Dr. Peterson frowned to herself. She was a fine and shapely woman but in her fifties and, she had to confess it, ideally suited to bureaucratic administration. From time to time she idly dreamed of being Dana Scully, with only some vague tiny "X-Files" department to worry about and a charming Fox Mulder by her side, but CUPID was quite a different arrangement. It amused her to think that it got called "the Women in Black" because of her tendency to push for female agents, but so long as she got results, she felt unashamed of her admitted chauvinism.
A faint bell trilled, and Dr. Peterson turned to her desk. "Please send in Agent Draper," she told the intercom.
Talley Draper entered the spacious office. She was a classic Casey Peterson recruit: sexy yet coolly reserved, authoritative yet attractive and approachable.
"Agent Draper. Shall we discuss Venus lightning?"
"Yes, ma'am." Talley Draper opened her briefcase and set it on Dr. Peterson's desk, displaying documents and photographs. "As we have long known, there is an interesting subset of those incidents which are usually described as ball lightning. I have decided to call them Venus lightning, as the phenomenon first occurs high in the sky and far off, looking like a celestial object."
"In which case, you might as soon call this Sirius lightning."
"Sirius makes for a bad pun, ma'am. Besides, this can appear anywhere in any sky, more like a planet than a star."
"Go on."
"We've long wondered if Venus lightning is linked in any way to any unusual effects -- and I say they are. In every recorded instance of Venus lightning, its time and place coincided with what we would assume to be the moments of conception ... " She offered a folder. " ... of these individuals."
Dr. Peterson looked over the files and attached photos, secretly impressed but keeping her face impassive.
"Some of these are noted celebrities," she hedged.
"Ma'am, they're all special. Some have met personal tragedy, some have led modest lives ... and some have capitalized on their looks. Yet all of them are distinctly attractive to the opposite sex -- and yes, I crosschecked with out computers and came up with this analysis." She handed over a great folded sheet. "As you will see, these individuals are extremely far beyond the norm, and the likelihood of Venus lightning naturally coinciding with all of them is vanishingly small."
"Did it hurt, when you fell from heaven?" mused Dr. Peterson.
"I beg your pardon, ma'am?"
"An old bad pickup line." Dr. Peterson sat back. "You have an anomaly, Agent Draper -- but where's the D?"
"The D, ma'am?"
"In CUPID. The D that stands for Danger."
"Ma'am, it seems impossible that Venus lightning, and this effect, is a wholly natural occurence. The probability is high that some guiding intelligence is high. So far, the intelligence seems benevolent ... but it is very powerful, not to mention very intrusive. It deserves to at least be properly accounted for."
"I don't know ... I don't know. Look, I'll tell you what -- as of right now, you have three months, to nail all this down."
"Nail it down?"
"The power of a scientific principle is derived in part from its ability to predict repeated results. Venus lightning is ongoing. Surely it stands to reason that if you investigate newer instances of it, you will also turn up more of these speical individuals who have not yet been accounted for. That's how to make your case. Three months, Agent Draper. Prove this to me, or let it go."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am."
"Your handler will prepare you. Good day, Agent Draper."
Dr. Peterson watched the door long after it automatically closed behind Talley. Already she suspected that there really was something to Venus lightning after all.
Thu Sep 21 12:03:05 2006