Pascale's Wager: Homelands of Heaven by Anthony Bartlett

Author:Anthony Bartlett [Bartlett, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780615974071
Google: OlGwoQEACAAJ
Publisher: Hopetime Press
Published: 2014-04-13T23:00:00+00:00

8. STAR STUDENT

Palmiro adjusted the scanning electron microscope to a finer resolution, zooming in as close as he could on the strange structure in his view finder. He was looking at a tube with rounded ends like a pod. There was an inner membrane which was folded over and back, like a maze, and there was a nucleus at its core. It was something called a mitochondria and the material inside its inner membrane was a kind of factory in which essential reactions took place in the production of cell energy. Adorno had set him to study these reactions in painstaking detail, scanning all the way down to the molecular structure of the chemicals. One by one, stage by stage, he was to document them until he understood everything implicitly.

On the way home from the philosophers' banquet he had been in a state of shock. Pascale's stupid words and Adorno's attack on immortality had produced a scene of chaos, something that up to then seemed impossible in Heaven. The moment Marius opened his mouth Palmiro knew Pascale was in trouble, that she had awoken something powerful and dangerous. At the same time he could not understand what his mentor, Adorno, was doing. He had shown utter contempt for Sarobindo, in a way that was sure to upset everybody, but his argument did not seem to go anywhere. All it had done was stir everything up until there was bound to be a reaction and it was easy to see that it would not focus on him, but on Pascale. He wondered if the inventor of immortality had for some reason done it deliberately.

“I know what you're thinking.” The scientist finally broke the silence after they'd traveled for almost ten minutes. “You're thinking I just made things very bad, possibly for yourself, but definitely for your fellow conspirator, the passionate Pascale. Well, don't be too quick to think that way, my friend. You still have a great deal to learn, and you will most certainly continue your studies with me. No one is going to interfere. And I wouldn't worry at all about your erstwhile companion. She has friends of her own. If anyone should appreciate her ability to find a way you should. Just concentrate on your studies, and remember the real loser here is Sarobindo.”

And that was that. No more was said, and when they arrived back at the mansion they went their separate ways. Next day Adorno returned to directing his studies as if nothing had happened. The only difference was he began to point him more urgently in the direction of biology and genetics, covering topics in physics only in summary fashion. Palmiro obeyed dutifully but while he researched structures and organelles, proteins and DNA, his mind returned like the swing of a pendulum to Adorno's words. What had he meant, “The real loser is Sarobindo"? And, behind his words, his intentions at the banquet still remained a mystery. What had he wanted to achieve? It was

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