[The Blue Sphere] I – The Notebooks

[Merovingian 656]

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

 

Read next part here.

 

I - THE NOTEBOOKS

 

March 1986 - Moscow, Russia
A cat! Just a damn cat!

A subtle sound arises from behind Kurt, giving him a fright. A fugacious pair of iridescent eyes swiftly crosses the soaked road and merges with the darkness of the night.

I need to keep calm. There is no need to panic, even if my entire body feels like I should. This is too important. Failing because of feeble nerve will impede my enterprise.

 

 

 

Kurt has left the warmth of his flat for the bitter cold of the evening, en route to his car, parked a few blocks away, near the Red Square. Here and there, patches of puddles reflected the birth of a starry skylight. The amassed snow from last week had settled, but as the weather had turned unusually warm for this time of year, a soft layer had started to melt, rendering the sidewalks very slippery. He reminds himself that he must avoid an inopportune fall that could bring suspicion on him. This could alarm one of the many guards perambulating this important area of Moscow which is always under heavy surveillance.

Nobody knows my plan. They can only suspect that my loyalty to the Party has not been plain recently. But I left no clues that would hint them about my change of heart. I have been careful to conceal any suspicious activity that would give away unusual doings on my part.

He regains his calm before finally reaching his means of transportation. About a half an hour of driving would have take him back to his laboratory that he left just a couple of hours ago.

If he had not been careless, he still would have the blue notebook safely in his possession. Unfortunately, before leaving work today, he inadvertently took the replica with the red cover and now he needed to return there to amend his mistake. There was a substantial risk to leave it overnight at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy (KIAE) where ill-disposed individuals might have a look at the document and retrieve its valuable contents. For months now, he secretly wrote down all the details of his important theories, formulae, and accurate parameters about the self-sustainable plasma phenomenon in the blue one, while in the red lookalike notebook, he censored most of the content. He kept pretending otherwise in front of his colleagues who trusted him to record rigorously every result and fact of his experiments.

A kilometer away from his destination, he parks his car behind the institute by the edge of the forest, away from sight. The brisk walk through the darkness of the forest increases his uneasiness and his speed reduces to a more cautious pace. The tall white building of KIAE finally emerges from the boundary of the forest, and from this ordinary edifice in appearance, nobody would guess the important discoveries (and secrets) that lay within, nor would wonder about those yet to be discovered.

The KIAE is the former USSR Academy of Sciences known to have sheltered the “Laboratory No. 2”, a secret nuclear facility dedicated to the development of nuclear weapons. Nowadays, officially, it develops and designs the nuclear reactors of the future for pacifist and civilian purposes. Unofficially, as Kurt is about to discover, it serves a different purpose: a small group of individuals, driven by personal gain, using the institute’s knowledge for darker ambition. The physicist is on the verge of a revolutionary discovery in the Science of Plasma Technology and such knowledge, when put in the wrong hands, would not only be catastrophic for the country but also for the entire world. De facto, it is imperative for him to permanently keep the original notebook concealed and keep in display the harmless replica as a decoy.

Kurt surveys the building until he locates two flashlights moving inside the deserted facility. These lights belong to the guards on night duty who are securing the perimeter, sweeping the whole edifice methodically floor by floor. They are presently circulating on the second floor heading for the third floor, leaving - for the time being - the lower levels unchecked. This is the right moment for a trespasser to sneak in via the ground floor access at the rear of the experimental laboratory. He dashes silently to the door and promptly unlocks it with his personal key. Every scientist of the institute with the habits to burn the midnight oil have been given one.

Once inside the premise, he heads for his office, a small alcove at the end of the vast laboratory. He sighs with relief; the blue notebook is just where he left it. He is certain that nobody had looked at it. Without further ado, he rapidly exchanges the original notebook with the censored copy. Not wishing to dwell longer than necessary, as he has completed his goal, he closes his office and departs as fast as he rushed in. As he moves away, a muffled bang from a closing door makes the intruder jumps. Someone has brutally shut a door not far away, probably from an adjoining corridor nearby the laboratory.

 

 

Verdammt!! The night guards have been faster than I expected to complete their security walk. I know those rowdy voices, they belong to those two mults: Gobo and Sly.

Gorl Lifnya and Dmitry Kaisdf are the two henchmen of the Plasma Department Director, Ivan Vasilyevich, who is a tall man with a charismatic character. The head scientist has graduated from the best Soviet Russian school and is imprinted with a strong sense of patriotism leaving no room for compromise. He leads this department and the ISIDA project with an autocratic style, and the duo executes all his dirty work: noseying, reporting on people or snitching - name it, they will gratefully do it. For this reason, and a bit also because of their archetypal physics, the pair have earned the nickname of Gobo and Sly.

I could not make such unwelcome encounter during my night expedition. Wait! Their intelligible chit-chat is getting louder. I need to find a good hiding place fast.

Kurt retreats as quietly as possible into Ivan’s open office and crouches behind its large desk. The voices are distinct now, the guards are inside the laboratory, more precisely entering his office!

“Check the desk, cupboards, and drawers.” orders Dmitry to Gorl. “The boss presumes that this arrogant foreigner is hiding something from the institute and we need to find out what it is.” He added.

“I ain’t thick, I know what Ivan asked…” started Gorl.

“Nug, shut your big shaft that serves the purpose of a mouth! Don’t say his name!” snarled his accomplice.

“Don’t shout at me, there is no soul here to hear us and Ivan is just like us … Sergei is the boss of him. Xaxa.” he replied defiantly.

“Again, you are … damn, you are ssooo thick. Stop acting like a kid.” Dmitry pauses and dismissing his partner’s last comment, turns his back and adds, “Nothing new or worthwhile in his notebook or the other documents. Let’s go.”

“Soon they will take care of him, it will be a new Fall of Berlin for him. Hehe.” smugs Gorl.

“You talk too much. You should give up this job, and become a concierge.” concluded Dmitry, giving him the evil eye.

The guards leave his office empty-handed and move toward Ivan’s office. The pair is coming dangerously closer and is about to block Kurt’s return route. Kurt shivers for fear of being uncovered. He slithers under the desk seeking an improvised cover. They pause in front of the open door and after a pause, Dmitry closes it. Then the duo canters away, probably retreating to their desk by the main entrance, until the next security round is due. The frightened physicist sighs with relief and recomposes himself while pondering what happened and what he learnt.

It was a close shave. Way too close.

Who is this big boss called Sergei? Could it be Sergei Vonabalab? The rich industrial owns a massive conglomerate of manufacturing companies which produces household appliances, electronics equipment as well as motorised ordnance for the red army. He has a tight link with the institute being one of the main suppliers of the electronics parts, the tailor-made measurement apparatus and complex prototypes. It is an intriguing piece of the puzzle that requires a deeper dive, however, I have lingered here long enough, it is time to bolt out.

While getting up from under the desk, his head bumps into the underbelly of the central desk drawer and a small key fell from the back of it. The clink on the ceramic floor tile made by the metallic object catches his attention. Kurt rubs his sore head to attenuate the pain and then seizes the key with a triangularly shaped bow. It was hidden inside a small niche contrived at the back of the drawer. This particular one opens file cabinets located in the underground archives room and it has an engraved number on its bow: number 51.

 

 

 

Ha! This providential key is my Golden Ticket: a free pass to your personal documents. It is my rightful turn to snoop on you, Mister Ivan the terrible.

Soon I will find out about your secret activities while your noob guards are carelessly resting. A quick courtesy visit to the archives room, a bit of snoop around and a dash back before being noticed.

He grins and departs from the office, not without peeping around to check for unexpected bothers. From the utility cupboard, Kurt grabs a flashlight and heads down to the basement with resolve. Slowly, he opens the archive room and closes the door behind him before switching on the torch. He threads methodically between the alleys to check the number on the file cabinet that would correspond to the number 51. Eventually, he finds it at the back of the room and inserts the key in the lock, turns it and… unlocks the large office furniture.

Running his fingers through the top dossiers, he finds one labelled ПРОЕКТ ИSИДА (Project ISIDA). It contains a couple of schematics drawing about a spherical device, which he is familiar with, some reports and further uninteresting documents. He put them back when he notices a black folder labelled ВОЗБУЖДАТЬР (Energizer). This project name is unknown to him, which is something rather intriguing.

Once opened it reveals similar schematics of the sphere but embedded at the heart of a larger structure, like a large vehicle… some sort of tank. The lower part does remind of standard military hulls, but the turrets look unfamiliar and somehow alien. One turret resembles a wolf’s head with two disproportionate vampiric metallic fangs, the second looks like a duck beak combined with a large solenoid, and the last one displays a futuristic twins’ barrels with octagonal cross-sections!?

The document’s header holds the name and address of the company Electrolux located in Serpukhov (an industrial town 120 km south from Moscow). This is one of Sergei’s household appliance manufacturing businesses. He explores further the folders and discovers more evidence confirming that the KIAE is working in collusion with Sergei Vonabalab. A full dossier with countless dispatched orders from scientific materials and prototypes shipped to various and strange locations such as a ceramic factory in Magadan, a hydroelectric power plant in Perm, a weapon factory in Aleksandrovsk, or a Magnesium extraction site in Solikamsk.

 

 

A breakthrough at last! All the evidence points, without doubt, to Sergei as being at top end of this meddling with the technologies developed at the institute. The most worrying part is that whatever the sphere is about to be used for, it will be closer to military weaponized application than peaceful civilian home appliances. And I will not allow it.

Kurt is infuriated; his worst fear has been confirmed. This technology was meant for the good of humanity and not to support personal greed, territory annexing, war or the killing of other human beings. His resolve has grown even stronger, hardened with rage. Now more than ever, he is determined to progress with his plan. He breathes deeply and slowly to regain the state of a peaceful mind. It is imperative for a scientist to keep a cool head and to stay objective when facing challenges. Once calmed down, he cleans up all possible traces of his visit to the archives room and of the investigation of the file cabinet 51. Then he makes his way back to the laboratory, places the key in his secret compartment, crosses the forest and finally drives home.

Back to his Moscow‘s flat, he sits down in the kid bedroom and looks over Viktor, his son, safe in the resting kingdom of Morpheus. His eyes meet with the fairy tale book he gifted him for his fifth birthday and starts to wonder about the innocence of childhood and its promise of a great future.


Epilogue
What is the plan that Kurt has in mind to stop Sergei? Will it succeed? What does Sergei want with Kurt and what the weird tanks schematics are about?
Let’s find out in the next chapter.

 

 

* * *

 

Extra: Confidential Dossier

---

Plasma (from Ancient Greek πλάσμα, meaning 'mouldable substance') is considered as the "fourth state of matter” and consist of a hot ionized gas composed of equal numbers of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons. They are generated by heating a gas within a strong electromagnetic field to the point where the ionised medium exhibits conductive properties and a long-range electromagnetic field.

The KIAE invented the Tokamak technology (Russian: Токамáк), which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine a plasma in the shape of a taurus device with the goal to generate and control a live thermonuclear fusion reaction. The most successful prototype was tested in 1968 in Novosibirsk, and effectively created and maintained the first ever controlled quasi-stationary thermonuclear fusion reaction. It is the most promising technology to achieve nuclear fusion for civilian electricity production.

 

 

Read next part The Blue Sphere II – Cimarron Vs. Troika

http://tankionline.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/blue_ball_pr.png

[kaisdf 3,320]

Article Approved.

 

Merovingian? Oeuf, it has been a while since the likes of you was last seen around here :lol:

 

A fantastic piece, excellent variation of tenses to keep it interesting, as well as plenty of content. Very well done. I also liked all the subtle names sprinkled throughout, some more subtle than others - applause to any readers who spot Ninja in there somewhere.

 

Very accurate overall as well.

 

Edits

• "means of transport", rather than "mean"
  
• Plural of formula is formulae
  
• Taurus, rather than torus.
  
• A few other words edited/replaced for clarity and flow
  
• A small amount of punctuation added/removed for the same reason
  

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Are you kidding me!!!!

[thethiefofvictory 339]

The best story I've read in a long, long while. Perhaps the best I've ever read in the Newspaper or AWS.... okay, just shy of that. Good job!

Merovingian? Well, welcome back! Will you please continue the leaky mult too? Thanks!
 

applause to any readers who spot Ninja in there somewhere.

I found him (it's electrolux)! To be honest though... only older readers will recognize that, especially since Ninja keeps denying that  :lol:

Edited November 6, 2018 by thethiefofvictory

[Merovingian 656]

 

Article Approved.

 

Merovingian? Oeuf, it has been a while since the likes of you was last seen around here :lol:

 

A fantastic piece, excellent variation of tenses to keep it interesting, as well as plenty of content. Very well done. I also liked all the subtle names sprinkled throughout, some more subtle than others - applause to any readers who spot Ninja in there somewhere.

 

Very accurate overall as well.

 

Edits

• "means of transport", rather than "mean"
• Plural of formula is formulae
• Taurus, rather than torus.
• A few other words edited/replaced for clarity and flow
• A small amount of punctuation added/removed for the same reason

Thank you Sly for the approval and the edits, the flow is way better (and my Franglish wordings a mere memory).

It's a project that I started 2 years ago and I am glad it has now finally started. 

​Being a Tankiverse story, it is fair to get inspired both by the game and the community - beside finding so many name for the requirement of the story is a lot of work. 

 

 

Are you kidding me!!!!

A lot of this actually exist (the Institute, the secret Russian  laboratory, Tokamak, Electrolux, ...), and use of nicknames could offend some people.

 

 

The best story I've read in a long, long while. Perhaps the best I've ever read in the Newspaper or AWS.... okay, just shy of that. Good job!

Merovingian? Well, welcome back! Will you please continue the leaky mult too? Thanks!

I found him (it's electrolux)! To be honest though... only older readers will recognize that, especially since Ninja keeps denying that  :lol:

Thanks, you make me blush, (hippin is way better, and Penguin40 was good).

TLM was a training exercise to improve my writing skills to deliver TBS. Without the time spent on TLM, I would not have dreamed of writing such a long first chapter. I'm a bit scared by the scale of the task though. I was like 4 chapters will do and that is it, but it seems that it's going for a longer run. 

I do have 15 ideas for the TLM though, so it is not dead, just on hold.

 

Don't blame Ninja, who want's to be associated with a flavourless name of a global home appliance manufacturing companies :D

 

[thethiefofvictory 339]

Thanks, you make me blush, (hippin is way better, and Penguin40 was good).

TLM was a training exercise to improve my writing skills to deliver TBS. Without the time spent on TLM, I would not have dreamed of writing such a long first chapter. I'm a bit scared by the scale of the task though. I was like 4 chapters will do and that is it, but it seems that it's going for a longer run. 

I do have 15 ideas for the TLM though, so it is not dead, just on hold.

penguin was good?! Thank you!  :wub:

 

Hmm... I'll be waiting then!

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Vonabalab? Balabanov sounds so The-Evil-Don-Boss-Of-The-World-Outer-Space-Alien-Illuminati-Confirmed-What-Else-Is-There-To-Write-ish...

[Person_Random 4,991]

As your editor, I am very proud.

[Merovingian 656]

As your editor, I am very proud.

ty for letting some works to Kaisdf

 

Vonabalab? Balabanov sounds so The-Evil-Don-Boss-Of-The-World-Outer-Space-Alien-Illuminati-Confirmed-What-Else-Is-There-To-Write-ish...

All Russian names sounds like that :D, especially if you give them a knife.

 

penguin was good?! Thank you!  :wub:

Hmm... I'll be waiting then!

I think Penguin retreated to Antarctica. 

Edited November 10, 2018 by Merovingian

[thethiefofvictory 339]

I think Penguin retreated to Antarctica. 

He returned. Under a different name, of course. You can guess which. 

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

All Russian names sounds like that :D, especially if you give them a knife.

Not a single knife.

[Merovingian 656]

Not a single knife.

Wait for the next chapter  :ph34r:

Edited November 10, 2018 by Merovingian

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

He returned. Under a different name, of course. You can guess which.

 

NotPenguin40?

[Tokamak 1,021]

Tokamak :wub: 

[Merovingian 656]

The next Chapter is out! 

 

http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=377970 

 

[The Blue Sphere] Chapter II – Cimarron Vs. Troika

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by Merovingian

[ILiveOnTheChatBox123 936]

My Poetic Summary:

Kurt goes back to switch the notebook;

But Gobo and Sly have been taking a look.

Kurt manages to hide-what a close call;

But then key 51 does fall.

He finds the new technology won't be used peacefully;

They are collaborating with Sergie's company!

[Merovingian 656]

My Poetic Summary:Kurt goes back to switch the notebook;But Gobo and Sly have been taking a look.Kurt manages to hide-what a close call;But then key 51 does fall.He finds the new technology won't be used peacefully;They are collaborating with Sergie's company!

Such a poet you are!