Chapter 16

For a while things seemed normal, but I felt perpetually dizzy. My mind seemed to be in a fog. I saw my doctor, Dr. Elbert Chao, an internist at Alexandria Hospital. I didn't tell him about the visions because the last thing I needed was to see a psychiatrist. The Department of Defense did not allow anyone with a psychiatric history to hold a Secret or Top Secret Clearance, so I knew my career as a military scientist was in jeopardy.

"You just need bed rest, plenty of fluids, and I'll prescribe something for the dizziness," said Dr. Chao. He wrote me a prescription and sent me on my way. After I had the prescription filled, I called Luis and told him I needed to take sick leave. I went home and slept for days.

David came home, and he said, "Michael, there's someone you should meet over in my lab." David worked in NRL's Code 4254, over in Building C-39 for the Applied Physics Laboratory where he did his 3-Dimensional Volumetric Display work. He was the Lead Software Engineer on the 3-D Volumetric Radar System (3DVRS), which the Navy informally called, "3-Diverse". David even held a patent for the software code used to control the basic 3-D Volumetric Display System.

She was better than David described. Monica Cabrerra was the perfect match for me. She was a graduate student in physics from Catholic University of America (CUA). Monica held a Science Mathematics for Research Transformation Scholarship (SMART Scholarship) from the Department of Defense, and ONR was her service branch so NRL was perfect for her.

After David briefly introduced us, he left us alone in one of the experimental rooms of the Applied Physics Laboratory. "So, Monica, could you explain to me your research?"

"Certainly," said Monica, the beautiful Filipina woman. "I'm trying to produce SCIRL in order to generate 3-D volumetric images."

"What's SCIRL?" I asked her.

"Supercontinuum infrared light." She went to the white board and drew the energy diagram of rubidium, which I recognized from my atomic physics classes at UNLV and Harvard. "I'm trying to induce multiple photon, continuous wavelength upconversion in rubidium vapor. SCIRL beams are like laser beams, but they have a continuous wavelength band of focused infrared light."

"How does this produce a 3-D image?"

"Simple," said Monica. She switched from a red dry erase marker to a blue dry erase marker. She drew blue arrows on the red energy levels of rubidium. "The SCIRL beams are invisible. You take two of them and where they intersect in the rubidium vapor, they produce visible points of light in multiple colors."

"So you use rubidium vapor as a display medium for your 3-D Volumetric Display, I see."

"Exactly, vapors make a better display medium because of their light weight and ease of fabrication of the display chamber." Monica spoke almost like a melody.

"When you have that, then what?" I questioned the graduate student from CUA.

"For my dissertation, I'm going to attempt to induce multiple photon, continuous wavelength upconversion in ordinary air."

"How does that work, Monica?"

"Well, air is mostly nitrogen, oxygen, and a little bit of other gases," Monica said. "So if I can get the components of air to undergo upconversion, then I can design a 3-D Volumetric Display with realistic, possibly animated images."

"Like the holodeck in Star Trek!" I said. "That's exciting." I decided to make my move. "So, Monica, would you like to go to Starbucks with me for a cup of coffee?"

"I'd love to, Dr. Sanglao," she said.

"Call me, 'Michael.'"