21. Breaking Big Things For Science

Anna's offhand comment about not standing out visually like her sister and the stories about the Snow Queen's sartorial decisions had not sufficiently prepared Mrs. Mandelbaum and Mrs. Scurr for actually seeing her. The ice-dress left nothing about Elsa's rather enviable figure to the imagination, and there was more bare leg on display than even the most shameless women of ill-repute would dare to show in public.

"How can she go out among people with that slit in that dress?" Irene murmured disapprovingly and tried to cover Adam's and Beatrice's eyes; John made embarrassed shushing noises.

"Where are her stockings?" Debora whispered in shock.

"Mother, Princess Anna is standing right here!" Zlata reminded, sotto voce.

"Don't worry," Anna said, keeping her voice low. "I won't judge."

The two women looked down in chagrin. In the brief time that they had known her, they had come to like the Princess and saw that she was a genuinely caring and good-hearted person. They knew they should be willing to tolerate the Queen's quirks, especially since most of the townsfolk and many foreign high-ranking diplomats had turned out for this materials test and nobody else seemed to be the least bit offended or titillated by the young woman's attire. They decided to save their criticism for later.

Elsa, for her part, acted completely unfazed by the crowd as she gestured for the visiting magic researchers to take up positions that would presumably give them the best view. She rolled her shoulders and flexed her fingers as Master Torvik called out to his assistants, "An ultimate tensile strength test on Rod Sample 24, Specimen 1." One of the men readied a notebook and pencil.

The metalworkers got out of the Queen's way as she walked over to the steel rods. "You can lift steel, Your Majesty?" the priest asked.

"Not directly, Father Papadopoulos," Elsa explained. "First I need to attach some ice to the steel, and then I levitate the ice."

"What if the ice comes off, Your Majesty?" Newark wondered somewhat uneasily.

"Professor Newark, when I attach ice to something, it doesn't come off unless I say so," Elsa declared, making no attempt to keep the mischievous satisfaction out of her voice. Anna, Kristoff, Stefanie, and many of the other Arendellians present shared an impish laugh about some memory or other. Newark smiled weakly.

A small ball of ice formed at each end of one of the rods - and then suddenly the rod was floating at hip height. Elsa walked with it toward the temporary ice seawall, and it seemed that she would fall into the water below, but just as she was about to step into thin air, a plank of ice leading out into the harbor grew out of the ice seawall.

"She's showing off a little bit," Anna told her new friends after they gasped.

The plank extended with each step until Elsa was about four meters out from the seawall. Professors Mandelbaum, Newark, and Sinibaldo also came forward, crouched down by the edge of the seawall, and peered underneath the plank to see what was supporting it. The unsurprising answer was: Nothing.

Elsa rotated the rod until it was vertical. "Applying force now," she said.

Everyone watched excitedly, but nothing could be detected by the naked eye. "Yield at 627,422,913 kilograms per meter per second squared," Elsa stated. Torvik actually smiled and pumped his fists, and his senior assistants cheered; the man with the notebook wrote the number down quickly. Mandelbaum, Newark, and Sinibaldo looked at each other in amazement.

Then, the steel rod snapped into two pieces. The crowd gasped again. "Ultimate tensile strength at 827,370,875 kilograms per meter per second squared," Elsa said and gave Torvik a thumbs up. The man with notebook wrote down that number as well.

While remaining on the plank, Elsa conjured more ice on the ends of the other two rods and levitated them above the center of the crowd. Everyone craned his or her neck to watch the performance. "Yield at 627,423,011 on Specimen 2; yield at 627,422,889 on Specimen 3," Elsa reported, and waited for the numbers to be written.

One of the rods snapped. "Ultimate tensile strength at 827,371,213 on Specimen 2." The last rod snapped. "Ultimate tensile strength at 827,369,911 on Specimen 3." The numbers were recorded. "Rod Sample 24 is approved for use!"

Torvik raised his arms high above his head in triumph and tilted his face to the sky. All the onlookers were a welcome addition now that he and his crew had finally succeeded in meeting the Queen's specifications.

As happy as the foundry men were, the professors were stunned. "You can use your ice to apply that much pressure, Your Majesty?" queried Sinibaldo, dismayed by the implications.

"Professor Sinibaldo, as far as can be determined, I can apply an arbitrary amount of pressure in tension, in shear, or in compression," Elsa said with an adorable smile. She knew full well why they were disturbed. For people whose thoughts tended in the direction of practical military applications, exercises such as this one and the weekly magic shows were just as much thinly veiled demonstrations of her capabilities in warfare as they were entertainment or experiments; the Queen of Arendelle wanted the rest of the world to understand that peaceful coexistence with her and her country really was the best choice. She floated the snapped rods over to the researchers' eye level, giving them time to examine and feel the fractured steel before depositing the pieces in a stack close to Torvik. She then dissipated the ice.

"Queen Elsa, while I don't doubt your numbers are correct, how do you know how much force you applied?" posed Mandelbaum.

Elsa's demeanor became much less smug. "I don't know how I know, Professor Mandelbaum, but I just do. When it has been possible to compare my internal tensometer with a scientific instrument's measurements, there has been a close agreement. I hope I don't lose accuracy when working at the high end of the scale. My intention is to make this harbor state of the art far into the next century."

"Your Majesty, while steel this strong is mind-boggling and will obviously be highly sought after, why not just leave your harbor's infrastructure made of ice, as it is right now?" questioned Newark.

Elsa became even more sober. "The issue of ontological inertia. Will my 'permanent' magical creations survive my death? My intuition and the current academic consensus are that they will, but there is no way to be sure ... and if I am wrong, the consequences would be catastrophic if we rely too much on my ice to build things."

"I see," Newark said quietly. The other spectators close enough to hear and old enough to comprehend fidgeted uncomfortably. Anna, Kristoff, Stefanie, Dr. Scurr, Homberg and Papadopoulos cast contemplative looks at Olaf.

"Snow Queen Elsa, can you do more magic?" Beatrice asked with innocent shyness. Her parents cringed.

"Of course," Elsa said with good humor. "Let's break some chains."

Torvik's exuberance about the results of the tensile strength test immediately left him. "A minimum breaking load test for Chain Sample 33, Specimen 1," he said tersely to the man with the notebook.

Elsa walked back over to the pile of chain, attached a small ball of ice to one end of it, and sent the ice ball up into the air to uncoil the length -roughly three meters- and attached another ball of ice to the end closest to the ground. The Snow Queen walked it back out onto the ice plank and rotated it until it was parallel with the water.

"Uh, Queen Elsa, you probably shouldn't stand that close during this test," Newark cautioned.

"Thank you for the warning, sir. If I were anyone else, you would be correct," Elsa answered evenly.

Newark, Sinibaldo, and Mandelbaum took several steps back until they were close to the front row of the main crowd. The Minister of Tourism gave them a cocky smile as he stepped to the edge of the seawall. "There's nothing to worry about. Safety comes first with the Queen's magic," Haugen said firmly.

"That's not true, but it is in the top five," Elsa deadpanned. Many of the long-time residents laughed into their hands. The professors shared uncertain glances.

The chain drew taut, and tauter yet, and then it snapped, the ends whipping chaotically - or at least they would have if they hadn't been instantly caught in two floating stalagmites of ice; even the flying pieces of the link that broke were captured by a jagged mitt of ice.

"Whoa!" Duffin exclaimed.

"How charming," Newark remarked bleakly to no one in particular.

"Just Her Majesty's reflexes in action," Haugen asserted.

"Breaking load was 8,046 kilograms," Elsa told Torvik. The master smith grunted and looked dejected. "I'll try the other two specimens, but I don't think this sample is going to pass."

As before with the rods, Elsa levitated the other two chains above the crowd so that everyone could see. They broke in succession, and each was immediately encased in a tube of ice before the ends could lash back. "Breaking load on Specimen 2 was 8,105 kilograms. And 7,989 kilograms for Specimen 3. They'll be good for something, but not for overhead lifting." Torvik kicked at the ground. Elsa floated the chains back to where they came from and annihilated the ice. The pieces of the broken links clattered to the cobblestones once freed.

"If it's not some kind of state secret, Your Majesty, how much do you want these chains to lift?" asked Sinibaldo very meekly.

"More than is realistic," griped Torvik.

Elsa ignored Torvik's comment, forgiving his bad mood. "A breaking load of 22,000 kilograms would be nice, Professor Sinibaldo."

Sinibaldo, Newark, and Mandelbaum sputtered. "You see, the Queen demands the impossible," Torvik lamented.

"You thought the rod would be impossible, too, Master Torvik, but you did it," Elsa pointed out.

"It took twenty-four tries!" Torvik whined.

"Which is nothing in the grand scheme of things, sir," Elsa encouraged. "You're going to be world renowned - and well-rewarded." Putting it in that perspective brightened Torvik's outlook.

"If it's not some kind of state secret, Your Majesty, why do you want a chain to lift 22,000 kilograms?" asked Sinibaldo even more meekly.

"Oh, I don't want it to lift 22,000 kilograms, Professor. I want it to lift about 5,000 kilograms, but I want it to do so by a wide margin that accounts for many risk factors. Safety really is first," Elsa explained.

"A chain that lifts 8,000-" began Torvik hot-headedly.

"Master Torvik, these chains will end up being used by you and your fellows and your sons," Elsa interrupted calmly. "And undoubtedly by other people, in Arendelle and around the world. Would you and our potential customers rather have one that is more than four times as strong or one that isn't even twice as strong?"

"Point well taken, Your Majesty," allowed Torvik, his agitation subdued.

"Very good, sir," Elsa said serenely. "Please, on to the next test."

"Impact test on Steel Reinforced Concrete Wall, Sample 3," Torvik said. Elsa walked over to the box made of ice, and disposed of the form with a flick of her wrist, leaving behind a substantial piece of concrete.

"Ever since we arrived in Arendelle, I've been curious about what was in those," Newark said. He had seen people along the waterfront using the box and the cylinders as impromptu seating.

With a wave of her hand, she attached three small patches of ice to the top. The concrete levitated without the slightest wobble.

"How big is that?" Mandelbaum wanted to know.

"It's six meters by five meters by three-quarters of a meter," Torvik said.

"How much does it weigh, Master Torvik?" Duffin asked, completely captivated by the suspended slab. Seeing the rods and chains float in midair was impressive enough, but this was something no human could hope to budge without mechanical aid.

"Around 55,000 kilograms, ma'am," Torvik casually informed her, and then waited to see everyone's reaction. All of the spectators within earshot, even Princess Anna and Sven the reindeer, gurgled or squeaked in shock. With a skip in her step, Elsa guided the piece of masonry out over the water as though it were nothing more than a balloon.

"How can you lift that much, Your Majesty?" Duffin blurted when she finally found her voice again.

"I focus on the ice. Whatever happens to be stuck to it just comes along for the ride," Elsa clarified. "I don't feel the weight, only the ice."

The Snow Queen maneuvered the wall so that the tallest dimension was perpendicular to the horizon and then lowered it halfway into the water. With a snap of her fingers, an elongated iceberg, streamlined in the manner of a sailing ship, appeared in the water next to the wall. The spectators tensed, expecting a high-speed, head-on collision, but Elsa only slowly brushed the iceberg against the wall at an oblique angle. The wall held up quite well. There were moans of disappointment from the crowd.

"Come on, people," Torvik growled. "We're testing for realistic conditions. Well, I guess 'realistic' is a subjective term in this kingdom. But anyway, the layout of the harbor wouldn't permit a 900 ton vessel to accidentally smash into a wall at anywhere close to its maximum speed. And if it's a hostile ship, they'd be using their guns, now wouldn't they?"

This did nothing to mollify the gallery.

"Who wants to see the wall get smashed to pieces?" Elsa shouted. Most of the adults in the assembly and all of the children cheered. Torvik covered his eyes with the palm of his hand. For some reason, the Queen was treating this materials test like one of her Saturday magic shows, and he wished she wouldn't.

She lifted the wall out of the water, high enough for everyone to see, rotated it so that the three-quarters of a meter side was facing her audience, and covered it with a frame of ice. She then conjured broad stretches of ice-fabric beneath and behind the concrete in order to backstop and catch the debris. She clenched her fist, and with a quick punching motion simultaneously summoned and rammed a huge spike of ice through the center of the slab, the point shooting out as though it had met with no resistance. Large pieces of concrete bounced off the backstop fabric and tumbled onto the catching cloth.

The people collectively drew in sharp breaths. Newark went deathly pale. Duffin clapped her hand over her mouth. Irene and Debora looked at each other in shock. The other special guests stared dumbfounded.

"She's showing off a little bit again," Anna declared tongue-in-cheekly.

The spike disappeared, and Elsa punched again, this time with a set of six slightly finer-tipped spikes arranged in a circle, each one spaced sixty degrees from its neighbors. These also tore through the concrete like it was paper. For good measure, Elsa twisted her hand back and forth, and the spikes mimicked the motion while still embedded, ripping large gashes in the wall. Rubble rained down onto the ice-fabric sheet.

Those spikes dematerialized, and Elsa punched once more, now with six sets of a tight six-spike array, and on a larger diameter circle. She quickly turned them within the slab, sending more chunks down onto the drop cloth.

Again, the spikes vanished - and again Elsa punched, this time with six concentric rings, each one with six collections of a six-spike cluster, again wrenching the ice-points back and forth. By now, not much remained of the slab except the outer edges near the frame she had made; the steel reinforcement skeleton was laid bare and mangled and shredded from the process. The Snow Queen attached a few dabs of ice to the cage and wrested it free of what was left of the concrete. She made a squeezing gesture with her left hand, and the rim of ice pulverized the remnants. A cloud of dust rose as the wreckage fell into a huge pile on the ice-fabric.

Ever tidy, Elsa floated the cage back over to spot it came from on the quayside before snapping the bars into manageable pieces and letting them drop carefully onto the cobblestones. She then gathered together the corners of the ice-fabric sheet and sealed the edges, making a neat bundle, and levitated it over to behind a building near the university compound in the new part of town, setting it down gently.

"We'll recycle that," Elsa placidly told the gawking throng, as though this was nothing more than a public seminar about Arendelle's waste management system.

The silence was deafening for several moments. Finally, Einar started to clap. Dag and Åsa tried to distance themselves, but everyone was packed so tightly that slipping away was not an option. His applause, however, was quickly taken up by the rest of the crowd, with cheers, whoops, and whistles thrown in for good measure. The researchers joined in, even if only as a conditioned response.

Eventually, the salute died down, and Elsa acknowledged everyone with a demure nod. "And for a final encore, Her Majesty will now perform a compression stress test and an impact test on steel reinforced concrete columns," Torvik announced sarcastically. "I don't think she'll be available for autographs afterward, but please be sure to visit the concession stands when the show is over."

Elsa rolled her eyes, but took no offense at Torvik's insubordinate manner. He wasn't an entertainer, and all these people made him uncomfortable, which was something she could sympathize with. Nonetheless, partly for her own sense of fun and partly to further exasperate the master smith, she rotated one of the ice cylinders in several directions around its geometric center, twirling it as easily as a baton, as she levitated it out over the water. The ice covering the concrete pillar drew itself back until it was only a cap on each end. The Snow Queen summoned another ice-fabric drop cloth to catch the results of her handiwork.

"Come one, come all, to see the compression test on Steel Reinforced Concrete Column, Sample 4, Specimen 1," Torvik proclaimed in a sardonic impression of a carnival barker.

"Applying force now," Elsa said, trying to recapture her regal gravitas. As with the steel rod, at first no change was discernable. Then, with a sudden shudder, the cylinder cracked and large flakes of concrete either plunged onto the ice-sheet or hurtled away from the piling - only to be abruptly snared in jackets of ice and plop harmlessly into the fjord, their momentum instantly checked. "Fracture at 103,897,523 kilograms per meter per second squared. Sample 4 is looking promising."

Torvik nodded. Elsa re-encased the column in ice and directed it, the sealed up drop cloth, and all of the ice-coated debris that had been bobbing in the water to the same place she had sent the crushed wall.

"Impact test on Steel Reinforced Concrete Column, Sample 4, Specimen 2," Torvik called out, reverting to his regular, staid voice.

This time, Elsa didn't engage in any antics with the piling as she floated it out over the water, reducing the ice-sheathing until it only covered the top, and half submerged it in the water. She tugged the hydrodynamic iceberg over and lightly bumped it against the pillar a few times, simulating the buffeting it might take from a ship docked alongside the jetty.

A quick inspection of the gallery told Elsa they would not be happy with a quiet ending, so she slammed the broad side of the iceberg into the column hard enough to send cracks shivering out from the strike zone. "For good measure, let's do a compression test on it now that its structural integrity is compromised," Elsa suggested. Torvik indicated the all-clear.

The piling lifted out of the water, and Elsa capped the bottom with more ice, and once again conjured a drop cloth. With a mere pinching gesture of her thumb and index finger, the web of cracks expanded and shards of concrete shot out, only to be intercepted and brought down by cubes of ice. "75,845,192 kilograms per meter per second squared," she said, and the man with the notebook recorded the number.

For the finale, Elsa balled her hand, and the column utterly failed: the steel reinforcement bars bursting through as they bent over and broke; and fragments of concrete, from small chips to veritable sword blades, flying in all directions, each one trapped by ice - although a few pieces did almost make it to the cobblestones. As with the previous specimen, Elsa added a restabilizing coating of ice, and floated the destroyed pillar and its ice-enveloped debris over to the recycling center, where she would "work" on everything later.

"Master Torvik, please tell the masons that Wall Sample 3 and Column Sample 4 are approved for use. This has been the best materials test yet. Bravo, sir," Elsa complimented as she stepped back on to harborside thoroughfare, and eliminated the plank of ice and the iceberg. The crowd automatically backed up to give Elsa room to move as the guards rejoined her side.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Torvik said rather humbly. Working directly with the Queen in her capacity as the country's ruler was still something of a disconcerting honor for him, and he tried his best not to think too much about her magic and its effects. He often needed a few pints of ale in the evening to help him accomplish that. He and his crew bowed to her, and she nodded in return.

As Elsa strode off at a brisk pace, she spread out her hands with a flourish, as though greeting a group, whereupon huge piles of snow and strategically positioned snow forts popped into existence throughout the quayside, with playground equipment, some child-sized and some adult-sized, made of ice gracing the intersections with the side streets. A tall, sturdy-looking net of ice-fabric cordoned off the edge of seawall. "It will be gone at the stroke of five. Enjoy it until then!" the Snow Queen said airily over her shoulder as she made her way back to the castle.

Author's Notes - This should remind the reader of Elsa's escape from the dungeon, except here she is thinking clearly and in full control of powers. IIRC, the IMDB website regards the manacles being twisted open as a "goof" based on the real-world fact that ultra-cold metal shatters instead of warps ... but for Elsa, it's very possible that the ice forming over the shackles crept into every joint and pried it open, bending whatever metal it needed to in the process in order to free her. And that was with Elsa in full unfocused panic mode, with her magic running just about wild. As she and Professor Newark will discuss later, there is no non-magical prison that could ever hold her.

Steel reinforced concrete was still a few decades away in our real-world timeline, but there was technically nothing stopping it from being made earlier. However, steel that strong wasn't developed until the 1950s using a special slow cooling process - but the "Frozen" universe conveniently has a character who can cool things as quickly or slowly as she wants.