“You are from very far away,” Chiang said, “and doubtless have very different customs than we do, but the answer is that there is a bidding process, in which the ship officer who wishes to be in an especially favorable position makes an appropriate payment to the Grand Admiral’s staff, and as a result his or her ship is assigned the position in the choreography in which the officer is reported as having performed illustrious acts. It’s all very effective, and ensures that virtuous people are highly rewarded.”

Smith recalled as a very little boy reading a comic book on ancient Greece, in which three people debated how to identify who were the best leaders. The Spartan answered the best leader was the bravest warrior. The Athenian answered that the best leader was the wisest philosopher. The woman from Thebes answered that the best leader was clearly the one who had the most money. Smith remembered reading this and concluding that the ancient Greeks had some very strange ideas. When he grew up, he remembered reading what had happened before the Interregnum, in which all offices were purchased so that indeed whoever could collect the most bribes, or as they called them at the time ‘campaign donations’, was identified as being a great leader.

“That’s very interesting,” Smith said. “If I were to put down a payment for a position, my government would howl ‘bribery’, throw a fit, and have me removed from the Service.  I can say with great certainty that my squadron will not be offering a payment to anyone, and therefore should wonder where we are likely to be assigned in this operation.”

“This question occasionally comes up when foreign ships join one of our maneuvers. Of course, that doesn’t happen very often, because most foreign ships, and I am not referring to yours, Commodore Smith, are not viewed as being good enough to support the Imperial Navy. In fact, and I do not mean this as a criticism of you, Sir, it is my understanding that you are here because the Anglic Union controls part of Ancient Terra, your Union had started building ships again, and there was therefore some interest as to how good your ships are or are not. However, I would expect that since you have survey ships, and are not offering to obtain a heroic position in the choreography, you will be assigned the notional duty of protecting some section of the rear of the Fleet during the battle, and the practical duty of surveying some section of this system’s Kuiper belt and reporting on what you found.”

“I see,” Smith said. “This is been a very educational discussion for me.  I had no idea that your methods of doing things were so, how shall I put it, advanced.”

“May I ask you a question, Sir?” Ekaterina Barterello asked.

“I’m James Chalmers.  My title today is ‘An Anomalous Mineral from the Arizona Blasted Heath.’  I know it’s traditional to start with conclusions, and then give the data supporting it, but I’d rather have my data considered before I give my explanation, so that you listen to the data. To start at the beginning…

“…which leads me to my conclusion.” He paused, half for emphasis, half to overcome stage fright. “I announce the discover of three new non-Mendeleyev elements, tentatively X, Y, and Z. If my results are confirmed, I will name them Prescotium, Arizonium, and Berkelium.  They are non-Mendeleyev because the atomic masses of their single isotopes are not close to being integers,  and because they have non-integer charges.  For example, X is charge +1/3, and atomic weight 17.5, so its chloride salt boiling point elevation is understood as a solution of X₃Cl.”

At this point he was interrupted by the audience, calls of ‘ridiculous’ from his fellow students and faculty talking over each other from the rear of the room.  The Department Head finally brought the room to order, and the serious questioning began.

“17.5? Did you try the mass spectrometer?” The speaker was Marjorie Woodruff, who Chalmers remembered as reputedly being the sharpest graduate student in the department.  What she would do with a Chemistry doctorate was not quite clear to him, but that was her problem.

“Yes,” he answered, “It measured charge-to-mass ratio, so with a charge of +1/3 it appears to have a mass of 52.5.” 

“However,” Professor Smith interjected, “in the spectrometer X can ionize, giving you an atom with a charge of +4/3, and thus an apparent mass of 13.1, exactly as found.  We actually both saw that line when you visited, but 52.5 agreed with your colligative measurements, so we took 13.1 to be an impurity.”

“Yes, battle choreography,” Tuan answered.  “Battle choreography, the step-by-step plan of how our ships move and what damage they take, before we carry out the choreography to give the press some colorful images.  Don’t you barbarians know anything?”

Smith contemplated the negative reactions if, figuratively speaking. he simply bit the young twerp’s head off.  It would be satisfying, but might not be a favorable factor in advancing Union-Republic relations. Unfortunately, it appeared that Tuan assumed that their ranks were the same, because the equality was calculated by simply counting up from the bottom.

“Of course, Mr. Tuan,” Smith said, “it is most likely that we use the same process under a different name. That’s the standard outcome when different navies attempt to work with each other. We have faced the same issues, and come to the same conclusions, but we happened to adopted different names for the same process, for entirely historical reasons. On the other hand, sometimes different navies have found different approaches to the same issue. For example, assuming I understood my briefing papers correctly, the Navy of the Stellar Republic has more than four hundred officer ranks. We manage with a grand total of six. I am a Squadron Commander, meaning I have under me Ship Commanders, Section Heads, and Officers, and above me the hypothetical ranks of Task Force Commander and Commander of Ships.   The Anglic Union Space Guard treats me as having the rank of Commodore. Now, having said that, perhaps I could prevail on your superior understanding to explain in simple language what you mean by battle choreography.”

Tuan turned pale.  He had worked out that he had managed to insult what in the Imperial Navy would be reckoned to be a Senior Flag Grade Officer.

“It would of course be my honor and privilege to do so, Esteemed Sir,” Tuan said.  “It is the custom of the Imperial Navy has and the other fleets with which I am familiar have, which does not include yours, that when a major set of Fleet maneuvers is to be performed, the exact details of what is to happen at every stage are worked out in advance through careful simulations. Instructions are then passed down from the nominal fleet commanders of the two sides through the task forces and squadrons and ships, so that as the maneuver advances every ship carries out exactly the pre-ordained battle plan, from the initial detection of the enemy through to the eventual victory of the forces representing the Imperial Navy. Ship crews perform precisely their parts in the plan, except of course we are not using live ammunition or energized beam weapons, so that everyone in each crew gets practice in their assigned tasks. Grand Supreme Admiral of the Fleet Thatcher is extremely thorough, so we will actually run through the same exercise several times, with different ships on the two sides, so that for example the damage control crews get their practice in dealing with damage, even though of course in a real battle there is hardly any danger that any ship of the Imperial Navy would actually be damaged. That is why the Grand Supreme Admiral of the Fleet is such a great officer, namely he carefully prepares all of his units for unlikely contingencies that it is hardly possible they will ever face.”

“I see,” Smith said. “Thank you for this highly educational explanation, which as it turns out does not correspond to any exercises that the Anglic Union Astrographic Service has ever carried out. Therefore, your battle choreography does not correspond to anything we do, so I therefore had never heard of it. Having said that, Mr. Chiang, perhaps you could give me an explanation of what you meant by prices for positions in the point, those numbers corresponding to really substantial amounts of money. This is perhaps some other custom that we simply do not happen to share, but it is doubtless a sensible custom once I understand it.”

“I would be equally honored to do that,” Chiang  Jianhong said, “since it is truly unusual for a man of your celestial rank to be sitting with we very junior officers. Speaking for myself, I have been most grateful for your observations on naval issues, which I for one found highly educational.  We were most lucky to hear them, for which I am grateful. The answer is that we will have exercises, and that various officers whose ships performed in an especially heroic or effective manner will have this outcome noted in their records, and in the report of the exercise to the Imperial Government.”

Smith’s ears perked up. He had repeatedly noticed the Stellar Republic Fleet officers referring to their force as the Imperial Navy, but so far as he could remember this is the first time he’d heard the Republic’s government referred to as the Imperial Government. It appeared that the world was changing again. To judge from the meal, the changes were not in the most positive directions.

“Now we do on occasion have various sorts of exercises,” Smith said, “though as we have far fewer ships the scale of the operation is much smaller and focused on anti-piracy activity, rescue of vessels in distress, dealing with shipboard emergencies such as engineering failures, and the like.” He decided not to emphasize the presence on his ships of a substantial scientific staff, linguists and planetographers.  “However, if I followed, your battle choreography means that everyone knows in advance exactly which ships are going to be damaged, who is going to perform a heroic act to keep a fusactor bank from blowing, which officers give clever commands that lead to victory, etc.  How does that correspond to entries in the records of officers who because of the battle choreography happened to be in the right place at the right time?  Why are they complimented?”

“Good thinking,” Smith responded, “when you pass beyond your Master’s, I anticipate competition for your services, unless you’ve already decided on a doctoral advisor.”

“I hadn’t thought about that yet,” Chalmers answered. “I still have to make sense of my other results. Thank you very much for this analysis. It really simplifies explaining what I’m studying.”

“Except, from your tone of voice, there are still several mysteries to be solved, aren’t there?”

“Yes, sir,” Chalmers answered. “I’ve been spending all of my time trying to work this out, and haven’t done it yet.”

“We have a holiday weekend coming up,” Smith said. “Consider taking a day off, going for a long walk, getting enough sleep, whatever and let the facts do in your mind. They may fall together in a new combination.”

“That’s certainly a fine idea,” Chalmers said, “one that Professor Watership is also been urging on me. And thank you for these measurements so quickly.”

“Your samples are from the Blasted Heath,” Smith responded.  “There is national interest.  Many of my colleagues think it is abnormal to drop a current project just because something really interesting has appeared, but I disagree.  You have it right.  I hear that in Phoenix there is not a panic, but people are starting to pack and leave town, lest the Heath starts spreading.  By the way, Watership casually mentioned that you have another mineral on which you’ve not yet started.  I’d be most interested in running it through the machine.”

“Yes, sir,” Chalmers agreed, “though at the moment the violet crystals are large solid objects, not something that can go into your instrument. Watership wanted me to finish this mineral first, which reminds me, I still have to write my source and tell them  again that we can confirm that the yellow sand is a new mineral.”

“I will give one more bit of advice,” Smith said firmly.  “You have made a major discovery, even if it is incomprehensible. There is a student seminar every week.  Announce your results there, even if you can’t explain them completely, very soon.  That gives you priority.  Start writing a paper, realizing that the abstract, interpetation and conclusions are yet to be found, so you can send it off to JACS as soon as possible…but the seminar clinches your priority claim.  And tell Prescott what you told me, and no more.  That’s what they asked, so that’s what they are told.”

Chalmers swallowed.  He hadn’t expected to hear that.  “The paper,” he said, “you helped, Watership gave me the project, Hildebrand advised…whose names go on it?”

“I’ll speak to Watership,” Smith announced.  ”  ‘A New Mineral from the Blasted Heath’ to one of the rock journals, his name first, maybe whoever in Prescott, and he gets what he wants and deserves. Your name on your work.  I’d like an agreement…as you find more of whatever these are, I get to do the mass spectroscopy and my name on the appropriate papers.  Shake on it?”  They shook hands.

* * * * *

Much of a week later, a well-rested James Chalmers stood at the front of the Chemistry lecture hall. He’d needed a day to rest, a day to realize what he had found, and most of a week to confirm his conclusions, at least as well as he could.  A gaggle of his fellow graduate students sat at the front of the room, close to the tea and the cookies.  To his surprise, the rear rows were lined with physics and chemistry faculty, people he did not usually see at graduate student seminars. He began with polite thanks to Cooper, Eisenhower, Watership, and the faculty members whose lab facilities he’d used.

“Signal incoming from the Hiram Maxim,” Martinez said. “It carries the correct IFF codes.”  He put it up on a screen facing the Admiral.

“Hello, N237.  I am Squadron Commander Gabriel Smith, Anglic Union Astrographic Service, appearing with my detached squadron for maneuvers as planned. My orders were to advance to N237D and go to high orbit awaiting start of the exercises. I gather there is a large orbital station.  I will have pinnaces to bring my command staffs there for briefings.”

“Hello, Squadron Commander Smith.  I’m Grand Supreme Admiral Thatcher, Imperial Navy.  Welcome aboard. I look forward to seeing you at the fleet dinner tomorrow at 1800 hours standard time.  Briefings are scheduled for the next day.”

“Understood.”

“Thatcher out,” Thatcher announced.

Footsteps behind Thatcher marked the remainder of the battle stations crew casually walking into the command center.  He glanced at his watch. “Very good,” he announced. “Under ten minutes to get here from the dining room.”

&&&&&

For what was presumably an orthodox dinner, Smith thought,  prior to the start of the maneuvers, the settings and menu were remarkably ornate.  There were eleven courses, gold-washed flatware, four wine glasses and two after-dinner glasses, and a remarkable stack of plates.  He told himself to watch very carefully how the Imperial Navy officers handled their silver, no, gold, ware, lest he be marked as a primitive barbarian. Now the meal was winding to a close.  He had carefully tasted each course, made appreciate comments, and let his table companions do most of the talking. 

Admittedly, he considered, he sometimes had to strain to hear what was being said.   The nominally junior officers around him wore elaborate dress uniforms that clattered with layers of medals.  However, the Imperial Navy had an amazing number of ranks, so they all matched him in holding the fourth rank from the bottom.  His AUAS dress uniform was plain black.  As Squadron Commander, the rank badge on his collar was a silver sunburst.  In theory, the Service presented several combat medals, but the well-known comment, spoken quietly between friends, was that they would never be awarded, because if a Survey ship got into battle the commanding officer would surely be court-martialled for incompetence and ejected from the service before the medal could be awarded.

“What’re the final  prices for wedge counterattack positions?” one of his companions asked the others.  Chiang  Jianhong, Smith thought, was the most interested in fishing for gossip, while offering rather less himself.

“Ten thousand imperials,” Pavel Vladimirovitch Zaitsev answered. To Smith’s ear, he was the best informed, not to mention the most confident of his own greatness.  “Twice that for ‘died gallantly, and thrice that for point, except I believe point has been locked up already.”

“Wedge counterattack?” Smith asked.

“Yes, the counterattack,” Tuan Chen answered.  “Oh, you just got here, have’t seen the battle choreography yet.  The mythical enemy fleet enters in a cylinder of battle formation,  penetrates our screening line, and is shattered when our side deploys a wedge for a counterattack.”

“Battle choreography?” Smith asked.  What in God’s name, he thought, does dance have to do with fighting a battle?

Several days later, Chalmers had worked through the atomic spectra tables.  His three crystals matched none of the known elements.  He detoured over to physics, the atomic radiation people, and asked if they could tell if his materials were radioactive.  The question had come up, after all, though Professor Watership had tried a reasonable test already.  The answers were all negative.

Finally, he tried another visit to the mass spectroscopy group. He’d made a point of not nagging them for results, but he was well beyond their estimated time for results.  He’d carefully been imprecise about his results with the ebullioscope, which could halfway be understood as having something like chlorine, a mixture of isotopes.

“Ah, Mister Chalmers,” came a firm voice as he stuck his head into the mass spectrometer laboratory. Professor Smith was the person who set up and ran the machine.  “Were you happy with our results?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Chalmers said, “but I actually haven’t received the results yet. I didn’t want to seem to be nagging, but I’m very interested what answer came out.”

“You haven’t?” Professor Smith sounded surprised. “I’m sure you were scheduled for your sample run a couple days ago. Let’s see what happened.”

The responsible technician was sitting at his desk around the corner, writing up results of a recent measurement.  He stood as Smith and Chalmers entered.

“Where are the results?” The technician answered. “The results were impossible, so I simply threw out the film. I wasn’t going to waste anyone’s time with it.”

“Results may be wrong, Mr. Michaels,” Smith said, “but they’re never impossible. If they were impossible, they couldn’t happen. What was wrong?”

“For each sample, I had one line for the fluorine, and a one line for the unknown. And some noise. The unknowns are like fluorine, you only see one isotope for each sample. But the unknowns were single isotopes, and their masses weren’t integers, which the laws of nature require. They were close to half integers. You can’t do that, so something was wrong. I don’t know what.”

“I wish I’d heard about that sooner,” Smith said. “Do we still have the film?”

“”Yes sir, I dropped it in the trash, but the trash hasn’t been picked up yet this week.”

“Well, fetch it, and I’d like to see it,” Smith said firmly. “I agree nothing like this is happened before, so I can’t complain too hard that I didn’t tell you what to do if it did.  Next time, if things don’t make sense, please tell me.”

The abashed technician handed over the film.  Smith led Chalmers to a light table, laid out each strip of film, and did a few measurements.

“Mr. Michaels,” Smith called across the room to his technician, “I agree with your half-integer atomic weights, so you seem to have gotten that part right. And if I’d been in your boat, I don’t know what I’ve done either. Which leads to a question, Mr. Chalmers. There are simpler ways to measure atomic weights. Freezing point depression. Boiling point elevation. Chemical analysis. Was there a reason you didn’t use those?”

Chalmers swallowed. “Sir, I actually did. I found strange results. For the first, atomic weight 52.5. Except the ebullioscope readings made no sense. But my result seemed hard to understand, unless it was like chlorine, with two isotopes, which your instrument can check, and colligative properties do not.”

Martinez realized that standing close behind him was the Grand Supreme Admiral.  He snapped a salute. “Sir!”  Regulations dictated that he remain at his station, but military courtesy also had a place.

“I see that the rest of the duty crew is out to lunch,” Thatcher said. “After all, there was no need for a relief detail for lunch, when no one in their right mind would have thought that anyone might show up unexpectedly. Do we have any idea what we are looking at?”

“Sir, they’re not in our light cone yet. I see the emergence, and I can track four ships coming up to some level of power, but it will take the AI systems a while to suggest what I might be looking at. The best I can say is that their drives are running very smoothly, so that they are pulling some tens of gravities with almost no graviton admissions.   Really powerful drives being run at low power will do that.”

Thatcher took the adjoining chair.  “I see you have all of the position data panels seconded to your screens, so even if the rest of the crew isn’t here at the moment you have track of everything.  Time to get images?”

“I was hoping for another minute,” Martinez said,  “though it depends a bit whether the observation buoys are up and running completely or not, which I can’t monitor from here, and which aren’t in our chain of command, anyhow.”

“Here we are having Fleet maneuvers,” Thatcher said, “so these people must be latecomers to the dance. Who are we missing?”

“All ships are here,” Martinez said. “The Anglic Union, from Old Earth, is supposed to be sending a group of ships, but they weren’t expected for several days yet. However, here comes the IFF signal and some images.”

Thatcher stared patiently at the screens.

“Sir,” Martinez said, “according to the IFF, these are the Anglic Union ships. They are the Langley, Hiram Maxim, Orville Wright, and Wilbur Wright. And in a moment the holodisplay will show us one of them.”

There appeared before the two men an image of a single ship. According to the pictures, the Langley was a thick pancake, painted white, accelerating parallel to its minor axis.

“That’s certainly different,” Thatcher said to himself. “Does that match anything we have on file?”

“Sir, so far as I can determine our people on Terra advised us of the names of the four ships, and made the remark that Anglic Union ship design was extremely eccentric and highly backwards. They neglected to mention that anything specific was unusual about the shape of the Anglic Union ships.   They suggested that nothing should be expected of Anglic Union ships other than serving as ore freighters.”

“Traffic Control should have hailed them by now,” Thatcher said. “Has there been a response?”

“No, sir. However, Traffic Control is probably also out to lunch. After all, the warp point is closed during maneuvers.” Martinez shrugged. “The folks at the far end should’ve had plenty of notice that the Terrans had showed up, and should’ve sent through to us a message boat telling us of the Terran arrival. They seem not to have done that.”

“Basic lesson for a first-line officer,” Thatcher said. “Trust your fellow sailors, but don’t assume they will do everything right.”

“Will do, sir, and thank you for the advice.”

Three days later, Chalmers returned with the needed spectra.  There was a modest line for using the departmental spectroscopy facility, the technician in charge of the unit had been out of town for a day, instruction on using the instrument had to be scheduled, but finally Chalmers had his spectra, spread over short rolls of photographic film.

“I see that you’ve been very busy,” Watership said.  “Your course grades were outstanding.  The regular samples that came in were analysed, you have set up to recover more of the trace metals from the Heath samples, and now with spectra you can tell us what was present in the orange sand. “

“I wish I could,” Chalmers answered. “Professor Hildebrand said the ebullioscope readings were mysterious, just as you said, and the spectra don’t match the standard table, either as a single element or as a combination of some sort. So I took another small sample to the mass spectroscopy lab.  We’re the only school on the west coast to have one.  I’m not allowed to touch the system – too fragile – so I get to wait for an assistant to run the machine.”

“Good initiative,” Watership said.  “The Department Library has a larger spectral table, spectra of elements and complex ions. Have you tried that one yet?”

“No, sir.”  Chalmers grimaced. He’d looked unsuccessfully for better tables.  “Actually, I missed that we had a larger table.  I’ll try that tomorrow; library is about to close for today.”

“Let me offer a suggestion,” Watership said.  “Make a table.  A column listing all the elements in order.  Blanks for the elements no one has seen. A column for each of your crystals.  Work through, one element at a time.  Systematic means you won’t forget to check an element.  Note known lines that are close but wrong.”

“Yes, sir,” Chalmers said. “I wish I’d thought of that.”

“Learning these little tricks,” Watership remarked, “most of which don’t seem very important, is actually an important part of being a successful chemist.  The other parts include working very hard, which you clearly understand, and reading extensively, which I gather from Joel that you’ve been doing. So go to it, and by the way at some point try analyzing that violet crystal, too.”

“Very well.”  Rosenstein  nodded once.  “Fleet Intelligence does not object to your request.  But you will be watched.  Carefully.  If you start prying about in other parts of the Library, I can and will have you sent home.”  Rosenstein stood and stomped out of the room.

Daystar took a deep breath.  “That was … different,” she said.   “Are you now prepared to discuss file transfer issues?  The First Empire’s Encyclopedia Astrographica has almost the same format as its modern equivalent…”

There is now a substantial gap, during which the Anglic Union starts building serious spaceships and, to deal with another annoyance from the Stellar Republic, agrees that when they build warships some of the ships will be seconded to the Stellar Republic’s fleet for consideration for purchase.

With the Scout Ships

Stars seen through the warp point shimmered. One after the next, the four scout ships that the Anglic Union had seconded to the Stellar Republic swam through the opening they had forced in space. With only a few seconds delay, AUAS ships Langley, Hiram Maxim, Orville Wright, and Wilbur Wright brought up their defense screens and drives and began accelerating away from the warp zone.

A fraction of an astronomical unit away, the warp point’s one fortress noted the appearance of unscheduled ships and began to climb toward battle stations.

“Grand Supreme Admiral of the Fleet Thatcher,” Senior Technician Second Class Martinez chanted into his communicator, “we have unknown spaceships passing through the remote northeast segment of the warp zone. I count four ships of an unknown type.  In accord with operation plans, I have brought the base to battle stations.”

Martinez leaned back in his chair. Strictly speaking, he had flipped open the covers and pressed the two buttons that sounded the battle stations alarm.  The base was well-run. It might come up to battle stations in as little as ten or twenty minutes. Meanwhile, he had carried out his duty, notified his superior officer of the situation, and now got to watch to see what would happen.

The unknown ships were still outside of the base’s light cone. Only the gravitronic detectors were giving any indication that the ships were there. He stared at one of his displays. If the display was to be believed, the ships had powered up screens and drives almost instantaneously after passing through the warp point. The usual time for ships of the Imperial Navy was several minutes, that being a bit optimistic for some squadrons. They were also considerably closer together than units of the Stellar Republic Fleet would choose to be, at least on emerging from a warp line. 

Who were these people? He wondered. He felt a slight flutter of concern that he might actually be facing unknown hostile ships. Of course, that was absurd.  Star M13927 was inside the boundaries of the Stellar Republic. The known links to that warp point all connected to heavily populated solar systems. 

Now he heard footsteps coming up the corridor behind the Operations Center.  He had ordered battle stations, so sooner or later someone would get around to closing the armored doors at each entrance to the Center. However, that was not his job, even though he could do so with the touch of a few keys, so he would leave that task to whoever’s responsibility it was. He tried to remember who was supposed to be doing that, but had been so long since he had reviewed the battle station’ s operations plan that he simply didn’t remember.

“Ah, Mister Martinez,” came the voice behind him.  “You noted the emergence and immediately did the right thing, as opposed to asking your immediate superiors what you should do. That’s excellent initiative!”

Three days later, Watership found his technical assistant hard at work in the lab.  “Not finished yet?” he asked.

“The situation is highly annoying,” Chalmers said.  “I’ve been doing these analytical series on rocks every day for more than a year now. Your procedure makes analysis a routine.  The sand is mostly what you would expect, silica and alumina. The strange borax bead tests – yes, I know how old fashioned they are, but I did them first to confirm that the material here is indeed the material described by Eisenhower – corresponds to a minor component.  I followed your lecture notes, step by step, and found … something.  On evaporation, it crystallizes into three sorts of crystal.  They give  the borax bead colors…everything else in the sample does not.  So I’m trying to identify one of the crystals.  I can tell you lots of things it isn’t, but not what it is. Some complex ion?  But it survived the concentrated sodium hydroxide.”

“Take a day to write up what you have done,” Watership answered, “and why at each step.  Sometimes, when I tried to write something up, I realized I was making a simple mistake.”

“I’ll do that,” Chalmers answered.  “I may need two days; I’m in the middle of exams for all three of my courses.  And by then the department ebullioscope will be free from the senior lab.”

“Exams are more important.  Write it up carefully.”

* * * * *

Chalmers glared at the ebullioscope.  Vapor pressure reduction due to dissolved materials was a very simple experiment, at least if you were careful.   But something was going wrong.  His calibration experiments all passed, but the unknowns were being uncooperative.  There came a knock at the door. Professor Watership stuck his head in.

“I read your write-up,” Watership announced.  “I had my exams to grade first.  Your notes were very professional.  You seem to have done everything right.  Identifying those crystals sounds to be a good Master’s Thesis, unless the answer turned out to be very simple, say, a faulty reagent.”

“Amen to that,” Chalmers answered.  “I shouldn’t have needed a week, and should apologize for making such a mess of things.  I should at least write this Eisenhower gentleman, and tell him what I have found, shouldn’t I?”

“Yes, it’s about time,” Watership answered.  “Your report and a cover explanation should do it.  Telling him you found an aluminosilicate, and trace metals giving the novel bead test, the metals not being part of the ordinary analytic series, should be enough to tell him he and his friend have found a new mineral.”

“That reminds me,” Chalmers said, not quite enthusiastically.  “May I ask Physics to measure the spectrum of these?   That would tie down what elements are actually there.  Then I can back trace to what I did wrong.  But I know it’s a bit expensive.”

“That’s part of your grad lab sequence, anyhow,” Watership answered.  “Ask them.  You seem to have spent a lot of time with these measurements…what is the issue?”

“I can measure vapor pressure reduction.”  Chalmers pointed at the instrument.  “Standard grad lab experiment.  But the reduction is too large.  Not a little too large, a lot too large.”

“What do you mean, too large?”  Watership felt puzzled.

“For the unknown, I prepared the sulphate and the chloride.  I measured directly how much sulphate or chloride were present…precipitation methods.  So if there is, say, tenth-molar chloride present, the unknown anion should have the same concentration, or half that if it’s divalent, and I can calculate the vapor pressure reduction I should expect.  With the chloride, I get twice the expected reduction.  With the sulphate, I get more than twice.”

“If there is a…no forget that idea.” Watership shook his head.  “If you formed a compound ion, the reduction would be too small, not too large.   We are out of my remit.  I’m a minerologist, not a physical chemist.  Write up what you’ve found, get an appointment with Professor Hildebrand, and say I sent you.  Meanwhile get those spectra, and we can tell Eisenhower exactly what he has.”