The Destroyer

Chapter Sixteen

"So what do you think? Drill the man holes?"

"Hell yah."

"Okay, we'll wait about six months before we start. I will take it up with Marcus."

The two of them stared at the live feeds from several drones that were out combing the landscape. "Lots of saplings. Looks like plants are having no problem regenerating. I'm amazed that the seeds could have survived," declared Avery.

"My guess is that they blew in from the far north. We did some simulation and it's likely that the the ozone concentration above sixty degrees was sub critical."

"What might that mean?"

"Could even be animals that survived."

"People?"

"Who knows. But some of Alaska was hit directly. It's too far west. Northern Canada, maybe. But not many people up above sixty degrees. There were towns up there. It's possible. My guess is that it would still have been too toxic for people." 

Suddenly, something in the monitors caught their eye. It was a lone bird, winging its way south.

"Wow! So there's your answer. Look at that!" exclaimed Avery.

"Ha ha! Yes! I'll have the drone go after it and see if we can identify it."

The news was like a shot of adrenalin to the community. They could almost taste the sensation of real sunlight beating down on green fields of grass and clouds littering a deep blue sky as the breeze carried them along.  Engineering and construction teams had already started to build a network of four shelters close to the surface, each near a lake or a river and each connected by an underground roadway that would operate guided vehicles. There was a central shelter, that was directly above the deep habitat. In all, they had built the foundation to begin the process of re-emergence. This was all met with enthusiasm. Perhaps too much enthusiasm. Depression had now morphed into impatience. Impatience yielded to unrest. Oasis was now like a ticking time bomb. I needed to be defused, and soon.

Avery, meanwhile had another project underway. Most of the residents had no interest in shedding their human forms to be imprisoned in yet another form of cave, orbiting high overhead. But there were some of them, particularly the military men and women, who had relatives that had gone that route. They were conflicted about what to do. Being the new pioneers to resettle the Earth was mighty enticing. But then there was the allure of eternal life. At a minimum, there were plenty of Oasis residents that at least wanted to find out what happened. Did they survive?  Avery had his communication experts finalizing the transceiver antenna, one that would fit through the narrow passage available and could deploy on the surface automatically. It required solar energy, as the passage was too long for wire. The transceiver was essentially a repeater and it communicated to the the underground using a laser. It was quite an engineering challenge to build, deploy and then align the devices involved. But the capability was well in hand.

Weeks after the discovery of the bird and then several others, the communication system was up and running and ready to start searching for Sahara. 

"Our signal is weak, but with the directional antenna, and knowing where the Sahara should be, we should be able to get enough signal there, assuming they're listening," explained Fiona DiMarco, one of the comms experts. "We are sweeping an area and it's highly likely that we should cross their path soon."

"Let me know if you get something. Nice work," offered Balanson.

Sahara residents all knew almost simultaneously when the signal was first apprehended. For their part, they knew that Oasis had already breeched the surface. Automated, high resolution satellite imagery and a precise knowledge of the location of the shelter, allowed them to focus on a small area of interest. The giveaway was the spotting of the drones. They were small, but on a clear day, Sahara's capability was such that picking up these small bird-like machines was inevitable. Real bird sightings also stirred the interest of the Sahara community, some feeling regret in knowing that real nature, as experienced through a real human body, was still unmatched. But that was changing rapidly. And besides, it wasn't as if there had been a choice.