ICEBREAKER

Part VII - Up On The Rooftop

11/05/2023 - Words:12,360Chapters:7/?Comments:1Kudos:1Hits:115

Before she even made the second step, Layton reached out and grabbed the back of Melanie's suit, yanking her back off the ladder, then quickly stepped in front of her, stopping her from being able to access it again.

"We're going to do what?" He asked in a falsely, semi-calm voice.

"Nuclear fusion." Melanie replied as thought this were an every day conversation. "We need the electricity from the panels to power up the Tokamak and start a nuclear reaction."

Layton simply stared back at her.

Melanie gave a sigh as she looked forlornly up the ladder, then back at her roommate.

"Back when we were building the trains, Wilford wanted the trains to be able to sustain themselves no matter what." She explained. "Never one to put all his eggs in one basket, so to speak, Wilford wanted the electrical design of each train to be different. Big Alice runs strictly on electricity. Most of it garnered by solar panels that run the length of the train, which in turn power larger turbines within the train to produce the energy. It also generates part of its electricity from friction as the train moves over the tracks. Snowpiercer runs on a perpetual motion engine. The train produces electricity through it's own motion. But Icebreaker was designed to run on fusion energy."

"But fusion was still just a theory."

Melanie shook her head. "In France they had already created a working fusion reactor call a Tokamak. But it was small and ineffective. Wilford wanted one to run Icebreaker and Bennett was put in charge of that project."

"Is that why he wanted to come? Why he said he was the one with the nuclear background?"

Melanie nodded. "A large part of Bennett's background is in nuclear engineering."

"Then why isn't he here!?"

"For the reasons I stated. We needed him on the train. And I worked with him for three years on that project while we built Icebreaker, so I am perfectly capable of handling this train."

Layton stared back at her for a moment. "When exactly did you sleep?"

Melanie gave a soft laugh. "I didn't do a lot of that back then."

Layton began to look around the area they were standing in. "So where is this..."

"Tokamak." Melanie supplied.

"Right. So where is it?"

"Have you ever seen a nuclear reactor, Mr. Layton?" She asked.

Layton turned back to her in stunned silence for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

"Because currently, your standing in one." She added as she walked past him to the ladder.

But Layton quickly stopped her again. "A nuc...wait a minute! How are we standing in the middle of a nuclear reactor? That strikes me as slightly dangerous."

"It's not your typical reactor, Layton." Melanie explained. "And the core is well shielded. But even if it weren't the danger of exposure is very low."

"How so?"

"The Tokamak creates energy by means of fusing atoms in a plasma environment. If the process fails, the plasma breaks down at an incredibly rapid rate, stopping the entire process. It's like...running a light on electricity. You turn on a switch, the electricity makes the light work. You turn it off, the electricity stops and the light goes out. But what we needed, for the purposes we needed it, required something much larger than what they had built in France. So Wilford had the whole train engine designed around the Tokamak. Currently we're only on the outer rim. But once you walk through there...," she added, pointing to a large, steel shielded door, "...you enter the heart of the reactor."

"And that's perfectly safe?"

Melanie shrugged. "It's relatively safe."

"Why is it 'relatively' safe?" Layton asked.

Melanie grabbed hold of one of the rungs of the ladder again as she turned back to him with a small smile. "It's not running."

Layton gave a deep sigh as he turned and began to follow her up the ladder.

"Look," he called up to her through the communicator, "this train was not built out here in this lovely little slice of nowhere. So logically, someone had to bring it here."

"Logically." Came the short answer as Melanie continued to climb the ladder.

"So maybe...just maybe..., there's a reason someone left it here."

Melanie turned back to him sharply, looking as though he had just insulted her somehow. "Like what!?"

Layton stared up at her. "Maybe something went wrong with this Tomahawk thing..."

Tokamak!" Melanie corrected him none to gently. "And I already told you, it doesn't work that way."

"OK. Maybe it wasn't something that went wrong with the nuclear part of the train. But maybe something else went wrong. Melanie, this thing is sitting in the middle of N-O-W-H-E-R.E. There are no people on board that we have seen. No bodies. No sigh of life. Whoever drove this train out here, abandoned it here. Away from any populated area. Where it wouldn't likely be found. There has to be a reason for that."

Melanie seemed to stop and consider his words for a moment. "Then let's find out what it was." Was all she answered as she turned back to the ladder and continued to climb.

Layton sighed as he shook his head and continued after her.

At the top of the ladder, Melanie again turned the wheel on the hatch door and gave a solid push. This time the door gave way quickly and opened to a bright shaft of sunlight.

Following her outside, Layton was amazed to see what standing on top of the engine would never show from the ground.

The entire top of the train was covered with an array of solar panels. They were lined up in rows of two, with only small pathways between the panels for someone to walk. The paths were so small it practically required someone to move only by way of shuffling their feet along the pathway.

Working quickly, he and Melanie were able to clear the majority of the panels off in about fifteen minutes. Thankfully there was very little ice. Mostly only light snow covered them, most likely due to the constant wind blowing over them that not only kept the snow from piling up, but did not allow for any ice formation. They worked from the middle to the side so they could easily shove the snow off the edge of the train as it began to pile up.

Standing back up, Layton stretched his back as he surveyed their work.

"Is that going to do it?" He asked as he watched Melanie shuffle over to the edge of the roof.

"I want to get as many as we can cleared off while we're up here." She stated. "The more the better, and the faster it will charge the batteries."

Layton sighed as he started the slow shuffle between the panels over to where Melanie had started brushing the loose snow off the panels.

"Thankfully very few of them seemed damaged." She commented as she stood up again, looking over the top of the engine that was now reflecting back the rays of the sun like a polished mirror.

But as she straightened up and tried to move, the boot of her suit got caught under one of the panels.

A loud cry over the communication device in his helmet was what first alerted Layton to the danger. He looked up from watching where he was transversing his own narrow path just in time to see Melanie trying unsuccessfully to regain her balance as she went over the edge.

"Melanie!"