21 Two Years’ Worth of Effort Part 1

Newton wiped the tears of happiness gathering at the corner of his eyes amidst the cheering of people. His aged face looked twenty years younger with the blooming smile decorating his sagely demeanor. It has been two hard years for all of them; no one ever slept properly.

The newly developed Sigil which was modified from Sigil of Weightlessness and Sigil of Gravity was now known as Antimatter Core. They had finally managed to stabilize the anti-baryonic material enough to be used as a ring around the model in the lab scaled study with the assistance of Miss Rosetta and Miss Desaree. Finally, after the n-th time, the pilot scale study was a pass with significant values!

It turns out, these two ladies were the most important keys for stabilizing the core permanently all along. They functioned like stabilizers to the core. Yet, he needed to acknowledge that he barely touched the surface and he had not fully understood the principles behind their powers.

He watched as the revised Antimatter core being fitted into the faster-than-light (FTL) Warp Drive he co-designed with Major Anya, the mechanical mind genius from the elite First Army Regiment. With the completion of the Antimatter core, the Negative Particle Density Research Group was then merged with the Spaceship Construction Research Group.

As he watched, Newton still remembered how they suffered during the initial step of formulating the equations. He had worked day and night to formulate a series of equations, but he still couldn't solve a few important parameters. At that point, Crown Princess Linneia approached him via Major Anya's Cerebral Connector with a revolutionary solution.

Newton was really impressed with the crown princess. With the explanation from the Immortal King and the initial deductions generated by the three biocomputer witches, the crown princess had managed to establish the initial algorithm that conformed with the faster-than-light travel theory while she was busy travelling to the extreme North. All communication was done through the Cerebral Connector Network interface. Listening to the crown princess retelling her experiences in short succinct sentences, he knew she had gone through a lot more than what was being spoken, and yet she still managed to help with the deductions in her free time. He could only feel grateful for their monarchy for producing such a competent heiress.

Nobody knew that Princess Linneia would still gave a helping hand from afar. They thought that she only held the Director post of the Negative Particle Density Group in name only. It turned out she was serious in multitasking.

With the help of Princess Linneia, Newton theoretical algorithm was completed. This stemmed the first FTL Warp Drive design by Major Anya which managed to achieve a theoretical value of 1.5 speed-of-light (SOL).

With this theoretical model, Newton had determined that there was a high possibility to improve them further. Hence, they had refined the series of calculations repeatedly with the help of a large number of experts led by himself. This become a cycle until Newton and his team improved the calculation and readjusted the design slightly with which resulted into an engine with a theoretical value of 3.8 SOL.

It was a major breakthrough. Newton still felt exceedingly proud of this achievement in the field of space science. They had basically moved from zero to this level.

From there, Major Anya worked industriously with a number of engineers to achieve the initial success on the physical model for the engine design earlier than expected.

They took three months to perfect the design and calculations needed for the FTL engine before proceeding to physical model building. After all, to realize a theory into something tangible was no easy matter. Many things needed to be done as the series of the equations themselves needed to be thoroughly polished to flush out as much error as possible.

The testing of the model took a longer time but was finally able to be validated after nine months of testing. This was considered extremely fast as compared to any other large-scale innovation or invention pushed forward by the government previously. The involvement of 80% of the human asset has pushed this further ahead while the other 15% were focused on the design and building of the nation-wide bunker. The last 5% followed the crown princess in the exploration.

Basically, everyone in the empire was moved to reach this goal. Nobody was left behind.

At the same time, the Antimatter Core research developed by the Negative Particle Density Group was progressing almost at the same pace as the FTL Engine. Nevertheless, as the Antimatter Core needed an utmost precision method for it to be able to function, the initial part of the experiment was not so smooth. The unstable core kept on collapsing upon itself as it destabilized resulting in a serious explosion. A lot of researchers were injured in that incident. After taking a number of safety measures, the core had been tested again and again with multiple explosions accompanying each failure. Although no more researchers were hurt, their spirit were at an all-time low.

Three hundred and seventy nine. That was the number of explosions occurring in the isolated heavily re-enforced testing room for the model testing the efficacy of the negative density theory. The presence of Lady Vayu made the high number of testing possible. She had adjusted the environmental conditions inside the testing room to reduce the strength of the explosions each time. Her ability to produce, blend, remove, and remix gaseous compound was astounding.

Finally, after fourteen months their first prototype fitted with the latest version of the FTL Warp Drive with the Antimatter Core was a success!

The prototype was a partially finished Dreadnought with a modified FTL engine. They have tested the functionality and stability and decided for a proper test run to space in a week's time for data collection.

"Thank you everyone for your hardwork! But don't be lax too soon. The final testing phase is about to begin in a week's time. To the personnel involved, go back, relax, unwind, and return with renewed energy." Newton spoke gently from the leading seat in a large conference room. Nonetheless, everyone present could hear his words clearly. Everyone was in a jubilant mood.

The old professor stood up from his armchair to adjourn the meeting. By his side, Major Anya took his arm and supported him gently.

"You need ample rest too, Professor. Please be at ease. I can take over the matters from here." Anya coaxed the old professor worriedly.

The two years of hardwork had taken a significant toll on the old professor. Although his eyes were bright with wisdom, his limbs were getting stiffer and his joints ached uncontrollably on each passing day. He had collapsed two times from over exhaustion as he forgot to partake his meal and rest while being entranced with new formulas and findings. The second time had led the rest of the researchers to petition him to work at a maximum of six hours before a forced resting time. He was exasperated with their intervention but could only follow through for his own health condition.

Newton patted the hand supporting him with a smile, "I'm alright, child. I won't go under so soon. There is so many things to do. What I regret the most is not being able to find the function of the black mineral delivered by the His Highness Immortal King. I will go back to have some rest before working on it again."

When Newton saw the girl trying to argue with him, he patted her hand again reassuringly. "It's okay. I know we have so many researchers working on it, but this is my passion. If I can't find the answer, I can't sleep." He smiled to the well-intentioned lass.

Anya could only agree to the old professor's wants. Although he was a very mild and tolerant to everyone, he could sometimes become quite stubborn. She was also intrigued by the black mineral.

At first, only a single thumb-size was delivered. It had even received SS-level priority for research. Researchers flocked to determine what kind of mineral it was. After a lengthy examination, they found that the characteristics of the mineral didn't match any of the compound present in the periodic table. It was a new compound!

They realized the mineral was emitting a kind of energy, but what kind was still undetermined. A series of tests were met with failure after failure. Everyone thought maybe the amount was too small, so the energy emitted was too low to be measured. So, they requested for more samples.

Around two months later, more samples of the same mineral came in. Tests after tests ensued, but still to no avail.

Hence, Newton still worked on the black mineral in his resting time just to satisfy his curiosity covertly.

[There must be a reason for it to be this important! There must be!] He chanted determinedly in his heart.

[Tomorrow after a good rest, I'll definitely return to lab.]

....