The Love Bug

"Seriously?" commented Dr. Prince with a raised eyebrow.

Dr. Ruiz continued as if she had not been interrupted, "The local tribesman use the venom in a drink they create for fertility ceremonies. Though our translation of their language is incomplete, we have been able to render their name for this insect, and it roughly translates as 'The Love Bug.'"

"I wonder if they're aware they stole the name," commented Dr. Prince.

"They are, as I pointed out, geographically isolated and rarely had contact with the outside world, so I doubt very much they are aware of that fact Dr. Prince," said Dr. Ruiz sarcastically.

"So, you want us to isolate the chemicals responsible for the different effects the insect can achieve," cut in Joe, hoping to head off a confrontation between his friend and their new colleague.

Dr. Ruiz turned her attention away from Manny Prince, and Joe felt a small thrill as she addressed him directly.

"That is correct, Dr. Templeton. Our preliminary research would indicate that the venom, as well as the excretions from the proboscis, could hold the potential for several breakthroughs in the development of drug treatments and new anesthesia compounds."

"I'm wondering how an insect that size gets close to its prey I don't see any wings so it couldn't fly down on something," said Stephanie.

"That might be the most interesting thing of all about our little friend here," explained Dr. Ruiz as she walked back to the isolation chamber and reached into a pair of manipulators that allowed her to swing two smaller robotic arms that had been out of sight before up toward the table. She quickly slid the cover of the glass case back just enough to snare a single insect carefully. A moment later she moved it to a small container on the same table that was also made of transparent material and contained some dark soil and a few twigs and leaves. As soon as she released the Love Bug into the container, it dropped down onto a single green leaf and seemed to vanish.

"Camouflage?" questioned Joe.

"Exactly, Dr. Templeton, one of the most advanced adaptations of its type we have ever seen. In a lab, in Peru, we dropped one onto a brick, and it took on such a perfect imitation of the color and texture you had to squint hard even to discern its original shape."

"Fascinating!" said Joe, and he was rewarded when Gabriella Ruiz smiled at him for the first time.

"I think we should start by getting a sample of venom and also some of the excretions and analyzing it," cut in Stephanie.

"That would seem sensible," Joe responded, still not able to tear his gaze from Gabriella's beautiful face.

"Dr. Templeton? Perhaps you could get started on it," said Stephanie with a bit more insistence.

"Yeah, right! Sure..." replied Joe, sheepishly moving away to set up the extraction.

Manny fell in to step next to Joe as he walked away.

"Hey there, Casanova, you plan on trying to thaw that ice queen?"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about, Manny. I'm in a relationship already," said Joe.

"Yeah, with a walking computer. Did you see the way Dr. Ruiz was smiling at you? I think there could be sparks there!" observed Manny.

"Quit being a jerk, Manny, we have work to do you know."

"Whatever you say, boss."

Manny moved off, but Joe couldn't help but throw a last look over his shoulder at Gabriella Ruiz as she stood in conversation with Stephanie.

IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG NIGHT -

Joe drove toward the restaurant with one hand on the wheel and at least part of his mind still back in the lab. He and his colleagues had spent hours preparing samples for analysis, but the results wouldn't be available until later that night. They had agreed to take a break for dinner, and Joe had regretfully turned down an invitation to join Dr. Ruiz and Stephanie since he already had plans with Gloria's parents.

"What were you saying about the lab?" asked Gloria as she looked up from her phone.

"I was just saying that I have to go back around 9:00 pm tonight. We are expecting the preliminary results on our analysis of the chemicals in the bug's venom."

"That should be fine. I don't expect dinner to take more than an hour."

They pulled up in front of the restaurant, and Joe surrendered his keys to the valet before they entered. They made their way inside to find that Gloria's parents had already arrived and been seated.

"Mr. Stein," said Joe as he held out his hand.

Frank Stein was a compact man in his early sixties with close-cropped hair still reminiscent of his military days. He gripped Joe's hand in a crushing handshake as Joe did his best to hide the pain in his expression.

"Joe, its good to see you," he said in a tone devoid of warmth.

Gloria's mother, Mary, stood from the table and at least feigned interest as she leaned up to kiss Joe's cheek.

They took their places at the table and started to peruse their menus.

"So, Gloria, I understand things are proceeding well on your project," said Mary Stein.

"That is true. We are working to develop new materials for building stronger heat shields on re-entry vehicles. The research has gone well to this point."

"What about you, Joe? What is going on in your lab?" inquired Mary.

Joe spent the next few minutes explaining his work on the South American bug before Frank cut him off with a chuckle.

"Bugs? This is how you spend your time? I would think a man of your level of intelligence would be able to pursue more valuable ways to help his country."

"I think you're very short-sighted if you don't see the value in my work," answered Joe defensively.

"Joe! I think Dad is just trying to point out that there are many ways your talents might be applied," cut in Gloria.

"At the very least more lucrative ones. You might want to consider other avenues since you two plan to marry soon," said Frank.

"I happen to enjoy my work...Wait! What? Get married?" said Joe in confusion as he turned toward Gloria.

For a second a look of embarrassment crossed Gloria's face.

"I was going to speak to you about this after dinner tonight. I guess I was a little hasty mentioning it to my parents first. As you know, we have been living together for two years, and studies show that couples in our stage of a long-term relationship would be better served by marrying."

"You make it sound so romantic. I imagine this is the proposal every guy hopes for all his life," replied Joe with obvious sarcasm.

"Be careful how you speak to my little girl!" growled Frank.

"I think everyone needs to calm down for a second and talk about this rationally," offered Mary.

"I tell you what you guys can chat about it all night if you like but I just lost my appetite," responded Joe, and tossing his napkin aside he left the table.

Gloria barely caught up with him in the lobby as he handed his valet slip to the waiting attendant.

"I assume you can get a ride with your parents. I'm heading back to the lab."

"Joe wait just a moment. Please! Let's just talk."

"Talk? Do we ever actually do that, Gloria? I think what happens is you dictate the course of our lives according to some plan you have worked out in a notebook somewhere and then expect me to go along. I sometimes wonder if you even are capable of really loving someone."

Joe stormed out through the entrance leaving Gloria alone in the empty lobby. Joe's comment had hurt her more than he realized. All her life she had been taught to handle things with dispassionate focus and logic, but she realized that this was one situation where all her training and education meant nothing. In spite of what Joe had said she did have feelings and tears welled up in her eyes as she watched him depart without her.

Joe handed the valet his claim slip and dropped behind the wheel still seething with frustration over another in a long line of Gloria's attempts at manipulating his life when the passenger door flew open, and Gloria jumped in even as he pulled away from the curb.

"Jesus! Gloria! What the hell are you doing jumping into a moving car!"

"I want to talk about our relationship with you, Joe."

"Try not to get yourself killed doing it!"

Gloria managed to buckle herself in as Joe merged into traffic heading back toward the lab. Although Gloria had professed a desire to talk about where things stood between them, she seemed unable to start the conversation, and they rode most of the way back in silence before she cleared her throat.

"You're unhappy with me."

"Is that a statement or a question?" asked Joe.

"A little of both I suppose. I know I'm not good at expressing my feelings or understanding the way other people feel but I hope you know that I do care about you very much, Joe, and I want you to be happy."

"Even if that meant we wouldn't be together any longer?"

Gloria took a deep breath glancing out the window at the passing buildings.

"Is that what you want, Joe? Would you be happier without me in your life?"

It was Joe's turn to take a deep breath as he sighed, "I honestly don't know, Gloria. We have been together for a long time, and it hasn't all been bad certainly, but sometimes I wish you understood the need for passion and spontaneity in a relationship. That not everything has to be planned and organized down to the last detail. It's o.k. for life to get messy on occasion, and maybe sometimes you break the rules and do crazy things to feel alive."

"You think I'm not capable of living in the moment and giving myself over to emotion? I...It would be a chaotic way to live...I'm not sure I understand why you would want..."

"That is exactly your problem, Gloria. It never occurs to you that there is any other way to live than making every day another check mark on a lifelong list of organized activities that you have rattling around in your head. You evaluate every decision including the emotional ones like its an engineering problem."

"The way I do things has served me well so far," replied Gloria with a hint of irritation.

"Has it? I would say it about to cost you this relationship," said Joe sadly.

The interior of the car fell silent as Joe pulled up to the guard gate and showed his badge. A few minutes later he pulled into his assigned parking spot and shut off the engine. Gloria sat quietly in her seat seeming to contemplate their conversation. Joe opened the door and grabbed his lab coat from the back seat slipping it on over his clothes before he started walking toward the building. To his surprise, Gloria fell into step next to him.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm still thinking how I want to answer you. If its o.k. I thought I would tag along."

Joe shrugged and continued walking, following the same path he had earlier that day that eventually brought him to the steel access door of his lab.

The lab door slid open, and he stepped through to find Stephanie and Manny engaged in conversation in front of one of the control consoles for the isolation rooms.

"I told you to call maintenance about this weeks ago, Manny, we can't afford to have a problem with oxygen flow to the containment area," said Stephanie.

"Don't worry about it, Stephanie. I can take care of this I wouldn't trust those idiots in the maintenance section to unclog a toilet. Just give me an hour with it, and we will have nothing to worry about."

"Manny, I know you used to be an engineer but your way out of practice and we have specialists for this sort of thing so let them handle it!"

Stephanie turned from her conversation with Manny Prince and did a double take at seeing Joe and Gloria together.

"Hey, Joe, and...uh...Gloria, it's good to see you," said Stephanie with a bit of confusion in her voice.

Joe chose to avoid explaining Gloria's presence, "Everything o.k.? I heard you mention the oxygen flow."

"Yeah, it's not serious but the outflow valve from containment room one keeps getting stuck. I told Manny to get maintenance on it right away."

Gloria wandered off toward the far side of the room as Joe joined his colleagues.

"What about the preliminary analysis? Have the computers given us anything back yet?" asked Joe.

"I was just going to join Dr. Ruiz in the testing lab we can find out together."

Joe and Stephanie moved off with Joe throwing a last look over his shoulder at Gloria who appeared lost in thought as she stood by the main control board.

"So...Gloria, it's been awhile...um...How's it going?" asked Manny awkwardly.

"Fine," she answered in a dead voice before turning her back on Manny and sitting down.

It was evident that something was up between Joe and Gloria, but Manny had very little interest in any love life outside of his own so with a shrug of his shoulders he turned his attention back to the environmental controls. He frowned as he reached for the phone that would connect him with the maintenance department and instead he leaned over and opened a small cabinet near the console extracting a tool bag.

"I'll be damned if I'm going to let those morons down in maintenance mess around my lab," he thought in disgust as he moved to the access panel for the environmental feed that ran into containment room one. He glanced briefly at the strange insects crawling around their enclosure before stepping around the corner and opening the panel. He surveyed the complex array of hoses, wires, and pipes inside the hatch and quickly realized that the outflow valve was just out of his reach. He carefully placed his feet on the metal edge of the hatch and hauled himself up into the narrow space noting that the mechanism holding the valve in place seemed worn.

"Ha! just need to replace the seal and tighten things up, and this thing will be good as new," Manny chuckled to himself.

He reached up with the screwdriver to get at the valve, but the angle was difficult to manage from where he was at, and he leaned further into the opening. He was trying to raise the screwdriver above his head when one of his feet slipped off the edge of the hatch entrance, and he fell forward catching himself with his free hand from banging into the sensitive equipment inside. The hand he held the screwdriver with smacked into the bottom of the valve mechanism and it was jostled from his grip falling into the interior of the crawl space with a banging noise. Almost immediately an alarm began to sound throughout the lab.

"Ah...shit...Stephanie's going to kill me," cursed Manny.

In lab room one Joe and Stephanie found Gabriella Ruiz bending over a set of printouts when they entered.

"Anything interesting?" asked Stephanie.

"Too early to say but some of these protein markers look very strange," responded Dr. Ruiz.

She looked up and smiled when she realized Joe had returned.

"Dr. Templeton, you should have a look at these for yourself."

Joe stepped closer to the lab table uncomfortably aware of his proximity to the lovely Dr. Ruiz whose perfume was making his head swim as he fought to concentrate on the information in front of him.

"Hm...this is very odd. We should run another pass with the spectrometer and see if..."

Joe's suggestion was cut off by the sound of an alarm ringing throughout the complex. As a group, the three scientists ran back to the control room where they found Manny bent over the environmental station that was covered in red warning lights.

"Whats happening, Manny?" demanded Stephanie.

"Outflow valve blew in containment one and the secondary cut over shorted out," he said with a hint of panic.

"Lockdown initiated. All personnel, please remain at your emergency stations" came the sound of a dispassionate computer voice.

"Crap! That means were sealed in here," said Stephanie in disgust.

"Manny, tell me you didn't try to fix that valve on your own," said Stephanie her eyes narrowing.

Manny looked sheepishly away before replying,"I screwed up I know."

"Your damn right you did! Now we have to sit out the lockdown until maintenance can spring us. It could be awhile they will have to follow protocol and get into their environmental suits before they head down here."

The panel in front of Manny started to emit a loud beeping as the robotic arm in the ceiling of room one dropped down and latched onto the top of the glass enclosure.

"What the hell is happening now?" yelled Stephanie.

"Short circuit in the emergency environmental purge system. The computer is going all wonky I don't know what it's doing!" said Manny in exasperation.

The robotic arm lifted the glass cage, but instead of pulling it back into the receiving hatch in the ceiling it veered suddenly to the right dashing the cage into the steel wall. The enclosure holding the insects exploded into pieces as it contacted the hard surface freeing its captives. The insects began to scurry up the walls with blinding speed many of them seeming to vanish as their natural ability at camouflage kicked in allowing them to blend in with the surface.

"Jesus Christ! Manny, seal the room!" yelled Stephanie.

Manny stabbed at a button on the control panel, and steel reinforced shutters dropped down over the containment room and across all the vents leading out.

Everyone stood breathing hard in the aftermath of the near-breach.

"I don't understand how one stuck valve could cause all this to happen," said Joe.

"Well...I might have dropped a screwdriver into the environmental access panel," admitted Manny.

"Shit on a stick! Manny...This just keeps getting better by the minute. Now maintenance will want to do a full quarantine before they let us out of here to make sure every specimen in that room is accounted for and cataloged."

"That is so ridiculous, Stephanie, we got the thing locked down," wailed Manny.

Stephanie started to launch into a full-blown tirade, but Joe stepped in to head it off.

"I think we should all just walk over to the lounge and get some coffee. It appears we are going to be here for awhile."

Stephanie pursed her lips but decided against saying anything further as she turned on her heels and marched off in the direction of the lounge. Everyone else followed at a safer distance behind with Joe and Gloria bringing up the rear.

"So...this kind of thing often happen in your lab?" asked Gloria smiling for the first time in hours.

"It's nothing they will have us out of here in no time," replied Joe in a tone he hoped sounded comforting.

As the group moved off, no one noticed the pair of small insects that emerged from the open environmental hatch and quickly took off across the floor.

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL -

Joe and Gloria sat at a small table in the cramped lounge attached to the Biological Research Lab. The smell of freshly brewed coffee permeated the air as Stephanie poured herself a cup from a pot on the nearby credenza before resuming her seat with Manny and Dr. Ruiz at a similar table a few feet away. Stephanie and Dr. Ruiz were chatting about the lab results while Manny continued to sulk about his mistake that had trapped them here.

"I can see why you would find her attractive she is very striking," whispered Gloria.

Joe shook his head, ever since arriving in the lounge, Gloria had kept up a quiet verbal commentary on the appearance and general attractiveness of Gabriella Ruiz having convinced herself that Joe was staring at her when they were walking from the control room.

"Stop, Gloria. I don't have any interest in Dr. Ruiz. I only just met her."

This was not entirely true, but Joe didn't figure it would improve the atmosphere of their current predicament to say otherwise.

"If you say so, Joe," said Gloria not sounding convinced.

"Once we have this little mishap resolved we will have to evaluate the condition of the specimens carefully. I hope that they haven't been harmed since retrieving them came at a great deal of hardship and frustration," mentioned Dr. Ruiz at the adjoining table.