[b]Forward Command Bridge, [i]As God and Heinlein Intended[/i], Haven system, Unstable Orbit around Jackal[/b] "Captain?" Francis stared out the window, watching flames lick the side of [i]God and Heinlein's[/i] heatshield. "Sir?" His communications officer, George, tugging at his arm, clearing Francis' temporary paralysis. He turns from the window and addresses the scope officer. "How much time do we have left?" "Eight minutes until aerocapture. Thirty-one until point-of-no-return. Sir." Francis yanks his radio off the wall and shouts into it "Francis to Engineering. Mr. Renner, I need reactor power now!" "We're getting fission events but temperature isn't rising above eighteen-hundred degrees. The reactor--" Another voice, behind the chief engineer "Is behaving like a reactor, not a nuke." "Get the old man out of my control room! We've got an emergency here." "Wait" Francis says, recognizing the voice "Fermi, is that you?" "Yes," the old man replies. "Mister Renner," Francis sighs, "do you know who designed Aegletes?" "Oh." "Do everything Dr. Fermi tells you." With that, Francis hangs up. _____________________________________________ [img]http://i.imgur.com/FqTsyFa.png[/img] [b]Reactor Control Room, [i]As God and Heinlein Intended[/i], 29 minutes to point-of-no-return[/b] "Your fuel is poisoned." "What. That's impossible. Plutonium decays to Uranium after twenty-four thousand years. And that takes a [i]billion[/i] more to decay. We should still have fuel." Renner throws his hands up in the air. "How do you store the fuel?" Fermi asks. "Same as always, you know that." "And the reactor?" "Wait till the thing cools down a bit, flood it with water from the tanks." "Then there would be no problem--if the core was still plutonium. It's uranium, and it's probably burned itself down to waste by now." "Nonsense. The uranium has even higher critical mass." "But it micro-fissions from slow neutrons. Like in water." From outside the control room, a familiar voice chimes in "Are you done with science lesson now? Can we go?" Boris, Sergi and Ivan float into the control room, their wide-eyed stares of wonder clearly indicating they have never been in such a place before. "You are [i]not[/i] bringing Bessel crew into [i]my[/i] reactor room!" "Do not worry. We're going to cargo. Where nukes are." Boris' casual tone does absolutely nothing to check Renner's fears. ____________________________________________ [b]Forward Command Bridge, [i]As God and Heinlein Intended[/i], 23 minutes until point-of-no-return[/b] "Orbit's down to seventy-one thousand kilometers. We've been aerocaptured." [i]God and Heinlein[/i] shudders, buffeted by Jackal's upper atmosphere. "Prepare a probe. All our telemetry, the Sundiver data, everything our sensors have picked up. In case we don't make it Asphodel needs to know." _____________________________________________ [b]Forward Cargo Bay, [i]As God and Heinlein Intended[/i], 20 minutes until point-of-no-return[/b] "One-hundred fifty megatons. One-hundred-fifty megatons. Two-hundred fifty megatons. Oh, here is forty-five megatons. Did not expect to see pipsqueak." Boris reads off yields as he floats down the cargo bay. "There are [i]thousands[/i] here. Is half Asphodel's nuclear arsenal at least. Do you plan on blowing up planet?" "One-fifth," Fermi corrects, "and yes, something like that." He glances around the bay. "These are all much too big. We need something small. Something you can hold in your hands." "Our shells are that size. Shells of Bessel, I mean." Ivan suggests. "Seventy-six millimeter armor piercing atomic ordinance" Sergi rattles off, then turns to Fermi. "Is that right size?" "It's perfect. Let's go to your ship now" Fermi says, pushes off of a warhead, and starts floating down toward the aft cargo bay. Boris and Sergi follow in the same manner. Ivan takes care not to use a thermonuclear device as a handhold. _____________________________________________ [b]Aft Cargo Bay, [i]As God and Heinlein Intended[/i], 16 minutes until point-of-no-return[/b] "Here is shell." Boris holds the twenty-kilogram warhead's tip effortlessly between two fingers, and passes it to Fermi. "Do you have any gloves?" Fermi starts to ask, then checks his watch and forgets about the gloves. "Better wash well afterwards..." he mutters, then unscrews the bolt on the back of the depleted uranium shell casing. Drawing out the dull gray hollowed plutonium cylinder, he holds it away from himself, wary of stray dust. "Maybe we should try to avoid breathing too." "Is fine," says Boris, "Viktor used to lick them for good luck." "Didn't you say he died of radiation poisoning? Nevermind that, get me that tin sheeting over there. We're gonna cut it into a rectangle and wrap it around the plutonium just like it is in the shell." Fermi reaches back into the shell and pulls out a smaller, solid cylinder of plutonium. "Why we replace one metal with another? Why not just keep nuke in shell?" Ivan asks, holding up the tin sheeting while Boris cuts it with sheers. "Because uranium absorbs and blocks neutrons. Tin doesn't." Sergi catching on, says "So you see Ivan, today we learn how to make neutron bomb." ______________________________________________ [b]Reactor Control Room, [i]As God and Heinlein Intended[/i], 3 minutes until point-of-no-return[/b] "Won't the atmos ignite if we burn this deep?" asks Darren, the damage control officer. "This ain't a plume--ain't like nothing is gonna fuse. We're still moving too fast for the explosions to catch us." Wilson responds. A crackle comes over the comms, and Francis lurches upright in his harness. Fermi's voice. "I set the detonator for thirty seconds. Now, Ivan, we're gonna open the hatch now. See if you can chuck it at the glowing sphere at the center." "Just like tossing potato." The rooskie's reply comes over the radio crisp and clear--he must be wearing a rad-suit--although Francis can't tell if the man is actually sober. "Now Mr. Renner, I'm going to need you to flood the reactor with uranium as soon as Ivan tosses the bomb." "Done. I certainly hope you know what you're doing, old man." "And I need you to vent the reactor a second before the bomb goes off. Total blowout." "Aye." "I hit it! I think. I am of closing door now." "Brace yourselves!" The entire ship shakes as a subkiloton neutron bomb detonates within the reactor. Nuclear fire flares from its sides, blowing great gouts of fissioning plasma outward. Several seconds pass, in silence, before Renner's voice comes over the radio. "Reactor's running Captain. We've got power." Noting his queue, Francis snaps "Full burn Mister Wilson. Let's get the hell out of here." The helmsman pulls back on the throttle, and they are all kicked back in their harnesses, as the [i]God and Heinlein[/i] ascend into the heavens. [img]http://i.imgur.com/PntpT1E.png[/img] ______________________________________________ [b]EVA, Factory Ship [i]Fermi's Paradox[/i], Erebos system, The dark side of Kronos[/b] They sit a few meters from the hatch, just the two of them, legs hanging over the fuselage. Clad in bulky spacesuits, each with a tin can in his hand, they watch the machines below with a mixture of awe and fear. The spiders, each thirty meters in height, loping across the cracked, metallic ground, illuminated only by the arc welders they carry and the red-hot glow of their plutonium hearts. "Historians will say that, on the day John von Neumann died, he left behind one thousand children" said Dyson, the taller one. "If you're gonna get philosophocal on me, you might as well add a few more zeros" Taylor retorts. The horizon turned a brilliant orange--the first glimmers of sunrise cresting Kronos' molten plains. Taylor taps his can against the fuselage and stands up. "Beer's cold. We gotta move the ship anyways." "Fuck the sun." Dyson says to himself, popping the hatch and clambering in.