Chapter 59: Finding Hornet’s Nests to Poke with Sticks
Deploying a nuclear warhead should not be this simple, Dere reflected as he helped Mimi leverage the third and final metal cylinder out through the cargo hatch, leaving it to drift away, then suddenly seem to zoom away, though in reality, that was actually just Atticus starting to accelerate away from the weapon, retreating to a safe distance.
Of course, the “real” safe distance was a hell of a lot shorter than one would have thought out here, due to a lack of atmosphere to carry a shockwave, and the radiation shielding built into the Dragonfly, but none of them actually felt comfortable sitting within a few kilometers of even a “weak” nuclear detonation, so distance it was.
Once back on the bridge, Derek sat in his chair while Mimi took a bit longer to settle in, mostly because she had to change a few settings on her console before it could connect to the weapons innocently drifting out there.
“Alright,” she announced, beaming, practically bouncing in her chair, far more exuberant than Derek thought he’d ever seen her. “Now, the first weapon is your basic nuclear warhead. Enriched Uranium, wrapped in a shell of chemical explosive, the latter adapted to work in the airless environment it is meant to operate in. The concept has been proven, if it fails, it’ll … it’ll be embarrassing.”
Mimi raised a single hand dramatically, index finger out, and stabbed the big red button on the side of the console with exaggerated slowness and unnecessary force and outside the Dragonfly, for a brief moment, a newborn sun bloomed, the explosion oddly spherical in the absence of gravity and air, eye-searingly bright if it hadn’t been for the screen automatically dialling down its luminosity.
Also …
“Those things couldn’t have gone off on the ship, right?” Atticus asked after a long moment.
“We might actually have survived if it had,” Mimi announced proudly. “But no, it couldn’t. Modern explosives are safe.”
“… Assuming they’re made well,” Derek pointed out. “But I don’t think we have to worry about that on this ship.”