Chapter 16 Doris

“This particular molecule is causing some problems, and I’m trying to fix it.”

Ten days before the storm...

I stared at the long molecule model rotating on my main working screen and thought to myself. Snip here, then again here, and here...

“What’cha doin’?”

I jumped.

When I am working, my hyperfocus enables me to do things most people can’t. Unfortunately, that same hyperfocus completely overrides my situational awareness.

“Hello, Doris. You startled me.” I tried to slow my heartbeat and respiration.

Nelson blinked lazily, curled up in his usual place under the window to my left. “Fine friend you are, letting her sneak up on me.” The cat yawned, mouth all sharp and pointy, light glinting off the lens on his collar; then he went back to sleep.

Doris continued to stare at my main working screen. She pointed one tiny finger at the molecule model rotating among a cloud of labels and lines of data. “What’s that?”

“That’s a molecule. Do you know what that is?”

“Yup. All those balls are atoms, and all of them together are a molecule. What’cha doin’ with it?”

I should have known Amanda’s daughter would be precocious in the sciences. “This particular molecule is causing some problems, and I’m trying to fix it.” I reached over and pulled up a second chair, and gestured for Doris to climb up.

I said, “Has anyone talked to you about what my ship does? Aside from rescuing turtles.”

“No-o.” Doris drew it out, shaking her head. Clearly, she wanted a story.

“Would you drink a cup of water straight from the ocean?”

Doris wrinkled her nose. “No, it’s too salty.”

I nodded. “Good answer. What about the turtle in the lab downstairs? Can she drink seawater?”

“Well, yeah, ‘cause she lives in it.”

I nodded again, and gestured at the screen. “This molecule is in the ocean because people dumped it there, but turtles—and humans—shouldn’t drink it because it will make them sick. Got that?”

“Okay...”

“But if I can break this big, long molecule into smaller, shorter molecules, like this.” I tapped a few keys. A schematic of one of my nanite disassemblers appeared on screen, then snipped the long molecule at its weakest bonds. “Those short molecules won’t make anyone sick.”

“What’s that thing that did the breaking?”

“That is something I invented. It’s a kind of nanite, a very tiny machine. This one is like scissors, for cutting up long molecules. I’ve got others for different jobs.”

“Nanite. Okay.” Doris was clearly making an effort to follow along. The screen was showing a loop of the nanite disassembling the long molecule.

“You remember when your mother and Dr. Delmare were rescuing the turtle, you asked me about the long black fingers along the side of the ship?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well, behind those fingers, there are pipes that take in the seawater, then more pipes and other things, until the seawater with the long molecules goes past a whole lot of these nanites, and the nanites break up the long molecules.”

“Why do you do all that?” Doris stared at the looping animation, her face scrunched up.

“Well, after the nanites are done with it, the seawater is clean enough that turtles won’t get sick from swimming in it and drinking it. So my ship puts the clean seawater back out the other side.”

“You’re cleaning the ocean?” Her eyes were big.

“A little bit at a time, yes. And we’re getting better at it. That’s what I’m doing here, trying to make the nanites better at their jobs.”

“There you are!” Amanda stuck her head through the door. I’d left it propped open for fresh air, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that other things might come in and out.

“Mommy! Did you know our ship is cleaning the ocean?”

Amanda smiled. “Yes, it is. And are you distracting Dr. Goodwin from making that happen?”

I chuckled. “A very useful distraction. I was stuck a bit, but I think I have a solution now. Doris makes a good assistant.”

Doris climbed down from her chair and ran to her mother. She looked back over her shoulder. “Thanks for telling me about your nanites.” Then she towed her mother out the door in search of their next adventure.

I turned back to my workstation. I made three small changes to the nanite, and forwarded the new design to Sorcha. If these changes worked at the plate level, we’d have one more filter to remove a particularly nasty long-chain toxin. One less troublesome pollutant in our planet’s waters. One more arrow in the fleet’s quiver.