Discovery: Proton Field #1

by Laurence Dahners

  Vinn leaned away from her like she’d said something horrific, “That’d be a bummer. You need to work on your positive thinking.”

  Miller laughed, “That would be a bummer. You guys working on anything else at present?”

  Myr said, “I’ve been working on a design for fusion based steam generation. I bought some chevron edged lead bricks to build a lead castle for radiation protection. Using that, I’ve been doing some testing by generating a focus in the middle of the castle and releasing tiny, tiny amounts of hydrogen in the vicinity.” She glanced at Miller, “Which is harder than it sounds because the focus tries to suck hydrogen right out of tubing.”

  With concern, Miller said, “Are you sure you should be doing that without someone who has a little more experience with fusion and radiation available to help?”

  Myr waved a hand expressing her confidence, “I only let microgram quantities of hydrogen even get close to the focus, so even if every pair of protons got pulled out of the feed and underwent proton-proton fusion, only about 50 kilojoules of energy is released. Something like the amount of power in a pea sized drop of gasoline.”

  “But the radiation…”

  “Blocked by the lead castle,” Myr interrupted. “No gamma radiation detectable outside the castle. Also, it’s not making any neutrons according to our detector.” She spoke to her AI and some diagrams appeared up on the screens in the room. Waving at them she said, “I’m getting ready to submit these designs for a first trial at a steam generator. Let me know if you guys have any ideas for changes.” She started pointing to items on the diagram including the stainless-steel chamber, a hydrogen feed, some embedded sensors, the water injection port and the steam exhaust. “Then, this layer here is lead to make sure no gamma escapes,” she concluded.

  Miller frowned as he studied the diagrams, “But where are you going to put your field generator?”

  “Outside the chamber,” Myr said, pointing to the empty area of the diagram above the shielding. “Remember, the generator projects the field a distance away from itself. It doesn’t seem to matter if there’s something like lead or stainless steel between the generator and the focal point, it still generates the same kind of focus.”

  “Really? Stainless steel doesn’t block field formation?” Miller asked dubiously.

  Vinn responded, “Yeah, it’s really bizarre. Nothing seems to block it. We can’t even form it less than six inches from the generator and we can form it as far away as about five feet, but nothing we put between the generator and the focal point seems to affect formation.” He shook his head, “I can’t even come up with a theory yet for why nothing stops it… maybe when we have more data something’ll come to me. Some kind of warping of the dimensions or something crazy like that.” He looked back and forth from Myr to Miller, “I think it’d be good if we had something that blocked it from forming. Kind of a safety… Have I told you what happened when I put a chicken wing in the focus?”

  Arlan found himself a little dismayed to learn about how the chicken wing had been crushed to jelly. In retrospect, it was obvious that, since biological tissues were loaded with hydrogen, something like that should happen; it was just that it was a little frightening to think how dangerous it could be to get too close to a focal point. On the other hand, considering what could happen if a significant quantity of hydrogen got loose around the focal point, a crushed chicken wing didn’t seem like it ought to be that big a deal. A lot of power tools could tear up a finger after all. “I hope you guys are taking precautions?”

  “Yeah,” Myr said, “we form all our focal points inside of glass when we don’t need to have molecules entering the focus. When we do want to let something get sucked into the focus, we use the stainless steel mesh cages that genius-boy suggested.” When she called Vinn genius-boy, Myr had a sly grin and her eyes flicked over to him, suggesting it was teasing instead of derogatory.

  Miller tilted his head thoughtfully, “I know you feel safe doing the fusion stuff, but I’m really wanting to get a nuclear physics expert on board. I’ve put out some solicitations and had applications from several scientists and engineers who’re considered experts in the field. I’ve invited three of them for interviews and I’d like you guys to talk to them too, okay?”

  Vinn shrugged uninterestedly but said, “Sure.”

  Myr grimaced momentarily and Miller thought that in the past she’d have been opposed because she didn’t like the suggestion that she needed any help. Perhaps also she’d have felt threatened if they had a true expert around. However, he thought she probably remembered how recently she’d said that they needed more people in order to make more rapid progress. Instead of objecting, she grinned and said, “I don’t know if my people skills are up to judging applicants, but,” she shrugged, “how am I going to learn if I don’t participate, eh?”

  Arlan nodded, then taking a deep breath, he broached the subject he’d been dreading. “Okay, next. I’ve talked to our patent firm and we have a meeting tomorrow to start describing to them what we’ve got. Before we file for patents, we need to decide how we’re splitting the income.” He spoke to his AI and the wall screens flickered to put up the figures he’d come up with. “The discovery of the static suppression field is all Myr’s, though she granted Miller Tech five percent of her income from inventions related to her field in return for the scholarship that put her through college.” He glanced at Myr and Vinn. They were staring up at the screen and thankfully neither of them looked upset. “However, the proton field was discovered after Myr started working for Miller Tech and her employment contract specifies that the company gets fifty percent of royalties from discoveries made here. And finally, the two of you discovered fusion together, though that discovery depended on static suppression and the proton field so I would suggest that fusion royalties be divided according to the calculation displayed. You can see that 27.5 percent of fusion royalties go to Miller Tech, 66.25 percent to Myr and 6.25 percent to Vinn.” Miller paused, hoping not to be hit with a storm of objections. His eyes drifted to Myr, hoping she wasn’t about to explode.

  She’d slouched back in her chair and looked completely relaxed!

  Myr waved a hand and said, “Put Vinn down for 6.25 percent out of my share of the royalties from the proton field.” She looked over at Vinn and rolled her eyes, “I don’t want him to quit working on the field and start focusing exclusively on the fusion piece.”

  Completely stunned to hear Myr giving away some of her share, Miller said, “You’re sure?”

  Myr waved carelessly and said, “Yep. If he keeps his hyper-smarts against the grindstone, this’ll be worth so much money none of us’ll care.”

  ***֎֎֍֍***

  Aleks sat down on the stairs just west of the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago. He didn’t think this was a good location for a meet at this time of year. It was too cold out and there weren’t all that many tourists hanging around the big mirrored bean. He thought he stuck out like a sore thumb.

  Also, Aleks wanted to pull up his hood, but he needed to be able to hear in all directions.

  He’d been sitting there just long enough to get really irritated when he heard his handler’s voice come from behind him. “Hello Aleks.”

  Aleks didn’t turn or otherwise acknowledge the woman’s voice. It wasn’t supposed to look as if they were having a conversation. Besides, Kelley was such a stone cold bitch he didn’t want to see her. Good-looking, yes. Heartless, and vicious—yes and yes again.

  It wasn’t just his finger that made him shudder when he thought of her. The only other person in the organization that Aleks had ever talked to at length told him she killed people for fun. That she’d joined the organization not for the money or some sense of duty, but because she liked doing horrible things to people. The guy thought she only worked for their nebulous bosses because it gave her an excuse—and even paid her—to do what she’d probably be doing anyway.

  He didn’t want to look at her and wished once aga
in that he’d never met her in the first place.

  She continued, “I must say that the information you’ve been providing is interesting…” She paused, then continued in a low, angry tone, “Even if it’s useless.”

  Aleks felt his anus twitch. He put his gloved hand over his mouth and spoke without moving, making an effort to look like he was just blowing to warm up his fingers. “My source is unwilling to take risks to obtain specifics.”

  “Well,” Kelley said acerbically, “it’s great to know that truly important technology might exist. However, we’re paying you to find out how it works.”

  “I sent a list of possible ways we might obtain such information.”

  “Ah, yes. You understand, I hope, that we’re concerned about the fact that some of your proposed methods might kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?”

  Aleks said, “So, choose one of the safe ones. I’ll do whatever you want.”

  “Search her apartment.” Kelley said, “Don’t hurt anyone… Yet.”

  “Okay.” When he hadn’t heard anything more after another several minutes, Aleks assumed she’d left. He got up and went on his way without looking back.

  ***֎֎֍֍***

  Vinn trotted out onto the court, embarrassed to realize that he was the last one there for the team practice. He’d intended to be first so that he could try to mediate any arguments that might crop up between Myr and the rest of the guys. To his relief, he saw Myr standing hipshot, talking to Scott their elected captain. The other guys were practicing their shooting.

  As Vinn stepped up beside them, Myr was saying, “I’ve been reading up on the various positions. It’d seem like I should play point guard ‘cause I’m short, handle the ball well, and can shoot the three.” She shrugged, “But I don’t know very much about the game so I can’t lead the team.”

  Scott was staring at her, “You don’t know much about the game… How’d you get to be so good at it?”

  “I’m not good at team play.” She shrugged, “This is the first team I’ve been on.” She gave Scott a wicked little smile, “I do like beating guys at H-O-R-S-E and one-on-one, especially for money.” Now she gave him a coquettish smile, batted her eyes and said in a saccharine tone, “Would you like to shoot some baskets with me?”

  Scott looked flabbergasted, so Vinn interjected, “I thought you liked to watch basketball?”

  Myr rolled her eyes, “The first time we played I said you probably thought I could only be a fan. You claimed I’d unfairly pigeonholed you as a Y chromosomed jerk.”

  Vinn blinked, “So you’ve never been on a team and you don’t even watch basketball to know how a team works?”

  “It can’t be that hard. I’m just saying I probably should be the shooting guard.”

  Feeling a little dismayed, Vinn looked at Scott but Scott simply rolled his eyes and waved off Vinn’s concern. “It’s not like most of the teams were going to be up against are going to be running a whole lot of fancy plays anyway. With only this one practice before the season, we certainly aren’t. We’ll play man-to-man defense and try to come up with three or four offensive plays.” He turned and shouted at the rest of the guys, “Hey, gather round.”

  Myr grinned and said, “Woman.”

  “Huh?” Scott said, looking as if he was afraid he’d said something offensive.

  “Woman-to-man defense,” Myr said with a smirk.

  Driving home Vinn mused on how Myr surprised him at every turn. After what she’d done the night they’d accepted her onto the team, he shouldn’t have been surprised at how she played. Unfortunately, he kept underestimating her—always feeling like she’d just gotten lucky the other times he’d played ball with her.

  That was obviously not the case.

  At the practice, she’d indeed proven to have very little knowledge about team play. But, just like she’d shown the other night, she was phenomenal at one-on-one defense, stealing the ball over and over and over. She also blocked shots being made by guys much taller than she was. And, no one defending her could get used to how far from the basket she’d take a shot, not only catching the guy guarding her by surprise, but dropping the ball through the hoop most of the time.

  Vinn wasn’t sure how they’d do playing in a league that probably had some excellent athletes who played together all the time, but he suspected they might surprise a few people.

  ***֎֎֍֍***

  Bob Salzberg studied Arlan Miller. Miller was signing Bob’s copy of a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Miller looked as if he were in his mid-fifties, younger than Salzberg had expected, especially considering that the man had apparently founded Miller Tech and it was already a good-sized company. The man looked more like a dynamic leader than a down in the lab researcher, but he had a reputation for doing some of both. Salzberg had no idea what use Miller Tech might have for a nuclear engineer, but at age 58, Bob just wanted a job where he could coast on into retirement. He was sure he could quickly straighten out whatever nuclear issues Miller Tech might be having and then kick back.

  Miller said, “Now that we’ve got the NDA out of the way, let me tell you what we’d need you for. A couple of the young folks I’ve got working for me have come up with a method for achieving proton-proton fusion. I’m looking for someone who can make sure we develop it safely.”

  Salzberg leaned back in his chair and folded his hands pontifically over his stomach. With a disbelieving little shake of his head he said, “What are they trying? Some kind of pinch?”

  A tiny grimace crossed Miller’s face and he said, “No, not a pinch. Let’s assume that they actually have achieved fusion. What I’d be wanting you to help us with is the development of protocols and safety engineering to prevent any disasters. What kinds of things would you be concerned about?”

  Salzberg snorted, “My first concern would be trying to understand what’s making them think they’ve got fusion. A lot of people have thought they could do it and some have even been foolish enough to think they’ve done it, but decades of attempts and billions of dollars have been thrown at it, so far without success.” He shrugged, “However, there are a lot of odd results that can make you think you’ve achieved fusion when you haven’t.”

  “But, assuming they’ve actually been successful, against all the odds?”

  “Well, I guess it’d depend on what methods of confinement they’re using. Magnetic, inertial, pinch, they all have their own issues and instabilities.”

  “None of those,” Miller said, looking a little frustrated.

  “Well, I guess I just have to see what they’re doing before I could understand what they’re doing wrong.”

  Miller stared at Bob for a moment. “Okay then,” Miller said standing and extending his hand for a shake. “I appreciate you coming by. We’ll be in touch if we’d like to talk to you further.”

  After a startled moment, Salzberg stood up as well. “Don’t you want me to give your device the once over? I signed the NDA.”

  “Not at this time. We’ll be in touch if we need more information.”

  As Salzberg walked out, he wondered what Miller’s problem was.

  ***֎֎֍֍***

  Ellen Mitchell had looked through Miller Tech’s website and hadn’t been able to see anything that’d suggest they’d have any need of a nuclear physicist. Still, they’d advertised a job and she really wanted one. She was only thirty-six and felt pretty certain that the National Ignition Facility was going to be closed down in the next ten years. She didn’t want to be part of the glut of nuclear physicists who suddenly found themselves on the market when her job at the NIF disappeared.

  Her biggest fear was that there would be nothing cutting-edge about whatever Miller Tech wanted her for.

  Miller looked up from the screen he’d been perusing, “Sorry, I’d gone over your CV a week or so ago, but wanted to make sure I had it fresh in my mind before we started talking.”

  “No problem,” Ellen said. Even if she felt a little offended that Miller had
n’t read up on it earlier this morning, she certainly wasn’t going to say so.

  Reaching out, Miller picked up some papers off his desk, saying, “And I see you’ve signed our Non-Disclosure Agreement. Any issues with that before we get started?”

  Ellen shook her head. It’d all seemed like pretty standard boilerplate to her. “I hope that you’ll keep my interest in a position here confidential? I wouldn’t want word to get out that I thought the NIF was going to be shuttered sometime soon.” She forced a grin, “My bosses still think they’re going to be able to get it to work, but I’m pretty sure I’m reading a lot of writing on the wall.”

  Miller leaned back, studying Ellen a moment. “I’d want to talk to some people who’ve worked with you before we considered making a hire. Any suggestions on how I could do that?”

  “You could call Dr. Anson, my PhD advisor, or some of the other grad students I worked with? You could even call some of the people I work with now, if you wouldn’t mind implying that you just want me to consult, rather than letting them know I’m thinking about jumping ship.”

  “Okay,” Miller said thoughtfully. His smile brightened, “You might be wondering what in the world Miller Tech would need a nuclear physicist for?”

  Ellen grinned, “Having looked over your website, I have to admit that the question had crossed my mind.”

  “We’ve got a way to achieve fusion,” Miller stated baldly, then just let the claim stand there.

  Ellen felt the smile freeze on her face as her hopes were dashed. She reminded herself that this company could probably afford to pay her salary even if they were pursuing something as futile as low energy fusion. But then she considered the low likelihood that they’d keep pursuing fusion once they realized how impossible it was. They certainly hadn’t been trying an inertial or magnetic confinement, she felt pretty sure she would’ve heard about it from friends in those fields. Trying not to let her feelings show, she cleared her throat a little and said, “Cold fusion, or something like that?”