Ginny give Marta a tentative smile. She blushes a bit but does not move her hand away as somehow the touch comforts her a bit and she finds it oddly enjoyable. She nods, "Science, yes. I can try to keep rattling on about science. But what do I do if he changes the subject?"
"The crystals? How nice of you. I did not realize that you were actually paying attention to everything I said. There is a very interesting thing about the crystals. It is a long story if you want to hear it. Three colleagues and I were working on related-theory orals for our masters in Chemistry. We noticed some odd crystal latticework in some of our experiments. It appeared that we had found a new type of crystal. It was interesting but not related to our joint research. One colleague, Brian Morrison, thought that there was more to the crystals and asked if we could consider adding them to our project. The other two did not wish to dilute our studies with something that was apparently so far out of our interest area for the orals. Brian approached me outside of the others and asked if would be interested in helping him research the crystals away from the others. I was flattered that he would ask me and agreed."
"I was nearly in heaven for several months, or as close to it as I could imagine. Brian and I continued the work on the new crystals as well as our combined research with our two companions. Research like ours was expensive, but Brian's family had a lot of money and they paid the bills." Ginny blushes a bit at this point. "He made me feel that my brain was important, really important. We grew closer together as our studies advanced, and experimented with sex. I was only slightly less intimidated and nervous than he was. And our research was making progress; real progress. There were signs that someone else was interested in what we were doing. Little things like stuff disappearing, notes not being where we had left them. Brian decided it was best to keep everything in one place and under as much security as possible, but even that proved to not be enough. We had just solved a large problem and things looked promising, when all of our research was stolen. I came into the lab one morning to find Brian on the floor with a nasty cut to the head and the special safe open. He told me that someone had held him at gunpoint and forced him to open the safe before hitting knocking him unconscious. Everything was gone. And it turned out that really everything was gone. I was in favor of going back to the beginning and starting all over but Brian said that the blow to his head was like an epiphany; a wake up call. He told me that he had lost interest and did not wish to continue the research. I had to drop the project. After all, I could not afford the costs and his family pulled the funding. Not only that, but Brian dropped me as well. It seemed that I was not as interesting when we were not working closely together. He left the research group after the Masters program and I thought that I would never see him again."
She takes a sip of wine and holds up a finger, "But that is not the end of it. A couple of years later I was completing my doctoral dissertation when Brian contacted me out of the blue. He wanted to meet me and I agreed. Neither of us were much into small talk so he jumped right to the point. He said that he had been flailing about when some Horizon Corp suit had approached him, saying that he had seen something of his work on the crystals. The suit had offered Brian a huge salary and free rein in a new lab to do the research. He laughed when he told me that it was the money that was offered that finally convinced him that he could go back to the beginning and start over. He had thought of me for his assistant, and being fresh out of school, I jumped at the chance to continue this fascinating line of research. For a while I was the second researcher on the team and Brian's assistant and things went exceptionally well. Brian proved to be more than a researcher; he was a gifted administrator. He managed to get the staff to perform far above the average. I was given the latitude to be as creative as I wanted, and it seemed that money was no object. I lived in he lab, ate in the lab, slept in the lab, when I slept at all that is, and my hard work paid off. I discovered that the crystals have amazing bonding properties when correctly produced and following that line of thought led to my big breakthrough; I found that the crystals could bond to certain drugs and medicines, making them stronger and more able to defeat illnesses that were growing resistant to common drugs. Brian was very pleased when I showed him my work and conclusions. He took me to see the suit and explain it all to him. I pointed out that the applications were many. Certainly the crystals could bond with synthetic drugs to make medicines more potent. In effect, we had found something special."
"Then the suit came to me. He said that Horizon wanted to know if the crystals could be used to create drugs that would make soldiers nearly unstoppable. Or make enemy populations sick. In short he wanted to weaponize the crystals. He promised me a raise and a lab of my own, staffed by people of my choosing, with Brian as lab administrator. Stupidly, I refused, telling the suit that such use was far off and that I would not help them do such a thing. The troubles started almost immediately. Some doubts about the veracity of my doctoral research were hinted at and leaked to professional circles. There was not enough proof for the university to withdraw my degrees but the damage had been done. I was fired and disgraced. I tried contacting Brian, but he would not speak to me. No one would speak to me and I was blackballed from every major lab and corporation. And, et voila, here I am, or was. I was forced to leave LA to get away from Horizon and Sebastian offered me a place to live, for a price. So I can say that the crystals were both my greatest achievement and my downfall. Perhaps I should have agreed to do what they wanted."
