“It’s a stressful time. My wife is having a complicated pregnancy.”
“I’m sorry. It must be difficult.”
“Extremely. She has a condition called pre-eclampsia and it’s very serious. The good news is the baby is okay, so we’re hopeful.”
“Good to hear.”
Anil sighs. “The bad news is she has to be on bedrest for several months. The doctor won’t let her go back to work.”
“What does your wife do?”
“She’s at JPL.”
Austin lifts his chin. “Jet Propulsion Laboratory? Is she a rocket scientist?”
“She manages data for the Mars colonization project—communications, forecasting, things like that.”
“Maybe she can work remotely.”
“That’s what we were hoping, but her boss won’t allow it. She’ll have to take an unpaid leave.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Austin glances at the time and crosses his arms.
One more minute and I am canceling this meeting.
His shoulders relax as he remembers something. “Funny thing you mentioned Mars. On my way here, I received a strange phone call from the CIA.”
Anil’s eyes widen. “The government?”
“Yes. The Deputy Director called me about an encrypted code from space. He is asking us to crack the signal.”
“What kind of signal?”
“Apparently, China has developed a new radio communication system for its colony on Mars. The NSA hasn’t been able to decode the message. The desperate idiots want us to do their work for them.”
“I can decrypt it for you.”
Austin smiles. “I like your confidence, Anil. We need more of that around here. Have you decoded cryptograms before?”
“I haven’t, but I’ll run it through our Foxtail machine learning software.”
“Interesting idea. How will the application help you?”
Anil reaches for his backpack. “A.I. will do the work for us. I’ll program Foxtail to test every conceivable decryption key until it finds the right one.”
Austin gestures. “Good idea. How many methods will it test?”
“A decillion per second until the job is done.”
“But how will it know it found the right key?”
“It will look for a code with Chinese characters.”
Austin leans back in his chair. “Nice. A trial by force.” He folds his arms. “You know, you should design the code to recognize any human language. We might need your tool in the future.”
“That’s easy enough.”
Through his smartglasses, Austin opens his inbox and finds an email from Gareth Allen. “Anil, I’m forwarding the sources files from the CIA. Follow the link to the data.”
Anil takes out a laptop. “I’ll get to work right away.”
Austin laughs. “You still use one of those? Where are your smartglasses?”
“I don’t have them anymore. It’s embarrassing, but I had to sell them to pay the rent—”
Nine employees wearing blue uniforms pace into the room, quickly taking their seats and unloading their bags. They avoid eye contact as sweat drips from their faces.
Austin balls his fists. “I was about to fire all of you.”
Kwame, a senior programmer, speaks up for the group. “The trains from San Jose weren’t running this morning. We had to take a Flyship.”
“Great excuse.” Austin rolls his eyes.
“I’m being honest. We almost capsized on the Cupertino Lake. There was a waterspout offshore. Sorry we’re late…”
Austin gives a cold stare. “Let’s get on with our Project Titan update. What’s on the agenda, Kwame?”
“Last week we were discussing the ICF.”
Austin nods. “Right. The Inertial Confinement Fusion reactor. Remind the team how it works.”
“Sure. The device contains deuterium and tritium fuel. When the core is heated to one hundred million degrees, those atoms fuse and release clean energy—”
“You mean heat,” Austin interrupts. “I wouldn’t call that ‘clean energy.’”
Kwame tilts his head. “You’re right, Dr. Sanders. Our colleagues at TransAtomic have designed a brilliant next-generation reactor that converts that heat into electricity without the need for stacks or turbines. It’s the first power plant that can fit inside a closet.”
“If we can only make it work,” Austin whispers as he stares at his fingernails. He looks up. “Did you get the blueprints from them?”
Kwame points to his colleague Diego, who beams an image onto a wall. “Yes, an executive at TransAtomic sent me his drawings. We’ve designed a prototype based on their schematics.”
“Do you have the materials to build it?” Austin asks.
“Yes. We received the zirconium frame for the outer shell yesterday.”
“What about the fuel source?”
“We have frozen pellets of deuterium and tritium in storage.”
Austin sits upright. “That’s good news for once. Here’s the plan. We should build a miniature reactor with an inner fuel core and an outer zirconium shell. If we can heat the device to one hundred million degrees, it should fuse the deuterium and tritium atoms and convert them to helium, releasing energy as a byproduct of fusion.” He pauses. “What about the ignition source?”
The room grows quiet.
Austin looks around. “How are we going to trigger the reaction? Kwame, have you found a laser?”
Kwame falters. “…well, Dr. Sanders, we can purchase argon and xenon units from the Fermilab.”
“Buy several of them.”
“…there’s one problem.” Kwame glances at his colleagues and pauses. “We don’t think those lasers will be powerful enough to initiate the reaction.”
“What?”
“They won’t heat the zirconium shell to 100 million degrees.”
Austin frowns. “That’s unacceptable. There must be something that can reach that temperature.”
Kwame trembles. “Based on our calculation, the only ignition source that would work is a gamma-ray gun.”
“Then go get one.”
“…they don’t exist anymore, Dr. Sanders.”
Austin slams his hand onto the desk. “You idiots! We’ve spent $20 billion acquiring a start-up company and now you’re telling me their designs won’t work?”
Team members look away.
“We were duped. The TransAtomic CEO looked me in my eye and told me they had found the solution. Instead, it looks like our investment just went down the drain.”
Kwame motions. “There’s one other possibility, Dr. Sanders. I talked to their Chief Scientific Officer. He said an alternative is to assemble our prototype within a nuclear fission plant. Based on their calculation, the energy from uranium should be enough to trigger fusion, just like in a hydrogen bomb.”
Austin laughs. “Are you kidding me? Last month the Tokai reactor in Japan exploded and killed a thousand people. The meltdown is spewing radioactive waste across Tokyo. Millions are going to die. You want to put this reactor inside one of our aging power stations?”
Kwame fidgets awkwardly.
“This project is toast,” Austin cries. “I will inform Dr. Andrews to kill the effort and we’ll move on.”
Diego speaks up. “Dr. Sanders, we need a solution. We are running out of hydrocarbons and the cost of oil is skyrocketing. Solar and wind aren’t substantial enough to replace fossil fuels, and nuclear power is disappearing. Fusion is the only option left. We can’t give up!”
Austin rolls his eyes. “Listen, we’ve hyped this for decades and wasted billions of dollars on failed projects. It’s nothing new. Every generation of scientists faces the same predicaments and setbacks. Frankly, I can’t see this technology ever working.”
Diego gasps. “Ever? But we have A.I. We can advance where others failed.”