otherwise protected?”
Steve nodded.
“Make sure her AI is upgraded to match everyone else’s so she can call on you immediately if she needs it?”
“Ahead of you there Ma’am. We already had a spare AI setup which we gave her and I’ve had her order a few more.”
Amy quietly said, “I’m afraid he might have ‘connections.’ It might be better if I just gave in to his sick little game to get him off my case.”
Steve’s eyes narrowed, “You mean ‘criminal’ connections?”
Without looking up Amy nodded, afraid that revealing this might lose her the job but feeling that she had to be honest.
Ell said, “I don’t believe that we should let loathsome scum destroy our lives. Steve, when you’re not protecting me or Amy, I’d like you and the team to consider how we can take this guy down, legally, if he gives us trouble. Allan?” Ells eyes flicked up like many people’s did when talking to their AI, “Begin an investigation into this man’s financial and other net accessible data.” She turned to Amy, “What’s his name?” No one really wanted a computational engine with the power of the supercomputer currently powering Ell’s AI to sift through their life looking for “irregularities.”
“Felton Bonapute,” Amy whispered as a mixture of relief and new anxiety flooded over her.
They discussed plans and possible responses to this new problem for a while, then Ell retired to her office/lab. She’d read extensively beyond the current UAV curriculum and spent a lot of time on the software simulator she’d been provided. Currently she was quite a ways ahead of the rest of her UAV class so she again had some time to spend on her physics experiments. The last of the equipment had arrived for the first one she had planned out.
Her new research related to the connection that quantum entangled particles had through the tiny fifth dimension for which she’d worked out a new math. According to a new solution she’d run using her math, a group of entangled particles, arranged in a circle and ‘energized’ properly, might “hold open” a passage between them that entered into that fifth dimension. She hoped that she could push some molecules through such an opening and have them reappear back through the fifth dimension some distance away in our universe. Her calculations said that the new location could be a long way away from the location where she had pushed the molecules into it.
She’d ordered newer and more powerful versions of the same equipment she’d used as a grad student at NCSU to entangle molecules as well as a micromanipulator setup to allow her to position the entangled molecules. Working on setting it all up kept her happily occupied until 3 AM when she forced herself to get some sleep. She had to get up at 6:15 the next morning to get out to Nellis on time.
***
Axen knocked on Colonel Ennis door. Ennis sat back at his desk, “Come in Major, but don’t bring me any problems!”
Axen grinned, “I have a combination ‘Golly gee whiz wonderful’ and ‘Uh-oh, what do we do about that.”
Ennis rolled his eyes, “OK, I’ll bite, what is it this time.”
“Your favorite El Tee.”
Ennis just raised his eyebrows and motioned for Axen to go on.
“She’s gone from starting three weeks behind the rest of the class, to so far ahead that she must be bored, though she hides it well. Honestly, I feel sure that she could pass the final exam today, even though we aren’t even to the halfway point in the curriculum. Probably get a record breaking score on it too.”
“So? Graduate her and send her back to me.”
“I’m worried about the demoralizing effect that will have on everyone else in the course. I think, for their sake, I should keep her at least a little bit longer.”
Ennis pursed his lips. “Okaaay, but try to keep her challenged somehow. Maybe she could rewrite some of the more obtuse course material? Or, remember she’s a math genius, could she
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