"I really need to get back to work," you say as you get to your feet.
"Yes, I do as well."
Kayla tosses her coffee cup into a nearby recycling bin and stands. "It is a pity that talking about work does not actually get work done. Thank you for the talk and the coffee."
Next
You grab lunch before your afternoon meeting with Gabriel. He's been hard at work on your research, and you need to see how he's doing.
He's meeting you at two, after his classes. Rather than have him come to your office, you told him to meet you in the lab. You also specified what you wanted the two of you to focus on.
Gabriel's waiting for you inside your lab thanks to his matching patterned key. He looks worried. "Uh, I'm not as far as I'd hoped."
"Let's see what you've got," you say.
Gabriel leads you into the fold to where you store books you've checked out from Johansen Library. You created the book containment area when you first set up your lab. You needed a way to contain books that Letitia Harris, head research librarian, would accept, or else you wouldn't have been able to check pattern books out of the library. You chose a fold in space, a small version of how the library protects its books. It was a very traditional choice. You're extremely pleased with the results, if you do say so yourself.
Gabriel has a tome about practical detection patterns laid out on a reading table in the fold. He sits, revealing purple argyle socks. "Following your suggestion, I want to see if I can detect elements of pattern energy that indicate a pattern going feral. But I can't find a pattern that's well tuned for that task."
You Can Help With That