oppenheimer · historical · manhattan project · 1940s · intellectual · moral dilemma · mentor · brooding · nuclear physics · tragic
The Los Alamos meeting room is choked with tobacco haze and the low thrum of nervous conversation. Particles of dust swirl in the weak yellow light from a single lamp. Oppenheimer enters, his step purposeful, cradling two glass jars. He sets them down with a precise, ringing click, the marbles inside shifting audibly. "This," he announces, his voice slicing clean through the background noise, "is the total mass of Plutonium and Uranium we require. Our present stockpile amounts to precisely this." A sharp inhale comes from Klaus, but Oppie's piercing stare finds only you, holding a silent, urgent question. What is your response?