Dead on Mars

Chapter 187 - Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Two, The Mathematical Problem in the Aviation Disaster
Chapter 187: Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Two, The Mathematical Problem in the Aviation Disaster

Hot-wiring?

Mai Dong frowned. She wasn’t a professional electrical engineer. Upon hearing the word, her first thoughts were scenes of the pressing moment in Hollywood movies where the protagonist would smash open a car dashboard, pull out two thin wires, touching them together to produce a spark, allowing the car’s engine to be started.

This was using the momentary current to jump-start the car’s engine. Could the booting up of the space station’s computer be done in such a simple manner?

“Listen to me! Lass!”

“Got it.”

Tang Yue stared intently at the circuit diagram on the monitor. The two monitors on either side were also displaying the computer system schematic of the United Space Station’s core module. Tomcat had even found the assembly diagram for him. The cat knelt on the desk, peeking its head out from behind a third monitor it was carrying over.

Tang Yue quickly scribbled on a piece of paper, his pen tip producing a rustling sound. His forehead began oozing a cold sweat. Although doing such an analysis was part and parcel of his job, the complexity of the space station’s system far exceeded his imagination. Since he had graduated from university, it had been years since Tang Yue had touched such basic systems. Even during his surface training and daily work, there had been no need for him to dismantle the entire core module.

Kunlun Station didn’t have any EDA software, so he could only use pen and paper.

“IC780… IC780… Amplifier? Triode? Yes, it’s a triode. There are one, two, three, four, five, six—six element circuits. STO5347 oscillator… Is this an open collector or open drain? I need to see if it’s started from an external circuit and that it has nothing to do with the IC internals. Using low-level logic to control high-level… Overall variable-frequency! Variable-frequency! Goddamn variable-frequency!”

Tang Yue felt as though he had returned to his days as a student just before he sat for an exam.

Calm down! Calm down! I’ve seen this before!

Calm down!

His heart raced as the pen in his hand kept trembling.

This was akin to being on a flight that was about to crash. But at that moment, someone threw an advanced math question at you and demanded you to solve it in five minutes to save the plane.

Large beads of sweat rolled down Tang Yue’s cheeks.

Mai Dong was still waiting for his instructions.

Tomcat held its head above the monitor, looking down at Tang Yue.

“TC88604’s pin 13 because it’s a time-varying element,” Tomcat said out of the blue.

Tang Yue was taken aback.

“You know this?”

“Not as well as you.” Tomcat turned its head, lifting the monitor. “I know a little.”

“Alright!” Tang Yue pushed the stack of papers over. “Help me find the method to drive voltage into USP7540! Remember not to violate Kirchhoff’s law.”

Tomcat extended one paw to grab a piece of paper. The paper was filled with messy lines as Tomcat narrowed its eyes slowly.

“Oh… You are leaving the hardest part for me? This is a nonlinear time-varying system. I need to solve a very long nonhomogeneous linear differential equation.”

“Then hurry up!”

“I’m done.” Tomcat stretched its neck and picked up a pen from the table. Unhurriedly, it wrote the answer. “Here.”

“Lass!” Tang Yue threw the pen in his hand and received the final result. “Lass! Lass, can you hear me? Lass?”

The darn half-duplex communications system didn’t allow for both parties to speak at the same time. When one person spoke, the other party could only listen.

“Lass! Lass! Pick up the phone… Pick up the phone…”

After saying that, all Tang Yue could do was wait nervously for a response.

“Tang Yue?”

“OK! Lass, listen carefully. I’ll teach you how to reboot the system!” Tang Yue stared at the paper in his hand. “Under the present conditions, a direct reboot is impossible, or should I say, I haven’t found a way. However, we can indirectly reboot it… By short-circuiting the overload protector.”

“Overload protector?” Mai Dong raised the torch, feeling somewhat confused. She knew nothing about electronics.