Part 15 (1/2)

”Artificial radioactives”

”All right Let's set up a list of them, both those that have been ht possibly be roup - or rather, field, if you want to be pedantic about definitions

There are a limited number of operations that can be perforroup, and on the members taken in co the curious curlicues of the calculus of stateht - expand it”

Erickson looked up after a few moments, and asked, ”Cal, have you any idea how many terms there are in the expansion?”

”No - hundreds, maybe thousands, I suppose”

”You're conservative It reaches four figures without considering possible new radioactives We couldn't finish such a research in a century” He chucked his pencil down and looked morose

Cal Harper looked at hiently, ”the bo you, too, is it?”

”I don't think so Why?”

”I never saw you so willing to give up anything before Naturally you and I will never finish any such job, but at the very worst ill have eli answers for so, twenty hours a day, yet he never found out the one thing he was uess if he could take it, we can”

Erickson pulled out of his funk to soreed

”Anyhow,a lot of experiments simultaneously”

Harper slapped hiht Besides-welike it, to find a satisfactory fuel The way I see it, there are probably a dozen, ht answers We may run across one of theive ame to peck away at it till hell freezes”

Lentz puttered around the plant and the administration center for several days, until he was known to everyone by sight He arded as a harmless nuisance, to be tolerated because he was a friend of the superintendent He even poked his nose into the commercial power end of the plant, and had the enerator sequence explained to him in detail This alone would have been sufficient to disarht be a psychiatrist, for the staff psychiatrists paid no attention to the hard-bitten technicians of the power-conversion unit There was no need to; mental instability on their part could not affect the bo strain of social responsibility Theirs was si le

In due course he got around to the unit of the radiation laboratory set aside for Calvin Harper's use He rang the bell and waited Harper answered the door, his anti-radiation helrotesque sunbonnet ”What is it?” he asked ”Oh - it's you, Dr Lentz Did you want to see me?”

”Why, yes and no,” the olderaround the experimental station, and wondered what you do in here Will I be in the way?”

”Not at all Coot up froger - a modified cyclotron rather than a resonant accelerator

”hello”

”Gus, this is Dr Lentz - Gus Erickson”

”We've auntlet to shake hands He had had a couple of drinks with Lentz in town and considered him a ”nice old duck” ”You're just between shows, but stick around and we'll start another run-not that there is much to see”

While Erickson continued with the setup, Harper conducted Lentz around the laboratory, explaining the line of research they were conducting, as happy as a father showing off twins The psychiatrist listened with one ear andscientist for signs of the instability he had noted to be recorded against him

”You see,” Harper explained, oblivious to the interest in hi radioactive ration of the sort that takes place in the bomb, but in a minute, almost microscopic, mass If we are successful, we can use the power of the bomb to make a safe, convenient, atomic fuel for rockets” He went on to explain their schedule of experimentation

”I see,” Lentz observed politely ”Whatnow?”