[FIC] Higher Education (pt 6)
Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2004 10:23 pm
Kaname stared at the large building.
She hoped she could keep from stuttering or sweating when she was confronted by the guard.
A huge fence surrounded that part of the campus, making the modern building look like its own country or something. The front of the structure was airy, huge glass panels and soaring buttresses of chrome and steel. The rear was brick and cinderblock, windowless.
There were security cameras everywhere. She looked for those kinds of things now.
Thanks to a certain otaku.
Huge power lines led to that rear area. Just what did they have in there that needed so much electricity. Small cities didn’t have that horrendous tangle and drape of wiring.
“Maybe I’m taking things a little too far….” Kaname said yet again. There was still time to turn back.
True.
But, her other plans hadn’t panned out.
Had they?!
“Idiot! Moron! Jerk!” Kaname stamped her foot.
“Excuse me?” The guard furrowed his brow.
“Oh. My apologies. I was thinking of someone else. If you knew him, you wouldn’t look so shocked.” Kaname tried to smile. “Maybe you know him. Sousuke Sagara. My age, X-shaped scar on his face.”
The guard’s face went entirely blank.
Yeh. Somehow or another, he knows Sousuke.
“Your pass, Miss….” The man held out his hand. As he did, Kaname noticed the gun at his hip. That was a PDW, not a simple pistol.
What was going on here?
“Here you go. I’m signed up to audit the Physics seminar.” Kaname took her pass back.
“You’ve read the restrictions, young lady? You know where you can go and what’s off limits?” The guard’s face was stern and unforgiving.
“Yes, Sir!” Kaname cursed. She was sounding like a certain military maniac.
“Go on in, then. Make sure to sign out when you leave.”
Kaname walked in, her heart beating ever so fast.
She had almost blown it back therewith her big mouth. But, she had reason to be angry at Sousuke.
That over-trained… over-cautious… over-sensitive fool!!!
Using what skills she had picked up by osmosis, Kaname had cornered Sousuke on a number of occasions. There should have been no avenue of escape. He found one each and every time.
She had come so very close once. Walking on a veranda above a walkway, she got into a make believe shoving match with one of her friends. Tumbling over the railing, she had been headed straight for Sousuke’s arms.
Why did that small University café have to be located over the Visiting Professor dormitories?
Sousuke had moved quickly, and reached over to a stack of items waiting to be brought inside the building. Slinging a mattress around like a Frisbee, he softened her fall with saying a word. When Kaname turned around, he was gone!
Damn him! There is such a thing as too much skill. Why didn’t he just catch her?
Her other operation wasn’t working either. Each of her friends had reported a similar study, except for Aki. She had actually gotten to speak briefly with Sousuke and had handed him the note.
“As you must know, Miss Chidori is a very kind person. She valiantly put up with me once, when by necessity we were in close quarters. But, her true feelings were made known when the situation changed. You may inform her that I do not expect anything in return for saving her.”
Aki had tried to get a word in edgewise, but Sousuke wouldn’t let her. He had stared at the note for a while, a strange look on his face. But, he never read it. “Here. I have no business reading any note from her. Let her know that I will not be an imposition of any sort. Thank you. You are a good friend.”
He had been swept away by a group of girls, a resigned look on his face.
After that, the moment someone mentioned Kaname’s name or tried to hand him a note without mentioning who it was from, Sousuke used his talents to escape before anyone could try and convince him of Kaname’s sincerity.
He had scaled a two story wall without any equipment. He had vanished in an open stretch of walkways, with someone swearing they saw the enormous grating leading to the steam tunnels move slightly back into place. There had been a flash of bright light one other time, and a thick cloud of smoke at a different locale. One friend swore that he had jumped off of the ledge of a two-story building.
Sousuke was more difficult to catch than smoke.
The registrar only had records of his name. Nothing more. Despite the fact that certain facts were a requirement. Kaname knew signs of official pressure or payoffs when she saw them.
She had been at wit’s end. This latest plan was as much out of desperation as it was out of sheer inspiration and determination.
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“I WILL get you Sousuke, no matter what!” Kaname sat in a chair near the large double doors. She had a good view of the speaker, but also could watch one hallway and a large portion of the lobby area. She hoped that Sousuke didn’t have some secret underground entrance or a direct access to the rear of the complex.
Sighing, she freshened up her make-up and stretched out her legs some. She was here for the long haul today and tomorrow. Not the most fun way to spend a weekend, but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.
There must be some way she could explain the new bill to her father.
Kaname day-dreamed for a while, imaging what things might be like if she could convince Sousuke that she didn’t have any hard feelings or any regrets that would remove any hope for a renewed relationship.
“Reactors for nuclear fusion are of two main varieties, magnetic confinement reactors and inertial confinement reactors. The strategies for creating fusion reactors are largely dictated by the fact that the temperatures involved in nuclear fusion are far too high to be contained in any material container.” The speakers voice brought Kaname around momentarily. She paid attention for a while, her eyes still scanning the area outside the classroom.
Maybe she could get some kind of clue what Sousuke was assigned to.
“The strategy of the magnetic confinement reactor is to confine the hot plasma by means of magnetic field which keep it perpetually in looping paths which do not touch the wall of the container. This is typified by the tokamak design, the most famous example of which is the TFTR at Princeton in the United States. The strategy of the inertial confinement reactor is to put such high energy density into a small pellet of deuterium-tritium that it fuses in such a short time that it can't move appreciably. The most advanced test reactors involve laser fusion, particularly in the Shiva and Nova reactors at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.”
Fusion reactors. Didn’t Arbalest have some form of fusion reactor? Kaname slipped into a daydream. She could see the forests of Khanka. She remembered feeling scared after seeing Sousuke pull a sharp piece of debris out of her side. She grimaced, remembering where Kurz had been gazing. She and Souske had been leaning close to one another. They had whispered each other’s names….
“The TFTR uses the toroidal geometry of the tokamak, a device first developed in the USSR. It uses a combination of two magnetic fields to confine and control the plasma. One is provided by the doughnut-shaped set of external coils which provides a magnetic field along the axis of the the toroid…..called the toroidal field. The other is generated by the large heating current along the toroid which heats the plasma….. it is called a poloidal field. This heating current is induced by changing magnetic fields in central induction coils and exceeds a million amperes. In addition to the plasma heating by this axial current, the plasma is heated by intense beams of neutral atoms which are injected into the plasma. This reactor has reached a temperature of 4 x 10^8 K, above the critical ignition temperature for D-T fusion and has approached very close to the Lawson criteria, although not at the same time.”
Why couldn’t have Kurz had just been quiet or even unconscious or something. What might have happened if she and Sousuke had actually kissed? Kaname’s thoughts followed that line of thought. How far might their relationship gone? Would it have made any difference with Sousuke’s leaving?
“The fusion temperature obtained by setting the average thermal energy equal to the coulomb barrier gives too high a temperature because fusion can be initiated by those particles which are out on the high-energy tail of the Maxwellian distribution of particle energies. The critical ignition temperature is lowered further by the fact that some particles which have energies below the coulomb barrier can tunnel through the barrier.
The presumed height of the coulomb barrier is based upon the distance at which the nuclear strong force could overcome the coulomb repulsion. The required temperature may be overestimated if the classical radii of the nuclei are used for this distance, since the range of the strong interaction is significantly greater than a classical proton radius. With all these considerations, the critical temperatures for the two most important cases are about: deuterium-deuterium….. four time ten to the eight K….. deuterium-tritium….. 4.5 times ten to the seven K.”
Blah blah blah blah deuterium tritium blah blah blah blah.
Kaname looked down at her watch.
Great.
It had only been thirty minutes so far. This was going to be more difficult than she thought. But, she was working on a potential strategy. She had certain knowledge, so why not put it to use?
How many people in this audience knew that Black Technology had given scientists the ability to build small reactors? She could use that knowledge to formulate questions for the professors, seeing if any of them might show a shock of recognition.
Risky?
Sure.
But, she was Kaname Chiodri, wasn’t she?
Indeed. She had survived Gauron. A21. And Sousuke.
She should probably pay closer attention and jot down a few things that would allow her to speak intelligently.
“You better well be worth all this, you big jerk!!!”
“The most promising of the hydrogen fusion reaction which make up the deuterium cycle is the fusion of deuterium and tritium. The reaction yields 17.6 MeV of energy but requires a temperature of approximately 40 million Kelvins to overcome the coulomb barrier and ignite it. The deuterium fuel is abundant, but tritium must be either bred from lithium or gotten in the operation of the deuterium cycle.”
Kaname continued to listen, keeping one eye out on the hallway area.
She wrote down facts about confinement time….. ion density….. Lawson’s criteria….. Neodymium glass lasers…..energetic collisions….. and countless other things she had never wanted to know.
Sousuke better agree to start paying attention to her again. How else could she make him pay for all this?
“Just you wait, soldier. Just you wait….”
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Kaname decide she would need to get a vaccination before returning for tomorrow’s lectures.
Yes.
She had developed rapid onset sniffles. It might be that she was allergic to nerds and geeks. That, or too damn many scientific terms and formulae. Or the ‘newly built’ smell of the auditorium.
There was no doubt that she would need a few good meals and a full night’s rest just to get her patience back again. She had been waiting by the door for more than an hour, simply trying to ask the professor her questions.
But no-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o….
One after another, scientific gadflies stepped in front of her waving their hands. The number slowly decreased, until their were mostly girls left behind. Kaname rubbed her eyes repeatedly, but the picture didn’t change. What were they? Physics groupies? The professor certainly wasn’t good looking!
“I’m sorry, we’ll have to leave the classroom now. The next group is coming in.” That remark had been made just as it was Kaname’s turn to ask her first question.
Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn.
“Well-l-l-l-l-l… I probably shouldn’t do this…. But I don’t see any harm in it. Would you ladies like a quick tour of our facilities? We can’t go in certain areas, but it would give you a chance to ask your questions.” The professor nodded his head when he saw all of the hands go up. “Fine. Just follow me then.”
The gabbing group of girls and women followed the professor past a number of security check stations and through a series of double doors. Kaname took close note of the nature of the doors. They were quite thick. Designed to keep something in, or keep someone out.
“Let’s start of in the smaller area.” the professor nodded to a number of scientists and technicians who walked by.
“Fusion ….. the forceful joining of light atoms….. is the process that operates our sun. It is a nuclear process, and heat is one of the by-products. Of course, under normal circumstances, atoms don't want to come together. In the sun, gravity is the force that causes the fusion reaction.”
As the other girls oooh’d and ahhh’d, Kaname took a look around the facilities. No sign of Sousuke. There was no one she could readily spot as a likely operative or covert guard. Perhaps they were all on close-circuit TV now.
Great.
If they were… and Sousuke caught sight of her… he’d never get anywhere near her.
Technology sucks!
“Technology today is amazing, as are you pretty young ladies.” The professor lead them all to a huge cylindrical enclosure. “There are about 10 different feasible fusion reactions. The deuterium-tritium reaction is the one that has received the most attention, in part because it is the easiest to make work, and also because it produces quite a bit of energy. As I noted in lecture, deuterium is readily available in water as a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen. Tritium has to be produced from lithium, but there is a relatively abundant supply of this element.”
Kaname listened with a minimal of interest. She would save her questions for the most opportune moment. Right now, she caught a snippet of a conversation that had her wondering what was going on.
“There was something about helicopters, but we were told their identity had been determined. I don’t know why more than one helicopter would be together in this vicinity, but if the security boys say it’s OK….” One technician disappeared inside a security door. As a second followed him in, Kaname could hear what he said before the door closed.
“I hope so. They weren’t worried the last time. There’s no guarantee that our guardian angle will be able to protect us all the time….”
Guardian angel?
Was that a blanket term for Mithril?
Could they mean Sousuke?
Or, were they speaking in generalities?
“The big advantage of fusion compared with fossil-fuel-based energy production is its relatively small fuel requirements. For the same amount of energy, fusion requires about six orders of magnitude less fuel compared with chemical energy sources. Think of it this way: consider that an ordinary cup of tap water contains the energy equivalent of a full tank of gasoline in an automobile. That is, the approximately one drop of heavy water in that cup could, through fusion, provide as much energy as 20 gallons of gas.”
Despite herself, Kaname was impressed. That was a worthy goal alright. Of course, there would be a lot of people in the world who would be in no rush to see any success on a large scale. Petroleum companies. Sheikhs. Lots of people.
What kind of breakthroughs were taking place in this building.
Why was Sousuke here on campus?
How long would he be here?
Maybe this project would take a while. Could Mithril allow Sousuke to go through an entire college curriculum?
“Don’t hold your breath, girl.” Kaname mumbled.
“Plasma physicists often point out that essentially all of our universe is made up of plasma. It is a relatively cold plasma, about 10,000°C. By contrast, the heat of a fusion reaction is in the range of hundreds of millions of degrees. The atomic densities required for fusion….. particularly for magnetic fusion….. are relatively low compared with the density of air. In other words, the power density in a fusion reactor would be comparable to fossil fuel power plants, even though the fusion plasma operates at a much higher temperature. Achieving higher power densities in fusion reactors requires the development of new materials or confinement concepts, due to the high heat fluxes which would occur at the plasma-facing components of the reactor. That is one of the things we are involved with here."
“Does any of this have to do with the role JAERI has played in Japanese nuclear fusion research? Wasn’t the aim for an operational fusion power plant around the year 2050?” One olderwoman asked.
“No. Plasma research in JAERI is conducted mainly using JT-60 and JFT-2M. The JT-60 experiments I part focus on the steady-state tokamak research with W-shaped divertors and the negative-ion-based neutral beams. We are far beyond that. I am not at liberty to say who we are partnered with.”
Kaname’s attention was drawn to a far corner of the room. A number of people were congregating. One was waving his arms. Others were running in a number of different directions.
Her past experience made her paranoid. Was there some kind of problem? Something due to a reaction out of control?
Or, could this be a repeat of the trouble that lead her to stumble across Sousuke?
“A divertor is normally installed at the bottom of a vacuum vessel of a fusion reactor. The function of a divertor is to exhaust helium impurities from plasma, which are produced as a result of fusion reactions. Therefore a divertor is one of the essential components of fusion reactors to maintain fusion reaction and to realize a long pulse operation. The work in this project is focused on functionally graded divertor materials based on the tungsten-copper system, optimised with the assistance of a micromechanical model. Our more advanced classes will cover reactor components in greater detail.”
The banks of security doors all started closing in sync with one another. A series of red lights started flashing. A man in a security guard’s outfit ran over to the professor.
“Do we have an emergency situation?” The professor asked, looking worried. “Weren’t our security arrangements upgraded after the last episode?”
“We’re just warning people as a precaution, Sir. It may be a false alarm, but I suggest you take your visitors to one of the peripheral rooms. There are intercoms in those, so we can inform you when the coast is clear, or announce a progression through higher alert levels if necessary.
The professor lead the group away from the large equipment, moving at a forced leisurely pace, trying not to frighten the girls any more than he had to.
Kaname cursed again.
Just what have you gotten me into this time, Sousuke?
“Let’s see. What was I saying before. Maybe I should continue.” The professor had begun to sweat.
"OK. In order to preserve the condition of an environmentally safe machine, the selection of materials for structural components of a fusion reactor is made not only on the basis of adequate mechanical properties, behavior under irradiation and compatibility with other materials and cooling media, but also on their radiological properties…… activity, decay heat, radiotoxicity, and so forth.. These conditions strongly limit the number of materials available to a few families of alloys, generically known as low activation materials. We discuss the criteria for deciding on such materials in some of our more advanced seminars.”
As the rest of the group stepped inside of a smaller room, Kaname stopped. A single individual had caught her attention, running in with a large black bag over his shoulder.
It was Sousuke.
She looked at the room, then back at the room. She should get under cover. Her place was not out here. But, Sousuke was here. He might be very busy, but he wasn’t likely to run away from anything that needed him in a professional capacity.
Could this be her big chance?
Should she risk it.
If she interfered with his duty, he might view her in a way she could never hope to recover from.
What to do. What to do. What to do. What to do. What to do. What to do.
“Nobody is coming to make me move,” She said. “And now that door is closed. Guess I have no choice. I’ll just stand here watching….”
A bank of blue lights went on, spinning wildly, sending beams of light drifting around the room. A mechanical voice came on, alerting everybody to a Stage Three situation, whatever that meant.
Huge patricians began to close. A stairwell appeared in the floor as if by magic, lit by an eerie red light. Men began running in various directions.
Sousuke was direction the issuing of weapons from drawers that had pulled out away from seemingly empty wall areas.
Wonderful choice, Kaname!
Where do I go now?
If this was just an alert, she swore that she would never be this reckless again!
If she could help it.
“Data dump has begun. Core source data will be encapsulated. Less crucial data will be erased. All scientific personnel seek shelter immediately.” That voice came over one set of speakers.
“Report of multiple helicopters confirmed. ECS systems postulated, explaining close approach undetected. Sovereign armed forces ETA fifteen minutes. This suggests a data raid and/or catastrophic level of intended destruction. Initiate automatic AA missile systems with radar and thermal lock. All combatants proceed to likely sites of entry.”
That was Sousuke’s voice.
Kaname plastered herself against one machine as Sousuke came running by. She could hear what he said.
“I TOLD them to put an A.S. on station here. Idiots! I HATE being right all the time.”
Hand at her mouth, Kaname found herself watching Sousuke move. He was so fluid, more like a dancer than some soldier. His voice was more vibrant and full of different timbres. His comments suggested a level of confidence and competence beyond anything he displayed before.
She crouched down, content to be near Sousuke for now. Sure, that might be the hottest spot in a moment. But, unless he was overmatched, it might end up being the safest place to be.
What would it take to overmatch Sousuke Sagara when he was in his comfort zone?
She hoped she wasn’t about to find out.
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Kaname wedged herself behind a large piece of equipment when the bullets had started ricocheting off the wall close to her. She had no idea what was going on, but the fighting sounded somewhat fierce.
The first sign of a serious confrontation came when a large section of the roof fell in, followed by more than a dozen men rappelling down ropes. Not long after that, flaming wreckage from a helicopter and a large canister it was carrying fell into the room, steamrolling a number of the intruders.
Another helicopter touched down inside the room, heavy machine guns blazing from its open side doors as more enemies entered the conflict.
“Dammit! Don’t let them manually set off that device!” It had been Sousuke, who obviously recognized what the large canister was. Kaname assumed it was some kind of large bomb.
After that, everything had been a blur. Small explosions. Gunfire. Complete darkness for a brief while. Shouts and screams. The terrible sound of metal on metal when the blades of the helicopter broke off as it clipped the sides of the broken ceiling on takeoff.
Eventually, the sounds of the battle grew quieter. Kaname peered out from behind her hiding place to see what was going on. Looking nearby, she saw Sousuke throw aside an empty or jammed weapon and draw his combat knife. He moved in to struggle with two much larger men, one of them almost colliding with her in the process.
There was an impossible blur of limbs, followed by two me falling like felled trees. With the two men dead on the ground, Sousuke was about to turn and look for any remaining foes.
Kaname saw movement.
It was a man with a pistol.
She wanted to grab Sousuke and pull him to safety. She tripped on one of the dead men’s arms. Slamming into the young soldier, she knocked him aside.
As a result, she took a bullet in the shoulder that had been meant for him.
She saw Sousuke throw his knife at the other man.
Then everything went dark.
She hoped she could keep from stuttering or sweating when she was confronted by the guard.
A huge fence surrounded that part of the campus, making the modern building look like its own country or something. The front of the structure was airy, huge glass panels and soaring buttresses of chrome and steel. The rear was brick and cinderblock, windowless.
There were security cameras everywhere. She looked for those kinds of things now.
Thanks to a certain otaku.
Huge power lines led to that rear area. Just what did they have in there that needed so much electricity. Small cities didn’t have that horrendous tangle and drape of wiring.
“Maybe I’m taking things a little too far….” Kaname said yet again. There was still time to turn back.
True.
But, her other plans hadn’t panned out.
Had they?!
“Idiot! Moron! Jerk!” Kaname stamped her foot.
“Excuse me?” The guard furrowed his brow.
“Oh. My apologies. I was thinking of someone else. If you knew him, you wouldn’t look so shocked.” Kaname tried to smile. “Maybe you know him. Sousuke Sagara. My age, X-shaped scar on his face.”
The guard’s face went entirely blank.
Yeh. Somehow or another, he knows Sousuke.
“Your pass, Miss….” The man held out his hand. As he did, Kaname noticed the gun at his hip. That was a PDW, not a simple pistol.
What was going on here?
“Here you go. I’m signed up to audit the Physics seminar.” Kaname took her pass back.
“You’ve read the restrictions, young lady? You know where you can go and what’s off limits?” The guard’s face was stern and unforgiving.
“Yes, Sir!” Kaname cursed. She was sounding like a certain military maniac.
“Go on in, then. Make sure to sign out when you leave.”
Kaname walked in, her heart beating ever so fast.
She had almost blown it back therewith her big mouth. But, she had reason to be angry at Sousuke.
That over-trained… over-cautious… over-sensitive fool!!!
Using what skills she had picked up by osmosis, Kaname had cornered Sousuke on a number of occasions. There should have been no avenue of escape. He found one each and every time.
She had come so very close once. Walking on a veranda above a walkway, she got into a make believe shoving match with one of her friends. Tumbling over the railing, she had been headed straight for Sousuke’s arms.
Why did that small University café have to be located over the Visiting Professor dormitories?
Sousuke had moved quickly, and reached over to a stack of items waiting to be brought inside the building. Slinging a mattress around like a Frisbee, he softened her fall with saying a word. When Kaname turned around, he was gone!
Damn him! There is such a thing as too much skill. Why didn’t he just catch her?
Her other operation wasn’t working either. Each of her friends had reported a similar study, except for Aki. She had actually gotten to speak briefly with Sousuke and had handed him the note.
“As you must know, Miss Chidori is a very kind person. She valiantly put up with me once, when by necessity we were in close quarters. But, her true feelings were made known when the situation changed. You may inform her that I do not expect anything in return for saving her.”
Aki had tried to get a word in edgewise, but Sousuke wouldn’t let her. He had stared at the note for a while, a strange look on his face. But, he never read it. “Here. I have no business reading any note from her. Let her know that I will not be an imposition of any sort. Thank you. You are a good friend.”
He had been swept away by a group of girls, a resigned look on his face.
After that, the moment someone mentioned Kaname’s name or tried to hand him a note without mentioning who it was from, Sousuke used his talents to escape before anyone could try and convince him of Kaname’s sincerity.
He had scaled a two story wall without any equipment. He had vanished in an open stretch of walkways, with someone swearing they saw the enormous grating leading to the steam tunnels move slightly back into place. There had been a flash of bright light one other time, and a thick cloud of smoke at a different locale. One friend swore that he had jumped off of the ledge of a two-story building.
Sousuke was more difficult to catch than smoke.
The registrar only had records of his name. Nothing more. Despite the fact that certain facts were a requirement. Kaname knew signs of official pressure or payoffs when she saw them.
She had been at wit’s end. This latest plan was as much out of desperation as it was out of sheer inspiration and determination.
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“I WILL get you Sousuke, no matter what!” Kaname sat in a chair near the large double doors. She had a good view of the speaker, but also could watch one hallway and a large portion of the lobby area. She hoped that Sousuke didn’t have some secret underground entrance or a direct access to the rear of the complex.
Sighing, she freshened up her make-up and stretched out her legs some. She was here for the long haul today and tomorrow. Not the most fun way to spend a weekend, but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.
There must be some way she could explain the new bill to her father.
Kaname day-dreamed for a while, imaging what things might be like if she could convince Sousuke that she didn’t have any hard feelings or any regrets that would remove any hope for a renewed relationship.
“Reactors for nuclear fusion are of two main varieties, magnetic confinement reactors and inertial confinement reactors. The strategies for creating fusion reactors are largely dictated by the fact that the temperatures involved in nuclear fusion are far too high to be contained in any material container.” The speakers voice brought Kaname around momentarily. She paid attention for a while, her eyes still scanning the area outside the classroom.
Maybe she could get some kind of clue what Sousuke was assigned to.
“The strategy of the magnetic confinement reactor is to confine the hot plasma by means of magnetic field which keep it perpetually in looping paths which do not touch the wall of the container. This is typified by the tokamak design, the most famous example of which is the TFTR at Princeton in the United States. The strategy of the inertial confinement reactor is to put such high energy density into a small pellet of deuterium-tritium that it fuses in such a short time that it can't move appreciably. The most advanced test reactors involve laser fusion, particularly in the Shiva and Nova reactors at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.”
Fusion reactors. Didn’t Arbalest have some form of fusion reactor? Kaname slipped into a daydream. She could see the forests of Khanka. She remembered feeling scared after seeing Sousuke pull a sharp piece of debris out of her side. She grimaced, remembering where Kurz had been gazing. She and Souske had been leaning close to one another. They had whispered each other’s names….
“The TFTR uses the toroidal geometry of the tokamak, a device first developed in the USSR. It uses a combination of two magnetic fields to confine and control the plasma. One is provided by the doughnut-shaped set of external coils which provides a magnetic field along the axis of the the toroid…..called the toroidal field. The other is generated by the large heating current along the toroid which heats the plasma….. it is called a poloidal field. This heating current is induced by changing magnetic fields in central induction coils and exceeds a million amperes. In addition to the plasma heating by this axial current, the plasma is heated by intense beams of neutral atoms which are injected into the plasma. This reactor has reached a temperature of 4 x 10^8 K, above the critical ignition temperature for D-T fusion and has approached very close to the Lawson criteria, although not at the same time.”
Why couldn’t have Kurz had just been quiet or even unconscious or something. What might have happened if she and Sousuke had actually kissed? Kaname’s thoughts followed that line of thought. How far might their relationship gone? Would it have made any difference with Sousuke’s leaving?
“The fusion temperature obtained by setting the average thermal energy equal to the coulomb barrier gives too high a temperature because fusion can be initiated by those particles which are out on the high-energy tail of the Maxwellian distribution of particle energies. The critical ignition temperature is lowered further by the fact that some particles which have energies below the coulomb barrier can tunnel through the barrier.
The presumed height of the coulomb barrier is based upon the distance at which the nuclear strong force could overcome the coulomb repulsion. The required temperature may be overestimated if the classical radii of the nuclei are used for this distance, since the range of the strong interaction is significantly greater than a classical proton radius. With all these considerations, the critical temperatures for the two most important cases are about: deuterium-deuterium….. four time ten to the eight K….. deuterium-tritium….. 4.5 times ten to the seven K.”
Blah blah blah blah deuterium tritium blah blah blah blah.
Kaname looked down at her watch.
Great.
It had only been thirty minutes so far. This was going to be more difficult than she thought. But, she was working on a potential strategy. She had certain knowledge, so why not put it to use?
How many people in this audience knew that Black Technology had given scientists the ability to build small reactors? She could use that knowledge to formulate questions for the professors, seeing if any of them might show a shock of recognition.
Risky?
Sure.
But, she was Kaname Chiodri, wasn’t she?
Indeed. She had survived Gauron. A21. And Sousuke.
She should probably pay closer attention and jot down a few things that would allow her to speak intelligently.
“You better well be worth all this, you big jerk!!!”
“The most promising of the hydrogen fusion reaction which make up the deuterium cycle is the fusion of deuterium and tritium. The reaction yields 17.6 MeV of energy but requires a temperature of approximately 40 million Kelvins to overcome the coulomb barrier and ignite it. The deuterium fuel is abundant, but tritium must be either bred from lithium or gotten in the operation of the deuterium cycle.”
Kaname continued to listen, keeping one eye out on the hallway area.
She wrote down facts about confinement time….. ion density….. Lawson’s criteria….. Neodymium glass lasers…..energetic collisions….. and countless other things she had never wanted to know.
Sousuke better agree to start paying attention to her again. How else could she make him pay for all this?
“Just you wait, soldier. Just you wait….”
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Kaname decide she would need to get a vaccination before returning for tomorrow’s lectures.
Yes.
She had developed rapid onset sniffles. It might be that she was allergic to nerds and geeks. That, or too damn many scientific terms and formulae. Or the ‘newly built’ smell of the auditorium.
There was no doubt that she would need a few good meals and a full night’s rest just to get her patience back again. She had been waiting by the door for more than an hour, simply trying to ask the professor her questions.
But no-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o….
One after another, scientific gadflies stepped in front of her waving their hands. The number slowly decreased, until their were mostly girls left behind. Kaname rubbed her eyes repeatedly, but the picture didn’t change. What were they? Physics groupies? The professor certainly wasn’t good looking!
“I’m sorry, we’ll have to leave the classroom now. The next group is coming in.” That remark had been made just as it was Kaname’s turn to ask her first question.
Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn.
“Well-l-l-l-l-l… I probably shouldn’t do this…. But I don’t see any harm in it. Would you ladies like a quick tour of our facilities? We can’t go in certain areas, but it would give you a chance to ask your questions.” The professor nodded his head when he saw all of the hands go up. “Fine. Just follow me then.”
The gabbing group of girls and women followed the professor past a number of security check stations and through a series of double doors. Kaname took close note of the nature of the doors. They were quite thick. Designed to keep something in, or keep someone out.
“Let’s start of in the smaller area.” the professor nodded to a number of scientists and technicians who walked by.
“Fusion ….. the forceful joining of light atoms….. is the process that operates our sun. It is a nuclear process, and heat is one of the by-products. Of course, under normal circumstances, atoms don't want to come together. In the sun, gravity is the force that causes the fusion reaction.”
As the other girls oooh’d and ahhh’d, Kaname took a look around the facilities. No sign of Sousuke. There was no one she could readily spot as a likely operative or covert guard. Perhaps they were all on close-circuit TV now.
Great.
If they were… and Sousuke caught sight of her… he’d never get anywhere near her.
Technology sucks!
“Technology today is amazing, as are you pretty young ladies.” The professor lead them all to a huge cylindrical enclosure. “There are about 10 different feasible fusion reactions. The deuterium-tritium reaction is the one that has received the most attention, in part because it is the easiest to make work, and also because it produces quite a bit of energy. As I noted in lecture, deuterium is readily available in water as a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen. Tritium has to be produced from lithium, but there is a relatively abundant supply of this element.”
Kaname listened with a minimal of interest. She would save her questions for the most opportune moment. Right now, she caught a snippet of a conversation that had her wondering what was going on.
“There was something about helicopters, but we were told their identity had been determined. I don’t know why more than one helicopter would be together in this vicinity, but if the security boys say it’s OK….” One technician disappeared inside a security door. As a second followed him in, Kaname could hear what he said before the door closed.
“I hope so. They weren’t worried the last time. There’s no guarantee that our guardian angle will be able to protect us all the time….”
Guardian angel?
Was that a blanket term for Mithril?
Could they mean Sousuke?
Or, were they speaking in generalities?
“The big advantage of fusion compared with fossil-fuel-based energy production is its relatively small fuel requirements. For the same amount of energy, fusion requires about six orders of magnitude less fuel compared with chemical energy sources. Think of it this way: consider that an ordinary cup of tap water contains the energy equivalent of a full tank of gasoline in an automobile. That is, the approximately one drop of heavy water in that cup could, through fusion, provide as much energy as 20 gallons of gas.”
Despite herself, Kaname was impressed. That was a worthy goal alright. Of course, there would be a lot of people in the world who would be in no rush to see any success on a large scale. Petroleum companies. Sheikhs. Lots of people.
What kind of breakthroughs were taking place in this building.
Why was Sousuke here on campus?
How long would he be here?
Maybe this project would take a while. Could Mithril allow Sousuke to go through an entire college curriculum?
“Don’t hold your breath, girl.” Kaname mumbled.
“Plasma physicists often point out that essentially all of our universe is made up of plasma. It is a relatively cold plasma, about 10,000°C. By contrast, the heat of a fusion reaction is in the range of hundreds of millions of degrees. The atomic densities required for fusion….. particularly for magnetic fusion….. are relatively low compared with the density of air. In other words, the power density in a fusion reactor would be comparable to fossil fuel power plants, even though the fusion plasma operates at a much higher temperature. Achieving higher power densities in fusion reactors requires the development of new materials or confinement concepts, due to the high heat fluxes which would occur at the plasma-facing components of the reactor. That is one of the things we are involved with here."
“Does any of this have to do with the role JAERI has played in Japanese nuclear fusion research? Wasn’t the aim for an operational fusion power plant around the year 2050?” One olderwoman asked.
“No. Plasma research in JAERI is conducted mainly using JT-60 and JFT-2M. The JT-60 experiments I part focus on the steady-state tokamak research with W-shaped divertors and the negative-ion-based neutral beams. We are far beyond that. I am not at liberty to say who we are partnered with.”
Kaname’s attention was drawn to a far corner of the room. A number of people were congregating. One was waving his arms. Others were running in a number of different directions.
Her past experience made her paranoid. Was there some kind of problem? Something due to a reaction out of control?
Or, could this be a repeat of the trouble that lead her to stumble across Sousuke?
“A divertor is normally installed at the bottom of a vacuum vessel of a fusion reactor. The function of a divertor is to exhaust helium impurities from plasma, which are produced as a result of fusion reactions. Therefore a divertor is one of the essential components of fusion reactors to maintain fusion reaction and to realize a long pulse operation. The work in this project is focused on functionally graded divertor materials based on the tungsten-copper system, optimised with the assistance of a micromechanical model. Our more advanced classes will cover reactor components in greater detail.”
The banks of security doors all started closing in sync with one another. A series of red lights started flashing. A man in a security guard’s outfit ran over to the professor.
“Do we have an emergency situation?” The professor asked, looking worried. “Weren’t our security arrangements upgraded after the last episode?”
“We’re just warning people as a precaution, Sir. It may be a false alarm, but I suggest you take your visitors to one of the peripheral rooms. There are intercoms in those, so we can inform you when the coast is clear, or announce a progression through higher alert levels if necessary.
The professor lead the group away from the large equipment, moving at a forced leisurely pace, trying not to frighten the girls any more than he had to.
Kaname cursed again.
Just what have you gotten me into this time, Sousuke?
“Let’s see. What was I saying before. Maybe I should continue.” The professor had begun to sweat.
"OK. In order to preserve the condition of an environmentally safe machine, the selection of materials for structural components of a fusion reactor is made not only on the basis of adequate mechanical properties, behavior under irradiation and compatibility with other materials and cooling media, but also on their radiological properties…… activity, decay heat, radiotoxicity, and so forth.. These conditions strongly limit the number of materials available to a few families of alloys, generically known as low activation materials. We discuss the criteria for deciding on such materials in some of our more advanced seminars.”
As the rest of the group stepped inside of a smaller room, Kaname stopped. A single individual had caught her attention, running in with a large black bag over his shoulder.
It was Sousuke.
She looked at the room, then back at the room. She should get under cover. Her place was not out here. But, Sousuke was here. He might be very busy, but he wasn’t likely to run away from anything that needed him in a professional capacity.
Could this be her big chance?
Should she risk it.
If she interfered with his duty, he might view her in a way she could never hope to recover from.
What to do. What to do. What to do. What to do. What to do. What to do.
“Nobody is coming to make me move,” She said. “And now that door is closed. Guess I have no choice. I’ll just stand here watching….”
A bank of blue lights went on, spinning wildly, sending beams of light drifting around the room. A mechanical voice came on, alerting everybody to a Stage Three situation, whatever that meant.
Huge patricians began to close. A stairwell appeared in the floor as if by magic, lit by an eerie red light. Men began running in various directions.
Sousuke was direction the issuing of weapons from drawers that had pulled out away from seemingly empty wall areas.
Wonderful choice, Kaname!
Where do I go now?
If this was just an alert, she swore that she would never be this reckless again!
If she could help it.
“Data dump has begun. Core source data will be encapsulated. Less crucial data will be erased. All scientific personnel seek shelter immediately.” That voice came over one set of speakers.
“Report of multiple helicopters confirmed. ECS systems postulated, explaining close approach undetected. Sovereign armed forces ETA fifteen minutes. This suggests a data raid and/or catastrophic level of intended destruction. Initiate automatic AA missile systems with radar and thermal lock. All combatants proceed to likely sites of entry.”
That was Sousuke’s voice.
Kaname plastered herself against one machine as Sousuke came running by. She could hear what he said.
“I TOLD them to put an A.S. on station here. Idiots! I HATE being right all the time.”
Hand at her mouth, Kaname found herself watching Sousuke move. He was so fluid, more like a dancer than some soldier. His voice was more vibrant and full of different timbres. His comments suggested a level of confidence and competence beyond anything he displayed before.
She crouched down, content to be near Sousuke for now. Sure, that might be the hottest spot in a moment. But, unless he was overmatched, it might end up being the safest place to be.
What would it take to overmatch Sousuke Sagara when he was in his comfort zone?
She hoped she wasn’t about to find out.
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Kaname wedged herself behind a large piece of equipment when the bullets had started ricocheting off the wall close to her. She had no idea what was going on, but the fighting sounded somewhat fierce.
The first sign of a serious confrontation came when a large section of the roof fell in, followed by more than a dozen men rappelling down ropes. Not long after that, flaming wreckage from a helicopter and a large canister it was carrying fell into the room, steamrolling a number of the intruders.
Another helicopter touched down inside the room, heavy machine guns blazing from its open side doors as more enemies entered the conflict.
“Dammit! Don’t let them manually set off that device!” It had been Sousuke, who obviously recognized what the large canister was. Kaname assumed it was some kind of large bomb.
After that, everything had been a blur. Small explosions. Gunfire. Complete darkness for a brief while. Shouts and screams. The terrible sound of metal on metal when the blades of the helicopter broke off as it clipped the sides of the broken ceiling on takeoff.
Eventually, the sounds of the battle grew quieter. Kaname peered out from behind her hiding place to see what was going on. Looking nearby, she saw Sousuke throw aside an empty or jammed weapon and draw his combat knife. He moved in to struggle with two much larger men, one of them almost colliding with her in the process.
There was an impossible blur of limbs, followed by two me falling like felled trees. With the two men dead on the ground, Sousuke was about to turn and look for any remaining foes.
Kaname saw movement.
It was a man with a pistol.
She wanted to grab Sousuke and pull him to safety. She tripped on one of the dead men’s arms. Slamming into the young soldier, she knocked him aside.
As a result, she took a bullet in the shoulder that had been meant for him.
She saw Sousuke throw his knife at the other man.
Then everything went dark.
Dd-sama you are torturing us leaving the story off there! AAAARGH!