OVER THE SILVER SKY TO THE WORLD OF NEVER : Part 168 - Nerdgeddon Averted.

There's no time for any of my usual nonsense today. Some of my orphaned ethnics escaped over the electrified fence after tunneling their way out from the basement. You've got to admire their ingenuity, even while you're setting the attack dogs after them. I think I'm going to have to shorten their rations, because those little fuckers sure can run. They can't hide though. I had trackers implanted in their little skulls as soon as I bought them off the internet. It's worth the extra expense. Pays for itself when things like this happen.

(The copyright for this image is the property of Depositphotos.)

Jake was in a happy mood today. Poppy's training was coming on apace and he'd started to work on Norbert's agoraphobia problem. The subtlety of his plan amazed him. As would any sign of subtlety to a man who had less nuance than a brick to the face. He wasn't certain, but he was pretty sure he'd introduced subtext. Talking about one thing while meaning something completely different. Or was that subterfuge? It could even be lying. There was nothing wrong with that. A well used lie in the right place could get you out of a lot of trouble. Trouble that the truth would drop you in.

Things were plodding along as all the preparations, for their expedition into the unknown, were made. They'd been in Palamar over three weeks now. It was difficult to keep track when you went into places where time passed differently. And being thrown back through time had caused him some problems. Causality problems Norbert had named them. He would know. The man might not be able to cross a street without being inside a box, but he sure could think. He was absolutely certain that he'd been working with Poppy for at least 15 days straight now. Give or take a day or three. The futuristic future was hard to manage when it was actually in the past. He surmised that time travel hadn't been thought impossible by physicists. They just realized how complicated it would make everything, so they avoided it. They had enough on their plates figuring out quantum's and quarks. Leptons and hadrons were still pretty tricky by all accounts.

He was making his way down to the hold when Morag barreled past him at the run. Her back looked worried, if he was any judge of it. Something was up. He could be of help. Maybe hold something while she sorted it out. This was new and it might possibly be exciting. The right kind of exciting. The one he could watch without having to join in. Jake set off in pursuit. Keeping pace with the engineer/scientist/medic. Any one of which there could be an urgent need for. When she ran into the hold, where the shouting was coming from, he stopped. Oh dear. This might be nerd related. He really hoped Poppy was alright. Risking a quick glance inside she appeared to be fine apart from having a worried front. That was a relief. She was distraught. Unharmed though. All of the activity and yelling was inside Norbert's den. Jake slowly edged his way inside the hold.Completely unnoticed. Scarlet was there. Standing with her hands on her hips, foot tapping rapidly.

"What the hell happened here?" She demanded.
"I don't know." Poppy wailed. "He was fine at breakfast. I went to do some early practice then when I came back he was like this. He's sweating. Norbert doesn't sweat. Not unless he's very hot. He's always meticulous about temperature control."
Tamsin and Morag were inside the hut bent over the shivering form of Norbert in his bunk. He did look in a bad way. Poppy was fine though. Scarlet liked Poppy. Norbert she hardly gave a shit about. At least that's what he'd thought. Now there was a sense of her caring about him. Oh shit. She did care about things. She cared about Jake. Scarlet had been at his bedside for hours when he came back from infinity with half his organs left behind. His disembodied consciousness had seen it. It was showing she cared that Scarlet had a problem with. It was her way. Actually, now Jake thought about it, he cared to. This worrying thing was infectious. Scarlet put a comforting arm around her favorite nerd.
"They'll do everything they can Pop's. Is there anything you can think of. What was he doing?"
"I'll check." Poppy disengaged herself giving Scarlet's hand a squeeze as she entered the hut then began to go over the things on Norbert's desk.
"Hey." Jake put as much concern into his tone as he could. "What's been going on? Has Norbert fallen victim to some kind of brain fever do you think?"
The look of disbelief and disgust she gave him, hinted that Scarlet was not impressed by his input.
"Well yeah. That's always happening around here. People contracting imaginary diseases is commonplace. If you've got anymore input, I suggest you input it into you own ass. He's burning up and the medibot has no idea what's wrong with him. It's been getting worse since I arrived. A few more degrees and his vital organs will fry."
"Oh. That sounds pretty bad."
She whirled on him again.
"Do you think so? Poppy's not taking this as well as you'd imagine. If you had any imagination that wasn't based on some movie you watched a dozen times."
He opted for diplomacy.
"I'll get out of your way then."
"No you won't. You've got O negative blood. If Norbert needs it to survive, I'll drain your body if I have to. Does Hermes think he can do anything?"
"Um. I'll ask shall I."
The internal biological AI swung into action. Accessing the medibots readings.
"It's a biological agent. Like nothing I've encountered before. Although it does ring a bell. I'm going to go through my data banks, see if I can come up with anything." Hermes advised. "There's not a lot I can do without knowing how the agent works."
Jake passed all this on to everyone in the hut. Standing in the doorway he watched as the two women tended to the scientist, while Poppy was sitting at his desk examining the files he'd been working on. Her eyes widened with surprise and horror.
"Oh shit no." Poppy gasped. "He was working on the new plant based power source. The one we cloned for the Dragon. For some reason he's genetically engineered a symbiotic plant based version based on this. He's injected himself with it."
At that point Norbert began to fit. Jerking and thrashing on his bunk. Foaming at the mouth while grinding his teeth.
"Keep looking Pop's. There might be more. Anything you can do will help."
Morag wiped her brow, having stopped the fitting with the help of the medibot.
"Get some ice in here. It might help bring his temperature down a few degrees. I have never seen anything like this, but an energy source that efficient would do this and more. We're lucky he isn't on fire. We'll make him an ice bath."
"It's already on its way. Fetu's bringing it down now."
"Oh the idiot." Poppy declared. "He was looking at some personal shielding I was working on in my spare time. I like to set myself little projects. Once I've made a new projectile I like to see if I can develop something to stop it. He's trying to make himself into a mobile power source. So he can wear the shield. He wants to be able to go out. This is how he plans on protecting himself and me."
"How do you know that?" Jake asked, amazed at her astounding logic.
"He's written it down here. In a note to me. In case he doesn't survive. He's doing this for me. Why would he do that?"
Some things in Jake's head, joined up with some other stuff and a dawning occurred. It dawned on him he might know the answer to that.
"Ah. Right." They were looking at him again. "Look. I'm not sure, but this might be down to me. I could have said something that Norbert took the wrong way."
"Explain yourself Halliday." Scarlet barked.

At this juncture, in those movies Scarlet had spoken so disparagingly of, there'd be a wibbly wobbly bit, a jump cut to a wide shot with a fast zoom or a fast paced rewind. Possibly with a subtitle indicating it was the previous day. It all depended on the era and how inventive the director and editor were. The problem of Norbert's fear of anything outside his box had been percolating in Jake's brain space, for a very long time now. Pushing many other things out of the way in the process. Like what were things better than before sliced bread. The training session had just finished. Jake was proud of his student. She'd had a few sparring sessions with both Fetu and Pengelly. Even Scarlet had got in on the act. Showing the novice a few tricks that might come in handy. Only once they were mastered. It was never a good idea to introduce a new technique in the middle of a fight. Poppy had striped off as she entered the shower.

"Beautiful isn't she." Norbert sighed. "I am the luckiest man alive Jake. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for that woman. I cannot believe she has anything to do with me."
This was an opening. One that needed careful consideration. Jake leaped straight in without even thinking.
"You say that, but you haven't set foot outside this hold except for emergencies or with a gun at your head."
"Well.." Norbert dissembled. "There are circumstances where I'd put my fears to one side and sally forth into the outside. Now I think it would be better for me to allow her more freedom I think. Learn to cope without her constant presence. You cannot keep a beautiful bird like her caged up."
This hasty plan made up on the spur of the moment had some legs. Time to put it into action.
"You trust her then?" He asked.
"Implicitly."
"There's a lot of good looking men out there Norbert. Poppy is a considerable catch. Suppose she met another man. One who would join her in her adventures. He could win her heart away from you. They'd be at it day and night, every spare moment between adventures."
Norbert sighed again, this time forlornly.
"I wouldn't stand in her way. If she found such a man and he brought her happiness, I'd be happy for her. She deserves far better than I Jake. It would break my heart to lose her, but I'd accept her decision."
Time to change the tactics here.
"As you know Norbert, I'm a man of the world. A world at the very least. It's called earth. You may have heard of it." Well as a man of the world, or as near as makes no difference to someone like you, I can't help thinking you're a fool."
"What do you mean?"
"The world is filled with men of bad intent. Poppy is naive about matters of the heart."
"Naive?"
"Yes. There's every chance she'll attract more than her fair share of scoundrels Norbert. Men intent on using her for their own pleasure. Pretending to love her before breaking her heart. She'd be ruined as a woman. After a dozen or so bastards had, had their way with her, she'd lose all trust. Be broken. If I were you I wouldn't let her out of my sight for long enough for her to be taken advantage of. There's some real bastards out there. Poppy needs someone to spot them. Should she fall for one, she'll need a shoulder to cry on. Someone to prevent her boning twenty or more muscular shit weasels. I mean they're adventurers Norbert. They are going to be buff. They'll be doing things to her she never even knew of. Some of them may haunt her for the rest of her life. Deviant sexual practices. If I were you I'd take every precaution I could to ensure she was safe guarded. They'll use her then discard her like an old sock. It's up to you to protect her. I can't keep an eye on her every second. I could turn my back and she'll be astride a rampant, muscular user before you can say knife."
"Thank you Jake. You've given me much to think on. While I've no objection to her sharing her affections with others I'd hate to see some unscrupulous scoundrel use her and discard her."

This would then be the part where they did a dissolve to the present. Jake shifted uncomfortably. He did that a lot he noted. Poppy was glaring at him. Too stunned to speak. That was nothing compared to Scarlet. She had a twisted little smile on her lips and raised eyebrows. This was going to be bad. On lighter note, while he'd been explaining things, they'd placed Norbert in the ice bath. The ice was melting apace though

"If you've damaged my nerd, there will be hell to pay. Damn it. If anything has happened to his brain I'm going to beat yours out for spare parts."
Of all people it was Poppy who came to his aid.
"No. It's Norbert's fault, the idiot. You can't go from keeping your eye on your girlfriend to genetic engineering without a very long run up. Jake did what he did for the best. How was he to know the fool would take the most radically scientific route? There's a dozen other things he could have tried first that wouldn't have required turning himself into a guinea pig. I suppose I should be flattered really. I'm not. I might not like him living in a cave, but living is better than the alternative." Scarlet was about to argue that point. "Come on. Jake's done equally stupid things because he loves you."
Scarlet stamped her foot angrily. Clenching her fists at her side.
"Yes. It's quite sweet the first time they risk their lives, but believe me, it very quickly becomes bloody annoying."
Jake had some good news.
"Hermes said he can fix it. He just has to make some metallic nanites that will be capable of withstanding the heat. So have you got some small chinks of metal."
The shot rang out before he had time to understand how stupid he'd just been. Yet again.
"Is that enough?" She asked sarcastically, still holding her pistol.
Jake had both hands on his right thigh.
"Yeughresss." He replied, stifling his need to cry out in agony. "That'll do thanks. It's more than enough for the million or so he needs. I could have taken the metal orally. As in swallowed it."
She holstered her pistol.
"Stop whining. You're lucky I didn't administer it anally."