Halting the Reaper (The Stasis Stories #4) Read online

  He expected the article would be about one of his obscure hobbies—so esoteric that the news was usually far behind his own knowledge—but he tried to appear interested. “What was that?”

  “Someone apparently gave a talk about a new material that’s a hundred percent reflective, can’t be melted and is thousands of times stronger than steel. They think it should be useful for inducing fusion.”

  Brad snorted, “Did you read another article in the Express? I told you not to believe—"

  She rolled her eyes and interrupted. “USA Today.”

  He frowned, “How’d they fall for something like that? Did it say where this stuff was coming from?”

  “Some new company. The talk was given at UVA though, so someone’s taking it seriously.”

  “Anybody that takes such claims seriously needs to have his head examined.”

  “Her head.”

  Distractedly, Brad said, “Huh?”

  “Since I’m the one taking these claims seriously, it would be ‘her’ head that needed to be examined.”

  Detecting the dangerous tone in his wife’s voice, Brad said defensively, “I was talking about whoever wrote this up at USA Today. Not you.”

  “Humor me. Watch the talk. The guy’s demonstrations are astonishing. I’d like to have you explain how he did them.”

  “You can fake anything on video.”

  “Humor me,” she said pointedly.

  So, he pulled it up and started watching, expecting to turn it off after the first minute or so.

  He watched the whole thing, then went out for a walk to digest it.

  When he got back to the house, he watched it again.

  And again.

  Chapter One

  Kaem walked from his apartment to school on Monday morning. He’d been doing this for a couple of weeks now, but this time, rather than walking around the slight hill between his place and school, he decided to go over it. He didn’t know what his hemoglobin was up to because he hadn’t seen Dr. Saiens for some time. But he felt… great!

  So much better.

  As he started up the incline, he did so with the trepidation of someone who’d always avoided inclines. Someone who would’ve been exhausted part way up even a shallow grade like this. Someone who would’ve walked around or called an Uber. Or lived on campus so he didn’t face such obstacles. Though even when he’d lived on campus, he’d had to allot extra time for stairs in buildings that didn’t have elevators.

  If he’d had to go up such an incline, he’d have expected to have to stop occasionally to rest.

  But this time there wasn’t any fatigue. In fact, he wondered momentarily if he’d been mistaken and the stretch was actually flat. A glance back convinced him that he was indeed walking up a gentle hill. Probably a hill that others would barely notice, but still, an uphill grade that would’ve been a problem in the past.

  Feeling invigorated, he let his thoughts turn to the Friday night before.

  After giving the talk on Stade, he’d taken Arya and Lee out to dinner. He’d wanted it to be a thank-you for their help with his talk. Cluelessly, he hadn’t had any idea how uncomfortable it would be having the two of them at dinner together. At first, he’d thought they were mad he hadn’t introduced them during the talk. Then, that they might have felt demeaned by their relegation to the positions of practically invisible assistants during his moment in the spotlight. Or, maybe they thought he’d been using them as eye candy?

  Finally, he’d decided they just didn’t like going out to dinner with him together when it was just the three of them. Sure, everyone from Staze went out to lunch together on a fairly frequent basis, but it was never just the two of them with Kaem. During those lunches, they always sat together on the opposite side of the table from him. Do they do that so neither of them will have to sit next to me? he wondered. Am I vain enough to think it’s because they both want to sit next to me and that’s their compromise?

  At the restaurant, they’d been seated at a four-top table. Lee’d taken a seat first. Arya took the seat next to hers. This left Kaem to choose between sitting in the seat next to Lee, or the one next to Arya. When he’d hesitated, Arya waved at the seat across from her and said, “Go ahead. Sit next to Lee.”

  Then, at the end of the meal, when Lee and Kaem had ordered desserts, Arya had shaken her head and risen, saying, “Great talk, Kaem. I’ve got some stuff to do, so you two enjoy your desserts without me.” She’d put on a smile Kaem thought looked fake and finished by saying brightly, “See you guys at work Monday.”

  Then she was gone. Kaem looked wonderingly at Lee. “You think she’s mad?”

  Lee stared at him for a moment, then gave a minute shrug.

  “What do you think’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” Lee replied.

  I think Lee knows what’s going on and just doesn’t want to tell me. Kaem thought. Or thinks I know and I’m just playing dumb. Maybe I have Asperger’s and that’s why I have no clue.

  In any case, Kaem still didn’t feel sure about what’d been going on.

  After dessert, Kaem called an Uber to take them to their apartments. Arriving at Lee’s, he’d gotten out when she did, thinking he’d give her a hug goodnight. She’d surprised him, saying, “You don’t have to walk me in.”

  He’d blinked, realizing that, after that comment, now he did have to walk her to her door. “Yes I do,” he said, “I’m not a cripple anymore.”

  As they walked to her door, their hands had bumped. Then her hand found its way into his.

  At the door, she said, “You want to come in for… Oops, I was going to ask you in for a coffee, but you don’t like it. How about a drink?”

  Caught by surprise, Kaem blinked, “Um, the Uber’s waiting.”

  He immediately realized he could’ve used the app to dismiss the vehicle, but by then she was disappointedly saying, “Okay,” and turning into his arms.

  Oh, a hug, he thought as her arms went around him. Then her face approached his, Oh, a kiss.

  Kaem had only been kissed on the cheek before, so his next thought was, Oh…! Oh, My, God!

  He’d had no idea what a powerful experience a kiss could be. Prickles were running over his scalp and neck when she let go and stepped back. “Thanks, Kaem,” she said shyly, “I had a nice time.” A moment later she’d opened her door and slipped inside.

  Wait! he’d thought, knowing it was too late.

  Kaem shook his head to bring himself back to the present, realizing he was on campus now and walking down a slight slope to the physics building. He felt great, rather than worn out the way he would’ve been after going up any kind of incline in the past. I’ve been kissed and I can climb a hill! he thought. Life is good!

  Grinning ear to ear, he walked joyfully into the surprisingly crowded physics lobby. As he entered, someone said, “Mr. Seba!”

  It seemed as if everyone in the lobby immediately turned his way and advanced on him. Crap! I should’ve known this was going to happen from the way my email blew up over the weekend.

  People were shouting questions. Some seemed to be reporters. Others wanted to go into business with Staze. One seemed to be hoping for a donation. A couple said they had amazing ideas for the use of Stade. Ideas so good they had to be explained in private.

  Kaem called for their attention and reminded them he was just an undergraduate student who’d had an idea. “You should email our CEO through the Staze website. He’ll respond as appropriate.” Turning toward the stairs, he called back over his shoulder, “I’ve got to get to class!”

  Some of them came after him, but with his newfound vitality, he beat them up to the classroom door, entered, and closed it behind him despite a few entreating calls.

  Despite his fears, no one tried to come into the classroom behind him. He made his way to his regular seat, hoping that’d be the end of it.

  It wasn’t.

  When he sat and faced the front, he found his classmates turned in their seats and staring at him. As was Professor Stavros, who said, “Hello, Mr. Seba. That was quite a talk you gave Friday night.”

  Kaem bobbed a nod.

  Stavros said, “We were hoping to ask a few questions. “

  “But…” Kaem said, upset. “I’m here to learn from you. And so are the rest of the students,” He glanced around the room, hoping the rest of the students would look as upset as he that Stavros would consider forgoing his lecture and demonstration to quiz Kaem about Stade.

  Unfortunately, they didn’t look as if they’d be upset at all.

  Stavros, however, seemed taken aback. He said, “Of course. Of course. Perhaps I could arrange a time for you to meet with the physics faculty so they could ask some questions? I’m sure you can understand that we’re all very curious.”

  “I don’t have to prepare another talk? Just show up and answer questions?”

  “Um, sure. Everyone’s seen your talk. We just want to understand your discovery in more depth.”

  “Okay,” Kaem said.

  He was relieved when Stavros said, “Okay, I’ll email some possible times.” Stavros turned to the e-board and began his lecture.

  Kaem thought of the thousands of emails he had waiting. Everybody wanting something. How am I going to sort the ones that matter from all the garbage? he wondered.

  ***

  Arya also walked to work that Monday. She knew Kaem would be heading to class rather than work, so she hadn’t had to plan her route to avoid him. The walk wasn’t that long and she found she did some of her best thinking along the way. She’d often come up with solutions to vexing work problems while on this walk, but on this particular morning, her thoughts kept getting distracted by the romance between Lee and Kaem. Arya had decided they deserved their chance at happiness and that she should make every effort to avoid coming between them.

  And I’ll work harder to suppress my unreasonable little fits of jealousy. They’re over a man I do not want. Therefore, I should do my best not to interfere with Lee’s opportunity to seek her joy. Or Kaem’s. I may not love him but I like him well enough that I should do what I can to increase his prospects for happiness.

  This started her thinking about the talk Kaem had given. She pondered the way Kaem had written and memorized the entire talk, right down to predicting how he’d have to respond to the audience’s reactions. Then he’d recorded the talk on video and used it to pick the times he’d need various Stades to dissipate. Then he stazed them so they’d vanish on schedule during his presentation.

  She’d asked how he’d keep from speaking too quickly or slowly, and he’d shown her a large clock app he’d opened on a tablet. “With this on the podium,” he’d said, “I’ll be able to see whether I’m ahead or behind—”

  “Because you’ve memorized your time points too?!” she’d asked, incredulously.

  He’d simply shrugged.

  Arya rounded the corner to the Staze building. What the hell? There were at least fifty people in the parking lot.

  Arya kept walking, but as she got closer to the door, the crowd became dense enough she began having to say “Excuse me,” to push past people.

  Someone spoke angrily, “Hey! Who do you think you are?”

  “I work here,” she responded, tapping another guy on the shoulder and excusing herself to move past.

  When she got to the front, she climbed the two steps in front of the door and turned, calling out to the crowd, “What are you people doing here?”

  From the shouted responses most were people looking for jobs, but some were journalists looking for stories. She told the people looking for jobs that Staze wasn’t hiring at present but would be soon. She asked them to check Staze’s website in the next week when the company should have up a page where they could submit job applications. I hope, she thought as the majority of the people started leaving.

  She asked the journalists to move over to one side of the entrance. After a little settling, there appeared to be nine people in that category.

  The few people left included several who were hoping for a tour. She apologized to them, citing the confidentiality of Staze’s technology.

  Finally, there was a young man who wanted to sell his proposals for various uses of Stade. “Are you hoping to be paid for such suggestions?” she asked.

  “Of course! These’ll make you billions of dollars!”

  “Um, sorry, we can’t do that,” Arya said. “There’s an excellent chance we’ve already had those same ideas, but it’d be difficult to prove our prior recognition of such concepts. So, we can’t accept your suggestions. We do plan to make stazing available to other companies in the future, so you may wish to continue developing your ideas so someday you can buy a stazer and go into business for yourself.”

  He scoffed and turned angrily away. He called back over his shoulder, “You’re going to regret this! You won’t have thought of most of these ideas and they’re going to be killers.”

  Arya responded quietly enough that he wouldn’t hear, “Well then, asshat, you should make a killing with them once you can buy a stazer.”

  Once he’d gone, Arya turned to the last two people, women who, from the way one had her arm protectively around the other, appeared to be a couple. The protected woman looked wasted and ill. Oh, damn… Arya thought, embarrassed that she hadn’t recognized the smaller woman was sick. Then she abruptly started worrying about what they wanted. She forced a smile, “And what are you folks looking for?”

  The striking, tall, healthy-looking woman gazed down at the wispy one she supported with affection saying, “I’m Grace. This is my wife, Simone. She’s th-the love of my life. But… ovarian cancer’s killing her. She’s had chemo and the niraparib and bevacizumab combo and it helped, but they’ve stopped working. Th-there’s a new treatment in trials, a really promising monoclonal antibody that attacks the cancer directly, but Simone didn’t qu-qualify for the trial.” Her voice broke and tears started pouring down her face. She wiped at them, then looked down at Simone. Looking back up at Arya, voice cracking, she said, “It won’t get approved until next year at the earliest. There’s no way Simone’s going to live that long. We’re begging you to staze her until it’s approved.”

  I was afraid of this, Arya thought. When, in Kaem’s talk, he had mentioned stazing the terminally ill to await the development of new treatments, she’d immediately begun to worry about whether they’d get requests and whether they could legally staze anyone. She didn’t have any idea what regulatory body you might apply to for permission. She realized she’d been standing, staring at the two women for long seconds. Long enough that they had to be wondering what was going through her mind. With a start, she said, “I’m sorry—” she interrupted herself when she realized that uttering those words might be what she’d do before denying their request. She cleared her throat, “I’m so sorry that you’re having… such a difficult time with your disease. Come on inside so you can sit down. Um, can I help you up the steps?”

  Simone gave a weak nod, so Arya stepped to her right side, across from Grace on her left. She took Simone’s arm which seemed mostly bone in a thin, soft flesh wrapping. Getting up the steps with Simone was a struggle that made Arya wonder whether Simone would last days, much less until next year sometime.

  As they went in the door, one of the journalists shouted, “Hey. What about us?”

  Arya turned and, in a tone that expressed some of her contempt for a person who couldn’t see how desperately ill Simone was, said, “Have some mercy.” She sighed. “You’ll have to wait a bit, or you could come back some other time. It’s up to you.”

  She let the door close and helped Simone to one of the chairs in the anteroom. “Do you need to lie down? We could line up several chairs.”

  Simone nodded weakly, looking as if she were about to pass out.

  Grace and Arya quickly pulled up chairs on either side of the one Simone was on and got her stretched out across them. Arya pulled up a chair for herself and another for Grace, then sat. She glanced back and forth at the two women, then spoke tentatively. “You understand we’ve never stazed a person before?”

  Grace blinked. “You haven’t?”

  Simone tiredly said, “I didn’t think you had.”

  Grace stared at her wife, “You didn’t? Why’d you agree to come down here then?”

  “It’s be stazed… or die. Not much of a choice.”

  Grace turned her eyes back to Arya. “You’ve done some bigger animals though, right? Dogs, pigs, monkeys… something?”

  Arya shook her head, “No. The biggest we’ve done is that chick you saw in the demonstration.”

  Grace buried her head in her hands, crying.

  Simone said, “Start with me then.”

  Grace’s head jerked up. “No!”

  Simone snorted, “Why not? What’s the worst that could happen? That it might kill me?”

  Grace lowered her head down till it touched her knees, breathing deeply.

  “I’ll sign whatever you want,” Simone said. “Just, please, staze me. Now, before it’s too late.”

  Arya glanced at her watch, Where’s the rest of the team?! she wondered. Returning her focus to Grace, she said, “If we staze Simone, um, what’re you going to do…” uncertain how to continue, Arya waved weakly at Simone and said, “um, with her… Stade?”

  Grace’s eyes widened, “You don’t keep it here?!”

  “It’d still be, um Simone. Shouldn’t you keep it… I mean, her, with you?”

  “Oh,” Grace said, thoughtfully. “Would that be legal?”

  Arya shrugged, “I’m pretty sure there aren’t any laws about people in stasis yet.” She turned to Simone, “You’re thinking you still want to do this?”

  Simone nodded tiredly, “The sooner the better. I’m feeling pretty grim.”

  The door opened behind them and Gunnar’s voice demanded, “Who the hell are all those people outside?” By the time Arya had turned to face him, he’d recognized that something was taking place in front of him. He said, “Oh, sorry. Um, what’s going on here?”