I crunched the snack pack as I have finished eating my lunch, and drank my beverage empty before throwing them away inside a nearby trashcan. I looked at my watch to see that the time was 11.04 a.m., realizing that I had roughly spent only four minutes for my lunch.
I walked to the other corner of the same platform, approaching Virgil who seemed to be almost finished in upgrading the new power source. When I could take a look closer, I saw that Virgil was holding a couple of bicycle sprockets in his right hand and a bicycle chain in his left hand. He seemed to be attempting to bind three half-cut PVC pipes to the chain, although I had yet to know what the purpose was for.
"Ugh… guess this will not do it after all…" he sighed, as he put down the bicycle chain and started to palm his face with his left hand.
"How is it going so far?" I asked him, smiling a bit as I did.
"Well, I would say that it would be two more steps left if I can figure out this one…" he answered, as he pointed towards the piles of sprockets, chains, pedals and pedal arms, half-cut and whole pieces of PVC pipes, thin copper rods and one roll of aluminum foils right beside him.
"Do you think you need to take some parts off from the bicycles downstairs?" I asked him again.
"No, no. I would try not to whatever happens because they're too precious unless there is no choice. I appreciate it though, thanks…" he responded as he focused back on the circuit board.
Apparently, Virgil was trying to figure out on how to create a power system based on the parts presented right in front of him. Based on what it looked like, it appeared that the assembling process was not as easy, or at least a little more complicated as he thought it would be. I myself did not know much about electricity since my focus was on naval engines back when I was still in my university years. However, something did come to my mind in which I asked it to him.
"If they cannot stick to the chain, can they stick on the sprocket instead?�� I asked him.
Virgil did not say anything at first, and he frowned for a little while, before suddenly looked like he had some kind of a light bulb popped on top of his head. Just then, he put down one of the sprockets back into the piles, and took three half-cut PVC pipes from the piles by using his left hand. He seemed to try and make some form of a broken circle under the sprocket by using the half-cut PVC pipes.
"Okay… that should do the trick…" he said, as he smiled and put down all the things he held on his hands.
He then took a couple of thin copper rods, which probably he obtained from the train cars air conditioning compartment box again, and stuck them to the very small gaps and cracks on the walls. Had I not approach him and see how he was doing in upgrading the power source I might will never realized that failure signs in constructions could even bring some sort of benefit to the people inside the building.
He then assembled one of the sprockets with the pedal and its arm, before hanging it to one of the stuck thin rods through the sprocket's center hole. Then, he continued by taking three half-cut PVC pipes, and made a hole on its sides by using a folding knife. I recognized the knife was Ryan's, indicating that Virgil had borrowed it again from him.
After he had made a couple of holes on each of the half-cut PVC pipes, he inserted one thin rod into each of the PVC pipes through the holes, and bent the exposed part of rod on one of the other end of the hole by his using his hand. The other end of the rod was then inserted to one of the sprocket edge holes, and the exposed part of the rod was also bent. He did the exact same thing for the rest of the two half-cut PVC pipes.
Once he had finished, he hung the sprocket with three half-cut PVC pipes installed to another of the thin rods stuck on the wall through the center hole. When I looked at both of the sprockets, they were positioned linearly against each other.
His next step was to connect each of the sprockets by using the bicycle chain, and it did not take him too long to connect them. At first I thought that he had finished installing the power source. However, I was very much mistaken, as he took another couple of thin rods and stuck it at the holes on the walls, linearly and vertically to the sprocket with PVC pipes.
He continued by taking the roll of aluminum foils, and opened it a little before cutting it with the folding knife. The sheet of aluminum foil was then folded once, and was then formed to a circular ring with a slightly bigger diameter than the PVC pipes circle, before each of its end was stapled three times. Then, he proceeded by taping the top and bottom of the outer side of the aluminum circle on each end of the thin rods.
When he finished, he finally said that his new power source had been completed, and that he would like to find out its performance after one more last step. It was none other to connect the left and right of the aluminum circle outer side with a cable that led to the circuit board. As he had finished, he immediately tried it out.
The circuit board was only connected to one lamp, and when I asked why, Virgil said that he had wanted to find out first how more powerful the new power source would be. He began to pedal the sprocket very slowly shortly after, and much to my surprise, the lamp was shining much brighter than before. It was as if the lamp received an electrical power no less than three times bigger. I glanced at Virgil to see his reaction, to which he showed a satisfied smile on his face whether he realized it or not.
Apparently, he was not yet completely satisfied, as he pedaled faster and the lamp went much brighter. Unfortunately, the lamp finally broke as he pedaled faster again, making everyone and especially ourselves at the third floor shocked and had their attention instantly locked to our direction. I could even see Captain Quentin had already pulled out his handgun on the other side of the platform, probably thought that it was an alien crashing inside to the station.
"Sorry, sorry! False alert!" Virgil said, as he picked up the shattered remains of the lamp glass.
"Did that went better than you expected?" I asked him, as I helped him clean up the lamp remains.
"Yeah, pretty much…" he answered, as he smiled with what seemed to be of satisfaction kind.
As we had cleaned up the mess that we had made, I asked him if the concept behind the enhancement in the electrical power output was solely due to the more aggressive rubbing as well as a more continuous manner in the input. He immediately confirmed it to be basically true, and he even asked me if I wanted to know more of the method if I did not mind, to which I answered I did not at all.
When he continued, he had first reminded me about the basic concept of the power source, that rubbing the aluminum foil and PVC pipes would create an electrical charging, and with that an electrical energy. I nodded as a sign of confirming that I still remember the concept, before he went further on.
In the first version of the power source, the electrical energy output was not so big because we had to release the aluminum foil and PVC pipes each time we had just rubbed them against each other. The process of releasing those different types of materials caused several losses in electrical charging, and therefore led to the decrease in efficiency of electrical energy harvesting.
However, in the second version of the power source, the electrical energy output increased by what most likely seemed to be more than just twice of its first version because we did not have to release the aluminum foil and PVC pipes anymore. This would mean that much less electrical charges would be wasted, and therefore resulting in more electrical energy input to the circuit board.
Aside from that, once we had release the 'trigger', in which in this case was none other than the pedal, the half-cut PVC pipes would still be rotating for some more time longer. As it rubbed against the circular aluminum foil, it would still create some more bonus electrical energy before finally stopping for real.
In conclusion, the second version of the power source was indeed a more efficient method in creating electrical energy for the whole station. Virgil then planned to make few parallel circuit boards, which would be connected to at least five lamps, as well as the Morse code machine.
He had also been planning to connect the circuit boards with the announcement station speaker as well just in case for emergency situations, even though he would definitely need help for it. Just then, I remembered that Jonathan had earlier mentioned to trust the rest of the communication matter to Virgil, which gave me a strong implication that he might have been the one who had suggested Virgil to do so from the start.
It was also at that moment I realized that we were going to evacuate many other survivors on the street by alerting them through the speaker. It would be definitely very loud since no other sort of noises was heard even during the day aside from few occasionally flying alien aircrafts. Nevertheless, I also had some satisfied feeling since I had helped Virgil making a better power source for the station.
Since there were no other activities to be done again so far, I decided to sit at one of the benches on the other side of the platform where I currently was. Just as I had crossed to the other platform, Jonathan approached me and said that he believed it was best for us to prepare looking for a good place for trapping the aliens.
"Right now?" I asked Jonathan, as I was a little unconvinced.
"You do not have to come with us if you need a rest, but well… more people, less needed time…" Captain Quentin responded.
"Oh no, it is okay." I replied immediately, "I will come with you."
As I glanced towards Virgil's direction, he seemed to be aware that I would be going with Jonathan and Captain Quentin since he nodded and smiled at me before focusing on upgrading his circuit boards again. Captain Quentin also told us that we would be going by bicycle, as he said that it would be faster for us to reach our destinations.
Before we went downstairs, I also glanced at Jonathan and I felt like he stared to Fiora's direction for a brief moment before he followed Captain Quentin down. At first, I had wanted to ask him more about it. But then again, I would not want to get my mind distracted by his answers in the end.
As we picked up the bicycles down to the street below, I looked at my watch and realized that the time was then 11.51 a.m. I guess that they decided to search for the promising buildings right away since it was already noon. Based by how they moved, they seemed to be very eager to finish making the traps on one day. Not that I disagree with them, though…