Surprise! New wordz! Because I'm nice. Never say I don't do anything for you 
Christine rapped the back of her knuckles on the door frame, then pushed the door fully open and went into Jerry's new office, which still smelled faintly of paint. The man himself was sitting behind his desk gazing at the whiteboard on the wall, holding a pencil between both hands and idly rolling it in his fingers. She sat down in one of the free chairs and kicked the door shut with a foot, the click as it latched seeming loud in the otherwise quiet room. When that died away, there was only the faint drone of the air circulation system above them and the distant sound of other people in the lab doing various tasks to break the silence.
She watched him for a minute or two. "Penny for them," she finally said.
Her friend turned his head to look at her for a moment then went back to examining the whiteboard, although she felt he probably wasn't seeing what was on it. His thoughts were obviously elsewhere. After a few more seconds, he cleared his throat, licked dry lips, and replied, "I'm trying to understand."
"How she does it?"
"No. Well, yes, but not just that," he sighed. "Everything. You were right, you know."
"I often am," she grinned.
He gave her a look. "And you never let anyone forget it. As we all know." She nodded with a mildly smug look, trying to get him to smile, and succeeded for a moment before he went back to looking worried. "No, what I mean is that I'm worried about the implications of all this."
"Breaking physics will do that," she noted.
"That's not really the thing I'm worried about." He looked at her again. "I mean, I do understand how world-shaking this is from that standpoint, although obviously I don't have the background to
fully understand it. No, the part I'm worried about is
everything else. The fallout from what we're discovering is going to be… profound."
"Can't disagree there." Christine nodded, becoming more serious. "Just the things Hermione has shown us today hold the potential to cause complete upheaval in quite a number of areas."
"That's what Farouk pointed out," he agreed. "It hadn't really dawned on me until that point just what it
meant. I was so caught up in the excitement of being able to prove that all the things I've been studying for the best part of twenty years were real, in the most spectacular manner one could wish for, that I neglected to think it all the way through. I think most of us did that, honestly. It's a totally new branch of scientific study that's so gobsmacking that after we got over the shock we all just went
whee! and dived into research. Hermione herself probably hasn't really thought about the greater implications of her work…"
"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Jerry. That girl thinks of all sorts of things, and I'm absolutely certain she hasn't told us all of them."
"Oh, I know, you're right, and she's probably sitting on any number of other world-shaking ideas that she hasn't quite finished yet," he chuckled. "I can't work out if I'm nervous about what she'll next reveal or desperate to find out. Probably both if I'm honest. But even with that said, I'm not sure she's considered, for example, the political issues that all this will probably spark off. Why would she? As brilliant as she is, she's still only ten, and I doubt she's really spent a lot of time studying British politics. Most people don't, after all. She's beyond most people as far as intelligence goes, certainly, but she doesn't yet have the life experience someone older has. Or, I hope, the cynicism." Looking at the pencil he was still rolling between his fingers, he sighed.
"Farouk pointed out that the government would probably stick their beaks in at some point. I was thinking the same sort of thing, although I didn't put as much thought into it as he did, mostly because he knows a lot more about how such things as the national grid work. But what he said suddenly made it clear that the research we're doing here has the potential to affect literally every part of society in ways I can scarcely imagine. Both for good or for ill."
Turning his chair to face her, he dropped the pencil on his desk and leaned forward. "She's able to make a device that can replace every source of energy we have with something that doesn't need fuel, doesn't produce pollution, costs nothing to run, probably never fails, and is the size of a house brick. That would ultimately affect the petroleum industry, the gas industry, what there is left of the coal industry, the nuclear industry, the power distribution industry… Just at the top level, ignoring all the rest. Cars that don't need petrol, trains that don't need diesel…" He shook his head as she listened. "I started making a list of all the places that would be affected and gave up after two pages."
"Copper mining, iron mining, wire manufacturing, petrol pump purveyors…" She smiled a little as he sighed again. "I know what you mean. I was mulling over the same thing myself, ever since she showed us her latest toy."
"And that's just one, minor,
peripheral aspect of this whole bloody situation," he grumbled. "Completely changing half the economy of the planet is an
accidental byproduct of what's happening." He fixed a worried gaze on her face. "It's been causing me a certain amount of concern about people who might decide that they don't want that to happen."
"They may well not have a choice," she pointed out quietly.
"Will
they think that?" he asked. "Or will they try regardless?"
"What are you expecting? Soviet paratroopers landing on the roof and trying to steal her inventions?" she smiled. "Or her? I have a feeling that if they tried they might find things went a little pear-shaped."
He chuckled again. "I'm not expecting an armed invasion, no. Espionage, perhaps. It does happen, after all, and there are some high profile cases we all know about. Spies from the Soviets, or the Americans, or god knows who else. Hopefully no one outside this department and the administration has any idea of what's going on yet, but sooner or later word will get out. We'll be publishing at some point after all. And once it
does, well…" Jerry shrugged a little helplessly. "I'm beginning to worry that strange and hysterical articles in the local paper are going to be the least of our problems."
"I can't wait to see Hermione on
Tomorrow's World," she commented, grinning, which made him laugh. "All right, you're not wrong, I'll admit, but does that change your path?"
Jerry sighed. After a moment, he replied, "I honestly don't think so. We can't just give up because something
might happen. It might not, after all. And even if it does, I don't think that what we're doing will really change it very much. Hermione is going to keep studying psionics until she's wrung every last secret out of it, that much I'm sure of, no matter what anyone else feels. She doesn't seem to be
able to give up, and appears to want to learn
everything."
"One of the many things I love about that girl," she smiled. "True enough."
"And everyone out there is completely invested in getting to the bottom of the entire thing," he added, waving a hand at the door and the department beyond it. "All of us are people who want to
know. That's why we're here."
"Also very true," she agreed.
"But when you sit and really
think about the various things we've seen, and what Hermione has written, take the time to understand the deeper implications, it's… Well, frankly it's terrifying. I had a sudden moment when I really
knew what Robert Oppenheimer felt when he watched the end result of all that research actually
work." He gave her a slightly hollow smile. "It was a little… overwhelming."
Christine nodded slowly. "I've had similar thoughts. To be completely honest with you, I had them the first time I saw Michael floating a pen around the room. That one event
completely ripped out the underpinnings of all the things I thought I knew about physics in a single moment, and left me realized more than I ever have that we've barely scratched the surface of how the universe works… It was a bit unnerving, to tell the truth. On the other hand, it's immensely satisfying too in a strange way. Any physicist who's honest about it will tell you we're nowhere near knowing everything, and may never get there. But all this?" She waved a finger in the air in a circular motion, implying the entire department. "It's going to bring us much, much closer than I ever thought we'd reach in my lifetime. Assuming we can survive the fallout, of course."
She grinned at him as he ran his hands over his face and hair, leaving it disheveled. "Oh, dear god, Chris, don't say that with so much
glee. You're worse than Farouk sometimes."
"I'm worse than him
all the time," she corrected with a smirk, getting a somewhat reluctant laugh out of her old friend.
"Can't deny that," he grumbled. "You're a massive pain in the arse a lot of the time."
"I do what I can," she agreed cheerfully. "Someone has to keep spirits up."
"You think
that's what you're doing?" he queried, one eyebrow raised. "I always thought you were just being…
you." His lips twitched a little as she scowled, before laughing.
"It's the same thing."
"I can't deny that you've been like this since you were an undergrad, so I suppose there's some truth to it."
A knock on the door made both of them look around, seeing Farouk appear as it opened. He looked at the pair of them. "I was wondering where you both got to," he remarked as he came in and closed the door behind him, then slumped into a free chair. Running his hands through his hair, he yawned widely. "Long day." He examined Jerry for a second. "You look terrible. What's the problem?"
"He's having existential angst on behalf of the universe," Christine replied helpfully, causing the new arrival to laugh for a moment.
"In point of fact I was thinking about what you said earlier," Jerry put in, after giving Christine a dark look that made her grin. "Along with some of my own worries. I'm trying to work out the best way to keep this department from bringing about the end of civilization."
"Bit dramatic there, Jerry," Farouk chuckled, making Jerry shrug and smile. "I don't think it's
that bad. But it's certainly something we're going to have to build into our plans. Not the ending civilization bit, but working out what we're going to tell the lads from the MoD when they turn up."
"You think the
MoD will get involved?" Jerry asked with a worried look. Farouk and Christine exchanged a look, then he half-shrugged.
"It's probably the most likely lot, yeah. After all…
bloody force fields. Just for a start, they'd go
bonkers about that. The power generator is almost less important, if her force fields are able to be strong enough to bounce a bullet or something. If they're even better, we're firmly into science fiction territory, and who knows
where that would end up? Damn right they'd be interested."
"Oh,
wonderful," Jerry moaned, burying his face in his hands. "Just what we need. We're
trying to do serious parapsychological research, we don't need a gaggle of soldiers wandering around asking inane questions. This isn't U.N.I.T."
"Not yet," Christine snickered, getting an aggrieved look through his fingers.
"It probably won't go that far, Jerry," Farouk soothed, as he lowered his hands. "Right now only Hermione can make her various H-Field widgets, and anyone who tries to force her to do that for her is going to end up being told very firmly that she's got more important work to do and to please leave her alone. And if they push, she'll
make them leave her alone. If they want her help they're going to have to be polite, and I think she's probably working on the basis that we got there first." Smiling, the electronic engineer shrugged again. "It would be in their best interests to wait until we manage to get to the bottom of what all this is doing, and see if the results can be duplicated technologically. At the moment I'm not sure it
can, but I'm not sure it
can't either. We'll have to see what turns up when we can get Hawking's crew to look at the data."
"And even then, as I said, it may well take years," Christine pointed out, causing him to look at her and nod.
"There is that too, yes." Turning back to Jerry, he went on, "I doubt Hermione is going to want to spend the next two years making HOP arrays in bulk, because who would? No matter how much money they offer. She's only ten, and I doubt money is really high on her list of priorities. On the other hand, if they ask nicely, she'll probably be happy to make more or less anything for them every now and then."
"We should ask her about making some larger power units. I suspect the administration would be quite keen on reducing the rather profligate electricity bills the university pays," Christine said with a laugh.
"That's actually not a bad idea," Farouk nodded. "We did some more tests on the one she gave us and it's certainly all she claimed. We got up to about thirty four kilowatts before all the cabling melted, and the output didn't waver at all. If it was designed with some really large connectors you could probably run an entire city from it."
"Bloody hell…" Jerry sighed. "She's going to have more money than God Almighty by the time she leaves school."
"Probably. But like I said, she doesn't give me the impression she's even thinking about that," Farouk replied. "She's utterly consumed by the process of learning, and discovering new things. The girl is insatiably curious about
everything. A born scientist of the truest variety."
The parapsychologist nodded, clearly lost in his own thoughts. Farouk looked at Christine, who shook her head a little, and both waited patiently. After quite a long time, Jerry sighed and leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingertips together as he went back to looking at the whiteboard and all the notes written on it. "That encryption software you got us… you're sure it's as good as we need? In light of all the new information?" he asked quietly, not looking away from the board.
"It's the best currently available," Farouk assured him. "A friend of mine in the computer research department found it for me. It's aimed at the financial industry, mainly, but it uses encryption algorithms that are military level. Our lot improved the ones the Americans made standard a few years ago and there are a couple of companies who licensed it for the big banks. They take security
very seriously."
"Of course they do, there's money at stake," Christine snarked, making him grin.
"You're not wrong there," he nodded. "The only way we'll get anything better is either to have the Vice Chancellor use some of his pull, or let the MoD in and have them provide it. But what we've got is more than enough to keep out anyone but a real expert, and even they'd have trouble. It would take decades to crack by brute force."
"And all the tapes and other data are in a safe that's rated to be tough enough you'd need hours with a cutting torch or heavy explosives," Christine added. "Let's say that no one is going to break into it without a lot of effort. And noise."
"The alarm system would tell half of Oxford if that happened. We're as secure as we can get at the moment, Jerry." Farouk spread his hands. "It's not possible to be
completely secure, of course. But unless we get raided by a team of international jewel thieves with a very large budget, or MI-5, we're decently safe."
"You could ask Hermione to think of a method to improve security," Christine suggested with a small smile. "I wouldn't be surprised if she
could."
Jerry looked momentarily amused. "I might actually do that," he said. Once again, he went quiet for some time as they exchanged glances. Eventually he shook his head. "You know, the one thing I
really want to ask that girl, I'm actually
scared to. Because I know what the answer will be and I'm not sure I'm ready to have it confirmed."
He looked at them. Christine met his eyes with hers. "If she can teach someone else other than her parents," she said softly.
"You worked that out as well, then."
"I did, yes. It was fairly obvious when you think about it."
Farouk looked back and forth between then, frowning, then his expression went through several changes, settling on resignation. "Damn it. I didn't notice that, but you're right," he muttered.
"
Hermione discovered telekinesis," Jerry said, looking past them at the door and not really seeing them. "She said as much, right at the beginning, and again in that incredible lecture she gave. Then she used
that to derive the existence of the H-Field, and everything else that lead to. So how did her
parents end up having telekinetic abilities, unless…"
"Unless she taught them," Christine finished for him. "Somehow."
"Quite."
The three of them stared at each other. "God above, that's going to change things," Farouk finally said in a stunned voice.
"A bit, yes," Jerry replied, sounding tired. "But to be brutally honest, I can't handle thinking about that after everything else today. I'll consider how we break everything all over again tomorrow. Right now, I need a pint. Or six." He looked at his friends. "Coming?"
"Damn right I'm coming," Christine replied, standing up as he did. Farouk joined them. "And because I'm just that nice, I'll get the first round in. You deserve it."
"I won't turn that down," Jerry laughed. Making sure his computer was shut down, he followed them out of the office, and locked the door behind him, arming the alarm in the process. Shortly they were leaving the building in the company of everyone else left in the department, all of them feeling the need for a nightcap in the nearest decent pub.
It had been that sort of a day, really.
