Dear Bobbart:
I agree that you should try and work the delivery story in as an author's note when you upload to the archive. It's too delicious not to.
Higgs field manipulation: I went to wikipedia and started reading about Higgs field. That was an exercise in incomprehensibility so I went back a few steps and read about fermions and bosons.
In particle physics, bosons are particles which obey Bose-Einstein statistics; they are named after Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein. In contrast to fermions, which obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, several bosons can occupy the same quantum state. Thus, bosons with the same energy can occupy the same place in space. Therefore bosons are often force carrier particles while fermions are usually associated with matter, though the distinction between the two concepts is not clear cut in quantum physics.
I see that this has room for a story. (Or more than one.) The trouble is that only you could write it. Therefore, by Superman rules, you must do it. Because you can.
You have "explaining powers" far beyond those of mortal men. Disguised as a mild-mannered engineer, you spring into action when we require a story involving subatomic particles, Bose-Einstein condensates, or the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. This saves us from lame pseudo-scientific musings and inane technobabble.
No, actually, all kidding aside, I would be extremely interested to read a story involving the Higgs field. I've always liked hard SF stories ever since I read "Mission of Gravity" by Hal Clement. The works of Robert Forward were great too (I particularly liked "Dragon's Egg" and and "Camelot 30K".) Another recent memorable read was "Saturn's Children" by Charles Stross.
I am always amazed at the sheer bravura of the ideas in the hard SF field. It's tough to work in the concepts, explain them to the reader, and still keep the story going. So, if you can actually work it out, I'll be reading it!
I'll close with my favorite bumper sticker: It proudly proclaimed "Heisenberg May Have Slept Here."
