SODIUM:3 Fusion by Stephen Arseneault

it to us my eyes glazed over. Most of what she was saying was well beyond the physics knowledge of the rest of us.
    As she continued schooling us on QE I stepped in with a question. Why was it that she had brought the subject up? Was there some way we could make use of it. Her response was a definite maybe. She had been working on a theory that if we could start with a particle in a known state we might be able to then use that information. With the power of the magnetic fields used in the Sodium reactors it might be possible to set the initial particle state to whatever we wanted.
    As she continued to explain her reasoning my eyes began to wander and my brain was soon tuning the conversation out. I then got a small balled up fist to my shoulder and a scowl from Paige. I abruptly apologized and then moved on to an idea of my own.
    Why was it that we could not wrap a Defender in BHD rings allowing us to turn instantly in any direction? It would certainly add to my ability to pilot the ship during battle. The alien vessels outmaneuvered us in every way except for speed.
    Pop reasoned that it was because of the power it would take to keep all the rings running. The reactor on the Defender was already being taxed at full capacity. We would need a second or third reactor and they were in short supply... as were the BHD rings.
    Pop was up next with his previous Sodium feed idea. He thought it would be possible to increase the Sodium throughput into the reactor thereby increasing its output by as much as 15%.
    It would not be enough to power another set of rings but it would give us some headroom if we came up with a need. I asked Pop to check back with the scientists and techs in the power research area to see if they could possibly work up a prototype.
    I then moved on to Bigg. He and Whip had put forth the idea previously of the possibility of using the gravity shield to push a black hole out away from the ship. We had concluded that the gravity wave did not react with black holes in the manner one would think. The wave was instead absorbed by the black hole leaving no trace behind.
    Bigg and Whip had been discussing a new variant of that idea. Would it be possible to put a single ring BHD into a small pod powered by a nano-reactor and then launch that pod with its one black hole towards an alien craft?
    The hope would be that the BHD would pass through the alien gravity wave and then cut through the ship. We all sat for a moment soaking that one in. I soon flagged it as our number one prospect and then asked Bigg and Whip to make a priority of researching the idea on our next free day.
    With our audio implants we each had a recording of the conversation that we could play back at will. I forwarded my flags to each of the others before we headed off to our personal quarters. After my sonic shower I lay down on the anti-grav mattress and wondered if I would be able to sleep given the day’s events. What I didn't know was that Paige had set my suit to administer a small sedative that would automatically be dosed when 10PM arrived.
    She reasoned that a rested pilot was a more alert pilot. I was soon dreaming of some nonsensical argument with a childhood friend. Paige knew I would be in need of a full rest for our continued level-nine training.
    The following morning we were again teaming up with four other crews. The first mission of the day was against a single medium sized ship plus its escort of four fighters. A winning scenario was one that inflicted any significant damage. Crew A1 had been in on the only time in this scenario when an alien fighter had been destroyed. DSim losses were always heavy.
    The medium size ship was about 500 meters in diameter. The gravity wave that it could muster was much more powerful than that of an alien fighter. If we came within 15 km we would take severe damage.
    I consulted Red on what we were allowed to do in the DSim when it came to modifying our equipment. He told us we could try to do just