Discovery: Proton Field #1

by Laurence Dahners

  “No! What did he say?”

  Vinn kept the grin on his face and lifted an eyebrow “Play a little one-on-one for the answer?” He didn’t want to play H-O-R-S-E, he’d watched long enough to know that she was a phenomenal shot from a distance. However, he felt confident that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with him at ball handling.

  Myr stared at him for a moment, then crooked the corner of her mouth. “And just what do you think you’re going to win, if by some bizarre turn, you’re far better than I expect you to be.”

  “I get to take you out to dinner and you have to give me a second chance.”

  “A second chance?!”

  “Yeah, you know how you’ve already decided I’m a jerk? I know I got off on the wrong foot, but if I win, you have to reset your expectations and let me start over.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, “If you beat me I’d already be pissed at you for doing that!”

  “When I beat you, you’ll need to reset your expectations back to zero in order to give me that second chance.”

  “A second chance for what?”

  Feeling a little embarrassed, Vinn said, “To be… uh, your friend.”

  She narrowed her eyes, “What kind of ‘friend’?”

  “Um, a good friend.”

  “I hope you’re not thinking about anything romantic! You’ve already said how you think I’m, what, ten years older than you are?”

  “I, ah, did the math. I know you’re probably only about five years older.”

  She rolled her eyes, “So, not romantic. You’re just hoping I’ll let you start over from ‘not a jerk’ and let you work your way back up to jerk, right?”

  Vinn winced, “Yeah, when I win, you’ve got to lose the attitude and let me start over like anyone else you’d just met.”

  She rolled her eyes, “When you lose, you’re going to be even further into the jerk column for being such an asshole about those results.” She glanced over toward the other side of the baseline where the ball she’d slapped away was still rolling a little, “Get your ball and we’ll get started.”

  Since Myr had a little wallet in her shorts that she’d used for her bets on her games of H-O-R-S-E, Vinn wasn’t surprised to find she also had a coin to flip. She won the toss and promptly dribbled up to the top of the key. Expecting her to try to advance on the basket before shooting, he didn’t stay on top of her. In retrospect, he shouldn’t have been surprised when she turned and shot from there, after all she’d made plenty of shots from that distance during her last game of H-O-R-S-E. The ball went in without even touching the rim. “Still my ball,” she said.

  Vinn bounced it to her, then pursued her back to the top of the key. This time he stayed right on top of her, but her dribble was tight and low. A quick bounce between her legs came up on her left for a left-handed drive to the basket and an easy layup. Vinn narrowed his eyes and tried to remember if he’d seen her doing any other things left-handed. “Still my ball,” she said again.

  This time, he dribbled the ball up to the top of the key and passed it to her from just a few feet away. When she sank down to a low dribble like she had on the previous shot, he dropped down with her. He had his hands out and was prepared to guard her intensely. As soon as he dropped down, she bounced up and fired an easy jumper over his head. Holy shit! he thought as he turned to watch it drop through the hoop.

  She actually missed her next shot, but when Vinn took possession of the ball she stole it so quickly and so nonchalantly he felt like he suddenly understood the saying “made my head spin.”

  Myr beat him eleven to two. Vinn retrieved the ball and dribbled it back over to where she was toweling herself off. “Holy crap! You’re amazing!” Vinn was a better player than most guys, but she’d certainly schooled him. “You should be playing pro ball!”

  “Please,” she said disgustedly. “They don’t pay those girls squat.”

  “Those girls don’t play as well as you do. Were you a scholarship player in college?”

  Myr snorted, “No. I was a late bloomer. I didn’t look like much of a prospect back in high school.”

  Vinn waved at the courts, “Do you play in one of the leagues?”

  “They don’t have a girls’ league,” she said, as if it were a personal affront, even though Vinn suspected there weren’t enough women who wanted to play to actually make up a league.

  Vinn shrugged, “You could keep up with the guys.”

  “Of course I could,” she said disgustedly. “They just won’t invite me to be on their teams.” She gave Vinn a challenging look, and said, “Now give. What’d the guy from the lab say?”

  Vinn took a few steps to the bench and sat down, thinking she’d sit down beside him. She stayed standing. This left him looking uncomfortably up at her. She stood over him with her arms crossed belligerently. He expected her to start tapping her toe at any moment. Vinn said, “The water was really pure…”

  “You already said that,” Myr said, exasperatedly.

  “And it didn’t have any D2O.”

  Vinn had been expecting her to be at least momentarily confused by his use of the D2O term—like he’d been when the chemistry guy had first started talking to him about heavy water.

  She wasn’t.

  She immediately said, “DHO was present but in reduced amounts?”

  Vinn, used to being the smartest person in the room, frowned in frustration. He’d had to look up DHO to make sure that it was actually present in nature because he hadn’t heard of it before. It turned out that normally it was much more common than D2O, which made sense because the likelihood of two deuterium atoms being in the same water molecule when deuterium was a relatively rare atom should of course be much less likely than the chances that there’d be one deuterium atom in a water molecule. Vinn said, “Yeah, about half as much DHO. How’d you know?”

  “The focus of the field attracts protons,” she said as if it were obvious, “but not when they’re attached to a neutron. D2O doesn’t have any solitary protons so it’s not attracted at all, DHO has half as many protons as H2O, so half as much attraction.” She turned and started walking away.

  “Wait!” Vinn said, jumping to his feet and starting after her, “The oxygen molecule in H2O is loaded with neutrons.”

  “The oxygen molecule just gets pulled along for the ride by the hydrogen,” Myr said back over her shoulder, still walking. “What matters is whether there are any protons that don’t have neutrons with them in the same nucleus.”

  “Hang on!” Vinn said, sounding desperate even to himself. “How do you know this?!”

  “It’s the only thing that fits our results this afternoon. If you can think of another explanation, send me an email.”

  Vinn ran a few steps to catch up to her. For a moment he reached to grab her elbow, but thought better of it. He said, “How in the hell is the field attracting protons?”

  Still walking, she didn’t even glance over at him. “I don’t know, I’m just making observations based on the data. You’re the hoity-toity theoretician Miller hired to figure that kind of crap out.” Though she still didn’t turn her head his way, he could see the corners of her eyes crinkle and a little grin turn up the corners of her mouth, “Time to earn your salary.” She pulled open the door to go out.

  “Wait, dammit!” He said grabbing the door, “Let me buy you dinner and we can talk this through.”

  Now she did turn her head to face him. With a big smile, she said, “You lost the game, remember? Therefore, you’re still an asshole and I don’t go to dinner with assholes.” She stepped through and let the door close behind her.

  Vinn stood staring at the door, incredibly frustrated, angry, and yet… somehow even more attracted to her. Maybe I’m a proton, he thought.

  ***֎֎֍֍***

  Carol picked up a couple of hours of overtime Friday, so her seven AM to seven PM shift didn’t get over until nine. When she got home she was pleased to see Myr’s car in the driveway. She hated
for Connor to be home alone even though he was very understanding about the need for her to earn the extra cash. She heard them in Connor’s room so she headed that way. Connor had the condo’s master bedroom. It had more room and it was on the main floor which was good for his wheelchair. Carol paused in the doorway and saw that Myr was most of the way done getting Connor into bed.

  “So, can you see how the field wouldn’t attract deuterium?” Myr said to Connor.

  In a puzzled tone, Connor said, “Because there’s a neutron in deuterium’s nucleus?” Carol realized they must be talking about Myr’s research.

  “Uh-huh. So there wasn’t any true heavy water because D2O has two deuterium molecules and no plain hydrogen. Also there was half as much DHO as there is normally, ‘cause DHO only has one hydrogen molecule.”

  “So,” Connor said a little plaintively, echoing the question in Carol’s mind, “what’s it all mean?”

  “We don’t know yet,” Myr said, sounding like someone wondering what was inside a Christmas present with particularly pretty wrapping paper. “But when we figure it out, I think it’s going to be big.”

  Connor got turned just enough to see Carol standing in the door fondly watching them. “Mom! Myr’s had another big breakthrough with her static suppression field!”

  Myr arched an eyebrow, “I’m thinking I should call this new version of the field a ‘proton field.’ ”

  “That’s nice honey,” Carol said to Connor, crossing the room to help Myr reposition Connor in the bed. Giving Myr a smile, but not wanting to sound too excited about more time being wasted on Myr’s fields, Carol said, “Thanks for coming by to help out.”

  Myr gave her a concerned look, “I’ve been wondering if I shouldn’t move back in here. That way I could help the monkey boy every night.”

  Carol patted her on the shoulder, “No, you’re young and have your own life to live. You can’t be living at home with your mom.” She glanced fondly down at Connor, “We’ve got this, right?”

  “Sure.” Connor said, glancing at his sister, “Besides, we can’t have her staggering in here after all those late-night parties and hot dates, waking us up and making us jealous. And,” he lowered his voice to a stage whisper, “I can’t afford to have her see me leaping out the window to go do my superhero stuff.”

  “That’s right,” Carol whispered back, giving Connor a fake punch to the shoulder. She turned to Myr, “But I do appreciate you living nearby and helping out when you can.” Which is most nights, and every night I work late, Carol thought. The money Myr’d been depositing into Carol’s account was letting Carol build up a reserve against Connor’s desolate future as well.

  ***֎֎֍֍***

  Monday morning, Aleks assumed his John Smith persona as he entered the Dari Dine. He looked around without seeing Joe Barker yet, so he picked a booth in the very back, seating himself so he could see the whole diner. Aleks liked the Dari Dine because they had a great breakfast, so they went to the place whenever he and Joe met before Joe went to work.

  By the time Joe arrived, Aleks’d already placed an order for bacon, eggs, hash-browns, and rye toast. When Joe sat down, the waitress was away and there still wasn’t anybody in the neighboring booths or tables, so Aleks got right down to business. “What’s new?”

  Joe said, “Apparently they’ve achieved a significant increase in the efficiency of their TEG chips.” As he spoke Joe pulled a Dari Dine napkin out of his pocket and laid it on the table. Presumably, he’d taken the napkin during one of their earlier visits. Joe picked up the napkin under his fork and carefully slid it into his pocket, presumably for the next time.

  Aleks knew that one of Joe’s tiny Ziploc bags containing a flash drive would be tucked inside the folds of the napkin Joe’d laid down. Aleks didn’t reach for it. He said, “Remind me what TEG is.”

  “Thermo Electric Generation. Solid-state chips that generate electricity from a heat differential. They’ve been around for a long time, but they’ve always been pretty inefficient. I get the impression from something Miller said that this one works better because it tolerates really high heat on the hot side of the chip.”

  “Oh,” Aleks said dismissively, partly because he didn’t see what use TEG would be, but also because he wanted to discount the value of any information provided in order to bid down its cost. Aleks paused the conversation because the waitress had arrived to take Joe’s order. When the waitress departed, Aleks said, “My people say the stuff you’ve been sending us about static suppression has been pretty useless. First of all, though they can see the settings on your last picture of the equipment, they can’t tell how it’s wired up. Second of all, they can see that at least some of the wires are running into that cylinder which is presumably where any magic happens. We need to know what’s in the cylinder.”

  “Yeah,” Joe said, “that… I’m pretty sure not even Miller knows what’s in the cylinder. I heard him talking to her once about how at least he should have some idea what’s in there, but she’s really paranoid about telling people.”

  “Come on, she’s got to have some design drawings on her computer or something.”

  Joe shook his head, “She doesn’t keep any files on the computer in her lab or office. I think she keeps them all on some kind of external drive she carries around with her. I don’t have any way to access that.”

  Aleks wondered whether his bosses would think it was worthwhile enough to put together a team to break into Sevii’s apartment. Probably not. “Anything else?”

  “There’s been a lot of excitement on the static suppression team. I’m assuming some kind of a breakthrough. Also, I heard them talking about the gamma plates. You know, the ones that convert gamma rays into electricity. They think they can sell them as a source of energy for solar satellites. If they put them on the back of the solar cells the satellites carry, the regular cells will make electricity from sunlight, and the gamma plates will make electricity out of the gamma rays after they pass through the solar cells.”

  Aleks felt pretty disappointed. As usual, it seemed like everything Joe brought him was pretty esoteric. Aleks’ employers wanted something more ordinary like Miller’s high-efficiency power inverters. Something that’d take over the market and could be sold by the millions, not something exotically expensive that’d only go on a few satellites a year.

  When Joe set down his orange juice, it pushed the napkin with the flash drive over closer to Aleks. After a minute, Aleks picked up the napkin and wiped his lips. He lowered the napkin into his lap where he wadded it up and stuffed it in his pocket. Looking at his cell phone’s screen he evinced a look of surprise—just in case someone might be watching. He said, “Gotta go.”

  After paying the bill, Joe took the pack of cigarettes Aleks left on the table.

  ***֎֎֍֍***

  Arlan finished his first meeting early on Monday. Dying to know what Myr and Vinn had been finding, he went up the stairs to Myr’s lab. The door was closed—which didn’t surprise him since it almost always was—but no one answered a knock. He twisted the knob and found it locked.

  Miller stared in surprise, thinking about how, if he’d had a finding like they’d had on Friday, he’d probably have spent most of the weekend in the lab and come in early on Monday, trying to explore it further. He knew Myr wasn’t lazy, he’d found her in the lab working extended hours on a lot of occasions in the past. For a moment he worried that something might have happened to her, then reassured himself that it was much too early to be worrying about that.

  Though, he thought, if something bad’s happened to her and no one can reproduce the setup that generated her field, it could be a huge loss for mankind.

  And a big loss for her mom too, he reminded himself.

  Miller thought about going to his office, but instead he decided to visit Vinn Saigler. He’d just as well see how the young math genius was settling in.

  When Miller arrived at Vinn’s office the door was wide open. That was one difference
between Vinn and Myr. Miller poked his head around the corner, “Hey Vinn, seen Myr yet this morning?”

  Vinn stood up, shaking his head no.

  Miller got the distinct impression that Vinn was concerned Miller might be mad about her showing up to work late. “It’s no problem; she’s put in lots of long hours on other days. I was just hoping to talk to you guys about your findings from Friday. Do you know when she’s going to be here?”

  Vinn shook his head again, “She’s not exactly Chatty Cathy.”

  “And you guys didn’t do any more work over the weekend?”

  Vinn slowly shook his head one more time.

  Miller felt disappointed. He’d thought they were getting along much better when he’d talked to them Friday afternoon. Certainly, there was nothing like some amazing results to bring a team together. Maybe she’s decided she doesn’t want to share her findings? Miller thought, then chided himself for paranoid thinking. But he couldn’t help picturing maintenance finally opening the door to Myr’s lab and finding all her special equipment gone and a resignation note on the desk. Suppressing those concerns, Miller gave Vinn a smile and said, “Well then, how about if you and I talk about some of those amazing findings you guys made on Friday?”

  They sat down in Vinn’s little office and Vinn said quietly, “We tested hydrogen after you left.”

  Miller smiled, “Yeah? What’d you find?”

  Vinn looked a little reticent. He said, “First we tested some other substances that would or wouldn’t have hydrogen in them.” He looked at Miller, “You know, to be sure your hypothesis held up?”

  Miller nodded, “Did it?”

  Vinn nodded, “Yeah. Actually, Myr did that while I went out and picked up a bottle of hydrogen from Praxair. By the time I came back, she’d gotten some guy named Wilms to blow her a little glass globe with valves and fittings so we could put hydrogen in it under a bit of pressure.”