HACK THE WORLD
Prologue: A spark, then a bang...
The bitter aroma of coffee grime and sweat permeated throughout the control room of the Indian Point nuclear plant. Dull, blinking lights flickered across the cold metal control consoles with an elegant dance of color. A harsh white luminescence rained down from the fluorescent panels above, illuminating the numerous analysts and engineers going about their individual tasks. Among the jumble of sluggish communication and monotonous clicking of keyboards laid a single man resting at his desk, his head planted firmly atop a mound of white data sheets. As he laid unconscious, another worker stealthily approached from behind.
“John!” The approaching workmate blared directly into the drowsy man’s ear. With a vigorous jolt, the once prostrate form was resurrected from his lethargic state.
“Jesus, Alan, for once could you just let me sleep in peace!” John griped.
“Not when it’s you damn shift, you lazy son of a bitch,” Alan replied in a jovial tone. It was then that Alan pulled a small tray out that he had been hiding behind his back, by which John was immediately entranced. On the platter laid two porcelain cups filled with a frothy caramel colored liquid; a slight hint of cinnamon radiated about them. “I was gonna give one of these to you, but now I’m not so sure-” Before he could finish his sentence, John had already swiped one of the drinks, and directly proceeded to take a satisfying mouthful. “Dammit, I was gonna try to get you to cover the tech briefing tomorrow,” Alan mockingly complained. John slowly lowered the drink from his face, letting loose a contented sigh.
“Since when have I ever given you the chance to get the upper hand on me?” John quipped.
“Heh, I guess that’s right, but I could at least get a thank you, you know how hard it is to get the caf to brew anything other than coffee.”
“Yea, if I had to go another night without tea I would’ve probably gone into a coma, so thank you, for once,” John sarcastically replied. The two offered a soft laugh before settling back down into their individual stations.
“Hey John, could you hand over those kinetic readings you printed out? I need to get that report ready for the administrator.”
“Sure, but just to let you know, there might be some slight variation with Core B’s readings, but I checked it out and it was nothing too out of the norm.” John promptly stacked the papers that were strewn across his desk and handed them over to his partner's outstretched hand.
“Thanks man, I’ll check those readings out too if you don’t mind- oh my God, what is this?” Alan asked in exasperation.
“What’s wrong?” John replied in a concerned tone. Alan flipped a few pages into the stack and proceeded to thrust the open page into John’s startled face.
“You literally drooled over your data tables! I swear to God, are you in elementary school?!” John nervously laughed as he received the tainted papers back from Alan.
“Haha, sorry ‘bout that. Anyway, it’s not that big a deal I can just print you a new copy.”
“Please do, I’d rather not hand in a report that you used as a temporary pillow.” Alan supported his chin over his open palm as he took another long swig of tea. John leaned back over towards his computer. His hand motioned the mouse around the pad, without any response from the monitor in front of him.
“Ah, you gotta be kidding me, I think my PC froze.” John exclaimed in exasperation. Alan released a distressed sigh before responding.
“What a surprise, I swear to God these things freeze up more than a fucking refrigerator. Just restart the damn thing.”
“Yea, I know, I know. Doesn't help that most of the tech in here is from the 90’s.” John outstretched a finger towards the power button of his computer, when a spark abruptly shot out from the interface, striking his palm. With an acute yelp, John recoiled in his chair. “Ow! What the hell was that!?” Alan looked to John in surprise at the sudden outburst.
“What happened? Did that piece of junk seriously shock you?” Alan asked in slight amusement.
“Yes, and it fuckin’ hurt!” John cradled his wounded hand against his chest, as he rocked back and forth in his chair.
“Heh, looks like that thing finally got tired of having your nasty hands all over it. I’ll call IT, let them deal with something for once-” Before Alan could reach for the phone, a loud grinding sound engulfed the room in unrelenting noise, forcing all the surrounding workers to swiftly clasp their hands against their heads in agony. Arcs of electricity erupted from the panels on the left side of the room, but then proceeded across the walls like a wave of scorching energy. The overhead lights rapidly flickered, while some completely shattered, leaving large pieces of broken glass to plummet onto the floor below. Several men jumped from their stations to avoid the deathly flares and debris, as they traveled towards the opposite side of the room, only to dissipate into the open gaps of the active panels. The whole area was left in a suffocating scent of smoke and burnt rubber. The surrounding air felt prickly, a notable charge still present in the atmosphere. Weak groans could be heard from the many men lying on the ground, all of them still lingering in a mass sense of confusion and shock.
Alan attempted to climb back up, only to be thrown into a fit of violent coughs from the thick, grainy haze. Once he had calmed his now throbbing lungs, Alan stood fully erect, now able to view the full impact of the disturbance.
Streaks of black resembling burnt charcoal spread across the many of the boards and gauges. Several of the broken bulbs discharged golden sparks which descended like molten rain. As Alan gazed upon the damage, a few weak hacks sounded from his left. He looked down to see John trying to mount his chair. Alan swiftly went to his aid, lifting him by the torso and onto the seat. The two looked to each other for a moment, assuring each other of their able state.
“So...what the hell was that?” Before Alan could formulate a response to John’s query, alarms began to howl throughout the complex, red emergency lights sequentially flashing into the room. Both men, as well as the surrounding workers all rushed to the nearest terminal. John erratically scanned the flashing switches before locking onto a single one.
“Alan, it’s the LOCA alarm, there’s been major damage to the coolant tanks!” John said in an panicked tone.
“Is the reactor going into emergency shutdown?!”
“Yes, I think so, but, oh my God, the emergency cooling system isn’t responding!” Alan looked at John in horror at the proclamation.
“But if the decay heat isn’t cooled on shutdown, then...”
“Hello, Chernobyl.” The two engineers looked at each other with a mutual sense of dread. Alan then proceeded to stand at full attention, before addressing the chaotic group.
“Listen up! The tanks are damaged and we’re rapidly leaking coolant; the reactor has gone into emergency shutdown, but the ECCS isn’t responding! Without that, well, I’m sure you all know what that means.” A panicked murmur spread throughout the crowd before Alan resumed his address. “That’s our current situation, and we will find a way to handle it! Okay, now where’s my electrical team?!” Several men raised their hands and stepped forward. “Is there any way to trigger the cooling system manually?”
A technician spoke up from the crowd. “Well, under normal circumstances, you’d be able to do it from right here, but all the core functions in this room were shot from that disturbance. Even our backup systems are just hanging on by a thread.” Alan dragged an open hand down his face in frustration before responding.
“Okay, but is there any way to trip the system outside of the control room?” The techs conversed amongst themselves, an unintelligible collection of whispers and sounds emitted from the group. After a moment had passed, a younger looking worker spoke up.
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“You should be able access the plant’s emergency controls from the central console outside Core A. However, since the plant has gone into shutdown, all emergency systems have been temporarily locked. Only senior level access codes can disable the redundant systems.” Alan stood silent for a moment, processing the information before taking in a long, full breath.
“You, what’s your name?”
“Gardella, sir.” The technician replied.
“Alright, Gardella, you’re coming with me. John,” the addressed engineer lifted his head at Alan’s mention, “I want you and everyone else to continue monitoring the station from here, communicate to me with this.” Alan picked up a set of radios from his desk and handed one to John, who accepted the device. “Let’s go, techie!” The two ran out through the burnt set of doors and into the open corridor at a blistering pace towards their destination.
“Alan, you know where you’re going, right?” John’s voice crackled over the radio still grasped in Alan’s hand. Alan held his radio up to his mouth before responding.
“I’m the senior Goddamn engineer, I helped build most of this place!” Alan laughingly responded.
“Yet you still got lost trying to find the vending machines…” John responded with a childish chuckle.
“One fucking time, and the last time I ever ask you for help!”
“Well, we’ll see about that!” Alan and the technician continued their sprint down the grid line maze of corridors. The two turned another left when Alan shot his arm out, halting the other worker. Alan proceeded to walk up to a chrome box which jutted out from the concrete wall, and once again pulled the radio to his mouth.
“Alright, John, we reached the console.”
“Good, get that thing fixed ASAP, we want as little damage to cores as possible.”
“Got it!” Reaching into his pocket, Alan pulled out a set of keys, flipping to one, he inserted it into the casing. With a twist and a sharp click, Alan pulled the panels open to reveal the interior. The board inside was lined with switches of varying hues, flickering lights running parallel to each. In the center a small black box was mounted, which Alan immediately grabbed ahold of and flipped down. A keyboard now laid before him, with a monitor making up the top panel. The screen slowly came to life, the entirety of it filled with a plain blue; a single white line flickering in the top left corner.
“Good, it’s still working.” Gardella stated in relief. Alan placed his hands on the keys, imputing a series of codes and commands before hitting enter. The screen went blank for a moment before a massive flood of text and open fields flooded the display. “Alright techie, you’re up.” Alan stepped away from the console, allowing the man access. The technician immediately went to work, rapidly inputting large variations of functions into the open command lines. All that could be heard were the rapid blows to the small, plastic keys, and the muted buzzing of a fly which jittered around the bright screen. Alan stared intently at Gardella’s work, but an abrupt sputter of static from the radio broke his concentration.
“Alan...Al-...you there-.” The communication was fragmented and distorted. Alan fiddled with the frequency before the voice finally cleared up. “Alan, are ya there man?”
“I’m here,” Alan responded. “What’s up?”
“Um, how long is your guy gonna take?” Alan tapped the technician on the shoulder, before holding the radio up to his face.
“He wants to know our ETA.”
“It’s gonna take at least another ten minutes to get the algorithms for decay rate compensation imputed, then another...five, yea five more until the computer processes the commands and activates the ECCS.”
“Crap.” John’s voice snapped over the radio. Alan pulled back the radio to his head before speaking.
“What’s up, John?”
“The guys down here are feeding me some really bad shit, apparently the decay rate on the cores is increasing exponentially, way beyond what it should be.” Alan’s face contorted in confusion.
“What do you mean, that makes zero sense. Are your guys sure it’s not just instrumentation?” A long pause of static dragged on before John’s voice came through again.
“They said they’re absolutely sure.”
“Well...crap. How long do we have?” There was another pause.
“They say, Jesus, they say we only got eleven minutes before Core B goes critical, fifteen for the rest. Alan placed the radio on his hip before grabbing Gardella by the shoulder and facing him about.
“Listen, Gardella, I’m not gonna bullshit you here, I need you to pull this off in under seven minutes, or this whole place is going under, can...you...do it?” The young man’s face gazed at Alan in utter disbelief; he fumbled to find his words before ultimately giving an answer.
“I-if I bypass the compensators, yes, but that could lead to an equally bad situation!”
“What do you mean?”
“The compensators exist to regulate the processes of the cooling trains. Without them, there is a high chance they’ll overload, leaving the cores to continue overheating until they go critical!” Alan dropped his arms from the man's shoulders before shouting at the ceiling. After he had calmed slightly, Alan relayed the information to John, and awaited a response.
“They don’t like it, and frankly, I really don’t like it...but we all agree, go for it.”
“Well, we’re fucked either way, might as well go with door number two.” Alan looked towards the technician. “Dump the compensators, and start up the cooling system.” Gardella’s face knotted up for a moment before turning back towards the keyboard.
“Got it, dumping the algorithms now.”
“You only got eight minutes now kid, make ‘em count.” The man nodded with vigor, eyes still trained like lasers on the screen. Gardella’s hands waltzed around the pad, his fingers almost too difficult to track. Amid the tense silence, a shuffle in the distance echoed throughout the corridor. Alan's head shot up, his ears trained to the sound. At the end of the hall, a shadow lengthened from around the corner, before swiftly disappearing from the visible space. Alan began to apprehensively advance, but was stopped by the technician which had grabbed his shirt sleeve.
“It’s done.” Alan, almost in a trance, turned towards him, but with a shake of the head was brought back into reality.
“Alright, I’ll get control on the horn, see what’s going on.” Alan reached for the radio still hung from his belt. “John, you there? The techie’s finished up here, how’re the readings , are the temp’s regulating?” Silence. “John, you there man?” Nothing but tormenting white noise was transmitted from the speaker. The two men started at each other for a long second, concern evident in both their eyes, before a large sputter of static pulled them both out of their stupor.
“Alan, it looks like everything’s A-okay over here. The cooling trains seem to be holding together.” Alan grabbed Gardella into a firm embrace, jumping up and down while madly cheering to the heavens.
“You did it techie, you son of a bitch, I love you!” Both Alan and Gardella continued to cheer until they had both run out of breath, and were happily hunched over against the still open control console.
John’s voice crackled over the speaker, “Alan, why don’t you and the tech come on back to control, like it or not we just avoided a literal national crisis. The landlines and even the emergency phones are shot, but the heads must of been notified when the core went into shutdown, so they’re probably on their way.”
Alan let loose a large, exasperated sigh. “Yea, I guess you’re right. We’ll be there in about six minutes.”
“Alright, see you in a few.” The radio once again fell to silence. Alan and Gardella begrudgingly stood up. Both men began their short trek back to the control room. As Alan walked, he gave a cursory glance back towards the far corner of the foyer, but with an indifferent grunt, he turned back ahead, and continued onward.