The Transport

Chapter Thirteen - SINA

Hi everyone, Alex here. Hope you enjoy THE TRANSPORT so far. Just to let you know: THE TRANSPORT is also available as an audio book podcast on the big podcast platforms. Searching for Alex Ames The Transport should bring you the episodes, and subscribing will deliver you the latest to your player. Alternatively, check out my homepage .

Sina's feet hurt from running around so much. With the rig-size of a football field and eight-foot-high tires, she was either jogging along the side or climbing up and down to get the overview needed to position the single units of the rig, to position the holding frame of the Object, and steer the various transport modules into the correct spot. Lieutenant Kimmig turned out to be not much of a help, as it was his first assignment ever to a logistics unit. But he had the good grace to keep out of the specialists' way and didn't micromanage the teams. And he managed not to get run over by any of the three-hundred-ten wheels. They kept him up to date, and he dutifully left each hour for the video-briefing with Charles Nauman.

The rig was built as a modular transport system. Each module consisted of five rows of wheels, eight feet high, three feet wide, one single unit about twenty yards long and seven yards wide. There was no steering wheel, only a computer that processed the course that the master driver had set. A joystick translated any on-the-fly adjustments into individual steering commands for each of the wheels. The transmission system was hydraulic to produce the necessary power. Ten miles per hour was the maximum speed, but for very heavy transports the realistic speed was more around two to five miles per hour. Too many obstacles lay in the civilized world, like towns, bridges, or simply unsuitable surfaces.

In order to transport an object of the TINCAN magnitude, the team had connected twenty-five MMTUs to a giant multi-wheeled multi-row in a matrix of five vehicles wide and five vehicles long. It looked as if someone had tied together five long centipedes side by side. Four gasoline power generators, two in front and two in back, made sure that enough hydraulic force was produced to move all wheels and provide enough electricity for the computers and sensors. Two controller units rode between the power generators, looking like trucks with two airport towers on top, a lower one for the pointer and a higher one for the master controller, in this case Sina's perching seat. An armada of connected computers coordinated all synchronized units in their dance to move their load safely. Thousands of data points from wheels and various technical components indicated the current distribution of the load and gave predictions in case the surface changed. All wheels had a steering ability of 45 degrees, which allowed them to go into very small turns individually and as a whole. If needed, the whole football field could turn almost on the spot.

For most of the rest of the day and part of evening, Mac and his team installed the prepared holding-frame underneath the Object, every five yards an exactly fitting steel frame that formed a cradle. The smooth, frictionless surface of the Object made any other type of bearing impossible. Sina, deep in her own preparations, heard Mac running through his inexhaustible list of expletives as some frame elements refused to fit underneath the giant. Everyone knew that one mistake resulted in a crush of equipment and, if things really went bad, dead soldiers. Usually it needed a combination of cradle and MMTU adjustments to bring everything into the correct position.