Discovery: Proton Field #1

by Laurence Dahners

  Miller turned to give Rabbie a steady gaze, “Not exactly. Not the way you’re thinking, anyhow, though they do fuse some atoms. As to how much bigger, that’s why we’re doing it way out at sea. We want to be sure our theory isn’t wrong and it’s not a whole lot bigger.”

  Rabbie gave him a worried look, “You couldn’t blow up the whole world could you?!”

  Laughing, Miller said, “No, no chance of that. We’ve done everything we can to make sure that it couldn’t be any bigger than that first video with five tons of high explosive.” He shrugged, “Of course, we’ve never done it before, so we can’t be sure. We think it’s better to play it safe and imagine that it might be much bigger than the one with five tons. One possibility if we truly don’t understand how this technology works, is that it might be like the explosion of eighty tons of TNT… Would you like to see a video of an atomic bomb set off underwater? I’ve got a video here of one that’s the equivalent of 23,000 tons of TNT from back when they did the nuclear testing on Bikini.”

  Wide-eyed, Rabbie said, “I thought you said it couldn’t be that big?!”

  Miller shrugged, “No, it can’t. But, let’s watch the video anyway.” He spoke to his AI and a video that had obviously been converted from film popped up on the screen. “You’ll be able to see that even if we’re really, really, really drastically wrong about how big it is, we’d still survive the explosion if we’re six miles away.”

  “Kanapapiki!” Rabbie swore softly in Hawaiian, his eyes on the enormous “Baker” explosion. “Do you have permission to do this?”

  Miller frowned, “We spent some time trying to figure out if there’s any group or body that thinks it has the right to give permits for testing like this and we can’t find one. Do you know of a place where we could have gotten a license?”

  Rabbie shook his head.

  Morning dawned on a beautiful day. Though, out here in the mid-Pacific as winter approached, that still meant waves about five to ten feet high. Rabbie’d noticed his passengers wore seasickness patches behind their ears, and he suspected they were glad of them even though he thought the weather was relatively mild.

  They’d had a pleasant dinner the night before, then Rabbie’s mate had taken the night shift, running Big Red farther and farther out to sea. They’d stopped in an area where Rabbie hadn’t ever caught or heard of others catching any fish. The water here was really deep and his fish-finder sonar hadn’t seen anything for hours. Rabbie felt fairly confident that any explosion they generated wouldn’t kill very many fish, if any.

  The scientists unloaded a hefty stainless steel cylinder, then spent time attaching a pole to it that held a very small cylinder labeled “hydrogen,” about five feet from one end of it. They attached it to a float with a ninety-foot tether and ran a wire along the tether to an antenna on the float.

  They dismounted the little hydrogen cylinder and the young woman opened the valve on it to empty it. Then they mounted it on top of a fancy digital scale that the guy held suspended on a frame so the motion of the waves wouldn’t affect it so much. Once they’d written down its weight to what looked like a lot of decimal points, the young woman took the cylinder and filled it from a bigger tank, also labeled hydrogen. She spent a lot of time carefully filling it to an exact pressure as measured by a high tech gauge. Then they weighed it again. Both of the women and the young guy then spent time doing calculations with the help of their AIs. Rabbie turned to Miller, “What the hell are they trying to figure out?”

  Quietly, Miller said, “The hydrogen is what goes bang. They’re trying to make absolutely sure there’s no more than 130 milligrams of hydrogen in that little cylinder.” He sighed, “If they manage to fuse all hundred and thirty milligrams, it should create a blast like about four tons of TNT. They don’t think they’ll be able to fuse even ten percent which would be the equivalent of 400 kilos of TNT.” Miller glanced at Rabbie and, apparently deciding Rabbie might not be comfortable with the metric system, he said, “That’d be about 880 pounds of TNT.”

  Rabbie frowned, “How big is a milligram? I thought they were small.”

  “Yeah.” Miller gave a little snort, “It’s a thousandth of a gram. A nickel weighs five grams, so you can tell we’re talking about a pretty small quantity. That’s why they’re measuring so carefully, and measuring it a couple of different ways, and each one calculating their own result. We do not want to screw this up. Like a carpenter, ‘measure twice, cut once,’ except they’re trying to check it far more than two different ways.”

  “Wait, I thought hydrogen was lighter than air. It doesn’t weigh anything at all does it?”

  Miller said, “It still weighs something. Just like your boat’s lighter than water so it floats on the ocean but it’s actually still pretty heavy, something lighter than air can still weigh a little bit.”

  “So, the hydrogen in that little cylinder weighs as much as how many nickels?”

  “It weighs about as much as one fortieth of a single nickel,” Miller said soberly. “It’s not much, that’s why they’re trying to measure it so carefully.”

  Rabbie studied Miller for a moment, then decided the eggheads were a little out of balance. If they thought that something weighing less than a nickel could blow up like tons of TNT, they must have slipped a few digits back in kindergarten. He felt himself relax, At least I don’t have to worry about them setting off a really big explosion, he thought.

  Next they used some instruments to do some testing out at the end of the rod in front of the big cylinder while one of them used a radio to send signals to it. Finally satisfied, they made a big deal out of turning off the radio, going so far as to dismount the batteries from it. Then they mounted the small cylinder back out on the end of the rod in front of the big cylinder and lowered the whole thing into the sea.

  The big and little cylinder sank as they let out the tether and eventually they dropped the float and its antenna over the side as well. While Rabbie slowly pulled the boat a couple hundred yards away from the antenna float, one of his men inflated the extra life raft the scientists bought. The geeks uncrated their drones which weren’t the kind of hovering drones that Rabbie had expected. They were like little airplanes and they all mounted in a rack that attached to the life raft. The scientists had a small sea anchor that they attached to the bow of the raft and a little sail they attached to the stern so that it always faced into the wind. Rabbie said, “Why aren’t you using hover drones with four vertical propellers like everyone else uses?”

  Miller shrugged, “Too much wind out here in the trades. They’d get blown away. These little airplane types of drones can fly into the wind so they stay nearly stationary, and they can stay up a lot longer.”

  After hanging a bunch of electronic sensors off the edge of the raft and putting more sensors and cameras up on top of it, the scientists had Rabbie turn the boat and move away six miles like Miller had said earlier. Miller kept asking Rabbie to check the sonar for fish and he did so faithfully even though he thought it was ridiculous to worry about them in view of the “smaller than a nickel” explosive. When they were nearly at the six-mile limit, the younger of the two women apparently used the radio to launch one of the little drone airplanes. They all watched a picture of the ocean on a little video screen as the little drone circled higher and higher. At first, other than the float and the raft, nothing was visible on the surface of the ocean out to the horizon. Then Rabbie saw a boat. The scientist didn’t seem to notice it, so he turned to Miller, “There’s a boat there.”

  Miller nodded, “That’s us here in Big Red. The drone’s up about 100 feet, so its horizon’s a lot further away than ours is.”

  Of course it is, Rabbie thought, feeling stupid. I’m the guy who spends almost every day out on the ocean! Why’s this guy having to tell me about the horizon? After a moment, he consoled himself, I guess I’ve never had to recognize I’m looking back at myself before.

  The scientists blew up a balloon and sent it up
trailing an antenna wire. They put their battery back in the radio and attached it to the antenna wire, then all huddled around and conferred with one another for a couple of minutes. The young guy spoke to his AI and a couple of minutes later five more little screens lit up. Rabbie recognized that they’d launched the rest of their drones. For a little while the screens didn’t seem to show anything but ocean, but then Rabbie could tell they’d each turned their cameras back toward the site from which they’d launched. The images centered so the life raft and float were in the middle of their screens. The younger of the two women switched on the radio and pushed a button.

  A white spot instantly appeared on the surface of the ocean around the float; then an explosion burst through the surface, blowing water high into the air. It was scary big, but Rabbie thought it was smaller than any of the ones he’d watched on the YouTube videos. Way bigger than you’d get with any explosive smaller than a nickel though, he thought. He wondered why they’d lied to him. That big cylinder must have been packed with C4 or something, he thought.

  The scientific types seemed happy because, just like Rabbie, they thought the blast was smaller than the ones on YouTube. He heard them saying things about “comes out to a quarter ton,” and “the high end would be a half ton.” Rabbie’d been wondering if maybe they were actually hoping for a huge explosion and all Miller’s talk about expecting a small one and worrying about a big one had been ass-covering for when the authorities showed up. Then again, they sure acted like they were happy with the size of boom they’d had.

  Miller had Rabbie run Big Red back to the life raft which appeared completely undamaged. They pulled it in and dismounted all their gear from it. Rabbie’s crew deflated the raft while Rabbie drove the boat around so he and Miller could look for any remnants of the antenna float.

  They didn’t find a scrap.

  That being all the scientists wanted to do, Rabbie turned Big Red back for Honolulu, though they didn’t get in until well after dark.

  ***֎֎֍֍***

  The team’s Hawaiian travel arrangements had included three extra days to deal with whatever problems developed during testing. Since, astonishingly, everything had gone well on their first attempt, they were using the unscheduled days for a little R&R on Waikiki’s Duke Kahanamoku beach. Shortly after sunrise which—considering the time change—still felt a bit like midday to her, Myr walked out onto the sand in front of the hotel. Kicking off her flip-flops, she trotted down to the firm moist sand near the water’s edge, turned left and ran a short distance to get a feel for what beach running was like.

  She could tell that running on the sand was going to be more work than running on a firmer surface but after a moment’s thought decided it’d be an interesting challenge. Taking off, she spent some time trying to decide which part of the moist sand was the best and what stride length to use. That determined, she settled down to a good long run. In the distance, she saw a shirtless guy running toward her along the same strip of damp sand. She looked out to sea, taking in its gorgeous, greenish blue colors.

  Soon her mind had drifted off into the steady thrumming of her legs and the joy of the exertion. Distantly she noticed the guy getting closer, but paid little attention.

  When he got close they had to give each other a little room on the strip of sand they both preferred. As she moved over she glanced at his torso and noticed he was in really great shape.

  She heard a shout behind her, “Hey!”

  Irritated, Myr pretended not to notice the guy. Even more exasperating however, she heard him stop. Then she heard him start up behind her—he was following her! As usual when some guy decided to run with her, Myr picked up her pace, knowing that most men couldn’t keep up and counting on exhaustion to keep him at a distance. However, this guy must’ve sprinted to catch up. Most guys didn’t want to be so obvious so they tried to pull up gradually, a strategy that allowed her to slowly increase the pace wearing them down. This guy pulled up beside her too quickly for that strategy. Myr kept her eyes straight ahead and wondered what kind of tired old line he was going to trot out.

  In Vinn’s voice the guy said, “Hey, you mad?”

  Startled, Myr glanced over. It was Vinn. Why do I keep thinking of Vinn as such a wimp? He plays basketball with me for God’s sake! Yet somehow her mind managed to repeatedly pigeonhole him as an underdeveloped nerd, especially whenever she saw him in a work setting. Perhaps the fact that he never dressed to emphasize his physique and never made a big deal out of his fitness might have something to do with it.

  She glanced at him again. Running, with his shirt off, he looked… wow! His body was hard, his muscles well-developed. He had a six-pack! Mentally, Myr rolled her eyes at herself. “No,” she said, “I was just off in my own little world and didn’t notice it was you. Sorry.”

  “Okay,” he said, giving her a sad puppy look, “have a nice run.” He slowed, and a moment later when she glanced back over her shoulder she saw that he’d turned and started back the other way on his return to the hotel.

  Now Myr wondered if she’d hurt his feelings. Maybe he’d expected her to stop and talk. Her antipathy toward him had completely faded and she’d begun to think of him as a lot of fun. Seeing him out running in just his shorts had left her feeling… She wasn’t sure. She didn’t like to think that physical attraction played a big part in her thoughts about a man but… he was pretty ripped.

  With a snort, she stopped, turned around and went back after him. I’m not this shallow, she thought to herself.

  By the time Myr caught back up to Vinn she felt too embarrassed to admit that she just wanted to spend time with him. “Hey there, Mr. Numbers, have you got any figures for the yield of our little explosion?”

  He gave her a surprised look, “Yeah, I had those on the boat ride back in. I thought you knew.”

  “Well, I knew it was toward the small end.”

  “We fused somewhere between eleven and fifteen milligrams, depending on which measurements you go by. In the range we expected, certainly.”

  “Great,” Myr said, now wondering how she could turn the conversation away from work and on to something… not work. She settled for, “Got any plans today?”

  “Ellen’s trying to work out a helicopter tour, interested?”

  “Sure,” Myr said, trying to sound enthusiastic, even though she’d hoped for something that might just involve herself and Vinn. He thinks you’re too old for him, she chided herself.

  ***֎֎֍֍***

  Aleks sat, wearing a wire and waiting in Addison’s St. Louis steakhouse, musing on how his life had so turned to shit. First of all, he couldn’t believe that pussy Joe Barker had had the balls to go belly up and turn state’s evidence. When the Feebs had shown up to take Aleks in, he’d thought it must have been for any one of a number of other things he’d been doing. When their questions had made it evident that they were there about his spying on Miller Tech and that they knew everything Joe Barker could possibly have told them, Aleks’ initial reaction had been disbelief.

  They’d offered Aleks a deal he’d had to take. He was tasked with helping them take down his handler so the Feebs could keep eating their way up the chain. In return, he’d do only a year in federal lockup. Aleks actually wanted the year in lockup. It would give Aleks plausible deniability with the organization by serving as evidence the Feebs had screwed him over too. And it put him in a relatively protected location for a year until things cooled down. Not that he knew much about the organization above Kelley, but if they were anything like she was, they had to be scary. They could probably reach into the joint to snuff him if they wanted, but it’d be more difficult.

  Maybe a year’d give them time to cool down.

  Sitting and waiting had Aleks about to crap his pants. Kelley was such a badassed bitch that he would never have dreamed of crossing her if he hadn’t been backed into a corner. He’d told the FBI she was extremely dangerous and they’d responded by seating three Feebs at the table cattycorne
r to his. The G-men were supposed to protect Aleks if Kelley went savage. The Agency also had people stationed at all the exits.

  Aleks had told them he didn’t think it would be enough, but they’d just stared at him unbelievingly.

  He sincerely hoped Kelley wouldn’t get away so she could come after him later. The thing that worried Aleks most was the possibility that she might just take him out in a fit of rage once she realized she’d been betrayed.

  Aleks looked up at a sudden hush and saw Kelley at the focus. She’d always been attractive and ready to use her looks to get her way, but not in a fashion to draw excessive attention. Tonight however, she was platinum blond and wore high spike heels. She was in a short dress, split down the front to her belly button. The outfit showed a spectacular amount of cleavage and its hem was so high that if she bent at all it’d bring her underwear into view. The silence in the room came from all the people who’d interrupted their conversations to gawk. Aleks stared too, It’s like she’s gone out of her way to attract attention! Why? Out of the corner of his eye, Aleks realized the Feebs weren’t staring. Aleks got a sick feeling in his stomach. She knows! he thought. How?

  Aleks started to stand, but Kelley waved him back into his seat, “No need to get up Aleks,” she said opening her purse and reaching in, as if looking for lipstick. “You’ve already disappointed me.”

  There was the stunningly loud crack of a gunshot. It took Aleks a moment to realize that Kelley had fired a pistol without even pulling it out of her purse. It fired twice more. The three agents at the table next to his were all pitching out of their chairs. Wide-eyed, Aleks saw they’d all been taken out with head shots, so their body armor had helped about as much as Aleks had feared. Before the screaming started, Kelley gave the Feebs a distasteful look. Despite the ringing in his ears, Aleks heard her say, “Should’a stared like everybody else boys.” Having confirmed how she’d known who the Feebs were, she turned her gaze to Aleks, “And you shouldn’t have sold me out.”