The completely out-of-control Psionic Energy Well was supplying excess energy to every crystallized conduit within the wreckage. The Deep Diving Ship's own energy-release channels were utterly incapable of handling so much surplus energy. Although a large number of Energy Scavengers were working frantically outside, the wreckage's fragile structure meant there was a limit to how much power the scavengers could use in this situation. No matter how precise Tawell's judgment was or how vast her knowledge, in such a complex and sudden situation, she had to abandon many things to preserve as much of the wreckage's Database as possible, such as all the experimental compartments she had abandoned earlier. Even so, she had only bought us two hours, and the situation in the wreckage's Core Area had not improved at all.
We entered through the maintenance passage and proceeded straight ahead for more than ten minutes before reaching the transfer area connecting the maintenance passage to the ship's internal corridors. It was an enormous alloy hall, over a hundred meters tall and several hundred meters wide on average, large enough for small spacecraft to pass through. Three passages branched off from the transfer area. One led back the way we had come, another stretched deeper into the ship and was the official corridor leading directly to the Database compartment, while the third was dimly lit, twisted, and sinister, with only thick smoke and flames billowing from its depths. That passage led to the completely sealed Inner Ring Belt Energy Bolt. It was the culprit behind this emergency: the final Energy Bolt in the entire wreckage that had failed to be removed. If it had not suddenly jammed, the Deep Diving Ship's Psionic Energy Well management program would not have concluded that the experimental compartments needed more energy.
But now, that