“I don’t know Sophia. I just know Kaem’s not at all upset about—”
A loud squeal cut Emmanuel off. When he turned around, he saw everyone else cringing as well.
Kaem was holding up an air horn with a huge smile on his face.
Like an immature kid, Emmanuel thought. Another reason to get him to read those books!
Kaem said, “I’ve always wanted to do that. In case you haven’t figured it out, I’d like to make a couple of announcements.”
Emmanuel scanned faces. Some looked upset by the interruption. Others as if they were excited to hear what Kaem had to say.
Kaem waved across the room, “First, Arya’s going to tell you what her computer’s jingling coin sound this afternoon meant to you.”
Arya stepped forward and said, “I’m pretty sure that all of you already know the jingly coins mean the company got in some cash. More importantly to you, some of that money’s going to come to you as a bonus. I’ve worked it out with Mr. X and it’ll come to 5.3 bonus points. You’ll have to look up the email I sent you earlier this month to work out what 5.3 points will mean in terms of actual dollars in your own paycheck.”
As Emmanuel joined in the vigorous applause, he tried to remember what 5.3 points would mean for him. He wasn’t sure, but when Sophia leaned up and asked him, he said, “Several thousand dollars I think.”
She squeezed his arm excitedly and said, “If that’s true maybe this company’s doing better than its choice of venues would suggest.” She eyed him, “Maybe it won’t fold and leave us all in the poorhouse.”
Emmanuel wondered to himself how, after decades of poverty, his wife could be so focused on what Staze spent on a celebration. Probably from decades of dreaming of the good life, he decided.
When the crowd started to settle down and turn back to their conversations, Arya said, “Wait! Kaem has another announcement. Listen up so he won’t be tempted to blow that damned air horn again!”
However, when they turned toward Kaem he had his back to them and was holding a hand cupped over his ear, obviously talking on the phone.
Arya dryly said, “Sorry, apparently his phone call’s more important than we are.”
Some cheerful boos erupted from the crowd, but they broke off when Kaem turned around and saw everyone staring at him. He said a couple more words and then put his phone back in his pocket. “Are you guys waiting for me?”
A chorused, “Yes!” washed over him.
He smiled a smile that lit up the room. “That phone call was from Dr. Medness of the University of Maryland’s Institute for the Study of Electronics and Applied Physics, or ISEAP.” Kaem’s eyes sought out Norm, “A few weeks ago, Norm Tibbets cast them a fixture out of Stade. One that was intended to constrain a pellet of hydrogen and boron while they blasted it with a high-powered laser beam. He just called to let us know that, this very evening, they achieved fusion’s holy grail of better than break-even power output…” Someone started to clap but Kaem held his hands up to sustain a pause, “For those of you who don’t know what that means, they’ve achieved nuclear fusion, producing large quantities of very low-cost energy, using a method that produces very little radiation. Also, it doesn’t need uranium for its fuel. Only tiny amounts of hydrogen, which, as you know we can get from water, and boron, which you can find in borax cleaners on your shelf at home.” Kaem shoved a fist into the air and shouted excitedly in triumph, “Staze is going to help us wean ourselves off of fossil fuels!”
This time when someone started clapping it built to a crescendo.
When the cheering dropped off, Kaem fired his air horn again.
In the immediate silence afterward, Emmanuel saw Arya had her fingers in her ears. She yelled, “What the hell Kaem?!”
“There’s more!” Kaem shouted back excitedly. “Earlier today, I got a call from the doctor at the hospital who’s studying stasis in the treatment of critical patients. Patients in whom a matter of minutes could mean life or limb. They’re looking at it as a way to take a pause and regroup. Well, one of their own doctors in the emergency room had a stroke on duty. All the scanners and treatment areas were backed up, meaning they wouldn’t be able to get to him in time… So, they stazed him until they could get him in a scanner to find out what was happening. As soon as he came out of the scanner, they stazed him again till they could read the scans and get him to a unit that put in stents to open the blocked artery that caused his stroke!” Kaem punched the air again, “He’s doing great! The doctors think stasis is going to make a huge difference for patients in extremis.”
Another enthusiastic cheer rose up and went on for quite a while. Emmanuel thought the employees were excited to be part of such cutting-edge technological changes in their world. Are they as excited about that as they are about the bonus? he wondered. I’ll bet some of them are.
He noticed a stir over near the door. When he looked, he saw a striking woman edging a wheelchair through the crowd. There was a sickly woman in the wheelchair, but, ill or not, she looked happy.
They looked familiar to Emmanuel, but he couldn’t place them. Relatives of one of the employees? he wondered. Oh! It’s the woman who brought her sick wife in to be stazed months ago. Is this her wife, out of stasis?
Arya saw them and quickly moved to join them. They put their heads together for a quick conversation, then Arya stood back up and
