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'ta' Consulting: essentially rewrite the chapter 

The original was too much arguing.
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BodgeMaster 2025-05-20 09:02:30 +02:00
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<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title> Consulting </title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="html_resources/style.css"></head><body><div class="back"><a href="index.html">&lt;</a></div>
<h1> Consulting </h1>
<p class="comment">
The following is a conversation between Jack and someone from the
train company.
</p>
<p>
<span class="quote speech">Why wouldn&apos;t they work outside? It&apos;s
not like they&apos;re magically gonna come off the rails once they leave
the dome.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">All of your trains are outfitted with
fail-safe emergency brakes. On power loss, you have about 15 seconds
before they are applied and the train comes to an abrupt, unscheduled
halt. You can&apos;t even tow these things without power.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">I thought you said the tracks were in decent
shape? Why would the <span class="comment">contacts? sliders?</span>
come off the power rail for that long?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">A) I didn&apos;t, I said they are in
<i>surprisingly</i> decent shape after being exposed to the elements
for a century without any maintenance. B) That power rail isn&apos;t
gonna be of any use because it doesn&apos;t deliver any power.</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">What do you mean? Why not?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Where does the rail get its power from?</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">The power grid.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Not quite, but close enough. What do we not
have outside?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Of course there is a power grid outside.
It&apos;s what powered the old world just as ours powers the city.</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">There used to be one, that much is correct,
but it hasn&apos;t been used or maintained in a century. Even if you did
somehow manage to get part of it working, I still wouldn&apos;t trust it.
And where would you wanna get the electricity to run it from?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">From a substation. We fix up one of those and
use it to power the grid.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Great, now you have a local grid attached to
the high voltage grid. And what do you wanna power that with?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">What? The substations make the power.
It&apos;s where all the power in the city comes from: Two substations
&ndash; one in the wall next to this airlock and the other one is by
the other airlock.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">There is a third one deep below Central
Square. These are indeed where the electricity in the city comes from
but they don&apos;t make it. They get it from a power plant outside,
a bit northeast of here.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">The dome powered by the outside world?
People be believing strange things these days...</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">I don&apos;t have to believe. I was there when
the city was built and, more recently, I helped replace a failing
generator at said power plant. You might have noticed the outage.</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">Uhuh, sure buddy. Since you&apos;ve been doing
nothing but spewing nonsense all this time, I&apos;m just gonna have one
of our guys drive a train up there and we&apos;ll see what happens.</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">I&apos;ll get some popcorn. Watching this is
gonna be fun...</span>
<span class="quote speech">If it is as you say then why don&apos;t you go
over there and touch that power rail?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Because I&apos;m not stupid.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Because you&apos;re lying. You&apos;re just
in kahoots with them to keep us all inside.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Sir, I&apos;m done arguing with
you. I told you twice that it is never a good idea to to touch these.
I told you what you could do instead. Go ahead with your bone-headed
plan, get a train to the airlock and find out for yourself.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Leaving you alone here so you can sabotage
...?</span><br />
Jack cuts him off: <span class="quote speech">In fact, I am gonna leave
and see if I can find some popcorn. Watching this is gonna be
fun...</span>
</p>
<p>
The rails start ringing and a train of the Sunside Cove Metro approaches.
It slows down and comes to a halt before the power rail&apos;s gap for
the switches in front of the closed airlock. Inside are a driver and the
railway official. Jack reaches into his backpack, grabs a bag of chips
&ndash; he didn&apos;t find any popcorn for the occasion &ndash; and
opens it. The headlights turn off and the driver leaves the driver&apos;s
cabin. A moment later, the first door opens and he climbs out.<br />
It slows down and comes to a halt before the switches in front of the
closed airlock. In the cab are a driver and the railway official.
Jack, sitting next to the rails, reaches into his bag of chips &ndash;
he didn&apos;t find any popcorn for the occasion &ndash; and shoves
a handful into his mouth. The headlights turn off and the driver leaves.
A moment later, the first door opens and he jumps out.<br />
<span class="quote speech">No, I am only going to drive the first segment
in there. We don&apos;t need the entire train stuck in the tunnel if it
doesn&apos;t go to plan.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">It&apos;s gonna be fine. What could go
wrong?</span><br />
Jack replies loudly so both of them hear him:
Jack says (loudly so both of them hear him):
<span class="quote speech">A lot.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">You shut up.</span><br />
The driver says: <span class="quote speech">I&apos;m inclined to agree
with him.</span><br />
He turns around and walks to the end of the first railcar where he
<span class="quote speech">You shut up!</span> shouts the official from
inside.<br />
The driver says, talking over his shoulder:
<span class="quote speech">I&apos;m inclined to agree with him.</span>
<br />
Then, he turns around and walks to the end of the first railcar where he
proceeds to detach the hoses and cables and unhooks the couplings.
Then, he returns to the front and climbs back inside.
He returns to the front and climbs back inside.
</p>
<p>
The headlights come back on and a compressor kicks into action.
A few contactors click inside the train. After a moment, the door closes.
The headlights come back on and a few contactors click inside the train.
A compressor kicks into action. After a moment, the door closes.
The train sits like this for a few minutes until the compressor turns off
again. Jack shoves a handfull of chips into his mouth. The inner door
of the airlock begins to open, creaking and buzzing as it slowly moves
@ -90,45 +55,82 @@
</p>
<p>
The motors begin to hum and the first car of the train starts moving
towards the airlock. It loses power as it rolls over the switches
and the headlights dim. Jack puts his bag of chips aside and presses
the button on his watch that lights up the display. He begins to count
in his head:
<br />
<span class="quote non-speech">One, two, three, four, five...</span><br />
The railcar rolls completely into the airlock. It&apos;s still
decently far away from the other door.<br />
<span class="quote non-speech">Six, seven, eight, nine...</span><br />
It rolls deeper into the airlock, beyond Jack&apos;s view.<br />
<span class="quote non-speech">Ten, eleven...</span><br />
Loud hissing sounds from inside the airlock &ndash; the train&apos;s
failsafe mechanism begins to release the pressurized air from its tanks.
<br />
<span class="quote non-speech">Twelve, thirteen, fourteen...</span><br />
A loud <i>clunk</i> followed by screeching and grinding noises as the
emergency brakes are applied.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Fifteen.</span><br />
towards the airlock. It loses power as it rolls past the end of the power
rail and over the switches. The headlights dim. Jack shoves another
handful of chips into his mouth. The railcar disappears completely inside
the airlock, rolling without power. It&apos;s still decently far away
from the other door. Jack thinks <span class="quote non-speech">any
second now...</span> as he waits for the emergency brakes to engage.
The car rolls deeper into the airlock, beyond Jack&apos;s view. Moments
later, loud hissing sounds from inside the airlock as the train&apos;s
failsafe mechanism trips, followed by screeching and grinding noises from
the brakes.
</p>
<p>
Jack grabs his bag of chips and gets up. He walks onto the tracks and
looks into the airlock, stuffing his face as he watches the dim
<span class="comment">R&uuml;cklichter? rear lights?</span> go out.
</p>
<p>
A few minutes pass and nothing happens. Eventually, Jack hears one of
the doors getting unlocked with a key and sees it getting pushed open
by hand. He gets off the track and sits back down next to the rails,
continuing to stuff his face with chips. A bit later, he watches the
driver and the railway official doing the walk of shame, the latter
seeming pretty close to an aneurysm.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Told you so.</span><br />
A few minutes pass and nothing happens. Eventually, he hears one of
the doors getting unlocked with a key and sees a hand pushing it open.
He gets off the track and sits back down next to the rails,
continuing to crunch on chips. A bit later, the driver and the railway
official emerge from the tunnel, the latter seeming pretty close
to having an aneurysm.<br />
Jack says: <span class="quote speech">Told you so.</span><br />
The railway official loses it completely, <span class="comment">stampfen?
</span> and jumping around while screaming some apparently very colorful
</span> and jumping around while screaming some presumably very colorful
language &ndash; Jack doesn&apos;t understand a single word.
</p>
<p>
The train driver approaches him: <span class="quote speech">
Who are you, by the way, and what are you doing around the tracks?
</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Jack, former head of dome infra between
1992 and 1994.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">You look like you&apos;re twenty-something,
not over a hundred.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">I was frozen after that.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Well, you seem to know some things about
trains. You <span class="comment">reckon</span> we can get that thing
towed out with an <span class="comment">translate: &Uuml;berl&auml;nge
</span> train?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">I&apos;d say it&apos;s probably not
advisable. It could work, but you should really just use a diesel
locomotive.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">Diesel?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">My bad &mdash; battery-powered.
Alternatively, I can get the diesel-electric train from outside and
push it back in.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">You have a train that is perfectly fine going
on unpowered track and let us get one of ours stuck in there?</span>
<br />
<span class="quote speech">Told him.</span> Jack nods towards the railway
official. <span class="quote speech">He didn&apos;t wanna hear about
it.</span><br />
</p>
<p class="comment">
The train driver proceeds to walk to the rest of the train but Jack stops
him.
"It&apos;s too far back. There are only two feasible ways to get it
back out: Getting power on the track inside the airlock or dismantling
the brakes so it can be towed."
missing section: they decide to have Jack get the train from IV South
</p>
<p>
Jack grabs the microphone off the wall and holds the push to talk button
on the control panel in front of him.<br />
<span class="quote speech">7-oh-5-D oh-oh-1-4, underway to
airlock two. Control, permission to enter Sunside cove?</span><br />
He waits for a moment. Noise from the speaker, but no discernable
response.<br />
<span class="quote speech">This is train 7-oh-5-D oh-oh-1-4, approaching
airlock two. Control, do I have permission to enter?</span><br />
<!--
Control: 705E... 705D 0014 your track is blocked by another train. Stop immediately.
short pause, Jack decelerates
Control: 705E 0151 what's your situation?
705E 0151: Control, waiting for 705D 0014 to push us back out of the airlock
Control: 705D 0014 you are ok to enter, proceed with caution
more missing section
they decide the best course for Sunside Cove is to convert a 705E to 705D
with parts harvested from the IV train yard
-->
</p>
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