Raye is about to drop 3 sonic stimulators on three different locations in the snow-covered valley.
The Vermillion worm is currently moving at 80 km per hour shadow-speed under the snow surrounding the rig. Moving in a wavelike pattern.
The 3 stimulators will harmonize with the frequency of the worm, mimic the frequency with sonic waves, and then exaggerate it until the worm ejects from the shallow parts of the snow-covered valley.
CALCULATE: Where should Rayne stand to get a good grip on the worm ejecting from the snow with a speed of 116 - 180 km per hour? The ejection angle is predicted to be 35 degrees.
"Explain your equipment to me one more time please..." The captain sounds calm, he thinks he understands the equipment's technology. High school physics came to his rescue a few times. Rayne claims her team can calculate the exact location the worm will be ejecting from the snow and that would be her only chance to grab onto its back. The captain is reassured of that part of the plan by the white-haired woman many times. The part he needs to understand right now is how the petite woman is planning on grabbing onto the back of the enormous object moving at the speed of a car on a highway. "Because 116 to 180 km per hour sounds very fast to me" he tries not to sound sarcastic.
Rayne stops spotting through her mini binoculars and looks at the captain "I understand your concerns," maybe the captain failed to hold his sarcasm. "My boots have the ability to manipulate gravity." Rayne starts explaining with a calm voice. "Every object has its own gravity. The bigger the object, the bigger the gravity. This worm is enormous, so my boots can attach to it fairly easily. I am relatively small compared to the worm so I can anchor to the mass of the worm using these extension cords. I know the cords look thin but they are made of carbon fibers woven by bioengineered spiders. They are almost impossible to tear." Rayne points to a string on both sides of her tight armored pants. There seems to be a cord inside each string, originating from her waist and ending at the sole of her boots on each side.
"That sounds...possible" the captain's favorite book, DUNE, told him it was possible to stand on the back of a giant worm moving through sand. He always considered that book as fictional close to reality. "I would give this insane idea... a shot."
"How do you...land on its back? Do you jump or...?"
Rayne looks pensive. "Look through these." she finally replies, handing the binoculars to the captain.
The captain hesitantly grabs the binoculars.
"Between the peak on the northeast and the hill on the north, there is a valley. The worm is headed there. The snow is the shallowest in that valley."
The captain looks in the binoculars at the location Rayne is pointing. Rayne keeps her eyes on the captain while pointing at the spot with her left hand. "If I drop the 3 sonic simulators at the entrance of the valley, the worm will be ejecting somewhere near the ridge, the speed and the angle of ejection will be perfect for me to grab on."
The captain checks the location in the binoculars for a few seconds.
"Ok let's get there before the worm."
The exact location of the sonic stimulators and the real-time location of the worm will be picked up by CASTEL drones. The drones send the information to CASTEL AI and the AI calculates the perfect location for Rayne to wait in the snow-covered valley.
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Rayne depends on the crystal in the flame tower to stay connected to CASTEL. She needs her waiting location to be very exact.
The captain is watching the snow-covered valley from a ridge. 150 meters away from him, in the middle of the valley, Rayne is waiting for the worm, fully armored with the helmet on.
"So, how often do you leave the mountains and explore the outer lands?" asks Rayne on her radio.
"We never cross the mountain. The probability of death is almost 100%." The captain replies on the CASTEL's mini-radio.
The sky is bright blue with no clouds. The fake sun is shining on the ridges. The valley is in the shadows but the captain can clearly spot Rayne from his position. He is still not sure of the entire plan but he has already decided to trust the white-haired armored woman and her team of his worst nightmare...computers. "Those things only give confidence to idiots." that was the maxim of the men of his rig.
The captain suddenly feels a weak shaking under his feet. He kneels to feel the rocks with the palm of his hand "I feel shakings," the captain tries his hardest to concentrate and detect a pattern in the shakings. "...it is pulsating.".
"Oh, I don't feel it yet," Rayne replies in her helmet, "I am standing on powder snow, I should feel it in any seconds now."
The captain realizes that pulses are becoming more rapid.
"I think it is getting closer to us."
In the monitor room, RJ is checking the pressure indicators. In the past few minutes, he and Doug have been recording high percentile pressure in the exhaust. "Captain, an overflow may be on its way in, exhaust 3." Doug finally announces on his radio.
Karen's eyes grow large.
"Copy." The captain replies on the radio. Doug and RJ can see him from the camera showing the edge of the northeastern mountain. He is barely a dot on the monitor.
Behind them, Karen approaches with pure fear in her face.
"An overflow..." she looks horrid "...is predicted?"
Doug and RJ turn to look at the curly-haired woman. Intense fear on her face shocks both of them. "It is okay, the rig is built to withstand an overflow." Doug tries to ration with the panicked woman.
"Doctor, do you read?" Jane announces on her mini-radio. She has been paying attention to this conversation.
"Got it, let me think." Rayne sounds concerned. "We can't abort now. If we get disconn...." Rayne's radio is cut off. The monitor tower starts shaking. Karen feels the hall getting warmer. "Wish it would stay this warm," she thinks. "OH NO WE ARE DISCONNECTED!" Karen screams like she is woken up from bad a dream into a nightmare."
On the snow-covered valley, Rayne feels the worm getting closer. She finally can feel the shakings caused by the worm moving deep in the snow and hitting the rock bottom. According to the CASTEL's AI calculator, she is currently standing in the best position to hop on the back of the worm. Once she attaches herself to the back and synchronizes her time-key, the rest would be a piece of cake. She could do without CASTEL's help "...but having them would be much more reassuring."
"I am cut off," Rayne shouts so that the captain can hear her.
"Me too." The captain shouts back. Voice travels easily in the snow-covered valley and Rayne is only a few dozen meters away.
They can feel another shaking now. The exhaust tower is a few kilometers away and the overflow's energy is reaching them. From a distance they see enormous purple flames rising in the sky.
Rayne is worried. She is not used to getting completely cut off from her AI support. She starts reanalyzing the surroundings and tries to guess her distance from the worm.
The captain is calculating in his head. He can see Rayne, and he can feel the worm getting closer. Suddenly, he sees a slight rise in the level of the snow, about 250 meters in front of Rayne. He is certain that the woman cannot see the change in the snow level. "Something is not right," he hates this gut feeling, it is never wrong. "Fuck the stupid AI"
Suddenly, the captain angrily removes his malfunctioning headphones and tosses them away. He then jumps from the cliff.
He lands on the snow, a few meters away from Rayne. Rayne looks back to see the captain running towards her. "What the..." The captain grabs Rayne by wrapping his right arm around her chest and locking it under her arms. The petite woman weighs nothing compared to his employees. He easily picks her up and starts running downhill. Rayne is shocked; she retracts her helmet into a headphone, and turns her head to look at the captain's face: "WHAT THE HELL?" The captain keeps running downhill. The snow under his feet suddenly starts rising.
"Shit"
The snow around them rises. An enormous red mouth appears from under the snow, right at the place Rayne was standing a few seconds ago before the captain grabbed her. The mouth emerges and the rest of the worm's enormous body raises the snow, violently emerging out, lifting the captain and Rayne with it.
"Here we go! Hold on!" Rayne shouts in the chaos. They are both being pushed violently upwards into the sky, Rayne puts the soles of her boots on the moving body of the worm, the snow is being wiped out from the worm's back, leaving its gooey red skin exposed to the soles of Rayne's boots. The captain has no idea how he got himself into this chaos. He instinctively holds onto the small woman from the back by locking his arms around her waist. He feels they are moving very fast. The next moment, they are in the middle of the blue sky.