Destroyer of Worlds
Perez put on her goggles and nodded towards the operator. He turned his key as well. The large button in the center of the console lit up.
Perez looked over at her compatriot.
“I hope this works,” she said, pressing her palm against the button.
There was a slight vibration beneath their feet. Her eyes turned towards the telescope, aimed at the site a mile away. A decade of research and years of particle accelerators had culminated into this single moment.
From far away, she noticed a small spark. She smiled hesitantly. Everything was going according to plan. The Higgs bosons were being created, and they were interacting with each other.
Then, suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light. she was thrown to the ground by the shockwave.
When Perez opened her eyes, she saw that the entire test site was in ruins. The buildings were leveled, and there was smoke and dust everywhere. She could feel the intense heat from the explosion.
Finally, she forced herself up to get away. She knew she had to get away. People were screaming all around her, but she did not know how to help them.
She kept running until she was stopped by a military vehicle. Three people jumped out in full hazmat suits.
“Identity!” one shouted at her, their face covered.
“Dr. Monica Perez,” she exclaimed.
She reached her hand into her pocket, only to realize her pockets had been obliterated. She was embarrassed that her jeans were in tatters.
“ID please,” the soldier demanded.
“It’s gone,” she said with a sob. “Everything is gone. Miguel too, probably.”
“Check her,” the soldier said.
Another faceless person began to hold a handheld device to her head. She couldn’t see what was on the screen, nor their expression.
“Reading a 235,” the second explained.
“235 what?” she asked.
“HBRs.”
“What does that stand for?”
“Higgs Boson Radiations. Millirads,” the first soldier noted.
“That’s bad,” she felt nausea in her stomach.
“Get in,” the soldier ordered.
She quickly got into the back of their jeep as it began to drive further away from the test site. As her head turned to the person sitting next to her, she almost leapt back out.
“General Adewale,” she exclaimed.
“Dr. Perez, it looks like the test was successful,” he grinned. “We will be preparing it for deployment soon.”
“Successful?” she almost let out a scream, but her throat had become sore and she could only let out a soft whisper.
“Every key target in the test has been confirmed destroyed. Our drones sent back the verification.”
“Miguel is dead. Schwarz and Raios are too.”
“The Higgs Bomb has even more destructive potential than we calculated. We will need that show of force.”
“We can’t,” she pleaded.
“Your job is done,” he said assuringly. “And we will ensure you and your family will be well taken care of once this war is over.”
“I’ve become death,” she whispered, now so quietly only she could hear it.
She closed her eyes.
A bit of an homage to the Oppenheimer movie. It must be quite upsetting to work on something like the nuclear bomb. Even if you could argue it was the least bad option, people can’t always rationale away the deaths of so many. And we probably shouldn’t shrug and move on either. It’s something we need to sit with and deeply process, hopefully learning from it.
This story, in the future, deals with the Higgs Boson Bomb. Like we turned out knowledge of atoms into weapons, we probably can do with subatomic particles. Yet we probably shouldn’t and we should, as a society, try to not let it get to that point.