At 10:25 a.m. on December 14, 833 of the Common Era, a massive pillar of light surged up from beneath the enormous ice sheet that had been frozen for countless ages on Baichuan. Its shock wave spread more than a hundred miles in every direction. Even from orbit, a patch of light could just be made out on the planet's white-and-green surface.
But we had to remember that this was a thermonuclear missile. The fusion reaction came and went in an instant, so the dazzling pillar of light was only a fleeting moment of brilliance. It was no great event for the universe, this star system, or even the planet.
But for the entire frozen Pangu Continent on that planet, it truly was a major event. At the very least, the several-thousand-degree heat produced in the instant the pillar burned had melted ice that had accumulated for who knew how many ages, freeing the fertile black soil that had lain buried beneath it for millions upon millions of years.
The shock wave of heat, together with the melting glaciers and black soil, converged into a towering pillar of light. Endless flames twisted together as they reached toward space. In the ground below, a huge crater had formed.
Once the violent tremors ceased and the spectacular fireworks faded, workers in protective suits cautiously approached the edge of the enormous man-made crater, peering inside to inspect it.
They still thought the whole approach seemed a little far-fetched, but they had to admit that standing before the vast crater filled them with a genuine sense of accomplishment—as if they had changed the very face of the world.
Still, this was only the first step of the project.
In the control room, Selldi Stock also gave the next order. "Begin irradiation."
In orbit around