Zero to One (G/t)

[2] Computer Bug

“So, as you can see, we’re making good progress. But, of course, as our data improves, so will our outlooks for the future. You are dismissed.”

Another day, another meeting. Discussion groups were awful. What were they for? Just to keep up to speed with others in the department? What for? If no one person was working on the same project, even if they were in the same field, then wouldn’t they all just be wasting each other’s time? Supposedly, the feedback offered during peer progress was meant to be significant. However, they can’t be that important when variants of the same responses are given every time, and they’re always exemplary. Still, being around people did have its benefits. It’s a constant reminder of being alive: a person rather than a piece of a machine or a number.

“Ambrose!” a hyper-authoritative voice bellowed over the discord of bustling doctoral candidates headed out of the conference room. The call halted its subject immediately but not out of fear. If extra encounters occurred off the planned schedule, then they meant well. They always did, and by the look on the face of he who owned that disembodied voice, it was going to stay that way, and he was the one counting. “Ninety-nine?”

Devin Ambrose, the not-so-young student, quickened the gathering of his things and fought against the lessening tide of people to approach Professor Ahmed Qadir, his supervisor. On the way, he took glances at his peers, checking their intrigue toward the professional’s inquiry. None of them seemed to care about it or him passing by, aside from the occasional head nod to greet him or smile in return, bringing Devin some comfort. The fewer people that knew, for now, the better.

“Come again, sir?” Devin queried nonchalantly upon approach, continuously attempting to not draw attention to himself or his findings. “I don’t know what you’re—”

“You can play dumb, coy, or whatever with the rest of the students,” the supervisor snapped, pulling Devin closer with a clamped arm around his shoulders. “You can even try that attitude with the other professors and post-docs here but not with me.” He had caught the drift of his subordinate wanting to keep quiet about the whole thing quickly, but the idea of him thinking he wasn’t already complying with that – the testing – had angered him nonetheless. “You know damn well what I’m talking about. Ninety-nine deviations?”

Devin smirked at the acknowledgment of his research, mostly due to his mentor’s perceived confusion toward it. Despite being the most qualified academic in the nation and possibly the world to understand his studies, he still had absolutely no succinct idea of how to deal with them. Though to be fair, Devin knew none of them really did, and they wouldn’t have allowed them – the investigation itself and its recent results – to happen in the first place if they really had the power.

As it was always in his favor, he always would’ve been smiling, no matter the outcome.

“Yes, sir,” the postgraduate confirmed, shaking the scanning his messenger bag for any forgotten files as he walked out of the room like he hadn’t made a significant discovery in the last day. “That is… quite the abnormality.”

“’Abnormality’, huh? I don’t even think that’s a strong enough word for it,” Prof. Qadir breathily conceded, his grasp at last loosened by Devin’s hasty pull away.

Such a tug it was, the elder was taken aback, halting his actions for a moment to the concern of the few remaining souls in the area. However, its cause – his mentee – displayed a different perspective with obvious curiosity, standing still by the wall except for a glasses adjustment, waiting for him ahead rather than truly attempting to get away as perceived.

In hindsight, the desire to break free without actually going anywhere made sense. Devin never appeared to be a touchy-feely person in all the years the professor advised him except for in his work. The last thing he wanted to do was make his junior uncomfortable for the maintenance of both his own morals and those with which the rest of the world as a whole took to heart.