Adrian obliges. "As I mentioned, we'll start with some testing and measurements to see how you work in an industrial setting. Isabella, we'd like to see how your power affects material stress and deformation first, and maybe see how far we can get with stopping an object mid-fracture to enable closer study. We'll run these tests and a few others this week.

"Then it's on to more speculative applications. Your ability is a rare one, so we're going to need a fair bit of testing. But if the preliminary results we saw from your medical testing hold, then one of our long-term goals in the coming two weeks will be to see how your power can speed up manufacturing for parts that require high precision, or for low-quantity custom jobs like rocket fuel injectors and satellite parts. The idea being, if something fairly heavy can be stuck in place for a lengthy work period, we could skip hours of tedious adjustments of clamps and harnesses and even make some otherwise impossible cuts.

"We'll use much simpler components at first, of course. The largest and most complex ones require a bigger facility than we have here, but it should generalize, and may even have applications in medical manufacturing.

"Nora, you'll be observing throughout, and your main role will be to give us more rapid feedback on our tests. First, though, you'll practice identifying some standard deformation structures with Krom Luang and Monica, so you have an idea of what you're looking for. 

"Any questions?"

"Can I have a chair? I have bad balance, and often catch myself with my power if I fall."

"I got you." Ramone departs, and returns shortly after with a scuffed but clean-looking plastic chair with metal legs.

She plops into it sideways.

The rest of the morning proceeds more or less as described, with the interns offered a chance to look at various deformed, sheared, and otherwise damaged parts (under a microscope, in Isabella's case) and then tasked with running a series of tests on reference blocks. They check how much fine control Isabella has over the properties of stopped objects, what kinds of damage an object can undergo or resist while stopped, and how the results of destructive tests differ at the microscopic level. The team members operate the machinery involved, but they're generally good about explaining each step, and they let the interns do some less critical steps themselves as long as they respect the safety rules.

This is... not actually all that interesting, though she keeps herself occupied by asking why they want to do all these things to these objects and also brought a book.

Well, if stopped objects can be cut then that has implications for the week 2 machining plan! And fine control over surface resistance could have interesting implications for etching, stamping, polishing, and a number of other techniques, on top of the "no clamps needed" benefit. They'll run into problems trying to screw a part into a frame if the frame has zero give, but if the surface resistance can be adjusted even a little bit...

Ramone wants to try out the hydraulic press vs a stopped object, but Adrian firmly vetoes that on the grounds that hydraulic presses are expensive. 

There will not be a lot of reading time, as there won't be many long intervals between stopping objects for a test and reviewing and discussing the results. Monica does her best to keep Isabella engaged, even when the discussion otherwise gets too technical to follow; she fields most questions and and explains the function of various machines and tools being used. 

(Nora seems enthralled, and alternates between focused silence and rapid-fire questions for most of the morning.) 

"You could put two things under the hydraulic press and stop it once the one I'm not stopping gives."

"That could work," muses Adrian. "A sacrificial sample might be crushed before we find out how much force you can stop, but it shouldn't damage the press. Sure, let's try it." They stack a couple of steel cubes, each about four inches on a side, and invite Isabella to fix the bottom one in place a little bit above a steel pedestal while a press bears down on them both from above. They also put a steel sheet between the pedestal and the stopped object, just to make sure the pedestal won't be damaged if the bottom cube suddenly un-stops. 

And now it's not going anywhere.

One somewhat squished cube later: "Well, that puts a lower bound on the forces you can hold against," Adrian dryly observes. The others are staring wide-eyed and Ramone is just a bit shy of laughing maniacally.

"What's the number, in case I meet anyone who'll be impressed?"

"About four hundred tons," estimates Krom Luang. 

"Niiiice."

Adrian thinks this is a good time to break for lunch!

According to Monica, there's a small lunchroom in the building, a shared cafeteria in walking distance, and a fair number of eateries within five or ten minutes' drive. "Or you and Nora can feel free to explore by air," she adds. 

"I flew here but I think I want a little more altitude acclimation before I try to do a lot more of it." She'll try the caf.

"Yeah, it takes some getting used to. I'll show you the cafeteria," Monica says. Nora elects to go as well.

The cafeteria, shared with several other labs and light industrial buildings, is a fairly average instance of its kind, with a buffet selection and a couple shelves of fruit, snacks, and packaged meals. 

Bella has unrefined food tastes. She will take the chicken pot pie from the buffet and a banana and a cookie.

Monica and Nora plop down their respective trays shortly thereafter.

"So your twin brother wants to be a stylist? What's his name? Did he help with your outfit?" asks Nora once they're settled. 

"His name is Xander and yeah, this is all him! He went through a book on putting together a magical outfit with me and all I did was report on whether things were better or worse, I have no sense of style."

"What a good brother! Maybe he'd enjoy hearing he's indirectly responsible for four hundred tons plus of stopping power."

"I will definitely tell him when I call him - he's doing art camp, so we have to schedule it."

"Perils of differing interests, I suppose. At least you get to talk now and then. Where's art camp?" 

"Back home in Arizona. It's sleepaway but nobody was comping him an airplane."