The Music Wars

The Demonstration

Charles sighed as he looked himself over in the mirror and adjusted his neck tie. "I hate wearing suits." He thought to himself. "They're always too formal." A knock at his door brought him out of his thoughts.

   "Come in!" He called and walked over to the door and opened it. Nathaniel stood in the doorway in his suit.

   "Charlie boy, are you ready?" Nathaniel asked.

   "Nearly. At least physically. I don't think I'll ever be ready to stand in front of all the Generals and Admirals that are going to be present. Especially not the President." He replied with a hare of concern creeping into his voice.

   "Worry not, my dear boy!" Nathaniel clapped Charles on the back. "I have this all under control! I'll do most of the talking. You just need to be ready to answer questions when they ask them."

    Before  Charles can reply, another knock comes from the door, and Nathaniel swiftly opens it to find a man in a suit with a communications earpiece in his ear.

   "Mr. Vice?" The man asked.

   "That is I." Nathaniel replied with a small smile.

   "The board is ready for you and Dr. Dike. If you would please follow me..." Suit motioned Nathaniel and Charles to follow him.

   The suit led them down a long hall to the conference room, and guided them to their seats on the side of the main podium.

   "Your presentation will begin shortly." Suit said, emotionless as ever.

   "Thank you." Nathaniel replied as the suit walked over to the door and stood guard.

   Nathaniel and Charles sat waiting in complete nervous silence for Charles, and excitement for Nathaniel, for 10 minutes until they were called to the stage.

   "Will Misters Vice and Dike please take the stage?" The man on stage said as they did so.

   Before Nathaniel could open his mouth to begin, a burly man in a uniform baring 4 General's Stars said "Keep this short, gentlemen. We've already read over Mr. Dike's summary on the subject."

   "Of course." Nathaniel replied, and began explaining the experiments he and Charles had done towards the Solidification of Sound.

   "We tried everything from attempting to slow the sound down with water and frozen ice, to heating it up enough to possibly make it a laser. None of these worked. That is, until a few days ago. While we were at the point of nearly giving up, and we were basically doing whatever came to mind, we found it. By using multiple sound waves and a surprisingly small amount of liquid nitrogen, we were able to slow and condense sound waves enough to make them solid. We were able to destroy a military quality target with a 1 second long pulse from the..." 

   The general interrupts Nathaniel. 

   "Our time is very precious, gentlemen. Do you have any actual proof of this device working? Or is it all just a lunatic's fantasy?"

   "O-of course!" Nathaniel replies, slightly shocked. He motions to Charles, who runs back stage and rolls out a cart he prepared earlier carrying the prototype device and a few of the aforementioned targets.

   "This, gentlemen, is the device I have spoken of." Nathan says, and looks at one of the numerous aids standing ready to help in any way needed. "Will you please pass these out to everyone in the room?" The aid walks over and Nathaniel hands him a few dozen pairs of ear protection earphones. "Please put these on, as the noise we will be dealing with is... extreme."

   As the various military leaders around the room put on their earphones on, Nathaniel and Charles put theirs on and the former grabs the device. 

   "Nathan? Is this a wise choice?" Charles asks quietly.

   "Charley, my boy! Take a risk every once in a while!" Nathaniel replies with his signature crazy grin on his face and a wink. He steps back, and Charles does likewise. As he aims at the first target, everybody tenses. 

   "Firing!" Nathan cries just before he lets loose with the device. A beam of pure blue hardened light escapes the end of the device, and the upper half of the target disintegrates, leaving a dark scorch mark on the wall behind it, and the smell of ozone in the air.