Academician Wang's pupils suddenly contracted, and he immediately roared into the communicator, "Chief Engineer, increase the toroidal field strength! Now-"
Before Ji Ting could even raise his hand, the neutron monitor let out a piercing, deathlike shriek.
Academician Cao's eyes widened in horror. The expanding purple spot had begun twisting erratically-a sign that the magnetic confinement field was about to collapse.
"The Seventh Magnetic Ring is overloaded!" Academician Wang roared, his voice raw with blood, as he frantically hammered the unresponsive emergency shutdown button. But the safety system had already failed.
"I wasn't rejecting your ideas just for the sake of it. You forgot the safety redundancy issues I stressed time and again."
Ji Ting's earlier warning drove into their hearts like a spike. Academician Cao lunged for the console, but before he could pick up the communicator, the first explosion tore through the air in the laboratory.
Boom!
Twelve sets of helium circulation cooling pipes burst simultaneously. The instant the liquid helium, at minus 269 degrees, met the air, a storm of ice crystals swept through the entire laboratory.
Ji Ting's figure flickered in and out of sight within the vortex of ice crystals and flames. Just then, the mechanical alert sounded again: "Warning! Warning! Particle stream leakage rate has exceeded the threshold!"
"Chief Engineer, terminate all..." Academician Cao's scream was cut off by the hum of the particle accelerator. The remote control system had failed completely.
Academician Wang pounded the blast-resistant glass like a madman, his roars mingling with the bloody froth between his lips and teeth. "Get out! Little Ji, get out of there!"
"Chief Engineer! Chief Engineer!!"
The academicians present were all plunged into shock and confusion, but they had no time to panic. Some tried to stabilize the control system; others searched for another way