Akropolis

by H C Edwards

  "Thank you," Misao said gratefully, near tears.

  "It was my fault. I should have made the time to check the suits. I'm just glad it was only a small hole. A tear and you might have popped from depressurization."

  Misao was stunned into silence. She hadn't realized how close she had been to death. It made her feel cold all over just thinking about it.

  "Ok, the resin tank is about fifty meters this way," Wu said, pointing over her shoulder. "Are you good to go?"

  Misao nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment.

  "All right. Follow me."

  Wu Lin turned and paddled off into the darkness, Misao trailing her by only a few feet. She felt if she were any further behind, the darkness would swallow her up and she'd never find her way out.

  After a minute or two Wu Lin came to a stop and pointed down at the bedrock a few feet below them. There was the resin tank, resembling nothing so much as a large hope chest with two hoses coming out the sides. Right beyond it was the fissure, and though Wu Lin had stated it as the source of the leak, she had not mentioned the size of it.

  The crack in the bedrock was at least three feet across and stretched off into the darkness on either side.

  Wu Lin reached down and grabbed the first hose and handed the nozzle to her. Then she grabbed one of two extra weight belts that were lying next to the tank and buckled one around Misao's waist.

  "That's heavy," Misao complained.

  "Good," Wu Lin said. "It will keep you from shooting off. Plant your feet wide. Grip the nozzle with both hands like this."

  Wu Lin demonstrated, one hand on the handle and trigger, the other gripping the barrel of the nozzle.

  "You're going to the opposite end. Stick the nozzle right in the crack. Put your back to me and backpedal as the fissure fills up with the resin. It comes out fast so pull that nozzle back as you see the crack filling up. Make sure you do not get your feet in it. The stuff hardens up fast and if you get stuck we'll be here for hours getting you out."

  Misao was certain that was the last thing she was going to do.

  "You'll want to fill the fissure to just an inch below the edge before moving on. Any questions?" Wu Lin asked.

  Misao had a dozen of them, but she wanted to get this over with as fast as possible and so she shook her head back and forth.

  "Ok, you head off to that end. When we get close I'll let you know to stop and I'll cap off the rest. If something happens or you have a problem just speak out loud, ok?"

  Misao nodded, still speechless.

  "Ok," Wu Lin said, this time with a reassuring smile and a pat on the other woman's shoulder. "You'll be fine."

  Misao nodded again, slightly assured she wouldn't die just yet, and started to walk off towards the opposite end of the fissure, trailing the hose by her side.

  She followed the crack in the bedrock and watched as it slowly started to shrink until it reached a pinpoint. Misao backpedaled a few steps until the nozzle could fit in the fissure, said another silent prayer that consisted of 'please don't let anything go wrong', and then squeezed the trigger.

  Immediately, Misao felt her arms start to buckle and let go of the trigger. She had not been prepared for the amount of force that came out of the nozzle. Thank goodness she had the extra weight belt or she would have indeed shot off into the darkness.

  Planting her feet again and this time locking her arms, Misao returned the nozzle to the crack and pressed the trigger once more. This time she was able to hold it steady, though it sent a strong tremor along her arms and to her shoulders, almost rattling the teeth in her mouth when the vibrations reached her head.

  The strong light from the headlamp gave her plenty of time to see the resin filling up the crack and to give way with the nozzle when it was time. She kept her feet as far as possible from the rising resin, heeding the warning from Wu Lin.

  Every five minutes or so, she stopped to take a break. She would have wiped her brow had she been permitted to. The job was becoming more strenuous than she could have imagined and was taxing her muscles quickly. Her lower back felt like a spring that had been stretched too far and lost its elasticity. Even her hands were getting sore and starting to cramp from gripping the nozzle so tightly.

  There was a moment, about twenty minutes in, when the fissure was at its widest and her left foot slipped. She instinctively released the trigger of the nozzle as her leg fell down into the crack, sending the rest of her body crashing into the side of the bedrock, hands and arms scrambling for purchase.

  Misao screamed briefly, imagining her body slipping into the fissure and falling endlessly down into the darkness, careening off the walls of the rock as her fingers scraped the walls for purchase.

  Had her body fallen any further into the crack then she might have lost herself to the panic. As it were, her groping hands found an outcropping to grasp onto, halting her fall.

  “Misao!” Wu Lin shouted in response to her scream. “What’s going on?”

  Misao was doing her best to pull herself up past the ledge, using her other leg, which was still at the top of the bedrock as leverage. After a few seconds of struggling she was able to lift herself far enough to push the rest of her body over and roll across the bedrock floor away from the fissure.

  “Misao!”

  “I’m ok,” she replied as she fought to regain control of her panicked breathing. “I’m fine.”

  “Do you need me?” Wu Lin followed up.

  Misao could hear the concern in the other woman’s voice and despite the fact that she was still recovering from what could have been at the least an injurious accident, she felt touched.

  “I’m good,” she said, and just saying it actually did make her feel better. “Let’s get this finished.”

  Saying this, Misao rolled over onto her hands and knees and stood up. She walked back to the fissure, scanning the ground until she found the nozzle of the hose on the other side of the crack.

  “All right,” Wu Lin replied. “Can you see my light?”

  Misao turned around and saw in the dimness about twenty yards away the headlamp flashing on and off.

  “Yes, I see you,” she said, reaching up and turning her lamp off and on in return.

  “All right,” Wu Lin said. “I’ll be to you in about five minutes. Keep it up.”

  Misao nodded, realizing how foolish that was in the darkness.

  “Gotcha,” she affirmed, then stepped across the fissure and retrieved the fallen nozzle.

  When she went back to the crevice she took an even wider stance and willed herself to slow down and not rush. She took smaller steps back and when she looked to her feet she made certain to release the trigger of the nozzle so she didn’t trade one danger for another.

  MIsao was at least pleased to see that none of the resin had popped out of the fissure, and after about another five minutes she heard Wu Lin speak up again.

  “I’m behind you. Give it a couple of more feet and then you can step over.”

  Misao blasted the resin into the crevice for another minute and then gratefully released the trigger and stepped aside. She watched as Wu Lin backpedaled and filled in the remaining gap.

  “All right,” Wu Lin said. “That should do it. Let’s walk back and check your work.”

  Misao followed the other woman as they walked the breadth of the fissure. Every once in a while Wu Lin would stop and stomp her foot on top of the hardened resin. When they both reached the end, she turned around with a smile on her face.

  “All right, that was impressive for your first time.”

  Misao couldn’t help but grin.

  “Thanks,” she replied. “But I don’t mind if you call someone else next time.”

  The other woman laughed at this.

  “All right, let’s get going.”

  They stopped off at the tank to curl the hoses and deposit their weight belts. Misao was actually relieved to have it off and to be able to separate herself from the bedrock floor.

&
nbsp; “What about the tank?” she asked.

  “We’ll leave it. I can send the bot down later to retrieve it.”

  Wu Lin began to swim off and Misao joined her, paddling just to her left side.

  “How long does it take to swim to the top?” she asked.

  “We’re not swimming to the top,” Wu Lin replied, and Misao could swear that the woman was smiling even though she couldn’t see it.

  “Ok, I give. How are we getting back?”

  “There’s an artesian well that comes up just a few hundred meters away. There’s enough pressure to send us up at the same time.”

  “Is it fast?” Misao asked worriedly.

  She was thinking about the dive tunnel and how it had spat her out so forcefully she was certain her back would be purple with bruises by week’s end.

  Wu Lin laughed lightly.

  “It’s a lot slower but the view is definitely better.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  But Wu Lin only shook her head as she continued to swim.

  About ten minutes later the older woman held up a hand after inspecting the small display screen on her arm.

  “We’re here. Do you feel the pull?”

  When Misao stopped paddling with her feet she did indeed feel a current continuing to move her body forward.

  “Stay behind me and watch your head. It gets a little tight in here.”

  Misao paddled back with her arms to let the older woman in front of her then followed on her heels a few feet back.

  Wu Lin was right. The bedrock took a steep slope up and at the same time a ceiling loomed overhead. The further they went the more the bedrock sloped up until there was only a foot between them and the ceiling. Misao felt like she had traded one fissure for the other and was just starting to get the itch of claustrophobia when Wu Lin spoke up.

  “Turn around so that you’re face up. Let the current take you and move along with your hands. When you reach the lip of the well you’ll know it. Let it carry you.”

  “Ok,” Misao responded, barely squeezing her body around enough to face the ceiling.

  Another few seconds later and she saw the lip of the well coming, an open space in the bedrock ceiling. She gripped the edge with her hands and bent her body up, letting the natural current surround her and lift her up into the well.

  There was more space here than there was in the dive tunnel, enough that both women could float up side by side.

  Misao was just about to ask what Wu Lin meant about the view when she was suddenly enveloped in a neon green glow. She gasped and flinched back but realized quickly there was nothing to fear. The entire sides of the well were alight with some sort of bioluminescence.

  “What is it?” she asked breathlessly.

  “It’s an engineered type of phytoplankton,” Wu Lin replied.

  “It’s…it’s beautiful,” Misao said with wonder.

  The ride up took a couple of minutes. The whole way she marveled at the sight of the bioluminescent algae that lined the walls in large swathes that almost seemed patterned.

  When the glow of the algae faded she saw another glow from above, recognizing it for the artificial light of the ecosystem. Another thirty seconds and they burst from the well, Wu Lin grabbing her arm and pushing it towards the edge. Misao grasped the lip and hauled herself up over the small wall of the well and plopped down on her ass in the mud on the other side, never having been so grateful to get dirty.

  Wu Lin walked over and released the catches around the neckline of Misao’s suit. There was the hiss of the atmosphere within mixing with the atmosphere outside. The younger woman pulled the helmet off and sucked in the air with large gulps, unable to hold back the grin stretching across her face.

  “Come on,” Wu Lin said, taking off her own helmet and stretching out her hand. “We still have a walk down the hill back to the dive shed.”

  Misao grasped the woman’s hand and was lifted to her feet, legs a bit wobbly. She looked back to the well and saw that the water coming up from the aquifer was funneled back down the hill by a stretch of pipes, presumably back to the lower lake. She was willing to bet that on the way it irrigated some crops as well. They couldn’t afford any waste in Akropolis after all.

  “Wu Lin,” Misao asked as they took a rocky path that led in switchbacks down the hillside they were on. “You said that a tremor split the bedrock.”

  “I did,” the woman said, not looking around as she led the way down the hill.

  “Is this the first time that this has happened?”

  This time Wu Lin came to a complete stop and turned around. Her expression was worrisome.

  “This is the first time a tremor has cracked the bedrock, yes…but the tremors have been going on for a while now. And they only seem to be getting stronger.”

  “What does that mean?” Misao asked.

  “I don’t know,” Wu Lin replied. “But it can’t be good.”

  “Have you submitted a report to the council about this?”

  Wu Lin frowned.

  “I did…three months ago.”

  “And?” Misao prodded.

  Wu Lin gave her a frank look that spoke volumes.

  “And nothing,” she stated simply, then turned and continued walking down the hill, leaving Misao alone with her questions.

  It was a long walk back to the translift. Misao held the pad that Wu Lin had given to her on the way out of the dive shed.

  “Maybe they’ll heed your warning a bit more closely, seeing as you’ll be on the council someday soon,” Wu Lin had said.

  Misao had at first been skeptical of Wu Lin’s admission that she’d already informed the council of the tremors. It didn’t seem plausible that she had not heard of such a thing from them. Or perhaps they had investigated the matter and found the threat miniscule.

  Of course, if that were the case then the fissure they had tackled today was proof that the danger was anything but diminutive. Now, she just had to relay the actual risk to the council and hope that Wu Lin was merely dramatizing previous events.

  This time as Misao stepped into the translift and ascended to the lower levels of The Pantheon, her mind was too preoccupied to enjoy the view. While her body was exhausted and sore from the ordeal at the bottom of the lake, her mind gnawed at the issue of the fissure and what it could portend.

  What would they do if there was a quake and all the water in the aquifer was swallowed up? Life as they knew it would cease to exist. The reservoirs up top could be desalinated and recycled as much as possible and the automated water plants right outside of The Wall would create enough for drinking but their crops would not last; their entire food source would cease to exist within a month, their stores a year or two after that. What would happen to the human population then?

  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

  This is what Talbot would tell her and it was good advice. There was no sense in wondering about answers she didn’t have yet. Her time was better spent on what she would say to the council when she presented her report.

  Misao glanced down once again at the pad, frowning at the graph presented at the top of the screen. The spikes appeared random but the frequency of them couldn’t be denied. They were happening more often and with increasing strength. This might have been the first one to crack the bedrock but form the seismic readings she was willing to bet it wouldn’t be the last one.

  While the translift was made of glass and therefore see through, the first five lower levels of The Pantheon did not provide even a glimpse into their facilities heading up. Though Misao was to be inducted inevitably to the council she did not yet have access to these secretive floors, and wouldn’t until she was sworn in.

  Next came the production level for the QUBITS and here the stoic grey walls of the previous levels gave way to glass so that she could see the giant machines creating the synthetic bodies that they would all occupy sooner or later. The factory floor was at least sixty feet high with catwalks and cranes
; people and QUBITS alike adorned almost every available inch of open space, monitoring and tinkering with the computers attached to the machines and in general resembling a large colony of ants with only one goal in mind, the longevity of the human race.

  The next two floors housed the labs. The glass was opaque as many of the experiments could be considered not yet ready for prying eyes, though anyone with access could step into one of them and find out, an idea Misao had considered a few times but ultimately did not indulge in simply because she deemed it rude without reason.

  The final below ground level contained the inner workings of The Pantheon, a massive floor that was home to generators and intake air blast coolers, sewage tanks and water pipes, and two underground power plants that harnessed the solar energy produced from the UV panels at the top of the dome. In every direction were large transparent tubes tall enough for two people to stand on one another’s shoulders, filled with various cables and wires, filtering power from the plants to all parts of the city.

  When the translift door opened on the lobby floor, Misao stepped off and headed in the direction of the council chambers. It was early enough that they had not dismissed for lunch so she was certain to catch the majority of them together tending to business. She felt it was better that as many of them as possible heard what she had to say.

  Misao barely acknowledged the two guards by the door and was just reaching up to wave her hand at the sensor when the door to the council chambers opened before her. She was caught off guard and took a step back.

  Major Trey Boeman exited the room, his face affectless and unreadable. Misao always felt nervous near his presence, uncertain how to address a man like him, a soldier who had seen the end of the Old World and the birth of the new.

  She needn’t have worried as the Major stalked past her with nary a glance, his eyes singularly focused on some faraway point of duty.

  Misao waved at the door to keep it from closing and stepped into the chambers just as Councilman Talbot looked to be leaving from the rear door.

  “Councilman,” she addressed loudly to keep him from exiting the room.

  The older man paused and turned halfway around.