#auben

"Alice, my friend Werner and I found out something you might like to know.  Something important.  In the D-Sector? There was another scientist.  Dr. Wes Diraberg.  A mathematical physicist."  Auben pauses, waiting to see Alice's reaction.  She cocks her head, unsure how this is important to her.  Werner adds that Wes's callsign was Feldspar.  Alice finally reacts, although uninterested.  She opens and closes her mouth, contemplating.  "Oh, I see. I vaguely know of Feldspar.  I was his replacement after he got discharged for doing inadequate work.  We were told he's working in Vienna now."  Auben decides to be blunt.  "No. No, he isn't, Alice."  Alice's eyes widen, torn between interest and fear.  "S-So... what happened to him?"  Werner takes a deep breath, unsure as to how to put this lightly.  "Dr. Diraberg found out what you were working on.  He attempted to destroy all of your progress.  He was murdered brutally."  Alice fidgets around.  "Wh-Why would they d-do that..? It's awful that he w-would try and set us b-back... But... why would they k-kill him..? Th-That feels e-extreme... Surely y-you misheard... Right..?"  

Werner turns away, not daring to make eye contact with her.  "No, Alice. We didn't.  Auben and I did a lot of digging.  Most aspects of his death were shrouded in secrecy.  The public framed it as suicide.  It's true, though.  He did go to Vienna before he died.  That's where he was killed."  Alice starts to tremble.  "I-I don't even understand... Why would he even tr-try and... destroy... a..." she starts to sob out of stress. "Why would he destroy a... particle ac-accelerator..?"  Werner starts to laugh uncontrollably due to the pure absurdity of it all.  "Wait, you think you're building a particle accelerator??  Do you really think you'd be using callsigns for... a PARTICLE ACCELERATOR?  Do you really think you'd be under top security clearance... for a PARTICLE ACCELERATOR??  Do you think one of your task force would be MURDERED?? OVER A FUCKING PARTICLE ACCELERATOR??"  Werner turns around, staring directly at Alice's glacial eyes.  "W-Wait... I don't... get it... what am I b-building... then..?"  Alice's tremors are even more obvious now, trying to process what she's being told.  "ALICE. YOU'RE BUILDING A GODDAMN BOMB." 

Alice refuses to believe this.  How ridiculous!  "What?" is all she manages to choke out.  "Werner has been in contact with Lav.  She did digging for us.  The Dirac sector?  It's a bomb factory.  It has been since World War II.  That's the whole reason Aurum Dynamics even exists."  Alice stares at her student.  There's no way Auben was telling the truth.  It was impossible.  "B-But... I was told I was working on a particle accelerator..." her voice trails off.  Her hands are shaking uncontrollably now.  "I-I study... baryogenesis... I'm..."  Werner decides to point out, rather unhelpfully, that prior to the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer studied black holes, among other things.  All that mattered is that she was a talented theorist, which she was.  "Wh-Where would they even be t-tested..?"  Unbeknownst to all of them, the first prototype was being flown as they spoke to a remote location in Russia, one that was already abandoned due to hazardous radiation levels after a power plant melted down, for the initial test of this new design.  "B-But... wh-what about the... W-W-Warsaw... Convention..?"  Auben takes out her phone, showing Alice the email from Lav.  Surely that would convince her.  Lav would never lie to her.  Alice's face starts to pale.  "W-Well... that was... d-decades ago... Even if it was w-weapons... then... it's not... now..."  Werner's eyebrows furrow.  Why was Alice so dense?  "You really think a normal theoretical physics department would use codenames?  You really think that, Copernicus?"  Alice's knees buckle a little bit.  "N-No.  If it was a b-bomb... it would be built in the... f-fission lab..."  Auben crosses her arms.  "That would be too obvious and alert UN.  As I'm sure you're aware, seeing as you just brought it up, that would go against the Warsaw Convention."  

Alice is still in cold, blatant denial.  Surely they could come up with something to convince her.  As naive and timid as she is, she was still incredibly intelligent.  She was not a lost cause.  Auben was positive.  She'd known Dr. Alice Bridger for a long time now, and she knew that despite being many things, she was not stupid.  At least, not over things like this.  Logistically, she wasn't stupid.  She absolutely was in other ways, though.  Their current situation made that painfully evident.  Auben racks her brain, trying to figure out something that would convince the nervous, trembling, brick wall of a woman in front of her.  She remembers overhearing Dr. Vivian Liu's antimatter research team talking about one of the senior researchers.  "You remember hearing that Dr. Birmingham works at a weapons manufacturer, and that's why he was marked as dangerous and relieved of work, right?"  "B-Birmingham..? F-From... C-CER-CE.." "Yes.  That Birmingham.  The sole person responsible for the antimatter crisis."  Alice is struck with a bolt of realisation.  "Aleph..." she whispers.  Finally, it's coming together.  Alice runs to "Aleph"'s office, realising that she'd never seen his face in the light.  However, as her visit was highly unexpected, his window was wide open, and she could see his face as plain as day.  She leans against the wall, trying to not pass out from stress.  After a moment of him impatiently staring at her, wondering why she's there, she finally gains confidence, demanding he explain.

JaNUARY TWENTY FIRST

SOME PEOPLE HAVE A CAUSE, A DRIVE WITHIN THEM TO ACT. TO SEE SOMETHING THEY DON’T AGREE WITH AND FEEL SO STRONGLY THEY GET UP, GET OUT AND WILL NOT STOP UNTIL THEIR ACTIONS CONTRIBUTE TO CHANGE, TILL THEIR VOICE IS HEARD.

A TRUE FORM OF PASSION; A FUEL SO POWERFUL THAT WHEN AN IGNITION IS MADE A FIRE BELLOW FROM WITHIN.

I ADMIRE THE COURAGEOUS NATURE.

A friend of mine asked if I wanted to go and see the ‘Women’s March of London’ that took place on Saturday twenty first. I am intrigued with days like this, to see people come together for a shared interest and fight for a change. So I said sure, not really knowing what women were actually marching for I searched, and reading their website I was still unsure.

I walked through Trafalgar square, pushed my way through the crowd and to be honest, I was still unsure and I wasn’t entirely convinced if some people actually knew themselves. I saw signs for women, for black lives, for politics, for trump (anti trump obviously), I saw a lot of people taking pictures, but were they taking it all in?

I decided to make my way towards to the podium, to try and grasp the core message of the day, and yes it was about Trump. When I finally heard the speakers I understood; I heard the passion, the worry, the strength, the empowerment, the conviction and I finally understood why they were there and I was happy that I was there too. I listened to the injustice, the highlighted concerns for me was hearing how he has already removed gay rights and climate change from the White house website which angered me and made me want to listen further, to find out what I could do to help.

I FELT THEIR OUTCRY AND WANTED TO BE A PART OF A CHANGE. THE IGNITION HAD TAKEN PLACE IN ME, I UNDERSTOOD THEIR FIRE.

So… the day was to define feminism in the face of a bigot with a bad fake tan and dodgy hair, also now known as Mr President. It was a day was for women, for men who support women, but still even with a turnout of 100,000 people some still are eluded to what ‘feminism’ truly means. I left the rally and walked to the nearest underground station and I heard two men talk.

‘It’s usually not this busy, but I think there is a lesbian march going on or something…’

LESBIAN (eyes roll)

It always strikes me as strange that something that means so much to one will have no regard to another, we only seem to care about our own life but if we took the time to look out for each other it would be a step in the right direction for us all. If we brought compassion and consideration to the top of our lists then maybe marches like this wouldn’t even need to be walked.

That should be the only ‘Right’ that we need.

I am glad I was there to witness the day, the behaviour of so many and how it has affected me.

Here’s to change.

IVORY

im writing and cant decide on what to name the male character