Tony looks up from the work and smiles at his visitor. He's surprised that it's Callaghan - he's been... weird since Abigail left.
The incident(s) with the nanobots had added a tense undercurrent to their relationship, but things had been steady for a while, and Tony had been happy to settle back into the comfortable camaraderie of fellow scientists. Then Abigail had vanished.
Tony's not all that skilled at reading people, but he has a hunch that Callaghan isn't handling it well.
But he thinks it's promising that the professor is still interested in Abigail's work. Maybe it'll help him open up.
"I think I might have figured out how to blend the synthetic fibers with the real silk," Tony replies enthusiastically. "The synthetic still isn't anywhere near as good as the real stuff on its own," he picks a wad of slimy, snot-like precipitate out of one of his beakers; the precursor to the synthetic fibers he's been working on, "but when it's integrated the right way with the natural silk, the resulting fiber is just as strong. Almost identical properties, but it uses a lot less real silk, so what the Kin'nal collect will go a lot farther. Abigail's notes helped me figure out the chemical treatment that gets the fibers to bind together."
no subject
The incident(s) with the nanobots had added a tense undercurrent to their relationship, but things had been steady for a while, and Tony had been happy to settle back into the comfortable camaraderie of fellow scientists. Then Abigail had vanished.
Tony's not all that skilled at reading people, but he has a hunch that Callaghan isn't handling it well.
But he thinks it's promising that the professor is still interested in Abigail's work. Maybe it'll help him open up.
"I think I might have figured out how to blend the synthetic fibers with the real silk," Tony replies enthusiastically. "The synthetic still isn't anywhere near as good as the real stuff on its own," he picks a wad of slimy, snot-like precipitate out of one of his beakers; the precursor to the synthetic fibers he's been working on, "but when it's integrated the right way with the natural silk, the resulting fiber is just as strong. Almost identical properties, but it uses a lot less real silk, so what the Kin'nal collect will go a lot farther. Abigail's notes helped me figure out the chemical treatment that gets the fibers to bind together."