King of All I Survey
Chapter 115: Getting Our Priorities Straight

Chapter 115: Getting Our Priorities Straight

I heard my name, and I realized I had been distracted and not listening to what the two other men were saying. I returned my focus to the here and now to hear Wagner saying, "Oh good, you’re back! I thought for a moment that George’s condition might be contagious. I was getting ready to run away before I caught it, too."

I smiled at his joke, "I’m sorry I was just having a word with Joe, telepathically. George, have you asked him how the ceiling fan works?"

"What? It’s a ceiling fan," he looked up. His eyes widened as he realized. "It’s cooling the air. Wait, don’t tell me, let me figure it out."

Wagner looked up at the ceiling fan, a look of surprise and curiosity written on his face. Then he looked back at George and saw a familiar fire of discovery kindling in him. He looked back at me, catching my gaze. "I think he’s cured. As long as he’s working out a problem, he’s a happy man."

"I’m assuming there’s no conventional heat-exchanger, hidden inside. You could just use a dark energy generator to power a pump just like the heat exchanger in the refrigerator, nothing special there. You’d have hidden pipes in the ceiling to carry the heat to somewhere else. No, that’s too complicated. It must be simpler, self-contained..."

"Professor, if you don’t mind, maybe you could work that out later. Dr. Wagner asked if you would teach him some of the basics of the new physics so he and you can have conversations about the project while he’s aging in reverse."

He looked at Wagner again, more deeply this time. He nodded, "You do look good, Ernst. It’s not just the tropical sun giving you some color?"

Wagner’s face lit up, "No, it the rejuvenation treatments! I’ve barely started and I feel like a new man! It’s amazing." He eyed George’s stomach, "Now if they had a weight loss plan that works, maybe they could do something for you..."

George looked at his own stomach then back at Wagner with a glare.

Wagner, expecting that reaction, cut it off quickly, "I’m kidding, you’re fine, George. I’m sure your wife is attracted to your personality and doesn’t really care that much about looks anyway. Ha!" He noticed George’s pained reaction, "Is something wrong? Are you two ok?"

George shrugged uncomfortably. "Not really. We’ve been drifting apart for a while, she says I don’t pay her enough attention, I take her for granted, you know..." George looked down at the table. "Anyway, she decided to come here with me for the duration, but she’s staying in one of the empty villas as long as there are plenty to go around...Needs some time for herself, she said. It doesn’t help when I stare off into space for hours at a time."

"Well, then stop doing that!" Wagner commanded, "Your first project is to figure out how to get her back. Here’s a hint from someone with about thirty more years of experience than you, make sure she knows that she’s the center of your universe, tell her she’s the strong atomic force that holds you together."

George’s brow furrowed, "We should talk about that. It turns out..."

Wagner waved a hand and cut him off, "I don’t want to hear it! I do, but not now. Go pick some of these damn tropical flowers and bring them to your wife. Then take her on one of those paddle boards stacked up on the beach or something. Later make her dinner. Not with the synthesizer, the old-fashioned way, ask her to help cutting vegetables or something, make it a joint effort. When she moves back in, cook dinner together every night and make sure she knows how important she is to you. Tell her, show her! Every day. If it takes a couple of days before she moves back, then show up at her place with a basket of ingredients at dinner time. I’m sure you can figure out the rest. Now, go! If you feel the need to get lost in thought, then get lost in thoughts about how to make her happy."

Wagner stood up, "Mach schnell, George! Time’s wasting. I’ll be by in two days. We can talk shop then. Meanwhile, you’ve got your assignment."

Wagner looked at me expectantly. I quickly rose to my feet, waved goodbye to Donaldson and headed for the stairs. Wagner and Millie were right behind me.

"I like what you did there," I said to Wagner as we walked along the beach, "The project is important, but people matter, too. I’d like to officially put you in charge of the island and the research here." I grinned, "while I’m away, at least. I mean, I am the King of the World, after all. I can’t be seen taking orders from some old teacher."

"Ha! Think about my reputation if I’m taking orders from some snot-nosed kid who thinks aliens made him Supreme Ruler of Earth or something," he grinned back at me.

"Yeah, but I’m signing the paychecks and funding the research. Not to mention designing the health plan."

"Ah, you’ve got me there. If only I were younger, already. I’d swim over to Singapore and find another job!" We both laughed.

"What do you say we go meet the other researchers?"

"I’ve met them, but I’ll be happy to introduce them to the big boss. Then we’ll have to wait for them to stop laughing." He chuckled as we walked. Millie trotted along beside us, her hopeful eyes scanning the tree line for squirrels. Joe, make a note to get one squirrel here once Millie’s treatment protocol is over. Just one, I don’t want the island overrun with an invasive species.

We spent the next few hours meeting the researchers and their families. The two kids insisted we build sandcastles, which I did. It was fun. Even if Wagner laughed at me afterward. Hey, kids need to play, and I’m still a kid after all. The sandcastle was epic, by the way. It had towers, and a moat, and a big flat space on top for landing spaceships. When it was done, we sat back and marveled at our work. Joe, I called telepathically, Can you use one of the drones in the areas to melt a thin layer of sand on the outside of the castle into glass. I asked the other two kids to step back, while I activated the castle shield. The outside edge glowed for a couple of seconds, then solidified into a rigid, shiny glass coating that really did look like some kind of alien force field. As I said, totally epic. With the glass exterior, it would even be safe from rogue waves if one made it that far up the beach.

So, at the end of the day, no progress was made on defending the Earth from hostile alien overlords during my visit to the island. I did, however, rename Kinoi Island to Island of Stability. The researchers liked the name. Their families didn’t get it.