Let's Make A Deal

Suspicious that he was being scammed for something, Stephan sternly asked, "I'm gonna need some explaining on what you mean by this healing talent or ability thing you mentioned. And on what talents you're talking about her having and such? And keep in mind that I am an accomplished physicist and engineer so I'm gonna need some hard evidence before you're gonna be able to get me to start believing in some mystical new age talent type stuff."

Dawn grinned and explained, "Well, I was hoping that slashing her arm open and you watching it heal before your eyes would have been enough proof but I'll provide further proof as needed. But anyways, moving on, the best way to explain what's going on would be that the drug has the strange side affect of activating, or awakening, or whatever it's called, different mental abilities that we're calling talents. Like the one that your sister just demonstrated which is the ability to heal extremely fast. We call that one simply being a healer. Some of the other talents are all the 'teles' like telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, and such."

Relieved in a way that Dawn believed in her strange talents story and wasn't trying to outright scam for money or anything, but still not fully buying all of her story, Stephan responded, "The drug's healing affect I can understand. But the whole mental powers thing I'm not sure if I can buy that part. And as for the access part, though, that's gonna be mostly up to Jessica's willingness and her available time because I plan on having her to at least try working for me. And that is only after you convince me that you're not trying to talk her into joining whatever kooky religious cult thing you've got going on."

"That works for me." Dawn agreed as she raised herself to where she was floating about three feet above the couch. Then she added, "And just to be sure, the official story is gonna be about the boys drugging her and us taking her back to the facility and saving her from being it turning into an overdose on a underaged minor."

Considering the plausibility of the story, Stephan proposed instead, "How about we not go running to the news and keep it between us. And, if they do pick up on the story and come asking around we go with the bare bones story and just say that her and mom got into a fight and mom kicked her out."

"Dad won't be thrilled at not getting the positive attention," Dawn admitted, "But our company usually looks at any news attention in general as no news is good news so we're good on that part. And we also don't want it to appear like we're inviting your mom to offer her opinion or to give her the opportunity to spill any secrets she might still have so this will probably be best."

Jessica blurted as she raised herself to a height similar to the level Dawn was floating at, "We definitely don't want to get mom involved with this because she majorly hates you guys with a passion. She's even treated your company's name like a cuss word and forbid us from ever talking about you. Like how when she found out Step had a business here, she told him to never do any business with y'all."

"But," Stephan injected, "If this drug you guys are testing is really as effective as you have implied it is, I may have a use for it as a safety measure during our upcoming space engine testing."

Dawn giggled then answered, "I may be able to convince you it is if you let me show you something."

Stephan then started to object but, as he saw her floating a couple of feet above the couch, trailed off saying, "I seriously doubt that you'll be able to...." He then cleared his throat and finished, "Well I guess the floating trick might do for now as far as proof of this talent thing you're selling. But I still need an answer about the possibility of using the drug during the rocket's test flights."

When Dawn then prompted him for an explanation he shared, "I've developed a space engine using a quantum powered thruster. Or, in layman's terms, it uses a new type of engine that could compare to the other rockets like a race car compares to a golf cart. But in order to properly test it though, I'll need to have a couple of people on board to control it being as the further away it gets the longer it would take to shut it off if something wasn't working as designed. And, given the worst case scenario, if the engine got out of control, it could end up causing massive damage to any electronic devices nearby. Possibly even hitting a TV or phone satellite and frying the whole network across the whole world."

At which Dawn prompted, "And how is the healing drug going to help? Because I doubt it can revive you from the dead when the thing blows up or help you breathe in a vacuum."

He grinned and replied, "the way it will help is if there is any damage from all the radiation they could get exposed to in space if the engine fails and the shielding generator also loses power."

Dawn contemplated the proposal and said, "We've never tested it on radiation, but it should work at least as good as those drugs they give people that get exposed to too much nuclear radiation. But the drug does have side effects on some people and so I'm sure our company would prefer one of our staff to be present to administer the drug and to monitor and attend to any side effects. Plus, I am almost certain that my dad and the other bigwigs in the company would require it given how it has not even started the official governmental testing for approval phase yet."

Stephan responded, "You or Jessica I could approve of, but I would require it be somebody I could trust and maybe even train to handle some of the controls in case everyone else was incapacitated and it was needed. So I wouldn't be able to allow some random person sent by your company."

"I would definitely be interested and may even volunteer if I got to see this rocket." Dawn replied, "But I don't know if dad would go for me being in danger. Especially being how it took an arm and a leg just to get him to let me walk down the road to bring Jessica here to your house instead of sending one of the security guys."

To which Jessica suggested, "Why don't you just play it off like you're coming to evaluate me or came to visit as a friend? Or some other excuse that might work to get your dad to let you leave the facility? That way he wouldn't know about your involvement until after you got back."

Dawn grinned and replied, "It might take some weaseling or some flimsy excuses, but, honestly, I would love to have just about any excuse to leave the facility more often. Only getting to leave when surrounded by enough security guys to take over a new country gets old pretty quick."

She then smirked at Stephan and added, "But I hope your brother isn't as boring as the business guys dad invites to the facility that all love to talk about money and other business stuff all the time."

Stephan chuckled and responded with, "Granted I love to talk about what I do for a living. But at least my work involves doing new stuff and sometimes even fun stuff instead of having to sit behind a desk punching a calculator all day. Which, in fact, being as you probably need to update your dad and get his approval to keep him from sending his security to storm the house looking for you, how about you come out to the garage I'll show you one of the fun things and I'll even let you use it to drive back home."

Interested, Dawn agreed and Stephan led them out to his garage to show them a vehicle that looked like a scooter but had no wheels. Confused, Dawn asked how it was going to be of use in getting her back home.

Stephan explained, "This is technically a motorcycle. And you can even show it to your dad to help gain his approval for using the drug in the space engine project. Because instead of wheels it uses a quantum engine to raise it a few feet off the ground and propel it forward. Also, although this engine isn't able to reach race-car speeds, it works well enough to reach speeds comparable to most basic cars and motorcycles on the roads.

Which, in comparison, the space engine is basically a bigger, more powerful version of the same engine. So it could provide evidence to your dad that the space engine testing isn't just a pipe dream doomed for failure. And seeing how you are practically drooling for a ride on the thing, I'm certain I have proven how fun my work can be." Stephan finished chuckling.

She grinned and enthusiastically agreed. Then, after Stephan had shown Dawn how to maneuver the machine and gave her a short ride down the driveway to demonstrate, he bid her farewell and invited her back as soon as she could update him on the proposal.