Free Launch Pad by Jody Lynn Nye, Mike Brotherton Page A

But one good what? One good relationship? Or could it be one good job? Or perhaps one good scientific discovery to be remembered for? She wished she knew for sure. It seemed too hard to accomplish them all.
    “I suppose,” Bev agreed after a moment’s reflection. “But let’s apply that to astrobiology. Imagine Earth’s trying to find a date with an alien civilization. Or at least some texting.”
    “Huh,” he said. “The Drake equation is just a kind of interstellar dating equation, isn’t it? Intelligent life is just picky about what kind of star systems it shows up in.”
    “Yes! You could put it that way. Makes more sense now? Not just a math problem?”
    “Yeah.” He stood up to go, but turned back. “Yeah, it does. Thanks. Not all my teachers would make the extra effort like you did, especially talking about dating. But I got it.”
    Bev felt a mild blush, and a sense of accomplishment. “Great. Can you send in the next in line?”
    “Sure, Professor,” he said, grinning. “Happy to.”
    If she were going to lose her research time today, she hoped the remainder of her students would have similar breakthroughs. She could calculate the odds, but she decided to remain optimistic and assume it would be one hundred percent.
    As the student walked out, however, she realized she hadn’t caught his name, and that took the edge off her good mood. Just because she had a big enrollment didn’t mean she couldn’t make some personal connections, did it? She’d just have to make more of an effort. She could be good at this, and maybe be that one good teacher that changed lives. It would take more time, but Bev promised herself to try to get the names, even if it were just those visiting during her office hours.
    O O O
    Bev sat in her office rereading an email about a calibration issue with the Argus data that required the reprocessing of everything she had done to date. All the uncertainties had to be modified, and in her image reconstructions their values were critical in distinguishing what was real and what was noise. Any work done now would not be reliable. This would set her back a couple of weeks at least, although she could continue to test and optimize her code even though she didn’t have any actual reliable data to analyze. She felt weary just considering it.
    Another email popped up. It was from Rodger.

    Hi Bev,
    Care to pop out for a drink tomorrow? Dinner, too, if you like.
    Cheers,
    Rodger

    She stared at the screen and went into a little panic. Was he asking her out as a friend and colleague? Or was he asking her out on a date?
    And why didn’t she have a local friend to talk with about it?
    She read the message over and over, wondering what to do. She liked Rodger. Under different circumstances, she might be interested in dating him, and maybe more. But right now? Right now was for working her butt off to make sure she got papers published, grants funded, students taught, and got tenure. There would be time for dating later, but if she got distracted and failed at this job, well, that was disaster. It would break her heart more than she could imagine a man doing so.
    Rodger was a funny, smart, talented guy. He could probably date all the time and still get tenure. He wasn’t going to wait, not the six years for tenure or for her.
    But what if he was just being friendly? She could use a little break for a drink, even dinner. She had to eat, after all. There was a new sushi place, and she hadn’t had sushi in forever.
    But, no. Better not to take the chance. Right now her attention had to remain focused like a laser beam on making sure she was on track for tenure.
    Was she making a mistake? She did like Rodger. What was wrong with a little social life? She could do more than one thing at a time, surely.
    No, she told herself firmly. There would be time for that later, when she had tenure.
    The lonely part of her offered a wistful compromise. One drink outside of work couldn’t hurt, could