Frederik Pohl: Chernobyl

Going over the files on each component, Sheranchuk paid particular attention to the delivery dates of the parts. A valve fitting that had arrived at Chernobyl in the first week of any month, for example, had probably been turned out by its factory in the last week of the month previous. That was a warning signal. The last few days of any month were the frenzied, comer-cutting days of "storming the plan," the days when all shifts went on overtime in a last-ditch effort to meet the month's production goals that determined whether or not the workers would get a monthly bonus. Half of any month's production in a factory might easily come in the last few days of the month. Those were the days when machinists rushed their work and inspectors looked the other way, and the brand-new parts that arrived at their destinations might have to go right into the scrap pile because they could not be made to fit. Worse, they might be installed anyway.

Of course, the previous head hydrologist-engineer at Chernobyl had known that as well as Sheranchuk. Every part had been calipered for tolerances before it was fitted into place; all the equipment had been taken apart and, when necessary, reground or rebored or simply replaced with new parts. Sheranchuk knew this. All the same, he wanted to see for himself.

With a list of fittings to be checked in his hand he went to see if Deputy Director Smin had perhaps returned to his office. He was not there. The office was dark, as were most of the other offices he passed-though not that of the First Department. That didn't surprise Sheranchuk; Khrenov's Personnel and Security people were always somewhere about. He thought about going home, where his wife might, by now, be wondering what had happened to him, but went up to the main control room for Reactors 3 and 4 instead.

Smin wasn't there either, but Khrenov was, smoking a cigarette and chatting with the shift chief about how the football practice had gone. Behind them was the long, arced wall of instruments that displayed the condition of every part of the power station's systems. Most of the display, flashing lights and oscilloscope traces, had to do with things that did not much interest Sheranchuk, but automatically he checked the readings on the water and steam-pressure systems. The steam system was normal, the recirculation pumps were operating at normal pressure-all satisfactory enough, except that the pumps were under direct operators' control. The automatic systems were still switched off.

Sheranchuk scowled and looked around. Standing by the door, looking dissatisfied, was an operator Sheranchuk recognized, the half-Lithuanian one named Kalychenko. When Sheranchuk asked Kalychenko civilly enough if the automatic systems should not be switched back on, the operator said crossly, "How should I know? I'm not on this shift. I'm simply wasting my time standing here."

Khrenov looked up sharply, then came to join them. "Ah,

Kalychenko," he said, ignoring the hydrologist. "Are you still here?"

"Where else would I be? This is really too bad! I'm on the midnight shift, and here I've been ordered in early for this experiment that isn't going to take place. When am I supposed to sleep?"

"You could sleep," said Khrenov silkily, humorously, "in your own bed for a change, instead of spending half the night in some other bed."

Sheranchuk saw that the tall, pale man flushed, as though Khrenov had touched a sensitive point, but it was none of his business. "Excuse me," Sheranchuk said, "I was pointing out that the automatic pumping system is still switched off."

"Yes, yes," said Khrenov. "I'm sure the Chief Engineer is well aware of that."

"The directives say it should be left on at all times, except for special circumstances."

"You are very diligent in your work," Khrenov said, his tone admiring. "But these are special circumstances, you see. Chief Engineer Varazin is in charge. He has decided that at least that part of the experiment which is to observe how the pumps can be kept in order manually can be proceeded with, at least. Do you understand that? If you have criticisms to make of his procedures, I suggest you make them to him."

Sheranchuk gritted his steel teeth. It was not Khrenov's business to lecture the hydrologist-engineer on technical matters. It was only a way of reminding Sheranchuk, as well as anyone else around, that the Personnel man was well informed on every aspect of the work of the power plant even if he had nothing to do with running it. Sheranchuk shrugged, and kept silent.

Khrenov gazed at him affably for a moment, then turned to the shift operator. "Now, Kalychenko," he said, "since you're not on duty here at the moment, I suggest you get some rest. Alone, for a change, if you don't mind. So that you will be ready for your regular shift."

Sheranchuk did not linger to see how Kalychenko would reply. He turned and left the room.

He thought that probably Kalychenko wouldn't respond at all, in spite of the fact that his pale face was turning crimson and his scowl was ferocious. Sheranchuk sympathized with the operator. It was, after all, no business of the Personnel man's if Kalychenko was anticipating the privileges of marriage before the actual ceremony with one of the town girls.

The question was not so much where Kalychenko slept as whether Khrenov slept at all. Sheranchuk knew the man had been there at six that morning. He seemed always to be in the plant somewhere. Did he have a home? Did he sleep there? Did he, perhaps, have a cot in his office, and take short naps there from time to time, emerging to patrol the plant with those eyes that missed nothing?

That was a possibility, but no one outside the First Department was likely to know it. With any other boss, there would be a secretary or a file clerk to whisper the boss's secrets to some other secretary, and thus it would become common gossip in the plant.

Not with Khrenov.

Khrenov was First Department. It was called "Personnel and Security," but what it was, of course, was the organs of the state. The secretary to Gorodot Khrenov would not whisper to anybody, but if a whisper of any kind came to her ear, Khrenov would certainly hear it within the hour, and by the next morning it would be on a piece of paper in a dossier in a file in Dzerzhinskaya Square, Moscow.

As Sheranchuk left the reactor building, jamming into his pocket the list of parts to be checked, he was surprised to see lights on the top floor of the office block. That was where the special reception rooms for important functions were located- most of all the dining room for ceremonial occasions. It could mean only one thing, Sheranchuk thought as he showed his pass to the guard at the plant gate. The observers for the experiment had not gone away after all. The Chief Engineer was stuck with the job of feeding them dinner, and keeping them somehow entertained until, presumably, the weekend was over and Reactor No. 4 could at last be shut down for the experiment they had come to watch.

He put the visitors out of his mind. Entertaining visiting dignitaries was not among his concerns. Sheranchuk's concerns were pipes, pumps and valves that circulated water in the Chernobyl Power Station.

There was that much truth to the friendly nickname Smin had given him. Sheranchuk's principal responsibility was plumbing. That is to say, almost everywhere that water flowed in the plant, Sheranchuk was in charge. He did not trouble himself with whatever water flowed in the baths and the toilets and the kitchens; he had assistants to deal with such minor things, and already he had made them understand that they would regret any complaints he received on any such score. Sheranchuk's direct concern was the waters that circulated in and around the generators and the cores. There were two main systems, kept quite separate.