Mike & Karen Ch. 32

A study hall, 1987...

"Mail call," the student announced as they entered the hall, holding a bunch of letters in the air. Everyone looked up as the person began moving around the room, handing the relevant envelopes and packages to their recipients.

"One for you, and one for you," the guy said as he passed an envelope to Karen, and then one to Mike, both of whom were sitting at a long table with Lisa, Janet, Mona, and some other students. "Looks like MIT got back to you two finally."

"Awesome!" Lisa blurted as she stood up and came to stand over Karen, looking excited. She looked around the room. "Hey, guys! They got the results of that MIT element-naming contest back!"

"What was this all about?" a student asked as people began gathering around.

"MIT discovered a new transuranic element," Karen explained. "To generate interest in the project, they put out a worldwide call to have a contest naming it. DeBourne and I both submitted our ideas."

The growing cluster of students watched as Karen pulled a small letter opener out from her stylish clutch, and worked open her envelope. Mike, predictably, simply tore down the side of his envelope with his finger and pulled out the folded paper, keeping it closed. He looked over at his fellow physics student. "Ladies first, Gordon."

"Thank you, sir," she replied amiably in her elegant timbre as she began unfolding her own letter.

"What name did you submit, Kar?" Mona asked. "I forget what it was."

"Fairfaxium," the bronze-haired beauty replied. "After Mary Fairfax, married name Somerville. She was a leader in the early nineteenth century in mathematics, algebra, and astronomy. She kept company with the likes of Sir Walter Scott, John Playfair, and Sir Charles Babbage. I think it is about time she had recognition and something named after her."

As everyone watched, Karen began reading her letter. Her expression remained neutral, but her eyes hardened.

"Are you kidding?!" she demanded of no one hotly. "Not only did they not take my eminently reasonable suggestion, but they also went with quite possibly the most boring name ever?!"

"Shit, sorry, Princess," Janet said, squeezing her friend's shoulder gently. "What name did win?"

"Unoduonium," Karen almost growled, almost tossing her letter on the table in disgust. "It basically means 'one-twoium' in Latin. Even for scientists, remarkably unimaginative and boring beyond the realm of forgivable! And I have never even heard of the person that won. What tripe! I expected better of MIT. I'm so glad I didn't go there now!"

There was silence for some moments before everyone turned their heads to look over at Mike, who had been quiet up to this point. With everyone looking at him, he glanced down at his letter and started reading out loud.

"Dear Mister DeBourne," he began. "We wanted to reach out to you personally to thank you for your participation in this contest. We are always pushing for new discoveries, and expanding the frontiers of humanity's knowledge. We appreciate your keen interest, but to be perfectly honest, we do not see there being an element named 'Scoobidoobium' any time in the foreseeable future."

He had barely finished saying the name of his rejected element suggestion before Janet, Lisa, Mona, and dozens of other students gathered around were howling with laughter.

Karen was just resting an elbow on the table with her face in her hand, shaking her head slowly.

***

Mike & Karen

Disclaimer: All characters are 18 years of age or older while actively engaging in sexual activity. This story is a prequel/sequel (sprequel?) to my other work, Alex & Alexa. As always, many thanks and gratuitous panty shots from Freja and Jeanie to my long-suffering editor and beta-reader for their assistance in polishing up and improving this work. Reviews are welcome; flames will be snickered at and deleted with extreme prejudice. Enjoy!

Please Note: There are incest themes with a secondary couple in this story. Just a forewarning.

Chapter XXXII- What Fools These Mortals Be!

University of Toronto, Sciences Faculty, Staff foyer, Monday morning...

There was a lot to do today, since the housewarming was approaching and they would be taking Wednesday through Friday off in preparation. He wanted to get as much done as possible as a result.

Mike exited the stairwell (he preferred using the stairs when possible, since it counted as mild exercise), and paused half a step upon seeing the reception desk.

A young woman wearing shapeless clothing was sitting behind it, scribbling furiously on foolscap and in notebooks, and she seemed to take no notice of anything else happening around her. Fortunately, nobody seemed to be stopping to talk.

"Good morning, madam," he said genially in his deep voice as he strode up and towered over the desk. "I guess you're our contestant of the week. And what might your name be?"

The brunette's head snapped up to look at him, her expression somewhat exasperated because someone had interrupted her frenetic activity. But when she saw who was speaking, and exactly how much bigger he was than her, she stood up and cleared her throat, seeming flustered.

"Oh, uh... hello, Doctor. I'm sorry, I didn't see you," she said awkwardly.

"Not often that I hear that, and even less often that I get to play Ask Me Another," he allowed. "Let's try this again, Sciences Faculty Student Receptionist and Secretary... your name is..."

"Oh!" she squeaked, blushing now before answering. "Nadia. Nadia Asenath Derby Gillman."

"I think I'll stick with Nadia or Miss Gillman," Mike mused, holding out his giant hand for her to shake. She took it, trying not to gawk as her little paw disappeared entirely inside his. "You seem like you're being very industrious, which is almost unheard of these days for the receptionist's first day on the job."

"Oh, uh..." she faltered again, blushing another shade. "That's... not strictly university stuff I'm working on, I confess. Nobody was giving me anything to do at the moment, so I was indulging my own interests."

"And those would be..." he prompted.

Nadia didn't seem to know what to say, but she also didn't stop Mike when he went around the desk and began picking up her notebooks and pieces of foolscap, reading what she'd written on them. She seemed worried, but also clearly didn't know what to do, much less stop him.

"Hmmm," he mused, still reading. "You're working on the conclusions of the Pentacle Memorandum Theory."

Nadia's eyes widened. "You... you know the Pentacle Memorandum? Er, sir?"

"What worthy mind doesn't?" Mike answered with a shrug, putting the notebook down and picking up some papers now. "I am a noted authority on astrophysics, cosmology and cosmic theory. Just because there are people and powers out there that don't want us to find these things out doesn't mean they aren't happening all around us and haven't been for untold aeons."

"I knew it!" Nadia hissed, looking validated by this intellectual giant. "And it's not just our government, is it?"

"It certainly isn't, nor is it a simple cabal of international proportions," Mike said, shaking his head. "It is much bigger than that. The scale is, indeed, cosmic."

"I've... I've been trying to prove it, but I always get stymied," Nadia confessed, but she'd also moved around the desk to stand next to the huge man, and she gestured at the notes all over the surface. "I... feel like I'm getting thwarted by numbers."

"That's because you don't know where to start," Mike said easily, picking up one piece of paper and showing to her. "Remember, when you're dealing quantum, the way Heisenberg and Planck were, the beginning isn't always at the beginning. For instance... right here, on this equation... have you accounted for the Gellar Field?"

Nadia blushed and shook her head. "I... I don't even know how to calculate that, sir. I'm not in the Sciences, I'm in Communications. But I know there's stuff out there, beyond what we're allowed to see or sense. I just can't prove it. Yet."

"Okay, so right here... and here..." Mike began, writing numbers down on her paper with his own pen in his big, bold script that commanded attention. "You find and lay out the Fermian Plane with an inverted Chebyshev filter... just make sure that you complete the final hierophantic angle during a Kauffman Retrograde between the Pleiades and Orion's Belt..."

The girl seemed confused. "Orion's Belt?"

"Well yes," he reasoned with a shrug. "It's your only immediately visible stellar reference node, after all. Why do you think they're so conveniently lined up when nothing else out there is?"

Nadia's eyes went wide as the realization struck her. "It's an aligning and staging point!"

"Keep your voice down," Mike said quietly but tightly, seeming to look around for eavesdroppers. "They might be listening."

"Sorry," she mumbled hastily, blushing scarlet. "I got excited."

"Understandable," Mike continued, writing more numbers. "This extremely infrequent alignment, which happens once or twice every Nibiru eon, will disperse the illudium-phosdex particle field that obscures the gate, so your timing, if you mean to uncover this, must be precise. Once they're locked in, the degraded Kahler manifolds will subvert at a rate of 3-n. So you see why you can't be off at all, not even by a nanometer, right?"

Nadia looked in fascination, nodding sagely.

"If you feel like it's pushing against your limbic system, resisting understanding, you'd be correct," he explained, now drawing some mystical symbols from a D&D game he'd played over thirty-five years ago around the margins of the page. "There is a complexity to this math that defies almost all human comprehension, a gateway, so to speak, into dimensions that would tear most intellects apart and damn them to eternal madness."

He stood tall now, looking down at her, his expression a serious one. "Just on the border of your waking mind, there lies another time, where darkness and light are one. And as you tread the halls of sanity, you feel so glad to be unable to go beyond."

He handed her one of her myriad notebooks, one of the several he'd written in just now. "And here is the message from another time..."

Nadia took the notebook from him, looking down at it in quiet awe before stepping backward. She was still looking at it while she turned and began walking away from her desk before breaking into a run, her eyes flashing with urgency.

She nearly bowled over Karen, who had just exited the elevator moments before and was coming toward them. The older woman gasped as she avoided being mowed down, almost scowling at the oblivious Nadia while the elevator door closed, taking her somewhere else.

Karen turned and walked straight up to the desk where her husband waited patiently with his usual, cheerful expression. She stopped in front of him, studying him for a moment before looking down at the desk, which was still strewn with notebooks and papers.

She almost winced as she picked one up, because the cursive, the printing, and even the numbers were very sloppy, going on in some complete gibberish. She also noticed her husband's distinctive writing, layered over top of the other bumf- completely legible, but equally unintelligible and making no damn sense. She slowly put the notebook down before looking up at him.

"What have you done, Michael?" she asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowing.

***

Elsewhere on campus...

People were used to seeing Alex and Alexa together now; it wasn't exactly a shock, and most people actively celebrated and approved their relationship, treating it like it was as normal as any other couple's. Those who were not sure they approved usually stayed silent, although some asked polite questions. The ones who actively disapproved were whispering in dark corners.

Lady Jenny Penrose, a friend of the professors, was often seen in the company of Alex and Alexa now, and her glamorous outlook on the couple was also gaining traction. Today, though, was somehow even more unusual, because new people were seen with them, and they were causing a stir. Word quickly spread about the newcomers, illustrious alumnae from many years back. The small group was striding across the campus green, centered around the young pair, and word had somehow gotten out about them.

Janet Remington, apparently an honours grad in quite a few fields of law, and now one of the highest-profile lawyers in the country. Wearing a sharp skirt suit, she was laughing as she walked along with the others, talking excitedly about being back on campus.

Lisa Heyman-Blefary, originally just Heyman, another alum and well-known human rights activist. The students in the Social Studies departments knew of her, and photos of her at various events were not uncommon in the hallways and study halls. Her kinky red hair danced around her face in the wind while she walked.

Mona Bresciani, an art and animation grad, who had gone on to become a famous animator, working on some of the movies and cartoons that today's students had grown up with. People were excited to meet her. There was already a narrative about her being an empowered and successful black woman in the animation industry.

Walking with Lady Penrose was another woman, who was much quieter than the rest, but smiling and seemed pleasant enough. Apparently she was another Penrose sister, a baroness or something in England.

There had been no indication from the DeBournes that these people were coming, so they'd no doubt been trying to keep it quiet. Whoever got this info and leaked it out was going to be a hero.

The little group hadn't even finished crossing the green before they had people gathering to them. They were on their way to the offices of the president. At least the president was aware of their impending arrival. When they reached the steps at the front of the building, they had been talking with many of the students who had joined them. Nearly two score people were standing around them now.

Alex and Alexa hugged their aunts and broke off, heading back out into campus, accompanied by Jenny and Millie. Mona, Janet, and Lisa were still standing on the stairs, and the vast majority of the curious onlookers had stayed with them, the newcomers they didn't know yet. Lisa smiled at them all, stepping forward.

"Who here thinks Alex and Alli make a great couple?" she called out.

Many of those gathered put up their hands or cheered.

"How many people think they deserved to be married and live their best lives?" she asked, her heart beating excitedly. She remembered how this felt. Real issues. Real activism. Doing what she's spent her life training to do. It felt... right.

More cheers of approval and hands in the air.

"Right, then," Lisa declared, while Mona and Janet stood behind her, looking on and smiling. They loved seeing their friend do her thing. "Anyone who's interested in being involved and making this a powerful movement that actually gets things done, meet me in the Chestnut Dining Hall in one hour, sharp. There's work to be done."

More cheers, and Mona and Janet added their voices in.

"But no skipping your classes," Lisa warned, holding up her finger and giving them all a look. "If I find out anyone's skipping, I'm taking you by the ear and pulling you all the way back to your lecture hall. Consider yourself warned."

Lots of laughter. Despite how diminutive the redhead was, people believed her, she was clearly a firebrand.

"I'll add in a second meeting two hours after that, this one at the big study hall in Hart House. I'm sure everyone can fit at least one of them in."

She could tell a lot of the students gathered were eager, even excited for it. She decided to leave them hanging; the three of them were due inside these offices, after all.

"See you in an hour!" she called out, waving. Lots of students cheered or waved back before they began to disperse. Lisa turned and looked at her two friends, standing on the upper steps while she'd descended to be with the masses.

"That was fun," she said, grinning. "Felt good."

"By tomorrow, you're gonna have them organized into an army the SAS and Delta Force combined couldn't stop, Li," Janet laughed, thrilled to see her friend in action again. She really did feel like there was nothing they couldn't accomplish when they were all working together.

Well, except for the flamingo incident. Even Mike hadn't been able to salvage that one.

Mona held her arms out. "Shall we, ladies? There's an administration to help pull in line, even if Princess and Mongo have done all the hard work already."

Lisa and Janet laughed and put their arms through hers, turning around and walking through the doors of the office together. There was a lot of good to accomplish.

***

A computer room, St. George Campus, 1987...

"I dunno," Mona said, sitting back from the desk and sagging a little and rubbing her face wearily. "I mean, I took a keyboarding class in high school so that I could type efficiently, but now every person in the field of animation is being told that computers are the future, so we'd better bone up on it to make sure we don't get left behind. And all this programming stuff they're insisting we familiarize ourselves with is just... ugh."

"You can do it, Bresc," Janet said encouragingly, sitting beside her friend for moral support. On the other side, Karen was looking on, knowing what to do if Mona stalled out. Lisa was standing nearby, watching. She'd watched the movie 'The Demon Seed' recently and was unreasonably wary of computers now. As a result, she'd resolved to never own a powerful computer. Or a Bricklin. "You've been at it for a while now, take a few minutes and hydrate or something."

"Gnnnnn," the black girl mumbled, leaning back in her chair and stretching. "Stupid technology, making things more difficult for us purists. Then again, I imagine that animators in the twenties were pretty pissed off at Max Fleischer for inventing the rotoscope technique."

"Whatever that is," Lisa sighed, shrugging as Mike walked into the room, towering over everyone. "And here's the other computer brainiac, ready to make us all feel incompetent."

"On what subject, Heyman?" Mike asked. "Could you narrow down the list a bit?"

"Shudduuuuuup," the redhead grumbled before thumbing at Mona. "Bresc needs to take some kinda computer course for her animation classes, and this is all language programming shit."

"Tough gig if you're not used to it," Mike agreed with a nod. "That CAPS program Disney is working with is gonna make life difficult for the classic animators. Twenty years from now, everything'll be computers."

"Thanks for the pep talk, DeBourne," Mona sighed, shaking her head. "Wish I had some brilliant programmer blood in my genes. Why can't I be related to Ada Lovelace?"

"I am," Karen offered, raising her hand a little.

"Oh, for fucks' sake, Princess," Janet groused, throwing her hands in the air while Mona slouched further in her chair and Lisa rolled her eyes. "You can't be related to every famous person who ever lived, you know!"

"Actually, she's right," Mike said, strangely backing Karen up for a change. "Lord Byron's mother was Catherine Gordon, of the Aberdeenshire Gordons, and Ada Lovelace's daughter was Lady Anne Blunt, noted equestrienne and violinist. That makes Princess here a descendant of Ada Lovelace. We can now conclude why she's such a brat."

"My parents almost named me Allegra instead of Ekaterina," Karen mentioned. "And I've had the pleasure of basking in the presence of Babbage's Difference Engine. Granted, I'm much faster than it, but still, a lovely experience. Ada Lovelace's understanding of quadratics and her sense of programming was exquisite."