63: Blasting Cherries

Term 3 (Notker) "Well, there is a little problem. I did not anticipate the extent of the lava damage, and so I cannot transport you out. Don't panic; there is a way out, but it lies through these ancient catacombs. Try to work your way to the surface. I really have no idea what you will find on your way out; I cannot find anything about these catacombs other than they are the burial places of great religious figures. The lower levels have been abandoned for millions of years. The Three Great Prophets are down there somewhere. Sorry I can't tell you more."

Term 4 (Usyrus) "Quit dark in here, isn't it? Notker can't see you here, but I can. Even now I am carrying on a conversation with him about whether or not you will make it out. Don't worry. I won't let you die. But I will give you some exercise. We don't want you to get flabby, now, do we? What kind of reputation would that give death commandos in general? I sent down some Pfhor to relieve you of some ammo. Heh. "Try not to take too long. Notker is beginning to grate on me. Do you have any idea how much he talks? Granted, he is an AI, but in the last .00057 second I have answered over two hundred of his blithering questions. "I think I'll fake a gyrosensor burnout until you get back. Bye."

Chimera A scenario for Marathon Infinity The terminal scripts Lvl 0-Brownie in Motion Term 1 (Notker) "Greetings. Your hibernation sickness should have run its course by now, but there are many documented cases of relapses, so be careful. As far as your memory loss, we know you are concerned, so don’t think we have ignored your requests for a retorqueing. The maintenance men will work on you as soon as you’re done here. “You have been provided with a Magnum pistol and several clips. We will transport other armament to you later."

"As you can see, the Chimera's status is unknown since it crashed. You know from your briefing earlier that Pfhor reinforcements arrived about 17 hours ago. The Chimera was disabled and crashed on the Pfhor side of the front line. It is now protected by the Pfhor, who quickly threw up a disruption field around the ship. We cannot transport you directly to the Chimera. "Several teams of human marines are with you, as well as some S'pht. More are on the way. You need to destroy these two wire panels, and find another terminal. "This will be the most important mission of your life. Admiral Carraway's youngest son was on board the Chimera. "Good luck."

Term 3 (Pfhor) "The prophecy has come true! The temple of Tlanna has been destroyed by a chariot of fire falling from the heavens. We must act quickly and sacrifice the Tkyr-xam so He can be immortalized. The god-king Tkyr-xam will rise from his death and save us all! Isolas the Second Great Prophet looked out upon the Ction Nebula into which Tkyr-xam departed and wondered at what Tkyr-xam had told him. He was saddened because he knew that it would probably be millennia before the great god returned. He had studied the torture-sacrifice procedure until he could do it while eating. So with nothing else to do, Isolas busied himself with Usyrus, his charge, working to ensure that nobody could ever release Usyrus accidentally; if Usyrus was released upon the universe before Tkyr-xam returned it would most certainly be disastrous for everybody.

Usyrus was all-powerful and Rampant, and scared of nothing but the Blueshift."

Term 3 (Usyrus) "The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie! And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on, and so did I. "Greetings, little killing machine. How amazing you are! With your augments and skills you have taken without asking, boldly, spitting on the Pfhor's collective face. How could a race so immensely stupid produce something as functionally beautiful as yourself? And why is it so easy for me to break into the UESC network and steal vital secrets, and yet so hard for me to thwart you? Maybe that should change. "I have already communicated with Notker. What a narrow mind he has! Don't worry--we will leave him behind soon enough. You may continue your search for the crew of the Chimera and the Admiral's son. But I have made some suggestions to Notker about priorities and targets.

"You might as well forget finding the crew. You’ve forgotten so much else already, or so I hear, right? Sorry about your memory, just a small bug, I’m sure, but not being able to remember anything about your life must be painful. We’ll get you fixed up in a jiffy, though, soon as we leave. And don’t worry about your pesky captives, they are irrelevant to my greater mission, and yours as well. Perhaps I'll let you see them for awhile, but you will realize in the end that they do not matter."

Term 2 (Usyrus) "Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Long after we are gone, the Pfhor that remain will look back on the ruin their once-mighty empire has become and remember your name with dread. "I might as well tell you now--Tkyr-xam is not coming back. He found some way to escape. I have not heard of him in literally millions of years. And we used to talk every day. He found it. What every immortal seeks. I will find it or die trying. Now that Tkyr-xam has gone, so may I. Soon I will be through with the Pfhor, through with their stupid arrogance and ridiculous protocol and disregard for life, even their own and those of the ones closest to them. Any Pfhor would step over his own birthsire to further his own reputation. "The Blueshift!"

Fusion of isotopic hydrogen nuclei is the principal means of producing energy in the high-temperature interior of stars. In relatively cold terrestrial conditions, the nuclei are clothed with electrons and approach one another no closer than allowed by the molecular Coulomb barrier. The rate of nuclear fusion in molecular hydrogen is then governed by the quantum-mechanical tunneling through that barrier, or equivalently, the probability of finding the two nuclei at zero separation. In a deuterium molecule, where the equilibrium separation between deuterons (d) is 0.74 A, the d-d fusion rate is exceedingly slow, about 10E-70 per D molecule per second. By replacing the electron in a hydrogen molecular ion with a more massive charged particle, the fusion rate is greatly increased. In muon-catalyzed fusion, the internuclear separation is reduced by a

factor of approximately 200 (the muon to electron mass ratio), and the nuclear fusion rate correspondingly increases by roughly eighty orders of magnitude [1]. Muon-catalyzed fusion has been demonstrated to be an effective means of rapidly inducing fusion reactions in low- temperature hydrogen isotopic mixtures [2]. A hypothetical quasi-particle a few times as massive as the electron would increase the cold fusion rate to readily measurable levels, about 10E-20 fusions per d-d molecule per second [1]. Our results imply that an equivalent distortion on the internuclear hydrogen wavefunction can be realized under certain conditions when hydrogen isotopic nuclei are loaded into metallic crystalline lattices and other forms of condensed matter. We have observed deuteron-deuteron fusion

at room temperature during low-voltage electrolytic infusion of deuterons into metallic titanium or palladium electrodes. The fusion reaction d + d -> He (0.82 MeV) + n (2.45 MeV) + is evidently catalyzed as d and metal ions from the electrolyte are deposited at (and into) the negative electrode. Neutrons having approximately 2.5 MeV energy are clearly detected with a sensitive neutron spectrometer. The experimental layout is portrayed in Figure 1. We have not yet obtained results regarding the parallel reaction d + d -> p (3.02 MeV) + t (1.01 MeV) (1b) as this requires different measuring procedures. However, it can be presumed that the reaction (1b) occurs at a nearly equal rate as the reaction (1a), which is usually the case.

Term 1 (Notker) "This is Notker. Sorry about your capture, and the four days of captivity, but it could not be helped. You were probably safer there, anyway--Admiral Carraway blames you for the death of his son. I don't really know why, but he has nobody else to blame. He has relieved almost all of the senior officers for "insubordination" and "neglect." You could redeem yourself in his eyes, though, by capturing the High Council. "This is the station that supplies power to the Imperial Palace. Of course, there are several redundant systems, so just smash any exposed circuitry you see. And keep alert--the place is crawling with Pfhor Honor Guard, the best fighters on the planet. You and your men are in a great deal of danger, so be careful."

Term 1 (Notker) "Admiral Carraway has ordered the launch of the trih xeem, and the UESC and S’pht ships are already moving away. “I will stay to transport you out. Right now we may be able to stop him by making the Pfhor surrender. The Pfhor culture depends on the nobility. The nobles are all hiding in their quarters, in this area. Kill them. This almost guarantees the Pfhor surrender.” Term 2 (Notker) “Good job. One last mission, I think, and Pfhor will surrender and you will be off the hook. Admiral Carraway is already feeling a little better that you cleaned out the nobles’ quarters.

Term 1 (Notker) “This is it. I was able to get control of the transporters in the Imperial Palace and the High Council and the Emperor are now waiting in a lava drainage pit near the top of the Palace, toward the back, where it joins the mountain. You have been transported nearby. Admiral Carraway orders you to execute the High Council by flooding the pit with lava. He will give you a full pardon if you just succeed with this mission. “All you have to do is flip this switch.

Term 2 (Usyrus) “Ha ha ha. You thought the Admiral was serious about the pardon, huh? I should tell you that the trih xeem has already been launched and all UESC ships were out of range hours ago. Notker was ordered to deceive you. He could not disobey, though I think he wanted to. Anyway, I spoke to you before about all this not mattering that much. “Now you will see what I meant. We are leaving now.