Chapter 154: It’s Impossible and Normal

Reyes leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, eyes narrowed as if Timothy’s words needed a second pass before his brain could accept them."A design that makes every other SMR look obsolete," he repeated slowly. "Alright... then show me what you have in mind."

Timothy didn’t reply immediately.

Instead, he tapped his monitor.

The TG holo-projector recessed into the ceiling activated with a soft hum. A pillar of cold-blue light descended, expanding into a three-dimensional rotating schematic about a meter tall, hovering inches above the desk.

Reyes’s posture straightened instantly.

"...What reactor is that?" he muttered.

The hologram stabilized.

A cylindrical module—compact, dense, almost monolithic—turned slowly in the air.

Smooth contours replaced the traditional ribbed pressure vessel design. Instead of a large containment dome, a nested triple-shell core housing wrapped the primary coolant circuit. And running down the center was a multi-layered power column unlike anything in commercial catalogues.

A sleek black label slowly materialized above it:

NuScale HyperCore 227-X

Generation VI Small Modular Reactor

Reyes’s mouth parted slightly.

"X-series...? This looks nothing like a NuScale derivative."

Timothy folded his hands.

"That’s because it isn’t an upgrade. It’s a replacement concept."

Reyes stood and moved closer, eyes scanning the projected core like a surgeon analyzing an alien organ.

"Wait—this internal geometry... The coolant doesn’t circulate vertically. It’s spiral-fed. You’re spinning the thermal gradient around the core...?"

"Correct."

"That’s impossible. You’d need an exotic alloy for the primary circuit to survive the angular stresses alone, especially at those temperatures."

Timothy leaned back. "We can source it."

Reyes shot him a look. "From where, Mars?"

Timothy only smiled.

Reyes continued pacing around the hologram, pointing at nodes and internal channels as he tried to process the design.

"Your thermal output says..." He stopped. Blinked. Blinked again.

"Two hundred... twenty-seven megawatts? Per module?"

"That’s the baseline," Timothy said calmly.

"That’s double the existing NuScale rating—without scaling the pressure vessel size. How the hell are you fitting the heat exchangers in something this tight?"

Timothy zoomed in on the lower section.

The hologram expanded.

Reyes’s eyes widened even further.

"What are those? Those aren’t helical coil steam generators—no geometry matches it."

"Integrated micro-lattice exchangers," Timothy said smoothly. "Layered titanium-ceramic matrices with variable porosity. Higher surface area with lower mass."

"That’s not even a commercial technology yet!" Reyes shot back. "Only MIT’s Fusion Lab has prototypes—and they aren’t stable at high neutron flux!"

Timothy tilted his head.

"I found a workaround."

Reyes looked as if he wanted to argue—but curiosity won.

"Alright... coolant loop. Show me that."

Timothy sliced the hologram in half with a gesture.

The inner workings unfurled like pages of a technical bible.

Reyes squinted.

"...This is a hybrid sodium-water cycle? No... wait... no, the density is wrong. What coolant is this?"

"Quantum-phase stabilized liquid metal."

Reyes stared at him.

"English, Timothy."

Timothy tapped the coolant label. A floating description appeared:

Q-LM Coolant v2.1

Boiling point: ~4,300°C Neutron absorption: near-zero Thermal conductivity: 4.3× that of sodium Phase stability under radiation: 99.97%

Reyes read it twice.

Then a third time.

He rubbed his eyes and faced Timothy.

"This coolant doesn’t exist on Earth."

"It does," Timothy corrected. "Just not commercially."

"Timothy... do you even realize the implications of using something like this? It can’t be mined. It can’t be synthesized conventionally. The closest material we have is experimental and unstable."

Timothy only rested his chin on one hand.

"Who said I’d use conventional methods?"

Reyes pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I need to sit down."

He did.

Silence settled for a few seconds before he exhaled heavily.

"Okay. Humor me. What’s the full spec sheet?"

Timothy swiped again. A detailed readout filled the hologram.

NuScale HyperCore 227-X — Technical Specs

Reactor Class: Generation VI Modular Reactor

Thermal Output: 227 MWt

Electrical Output: 110–140 MWe (adjustable)

Coolant: Q-LM Quantum Liquid Metal

Fuel Type: TRISO-Alpha Composite

Core Life: 25–30 years sealed

Efficiency: 48–52% thermal-to-electrical

Coolant Flow: Spiral Cyclonic Loop™

Safety Rating: Self-quenching core, 0 dependency on external power

Hazard Profile: 0% meltdown possibility (core geometry cannot structurally fail)

Reyes read the entire list.

His chest rose.

Fell.

Rose again.

"Timothy..." he whispered. "This... this is science fiction. Even the best classified DARPA reactors don’t hit these numbers."

"I know."

"Even fusion reactors don’t have a safety rating like this."

"I know."

"And this coolant—this fuel—this efficiency—this 30-year core life—this is impossible."

Timothy grinned.

"I know."

Reyes leaned forward sharply.

"And how do you expect us to build this? We’d need alloys that don’t exist. High-density neutron shields beyond current earth tech. Manufacturing tolerances measured in femtometers!"

"That part is easy."

Reyes glared. "Timothy, nothing about this is easy."

Timothy reached into his desk drawer without breaking eye contact.

He pulled out the airsoft pistol.

Reyes blinked.

"What does that have to do with—"

"Watch."

Timothy held the pistol in one hand.

Placed his other hand on it.

"Reconstruct this into a HyperCore-grade metal ore."

His palm glowed faintly.

The pistol dissolved—cleanly, silently—into particles before reforming into a dense, metallic ore chunk, heavy and black, with shimmering crystalline veins running across its surface.

Reyes shot to his feet so fast his chair slid backward.

"WHAT—WHAT THE—TIMOTHY WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!"

Timothy calmly placed the ore on the table.

"It’s the reason why I am in this position."

"You...what are you?" Reyes instinctively tried to get up from his seat but remained.

"I understand your confusion but this is definitely how we will source our materials, through my ability to change matters."

"No I must be hallucinating...I am hallucinating. It’s a trick..."

"It’s not a trick, and don’t worry, I will make you think that this is all normal," Timothy said, pulling out the neuralyzer from his drawer.

"Reyes," he said gently. "Look here for a second."

Reyes looked.

A flash of white engulfed his eyes.

His body froze for a heartbeat.

Timothy stepped closer and spoke calmly:

"You came here to discuss advanced SMR improvements. You and I brainstormed a radical new design—the HyperCore 227-X. The conceptual leap was yours; I simply pushed it further. You don’t remember anything strange. Nothing unusual happened. You’re confident. Motivated. And you believe this design is achievable with cutting-edge innovations."

Reyes’s gaze softened.

Breathing normal.

"Repeat it," Timothy instructed.

Reyes blinked. "We... we brainstormed the HyperCore. The design came naturally. It’s ambitious but doable. Just... advanced engineering."

"Good," Timothy said.