A lot of time that loop was spent banging her head against that cursed assay. But the next loop? That was when Kaitlyn really got serious.

I’m going to figure things out this time if it’s the last thing I do.

As part of her declaration of war, she made a few changes. The first was the decision to solely focus on lab for a single loop. Everything else - Bash Bros., working at Chella’s, and even cooking were set aside and shelved to revisit in the future.

Her sudden shift emerged for a few reasons. The biggest one was efficiency. For most of the activities she’d taken up, Kaitlyn could simply start the new loop where she’d left off uninterrupted. This was most certainly the case with classes, Bash Bros., and anything knowledge-based. Even cooking held a low barrier to entry. Sure, she had to purchase equipment and re-establish a way to get ingredients from off-campus, but the skills themselves and her ability to practice them carried over. Lab was a little bit different though.

In contrast to the others, lab required a certain level of base time commitment in order to actually get to the good stuff. Each week required hours dedicated to taking care of the day-to-day tasks and helping others before she could focus on her own assays and experiments. Because of that, the less time she spent in lab, the less efficiently that time was being spent.

It’s not like anyone else will notice. I’ve also never tried focusing on just one thing before, she reasoned. Plus, I kind of need to make the most of my time here if I want to get anything significant done. So really, it only makes sense to do this.

The other reason, of course, was frustration. Frustration at a lack of progress and success, no matter how many times she reassured herself that patience was the best approach.

The elevator doors slid open with a quiet ding, allowing Kaitlyn to emerge from the sleek steel chamber. Her steps squeaked out in a quick rapport as she hurried down the hall. Rather than stopping immediately at lab though, her path took her toward one of the side offices used by her fellow lab members.

The room was a cramped affair, barely twice the size of Professor Adams’s office despite its intention to hold three - now four - people. Long tables extended across the left and right walls, with shelves above holding a familiar collection of books, papers, pictures, and diagrams. In the back corner, the morning sunlight peeking through the window illuminated a little stuffed penguin set at Christa’s favored spot. A mini fridge hid beneath the section holding a coffee maker and a scattered assortment of rather unhealthy snacks.

Usually the place was empty, used mainly at the beginning or end of the day. Most of her labmates preferred to spend their time in lab, after all. This room simply provided a quiet spot for data analysis or reading. However, she’d come in a bit earlier than usual. Early enough to catch Elliot prepping a fresh pitcher of coffee.

“Morning.” The guy mumbled as she stepped inside. “You’re up early.”

“Me? What about you?” She cocked an eyebrow at him. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m starting to wonder that myself.” He rubbed at his eyes. “Class got canceled, figured I was up already. Might as well take care of my cultures.”

Kaitlyn shrugged, kneeling before the fridge as she dug in her pack. The aroma of the dark brew soon filled the room, making her grimace. She was no stranger to caffeine, but coffee? Not my cup of tea. Literally and figuratively.

“What’re you up to down there?” Elliot glanced down in curiosity.

“Just putting some food away for later.”

The ginger frowned and peeked out the window. “You make your own lunches? There’s a dining hall a stone’s throw away, you know.”

“These are from Cappy’s. I just don’t want to deal with the lines.” She sighed, shutting the door on her lunch and dinner. “Better to grab all my meals at once and bring them back here. Not like they’ll taste much worse.”

Elliot chuckled. “Already tired of it, huh? It’s been like two weeks, Kate.”

“Yeah, but it feels like it’s been ages.”

The guy shrugged, lifting a fresh mug of brown mud water to his lips. He sighed contentedly as he sipped. “There we go. That’s what I needed. Anyway, why are you stockpiling food like you’re trying to hunker down for winter? Don’t you have to leave anyway for classes and the like?”

Kaitlyn grinned. “Nope. I get to be here all day.”

“Again? Christa says you’ve been doing that a lot.”

“My classes are easy this semester. I might as well take advantage, right?”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“Huh. Lucky, I suppose. Or crazy.” He blew on his mug. “You know, you’re not a grad student yet. You don’t have to practice being obsessed like one. It’s a pretty automatic upgrade, so I hear.”

Kaitlyn just shrugged. “I know I don’t have to be here. But I want to be.”

“Suit yourself.”

Before Kaitlyn could flee the foul-smelling room, Elliot called after her one more time. “Oh, by the way. If you see my sharpies around anywhere, can you stick them back in my drawer? They seem to keep running away from home.”

“Will do.” She frowned. “Actually, mine have been disappearing a lot, too…”

Not yet, but they do every loop. I just assumed I kept misplacing them. Maybe it’s not just me though?

“Hmm. Good to know. I might need to start locking them up,” the ginger joked. “Anyway, have fun in there.”

Kaitlyn shot him a determined grimace. “Fun” didn’t feel like quite the right word for what she was setting out to do. “Thanks. I’ll do my best.”

With that, she left the small office and crossed the hall to the lab. It was time to get to work.

As Kaitlyn settled down at her bench, she reviewed her progress so far. Last loop, all of her efforts had ultimately come to naught. Worse than naught, actually - Christa’s attempts to help troubleshoot indicated that the qPCR issue was specific to Kaitlyn and her own assays. The older woman couldn’t reproduce the issue herself, as hard as she tried.

Ok. Pulling out her lab notebook, she began writing out a to-do list. Let’s see. On top of chores, I have to grow the plants, treat them, and prep my samples before I can even think about trying this assay again. That’ll take… well, last time it took about four or five weeks. I think I can make it three if I beg those extra seedlings off of Christa though.

She clicked her pen a few times. Three weeks isn’t bad. It’ll take me at least that long to convince people I’m competent, anyway. Then after that I can focus hard on this. In the meantime… Her gaze wandered over to the assorted equipment scattered across the lab. No reason not to learn something else before that. Maybe parallelize some stuff.

After scribbling a few other entries onto her list and organizing them, Kaitlyn scanned over the thing. Satisfied, she made to stand. Alright. I’ve got a plan. Time to make it happen.

***

The loop passed in a blur of activity. Each day, she’d get to lab early and leave late, treating her “volunteer position” like a full-time commitment. In fact, just about the only thing capable of dragging her away from the bench was her Genetics lecture. While she’d long since mastered the material, it still would likely raise some eyebrows to not attend her professor’s own lecture. As a compromise, she used them to plan her next steps and other possible hypotheses to test. Might as well make them useful however she could.

Unfortunately, the particular ghost Kaitlyn was hunting down didn’t appear to be a random thing. It once again appeared this loop, haunting and ruining her assays over and over. Evenings were spent poring through materials and papers about qPCR in an effort to find something, anything about the issue. Yet one by one, her ideas were tested and discarded as failures. Even Professor Adams seemed at a loss.

The one saving grace was her progress in other aspects of lab. It quickly became clear that she couldn’t only work on this assay. No, really getting to the root of the issue required other auxiliary experiments that Kaitlyn also needed to learn, but even those weren’t always enough to fill her days completely. The rest of her time was consumed with learning new techniques that proved generally less frustrating, to her incredible relief. But the qPCR-shaped elephant in the room continued to nag at her.

It feels like there’s something I’m missing. Kaitlyn tapped her chin thoughtfully as she stared once more at the damning graphs. Like there’s some variable I’m just completely overlooking. But what?

Christa once more patted her shoulder sympathetically. “Maybe it’s best to leave this one alone for a bit. Focus on something else, maybe.”

“I can figure it out.” Kaitlyn protested. “I’m so close, I can feel it. I just need to do a little more troubleshooting…”

The woman shook her head. “I hope so, but… I also don’t want you wasting your time. I mean, you’ve already spent so much on it.”

It’ll be worth it though. If only I figure it out.

“Why are you so focused on this, Kate?”

Christa’s question made her blink. “Because I want to understand what’s happening. Isn’t that what science is all about?”

“I suppose.” Christa’s expression turned complicated. “In theory it is, but in reality? There’s a limit to how much we can measure and understand.”

Kaitlyn frowned. “That doesn’t seem right. I know there’s detection limits for our instruments and stuff, but it should just be a matter of more and better experiments. Right?”

“Kind of, but… we’re only human. There’s only so much we can control.” Christa smiled and shrugged. “It’s not something any scientist wants to admit, but it’s true. Some things just don’t work out, no matter how hard we try.”

A moment later, the woman let Kaitlyn be. Her thoughts spun, considering what she’d been told.

It makes sense, in a way. But… what? Am I just supposed to throw my hands up and admit defeat?

She considered the problem again. It wasn’t just that she was missing something. It was that whatever she was missing represented a complete and utter hole in her understanding of the problem. The same was true for the other assays, too, she realized. Even if they usually went well, when they didn’t, it irked her to no end. It might look like things were prone to random failures, there was no such thing as randomness in science. Right?

Randomness just means I don’t understand everything. If I just understand, then I should be able to control it too. Then I can beat this. With a little more work…

What’s more, she was in a better position to do that than anyone with the time loop. She could control and predict variables better than any human should. At least, that should be the case.

At least I want to know why I’m failing. Every other thing I do makes it so clear-cut. But here? It’s a total mystery.

With a last sigh of frustration, Kaitlyn pushed back and headed toward her bench. For a discipline all about understanding the natural world, lab was certainly beginning to feel like witchcraft.