Novo Cetus

Chapter Nine

Nash Research facility boasted two fully furnished private sleeping quarters and a bunk room. The private rooms were small - ten by ten square with an extra-long twin bed, a four-drawer dresser, a desk, chair, and a small closet. The bunk room slept eight. Four bunks lined opposing walls with a dresser neatly placed between beds. Ted and Buck chose to sleep in the bunk room.

"Any wife, girlfriend, or whatever expecting you tonight?" Ted asked while he made up his bunk. It wasn't often researchers from different disciplines crossed paths in this facility. He and Buck had never met.

"Divorced for five years now. Women think I'm too much work – at least that's what all my exes say." Buck lay on his unmade bed with his eyes closed.

"Clair and I are friends," he continued. "She is going to my place to take care of my dog and chameleon." He peeked through a half-open eye at Ted and his almost-made bed, his own bedding neglected in a pile on the bunk next to him.

Ted surveyed his finished product. Bedding storage had provided several choices for bedclothes. He'd chosen the cotton sheets – not flannel- and a navy-blue lightweight comforter. The three pillows were balanced at the head of the bed. Perfect, he thought.

"I called my wife. We have a baby. This is the first time I've been away overnight since he was born," Ted said.

"Was she mad?" Buck asked. In his experience, when you called and told whomever that you weren't coming home – whoever was usually mad.

Before Ted could answer, his phone chirped; he had a text message.

"New Message From: Clair Hardin" lit up his screen. He clicked open the message.

"It's from Clair," he said. "She asked, 'Did u receive this?'"

Buck sat up. "Well, tell her 'yes you did,' right?"

Ted texted back 'yes.' The two men sat quietly. Ted stared at the screen. His screen saver, three-month-old baby Sean, stared back at him. Buck stared at Ted.

The phone chirped again. "New Message from: Clair Hardin." Ted was standing now. Buck walked over and stood next to him. He angled Ted's hand so they both could read the screen.

WTF is going on here???

Buck laughed. "I wondered when Clair's claws would come out," he said. "She held it together pretty well today considering . . . Anyway, what the fuck is going on here?" he asked. Ted was already texting back to Clair.

Theory: If there was a calf in close proximity to the mature whale, the calf may have been sheltered from the most intense heat and destruction. The injuries the calf sustained in the explosion would be substantial. Think of the stress level, i.e. the energy the brain created to deal with the pain. If it survived, and if the nanos encountered it . ..?????

After what we saw with the crab change today -- regeneration could have taken place.

He turned the phone for Buck to read. Buck's face indicated that he thought this was plausible.

"Send it and see what she says," Buck said.

Clair sat in her car a couple of blocks from the facility, crouched down, peering intently at her BlackBerry, waiting for anything from Ted. Her BlackBerry dinged as his text hit. Forgetting her cloak and dagger posture, she sat up straight and read his response. Holy shit, she thought.

Bambi with a twist, she texted back.

Clair knew mother whales and their calves experienced close maternal bonds. There would have been a sense of loss and a period of grieving for the young whale. She experienced an unexpected wave of sadness. During her career she'd spent days injecting serums into animals that could kill them. Often subjects were destroyed after the experiment. It must be the mom and baby thing making me weepy, she thought. Her phone dinged again.

Buck and I think Frankenstein is a better movie analogy, you know, science gone bad, death and destruction follows.

Ted sat on the floor, back against his bunk; Buck sprawled out on the bed watching the cell phone screen over Ted's shoulder.

Then that makes Hank the mad scientist, replied Clair.

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