Challenge 907

Not So Fast

In D. Tyler Pierson’s Line of Sight: “Then, the Dreadnaught’s mass accelerator hurled a five-meter-long, several-ton slug of ultrahard exotic material at a speed so close to that of light that the difference was barely worth acknowledging.”
1. What is the mass of the projectile, once it is launched?
2. How much energy would be needed to launch the “slug”?
3. Never mind what the object does to the planetoid Makeen; what would it do to the space-time continuum?
In Jeffrey Greene’s The Black Box: What personality disorders does Patrick Morhan reveal when Tom Hanauer enters Morhan’s bedroom? What more does he reveal in the course of his diatribe?
In Nemo West’s What Kate Found in the Fringe: Quince and Kate have a falling-out. Why? What mistake does each make in responding to the other?
In Erica Evans’ My Wings: The narrator is liable to be zapped by lightning, deafened by thunder and pummeled by rain, all in mid-air. How likely are readers — or airline passengers — to share the narrator’s blithe confidence in a safe journey through the sky?
In Peggy Gerber’s The Cake With the Secret Ingredient: Would cake elicit such horror or addiction if the “secret ingredient” were cicadas rather than space-alien eggs?