Prometheus Base
Planet Irkalla, Survivor’s Refuge
4452.3.12 Interstellar
While Janus wasn’t as good at process engineering as Callie or dome administration as Lira, the maintenance control system was an instrument he’d spent years learning to play.
The first thing he did was look up the power situation. Prometheus Base had run on a combination of solar power, bioreactors, and geothermal plants. All the bioreactors had failed, which puzzled Janus because while it would be typical for blockages to cause them to shut down, especially after ten years, they shouldn’t have suffered widespread malfunctions. The grid to the solar panels needed repairs, but he was able to use what power they produced and what he found in a few of the remaining capacitor banks to get two of the geothermal plants cycling again, and that was enough for their purposes.
“Can you get those bodies out of here?” he asked the others.
“Why?” Lira asked.
“Because it’s could get pretty ripe in here if I get this space fully pressurized and humidified, and they’re still here with us.”
While the others carted the corpses outside, Janus started taking inventory of the dome’s status, particularly of areas they didn’t need putting a strain on their limited power supply. He started with pausing any cued activity in the many automated production facilities scattered around the dome. Robotic warehouses were loaded with feedstock, ready to be used. Entire factories had frozen in mid-step when lockdown occured. It was dizzying to think what Janus could do from here, and even more so if their explorations brought them to dome admin at the heart of the city. With enough people and a few keystrokes, he could bring Prometheus Base back to life.
“At least they’re dry,” Syn said, cringing as she and Lira grabbed a body.
The next thing on Janus’s mental list was temperature control. While they weren’t feeling it in their suits, Prometheus Base would be frigid after years of inactivity under a reflective dome. Heating it was a luxury they couldn’t afford, at least not everywhere. He disabled water services—except what it took to supply the adjoining washroom—as well as most commercial and residential buildings. He couldn’t seem to find the power system for the ring of towers, but whatever was keeping them active, they weren’t drawing power from the main grid.
As for things he did leave on, he made sure that major utilities, transit systems, and conveyance systems were active, as these would only draw power when the team used them. He also found a large vehicle hangar he thought might be worth checking out, so he powered that up, too.
“That’s the last of the bodies, boss,” Mick said, stepping back into the room.
Janus nodded and closed the jammed door with a simple command. Once the room was sealed, he activated the environmental management system for just that room, sucking twelve years of decomposition and dust out before pumping fresh, clean, warm air in.
They may have been raiding Irkalla’s largest tomb, with no support for hundreds of kilometers and predators all around, but for a moment, they had a sanctuary.
He continued making the necessary changes while the others dug into their packs and prepared to make camp.
***
When Janus finally popped the seal on his helmet, he was greeted by the smell of Lira’s cooking, which beat the alternatives by a long shot. He’d learned to recognize the smells of cumin, coriander, cloves, red chili, and saffron among others, as the mouthwatering effect animal protein and fat had on his body. The team was huddled around the small portable stove like ancient hunters gathered around a fire.
“I’m surprised that didn’t go with the trailer,” Janus said, sitting down.
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“My stove, her spices,” Ava said. “Hunters travel light.”
Janus nodded. He took a moment to breathe and let some of the stress and fatigue drain from him. They’d had a long night, and still a long day ahead of them.
“What’s the plan, boss?” Mick asked, and Janus opened his eyes to find everyone looking at him.
He looked at Syn. “Can you make sure we’re blanked out?”
“Yeah,” she said, accessing her wrist-comm.
A few seconds later, they were cut off from any recording devices within network range, including their suits.
“We’ve confirmed a few things,” Janus said. “Two weeks before the collapse, my uncle informed the Cult of the Survivor that the Prometheans were doing something they considered heretical. Now, it’s anyone’s guess what it might have been—”
“You don’t think the trilith barrier is significant enough?” Ava asked, and Raul nodded.
Janus looked at Mick, who said, “Triliths aren’t a big problem for most settlements. They pay us, we keep the roads open, end of story. I’m surprised Haven didn’t give it to everyone, to be honest.”
“It’s not part of the main power grid,” Janus said. “I think there’s more to it than just a system to keep triliths away. It’s academic anyway, because we’ll find out when we get to the lab. We have two things we need to consider before we plan our next steps. The first is the food, rest, and supplies we need to survive the trip out of here.”
That one seemed pretty straightforward to everyone.
“I can take charge of that part,” Mick said. He looked at Ava and Raul.
“We’ll help,” Ava agreed.
“Great,” Janus said. He looked at Lira. “The second thing is, I used the emergency response system to make sure there wasn’t anyone alive in the dome, just in case someone had somehow managed to survive. I found a few sections that still had power and breathable air after all this time. The bad news is, there aren’t any human survivors, not unless they’ve removed their wrist-comms and found a way to hide from the sensors. There’s a mass of organic matter concentrated in the lower levels, but I think that’s related to all the bioreactors going off-line.”
“I know you’re going to reach the point sometime,” Lira said, although the faint smile on her face blunted the cut.
Janus took a deep breath. “I found your mother.”
“Where?” Lira asked.
“Dome admin, in the hub,” Janus answered. “She’s not alive. I just want to make that clear. I thought you’d want to know.”
“I have to go there,” Lira said, starting to pack her gear.
“Eat first,” Janus said. “And rest. We don’t know what we’re going to find in that part of the dome.” He looked at Syn. “I’d like you to see if you can access dome security and get a better idea of what happened here. It’s one thing to know that tens of thousands of people died, here. It’s another thing to understand how, and if we’re in danger.”
Syn nodded.
Lira hesitated.
“Please, Lira,” Janus said. “My parents… they’re in the same building. If it’s safe, I’ll go with you, but we still need to make it to the hidden lab and survive the trip out of here at sunset, while the triliths are still sluggish.”
“I’m not leaving here without finding her,” Lira said.
Janus sighed. “Okay. It’s your choice. I’ll help if I can.”
***
They decided to stay in the maintenance control room for eight hours, which gave each of the groups time to rest, take care of their responsibilities, and stand watch.
Mick and the Hunters made a trip down to a sealed storeroom that contained replacements for their lost supplies.
Syn tried to retrieve records of the collapse from dome security, but after two hours of trying she gave up. “Everything that has anything to do with what happened during the collapse has been erased. They even took out the noosphere records, but they left everything else intact. I can’t even imagine the amount of work that must have been.”
Janus and Lira had similar results, digging through the maintenance and administration systems. The best they could determine was that, on the day of the collapse, all of the dome’s airlocks were opened or breached at the same time as several internal failures occurred.
Prometheus Base’s fall had been as sudden and swift as it was comprehensive.
Syn looked over from her terminal, a little bit of her self-confidence restored. “I think I might be able to use the emergency response system to access people’s final recordings.”
“You mean ghost images?” Janus asked. It was a system dome-sec used in cases of violent crimes when the victim wasn’t able to speak for themselves.
“Kind of,” Syn said. “It’ll be easier to show you.”
They decided to split into two groups after they finished resting. Janus helped himself to the Hunters’ gathered supplies, found a corner to wedge himself into, and caught a few hours of sleep.
He dreamed that the biomass pooling under the doom was the underworld where the Prometheans had been sentenced to suffer for eternity for what they’d done, and that at any moment their hands, limned in corpse light, would reach up to drag him down.
Lira nudged him awake with her boot. “Let’s go, hero. It’s time to find out who and what happened to this place.”
Janus rubbed his eyes, grabbed his pack, and got up. “Let’s go solve a mystery.”