Hubris - A Short Story

“I’ve checked the results over a dozen times now. It’s not going to fail” Carl assures his longtime friend and lab partner, John.

“Are you sure Carl?” John, still hesitant about his partner’s insistence.

“Look. Once we get this baby going, humanity will never need power again. We are at the forefront of history. This isn’t just about a doctorate anymore. This is what will guide us to a new age of universal wealth and technology. We can’t possibly imagine how this will affect our world and humanity as a whole”.

John peered up to his and Carl’s massive project. The goal was a (hopefully) working nuclear fusion reactor, the first of its kind. It towered over 30 meters in height with a giant tube making up most of the mass and had a console at a convenient height for the scientists. The giant tube also had a sticker labeled, "Fuse Tech" on the side to denote their sponsor. Carl had estimated the device to weigh over 3 tons. Their laboratory had been especially constructed to contain it and the possible radiation leakage if something were to fail.

“Alright Carl, I get it. After we work out the kinks, we can save the world, end hunger blah blah blah.” John mocked Carl’s grandiose visions.

“How can you take this momentous occasion and be so dismissive about it? We’ve changed the course of history. After all it was your equation that led to my reactor design.”

“Yeah but if it goes bad, it’ll-“

“It won’t go bad,” Carl assured him. “We’ve spent too much time and heartache for it to go bad. We even got a rich startup to cover all of the expenses when you said it's be impossible. Once we turn it on, you’ll see.”

“Alright Carl. We’ve gotten this far I guess, why not all the way?” John, after finding a new confidence in his friend, was finally ready to turn on the reactor and realize their destinies.

After beginning the starting procedure, John yawned forcefully, “Hey Carl, I just noticed that it’s 2 am in the morning. Let’s get some sleep for the sponsor presentation tomorrow. I can feel the weight of my eyelids” barely staying awake.

“Come on, let's at least start the boot up procedure because it’s going to take at least 4 or 5 hours”

“Are you sure that’s safe while we’re gone?” John, horrified at the thought of leaving the machine alone for even a nanosecond, “This is how everything goes wrong in any disaster movie ever.”

“Nah man. If you want, I'll stay and you can go get some sleep. I’m dying to see this thing turned on.”

“I do too,” John retorted, “It’s just I’m exhausted and I need some sleep.” Looking for a consensus with his great friend, Carl proposed,

“What if we pull over that couch and we spend the night here? It’s not the first time either of us have done that during our time here.”

John laughed, “Yeah you’re right. I’ve lost count how many times I slept here instead of going back to the apartment.”

After about 10 minutes, they had set up the couch in their usual fashion, and soon enough both of the young nuclear scientists fell into a deep sleep, utterly satisfied and exhausted from their months long work and completely unaware of Carl’s mistake in the calculations of John’s equation made months ago. The last thing they could have heard would have been screws popping out of the giant machine and a low, sinister humming sound.

Fuse Tech's cleanup was swift and thorough, making sure no one would ever what happened or who was responsible for the death of a city in an instant.