PROLOGUE

CLUNK

a large gray object rolled down the assembly line.

Outwardly, it did not look like much. It was half-covered in wire and silver covering.

It was obviously a complex piece of machinery, but one could not guess its purpose from its appearance.

If you knew what this factory manufactured, then perhaps then you would know that this item was a jet engine.

a WhisperSky J28C Turbofan jet engine to be precise.

This engine was destined to be fit into a C-130 carrier aircraft.

for now, though, it needed to be built.

laying on its conveyor belt, it rolled up to another machine.

painted red, this was a robot arm. It had one job: to insert and tighten bolts on Jet engines. Specifically, the bolt in the pump that injected fuel into the engine.

The robot knew what it was supposed to do. In fact, all it knew was how to build jet engines, but very little else. Holding a bolt in a specialized holder, the robot inserted it into its intended location. The robot hovered a screwdriver over the bolt, ready to drive the bolt into the hole.

Driving burly bolts very tightly into holes, dozens of times per day, puts a strain on every tool.

Jet engines must be made incredibly reliable. They consume large amounts of fuel, cram it into tight spaces with equally compressed air, and set it ablaze at several thousand degrees. This compression is accomplished by large fans spinning several hundred times a second. The fire expands with a huge amount of force. The carefully sculpted shape of the combustion chamber directs this force with precision to where it is needed. This force is enough to push a hundred thousand pounds of metal at speeds high enough to make an airplane fly.

It also needs to be cheap and efficient enough to convince aircraft manufacturers to buy it over another company's engines, while remaining safe enough to avoid catastrophic accidents. Many things, when it comes to aerospace, are made to very strict standards. Anything less will not be accepted.

When the robot tightened the bolt, the screwdriver it used had a sensor to detect when its bit was nearing the end of its life. Even when the bit did not last long, it helped to know when it failed, so it could not be replaced. This bit had just reached that point.

Sensing this, the robot sent a signal to its controller. The controller immediately returned a command to stop what it was doing so the bit could be replaced. It also notified the overseer of the factory. Workers were sent to replace the faulty part. The job was done successfully. The factory line resumed its operations.

However, it didn't occur to anyone to inspect the Jet engine.

It wasn't actually as bad as it seemed. Worse-case scenario, the incorrectly inserted bolt would simply wear out the pump faster. As long as regular checks were performed on the machine, the bolt could be caught before anything bad happened.

It continued down the assembly line, where other robots added additional parts to it. In a couple hours, it reached the end. It was now fully built, and ready to be shipped to its customer.

FIVE YEARS LATER

C-130, registration number N824AH, was usually a good aircraft. Today, however, it had a flaw: a bolt in its fuel pump was showing signs of fatigue. The inspector, doing what inspectors do, noticed this, and attached a sticky note labeled REPLACE BEFORE FLIGHT. She also made a note for the mechanic.

An orange dragon stood next to the source of trouble. He was a relative newcomer to the job. The mechanic glared at the sticky note, and grunted. This is what he was paid to do, after all. He peeled it off and revealed the fuel pump. It seemed completely fine. The mechanic knew better than to trust his instincts and proceeded to change the fuel pump. The central bolt held the pump to the engine frame, so he removed that first. He was starting to feel hungry, so he tried to get it done quickly. Grabbing a wrench from his tool cart, he undid the bolt, put it in his pocket and pulled the fuel pump out, He then set it on his cart. The Mechanic then picked up a new pump, and carefully inserted it into the slot. He made sure to connect the wires and pipes, and then pulled a bolt out of his pocket. He bent over to pick up his wrench, but dropped the bolt on the ground. He picked it up, and promptly slammed his head on the bottom of the engine cowling. Mr. Mechanic let loose a muttered poem of curses before tightening the bolt and finishing the job once and for all. He begrudgingly rolled his cart back to the workshop, unaware that the bolt he put in was the one that needed to be replaced. Noticing dark clouds in the distance, Mr. Mechanic hurried to the building before it started raining.