Not long after, Seoha said he had to go to class and left.
Once the door closed, silence settled over the lab.
Sri fidgeted with the cup he was holding for no reason.
Tap-tap-tap.
Theo opened his laptop and began typing.
When he accessed the archive and entered a search term, a list of hundreds of papers poured out.
Sri sat in the chair across from him and glanced at Theo’s laptop screen.
‘Wow... He’s looking at a much wider range than I expected.’
Theo was going through the list, sorting the papers they needed from the ones they didn’t.
Fast and efficient selection.
“From here on, it’s engineering...”
Theo scrolled down for a while, then stopped.
Words like aerodynamics, microstructure, and semiconductors were listed on the screen.
“Sri.”
“Yes?”
“Have you ever organized the minimum energy models used in engineering?”
Sri shook his head.
“I only know the ones related to my major.
I’ve dealt with the Euler-Lagrange model and basic thin shells—a curved structural body with a thin thickness.
But I’m not sure whether those will help our research.”
“I figured as much.”
“Is there a problem?”
“A big one. Minimum energy models in engineering are far too rule-of-thumb. It’s only natural, I suppose, since they all developed separately without any unified discussion.”
“Ah...”
“Fluids, structures, materials, aviation, machinery, semiconductors—each has only discussed this problem within its own neighborhood. Even if they tried to collaborate, there would have been limits without a unified theory.”
Sri swallowed hard.
“And that’s what we’re trying to make.”
“Right. If we pull it off, modern engineering will make a huge leap. I think Seoha made a very good choice casting you. We’re hopeless when it comes to engineering.”
“I understand what I have to do. Gather the discussions scattered across various fields of engineering and extract the common elements, right?”
Theo nodded in satisfaction.
“Exactly. It’s nice not having to explain it separately.
There’s something else to consider too. If possible, collect the physical constraints and realistic parameters of the models used in each field. So that the theory we create can actually function in real engineering.”
“Then we’ll have to unify the language first...”
“Right. That comes first. Looking at this paper list, I can see why Seoha was interested in this.”
“What do you mean?”
“I haven’t known Seoha for all that long, but he has something like a mathematical omnipotence mindset.
Physics? I’m sure he thinks of it as a branch of mathematics. Engineering is the same. Did you notice how naturally he referred to you as a mathematician earlier?”
“Ah! Now that you mention it!”
“What subjects do they mostly teach in mechanical engineering?”
“Calculus, linear algebra, engineering mathematics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, dynamics, fluid mechanics, control engineering...”
Sri trailed off with a bitter expression.
“It goes without saying, but without mathematics, engineering can’t exist.
Seoha doesn’t seem to separate those things. He probably just considers all of them applied mathematics.”
“That’s the sort of thing that would horrify engineers.”
“In aerodynamics, they call the minimum energy model surface tension minimization.
Semiconductors are essentially a complex of energy minimization problems. Electrostatic potential, carrier diffusion, Fermi level, surface energy... Everything is connected. Fluids, structures, electrical and electronic engineering, robotics—it’s all the same.
They’re just taking fragments from the grand mathematical theme of minimum energy levels and using them.”
“Ah!”
“Seoha intends to put all of these onto the same equation.
‘I’ll establish the mathematical unified theory, so you handle the minor details yourselves’—that kind of feeling.
Maybe he found it frustrating that the engineering world was only fiddling with the branches and stems while leaving the roots alone.”
“In a way, it could sound like an incredibly arrogant idea.”
“Arrogant? Seoha doesn’t have that kind of feeling. It’s just a fact.
He’s only saying he’ll do what he can do. So as long as you and I do our jobs well, this research is guaranteed to succeed.”
Overwhelming confidence.
He seemed to have absolute faith in Seoha.
Even though Theo himself was an exceptionally brilliant mathematician.
“You’re amazing too, Theodore. The fact that you noticed the drawing on the blackboard was an energy function.”
“Ah, that?”
Theo chuckled.
“I’m not some genius of the century. Of course I couldn’t tell just from looking at that.”
“Then?”
Theo took out a camera and showed it to Sri.
“I record every idea Seoha writes down.
Naturally, I know about what you two were discussing in Building 33. I haven’t been sleeping much lately because I’ve been studying it.”
“Why do you do that?”
“Uh... Hmm. Now that you ask why, it’s hard to answer.
You’ve probably felt it too, but Seoha has an extraordinarily outstanding intuition. Theories that seem plausible but ultimately aren’t true... There are a lot of those, aren’t there?
Seoha isn’t misled by them. Since you’re a scholar too, you know how absurd a blessing that is.”
“Of course. Researchers going in the wrong direction is extremely common. Is there any scholar who hasn’t wasted years like that?”
“But those theories are eliminated in Seoha’s head at the first stage. They aren’t even subjects of consideration.
That means every idea Seoha writes down has a remarkably low chance of being nonsense.
Even the ideas he discarded because he thought they were nothing special had meaning in their own way. I’m thinking of suggesting we gather them later and publish them as a book.”
As if he was very much looking forward to it, Theo laughed in a low voice.
‘So that’s what it was.’
It sounded like a lie, but Sri found himself nodding. If that weren’t the case, he would never have dared challenge a difficult problem.
To solve a difficult problem, one had to overcome many obstacles. For an ordinary researcher, it would take years to establish and verify a theory for each obstacle. But what if one could break through them without trial and error?
“Elijah Cronen once said that before calculating, he first felt the current of the problem. I thought that was just bluster.”
Theo gestured toward the blackboard with his eyes.
“When you see something like that, you have no choice but to acknowledge it. Special talent definitely exists. And Seoha is probably an even more special human being among them.
So what we have to do on this team is clear.”
Snap!
Sri snapped his fingers.
“Present as much data and as many theories as possible. That’s what we have to do. Seoha will filter out the nonsense on his own.”
Theo stared intently at Sri as if observing him.
“Are you perhaps dissatisfied that you’ll only be providing support?”
Sri shook his head.
“Of course not. It’s not something just anyone can do.
I’ll work hard like you, Theo. If I can’t understand Seoha’s thoughts, it will be impossible to keep working together as a team.”
“Right. That’s the minimum condition for being on the team. Let’s do well from now on.”
Smoothly.
For the first time, Theo extended his hand to Sri first.
“I look forward to working with you.”
Sri also gripped the hand he clasped firmly.
***
A few days later,
Seoha’s lab was strangely busy from the morning.
“Should we install the workstation here?”
Two installation technicians were moving a large piece of equipment.
Seoha had a blank, dazed expression.
“What on earth is going on, Sri?”
A top-spec workstation, a high-performance GPU server, high-resolution monitors for precision modeling, and even dedicated physics simulation software.
These were pieces of equipment that a single professor could barely afford by spending an entire year’s personal budget.
And yet, these expensive devices were being installed in Team Apex’s lab as if they were the basic setup.
“I decided to become a little shameless too. Dean Thomas told us before that if we needed anything, we should say so.
So I said it. Everything we needed.”
Sri smiled awkwardly.
“The dean said he’d back us without hesitation, so more support will probably come in from the mathematics department too.”
Theo had already submitted a list of equipment he needed as well.
One workstation and several other minor devices.
The lab, which had once been a modest personal space, had somehow become a small research center.
“I feel a sense of responsibility. It also feels like pressure to produce results quickly.”
At Seoha’s innocent words, Theo snickered.
“Why are you making such a big deal out of this much? With this kind of research, even one success out of a hundred is a jackpot. So let’s take it easy.”
“But is all of this necessary?”
There was too much equipment. It didn’t feel like a mathematics lab, and Seoha felt awkward.
But Theo spoke in a firm voice.
“It’s necessary. It’s a privilege mathematicians of the past couldn’t enjoy. I’ll show you the details through results.”
Beep—
A short beeping sound rang out, and blue LEDs lit up throughout the lab.
Along with the new equipment, Team Apex’s first official project had just begun.
***
“This is data from aviation and fluids. I investigated surface tension, viscous dissipation energy, and pressure distribution. This side covers semiconductors and electromagnetism.”
Every morning, Sri and Theo appeared in the lab carrying new bundles of material.
Notes bearing traces of overnight organization, with the parts Seoha needed to see highlighted in fluorescent colors on each paper. The files they stacked up were tagged by field, making them easy to search.
On top of that, Theo added analytical annotations.
“I think the same energy function can be applied to fluids and materials. Both were using the same structure.”
The results of the brainstorming the two exchanged gradually filled the whiteboard.
Arrows, stars, question marks.
They poured every idea they could think of onto the board.
“Seoha, regarding the ‘metastable state in nonlinear regions’ you mentioned yesterday, I found a similar structure in mechanical engineering.”
“So in the end, it’s the same type of critical point problem?”
Seoha frantically read through and flipped over the materials they handed him.
“Here, here, and this too—these three can be grouped into the same category. Let’s first create a function that encompasses them.”
Theo and Sri’s eyes wavered for a moment.
Seoha was excited.
Look at the problem, feel the structure, pick out useful axes from it to create a function, then attach conditions and verify it again... It usually took several sleepless nights just to produce one usable draft.
But now Sri and Theo were doing half of that work for him in advance.
Even before he said anything.
Seoha decided to do his utmost to live up to their efforts.
Standing before the whiteboard, he quickly wrote ○, ×, and △.
“This won’t work. Let’s deal with dynamics after the energy landscape has been organized.
Forget these two conditions: ‘the interface thickness is constant’ and ‘the external force distribution is linear.’ We can find the existence of solutions even without them.”
Theo and Sri quickly wrote down Seoha’s words in their notebooks.
“Let’s use this as the lower-bound condition of the unified theory. No matter how messy the boundaries are in each domain, there will need to be a minimum standard.”
The meeting continued for a long time afterward.
“You two are truly amazing. How do you bring me exactly what I need like this? With a team, I feel like I can do anything.”
The people who had advised him that he would need a team—
By working with them, Seoha finally came to understand what those words meant.
Dinnertime.
Theo was sprawled at a corner table in the cafeteria.
“Your meal is ready.”
Sri received the dinner menu with a hollow face. It was chicken pasta, one of the relatively safe things to eat even in America.
“Eat your dinner.”
“Uh... I should.”
Contrary to their words, the two did not seem to have any appetite.
“The materials we spent a week preparing like we were dying...”
Sri muttered as he poked at the pasta with his fork.
“For Seoha, they were something he could finish in an hour or two.
I tried as hard as I could because I didn’t want to hold him back, but I just can’t keep up with Seoha’s speed.”
Theo sighed and swept back his tangled hair.
“It feels like we need more people, doesn’t it?”
“If you know anyone, bring them in. Someone who can understand everything we discussed in today’s meeting.”
“There’s no way someone like that would be a free agent...”
“I agree. So let’s endure it. Someone will appear someday.”
“There are a lot of people who say they want to join, though.”
“I know.”
“...”
Team Apex, backed wholeheartedly by two departments.
Rumors that it was an elite team Seoha belonged to were slowly spreading through the campus.