by Paul Phipps
“If this demonstration project is successful, how long would it take to do a similar cleanup of the rest of the Fukushima province and the other contaminated land? Also as a follow up can you do a clean-up of the off-shore waters?”
“A preliminary estimate for the contaminated land is thirty years, the off shore waters have not been studied.” LtJG Watanabe responded.
“Why would it take so long? Is it just the size of the project or are there other limitations?”
“The size of the project is indeed a factor. However the major reason is that the entire area would need to be examined in detail so that any historical or archaeological significant items would either be protected or removed to safer locations.
As I stated earlier, the process to be employed will literally disassemble everything in the affected area down to its component molecules so as to remove the irradiated and radioactive materials that are present.
Therefore anything of historical or archaeological significance that is left behind will be disassembled too and be lost forever.”
“You said earlier that the cleansed area of the Dai-ichi site would be completely sterile when the clean-up is done. What are the plans for that area after you are complete with your project?”
“I am under the understanding that the area will be given to the Japanese Botanical Society to bring back to life. How they intend on doing so is their project. I recommend that you ask them how.”
LtJG Watanabe answered a few more questions and then indicated that she now had to leave to go to the Haru and begin the cleanup of the Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster site.
* * *
Evana was fighting the urge to leave and go about her many other duties as she watched with the rest of the Japanese Disaster Agency’s team that had been assembled to monitor the Terrans Space Navy’s cleanup of the TEPCO site.
The Haru was a fairly small vessel by the standards of the TSN, she was a globe that was a mile in diameter, the simplest of all of their designs. There had been murmurs as the three mile in diameter globular shield was deployed and the TEPCO site disappeared behind the blueish opaque energy shield. And now the Haru appeared to rest on top of the Blue dome like a cherry on top of a scoop of blueberry ice-cream.
Evana’s holographic projector was displaying what the Haru’s sensors detected inside the shield for all to see. She in turn was giving a running commentary for the others in the room.
“Now that the shield is up the Haru will deploy a number of analytic units. These in turn will broadcast micro-sized units that will control the Nano-machines in their vicinity. Once the data collected is analyzed by the Haru’s team and a plan of action is developed then the disassembly of the area inside the shield will commence.”
“How long will that analysis of the data take, Captain Thomas?” asked one of the project engineers.
“It could take as little as a day or as long as a week. The TSN is very familiar with Nano-machine disassembly and construction. We use these processes all of the time, this however is a slightly different use of these tools. We only want to remove the radioactive materials and leave the rest behind for you to rebuild as you see fit. Therefore it pays to do this slowly and methodically.”
After some more time had passed and the scene in the holographic display remained the same, Evana decided that it was time to go.
“Gentlemen, I have pressing duties elsewhere. I will leave this holographic device with you. You may communicate directly with the Haru through it also. Just ask to speak with Lieutenant Watanabe or her Officer of the Deck, the connection will be made automatically for you.” Evana told the conference room full of observers.
* * *
Huntress
Ansel and Sarah were sitting comfortably with John Thorpe in a sky-box watching two teams of young children being lead slowly through a complicated maneuver in how to play dragon-ball. In this case though, the instructor was a former U.S. Navy Top-Gun instructor and the translation of fighter maneuvers to Dragon-Winged children was apparently getting the best of the man.
The children just wanted to fly and play at random and he was trying to instill some playing discipline so that what came out was a game of discipline not an undisciplined rabble. The kids on the other hand just wanted to play, finally the instructor realizing that his was an effort destined to failure, (at the moment anyway), backed off and moved to the sidelines of the aerial cube and let the kids just play at moving the ball around and learning how to fly so that it was natural to them.
“It’s like this every time a kid wants to learn a new game. They just jump in feet first and go crazy, after a while though the ones who are serious about learning how to play and want to be the best will float like cream to the top. We’ll skim them off and teach them everything we know and then they will teach us everything that they have figured out on their own.” John said as an observation. “How come there aren’t more adults wanting to play though?”
“It’s too new really, and most of the adults are still feeling their own way into the TSN. I’ll give it a couple of years and we’ll be watching a whole league of adults playing.” Ansel said complacently. Then as a thought hit him he said. “You know John, I wonder what sort of variation one of my geniuses is going to come up with on bowling or baseball?
“Well… If it turns out to be interesting just let me know. The network is always looking for new and different things to broadcast about.
Speaking of different, I was on your Grav-ball field yesterday. It’s going to be tough I think in describing it faithfully to our viewers. Your Marines love it though, I also found it fascinating to watch. But to make it more ‘real’ to the viewer we need to come up with something that visually draws hem in to the play.”
“Oh? Do you have any recommendations?” Sarah asked curiously.
“Not yet, but it’s one of my jobs as a reporter to come up with ways to educate my viewers about what they are watching.”
“Have fun doing so Mr. Thorpe. Unfortunately Chief Cavanaugh and I have more work ahead of us. So until the next time we meet.” Ansel told the reporter as he and Sarah moved toward the Trans-portal.
* * *
Captain’s Conference room, TSN Huntress
Fleet Admiral Webster and Seeker – Seeker’s Base in orbit around Ganymede
U.S. President Richardson and Admiral Caparelli – White House, Washington D.C.
Prime Minister Gamal Almarakh of Israel, Yitzhak Yergonah, Current head of the Mossad – Mossad Headquarters, Israel
Lt. Commander Fuller, Chief of TSN Intelligence – TSN Susannah
Captain Llewellyn, Commander Webster, Command Chief Cavendish – TSN Huntress Enroute to England
Dr. Golden, Ensign Cardonez – TSN Bloodhound, Zona del Silencio, Mexico.
“Using the data we have managed to translate from the Gho’ L’Gamesh’s archived data base concerning the Moon Base Archival Center of Earth E00342 and the current gravity and space-time stress readings we have gathered here in the Zona del Silencio, I can state confidently that the Sumerian Pre-cursor culture did arrive here on this analogue of earth from that one.
There is some room for debate about what time this occurred at. I believe that it was around six thousand B.C. though. This also brings up an interesting point I want to touch on before going further. There appears to be a great deal of time difference or perhaps it’s time displacement in our available data? In any case, the Gho’ L’Gamesh records that it arrived in E00342’s analogue around two hundred thousand years ago and I personally witnessed a dimensional intrusion in the late 1960’s. This indicates to some of us that the time constant in Inter-dimensional travel is not something that is under tight control.
Getting on then, there were other humans already here when these refugees arrived however. I do have my doubts that they too were native, I am of the opinion that the humans already here at that time were also refugees from other Earth Analogues. Or possibly even other Solar Systems in th
is Galaxy. Only time and more research will settle that question though.
Now then, one of the focuses of our investigation was into the Zone’s ability to disrupt electro-magnetic communications as well as the mental tele-viewing abilities that were demonstrated by Ms. Williamson to Commander Fuller’s Intelligence Organization in the 1970’s.
The translated archives tell of a Guardian that was left in this vicinity against the ‘Eater of Children’. After studying this area my team and I believe the Guardian is actually the Space-time Stress fracture that was created when the refugees from E00342 arrived here. We have recorded echoes of the event several times. The readings correspond with the dimensional resonance of E00342 almost precisely to the twelfth decimal place.”
With a hand gesture that he was finished with his presentation the Doctor sat down and awaited questions.
Admiral Webster nodded his head in appreciation of the presentation. Then he asked Lt. Commander Fuller to begin.
“Admiral Webster, ladies and gentlemen, once the working agreement was signed by Prime Minister Almarakh I immediately contacted my opposite number in the Mossad, Mr. Yergonah. After ascertaining that neither he nor his closest advisors were Quarn-Slaves I brought him into our confidence. He in turn has confirmed that Prime Minister and his cabinet are also Quarn free. They have all been issued the Anti-Quarn Gauntlets and are as protected as we can make them.
Once all of these things were done I made enquiries about the shield that protects the Mossad Headquarters. To my surprise and Mr. Yergonah’s he knew nothing about what I was talking about. This has been verified with our Truth Verifiers, which means that either the shield is a natural phenomenon of the area their headquarters is in or it was an unconscious generation by one of their employees.
Unfortunately for us all, there is no one that either of our two organizations know of that has the demonstrated psychic abilities of Ms. Williamson to test the Mossad Headquarters today.
With that as a dead-end for now we have been concentrating on the Quarn and the search for the location of the Quarn Mother.”
He paused for a moment to take a sip of water and then moved on with his presentation.
“As I have been heard to say before, the President-for-life of the United States was an amazingly secretive and paranoid man. There are no official U.S. Government records of his time in office of any kind that are older than seven months prior to the 20 million man march on Washington that ended both the Second Civil War and the President-for-Life’s reign.
So imagine my non-surprise when Mr. Yergonah told me about the U.S. Navy’s efforts in the Nation of Indonesia to build at least two totally self-sufficient Submarine bases that were accessible only from the Ocean.”
With that statement, admiral Caparelli’s mouth dropped open in total shock. President Richardson in turn was rubbing his chin in a meditative manner as he absorbed the outrageous statement.
“The Mossad does not have any information about the location of these two bases and he cautioned me that there might actually be up to five of them. With this information as a lead we are now searching for these bases.
I caution everyone that this is not going to be at all easy. It appears from some industry records that there was a Request-for-Bid issued in 2011 for two self-contained and watertight mining machines similar in capability to the ones used in building the England-France Chunnel. These however were quite a bit bigger as they would need to be able to move a Virginia class submarine through the tunnel that would be constructed.
With the capabilities of these mining machines the local populace would never have known what was occurring beneath their feet. And these constructed bases might be up to twenty miles or possibly further from the ocean.”
Admiral Caparelli asked at that point, “Are you positive about these bases, Commander? I mean, other than the Mossad’s information do you have any other material proof that the U.S. Navy constructed submarine bases in Indonesia?”
“Material proof? No, not material proof at least not yet. What I do have is this though; do you remember the Attack Submarine Chicago?”
“No, the name Chicago has been assigned to two different Missile Cruisers though.”
“Well then… The administration of the President-for-Life had an Attack submarine built for the U.S. Navy in Japan at a Hiroshima Naval firm. It was heralded as a tribute to the City after what we did in World War II in using a Nuclear weapon there. Do you remember that?”
The Admiral had a stunned look on his face as he heard that information. “No Commander I don’t remember that.” He then looked over at President Richardson and murmured, “Why don’t I? And what else don’t I remember?” He finished up with a very worried look on his face.
Admiral Webster spoke up then, “Admiral Caparelli, it is more than likely that you and many of your Officers and Enlisted men have been subjected to various memory altering drugs. As we have seen with the ACT-Now members in Homeland Security and elsewhere. The President-for-Life’s regime had absolutely no qualms on imposing their will through any means including killing and drugs.
The Quarn are also using their own mental abilities and the natural drugs they produce to achieve similar goals. So although you are correct to be worried about what you have been made to forget I can give you some assurance that those memories are still there in your head. And the TSN can help you recover them if you so desire.”
Admiral Caparelli nodded his head thoughtfully to what he was being told. He then said, “I’m due for some leave, I think I would like to take a trip to somewhere quiet where I can regain those memories.”
Lt. Commander Fuller waited patiently for the two Admirals to finish talking and then continued, “The Attack Submarine Chicago disappeared after completing her sea trials and acceptance by the U.S. Navy. There are numerous articles in the Japanese papers and we have found at least two others in an old back-up drive that my wife had in her collection of hard disks.
In any case there are a few other indicators that the President-for-life’s Regime imposed some interesting yet also distressing measures on the U.S. Military. The Epiphany’s crew has discovered that all of the Navy’s advanced munitions have been subtly sabotaged, fixes for that are now being instituted I understand.” He added with a look in Admiral Caparelli’s direction.
Now however the Epiphany’s A.I. has reported to the TSN that her underwater sensors have detected at least two submarines that her current escort vessels just don’t ‘see’. Her analysis of data indicates that the Navy’s highly computerized Sonar systems have been programmed to ignore or possibly edit out very specific acoustic signatures of several submarines.
It is highly likely now that we are aware of some of the hidden history that we have been discussing that these Submarines are associated with the presumed hidden bases in Indonesia. I also make the intuitive jump here that the Mother Quarn has a good likelihood to be co-located with one of these bases.
Why you might ask? Because of the President-for-Life aka ‘The Master’ aka ‘The Great One’ has made statements to the effect that his death will also ensure the Mother Quarn’s death also. And what could be easier to achieve that than by having her in a place that he controls through his followers that also has self-destruct capabilities.”
Lt. Commander Fuller’s statement should have generated some expressions of surprise, however in this group of men and women there was only considered appreciation of his reasoning.
“What is the Terran Space Navy doing at present to find these bases?” asked President Richardson.
“Quite a bit actually, Mr. President. “ Lt. Commander Fuller stated confidently, “Underwater mining operations like these leave tell-tale traces that are visible from orbit. And if the tailings were being dumped on the dry land side, they should also be visible as mineral deposits that are dissimilar from the surrounding landscape.
These efforts are also going to be complimented by our current search for the Mother by tracking dow
n the children we believe she uses as her preferred food.”
“Thank you Commander Fuller, You’ll keep us informed of any new developments of course?” Admiral Webster said with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes Admiral, as usual.”
“Admiral Webster, I would like to make an offer that might be of some assistance.” President Richardson said.
“Of what sort, Mr. President?”
“Would access to the National Reconnaissance Office’s Satellite Photo Data base for Indonesia assist you in this effort?”
“Mr. President, I think it would be very helpful indeed, especially if we can go all the way back to the portions for the 1960’s and 1970’s when the Mother Quarn was setting up her base of operations.” Lt. Commander Fuller interjected.
“Very good then, I’ll order that immediately, in addition I am issuing an Executive Order directing all departments of the Executive Branch that the United States is entering an Official status of having an ‘Working Agreement’ with the Non-Governmental Organization known as the Terran Space Navy.