Spruance Del Curtin had been scared when he reported to Dr. Doorne, although he wasn’t going to let anyone see it. Now, knowing that he wouldn’t be fired, he should’ve been relieved.
Except he wasn’t. Dr. Doorne was presenting this new assignment as a promotion: he was going to get to participate in the actual analysis of the data, right along with the actual scientists. While the rest of his class was working with old data sets with known answers, he was actually going to get to see and participate in science in progress. Which meant that Dr. Doorne was serious about that co-authorship.
Except everything about it left him feeling very strange. In particular, this business of liaisoning with IT, which sounded very much like he was going to be working down there at least part of the time. Just how was it going to be arranged? Was he going to be Dr. Doorne’s representative when she needed something out of IT, or was he going to be working down there as well as in her office?
If it was the latter, he could find himself with two bosses on the same project. He had some experience with that, especially when Shepardsport Pirate Radio had first been set up and the lines of command weren’t as clear as they’d become. It wasn’t exactly a situation he was eager to repeat — but neither was he eager to blow what could be a very good chance to get noticed in a good way by higher-ups.
Definitely he was going to have to keep an eye on things.