The Self-Invitation / The Other Self-Invitation

The Self-Invitation

Month 9 Day 24

1538 Hours

Smitty

Smitty gave a heavy sigh, rubbed his aching eyes, turned the computer file back to the beginning of this section and then began reading it once again. He was surprised when his office door opened and looked up, half inclined to snap at whoever had dared to break his concentration.

Then he saw it was Wilson. “Oh, sorry, Mr Smythe. Harris said you were in here, but I thought she was joking, since this is your day off.”

“I needed someplace I could concentrate,” he stated.

“And then I come in and interrupt you. My sincerest apologies for that. But as long as you are here, I’d like to borrow those schematics Abdulla and I drew of the Colleen/Kolla contraption.”

He turned away from the screen completely, his brows furrowed. “Why? Without knowing a lot more about it, it doesn’t make much sense.”

She moved forward and sat down in the chair facing his desk. “I know, but next Monday evening, Mac- Lt MacDowell - is going over them with me and try to explain it.”

Now his brows rose in surprise. “She thinks she can remember?”

“She sounded pretty confident. So, do you mind if I take them to our meeting?”

“Next Monday? You aren’t asking to take them now?”

Wilson smiled. “They don’t do me any good until I can pick Mac’s brain. Anyway, I have to see which briefing room we can use that evening. She wants a long table so we have plenty of room to work.”

“Well, let me look,” he volunteered, and changed the screen on his computer. “Next Monday, C shift... Well, there’s at least 3 available. Some of the others probably will be too, since they still haven’t been confirmed. Ah, here we go. Room 4C. Nice long table. Good lighting for that kind of work. Two computer consoles, in case we need to look something up.” He tapped a few keys. “There. I’ve booked it for the entire evening. Um, for you.”

She moved her gaze to the middle distance. Yes, she’s smart enough, knows me well enough to know what I’m doing. Still, she went ahead and asked. “Would you like to join us for this meeting, Mr Smythe?”

He gave her a slow smile. “Thank you, Wilson. I would like to, yes.” He let the smile falter a bit. “And if she still has that old trouble of... of not being able to think around me, then I’ll bow out and let you two get on with it. If that happens, perhaps you could brief me on what’s said. At a later date.”

She gave a small sigh of relief. “Well, I don’t have any problem working around you, and it’s about time she got used to it.” She stood up and straightened her uniform. “Thank you, Mr Smythe. I’ll let you get back to your... manual. Oh, and she’s asked me to help her with her engineering studies. Is there anything you’d like me to guide her towards first?”

He felt his face go red. “Gravity units. I didn’t give as thorough an explanation as I should have.”

“Then I’ll make that suggestion.”

After Wilson left, Smitty sighed and shut off his computer console. While it was true he’d been reading a manual, it was a Yukosk manual, and no matter how hard he tried, it simply didn’t make sense. He glanced at the chronometer and stood up. Time to meet Jane and Drake for supper. They’ve no doubt been wondering where I’ve been ‘hiding’ all day.

The Other Self-Invitation

Month 9 Day 25

0759 Hours

Abdulla

Abdulla relieved Mac and paid no attention to where the girl went. But it was only a moment later when she heard Takor, at the science console next to hers, ask, “...anything I should bring to this... event?”

“Just yourself,” Mac’s voice answered. “It’s not a party or anything like that. It’s a meeting. For the purpose of exchanging information on something of mutual interest.”

“I cannot say that engineering is a strong interest of mine,” Takor returned.

“Too bad, because I think it would be nice to have you there. This bit of engineering involves some biochemistry, which neither Kolla nor I know a lot about. I thought that aspect might have some interest for you. And with any luck, maybe you know enough biochemistry to explain why the whole thing worked, because neither of us was sure it would.”

“Perhaps one of the doctors-“

“I thought about it,” Mac stated. “But they don’t know anything about electronics or physics, and they’re likely to get bogged down trying to make sense of those aspects. As a science officer, I thought you might have a smattering of understanding of all those things.”

“Smattering?” it repeated in confusion.

“In this case, it means a small amount.”

“Then you are right, I do have some smatterings of knowledge in all these fields. Very well, I will be there.”

“Great! It may not be a party, but I think it’ll be fun!”

Abdulla caught the redhead’s arm as she walked past on her way to the lift. “What was that all about?”

“Ivy and I are getting together Monday evening to go through the Kolla/Colleen Contraption, as she called it.”

“Great! Send me the details so I can be there too.”

Mac grinned. “I was going to do that as soon as I got to my room.” And then she was gone.