by Richard Dusk
After half an hour of arduous thinking and calculating of correct numbers, he gave up. A single combination didn't provide a satisfying result to execute successful testing nor expected performance out in the field.
"How in the hell can we possibly do this?" said Garrett to them.
They stood in front of the last problem holding them back from reaching the finish of this project, and he couldn't find the answer.
"Let me," said Arthur.
Annoyed Garrett, sitting on the chair, moved back to let him come to the panel. Arthur swiped through the layout, comparing numbers and their effects, typing another value combinations.
"I've tested every combination you can come up with, but the maximal power is limited somewhere around fifteen percent."
Arthur just waved a hand to silence him and arched his back over the panel. Garrett stood up and walked to Vivian connecting the cables. He looked over the last weeks' effort put into this device. A shining, gray-colored, cube-shaped case hid a large magnetron containing Ocrosir, sticking out with a pointy tip in the middle between four arched carbon poles. The grating on both sides hid two powerful fans drawing off heat expelled from liquid helium tubes cooling the magnetic refrigeration system inside. Bundles of cables joined the EMP system with a case of high-performance batteries.
"Did you test the cooling?" said Garrett.
"Yes, we did. We also added something new. Look at this," she handed him an iron tube, hollow at one end and connected by cable to another end to the computer. "It's supposed to increase stabilization. There is one hidden in every corner of CHED. Please don't aim at yourself," she said when Garrett looked in the hole, and right after her words, he turned it upright. She pressed the button and rapidly rotating drill bit shoot out of the tube. "Now it can be fixed onto any solid surface – soil, rock, ice or concrete. It can drill a hole in most common materials."
"Brilliant," Garrett shut it down to take a close look at it. Just by a single glance, he knew that the tip was extremely sharp.
"It added about three pounds to overall weight," she pressed the button to release the pressure. Drill retracted, and she put it aside. "Arthur came with this idea. It's nothing fancy, but I hope you'll utilize it. We didn't put it on battery. As it can be unplugged and no forces affect it directly, we didn't find it useful."
"It's perfect. Anything you two do will certainly have an amazing result. Thank you."
"Got it," blurted Arthur. "It's not possible to reach the values we need the standard way. Therefore I've made a channel to bypass the charging system, and we're good to go. We've got separate power streams to every single pole to utilize full hundred percent of total capacity," he said happily. "It may be a bit dangerous, but it should work."
"Sounds good. Are we ready to test it?" said Garrett.
"Give me a sec," Arthur quickly added few more lines, which Garrett couldn't before. "Okay, we're ready."
"Switch screen to the charging measurement," Garrett walked to shelves full of laboratory electronics. He reached for an old oscilloscope box and tied a cable to it.
"Don't we have a better target?" said Vivian. Even now, she didn't consider the destruction of lab equipment appropriate.
"I hate this one since I used it two weeks ago. The power cable inside touches the case and gives a great kick," he showed her stung fingers. "I wanted to throw it away."
He finished the knot and walked to a giant, orange, robotic arm set aside.
"We'll hang it on this," he said to Vivian. She took the controller and switched the machine on.
The buzzing arm moved in every direction and twisted. Wheels turned around and drove the unit forward and backward. After several seconds of initialization, it stood still. Vivian moved the arm via touch screen towards her. She lowered the gripper and twisted the wrist. Garrett stretched the rope and arm firmly gripped it. Their target hanged right in the middle of the room, and Garrett ceased its swinging movement.
"We'll begin at one percent of maximum discharge energy," said Garrett.
"Okay, I'll activate the sequence. The external power supply is on," said Arthur when the box behind him lightly clicked, and vents in CHED began blowing the air.
Garrett walked around the device and nervously glanced all over it, searching for any errors.
"Switch the lasers on."
Four thin red rays of laser light on every side of pole beamed all over the room and moved until they all met in one spot on the hanging box, and focused the core at the same.
"Ready. Go behind the panel," Garrett followed Vivian and Arthur.
A thick laminated protective glass emerged from ceiling and ground and joined to shield them from anything that's going to happen in the rest of the room. Garrett looked last time at the numbers. Everything seemed to be in order, and hopefully, valid as well.
"Arthur, begin the testing sequence in three, two, one," he counted down.
"Charging commenced," Arthur started the test.
Nothing happened in the first three seconds. Only the room got noticeably brighter. Every lamp glowed like a little sun. The poles emitted buzzing and soft high pitched noise of increasing frequency with very subtle, deep humming. It sounded like coming from a distance and getting closer and closer with every second.
"It's too steep," said Arthur. "We are already at forty-five percent of charging. It may unexpectedly overheat."
"Keep it," Garrett switched the cooling values to the maximum.
The field enhancers on the inner side of arches glowed with intense white light. The buzzing grew stronger, and the noise of slow pulses traveling through the air arose quickly.
"Seventy-five," said Arthur loudly.
Tools on the table began bouncing and falling to the ground, where they continued to travel around the room in the direction of field lines. Hanging wires unnaturally tilted towards the pulling center. Everything inside the room moved, including the suspended oscillator pulled towards CHED. Garrett felt delicate shivers at his hair roots and had to scratch, which turned them into itching at once.
"Ninety-five, get ready," said Arthur
They all stared mesmerized, none of them dared to blink. The moment when numbers hit one hundred, the room turned silent for milliseconds. The energy of the field scattered the light, and the whole device blurred like surrounded by heat haze. White flashing rays of the accumulated energy shot out from enhancers and collided together, forming a circulating sphere of energy among them. It wasn't bigger than a child's head, but when the final ray burst from the pointy tip of the Ocrosir cylinder hit the sphere and strengthened its energy, the ray shot out and struck the target with enormous power. Electric buzzing flooded the room as rays disintegrated the hanging device, and bolts hit the floor around, leaving black burned marks. The oscillator disappeared without a trace, and CHED charged a new one, rapidly growing energy sphere.
"Shut it down!" shouted Garrett dazzled by white light, but Arthur pressed the button before he finished the sentence.
Rays disappeared, and the levitating sphere began slowly falling to the ground. It hovered a few inches above the floor when Garrett knew what will come after.
"Get down!" he shouted and pulled them both to the ground.
The entire facility trembled with an earsplitting noise of lightning hitting the ground. The fortified glass was no barrier to the shock wave and shattered it into pieces. An invisible force violently shoved them against the wall. The lightning shot all around the laboratory, leaving holes in the walls, showering terrified scientists with sparks burning their faces and making holes in the clothes. The mixed scent of burned cotton, hair, molten iron, and the acrid smoke of plastics quickly found a way to their noses. The lightning disappeared as quickly as it came, and they remained to lie speechless on the floor under flickering lights that resisted. If there weren't water already flooding every floor around them, they would be surprised.
"Anything we do, Garrett?" said Vivian sarcastically, getting up from the ground an
d looking at burns on her hands.
"What the hell is that?" said Arthur rising to feet, but Garrett remained sitting, leaned against the wall.
"That, my friend, is going to save the world."
They all looked at each other, not convinced about the validity of Garrett's statement. Vivian walked around the room, looking at traces of their experiment. CHED stood miraculously untouched in front of an eight feet wide hole in the floor. She saw that they wrecked most of the laboratory below them. The arm, still holding the rest of the cable, lay clear-cut in halves on the floor. There remained no trace of the oscillator hanging somewhere around moments ago. No fragments, no ash. Nothing. Ceiling wires dangled in the air, crashed monitors lay plucked from the walls, and cabinets got scorched black. Molten iron slowly dripped down the walls and hardened on the way. She peeked through holes to other rooms around and saw they damaged them as well.
"I thought that one percent would be a weak level to begin with," said Arthur, looking around at the desolation. "How are you going to manage it there?"
"That remains to be the question," Garrett finally brought himself to stand up. "Arthur, check the supply and energy consumption and compare it with battery capacity we're taking."
How are we going to manage it there?
This question haunted him since Sarah told him about this project, and various scenarios ran through his mind ever since. He projected the worst-case possibilities just to prepare himself for everything; however, in vain. Arthur knew what occupied Garrett's head and placed the sheet with equations in front of him.
"You don't have to use all the power it possesses. Look, you can lower-"
"I have to," Garrett cut in. "We've got only one shot, and I want it to be the only shot needed," he said pensively. "It's the only way. We won't have enough power for repetitions. We can't lose this time."
Arthur didn't oppose him. He saw that Garrett won't change his mind, and after all, he didn't have a much different opinion.
"What are you doing down here?" sounded terrified and miffed voice from the door.
Sarah walked into the room, looking around the wrecked lab and overstepping the mess. The shattered glass cracked under her high heels.
"What the hell is all of this?! What did you do?! You've got no idea what's happening across the base now! Everyone's going crazy!"
"We just did, what you've asked us to do," said Garrett.
"But not like this!" she yelled at them, and her voice cracked. She breathed in deeply to calm herself and spoke with a normal voice again. "Garrett, you must understand-" she avoided finishing the sentence in Vivian's and Arthur's presence. "What happened?"
"We underestimated its power," said Garrett. "This is the result of one percent of its capability tested."
They saw in Sarah's eyes that she froze. The anger inside her turned into something different – interest.
"I'm sorry," she smiled at him and tapped his shoulder. "I certainly misheard you. You didn't say one percent, did you? This can't be just one. We would be able to blow Nest apart at the hundred percent," she said with increasing curiosity in her voice.
"Actually, at one hundred, we would probably blow this mountain apart," said Arthur.
"If we don't fix the sequence and ensuing charging. This wasn't supposed to happen," Garrett quickly added when he saw Sarah's face.
She certainly didn't plan to be torn into pieces and buried deep under the mountain in a giant metal grave, but she looked satisfied with the device they've built.
"Magnificent work. What are the results?" said Sarah.
"We've got probably good news," said Arthur, slightly confused. "Device is working the way," he stretched the pause because he didn't want to say something wrong, "we certainly didn't expect, but we are greatly delighted by the outcome we got," he finished quickly, trying to sound diplomatic.
"I see," said Sarah pleased. Her eyes jumped over the room with holey walls and stuck on the giant hole in the floor. "How?" she said terrified, pointing with a finger to it.
"You know, wrong initial conditions," said Vivian to lighten the atmosphere.
"It's not funny, Ms. Aubrey," she snapped at her and leaned over it. "I do hope it didn't get to outer walls."
"If it did, we would be already drowned," said Garrett.
Sarah looked at him, not convinced about that.
"Garrett, come with me," she said and went out of the room.
"Arthur, Vivian, proceed with testing at all levels only by predictive simulations. No energy involved. You've seen one percent, extrapolate until it isn't reasonable anymore. The result of the estimated full power will be calculated. The first charging ended fine, we may work with that one, but stop the ensuing one. Also, set the limitation to prevent overcharging and give me a report later," said Garrett and walked away.
Sarah waited for him outside with hands in her pockets. She looked confident and strong-minded and not defeated and hopeless like the others in the facility.
"What's going on?"
Sarah didn't respond immediately. She turned into the corridor and ambled.
"Things are changing faster than I expected," she watched a thin green line on the floor. "The results showed that the state of the base is worse than we thought. Whitkis weakened the structure at major parts, which dramatically decreased the safety of this base. We've made indirect measurements, and we've got one day at most to pack and leave within an adequate level of safety."
Garrett looked at her concerned and stopped walking.
"What?"
"One day to leave, Garrett. According to our calculation. I required hourly reports about framework stability and direct measurements, but it's impossible to enter the capsule now. The pressure is not regulated and would kill anybody in there and here within minutes. The numbers we've obtained showed us with sufficient assurance that there are massive cracks and breakups of hinges and joints. Upper stabilization springs are gone. Earthquakes won't strive to hit us inside here. Therefore I must urge you to leave as soon as possible."
"But the testing is not finished. We're not sure if-" he watched Sarah shake her head.
"I'm sorry, Garrett, but you have to leave in the evening, not morning. Even if the testing isn't finished, you'll have to make it count."
"How can I make it count when it almost killed everybody!?" he snarled. "What the hell do you people want from me? It took me almost a year to get here. I knew it wouldn't be easy to find the answers, but this is more than I could ever be prepared for. This is too much for anyone. I've never asked for anything of this. Yes, I lived out there, but do you know how?" he almost yelled. "Freezing, dying of thirst, chewing bark to overcome hunger, and suffocating of the dust. I crawled, beaten like an animal, and now I have to go there and risk my life more than ever before?" Garrett fully yelled at her. "Did you see what's it capable of? We've burned a goddamn hole through fourteen inches of reinforced concrete!"
"Garrett, I've told you, I'm sorry, but I can't do anything about it. We were on the schedule before you began constructing it, and unfortunately, it changed. Don't think about it. Just do it," said Sarah calmly.
Garrett knew that. He knew it wasn't her fault but felt a strong injustice. Why everything falls into pieces before he gets a real chance?
"Is everything okay?" sounded voice through the corridor.
Vivian and Arthur stood in the door. They both looked terrified by Garrett's yelling, but Sarah waved at them to return into the lab.
"I'm sorry. It's just a heavy burden."
"I understand how you feel, I really do, but you are not alone in this. You've got no idea how much has changed since you've come here. Everything. Even I was surprised. Some things that were out of the question are back on the list again. And all these people you saw around are counting on you. We need you to succeed," she hugged him. "I'm with you no matter what happens."
They stood there still. Garrett smelled the heavy exclusive perfume she used and felt her touch, but it was lik
e hugging a stranger who never wanted to come close.
"What do you plan?" said Garrett when she released him.
"We'll move to Stonepine. An older base used before Diamond built Nest. We've got people there already. They have supplies, water, clean air, and the rest we'll take with ourselves. We can hide there. It's not as shielded as Nest but still safer than outside. I just hope I'll get there everybody in time. I gave maps and instructions to Kaiden. He has all that's necessary for your journey back to find us. I believe we'll meet there. And if not, then I'll know you tried your best to help the supreme good. Now go back and do a few tests to iron out the kinks. I've got to calm down others," she said and quietly walked away.
Garrett stood there for a while, watching Sarah leave. She behaved strangely. When he met her a few days ago, she was friendly and helpful. Now she acted reserved and sounded oddly stressed out.
"Where do we stand?" said Garrett when he got back in the lab.
Arthur was writing something on a paper and Vivian shutting down the power.
"We're done," said Vivian.
The white glow on arched poles faded away, and the room plunged again into the feeble light.
"Already? You couldn't do more than three," Garrett walked to Arthur to go through the results.
"Four and there's no need for another. Look at the screen. The impact power grows exponentially but precisely according to function. It's almost vertical at the hundred percent," he showed Garrett the curve on the screen rising extremely steeply.
"What happens at one hundred?" Garrett asked Vivian and focused the screen on the level with maximum power.
"It's just my surmise, but if it would strike the same way as the first time," she sighed, "then we would really blow up the mountain."
Garrett looked at her in disbelief and chuckled like a madman. Taking a weapon like this thousands of miles away to annihilate him-made machine destroying the world is a scenario that he wouldn't even have a chance to dream about. "All right. Are you giving me your word it's working?"