340 | John W. Warner IV being buried alive, Walter. Gripping a large custom-made wrench, Gerlach twisted a quartz crystal with Gwafas help, a two-man job. A meter showed improvement. Ninety-five, six.. .weve got plasma running through the drainpipe! yelled Gerlach, barely able to see even with his goggles. The blades are finally ejecting it. Fed from a rapidly glowing propshaft, a blue halo of energized electrons ejected out the bladesedges and surrounded the spinning propellers, providing massive amounts of antigravitic rearward thrust in a spinning torsion field where the scant air pocket fell short for the blades to bite on. One hundred! yelled Gerlach. It was beautiful, an azure tornado, thought Gwafa. The edges of the surrounding rocks began to glow red from heat. That did it, yelled Porsche, nose to glass and drunk with awe. My variable pitch gearbox is working as designed, 20,000 rpm. Over a million horsepower! The Bear inched forward shaking and vibrating violently, plowing through mountainous heaps of rubble like a giant mole. Were moving!yelled Bea. Speed five kph.”The power reserve indicator read full. Incredible machine, gasped Klemperer, gripping a railing. ^Unstoppable Schafer slapped a hand on his shoulder. And subterranean as well as airborne. After 800 meters of agonizingly slow going, the ship finally burst through the last of the rubble, gained speed, and outran the earthquakes deluge, bouncing off the smooth walls as Bea struggled with the yoke and the ships slow response. Whoa-a-a-a Nelly! Twitchy sausage, I cant get him to fly straight! 300 kph, said Alice. 400,500, 700… What are you doing? cried Bernie. Adjust the power to the maneuvering nodes. Youre wagging the damn dog. He doesnt want to slow! cried Bea. Alice eased off on the lever. Better? Yes I… All became calm. Were losing altitude. Bea then reduced power to twenty percent and adjusted propeller pitch to normal cruise setting. Fifteen degrees down angle at the bow. The tunnels descending. Altimeter reads zero. Speed now 55 kph, said Alice, as the ship finally smoothed out. Wheren hell will we end up? She leered. Youre asking me? Its like being swallowed up a horses arse.