The Asgard Amplification 6/7
"Hullo," Raj's voice sounded crisp and clear despite the distance between New Mexico and Pasadena.
"Um, hi Raj, it's me," Leonard responded. When he got no response, he pulled the phone back to make sure it was working. "Hello, Raj?"
"Leonard," Raj replied flatly.
"Um, look," Leonard started, "I know this is awkward-"
"Awkward?" Raj queried angrily. "You're not joking! You've treated me like an Untouchable since that morning when. . . ." His voice trailed off as he thought back to the horribly embarrassing scene where the other guys had seen Raj and Penny emerging from Leonard's bedroom.
Silence dominated the phone line for a moment than each man spoke, their tense words unintelligible as they collided. They stopped, then tried again to the same effect.
"Let me, Raj!" Leonard finally shouted over the other man's expostulations.
"Okay," Raj offered tersely.
Leonard closed his eyes and tried to focus on what was important. He had a favour to ask of Raj, one that would mean the world to Jane's project and his own small part in it. But Leonard also had something more at stake. Fraught as his long-distance relationship was with Priya, entangled in her parent's disapproval of their dating, his friendship with Raj had been all but lost thanks to Leonard's outraged response to catching his former girlfriend and his friend doing the walk of shame.
Leonard pinched the bridge of his nose, shoving the glasses right up against the bone of his skull. "Look, Raj, I need to apologize," he began.
"You sure as shooting do, Leonard," Raj interjected before Leonard shushed him.
"Please," he said, "just let me get this out?"
Raj grunted an assent on his end, and Leonard tried again. "I need to apologize, I do apologize. I was really upset to find you'd slept with Penny in my bedroom and I guess I went over the top."
From the other end of the phone, a strangled sound of assent made it clear that Raj was listening and had his own opinions.
"And since you had to put up with Priya and I at your place, I know that's really uncalled for," Leonard continued. "But I was just not up to, well, confronting it until now. So, I'm apologizing."
Raj's breath sounded through the phone line for the longest time before he finally responded. "Okay, I forgive you. But I won't forget and, boy, you have some grovelling to do."
Leonard sighed, his shoulders dropping in a dramatic loss of tension. "Okay, I'll grovel, I'll go kite-fighting with you and we'll team up to beat Sheldon at Wii bowling."
Raj's agreement was enthusiastic. Before he could go on with a longer list of the activities they needed to do, Leonard interrupted.
"But more than planning stuff to do, I have another thing to ask you," Leonard said.
"You're not asking me permission to marry my sister?," Raj asked suspiciously. "Because, if you are, you need to know that I am so not ready for that and, anyway, it's my parents you should ask-"
"No," Leonard hastily interjected, "No! Priya and I aren't anywhere near that, anyway. No, it's to do with the research project here in New Mexico. You know, that one?"
"What? Oh, that one," Raj breathed, his voice rising a notch as he obviously thought back on the women involved. "What about it?"
"We're on the verge of solving the problem, but there's something to do with dark matter within and just outside the solar system that's going to be vital to the solution. And, well, there's nobody who knows this better than you so, can you help?"
Leonard waited for an answer, holding his breath as the moments ticked by.
"Let me get this straight, you want me to help with the project? Jane wants me to help with the project? But I don't have the clearance," Raj said, "won't that count me out?"
Leonard grinned. "I think you'll find things are working out just fine. I'll send you some of the files via the university's secure system. Would you be up for coming out to New Mexico?"
"As long as I don't have to speak to any ladies, I'll be there," Raj promised. "But I might bring a long a few others."
"Um, well, o-kay," Leonard replied warily. "Call me on my cell when you're getting close. I'll give you directions to the research site in town."
"You're on," Raj enthused. Leonard collapsed back on his motel bed in a combination of apprehension and relief.
***
"Surprise! Since I have clearance through NASA, I thought I'd come along, especially since Sheldon can't drive," Howard leaned out the driver's side door as he pulled up beside Jane's original research site in Puente Antiguo proper. Raj bounced out of the back seat and from the front passenger seat, a small harrumph was clearly heard as the engine turned off.
Leonard smiled weakly. "Oh boy," he managed. Sheldon and Howard! A small part of him wished that they'd brought Penny along, but he dismissed that wistful fantasy while Sheldon carefully exited the car, glaring balefully at the desolate, sun-drenched landscape.
"Charming," the taller man sniffed. "I'm only here because I thought someone ought to bring this little zany escapade back to solid scientific ground. I can't believe you've dragged Raj into this!"
Striding past his roommate, Sheldon prepared to take on all comers. But since Jane and Darcy were still at the installation, there was no one he could confront. He visibly deflated as the three others followed him into the building.
"Is this everything?" Sheldon asked disdainfully, striding around the haphazard piles of equipment.
"Hardly," Leonard smirked. "This is their original site, but the new facility's up and ready to get going, just out of town. That is if Raj can help solve the problem."
"Am I cleared to be on the project?" Raj asked worriedly.
"Yup," Leonard confirmed. "Jane put her request through and Agent Coulson said you're good to go."
At this, the astrophysicist bubbled happily. "I've been working on it non-stop since we spoke, Leonard. The data is clear when you cross-reference it with the wormhole signature. The dark matter is a link, almost a bridge of sorts. I've run some simulations that show exactly what I mean."
With a thump, Raj laid the laptop he was clutching down on a table. Sheldon hovered with a disapproving frown on his face, but Howard and Leonard proved a more receptive audience to review his findings.
"I've got to call Jane. She'll be so excited," Leonard said. "Probably someone'll come right away to drag us all out there."
"We're way ahead of you," said a trim, dapper, quiet man in the black suit, who'd opened the door while the rest were focused on the screen. "I'm Agent Coulson and these men must be-?"
Introductions were swiftly performed by a nervous Leonard. All of the friends were nervous, to be honest, except for Sheldon, who only offered the briefest of handshakes for the greeting.
"My men have a comfortable transport ready to bring you out to the installation, so if you'll follow me," the SHIELD agent smoothly chivvied the four men out the door and into a van that Leonard had to admit was far more comfortable than Jane's rough vehicle.
"Gee whiz," Howard commented, as they raced along the road out into the desert, "this must really be big stuff. I've never seen so many security guys and agents in my life and I'm used to the craziness of NASA projects!"
Leonard absently agreed as they headed westward. Raj jittered nervously in his seat, seemingly both eager to get started and dreading the possible encounter with professional women lying ahead. Only Sheldon seemed unmoved.
***
When they arrived at the installation, it was clear that major changes had been underway. The team of construction workers was doubled, reorganizing the wiring to small generators and Jane crouched over a small table just inside the door, doodling in her ever-present notepad. Spotting the SHIELD van, she straightened as if to run up, then stopped, conscious that she'd be inhibiting Raj.
"Maybe we should give him a drink," Howard hissed. The four men got out of the van under Agent Coulson's watchful eye and Leonard shushed the engineer before he might make any more suggestions that might get them into trouble.
"You translate for him, okay?" Leonard asked.
Howard sighed. "Okay," he agreed. Raj brightened at this familiar routine but still gave Jane a wide berth as they came over to her spot.
"I hope you've got something good," she said to the four in general, although her tone seemed to rise in disbelief as she regarded Sheldon standing behind the rest.
"I think Raj does," Leonard commented. "Here, let him show you and Howard will help with any, erm, translations?"
Jane's eyebrows rose at the last, but she soon saw what was meant. Raj's laptop opened and Howard gave a running commentary interrupted every now and then by Raj whispering in his ear. The awkward three-way conversation went better than expected until Sheldon weighed in.
"Really," he sniffed, "I can't believe you're overlooking the obvious, nay, the essential part if you really believe this is going to work."
Leonard cocked his head wearily in Sheldon's direction. "What?" he asked.
"Oh, here, let me," Sheldon said, shouldering his way between the others huddled over the laptop. "Quantum theory is so limited, you know. Your concept of the Einstein-Rosen bridge is interesting, but inadequate. Even allowing for the remarkable level of insight that Leonard showed in bringing in Raj to account for dark matter, you're overlooking the essential."
His fingers flew over the keys. "String theory has clearly shown that the wormhole is best understood as an expression of the 10th dimensional mathematics which I, fortunately, have mastered. After studying your data, Raj's material and making extensive explorations of my own, I believe I have the best explanation and the vital solution."
He leaned back from the keyboard with a satisfied smirk on his face. "Voila! The Cooper Construct: a superstring excitation device that will activate your wormhole from this earthbound hellhole."
"Well, I'll be," Raj breathed, before looking at Jane and covering his mouth.
Leonard and Howard nodded and they both crowded in to look at the schematic on the screen.
"Let me see," Jane demanded, slipping underneath Leonard's shoulder to crouch in front of her screen. Her eyes flashed back and forth over the equations and the simple diagram that Sheldon had created.
"We can do this!" Jane almost shrieked, shooting bright glances at the four men before settling on Sheldon. "I could kiss you!"
Sheldon's eyes widened in dismay. "Oh, don't," he began before she quickly stretched up to touch her lips to his cheek, then grabbed the laptop and raced over to where Agent Coulson and several of the workers stood.
Sheldon sighed as he fastidiously wiped his cheek. "Well, that's done. Can we go home now?"
He didn't understand why his friends said they weren't ready, quite yet.
Part Seven
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