The door blew off, crashing into the walls and floor and coming to rest next to the desk. Smoke billowed from the wall rupture, first white and then turning a light blue. He covered his head and face with the crook of his arm. When the debris came to rest moments later he lowered his arm to survey the damage. It was the third time and still startling but his pulse settled down within a couple of minutes.
Like it or not, running at near full capability was the only way to learn what might happen when the device operated at its design limit. Importantly, it had to be in the full autonomous configuration which only assured it would accomplish the mission with the lowest energy possible. If anything else could be added to the mission specification this was the time ... and the way it had to be tested. Prudent to test minimal safety measures, if enough time remained before the critical window opened.
Now decades into this, he knew that just because his physical capability necessarily was diminished by the years, the support technology could substitute for things like brute force or quick response. It will be a big advance when better catastrophic cognitive augmentation is available. That is for the future. For now, the system is ready for Stage 1 Ignition...
He logged in in the usual way and recorded the sensor data to the permanent record.
"This is a much as we can do ahead of the deadline, lets clean this up and prepare the sequence."
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