"Control values updated."
Pardin clapped his hands once. Clap.
"Starting electric rotation."
The control operator flipped the electric switch. At the same time, a thud sounded in the distance. Pollack held his head, wondering which part had burst. At that moment, the whining sound of the motor filled the entire facility as acceleration climbed.
The interval of the rotational sound grew shorter and shorter.
"The change in mass value due to acceleration was smaller than expected. Due to tidal forces, the Disc-Senders' formula needed one more variable."
As a stable acceleration sound was heard, Pardin reported to Rilke. The rotational speed became faster and faster, soon breaking the sound barrier and nearing terminal velocity.
Rilke watched the angular velocity and the linear velocity converted from it. The projectile, which had broken the target sound speed in an instant, was climbing to its limit speed.
"How much more is actually possible?"
Rilke asked Pardin.
"Due to the control limits of the Fluid Computer and the limit of fluid speed, this is the limit."
Rilke nodded and looked at the numbers. It was reaching 1.5 times the speed of sound. Pollack prepared the timing gear for the collision experiment. He was ready to pour the projectile onto the impact plate whenever Rilke gave the signal. Warning alarms for high heat and light rang throughout the facility.
Tirn ran back to the Fluid Computer where she had just planted the bomb. If the bomb here exploded, it was obvious that the surroundings would detonate along with massive steam. Then the safe and everything else would be buried. Now that she had confirmed where the code was, it was an unrepeatable opportunity to obtain the disc's contents. She quickly removed the fuse from the bomb.
At that moment, the alarm rang.
Hearing the alarm, Karen hurriedly grabbed the blueprints and piping diagrams nearby. Even if it wasn't an intercontinental ballistic missile, it was certain that they were pouring national capabilities into something. Analyzing it right now was a task for later. He checked his watch. He realized that the time promised with Tirn was running out. The moment he gathered the documents and stepped out the door, he ran into a man in military uniform. His carelessness in rushing was the root of the trouble.
Rilke pressed the timing gear switch. The gear slowly released, and the trigger rose to uncouple the projectile the moment the rotor came to the firing position.
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With a whirring sound, the rotor released the projectile toward the impact plate.
The moment the projectile entered the impact plate and collided with the uranium, the density per volume rose sharply due to the high-speed collision, securing the Critical Mass of Uranium-235.
Immediately after bonding, high-speed neutrons released from the spontaneous nuclear fission of uranium nuclei scattered in all directions. At this time, the Beryllium layer surrounding the entire target plate acted not as a simple heat diffusion layer but as a neutron reflector. Beryllium nuclei, with a low neutron absorption cross-section and high scattering efficiency, reflected the neutrons on the escape path back inside without decelerating them. As a result, the neutron loss rate decreased sharply, and the effective number of neutrons inside the system began to stably exceed the critical threshold.
The re-entered neutrons were captured by Uranium-235 nuclei, and the unstable nuclei immediately split into two lighter atomic nuclei. In this process, mass defect occurred, and the missing mass was converted into a massive amount of binding energy and released. 2 to 3 neutrons popped out again from the split nuclei, striking adjacent nuclei, and a Chain Reaction, where the number of neutrons increased geometrically, proceeded in nanocell units.
All these reactions were defined by a single formula.
E=mc^2
The explosive increase in neutron density accelerated the frequency of nuclear fission. The energy released in each fission event was transferred to matter in the form of kinetic energy and gamma rays, instantly converting to heat. The temperature rise was not linear. As the energy release rate skyrocketed geometrically, the thermal equilibrium inside the system collapsed. The crystal lattice began to collapse from the surface of the Beryllium reflector, and the solid structure instantly took on fluidity and flowed down.
The heat was immediately transferred to the impact plate behind it. The tungsten plate, a high-melting-point material, maintained its form temporarily, but could not disperse the accumulating thermal load. The moment the internal temperature exceeded the recrystallization temperature, micro-cracks occurred, and soon extensive melting began.
And then, Light was liberated.
Rilke saw it. It was a light of unimaginable size. Until now, he had understood light only by intensity. But that concept collapsed in an instant. Light was no longer a matter of intensity. It flew towards him with density, like a solid mass. A color that belonged to no category he knew, a color that could not be named, burst out like an explosion. And a taste of iron circulated in his mouth where there was nothing.
Pollack felt it. He reflexively shrank back at the sudden roar. He thought something had exploded. The entire facility shook. He fell, and his left hand was burned by the bursting steam. But the greatest destruction happened not in the room, but at the impact plate in front of his eyes. He understood by instinct, not calculation, that something unrecorded by instruments had erupted, piercing through half of his body that wasn't covered by the control panel when he fell. Following that, the heat that soared like an explosion melted everything around. He pressed the emergency fire extinguishing device almost unconsciously. And he too felt the taste of iron in his empty mouth.
Pardin realized. How narrow a cross-section the laws of nature he knew were in explaining the actual universe. The light erupting from the impact plate was too hot. He couldn't believe it. The fact that heat, and heat in an inexplicable form, could tear through a lump of metal in the form of light and explode made him shudder. And he too felt the taste of iron.
As the roar that filled the facility subsided, a strange silence settled. But it was not peace. It was a void that came after all senses were overloaded, a silence where perception could not catch up.
Rilke blinked a few times, but white dots remained embedded in the center of his vision like afterimages. The impact plate area beyond the observation window could no longer be distinguished in form. Tungsten and Beryllium, which should have withstood thousands of degrees, had already lost their structure and were flowing down to the floor as sticky liquid, and that vapor was filling the room like a white fog.
The cooling water pouring from the emergency fire extinguishing device Pollack activated vomited steam like a scream the moment it touched the molten metal. He looked down at the back of his hand. Even though he didn't feel unbearable heat, his skin was already red and swollen as if parboiled in boiling water. It was not heat conducted from the outside in. He understood without explanation that something inexplicable had pierced through his body.
Pardin tried to grab the Fluid Computer's record sheet with trembling hands, but his fingers wouldn't listen. The measuring instruments had already stopped after exceeding their limit values. He was convinced that the light and heat he witnessed were not simply byproducts released as mass converted to energy.
The three men couldn't look at each other as if they had made a promise. A cold afterglow still remained in the room, and the taste of iron lingering on the tip of their tongues became clearer as time passed.
The impact plate, melted by the massive light, was emitting an unknown light after hardening in the fire water.
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