear."

Claire turned to at Gerald, but as she turned he waved his hand across her face and she felt her legs give out as she descended into darkness.