Yeah, so, Brad's girlfriend was a celebrity now.
The dissertation committee rubber stamped her PhD and now Reka was on a one year postdoc contract...teaching almost all of his classes, all but one.
She held his hand, dressed impeccably in a green one piece dress with black leggins underneath, walking him to his last required elective like a mom with her kindergartner.
It was clear that Reka was done playing around and their life outside their apartment was rapidly coming to resemble their life within, that is, she never left him alone for a moment.
"Remember, my love, we have a meeting with the merchant adventurers after your class. Farewell, for now." She kissed him and watched until he sat down at a desk.
"Ah, Julie, you brought the lattes," he heard her outside the door frame, knowing Reka fully intended to wait patiently in the social studies building atrium until class was dismissed.
Brad still needed a "social analysis" credit to graduate, so here was was, taking poli sci 101 with the freshman. He was nearly ten years older than some of the kids in this class, and god, they were staring.
Try to act natural, try to act natural, he repeated like a mantra.
Somebody took his picture and he visibly flinched.
Man, this new generation does not give a FUCK about privacy, Brad thought.
"Should I talk to him?" one girl whispered to another.
You're in danger, girl.
"Better not," her friend advised. "You saw how Dr. Fekete has him locked down. You want to get thrown into a literal sun?"
Smart girl, listen to your friend.
"Well, class hasn't started yet. Think I have time to go get Dr. Fekete's autograph? She's like right there."
The conversation ground to a halt as the professor walked in and closed the door behind him.
Brad sighed in relief. Oh, thank god. He hoped the whole semester wasn't going to be like this.
"Good morning class," the professor greeted everyone. "Welcome to introduction to political thought. The core theme of this course will be 'politics and policy' with a focus on energy policy. Can anyone tell me what they think the political impact of the recent breakthrough will be?"
It wasn't necessary to clarify what he meant by "recent breakthrough". The professor was looking directly at him. The whole class was.
Well, at least Reka was teaching all his other classes. Brad could endure this for a little while longer. "AI will get cheaper," Brad speculated. "The more energy we have, the more things AI will be able to do. AI taking jobs might be politically disruptive." Other students started chiming in right after him.
"Everything will get cheaper," said a well-dressed boy. "Energy is embedded into the cost of every product. If the economy was a biological organism then energy is like blood, or oxygen. Everything needs it."
"Climate change might start reversing," suggested the girl who was talking about him earlier. "Most of our electricity still comes from coal. As fusion replaces the existing grid carbon emissions will reduce by a lot."
"We might be able to set up large-scale desalinization plants and make enough water to irrigate the desert: cheaper food, more livable land, no more fresh water crisis in certain parts of the world," another girl added.
The professor snapped his fingers. "Excellent point! Most political conflict comes down to pressure from the struggle for scarce resources. There have been wars for farmland, warm water ports, new markets to trade in, oil, and more. If things had continued much longer then we might have seen wars for fresh water, especially in Asia and Africa. With recent developments, perhaps not," he said hopefully, looking at Brad again.
"These are exciting times, class," he continued. "The economy has been getting worse for the average person for pretty much my entire adult life. This has caused the global political instability that I'm sure you're all aware of. When times are bad, the people in charge get blamed. Formerly trusted institutions lose legitimacy. People become selfish, tribal; community spirit wanes. Radical ideas start to sound reasonable.
"Maybe we've escaped that path. Maybe things will start to get better. Cheap, abundant, clean energy could provide the same 'safety valve' mechanism that cheap land provided America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Whatever the case may be, the trillion dollars spent on Stardust City and other research parks like it is looking like money well-spent. For your first assignment, I want a paper on how the government funding the Novel Confinement Research Initiative impacts your perception of the current administration's political legitimacy. Do they deserve credit? Why or why not?"
"I think Dr. Fekete deserves the credit!" the girl from earlier spoke strongly.
The whole class loudly agreed. Even though he didn't really have that much to do with it, Brad felt a little proud.
"Indeed," the professor agreed. "It's actually really rare for a single individual to have this kind of impact. Who knew our humble university had the next Einstein for a grad student?"
Next Einstein? Brad was taken aback by that. Was that what people were saying?
"Mr. Regis," the professor called him by name, making Brad jolt in his seat, "Can you tell the class anything about how she did it? You were there the whole time, were you not?"
Brad leaned back in his chair and exhaled. What could he say? How she named her AI Galiban and talked to it like it was a person? How she invented an entirely new language to compute her design? How she sometimes left their bed in the middle of the night and didn't come back for hours?
He hummed. Now that he thought of it, Brad recalled that Reka started going to the bathroom after they had sex when she began working on the second crystal. Was that it? Doing extra work in the bathroom with post-nut clarity? It was absurd, but it was a very Reka thing to do.
"A lot of late nights," he settled on as a reply. "Reka worked hard, sometimes not coming back to bed until four in the morning."
*******
Reka's Point of View
Reka sipped her latte, enjoying the invigorating feeling that suffused her body. Her senses focused on the classroom. If Brad felt even the tiniest bit of distress she would know instantly. He was nervous but there wasn't anything alarming being transmitted over their bond. Still, it was wise to remain alert.
"So we're just going to wait here until Brad's class is over?" Julie asked playfully.
Come now, apothecary, surely you know the answer to that? Reka gave her a wry look.
Her friend huffed in exasperation. "Girl, you are down bad, you know that? I know the Alex thing has you spooked but isn't this a little bit of an overreaction?"
"A correction, I think," she replied introspectively, her eyes looking far away. "Is it not my responsibility to see to my love's well-being? With the latitude I have received from the university it would be negligent not to take these measures."
"And you're bringing him to the meeting with the venture capitalists?" It was more a statement than a question.
"I intend to bring him everywhere from now on," Reka stated firmly.
Julie's face froze, like she was trying to hold in a laugh. Reka could always count on her for levity.
"Reka Fekete," she said officiously, "you can't just bring your emotional support boyfriend to a business meeting where billions are on the line!"
Reka blinked. "Whyever not?"
Julie completely lost her battle with the laughter within. Her friend tried to sip her own latte and calm down but little outbursts of giggles kept interrupting her. "Honey, the world isn't ready for you," Julie eventually choked out the words.
That's what I'm counting on, she thought.
She and Julie chatted until Brad's class was dismissed. With the familiar comfort of her boyfriend's hand clasped in hers the three of them headed to the meeting.
The merchant adventurers were a group of investors who wished to pledge Reka a certain sum of money in exchange for a share of the profits once she began making her magic crystals in earnest. Since her first success she'd produced three more, each taking approximately a month of Brad's seed to charge her magic box.
The crystals so far had been given away freely, sent to other labs for continued experiments, and one had been donated to a retooled coal power plant for a "stress test". The officials informed her that at max utilization one of her crystals could generate nearly a full gigawatt of power, replacing the conventional plant entirely.
Sadly, Brad was at his limit. She couldn't produce her crystals any faster. Using someone else's seed was absolutely off the table so Reka would have to get creative, but that was a problem for another day.
Her boyfriend needed to finish up his education, after all. A year was not much in the timeline of her grand plan.
The meeting was to take place at a private office building not far from campus. Thuggish guards with a brusque manner and dark eye coverings searched them thoroughly. So far, the hospitality of the merchant adventurers left much to be desired!
Eventually, the group of three were ushered into a private room not unlike a lord's solar in her old world. Rather than the group of financiers she'd been expecting, there was but one man of note. The fellow had servants about him, though no partners sitting at his side. His appearance was neither young nor old, somehow ageless, like a serpent. His manner gave little away and his words less.
"Reka! It's good to finally meet you!" he said brightly holding out his hand.
She clasped it genially, "And you as well..."
Her companions stiffened in shock. Brad and Julie's recognition made her wary. Was this someone she should know?
"That's Elron Trask, CEO of Maxwell," Julie whispered urgently in her ear. Again, was this someone she should know? Brad squeezed her hand and she squeezed back in reassurance.
"Mr. Trask," she added after a beat.
"Just call me Elron," he smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Did he expect to be recognized? Was he offended? Reka couldn't get a read on him like usual. A necromancer? A lich? This one was good at concealing his true nature.
Without being asked, this man handed Reka, just Reka, a series of papers. "I've seen what you've accomplished here and I'm very impressed. Maxwell Energy's new fusion department would love to have you. We just need to address a few petty legalities."
The man talked fast, bouncing from topic to topic, weaving a web of intrigue. Reka began to take his measure.
"So far, none of the other national labs have managed to replicate your design. You're holding something back aren't you?" He held up a hand, "not that I'm complaining. Why waste a profitable idea after all? You've got all the cards. Vultures will be lining up around the block to take advantage of you.
"That's why Maxwell is your best option. We can defend your intellectual property and make sure you aren't robbed of your rightful due. We have a whole system in place, an infrastructure that will be able to take your technical knowledge from prototype to mass production. We have an in with every major market around the globe. Doing business overseas will be seamless with us. Nobody else will offer you what I'm prepared to."
"And what exactly are you offering?" Reka asked skeptically.
"Five percent ownership of Maxwell Energy, up to ten percent if certain incentives are met. The global fusion transition will be worth trillions of dollars. You could easily be worth hundreds of billions within a decade."
It was a tempting offer, but she sensed the trap. Never would she rule if she forged a partnership with this one. Reka had no intention of sharing power. Still, it could be an advantageous temporary arrangement, gaining wealth to make moves down the line.
"What do you think, my love?" she asked Brad.
Her poor boyfriend sputtered and froze, pleading for respite with his eyes.
Of course my love, I'll handle it, never fear. She caressed his hand in understanding.
Julie looked even less confident in providing counsel so she didn't even bother to ask.
"Who are these people?" Trask asked coldly.
"My boyfriend Brad and my close girlfriend Julie," she said primly, somewhat offended.
Elron Trask leaned forward. "Listen, Reka, you don't need to bother with these nobodies. You can find better friends in Silicon Valley. I can help you there," he said arrogantly.
At once the web he was weaving collapsed and Reka recognized the real man underneath. A bard he was, singing songs of deception and hoodwinking the careless and the greedy with poison promises.
Your tune is not to my liking, Mr. Trask!
To call Brad and Julie nobodies, the insolence! Her fingernails began growing into claws until Brad squeezed her hand and brought her back from the threshold.
Her boyfriend was wise. The time to reckon with this mendacious bard was not yet. There would be other offers.
"I'm afraid my boyfriend still has another year of school left," she demurred.
"You can't be serious!" Trask erupted. "You're going to stay in school for another year, waste your time, and leave all that money on the table? For what? For your boyfriend?" he said, lips curling in disgust.
"For my Brad, anything!" she said emphatically.
Over their bond Reka felt not only love but wonder that anyone could care for him so, and it broke her heart. Her love was Brad's by right. He shouldn't be surprised at her prioritizing his happiness.
"Then you're a fool," said Trask, his manner now openly hostile. "It's not wise to make me your enemy," he said threateningly.
"Enough!" she cried with steel in her voice. The bard flinched backward, not even afraid but shocked that someone might stand up to him. "This meeting is over. Good afternoon, Mr. Trask!"