Fast Cars and Intergalactic Speed Dating

26: Eggplant Parmesan

"Richard!"

Richard nearly dropped the film he was handling. He had been so focused that he had forgotten he existed; he was just a brain and a pair of steady hands. Now, he straightened, carefully setting the film down on the workbench in the solar room where he was working with Dr. Das and Ol-Maran, all of them focused on their own steps in the process of creating one of Richard's multilayered photovoltaic cells.

"New plan," Richard said, turning to see Garth in the doorway. "You don't say my name any more. You've been rather overusing it of late."

"All right, old chum." Garth said with a grin, not skipping a beat. "Listen, my phone's been dead for two entire days now, but I found out how to text on this thing." He held up a communications device he had "borrowed" from Aialo-El. It looked like a tablet, although it was in the same as-yet-indecipherable language as the controls in Richard's room and everywhere else on the ship. "I just can't figure out how to do the eggplant emoji."

Rolling his eyes, Richard turned back to his work. "You know, you could help me with this. It would be a much better use of your time than trying to sext on alien technology in a language he won't understand anyway."

Garth gasped. "Richard. I was texting my mother to ask her for her eggplant parmesan recipe." He ended his statement with a grin that proved it a lie. "And she's really good with languages. She speaks a little Spanish and she's fluent in passive aggression."

Despite himself, Richard laughed.

"Yes she is," said Kavita.

"Come over here and hold this for me, will you?" Richard asked Garth. "Just wash your hands first. You missed the lesson and you're going to have to play some catch up."

"That was weird of you to say," said Garth. He slipped the communicator into his pocket and threw Kavita a curious glance on his way to the sink. One of the most interesting things about the Karran vessel was that there were sinks for washing in nearly every room. There were no showers, but the Karra were fastidious about cleanliness all the same and could often be seen washing their faces and hands.

Kavita didn't look up, but Richard caught a strange look on her face for half a second. "What?"

Garth approached the work bench and leaned in, peering at what Richard was doing. "You agreeing with me that Mom's fluent in passive aggression."

Kavita laughed, leaning a little further down over her work. "Oh, I'm sorry; have you met a mother who isn't? Mine certainly is."

"Yeah, she is," Garth quipped. He giggled, then turned his attention to Richard. "So, I know that this is our life's passion, blah blah and et cetera, but tell me again why we're not just bulk ordering a bunch of solar panels off of Amazon for these guys?"

Richard beckoned with two fingers and pointed at a tool lying near to Garth's hand. Garth passed it over to him. "They're not nearly efficient enough," he said. "In order to get this ship out of Earth's atmosphere, we're going to have to generate a lot more power than your average solar panels are capable of. Our cells are much more efficient."

"Yeah, but our cells are tiny. Our cells are for lawn ornaments. This isn't our cell." Garth was about to pick up one of the sheets of film lying near them on the table, but Richard waved his hand away.

"Don't. Please, be careful and don't touch anything unless I ask you to, okay? This is delicate stuff and very expensive. There's a bit of a time crunch and we have to be conservative with everything we have."

"Sorry, sir." Garth folded his hands beneath his chin, giving Richard the soulful, abused look of a Victorian orphan.

"This is your cell," said Dr. Das, picking up on Garth's question. "It's just supersized. The technology's the same: this is straight out of Richard's schematics."

"Supersized," Garth echoed.

"Yeah," said Richard. "Our solar cells are three times as efficient as the average, right? And this..."

"...Is like, three thousand times as big?"

"Exactly. We've got a lot of ship to power. Now, come up here and I'll show you how it's done. We're going to need two hundred of these bad boys or more."

"So, you said this junk is expensive. Where the heck are you getting all the stuff to make that many solar cells that are this big?"

"Dr. Das has been getting the material," said Richard.

"More coming in tomorrow," she said. She looked up at Garth and offered him a smile.

"Yeah, I know that, but how're you paying for it?"

"I've got connections." Dr. Das grinned and waggled her eyebrows.

Garth sighed, slumping against the counter next to Richard. "I still can't believe that you're some kind of alien space ally."

"I can't believe it, either," said Richard.

Dr. Das laughed. "It's really not that surprising. I'm essentially a glorified pen pal most of the time."

"I think what's even harder to believe is that you remembered me. How many times did we talk while I was at AeroNautica? Four? Five?" asked Richard.

"Weren't you in the quarterly business reviews?" Garth asked.

"The what?"

"You know, the quarterly business reviews? All the executives, death by PowerPoint, free bagels?"

Richard frowned at Garth, bemused. "No?"

"Oh. I did the sales reporting for those things. Why did I always think you were there? You know, maybe it was Carey from Workforce? He looked a lot like you. Man, I miss those bagels."

Dr. Das tipped her head back, looking up at the ceiling with an expression of deep regret. "The bagels," she sighed. "They were so good."

"That blueberry cream cheese?" Garth said. He rolled his eyes back into his head and gave a chef's kiss, spreading his fingers.

"Oh, stop it. You're going to make me hungry."

"What's the problem? We've got jaja bread out the wajazoo." Garth grinned.

"I know, and it's delicious, but it's not a bagel with blueberry cream cheese." Kavita frowned down at her work. "Shut your mouths and get to it, boys—I'm way ahead of you."

Richard bent over his workstation again and gestured to Garth. "Right, then. Hand me that, and pay attention."