The Martian Race
“BRUTALLY. THE PANEL HAD PEELED off about a meter above the reaction chamber. Inside they could see a mass of popped valves, ruptured pumps, and tangled lines.“Damn, I built those to take three times the demand load,” Raoul said.“Something surged,” Viktor said. “Readout shows that.”“Still, the system should have held,” Raoul insisted, face dark. “The seals must've leaked.”“Overpressure was probably from double line we made,” Viktor said mildly.“Ummm.” Raoul bit his lip. Julia could see his pale face through his helmet viewer and wondered if he felt defeated. He was looking intently at the ruined assembly. “There seems to be a stain inside … dust! There's dust inside the line!” He turned to Viktor, “It's the seals all right, and having two lines made it just that much worse—twice as many seals.” Then he nodded briskly. “That's it, all right. We should check with the desk guys, see if anything else showed up during their test fire, but I'll bet that's it.”“Double line was their idea.”“Right.
Write Review:
User Reviews: