Chapter 265: Grand Slam (3)

At the height of his schizophrenia, Song Jong-Ho had difficulty distinguishing between reality and delusion. This was the biggest obstacle to treating schizophrenia patients. Because they believed their delusions to be real, they refused to accept that they were hallucinating or hearing things. It’s been said that admitting one had the illness was half the battle in treating schizophrenia.

However, regularly taking dopamine antagonists helped control the symptoms to some extent and allowed the patient to differentiate between hallucinations and reality. And to Song Jong-Ho, who was cured, the fantasies of his delusional days have faded like old film camera photos. He could clearly recognize that they were not real.

“But when I saw her, it was completely real. I saw some kind of holographic screen that said Rosaline...”

“...”

Young-Joon stared at Song Jong-Ho calmly, but inside, he was slightly panicking.

—What are you going to do?

‘What do you mean? Of course, I have to deny it.’

Song Ji-Hyun was a trusted colleague, and he didn’t think there would be any problems if she found out about Rosaline, but explaining it would be too tricky.

“Especially this red hair...”

Song Jong-Ho pointed to the photo.

“This was so impressive that I still remember it. She turned around to face me, snapped her fingers and disappeared...”

“But realistically, it doesn’t make sense,” Young-Joon said. “Perhaps you saw some unusual hallucinations as a side effect of the treatment and mistaking them for her?”

“...”

Song Jong-Ho tilted his head in confusion.

“Have you seen her after that?”

“No... I haven’t seen her since that.”

“Then, it’s probably fine. Don’t worry too much,” Young-Joon said.

“Okay.”

Song Jong-Ho nodded. It was strange, but like Young-Joon said, it was realistically impossible.

“But why are you here with my sister, Doctor Ryu?” he asked.

“Um...”

Song Ji-Hyun fiddled with her hair.

“I asked to meet for some advice,” she replied.

“What advice?”

“Operating the running microdust reduction device, Doctor Song’s company, Cellijenner, became the most famous company in environmental pollution issues right now, along with Laboratory Seven of A-GenBio,” Young-Joon said. “She wants to extend their microdust reduction device technology to develop a radiation removal technique.”

“Radiation?” Song Jong-Ho asked.

“Yeah. There was a massive radiation leak in Japan after the nuclear power plant in the Fukushima area exploded,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

This accident occurred in 2011 in the Tohoku region of Fukushima, Japan. The largest earthquake in Japanese history triggered a tsunami that reached ten meters in height, which took over the nuclear plant.

The reason this disaster was man-made and not natural was that the emergency power system, which was supposed to shut down the reactors in preparation for the tsunami, was damaged by flooding. The plant lost power, and without electricity, the reactor cores could not be cooled, so the core temperature continued to rise. Eventually, three reactors suffered core meltdowns[1], and hydrogen gas was released from the fuel rods.

“C... Can you say it in Korean?” Song Jong-Ho said in pain as he listened to Song Ji-Hyun’s explanation.

“Basically, the power was cut off at the nuclear power plant, so they couldn’t run the coolant. The internal temperature rose, and the fuel rods burned, releasing tons of hydrogen gas,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

“And that hydrogen gas caused four buildings in the nuclear power plant to explode, sending radiation everywhere,” Young-Joon added.

As they harmoniously chimed in with each other, Song Jong-Ho realized they were a really good match.

‘They could probably spend all night talking about a paper.’

“Anyways,” Song Ji-Hyun said. “The radiation that leaked out after that nuclear explosion hasn’t been removed yet. It’s been diluted by flowing into the Pacific Ocean. But the land is still contaminated, and people who visit the Fukushima area are exposed to significant radiation.”

“But isn’t that why people don’t go there?” Song Jong-Ho asked.

“You won’t get hurt if you don’t go there,” Young-Joon said. “But you shouldn’t leave something that can hurt you.”

“And it’s a waste to leave the land so contaminated,” Song Ji-Hyun added.

“Wow... The two of you are true...” Song Jong-Ho stammered. “I guess this is what it takes to be nominated for a Nobel Prize... You two are amazing.”

“It’s our job to find paths where there are none,” Young-Joon said.

“So do you have a way? Did you tell her about it?”

“I was the one learning, actually. Doctor Song already had an idea, and she was asking me what I thought of it.”

“What is it?” Song Jong-Ho asked.

“Have you heard of the Mir Space Station?” Song Ji-Hyun asked.

“No.”

“It was a project carried out by Russia during the Cold War when they were in the race to the Moon. It was a huge, huge station that was made by launching a core module in 1986, and it was completed by 1996 with a total of seven launched modules,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

“The U.S. space shuttles docked there, and they carried out missions together, signaling the end of the Cold War in space development. Many countries started working together to advance science, and it created a vision of unity and cooperation in space exploration... It was a famous space station in many ways, and it was widely used by civilians too.”

The Mir Space Station, however, re-entered the atmosphere in March of 2001 and was permanently decommissioned.

That’s when an interesting conspiracy theory was born: the reason the Mir was decommissioned was that an incredibly toxic strain of bacteria had developed inside the spacecraft after prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation. To cover it up, the Russians allegedly disabled the Mir and buried it in the South Pacific.

It was a crazy conspiracy theory, but there was always a kernel of truth to any conspiracy theory. Microbes did indeed grow inside the Mir. Crews visiting the Mir in 2000 found that the glass windows and enamel plates were covered in mold.

There were a few mentions among scientists of the possibility that the fungi had mutated after being hit with cosmic radiation. But at some point, it became a conspiracy theory in the civilian world that the Mir was infested with evil bacteria capable of mass destruction.

“But that conspiracy theory isn’t true?” Song Jong-Ho said.

“Of course not. It’s not easy for bacteria like that to occur naturally. But that’s when microbiologists started to pay a lot of attention to space microbes,” Song Ji-Hyun said.

“Microorganisms on space stations are one of the most important issues. There are really unique microorganisms on Earth that live by chewing on plastic, glass, or metal. They can attach themselves to the outer wall of the spacecraft, survive and thrive for years, and even reproduce in the vacuum of space at an altitude of four hundred thirty kilometers, all while being directly exposed to solar radiation,” Young-Joon said.

“Can you imagine the astronomical cost of component damage that those microorganisms might cause?”

“...”

“That’s why, in recent years, the space development industry has taken microbial sterilization as a very important task and is trying to perfect their systems, although nothing has been formalized yet,” Young-Joon said.

“I see,” Song Jong-Ho replied.

“And Doctor Song’s idea was that if we examine the microorganisms living in the outlet where fuel waste is expelled from the outer wall of the International Space Station (ISS), they might provide the solution to getting rid of radioactive materials.”

“Aha.”

Understanding now, Song Jong-Ho nodded.

Then, Song Ji-Hyun intervened.

“And since it’s so hard to obtain something like that, I wanted to discuss it with Doctor Ryu before we proceed...”

“I think it’s possible,” Young-Joon said. “I have another trip to the United States coming up soon, so I’ll check it out then.”

“Thank you.”

“If you’re free, Doctor Song, you should come with me. Since you’re the one who’s planning this project, it would be better for you to talk to NASA if we have a meeting.”

Song Ji-Hyun nodded.

“I’ll talk to my company.”

*

“You’re offering me the position of CEO?” Kim Young-Hoon said, baffled.

“As you know, I’m often away from the company, traveling back and forth from one country to another. I’m tired of dealing with mountains of paperwork every time I come back...”

“But you’re back now, right?” Kim Young-Hoon asked.

“I’m going to the United States again next week or so.”

“... What are you going for this time?”

“I said before that we caught that famous terrorist in the Middle East, right? It’s about that,” Young-Joon said. “And I’m already too busy with just research... You know that. I’ll be the CTO of the company. I’ll be the managing director and attend board meetings when I can, but you’ll be in charge of the overall management tasks.”

“This is a promotion, but why am I not happy about it?”

“You had a tough time when I was in China and the Middle East, right?”

“It was crazy,” Kim Young-Hoon chuckled.

“But thanks to you, I was much more comfortable. Before, people often called me about business matters even when I was overseas, but this time, there were fewer calls.”

“I tried to solve everything within my power because I knew you were busy.”

“And I really appreciated it. Please continue to do so in the future. I will provide you with the treatment and compensation befitting a CEO, so please bear with it a little longer.”

“Hm.”

Kim Young-Hoon crossed his arms.

“Alright. With a business of this size and this many innovations, your hands will be full running the show. Leave it to me to support you behind the scenes.”

“Thank you.”

“When are you leaving?” Kim Young-Hoon asked.

“Next Monday,” Young-Joon said.

*

Doctor Ref, or Isaiah Franklin, was the terrorist who attacked the GSC, created the anthrax weapon, the lentivirus that caused encephalomyelitis in organ transplants, and the highly infectious polyomavirus, and helped found the Philistines by stealing a

botulinum

strain from South Korea. After being captured in Saudi Arabia, she was labeled as a level-one security risk and kept in an investigation room in the basement of the CIA headquarters in Virginia.

The CIA investigators were having a lot of trouble for two reasons. One was that Isaiah Franklin was unwilling to talk about the use of the polyomavirus or the botulinum toxin. As this could easily lead to a terrorist attack with mass casualties, it was imperative that they quickly identified the purpose and the co-conspirators to defend against it.

The second reason was that Isaiah Franklin didn’t have long to live. They hadn’t gotten any information from this wanted terrorist, who they barely managed to capture, and she was about to die.

“But you’re not going to be able to die so easily,” said Robert, who was interrogating Doctor Ref. “Criminals these days aren’t allowed to die when they want.”

“You even revive the brain-dead ones,” Doctor Ref said.

“You’re aware.”

“I know more about Ryu Young-Joon than anyone in the world.”

She leaned back in her chair with a troubled expression.

1. The temperature inside the pressure vessel containing the reactor rising and melting the nuclear fuel rods at the core ☜