Entry-2(II) – The Storm

Continued from last part…

The storm in the horizon, slowly creeping towards our Dome City kept on bringing flashbacks in my head, the destruction wreaked by the unwanted yet unavoidable repercussions of the war, frozen dead bodies on the streets, building the Vault, everything.

I had my breakfast in silence and left for the Center as soon as possible. Husky observed me almost silently occasionally letting out a whine, he could always sense me well. Even though we were inside a virtually impenetrable dome, the storm worried me and he could smell it.

My anxiety was not because of the harm it could cause to my city because Dome City was nigh impenetrable. Dome City is the only settlement in my knowledge that exists on this destroyed planet and my current place of residence. I was worried because every storm brought news of fresh trouble be it radiation or formation of acid pools that would slowly eat away at the ground beneath. New Minnesota was under water for a month the last time it was hit by a storm.

The storm had begun its onslaught on the dome by the time I reached our command facility or in short, the Centre because it was at the centre of the city. The rest of the city was built around it. The Centre houses the administrative counterparts of all the civic facilities, R&D buildings, and the central command and at accessible distances from all corners of the city.

I went to the meteorology department as soon as I reached and enquired about the storm situation. Its origin was quite far from our city. This meant the storm’s current intensity was lesser than initial. Meteorologists were trying to trace the path of Domino, the storm. Bhagirath, a young member of the team, came up with that name and it stuck since the others couldn’t come up with anything better.

The tracing could be done using our highly sensitive underground sensors. The satellites that survived were still in their orbits but incapable of studying the Earth’s surface because of the perennial cloud cover, mistress of the nuclear winter. The data from the sensors brought creases on everyone’s forehead except mine. After the loss of Martha I stopped feeling any kind of emotions except for Husky, my only best friend.

The storm’s accurate origin however could not be found and nor was it continuous. Its presence was first recorded 500km north of Dome City which is practically a cold barren land, the Cold Fields as we called it. The storm seemed to just have appeared from nowhere, there was no abrupt change in air pressure anywhere in that region before the storm. Then things got weirder, the storm seemed to disappear from time to time. There were a lot of theories from the specialists but none seemed to hold. The only effective method was to send an unmanned probing vehicle for field observation and wait for results.

I was a little enthused because the unmanned probing vehicle or UPV was my design and tomorrow was going to be its first field operation. It is literally an all-terrain vehicle with a top speed of 431kmph powered by a huge fusion engine coupled with axles made of aluminium alloyed with carbon nano-tubes. The shock absorbers are pneumatic gas charged pistons with small heat exchangers for compensating the temperature difference. The vehicle employed 4 wheels, 9 feet diameter each, 1.5 feet thick in the rear and two slightly smaller ones of equal width at the front. The air pressure inside the wheels can be altered so as to maintain appropriate traction over the terrain. The outer shell of the UPV is inspired from a Rotem battle tank but with more effective aerodynamics.

When required, this vehicle can also operate underwater though we didn’t know of any existing water bodies yet. I had always wondered how it would feel to sit inside. Pity, it is an unmanned vehicle with no space for passengers.

The UPV was completely prepped for launch but the process was tedious. Of course , it was important that every little part was checked and rechecked before releasing my creation into the wild. There was no room for mistakes. Then again, it did exhaust us entirely.

The UPV is due to start tomorrow as soon as the storm dissipates. Hopefully that would happen before we reach the Center so that no time is wasted when we start recording our observations. Let’s see what nasty stuff the car drags in. I should sleep now.

Entry – 2 part I

7th May 2355

I woke up pretty early in the morning owing to Husky’s howling. It was odd since the number of break-ins after the war were zero. What else can be expected when all of the population in the world has been obliterated. I was able to save a few and the civilization was not all lost. I went to the door cam to check and the sight was not soothing. A storm was brewing in the horizon and a storm could never be a good sign.

The last storm was a few months ago in erstwhile New Minnesota and it wreaked havoc for two whole weeks. We don’t have rainy storms anymore, there’s no humidity outside, for obvious reasons. The atmosphere had become very dense during the later part of the war. The results were disastrous. Humans, animals, plants, insects all started dying. There were massive piles of dead bodies, rotting away and no one to burn or bury those bodies. Governments were busy establishing their dwindling superiority.

The colder regions were the worst affected. Smog killed thousands every night till there were no more living left to die. The dead froze by the morning. All living entities would have choked or nuked to death if they had not been moved to an artificial environment. Some of us had seen this situation coming and had already built a huge underground vault in the then non-operational Cortez gold mine, artificially supplemented with plant life.

However, this vault was still restricted in size and only a few hundred could be settled. Although, there was something none of the brilliant minds could anticipate, these storms. Now, that the air was denser, all sorts of heavier particles floated around causing immeasurable damage to both living and man made. The storms just accelerated this damage exponentially.

I remember being outside the vault during one such storm, a hundred and fifty years ago maybe. I had planned a field trip to study the current environment for future reference. I had been searching for potential areas for a settlement for a long time but the radiation levels were still too high. It was during one of those runs, I was taking readings on my Geiger counter, when I saw the approaching storm from the corner of my eye. I packed up and ran inside a derelict high rise to save myself and my supplies. My next strategy was to hide in the basement which proved to be one of the best decisions in my life. These storms don’t just carry dust particles, they carry chips from stones and metal objects, whatever can float in the dense combination of smog and acid vapours.

The next morning, after the storm had died down, I thought to come out of hiding and finish the remainder of my task. The sight on ground shook me to my very core. Everything above the basement was ripped apart except the core steel frame with chunks of concrete that could not be ripped away. The rest of the area was ravaged in a similar manner and that was not the end. New crevices had formed and my Geiger counter spiked whenever I approached one of them.
I knew that day, our Earth was just one step away from the biblical end of days. Thankfully the war was over by that time as no one else was left to continue it. I returned back to the vault as soon as I could, the oxygen supply was running low.

To be continued…

Entry 1 Part II

Continued from the last post.

Vladivostok, the space station orbiting Venus confirmed the approach of the vessels after 50 minutes of launch and recalibrated their trajectory. The time for them to decelerate was approaching fast and precision was of essence. The ships approached their drop points, approximately midway between the orbits of Venus and Mercury. Mercury, has a short period of revolution around the Sun and hence, the choice of orbit.

After the carriers aligned themselves in five stable orbits, they would deploy their respective payloads, thirty million mica filled silver plate capacitors, each about ten kilometres long, folded over each other like the steel in the blade of a samurai sword to decrease their length. The capacitors were guarded by prótégo coated high carbon steel plates with one face connected to solar panels.

These plates were to form 5 elliptical rings which would form sections of a sphere. These rings had enough gaps between them to allow enough solar radiation required to maintain the brightness in our star system. They would revolve around the sun according to modified Kepler’s laws without disturbing the balance. Planning it was not a walk in the park. The calculations took months and a team of five people headed by our brilliant mathematician, Irene.

I always found mathematics beautiful and it was a treat to the eyes watching those mind-boggling equations come into play while those thirty million massive plates unfolded to form the five rings.

The solar panels blazed up to give a bright bluish white color. The sight was literally and figuratively out of this world. Why wouldn’t it be, the rings are my brainchild.

The whole process took 6 hours to complete. It was the biggest achoevement since the discovery of petroleum and also after the depletion of petroleum reserves. I still remember the day when it was announced that the rock oil reserves have been depleted. Riots spread like wildfire killing thousands on the very first day. It took over a month to bring everything under control during which thousands of cities were destroyed. It was a symbol that destruction caused by man can be as severe as caused by nature. Even though it was more than 300 years ago, the memories are still fresh like an open wound. I lost Martha in those riots, it was the last day for my dwindling hope in humanity.

I got back to my quarters after a long and unnecessary loud celebration. I never understood why any kind of celebration has to be loud for people. Centuries of technological innovation and yet the party culture never died down.

Husky ran down to greet me as soon as I drove down the garage door. We had a nice dinner and then I sat down to write the journal, my first journal after the war got over.

To be continued…

We are not safe…

26th July 2355, 10PM

I can’t reiterate enough the significance of a glass of Scotch in the comfort of your favourite couch. I am just appreciating the peace my home provides me. Husky is sitting beside me, licking himself, something he hadn’t been able to do because of our “field trip” at Sergei’s compound. I was examining the wound on my left arm a while ago and decided to record the final details of our expedition. Minerva is no more, because of me. She got what she deserved. She screwed with Chronos, repercussions of which are never good.

As I had already mentioned in the last entry, I was waiting near the perimeter wall. Husky’s body cam covered quite a wide angle. He had entered the building through the same gates from which the murderous robots had come out. From what I could see, it was a huge training area for soldiers and completely empty at that moment. I didn’t let Husky get cocky even for a second. His safety was paramount. I commanded him to stick to the walls or large objects as much as possible and his cloak did the rest of the job. I looked around and found security cams in every corner of that war room. After roaming about for a while, Husky was able to find the exit. He crossed the two large doors to enter another large area. The long rows of plants told me it was a greenhouse. I wish I had more time to observe the area. The plants were nothing like I had seen before. Some of them were even responding to Husky’s presence. I asked Husky to keep his head low and move steadily. The greenhouse was really large and very weird even by my standards. Sergei was not as myopic as I had assumed. Not only that, this also meant he had lied to us. I knew something was wrong since the beginning of the journey. Sergei’s eyes didn’t sit right by me. I have never been someone to take such matters lightly. As soon as I had realised the fact that Sergei had again being deceptive I called Phil.

Phil responded to my call in his usual manner, “Yeah, speak.”

I said hastily, “send an assassin to Sergei’s cell ASAP. Patch me through the comm of that soldier.” On the other hand, I asked Husky to get out of the greenhouse and stay in a corner. I needed to show Sergei the level of torture I can dole out.

In about a minute Phil called me back, “I have sent the Jonas. He will reach in twenty seconds.” I had the visual and the audio soon. Sergei looked up at the assassin and said, “I don’t think you found what you imagined in the building” and he started laughing hysterically. Somehow, he managed to speak, “You all will die here. I led you to a trap. I am not Sergei. I am just another clone. You will never find the real Sergei.”

I was extremely irritated and I have had enough at that time. I said to Jonas, “Can you please break Sergei’s left elbow and use his left arm to slap his face.” Jonas answered,”with pleasure.” He walked towards the clone and ripped off his arm from his elbow, followed by painful howls from Sergei. Then he slapped the clone’s face as I told him. I asked Jonas to allow me to speak, “Sergei’s clone or whatever you are, as you can see, I am in no mood for frivolities. I’ll ask questions and for each wrong answer, this guy in front of you will tear off a part of your body. Are you ready?”

Sergei’s clone was still howling. I asked Jonas to slap him again, the same way but harder. The second slap seemed to work. The clone said, “Sergei isn’t a human anymore. He managed to transfer his consciousness to a supercomputer long time ago. He procured research data from all over the world and perfected cloning. Then he made clones with different physical capabilities and transferred bits of his consciousness unto them.” I asked Jonas to hit him again.

Sergei was taken aback, “Why are you hitting me now? I am speaking the truth.” I replied, “I just felt like it. Continue”

“I am just one of the supervisors. I was tasked with overseeing the siege of your city. As soon as Sergei learnt of our capture, he started planning for the next step. Bringing you here was a trap. He had evacuated the facility before you arrived here. All the non fighting clones have been shifted to the other facility. I do not know anything more about his plan. Sergei maintained a strict need to know basis with his subordinates. With the fast calculating power of the supercomputer, he has been unstoppable. The machines you encountered are hardly the most lethal ones. There are worse below the ground level.”

As soon as I heard the last part, I asked Husky to return back to me. It would be very stupid to go in unprepared. I asked Jonas to amputate another hand of the clone and cauterize the wound for misguiding us before. I contacted the city administration and asked them to be on the lookout for another attack. As soon as Husky reached my position, we doubled back to our base. I needed to talk to the clone one on one.

Within thirty minutes I was in front of the clone. Fortunately, the prison van blocked all kinds of outside communication. So, the real Sergei, wherever he was, would not be able to contact his subordinates. I sat down in front of him, looked into his eyes and said, “You know what I’ll do to you if you lie to me again. I have a bunch of amazing doctors. I’ll make sure that you are alive to feel every kind of pain I inflict on you and I will be very slow. So, for your own sake, don’t test me. What else have you kept from me?”

I could smell the clone’s fear. He spoke slowly, “Sergei would kill me as it is. I was a supervisor, a clone with a part of Sergei’s consciousness. I oversaw weapons research. There are five others like me. The real Sergei does not come out of his strongroom which is at the bottom most level of the compound. We don’t even know whether he is in human form. Nothing goes in and nothing comes out. The last communication with him was before I was transferred into this vehicle.”

I asked him, “How much does Minerva know about Sergei? What was her role in your organization?”

Sergei looked at me and spoke, “She knows about the cloning and about real Sergei. She was the offspring of two of the clones and for some reason she showed intellectual promise. So, Sergei trained her to be a field agent. She was not associated with research directly but she did procure a lot of data from the outside world. She reported directly to Sergei and I have not much information about her reports.”

I said, “Okay, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I stepped out of his cell and went inside Minerva’s. She was defiant as ever. I was in no mood to tolerate her antics. So, before she could even utter a syllable, I shot her in the knee. Her eyes showed surprise at first which quickly filled with pain and fear and she cried out loud. I injected her with a pain inhibitor which I had taken earlier from a medic. I spoke to her in a calm tone, “I will ask questions, you will answer. If I feel that you are lying, I’ll shoot again. Where can I find your reports to Sergei?”

She replied while sobbing, “They are stored in the memory chip in my head. It cannot be accessed externally so forget about it.”

I stood up, shot her in the head and got out. I stepped out of the prison van and approached Phil. He looked at me, shell shocked. I said to him, “There’s a chip inside her head. Remove it inside the van so that Sergei can’t access it.”

Phil looked at the van behind me and said, “You shot her in cold blood. You maimed that clone even after he spoke the truth. I never dreamt of seeing you like this.”

I looked at him and said, “Phil, there are things in my past which were way worse. It’s better that you don’t dwell upon it.”

There was no point in staying there. We had no idea about Sergei’s plans as of now, neither were we prepared. There’s no dishonour in falling back to fight another day. I made sure that Minerva’s dead body reached Sergei’s facility before we left.