Free The Pike: Ships In The Night by Erik Schubach Page A

working on.  I've come back from the future to get these back to you.”
    She blinked at me, twice.  Then asked carefully, “You did?”  The men were suddenly quiet as they seemed to be studying me.  Oh dear lord.  I guess you don't joke with a physicist.
    I held my hands up. “No, I didn't.  It was a joke.”
    She studied me a moment like she was digesting my words.  Then her smile brightened, and she said, “That is humorous, as none of my calculations bordered on temporal mechanics.  Your supposition that the utilization of my postulates contained in them could be used in such a manner makes it funny.”
    The men were nodding and smiling.  She leaned in closer to me with a bright smile and said in a conspiratorial tone, “I know some jokes too.  My dad is always telling jokes.  Want to hear one, Allison?”  She blushed a little at my name.
    I nodded at her.  There was an almost excited look on her face when she asked, “Why can't atoms be trusted?”
    I shrugged, and she said in a voice quaking with humor, “Because they make up everything.”
    The men burst into giggles, and she started giggling too, it was about the cutest damn thing I had ever seen, and I had to chuckle a little at it.  The group seemed to get such pleasure from such a simple joke.
    Then they quieted down, and I suddenly felt self-conscious just standing there leaning on my cane.  I looked back down the hall then at her, and she shot a quick glance back at the men who all looked away, trying to look innocent as they wandered away to do whatever they did.
    I asked as I scratched the back of my head with my free hand.  “So just what is it you do here?  I recognized some of the superposition of eigenstates, but your work is so far beyond me it's just silly.”
    She blinked and smiled in mild surprise,  I almost snorted, I probably sounded like a gibbering baboon to her.  Then she looked past me down the hall and whispered, “You want to see?”
    I nodded and then before I could react she was pulling me through the doorway to the short hall beyond.  She shut the door, leaning her back against it, and she held a finger to her lips and whispered, “Nobody is supposed to be back here.”
    I nodded and assured the woman who looked like she was brimming full of mischief.  “My lips are sealed.”
    She started walking past me, nudging her chin toward the room beyond and I trailed behind her.  It looked like a spaceship from the future had thrown up all over the place.  There were gadgets strewn about that I wouldn't be able to identify if my life depended on it.
    Two of the men who were eavesdropping on us earlier stopped what they were doing and just stared at me.  She chastised, “Stop staring boys, you've seen a girl before.”
    Lenny shook his head. “Not in here.  Is she supposed to be here?”
    Liya grumped at him, “Hey, I'm a girl.  I'm in charge so yes, she can be in here.”
    The man I assumed was Hachi, cocked his head and asked Lenny, “Schrodie's a girl?”  This got the two men snickering.
    She rolled her eyes, blushed, and smiled at them, then led me toward one end of the lab.  One corner of the room had a thick plexiglass partition and one of the men I had seen earlier was inside by a large tank the size of a bathtub.  He had a what looked like hospital scrubs on, and a hair cap like you'd see in a cleanroom.  I realized the brightly lit room was just that, a cleanroom.
    She moved a hand palm up like an offering and said, “Taa daa.”
    I smiled at her and moved to the barrier and just looked in as the man adjusted something that looked like a laser in the tank, judging by the laser radiation warning stickers on it.  He fastened a lid on the tank and headed to what could easily be called an airlock.  He held his arms wide, and a blast of air blew over him then he came out into the room.
    I asked, “So what am I looking at?”
    She said with her voice quivering with excitement, “This is Maggie.