418. AM Engine

"I am listening, dad," he gestured to continue.

Adam didn't, he instead walked out of the office and dragged in a whiteboard with a few markers. Then he shut all the window shutters. "Okay, as long as Bobby is able to produce a working nuclear fusion reactor, I can build an engine that can produce us infinite energy to propel through the space at an unimaginable speed. After I saw the movie, Star Wars, and subsequently heard about you going to the moon, I came up with this new theory. But even with the great ecosystem of companies you have created, making it was impossible.

"But with what Bobby said, I am confident. AM Engine, full name is Antimatter engine, but first, I will tell you what Antimatter even is,"

"OWWW! THIS... WOAH!" Bobby suddenly started making weird noises, already knowing what Antimatter is and what this could mean.

Magnus was clueless, he bonked him on the head, "Stop making me feel like an illiterate,"

Adam chuckled and continued, "Even the best of people don't know this, Mag. I'm sure if you spoke about magic we'd be the dumb ones. Coming back to the topic, Antimatter is not some theorised fictional thing. It actually exists in nature, but possibly during the big bang, it was in the extreme minority, hence we don't see it. Antimatter, as the name implies, is the opposite of an existing matter. For example, an electron is a negatively charged particle, but its antimatter would be called Positron and have positively charged particles. It was discovered by Carl Anderson in 1932, positrons were the first evidence that antimatter existed.

"Now, how does a rocket move in space? It uses liquid fuel. There is a limit to how much you can carry and once it's used, it's done. Here, when antimatter comes into contact with normal matter, they collide with each other to produce an explosion emitting pure radiation, which travels out of the point of the explosion at the speed of light. The explosion that occurs when antimatter and matter interact transfers the entire mass of both objects into energy. The reaction looks like this.

e+ + e- → 2 γ

"Matter-antimatter reactions are 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear fission produced in nuclear power plants and 300 times more powerful than nuclear fusion energy. So, matter-antimatter engines have the potential to take us farther with less fuel. You can imagine the amount of power I am talking about, and this is power from just one explosion. Currently, to send a rocket to Mars, it takes 11 months, approximately 10 grams of antiprotons would be enough fuel to send a manned spacecraft to Mars in one month. Even less if we can find ways to make humans survive higher acceleration,"

Magnus was extremely pleased by this news, if this happened, it would be the discovery of millennia, even more powerful than the wheel, since this technology will thrust humanity into the era of space.

"What's stopping you? What do you need to make this a reality?" he inquired.

Adam sighed, perhaps this won't be so simple, "Magnus, the ship to take you further than Heliopause can not be made until the reactor is made, the shorter trips can, however, be made. There will be three main parts in this ship, Magnetic storage rings which are sort of circular tubes, as Antimatter must be separated from normal matter so storage rings with magnetic fields can move the antimatter around the ring until it is needed to create energy.

"A feed system, as when the spacecraft needs more power, the antimatter will be released to collide with a target matter, which releases energy. Then finally a magnetic rocket nozzle thruster, a long magnetic nozzle which will move the energy created by the matter-antimatter through a thruster.

"But first, we need to create antimatter and find ways to contain it safely. Creating this antimatter requires a lot of energy, it can be made on Earth with normal reactors, but to be made on a ship, a fusion reactor is needed. However, we need to build a humongous particle collider first and it will... cost a lot of money. Then more money to research a way to contain the antimatter and make a controlled explosion."

Magnus fell silent, he asked directly, "How much,"

Adam took a long breath before speaking in one go, "5 billion pounds(25 billion in today's value.) I will need this much to go all the way into creating a prototype engine. Of course, if you can provide some loyal wizards the cost can be much decreased, but ultimately it all depends on when we do get things right. It's too much money, Magnus, even gold is useless in this case too. This is why this project can only happen slowly in the span of the next 100 years,"

In Magnus' head, all kinds of calculations were happening. He counted all his assets, all his wealth, but finding this much cash was just impossible. He has so much gold but it was useless in this case. But Adam's project could be the one that brings mankind together. He felt like he had aged a few years in that instant, trying to brainstorm. In the end, there was only one way to get money.

"Go ahead, dad. I will fund it. Right now, I have no such cash, but in a few years, all my huge projects will start bringing in money, I will be able to pay back the loans then." He said.

"Loan?" Bobby questioned.

"I will take loans on a few of my major assets. I'm sure banks will line up for this. But in the long run, loans will not help us. The thing that costs the most right now is materials, they take up most of the cost in all our research.

"This is why I have decided something, my real reason why I even funded a space programme. Tell me, have you two heard of 16 Psyche?" He asked them, ready to shock them out of their minds.

Of course they knew, but as they knew Magnus and what he just said, a possibility took birth in their minds, one that was even more shocking than an antimatter engine to them.

Bobby stuttered out his question, "A-Are you... thinking of mining it?"

"Absolutely, I'm going to strip that beautiful juicy asteroid naked," Magnus resolutely replied, nodding his head comically.

(◉_◉) (◉_◉)

"You know, I thought I would be called mad for proposing such an engine, but honestly, if you went out and said that, people will call you a mad man," Adam commented, but believed him, in his eyes, wizards were able to do anything, even more, if he's as strong as Magnus. Once he had privately spoken to Merlin in the portrait, the man told him how strong Magnus was. His son united Korea, for god's sake, nothing was impossible now.

Bobby was excited, "T-that asteroid, my brother. That could fuel our needs for generations to come. It's supposed to be 82.5% metal. And its size, a diameter of 225 kilometres, it's HUGE!"

Magnus agreed, he also elaborated "In know, it can help us make cities, trains, spaceships, whatever we want. I am going to try to bring it closer to Earth and put it in the orbit of the Moon. Hence, our first mission to the Moon is happening, this is why we're going to Peary crater on the north pole of the moon, so we can have constant sunlight at all times and... I am going to turn that whole 79 kilometres wide crater into the first colony city on the moon. It shall become the launchpad of all our missions to space in the future, as well as mining the astroid and the moon."

Bobby felt numb. Here he was, thinking they were going on a joyride to the moon and maybe get some samples, but it turns out, his friend had thought much further.

Magnus added, "But remember, all of these plans depend on magic, we need to find out if magic can work in space, and if it can, can I portkey from there. If I can, the whole process of colonising the moon will be expedited by decades."

"God bless magic and wizards," Bobby prayed to imaginary god, as he was athiest despite Magnus telling him hell exists.

*BEEP BEEP*

Bobby's watch rang, "Ah, it's time for my girlfriend's flight. Mag, are you coming?"

Magnus enthusiastically got up and talked to his dad before leaving, "Let's go, and dad, you can start preparing for your grand mission. Money will start coming in a few days. First start designing stuff, and make the particle Accelerator in Greater Britain, we don't have enough space in England."

Adam assured him, "I will form a team and get them to sign the magical contracts with extreme secrecy clause. If we're successful, antimatter will basically be the atomic bomb on drugs, we can't have that be militarised"

"Unless there are alien civilisations out there that want to fight us, anyway, bye dad," he hugged Adam quickly and ran away.

Feeling extremely satisfied and proud of Magnus, Adam just shook his head, wondering, "What did I do to deserve such a loving family?"

...

Heathrow Airport, London.

The three boys waited outside the airport with their Rolls Royce behind them, Magnus drove it himself. They were dressed neatly and women looked at them as if they were pieces of candy. Of course, Magnus had to use magic to keep people away.

"AH! there she is," Bobby exclaimed, putting aside his phone, he ran to her and picked her up in his arms as she showered him with kisses and happy cheers.

In the distance, Magnus made fun of Ragnar, "Brother, Feeling jealous yet? Come on, that cold shit heart has to have feelings,"

Ragnar scoffed, "I told you before, the one who makes my crown on family jewels swell, gets to sit on it as well,"

"Pfft... maybe we can have some sort of computer programme later on which people can make profiles with photos and talk with friends or unknowns. Then you can browse through the catalogue of women." Magnus suggested, thinking about the profitability of the idea.

By then, Bobby had brought his girlfriend over, Magnus checked her up close, she had short blonde hair, was half a foot shorter than Bobby, looked very pretty and confident of herself, her fashion sense spoke much about her. He forwarded his hand, "Hello, I am Magnus, Bobby's best bro."

Her hand trembled when she tried to shake it, meeting a real-life prince for a struggling teenage girl was a major shocker, "M-Mr... I mean... your highness... nice to meet you, I am Madonna Louise Ciccone,"

Magnus confusedly glanced at Bobby, "Umm... I thought it was Veronica."

"Ah, that's what Brandon told you? That was my confirmation name as a catholic, and what's Bobby?" she sounded confused.

[A/N: Yup, she's the real Maddona, the celebrity, she's a few months older than Magnus and his friends according to her real DOB. Yes, that fellatio incident was real, as told by her, and there was nobody to rescue her.

And yup, Magnus just thought of Facebook

Most of the science concepts I used in this chapter are real. And remember, all this may seem impossible and far fetched in our world, Magnus is only able to do all this is due to,

1. His huge ecosystem of companies that have formed a synergy to work together on innovation. One invention that's useless for one company can be crucial to another.

2. His wealth.

3. His magic.

4. His will to change the world.]

[You can see Bobby's Girlfriend on Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

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You can read 20 Advanced chapters and Marvel fic at -patreon.com/misterimmortal.

Special thanks to *DougErNuts* *Oluwatimileyin Olayemi* *BirdRant* *Franklin Walley* *Brennan Tubbs*