Photodisintegration – Light Collapse Part 1
The trireme fleet was engulfed in a dazzling burst of light. Moments later, the radiance converged and vanished.
At the location where Vritra had been, only a single black spot remained.
That black spot began to expand rapidly, its range growing at an alarming rate.
A tremendous shockwave struck the space fleet. Anything not secured was slammed against the walls. A powerful force had emerged, pulling the accelerating fleet toward the black spot. The braking systems, designed to mitigate impact, were rendered useless in the face of such overwhelming force.
「What is this? It’s like we’re being sucked into that black spot!」
「Is it generating extreme gravity? Are the ships being dragged in?」
Eri and Matty quickly grasped the situation. Their instincts screamed that this black spot was far more terrifying than Vritra had been.
「Maintain full speed ahead! Please!」
Asia’s Aimer murmured desperately.
The AI systems managing each ship also recognized the anomaly. Cross-referencing the current phenomena, they concluded with certainty—this was an emergency that demanded immediate action.
「This acceleration at this distance…!」
「That black spot won’t even let light escape. We must maintain full speed and escape the singularity’s gravitational influence immediately.」
Astraea responded to Kushinada’s voice with unwavering urgency.
「There’s only one thing left to do!」
Matt screamed.
「Searching for Vritra status… confirmed… Vritra has completely vanished…」
Aki’s trembling voice echoed across the fleet. In an instant, the tiny black speck had swallowed Vritra whole.
「We’ve also confirmed Vritra’s disappearance. It was completely consumed by the black spot.」
Asia let out a sigh of relief.
「Vanished?! Not defeated?」
「It won’t even let light escape… What did you do, Kou!?」
Panic spread through the fleet. Even Matt and Eri sent frantic transmissions, demanding answers.
「It’s fine as long as we took it down, right? I told you, that wasn’t a Panjandrum.」
「It’s even worse! What were you thinking? Disguising something that dangerous as a Panjandrum is insane!」
Matt and Eri didn’t miss the cold sweat forming on Kou’s face. It had clearly been a last-minute, desperate decision.
The black spot continued to expand, and the screen displayed nothing but darkness. It was as if the system had malfunctioned—completely black.
A void of pure darkness remained, with only a faint glow outlining its edges.
「Controlling hydrogen-7 simultaneously… That’s incredible. Asia really is something else.」
Unlike Matt and Eri, Kinukawa focused on understanding the phenomenon that had just unfolded. He wanted to grasp what had happened in space—his curiosity was getting the better of him.
「It was a near-impossible gamble. With the Axion Core and hydrogen-7, we finally achieved the necessary energy. And at the end of nuclear fission… photon disintegration occurred.」
「Even so…」
Kinukawa marveled. His reaction was both a sign of deep respect for the super AI and admiration for the astonishing results that had unfolded before him.
Hydrogen-7, composed of a single proton and six neutrons, was inherently unstable. Yet, back on Earth, scientists had successfully created it by colliding helium-8 with hydrogen.
Even the electric movements within the atoms happened in attoseconds, a one-hundred quintillionth of a second. A duration of 10-18 seconds was already incredible, but working within the realm of 10-24 seconds was something entirely beyond human capability.
「Hydrogen-7… Among all atoms known to humanity, it has the most neutron-excessive nucleus. Instead of fusion, you went with fission and photon disintegration…?」
Hydrogen-7 had an incredibly short half-life—just 23 yoctoseconds.
「I understand now. The true nature of the ‘Fool’… It’s a particle accelerator designed to simulate the Big Bang, creating both a Big Bang and a black hole. That must be why the Schwarzschild radius had to be configured.」
Kinukawa tried his best to remain composed as he analyzed the ‘Fool’, but the excitement in his voice was undeniable.
Asia’s calculations of the Schwarzschild radius—the gravitational radius—were precise. It represented the mass responsible for the curvature of spacetime.
At the heart of it all was the origin of the singularity, the ‘Fool’. By calculating the distance from the black hole’s center to the event horizon, Asia had effectively controlled its lifespan.
「Your assumptions are correct. The black hole that swallowed Vritra is only one attometer in size—a quantum-level singularity. Based on its Schwarzschild radius, we estimate it will persist for approximately four hours.」
Astraea confirmed his analysis.
「So, for those four hours, a black hole that not even light can escape from will continue to spin…」
「The medium used was an Axion Carbuncle—we used it as the black hole’s Axion Core1.」
Asia’s Aimer, exhausted as she was, finally managed a small smile.
「The Fool… In Tarot, its number is zero. The Major Arcana is said to represent the Fool’s journey. Many of the transferees came here after disappearing from Earth due to the explosion of black hole bombs, these served as the catalyst for bringing them to the Nemesis System. It marked the beginning of the journey of the Development Engineers—the Odysseus. In medieval card games, the Fool was also sometimes treated as the twenty-second trump card.」
「There are many meanings to its name, but if I’m being honest, the main reason I chose this name was to remind myself that anyone who dares to use something like this is nothing but a fool.」
Kou said, his tone laced with self-mockery.
His words affirmed Kinukawa’s analysis. A black hole bomb was the very phenomenon responsible for putting their lives in a state of uncertainty. In 21st-century science, creating an actual black hole was considered impossible. However, using the principles of a black hole wasn’t impossible. A rotating pseudo-black hole could generate a boson field collision, which would amplify through superradiant scattering, resulting in a massive explosive force.
Many transferees were victims of black hole bombs. If this very weapon had been the cause of them being sent to the Nemesis System, then truly, the user was a fool for using it. Thus, the name was fitting.
Of course, the Transferees hadn’t died in the explosion, most victims of the bomb were never confirmed dead—the explosion had left no traces to confirm their deaths—they just disappeared. Prometheus had taken notice of this and had taken advantage of it to transfer them. Kinukawa’s transfer was an exception, he had disappeared in a different situation than the rest.
There was another meaning to the name as well. Though it was not officially counted, the design number of the ‘Fool’ was Work Number Zero—the first weapon of this type ever designed. Kou hadn’t used the number one, because he had already used that design number in his first officially registered weapon the drill-tunneling shielded excavation vehicle.
「A simulated Big Bang and a black hole… You created a singularity using an Axion Core, powered by the energy derived from colliding hydrogen-7 in an exotic neutron-producing reaction. The resulting gamma radiation triggered a photodisintegration cascade, breaking down iron nuclei and expelling protons. This massive energy release, combined with the gravitational collapse of the core, led to the formation of a black hole. That’s how it happened, isn’t it, Kou-kun?」
Kinukawa, unable to suppress his scholarly curiosity, sought confirmation.
「More or less. To be honest, I don’t fully understand the principles either.」
Kou replied with a wry smile. Astraea had explained the mechanics to him, but Kinukawa clearly had a much deeper grasp of the subject.
「Was that why Abel and Eirene opposed calling it a Panjandrum? Because they knew the true nature of The ‘Fool’?」
There had been rumors among the Development Engineers that Abel had vehemently opposed using the ‘Fool’ as a dummy Panjandrum. He must have recognized the catastrophic danger of the weapon. In hindsight, it was Ulysses’ Development Engineers who had misunderstood the situation, misinterpreting his warning as Abel being particular with aesthetics.
「Yes.」
Something like this could never be classified as an autonomous mine or any conventional explosive. Abel’s opposition had stemmed from his desire to protect Kou and those he cared about from the sheer risk of such a weapon.
TN1: An Axion Core is a hypothetical astrophysical object or condensed state of axions, a type of ultra-light bosonic dark matter candidate. Axions are hypothetical ultra-light particles that have extremely small mass, no electric charge, very weak interactions with ordinary matter, and can potentially behave like a Bose-Einstein condensate at a cosmic scale. It is theorized that Bose Stars, Neutron Stars, and certain Black Holes could be or possess Axion Cores
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