Theo Xeta sat in his chair, pensively watching the burgundy moonlight swirling in his glass. The door creaked open, and his arm twitched, breaking the moonlight into a thousand ripples.

  Theo took a deep breath. It had been a few days already, but he was still recovering. This hadn’t been the first assassination attempt he had thwarted, but it was only a matter of time before his luck ran out.

  “Sorry, Mr. Xeta, I did not mean to scare you.”

  Theo glanced back. It was Miles, a jolly Fraxian man in his sixties. On paper, he served as Theo Xeta’s housekeeper, though the decades in the Stormrunner Corps and law enforcement had given him a more diverse skill set.

  “It’s alright, Miles. I’m glad you’re here.”

  “I feel the same, Mr. Xeta, especially after what happened…” Miles glanced around, then lowered his voice. “It was damn lucky you let me get off early that night.”

  “Yeah, you certainly dodged a bullet.”

  “Very funny. But now that I’m thinking about it, did you see it coming ahead of time?”

  “You think too highly of me,” Theo feigned a laugh, patting his housekeeper on the shoulder. “You’re just a lucky bastard.”

  Seeing that, Miles also laughed. He helped himself to some wine, and the two of them clinked glasses. However, his face turned serious again.

  “Next time, Mr. Xeta, I’ll make sure I stay.”

  “Don’t, Miles. You still have a family to go back to.”

  Miles sighed and drank the rest of his drink in a single gulp.

  “Regarding the man in your custody — the assassin with a skull mask — I have transferred him away.”

  “Good, and the other two Valerian assassins?”

  “The police are dealing with them. The dead one got cremated. The paralyzed one was arrested, but they went easy on him, saying it was because he was an ex-Stormrunner. Though I reckon it was because of some other powerful people.”

  “That’s going as expected. How about the fourth assassin? The Fraxian woman? Were you able to find anything?”

  “No. The other assassins knew nothing. I also found their fixer, but despite all my persuasion, all he could give me was a fake Valerian name.”

  “How about the cryo grenade she threw at me? Any prints?”

  “She was wearing gloves. Luckily, one glove got torn off at some point, and I managed to recover half a fingerprint and a small blood sample. However, it did not match any Fraxian records in the XetaGen database.”

  “That is unfortunate.”

  “You know, we could try to send the records to the police, or even to the VUC —”

  “No. Not the authorities. Not for her.”

  A loud buzzer interrupted the conversation.

  Theo Xeta glanced at his clock. It was time. The visitors had arrived. He nodded at Miles, who opened the door.

  Vik Layden, the director of the Valerian Unification Committee, entered the room, followed by two scientists — a Fraxian woman and a Valerian man.

  At their sight, Miles brought in a few more glasses of wine, alongside a thick dossier. Then he walked out the room, gently bringing the door behind him.

  “How have you been? I heard about the burglary. That was truly terrible,” said Vik Layden, putting up a show in front of the two scientists.

  Theo Xeta felt ambivalent about Vik’s role in all of this. On one hand, her warnings had saved his life. On the other hand, all this fiasco was a product of VUC pulling strings.

  “I’ll recover,” said Theo, playing along. “Thank you for all that you’ve done, and please pass my thanks to the VUC, too. I’ll be sure to repay them for all their kindness.”

  “Of course,” Vik continued without missing a beat. “Please use this safe house for as long as you’d like. And those burglars, what’s gonna happen to them?”

  “Those three scumbags? I have taken care of them.” Theo Xeta glanced around at the other faces and quickly added, “By turning them in to the police, of course.”

  There was an intentionally loud yawn, and the Valerian scientist spoke. “Will you guys please cut the chitchat and explain why we’re here.”

  Theo turned to the two scientists. He specifically requested their presence for this meeting.

  The Valerian man could no longer conceal his boredom and distaste for the bureaucracy. The Fraxian woman did not show much on her face, but it was easy to tell that her thoughts had already wandered off miles away.

  Theo sighed. They were not people of politics or business. Both of them were the brightest minds in the scientific community, regularly featured on science magazines and conference posters, sometimes even on evening radio shows. Their work formed the bedrock of modern Valeria.

  “Vik, this is Dr. Lucius Stratos, director of the Storm Analytics Institute,” said Theo, gesturing to the Valerian. Then, he turned to the Fraxian. “And this is Dr. Ada Flux, tenured professor at the University of New Orion.”

  “Vik Layden,” said Vik curtly, quickly shaking their hands.

  “As you all know, the Northern Stabilizer in Thiab had been destroyed,” Vik continued. “After that, three level 7 storms erupted in neighboring cities. The entire Northern Quadrant is now exposed.”

  “I’ve heard,” Dr. Stratos said, blinking his intelligent blue eyes a few times. “I also heard that a storm had hit the Exam facility as well.”

  “Yes. A level 5 storm. Right in the heart of the Capital.”

  Silence. The capital, deep in the interior, had been the safe haven from storms. Not a single storm had breached the Capital in the last twenty years. Indeed, not even a gust could appear in the capital skies without presidential permission.

  And now, a level 5 storm?

  Although the storm was contained within a few hours, the signification was clear. The Capital was no longer immune to the malice of nature. At this realization, everyone shifted uncomfortably.

  “If the Northern Stabilizer is not repaired, many more calamities will follow. Of course, I’m not an expert in this, but Theo referred you two.”

  Dr. Stratos and Dr. Flux looked at each other.

  “That is correct,” said Theo, taking a few pages out of his dossier. “The Stabilizer is built on three pillars of foundational science. The three of us are the best experts you can find in these fields.”

  “Experts, huh?” scoffed Dr. Flux. “Quite the expert of borrowing someone else’s work.”

  Ignoring Dr. Flux, Theo proceeded to organize the documents. “The first pillar is storm modeling. Dr. Stratos is the creator of The Stratos Equations, the best storm model we have as of today. This is a summary of his research.”

  Vik Layden grabbed a copy of the files and quickly scanned through them. Dr. Flux followed suit. Although experts in their own fields, Dr. Flux and Theo Xeta were by no means polymaths. In fact, scientific knowledge had increased so much in recent decades that no scientist would dare claim mastery across disciplines.

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  The Stratos equations were quite complex but incredibly effective. It consisted of countless pages of mathematical models designed to break down the storm behavior in terms of kinematics, thermodynamics, moisture, and pressure. Most importantly, the Stratos equations could model the atmospheric attributes in a Markovian fashion, meaning that one could use present information to predict what would unfold in the future. Once the Stabilizer gathered data on present atmospheric conditions, it would use the Stratos Equations to forecast how the weather patterns would morph and evolve.

  “Hold up,” Vik Layden frowned at a line of bolded text. “It says the Stratos Equations can only achieve 90% accuracy in prediction? Why aren’t we using the Storm Equations instead? The field data from Stormrunners shows a 99% accuracy rate.”

  “The Storm Equations focus solely on kinematics and heat, which is effective only for small-area storm control,” explained Dr. Stratos. “Imagine the sandstorm as a beast. Only when the beast goes rogue and violent do we use the Storm Equations. The Stormrunners are like hunters, shooting thermal and cryo spears like arrows to kill the beast.

  “However, when the beast hasn’t gone rogue yet, you don’t want to pick a fight right away. A Stabilizer is a gentle tamer, only nudging a little where necessary. That is why you need a model that considers moisture and pressure. Unless we want to shoot thermal bombs into the sky every day, we need a softer approach, an approach that blows a bit of air here and dries a few clouds there.”

  “Also, the Storm Equations are only a discriminative model,” Theo Xeta interjected. “While the Stratos Equations are generative.”

  Vik’s face looked blank.

  “It means that the Stratos Equations could envision the full scope of a storm.” Dr. Stratos spoke with visible pride, smoothly delivering an explanation he had likely given a thousand times before. If he hadn’t been serving such a pivotal role for the Republic, he could have made an excellent college professor. “The Storm Equations, as a discriminative model, could only make a very narrow deduction based on existing information. The Stormrunners supply the model with air flow and temperature data, and the Storm Equations compute the weak points of the storm.

  “On the other hand, the Stratos Equations can make the same deductions, but in addition, they also generate plausible weather patterns without further observation. We are not just responding passively to a situation. We are forecasting and understanding different storm patterns before they even happen.”

  “And most importantly,” Theo Xeta added. “Unlike the Storms Equations, every single line in the Stratos Equations was mathematically proven. This marks the difference between observing and understanding.”

  Vik sat in silence, flipping intermittently through the pages of background information. After a full minute, she asked, “If the Stratos Equations could do so much more, why aren’t the Stormrunners adopting this model?”

  “Time complexity,” said Dr. Stratos. “Stratos Equation takes much more time to compute. That’s why we need all the ThermoTech logic infrastructure in the Stabilizer, plus the dozens of peripheral computation centers.”

  At the mention of the computation centers, Theo shuddered a little. He was catapulted back down memory lane. The Republic had always offered alternative jobs for students who failed the Stormrunning Exam, and back in his younger days, Theo had been assigned to a computation center in the Northern quadrant. There, alongside two hundred other Valerians and Fraxians, he travailed through twelve-hour shifts armed with only pen and paper. Each day was packed with non-stop equation-solving and function optimization. It was, in essence, a mathematic sweatshop.

  Thankfully, Vik’s words pulled him back to the present. “I see. Let’s proceed to the second pillar of the Stabilizer.”

  “The second pillar is Dr. Flux’s works, thermal biomechanics.” Seeing Dr. Flux huff, Theo added, “Which is a major inspiration to my work.”

  “Cut to the chase, what is it?”

  “Thermal biomechanics is all about the back-and-forth conversion between thermal energy and mechanical energy,” Dr. Flux said, her orange eyes faintly glowing. “Evidently, there is no better candidate for this job than using Fraxian cells.”

  Theo proceeded to hand out the files on thermal biomechanic research, which was no thinner than the Stratos Equations packet. Once again, they scanned through the information in silence.

  The first law of thermodynamics stated that energy could neither be created nor destroyed. However, energy could change from one type to another, and some forms of energy were more useful than others. Among these, mechanical energy was the driving force of all atmospheric motion, and thermal energy was the crux of meterological stabilization. In order to perform its duty, the Stabilizer ran on a gigantic reservoir of both types of energies.

  “Why do we need this… thermal biomechanics?” asked Vik Layden. “Why can’t we just use steam engine to convert heat to mechanical energy? And why not just burn natural gas for heat?”

  “The key to stabilization lies not only in supplying energy, but also balancing the ratio between these two energies. To diffuse a risky weather pattern, we need to be incredibly exact in the amount of mechanical and thermal energy. Too much of either could make matters worse. There is no other machine as exact and as efficient as Fraxian cells. And we are not even including their unique ability to transfer thermal energy from one location to another.”

  “But these figures on maximum thermal energy throughput, why are they so high? That’s 20 gigajoules. If I’m not wrong, these are equivalent to… 5 tons of TNT.”

  “You’re right. If all goes well, we will consume minimal energy to deploy stabilizing countermeasures. But if a storm grows out of control, we will have enough thermal energy to create meteorological changes by brute force.”

  “By brute force?”

  “Yes, by blasting an area with so much heat or cryo that it wipes out any temperature differential the storm feeds on. Using the beast analogy earlier, it’s like hunting a beast by burning down the entire forest.”

  “Has this approach ever been used?”

  “Occasionally, but only in high atmosphere or uninhabited areas of course.”

  “I see,” Vik said, contemplating. “Are Fraxian cells always this dangerous? If any Fraxian could turn their cells into a bomb, this could be a matter of national security…”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Dr. Flux said. “All these Fraxian cells are chemically doped and exposed to a very controlled set of biochemical signals. You don’t get that in everyday life.”

  Vik dwelled on these facts for a little longer, evaluating the pros and cons of this new technology she had just learned about. Although, to be fair, these openly published researches were no secrets.

  After a long while, she turned to Theo Xeta. “I assume you are the third pillar of research.”

  “Yes, the last pillar is ThermoTech. It is more of an applied science, but still science nonetheless,” said Theo, shooting a look at Dr. Flux as he handed out his own papers. “The Stratos Equations lets us understand the storms. Thermal biomechanics gives us a source of energy. However, we still need an infrastructure to hold everything together. On the smallest unit, we need temperature sensors and information transmitters, and on the larger scale, we need regulation modules and self-balancing systems. All these — the central nervous system of the Stabilizer — is achieved through ThermoTech.”

  The information of ThermoTech was a little more comprehensible to everyone. After all, with its widespread adoption, everyone had interacted with it somewhere in their lives. The crux of thermotech was stability and precision.

  In terms of stability, bioengineering and chemistry allowed Fraxian cells to bind seamlessly to mechanical systems. The cells were adapted to halt all regular processes, except to specialize in one particular function, whether it be heat detection, heat containment, or heat transmission. With the additional help from thermal biomechanic principles, these Fraxian cells could interact with the mechanical forces all around them, allowing the possibility to power gigantic machines.

  The real marvel of ThermoTech was not just in automobiles and assembly lines; it was in its extraordinary precision. Fraxian cells were engineered to detect and contain heat at a fraction of a percent of a degree. With such precision, a continuous stream of thermal energy could be modified to carry varying amplitudes and frequencies, hence allowing information to be encoded inside. Once information could be embedded, anything could be possible, whether it be radios, thermographs, or even those displays worn by Stormrunners that could form any images in a split second.

  Vik Layden took her time with the ThermoTech files, navigating slowly through the diagrams and figures. Despite all the years of their collaboration, Vik never bothered learning the exact details behind Theo’s work.

  “This all sounds great, but I have one question,” Vik Layden said. “Where do you get all these Fraxian cells?”

  “We have donation programs throughout the nation. All donations are voluntary and financially compensated.”

  “And how many Fraxian cells will we need for the Stabilizer?”

  “For something that big, trillions at least, could be quadrillions.”

  “How many Fraxians would you need to harvest it from?”

  “By regular XetaGen standards, at least eighty thousand.”

  Vik paused for a moment as she worked out the numbers in her head.

  “That is too slow, we can’t afford to find eighty thousand donors. Can you do it more efficiently?”

  “Theoretically,” said Theo as he pulled out his own reports. “This is not backed by enough experimental data, but we can do up to double the amount of harvest.”

  “So forty thousand donors, this is the best you can do?”

  “Yes, and there is no guarantee that there are no long-term health implications —”

  “We don’t have time to care about health implications!” Vik raised her voice. “If the stabilizer doesn’t go back up within a month, millions could die. Millions!”

  She took a deep breath and calmed herself, reverting to the nonchalant voice. “The VUC can give anything for this. Financial compensation, housing, and even citizenship. What is the very best you can do?”

  Theo grabbed a pen and began scribbling next to his charts and graphs. After a while, he spoke, “The best is 3.5x regular yield. This is just enough to leave a heartbeat in whatever poor soul.”

  “What is the absolute maximum yield you can harvest from a body? Absolute. Maximum.”

  “I just told you, it is —” Theo Xeta stopped short mid-sentence. He just understood what she meant. His body became still, and his eyes darkened. “No, no. You must be kidding me, Vik. I will not allow this.”

  “The situation is very urgent —”

  “I said no!” Theo Xeta slammed his fist on the table. Seeing the bewilderment and confusion in the scientists’ eyes, he got even more furious.

  “Why don’t you just spell it out, Vik? Tell them. You want to harvest these poor Fraxians to the point of killing them.”