"I think we've got your answer," he said glumly, "but I don't think you're going to like it. The best we can figure out is that the shock must have created some kind of a lag turbulence down there and when it was over the water piled into Number Four and slammed it over on its side. Or maybe the shock just tipped it over. In any case, it's either clogged the intake or jammed the nozzles. We don't know which. And it's jammed the dampers."
"So," the hydraulics chief shrugged, "we put another unit down there."
"It's not that simple, Mr. Hall," the monitor chief continued. "That pile's running wide open and no place to go. It's got to be stopped or she'll blow right outta there. And if Four goes—blooey, there go the other three."
The chief engineer sagged. "No chance of getting the dampers to respond?"
The monitor man shook his head sadly.
Hall ran his hand tiredly over his face and stared silently at the flickering oscilloscopes as if to force the damping device into functioning by sheer will power.
He sighed and straightened up. "All right," he said, "how do we shut it off. Is there an outer manual system?"
"There is," the monitor chief replied, "but in all likelihood it's jammed, too, by the shock or tip-over—and I'm more inclined to buy the tip-over than anything else."
"Any other way to shut it down?" Hall queried.
"Just one," the chief said. "Blow her apart chemically before she goes critical. And that, chief, is a real tough one. Someone's got to go down there and clamp some plastic blocks in the right place on the pile housing. Even then, there's the chance that she might blow in the wrong direction and the whole shebang will go up in big, fat mushroom cloud."