The Galactic Corps had relentlessly pursued the evil anti-civilizational organization of Carpone from one end of the Milky Way to the other. They had methodically identified and rooted out each level of Carpone until they had finally located the heart of the organization. This galaxy spanning criminal conspiracy was headquartered on a planet called Sflprugm. Sflprugm was as hard to approach as it was to pronounce. All the space within a two-parsec radius had been planted with detection devices meant to alert Sflprugmians of any approaching danger. Only the Corps’ ultra-advanced spy rays had allowed them to study Sflprugm from a safe distance and so size up the enemy. And they were a worthy opponent. The defensive screens that protected Sflprugm were beyond impregnable. No imaginable fleet of battle cruisers could hope to breach the screens. And the Sflprugmian fleet was as large as and as deadly as the Corps’ own.
To solve the problem of conquering the Sflprugmians the Corps turned to the greatest living scientist of the age Dr. Balbus Blabbnoy. His work on trans-dimensional ballistics was required reading at the Academy. He was tasked with calculating the trajectory of an anti-matter planet from the Psi-Gamma dimension and forcing it into our universe with just the correct entrance and momentum needed to collide with Sflprugm. It was assumed that much of their fleet would be destroyed with their planet. But the Corps’ fleet would be assembled to mop up the remnants.
Admiral Bowser planned out the exact coordinates for the fleet’s convergence. It would appear out of hyperspace about five billion miles from Sflprugm; safely beyond the radius of destruction but close enough to pursue the remaining vessels.
Dr Blabbnoy would be on the bridge of Admiral Bowser’s flagship; The Superponderous and when zero hour arrived, he would throw the switch which would trigger a sub-ether wave that would activate a device in Psi-Gamma that would cause a sub-atomic generator to generate a worm hole that would translate the anti-matter planet into our space-time with devastating results for Sflprugm.
Balbus was on the bridge and Admiral Bowser noticed how extremely tired the scientist was. He was mumbling something under his breath that the Admiral thought sounded like, “Was it X15 or X-15? Now the Admiral had never gotten past high school algebra but even to his non-mathematical ears this didn’t sound promising.
When the clock ticked down to zero Dr. Blabbnoy screamed, “X15!“ and slammed the button. For a few seconds nothing seemed to be happening. The sub-space screens failed to show any irruption in the space near Sflprugm. But while the navy was watching their screens Dr. Blabbnoy was looking out the front window of the ship and that was where he saw the irruption. The missing anti-matter planet was about five hundred miles from the flagship and heading toward it and the rest of the fleet with about twenty seconds before impact. All he could think to say was, “X-15!“
Suffice it to say that this was not the finest hour for the Corps or human civilization or even computational science. But it was one of those examples from history of exactly the danger in not checking your work. Or even more importantly having someone else check your work. But most certainly it taught us to never trust anyone with a name as ridiculous as Balbus Blabbnoy with almost limitless power. How could it not be a disaster?
Should have called in Sir Austin Cardygne as a consultant!
At the very least maybe a demonstration run on an uninhabited asteroid with a smaller projectile. A proof of concept run. But I’ve seen the equivalent of this. We had a project where a foundation pad was needed for a chiller with a cooling rating of 200 tons. The specifying engineer gave the project to a youngster fresh out of school. He told the civil guy to build a pad for a “100 ton chiller.” Having no experience with the terminology he assumed the chiller weighed 200,000 pounds. That was some concrete structure. We joked that the gravity field over… Read more »
He did what he was told. The Specifying engineer should have checked the newby’s work.
I guess the cost of concrete must have been much lower back in the day. Otherwise the cost overrun should have been flagged by the project engineer and project manager. The good news was no one got fired. The overall project was a roaring success and that concrete pad will outlive the pyramids.
Was Blabbnoy the reincarnation of Fauci?
I think Fauci would have had some one else push the button while he stayed home in bed.