Work The Problem Ch. 02

After a little bit of hesitation, Holly came down off of the desk and let Daisy sniff her. For Daisy's part, the dog seemed to think that Holly was her new best friend and insisted on shoving her square head under Holly's paw to get some petting.

They were back out in the living room, with Holly on the couch and Daisy curled up beside her. Every so often Holly would give the dog a stroke on the head, causing a thwap, thwap, thwap noise from Daisy's tail wagging against the couch.

"So that's as far as we've gotten," said Ned. He was on the couch on the other side of Holly. "I figure it can't be a natural phenomenon that brought Holly here. Dengar Labs is the most likely source, but I can't make out if their research could cause this."

"It couldn't," replied Arnold. He was sitting next to Ned's coffee table and leafing through a bunch of printouts that they had printed out earlier. "But that's because the information on their website is a bunch of bullshit."

Holly sat up. "What?"

Arnold nodded. "They claim to be working on a more compact method for nuclear fusion. But their reactor diagrams are wrong. Not to mention the equations don't work. See, this tensor here is the wrong sign, making the magnetic field seem like it'll be stronger than it actually is. The Boltzmann distribution of the resulting high-energy protons would be skewed, and they couldn't..." He looked up and saw both their eyes glazing over. "Um, it's just wrong. Not to mention that they're getting all of their funding through grants from the military. The Army's research division, to be precise."

Ned rubbed his eyebrow. "I'll take your word on the science side of it. But as far as the funding, well, that's not suspicious. If you could make a compact fusion reactor, the Army would want that for powering bases and such."

"There's no way they would fund this," replied Arnold. "It's never going to work, and the Army has plenty of competent technical people who would know it."

"So then the lab is a front for some kind of secret research," said Holly uncertainly. "Maybe they deliberately brought me here."

Arnold looked up and shook his head. "If that was the case, you would have materialized inside of their lab. The fact that you appeared in a nearby backyard suggests that your, um, transport was an unforeseen side effect of whatever it is they're doing."

Holly looked down. "I don't know which would be worse. To have this be a planned event or just a mistake." Ned put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug. Daisy must have also sensed Holly's sadness and pressed harder against the lagomorph's side. She gave out a little whine, and Holly responded with a another scratch of Daisy's head.

Ned thought a bit. "We have a couple of options here. One is we that we keep Holly a secret for now and see if we can hack into the Dengar Lab's computer network. Arnold, have you ever done anything like that?"

Arnold rubbed a hand through his hair. "I've done a little bit. It wasn't really interesting to me, though. I do know a couple of people who could do it. Keep in mind that this is probably some secret government stuff. If we get caught, we'll be in big trouble."

Ned nodded. "Which leads to the other option. We try to contact the people in the government who oversee Dengar Research Labs and tell them everything."

Holly shivered a bit against Ned's side. "I don't know. That's a big step. And like you said, we can't go back once it's done."

Arnold slid around the printouts and found one that was an overhead view of the Dengar facility. "Whatever we decide to do, it should be fast. See the size of these overhead lines? That's a shitload of electrical power they're using. My guess is that their device, whatever it is, uses a huge amount of power in a very short span of time. They probably have a bunch of capacitor banks inside this outbuilding over here, and charge them up over time. Then during a test they discharge it all at once."

"So they're going to do it again," said Holly.

Arnold shrugged. "Probably. Remember, they don't know about this side-effect. Next time, maybe another one of your people gets pulled through. Or maybe something else comes through, something bad."

Ned's brow wrinkled. "What do you mean, bad?"

Arnold snorted. "At this point, I'd expect anything. Demons, evil tentacle beasties, who knows?"

Holly sat up. "No. I'm not going to let this happen again to somebody else. We should try to contact them."

Ned looked over in a little surprise. "Are you sure?"

She nodded. "As long as you're there, Ned." He hugged her a little tighter and she leaned against his shoulder.

Arnold looked thoughtful. "I've done a bunch of consulting work for the Department of Defense. I can ask around and see if I can get the contact information for the people running the Dengar Labs contracts." He looked down again at the overhead shot of the facility. "I just hope that they're willing to do a face-to-face meeting with strangers."

____________________________________________________________

"Doctor Arnold Hunter, I presume?" asked Colonel Darren Gossett. He shook hands with the thin man who was dressed casually in jeans and a sweatshirt. They both took seats in a booth next to the window.

Gossett was similarly casual, in his usual 'off-duty' combination of a polo shirt and chinos. The chill of the last few days was finally going away, so he had foregone the jacket.

They were at a small diner that the colonel frequented while visiting Dengar Research Labs. The waitress smiled at them both as she walked up. She already had a mug of black coffee for Gossett. "Hi, hon. Good to see you back in town. The usual?"

Gossett nodded with a smile. "Yes please, Angie. What'll you have?" he asked Arnold.

The scientist took a quick glance at the menu. "I'll do the club sandwich, thanks. And an iced tea."

"You got it, I'll be back with the tea."

Gossett leaned back on the bench seat and looked at Arnold curiously. "So you come highly recommended, Doctor Hunter."

"Call me Arnold, please. I got the doctorate almost by accident. Honestly, I think the university gave it to me to get me out of their hair."

The colonel chuckled. "Okay, Arnold. Everybody I talked to said that you were not somebody who just asks for an idle chat. So what can I do for you?"

"It's a little sensitive. I won't name names, but let's just say there's a certain nearby company doing energy research. You're the technical contact for their largest government grant."

Gossett felt puzzlement. "Why be all coy about it? That's all a matter of public record."

Arnold gave him a fixed stare. "Because the public record isn't true. I'm going to make a few guesses. The work at this particular lab has nothing to do with nuclear fusion. It also involves using a lot of power very quickly. And you also had a big test five nights ago."

The colonel kept his face neutral while he sipped his coffee. Angie brought Arnold's iced tea in the meantime, and he waited until she was out of earshot before replying. "If what you say is true, then you know I couldn't confirm or deny any of it."

"Yeah. The problem is, your test had an unexpected side effect. A friend of mine who lives in the area was, well, affected by it."

Inwardly Gossett groaned. He hoped this wasn't a claim of 'electromagnetic sensitivity' or some similar garbage. "Affected how?"

Arnold leaned back. "That I can't tell you. You would think I'm crazy. But I can show you, if you're willing."

"Show me?" Gossett was getting a little suspicious. Was this some sort of clumsy shakedown attempt?

Arnold must have seen the leery expression on his face. "This has nothing to do with any threat of a lawsuit or demand for money. Something weird has happened, and we need your help."

____________________________________________________________

Ned patted Holly on the leg. "Don't worry, it'll all be over soon."

"That sounds way too final," replied Holly. A trip to the store by Ned had gotten her an outfit that could pass as normal...if you didn't look too closely. She had big baggy sweatpants to cover up her digitigrade legs and large shoes for her oversized feet. Up top she wore a shirt and an oversized hoodie. As long as her face was shadowed the disguise worked; she looked like a kid wearing baggy clothing.

He chuckled. "I guess that was a poor choice of words on my part. Really, I think this will go okay." He looked around the park again. The two of them were on a bench near one end of the green expanse and underneath a large oak that provided some nice shade.

Holly pressed up against his side. "I can't stop worrying, though. What if they try to kill us? You know, to protect their big secret?"

"I don't think so. This Colonel Gossett sounds like a straight-up guy...and there they are. It looks like he took Arnold up on his offer."

The two men walked towards them from the opposite end of the park. Arnold was doing his usual shambling stroll, while Gossett looked like a man on a mission. Even dressed in civilian clothes, Gossett had the muscles and the bearing of a military man. His gray hair was cropped close to his head, and he had a neutral expression on his craggy face.

Ned stood as they approached. "Hi, I'm Ned. Ned Chiang."

"Mr. Chiang," replied Gossett as he shook hands. "Let me say at the start that if you have any sort of a medical problem you need to go to a doctor for proper diagnosis. As I said to your friend, I can't confirm or deny any accusations of this being due to any Army experiments." He glanced over at Holly, who was keeping her head down. "And who is this?"

"Um, this is actually the person affected," replied Ned. "Holly, would you like to say hi?"

She brought her head up and pushed her hood back just enough so that Gossett could see her face.

Ned had to give the colonel credit. His eyes widened slightly, but that was all the change of expression he showed. "Holy shit," he said in a wondering tone.

Holly pulled her hood back over her head. "That seems to be the common reaction, doesn't it?" Her tone was a little snide.

"She showed up here five nights ago," said Ned. "We think it might be due to whatever is going on at..that company that Arnold mentioned. But even if it isn't, we need help. She needs help, to get back home."

The colonel said nothing as Ned filled in the rest of the story. He just kept staring at Holly with that same impassive expression.

After Ned finished, the officer nodded. "I see. Can you give me a minute?" Gossett walked away and put his hands on his hips. He looked around as if surveying the park for hidden dangers. Finally he sighed and walked back.

"Right, I have a lot of things to organize," he said. "Do you live nearby?"

Ned nodded, and the colonel continued. "Good. I want you to all to head directly to Ned's house. Has anyone else had any physical interaction with Holly?"

"Just Daisy," replied Arnold. Gossett looked at him curiously. "My dog," he added.

Gossett sighed. "Right, of course. I guess we'll have to quarantine her as well."

Holly gave the colonel a suspicious stare. "Quarantine?"

"Ma'am, you are from...somewhere else, correct? A place like this, but different?"

"Yeah, but I'm not dangerous"

He gave a little smile, the first emotion that he'd expressed. "I'm sure you're not. Right now my concern is disease. You could be carrying bacteria or viruses that we have no defense against. Or vice versa, you might run into something in our environment that's no big deal to us but which could kill you."

Holly shrank back against the bench.

Gossett held up a hand in a calming gesture. "Now, I don't think it's likely. But we have to make sure. If it's any consolation, I'm probably going to be quarantined as well."

"For how long?" asked Arnold. He looked remarkably phlegmatic about the whole deal.

Gossett shrugged. "I don't know. That will be up to the doctors. In any case, I'm going to get a proper isolation facility set up at...shit, I'll just say it. At Dengar Labs. We'll transport you all over there once it's in place, but until then I'll have my people bring whatever you need to your house."

Holly looked up. "I guess we should enjoy the sun while we can. It sounds like we'll be indoors for a while."

____________________________________________________________

Soon after the three of them got back to Ned's house, a plain white van pulled up into his driveway and disgorged a whole phalanx of people. Two of them knocked on his door. They turned out to be two women dressed in full yellow haz-mat suits. Even their heads were covered with plastic bubble helmets. They each carried a couple of large medical cases. Ned stood aside and waved them in. He wondered what his neighbors were thinking.

"Mr. Chiang? I'm Doctor Karen Selby." Ned could see brown hair framing her face. "This is Doctor Grace Penn." Dr. Penn was a blonde with icy blue eyes. "Can you direct us to the patient?"

"Yeah, although she's not sick. I don't know how much they told you." Ned led them out of the foyer and towards the living room.

"Not much," replied Karen. "They said there was somebody with an unusual physical composition here, whatever that means, and that she might be a disease carrier..." The doctor trailed off as they entered the living room. Holly sat on the floor while she absently rubbed Daisy's tummy. The dog was lying on her back with a blissed-out expression on her face. Holly looked up as they entered, and her ears rose in curiosity at their odd get-up. She was still wearing her shirt and sweatpants from the park.

The two doctors stood in silence for a moment.

"Right!" said Grace with a tone of voice that said let's get on with the job. Her voice was higher than Selby's and had a faint English accent. "Karen, I'll take care of her. Do you want to get the men?"

"Sure," replied Karen, then she laughed. "And I guess the dog as well."

"What do you mean, take care of me?" asked Holly. Ned could tell she was getting a little stressed about the whole thing. Daisy rolled over and gave the newcomers a less-than-friendly look.

Grace's eyes widened. "Oh, that came out wrong. We're just taking vital signs and some blood samples, that's all."

Holly relaxed. Daisy took her cue from the lagomorph and thumped her tail on the carpet in greeting.

Ned and Arnold went through a checkup pretty much like that at any doctor's office. Dr. Selby took their temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and blood oxygen levels. She then drew a small vial of blood from the two of them. After a little hesitation, she took a blood sample from Daisy as well. In spite of the doctor's trepidation, the dog didn't even react.

Meanwhile, Dr. Penn and Holly were going through a more detailed procedure. With Holly's permission, Dr. Penn drew a couple of blood samples and then measured Holly's temperature a few different ways. She used both an under-the-tongue thermometer as well as one that she pressed into Holly's ear.

"Sorry about this," the doctor said to Holly. "We're going to have to figure out how to do this from scratch. We don't know the best way to measure your core temperature or other vitals, so right now I'm kind of winging it."

Holly nodded, although she was clearly uncomfortable with being the subject of so much scrutiny. Grace used a blood pressure cuff on both an arm and a leg. The blonde doctor always moved very slowly and gently; she was clearly trying to put Holly at ease. She finished up by listening to Holly's lungs as she breathed.

"The blood oxygen sensor is clearly not going to work through your fur," she said with a smile. "Thanks for putting up with this. Hopefully we can build up a better idea of what is normal or abnormal for you as we go along. We're getting a better facility set up at the Labs."

"You'll be there?" asked Holly. Grace nodded. "Good. Thanks for...well, for not freaking out."

Grace smiled. "I can imagine you've had quite an experience. You'll have to tell me all about it later."

Karen cleared her throat. "I understand there was some clothing of hers. Can we take that as well?"

Ned looked at Holly, who nodded. He went and retrieved the plastic bag with the ripped clothing that she'd been wearing the first night Ned had found her. After getting their samples stowed, the two doctors made their goodbyes and left.

"I guess we should get used to poking and prodding," said Arnold. "At least, until they declare we're all healthy and disease free. In the meantime...Holly, would you like to learn gin rummy?"

It turned out there was a simliar card game in Holly's world...one that she had played from the time she was a child. Once she had figured out the various suits and values of the face cards, Holly wound up kicking both their asses with embarrassing ease.

____________________________________________________________

It was much later, and Arnold snored as he sprawled on the couch with Daisy lying at his feet. The dog was snoring even louder.

Ned and Holly looked at each other. Holly giggled. "We should leave them to get their beauty sleep," she said.

Once back in Ned's bedroom, her smile faded a bit. "Do you think we did the right thing? Telling the colonel, I mean."

Ned stripped off his shirt and lay back on the bed. Holly took off her clothes and curled up on top of him as he absently stroked one of her long ears. "I think so," he replied. "He's a smart guy. I didn't even think about the potential for different diseases."

"I just hope they do actually send me back home, and not keep me for study," said Holly. "Dr. Penn seems nice, but she looked almost...hungry while doing all those tests."

He caressed the top of her head. The feel of her fuzz against his fingers felt amazing. "You're unique, Holly. And she's a scientist, so she finds you fascinating."

She snuggled against him and kissed his chest. "When do you think we'll get moved over to the labs?"

"As fast as they're moving? I'm guessing by tomorrow."

Holly smiled up at him. "Then this will be our last quiet moment for a while."

He returned her grin and pulled her up towards his head. Her soft lips met his, followed by her eager tongue. Ned playfully wrestled his tongue against hers for a long wonderful while, all the time staring into her huge blue eyes. He felt out her prominent front teeth with his tongue while he ran his hands up her legs. Ned paused to squeeze her hamstrings before settling his hands on her ass.

Holly's eyes closed and she moaned a little into his mouth. Ned finally broke the kiss. "You feel tight," he said.

"Mmm, you should know." She rubbed her furred cheek against his.

"I meant your muscles. Would you like a massage?"

She nodded, and he gently picked her up off of him and set her face-down on the bed. Ned started at her feet, giving each of her large soles a thorough massage before working his way up over those odd digitigrade ankles towards her prominent calves. He felt them melt as he firmly squeezed and pressed them, then moved up to her tight hamstrings.

Her breath was still slow and even, but Ned could see the faintest trace of moisture on her lower lips. He smiled and rolled each her hamstrings between his thumb and fingers before moving up to her rear.

Holly's little cotton-puff of a tail twitched as he gently kneaded her ass. "Mmmm...don't stop that," she said. Ned let his thumbs fall into the valley between her cheeks and trailed them gently from her slit all the way up to the base of her tail. She twitched a little as his thumbs grazed her tiny rear pucker.

"We'll have to try that sometime," she purred.

Ned felt his cock twitch a little at the notion. "Sure, if you want." He refocused his attention on trying to get all of her tension out. He pressed down as he stroked his hands up the muscles of her back and was rewarded with a long sigh from her. He pressed the heel of his hands down each of her arms. By the time he was done she was sprawled bonelessly on the bed. He finished up with a gentle rubbing of her long ears.