An electro technician's life - part 7

Weren’t those genetubes examined just a few weeks ago ? And nothing wrong was
found on them. So why now all of a sudden, if they hadn’t been examined for some
time it would make more sense if they malfunctioned without any notice in
advance. But these ones had the new surveillance monitor chip in them, she knew
for she was the one that assembled it. And it was all fine. All until now it
seems.

She quickly got up and found her way to the wardrobe for her clothes and as she
ran out through the door she grabbed her belt. D-Level was a distance away and
she had to get there quick, usually this would not be in such hurry. But now
these genetubes no longer were unused, since the examination and adding of
monitoring device they had resumed their function. There were embryo’s in them.
Of course each gentube had a standalone backup for such occasions. But even
those batteries wouldn’t last that long, 20 minutes was an average estimation
that was made. But it was all depending on how much of the life containing
functions they were to uphold. As as the initial report she read on the portable
device while traveling down in the elevator it seemed as there was little time,
all functions were reliant on the backups now.

As she got out of the elevator she took a hard right, there was an maintenance
door there, it was time for another shortcut. Through the door, follow the short
walkway until the D-12-7 intersection and there follow it for about 100 meters
and a ladder that brought her to the upper section of D-Level. Might seemed as
an detour, but as the genetubes sections were built in a parallel state, at
least when it came to the maintenance tunnels it meant that if you were at
Section 2 you could reach both 1 and 3 via a ladder.

The display told her that three genetubes changed state from light green into a
yellow color, tinted a bit red. It told her that she’d better haul ass to these
tubes first as they were the ones that was in the worst state and had lesser
backup left. She climbed a ladder, then stopped and looked at her portable
device. She had been running a diagnostic software in the background while
running here and it showed that even though many circuits were broken at least
four genetubes could get axillary power rerouted from a nearby circuit. A few
commands later and some relay’s switched and the status of these four tubes
changed from “Emergency” to “Stable state”. It was a beginning, they would hold
on until she had had a look on the others.

Well on the lever she was met by an EO ( Emergency Organizer ) , there was
always one when these things happened. And luckily they rarely happened. He told
her that MMT was on their way and diagnostics bots were deployed on the outside
to investigate if there were any breaches that might be the cause.

She got to the first tube that was in critical state and she whipped up her AX-3
screwdriver and opened the panel. It was not a pretty sight, not at all as
cables were melted and transistors and resistors were either exploding, melting
or fallen of the circuit board. What a mess this was, and it could not happen by
itself.
These were the signs of a massive overload of energy. It must have been quite a
big one as there are fuses for these kinds of things, and that this surge seemed
to have passed them and gave the circuits this treatment.

Another good thing with being an electro technician is that you don’t only know
all the shortcuts, you also know where the backup devices are. At the beginning
of every ten tubes there is a rack holding a device that was the size of an
average suitcase, this was the emergency backup unit for controlling the tubes.
She got hold of it and threw it on the floor then opened it, yes it was a backup
unit alright. So now she needed some power for it to boot while she was
connecting as many tubes to it as she could.

“Error, POST fail.. code 23 : Bad Mem Cap” The screen said.

“You got to be kidding me!” She said and gave it a kick.

“Continuing to load, POST check OK. Initiating post BOOT sequence.”

Finally the thing booted up, perhaps it had been struck by something which
caused it to malfunction. As far as she could remember these units were not
included in the previous checkout. Heck, she didn’t even know that they were to
be taken live so short after the inspection at all.

Now the first ten broken tubes were finally connected to the unit and she
carefully started to transfer the control to the unit from the backup functions.
As soon as one tube got its state set to “Stable state” she sat the backup to
recharge. One would never know what could happen, especially if you were working
with old circuits such as these.

She gave the same treatment to the next broken tubes in the second row.
If things were simple she would be back in her apartment now, resting. And of
course things are never simple. One panel was struck hard by the surge, or the
probable surge as it had a major meltdown internally which had affected the
connector for external support. She couldn’t use the standard port to connect it
to the backup unit.

She brought up the connectional schematics on her portable device and gave it a
quick look, then did the same with the backup unit’s circuitry. She found that
the connector had 25 cables in them, where three were power and the rest was
sending and receiving data for life support functions. She also noted that
almost all cables were straight through, though only four had to switch place
for it to work as in intended.

She found a cable nearby that suited her needs and she grabbed the Insta-Solder
tool as she opened the circuit panel on the tube. She quickly found the places
where to sold the ends of the cable, it still took time even if it only was 25
soldering spots that was to be done. She worked on her instinct and didn’t
notice all the other personnel that had come to the scene. She was almost done
in getting this tube back on track.

Finally where was some sort of stable state for the tubes and now the repairs
could begin. Once more her portable device proved indispensable as she selected
what parts that was needed beside what was already at hand on the spot. And as
an emergency technician she was approved to claim emergency shipment.
But what was the cause ? It seemed as there were too many things that had
malfunctioned to make it an accident by worn out materials, specially
considering the recent inspection.

While waiting for the parts to arrive she gave the backup units a quick look,
she was no doctor but she did know that as long as the units were up and
kicking, so was the tubes.

She walked over to the main power circuit panel and opened it.

“What the !” She said out loud. “Still that old PWR C6 PSU?!”

“Error, post BOOT state OK. Mem Cap status : unstable”

This was going to be a long night..