“I don't remember,”
Castor pleads, “Everything was so confusing.”
“Think,” rumbles
the first voice, “Just think. Concentrate. What was happening
when you arrived.”
“The reactor,” the
memory flashes in Castor's mind, “They were shutting down the
reactor. I was worried, but it was just routine. That's what they
said anyway. I wanted to know what “routine” meant, they said
they'd done it last year, so I didn't challenge it further.”
“What did happen?”
The second voice presses her.
“The reactor was
operating at about half power when they got a phone call from someone
called the load dispatcher.”
“What did they want?”
“They refused to
allow the shutdown to continue. Another station had gone off line,
so the power was needed.” Castor pauses, a frown moment. “The
shutdown could only continue once the power wasn't required.”
“Something bothered
you about that?”
“Not that, exactly,”
Castor replies, “But when they switched off the emergency coolant
system, that's when I started to worry.”
