A Better Tomorrow - 3

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A week later, after fierce debate amongst the university's scientific faculty and a number of first-person demonstrations of just what the CRS was capable of, Hudson University's Board of Regents finally agreed to go forward with the publication of Cadmus and Dr. Stein's research paper, after being reassured multiple times that the university would not become the laughing stock of the academic world for claiming to have solved the answer of pure green energy.

"Well, this is it." Dr. Stein sighed shakily holding the bundle of papers that represented the culmination of months of endless work and years of his own research.

The Usage of Tachyons in Conserving the Energy of Dynamic Exothermic Reactions, co-authored by Dr. Martin Stein and Cadmus Othrys.

Cadmus patted the older man on the back, half to make sure he didn't keel over, which was a stark possibility considering the unevenness of his breathing.

Pulling a few strings with some old friends, Stein was able to secure the publication in the most prominent academic journals in the entire world, which had already begun printing new editions this morning.

It was then that Cadmus's phone began to ring. He frowned at the unknown number but answered it nonetheless.

"Hello?" a woman's voice came through the other end. "Is this Mr. Othrys speaking?"

"This is him, who's this?"

"My name is Cat Grant," she said with great emphasis on her name. "CEO of Catco Media. I saw your article published today on energy stabilization, a very interesting topic, congratulations to you. Would you and Dr. Stein, have some time for a one-on-one interview? I know I and the rest of the world are positively brimming with excitement to know more about your discovery."

"Yeah, sure give one second," He replied, pulling his ear away from the phone so he was unable to hear whatever startled and clearly surprised response this "Cat Grant" gave. "Hey, Dr. Stein, do you want to give an interview?"

The Doctor's head perked up. "Who is it with? Cronkite, Yuoman, I'll even take Wang."

Cadmus tilted his head. "Uh, some lady named Cat Grant." Stein scoffed distastefully in response.

"I will not be wasting my time with an overprice tabloid."

Cadmus nodded and picked up the phone. "Sorry, no, please don't call this number again."

Cat Grant's shrieking protest was abruptly cut off as he cut the line.

Five minutes later Dr. Stein received a call from the New York Times, and then from Forbes, and then from the Daily Planet.

And when both his and Cadmus's phones were busy with calls, the Office of the Registrar was then inundated with requests for comment from every scientific journal and media outlet in the world begging for comment.

Dr. Stein gave a thumbs-up filled with child-like giddiness to Cadmus. "We're famous," he mouthed silently.

He abruptly turned serious and politely declined another request for an interview from some small-time journal called the Gotham City Gazette at Cadmus's request.

After receiving enough offers to keep them booked into the next decade, both Cadmus and Dr. Stein agreed to give their first interview together to the Daily Planet and its two best reporters who held a staggering eight Pulitzers between each other.

"This is our moment," Stein insisted. "It's only right that the spotlight belongs to the both of us." Cadmus just hoped he didn't have to wear a suit to the interview.

He was unfortunately forced to discard his hoodie and shorts for the party thrown in their honor by the university that afternoon on Stein's insistence. Much to his horror, it was just as terrible as he imagined it to be, and only after giving the prerequisite number of thank you's and how are you's, and another strange encounter with the Professor of Metaphysics who continued to take a strange interest in him was he able to shoulder his way out to freedom.

A few hours later Cadmus found himself walking into the same small hole-in-the-wall diner on the outskirts of Jump City that he had found all those months ago.

"One large Pepperoni, Mickey." He took a seat at the counter while the owner of the establishment, an old Italian grandfather, nodded in greeting, opened up the display, and retrieved four large slices of pizza.

"I saw youse on the news today," he said depositing the paper plate in front of Cadmus. "Good on you, I wish my kids were half that smart. My son, he is an idiot, you know? Nothing up here. Breaking his mother's heart, I swear to Christ Almighty Himself." He tapped his temple for good measure before retreating to the back of the shop muttering in Italian.

Cadmus idly ate his pizza, calling Mickey over whenever his plate showed any signs of approaching emptiness. It was about at slice twenty-six and a half when the old door opened with a jingling bell and the sticcatto tap of heels echoed off the old tile floor until they came to a stop right beside him.

"Mr. Othrys?"

Cadmus flicked his eyes upward. The woman in front of him was dressed in an... unusual black chauffeur's uniform paired with grey leggings, and the ensemble was completed by a similarly colored hat and gloves as well. Her expression somehow hung on the precipice between haughty and sultry if such a thing were possible.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Mercy Graves," she made no movement to extend her hand in greeting which was good since he wouldn't have shaken it. "My employer is interested in speaking with you when you're in Metropolis." She slid a small manila notecard next to his plate. "We'll be expecting you."

And then she walked out of the diner without even waiting for a reply leaving a bemused Cadmus in her wake. Mickey walked over a few seconds later once the door had closed behind her.

"That your girlfriend?" He chortled.

"Nope."

Mickey fell silent watching the woman walk away. "If I was just forty years younger..." he trailed off before walking to his place behind the counter, shaking his head all the while.

Cadmus flipped the card over in curiosity, idly scanning its contents. "Office of Alexander Luthor, CEO of LexCorp, interesting."

The Daily Planet was kind enough to charter a private jet for both Cadmus and Dr. Stein to fly out that very night, the plane stocked high with all the food and drinks they could want.

Dr. Stein unsurprisingly indulged himself in some hard-earned champagne with sturgeon-caviar while listening to Vivaldi. Cadmus naturally was able to get two slices of pizza and watched The Godfather on the flatscreen. Once they landed in Metropolia, a limousine was there to make them to their place hotel, all covered and on the tab of the Planet.

A veritable red carpet had been rolled out for them at the entrance of the Grand Met, as well as a number of burly grim men dressed in all-black suits. The General Manager, a somewhat eccentric man dressed like he was in the Great Gatsby assured them it was standard procedure for celebrity guests and for their protection.

A small number of paparazzi snapped pictures of them from the distance and called out faintly for comment. Cadmus shook his head while Dr. Stein stood just a bit taller for the cameras. He was beginning to sincerely worry for the professor's health. Just how big could someone's head balloon up before it just popped?

After grabbing a night's rest in the luxurious apartments they'd been given, Stein and Cadmus both found themselves in the main dining room of the Met, enjoying the all-inclusive breakfast to their stomach's desire, or in Dr. Stein's case, worrying with his tie in a neurotic fashion while poking nervously at his bland breakfast of cereal and orange juice.

"You okay, doc?" Dr. Stein mustered a weak nod and dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief.

"Thank you for the concern, I am just having, uh..."

"A panic attack?" he offered.

"No! Nothing of the sort, I've given talks in front of thousands of the brightest minds in the world, and I'll have no trouble giving an adequate summary of our journal to a couple of journalists. This is just a temporary bout of nervousness."

Cadmus gave his teacher a long look, shrugged, and went back to his breakfast.

"Suit yourself, but you might want to eat something, our ride's going to be here in twenty-seven minutes."

He pointedly ignored the puzzled expression Dr. Stein wore, which quickly morphed into one of vague queasiness after watching Cadmus consume a plate of bacon and eggs in the time it took him to breathe.

Stein's pallor remained near-deathly even as they exited their ride at the entrance of the Metropolis Museum of Natural Science which had been rented out in its entirety for the whole day just for their interview. Why they couldn't have done this interview at the the Daily Planet and in a venue that did not require him to wear suit, he didn't know.

Rather than being taken directly to the amphitheater where the inerview was to take place, Cadmus and Dr. Stein were jointly ushered into a small room cloyed with the smell of perfume.

"Blush?" Cadmus flinched back from the woman who had just shoved a brush in his face. "No, thank you."

Her unnaturally animated face fell into a deep frown. "Are you sure? The lighting is yellow and just a hint of blush would do wonders for your skin tone-"

"You know what? I think my friend might be more in need of your talents, he doesn't get too much sun, you see." He gestured in Dr. Stein's direction who looked very much like a deer in the headlights. The professor could only impart a single look of betrayal before a gaggle of stylists descended upon his body giving Cadmus time to escape.

By the time Dr. Stein stumbled out of the dressing room, only slightly worse for wear, Cadmus had already taken his seat. "You look better," he remarked, immune to his professor's chagrin.

"I have never felt so...violated in all my life," Dr. Stein shuddered, clutching the handles of his chair for support.

At least he wasn't as nervous as he was before, Cadmus thought.

It was only a few minutes later, and exactly fifteen minutes before their interview was to begin that two people entered the room, a man and woman, both dressed professionally and with notebooks and pencils in hand. He recognized Lois Lane from the news broadcast she had given outside the UN just a few weeks ago. Dressed in a purple ensemble that matched the color of her eyes, which swiveled between him and Cadmus with almost a fierce intensity.

The man beside her was a stranger. He towered over his fellow reporter but carried a permanent slouch that made him seem just a bit smaller and less threatening than he should be. The man adjusted his square bulky glasses, and his blue eyes flickered across the room. Cadmus felt that he knew the man from somewhere, but just couldn't quite his finger on it.

Lois and her partner took their seats across from them, the reporter slinging a leg over one knee. "Dr. Stein, Mr. Othrys, My name is Lois Lane, a reporter from the Daily Planet, and this is my partner, Clark Kent."

"Good evening, gentleman," he greeted softly. "thank you for making yourselves available for this interview."

Stein tugged on the collar of his shirt and smoothed down his wrinkled jacket. "No problem at all," he replied. "I've read some of both your old publications, your work precedes you."

Cadmus resisted pinching the bridge of his nose with all the willpower he could muster.

Lois only nodded her head and clicked her pen which resonated with a soft finality.

"Now that introductions are done, shall we get started?"

Cadmus allowed no recognition to play across his face as he met the Man of Steel's gaze. No words needed to be spoken, they were simply two actors playing the roles they had donned. Neither of their partners was aware of just who they sat beside, and that state of affairs was fine for both of them.

There was similarly no reaction from 'Clark Kent', who after a moment, adjusted his glasses and tapped his pen against the handle of his chair.

"My first question is for you, Dr. Stein." Lois Lane's eyes flicked onto the old professor who sat up in his chair. "This invention of yours, the CRS, as you call it, has the ability to determine the rate of the output of energy of virtually any chemical reaction. Is that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct. With his machine, extreme exothermic reactions can be channeled at a steady rate allowing for what used to be uncontrolled heat energy to be transformed and power electric appliances, households even entire city infrastructures. The applications are nearly infinite."

"And what of the cost of energy in using such a device? Surely, there must be some tradeoff?"

Dr. Stein smiled in the way he did right before embarking on a long explanation hallmarked by a near-patronizing tone that he often used with students and even other professors.

"There is in fact not in comparison to the upside. By utilizing the natural movement of Tachyon particles across a defined gradient, no energy is needed for our device to work outside of the Work necessary to create the gradient, which requires temperatures necessary for modern-day superconductors, in the range of below one-hundred Kelvin, which allows us to suspend and manipulate Tachyons."

"A remarkable achievement. So, the barrier of entry to using this invention at scale is access to sufficient cooling agent, say for example liquid nitrogen, correct?"

"Yes, that would be sufficient, our lab is currently working on theoretically using a corresponding Endothermic reaction to reduce the temperature of the system to the conditions we require."

Lois Lane's eyes narrowed, evoking a sense of nervousness in Cadmus on behalf of Stein. "In that same vein, this invention can cause what would be a hypothetical minor exothermic reaction to become exponentially more volatile than it would naturally be, correct?"

In his mind, Cadmus cursed Lois Lane to the deepest pits of hell a thousand times over, knowing he could do nothing as the professor's heartbeat suddenly switched to a rapid staccato.

Dr. Stein blinked once, then twice, and opened his mouth to speak, but was unable to articulate a response, before finally responding. "That is a theoretical possibility, yes."

"This invention, however, is for the good of humanity as a whole."

"A reoccurring vein in the history of scientific discovery. Alfred Nobel thought the same thing when he invented TNT."

"Ms. Lane," Dr. Stein raised a hand bidding for a moment's respite. "What you're suggesting is indeed a theoretical possibility, but the benefits of the CRS are million-fold over anything negative that may come of it. An entire nation's power grids can be kept online at magnitudes less cost of manpower and resources than today. The perceived cost of introducing infrastructure to underfunded areas in our country would be reduced to zero."

"Would you be of the same opinion if say a hostile agent were to get control of or replicate your invention, Dr. Stein? While what you have discovered is a brilliant and undoubtedly a watershed moment for humanity as a whole, it would be disingenuous to simply brush under the rug the possible consequences of the CRS."

At that moment, Cadmus did something he swore he would never do again, he leaped heroically to Dr. Stein's rescue, incurring Ms. Lane's attention as a consequence.

"Ms. Lane," Cadmus replied. "what we have today is unprecedented in the entire history of our world. It is the solution to the very real problem that impacts every person on Earth. If the governments of the world decide to use this invention for destructive purposes, rather than using to uplift their citizens, does that not say something about human nature rather than a condemnation of our contribution?"

She eyed him appraisingly for a long moment before speaking. "You would be correct. But then what of the ethical implications of enabling the possibility of such destruction? Would you feel responsible for that, Mr. Othrys?"

"We have free will, Ms. Lane, for better or worse. Someone undoubtedly complained that the fire was too bright and hot and we should stay huddled in caves, but luckily we didn't listen to them. Neither did The fear of dragons didn't stop us from mapping the oceans. It's a fool's notion to think that constraining our curiosity will actually work, it's just not how we as humans are wired."

"Well said," she nodded. "With that, I'll pass it on to my partner, Clark Kent."

Clark shuffled in his seat, which was far too small for the large man.

"Thank you, Lois. Both you, Dr. Stein, and Mr. Othrys, have received interest from parties in acquiring or using this invention. As you both co-own the patent, do you have any plans or ideas for the future with the CRS?"

"Rest assured we don't plan on keeping it locked up in storage, gathering dust. You're correct in that we've received interest from all manner of parties. Governments, foreign and domestic, conglomerates, and companies from across the world who've offered quite a bit to outright purchase our patent, some of whom have less than stellar track records which makes us hesitant to discuss offering our patent to them in any form. Rest assured, I speak for Dr. Stein and myself when I say we aren't in this for the money or profit. Only reputable and trustworthy research laboratories who have a proven track record in helping bring scientific discovery to practical applications for public use will be allowed to license our patent, with our advisement of course."

Both reporters scribbled on their notepads in unison.

"And what of your future careers?" He asked. "Regardless of altruism, this discovery has no doubt opened many doors for the both of you."

Dr. Stein cut in at that, a gleam in his eyes. "The private sector has no interest in either of us and offers little in helping advance our research. We will be staying at Hudson University, helping to advance the research of all the other laboratories and universities working in the same domain as us. Although not formally announced, Hudson will be offering immediate entry to our Ph.D. program to Mr. Othrys in the upcoming semester, on account of his exemplary merit."

Cadmus bit back a laugh. It was completely in line with what he knew of Dr. Stein to spring this in an interview in front of two reporters, instead of asking him, like a normal person. Then again, Cadmus thought, neither of them was exactly normal.

One was literally capable of destroying entire cities and had an overinflated ego to boot, while Cadmus himself had some deep-seated psychological attachment to pizza that had followed him his entire life. Truly they were two sides of the same coin.

Clark turned to him, waiting for a response.

"My time at Hudson has been nothing short of exceptional, there's no reason for me not to continue my studies here with Dr. Stein."