Chapter 3: Gabby and Stefan

As Julie entered the tea-room at Biological Sciences, it seemed like a ghost town. Nearly all of the staff were overseas at Johns Hopkins, or over at Lennox Hospital.

Only Gabby was here, seated at the big table, reading one of the newspapers which were always scattered across it.

She looked up and smiled as Julie walked in.

Gabby had done chemistry in her undergraduate degree, but, like Julie, had felt attracted to biology, and was in her first year of a Ph.D.

Julie had always felt quite sorry for Gabby.

Gabby always wore a huge old woollen great-coat to keep her from the cold. It was some kind of orangey tartan, lined, and had big, round, black buttons. It had probably been very expensive when it was new, but Julie thought it made Gabby look like a bag lady.

She was pale, in a delicate kind of a way, and the skin on her face was still spotty, like that of a teenager's. She was pretty enough, but she had a bit of a limp, as one of her legs was shorter than the other.

Julie imagined that Gabby's problems were due to an accident, or congenital, but had never felt close enough to her to ask.

Gabby had once been very wicked to Cassie, and Julie doubted that Cassie would ever forgive her.

"Hi, Julie.

"How was your holiday?"

Julie had to cast her mind back to WA. It was only ten o'clock in the morning, but her family seemed another world away now. The wedding had been lovely, her cousin had been beautiful as a bride, and it was so nice to be with her family again.

She only seemed to get to see them a couple of times a year these days.

"It was nice, Gabby, a beautiful wedding.

"The work at the hospital looks interesting. Have you met Miss Eve yet?"

Gabby was disappointed. Right now, she really needed a friend, and Julie wouldn't even talk to her about a wedding!

She had to say her piece, whatever the consequences.

Gabby lowered her voice, and motioned Julie closer.

"Julie, I'm a little bit worried about Eve Hunter. I don't like the sound of what she wants me to do at the new hospital.

"I should be over there today, but I don't want to go.

"Eve wants me to work on black thread-worm toxin, can you believe that? Two years ago the Earth was almost colonised by aliens, aliens that can control people's minds. Now they want me to see what happens when people take the toxin, they're looking for new drugs to patent. Who knows what weird alien chemicals it has in it, who knows what long-term effects it has on the human body?

"I don't like it, Julie. I can't do much about it right now, I've signed an NDA, but I think I'll try to find a new supervisor, maybe even move to a new Uni. With my original supervisor at Johns Hopkins, my thesis is going nowhere, and everyone's working on cancer, cancer, cancer. It's all very worthy, Julie, but it's not what I want to be doing."

Julie was a little surprised at Gabby's outburst.

Gabby believed in aliens? Really?

Julie had always thought that Gabby was pretty sensible, but now she was sounding like she might need a tinfoil hat.

"Are you allowed to talk to me about this?" Julie asked.

"Of course not, Julie," Cassie replied, "I've signed the NDA, but we're all in this together, aren't we? We can talk. You wouldn't dob me in.

"We have to stick together. At least for a little while, anyway. Maybe you should think about getting out as well, while you still can."

Gabby looked like she wanted to say more, but Julie was stuck on "Aliens" and "Mind Control".

Gabby was crazy.

Julie couldn't get out of that room fast enough.

As these things go, it took a whole week to organise the NDAs and the new scholarship contracts.

It was no effort to convince Cassie's supervisor to defer her Ph.D. for six months. Actually, Cassie wasn't sure if anyone would notice she was gone.

She would be getting an opportunity to do work on the black thread-worms!

Eve gave both Julie and Cassie a generous cash advance, and helped them out with removalists.

Their apartment was near Parkes Way, just back from the water, with a good view of the hospital and right at the edge of the University.

Built for visiting academics, the apartment block was brand new, and had been designed by the same architect as the new Lennox Hospital across the water, and the brand-new Uni bar in the opposite direction. The style harked back to the majestic reinforced concrete structures which appeared in Canberra in the 80's.

On the day they arrived to look over their new apartment, Eve was waiting in the foyer of the building, looking like a real-estate agent in her suit and make-up, ready to take them on the grand tour.

She lived in the building as well, and had scored the penthouse apartment on the very top floor.

She took them up to see her apartment first.

She delighted in showing them her spacious office, the pool, several bedrooms, of which she only used one herself, and a wonderfully appointed kitchen.

As with every apartment in the block, she had a huge picture window spanning the width of the apartment.

The glass was beautifully clear and bright, and, supposedly, immensely strong, and extremely light.

Looking across the lake, Julie noted that the apartment building had been situated in exact alignment with the hospital. She could see the reflection of the apartment building in the black windows of the hospital, and the effect was stunning. All of the windows were optically flat, and in perfect alignment.

There was none of the rippling of reflections common to all of those tall, black, glass skyscrapers that thrust themselves up into the air in every major business district in the world.

Julie had always thought that this imperfection detracted from their appearance.

The opposite side of the apartment faced the brand-new uni bar building at the end of Daley road. It had been faced with the same beautiful, black glass. The bar itself had only just opened, near the top of the building, and the building itself would likely make the university a lot of money, as it had four floors of luxury student and staff apartments below the bar, much like this building.

Above the bar appeared to be another penthouse, much like Eve's.

Julie wondered who would be lucky enough to get that one.

Standing here, in the middle of the three buildings, Julie could see now that the hospital, the apartments, and the new uni bar had been built as three of a perfect pair, facing each other with optical perfection, and spaced an identical distance apart.

Julie had heard that Johns Hopkins had started to invest money in the university, but was only just beginning to realise how much money had actually been spent.

"Girls, I have to tell you about this glass.

"The windows are here as a sort of tribute to the Taubett instrument, which has made the construction of these buildings possible, and so very necessary.

"It is a new kind of polymer glass, and it has some truly amazing properties.

"I have a small piece of it here with me. Please let me demonstrate."

Eve pulled something out of her pocket, wrapped in velvet. It was a piece of black glass, about the size of a small picture frame.

The edges were wrapped around with black paper.

Julie had read about the polymer glass, but she had never seen it before. She was excited to be looking at such huge lumps of it, and was curious about what Eve would show. She turned to look at Cassie, knowing that she would share Julie's enthusiasm for the this new science.

"In its natural state," said Eve, "polymer glass is opaque to all forms of light, and forms a kind of electromagnetic shield. It blocks all wavelengths, from radio frequencies right up to soft gamma rays.

Eve held it up against the window, and, black and shiny, they could see that there was no light getting through it.

She removed the black paper, which was only held by a piece of sticky tape, and held up the glass again.

It now appeared transparent, although the view through the block was still quite dim, almost smoky.

Eve turned it around, and, looking down through the edges of the block, it was totally clear.