Chapters 2009

APPLAUSE

"And now, for the most path-breaking research by an undergraduate, the honour would be presented by .."

"Its gonna be a long night." Cherole stifled a yawn. They were sitting at the second row from the front of the eloquent award ceremony dais. She always sat near the front, except for the brief period under the apprenticeship of Dr. Elbis Zane, who always held the you got the best view from the absolute back, and prided himself on making the whole congregation wait while he walked the distance to the podium whenever he would get a prize, which was too often. She smiled remembering the on-stage antics her guide would perform, earning him the nickname Kid, which he planned to keep for life.

Cherole paused her flashback for a second to see notice a lanky youngster lazily walking up the dais. Funny how academia had become so ornate lately, she thought, the boy would be all over the newspaper's tomorrow, along with all other winners, while just five years ago, the only place it could be a top story, was a science magazine. Just one event then changed all that.

"Thank you Ruvan. Now over to the senior section..."

Cherole looked guiltily at Ron, who was trying hard to remain interested. She liked to think she was bringing him to increase his passion towards academia, but the truth was she had been to such events more often than she cared to admit, and was scared of being bored to death yet again.

"So how is your thesis project coming along, Ron? I know Prof Darwin can be a pain in the...I mean he can be quite demanding."

"Well, maam. It is as you would think ...."

The conversation proved quite a saver for both of them, as in what they felt the next moment, the host announced
"And now for the final honour of the night. Typically reserved for the most insightful and naturally the most controversial, THE Spock Prize for most innovative paper, goes to..."

"Its a tie."

The Project 37 lab had the most perfect sphere in the world, unequalled in precision by any other sphere ever constructed, except the one that stood beside it. They were immaculate and incredibly similar, leaving the fact that they did exactly the opposite job.
They were marked init and fin.

"Sockets activated", declared Ruvan resisting his temptation to say "Vexatious Vixens" and raised his thumb to Sharon still one eye on Kensington. With efficient movements, Sharon took out the glass beaker marked Nanoarchium Equitans from the refrigerator.It was the smallest living thing which could withstand the temperatures of the teleportation.

After adding some routine chemicals to a drop of the liquid from the beaker, Sharon handed over the slide having the droplet to Edlie, who in the absense of Mine, performed his task of placing the droplet inside init. The magnetic levitation inside, never let the entered droplet ever touch the inside walls of the sphere.

Suddenly, when Kid asserted "FIRE!", trying hard to appear curious, everything happened together.A twenty eight thousand computers, suddenly stopped working, without the users realizing what they did wrong. The big screen flashing numbers , which were the calculated variables of the bacterium, suddenly went bright and then absolute black. Then as fast as it died, it woke up to yell FIRE! back at Kid.

Dr. Kensington knew that the experiment had caused the fire. He had killed the hen which laid golden eggs.

"A hundred" Interrupted an impassionate voice, as its owner, a lanky individual with an ever-present sleepy expression in his eyes, made his way into the room. Ruvan, one of the younger members at CTS, was the local computer nerd. Although still considered as a newbie by the senior members, unlike them, he was from the Y-generation, the folks who had not known the world without internet and mobile smartphones, and hence had a much better feel of the technological pulse in the world.

"Is that no. of victims, or no. of mutations?" Asked nonplussed Kid, clearly annoyed with the audacity of Ruvan of interrupting veterans in mid-conversation.

"No. of mutations, the affected machines are over two eighty. That's a lower estimate, we obviously can't get the exact figures." replied Ruvan, almost to himself, his mind wandering off to some other problem whose solution was alluding him.

Kid couldn't help being awed. He had seen lots of kids like Ruvan, genius', nerds, confident, but unlike others, this one seemed totally passive, unmindful of recognition. Yet, when it came to delivery, noone quite came close. His pet project, Vixens, started as a minor project in university, was quickly noticed and taken over by CTS. Now the virus had successfully affected over two eighty thousand computers world wide in under a week, and was still unnoticed.

"Just came to keep you posted Doc. Forgive me, but I can't be away from my server right now." excused Ruvan.

"The audacity of the lad" thought Kid as he turned his attention again to the matter at hand. Evolutionary viruses may be sci-fi delight, but he can't lose focus now.