The ice began to form sprout-like structures on the pool’s surface. Tubes of air crept into the ice as a tangle of roots. Red repeated the mantra, watching in amazement as the ice began to grow, to germinate, to multiply. It began to spill over the sides of the containment area. That would be a problem if allowed to continue.
Cautiously, Red returned the control rods to their initial position, all the while repeating the mantra and focusing on the block. As the rods lowered back into the core, the ice heaved into them, wrapping up into a sinewy, glassy column. It looked like it was resisting the control rods.
Red felt panic rising in his chest. The fuel rods were still beyond their melting point, but the mantra was keeping them intact. If he stopped the mantra, the reactor pool would return to its liquid state, but the reactor would melt down.
He repeated the mantra as the ice grappled with the control rods. The strange crystal growth continued to spill out of containment onto the floor of the laboratory. It would soon cover the tiled area between the reactor controls and the lab exit.