Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 00:04:48 -0700 From: Brad Collins Subject: Silver Part One The following story involves homosexual themes. If this material offends you or is illegal, in your area feel free to hit the back button now. Otherwise, enjoy. One: Collin reached up and brushed hair out of his eyes with the back of his hand. The sweat beaded up on his brow as he reached the pinnacle moment and he dropped the 20 gram weight into the covalent mixture. Nothing happened. "Damn," he muttered, slamming down his composition book on the lab desk and taking a frustrated step back from the table. In mid-step, however, he stopped, stumbled, and grasped for the desk for support as the weight climbed to the surface of the fluid mixture and stayed there. The grin broke slowly across Collin's face, and nobody was in the lab to hear his ecstatic scream. He had been working on this formula off and on through out his university program, and now he found it. His goal had been to harness the latent energy in molecular interactions to create a hydrophilic substance that is able to bond to pretty much anything. Hands shaking, he put on his gloves, and pulled the coated weight off of the surface of the quick-silver liquid. He moved it a few inches into the air above the dish and let it go. Instead of dropping like a weight ought to, it lazily sank through the air as if it were a feather or a silk scarf. His light-blue eyes shone with excitement as he watched the unlikely event unfold before him. Collin hurried to pull of his gloved and began typing frantically scribbling into his note book. His head was spinning and he knew he needed to keep this under wraps, at least for now. There was so much to be done, and his line of study was not at all approved by his advisor, so a fair amount of explanation was going to be needed. Collin was well recognized as a brilliant student around campus. He wasn't arrogant about it, and while he was working well ahead of others in his program, he knew that he was far from a genius. At least that's what he thought of himself, others around him, including his instructors knew exactly how gifted he was. At that moment Collin's boyfriend, Jeff, walked through the door to the lab, "Hey C, what's the grin about?" Collin hadn't discussed this project with anyone, not even his boy friend, but if anyone could be excited with him, it was Jeff. Collin explained what he had been working on, and what it could mean for anything from the airline industry to the medical field. Jeff grinned in shared excitement. "Well then, Mr. Wizard, let's celebrate your breakthrough!" In his excitement Collin didn't notice Jeff's eyes follow as he tucked his notebook into his back pocket. Collin capped the disk with the fluid and slid it into a sample cubby in a cabinet which he promptly secured with a padlock. When everything was effectively secured and powered-down he took Jeff's hand and they left to celebrate. Collin spent the evening explaining his new invention under the odd barrage of questions put by Jeff. As Collin continued to talk, it didn't occur to him that the questions his English-Lit major boyfriend was asking were somewhat beyond the level of knowledge a lay-person ought to have. Collin said, "Common, let's go back to my place tonight." Jeff smiled, "You're drunk, and I have an early class tomorrow. Rain-check?" Jeff walked Collin back to his apartment and kissed him goodbye before walking off into the night. Collin was too wired to sleep though, and he decided to head back to the lab. When he got to the building he pulled out his keys only to discover the door had been forced. He rolled his eyes, stupid freshmen pranksters probably. He'd have to report the door to building maintenance in the morning. When he got to the lab he noticed that door had been forced too. Now he was worried. Irrational though it seemed, he wondered who could possibly have any interest in this lab if they didn't know what he was doing. He rushed in head-long to see a dark shape standing in front of his cabinet. Without thinking he rushed the figure and saw too late that the sample dish was already in the guy's hand. Plowing into the guy the dish flew and thankfully did not break when it hit the floor. Collin wrestled the masked guy to the ground before the thief gained his bearings and landed a punch first to the stomach and then the face leaving Collin gasping for breath and seeing stars. The figure lunged for the dish and Collin caught his ankle sending him tumbling. Collin scrambled to the dish thinking only that he needed to get it and get out of here. As he reached it the thief had recovered and was standing over him now. Collin tried to gain his feet, but a swift kick under the chin sent him tumbling backward onto the floor, and onto the dish. This time it broke, and sent shards of glass and the fluid splintering into the small of Collin's back. He was not aware of the pain in his back though, because as he fell, the back of his head clipped a metal stool and knocked him senseless. When Collin stopped moving the masked figure cursed, then grabbed a new sample dish to salvage some of the substance as well as the notebook still in Collin's back pocket. Jeff pulled the mask from his head and looked down at the still form of Collin. "Sorry babe, it wasn't supposed to happen this way." He then turned to the gas nozzles stemming from the wall at intervals. He turned them all on to full, pocketed the dish and book, and quickly left the lab, and Collin. When he got outside he turned in time to see the second floor lab explode into flame. He said, "Good bye Collin, it was fun," then walked down the sidewalk toward the parking lot where he left his car. Hey everyone, thanks for reading! I'm taking this story down a bit of a fantastic road. I'd love to hear your thoughts about the story. Drop me a line at bradcolli@gmail.com. I'll be posting part two soon. Cheers, Brad.