Dashing to the Typhoon(3 / 3)

V

When the “Warrior” ascends to 7,000 meters above sea level, a group of signals appear on the screen and then disappear. Lu Yong-ping is pleased and remarks, “We are close to the target, only that our flight angle is not appropriate.” He decides to keep the flying altitude at 7,000 meters and extends the detection in 16 directions in the eye wall at this level. The signals are being reinforced all the time. They are both excited and overjoyed.

The computer is processing these signals ceaselessly.

Clutter, and again clutter, it’s the awful interference of the atmospheric electricity.

Lu Yong-ping begins to have a suspicion that something may be wrong with the detector’s clutter limiter.

Suddenly the detector catches a group of special signals in the northwest direction, and then the signals disappear instantly. Like a hunter who has located the hiding place of the prey which he has been tracking, Lu Yong-ping smiles secretly and he immediately drags the head of the aircraft to the northwest direction. The plane has approached the cloud wall before Hui-juan tumbles to his point.

The northwestern side of the cloud wall looks different. From a distance, it looks like the stand of a big stadium with a laddered gentle slope. A flock of seagulls are flipping upwards closely against the “stand”. Lu Yong-ping hastily steers the plane away from the birds. Suddenly Hui-juan exclaims, “Look! The dynamic structure chart!”

There on the blue screen of the detector is a clear annular stereoscopic structure chart.

And that is the typhoon’s dynamic structure chart that Lu Yong-ping has been dreaming of.

Lu Yong-ping feels a gush of warm stream in his heart. He is so excited that his hands are trembling. Normally when the signals are picked up by the detector, they need to be processed by the computer. But in his excitement Lu Yong-ping transmits the signals to the teleprinter. Hui-juan starts smiling. She resends the signals into the computer and has them recorded on the tapes. Lu Yong-ping says contently, “Just like that the surfy part of the sea is not located at the deep-water region, the typhoon’s dynamic center is not at the eye wall. It’s unimaginable!”

The screen shows that the main dynamic center of Typhoon No. 9 is located at the peripheral cloud wall 140 kilometers away from the center of typhoon. That is the typhoon’s “power generator”. If the airborne photo-electricity accelerator is started there, the electric power of the typhoon would be gathered up and generate a huge lightening. That would cut off the typhoon’s power supply, like “taking away the firewood from under the cauldron”, and no matter how powerful the typhoon is, it will have no other way out but being reduced and degenerated!

The computer shows that all data regarding the typhoon’s

dynamic structure have been collected. They are good to go back!Lu Yong-ping asks Hui-juan to put these precious meteorological data in the black box.

“Pilot Lu Yong-ping reports to the air goddess. Request return to base.”

She gives a sweet smile and imitates the tone of the air traffic control,“Approved! You are cleared to return home.”

Lu Yong-ping noses up the plane. In 2 seconds the aircraft has reached the altitude of 20,000 meters and entered the peripheral layer of the typhoon. There are also three layers in a typhoon from the bottom up with the peripheral layer being the top. The air is gushing out at this layer. Once the aircraft first comes up from the placid center of the typhoon to this layer, it may fly along the outgoing air currents. They’ll easily leave the typhoon behind.

Lu Yong-ping is full of joy and happiness. So does Hui-juan. She feels like she is back to her childhood when she lies in her mom’s arms and hums the song “we are flying high up in the blue sky...”

All of a sudden she picks up a group of strong signals in her headset. She is shocked and looks up to Lu Yong-ping, who sits straight up and is gazing ahead.

The aircraft is off course.

She turns pale with fear!

The “Warrior” is equipped with three sets of inertial navigation systems and two sets of automatic steering systems. Its navigation has been extremely precise and the error in a 10,000km-journey should be no more than one meter. How comes that the plane is now badly deviated from the route? She asks anxiously,“What’s wrong?”

Lu Yong-ping answers in a low voice with his face frozen up, “There’s a fleet down there and the typhoon has turned around...”

His words fall on her like a splash of cold water. She feels a shudder passing through her whole body.

Such turn-around typhoon is extremely destructive! Normally when the typhoon passes by, the radar will stand down. But if the typhoon suddenly swings back it will catch the people in the area off guard, thus causing great loss to the region.

What she hears through her headset are no longer typhoon’s electric signals but radio signals asking for desperate help.

She starts up the radar immediately and finds a shocking image on the screen formed by the radar echo:

Hundreds of fishing ships are scattered on the soaring sea in a scallop shape and are escaping to the east at full speed. Only half an hour ago they were in good order, yet now they are in a mess. The typhoon has returned from over a hundred miles away, with waves higher than the ship head. Two of the ships leave the fleet and run towards the side of the typhoon. It is as if the typhoon had noticed their attempts, it closes its arms and forces these two stubborn iron vessels back with big surges. It is trying to drive all the ships together and let them sink after bumping on each other. The people on the ships are struggling and crying for help, the engines of their ships let out shrill songs...

Hui-juan feels that her throat is gripped by fear. She stares at Lu Yong-ping blankly, not being able to speak out a word.

The plane continues to deviate.

Finally she cries out,“Where are you flying to? We can’t just leave them here to die!”

“What can we do? There are so many ships there,” Lu Yong-ping says soberly. “Are there any other ways besides launching typhoon modification?”

The aircraft is completely off from its course.

Lu Yong-ping says in a very calm tone, “There’s the shallow sea ahead and the White Sand Island is not far away. Go and jump off the plane with the parachute , please!”

It finally becomes clear to Hui-juan that he steered away only to send her away.

Her eyes widely open and she stares at him,“How can I bale out at this moment?”

“Hurry up, don’t push yourself any more!”

“It’s too dangerous to leave you alone!”

“Is it not dangerous if two people were left? Go, bale out!”

“No! I can help you monitor the signals. There are already damages on the body of the plane; two of the three power lines of the static eliminator have been burned from overload. I can help you to get around the thunder area.”

Lu Yong-ping says no word.

“No! No! I don’t want to go! I will not go, never!” She shouts. Lu Yong-ping shuts his eyes for a second painfully.

She weeps in grief, with tears running down her face.

He gives in.

He quickly locates the typhoon with the climate radar and starts the atom accelerator. They both faint while the plane dashes out with a big roaring sound. (This is the human body’s reaction to the aircraft’s speed change.) When they wake up, the aircraft is very close to the eye wall.

VI

The typhoon has gathered up all its wildness and energy and is chasing after the fishing ships on the vast sea. Driven by the winds, the surges are howling, ravaging and threatening. They are pushing all the vessels to a dead angle, a narrow execution spot. Just as it is enjoying its extravagance, the “Warrior” once again cuts into its belly while breathing fire. It becomes furious! It slashes the plane with its powerful electric weapon. A glaring lightening splits the dark sky, followed by deafening thundering. The typhoon gains the momentum! It has cut off half of the static eliminator and the aircraft is in the danger of being destroyed at any moment.

Lu Yong-ping’s eyes become red and his fingers numb. There’s only one idea in his mind, and that is get in, get right into the typhoon’s “heart”! The typhoon builds up a strong cloud wall with thunders and rainstorms to safeguard its “heart”. The aircraft is roaring and the typhoon is screaming while the two enter into confrontation. Lu Yong-ping skillfully steers away from the lightening and approaches the dynamic source of the typhoon:

8,000 meters — 6,000 meters — 4,000 meters —

When he feels the right time coming, he steps on the board that is supposed to release the catalyst.

With a big bang, all signals disappear from the detector!

His heart turns cold as if it had fallen into an ice cave.

The electromotor is off work due to high wind pressure.

The catalyst compartment door cannot be opened!

Lu Yong-ping is clear that there’s no other ways left. The metal door of the catalyst compartment is operated by the electromotor. Once the iron cable is broken, the door can no longer be opened.

For a while he has no idea what to do. His hands have lost the strength and his arms are shaking, and he feels dizzy. He feels a bit regret: why have I flown back without a second thought? What does the fleet have to do with me? Whose fault it is that they did not pay attention to the alarms and give more trust to science...

No way! The picture of his father climbing up the plane suddenly flashes before his eyes and he seems to hear his father’s shout. He feels that the blood is boiling in his body. He sets his teeth and decides that he cannot just watch the whole fleet getting destroyed without doing anything. A thrilling word rushes to his mind: “Self-explosion!”

Once he starts up the photoelectric accelerator, by lending the electricity of the lightening in the sky, they’ll be able to deplete the typhoon!

This is the only way to save the fleet!

But when he turns to look at Hui-juan, he becomes a little bit hesitant.

She is so young and beautiful, like a flower that just starts to bloom.

He turns away as he could scarcely bear to look at her.

Not knowing what is wrong with the plane, the girl looks at him inquiringly and encouragingly.

“Hui-juan, the iron door cannot be opened and there’s only one way left.” Lu Yong-ping says with his eyes gazing ahead and his hands numbly operating the control sticks. “And that is to start up the photoelectric accelerator...”

The girl is shocked and her eyes widely open, “You mean, to collect the electric energy discharged by the lightening in the intense atmospheric electric field, and isn’t that equal to bombing ourselves?”

“Otherwise all the ships below will be done for.”

“But we cannot bale out here! There’s the category 12 typhoon outside.”

“We’re trapped with no other choices: either we flee from the spot and leave the fishermen to die; or we explode ourselves to save them...”

Her heart sinks to the ocean as if the plane stalled.

She has flown over 3,000 hours and has experienced various kinds of highly dangerous situations, yet she has never gone to pieces and lost her mind like what she is right now. “Let us die and save them?But we are still young...shall we escape? No, the death of two people can save hundreds people’s lives...Oh, yes, with Lu Yong-ping, I shall die without regret!”

She raises her head imperturbably, “Lu Yong-ping, I’m with you!”

Another bolt of snake-shaped lightening flashes! It is the same as the one he saw on the aircraft carrier years ago. The past tragedy flares his pursuit of a lofty target. He heads the plane in the direction of the typhoon’s “engine” and starts the process to kick on the photoelectric accelerator.

Solemnly and with dignity, the two brave young people draw a heroic and sad scene of typhoon modification!

Lu Yong-ping works out the timing on the computer, while Hui-juan seals the black box, in which she has put all the data about the typhoon.

“Make sure you leave a mark that can help them locate it,” Lu Yong-ping reminds her.

Hui-juan unties her favorite orange scarf in a serious and stately way, and then she wraps the black box with it and opens the door to drop the box.

The countdown starts and numbers appear on the screen: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6...

The two young people sit side by side with their hands tightly holding together and their eyes sparkling with resolution and love. Lu Yong-ping turns on the radio transmitter so two of them leave their last words to the world,“We have made a worthy choice!” says the young man.

“I am very happy!” This is the girl’s voice.

A glaring white ball shoots across the sky above the East China Sea, and a loud boom resounds in the heavens. With the company of these loud sounds, the photoelectric accelerator gathers up all the electric power from both the sky and the sea and form a blue snake-shape lightening. With its mighty power, it cuts a big opening in the thick clouds wall and then tears them into pieces! The raging typhoon groans helplessly while the sea weakens down...

The wind calms down, and the sky is clear. The sea appears gentle and charming as if nothing violent had happened here. Deep in the ocean, the sealed box which carries a transmitter is sending out signals with beeps, as if singing a heroic and sad song.

An amphibious aircraft is flying towards the source of the beeping sound. It lands on the water. The door opens and a senior meteorologist walks out of the cabin. His eyes fall on the sea: there in the bright sunlight is an orange flower looming on the blue sea.