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and Cal Tech (physical and theoretical chemistry). He also picked up an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and a masters in Computer Science along the way, both from Berkeley. After bouncing around various universities, high-tech companies and government research labs he had somehow been enticed into working on Parker's Folly.
    “Dr. Gupta, how are things going?” asked Curtis.
    “Oh, it is you Gretchen,” said the scientist, looking up. “What brings you to my mad scientist’s lair?” Dr. Gupta was gregarious and outgoing by nature, tending to call everyone by their given name. The ship's officers, all having some form of military background, tended to be more formal, but that did not affect Gupta in the slightest—everyone was the equivalent of a colleague or at least a graduate student in his world view.
    At some institutions, particularly in undergraduate programs, the professors insisted on being called Doctor or Professor, but most graduate schools took the approach that everyone, student and teacher alike, were all scholars  working together and hence on a first name basis. This made sense to Rajiv and he saw no reason to change his attitude.
    “Mr. Parker has expressed a desire to have the ship ready for imminent departure. The Captain is on the bridge and sent me here to see when we can run a full-power system check.”
    “Well, I have made a number of changes to the calibration settings but I have not been able to verify that the spurious production of muonium has been overcome. As you know, the power plant's reaction rates depend on the isotopic identity of the reactants and products. Basically, it is a manifestation of the role quantum zero-point energy plays in chemical kinetics and is a consequence of the Born-Oppenheimer separation of electronic and nuclear motion in molecules.”
    “Of course, Doctor,” said Lt. Curtis. She had a masters in aeronautical engineering but Rajiv's words may as well have been Martian. No matter, he was in full lecture mode and she would just have to wait until he wound down before asking another question. She nodded encouragingly.
    “You see, we need negatively charged muons to catalyze a fusion reaction within the quantum channel matrix. A muon weighs 207 times as much as an electron and can act as either a very heavy electron or a very light proton, depending of course on the muon's charge. Replace a deuterium or tritium atom's single electron with a negative muon and the 1s orbital shrinks down to only 0.2 picometers. When a pair of these atoms try to form a molecule of H 2 their nuclei are brought close enough together for fusion to take place.
    “The presence of muonium, which is essentially a hydrogen molecule with the single nucleus proton replaced by a positive muon, is an indication that the muon generator is making both positive and negative muons. As a result, the reactor is making power but not at peak efficiency and there may be other side effects if allowed to run under these conditions.”
    “And have your adjustments fixed the problem, Rajiv?” Gretchen knew he liked it when she used his first name.
    “I hope so,” he said, turning back to the battery of displays, “I truly hope so.”
    “So I can tell the Captain to run the test?”
    “Yes, yes. By all means, I was ready to suggest running another test myself.”
    * * * * *
    On the bridge, the Captain was making ready to power up the ship's main systems. They had gone through this several times before, but had never reached full sustained power without an alarm sounding or a cluster of warning lights flashing.
    “Bridge, Engineering.”
    “Go Engineering.”
    “Captain, we are ready for a full-power system test. Dr. Gupta has recalibrated some of the reactor settings and is hopeful that the previous problem has been corrected.”
    “Affirmative, Engineering. Test commencing in 10.”
    The Captain activated the exterior PA system. “Attention, all personnel in the hanger space.