Chapter 44 44. The rough road

Warren Kingsley tried his best to control his emotions, but his deep voice could not help revealing the pessimism and disappointment in his heart. "We were trying to dissuade the mechanic from committing suicide," he said. "At the time, he was given another urgent assignment and he forgot to remove the safety clip." That said, once again human error has occurred.When installing the hot-melt bolts, the battery is fixed with two metal pressure plates.However, only one piece was removed during the dismantling... Since the monotonous work often makes people feel tired, this kind of phenomenon often happens again and again; Sometimes, catastrophic accidents can result.Blaming is useless these days.The only thing that matters is: what to do next?

Morgan angled the outside reflector, but couldn't see what was causing the glitch.The aurora had long since disappeared, and the lower part of the space capsule was shrouded in deep darkness.There is no light source for illumination; however, if the monsoon forecast station sends a few kilowatts of infrared radiation to the bottom of the space orbit tower, then, no matter what, the space orbit tower will definitely be excited to emit some ordinary light quanta... "We can use our own searchlights," Kingsley replied when Morgan told him what he wanted. "The lights don't work--they blind my eyes. Light from behind and from above is needed. Just look around and see if anyone's just in the right place .” Morgan made further demands.

"Right away!" Kingsley replied.Since he could somewhat do something to get rid of the current predicament, his mood quietly relaxed a little.Morgan felt that Kingsley had been silent for a long time, but when he checked the timer, he was surprised to find that only three minutes had passed in total. "The 'Golden Jet' space station can send the light right away. They have artificial white lasers, and they are exactly at the position you need. Do you think they should take action?" Finally, Kingsley's answer came. Morgan thought about it.What Kingsley said was correct. The location of "Jing Jie" should be in a high place in the west, which is just right.

"I'm ready, let's act!" After finishing speaking, Morgan narrowed his eyes. In an instant, the cockpit was filled with light, and Morgan carefully opened his eyes a little.The light was coming from the upper west corner; although the source was forty thousand kilometers away, the light coming in was blindingly bright, and despite the fact that it was the red, green and blue three parts of the spectrum. or mixed narrow rays of polychromatic light, but appear to be white. After a few seconds, Morgan found the desired angle of the reflector and had a clear view of the offending safety clip half a meter below him.He saw that one end of the clip was attached to the bottom of the spider by a large nut, so the nut had to be unscrewed to allow the battery to fall...

Kingsley's voice came out again on the communication line.After hearing what he said, Morgan couldn't help but whistled softly: "Are you sure about the safety factor? ... Then let's try. But the first time can't be longer than a second." "That's not enough time, of course. But it doesn't matter—you can get the whole situation out of it." Morgan carefully released the friction brakes that locked the Spider.Immediately, he felt as if he was thrown from the driving seat - he entered a state of weightlessness.After counting: "One, two!", he reapplied the brakes.

"Spider" twitched, and Morgan was pushed hard onto the seat.The braking mechanism "gritted its teeth" fiercely, so, if the weak vibrations that quickly decayed were not counted, the space capsule stopped again. "It's as bumpy as a sports car on a bumpy road," Morgan said after gathering his composure, "but I'm still alive, and so is the damn battery." "I warned you about this in advance. Please try again. Two seconds, it can't be shorter." Kingsley said confidently. Morgan knew it would be difficult to argue with Kingsley now, with the computer behind him.But ... two seconds of free fall; and, say, half a second of braking ... plus a correction for the one-ton mass of the "Spider" ... In short, the problem before us is this : Who will be the first to die-the safety clip of the battery is stuck?Or the conduction zone that allowed Morgan to stay at an altitude of four hundred kilometers?Under normal conditions, the strength of steel is not as strong as that of superfiber, but if the brakes are too hard, the safety clip and the guide belt may not be able to withstand it.At that time, the accumulator and Morgan himself will fall to the earth almost at the same time...

The impact was so strong that it was almost unbearable to the nerves, and the decay time of the vibration was much longer than the previous one.Morgan thought he felt, or even heard, the snap of the safety clip.However, when he glanced at the reflector, he couldn't help groaning: the battery is still in the old place! This time, Kingsley didn't seem to feel overly disturbed. "Maybe three or four more tries," he announced. Morgan really wanted to ask him back, "Don't you want to try it with me?" But he finally held back.Of course, such a statement can definitely lead to Warren's army, but we have to consider that there are other audiences present...

After the third impact—the Spider seemed to have descended several kilometers, when in fact it was only about a hundred meters in all—even Kingsley's optimism evaporated.It was perfectly clear that the game had not been played. "Please congratulate the maker of this safety clip for me!" Morgan said sarcastically. "What else is there to suggest? Land for three seconds before braking?" He thought he saw Kingsley's troubled face. "It's too risky to go any further. It's not the guide belt that worries me the most, but the braking mechanism wasn't designed for this kind of load."

"That's okay, we've tested it just now." Morgan replied, "But I'm not going to admit defeat. If I really get screwed by some kind of nut under my nose, then I'll do it too." Just bad luck. Now, I'm going to go overboard and get this thing out."