The primary mission for now was to determine where the source of the radiation was coming from. She and Bart had used the Framling Coils to triangulate the flow of radiation. They finally believed it to be somewhere in the basement level of the destroyed facility. They’d have to go there themselves to investigate, since the coils on the surface couldn’t read anything underground.
Bart had to craft a more efficient sensor using some spare Fever Killer parts. These new scanners would allow Mei and her team to detect local radiation levels. They could also indicate which direction the flow was coming from. Handy little machines, to say the least.
Zoe also worked at outfitting the rad suits with night vision and infrared. John had suggested using parts from military-grade goggles as her foundation, which turned out to be a good idea. The suit’s visor now displayed the different visual choices. Like the goggles, switching between the different sights required the use of a physical switch. This made the suits look a little awkward, but Mei would take functionality over aesthetics any day of the week.
Zoe soon activated as many flippies as possible, including Mortimer and Stanley. She stationed them throughout the grounds in an attempt to track the radiation levels. It was difficult, because the flippies weren’t built to perform precision scans. They wouldn’t do the whole job, but they could still detect any major spikes, should they occur. Mei hoped to use some of the flippies to continue excavating the site while her team worked on their current task, but she couldn’t afford the risk. Until she had a better handle on this situation, safety would remain her top concern.
John tied the end of an extendable ladder to a spike, which he nailed into the ground. He checked its stability with his own body weight, then waved the others to him. “Ready when you are,” he said.
“Let’s go,” said Mei, and grabbed hold of one of the ladder’s metal bars. She took the lead and descended into the cavernous basement of the Ortego facility. It had been several years since she and John had been inside these walls. A lifetime ago. Yesterday. Talk about déjà vu.
The others followed shortly afterwards, climbing one at a time to ensure the ladder held. When everyone was on the floor and ready, Mei and Bart retrieved their scanners.
John insisted the trio stay together through the mission. This place was a tomb, filled with the dead and ready for more. There were so many things that could go wrong in a place like this. The radiation levels might spike at any moment. The walls could collapse and bury them alive. “Sticking together means there’s less of a risk we’ll run into trouble,” he had said. “Progress might be slow, but it’s safer this way.”
The scanners detected the flow of the radiation through the corridors. They indicated the general direction of the source, but the range was severely limited. While the coils outside could handle roughly fifty to sixty meters, a handheld scanner couldn’t detect more than a few dozen meters. It gave them an idea of which direction to go, but not which hallway to use. This caused a lot of backtracking as they discovered several collapsed or blocked passages.
Throughout the afternoon, Zoe radioed Mei with updates on the radiation levels. There had been a few spikes, but nothing to worry about. Not yet.
“This way,” called Bart from inside one of the rooms. Mei followed, checking her own device as she moved. The flow of radiation was definitely coming from this direction, growing marginally stronger.
This room was yet another server farm. The flippies had scavenged part of it before things got out of control. Roughly a third of the basement levels were filled with places like this—ancient data hubs filled with a litany of potential secrets.
On the other side of the servers, a set of double doors stood waiting. The left side had taken some damage, cracked and unhinged. Bart opened the right door, swinging it wide and holding it for the others.
The next section appeared to be an office, roughly one thousand square meters. The ceiling was lower than the server room, but higher still than others. If not for the massive cluster of cubicles and supplies sitting in the center of the room, crushed together like a massive ball of metal and plastic, Mei might have thought nothing of the place.
“What the hell is this?” asked John. “All the furniture’s been moved. Did the flippies do this?”
“I don’t think so,” muttered Bart. He looked at Mei, as though he doubted himself. Perhaps he hoped he was wrong.
She shook her head. “They haven’t touched this one yet.”
“What’s the scanner say?” asked John.
Bart held the machine, taking a moment to analyze the readings. “Hold on a second…”
“What is it?” asked John.
Mei looked at her own scanner. The radiation in this room was higher than anywhere else. It was barely within safety parameters. “Crap,” she said.
“Crap is right,” said Bart. “If there’s even a slight spike, we’re toast. These suits can’t take anything higher.”
“What do we do?” asked John.
Mei approached the debris in the center of the room. As she did, the sensor’s warning light beeped. She quickly backed away. “This is it.”
“You’re sure?” asked John.
She nodded. “I think this is where the radiation is coming from.” She walked along the outer area of the room, keeping her distance until she was on the opposite side. Once there, she stepped a few steps toward the center. The sensor beeped. “See? This is definitely the spot.”
“We should get out of here,” muttered Bart. “We can come back when we have a plan. It’s too dangerous to stick around talking.”
“Right,” said Mei. She rejoined them on the other side and together they walked swiftly through the server room. “Bart, as soon as we’re home, I want you to work on building another coil.”
“Another?” asked Bart as they reached the hall. “What for?”
“We’ll place it there,” she said, pointing behind them. “Not too close, but enough to make a difference so it’s safe.”
“Not sure if you remember, Doc, but your typical coil is too tall for a room like that. They also drill themselves into the ground for stability. How do you expect to put one here?”
“All you have to do is make a few modifications, like you did with these scanners.”
“Yeah, Bart, don’t be so dramatic,” said John, grinning.
“I guess I could put something together,” he said. “But I’ll need some time. A few days, maybe.”
“You’ve got one!” snapped John, raising his finger.
“Take all the time you need, Bart,” said Mei. “I’ve got my own work to do.”
Ch
ap
ter
14
Ortego Outpost File Logs
Play Audio File 419
Recorded: January 18, 2351
CURIE:
Doctor Tremaine, this is Mei Curie calling with a status update.
TREMAINE:
What do you have for me today?
CURIE:
We managed to locate the origin point of the radiation. It’s coming from underneath the Ortego ruins in one of the sub-basements. We’re working on a way to contain it.
TREMAINE:
Sounds like good news for everyone. When will you be able to shut it down?
CURIE:
Bartholomew Higgs, one of my engineers, is working on a solution using several Framling Coils. The rest of my team and I are working on a more permanent solution.
TREMAINE:
And what exactly is the source?
CURIE
: My best guess is an Ortego experiment. It may have been dormant until recently.
TREMAINE:
I see. Do you have any idea how long this will take you?
CURIE:
A few weeks. I’ll have more information soon.
TREMAINE:
Sounds good, honey dear. So long as you keep me updated, we shouldn’t have a problem.
CURIE:
A problem?
TREMAINE:
Don’t worry about it. You’re fine. Keep up the good work.
CURIE:
Yes, Doctor.
End Audio File
Ortego Reconstruction Outpost
January 18, 2351
Mei wasn’t a fan
of half-truths and keeping secrets, but she didn’t see much choice in the matter. Doctor Tremaine had asked if Mei had a plan to stop the radiation and she’d told her boss part of the truth. But she wanted to do more than shut the problem down. She wanted to understand it.
Of course, if Tremaine found out, she might try to stop her and call them all home. Mei couldn’t risk that. For now the plan stayed a secret, locked inside her brain where no one else could see. When the time was right, she’d tell her team the truth but not yet—not when Tremaine could still find out and stop her.
Mei ordered her team to assist Bartholomew with his work, but he declined, saying he worked better on his own.
She didn’t argue.
While she waited, Mei and Zoe returned to the Ortego site. Together they had the flippies retrieve as many Ortego Disks as possible. They unloaded several floors’ worth of server farms and offices, scavenging hundreds of disks in the process. Most of them were broken or trashed, but a few still functioned well enough. If nothing else came from all this, at least she’d have something to show for it.
Mei also took the time to visit and analyze the irradiated pile of trash in the basement. She couldn’t get close to the source without risking injury, so most of her progress remained theoretical. She came up with a myriad of ideas for what could be causing the radiation—even a few potential solutions—but she couldn’t test them. Not without Bart’s machines in place to impede the radiation.
But for now, she imagined the possible scenarios and how they might unfold. What could possibly force the furniture in that room to crash together and stick? Why was it emitting such large amounts of radiation? Why this location and not somewhere else, like a lab or some other place where a dangerous experiment might take place? Why an office?
These questions lingered in her mind for hours, and she tried coming up with one solution after the next, but nothing fit. It was infuriating. She lay awake for hours, contemplating possibilities.
Her thoughts brought her back to the place where it all began. She remembered the journey here, the path through the city towards the Ortego headquarters. The image of the void, trapped behind the glass cylinder, circled in her mind, clawing at her thoughts. She pictured herself standing outside the facility with John, watching the implosion…seeing Terry die.
Then a thought occurred which gave her pause. There had been no measurable radiation the first time she’d visited this place. Not on any noticeable level. She and her team believed the radiation had simply grown over time, beginning well before the destruction of the Ortego facility, but what if they were wrong? What if the rift had something to do with it?
It seemed ridiculous at first to think a pile of trash in the basement had any relation to the original machine. How could they be the same? They were several floors removed, separated by at least a hundred meters.
But the thought lingered. It didn’t take long for her to finally get out of bed. She pulled up the blueprints for the Ortego building on her pad, locating the place where the portal used to be, then compared it to where the anomaly was in the basement.
She dropped the pad on the table, staring at the blueprints. How could she not have seen this sooner? Despite being several floors apart, the machine and the anomaly were in identical locations. She couldn’t believe it.
No, hold on a second
, she thought. The debris in the basement didn’t look anything like the portal she’d seen four years ago. The rift was three meters tall, a massive tear in space. They couldn’t be the same. Unless…
Micro-wormholes
, she thought. Maybe when they shut the rift down, it destabilized and fractured, sending pieces of itself into the sub-levels.
It certainly explained a few things. The unstable micro-fractures, if they existed, could be the cause of the radiation. She’d have to find a way to test for them, but how?
She needed a solution soon, before Tremaine figured out what she was doing. She was running out of time.
******
Ortego Reconstruction Outpost
January 22, 2351
On the fourth day, Bartholomew delivered on his promise. He showed Mei a set of miniature Fever Killers, mobile but extremely heavy. Zoe suggested they use the flippies to transport them into the underground basement. Mei agreed, and she got to work.
Mortimer and Stanley hauled the first coil into the basement. Dee and Dum following with another. They went slowly through the broken stairwells and cracked foundation. They would take as much time as they needed. This equipment was valuable, and they might not have time to make more. It took ten hours altogether.
Bart requested the coils be set up on opposite sides of the anomaly, roughly three meters away. “Give me some room,” he told Mei and John.
They backed away, and he joined them, checking his pad for a moment. When he looked satisfied, he tapped the screen. “Here goes.”
The miniature engines in the coils roared to life. They vibrated and shook the floor. For a second, Mei thought the tiles beneath her feet were going to collapse, and she’d fall into them.
That would be the end,
she told herself. What a way to go.
But after a moment, the vibrations settled, and the hum of the engines calmed into a soft purr. “So far so good,” said Bart, analyzing his pad. “They’re both working fine.”
“I guess you’re not totally worthless,” said John with a chuckle.
“I’ve been known to do things,” said Bart.
Mei retrieved her scanner and powered it on. It would take a few minutes for the radiation levels to even out. There was nothing left to do but sit and watch.
The scanner’s display showed the radiation levels holding at a steady rate. A few minutes passed without so much as a flutter. Was the radiation too strong? Maybe the coils simply weren’t enough. What was she going to do?