Thursday, March 16, 2006

Sitting in the library, books at my side. Not a whisper, and yet my companions speak and deride
I'm downstairs in the computer labs doing very important LSB358 Physiology lecture stuff, and I discovered something that I could share. It accurately summarises the unusual flavour of humour that seems to eminate from these biology types.

This is quoted directly from the end of my online lecture from the second week of uni:

"The critical thing for you to grasp at this stage is that if the membrane is selectively permeable to one ion species (i.e. only channels for this ion are open) then the membrane potential will be equal to the equilibrium potential for that ion (which in turn can be calculated from the Nernst equation). If you understand this concept you are well on your way to grasping one of the most complicated aspects of physiology and are once step closer to gaining total enlightenment!"

I personally find it thrilling that I perfectly understand the concept [for once] and would particularly enjoy engineering a situation where I could play with some nerve synapses and exploit this recently inherited knowledge.

It also doesn't hurt that, as an added bonus, I'm one step closer to enlightenment. However, considering my field of study, my enlightenment will most likely be akin to Plato[?] and his statement that "a wise man is he who, through his years of learning and education, admits he knows nothing about the ways of the universe"

Just lettin' y'all know that I'm following a wise man's words and not letting a system get me down, and I'm trying to enjoy my big city life.

[A cookie to whoever can cite where that pop culture reference comes from..]

Just for your information, this message has been brought to you by Day-time Liam, who is yet to work a 5 hour late shift. I'll be sure to keep my trap shut after tonight, unless anything particularly untoward happens..

^_^

EDIT: Ha, lollerskatez

"Excitable tissues are traditionally considered one of the toughest topics in human physiology. For the most part the principles of electricity are not popular with biologists (who may indeed have turned to the life sciences because of a dislike of the physical sciences)."

EDIT 2: Also, because I needed a breath of fresh air in my head, [and because I am a kind and benevolent being] I wrote this up for you all. It didn't feel good to leave this hanging for so long and then work on PHT

^_^; [yes that will come also. Patience please]


SYF
It was as though the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room and replaced with a cold vacuum. What team morale that was left had been snuffed out of existence. Liam could see his own feelings of helplessness being reflected in their faces. A lump of fear was now freezing him to the spot. Inside of him a very small voice was screaming for action, with all the force of a suffocated shrew.

As one, the group stared out of the window at the plume of smoke on the horizon. The only sound in the room was Eve’s sobbing.

Click.

The door opened as Zharra and Bradley sidled in, Zharra pocketing a credit card that she’d used to open the basic lock. Bradley walked closer, eyes fixed on the billowing smoke.

He whistled and muttered to Liam, “damn! Did we do that?”

Liam snapped and grabbed Bradley, seizing him close so that they were eye to eye.

“Don’t you even dare start with me. I’m pretty close to slapping you around right now, just so that I can warm my hands up. Do you hear me?”

Bradley shuffled under Liam’s grip, and quailed under the ferocity of his glare.

“Right. That’s better.” Liam pulled him closer, so that his forehead touched Bradley’s. “We are in a bad way, to put it incredibly lightly. We have possibly just lost our extraction point, lost one of the targets we were supposed to be protecting, down one team member, and our only source of defence is sitting inside the computers in that conference hall that you just came out of.”

Liam knew he was acting on borrowed time here. Zharra would surely be sizing him up for extermination; he had to get his point across, and fast.

“Did I also mention that the police are also now rushing here to investigate a disturbance?”

In the distance, there were the sounds of sirens, but it was difficult to tell if they were getting closer or heading to the source of the smoke.

Liam set Bradley down and straightened his jacket, smoothing and righting the tie that he had ruffled. There was utter silence in the room as he did so, and he could feel all eyes on him as he tried to formulate a plan.

“Zharra, Bradley. I need you to go back into that conference hall and start the power point presentation on the CD inside my bag. It should be titled with today’s date. This will give you time to quietly open up the cases and remove the side arms that Callum so graciously brought for us.”

Bradley nodded, taking a few steps back so that he was under Zharra’s protective wings. They both turned, Zharra giving Liam an acid stare, before quietly entering the conference hall.

“Ryan, I need you to take these two and find a safe place to hole up in. It needs to be on the bottom floor on the east side, near that open patch of grass. You need to be able to exit that safe hole through a medium sized window, not a door. Understood?”

Ryan crisply saluted, “sir, yes sir.”

Liam nodded. “Once you have found it, call for Zharra and Bradley to sneak their way down to you. Things are going to get very hot here, very quickly. Avoid any human contact at all costs, we can’t risk anyone finding us.”

“What will you be doing then, Liam?” Rae asked.

“Finding us some transport,” he replied.

They were standing in a foyer of sorts just at the top of a set of stairs. To one side a, now broken, set of doors lead to private classrooms and chambers. To the other, it was an open corridor that lead to the public restrooms. Directly behind them were the large and impressive doors that lead to the main conference room.

Carefully, with the others waiting behind him, Liam cautiously made his way down the stairs. He found a few slumped bodies with heads that sat at unpleasant angles, the security team had met with an unfortunate demise.

He rolled the nearest man over onto his back, ignoring how the head lolled around completely independent from the body. There were the all-too-familiar puncture wounds in the chest, tense expression, and the obvious look of a man caught by surprise. Over time the expression would fade as the muscles relaxed and embraced death, Liam sincerely wished he wouldn’t give up so easily.

Liam himself would, no doubt, have no appreciation for the subtle nuances and details of physiology that made such things inevitable. He found it helped to keep himself above such things.

“Son of a…these guys were just rent-a-cops…what did they do?” Ryan muttered, dragging Eve along behind him.

Liam answered that by picking up a crushed radio and tossing it aside. Without saying a word, he jumped over the counter and rifled around for a while. He pulled open draws and carefully disturbed papers and folders, so as to keep the contents looking untouched.

He looked up sharply at Ryan, Eve and Rae.

“What are you still doing here?” He demanded, putting a small Samsonite case up on the desk.

“Just wondering what you’re doing.” Ryan muttered, looking at him carefully. “We don’t have time for this, you know.”

“Exactly.” Liam replied sharply, opening the case and policing the spare ammunition clips inside. “You need to get out of sight, right now. Do you want to get shot?”

“Do you?” Rae asked. Her eyes were growing cold again, but Liam ignored it by succumbing to his personal mission momentum.

“I’ll do what it takes.” He answered, ducking out of sight to examine another body.

It was the same as the others, but he was in luck this time. It appeared that the unfortunate fellow had managed to unholster his gun, albeit slightly. His hand still clung to the pistol grip, but it was definitely unstuck from the holster.

Liam had pinned from the start that each of the guards had a regulation Glock side-arm, complete with an innovative holster system. He knew the Australian Police Force, amongst others, had them in use to deter criminals from drawing an officer’s gun on them. The holster’s unique lock and catch system meant that, owing to the correct angle and amount of pressure necessary, only the person wearing the holster would be able to release the weapon. In any other case, Liam would have to play around with the corpses for quite a while before he’d be able to remove the weapon, taking up precious time.

He stood up with the pistol and cocked it, tucking it into his belt.

“It amazes me how you always seem to find a little gun somewhere.” Ryan said, shaking his head slowly in melancholic disbelief.

Liam said nothing and leapt over the counter.

“Come on, Rae.” Ryan said, turning his back to Liam to drag Eve to her feet. “We need to get moving.”

Rae frowned and looked hard at Liam, causing him to falter and freeze under the intensity of her stare.

“You always have to work on your own, don’t you?” She asked, gently. “Even in a team, you’re running off after locking us away? We have to hide and sit on our hands whenever it goes bad. What would happen if you were to die?”

Liam turned slightly, stepping toward the door. He smiled faintly and turned back to her, replying softly;

“Then you wouldn’t be the first to know.”

Swiftly and quietly, he stepped over the last guard and out into the sunlight.
~~~

As always; thoughts, questions, wild speculation?
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