Doctor Who_ Psi-Ence Fiction - Chris Boucher [31]
'It all seems a bit elaborate,' Meg said.
Ralph said, 'A solution looking for a problem in fact.'
'Yeah.' Josh yawned. 'What's up, Doc? Having trouble thinking of ways to spend the budget?' He wandered to the sink and checked the hose link.
'One names this device the Bloody Great Coffin,' he said in a queeny voice.
'May God bless her and all who drine in her.' He turned on the water.
'For God's sake, Josh,' Barry complained, hurrying to turn off the tap.
Water had begun to leak on to the floor below the tank.
'It leaks,' Josh said cheerfully. 'Is it supposed to leak like that? It's an antidrining device, am I right?'
'You did say the BMW of sensory-deprivation tanks?' Ralph mused. 'Looks more like a Skoda to me. A Lada even.'
Meg squatted down to hold her hand under the drips. Blood heat did you say? Not unless you're a frozen turkey'
'It'll work when I've finished rigging it up. I haven't even tightened the joints yet.'
'Small tip, Doc,' Josh said. The smart move is to tighten the joints on the tank before you connect the hose to the water supply, otherwise it's probably going to leak.' He flicked the tap on again and the leak intensified.
'Like that, see what I mean. Dear oh dear.' He turned the tap off again.
'Who was it did you say did this job again?' He clicked his tongue. 'They must have seen you coming. What a bunch of cowboys.'
Barry disconnected the hose from the tap. 'I don't have the benefit of your engineering background,' he said. Then, remembering the scene with Finer, he added, 'Which reminds me, your head of department is making waves.'
'That'll be why this is leaking I expect,' Ralph said, and chuckled at his own witticism. He seemed unaware that nobody else acknowledged the joke.
'What sort of waves?'Josh asked.
'He says you're not working and it's all my fault for wasting your time on this pointless rubbish.'
'Maybe he's got a point,' Ralph said. 'Maybe it is a waste of our time?'
'Pointless rubbish is one of your course options surely," Meg said.
'No it isn't,' Ralph said, 'and stop calling me Shirley'
Josh's face had clouded with anger. 'It's none of his damn business what I do,' he snarled at Barry.
'I'm afraid it is his business.' Barry thought he could see a way to persuade Josh to volunteer for the sensory-deprivation experiments after all. 'I think I may have to drop you from the programme.'
'Because Finer says so?'
Barry shrugged and did his best to look sadly resigned about the whole thing. 'He's got a lot of influence with the senate and with the university council. I don't want to get on his wrong side. Hell, I can't afford to get on his wrong side.'
'Sod that!'Josh raged. 'I'm not some snotty-nosed schoolkid you people can push around. I decide what I'm going to do with my time, not him and not you, not anyone. I decide what happens to me. That arrogant bastard.'
It was a more vehement reaction than Barry had expected. 'Well if you really feel that strongly about it,' he said. 'If you really want to be part of the programme that much, I'm ready to take a chance with you.' He went back to working on the connections for the sensory-deprivation tank. As he stretched between the trestles to check the thermostat housing he said casually, 'Who's going to test-fly this lot for me? Any suggestions? Any volunteers?'
'I'd like to volunteer -'Josh said.
Score! Barry congratulated himself smugly. And that was why he was the lecturer and research fellow, and Josh was the lectured to and researched upon.
'- Chloe,' Josh finished after the briefest of pauses. 'Should be just her barrow. Might cheer her up in fact. Certainly cheer me up to hold the towel while she gets her kit off.'
Barry stopped tinkering with the cables and hoses and looked up at Josh. It seemed to him that the student's slow smile had a sly, almost malicious cast to it. 'You can only volunteer