The Dream Factory

Failsafe

Failsafe

Webner wiped the sweat off his face with his shirtsleeve. Grabbing technical manuals from the shelf he frantically ripped through their pages searching for an answer. Manuals tumbled on the floor as he discarded them to join the pile already there. 

'Spencer, Have you got Professor Albert on the tele-messenger yet?' he yelled over his shoulder grabbing another manual. 

'No they're still trying to get hold of him.' Spencer barked back whilst furiously punching the flashing buttons on the colossal control panel in front of him.  

'What's the coolant temperature?' Webner shouted across the control room floor. 

'A thousand and eight degrees and still rising Doctor Webner.' 

'Have you managed to override it yet Sawyer,' Webner yelled. 

Sawyers fingers flew over his keyboard. He raised his head for a moment, 'No luck yet.' 

'It's going to take more than luck Sawyer. You must know how to get around this? 

Sawyer shook his head. 

'We have The President on the tele-messenger for you Doctor.' Jenkins handed him the tele-messenger. 

The Presidents face appeared before Webner. 'Doctor Webner, what's the problem.' 

'The problem Mr President is that we've lost control of it.' Webner continued his search through the shelves throwing books over his shoulder as he went. 

'What?' The President looked aghast, 'What do you mean?'  

'The controls aren't working Mr President, We can't get it to respond.' Webner sat down and started pulling technical bulletins out of his desk drawer.  

'You need to calm down and spell this out for me Webner.' 

Webner threw down the last documents in his drawer and looked into the screen. 'What it means Mr President is that in three minutes the American east coast, the Atlantic ocean and most of western Europe will vaporise and that a superheated ball of plasma will rise fifteen miles into our atmosphere killing every form of animal and plant life on this planet.' 

'But you must have a failsafe?' The President asked incredulously. 

'Obviously Sir, but it hasn't worked. The system's gone super- critical. We've lost control.' 

'Isn't there anything we can do?'

Webner slumped back into his chair and watched his engineers running to and fro in front of the reactor. 'The only thing we can do now is pray Sir. I suggest you find your family while we still have a few moments left.' 

'Is Professor Albert there?' 

'On leave Sir. We've tried to get him but it's too late now.' 

'I see Webner,' said The President slowly. 'Well do what you can. Our hopes and prayers are with you.' The screen went blank. 

Webner placed his face in his hands and closed his eyes. 

'I've got hold of Professor Albert.' Jenkins appeared at his shoulder and thrust his tele-messenger into Webner's hand. 

The Professors face wobbled into view on the screen. He put down a large Hawaiian cocktail on the table in front of him, 'What's the problem Frank?' 

'We've lost it,' Webner said resignedly. 'It's going to blow in about two minutes.' 

The Professor frowned and leant forward until his face occupied the whole of the screen. 'What about the failsafe?' 

'We've tried. It didn't work.' 

'No, the second failsafe. Have you tried that? That will work.' 

'What second failsafe?' Webner yelled at the tele-messenger. 

'Have you tried turning it off and on again?'