Green Comet

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage takes on the world.

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Chapter Twenty-Three – Fame

The newspaper didn’t agree with her. Even though they originally came to her to do a story about the prodigy who won a place at the university against all odds, they ended up doing a feature about the girl who survived a month alone in the wilderness. Of course it included the story of her killing the day flier, complete with pictures of her holding her spear and wearing the necklace. For an interesting juxtaposition, they took the pictures on the university grounds. The primitive and the civilized. She indulged them, but she refused to stand on the grass, nor would she allow them on it in spite of their insistence that they needed a better angle. Nor did she allow them into her quarters, because that would have disturbed the Professor. She did allow them to take pictures of her in the library. The primitive reading. They needed the university’s permission, but they only had to promise to publish pictures of the Head Librarian and the University President for that.

The feature was a success, and not long after that the city magazine called. They did a big glossy spread contrasting the intellectual academic against the tough country girl. She refrained from pointing out that it was the same intelligence that made her successful in both cases. She had already learned that they showed little interest in the nuances, subtle or otherwise. Next came the inter-metropolitan magazines that were sold in many other cities along with hers. She was able to choose among them and she chose the one that offered to pay her the most. They also claimed to have the widest coverage with the most subscribers. She was interested in the money because it could buy her security and independence. She didn’t let it blind her, though. She made them commit to giving substantial attention to the university and to Professor Tailor. He wound up with a lot of job offers, but he chose to stay where he was, at a significant increase in benefits. The university didn’t mind because they were in more demand and could raise their rates. Sage felt bad about that unintended consequence and, when she was in a position to do so, established a very generous scholarship.

Next came the book deal. Once again she was faced with competing offers and relied heavily on the advice of the university and their recommended experts to choose the best one. As it turned out, the one she chose was the only one that didn’t try to get her to turn over the rights to her story in exchange for a larger cash advance. She was glad of the advice because without it she would never have seen the trap, and she would have been left out in the cold when the movie deal came along.

That was almost too much for her. The disruption of her life and the demands on her time made her want to pull out and go back to being a simple cleaner. All the distractions were affecting what she thought of as her real work, and the damage to her pride in her work ethic had her wanting to call it all off. Fortunately the Professor was able to talk to her and convince her that, with her money, she could hire someone to take over her cleaning duties and not need to give anything up. She burst out from under the gathering clouds, kissed the Professor’s cheek and got hold of Digger. He was able to find someone, a shy young woman who was willing and needed the work, and Sage was able to concentrate on her new duties.

The movie was successful and it spawned a sequel. Sage was on the books as author – with a ghostwriter – co-screenwriter and technical advisor. Her fame led to more magazine articles and more books and more movies. It seemed as if once it got going, it became self-sustaining. Fame led to more fame, and success to more success. If Sage was embarrassed by it, and she was, she didn’t let it show publicly. She was embarrassed because it felt as if she was being rewarded far out of proportion to the effort she was putting in. She didn’t show it because the money, in addition to securing her life, allowed her to help Digger and fund her scholarships.

In spite of all the turmoil, she was able to find the time to continue working with the Professor, which she considered her most important work. They made some progress with the artifacts. Sage, from the broad mass of knowledge she was absorbing, came up with suggestions for the symbols etched on their backs. The Professor’s, a circle apparently orbiting another circle, was already suggested to represent the lightest element, hydrogen. She agreed and suggested that they say so in a paper. Hers, a large circle with two smaller circles embedded in it, like a simple face drawn by a child, didn’t resemble any element. She told the Professor that she thought it might represent a water molecule, and they co-wrote a paper about that, too. They also speculated that the material they were made from was carbon. They were hesitant because it seemed metallic and they had never heard of metallic carbon, but they published anyway. Their tests indicated carbon, and that’s what they reported. They would let the scientific community work it out.

When the book deal came through and she received her first cheque, Sage decided that it was time to move out and get her own place. She felt she had enough money now, and soon she would have a degree in astronomy and could find a job, so it would be a safe move. She loved her place on the campus and she liked how it was so convenient to her work, but the time had come. She wanted the Professor to have his room back, for those nights he worked late and didn’t want to have to go all the way home to sleep. Also, if she had her own place she would be able to take in some of Digger’s people. It bothered her that she was receiving so much good fortune and she wasn’t repaying the man who had made it possible.

She would move out and get things going in the right direction, but first there was something she wanted to do. She was just coming into oestrus, and she started to work on the Professor. At first he didn’t know what was going on. Then he did know, but pretended he didn’t. Next he let on that he knew, but pretended that it was inappropriate, with him being her employer. And how would it be if they made all the cliché rumors true? He resisted, however feebly, but she persisted. When they passed each other, she always made sure to brush against him. When they were at the workbench, she pressed close, shoulder to shoulder, their heads close, breathing mingled breath. He didn’t stand a chance and soon they did what came naturally.

She moved within days, and when her pregnancy became obvious, and later when her son was born, there was enough uncertainty around the timing to make the nasty rumors impotent. She didn’t reveal who the father was, not even to the Professor, and she let herself be seen with enough men, from Digger to film producers, that it might have been anyone. That led to talk about the loose morals of the northern girl, which wounded her natural sense of rectitude, but she only used it to enhance her already overblown public image.

By the time Tallgrass was born, the mystique around Sage was so well established that single motherhood was on its way from a state of disgrace, to a courageous choice.

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage surprises a lot of people.

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Chapter Twenty-Two – Work

Professor Tailor got his cleaner, and Sage got her education. During the day she cleaned, and the laboratory had never looked so good. She didn’t stint. Even after she had been doing it long enough for it all to become routine, she never did it perfunctorily. She got the grit out of the cracks in the floor. She dusted everywhere, even the places that would never be seen. She removed the cobwebs from the highest corners of the ceiling. The high windows at the back of the lab, over the narrow alley between the building and the wall, she polished so thoroughly that the glass seemed to disappear. The only thing she didn’t clean was any area where the Professor was running an experiment.

She didn’t confine her activities to the lab. The foyer, with its big windows and beautiful wooden floor, was polished up to showroom standards. She wanted everyone who entered to get a good impression. In his office she was more circumspect. Although the room got the same attention as the rest of the place, she didn’t touch his desk. She knew that he always had things on the go, works in progress that he left out until he was finished them, so she didn’t disturb anything.

Upstairs was the same. Even though she was the only one who went up there, she kept it to the same level of perfection as the rest. She remembered how the wood and the fittings shone and gleamed the first time she saw them, and she tried to make it even better.

She even went outside once a week to do the outsides of the windows. The lower ones were fine. She could put her front hooves on the sill and reach the top corners that way. It was the upper windows that were the problem. She had to get the Professor’s help to find the scaffolding that would get her up that high. At first the workers – the same ones who had brought her chest of drawers – refused. They said it was their job and they would do it, but after a few weeks of her badgering them to get it done, they gave her access so she could get the scaffold herself. She also set it up in the narrow alley at the back so she could do the lab windows.

While she was working outside she naturally interacted with people walking by on the sidewalk, and the occasional professor on the grass. Of the students, some were friendly, some were shy, and some were scornful. She soon learned to identify the ones on scholarship. They were sometimes friendly and sometimes shy, but never rude. And they didn’t carry the air of entitlement that came with so many of the others. Of the professors, most ignored her, but a few spoke to her. Most of those had only polite comments, but a few would joke about how she could do their place when she was finished here. Some of them ended up hiring her when she took them up on it.

All in all, other than some annoyed maintenance staff, some cleaning contractors whose work she took, and the inevitable umbrage of some of the privileged students, she got on with people well. The staff stopped snickering behind their hands whenever they crossed paths. In part it was because their manager talked to them after the Professor talked to him. When Sage asked him why they were always grinning at her, he was outraged. In part it was for her sake, but in part it was because it implied impropriety on his part. So they were chastened, but they were also learning a grudging respect for her. They were impressed by her work ethic, and they also heard hints and rumors about how she got there. Maybe she was an unsophisticated primitive from the back country, but she was a strong and brave and industrious one. Most gratifying for Sage was the change in Derrick, the Professor’s pupil, who overcame his prejudice and became her friend.

At night and on the weekends she pursued her education. The Professor got her enrolled in official courses that would get her a standard education. There may have been a few smirks among the other students when they learned she couldn’t even read, but by the end of the first year she was helping them with their studies. It was soon obvious that, in addition to her diligence, she had a powerful innate intelligence. By the end of the second year she was ready to take the qualification examinations.

She did well enough to qualify for a scholarship. In fact, she scored in the ninety-ninth percentile of everyone who had ever taken the exams. She showed that she was deserving, but the university was reluctant to admit her. They were worried that it would diminish their reputation if a mere country girl could so easily get in. They were prepared to give the seat to yet another boy from a monied family. Then the Professor explained that there were other universities that would gladly take her, and her artifact, and him, and his artifact. Reminded of the prestige they would lose, they made a great show of welcoming this girl from the north country, and establishing their progressive, merit-based, egalitarian reputation.

At last Sage could join the Professor in his work, although by then it wasn’t much of a change. During the two years it took her to get the qualifications necessary to act as a lab assistant, she had already performed most of the duties of one. Since she was cleaning the glassware anyway, she might as well set it up for the experiment. Knowing where everything was, it was logical for her to order supplies. Once she learned how to read and write, why shouldn’t she keep his notebook for him? The only thing she didn’t do was actually participate in the experiments. At least not directly.

Being there while he was working, she was naturally privy to his thoughts. It was only a matter of time, and not long at that, before he started talking to her. Social chatter at first, but inevitably it turned to his work, either the work at hand or anything else that was on his mind. It didn’t take him long to see that she was getting it. Once she had an idea of what he was talking about, and some understanding of the jargon, she could converse reasonably on anything he brought up. He was continually impressed by her agile mind, and continually reminded that he had done the right thing by sponsoring her.

Her talents made her a valuable partner in the laboratory. First she was just a sounding board for his ideas. Then she was asking acute questions that helped illuminate the problem. Finally she was making insightful contributions to the solutions. All the while she was busy with mop or broom or rag. No matter how deeply she got involved with his work, she never forgot her work. Not only did she have high standards for herself, she also kept in mind that she was there as a cleaner, and she owed it to the Professor to not overstep her position.

Sage didn’t confine her learning to the classroom and the lab. Once she knew how to read she began to practice on the books in her room. The advanced physics was still a little beyond her at that time, but the astronomy, leaving aside the mathematics, was fascinating. She learned that she was living on a planet orbiting an orange dwarf star. Her planet was the third one out from the star, and the next one in, roughly the same size, was also in something called the habitable zone of the star. What a revelation! She hadn’t thought of stars as having planets before now, much less habitable zones. And the idea that there was another planet in her star’s zone was intoxicating.

She asked the Professor about it. Could there be life there? Could there be people there? Were the legends true? Did the people of this planet once fly up there and go to the other planet? And now, after a great catastrophe that brought down the people’s prideful ways and kept them in darkness for those ages, could the people on the other planet be sending these artifacts as messages?

The Professor smiled with proud indulgence at her bright flame of curiosity. He told her that many great minds had asked these questions, and so far they had no definitive answers. But, he said, there were tantalizing clues. Archeologists were finding evidence of massive structures that were much older, and buried much deeper than the more recent ones they had been studying. There were rare artifacts, mere fragments, that seemed to indicate a time of high culture and technology much farther in the past than anyone had thought possible. No one could say for sure, but the legends of great deeds and a long fall in the deep past might contain a germ of truth.

Her curiosity was fully inflamed now. Before she became an official lab assistant, she devoured every book in her room, then the rest of the Professor’s books, then she started in on the university’s library. She found out that the city had a library too, so she started going there. That’s where she found the more speculative ideas, including an entire genre devoted to aliens from other stars who had come here and brought down destruction on their heads.

She had been experiencing many things these past two years that she would never have imagined in her previous life, but she still stopped now and then to marvel at it. Here she was, a simple country girl, finding herself involved in some of the grandest inquiries of the smartest and most important people in the world. It seemed to her that that might be even bigger than killing a day flier.

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage learns what she must do to get admitted to the college so she can work with the professor on the gliders.

Please let me know in the comments whether you’re enjoying this. And subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

rjb

Chapter Twenty-One – Higher Education

Sage was thinking about what to do next when she heard the front door open. She stepped out into the hallway in time to hear the Professor say, “Just take it upstairs, please. I’ll be in my laboratory.”

Two men started up the stairs and she could see that they were carrying large, bulky things on their backs. This must be the chest of drawers he was talking about, she thought. He must have ordered it right away, before going to work in his laboratory. She smiled and moved up the hall to let them in her room, then followed them in.

They were looking around for a place to put their load down as she squeezed past them. Sizing up the new piece of furniture, she quickly decided to move her panniers over to the side wall, beside the open door, so they could put it down beside the head of the bed. She helped unship the frame and put it up against the wall, then she did the same with the four drawers. Once they were fitted into the frame, the three of them stood back to look at it.

“That’s good,” she said. “And quick, too. I wasn’t expecting it to arrive so soon.”

The one who had carried the frame said, “When we get a request from Professor Tailor, we drop everything. He’s an important man around here, and he gets what he wants.” He looked at his partner and they smiled, then looked back at her.

The smiles made Sage feel uncomfortable. There was something more than simple friendliness in them. She suddenly felt very crowded in the small room, so she worked her way out the door and into the hallway. “Thank you,” she said as she showed them out. “I can manage it from here.”

“Yes miss,” he said, and led his partner toward the stairs. “I’m sure you can.” They didn’t talk all the way down and out the front door, but she saw them exchanging glances in the stairway. She moved over to the window and watched them pass underneath it. They were talking and laughing until one of them looked up and saw her, then they sobered up and walked sedately until they passed out of sight.

Sage pulled her face back from the glass. “I wonder what that was about,” she muttered. Then she spied the chest of drawers and forgot about it. She emptied her panniers and filled the drawers, then covered the top of the chest with the things she had tried to fit around the books on the shelves. When she was done she dropped her haunches onto one of the pads on the floor and looked at her room. With her back knees up around her ribs and her front legs braced straight, she crossed her arms and nodded.

Last night she had slept in a dark storeroom, and thought it was an improvement. The night before she was in the traders’ shelter, getting her first good sleep in a month. That month had been spent in constant danger to her life, and before that she had been a simple, fun-loving child. She shook her head at the changes she’d been through, and looked again at where she was now. She smiled. She thought she must be the luckiest refugee ever to turn up in this city. The smile tightened. Now it would be up to her to make the most of it.

First was the thing the movers had said about the Professor: “He’s an important man, and he gets what he wants.” Sage remembered what Digger had said about city people and how they were interested in what was in it for them. And she remembered her banishment and her month-long ordeal, where she learned that she had to take care of herself. Now she was thinking about how lucky she was to be connected to a man of such influence, and about how much good that could do her. Then she felt bad, and a flash of shame, about scheming like that. She suppressed that impulse, telling herself that it might have been appropriate in the altruistic life of her village, but not here.

Second, now that she was settled in up here, and it wasn’t even mid-afternoon yet, she decided it was time to go down to the laboratory. Now that all the running around was done, her mind came back to her glider. What was it? Where had it come from? All the questions when she found it. More when it got her banished. Yet more when people tried to steal it from her. Now here she was with a man who ought to know. Who had his own glider that he had been studying for ten years. Who knew people who had other gliders. Sage decided it was time to go to the laboratory and start asking questions. With a last look around, she went out, shut her door behind her, and went downstairs.

She went across the foyer and peeked in his office, just to be sure, before going to the laboratory door. Stopping in front of it, she hesitated. Should she knock or walk right in? Knocking is more polite, but what if he’s doing something important and it takes him away from it? Letting herself in would save him the trouble, but what if the intrusion disrupted an experiment? She dithered for a full minute before finally knocking. She decided that politeness and a show of respect would be best in the long run.

After a short pause he called out, “Please wait in my office. I’ll be with you shortly.”

Sage turned to go to his office, then stopped herself. Why would he tell her to wait in his office? Was it because he didn’t want her in his laboratory? Or maybe he didn’t know it was her. Maybe he thought it was one of his students. Either way she wasn’t going to wait. If he didn’t want her in the laboratory, then all the more reason for her to be in there. She wasn’t going to let him shut her out of this. Not when it was her own glider. And if he thought she was a student, then he would be glad of the correction. She turned back to the door and said, “It’s me, Professor. Sage.”

She heard nothing, then the sound of his footsteps approaching the door. She prepared herself for annoyance, even anger, at being disturbed at his work. She swallowed as the door opened, but it was all right. He said, “I’m sorry, Sage. I was lost in the work, and … To be honest, I’d forgotten you were here.”

She might have been miffed at being forgotten, but somehow she found it endearing. “That’s okay, Professor,” she said, peering around him into the room. “I wanted to tell you that the chest of drawers arrived, and to thank you for doing it so promptly.”

“Think nothing of it, Sage. I want you to be comfortable, and there was nothing to be gained by putting off the call.”

“Well, thank you anyway. When I saw you leaving with the glider … well, you didn’t look as if you would be thinking of anything else for a while.”

“Oh, the artifact,” he said, looking back over his shoulder. She could see it on the back workbench, next to his. “Oh, of course,” he said, backing out of the doorway. “Do come in, please. Let me show you what I’m doing.”

They walked side by side between workbenches to the back where their two gliders sat almost touching. He explained as they walked. “I’ve been testing them. After what you said about them vibrating when in proximity, I’ve been setting them at different distances and checking the amplitude and frequency of the vibrations.” Seeing her blank look, he added, “The loudness and the, uh, pitch. How loud and how high or low.”

Her face cleared. “I get it,” she said. “Amplitude is loudness and frequency is pitch.” She saw him nod, and she said, “Look at that. I just got here and already I’ve learned something.”

He laughed with her, then said, “So far there has been no change in either amplitude or frequency. I just finished recording the results at this distance when you knocked. Now the next is when they’re touching.” He let her watch him move them together and carefully ensure good, solid contact, then set up the instruments to capture the results. Then he picked up a big notebook and carefully recorded the readings, along with the date, the time and the ambient temperature. That done, he certified it with his initials.

She was impressed by the thoroughness and the care he showed. She intuitively understood that it helped to ensure consistency, so things could be compared from one experiment to the next. When he told her that it also allowed other scientists to replicate the experiments and get useful results, she got another revelation. She had always had an inquiring nature, and she had always tried to see beyond the surface of things, but now she was getting a lesson in discipline. It was not lost on her, and the lesson would serve her well.

Her mind felt clear and energized. She had a sense that this was right. That she was in the right place and doing the right thing. At that moment she was sure that it was all meant to be. The glider came to her. It got her banished. She survived her ordeal and met the Professor, and now here she was in his laboratory doing experiments. She said, “What do we do next? What’s the next experiment?”

He hesitated and looked away. When he looked back, his face was apologetic. He said, “I hope I didn’t mislead you, Sage, when I said you could observe.” She waited while he looked around his laboratory. Then he looked right into her eyes and said, “I can allow you to be here, and to observe, but I can’t allow you to take part in the experiments.”

“Why not?” She couldn’t keep the suspicion out of her voice.

“I’m afraid you’re not qualified.”

“Not qualified? What does that mean?”

He sighed. “It’s quite complicated, but what it boils down to is you have no academic standing.”

“Academic standing. Does that mean I’m uneducated?”

“No,” he said quickly. “Well, in a way. It means you don’t have the right kind of education.” Again she waited for him to clarify, frowning, with her arms crossed. “If you were a student here, in the sciences, you could be a lab assistant.”

“Well then,” she said, “I’ll be a student when you start teaching me.”

“It’s not that simple, I’m afraid. You see, you’re not qualified to attend the university.”

Her frown deepened and her feet began to move restlessly. “And what do I need to be qualified for that?”

“You need a standard education, with the correct electives and a sufficient level of success to apply for admission,” he said.

She was quiet for a moment, then said, “Is there anything else?”

“No,” he said. “If you meet the requirements and are admitted, then you can be a student here.”

She caught the qualification. “What’s that about admission? It sounds like there’s a catch there.”

“Well, there are only so many seats,” he said, “and some of them are promised.” Seeing her face, he hastened to add, “To the children of alumni, and so on.”

“So, if I get past all that, then I can assist you here in the lab.” She had picked up on his abbreviation.

“Yes, providing you have the money to pay the tuition.”

“Money,” she said. “Of course. Digger told me that.”

“The university needs money to operate,” he said. “Salaries have to be paid. Buildings must be maintained. Books must be bought.” He spread his hands to indicate his own lab. “Equipment is expensive.”

“I get it,” she said. “How much money?” When he told her, she was shocked. “How does that compare to how much you gave Digger for my glider?” When he told her, she said, “So I would have to sell ten gliders to get an education.”

“That’s just for one year,” he said quietly.

“One year? And how many years do I need before I can work here?”

“Oh, you can start in your first year. It’s just if you want any kind of diploma to show your qualifications, then you need at least four years, or for some things, six or eight.”

“Eight years,” she said. “It sounds like your university has a pretty good thing going for it.”

“Not just this one,” he said. “All universities. It’s a well-established tradition.”

“It sounds like it’s a tradition that’s meant to make sure that only certain people can get in. People whose families have money, or who went here before. The same families.”

“Yes,” he said, “it does look that way. But it’s not entirely true. You can get in on a scholarship.”

Interested, she asked, “How does that work?”

“If you do well enough at the standard education, in the top two percent or better, you can win a scholarship that will pay your tuition.” Modestly he added, “That’s how I got in.”

She brightened. “So it’s not all money and influence. Some of the smartest people can get in, too.” She had been prepared to condemn the whole system, but this changed things a little.

“That’s right,” he said. “So, do you see why I can’t let you work with me?”

“Yes,” she agreed. “Not right away, anyway. Once I get in here it will be a different matter, but for now we’ll just have to find another way.”

“You’re going to try to get admitted to the university?” He was sceptical and worried that her hopes would be crushed, but he also thought she might be able to do it. He hadn’t known her long – less than a day, he reminded himself – but he thought if anyone could do it, she might be the one.

“Yes,” she said. “In the meantime, while I’m getting educated and qualified and admitted, I need to do something to make myself useful.” She looked around the lab, at all the surfaces and nooks and crevices, and all the glassware scattered about, and said, “You could use a cleaner.”