Chapter 5

RECORD: 0872E136$SS-0.032
SUBJECT: Security Log A-123
TEST NO: 088 - Nuclear Power Exo - Trial 01
STATUS: CONFIDENTIAL
IDENTITIES: C. Bray I, D. Chambers
LOCATION: Morning Star Orbital Platform / Europa – Coordinates Unknown

---Incoming call from MSOP. Caller ID: C. Bray---

[D.C.] Sir, we're prepped and standing by for you order.

[C.B.] And the reactor is stable?

[D.C.] Stable and ready for installation in the Exo body.

[C.B.] If this works, generations will praise the work accomplished today.

[D.C.] Sir, if you don't mind me saying, the team would have liked you to be here personally. Would have been a vote of confidence for them.

[C.B.] May I remind you, it was your insistence we find an alternate power source to Clarity, even though it already has proven to be a success. Besides, if that reactor explodes with me present, it would be the single greatest loss our civilization could suffer and would damn us all for eons to come. Now get on with it.

[D.C.] Yes, sir. //Install the core.// Are you able to see well enough?

[C.B.] I'm watching with bated breath.

[D.C.] Calculated distance of 3 millimeters… 2 millimeters… 1 millimeter… We're in. //Lock the chassis. Switch on the alternator and reroute power supply.//

[C.B.] Nothing is happening.

[D.C.] (sighs) It would appear not.

[C.B.] If nuclear power isn't a sufficient power source, perhaps there are other uses…

[D.C.] It's non-compatible, at the very least.

[C.B.] It is interesting to note that the chassis may be able to house other forms of power with similarly destructive potential. We may have a walking bomb on our hands.

---Call ended.---