Evacuation proceeding. Resuscitation not going well. And who’s in charge? Well, let’s say they’re sharing command…
↓ Transcript
Girii: Sally, how's Kentaro?
Sally: Still not breathing.
Girii: Put him in my whale. Treat him there.
Msaka: The rest of you get moving! Fan out twenty miles in all directions. Keep in touch by sonar-net! I hope you're right.
Girii: What if I'm wrong?
Msaka: Then Enrique and I both get a match with you.
Sally: Still not breathing.
Girii: Put him in my whale. Treat him there.
Msaka: The rest of you get moving! Fan out twenty miles in all directions. Keep in touch by sonar-net! I hope you're right.
Girii: What if I'm wrong?
Msaka: Then Enrique and I both get a match with you.
“Put him in my whale” is great taken out of context.
If she’s right (and the readers know she is), you are going to wish she had been wrong. Nuclear explosions are no-ones friend, and there’s no guarantee you can make that 20 miles before the ICBM arrives.
Well.. Maybe the water will reduce the whole kill zone of the nuke enough that the whales will be able to get far enough.
If they’re underwater, I imagine that’ll shield them from the blast pretty well. Water’s good at that.
Let’s just hope they’re deep enough or far away enough to survive the inevitable wave of doom.
She’s wrong, technically. She’s expecting an airstrike (bomb planes?), since that’s what Caera was expecting, but really, there’s an ICBM incoming.
Might lead to poor tactical choices later on, but as for the evacuation itself? No contest.
Um … 20 miles? Unless those are metric miles, that may already be a poor tactical choice. Kill zone for an ICBM is way bigger than that.
Although if they keep their whales deep below the surface … it might be enough? I guess it might depend on just how far above the surface the nuke goes off, as well as how big it is. If it goes off close to the surface, that’s 20 miles of water (even if they aren’t deep); that ought to be more than a decent shelter. If it goes off really far above the island, the shelter will be on the order of the depth to which their whales are travelling.
… and anything in between, so the author can get away cleanly with whatever effect the plot demands. 😉
The Plot rules, of course, but aren’t we forgetting the compression wave?
Thanks for all the help! My project was victorious!
Congrats, Dylan! Glad I could help!
I might need to clear up some misconceptions. A 750kt nuclear missile — one of the bigger ICBMs — has a fireball blast radius of about 10 miles. A compression wave will go out beyond that, and a lot depends on how high it was detonated…but this island is only 4 miles wide, so hopefully Kevin isn’t using the biggest bomb he has available. 🙂
And here I though overkill policy was in effect. 😉
Seriously, I was expecting double-digit megatons.
And, apropos overkill: I believe a single ICBM (like the MX missile) can carry twelve warheads (like W87). Okay, they won’t be megaton warheads, but still, they could cover a decent area.
But indeed, I was not thinking of the compression wave. I’m not too familiar with the physics of explosions, but I take it those would carry through water easily enough? Would they cross the surface as easily? And how much energy would they actually release passing through a whale in the ocean?
… yeah, I have no idea. 😛