Chapter 38 38. Accident

Five kilometers away from the target, pilot Robert Johnson reduced the speed again.Now, for the first time, the passengers saw that the facets of the SkyTrack tower were not mere ribbons leading up and down to infinity.Indeed, all the multiple troughs they passed along the way stretched upwards to an altitude of 25,000 kilometers in this way, and this distance was almost infinite compared with the dimensions commonly used by people; Such a long distance, so the end of the orbital tower can already be seen down.The basic part of the space orbit tower dug out on the mountain is clearly outlined on the green background of Taborobani. In a little more than a year, the space orbit tower will be docked with it.

The red warning light came on again on the instrument panel.Qiang's eyes stared at the signal light depressedly, and he pressed the button marked "Repair" casually.The signal light only came on once and then went off. When this happened for the first time more than 200 kilometers away from here, he hurriedly negotiated with the "central" station.Various systems were checked, but no faults were found.Originally, if all the alarms were believed, the passengers on the transport plane would have died long ago.In fact, everything is beyond the allowable range. This is obviously a fault of the accident signal system itself, so everyone breathed a sigh of relief and listened carefully to the theory explained by Professor Sai Suyi: This machine is no longer in the full vacuum condition it is required to use. Layers of interference have had an effect on the sensors of the alarm system.

"Someone should have foreseen this situation!" Qiangger muttered angrily.He wasn't particularly worried: there was an hour of travel left in all.Monitoring can only be enhanced by frequent and continuous checks of all critical parameters. The "Central" station supports this approach: to be honest, there is no other way anyway. What worries Qiangge the most is the battery.The nearest charging station is more than 2,000 kilometers away, and if you can't get there, things will be really bad.During the descent, however, the transporter's electric motor acts as a generator, so 90 percent of its potential energy is fed into the battery pack.Now, the storage battery is fully charged, and the hundreds of kilowatts of electricity that continues to be generated is surplus. The only way to deal with it is to discharge it into the universe through the huge heat sink at the tail of the fuselage.Because of these heat sinks, co-workers often told Jang that his unique machine looked like an old-fashioned bomb.By now, they were probably burning to the point of redness.

It goes without saying that John would be terribly alarmed if he knew that the heat sinks were not at all heated.Energy is not lost - then it must be expended in something.It is very common for energy to be used where it should not be used at all. When the signal of "Fire-battery compartment" appeared for the third time, Qiangge restored the console to its original state without hesitation.A real fire would set fire extinguishers to work, and what worried him most was whether they would start working when they weren't needed.Now, there have been several problems on the transport plane, especially the charging circuit part of the battery.It seemed that when the trip was over, he would have to climb into the engine room of the generator and check everything out himself, the old way.

All this happened within a total of one kilometer of the target.The first was that his nose smelled something wrong.Even when Qiang couldn't believe his eyes and was staring at the wisp of smoke coming out of the dashboard, the part of his brain that could still analyze calmly was still saying, "What a lucky coincidence, it didn't happen until the end." Fire!" It was only later that he remembered the tremendous energy generated by the final brake, and guessed the course of events without any difficulty.Apparently, the protection system was not working and the battery was overcharged.One by one, the safety features failed.Under the cover of Professor Saisuyi's misjudgment about ionospheric storm interference, the non-living body weight has caused human beings to suffer another ruthless blow.

Strongly pressed the button of the fire extinguisher in the battery compartment.The extinguisher worked: from under the bulkhead came the dull roar of nitrogen streams.Ten seconds later, Qiang opened the valve and released the gas into the universe.A large part of the heat escapes with the gas.The valve also functions normally.For the first time in his life, Qiang listened with a sense of relief to the whistling sound of air rushing out of a spacecraft. When the machine finally approached the docking station, Jong did not risk relying entirely on the automatic brakes: fortunately, thanks to his prior training and his familiarity with all the visual signals, Jong was finally able to stop at about a distance from the docking unit. It stopped at the centimeter position.In a desperate rush, the airlock was successfully connected, and then through the docking pipe, the equipment and equipment on the transport plane were pushed out..."

…When Professor Saisuyi tried to return to the transport plane to rescue his precious instruments, the pilot, accompanying engineer, and flight attendant worked together with him to complete the operation.Just seconds before the bulkhead of the motor compartment would fail, the airlock lid slammed shut. After that, those who were rescued stayed in the square house 15 meters in length and width in a daze. They could only wait there, hoping that the fire would be extinguished by itself.It may well be that the passengers were fortunate in their ignorance of the truth of the matter, for it was of great benefit to their mental calm.Only Qiangger and the accompanying engineer know that the overcharged battery is like a delayed-detonation bomb, and its timing mechanism is currently ticking beside the orbital tower!

Ten minutes after they were inside, the bomb went off.At first there was a dull explosion, which only caused the orbital tower to vibrate weakly.Then, everyone heard the thrilling sound of metal cracking.These voices made the rescuers feel chills from the bottom of their hearts—they knew that the only means of transportation, after leaving them 25,000 kilometers away from the "Central" station, had now collapsed. debris. There was a second, longer explosion, followed by a silence, as the rescued guessed that the machine had fallen from the orbital tower.While still in shock, they finally got around to looking at their spares.Only then did they gradually understand that their miraculous salvation might be in vain.