Chapter 7: Jason Gains a Partner

The next day Jason took the day off from exploring the nodes, he needed to go into town to restock his food and other supplies. He pulled into the shopping center with the large chain grocery and drug stores to pick up what he needed. Jason walked through the aisles of the store filling his cart with the items he needed. He steered the loaded cart toward the checkout to pay for his purchases and as he turned to enter a line he immediately noticed the woman in front of him.

The first thing he noticed was her long black hair which fell nearly to her waist. Since the weather was fairly warm, the woman was wearing shorts and a tank top. This revealed her long, tanned legs and well shaped arms, as well as a very sweetly shaped body, and she seemed to be around Jason's age. For some reason Jason found himself wanting to get to know this woman better and he saw his chance when the woman happened to look his way and smiled when she saw him.

"Hello," Jason said to the woman with a smile of his own.

"Hi," the woman replied, still smiling.

"I'm Jason," he said, introducing himself.

"Michelle," the girl replied.

Jason was able to spend a couple of minutes talking to Michelle while the checkout line inched forward. When the girl was the next customer to the one checking out Jason realized he really liked this girl and wanted to get to know her more. He quickly asked Michelle for her phone number and was happily surprised when the girl told it to him. The girl only had a few items so she was swiftly checked out and left the story with a quick goodbye.

Jason loaded his groceries into his truck and headed back to his house with the Michelle's number in his pocket. He parked the truck and carried the supplies inside and stowed them away. He decided he would call Michelle a little later and see if she would be interested in getting together. Jason found himself thinking that if they hit it off then Michelle might be interested in helping him to develop his invention and explore the probability nodes.

Jason went out to his workshop where the transfer pod was stored and started work on a modification he had decided to add to it. He had been thinking recently it would be good to be able to monitor and record radio and video transmissions in the different nodes that he visited, if they existed. He's been working on the equipment on and off during some of the time when he wasn't away exploring the nodes and it was finally ready to install in the transfer pod.

First he carefully drilled holes in the outer shell and mounted antennas to collect the radio and video signals. Jason carefully sealed these so they would not cause an air pressure leak into or out of the pod. Transmission lines from these antennas were routed to the operating position he had welded into place for the equipment. He included a shortwave radio, scanner, AM & FM broadcast, and television video receivers, with the capability to both listen/view in real time or record for later. He tested the installation and was able to receive a number of stations from inside his workshop easily.

Later that day Jason called Michelle and was able to set up a date for the following evening. He spent the rest of the day analyzing the hefty amount of data he had captured during his trips into the probability nodes, and viewing some of the video that had been taken. For some reason he found he wanted to delay further explorations until he had a chance to get to know his new friend better. Perhaps she might even eventually be interested in joining him on future trips out into the nodes, Jason found himself feeling some hope that might be true.

The next day Jason spent puttering around his shop, doing some more data analysis and viewing more video. Mostly, it was just doing something to keep busy and pass the time; most of his mind was on his approaching date with Michelle. Despite the distraction posed by Michelle Jason did make some progress in better understand what was happening when he traveled to other probability nodes and he conducted a few experiments with his small unit to gather some additional data.

Jason picked up Michelle and took her to dinner and then to a movie. The more he talked with her the more he found he liked Michelle and it seemed she felt the same about him. At the end of the date he asked her out again for the next day and he was thrilled when she agreed.

Over the course of the next two weeks Jason had five more dates with Michelle and each time felt he liked her more and more. At the end of that time he decided that he wanted to show her his invention and see if she was interested in joining him on a trip into the probability nodes. There was some risk to this but Jason felt he knew Michelle well enough now to show her the transfer pod and invite her along on a trip to another node.

For his next meeting with her Jason invited Michelle to visit him at his house the next Saturday, and this was the first time she had been there. Michelle had reached the point where she welcomed this invitation as an opportunity to spend a lot more time with Jason. She was curious to see his home as well as his work, which he had made several obscure references to during his dates with her.

Jason met Michelle at the door and took her on a tour of the house. The house itself wasn't anything special and was obviously inhabited by a bachelor but he had put some effort into fixing it up and decorating it before he had discovered the probability drive. The tour of the house had the effect of giving Michelle a chance to relax and feel more open to what he had to show her once the tour of the house was over. Michelle was a little bit puzzled at not finding any office or other room inside the house where Jason could work but she remembered seeing several outbuildings on the property as she had arrived so she wasn't overly concerned about it.