The private jet was nice to take, but first-class worked well, too. Sometimes it was just nice to get out of the facility for a while and be around people not, in one way or another involved with the work. If she wanted to, she could go for forever without leaving the place. Indeed, she had an apartment there that was as lavish as anything on Park Avenue, but she made a point to get some sun, be social, and shop for odds and ends that she might like.
She gestured to the flight attendant. "Excuse me."
The petite, middle-aged woman leaned forward, her helpful smile still genuine, probably because it was still early in the day. "How can I help you?"
With her most disarming smile she wondered, "Have you seen that young lady in the fourth row?"
For her part, the attendant tried and mostly succeeded in keeping the look of amusement from her face. "The one crushed in the middle between the two larger gentlemen who looks like she wants to be anywhere but there? She's familiar."
"Would you ask her if she'd like to come up and sit with me? I mean, it's a long flight, she seems sweet and ordinarily I like my extra seat, but, in this case, I think I wouldn't mind sharing."
She glanced back at the main cabin as the amusement returned to her features. "I'll ask."
No more than two minutes went by before the girl with naturally curly dirty-blonde hair stood before her in the aisle, carry-on in hand and laptop bag slung over her shoulder. Her dark eyes carried an expression of uncertainty. "The flight attendant said you said I could sit up here with you?"
The older woman with the shock of white hair amidst the brown as it pulled back into a pony tail patted the empty seat to her right. "It's yours if you want it."
The young woman eyed her suspiciously. "This isn't some April Fool's thing, is it? I mean, you're not just going to kick me out after I sit down?"
"I hate April Fool's jokes at the expense of other people," she said with sincerity. "It's nothing like that, I promise."
The suspicion didn't subside, though she lowered her voice. "Are you gay?" She quickly added to the question so as not to offend, "It's totally cool if you are, and I don't care. I mean, it's just not my thing, you know?"
The older woman enjoyed watching the bit of squirm. "I'm firmly bi, and, while you are cute as a button, especially with those full, blushing cheeks, you're fine. It's not that either. I just saw you there when I came through, thought you looked totally miserable, and thought I might rescue you before you slit your wrists with your keys."
She thought about it for a few seconds before her smile lit up the room and a sigh of relief all but bellowed from her. "Oh, thank God." She kept talking as she placed her case in the overhead. "Thank you. Seriously. I thought those two guys were going to crush me to death. Why do you buy both seats?"
The woman watched the young body move as the case went in. She was a nice mid-western girl with full hips and breasts to match with some to spare. She did enjoy being bi. "Because I generally don't like strangers around me for hours on end," she said, casually admitting the truth. "I have my moments as a garden variety misanthrope, but I saw you there and I'm not without mercy."
She closed the bin, smile still firmly on her face as she moved to put her bag under the seat before realizing there was enough space to set it to her left and still have glorious amounts of leg room.
"They go flat if you want to sleep."
She let out a squeak and tapped her feet excitedly on the floor in a quick rat-a-tat-tat. "Thank you so much." She extended her hand. "Hannah Penderson."
"Dr. Rebecca Samuels," the elder woman said, appreciating the firm grip. "Lovely to meet you."
"A doctor doctor or a something else doctor?"
"Actual doctor, she assured Hannah, rolling her eyes. "I'm not some prissy English Lit professor."
She giggled. "You know mine?'
"All English Lit professors are prissy, dear. They weren't smart enough to do what they really wanted so they get their hackles up when they don't see people lining up to kiss their doctorate."
"Yup. You know mine."
Rebecca thought about it for a moment. "Minnesota?"
Hannah winced just a little. "How could you tell?"
Samuels touched her shoulder. "The accent's cute. Don't worry about it."
"Just don't ask me to recite lines from that movie."
"I wouldn't dream of it. Heading back to school?"
"Yeah. Was an awesome break, but, back to the grind."
Samuels sighed. "I can sympathize."
Hannah was curious. "What is it you're into?"
"Any number of aspects of neuroscience. Fascinating, really, but it does, as you say, grind at times."
Hannah had trouble even contemplating the intricacies of it. "God, I bet it does."
They chit-chatted a bit more before Hannah gave her a shy look, "I totally don't want to come off as rude or something because you gave me the seat and everything and if you want someone to talk to on the way home that's totally cool but..."
"You'd rather listen to music or whatever than entertain me? That's all right." She looked a little too sad for it to be genuine.
She'd worried that she'd offended again. "It's not that, really. You're cool to talk to. I..."
Rebecca gave her a playful nudge. "I'm kidding. I didn't bring you up here to entertain me," she said, reaching for her own bag to pull out her laptop; a black, gold, and silver affair. "I have my own work I can be doing."
Hannah eyed it with some envy."Ooooh, sweet custom job."
Samuels looked upon it fondly. "Not my doing entirely, but I'm very proud of it."
"Neuroscience must pay great."
"It can."
"Maybe I should change my major." she quipped, pulling out her wireless in-ear headphones and unlocking her phone with a series of swipes.
"No need for that." Samuels assured her smoothly as her laptop booted. "I've found that if you don't already know what you're meant for, what you're meant for kind of finds you."
The conversation died when Hannah found her playlist and relaxed into her plush seat. Samuels took a few moments to look over some of her emails. Most of it was mundane business related material, though a few of the technical and medical issues raised by colleagues warranted follow-up or otherwise piqued her curiosity.
She scrolled through the list and clicked on B.McLemore's 'Getaway.' Some people thought her heartless, but she smiled warmly at the pictures of her newest financial manager and her much younger lady love smiling on the beach and having fun in what looked like some quaint little dive bar. Brenda still didn't love the business, but her work in securing the financial aspects from prying eyes had been better than exemplary. And, truth be told, they had found their way to a friendship as kindred spirits in many ways. It was something she hadn't looked for but appreciated greatly nevertheless. And that the two lovers were genuinely happy made her so as well.
A quick glance to her right showed her that Hannah was enjoying her music and the leg room, eyes closed, feet up as she sat slightly reclined. Samuels' finger drifted to the rippling wave icon in the far corner of her desktop where she accessed the available networks and connections. She could click on any one and get more information about the unit in question, from device type, to data transmission type, to data transfer rate. She scrolled through until she found 'Hpen, Secured.' Another click showed her the connection and other data in addition to giving her the option to 'Connect' or 'Bypass.'
She chose 'Bypass' and waited. It really was a shame in a way. There were so many breakthroughs at her disposal that if she patented all of it she and a select few others could be insanely rich just from royalties. But she liked her work as it was, and to patent any of the discoveries showed the world what was possible, and there was no point in that. Too much of humanity wasn't fit to handle the technology it already had.
Seconds ticked by and the two options disappeared to be replaced by 'Open.' She accessed secured files on her own desktop, selected 'Aural Joy, ' and dragged it over to Hannah's connection. The subliminals would work do their work, over time, even replacing the audible music she heard for stronger versions of itself. Samuels watched inconspicuously as minutes passed and Hannah's eyes grew heavy before finally falling closed.
Not long after that, the flight attendant checked back, giving the sleeping young girl a sympathetic look. "Poor thing."