Three Sevens (edited).

It was midnight in a small town on the south coast of California.
The noise of sirens could be heard from police cars as they chased after a spillout from the local bar.
William Gartshore strode through the street.  The air hung thick above his head, all that could be seen was the end of his cigarette and sparks which blew from it in the wind.  He began to walk home. 
He lived in a dank two bedroom flat in the town centre which was surrounded by shops and a few houses. 
He'd been walking for hours, he shot through Gaitsworth avenue, through a back alley and across the square.  Empty packets and loose leaves of paper flapped against the foot of the buildings. 
It looked like a scene from a film as a signpost creaked eerily in the wind.
His hair was single strands of silver and grey combed back from his brow.  His eyes were weary, yet passionate and had a look of laughter about them. 
As he arrived at the door, he dipped his fingers into his pocket and fumbled inside for his key.  Glancing around, the trees appeared to stand diagonal from a distance as they shook in the blustery winds.  His eyes fell to his feet, at a rock that was wedged in the soil.  He dug his shoe into the ground and attempted to remove it as though he'd never noticed it before.
He was a tall man, slight of figure. One of the most odd things about him were his long hands and the way he cowered his head as he walked.
He opened the door and went inside.  The walls were decorated with white paint, but had gradually become yellow as tar and condesation mixed, then down the walls in a dense liquid.
Pieces of circuit lay across the room, his only ornamental features were a Jupiter globe and several planetarium models.  He had a fascination for taking things apart, mainly televisions and radios.
The television had been left on all day as he hated the silence but now the monotonous drone of the talk show hosts voice hung heavy on his ears.  Dr Derrick Matthews and a group of other doctors giving advice on the best cure for anxiety and depression. "Take a nap, have candle light baths, excersize regular, but most important... remember to think positive." He caught the final thought just in time before he flicked it over to see the football results.
Occasionally, the sound of klaxons could be heard as trains made their way along the track and into the rail yard.  He scrambled into bed and pulled the sheet covers until they almost reached his face.
He was a proffesor of quantum mechanics at the Trapsville university.  They had sent him to work on a project to seek out extra-terrestrial life.  The university wanted the mission to be kept secret, so they hired him and a team of others to study molecular behaviour.
The first experiment was to determine the temperature and speed certain properties became excitable.  These experiments, they hoped, would allow them to predict which planets were likely to store life, either at present or some time in the future.
There had been an argument in the lab between him and one of his colleagues. Will could hardly believe his ears when they told him they would be working together as a team.
James Adams was a meteorologist. He'd had a fascination with the weather even as a child. He and William had grown up on the same estate, even attended the same university for a while before it shut down in 19.. due to lack of funding.  James was against the research. He felt it was a waste of time, especially if they were going with the sole intention of finding life out there. William saw his point and was sympathetic to it. Equally, he felt James had over reacted, especially by going to the press behind the teams back. 

It was the next day and they were in the laboratory.  The room was pale green and had signs and pictures of periodic tables and the like hung precariously on the walls.  They had just added a few missing pieces to their theoretical structure before injecting bacteria into Biosphere Seven.  All three were running when suddenly, the graph from Biosphere Jane started to osscilate wildly. William had never seen anything like it the whole of his career. It should have all added up to the same thing... but it didn't. They had to stand back and reassess the theory. They noticed, as they increased the volume of the biospheres, the temperatures decreased, but the figures differentiated with variant in properties used. This was the part where classical mechanics came to an abrupt halt... the odds of a coin landing on it's side, the ebb and flow of the ocean or the structure of clouds spilling across the sky. These were all examples of chaos, and it was difficult to find stability in something which appeared to have no discipline whatsoever. They did the same test several times, until after a number of experimental observations, they noticed a trend begin to emerge.  They all looked at each other alternately. 

"Better call the Doc" William said suddenly.  They all nodded in agreement and William walked over to the telephone.  "I have the disc... it's complete" he whispered into the reciever. 

The line went dead.  No sooner had he walked away, there was a phone call from the main office.  A recorded voice on the other end telling him to pack up immiediately and go home.  A look of curiosity swept across his face but he questioned no more and informed the rest of the team.  He went out of the lab and made his way across the field, he took a short cut as he usually would through the train station.  As he neared the fence he saw the dark figure of a lady, and as he got closer she turned to look at him.
 
"I shan't keep you waiting long, Mr Gartshore."
She wore a black silk scarf and long coat buttoned up to her neck.  It was an open rail yard and the winds gushed fourth bringing with it spots of rain which thrashed against their faces.  He took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.  She slipped her hand into his undercoat and reached inside for the disc. 
"Now, you take care" she said as she lifted a cigarette up to her mouth, she puffed and it broke into wild swirls which disguised her face. 
"You too" he replied " relieving her of his jacket.
He tipped his hat at her as she turned, then leaned half of his body onto the long umbrella and began to walk.