Chapter 33 - The Test
The graduation was welcomed by everyone, because it meant the trainees were now all done with their training and could go home to sleep in their own beds, that night, instead of the barracks. Colonel Bratton read the oath of office with each trainee and then Captain Wilton helped each trainee put on their officer rank shoulder tabs, they were now Army medical officers. The little ceremony took quite a bit of time as each trainee received their commission individually, but no one minded since it was happening to each one of them in turn. They started with the nurses, pharmacists and other medical personnel with undergraduate degrees, who were commissioned as Lieutenants first, then the doctors, who were really residents who would serve their residency at an Army hospital, they were commissioned as Captains. There was a experienced surgeon, in micro-vascular surgery, who joined the reserves, he was going to be commissioned as a Major due to his experience. He had joined the Army, partly due to his father being an ex-Army officer and he felt it was his patriotic duty, plus partly to help the wounded soldiers and learn more about this specialty, while helping them.
Howard and Leonard were last and the other trainees figured they were going to be commissioned as Majors just like the surgeon. The guys didn't know that they were the topic of numerous discussions in the barracks, each night after they left training to go to work on their project, by the other trainees. There were many rumors on who they were and what they did, not helped by the guys, who mostly kept to themselves on breaks, worried that they would say something that would get them in trouble if they freely talked to the others. The most popular rumor was that they were spies, which made some of the female nurses look at them with a desire, that Howard and Leonard couldn't understand, the whole time they were in training.
Major Martin was at the ceremony, so when Howard was called up to be commissioned, he quickly got up and went out a nearby door. It was only a couple a moments later, that the room came to attention, as Brigadier General Turner entered the room to commission Howard and Leonard. A Brigadier General commissioning them, plus the realization that they were being commissioned as Lieutenant Colonels, had the rest of the trainees sitting in shock and awe at the two men they didn't really know, who went through training with them. This shock didn't end either, when they saw the General shake their hands like an old friend before they were whisked off in the General's staff car to someplace the other trainees would never know.
Turner's excellent performance in the Army, plus his recovery of the Tin Man suit and its creators, had made Turner a very noticed man in the Army and he was immediately recognized by his superiors. The Secretary of the Army had personally recommended him for General, after finding out the details of the Los Angeles incident, and the Generals that ran the Army had completely agreed, so as a result his appointment came quickly. So now as a freshly minted General, Turner came down to the training center to see the first test, of the suit, personally and to actually commission the two men who saved him and his men from the bomb, he owed these men his life.
Howard and Leonard had lunch at the Officers Club with General Turner, then went with Martin to the project center to get ready for the test. It was going to take a couple of hours to get ready, so they wanted to get started, because the sooner they finished successfully, the more their trip home was guaranteed for tomorrow. So no sooner then they got to the project center, they changed into coveralls and got to work setting up the suit for the test. Major Lee and the technicians already having the suit powered up and built in tests running when Howard got there. An hour later, found Leonard being helped into the suit, to begin the man and suit systems test, before the demonstration test to General Turner and some other Army observers.
The suit had been checked out several times that week, probably checked out more in the last few days, than Howard and Leonard had ever checked it out before they used it those two times before. The reason for all the checkouts was that Howard was nervous, it was one thing to be involved in basically putting the original Tin Man together with his own two hands, compared to now, where he was only able to do half the work and other people had done the rest. It was not that he didn't trust the people he worked with, it was just that the suit was complicated and with all this new equipment it was even more complicated, much more complicated. Getting all the systems to work together had been a big task, originally in Tin Man and now with this improved version, it was worse, but adding weapons to the mix with their chemical reaction packs, made everything not just complicated but dangerous.
It was two hours after they arrived that Howard and Leonard, in the suit, moved to the test room to begin the demonstration. This was the same room that Leonard had accomplished the bench testing and optimizing of the laser before it was put into the suit. The room was quite unique, it had originally designed to handle explosives, so the walls were 6 feet thick and originally had a special roof with vents to prevent an internal blast from blowing outward, instead only up through the room. However the room had been modified for the project, to make it a test chamber where people could observe the testing. One of the walls had a window cut into it, 10 feet wide by 6 feet high, to accommodate a one foot thick special observation window. The window's glass was impregnated with metal particles that would not allow a laser beam to pass through without diffusing it, to protect the observers on the other side who were watching the experiment. The roof had also been replaced with a solid roof, since the room was no longer needed to vent explosions.
Inside the room, is was pretty bare, there was a few metal tables that Leonard had used in his laser optimizing, that now held some spare targets. There were also two large 12 foot high by 6 foot wide plates, with stands, made up of steel with an inter ceramic core, to acts as back stops for the laser test, one of them having a target placed on it. Howard quickly did a final check on Leonard's systems before leaving him alone in the room to join the other test witnesses in the observation room, safely behind the laser resistant glass. Leonard waited a few minutes until Howard got hooked up to the communication system and everyone was in position to watch before he contacted Leonard to start the test.
"Okay, are you ready Leonard?"
"Everything is green on the display, so yes I am ready." Leonard responded to Howard.
Howard turned to Turner, "The new equipment the Army provided, especially the high performance servos have made the suit stronger, so I would like Leonard to show you a strength test, Sir."
Turner nodded, "Yes please."
"Leonard, pick up one of the steel target plates."
"Roger, going to pick up a plate now." Leonard responded.
Howard turned back to Turner, "Sir, each of those plates weighs between 400 to 500 pounds. The old suit was never rated to lift them, but Leonard will now be able to move them with ease."
Leonard stood in front of one of the vertical standing plates, and its stand, looking at the handles built into the side for a lifting machine to move them. He grabbed the handles and lifted the plate, surprised how easily the suit picked up the plate then turned and brought it closer to the observation window before putting it down. Leonard then picked up the second plate and again put it close to the observation window, impressing Turner greatly. "That really is something." Turner said quietly obvious in awe.
"Yes sir it is." Howard responded. He was smiling and nodding at Turner when the warning alarm started on his computer, making him look immediately down at the screen to look at the problem, "Crap!" Howard was seeing an electrical radiator malfunction on the screen, and he knew without their safety system they would not be able to do the laser test until it was fixed. He expected the test to be delayed at least an hour to checkout and do the repair.
Leonard saw the warning on his heads up display and heard the warning voice from the computer.
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
Leonard also knew they would have to get this fixed before they continued so he stood there looking at the glass at Howard waiting for him to tell him what to do next.
The electrical radiator that acted as the emergency system discharge unit was one of the final pieces of equipment added to the back pack that week. It was connected to the electrical system by a heavy cable screwed to the radiator by a very large electrically conductive screw. The technicians, who made the connection, didn't realize the range of motion of the suit, so they didn't set the cable length properly, plus they didn't realize the high torque value the screw and its nut needed, because of this new stress, so Leonard's bending down put strain on the cables which pulled on screw, loosening it and finally making the nut fall off. The result was predictable, like in all cases of a screw loosing its holding nut, the screw fell out and the cable disconnected from the radiator, breaking the path for any aborted charge to go. It was really a simple fix and Howard would have had it ready to go in minutes, if he had ever got the chance.
"Leonard, do you see the warnings? The electrical radiator is off line."
"Roger Howard, my screen is red for it, so what do you want me to do?"
Howard turned to Turner. "It could be just a wire. Do you want us to stop and fix it so we can use the laser."
"What do you recommend, Engineer?" Turner admired Howard's skill and was not going to second guess the man, he trusted him.
"Sir, I recommend giving us an hour to fix it and resume testing then. I don't want to continue with system warnings being displayed."
"Okay, plan approved." Turner nodded to Howard.
Leonard had moved closer to the widow, near the plates when Howard spoke. "Leonard we are going to fix you before we continue."
Leonard turned the helmet to look at Howard and things started to turn from bad to worse. The targeting turret for the laser was slaved to the helmet and for the last 15 minutes, it had been moving continuously with Leonard's helmet movements. The company that built this turret had never expected it to be moving continuously with a mans head, that just didn't happen in tanks, which the system was built for, so the synthetic gears that rotated the turret were now heating up above their design limits. The excessive heat, weaken the synthetic gears, so when Leonard turned his head suddenly to look at Howard the turret moved quickly to the side, stripping teeth off one of the already hot synthetic gears. The turret stopped while the undamaged gear spun wildly trying to move the gear that had a small section of teeth missing, heating up the spinning gear even more, while the unmoving gear cooled.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT
The new warning joined Leonard's other warning.
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
"Howard what is happening?"
Howard looked at his computer then at Leonard, immediately seeing Leonard looking at him, but the turret turned away. "Leonard, something's wrong with the laser turret, it is stuck and the motor system is probably spinning causing it to overheat."
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
"What do you want me to do?" Leonard asked.
"If you can reach it, give it a little push and maybe it will get it moving again, so it won't keep heating up, then we need to come in there and fix you up."
"Okay, I think I can reach it." Leonard brought his gloved hand up pushing the turret a little to get it to move. The next second everything happened at once, Leonard's push rotating the stopped gear so now the bare spot, in the damage gear, rotated out of the way so new teeth were available to be caught the speeding undamaged gear, causing the turret to fly to the right slamming against the right turret stops. The impact cause the gears to shatter, and the wiring to the laser to break loose shorting against the suit. The shorting wires sent a pulse of electricity to the laser control computer, burning out sensitive circuits and fusing others, Howard and Leonard found out the a second later the results of this disaster in the making.
COUNTDOWN the computer broadcasted to Leonard and Howard simultaneously, then immediately afterwards.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
TEN…ABORT
Leonard looked over at the control booth, at Howard, they were so screwed, they had a chemical reaction initiated and they couldn't abort, the radiator was off line. He couldn't even fire the laser, it was off line as with all the other weapons, so when the power built there was nothing he could do but…..blow up!
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
NINE…..ABORT
"Howard?" Leonard didn't know what else to do.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
EIGHT….ABORT
Howard stared at his friend, he couldn't think of anything, he couldn't even get into the room quick enough to do something. Howard was helpless and he looked at the glass window he was standing behind, it would never contain the blast, they were all dead.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
SEVEN…..ABORT
Howard looked back at Leonard, "I'm sorry."
Turner looked at Howard, Howard's face had turned white, "What's happening Wolowitz?"
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
SIX…..ABORT
Time seemed to slow for Leonard, it was happening again, he had a full charge that was going to be aborted, when the timer ran down, and the electrical discharge radiator had failed again. He was in a building with no place to go, there was going to be explosion and he had no place to run.
At the same time Leonard was thinking about the explosion, he had seen Howard look at the window and he now realized what the engineer was thinking, the glass would explode and shred everyone in the room with razor sharp glass before the blast followed to kill them. It was then that Leonard remembered the plates.
Howard looked at Turner and it sunk in what was going to happen next, "CRAP! Everyone take cover." There was absolutely nothing he could do, there was no other backup system in the suit, they needed to take cover from the blast.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
FIVE…..ABORT
Leonard now looked at the window and saw the people moving, the glass was only made to protect against laser beams, it would not survive the blast, he had to do something or everyone, not just him, would die. Leonard moved toward the plates.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
FOUR…..ABORT
Leonard looked at the thick steel target backing plates and didn't hesitate. He took a couple steps and grabbed the first one, lifting it and turning towards the window.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
THREE…..ABORT
It took a couple steps, but he was able to put the large steel plate in front of the glass window. Now half of it was covered.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
TWO…..ABORT
Leonard turned and took a couple steps and grabbed the second plate.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
ONE…..ABORT
He put the second plate in front of the other half of the window, that was all he could do. There was only one power pack in the backpack, maybe they would survive. He wanted Howard to survive, he would have to take care of Bernadette and Penny.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
READY
Leonard now had two seconds before the system discharged so he moved to the far corner of the room, as far away from the control booth he could get. He thought of his last words, he wanted to say 'I Love You Penny', but he had failed her so he just said, 'I'm Sorry Penny'.
WARNING TURRET OVERHEAT, LASER OFF LINE
WARNING SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, SYSTEM DISCHARGE UNIT MALFUNCTION
LASER ABORT. SYSTEM DISCHARGE
The explosion was deafening to the people in the control room. The two steel plates had blown back against the concrete walls shielding the window, which cracked but did not blow through. The ceiling fell partially in and people were knocked over, banged around and hit with falling equipment. The room filled with dust, as the noise disappeared, but no one could really hear much with their eardrums over stressed, even some of them broken. There were cuts, bruises and some broken bones, but everyone was alive in the control room.
Howard got off the floor of the control room, the shock of almost dying slowly receding from his mind. There were people all over the floor, but at least all of them were moving, they were alive and as he got up and helped other people to their feet, he looked around. Howard looked at the concrete walls that were cracked and saw that chunks of them had come out of the wall that faced the test room. He stared at the laser protective window for a couple of seconds in awe, it was cracked like a spider web, but it amazed him it did not blow in, the steel plates that Leonard had moved in front of the window had shielded the window from most of the blast. Leonard had saved all their lives, and that was when the shock of what happened had dissipated enough for Howard, really realize what happened as he thought, 'Oh my God, LEONARD!' He screamed into his headset microphone, "Leonard!", but all he got in return was static.