Coexistence

The Disaster “Don’t move an inch!” Dr. Rahim Xie yelled. Dr. ShaylaRam Gomez was on all fours, scrambling to get up from the floor. A massive pile of metal and rubble surrounded her. One moment, she was working at her desk peering into a small microscope, and the next, the walls caved in. Dazed, Shayla tried to make sense of her surroundings. “Do not move up or down,” he yelled again. “Then what the freeze am I supposed to do?” she shouted back. Shayla was dangling one foot awkwardly, straining to keep still while the other foot and arms held her weight. “Wait!” Rahim ran-walked toward her, dodging pointed metal shards, an upturned desk, and broken glass. “What are you doing? Where are you?” She craned her neck to see what he was up to. “Would you please wait? Everything is unsteady.” Rahim looked around for a few more moments and then said, “Okay, listen. There is a large metal beam protruding right behind you, and a concrete block that is precariously positioned on it. It looks like it may slip and fall on your head if you move too fast or jiggle anything.” “Then do something about it!” She panicked. Brain repair took some time, and she was not about to wait for nanobots, or worse, the bot doctors, to fix her while her research dwindled under Rahim. The concrete block was large and squatted toward one side of the metallic bar. Rahim grunted and tried his best to move the block to make it more stable. But the heavy lump did not budge even a nanometer. This action and effort only made him slip into a second pile of concrete bits. A few pieces of rubble fell on him and Shayla. “Not you, you harami. Use your head. Get the bots in here!” Shayla growled. At that moment, the cleaning robots arrived in droves. Shayla said, “Bots, clear the metal beam behind me. But first, remove any loose concrete or cantilevered objects that may cause me harm.” The bots responded to her authoritative voice and removed the teetering beam and concrete from her vicinity. Nelson the bot, Shayla’s research assistant, lifted her out of the mess and plonked her with ease on the now dusty sofa. She bounced a little. Another bot picked up Rahim and set him down on a clean part of the remaining floor. Instead of staying put, Shayla raced back to retrieve her precious queen black bean samples. She pulled out an entire tray of test tubes from a shelf above her samples table. Her eyes darted frantically from tube to tube. “They are all smashed! All my viable queens! I can’t separate one sample from another,” Shayla cried out. “It took me two yearunits to get to this point.” She inhaled sharply as she remembered, “I had removed my last batch of cryofrozen bacterial mother samples. I revived them this morning!” “The incubator . . .” She groaned. Shayla left the table and ran toward the corner of the room to examine the incubator’s contents. She did not see the spilled liquid on the floor, and slipped, stumbling head first towards some broken glass pipettes. Out of nowhere, something grabbed the back of her lab coat. She hung in mid-air, her face inches away from the glass shards, as she felt a yanking sensation on the cloth. Then, with one sharp tug, she was jerked backwards, and Shayla sunk into Rahim’s strong arms. Shayla stared into Rahim’s eyes. “You! You—” she spluttered. Rahim smiled. “You’re welcome.” She wriggled out of his arms and straightened her lab coat. “I would’ve been fine. You don’t need to save me.” “You were going to fall head first into broken glass.” “I have nanobots to take care of me, thank you very much,” Shayla huffed. “So much for trying to help you. A normal person would’ve been thankful, or at least said sorry for yelling at me,” Rahim muttered under his breath. “Sorry for shouting?” She shook her fists and pointed to the centrifuge. It was stuck in the adjacent wall, centered properly as though it was an art installation. “You want me to apologize? This was all your fault! Whose brilliant idea was it to use the centrifuge in such a sophomoric way? Did they not teach you anything on your planet? Which harami place do you come from, anyway?” Rahim’s chest deflated a little. Shayla coughed and spat; the dust had coated her face, nostrils, and lungs. A bot brought her water. She gulped it hastily, and then wiped unruly strands of hair off her face. “Rahim, do you realize that it’s still January in the new 1503 AOW? In two weekunits flat, you have destroyed three of my experiments, and today, you managed to outdo yourself with the expensive and massive centrifuge. Until you arrived, everything was peaceful.” “This isn’t so bad. I’ve been in worse situations. Explosions and working in rubble are part of experimental life,” Rahim waved his hand dismissively. Shayla took shallow breaths to not inhale more of the dust. She motioned around the room. “Look at this. My samples are ruined. You’ve destroyed my work on the queen black bean. It will take me so much kaal to get back to this point. There are no walls left, and the floor has a big hole in it. The roof is falling through. Look up, there are other people staring at us. Say hello to Dr. Blue; maybe he can explain why this is a problem. Drakh!” She went over to her microscope, which had fallen on one side. She examined it and put it upright. Everything seemed fine, until she peered through the scope. All she saw was the visible color spectrum. Shayla switched lenses and checked again. “No! No! Please, no . . .” “I’m sorry, Dr. Gomez. I promise to replace everything with my salary, no matter how long it takes.” Shayla stared at him. “This is the government branch, Rahim. Everything is old. Do you know how long it will take to replace this? And forget about the machines, what about my samples? What are you going to do about that? Your salary can’t bring that back.” Rahim said. “I’m truly sorry. It was an accident. I didn’t mean to destroy anything, let alone your work.” Shayla crossed her arms. “Your background might have been in farming and some basic botany, but your career here depends on your understanding of research methods and technology. The librarians and scientists hired you based on your excellent track record and your ability to learn and adapt. This accident puts me in serious jeopardy of not being able to publish my results on time.” Rahim stared at the gaping hole in the ceiling. “I honestly didn’t think it would be a problem to try out the equipment. Usually when I’m in the field, that’s the only thing that works. Most manuals that the Earth’s Conservatory publishes are useless in real-life situations. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to make up procedures myself.” “This is a laboratory, not the field. You have to be careful. There is glass everywhere. A mistake like this can cost you your job.” Three alarms went off simultaneously in the Iris dome. A light, sound, and vibration-based notification triggered an evacuation signal on each citizen’s band. It was to accommodate anyone impaired in one sense, and those who were in between organ replacement surgeries. The surrounding floors and areas of the building were empty within two minuteunits. All the supervisory librarians and scientists gaped at the large hole that had destroyed most of level two in the nuevobotanica research lab. Nelson said, “This is surprising. All of this damage from a centrifuge?” The bots were cleaning up the debris from the affected floors. They took more time than usual, as they had to tread carefully to save as much undamaged equipment as possible. The cleaners continued whizzing by, when a quiet announcement was made requesting the presence of all level two staff at the main administrative building. Shayla shook her black and white hair and got out as much dust as possible, and twisted it into a tight bun. She discarded her lab coat and entered the decontamination chamber. A new suit was handed to her by the paramedic bots. Dr. Singh was next in line for a coat; he was joking with another researcher about cleaning up the mess. Shayla snorted. Such a lackadaisical attitude. She saw that Rahim had already been through the decontamination chamber, but somehow, he came out grinning and looking even more disheveled. Didn’t he care that he might lose his job at the Earth’s Conservatory? The cadre of scientists, assistants, and a few librarians walked in a solemn pace toward the black dome, otherwise called management and administration. None of them except for Shayla wanted to enter the place. She was happy that the administration was taking things seriously and moving to investigate in a swift manner. Maybe now, I can buy the latest centrifuge and equipment. It is about time! That centrifuge was older than me! Some of the relics in that building were simply waiting to be retired. Hmm, perhaps this accident isn’t as bad as I thought. The security at floor zero took statements from everyone as they entered the dome. After a while, a voice boomed through the entire space, “Thank you for your cooperation. We will perform a thorough investigation, and a conclusion will be made in three dayunits. You may return to your dwellings and consider yourself on probation. No one will be allowed to conduct research. Your access to the mainframe will be restricted to non-research files and general information only.” Shayla thought, probation? For everyone? What the vac! She felt a pang of guilt. No one got hurt, it’s not that bad. Is it? I know I told Rahim otherwise, but that was to only shake some sense into him. Oh drakh, what is happening? Rahim walked back to his dwelling. He had hoped to make a better impression in these first few months at the Earth’s Conservatory, or E.C. All he needed was to last long enough to get his hands on the right documents. Instead of establishing his capabilities as a researcher, Rahim had managed to get a reputation for making corny jokes. Being a friendly person, he had fast become a part of the community. He was surprised to find that the scientists and librarians of the E.C. were mostly like-minded and easy-going. All but Dr. ShaylaRam Gomez. Rahim pinched the bridge of his nose. Ugh! Even the thought of her exhausted him. If only she knew why I had to access the centrifuge so urgently. The moment she revived the cryofrozen bacterial mothers that morning, he knew he had to sneak a sample out to replicate her work. If I manage to get them functional and survive past two generations of cloning, then I can eventually smuggle them off the planet. Rahim rubbed his temples. The small remnant bacterial samples from the cryo tubes were dying every secondunit, and he didn’t have time to sit around and read manuals. He had to get that queen black bean recipe. People are dying because of this. I can’t wait for some stodgy protocols! Rahim exhaled. When he started at nuevobotanica in Shayla’s lab, he’d heard all kinds of gossip about her. “Be careful, she will never discuss anything with you. You’ll have to learn to be on your own.” He hadn’t paid much attention to such drivel. Being born on Ydro-Down as a slave and living most of his free life as a scavenger, he had learned survival tricks the hard way. One of them was to become friends with anyone he met. Usually, his dimples and sweet smile made people take his side even when things were rough. He had been confident in his ability to win over the aloof Dr. Gomez. Relying heavily on his charming personality, he’d even hoped that she would teach him something useful. However, Shayla didn’t seem to be affected by social niceties. I screwed up everything! Drakh! She would’ve made such a good ally for the revolution. But what chance do I have? The ice queen hates me now. When he applied to be part of the E.C.’s team of research experts, he wasn’t completely sure of getting in, but he had to try. Soon, he found that his farming experience counted for a lot. In an effort to increase diversity, the E.C. management had recruited farmers in the place of conventional researchers, and Rahim was touted as one of the shining examples. His fame was in making the notoriously difficult alky concoction. The fragile wispy plant had the ability to produce superior alcohol but needed the right constraints. In Rahim’s hands, the plant blossomed and alky was a big success. Here on the E.C., his research assignment was to learn how to stabilize alky and mimic the wild plant to produce large volumes. If only I’d paid attention to the warnings. Rahim could have asked for another lab placement; a traditional setting where all newbies were given strict instructions on all equipment and workings of a lab. How else was he supposed to know these archaic machines and esoteric gear? Rahim reached his dwelling area and went toward the common restroom areas. This, he was used to. He had never been on a rich planet, where private bathrooms were allowed. As he relieved himself, Rahim overheard two other individuals from the nearby enclosed and opaque stalls. “Yep, a centrifuge. Can you believe it?” “I’m shocked that the administrators are investigating it this fast.” “Are you kidding? This is a massive safety violation. There’s enough legal culpability on the librarians for making us use old contraptions. They need to show that it’s a scientist’s fault, and not theirs, ya know.” “I’m surprised Grumpy Gomez hasn’t called the galactic police on him yet.” “On whom? Xie? Is he responsible for this?” “Yep.” “She’s as guilty as he is. She’s the mentor. It's her job to keep him safe.” “He’s a full-fledged researcher in his own right. Why should she have to pay for his mistake?” “Are you telling me that if you made a mistake in your lab, your boss wouldn’t have their balls on a plate as well? They have to answer to other people, ya know. Wait, who is your boss?” “Dr. Pinkman.” “Dr. Pinkman! Ze is such a sweet person. No wonder, you lucky vacarse! Normal people have horrible bosses, who have to report to other horrible supervisor librarians as well, ya know.” “But still, I don’t see how—” “Oh please, you are describing a mistake. This was a disaster. He could’ve killed her!” Rahim’s jaw dropped. Killed her? Usually, it was only him who had to face life-threatening situations. But to be responsible for someone else’s life? The feeling was overwhelming. At least in the wild, his wits seemed to help. In the lab, everything felt alien and intimidating. But things usually work out. The room had a direct connection to the research mainframe. Rahim decided to use it to look up centrifuges. Surely something must have been wrong with the machinery itself. There was no way my method was the issue. Even Nelson thought so. When Rahim reached his quarters, a small non-speaking bot jumped and greeted him. “Hi Roofus! How are you, boyyo? Guess what? I almost got killed today, and I nearly murdered the mean lady today.” The dog bot wagged his tail and rolled over. Rahim laughed, “I’m sorry Roofus, not now. I have to figure out what went wrong.” After a while, the two sat on the sofa, and he pressed a button on the left arm. It activated a virtual screen opening the vast directories of information about old laboratory equipment. “General information on centrifuges.” Thousands of images popped up; some of them showed small centrifuges that could fit in one’s hand, while others were larger than a big desk. Rahim realized it wasn’t as simple an instrument as he had first suspected. He had assumed it would be just like a salad spinner. When force was applied, the thin wispy leaves traveled the most and stuck to the edges and the heavier, sturdier leaves remained in the center. The safety and usage of the gravitational and centripetal force to separate fluids by mass was clear enough. Another bunch of videos appeared: images of wrecked buildings and shocking photos of dead people flashed before his eyes. What went wrong? He pored over the manual again, and fixated on its warning; “The densities of the materials spun in a centrifuge must be taken into account. Volume is not a good measure.” As these words sunk slowly into his head, Rahim remembered handling the fat plastic tubes and measuring the volumes crudely. It was not alright, after all. It was my fault. I nearly killed people today, out of sheer overconfidence. Right then, he knew what to do.