Paradox Twins by Marc Neuffer

Author:Marc Neuffer [Neuffer, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-29T22:00:00+00:00

17 Training

So, tell me doctor, how much do you know about your family history? Yeah, I know we’re not here to talk about you. I just wanted to take a breather from my story. You never looked into your genealogy? That’s a shame. Everyone should know their roots.

✽Riley✽

I cornered Alex in the kitchen. He wasn’t going to get away before I had my say. First, I wanted him to know that I wasn’t too keen on the idea of him issuing orders, like he’d done in the Yurt, without discussions and consensus. Yeah, I realized, in emergencies, there may not be time, but otherwise, we should agree on deviations to plans when on-the-fly changes are necessary.

Secondly, I wanted some training. If Haley and I were to be used as the air-express of our group, we needed to be able to defend ourselves and others.

While this past escapade went smoothly, there had been too many potential dangers we might have encountered. Yeah, I was being a non-compliant, hard-nosed, little bitch. But a girls gotta do, what a girls gotta do. I wasn’t going to be anybody’s meek, second fiddle. He saw my point and apologized.

✽✽✽

Calling ahead, I met William for lunch. It was mid-day break on the second day of the conference. We were seated at a round table with his co-host Robert and his wife Sarah. William introduced me to the two others at our table.

Time for me to put away my biased-stereotypes. The people here aren’t running around with the waistbands of their trousers yanked up to the bottom of their ribcages. I haven’t seen one pocket-protector; lots of calculators, but it’s not a dweeb party. Most were in their late twenties, or at most, early thirties. It’s the young and hungry who are willing to dance on the cutting-edge of theoretical physics. One slip and your dead, but if you can slide down without cutting yourself, a Pulitzer Prize awaits.

During the social hour I used my recording app on a few occasions, the chatter wasn’t about physics. None of them were willing to willy-nilly, speak up about undeveloped theories or speculations. They might get stolen before being fully developed and published. Lots of talk about other people’s theories, the ones who weren’t here, and how they were off the mark. Theoretical rugby with ghosts.

Sarah and I had fun rolling our eyes at one another a few times. She invited me for a to-be-scheduled week-end at Princeton. She knew a few young, unattached physics up-and-comers for me to meet.

The next day, I attended a few break-out sessions. The moderators jumped around so quickly, I couldn’t keep the jargon and acronyms straight in my head. I could follow the big picture only because of the crash course William had put me through. The math, they threw up on the screen, was well out of my wheel house.

We closed up shop after day four. I hope William picked up some useful material. I wasn’t sure if I had. The recordings would be put through a speech to text program to make review easier.

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