“All right everyone listen up.” I began as we touched down, “For most of you it’s going to be a bit exhausting moving about out there. You have all been living in a lesser gravity for the past few years and your muscles will have atrophied some so you’re going to tire really quickly. I want us all to divide up into teams six teams of five people each when we go out there. You ALL are to stay in sight of your team, no exceptions. Anyone who fails to do so will not be going on any more expeditions and will be spending the rest of their time on the ship. We’re going to be here one hour and then we’ll be moving on to another location. Marranalis will make an announcement to you when it’s time to return. I expect you all to return immediately so don’t wander off too far and please be careful. It will be dangerous with crumbling buildings out there.”
I activated the control to reduce the cabin pressure before opening the hatch, there was a hissing sound as the air was sucked out and stored in pressurized bottles behind the rear bulkhead. As the hatch door swung down and hit the surface, the crust broke and puffs of grey dust swirled up. Everything had a nightmarish appearance of grey. There were no green trees or birds flying about, abandoned cars and busses could be seen here and there. Many buildings had collapsed roofs from the weight of ash. At places, small ditches appeared in the gray ash were streams after rains had formed and carved their trails in the ash as they sought out the river. I imagined that under the streets, wherever they were, the sewers were now solidly packed with ash that had no doubt solidified into a concrete like mass.
“Excuse me Tibby,” a woman approached me as we exited. “I’m Elaine Marshall. I’m one of the geologists with the Mars team, but I also have a degree in art history. Would it be possible for us to enter the Louvre and see if any of the art has survived and if we can save it? I suspect that before the impact the curators here would have placed much of the more valuable pieces in a vault where they would be protected from the environment.”
Her proposal interested me as I felt a real need to try to preserve anything from Earths past that I could, but I didn’t know how strong the Louvre structure was and if it was safe to go inside.
“Let me check first,” I answered. “Do we have anyone here with structural engineering experience?” Two individuals raised their hands, one from the Mars team and one from the Chinese.
“I would like if the two of you would accompany us to see if you think the Louvre is safe enough structurally to enter. What are your names?”
“I am Lon Chan. I am a structural and mechanical engineer.”
“I am Matt Granger, structural and electrical engineer.” He shook my hand and then Lon Chan’s hand as he continued. “I see that some of you on the lunar colony also tried to have dual discipline training.”
“Yes, it is most efficient that way,” Chan replied.
“I also have engineering training in mechanical engineering,” I said. I had been trained in the navy and afterwards got my degree and worked for the City of NEW ORLEANS with their pumping system. Now we need one more individual for our team.”
“I would like to accompany you. I am Lin Chow, at one time I was the cultural director for the town of Wai Lin in China, but when the town was destroyed during the war, I ended up in the Chinese Air force and later was sent to the Moon. I much prefer art to war.” He added.
Getting into the Louvre the next day turned out to be much easier than I anticipated. With no power and many of the exterior windows already broken gaining entry was easy, what turned out to be hard was trying to locate where the valuable art items might be stored, that plus the fact that we had to rely on our suit lights as all the rooms within were dark. Layers of dust covered everything and the few fewer less-valuable art works that were left hanging on the walls or sitting about were covered in so much dust that we needed to brush them off to see what they were. It was sad to see how quickly the acidic atmosphere was damaging what had not been sealed away and I was hoping that not everything would turn out to be lost forever. Eventually, we located a large vault-like door with notifications about atmospheric pressure and temperature controls that caused us to believe we had found what we were looking for. Now the problem remained, how were we going to get in? We had no combination to the vault and it appeared that the lock was an electronic one as well and with no power, we had no way to input a combination. With time running out, we returned to the transport and joined up with the remainder of our group to return to the NEW ORLEANS.
That evening I met with the surface exploration team again to discuss the day’s events and make plans for our return the next day. I made sure to have A’Lappe in attendance as I was confident he would be able to advise us on how to get into the vault at the Louvre. A’Lappe astounded me when he volunteered to go with us the next day. Since I had known A’Lappe he had only left the ship once that I knew of, and he had expressed he had no desire to leave it in the past, now here he was expressing a desire to go to the surface of my home world, a world at the moment was devoid of life.
Dr. Nelson reminded me that I had promised we would look into seeing if we could find the seed bank in Norway or Antarctica and I told her we would not leave the solar system before looking for it. Because we wanted to get as much accomplished the next day as possible I postponed my session with Dr. Hughes. This seemed to work out well for him as he wanted to meet with Jenira as soon as possible and my not being there would provide a greater opportunity.
After our meeting, Kala and I met in the entertainment Lounge to listen to music and to dance. The lounge was always full in the past but now with the refugees aboard it was crammed to overflowing. I made a mental note to discuss it with Kerabac and Stonbersa to see if we needed to expand the room or move it to a larger location. Kala and I had just finished dancing and managed to find two seats at a table when Doctor Danjuma approached us. “First Citizens,” she greeted us.
“Naomi,” Kala said. I was glad she remembered the doctors’ name because I had forgotten it. “I hope you are enjoying yourself.”
“I cannot begin to tell you how much I am enjoying myself,” Naomi responded. “I haven’t had this much fun since the day before I left Earth for Mars.”
“Well I certainly hope you will have as much, if not more fun once we reach Megelleon.” I said. “Have you had a chance to check out the Medical facility here?”
“Oh yes, it’s miraculous" I can’t believe all the things it can do.”
“Well it’s all yours; you’re in command of it now,” I said. “I hope that you are satisfied with the terms and conditions that Kala and Commodore Stonbersa have arranged with you.”
“Definitely, that and more, I’m just thankful for your learning headbands otherwise it would have taken me years to catch up with Federation medical treatments and procedures. However, it brings me to what I want to discuss with you. In going through the ship's records, other than for you, First Citizen Kalana and a few others on the ship, most of the people aboard haven’t had any physicals since you hired them and most have no medical records in the ships system. I feel it would be wise for you to have everyone aboard take a physical and have their vital statistics in the system.”
“Hmm, you’re probably right. Get with the Commodore and tell him that I approve of your suggestion and have him set a schedule for everyone to go to the Medical facility and have a physical.” “Thanks Tibby, and thanks again for coming to our rescue. We were starting to suffer with supplies running out and it’s doubtful we would have lasted another 5 years.”
As Doctor Danjuma walked off I said to Kala, “I hope the crew isn’t going to be upset about being required to have physicals.”
“Why would they be?” Kala asked with a quizzical look on her face.
“Well you know, all the poking and prodding and needles. It’s very uncomfortable for most people.”
“Is that what you go through on Earth for a physical?” Kala asked in amazement.
“Well, yeah. How do you do it here?”
&
nbsp; “You simply walk into a scanner and place your hand on a scanning pad. Your body is scanned and DNA, blood type, pulse, blood pressure, are all taken from the scanning pad your hand is on. It also analyzes your sweat for any harmful pathogens that may be present in your body. It only takes about 30 seconds. It even produces 3D images of everything that is going on inside your body. If you hadn’t been unconscious for most of your reassembly you would know that.”
I cringed as she reminded me of being re-assembled after my crash and I was glad I was not awake to witness the procedure. I turned and looked around the room and noticed Regata sitting at a table with Doctor Volkov. The doctor seemed to be fascinated with Regata; I’m sure as a xenobiologist he was nearly ecstatic with having live beings from other planets with a different evolution that he would see close up.
“I see that Dr. Volkov has Regata under his microscope.” I said to Kala. She turned her head and glanced at them before answering. “Yes, he was all over Brackmun earlier. I sort of felt sorry for Brackmun the way the doctor kept staring at him and touching him. You may need to suggest to him that it might be a bit more subtle in his approach to those he is curious about.”
“I wonder what will happen when he gets to A’Lappe?”
“Oh, you didn’t hear about that?” Kala said with surprise. “A’Lappe was one of the first people he met and you would have thought that the doctor was ready to dissect him and put him in a jar. He started touching A’Lappe and A’Lappe slapped his hand and told him to back off. The doctor started to spout some scientific mumbo jumbo and A’Lappe shot back with some of his own that left the doctor standing with his mouth open. A’Lappe told him that if he wanted any specimens that he was going to have to give up and donate specimens of himself for A’Lappe to examine.”
I chuckled, “I would have loved to have seen that. What happened then?”
“Well Dr. Volkov apologized and backed off. A’Lappe brushed himself off and then in typical A’Lappe fashion vanished before the doctor's eyes. By the way Volkov jumped I think A’Lappe must have pinched his butt him as he passed.”
“I guess in the interest of science we should tell Dr. Danjuma to forward medical records to Dr. Volkov for his studies, minus the names of the individuals of course.”
“Speaking of examinations,” Kala said through a grin. “I think you are overdue for me to give you a checkup.”
“Oh, I see,” I responded with a grin of my own. “Well I think I have a few moments free if you want to do it now.”
“Oh I want to do it now,” she said in a husky tone, “But I think it will take more than just a few minutes.”
The next morning we had two shuttles going to the surface. The first was headed to Antarctica to see if they could locate the international seed and genome bank that had been set up there. If all things went well the cold from the ice would have protected the samples and we would be able to recover them and resurrect most of the species of plants and animals that lived on the Earth at the time of the Asteroid impact. The second shuttle would be returning to the Louvre in Paris to try to retrieve the works of art stored in the protective vault there. I had to admit that A’Lappe looked somewhat comical in his space suit. Even though the replicator could produce an outfit to fit anyone I still was amazed that it had been able to produce one for his unusual frame. Before we entered A’Lappe assigned some of our team to carry a couple of boxes and instruments with us. It seemed strange walking through the dusty halls as we proceeded deep into the museum to the vault, the gray dust that coated everything and the lights shining on the walls and items reminded me of scenes that I recalled from old TV documentaries on Earth of deep-sea expeditions where they used small submersibles to explore ancient ship wrecks. There was a silence among our team as we descended into the basement where the vaults were that was only broken by the sounds of our footsteps crunching in the dust beneath our feet and the sounds of our breathing inside our suits.
A’Lappe’s reaction when we reached the vault was different from what I expected. The first thing he did was to sit the instruments he was carrying on the floor by his feet and then to stand up with his hands on his hips just looking toward the door. His eyes roamed over it and I don’t believe there was a square millimeter that his eyes didn’t scan. Then slowly he walked forward and placed his right hand on the door and just stood there for a moment. At last, he turned and said to one of the men carrying ato bring it forward. From that A’Lappe drew three wires with suction cup attachments at the end. Using his gloved hand A’Lappe cleaned the surface of the door of dust and then placed the suction cups with wires attached on the door at three points roughly equally spaced. He walked back and picked up the package he had carried with him and removed a pistol like device that he aimed toward the door; several lights winked on the pistol like device but nothing else seemed to happen. A’Lappe then returned to the door and looked at the instrument attached to the wires.
“Hmm,” he hummed. Next he took a large hammer from another of the team and rapped the door soundly in the lower left-hand corner and after that he looked at the instrument again. Finally, he used another device to measure circles of equal diameter from each of the three suction cups and instructed a third member of our team to use a laser drill we had brought along to burn holes where the lines of the circle intersected. I had assumed that the lasers would burn through the plate quickly so I was astonished when it took nearly 20 minutes to burn the first hole through. About ten minutes into the process A’Lappe instructed two others of our team to burn holes at the other intersection points and finally after about 30 minutes all the holes were drilled.
“Will the door open now?” I asked A’Lappe.
He turned and looked at me with those blinking eyes that seemed to mesmerize, “Not yet, but we are close.”
“Next he took a snake-like item that had some tools attached at the end and a small light and camera. This he inserted into one of the holes and moved it about inside the door, finally he located something inside and using the tools attached to the snake cable, he pushed some little pin, next he inserted a rod into another hole and twisted it and finally tapped it soundly with the hammer. Then he nodded to two of the men with us and they came forward and grabbed the handle of the door, twisted it and pulled and slowly the door swung open.
The vault was smaller than I had hoped it would be, but it was obvious the caretakers at the museum intended to save as much as possible at it was tightly packed crammed full of art objects. For a moment I think I felt what it must have been for Howard Carter when he peered into King Tut’s tomb for the first time and I began to wonder if any of Tut’s items survived and were they in Egypt or somewhere else when the asteroid hit. I decided I needed to put looking for these items on a list for future explorations.
“Oh, look,” one of the members of my party exclaimed, there is a Monet, and over there is a Renoir. Tibby will your ship be able to hold all these treasures?”
“I certainly hope so, because I want as much of it saved as possible. We can set up a temporary museum and exhibits in one of the vacant compartments on the ship, and once we return to Megelleon we'll set up a proper Earth exhibit. Maybe one day, when the Earth’s atmosphere settles to what it once was and humans return here, we can have these items on exhibited here once again.”
That night when we returned to the ship, it was with our shuttle so filled with artifacts there was barely room for us in it even though we had scarcely reduced the number of items stored in the vault. One particular painting in the batch we found caught my attention; it was Vincent van Gogh’s Self Portrait With Straw Hat. I decided to display it in my study office on the ship and had Piesew seeing to hanging it when suddenly A’Lappe appeared at my arm.
“Sort of looks like you a little Tibby.” He said in a merry tone.
“You think so?” I don’t see the resemblance, his chin and nose are more pointed than mine for one and for another I don’t have a beard.”
“True,
but you both have red hair and your lips are similar.”
“H-m-m!” Just then Kala entered the room.
“What do you think Kala? A’Lappe says that I resemble this painting.”
“Well,” Kala began comparing me to the painting, “you both have red hair, and your lips are similar, but your nose is definitely different. You don’t have the beard either. I wouldn’t think anyone would confuse this painting as being you, but they might think it was a relative.”
“There actually were many painting Vincent Van Gogh did that were Self Portraits With Straw Hat,” Lon Chow said as he entered the room behind Kala. “This one looks like one of his earliest. I always regretted the war going on. So many of the great western paintings and art works were not available to us to see in China, I am glad now that I will be able to see so many of them close up, but I am sad about the circumstances behind it.”
“Over the next few days it became apparent that even with as large as the NEW ORLEANS was we were rapidly going to fill most of the empty spaces with artifacts from the Louvre, the British Museum of Arts and Science and the Smithsonian. Unfortunately, we were unable to recover many items from the last two as portions of the lower floors and basements of these museums were flooded, nevertheless; we were able to extract many items on the upper levels. By now the science teams that had gone to Antarctica had located and retrieved the seeds and genetic materials stored there and they were all safely aboard the NEW ORLEANS in refrigerated compartments.
We were nearing the end of our expeditions to Earth but before we left I decided I wanted to take a look at what was left of the United States. Kala, A’Lappe and Jenira went with me on the ALI as I flew about trying to find recognizable landmarks, which were not as easy as I had hoped as most of the old coastline and coastal cities were now underwater. New York City had buildings that rose from the water, the Statue of Liberty had water up to her waist, but she still stood. The Tidewater area in Virginia was underwater and the Chesapeake Bay was gone and now part of the Atlantic Ocean. Only a small island remained of what once was Florida, my home state of Louisiana was now under the Gulf of Mexico; a third of Texas was underwater as well. Nowhere did I see a living thing; trees and grass were gone and any of the structures that had been made of wood were now ashes. It was hard to determine where we were at many times because recognizable land marks were missing. I wanted to show Kala the Grand Canyon but when we arrived where the Canyon should have been all we found was a large active lava field. Even though it was hundreds of miles from Yellowstone, the shock wave that went through the Earth when the asteroid hit caused the magma underneath what had once been the park, to erupt sending rock and ash across half the nation. After the major eruption, lava began flowing south and west from the caldera following rivers, valleys and canyons and joining up from lava flows from dozens of smaller ancient volcanoes that were now active again. These flows had eventually reached to the Grand Canyon and filled it nearly full with lava flows. The planet I had lived on and grown up on was now as alien to me as any other planet in the universe.
Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth Page 20