2008-03-22: Science Of Miracles

Starring:

Cass_icon.gif Shannon_icon.gif

Summary: Two scientists discuss the Formula.

Date It Happened: March 22nd, 2008

Science of Miracles


Pinehearst Labs

The labs of Pinehearst are diverse, generally they have the same feel, though. This woman's lab isn't quite the same as much the others. There's music playing in the background, music that sounds like it belongs in a dance club more than a science labratory. Equipment whirls around, instrument beeps, and she chews quietly on the end of a pen as she waits for results to buzz by the screen. Dr. Shannon Goode, Biologist, Chemist, and Physicist. Short dark hair is pulled back out of her face, and she's dressed mostly in black, except for the white labcoat that she wears on top of everything else. "Okay… these results better be accurate," she mutters at the screen, leaning in to look at it.

Though not the complete opposite of Shannon, Cass is wearing more colorful clothes underneath her labcoat. Or, at least more casual. Today she's sporting jeans and a green sweater, her hair that has steadily grown out in the past couple months pulled back into a hasty bun. Flipping through the results of the last couple of tests she's worked on with the Formula, she's weaving between counters and desk space without really looking where she's going. Instead she's muttering under her breath the results as she walks, flipping pages. "A three percent solution mixed with a concentrated version of—" She might have muttered more, but she accidentally elbows Shannon as she walks by. "Oh! Geez, I'm really sorry. I'm not paying any attention to my surroundings today."

Shannon has always been kind of the wallflower of Pinehearst labs. She's not really very socialable, with anything except the equipment, but at the same time she's got a tendancy to be a little… "So I noticed. You shouldn't walk and read at the same time, Aldric." Honest? Blunt? Take your pick. She pulls the pen out of her mouth and looks over the woman. They're about the same height, the two of them. Both dark haired. Both blue eyed. The doctor's a little older, with more degrees. "You're on the same project as me…" The Formula. She glances over at the computer, frowning a little with her darkly reddened lips. "Which one are you on? We're working on the four point five percent version. It's not coming out with the best results."

There's a raised eyebrow. Though Cass knows Shannon in passing, she's never had a substantial conversation with the woman. At least she's honest? Or blunt? "Yes, well, I also shouldn't drink four cups of coffee in a couple of hours, but I doubt I'll be able to stay awake if I don't." While Shannon may be blunt, Cass deflects her comment off with a half smile toward the woman. That's just the way she handles things. "I'm doing the three percent. No matter how much we put in, however, it doesn't seem like it will stabilize correctly. Have you seen a solution yet that comes even close to cohering together in any usable form?" While scientifically this is all pretty interesting, it's also not exactly something Cass wants to see succeed. At least she hides it reasonably well, though, with the amount of time she puts in working for a solution she hopes never happens.

"Not yet. I think we might need to add something extra to it," Shannon says, looking back at the computer screen. "That's actually what…" She cuts off, as if she's saying something she realizes she's not supposed to. She's a terrible liar. Part of being blunt. "Anyway, it doesn't stabalize, and that's the problem. The more we add, the worse it seems to get. And that's not changing, as far as I can see…" She pauses thoughtfully, turning the pen around and scrawling down a quick note.

A terrible liar is right, and when Cass is in her search and destroy mode, she's also pretty perceptive. "Actually what?" A small tilt of her head indicating that she's interested and isn't about to let the subject drop entirely. After all, she is Shannon's superior to a certain extent. "I've been thinking that the Formula itself can't be complete, either. By now, if it was correct, we should have a workable serum." Letting her own notes flip back down onto the clipboard she was reading from, she studies Shannon. While she may be younger than the dark-clad scientist, that doesn't mean she's not to be taken seriously.

"See there's…" Shannon frowns a moment, then moves to flip a few pages from her notebook. There's a lot of clauses that she probably had to sign! But then again… she glances up toward the cameras in the lab. The music is loud enough to make recording difficult, though that hadn't been her reason for listening to dance music in the first place. She thinks better with a beat. "It's obviously not doing what they hoped it would, that's clear, but they're trying to… come up with a way to use this that's stable. And then they want to combine it with something else. Once they find a stable version."

How are all these things going on without her knowledge? Isn't she supposed to be in charge here? Though, really, does Cass want to be in charge of this place and take responsibility for everything that happens within it's walls? No, but that doesn't mean she likes having the small parts that she could control and try to keep normal and sane wrested from her hands. "Oh, that! Right." Waving it off as if she already knew what Shannon was going to say, she pulls her clipboard closer. "I've already heard about what it's not doing right." And she's trying, trying so hard to make it sound like she doesn't care what happens to those people she just found out about through Niki. "It's that 'something else' that's going to be the issue, I'm sure."

In charge is always a relative term, isn't it? There's so much going on that no one is really aware of. And Shannon had been here in Pinehearst longer than this woman. Oh that, right? Her eyebrows raise for a moment, then she shrugs. Okay, so Aldric knew about it. She's not sure who is supposed to know about what around here anymore. "They need a stable version before that can even get tested, and right now… we might as well be tossing eggs against a wall trying to get good results." Splatter.

Cass is finding out about relativity a lot more here than she ever did anywhere else. Especially for being relatively new here. At least she's not a mean boss, right? With all the secrecy, it's hard to know who can be talked to about what, which is something that the lab head always found tiring. She gives Shannon a bit of a smile at the shrug. Gotta keep people on their toes, right? "Right. Well, we may need the miracle extra ingredient before we even figure out the percentages, because working without it really isn't working."

"It's not a miracle extra ingrediant," Shannon says, looking at the woman quietly for a minute. "It's a chemical. Those usually aren't miracles." She sounds a little sarcastic, shaking her head as she looks down at her clipboard, moving pages until she gets a better look at something. There's a chemical formula there, a break down of something. It looks like medicine of some kind. "I mean, I guess we could try combining it with the solution and see if it stabalizes it on it's own…"

There's a raised eyebrow. Cass worked as a bookstore owner where the clientele mostly did believe in miracles for many years. So she's not one of those people who believe that science is the answer to everything. "Chemicals could be considered little miracles. Two totally different compositions meeting and creating a separate one." While this is a topic she could talk on for longer, she already can tell that Shannon isn't someone who is going to think well of such talk. "Well, it would be helpful to know which solution it would combine better with. Which solution seems to be the most stable so far in your tests?"

"It's science," Shannon says, arguing without arguing. It's her entire point right now. She's apparently not a believer in miracles or the extraordinry. She offers no other explainations. The question makes her flip through her clipboard again, looking for the write ups. "The negative effects were less pronounced on the … two percent solution. Still there, but…" Less pronounced. There's not big X's next to the subject listings.

X's. While she may have played off knowing about what has been going on behind closed doors to Shannon, the meaning of those little codes chills Cass to the bone. "Right. This is science." Her eyes flicker up to the other brunette to see how such an idea may affect her, if any. "Right," she repeats. "You know, I never really thought about it before, but I wonder where our subjects come from. I've never actually seen them. Just, you know, the results." She's trying to be offhand, as if the thought really did just occur to her.

"Probably the same place they'd usually get 'em, people who don't have a home, or money. They get a roof over their heads, food, medical benifits for the rest of their lives," Shannon says, frowning a little as she flips through a couple pages. There's a moment where she pauses, suddenly realizing what she's saying there. The sheet falls down and she glances over at Aldric. "It's almost lunch time. I think my tests are all failures. We're going to need to work on another solution. There was talk of adding in a blood transfusion. That might help. Think we should start on that?"

"However long that may be," Cass can't help but let escape with a bit of a annoyed sigh. Letting her clip board drop a bit in her arms so that it's readable again, the mask of not caring returns as she has something else to focus on. "I heard about that. I don't think the blood transfusion will do anything more than cause the mixture to be more volatile, but it's properties should give it an extra something." She thinks that over. "So, that'd be a yes. I think we should. I'm actually not all that hungry. I'll start on them now, since my solutions are about the same success rate as yours." Meaning, none.

"Which percentage should we introduce the blood transfusion to? Or should we do a couple of each?" Shannon asks, looking back to the paperwork. It seems very much like all of them are facts and figures to her, and very little else. "If it works it could be as close to a miracle as you mentioned earlier, so it's worth it." Their sacrifice will help create a better future.
As always, Cass doesn't believe in such sacrifice is necessary for that better future, but she keeps that opinion to herself. Working next to someone who obviously believes in everything they're doing, she won't toe the line. "Start with the two percent and see how that reacts. Then work your way up. I trust you to know when it shows itself to be a success or a hopeless endeavor." People aren't just facts and figures to her. "We'll see how it goes, then. Miracles and chemicals mixing together."

"I'll do that," Shannon says plainly, writing down the instructions on her notepad in handwriting that is actually very easy to read. "I'll call you if there's any successes," she says, letting the sheet drop down again as she turns to look back at her screen again. That pen finds it's way between her teeth. She's thinking, and obviously seeming to think the conversation is done.

"Great." The conversation is certainly over, no mistaking that. Not lingering much by Shannon's work station, Cass continues on her way toward her own space. She's no longer muttering to herself to figure anything out. Instead, she's thinking to herself and quietly smoldering about the idea that she can't do anything immediately about those X's on their test sheets.

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