Term Termination
Ana stopped when she saw the visitor.
“I’m just here to process a package,” Max said tentatively.
“It’s Sir Vay tampering,” Elly quickly noted, getting to the root of the problem. “Ana, you have to break it off with him.”
Ana nodded marginally. “I had planned on doing that in any event.”
Max stared. “What? You mean your relationship’s been regressing?”
“No, it’s come to a standstill,” Ana corrected. “I mean, he’s not only a blockhead, he’s too dull.”
“You specified that same indicator for the others,” Elly reminded.
“Well, it was true then, too,” Ana retorted. “Plus that Stu Dee was a likely hood and Sam Pull spaced out continuously - all he talked about was Data, Picard and his graduate hypo thesis.”
Max laughed. “Well, if you want a life of interest maybe you should find a PI.”
“You know a Private Investigator?”
“Well… me,” Max admitted. “There’s often some excitement like my last box plot at a bar…"
“That sounds interesting,” Ana reflected. “You must know lots of angles!” She paused, then asked, “And you don’t have a bias against models, do you?”
“Of course not; that’s not right. Actually, I’d be obtuse not to say you’re a cute one,” Max said reflexively.
Ana raised an eyebrow. “Do tell,” she encouraged. With a wink at Elly she guided Max out of the room. Dr. Waterson arrived in time to see the couple depart.
“Doctor!” Elly recognized. “What causes this visit?”
“I’m just checking… are you the one who weighed items in pounds then changed this to grams?”
Elly looked abashed. “That - and the other things, no doubt - were me, working independently. But it won’t happen again.”
“Oh?” Dr. Waterson appeared skeptical. “Why?”
“It’s elementary, my dear Waterson,” Elly responded. “My expectation is that my sister’s relationships have stabilized, so I have nothing further to distract me!”
*
And Electra Lysis was correct: she became a practical, dependable worker while Max Value and Ana Lysis were a classic couple. A further Sir Vay sabotage setup earned him trials and a fine. And Dr. Waterson returned to work at l’H^opital Central, limiting the remaining small problems until another large one revealed itself.
So the moral of the story is: Don’t let a model relationship get STATic.
--Greg “hologrami” Taylor
[A couple items here should be clarified. Picard was one of the math servers, named after C. Emile Picard, so the Trek reference is actually the joke, not the starting point. I still laugh at that whole paragraph though, works better than "histograms" which was really forced in later. Also, it was a long way to go to get the "elementary" at the "High's Cool" resort.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this... because there was a sequel with the same characters written exactly three years later, in January 2001. See how I left myself an opening at the end there? Next up, some background info.]
