Now that Marcos was out of the lab Tom began to feel a little better. It was not that he disliked Tom or that he preferred Julie. It wasn't even that he preferred working in smaller groups. It was just that when Marcos and Julie were together they engaged in a friendly banter that threw him off. Work was work. Tom knew that he didn't cope with blurring the work/friendship lines as well as he could.
"Right," said Tom, "I want an Alpha-Three field around the safe box and a Zed Pattern Analysis wave running over the reagent and sample for the next 48 hours."
Julie nodded to Tom and got to it.
Oh dear, she thought, reviewing the scientific control panel. The USS Potemkin had recently upgraded the control panel interface to the Boyce-Codd layout. That was one she had yet to fully master. Hesitantly at first but then with more confidence, Julie's slender fingers whisked over the optic interface and brought the force field up around the safe box. "Alpha-Three field engaged, Lt," he said.
"Good," said Tom, "Now let's divide the remaining sample into ten equal parts. Two for storage. One for further bio-tests, two for chemical analysis and we'll use those three reports to determine our next course of action. Julie, could you give me a hand with this Kayfor sample."
Julie hopped to it, stepping over to help Tom. She liked helping Tom.
As the two scientists continued their experiments Julie's mistake went unnoticed. The force field around the safe box was not entirely whole and it would not be safe to disengage the physical safe box at all. |