by A. Bernette
Periodically, one of them would try a door, hoping that perhaps it would open. Every door was secure, as it should have been. Neither Stella nor Stephen would be able to get into anything useful or interesting down here. At least not without the right access, but that wouldn’t stop Stephen.
Stella came to a sudden stop. “What was that?” she asked.
“What was what?” Stephen asked back. He hadn’t heard anything.
“That sound. Come on - this way.” Stella grabbed the tablet from him and was now leading them down the narrow hallway, slowly; listening for the strange noise she’d heard. “There it goes again,” she whispered.
“I heard it but I think it’s just the normal sound of something as big as this,” Stephen said. Her ears had always been much better than his.
“I don’t think so. It sounded like groaning,” she said.
Stephen raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Let’s keep moving.” Stephen took the tablet back from her.
“I want to get to this section on the blueprint today before we go back so that tomorrow we can start on the next level. We’ve only hit two of the four required locations to gain access to the next level.” They continued to walk but Stella was sure what she heard wasn’t just the sounds of the ARC.
“What do you think we might find, Stephen?” she pondered. She needed to do whatever she could to stay interested.
“I don’t know. I am hopeful that we’ll find something to help us figure out what is really going on. Something to answer the question of why the World Consensus and UniCorps don’t want to do everything possible to warn people,” he said seriously.
“Even if we do find that, what are we going to do with it? We can’t tell anyone. Everything here is top secret. Even we are sworn to secrecy. We could be tried for treason. Well, I guess if we find it now and say something we wouldn’t be tried for treason but we’d be sent away for reconditioning. I don’t really want to be sent away for my sixteenth birthday Stephen. I don’t want to be sent away at all. Especially since they keep you until they think you are ready to rejoin society,” she said worried.
“Why the sudden change in your behavior Stella?” Stephen stopped walking to ask her.
She looked at him. She was the big sister by a matter of just six minutes. “I don’t want us to screw up our lives, okay? And for what? Something that won’t make a difference anyway?” she answered.
She’d always been there to protect him and look out for him and now she was letting them do this, risking their freedom. She didn’t want to wind up homeless. That’s what happened to para-adults who didn’t successfully receive reconditioning and the behavior modification programming by the time they reached adulthood at twenty-one. Their lives would be ruined.
“I think we should go back. Maybe the meeting will go better than we expected and there will be nothing to worry about. Maybe they’ll agree to prepare for evacuation and warn people,” she said grasping for her usual optimism. “Mom and Mave can be pretty persuasive,” she said with hope, trying to convince Stephen and herself.
“Based on the past behaviors of the World Consensus and UniCorps, the probability of that happening is about .28. In case you are wondering, yes that is too low for comfort,” he said smartly. “We have to continue.” He added what little bit of bass he had to his voice.
Stella sighed with frustration. She was torn and confused, and he hadn’t helped. She followed Stephen to the next location spot. It was in a section with doors marked RS. He allowed the geo-locator to mark that they’d made it to that location and then he kept moving.
“It’s hard to judge from these blueprints, but we probably have another quarter mile to walk to get to the last location,” he said.
Stella sighed heavily this time, trying to get his attention. He missed her cue, forcing her to be more direct.
“This is pointless Stephen. I hope that what Marco sends us next has some real clues that don’t require walking in honeycomb circles for hours.”
Stephen kept walking, ignoring her comments. Moments later he heard it. It was the unmistakable sound of groaning.
“You had to have heard that!” Stella said in an excited whisper.
“I did. What is it?” he asked her nervously, looking around for the source of the strange sound.
“Heck if I know! But that’s what I want to find out. Let’s check that out now, then we’ll do the last location.”
Stella started walking at a near gallop towards the direction of the strange sounds. The groaning faded in and out and sometimes sounded more like moaning. She barely looked back at Stephen to make sure he was keeping up with her pace. Something exciting was finally happening and she didn’t want to miss it.
“Slow down, Stella. I’m trying to follow this blueprint and need to make sure we don’t miss one of the required locations.” At this point Stella didn’t care about the blueprint. Her curiosity had been peaked and she was going to follow it before she got scared.
“Hurry up. We don’t have much time and I’m starting to get hungry. It must be almost lunch. They’ll probably take a break and someone will come to check on us. If we want to check it out, you need to put that thing away.” Stella stopped to say the last part to his face, just so he’d understand the importance, before turning back around and continuing at the same pace.
“It’s getting louder,” Stephen said.
“Yeah. I think we must be close. I thought this thing was built just before we were born. It must have some old systems to make this much noise,” Stella said as she listened to the odd sounds.
“I wonder if we are coming up on the central power source or something,” Stephen said curiously. “That would be nice to see. I can’t imagine what it must look like to keep something like this powered independently. It is its own power source for sure,” Stephen added matter-of-factly.
As they approached another door marked RS11, Stella slowed down. The sounds seemed to be coming from there. It was another door with the security panel, just like all the others they’d come across. She gently pushed on the door, optimistically. Maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll open. But there was no budging.
“I think it’s in here. Remember this door, Stephen. When we get back down tomorrow, we’re coming straight here.”
She pressed her ear to the door and heard the groaning again and in the distance it sounded like something scraping against concrete.
“The whole system must be through here. It’s strange to put it down here, but I guess they don’t want people accidentally messing with it,” she said.
Stephen looked at the door and at the blueprint. It didn’t make sense that the central power system would be there.
“I think this may be a smaller secondary power source, if anything. Based on where we are on the ARC, it wouldn’t make sense to have the central power here. We have to keep moving. I want to get to this last point before we go back,” Stephen said, starting to walk again, his pace a little faster.
Stella gave the door one last look and then joined Stephen as they continued. She had the distinct sense that it held something other than power but even trying to tune in, she got nothing. Not a whisper of thought, not an image, or a sensation of taste or smell. It was like nothing was back there, but something definitely was.
They could still hear the strange groaning and moaning sounds. As they continued the sounds became fainter until Stephen couldn’t hear them any longer and they were just a whisper to Stella. Then, they were gone.
“We have just a little bit further to go. For some strange and very disconcerting reason this blueprint presents no distances, no measurement - anywhere. Marco said there is another one that is a bigger file size. Maybe that one will be more complete. It would be helpful to know how far we’ve gone and how long we have before we get to this last location check,” Stephen said pointing to a bubble floating on his screen. Stella looked at the bubble and then the green flashing dot that showed where they were.
“I
could try to estimate based on the approximate size of the honeycombs and the average pace of our walking and,” he stopped speaking as Stella cut him off.
“It’s okay, Stephen. We are probably pretty close,” she said, clearly irritated. This wasn’t the kind of exploring she had in mind. She was hoping to unlock some doors, find some secrets, something more along the lines of what they’d done in Southern Allegiance. This was nothing like that.
They went around a few more turns and the flashing green light on the tablet moved slowly towards the location check.
“I can’t believe all of these doors are locked,” Stella said as she gently pushed against almost every door to test them. “I guess we really are part of some top secret project,” she frowned. “What do you think it’s all about? I think mom, dad, Mave, Rupert, and all those other people are trying to protect the ocean life as part of an indicator for overall environmental health. They are trying to make sure we don’t damage the overall ecology of Earth any more than we have. I believe they are doing that,” she stopped then and Stephen walked into her as he stared at the tablet. “Stephen!” she complained impatiently.
“Yes. I’m sorry. What were you saying?” he asked.
“Ugh! Stephen! Never mind. Anyways, I think that mom and dad are doing what we know they are doing as far as the environment and ocean and keeping on top of the emissions pumps. BUT, I think they are also doing something else. Something they aren’t telling us. That’s what I think,” she said smugly. She started walking again.
As she walked Stella continued talking, letting her voice carry behind her, “Why else would there be a freaking maze down here with dozens of locked doors and that’s just what we’ve seen so far. They know something and they are the ones who were here to build it. Dad designed it. We should just ask him about all of this. Have him take us on a real tour rather than us sneaking around finding nothing. Well except for some engine groaning and moaning,” Stella finally stopped speaking.
“We’re here, Stella,” Stephen was finally able to say. This is the last location check we have to do for us to move on tomorrow.
“But I want to come back to RS11 first, then we can go to the next level,” she said.
“Agreed. Give me just a second to let this register that we are here before we leave,” Stephen said.
Stephen waited for the tablet to register the last location check and then looked down the other side of the honeycomb hall.
“We’ll go back this way, just to see what’s around that side. It should be about the same distance back to the top. Besides, there’s something interesting ahead on the other side. It looks like it is just about opposite the other secondary power system behind door RS11. I want to walk by there and just see if maybe it’s another smaller control room,” he said.
“We can’t tell anyways, Stephen. The door will be locked.” The excitement was now gone for Stella. “It’ll just be another door with moaning and groaning sounds coming through it that we can’t enter.”
She knew Stephen was just trying to get her back into this expedition the best way he could but she was ready to go back up, eat lunch, and relax, especially since they didn’t have time right now to come back to RS11.
They’d be headed home in just a few days now. Then there would be all the unpacking and finishing the last weeks of school there, which meant she needed time to get her hair done and pick up some new accessories once they were back. She’d already moved on in her mind. Now all that was left was for them to get out of the grey building that reminded her of the old prisons they’d toured during history studies as a child. At least upstairs was more vibrant and lively.
Stephen moved quietly ahead of Stella. He wanted to see if another power system was on the other side. If so, he reasoned there might be more in order to produce enough power for the ARC to operate independent of any other outside power source.
He thought about how much energy it must use every day. As he heard the sounds he wondered if down here the widely used models initially discovered by Tesla were the source. Stephen imagined they would have to be enormous models given the size and that multiple devices must be located throughout the ARC.
They continued their silent trek in the shadows until Stella heard the faint but familiar sound of groaning. She slowed down. “Did you hear that?” she asked Stephen.
“No. What was it?” he asked.
“It sounds like the same thing we heard on the other side. I think you may have found another power system for the ARC. I bet there are more considering how big it is. We definitely need to ask Dad for a tour. Tell him it’s for science class and promise him we’ll keep everything top secret,” Stella said, optimistically hoping their dad might consider it. Stephen would have a better chance convincing him.
“Let’s head back up. I can’t check the secure system Marco is using to send us the opened files from down here. Maybe he’s sent something that might give us some better clues to what all these sections and room codes mean. Of course it would be nice to know how big the ARC is too,” Stephen said with excitement.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sooner
Antarctic Research Center
Stella and Stephen were on the same level as everyone in the ROC Room located across the ARC. They’d managed to cover the full area of the second level, despite having learned little about what was behind the locked doors.
Zura sat between Mave and Johan with Rupert beside Mave. The team’s backs were towards the ocean and windows at the oval conference table. The stern faces of the men and women they’d been employed by for the past two decades looked at them from across the table. Her team was like family to her and the others had always been like good acquaintances.
In years past, the meetings had always been a bit celebratory - a check in on the work done and the facility. Talking about their children and plans for after the season on the ARC ended. This year, the tension could be felt from before they touched down in Antarctica and it had only gotten higher from there.
Her favorite pilot, Jonathan Adams, had brought them over and Johan had gone out to meet them and bring them back. They’d come back in near silence once they’d dispensed with the customary cordial greetings.
Johan had brought them into the ROC room and Zura could tell immediately that they were angling, considering their approach and how they would instill their opinions and ensure the desired objectives were met.
That year three representatives had made the trip from each of the funders. Representatives Magiro and Silver were joined by a high ranking official named Admiral General Mylar of the Combined Operations for Peace and Security. He was a regular attendee of the annual review meeting and often drove the discussions, despite Zura’s attempt to maintain control.
From UniCorps they brought Chief Scientist Dr. Tomas Sporgsman from the emissions pumping side of the global organization as well as the Chief Scientist Dr. Cliven Phillips and Lead Researcher Dr. Sandy Ashby from the environmental, ecological, and impact side of what was formally known as the Technology, Science, and Development Division.
The beautiful ocean view in front of the guests seemed to barely make an impression on the temperaments. For this occasion they had coffee, hot cocoa, fresh squeezed juices and the chef’s specialty breakfast. Zura always felt it was better to have difficult conversations over good food.
She’d instructed the ARC’s cook to prepare a full brunch with eggs, bacon, sausage, tofu sausage, muffins, grits, pancakes, and French toast. Johan insisted she was overdoing it, but she argued that it was harder to be angry when sitting around a table filled with delicious food.
But the tense pleasantness had ended soon after everyone had enjoyed their brunch. The last bite had barely been chewed and swallowed before UniCorps set in.
For the past couple of hours they’d hammered into Zura and her team about the importance of the work they were doing. While the funders interrogated her team, they were, however, unwilling to share anything with t
he ARC team at all. Instead it was a barrage of questions to learn exactly what they’d found, how much they knew about what they’d found, and what each finding meant.
They were going around and around in circles and Mave recognized the tactic meant to confuse them and have them second guess themselves and their research. She, like her coworkers, was confident that their information was solid and since the transmission more than a week before, they’d gotten even better information from the Science Institute and other partners.
After this meeting, there was no doubt there would be several other meetings between the Science Divisions of the World Consensus and UniCorps with all of their partners and grantees. The others would be drilled just like they were and reminded of their allegiance to the World Consensus and of any non-disclosure agreements that might have been signed.
Rupert sat quietly, contemplating all that was said, done, and not said, as was his way. He didn’t believe anything coming from their lips and was busy making mental notes of the path of their circular arguments.
Every person in that room could be personally affected by what they had found, yet neither UniCorps nor the World Consensus, particularly Mylar, were at all phased by that reality, which Rupert found odd. Instead, they were adamant about tying their hands. At the same time they were trying to make it seem okay to do nothing, just because it was legal to do nothing.
When time for the long overdue lunch break finally came Admiral General Mylar stood up. He immediately requested that Johan take them on the tour to see the storage areas on the lower level. Johan knew the ARC better than anyone and had given the tour every year since it was completed.