Well here's the second part. Another 1000 words sorry 
“I’ve told you before, there was nothing explosive in the lab; nothing!”
It had been two days since the explosion that killed Professor Blake and destroyed everything in his lab and now I was being grilled by the heads of the Physics Department. They weren’t happy, but then neither was I. They wanted a scapegoat and I was damned if it was going to be either Professor Blake or myself.
“What other explanation is there?” asked Professor William Freedman. He was definitely after my blood. “Could that quantum field thing have short-circuited or something?”
“No chance, Bill” said Professor John Munro. He was possibly the nearest thing to an ally that I had in the room. “I’ve seen the equipment. It didn’t use or generate anything like enough power, and the police are adamant that there are no traces of any explosive compounds. There is, or was, nothing in that lab but electrical equipment and plain old air.”
Air. Something in the back of my mind was suddenly demanding attention but I couldn’t pin it down.
“What exactly was Professor Blake working on when you last saw him, Pinner?” Munro asked.
“He thought he was close to succeeding…” Munro waved down the protests of the others. “He was trying to jump a small sample, only a few microns in diameter, and only a very short distance, no more than a couple of centimetres…” I leapt to my feet as that something in the back of my mind suddenly made itself heard. “What if he did it? What if he succeeded?”
Again Munro quelled the protests. “Explain!”
Sitting back down, I said, “Professor Munro, you knew him fairly well, didn’t you?”
Munro nodded. “Probably better than most, I quite liked the old guy, despite his ways, Why?”.
“What do you think was most important to him; the field or the jump?”
“The field, of course, he was a theoretical physicist. He would only have viewed the jump itself as his experimental proof.”
“My thoughts exactly! The one thing he never talked about, and knowing him probably never considered, is what would actually happen after a successful jump. He was only interested in the field itself. I think he might have succeeded…” I pushed on despite the grumbles. “When that sample appeared in its new location it would’ve been trying to share the space with the air molecules already there. We’re talking about a significant number of atoms suddenly finding themselves and their electrons’ orbits entangled in ways that should not have been possible under normal conditions. I think he might have created a tiny nuclear fusion explosion!”
They all spoke at once:
“Preposterous!”
“Ridiculous!”
“Waste of time!”
All except Munro. He seemed to think about it for a moment before interrupting. “Actually, he may have something there.” I looked at him in surprise.
Freedman glared. “Come on John, don’t you start.”
“It fits the facts. There wouldn’t have been any chemical traces. Probably only a handful of atoms actually fused. In terms of atomic explosions a mere spark. So it’s quite possible there was no detectable radiation and I doubt anyone’s even thought to check for it.” Munro raised his voice against the storm of protests. “Dammit, we’re scientists. Do you have a better theory to fit the observed facts?”
Only sullen silence this time.
“If that’s what happened consider the implications. As well as transport (in a vacuum I think next time!) he may have inadvertently discovered a workable fusion generator. We should at least investigate the possibilities.”
It took years to recreate Blake’s work (I think most of it was on all those handwritten sheets I had helped him carry). By the time we had succeeded Munro had retired and I was leading the project. We both shared the Nobel Prize and insisted Professor Blake’s name should be on it.
Then it all started to go wrong.
Yes we did finally achieve cheap fusion energy but we should have had the stars. We had even started construction of the first quantum star jump platform. But by then the first quantum gun had been built. It was the perfect weapon; there was no defence against it. If you knew your target’s precise location (it could be literally anywhere: deep underground, far out in space, anywhere), you just jump a marble sized lump of matter into it and your target becomes its own nuclear bomb; instantaneous with no opportunity to dodge. The only defence was secrecy. If the enemy didn’t know where the target was they couldn’t hit it.
Within two days of the first shot being fired there wasn’t a satellite left in orbit. Anything that could view the Earth’s surface was destroyed, even the nascent quantum star jump platform. Another day and all the known military bases were destroyed. Within a week all air and sea traffic had ceased; they made ridiculously easy targets for the quantum gun. Invasion was impossible. As soon as the enemy saw you, you were targeted and you quite literally became a bomb. No defence and no attack. It became the old game of battleships; no one could see what they were shooting at so they just took pot shots at likely sites.
Cities were likely sites.
Once they started on them it took less than a week to flatten every major city in the world. Within a year over two billion were dead, a quarter of the Earth’s human population gone; mostly by starvation and disease as the planet’s entire infrastructure was systematically destroyed. The only things that survived were the quantum guns themselves. They couldn’t be targeted; small and mobile, not even their own generals knew their locations. With their ability to retaliate unaffected and actual invasion impossible, none of the governments would back down. Civilian loses were simply ignored.
It is a war of attrition and there has never been one like it.
No surrender and no negotiations.
Everyone wants revenge.
Nothing more, just revenge.
Nobel's Dynamite Part 2
“I’ve told you before, there was nothing explosive in the lab; nothing!”
It had been two days since the explosion that killed Professor Blake and destroyed everything in his lab and now I was being grilled by the heads of the Physics Department. They weren’t happy, but then neither was I. They wanted a scapegoat and I was damned if it was going to be either Professor Blake or myself.
“What other explanation is there?” asked Professor William Freedman. He was definitely after my blood. “Could that quantum field thing have short-circuited or something?”
“No chance, Bill” said Professor John Munro. He was possibly the nearest thing to an ally that I had in the room. “I’ve seen the equipment. It didn’t use or generate anything like enough power, and the police are adamant that there are no traces of any explosive compounds. There is, or was, nothing in that lab but electrical equipment and plain old air.”
Air. Something in the back of my mind was suddenly demanding attention but I couldn’t pin it down.
“What exactly was Professor Blake working on when you last saw him, Pinner?” Munro asked.
“He thought he was close to succeeding…” Munro waved down the protests of the others. “He was trying to jump a small sample, only a few microns in diameter, and only a very short distance, no more than a couple of centimetres…” I leapt to my feet as that something in the back of my mind suddenly made itself heard. “What if he did it? What if he succeeded?”
Again Munro quelled the protests. “Explain!”
Sitting back down, I said, “Professor Munro, you knew him fairly well, didn’t you?”
Munro nodded. “Probably better than most, I quite liked the old guy, despite his ways, Why?”.
“What do you think was most important to him; the field or the jump?”
“The field, of course, he was a theoretical physicist. He would only have viewed the jump itself as his experimental proof.”
“My thoughts exactly! The one thing he never talked about, and knowing him probably never considered, is what would actually happen after a successful jump. He was only interested in the field itself. I think he might have succeeded…” I pushed on despite the grumbles. “When that sample appeared in its new location it would’ve been trying to share the space with the air molecules already there. We’re talking about a significant number of atoms suddenly finding themselves and their electrons’ orbits entangled in ways that should not have been possible under normal conditions. I think he might have created a tiny nuclear fusion explosion!”
They all spoke at once:
“Preposterous!”
“Ridiculous!”
“Waste of time!”
All except Munro. He seemed to think about it for a moment before interrupting. “Actually, he may have something there.” I looked at him in surprise.
Freedman glared. “Come on John, don’t you start.”
“It fits the facts. There wouldn’t have been any chemical traces. Probably only a handful of atoms actually fused. In terms of atomic explosions a mere spark. So it’s quite possible there was no detectable radiation and I doubt anyone’s even thought to check for it.” Munro raised his voice against the storm of protests. “Dammit, we’re scientists. Do you have a better theory to fit the observed facts?”
Only sullen silence this time.
“If that’s what happened consider the implications. As well as transport (in a vacuum I think next time!) he may have inadvertently discovered a workable fusion generator. We should at least investigate the possibilities.”
* * *
It took years to recreate Blake’s work (I think most of it was on all those handwritten sheets I had helped him carry). By the time we had succeeded Munro had retired and I was leading the project. We both shared the Nobel Prize and insisted Professor Blake’s name should be on it.
Then it all started to go wrong.
Yes we did finally achieve cheap fusion energy but we should have had the stars. We had even started construction of the first quantum star jump platform. But by then the first quantum gun had been built. It was the perfect weapon; there was no defence against it. If you knew your target’s precise location (it could be literally anywhere: deep underground, far out in space, anywhere), you just jump a marble sized lump of matter into it and your target becomes its own nuclear bomb; instantaneous with no opportunity to dodge. The only defence was secrecy. If the enemy didn’t know where the target was they couldn’t hit it.
Within two days of the first shot being fired there wasn’t a satellite left in orbit. Anything that could view the Earth’s surface was destroyed, even the nascent quantum star jump platform. Another day and all the known military bases were destroyed. Within a week all air and sea traffic had ceased; they made ridiculously easy targets for the quantum gun. Invasion was impossible. As soon as the enemy saw you, you were targeted and you quite literally became a bomb. No defence and no attack. It became the old game of battleships; no one could see what they were shooting at so they just took pot shots at likely sites.
Cities were likely sites.
Once they started on them it took less than a week to flatten every major city in the world. Within a year over two billion were dead, a quarter of the Earth’s human population gone; mostly by starvation and disease as the planet’s entire infrastructure was systematically destroyed. The only things that survived were the quantum guns themselves. They couldn’t be targeted; small and mobile, not even their own generals knew their locations. With their ability to retaliate unaffected and actual invasion impossible, none of the governments would back down. Civilian loses were simply ignored.
It is a war of attrition and there has never been one like it.
No surrender and no negotiations.
Everyone wants revenge.
Nothing more, just revenge.
