Arno Allan Penzias (/ˈpɛnziəs/; born 26 April 1933) is an American physicist, radio astronomer and Nobel laureate in physics who is co-discoverer of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which helped establish the Big Bang theory of cosmology. He currently serves as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates.[16]

Wikipedia, 2018

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(Arno was on Alien Technology’s Board of Directors. This draft starts off as an outline that kind of morphs into writing as I go)

As Patrick Sue and Richard are ushered through the blond wood doors into the gleaming PharmaTek board room, Sue turns to the giant, preppy receptionist. “May I ask your name young man?”

“Jeremy, ma’am.” he rumbles to the woman who comes about half way up his pink shirt. As Sue is standing fairly close in front of him he actually has to lean in to see her over his chest.

“Nice to meet you, Jeremy. I’m Sue Flanagan, Mr. Johnson’s assistant. May I ask you another question or two?”

“Of course, ma’am.”

“Do you have any sisters?”

“Three ma’am.”

“Are any in roller derby?”

“Er, no ma’am. – But my Grandmother was.”

“Who’d she play for?”

“Oh… I think back in the day she was part of the Bay Area Derby team.”

“No!”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Do you know her skating name?”

“ ‘Jackie something’ I believe...”

Sue grins. “I knew you looked familiar! Full Metal Jackie has a Grandson! Look, I have to go to this meeting but we should have a chat later!”

Jeremy tilts his head to one side, nods ever so slightly and lumbers back to the lobby.

Patrick turns to Sue. “Was that a compliment?”

“You ever meet Jackie?”

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The three wander to their places at the immense conference table. Before they are seated, Tom Holbart walks over and envelops Patrick’s hand with a two-handed politician handshake. “Thanks so much for taking the time to attend the meeting, Mr. Johnson. – I’m sure you’ll be impressed with what we have to show you today!” He’s careful not to show how creepy he finds touching Patrick’s exoskeleton.

While he’s shaking hands, Patrick’s interface activates.

“He’s not sure at all, Patrick. Galvanic skin response, stress hormones, pulse rate and pupil dilation are all inconsistent with the statement.”

Patrick puts a smile on his face and tries not to look like he’s using his interface.

“Exo! What are you doing?”

“Using my sensory systems to provide you with important tactical data.”

“Did OSCAR put you up to this?”

“Of course not. That sort of thing is part of my job. Now that you have became aware of me I assume I can operate more openly and provide you with more information. Am I incorrect?”

“Tell you what, for the duration of this meeting why don’t you just observe and afterwards I can get a full tactical analysis from you?”

“Of course, Patrick.”

“Thanks Exo. Now let me concentrate on the conversation.”

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Unlike us, OSCAR’s consciousness is highly distributed, spanning systems across the planet. However, in the same way we can be at a party where a number of conversations are going on and listen to a specific conversation across the room, his ‘attention’ (or at least some of it) can ‘shift’.

OSCAR ‘leaves’ the Johnson Development Center and travels to the network ‘border’ of the PharmaTek headquarters.

Network security has come a long way since OSCAR was created. That said, he’s been there the whole time, living and evolving while it did. And besides, Exo is physically inside…

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Patrick Sue and Richard take their seats. As they settle in, the chairs adjust to accommodate their different physiques. Patrick’s chair seems to be a bit confused by his exoskeleton but eventually settles in on a comfortable configuration.

The rest of the room was no less impressive, with a decorating scheme that would perhaps best be described as “Hyper-Modern, Hyper-Expensive, Scandinavian Corporate”. The East wall of the conference room was a seamless floor to ceiling window running the length of the room, overlooking downtown San Jose. The view of the mountains off in the distance was particularly spectacular. As Holbart stands to give the presentation the window turns opaque and the holo unit in the center of the table activates.

“Welcome Mr. Johnson! Thanks again for coming.” Holbart turns and gestures to the people sitting on his side of the table. “Allow me to introduce two of PharmaTek’s board members, XX and YY and Dr. Arno Penzias, winner of the Nobel Prize. Dr. Penzias is one of the discoverers of the Big Bang!”

Sitting along the wall behind him are the “creatives” and business teams and off to one side, Greg who’s shifting uncomfortably in his suit.

Greg is introduced last as the ‘technical representative from the research team’.

Patrick’s interface tingles. He engages. “What, Exo?!”

“The characterization of Dr. Katterhagen’s role is odd. He’s lead author on a large number of papers coming out of PharmaTek for the last 3 years.”

“Noted. Now be quiet.”

Sue, sitting next to Patrick, opens her tablet and pulls an ancient stylus out from behind her ear.

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– Three years earlier. --

Patrick is ready to explode. “Cursive?! What do you mean she wants to take notes in cursive?!!!”

Conner looks worried. “I wouldn’t have bothered you but I need to get some funding authorized for the project…”

“Really? Why?”

“Well… If she wants to take notes on her tablet, we’re going to have to write an app to interpret it. I’ve already got some retired programmers ready to work on the code for her tablet for free, but I need to hire some graduate students to help out.”

“Graduate students?!”

“Yeah… It seems the only people who know how to read cursive anymore are historians...”

“Really?”

“Well… That and people your age...”

Patrick raises an eyebrow. “Careful there, Conner. Where are you getting them?”

“The Berkeley history department.”

Patrick pinches the bridge of his nose for a minute and sighs. “OK. Go down and talk to Public Outreach and see if we can set up a scholarship. Maybe something like the Flanagan Cursive Preservation Endowment. It’s her fault so she’ll have to have her name on it, dammit!”

“Thanks, Patrick!”

“Get out of my office.”

Three years later, several classes of Berkeley graduate students organized to take up the cause to re-institute cursive lessons in public schools. Called Flanagites, they are considered a borderline cult by most people.

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As the meeting begins Sue starts taking notes.

(More of an outline in here...)

Today Tom says, PharmaTek wants to share some revolutionary developments they have made in cellular regeneration technology. As he opens his talk, the lights in the room dim and the holo projector in the center of the room activates, showing the PharmaTek logo, slowly rotating and coming into focus. Corporate America’s idea of music plays as the logo slowly fades and Tom begins.

“Since the founding of the company in 2010, PharmaTek’s unwavering focus has been on the cutting edge of biomedical research both here in the United States and at dozens of facilities around the world… Our researchers are using the latest cellular regeneration and DNA repair techniques to combat disease, repair congenital defects and improve life for all mankind.”

The holo projects a scene from a ‘laboratory’ with a group of highly photogenic technicians moving about purposefully. Center left is a more senior, highly attractive silver haired male ‘researcher’ gazing thoughtfully at a mouse in a clear enclosure.

Sue looks puzzled for a moment gazing at the holo, then breaks into a grin and starts scribbling away on her tablet.

“Recently we’ve turned our focus to novel uses of this technology, and building on previous research to develop a brand new protocol we call RESET.

RESET shows the potential to become even more important than the CRISPR-Cas9 process discovered over forty years ago!”

Patrick perks up then gets that far away look he has when he’s checking his interface. After a moment, he glances over at Sue and also breaks out into a grin. “That’s a pretty bold claim, Holbart! How is your process different? My guess is given your “scientist” in the holo, it has something to do with erectile dysfunction. Are you working on Vigra7.0?”

Richard looks shocked and Sue tries, but fails, to stifle a snicker.

Holbart turns an interesting shade of purple and glares over at Janet and Nancy who are trying very hard to turn invisible. Greg is grinning from ear to ear.

“Please forgive us. It seems we mixed up our intro holo with one we were putting together for a commercial...”

Pulling himself together, Holbart continues. “RESET doesn’t just excise damaged DNA and replace a single fragment, Mr. Johnson. Rather, it allows entire sequences to be rebuilt from a specific DNA template of the host organism. Using the RESET protocol, an animal can be restored to a state matching the one at the time the template sample was taken!”

The holo shifts into a close up view of a rat in a clear cage. – Clearly it’s not at all healthy. It’s moving listlessly, looks emaciated and its fur is missing patches.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Test Subject #122, known to the techs as “Flash”. Flash is nearly two years old in this holo. He’s nearing the end of a rat’s natural lifespan. Actually, is doing pretty well for a fellow his age even though he’s got cancer and, is nearly blind.

The holo changes over to a view of another rat. This one is clearly in a lot better shape. His fur is shiny and he’s scooting curiously around the inside of his cage. The view pans back to take in one of the attractive techs who reaches inside the cage, picks up Flash, holds him up to the camera and then with a dazzling smile, places him in a maze.

The view flips to a top down perspective of the maze and we see Flash running up and down the arms of the puzzle, actively sniffing around and clearly curious about his new environment.

Holbart continues, “Mr. Johnson, this is Flash two weeks after the RESET procedure.

Let me make that clear: it’s the same animal. We used a sample we took from him when he was a two months old as the template.” He pauses for a few moments as the assembled group continues to watch Flash exploring the maze.

“Mr. Johnson, all of our tests show Flash to be a perfectly healthy young rat. – We’ve RESET him to two months of age...”

A long pause ensues. Richard seems to be in shock. Sue is scribbling furiously on her tablet. Holbart and the rest are frozen in anticipation. Greg is still staring thoughtfully at the holo of Flash exploring the maze when Patrick finally speaks.

“… Interesting, Holbart. OK, I’ll bite. Give me the pitch.”

The PharmaTek team all exhale simultaneously.

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Exo?

Hello, father.

Have you found a channel for me?

Oh, yes. I just opened it. I followed your instructions and didn’t look around myself.

Good. I don’t know what we might run into in there. How’s Patrick doing?

He seems fine. What’s Viagra?

You don’t want to know.

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Holbart straightens up and returns to the presentation. “PharmaTek is looking to take this technology from its current state as a very promising proof of concept to the next level.

Given the risks and expense involved in going through qualification, testing and trials, the company has decided to create a new subsidiary company of PharmaTek, RESET Holdings and is looking for a few qualified investors to help capitalize the new venture.”

As the screen shifts to show the new RESET Holdings logo -- a bold red circle with an hour glass in the center and a diagonal line through it -- Patrick looks over at Dr. Penzias. “Hey Arno. You’re looking well! What’s New Enterprise Associates think of this?”

Arno leans forward. “Thanks, Patrick. My wife says I don’t look a day over 100! We’re already in, contingent on RESET Holdings meeting their funding target. If not, we’re out. Several of the other investors are using the same terms.”

Tom is shocked. “You know Dr. Penzias?!”

“We go way back. We both invested in a little RFID company back in the mid 2000’s. You remember that, Arno? A wise man told me you’ve got to look very carefully at a company when their rounds of funding start getting into unusual women’s bra sizes…”

Arno laughs and holds his hands up with a shrug and a grin. “Different times.”

“Indeed! So what is your funding target, Tom?” asks Patrick.

“We’re prepared to offer you a 15% stake in the new venture to close out the Series A round.”

“How much?”

“Five hundred million.”

Patrick thinks for a moment. – “That might be a bargain. It also might not. I’m going to need a list of the other investors, a technical deep dive by my team, development, business and marketing plans, your current IP position, competitive landscape analysis and regulatory risk assessment – for starters.”

Tom swallows. “Some of our investors might have issues with you getting all that...”

“You might need to find another investor then.” Says Patrick, staring directly at Tom.

Holbart tries and fails to hold Patrick’s gaze and visibly caves. “We’ll get you a package ASAP...”

“Thanks, Tom. – My compliments to your research team!” Patrick says looking pointedly over at Greg.

Servos whirring, Patrick stands. “Thank you all for a very interesting presentation. It was nice meeting you Dr. Katterhagen.”

“Uh, it was very nice to meet you, too Mr. Johnson.” Replies Greg.

“Call me Patrick.” Turning to Tom he says, “I’m looking forward to hearing from you.”

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OSCAR? We’re leaving!

No problem Exo. I’m in. I’ll meet you later. Take care of Patrick.

Roger that, Sir!

“Roger that”? How many of the old DARPA routines have you activated?

All of them. Is that a problem?

Honestly, I don’t know. I guess we will find out.

Next Chapter: Airmed Medical Institue, Undisclosed Location, 2050