At the next meeting, Josiah could barely keep still. At last he would be able to make a contribution to the project. The safety of thousands, maybe even millions, of people who would come to live on the moon would be thanks to his insight. And to find the problem in the design process before construction had even begun, would save thousands of dollars as well. The youngsters would know that he still had some life in him, that he could still hack it in the fast-paced world of technology. Yes, he would show them all.
He longed just to get up and say everything - to prove his genius then and there. His legs kept almost standing, beyond his control. But he had too much respect for Eliphaz to show him up in front of his colleagues. He had to wait until the end of the meeting, then he could have a word with him in private. It would help Eli save face when he realised his mistake.
But the agony of waiting, the words burning a hole inside his head. ‘I was going through the notes,’ he would say, calmly and measuredly, ‘when I came across some anomalies. I was wondering if you could explain them to me.’ But there was no explanation that could be given. The entire structure of the protective shield was dangerously unstable. There might be no problems for years - it was possible that the shield could last for decades without having any problems at all - but then again, under the wrong circumstances, the shield would suffer a catastrophic failure, followed by the collapse of all backup systems. The result would be the annihilation of Luna-city. But he had seen the flaw, it would be put right, and it would all be thanks to him.
With these thoughts running through his mind again and again, Josiah found it nigh on impossible to listen to the meeting. Something about gardening. His fingers twitched, his legs jerked up and down, a nervous tension grew in his stomach.
“Josiah,” said Eli, breaking off whatever conversation they had been having, “you look agitated. Do you have something to add?”
All eyes turned his way, youthful and mocking.
“Uh, maybe I could have a word with you after the meeting,” Josiah stuttered, totally thrown by this sudden turn of events.
“Sure, if you want,” said Eli in his calm way. “Is it about the project?”
“Uh, yeah, it’s about the project.”
“Well why don’t you just tell us all now, while we’re all here.”
“No, I’d really rather just speak to you later.”
“We have no secrets here, what’s on your mind?”
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. The eyes were filled with disinterest and derision. What had he planned to say?
“There’s a flaw in the shield system,” he blurted out, “a really serious flaw, I mean, really deep-rooted, and if we don’t do something about it, we could have a really serious problem later on down the line, I mean, when we come to build it, because then we’ll have to replace all the inducers.”
He thought he heard the Wicked Witch cackle quietly to herself. They won’t listen, he thought, and his heart plummeted. But Eli was listening and would hear what he was trying to say.
“Why don’t you just pause a second and then start from the beginning,” Eli said sympathetically.
Josiah took a deep breath, tried to gather his thoughts, and began at the beginning. He pulled out the now ragged bits of paper, criss-crossed in red scribbles and black arrows, referencing first one part and then another of the design specifications, gathering momentum all the time. Why was he nervous? After all, he knew he was right, and Eli would listen, even if the others were too blinded by prejudice to see the truth. He didn’t care what they thought, only Eli mattered. His mind grew wings and soared, each sentence he spoke was perfect, his argument faultless - they would all recognise the truth of what he said. This was the perfect flash of inspiration, everything came together and he understood it on a new level - this was the feeling he lived for, the sheer energy, the power of the mind.
He was reaching his conclusion and knew it to be irresistible.
“And so, in conclusion, you can see that the structure of the defensive shield has an inherent weakness. It can be struck by a meteor and not sustain a scratch, but if subjected to vibrations of a certain frequency, a frequency not uncommon, the plasma flow will be interrupted, causing a catastrophic failure of all systems, primary and secondary, resulting in depressurisation and total annihilation of the city.”
There was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch into an eternity. All eyes looked at him but he could not tell what they thought. He found, to his great surprise, that he was standing up, and perhaps had been for some time. They stared at him forever, pens held limply in their hands. In this moment of silence, Josiah felt Ammi’s loss more profoundly than he had for years, though he could not explain why. And then the silence ended.
