The Surfacing Abyssal Devourer
Su Ming had never worked with a reactor before.
Now is not the time to consult tutorials.
However, as a craftsman in a small factory, Su Ming was not lacking in unorthodox methods.
"Zhurong", refers to the core mesh previously marked with "local power mapping deviation".
"All power locked at 80%."
Since we can't figure out the specific problem yet, let's first reduce the power of the parts that have previously exhibited abnormal fluctuations back to normal.
The specified core grid has been locked at 80% power.
Currently, the overall power has decreased by 134%.
Then, for the whole thing, keep squeezing every last drop of juice out of it!
"Increase the power in the normal zone, restore it to 150%!" Su Ming immediately followed up with the command.
1 Received, currently upgrading "Beianqi, speed?"
"110 sections!"
"Keep."
"Yes!"
Behind them, Charybdis opened his enormous maw.
Cavitation began to appear in the nearby sea area.
This indicates an extremely rapid difference in water flow velocity!
However, the Pansy has not yet detected any direct signals.
The speed of sound in water is only 1,500 meters per second.
What Su Ming's sonar saw was an image delayed by ten seconds!
But Qun stared intently at the areas on Charybdis's body that were constantly emitting high-voltage noise.
"Section Fourteen!"
"The thirteenth section!"
He suddenly raised his voice and shouted, "It's in His mouth!"
Based on the distance and delay time, it can be deduced that in reality, the pressurized water flow had already advanced to the vicinity of the first section!
"Dive immediately!" Su Ming ordered sharply.
Beianqi immediately opened all the forward ballast tanks of the Pansy, while the aft ballast tanks were injected with air at maximum pressure.
In supercavitating conditions, conventional control surfaces are almost ineffective.
But the vector nozzle at the tail pump's water outlet suddenly deflected!
The entire stern of the submarine suddenly rose up, and it plunged headlong into the deeper water!
This extreme evasive maneuver lasted only a little over thirty seconds.
The next moment -
A sudden, terrifying tremor swept across the entire submarine!
Amidst the roar, even as the Pansy was speeding at 110 knots, it was still forcibly swept along by the unreasonable and tyrannical current, continuing to accelerate forward!
All the members were jolted by the force of the impact and clung tightly to anything that could be secured.
The crew members in the cockpit even felt an extremely noticeable push-back sensation.
"Compartments one, three, seven, and eleven are leaking!" the mechanic yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Ignore it, keep descending!" Su Ming said without hesitation.
The violent impact lasted for about ten seconds.
And three more compartments started leaking.
But at that moment, the impact suddenly eased.
Su Ming's heart skipped a beat.
This is about to break through the rapids!
"Press the tail down!" he shouted urgently.
Beianqi immediately adjusted the vector nozzle, and the water flow from the pump changed direction, becoming an upward angled spray.
At the same time, the ballast water tank was also controlled in the opposite direction.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, the bow of the Pansy was the first to emerge from the raging torrent.
But the tail, still stuck in the rapids, began to rise sharply!
Fortunately, Su Ming anticipated this, and the reverse-direction jet at the tail forcefully resisted the deflection force.
Finally, they successfully escaped.
The entire submarine suddenly relaxed and finally re-entered a relatively stable current zone.
A violent turbulence roared past the submarine, like a ferocious deep-sea beast brushing past it.
"All ships, emergency rescue!" Su Ming immediately ordered.
"Yes!"
All crew members immediately sprang into action, unleashing their magic and rushing to the various leaks to seal the damaged areas as quickly as possible.
Zijin also unbuckled her seatbelt, summoned her staff, and immediately flew into the cabin to begin work.
Two or three minutes later, the torrent above gradually subsided.
"Current depth?"
Three hundred and twenty!
"Stop descending and continue to increase the distance between yourself and Charybdis."
"Yes!"
A dozen minutes later, as the distance between the two sides continued to increase, Charybdis did not continue to pursue.
No new pressurized jets were initiated.
Under Zijin's leadership, the leaks inside the boat were brought under control one by one.
Only then did everyone finally catch their breath.
What's the situation with the Albacore?
"It veered to the side from the very beginning," the sonar operator quickly reported.
"They should be fine. Charybdis has been keeping his eyes on us the whole time."
Su Ming nodded.
Only then did he feel a wave of exhaustion, his back drenched in sweat.
"Damn it, I didn't expect the Deep Sea Abyssal Devourer to have this multi-stage pressurized jet feature!"
He couldn't help but swear.
Beianqi was also covered in cold sweat, and as usual, she grabbed her clothes and fanned herself vigorously.
"President, how did you know we should hide down there?" she couldn't help but ask.
For submarines, the deeper they go, the more dangerous it becomes.
Given the anticipated impending damage to the Pansy, theoretically, approaching the water earlier would have made escape easier.
The hull of the boat does not need to withstand such high water pressure.
Otherwise, if combined with Charybdis's attack, it would only make matters worse!
At the time, Beianqi even thought that Su Ming had made a mistake in his haste.
But my body still reflexively carried out the command.
"It's thanks to the president's quick thinking," Hechun said at this moment.
They've clearly figured it out.
He clasped his hands together and gestured.
"Charybdis's head is currently too light."
"With such a huge jet of water, the head will inevitably tilt backward."
"He can't control the trajectory."
Only then did Beianqi understand completely.
She gave Su Ming a thumbs up.
****
About an hour later, the Pansy finally received the long-awaited Albacore.
After confirming that they were both safe and sound, both sides visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Su Ming, I have good news for you!" Stacy's excited voice came through as soon as the communication was established.
"Charybdis, you've surfaced!"
Su Ming was slightly taken aback.
Why did it rise to the surface?
"Is the little buoyancy we add enough for Him to float as a whole?"
"It's not a buoyancy problem, it's a structural problem!" Stacy spoke rapidly.
"He couldn't hold down the second section for long; the adjacent sections couldn't withstand it."
"I guess it's like how you can't keep your neck hunched over all the time."
"So now, about a third of His body, on the first side, has already floated to the surface!"
The remaining two-thirds are stuck diagonally in the sea.
As the distance decreased and communication bandwidth increased, the Albacore transmitted back more observational data.
After completing that multi-stage pressurized jet, Charybdis's head finally began to slowly rise.
A deep, muffled rumble echoed across the icy plains.
Immediately afterwards, cracking sounds began to be mixed in.
The sound grew louder and louder, and its range expanded.
In the end, it was almost everywhere.
Next, ridges of ice rose up and spread layer by layer across the ice surface.
This Pale, icy sea, just like a real ocean, surged with towering waves!
The sound of shattering reached its peak at a certain moment.
Further on, only low, inaudible vibrations remained.
It was as if all the sharp cracks were crushed into dust at this moment.
When everything settled down, the ice in the central area had completely shattered.
It was as if it were just a fragile, crushed eggshell.
Their original locations now reveal large patches of their gray bodies.
It's as if a small island suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the surface of the Arctic Ocean.
****
The cabin was filled with excited shouts.
Such a hard-won victory did not deter Su Ming from the celebration.
But he has important things to deal with now.
"Zhurong, output power reduced to 50%."
"Generate a complete fault report for the incident that just occurred."
Received, generating a fault report. Soon, the report was submitted to Su Ming.
He lowered his head and carefully flipped through the pages.
After Su Ming ordered the shutdown of some anomalous core meshes, the fault was quickly contained.
This allowed the Pansy to escape the dangerous rapids.
The Quail also came over and studied the report with them.
Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something.
"Chairman, if the hafnium content in the zirconium metal used for reactor core cladding is too high, could this situation occur?"
Su Ming glanced at him.
"It seems so."
The reactor core cladding cannot absorb too many neutrons.
Otherwise, it will not only affect the reaction rate, but also lead to local overheating.
Hafnium, a "twin element" with properties extremely similar to zirconium, is a typical impurity that must be eliminated!
Because its neutron absorption efficiency is 640 times that of zirconium!
The Quail immediately pulled up a document.
That was the weighing data of residual hafnium content in the zirconium material transmitted by Su Ming, which was previously submitted by Yisaile.
Three sets of data deviated significantly from the normal range.
"It's hafnium contamination!" Hechun slammed his fist on the control panel.
He was filled with remorse.
"This report is correct; I misunderstood Yisaile!"
Su Ming slowly narrowed his eyes.
"You mean the reactor malfunctioned, not because of my operational error—"
"Is it because an excessive amount of hafnium was mixed into some of our reactor core cladding material?"
"Yes!" said the Hechun.
"That's why our zirconium material at the time had insufficient hafnium residue!"
Su Ming immediately understood this.
"Zhurong!" He turned to the intelligent control core.
"Build a simulator, import this hypothesis into it, and replay the process we just went through."
Received. Constructing the virtual reactor fault point 30 seconds in advance. Parameter import setup fault cause import: Fuel assemblies 3, 12, and 17. Hafnium contamination in the cladding material occurred quickly, and the simulation operation curve was generated.
The overlap with the actual fault symptoms just observed is as high as 90%!
The simulation has been completed. The result confidence interval is 95%.
Technical zeroing judgment: Reproduction successful, mechanism clear, location accurate (click).
He snapped the armrest of the chair he was Su Ming on.
His eyes narrowed.
On the Taya side, no one has touched these nuclear fuel pellets.
After the teleportation was completed, he personally controlled the skeleton to transport it into the Pansy core for encapsulation.
Therefore, the problem must lie in the manufacturing process.
In other words -
Earth Support Team!
Heguang!