Bobbie Ray sat up and stretched, seeming to isolate every muscle in his body through the most incredible contortions Titus had ever seen. Of course, after eight months of watching the Rex do exactly the same maneuvers, he could have mimicked every one. That is, if he cared to look like that.
Finally Bobbie Ray grinned down at him, still blinking sleepily. “It’s only a year. I bet I ace mechanical engineering next time around.”
Titus just stared at him. “How stupid of me. What a fantastic reason for the six of us to repeat an entireyear–so you can get a better grade. I feel so much better, now.”
Titus left his roomie laughing behind him, but it wasn’t much better when he ran into T’Rees in the hall.
“We have twenty‑four minutes before we must report to the review board,” the Vulcan told him. “We should not compound matters by being late.”
“Hey, you’re talking to the wrong guy,” Titus defended himself. “I’m here, I’m ready to face the plunge.”
T’Rees cocked one brow. “What ‘plunge’ are you referring to?”
“Never mind,” Titus told him. “I’ll get the others.”
When he went into Jayme’s room, she was stuffing the pieces of their proton chain‑maker into a carryall. “This looks carbonized,” she told him, holding up one piece of metal with a blackened edge.
“Is that all you discovered?” Titus asked.
Jayme shrugged. “If I had a week and a lab, we could probably put some of the pieces together and figure out what went wrong. Do you want to tell that to the review board? That we need another week?”
Titus grimaced as he shook his head. “Very poor planning. But we put it through all those tests a couple of weeks ago, and nothing happened then.”
“Maybe something went wrong when we were working the bugs out, those last calibrations of the velociter, maybe. Or one of the structural components failed.” At Titus’s glare, she added, “It happens! It happens all the time. That’s what engineers are for–fixing malfunctions.”
“Well, it’s time to face the review board,” Titus told her, realizing that he had to ease off. The others didn’t know how difficult it was for his family to have him away from Antaranan. Or how important it was that he succeeded, so he could send back the supplies and equipment they needed to bring life to the barren soil of the colony.
Everyone was in the hall except for Moll Enor. Jayme was instantly panicked. “Where is she? Did she come back last night? We have to call the medics–”
“Calm down,” Titus told her, grabbing hold of Nev Reoh’s wrist to show everyone that he held a disc in his hand.
“Moll sent me a message,” Reoh told them, finally able to speak when the rest of them shut up. “She’ll meet us at the review board.”
“Then shall we proceed?” T’Rees suggested, ignoring Jayme’s relief.
“Proceed away,” Titus told him with a sigh. At least T’Rees wouldn’t be held back a year along with them. Titus had been angry after their spelunking disaster that Moll, Reoh, and Starsa had gotten a Quad reprimand when all they had done was save Bobbie Ray and Jayme. T’Rees hadn’t done a thing andhe didn’t get punished.
Titus had petitioned Admiral Brand to review the matter, thinking it wasn’t fair, but she had denied his request to remove the Quad reprimand from the academic records of Moll Enor, Nev Reoh, and Starsa Taran. Not for the first time, Titus was grateful T’Rees hadn’t been involved. Even having to repeat the year wouldn’t be so bad without that Vulcan in their Quad.
Moll was starting to think her quadmates wouldn’t arrive by the time the review board convened. But they tramped in together at the last minute, looking as glum as any set of cadets she’d ever seen.
Only Jayme seemed happy to see her, anxiously asking, “Are you all right? Where were you last night? I looked all over the Database.”
“Oh,” Moll said softly, wanting to hit herself when she realized what she had done. She had run off alone again instead of working with the group like they were supposed to. No wonder they were all looking at her like she was a freak.
Before Moll could tell them what she had discovered, Admiral Leyton’s aid was standing at the door of the conference room. “Quad #64C. Are you ready to present your project?”
“Yes, sir,” T’Rees said for them.
They filed in and stood at attention in front of the review board: Superintendent Brand, Admiral Leyton, and Professor Chapman, since they had submitted their preliminary designs and requested an engineering specialist on their board.
“Quad #64C, at ease.” There was a hint of warm humor in Brand’s voice. “How nice to see you all together under more auspicious circumstances.”
The other cadets shuffled and murmured, while Jayme held up the carryall in her hand. “Umm . . . we had a little trouble with our Quad project–”
T’Rees interrupted, acting as their spokesman as they had agreed, “Quad #64C attempted to create a proton chain‑maker. I believe you have the specs we submitted.”
“We have gone over your proposal,” Admiral Brand agreed. “An intriguing idea.”
Jayme shook the bag, letting the sound of broken components tinkle out. Chapman and Leyton began to look concerned.
Moll realized she would have to present her material first in order to get the most impact out of it. The others could add whatever they had discovered afterward. It wasn’t the right way to do it, but her mistaken approach made it necessary.
“That is the waste material,” Moll said, pointing toward Jayme, who obligingly held the bulging bag a little higher. “Theseare the components that tell us what happened.”
Moll set the cracked spin velociter and part of the lead‑chamber with the gas indicators down on the table in front of the review board.
“You have the proposal containing the original intent of our Quad project,” Moll reminded the review board. “However, we discovered a new process, whereby a controlled, deflagrating explosion can be chemically created using a pure proton chain.”
Bobbie Ray’s mouth was hanging open, a sure sign he knew nothing whatsoever about their Quad project. But then again, last year, one of Moll’s quadmates had questioned their project as if he was part of the review board–and they had still managed to pass.
Professor Chapman had his chin cupped in his hand, and Moll wasn’t familiar enough with him to know if that was a good sign or bad. But Brand was looking interested.
“Usually molecular chains are used in detection chambers,” Moll explained, “for studying the deflection and dispersal properties of various molecules. With our proton chain, we were able to do the same thing on a subatomic level.”
“But what about the uncertainty principle–” Starsa started to say, but was nudged into silence on both sides by Titus and Jayme.
Professor Chapman glanced at Starsa. “I agree with Cadet Starsa Taran–what about the uncertainty principle? It is impossible to specify or determine simultaneously both the position and momentum of a particle.”
“That’s nullified by the deflagration, the explosion, which freezes a microsecond in the sample mass.” Moll gestured to the pieces in front of them. “Unfortunately, we weren’t expecting to create the potassium nitrate that caused the explosion, but four things came together in our experiment: the potassium hydroxide in the base gas with protons effused from sulfur atoms, along with the nitric acid in the lemin stalk that was catalyzed by the carbon of the cut edge.”
In the pause, Nev Reoh added helpfully, “There are unusually high levels of nitrogen in lemin stalks.”
Jayme started rummaging in the bag. “I have a piece of the carbonized metal where the proton‑chain made contact. If you want to see it.”
Professor Chapman held out his hand. “Yes, please.”
Moll Enor waited until Jayme had handed over the bit of metal. “If the same combination could be used in strictly controlled levels of chemicals under a stasis field, then a detection chamber could be created that offers a new window into the nature of subatomic particles.”