MOAB

Chapter 8i^3

Chapter 8i^3

Ourania didn’t dare move a servo.

If there was a zone, Yanni was swimming circles in it. She didn’t want to disturb him at all.

This was the mission parameter.

He was going to do it. Solve the proof.

She was peeking through the door, biting her nails. Not that there was any point to that action, but her human behaviour included that as well.

He was at his quiet phase now. He would shout, write something, then stare at it for an hour. Then he would erase it, write something else, and stare again.

She took note of his weight. Despite her best efforts in feeding him properly, Yanni had lost a lot of weight the last couple of weeks. He had never been a big man, rather average, but the anxiety was eating him up from inside. It defied all logic. Ourania made sure he was getting the nutrients he needed, but he was withering away right before her eyes.

She had another supper ready, but she wasn’t going to interrupt him now. Not for this.

He was close.

Suddenly, he howled.

Ourania was startled.

Yanni was running up and down the room, howling as if his team had scored the championship goal.

As eureka moments went, this was a very ungentlemanly one.

Ourania stepped into the room.

He howled and ran to her. He held her hands and danced around her. He was laughing, out of breath.

Ourania couldn’t resist. She laughed along. Her eyes were practically smiling.

“Did you solve the apodeixis?” she asked with anticipation.

“I nailed it! I nailed that poutana in the a*s! Ooooo! It’s awesome! Nai!”

He kissed her sloppily on the lips and jumped towards the laser, which they had moved downstairs for easier access. Yanni typed the equation in Matlab and put on his protective glasses.

He hesitated and looked at Ourania.

She nodded with an approving smile.

Yanni flipped the switch on the laser and let his jaw hang slack as the laser reflected on the optics. She could see it without the glasses of course. A beam of pretty blue light that should be straight up, ending in a neat little pool at the ceiling, was now knotted in the middle of the room. It was fainter than it should be, but it was there.

Contained.

Yanni looked away. It was as if he didn’t need the visual confirmation, as if it was an afterthought, something for the audience. Ourania knew that he had seen the result in his mind so many times, for so many years, that the marvel he had created didn’t even merit two seconds of his gaze. Ourania thought, how could humans create such beauty and be unfazed by it? How did they come up with all those ideas? She could never know.

Yanni walked next to the whiteboard, then presented it with a flourish and stared at it.

He caught his breath for a few seconds, coughed his aching throat and began howling again.

Ourania stepped behind him and raised her hand to his neck, a motion similar to the casual haptic reading she had done so many times.

“Yes, it’s beautiful,” she said with awe.

Sparks came out of her fingers and Tazed Yanni. They were blue, of course. He convulsed and fell on the floor.

She stood still, looking at the corner of the room.

She deleted the equation from the computer.

She walked up to the whiteboard, tore a page from a notebook and wrote down the apodeixis. She folded the paper neatly and placed it in her modest bosom.

She wiped the whiteboard clean a few times to make sure.

And then she dragged the unconscious Yanni by the leg down to the hall.

The End