svetikya Chapter 33 Construction
Chapter 33 Construction
There are no abandoned cranes between P2 and P3.
Xie Chengzhou inventoried the available materials on the P2 platform: there were a few scraps of timber, a bundle of steel wire rope, two I-beams, and half a box of concrete curing agent in the shed. There weren't enough planks, and no boom that could span the twenty-meter gap.
He mentally recalculated the plan.
The trestle bridge from P2 to P3 is 20 meters long and about 2 meters wide, with steel pipe handrails on both sides. There is a slight subsidence in the middle section—he saw it on the P1 platform. It is fatigue deformation of the support node under repeated loads, not a fracture, but the bearing capacity is already lower than the design value.
He integrated this data into the plan: directly via the trestle bridge, using the surge window, but the mid-section sinking node needs to be bypassed, and the steps need to be more precise.
"There's no passageway here," he said. "You just go through the surge window."
Xu Kai was next to him. "The middle section is sinking," he said. "You noticed."
"Between the fourth and fifth nodes," Xie Chengzhou said, "it's about twelve meters from the P2 entrance. The vibrations are even greater during surging waves, so you can't step on it."
"There's no way around it," Xu Kai said. "The pier is two meters wide, the sinking point is in the middle, and there are steel handrails on both sides, so there's no room to go around it."
"Step over it," Xie Chengzhou said. "At that point, take a larger stride, leap over it, and don't land on that spot."
"Each step is about one meter," Xu Kai said. "When the waves are impacting, the platform vibrates the most, and the accuracy of the landing point will decrease."
"I know," Xie Chengzhou said, "so I'll go first."
---
He went through it first.
As the waves surged, he stepped onto the pier and walked, walking, until he reached the twelfth meter. He felt the vibration change beneath his feet—the location of the sinking node, where the vibration amplitude was about three times higher than the surrounding area, as if that node was concentrating and amplifying the energy of the surge and transmitting it upwards.
He crossed it.
One step, about ninety centimeters long, lands on the other side of the sinking node. Vibration is transmitted from the sole of the foot, but it is normal, not the amplified frequency.
He continued walking until he reached the middle of the P2 platform, where the surge receded. He stopped and waited for the next one.
During this process, he recorded the vibration distribution of the entire trestle: the entrance was normal, the first section of the middle section was normal, the vibration at the sinking node was amplified three times, the vibration returned to normal after the sinking node, and the exit was normal.
He returned to P2 and relayed this information to the others: "There is a sinking point at the twelfth meter in the middle section, where the vibration is amplified. You need to take a step at that point, about ninety centimeters long, and don't land on that spot."
He went over the requirement in his mind, then looked at each person: Wu Ming, 26 years old, long legs, can do it; Qin Gong, 40 years old, stable physical condition, can do it; Lao Chen, 55 years old, short legs, stride length needs to be confirmed; Hu Jian, 45 years old, no problem; Dr. Cao, 42 years old, can do it; Liu Feng, 38 years old, former soldier, no problem; Xu Kai, no problem.
"Old Chen," he said, "are you sure you can step 90 centimeters without a problem?"
Old Chen stretched his legs a bit. "No problem," he said. "I've jumped over ditches wider than this on construction sites."
"Okay," Xie Chengzhou said, "In order, Wu Ming is first, Engineer Qin is second, Old Chen is third, Hu Jian is fourth, Dr. Cao is fifth, Liu Feng is sixth, Xu Kai is seventh, and I am last."
---
The first three people have passed by.
Wu Ming, Engineer Qin, and Lao Chen all passed.
Xie Chengzhou watched from the P2 platform as they stepped onto the pier one by one, moving in the instant of the surging waves, stopping in the gaps, taking steps at the sinking nodes, and then reaching the P3 platform, standing firm, and waiting.
There were no problems with the three people.
Then comes Fujian.
He stepped onto the pier, taking the first step, the second step, and walking to the eighth meter before stopping and waiting for the surge.
The surge is coming.
He walked, reached the twelfth meter mark, descended to the lowering point, and took a step—
The surge receded.
He stopped, standing in that spot, his feet on the steel plate behind the sinking point, waiting for the next surge.
Xie Chengzhou felt the vibrations under his feet on the P2 platform and waited.
Then he realized something.
The surge came, but—
It's too early.
It's not 6.2 seconds, it's 4.1 seconds.
He mentally compared the number with the benchmark: the average was 6.2 seconds, but this time it was 4.1 seconds, a deviation of more than 33 percentage points. This was not a normal fluctuation, but a periodic change.
"Hu Jian," he said, "wait, don't move—"
Fujian has already made a move.
He moved as soon as he sensed the surge signal, not because he was disobedient, but because he didn't sense the cyclical changes—he didn't have Xie Chengzhou's kind of foot-based perception; he was just waiting for the surge, and when it came, he left.
He took two steps and stood directly above the sinking node.
The impact of the surge amplifies the vibration amplitude at that point, making it higher than normal and higher than what Xie Chengzhou felt when he walked over—because the surge cycle is shortened, the energy accumulation is insufficient, but the impact frequency is higher, and the superposition effect makes the instantaneous peak of this surge even larger.
Hu Jian stumbled slightly from the vibration.
It wasn't a fall, just a stumble. The right foot landed about five centimeters off-center, on the edge of the sinking point.
A buzzing sound appeared.
It didn't come from either side of the pier, but from below—below the sinking node, below the waterline, where there are denser steel maggots attached. Because of the amplified vibrations at that node, they have been activated for longer and are already moving upwards.
"Head towards P3," Xie Chengzhou said. "Now, don't stop—"
Hu Jian walked forward, walked, walked, until he reached the edge of the P3 platform, just three steps away—
The buzzing sound skipped a level.
That was the sound of corrosion beginning.
Xie Chengzhou saw it: the right edge of the steel plate under Hu Jian's feet was beginning to change color, from rusty red to dark gray. That was the color change after the secretions of steel maggots adhered to it, a sign of impending corrosion. It wasn't about to break immediately, but rather the beginning.
"Jump," Xie Chengzhou said, "jump over there—"
Hu Jian jumped.
He took a longer stride than usual, his right foot landed on the steel plate of the P3 platform, and he landed steadily. He had arrived.
Then he turned around and looked in the direction of P2, in the direction of Xie Chengzhou.
His face held a complex expression, not one of relief, but rather the expression of someone who had just realized how close he had come to disaster; the expression of someone whose body was still intact, but whose consciousness was just beginning to catch up.
Then he saw his own hands.
As he jumped, he grabbed the steel pipe of the pier handrail with his right hand to gain leverage—the surface of that pipe was covered with steel maggots, and his fingers brushed across the mineralized shell of one of the maggots at that moment.
The edges of the shell are sharp, like the broken edge of a metal sheet.
On his right index and middle fingers, there were two shallow cuts from the first joint to the fingertip. They weren't deep, but they started to bleed within three seconds of being cut. The blood was like fine lines, extending from the cuts to both sides. The color was very dark, darker than ordinary wounds. It was the color of blood after contact with corrosive substances, so dark it was almost black, as if something under the skin had changed the color of the blood.
Hu Jian looked at his hands. "My hands," he said.
"Come here," Dr. Cao said. He had reached the P3 platform. He pulled Hu Jian's hand over, glanced at it, and said, "It's not deep," but it came into contact with steel maggots, so I need to deal with it.
He pulled a piece of cloth out of his pocket. "Put it down first," he said.
Xie Chengzhou watched all this from the P2 platform, memorizing the changes in the surge cycle: 4.1 seconds, 33 percentage points shorter than the baseline value. This was not a random fluctuation, but a cycle change triggered by the replica at a certain stage, a variable he had not anticipated when building the channel.
He integrated this variable into the evaluation framework and then turned his attention back to the pier.
Four more people need to pass: Dr. Cao is already in P3, and the remaining ones are Liu Feng, Xu Kai, and Xie Chengzhou.
"The swell cycle has changed," he told Liu Feng and Xu Kai. "It has changed from 6.2 seconds to about 4 seconds. Pay attention to the rhythm."
Liu Feng nodded. "I'll listen to you," he said.
Xu Kai didn't speak, but he adjusted his center of gravity. Xie Chengzhou saw the adjustment and knew that he was readjusting his rhythm.
"Liu Fengxian," Xie Chengzhou said, "wait for me to say 'start'."
---
Liu Feng has passed away.
Xu Kai has passed away.
Xie Chengzhou was the last to step onto the pier.
He walked slowly, slower than everyone before him, not out of caution, but because he was sensing every node of the pier—the vibration distribution, the degree of corrosion, the density of steel maggots, the changes in subsidence points. He was reading the pier's condition with the soles of his feet, pressing the data into his assessment framework.
He walked past the sinking point, took a step, landed steadily, and continued walking.
He walked to the edge of the P3 platform, stepped onto it, and stood firmly.
He glanced back at the pier.
The trestle bridge is still there, but the steel plates around the mid-section sinking node have darkened in color. That's the color of continued corrosion; it's a matter of time, not a matter of "what if".
He looked away from the pier.
---
Just then, he heard Dr. Cao's voice.
"Fujian!"
He turned his head.
Hu Jian was on the steel plate of the P3 platform. He wasn't in the concrete area; he was on the steel plate, and his right hand was bleeding—not from the two shallow cuts, but from a deeper one.
While Dr. Cao was treating his wound, Hu Jian braced his right hand against the steel plate. He wanted to change his position so that Dr. Cao could treat him more easily. Without looking at his feet, he braced his right hand against a steel plate with steel maggots attached to it, pressing down with his entire palm, from the center of his hand to the base of his thumb.
The mineralized shells of those steel maggots left multiple cuts on his palms, not shallow, but deep, from the center of his palm to his wrist, from the base of his thumb to the side of his little finger, as if someone had pressed a handful of broken glass into his palm and then applied force.
The blood spread across the steel plate, its color deep, not ordinary red, but a deep red that had been mixed with something, almost black. It spread from the wound outwards faster than a normal wound, and the corrosive substance continued to act within the wound. The skin began to turn black from the edge of the wound, a black that wasn't bruising, but a foul-smelling black that seeped from under the skin, as if something was eroding the skin from the inside out, causing it to rot.
He made a sound.
It wasn't a scream, but a sound that came out when the pain exceeded the limits of language—a low, indistinct sound squeezed from deep in the throat, as if something was pressing down on his vocal cords, allowing only a tiny bit of sound to escape. That tiny bit of sound was even more unpleasant than a scream because it was suppressed, a sound of trying to maintain control in extreme pain but failing to do so.
He stood up and walked towards the concrete area. After taking two steps, his right foot stepped on a steel plate that was already corroding. As he stepped on it, the plate made a squeaking sound. His foot went into the deformation, his ankle twisted, and he fell.
He fell onto the steel plate, landing on his right hand first.
The already slashed right hand, the entire palm, pressed down once again onto more steel maggots.
The buzzing reached its peak at that moment.
Xie Chengzhou was at the edge of the concrete area. He saw the moment Hu Jian fell. He saw his right hand hit the ground again. He knew what that meant. He mentally went through the next steps for about 0.5 seconds, then suppressed the result because it was no longer useful.
Dr. Cao ran over.
Xie Chengzhou knew the moment he ran out: Dr. Cao was running on a steel plate, his steps were heavy and frequent, each step was a high-intensity vibration, and the buzzing turned into a roar in his third step.
"Dr. Cao—"
Dr. Cao did not stop.
He ran to Hu Jian's side, bent down, put Hu Jian's left arm on his shoulder, and pulled him up. "Stand up," he said, "Stand up—"
Steel maggots gathered around them from all directions.
It wasn't slow; it was a rapid, purposeful gathering that had accumulated to a sufficient number. The rusty red and dark gray bodies surged down from the edges of the steel plates, from the handrail pipes, and from the steel structure of the P3 inner wall, faster than Xie Chengzhou had ever seen before. It was as if the platform had accumulated too much energy at a certain point and was releasing it all at this moment.
Hu Jian stood up halfway.
Then the steel plate beneath his feet broke.
It wasn't one piece, it was three pieces, all broken off at the same point of corrosion. Hu Jian's left foot stepped into the hole, and he sank down. Dr. Cao grabbed him and was pulled down with him. Dr. Cao grabbed the handrail steel pipe with his other hand. There were steel maggots on that steel pipe, and his palm was cut by the shell of a steel maggot at that moment. He didn't let go. He held on, he held on to Hu Jian, he held on to the steel pipe, trying to support himself from both directions at the same time.
He couldn't hold on.
Hu Jian fell down first, taking the three steel plates with him, and landed in the sea.
There was a sound of water crashing, then a surge came and drowned out all other sounds from that direction.
Dr. Cao gripped the steel handrail, dangling over the edge of the gap in the steel plate.
The steel maggots on the pipe were already on his palm—not just one, but three or four, they were on his palm the moment he grabbed the pipe. Corrosive liquid seeped out from the point of contact, from his palm to his fingers, from his fingers to his wrist. The burning wasn't immediate, but rather a slow, continuous, and deep-spreading burning that activated slowly over the next two seconds after contact, as if something had lit a fire under his skin and then that fire burned inward.
His hands were trembling.
It wasn't fear, but a stress response from the corrosive substance in his nerves—a subtle, involuntary tremor that comes before the muscles lose control, starting in his fingers and spreading to his wrist. He could feel the origin of the tremor at the first joint of his index finger, and then it spread outwards.
He grabbed it.
He glanced to the side, at the edge of the gap in the steel plate, and looked for a foothold—no. The steel plates on both sides of the gap had already begun to corrode, and the dark gray color was spreading outwards. Stepping on it would only make the gap bigger.
He glanced up at the steel pipe to see if there was any structure above it that he could climb up—no, the steel pipe was suspended in mid-air, and above it was the steel structure of the P3 platform, about forty centimeters away. His hands were beginning to lose fine control, and he couldn't reach it.
He glanced in Xie Chengzhou's direction.
Xie Chengzhou was at the edge of the concrete area, about seven meters away from them. In the middle was a steel plate, a steel plate densely packed with steel maggots. Xie Chengzhou had run out of concrete curing agent, so he couldn't get in.
Dr. Cao glanced at Xie Chengzhou.
He glanced at it briefly, less than a second, and then looked away.
He didn't speak; there was something in his throat, but he didn't say it.
He lowered his head and glanced at his hands.
His hands were trembling, the corrosive liquid was burning, and blood was seeping from the cut, flowing down the steel pipe, but his hands were still gripping, the gripping posture was still there, his fingers were bent, still clinging to the steel pipe.
My hand is steady.
It's not that it doesn't tremble, it's that it's still holding on while trembling, it's that its fingers are still bent while burning, it's that when everything is out of control, its hand is still doing the last thing it can do.
The fourth second.
He felt his fingers begin to loosen—not because he wanted them to, but because the muscles deep in his palms were losing their control due to the corrosion. That loss was from the inside out, from the deep muscles to the superficial muscles, from the palm to the fingers, starting with the thumb, one by one.
Thumb.
index finger.
Middle finger.
He didn't make a sound during the process.
Then he let go.
He fell a little slower than Hu Jian because he fell from the suspended position rather than directly from the steel plate. He was in the air for about 0.3 seconds longer than Hu Jian. During those 0.3 seconds, his body maintained the same suspended posture—his hands were slightly bent, as if he was still holding onto something.
Then came the sound of water crashing against the surface.
The surge came and drowned out all sounds from that direction.
The surge receded.
The P3 platform was silent.
---
Xie Chengzhou stood in the concrete area, motionless.
He mentally reviewed the process, noting down the time, vibration, and corrosion rate at each stage, and organizing it into data. His hands were steady; the memo was in his pocket, but he didn't take it out, because this wasn't the time to write a memo.
He went through the names of Hu Jian and Dr. Cao in his mind.
Hu Jian. Dr. Cao.
Then he turned his attention to the remaining five people: Wu Ming, Qin Gong, Lao Chen, Liu Feng, and Xu Kai.
Five people.
Including him, there are six people.
They are all in the concrete area of node P3.
The buzzing gradually subsided, and the swarming steel maggots began to disperse as the vibrations disappeared. The sounds on the P3 platform returned to the surging waves and sea breeze.
Xu Kai walked over to his side.
"Six," he said.
Xie Chengzhou did not answer.
"Six," Xu Kai said, "according to your classification—"
"I know," Xie Chengzhou said.
He didn't need Xu Kai to finish stating the number. He was calculating it himself, he had been calculating it all along, from the moment Wang Bo died, from the moment Lin Xiao and Zhang An died, from the moment Fang Yuan's voice disappeared, from the moment Hu Jian fell, from the moment Dr. Cao glanced at him—he had been calculating it all along, and he calculated it more accurately than Xu Kai, and he understood the things behind those numbers better than Xu Kai.
But he didn't say those things out loud.
It's not that he doesn't know how to say it, it's that on this platform, saying it is useless. Saying it will only make the remaining six people use more resources to deal with those things, and they don't have any extra resources right now.
"Continue," Xie Chengzhou said. "The target object is inside P3. Find it."
No one asked him about Hu Jian and Dr. Cao.
No one asked him about Fang Yuan's affairs.
No one asked him about Lin Xiao and Zhang An, and no one asked him about Wang Bo.
They all know.
They suppressed those thoughts and kept moving forward because, on this platform, the cost of stopping to think about those things was the same as the cost of stepping onto a steel plate.