Tsybenko nods and relays the question. The answers that come back are patchy and technical in nature, and have to be repeated a few times to overcome the static, but if Scotty heard them he'd be turning white. Tsybenko himself is looking ill. "Am not nuclear physicist," he says, "but you do not do that to the control rods simply to ensure your response time is above average. Not unless you want the Wigner effect to go out of control."

"The Wigner effect?" asks Lua'al-rei warily.

"Atomic displacement in solid matter struck by reactor neutrons," says Tsybenko. "Is very good way to get sudden massive rush of heat, the kind that melts bones."