The next three weeks, more like three and a half, were, fortunately, mostly uneventful.
Little things like the profits of Enki rising again, in lockstep with our production capacity. Like Cheyenne Mountain taken over by Warden to build me a remote lab, and her filling everything in there not the fusactors or the actual lab space with super-Grendels.
Like me talking to Nate and having Warden provide two super-Grendels for his research division.
Like the first of Blumenthal’s crystals having been decrypted along with the first files. Even though those were mostly basic dossiers about the people in New York, the state, not the city.
I spent virtually all the time trying to find the elusive effect that prevented the neutrons of the fusactors from irradiating the hardware.
And I finally found it. At least I believed it to be the one. Number 64 of the fields beyond the grav-bending, the negation field, and the EM manipulating one.
All in all, I had preliminarily identified 69 individual quantum fields. And I was far from exhausting the K-coils treasure trove of random quantum effects. I decided to dive back into it immediately.
Yeah, right. I would tackle that when I was bored again in the future. Right now… not so much. I was somewhat burned out on the Seeberger equation and those goddamned Kobashigawa coils.
The worst part, not a single one of the quantum fields I found was even remotely useful at the time.
Two-thirds of them were five- or six-dimensional fields. The rest… the most useful of them was still the one that could theoretically compress three-dimensional space. And that was as useful as a screen door on a spaceship.
Now, those of you who paid attention will realize that there were at least five quantum effects on work in the fusactors.
First of course the gravity-bending one. Without the grav pinch, we would need way higher temperatures, like in the fusion reactors of interplanetary ships.
Second the EM modifying field. It allowed the fusion process at way lower temperatures and pressures. And now, with the ability to regulate it precisely, it would be even more so.
Third was the field that made the heat vanish. Nice to have, but honestly, the least important of all the fields.
Fourth was the field that increased the harvested energy by 20 to 40% of what it should produce overall. Again, nice to have, but we could live without it for the time being.
Fifth was the one that slowed down the high energy neutrons. A critical factor. For fusion reactors, radiation shielding made up around 40% of the volume and 70% of the mass of the reactor.
And they still required a complete rebuild every 10-15 years to replace the shielding. And all that was thanks to the high energy neutrons.
So yes, I called it a day when I found the field that, at least in theory, should achieve that slowdown effect.
The nice part was that it was the very same field that increased the yield.
If my math was correct, this field would interact with those high energy neutrons, bleeding speed and opening a femtometer-sized hole into, what I could only assume was hyperspace. The classic sci-fi one.
I might be wrong in that, but whatever it is, it is a plane of existence with a significantly higher energy potential.
Oh, by the way, I debunked the vacuum decay theory at the same time. Not only was there a plane with a higher energy potential but there was also a plane with a lower energy potential.
Our universe will not decay into a true vacuum because said true vacuum already exists, and we are on a higher energy plane. I will clap myself on the back later, thank you very much.
The point here is that while that hole is open, meaning while the neutron is still speeding, the higher energy potential of hyperspace leaks through and condenses as an EM field that will be collected by the harvesters in the fusactor. The amount of energy coming through was dependent on the speed of the neutrons, so got progressively less.
One would think this could make a marvelous shield. Sadly, no. Even a tiny concentration of the weak force would collapse the field. So, anything bigger than a neutron, or proton, would stop it from happening. Fortunately, those effects were very localized.
As usual, this field is far from optimally created by the K-coils. Hence the large span of additional energy.
Now… it was time to experiment. The lab Warden had created in Cheyenne Mountain was relatively bare bones at that time.
A single fully populated Grendel, a collection of scientific instruments, a big NADA, a couple of relatively cheap Simpson&Proctor fusactors, mostly because Nate had them readily available, a molecular forge, a few Eitri and Brokr bots, and a large cache of raw materials.
Nothing special in other words, but thanks to the NADA everything I needed.
Other than that, Warden had the Minions create a variant of the new tunnel-boring machine. Instead of just creating a tube-like tunnel, it excavated whole floors and built them up. Shoring them up, creating walls, and doors, placing superconductors, building up the whole electric system, the works.
As the tunnel-boring machine, this one was a combination of a disruptor, a conveyor, a full tractor beam assembly to support the freshly excavated space, and a molecular forge.
This one also included a NADA, and the disruptor was easier to shape. All in all, this thing managed around 1000m² every eight hours.
The original complex had been distributed over 15 three-story buildings. Around 20,000m² per story, or a bit over 60k m² all in all. Warden had rebuilt one of the buildings into my lab. And then went hog wild.
Not only did she combine the other 14 buildings into one single big one. When she was finished there, she just kept digging. Down and out. By the time I was ready for the experiments, she had nine floors of 36k m² each.
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Heck, the two 75 gW fusactors she had bought from S&P were just enough to support the lab and maybe ten super-Grendels.
In other words, around 90% of the volume was just empty for now. That did not concern me though. Was I aware that sooner or later she would manage to fill the whole complex? Of course I was.
I just did not care one way or another. With the design of this base digger finished, the only thing preventing her from increasing her computing power exponentially was the lack of fusactors. Even that was at best a soft cap. If she decided to spend the money, she would have no scarcity of them. Even if she had to build them by herself.
So what was one more giant computing site?
Back to the new quantum field though. Interestingly this one would be exceedingly cheap. It needed pyrosilicate and cementite. Or Si2O7 and Fe3C as chemical formulas. In other words, it needed silicon, oxygen, iron, and carbon. Not particularly rare materials.
Except for carbon, all of that was available on the surface of the moon in vast quantities. And as the basis of most of our technology, carbon was mined and harvested all over the system. Fortunately, it was ‘only’ the fourth most abundant element in the known universe. Not that the others were much less often found.
So yeah, the price tag of one of those things, from my understanding, coils would not work best here, instead a fine four-dimensional bristle would work better, was negligible.
The materials for the test… brush? Comb? Whatever we decided to call this thing, did cost us around $45.
How much the resulting system would cost in the future was yet to be determined. It would, however, be an insignificant amount even compared to the control system for a fusactor.
As it was, I was in VR preparing for the first test of it, when Michael, Maynard, and a few of the Minions appeared in my viron.
When I just raised my eyebrow, Michael crossed his arms in front of his chest and asked:
“What? You expect us to miss this chance of a century? You are writing history here.”
“Maybe. But how do you even know to be here?”
“I asked Warden to notify me.”
Figures. Sometimes I was getting a bit annoyed by Warden deciding things for me. Don’t get me wrong, I had nothing against Michael and Maynard witnessing the test. The Minions though was another story. This would not just write history if it worked, but would also represent an impressively valuable technology. And probably a dangerous one as well.
And yes, I got on a very basic level that Naveen and Warden had vetted every single one of the Minions, but… playing my cards close to the vest was deeply ingrained in me.
However, I had a test to run, and those people were, at least nominally, my allies. Thus I calmed myself down and then nodded tersely.
“Fine. But please, next time talk to me first before you crash my test, ok?”
I then concentrated on the viron of the test chamber. The base of the neutron source was a variable power proton lance. The protons would be hitting a mercury target with 150W. A single pulse of one second.
In theory, that should knock out around 120W of high-energy neutrons out of the mercury.
Or 748 PeV. Behind the target, we got an array of radiation detectors up and running. Arranged half-spherically, to cover the mostly chaotic scattered neutrons. And around all of that, we had EM harvesters.
Warden appeared beside me and announced:
“Begin baseline test run.”
And just like that, the proton lance lighted up. Not as bright or deafening as the weapons we used, but still spectacular. Only for a second though.
On a whiteboard to the side, several lines began to appear, and Warden narrated the results:
“Proton lance is stable at 150W ± 0.02%. Measured neutron radiation is at 119.34W ± 6.4%. Harvested energy is 7.6W ± 4.3%.”
I heard a groan from behind me and turned around to the Minion who was clearly dissatisfied.
When he noticed my gaze, he shrugged, and then spoke up:
“Am I the only one who is disappointed with this? I mean, is that it? I honestly expected way more.”
I dug in my memory for his name. Paul Carpenter? Yes, I think that was the right name.
“Paul, right?”
When he nodded, I continued:
“This was the baseline test. To get a measure of what the radiation and harvesting are without the neutron trap. The trap wasn’t even on. The harvesting was mostly from the residual EM field, and a bit from neutron decay.”
He had the grace to blush.
“Oh… oh, yes, then the results are what we had to expect I think.”
I sighed and nodded before I turned to Warden.
“Proceed with the first test of the neutron trap, please.”
“Aye.”
Again, the proton lance lit up, and again the mercury target was hit.
Warden gave us the results:
“Proton lance is still stable at 150W ± 0.02%. Measured neutron radiation is 62.7W ± 3.4%. Harvested energy is 73.63W ± 12.6%.”
So in one word, yes! We did it. I turned around to look at the Minions, and Paul specifically and raised my eyebrow.
“Better?”
“Uh, yes, ma’am. But… is that enough? Yes, it cut down the radiation in half, but we need more I think.”
I rolled my eyes.
“This was the first test. At 1% maximum power. Of a small neutron trap. Of course, it was not enough. We will now, over the next few weeks dial in the field.”
Maynard cleared his throat.
“Paul, I know you are a bit… limited in your interactions, but you should realize what a momentous moment this is.”
“I know sir, but… “
Michael then barked:
“No buts! Did you not listen? This was a test at 1% power. And it increased the harvested energy to nearly ten times while halving the radiation.”
Then he turned to me.
“Can we see what it will do at 2% power?”
“Sure. Warden, if you may?”
“As you wish.”
For a third time, the bright light of the proton lance lit up the lab for a second.
I looked at the graphs on the whiteboard.
They looked quite different from the baseline test. Still, I let Warden narrate the results again:
“No variation on the proton lance. Neutron radiation is 0.03W ± 38%. Harvested energy is at 306.07W ± 0.8%.”
That was two and a half times the energy that the neutrons had. This was… enormous. Yes, with all the energy put into this test, the result was only a gain of 83%. Mostly because the proton lance had an efficiency of 73% and the neutron trap took some energy as well.
But 83% was big. If we got this into the new fusactors, with better, more efficient grav coils and the EM modifying field reducing the electrostatic repulsion of the hydrogen nuclei to near zero… we should be able to get around 150GW out of what one of the 75GW fusactors of the lab now used in fuel.
Maybe more.
Maynard looked at the graphs in awed silence for a moment. Then he turned to Warden.
“Would it be possible to have a test at 5% power?”
“As you wish.”
The fourth test was… a bit disappointing to be honest.
Yes, the harvested energy had gone up. To 352W. But the gain was lower. The neutron trap took 2½ times more energy, while the yield had only gone up by 16.6%. That gave us a gain of 76%.
Still, a big moment. Maynard looked at the graphs and rubbed his chin.
“It seems that at this amount of neutron radiation, we need a bit over 2% of the neutron trap to get optimal gain.
If you look at this spike here,” he enlarged a section of the harvesting graph of the fourth test, “the trap converted the high energy neutrons into harvested energy within 30µs. All the energy we put into the trap after that was wasted.”
“You are right. But that is what these tests are for. They will be mostly automatic anyway, and Warden can dial in the sweet spot. At least for this setup. We can, of course, increase the power of the lance. It is just a standard proton lance where we lowered the minimal power after all. It can still produce 3.8GW if we want to.
I have to insist on a slower increase though. Let’s double the lance output first. And look at how it goes from there.”
Michael nodded and turned to Warden.
“I assume you will run these tests for some time?”
“I will. The limiting factor for the time being is the amount of mercury I have available. I have ordered several tons of it, but that delivery will take time.”
“Fine. What is the security of the lab? I don’t want anybody breaking in and stealing this technology.”
“I have a battalion of Einherjar already built. I use some of the NADA capacity in the base to build more NADAs, as well as more bots. I have also placed several anti-ship weapons around any vulnerable position.”
Michael nodded and sighed.
“That should be enough I think.”