Coulomb Barrier

The deuterium-deuterium fusion cycle as employed in standard spacecraft engines is made possible through the use of extreme heat, exciting the atoms to crash into each other energetically enough to overcome the natural repulsion of the weak nuclear force, and get within range of the attractive strong nuclear force. This is what is meant by overcoming the Coulomb Barrier. - Dr. Fatouma Tigana Fusion Basics for Power Mechanics

The announcer stood in front of a graphic of the sun over a landscape of identical grey blocks stretching into the distance. “It’s the 24^th day of the heat wave, with temperatures here in the city expected to reach 52 degrees. That’s 325 degrees Kelvin for those playing at home.” The announcer’s voice was serious, making the attempt at informal banter jarring. “To win 200 credits, be one of the first three people to tell us, at Bamako:news:block374-local, what is 52 degrees in Fahrenheit?”

Jak did the calculation in her head while she switched the holo to its default display mode. She sent the answer “125.6” to the block holo channel from her comm. A moment later her comm chimed with the message that 200 credits had been deposited to her account. On a normal day she’d be asleep at this hour, since she worked nights, but she hadn’t slept well for the past 18 days. This was the second time she won 200 credits from their daily trivia question.

Inside the drab, grey walls of her flat the air was a perfect 20 degrees and 30 percent humidity. A holo image of a forested waterfall played on the wall opposite the door. Despite the comfort of the flat, the heat still felt oppressive to her.

She worked nights, but she worked outdoors. She maintained the automated machines that erected the 100 story, square kilometer blocks like the one she lived in now. Last night, though, the temperature stayed well above 30 and the hot, humid winds were torture. No amount of cool showers could seem to get her free of the feeling of being overheated, even here in her perfect environment.

Jak decided to call the weekend early. The construction company might get mad, but they weren’t the ones fixing melted insulation and heat-damaged batteries every night. She fired off a quick message from her comm and took another cool shower. Her bed sat disheveled and she contemplated trying to sleep again, but she knew it was futile at this point.

Dressing in her lightest clothes she left her 98^th floor subsidy flat, taking the elevator all the way down to the ground floor. Floors 0 and 1 were where all the shops and services lived. They were also the busiest, especially in the middle of the morning. She wandered through the crowds, trying to decide if she needed to buy anything with her new 200 credits.

Last time, she’d bought a party dress, costing almost the entire amount. It wasn’t until the day after that she realized she’d probably never have occasion to wear it. She was wandering through the mall, looking for something interesting when a voice called out “Jaqueline! Jaqueline! Over here!”

Jak sighed. Only one person called her Jaqueline, her next-door neighbor, Sina. Sina was attractive, and nice enough, but annoying; frantically chipper and a chatterbox in the way that only five-year-olds haven’t outgrown. She didn’t know her well, despite the many meetings in the hallway outside their doors. “Hi, Sina. I see you took a job?”

“Yes! I still want to work on my art, but I thought maybe I could find a job that can make people smile!” Sina pointed to the case in front of her, a huge smile plastered on her face. “Ice cream makes people happy! Especially when it’s hot out! Not that you’d know it, since no one’s ever really outside except in a taxi or bus or train or plane or something. Want some ice cream?”

“No, thanks,” Jak said, then paused. “You know what, on second thought, sure.” She looked over the flavors and asked “What do you recommend?” No sooner had it left her lips than she regretted it.

“Oh! I really like the chocolate raspberry… or was it strawberry? Or the cherry with chocolate chunks in, or the green tea with chocolate chips…. Oh! You have to try the rhubarb lemon! It’s tangy… and sweet… only…”

“Only, no chocolate?”

“Yeah! How did you know?”

“I’ll go with that. Sounds light enough for now.” Jak scanned her ident to pay and tuned Sina out as she chirped non-stop while scooping ice cream.

“Have fun today! I’ll be home around 20:00, you can let me know what you think about it then!”

“Uh…” Jak had no idea what Sina was talking about. “Um, sure. You may have to remind me this evening, I worked all night and haven’t slept.”

“No problem! I’ll just pop by when I get home! Toodles!”

Jak sat on the side of the fountain in the middle of the mall, eating her tart ice cream and watching the crowds. What was Sina talking about? As much as she wanted to enjoy the cold sweetness she found she’d finished her ice cream while trying to recall whatever Sina had said. If she’d paid attention she would know, but now her mind was working overtime in effort to tease out anything coherent.

She lay back on the cool marble of the fountain edge, trying to figure out her best course of action. Option one: she could wait until 20:00 and find out then. Option two: she could march back over and admit that she wasn’t listening and find out what Sina wanted to know. As hard as she thought, she couldn’t come up with an option three.

She tried to imagine how she would approach it without hurting Sina’s feelings. As she thought of how she would apologize the cool of the marble spread through her body. Relief, at long last.

“Wake up, sweetie.” Sina’s voice was uncharacteristically soft. “You fell asleep on the fountain.”

“I… uh…,” Jak sat up, trying to clear the fog of sleep from her brain. “Oh. Sina, I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention earlier and then you said….”

“No, I’m sorry.” Sina seemed unhappy. It wasn’t a look her face was accustomed to. “That was a mean trick, I’m sorry.”

“What trick?”

“I knew you weren’t paying attention, so I thought it would be funny to act like I thought you were.” Sina sighed. “I know I’m difficult to be around. I talk too much when I’m nervous. My stomach gets all fluttery and then I just talk and talk and don’t let anyone get a word in edgewise. It’s kind of a bad… wait. I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”

“You are.” Jak shifted, her back in knots after sleeping on the hard slab. “What’s got you so nervous?”

“Well, I… kind of like you,” Sina said. “I mean, I don’t really know you, but you seem like the sort of person I would like, only I really want to get to know you.” Her speech was picking up pace. “If it’s not too much to ask, I mean, if you’re not doing anything, and you would be okay with it, but if you’re not I’ll understand, I just wondered if…” she fell silent.

“Yes?”

“I did it again.” Sina took a deep breath. “Jaqueline, would-you-like-to-go-dancing-with-me?” It all came out as one word. Sina gulped, then continued on. “It doesn’t have to be tonight, or tomorrow, but maybe some time this week? When you have a night off? It doesn’t have to be anything serious, I just want to get to know you. Friends first, and that’s all if that’s all you want, but….”

Jak raised a hand to stop her. "I have a brand new dress I won't get to wear otherwise, so, yes. We'll go dancing tonight. On one condition."

"Yes?"

"You have to stop calling me Jaqueline. My name is Jak, it's not short for anything."

"Sorry. I was just, I don't know…,” Sina trailed off.

"Nervous?"

"Yeah."

"Is it already 20:00?" Jak asked.

"No, I saw you lying over here, and when you didn't move for a couple hours I took the rest of the day off."

"In that case," Jak asked, "why don't we make a full night of it? Let's grab some dinner, my treat. And then dancing is on you."

"That sounds great!" Sina chirped. "We can go for your favorite, then that way I know what your favorite is! Unless it's too expensive, then we can go for something else, but I still want to know what your favorite is. My favorite is cauliflower curry. And chocolate. And any kind of berry, but especially raspberry..."

"Sina," Jak cut her off.

"I'm doing it again, huh?"

"That's okay," Jak said, "it's cute." It wasn't what she expected to say, but she realized that Sina was no where near as annoying as she had thought earlier. Perhaps it was her lowered resistance due to lack of sleep, or maybe the heat had finally melted her brain. Either way, it was working. "Let's go eat, then we can go home to get ready for tonight."

"Okay. Hey," Sina asked, "when the weather cools off, can we maybe go to the lake, go swimming?"

"That sounds good, but let's get through tonight, first." Jak stood and stretched. "Let's grab a cold noodle salad."

"Is that your favorite?"

"Only when I’ve been working in the heat.”

“Wait, you work outside!?” Sina’s eyes grew wide. “What kind of work do you do that you have work outside?”

Jak offered Sina her hand. “We can talk about it over dinner. After all, that’s what this is, right? Getting to know each other?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Sina accepted Jak’s hand and stood. She continued to hold her hand after getting to her feet and raised her eyes to Jak’s. “Is… is this okay?”

“It’s fine.” Jak smiled and lightly squeezed Sina’s trembling hand. “If I didn’t want you to hold my hand I wouldn’t have offered.”

As they walked hand-in hand through the mall Sina was, for once, at a loss for words.