Chapter 46: I Appreciate Your Enthusiasm
Percy's eyes nearly popped out of his head. No way. Out of all the possible people in the world, his professor was a part of that forum where he had discussed his research plans?
Dr. Reese slapped a hand to his forehead. "Unbelievable. You've been a part of this forum nearly as long as I have. How old were you when you joined, twelve?! I always thought you were an adult based on the way you talked."
"Who are you?" Percy managed to ask, still reeling from this new revelation.
"Oh, sorry. I'm absolute00."
Ah. No wonder he had asked whether Percy was rich or a university professor because he had access to so much equipment. As a professor himself, he would know how difficult it was getting your hands on such things.
"For your information, I was ten. I skipped two grades," he said in a tone tinged with annoyance.
He hated being underestimated because of his age. That was why he preferred the anonymity of being online to dealing with people in person. He may be young but his IQ was higher than all of theirs!
Dr. Reese shook his head. "I'm sorry, Percy. Forgive me. I always knew you were smart from the comments you made in class but I still thought of you as a student. If you really are Archimedes, you're much more intelligent than I am even if you have had less practical experience."
His words appeased Percy slightly. "I'll forgive you if you let me look at your research on black holes. I now believe the spatial disturbance has similar properties."
"Of course! Can you show me all of the data that you collected at the hospital? Don't tell me how you got it though; I want to be able to claim plausible deniability."
Percy actually laughed, feeling a sudden weight of his chest. He had never been a huge fan of working with others but right now having someone help him with his research was nothing short of a miracle.
"I have it all on my phone. Here."
He handed the phone off to Dr. Reese and allowed him to scroll through the photos and notes. The man looked through it eagerly, pausing for moment with furrowed brows when he realized something.
"You got this data in room 302?"
"Yes."
"…my father-in-law was staying in that room when you went. He needed to get stents put into his heart. He's back home now and hasn't been acting strange at all. My wife visits him every day. I don't think he was replaced with someone from a parallel world," Dr. Reese said with a frown.
"I can try probing him myself to see if there are any differences but if my wife, who spends the most time with him out of anybody, hasn't noticed something up with him, I doubt there is. You got this data around 4 AM, didn't you?"
Percy nodded, not understanding what he was getting at. "Your point?"
"What if the spatial disturbance is only activated under a very specific set of circumstances? What day did your sister make the switch?"
"Wednesday, I think. That was the day she called me in a panic because she didn't recognize her husband."
Dr. Reese's expression grew thoughtful. "Hmm, the days of the week don't match up. Maybe it's something about that time of night? The only way to be sure would be to gather data in that room for at least a full twenty-four hours."
Percy grew exasperated. How was he supposed to pull that off? He had barely managed to sneak in there once!
"I can't do that! My brother-in-law doesn't know anything about this. He'd get suspicious if I went up to him and said I needed to borrow a room in his hospital to conduct research."
Dr. Reese raised an eyebrow. "He hasn't noticed that a different person took his wife's place?"
He sighed. "No because I've been coaching her on how to act like my sister. I'm doing everything I can to get her back so I don't want this other woman to mess things up for her in the meantime."
"I'm surprised she's going along with that."
"…I may or may not have threatened to get her sent to a mental hospital for claiming she was from another world." Before Dr. Reese could judge him, he was quick to defend himself. "It was my only option at the time! I will get Penny back—the real Penny—so I can't let the other one ruin things."
The professor held his hands up innocently. "No judgment here. You did what you had to do. But the hospital room does potentially pose a problem…I tore my ACL a few weeks ago but was waiting for the semester to end to get it fixed. What if I specifically request that room after surgery?"
Percy was skeptical. "You would really do that? What if you get swapped out too?"
A maniacal light shone in Dr. Reese's eyes. "So what? Traveling to a parallel world would be fascinating. I've spent my entire academic career studying spacetime so how could I possibly miss this opportunity to be involved with research on the first recorded spatial disturbance?"
Right. He, like others on the forum, was a scientist in the purest sense. True scientists would do anything in the pursuit of knowledge. That was all well and good but waiting until the end of the semester…that was still two months away!
"I appreciate your enthusiasm but is there any way you can push up the surgery? You could say your doctor recommended not waiting any longer or something," Percy said desperately.
Dr. Reese laughed. "Sure. I've been told I'll only need to be out of work a week or two. I can record all of those lectures in advance as long as I get approval from the department head. Let me talk to him tomorrow and see about getting that surgery scheduled."
His dedication to a spatial disturbance he hadn't even seen for himself was amazing. Percy couldn't help but be impressed.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone