Chronicles of Tomorrow: Echoes from the Future Ep.7: Road trip, 24th Century Style
Recap(Ep.6)
8th May 2355
The storm died down at around 5 AM leaving scars all around the city and wherever else it struck. I started the day by going on the usual run with Husky at the mushroom park. Yes, it is exactly as it sounds, the park has mushrooms except those mushrooms have been genetically modified to grow like large shrubs, some like trees. The genetic modification was done to establish a better food source. This park doubles up as that alternate food source.
Husky had a tough time keeping up with my pace. I had a bit of pent up energy I guess that made me beat Husky at our race. He looked flabbergasted at the end. I was slightly nervous. My creation was going to be tested in the real environment, the first field trip after we shifted to Dome City. Nobody had any clue what we might find.
I reached the Center at 8 AM sharp. The UPV had left almost two hours prior to that, it had a long way to go. The vehicle was yet to reach the first sensor. These sensors were installed about twenty years ago to monitor the environment and climate covering an area with a radius of 1000 km. Each sensor was placed 50 km apart, the first one two hundred km from the city. They were each housed in a processing cum protective unit. The UPV, unmanned probing vehicle had four live cameras on board to record the landscape outside the city in case a manned mission needs to be planned later.
The speed of UPV was kept low to collect data as effectively as possible while keeping time constraints in mind. The vehicle cut through the broken terrain like water. The expression on people’s faces on the observation deck was amusing. I was feeling a bit proud myself, I had no idea how it was going to turn out.
The UPV reported no abnormalities as recorded by the first six sensors. The devastation around them confirmed the readings. It was the seventh sensor that threw us off track. There was no record of even an abrupt change in pressure. The neighboring areas showed no change in landscape either. It was as if it hadn’t seen anything more than strong winds in recent days.
The case was similar for the next two sensors, no record of any storm. The UPV again picked up the storm’s trail when it approached sensor NE212. The data procured tallied with the data we gathered from the first six. We decided to gather more data before we made any speculation.
The UPV followed the trail for the next 100 km which vanished again for the next 150 km. Finally the vehicle reached sensor NE223 which had first reported the presence of the storm. It left quite a visible trail. We decided to pursue the trail in search of its origin. The car was moving on the path carved by the storm, when we noticed a cloud of smoke, a few clicks away on the horizon. We maneuvered the car towards the rising smoke. The UPV rode up only to discover the devastated remains of a settlement.
The settlement looked deserted from a distance. The houses were constructed of scrap metal and tin sheets. The paths were broken roads repaired using metal sheets. The whole settlement was riddled with dead bodies of men, women, children and hairless animals. Each one of them was burnt to the crisp and showed signs of radiation poisoning. The whole area showed presence of long term radiation. We were confused about the exact cause of death.
After some more searching, we found the cause. The UPV had reached a crater at least a km in diameter belching out yellowish smoke from the middle. That must have been the point of origin of the explosion but was it an implosion? What kind of implosion creates a crater?
Most probably everyone in that dilapidated settlement died because of that explosion. Again, that didn’t answer the original question of how. The vehicle moved further and there were no signs of any storm. Analysis showed only lethal level of radiation in the surrounding area. The surface surrounding the crater looked fragile and we decided to call off the upv rather than risking a fall. The UPV was moved to a more stable terrain. The UPV had a recon drone attached to its rear which was released to get a different perspective.
The recon drone was created solely for reaching inaccessible places. It was small with two propellers and a multi spectrum camera. The forward thrust was provided by another turbine just below its body especially for fast getaways. We got a terrifying shock when it reached the top of the crater. The drone was immediately sucked in giving us only a glimpse of what was inside. The drone gave a huge radiation spike before disappearing. The visual we received showed a swirling mass of red and green goo.
We couldn’t make head or tail out of it. The crater seemed to be sitting on atleast a thousand metres deep cavern or whatever it was, it was nothing we had seen before. The outer shape suggested that the crater was result of an eruption but there was no splash of the material outside. This meant the eruption was a result of gases forcing their way out. For some reason, a massive explosion was triggered on the outside surface which led to the crater. The swirling goo was of course highly radioactive and its origin unknown.
We were all flabbergasted than exhausted following the events of the day and decided to continue our search tomorrow. The loss of the drone was a devastating blow. We have limited resources and there is no scope of mining anymore at this moment. Most of the ore deposits are depleted and whatever is left has become radioactive. I am feeling too tired now. I’ll think about these tomorrow.
