"We should do a job." said Conrad hesitantly.
"We should, but we can't." replied Valerie. "We don't have a hand device, and without having one, we can't do a job."
"But we have to! If grandpa never comes, we need to earn money for the train ticket!"
"Without..." Valerie began to say, but Conrad cut to her words.
"There are advertisements of selling old hand devices." He pointed to a green piece of square on the screen. "It is not too expensive, we could earn the price. K.O. told us, that we need only a basic one, we don't need to choose those expensive, designed devices."
Valerie silenced, and stared at the advertisement of hand devices. They were sure expensive, more than the tickets to home. But they looked so cool! She really wanted to get one. One of the most expensive devices. Despite they didn' t have enough money for the tickets. Conrad put up with her silence for a while.
"We don't have any other choice."
"We could wait for K.O., and go with him to harvest again. He promised we could go with him."
"He didn't say when he would arrive. We could earn some money while waiting for him."
"It is okay, but have you seen a job, which doesn't need hand device?"
"No." Conrad sighed. "But K.O. mentioned a job, which is risky, but pays well."
"No!" shouted Valerie. She knew at the very moment what kind of job wanted Conrad them to do.
"It is our only one choice!" Conrad shouted back.
"K.O. said, it is risky, like a lottery!"
"But this is the only one, that provides bed and food."
"I would also like to sleep in a bed..." Valerie sighed.
The twins were sleeping on the chairs of the center office in the last few days. They didn't have bed in K.O.'s caravan, but the seats were first class sleeping place comparing to the chairs. They both missed their beds at home, but they didn't have any other choice, if they would have wanted to stay in the center office. As they both gave up hope that their grandfather would come for them soon, working seemed to be a good alternative for them. Moreover work was their only chance to go back home, and no matter how funny it was to spend the night in chairs for the first time, they longed so much for a night in bed.
"O.K." Valerie nodded. "Let's go to a temple first, and ask them. Maybe they don't even have a job to do for us. But you have to choose a temple!"
Conrad's choice fell on the biggest temple of the Capital. It was a big, oriental-style temple, with a lot of strange and funny statues about the little ones, and a big, red gate. He hoped, in such a big facility there would also be a job for kids could do. He wasn't wrong, it went so easily. After a priest had listened their request, he guided them to the Prelate. The high priest proved to be a stern-eyed woman who scrutinized them as they stuttered that they wanted to work. She was very frightening to the twins.
"So you haven't got a hand device yet, and you want to work to earn money to buy one, don't you?" The twins nodded, and prepared for rejection. "There is a work for you, but it would be hard without a hand device. Do you accept?"
"Yes!" cried the twins in unison. They were really happy to had found a job. It was the first step to go home. K.O. was right, they just had to go step by step, and the goal would be reached.
"Come with me!" The Prelate asked them, and the kids followed her.
She led them through a long corridor with a lot of doors to a big room, where Hydrogens were playing happily. The room looked like an arena. There were a big playing place in the middle, like a playground with a lot of toys: it was full of slides, swings, seesaws, and bouncy castles. The viewing area was different, from the usual arenas, it was full with baskets instead of chairs.
"Your task is to put the little ones into the baskets." The Prelate told them, and gave them two butterfly-nets. "Five of them fit into one basket. Come back to my office, when you are ready."
The twins became happier, than the Hydrogens. It was an easy task, they did the same with their old friend in the field. They grabbed the nets and started to hunt the molecules.
After an hour, they gave almost up: to their surprise they couldn't catch a single one of them.
"Why are they so lively?" erupted Conrad. "They were so obedient in the field! These little ones are look like wild animals."
"Maybe they are ones. I think, they weren't treated with care." told Valerie her thought to Conrad. "That's why they are so wild! K.O. were caressing and tickling them, as we harvested them, and those ones were cute, and cooperate. We held every one of them by hand, and they were cute."
"Do you think these ones were harvested by machines?"
"Probably. These are wild, even to each other!" Valerie pointed to the Hydrogens, who were aggressively bouncing to the other ones. They may not be used to being petted."
"What would we do with them? They are too wild to catch them for a little caressing."
"What about trying to play with them?"
"I haven't got better idea, so let's try!"
So they tried to join to the little ones. It was a hard work. The molecules were suspicious at first, and pushed them out of the field, but slowly they accepted the two new friends, and let them play. The twins were jumping in the bouncy castle, pushed the swings, put the little ones to the slides, tried to used the seesaws. They both became exhausted at the end of the day, but the little ones were as lively as before. The kids decided to sit down to the edge of the viewing area, relax a bit, and figure out some other method.
As soon as they had sat down, the little ones gathered around them. The molecules started to softly poke them to get them back to play.
"Sorry, but we are tired." Valerie told to a little onea, and wreath her arms around them. The little ones had let out a big, happy sigh. "Are you tired too? Do you want to sleep a bit?" The little ones chirped as the girl caressed them, an let her putting them into the basket. They closed their eyes, and fell asleep, as soon as they reached the soft cushion in the basket.
"It is easy!" Conrad smiled, after he could repeat Valerie's method, and successfully put a pair of little ones to sleep.
It seemed, it was the right process, since the Hydrogens were gathering around them, and they were hungry for their patting, tickling and caressing. The twins spend two hours with caressing and putting the little ones into the baskets. In the end all of the little ones were sleeping peacefully in the baskets. They were fluttering in their dreams, which were sound like the little ones would quietly snore. It was as if blades of grass were buzzing in the wind over a large field.
"Easy task!" Valerie smiled at her brother. "You just have to figure out the trick."
"Yes." nodded Conrad, and gave a chocolate bar to Valerie. "You definitely have to know the tricks. Do you want one?"
They were so busy with stroking the little ones that they didn't even notice before that the floor of the room was covered in piles of chocolate bars and candies.
"How… So much energy..." Valerie opened her mouth, and couldn't close from surprise.
"I think they are now in solid state. " said Conrad. "Do you remember? K.O. told us, that the transition from one state to the other often gives us energy."
"Perfect!" a voice came behind them so they both jumped a bit from fright. "Both the explanation, and the work. You have done a perfect job!" The Prelate praised them.
"Thank you very much." The twins said and somehow they were feeling some guilt, despite they didn't do anything bad.
"Conrad is right. They are now in solid state. As you see, they are not motionless, quavering a bit in their dreams. This amount of energy has come from the transition from gas state to solid state. I have never imagined, that you would be able to make them fell asleep, and your method was very unique. Nobody have ever tried to play with them. So, here you are."
There was a hand device in the Prelate's hand. It was a battered-worn old device, but in the eyes of the twins it came up with a diamond.
"For now, you can only borrow it." The Prelate told them, as Conrad picked the device.
She showed them how to collect the energy bars, and where to store. Chocolate and candy pictures appeared on the screen, with numbers beside the pictures. The kids were stunned by the amount, they had collected.
"Could we buy this device?" asked Valerie eagerly, and checked again the numbers. She were counting them to use for getting the train tickets.
"We could talk about it later, but these chocolate bars are not meant for you." The prelate ignored the kids' surprise. "As you know, we don't pay for the workers, just offer them bed and board."
"Why does anyone want to work here?" asked Conrad, and he could hide the disappointment in his voice. "There isn't a candy we could gain."
"Because of the Noble Race."
"Noble Race?"
"What is it?"
"It is like a horse race in your homeland. But in our case, the horses are Deuterium-Hydrogen pairs, and the goal is to fuse them into Helium. This is a difficult process, but when happens, it gives a lot of energy! You could get your fair share from that."
"But K.O. said it is like a lottery." Valerie objected desperately.
"So you worked for K.O.?" The Prelate smiled at them. The twins nodded. "In this case I wouldn't worry about the Noble Race. Mr. Kerry-Orr always deliver us good raw material for the fusion. I hope you have learned a lot from him."
"Do we need to select the little ones by weight?" asked Conrad curiously.
"This is your next job, that's why I let you borrow a hand device." The Prelate nodded. "You will find nets and a scale in it, and it seems you are familiar the process. Now, let the little ones sleep, and find your own beds. Tomorrow you could start early in the morning."
A priest guided them to their room. The furniture was not so much: two wardrobes, two beds, and behind a door the was a small bathroom.
"Why is it here? I thought we don't need to use something like this!" Conrad was stunned to see the small shower cabin, and asked the priest.
"Well, we don't need to use it, but it is very pleasant to use. It works with energy, but feels like a normal shower, if you would like to try it." The priest informed them, and left, after he wished them a good night.
Valerie wanted to try the shower, and vanished in the bathroom, as soon as they were left alone.
"Girls." Conrad shook his head. He didn't miss bathing at all.
"Hey, try it!" Valerie stormed out of the bathroom. "It feels like water, just you won't be wet either!"
"The priest has already said, that it works with energy." He murmured, and still wasn't in a mood for trying.
"Energy or not, I feel like I am cleaner. It is very refreshing! The water was gray at first, so I was dirty, and probably you are dirty too." Valerie looked at his brother with stern eyes, that reminded Conrad of the Prelate's eyes.
He didn't argue with his sister, Conrad went to take a shower without a word.
"Those are energy residues." The priest explained them when they had asked him about the gray water in the morning. "Not harmful, but we feel better without them. That's why we use the shower."
He gave them chocolate bars, and candies for breakfast, informed them about the start of the work, then left. The kids ate the food, and it was hearty for them, so they stored a bit for snack into the hand device. The device was easy to use, the menu was similar to their smartphones. There were a scale, and the ultrasound-like button for watching into the little ones.
"We have everything we need to do the work." Conrad noted with satisfaction, while walking to their designated room. The molecules were still sleeping, gently snoring.
"This work will lasts forever!" Valerie sighed, while she was looking around the viewing area.
"Why would it?"
"Because we sorted the Hydrogen in gas form before."
"It is easier, than that. They are sleeping now, so we don't have to catch them before weighing."
"But how do we weigh them? There are five molecules in each basket, and we don't have an empty one to sort them by weight. Moreover the basket has its own weight, so we can't measure them with the basket."
"At first, let's find a basket with five Protium pair!" Conrad said after thinking for a while. " They have the smallest weight! Then we use the seesaw to select the other baskets by weight. If the basket is heavier, than the first one, we put them into the arena, if their weight is the same, we put them back to the viewing area."
"So we only need to check the heavier baskets with the device!" Valerie cheered up. "It could work!"
It took a while for a basket to be found in which only Protiums slept. K.O. was right, the other isotopes were rare, but they were everywhere, evenly distributed in the mass. Fortunately the twins were wise enough, to put the baskets, containing the heavier isotopes to the arena. So the next work became easier to them. They put the Protiums' basket to the one seat of the seesaw, and the next one to the other. When they were even, the basket was brought back to the viewing area. The heavier ones were collected in the arena.
"To move on, we definitely need to wake them up." noted Valerie.
"But there's no need to wake all of them up! Only the heavier ones are needed to wake up. But I don't know, where to put them. It wouldn't be a good idea to let them running free."
"We have nets in the hand device." Valerie pushed a button, and the net was flowing out from the device. "It is thin and strong, but it is like a blanket, not a bag. The little ones won't stay under it."
"What if we covered a bouncy castle with the net? We make knots on the peaks, like K.O., and cover the castle. The little ones won't be bored in this way, and can't escape."
So they covered a bouncy castle with the net, and started to examine the baskets.
"Here is a Deuterium pair!" said Conrad. "But I can't get them out of the basket! Why?"
He tried to pull out the molecule from the basket, but it stayed there, like it would have been glued to the basket.
"Couldn't you help me?" asked the angry Conrad his sister.
"I think we can't get out of them like you have tried. They should be given food", Valerie grinned, and didn't move.
"Food? Why? They are sleeping, how could they eat anything?" Conrad shouted from frustration.
"K.O. told us."
"HOW?!"
"He said, that the transition from one state to the other gives, or requires energy. We got energy as we made them fall asleep, so we have to feed them to wake them up."
"How?" asked Conrad with lower voice. He knew, that his sister was right. They had to give back the energy to the molecules. "How?"
"Let's try!" Valerie got out some candies from the hand device.
She held a candy close to the molecule, and the little ones started sniffling. When they opened their mouths, Valerie quickly stuffed one with candy. One of the atoms opened the eyes, and the mouth wider too. It wanted more candies.
"Don't give them too much or they will be too energetic!"
"I don't know how many is too much, but they have to eat enough to leave the basket." answered Valerie as she was feeding the little ones. "Didn't you count how much I gave them?"
Conrad shook his head, so Valerie slowed down a bit. The little ones suddenly left the basket with a loud "plop". Conrad caught them, and delivered to the bouncy castle. The little ones didn't mind the treatment, cheerfully played in the castle.
"Hooray! Let's find the next one!" The success made Conrad become cheerful too.
Since they had already discovered the method of sorting the molecules, the work became faster and easier. They had never done this kind of work before, so they had to learn, that Hydrogens in gas state were clever and quick. No matter what isotopes, every one of them found the smallest holes on the net, and escaped from the castle. After transporting the selected little ones back to the bouncy castle for the third time, they considered making them sleep again.
"We should sort them by weight."
"Do we have containers in the device?" asked Valerie.
"No, we haven't." said Conrad after digging for a while in the menu of the hand device. "We have just two more nets."
"We need four containers. One for each weight." Valerie were thinking loud. " What about we cover two more bouncy castle, and one of the groups goes back to the empty baskets? That's four altogether."
"Let's try!" nodded Conrad, but he had doubts. The molecules had been escaping too easily to separate the different groups.
But this time they had luck beside the experience. They were able to tie the nets around the bouncy castles, and the molecules couldn't escape anymore. The baskets were rearranged, and the kids separated the Protium pairs and the Tritium pairs. They had a heated argument about the right placing of the groups, and only the lunch and the priest who had brought to them were able to make them reconcile.
"It was a good idea to use the nets." said Conrad.
"It was a good idea to put the Tritium pairs into the baskets." replied Valerie.
"Peace?"
"Peace." said the girl, and she slammed into her brother's held palm.
They continued to work together peacefully. They broke bonds and made another ones, one after the other. Molecules were destroyed, and rebuilt to fit into the two main groups of six and three. By the time they were ready, the last bits of anger in both of them was gone, and they were able to rejoice in their performance.
"We are ready." They said, and smiled at each other.