32 Chapter 14 (Part 1)

Six months later - Western outskirts of California, near Rocky Ridge

The Bakker Clan Camp

"Alright, now carefully..." The tension even made me start talking to myself. A contagious habit inherited from a past life.

For four months now, I've been trying to create my own version of a miniature reactor, which will power my future suit. All this time, I wanted to establish a stable simulation of the entire system, but I kept facing explosions when my reactor reached 10% of its power. Not to mention the consequences of massive heat release and radiation. Using such a device safely was only possible if it was scaled up significantly and placed in a well-shielded container made of synthesized alloys, to prevent the spread of radiation.

Overall, I didn't initially expect to succeed right away, but fortunately, I stumbled upon an article about energy installations from the last century. It mentioned the development by a Soviet scientist, Filimonenko, specifically a hydrolysis energy installation. It could generate energy from a thermonuclear reactor operating at a temperature of 1150 degrees Celsius. Heavy water D2O, containing "Deuterium", served as fuel for the installation.

The cold nuclear fusion reactor decomposed this water through electrolysis, resulting in oxygen and deuterium. The latter reacted with a palladium cathode to produce helium. The installation was absolutely environmentally safe, which was important to me. There were no known emissions or waste.

The installation allowed for the generation of a large amount of energy in the form of steam under very high pressure. It was fully operational and built in 1957. At that time, that very Soviet physicist Filimonenko also discovered that during the device's operation, a previously unstudied radiation appeared, accelerating the decay process of radioactive isotopes.

The idea fascinated me so much that I couldn't shake the obsessive thought of creating my own version of a miniature energy source. It took me about a week to recreate the first working prototype in simulation, which, to my delight, worked. At its peak, it produced 5 gigajoules of power per second, which is a lot. In layman's terms, that's 5 terawatts of energy. Roughly speaking, this beast could power half of Night City and a few mega towers on top. This was the combined power of all the solar panels in the world in 2020. An astronomical figure, but that's just how much the reactor produces at its maximum, and it would only last for about a quarter of a second.

Even though I achieved an efficiency of 99.5%, the remaining half percent of escaping heat would instantly turn me into mush. Moreover, palladium is radioactive, but thankfully, local technologies allow for completely shielding the radiation. This is hardly surprising. Frequent wars using nuclear weapons have forced humanity to find ways to quickly eliminate the harmful effects of radiation, which they eventually did.

The prospect of use wasn't very promising, but I didn't stop there. It took me another two weeks to eliminate the remaining flaws, and eventually, my future toy was almost ready. On paper, at least, but that's better than nothing.

Simultaneously, I started designing a miniature kinetic shield, which I've been planning to implement for a long time. Now that I had a power source, it was time to start creating a new toy. Its principle was similar to the interaction of like poles of magnets, which repel each other. My invention was intended to perform precisely this function. There was plenty of information on this topic on the local internet, which was very useful to me. Ultimately, I created something akin to an electromagnetic field that managed to fulfill my idea, but it required substantial shielding to ensure the internal electronics didn't burn out.

"So many ideas, yet absolutely not enough time..." I muttered, shaking my head in dissatisfaction while biting into the sandwich Inga had brought me...

***

Cyberspace

Rache Bartmoss, a figure who in his time gained the reputation of being the most legendary netrunner, still considered so to this day. Many mistakenly believe him to have long perished, but that was yet another grand deception by the elusive hacker. In 2021, Bartmoss quietly and unnoticeably decided to "die." He had earlier placed himself in a cryochamber, disguised as an ordinary refrigerator, sustaining his life with the latest life support technologies. He rented cell #27680743 for a period of 50 years. Although Bartmoss's physical strength gradually waned, he managed to continue netrunning and existing in the Net, transferring a significant part of his active consciousness into cyberspace, from where he observes the world to this day.

The man was extremely secretive and trusted no one with his safety, so only he knew the location of his real body. Not even the equally skilled runner Spider Murphy, who worked with him in a team, had such a level of trust, nor did Alt Cunningham, the creator of the "Soulkiller" project. Originally, this project was planned for transferring one's mind into cyberspace, but the Arasaka corporation learned of the development and kidnapped Alt, forcing her to create a more advanced version to later use for their purposes.

This happened 10 years before the Fourth Corporate War in the USA. The girl was attempted to be rescued by Johnny Silverhand, the most famous rocker-anarchist across America, a former military man who later became a deserter after discovering the motives behind the Second Central American War of the 2000s. Back then, the young man and many other soldiers disliked fighting for a corrupt government unwilling to quickly resolve the conflict. They supported both opposing sides, which prolonged the war for many years.

Robert John Linder never uttered his real name after successfully fleeing the front, inventing a pseudonym to which he quickly became accustomed. In a way, Bartmoss was amused by this man, a walking example of a perfect asshole, obsessed with the importance of his own opinion. He never met him personally, but the hacker's abilities allowed him to dig deeper into the rocker's personal life, exposing all his dirty laundry. Johnny Silverhand wanted to fight the power by creating a rebellious rock band against the system, named "Samurai." It became quite popular in some circles, but it did not bring a noticeable response from the people.

But now, Rache was not concerned with old memories that surfaced in his mind, but someone who had managed to interest him quite a bit. A nine-year-old genius who, about six months ago, hacked the city's surveillance system network and is now eagerly assembling his first serious invention, which, judging by the blueprints, will be a breakthrough in energy if someone can accurately replicate all the processes performed in simulation. Bartmoss could easily extract all the secrets of this boy right now, but he wouldn't do that because he needs an ally, not a potential enemy who has the chance to grow into a serious threat to his plans.

"Perhaps it's better to start the acquaintance in the manner usual for people." - Having lived in the net for decades, the man had become somewhat unaccustomed to normal human interaction, but Rache's associative memory quickly reminded him that a normal conversation should start with a greeting.

"Hello, Alex Volkov..."

***

While I was busy debugging the first prototype before starting its assembly, I decided to take a short break from such a tiresome task and give my brain a bit of a rest. Of course, training in virtual reality is hard to call a rest for a normal person, but over two years, I've gotten quite used to daily acquiring new knowledge. At some point, I even started to enjoy learning a lot.

I was currently going through a course from a European school, for which I had to shell out a good amount of money. Officially, data packages cost about 5,000 eddies for an extended six-month course, which was slightly out of my budget. I had to be a bit crafty and look for information on the other side. Eventually, I stumbled upon people selling used data packages, costing five times less. The sellers were former knowledge buyers who no longer needed them after mastering the content.

Mostly, such courses are reproduced in virtual space, with which one can interact. In the end, a person gains not only theoretical but also practical knowledge, which is important for becoming a future specialist. My virtual reality glasses were not the latest model, but thanks to many third-party modifications, they outperformed some top models, allowing me to fully immerse myself in the learning process without any technical limitations.

Attention - unauthorized connection!

Activating...

"Hello, Alex Volkov..." - My simulation unexpectedly flickered, and in it appeared a man I didn't recognize. The security system didn't even have time to react to the threat. Interesting, who could possibly need me so badly?

"Who are you, and what do you want?" - Distracting the uninvited guest, I tried to urgently end the session, but, unfortunately, my device did not respond to commands, not even the duality of the brain helped. There was, of course, the option to forcibly remove my glasses, but then even I can't say what might happen.

"Nice try, but your protection felt literally like a cardboard wall. Apply a little effort, and it gets a hole." - The stranger was clearly male, hinted by his speech style and digital image, which did not hurry to take on human facial features. Whoever this intruder was, it was better to tread carefully. I'm not in a position to dictate any terms to him right now.

"Do you need something from me?" - I mentally slap myself, calming my raging nerves.