The Tunnel Rat’s Journey
J. M. Franklin
My name is Emily, although no one calls me that. Most often I’m referred to as “Tunnel Rat,” and I don’t know my last name, so don’t ask. I was orphaned at four years old, and as a ward of the state I was trained to repair the steam tunnels that run under the city, heating it like a giant radiator. Occasionally one of the pipes will spring a leak, so I go in and seal it up. Sometimes they burst, and I can’t fix that without getting burned, so I keep a close eye on my section of pipe, keeping it in good repair. The pipes are getting old though, nearly a hundred and fifty years old. It’s hard to believe that humans took refuge from the ice above in this underground city only a hundred and fifty years ago. It seems as though we have been here forever.
There are murals throughout the city depicting landscapes of things I have never seen—things like the sky and mountains. The only wind I have ever felt on my face is the hot vapor of the steam. In these murals are large beasts that I have never seen and have no names for. The only animals I ever see are the rats that run the tunnels with me. Even three kilometers underground humans can’t get rid of the rats. I know that somewhere in the city there is a rabbit farm, but I have never seen one. Small, quick to multiply and easy to care for, they are raised to feed the rich, so I have never tasted one.
Large solar panels mounted on telescoping towers are raised every day into the frozen atmosphere above. Flexible tubes carry hot water through the towers to prevent them from freezing. The solar panels collect the sun’s energy and relay it to a machine in the gardens, which converts it back into sunlight to raise crops for the city. It has been said that this machine alone will ensure the survival of the human race through the ice age.
And that is what we humans are doing: surviving. I don’t know what life on the surface was like, but I find it hard to believe that it was worse than this. I work ten hours every day to earn enough credits so I can keep my bed in the dorm and feed myself, and once a year I buy a new set of clothes. I have two sets, one to wash and one to wear.
Maybe things are different for those who have more money. The people with more—more food, more clothes, a real home—don’t really seem to be all that happier than those without; they just seem to hide it better.
“Emily!”
The shout breaks me out of my thoughts. I look down at my tablet to stare into my boss’s fat, angry face on the screen. “Yes boss! What’cha need?”
“Are you deaf? I’ve been talking to you for the last five minutes!” His red face grows redder. “There is a low pressure reading coming from a tunnel point six kilometers ahead of you and to your right. Go check it out!”
I double-check the seal on the pipe I have just finished before gathering my tools and rushing off to the next pipe in need. It looks like my day is going to get a little longer. I have already been down here for over nine hours, not that I have anything else to do.
By the time I finish my work and find my way back up to the city streets, I have put in nearly a twelve-hour day. I’m exhausted and hungry. I’ve traveled close to ten kilometers in the tunnel today, and now that I have emerged back onto the street, I check the map on my tablet to figure out where I am. I look up at the tall buildings surrounding me, their dark facades rising up to disappear into the ceiling high above. The ceiling of the enormous cave the city was built in is always kept in darkness, as if to imitate the night sky instead of reminding people they are three kilometers under what used to be called the Swiss Alps. My map says there is a steam train tunnel a block over.
I find a route map just next to the stairs that tells me I only need to take one train back to base. Sweet! I think happily. I go from one tunnel to another. Running down the stairs, I feel the ground vibrate from the approaching train. I make it without a moment to spare, stepping onto the car just as the engine releases a puff of steam and begins to move.
The car jerks and, thrown off balance, I bump into a man standing in the isle.
“Pardon,” I say as inoffensively as I can.
Without a word he grabs my arm roughly, shoving me towards the back of the car. “Disgusting Tunnel Rat!” he spits after me. I don’t have to look to know that he wiped his hand on his pants.
Now, I know that after a hard day of work in the steam tunnels I look like hell, and I smell no better. But for the life of me, I don’t know why steam pipe workers are regarded so poorly. I mean, really, without us there wouldn’t be any heat. Scientists long ago predicted the onset of the current ice age, and thankfully, technology had advanced far enough for them to do something about it. They drilled down to the earth’s molten core, tapping the last heat source on the planet. Using that heat and the only other resources they had in abundance—ice and water—they built a huge system of pipes. Now the only power we have is steam and solar, and I am responsible for maintaining that power. So how is it that I’m treated like last week’s garbage?
I manage the rest of the train ride without further incident and arrive back at base within a half hour. Unfortunately, my boss is waiting for me.
“Girl, in my office now!”
My boss’ name is Karl, but I never call him that, just Boss. “I already sent you my reports, Boss. You should have them on your computer already.”
“I have your reports. Sit your ass down!” Karl closes the door behind him. He sits down on his desk and shakes his head at me. “Where were you today?”
I’m confused. Karl can keep track of all of us tunnel workers via the tablets we all carry. He knows where I am every second of every day. “What do you mean? I was where you told me to be.”
“I mean your head. How many times have I caught you daydreaming instead of doing your job? I’m beginning to lose count!” Karl crosses his meaty arms over his gold shirt covered in coffee stains, the buttons of his shirt straining to retain the paunch beneath it.
“I … I …” I sputter. I don’t know what to say.
“Well, for wasting my time, I’m docking you three credits.”
“What!?!” I cry. Three whole credits! I only make twenty credits a day!
“Now that I’ve gotten your attention, maybe you will keep your head out of the clouds.” He reaches out and snatches my hard hat off my head. My long blond curls, released from their bonds, cascade around my shoulders. Karl leans over and taps his pudgy finger twice on my forehead. “Keep your head on your work!”
“I’m sorry boss!” I can’t lose three credits! “It won’t ever happen again, I promise. But three credits? Come on.”
With a glimmer in his eyes, he says, “If there is some way you want to make up your time, I’m open to suggestions.” He raises his dark eyebrows suggestively at me.
I pause, not wanting to answer or meet his gaze. Defeated, I say, “No, there is nothing I can think of.”
He actually laughs at me. “Then three credits it is.” His full laughter follows me as I quickly flee from the office.
I stop at the time clock and insert my account card. When the machine spits it back out there are only seventeen credits added to my account. I need ten to pay for my bed in the dorm tonight and four credits for my meals. I will either have to scrimp on dinner tonight or on breakfast tomorrow. It will have to be dinner. It is easier to sleep on an empty stomach than to work on one.
Leaving the building, I reflect on my conversation with Karl. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that he finally noticed I grew up. At fifteen I have thankfully small breasts and narrow hips. I always wear baggy, gray trousers and a loose button-down shirt with a tweed jacket over it, and I always hide my hair, either under a hard hat at work or under a cap otherwise. When I was younger, I easily passed for a boy, but now, not so much.
Back at the dorm I stop by the office and pay for my bed for the night. I have been doing this every day since they brought me here so many years ago. I don’t even know who “they” were. All I remember was someone in uniform telling me that my parents were dead and that from then on I had to earn my keep. That’s when I was sent to Karl to learn my trade.
Getting in the elevator, I pull the gate closed and grab the wheel on the side of the door. The elevator works on a pulley and crank system, and I turn the wheel to raise the car up to the third floor. Home sweet home. There are forty beds on this floor, a row on each wall and a double-row running down the middle of the room. At the head of each bed is a locker. I pull out my key and grab my other set of clothes before heading to the washroom. Water is one of the few things that are free in the city; there are tons of it above us on the planet’s surface. It’s in the form of ice, but it really takes very little steam to melt it and send it running down into the city. In fact, a river runs the length of the entire city, ending in a huge reservoir. So, at least I get to bathe daily, and every day I wash out my dirty clothes and put on clean ones.
Once clean and dressed, I head across the street to the small diner, Millie’s. Millie is a grouchy old woman who is never nice to anyone, but four credits gets you a bowl of soup or stew (whatever she has that day), a crust of bread and a potato. Unfortunately, I only have three. So, the stew it is.
“Here you go.” Millie places the largest bowl of stew I have ever seen in front of me. I didn’t know that she had bowls that big. When I look at her questioningly she snaps, “What? I ran out of normal sized bowls!” Like I said, she is never nice, but she never lets anyone go away hungry.
Davie, my only friend in the world, sits down next to me. A couple years younger than me, he is scrawny for a ten year old, but he swears he is at least twelve. He has big brown eyes and buck teeth that I keep hoping he will grow into. “What, no potato?”
“Karl docked me three credits for daydreaming.” Davie is a steam tunnel worker too, so he is just as familiar with Karl as I am.
“No way!”
“Yes, way!” I answer back. “He told me to get my head out of the clouds. As if I’ve ever seen a cloud. As if he has either. I don’t know why he thinks I’m daydreaming; it’s not like I have anything to dream about.”
Looking desperate to change the subject, Davie notices the giant bowl of stew. “That thing is huge! You know, we could share that.” Just then Millie appears and looks expectantly at Davie. He looks back at me before ordering two potatoes and another spoon. “I guess my day was rather uneventful compared to yours.”
“I haven’t even told you the worst of it.” I get a wiggly feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe I shouldn’t tell Davie about Karl hitting on me. He sometimes gets strangely protective, as if he could actually protect me from anything. But I tell him anyway.
“I’ll kill him!” he yells at me, slamming his water cup down on the metal countertop. The entire diner stops to look at him.
I grab him by the shoulders hard. “Shhh! That’s all you need is for someone to hear you threatening Karl. What would happen if you lost your job? What else could you do? He will fire you if he ever thought you could threaten him.”
“Oh, whatever, Emily! As if I could really do anything to Karl. He outweighs me by at least a zillion pounds!” He shakes off my hands and slumps down on his stool.
Now I’m angry. “Don’t you whatever me! You may be too much of a runt to do anything to him now, but Karl knows that runts grow up. And who’s to say that you will always be a runt? You think Karl will keep you around knowing that you have a grudge against him? I can handle Karl; don’t worry about me.”
O O O
The next day Karl sends me to the furthest reaches of the tunnels. It’s his way of payback for “daydreaming” yesterday. Not much of a payback. I focus my thoughts to the pipe at hand. It won’t do for Karl to find me daydreaming again. I put my thermal goggles on and look at the pipe. It appears that the new gasket is holding just fine. It will take another day for the compound to cure completely, but as long as the pressure in the pipe doesn’t spike, the seal will hold.
“Emily!” Karl barks from my tablet.
“Yes, boss?” I reply right away.
“There is a huge pressure drop in the pipe two tunnels over to your left and just point-two kilometers ahead. The pipe must have burst. I already have Davie in that area, but I think he may need some help. Get there quick.”
Whatever personal faults Karl has, and they are many, the last thing he ever wants is someone hurt on his watch. Gathering my things, I switch to the map on my tablet. Each of us rats wears a locator beacon, and our positions are displayed on our maps.
Just as I stand up to go I feel a vibration in the earth under me. It is subtle, like the feel of a steam train going through the tunnels, but there aren’t any steam trains in this area. “What the…?” I say out loud. It is over in a second, and though it disturbs me, I walk on to find Davie. I don’t get far, only a few meters before it strikes again. This time the entire earth shakes, knocking me off my feet. I feel the earth beneath me shudder before I hear the hiss of the gasket I had just replaced rupture.
As suddenly as it started it stops. “Damn!” I swear as I pull myself to my feet. Reaching in my bag, I pull out a rubber clamp. I don’t have any more gaskets. This will only be a temporary fix, but it is all I have. Pulling on my thick leather gloves to protect my hands from the hot vapor leaking from the pipe, I manage to get the clamp in place without getting burned.
“Emily!”
I hear my name being called from the tablet, but this time it isn’t Karl’s voice. It’s Davie’s, and I can tell that something is wrong. I run to where I left the tablet on the ground where I fell. The screen is dark, but I can hear breathing. “Davie?” I call tentatively.
“Emily,” comes Davie’s weak reply. His voice is shaky, and his breathing is heavy. “Emily, I’m hurt. My headlamp went out. I can’t see.” Hurt and in total darkness, Davie has to be terrified.
“I’m coming Davie! Hold on!” I command. I bring the map screen back up on the tablet and find Davie’s location before racing off. “Please” I cry silently, knowing not who I’m crying to. “Please let him be okay.” He is my only friend.
I reach him within minutes, but when I find him I’m repulsed by what I see. The left side of his face and chest look badly burned. Steam escapes from the pipe next to him. The pipe must have burst right under him. The burn on his face is red and ugly, and his arm and shoulder are already starting to blister. I pull my coat from my bag and wrap Davie in it. He screams when the fabric touches his burns, and, thankfully, he passes out. I’ve got to get him out of here. He doesn’t weigh much, and I easily pick him up and throw him over my shoulder. I pass an access tunnel on my way here, but there is no telling where in the city it would let me out. Once again, I pray silently to no one.
Emerging into the city, we are somewhere I don’t recognize. The buildings here are placed further apart than I have ever seen, and each building is only three stories high and fifty feet wide at least. I have never seen such small buildings, and I can’t imagine what they are used for. Each one has steps leading up to it and a railing enclosing an open area in the front, which contains several chairs and a low table.
As strange as things are, I don’t have time to wonder. The map on my tablet doesn’t show first aid stations, and Davie needs help fast. I take the stairs in one leap, even with Davie on my back, and try the door. It’s locked. Desperate, I pound on the door and keep pounding until I hear movement within.
“Alright already! I’m coming!” A male voice says from within. I hear the sound of knobs turning and levers moving, and then the door swings open, revealing the oddest man I’ve ever seen. The first thing I notice is the strange hat on his head. It looks to be made of copper and has a magnifying glass attached to it hanging in front of the old man’s eye. Also, there is some sort of tube wrapped around it, which appears to be attached to nothing. Spiky white hair sticks out from under the hat to frame a long and weathered face.
“Please, sir,” I say in a rush. “Could you tell me where I am and where the nearest first aid station is? My friend is hurt.”
“What is all this now?” he asks, stepping out the door and taking a good look at Davie on my shoulder. “Hmm, perhaps you should come in.”
“Begging your pardon sir, but he needs help. If you could just point me in the direction …” I try to protest.
“He does need help,” the old man interrupts. “Now get your tail inside so I can give it to him!” The look on the old man’s face is firm but not unkind, and for some reason I don’t think I could have disobeyed him if I wanted to. I nod and follow him into the strange building.
“Here, put him on the sofa,” he commands. I put Davie where he pointed. When I turn around the old man is gone, but I hear rustling from the other room. “Rose!” I hear him call. “Rose, get down here. We have company.”
Company? Is that what he is calling us? Still, it is the nicest thing we have been called in a long time. A tiny, slim woman comes down the stairs at the far end of the room. She wears a long gray skirt and a white blouse with a high neck trimmed in lace. She has a round face with cheeks that seem to glow a rosy color.
Looking at Davie, she says, “Oh my, what have we here?”
“This boy,” the old man says, coming back into the room, carrying a toolbox and without the strange hat, “is a most dreadful shade of red. I do believe, my dear, that he is also in a great deal of pain. Here, I’ve fetched your things for you.”
“Good man,” she says as she takes the toolbox from him and places it on another low table. It is filled with gauzes, bandages, needles, and vials of who knows what. She pulls out a needle and fills it from a vial.
“What are you doing?” I cry. “What are you giving him?”
“Please,” the old man puts a gentle hand on my shoulder and guides me to a cushioned chair at the far end of the room. “Rose was a doctor before she retired. She knows what she is doing.” The woman sticks Davie with the needle, and I immediately see him relax. She then pulls out some type of ointment and begins rubbing it all over his burns before bandaging his wounds. He doesn’t stir once during the entire procedure. How does he not feel it? The pain must be excruciating.
The woman looks at me and smiles. She holds up a bottle and says, “Morphine,” as if that explains everything. When my confusion doesn’t end she adds, “Pain killers.” My confusion only lessens a little bit. I know there are such things, but only the rich have access to them. Why would anyone give them to Davie? I also wonder what they are going to charge us for them.
“Well then, now that your friend seems to be resting comfortably, why don’t you tell us what happened?”
The woman tsks at him before I can say anything. “Where are your manners, Harold? At least bring the girl a cup of tea and maybe a sandwich. She looks hungry.” Harold looks ashamed and hurries off to comply with the old woman. “My husband,” she says to me, “he is a wonderful man, but sometimes he forgets his manners.”
Manners? I think. I just burst in here, tossing an unconscious kid on her sofa, and I think she just saved Davie’s life, and she is worried about her husband’s manners. What kind of people are these?
Just then Harold comes back in the room carrying a tray of steaming cups and some small sandwiches. He places the tray on the table and gestures for me to help myself, but I hesitate. “How much?” I ask.
The two look at each other questioningly. “How much?” I ask again. “For the food,” I add when they still don’t seem to understand.
“We don’t want your credits,” Harold says. “Just eat. In this house, no one goes hungry.”
So this is a house. I didn’t really believe that they existed in this city. I knew that people who were better off had their own apartments for their own families, but I never heard of people having an entire building for themselves. “You live here? All by yourselves?” I ask in wonder.
“Yes,” Rose answers. “Now, a few sandwiches and some tea won’t hurt you any, so eat up.” As if to prove to me that they are safe, she picks one up and daintily takes a bite. That was all the encouragement I needed. I grab one and gobble it down … and then another. I am half way through my third before I notice they are both staring at me.
“Sorry,” I mutter through a mouth full of bread and cucumbers.
“No need, dear,” Rose assures me. “You just go ahead and finish. We’ll wait.”
Swallowing, I take a sip of tea before saying, “I’m finished.”
Harold looks me over with a keen eye before he says, “You’re a steam pipe engineer, aren’t you?”
Engineer? That was a new one for me, but I feel myself nodding in response.
“You were in the tunnels when the earthquake hit?” Once again I nod. “That was how this young man came to be hurt?”
“Davie,” I say. “His name is Davie.”
“I am Dr. Rose Higgs, and this is my husband, Professor Harold Higgs. And your name?” Rose asks.
“Emily. My name is Emily. How long do you think Davie will be out of it? We really need to get back to base.”
“Oh, you aren’t going anywhere any time soon, my dear. The earthquake knocked out all the steam trains. Plus, the young man needs to rest. I would think the earliest anything will be up and running will be tomorrow.”
“I have to get back. I can walk; it’s not that far.”
“It’s at least twelve kilometers. It will take you hours to get back.”
“But there will be damage to the steam pipes. There will be work to do, and I’ll be docked if I’m not there to work. I can’t afford not to work. They will throw my things in the street if I don’t pay my rent at the dorm. I can’t stay here!” I’m starting to get hysterical. What little of a life I have is about to be over.
“Come with me, Emily,” Professor Higgs commands. Heading up the stairs, I follow him to the third floor and through a door into a giant laboratory. There are workbenches covered in glass beakers and copper pipes. Wrenches and saws are hung on one wall, and an acetylene torch sits in the corner. It is impossible to discern what the Professor is working on as half-finished inventions lay discarded all over the worktables. On the far wall hangs a giant information panel. All the panels I’ve ever used were touch screens, but this one has a strange keypad that the Professor begins punching with his fingers. A map of the city appears on the screen.
“Which dormitory are you living in?”
“It’s on the corner of Dyott and Bainbridge, the Museum Dorm.”
“I know that area. It used to be a great neighborhood back when the museum was still up and running.” The Professor continues to press keys on the keypad as he speaks.
“The museum?” I’m not familiar with any museum in the area.
“The Museum of Human History was located only a few blocks from where you now reside. It housed many of our treasures from the days above. People could go there and learn about what it was like when we lived on the earth instead of under it.” He looks up at the screen as a picture of the Museum Dormitory building pops up. “Here we go. Now we just need to transfer the credits for your bed.”
“You don’t understand; until I go back to base and collect my day’s pay, I don’t have the credits to pay for my bed.” I don’t know why I feel embarrassed; everyone I know is just as poor as me, everyone but Professor Higgs.
Professor Higgs doesn’t hesitate; he just presses more buttons and says, “There you go. It’s all taken care of. You are paid through the end of the week.”
The end of the week! That was five days away! “I don’t need your charity.”
“Then call it a gift. Or if you would like, pay me back, but I can tell you that we really won’t miss the money. Come. Let’s get you settled in for the night.”
“I still need to contact my boss. I need my job.”
“Very well.” He punches more keys. A photograph on the wall catches my attention. It looks like the city, only somehow different. The area above the city is blue, like the old murals in the steam train tunnels, and the blue seems to go on forever. “London,” the Professor says over my shoulder. “This city is based on it.”
“This was above ground?” I say in wonder. He nods. There were many landmarks in the picture that I recognized.
“What is the Judicial Center of our city was called Westminster Abby above ground. The Clock Tower was called Big Ben, and this here,” he points to the largest bridge in the city, “was the London Bridge.”
“How do you know all this?”
“My great-great-great-grandparents helped build our city. My grandfather was an engineer responsible for building the drill that was used to reach the Earth’s core. My grandmother was an environmental scientist; she helped develop the machine that turns solar power back into sunlight, allowing us to grow food, even underground. I still have the original blueprints for the city.”
Wow, no wonder he is so rich. His family helped ensure the survival of the human race.
“Professor Higgs?”
I turn to see a well-known face on the information panel. “Is that the mayor?” I ask incredulous.
“Yes,” the Professor replies, nonchalantly. “Mayor Campwell,” he addresses the screen. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m sure you know that we have indeed just experienced an earthquake of a magnitude that this city has never seen before, and while the tremor dampeners that our forefathers installed did indeed suppress the vibrations to the city, there has still been immense damage. Worst of all, the steam pipes in the solar towers have burst. Without heat the towers will freeze, and we will be unable to retract them, leaving the solar panels exposed to the elements. With the severity of the storms on the surface, it is only a matter of time before the panels are destroyed.”
“Your Honor,” Professor Higgs replies, rubbing his temples between his thumb and index finger, “my invention is only a prototype and has yet to be tested. There is no telling if it will actually work.”
“I’m afraid, professor, that you will have a trial by fire. I’m trying to locate a steam pipe worker who isn’t already working deep in the tunnels. Many of the pipes have burst, and already the temperature in the city is beginning to fall.”
“One moment please, Your Honor.” Professor Higgs turns to me after muting the screen. “Are you very good at your job?”
Uncertain as to what this is about, but very certain as to my abilities with a wrench and a steam pipe, I nod. “I’m the best!” I’m not boasting either; there isn’t a pipe I can’t fix.
“This could be dangerous.”
I still have no idea what he is talking about, but I face danger every day. There are a million ways to get hurt down in the tunnels. I straighten my back, plant my feet and ball my fists as if to say, “Bring it on.”
“Good.” The Professor turns off the mute on the screen and says to the Mayor, “I seem to have found my own technician, Bill. I will see to preparing the ship and contact you when we are ready.”
“Once again, Professor, this city’s hope resides with a Higgs. We are counting on you.”
With a sigh the Professor turns back to me. “Have you ever wanted to see the surface?”
“What!?!” I nearly feint right there. “Are you kidding me? Nothing can survive on the surface.”
“That is what we are going to find out.” He motions for me to follow him back down the stairs and out a back door. There, behind the house, stands an enormous warehouse with sliding doors that stand two stories tall. Professor Higgs seems giddy as he hops from foot to foot. “I have never shown this to anyone besides the Mayor and Rose. I hope you’ll like it.” With that he leads me through a much smaller door on the side of the building.
It’s dark, and I can hear the professor fumbling for a light switch. “Ta Da!” he announces. The lights come on abruptly, the glare momentarily blinding me. I put my hand up to my eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the light. When they do I can’t believe what I’m seeing. The thing is huge and gold and massive and … and … and I just don’t have the words to describe it. “Here, come. Look at this.” The professor leads me over to a workbench where he shows me yet another picture. This time though, I have no idea what I’m looking at. “They called it a tank back in the days above. It was a weapon of war. I have based my designs on it, but she isn’t a weapon. See, while my machine has tracks like these, the gun barrel is missing from mine. And this machine ran on oil while mine is steam-powered. And my machine is much, much bigger!” His excitement obviously difficult to contain, he runs like a school kid over to the machine. He raps his knuckles on the hull. “Three-inch thick steel and copper-plated. Isn’t she a beauty? I call her Pandora, because I know that I can get into a whole lot of trouble just by opening her hatch.”
“And this machine can travel to the surface?” I ask.
“It’s never been tested, but I have designed it to withstand the elements and insulated it against the temperature. I don’t think she could stay on the surface indefinitely, but a day … yes … maybe even a week … long enough to repair the steam pipes in the tower.”
“Yeah, but I can’t repair the pipes from inside that … that … thing! And I will freeze to death the instant I step out of it!”
“No you won’t. I have a suit for you. I’ll show you.” Turning a wheel on the outside of the ship, a hatch opens, and the Professor disappears inside.
I’m uncertain that this contraption can go to the surface, but that isn’t going to stop me from checking it out. It’s too cool! I find the Professor pulling pieces of a strange, bulky suit out of a trunk. It’s so thick I don’t think I will be able to move once I have it on, and it would be impossible to do precise work with the thick gloves. He pulls out a giant, bowl-looking thing that I guess would go over the head. It looks ridiculous to me.
“Once, man not only traveled the surface he flew through the sky. He even went beyond that, travelling out of our atmosphere. He used a suit like this one to protect himself from the vacuum of space. I believe that it will protect you as well.”
“But I can’t work in that thing. I won’t have any range of motion or the ability to do precise work.”
“If we can get to the towers before too much heat is dissipated, then it should be warm enough for you to remove the suit once you are inside the tower. We just need to get you in there.”
As we spend the rest of the afternoon going over blueprints of the towers and studying maps of the terrain, the Professor’s strange hat reappears from someplace. The tube, it turns out, is a straw, and he sips tea through it non-stop. The Professor tells me about an access tunnel that actually leads to the surface but had long ago frozen over. Thus he designed the gun turret on Pandora with a super-sized drill.
Just as Rose declares that food is ready, Davie wakes up, which makes perfect sense if you know Davie. His burns aren’t as bad as we initially feared, and the burn cream worked wonders. He hardly has any pain. When we tell him all that has happened, he insists on being part of the expedition. “It won’t hurt to have an extra hand,” he argues, and he’s right. Luckily, the Professor has another suit.
O O O
Less than twenty-four hours after the earthquake hit, Davie and I find ourselves sitting in the cockpit of Professor Higgs’ contraption as he “fires her up.” The cockpit is a conglomeration of dials, buttons, and levers, and I’m not certain that the Professor knows what they all do.
“She runs mostly on steam power,” the Professor announces, “but the instrument panel is powered by solar-generated electricity just like all tablets. Hydraulics work the track, but it’s the constantly expanding and contracting of water vapor that generates the power.” With that he throws a lever, and Pandora surges to life, jerkily pulling herself forward along her tracks. The city disappears behind us slowly, and the Professor guides Pandora through a large tunnel in the rock. I have never been outside the city before. I have never seen the rock walls of the cave that sequester humankind deep within the earth. I know that we are underground, but it is quite another thing to come face to face with the boundaries of human existence and then surpass them.
It isn’t long before we encounter an enormous door that looks very much like the door to a safe. I recognize Mayor Campwell standing with several others at a control panel to the side of the door. He waves to us and then punches a code on the door. The vault door opens slowly, with the groan of hinges that have not moved in at least a lifetime. Behind the door the tunnel continues, and we pass through out into the unknown. The tunnel begins to slope upwards, and then, after nearly a kilometer, we encounter a wall of ice.
“Here we go!” Professor Higgs throws the switch that starts the drill, and I can see the bit begin to spin. It makes an awful wail when it connects with the ice, but it works. Slowly we push through the ice. “Another kilometer or so of this and we will reach the surface.”
With a splintering crash the ice ahead cracks and shatters as Pandora breaks through to the surface. It doesn’t look at all like I had imagined. In the pictures the Professor had shown me the sky was blue and light. Yet, all that I can see in every direction is gray and dim. White flakes drift in the air, tossed about on gusts of wind. There is nothing appealing at all to me. The look of disappointment in Davie’s eyes mirrors my own.
Checking the readouts on the screen, Professor Higgs adjusts our course and takes off across the vast plane. I hope he knows where he is going. More importantly I hope he knows how to get back.
“There …” he points as a looming structure emerges out of the gray fog. “Each tower is nearly a hundred square meters, and on the top of each tower are five solar panels, each twenty square meters in size. It appears that this tower is partially retracted.”
“How can you tell?” Davie asks.
“I can see the top of it. When it is extended, it stands nearly two kilometers high. We have to find the entrance point, get you two inside to fix the pipes and then move on to the next tower. There are four towers. Suit up.”
I never thought we would even make it this far. The thought of going out into that frozen wasteland scares the crap out of me. I can tell Davie isn’t so keen on it either. We shrug at each other. What else can we do? Without the solar towers we will all die anyway.
Professor Higgs pulls Pandora to within three meters of the tower. Pressing a button, he shoots a harpoon out of Pandora’s hull, which imbeds in the side of the tower. A cable attached to the harpoon now stretches from the hull to the tower.
“Attach your safety lines to the cable. The wind is so strong out there it could blow you away. Don’t release your safety line until you are both inside the tower. I have installed temperature gauges on the wristbands of your suits, so you will know if it is safe to remove them.” Professor Higgs gives us the thumbs-up sign before pushing us into the hatch and sealing the inner door behind us.
With a deep breath, I release the outer hatch, hook my safety line to the cable and take my first steps onto the planet’s surface. The white ground gives a few centimeters under my weight, but it holds me. It is only a few steps to the tower door, which, as we suspected, is frozen shut. I am prepared; I take my mini torch from my bag of tools. It takes a few minutes, but I get the door open relatively easily. Once we are both inside, we remove our safety lines and close the door. There is another inner door, and once through that, we discover that it is indeed warm enough to remove our protective suits. Now, it isn’t warm by any means: 5° C by our gauges. We each wear thick woolen clothing and heavy gloves. Hopefully, it will get warmer the closer we get to the pipes.
I pull up the schematic of the steam tubes the Professor has downloaded onto my tablet, and we are able to locate the access tunnels without incident. The tubes are different than the pipes that run under the city. These are flexible, but the basic principles of how to fix them still apply. Davie and I are in our element as we silently set about checking for leaks and ruptures, making repairs when we come across them. It takes nearly two hours to check all the tubes, but satisfied, we head back to the Pandora.
The next two towers go just as smoothly as the first. The last, however, takes longer. Many areas of the fourth tower have already begun to freeze due to the loss of heat. Davie and I have to use the torch to break through the inner tower door as well as the access tunnel door. An entire section of tubing has split down its length. We have excess tubing aboard the Pandora, and I have to wait for Davie to return with it. As I wait, I explore a bit. I find a hatch in the ceiling of one of the tubing chambers. It’s frozen, so I put my suit back on—I have no idea how cold it is on the other side of that door—and use my mini-torch to open the hatch. Crawling through I realize that it is much colder on this side. My suit’s gauge says it’s -15°C. I think this is an observation area. Two of the walls are made of thick glass. I can see the Pandora waiting below. If the fog wasn’t so thick, I think I could have seen forever.
I close the hatch behind me as I return to the tubes. Davie has returned with the extra tubing, and in no time we will be back on our way to the city. The repair is easy, but since it is such a long length of tubing, it takes both of us to fix it. Thank goodness Davie is with me, otherwise I would have needed the Professor to help me. We test the last seal for leaks before re-pressurizing the system.
No sooner is the system back up and running than a vibration shakes the tower. The entire structure seems to move. I grab the tablet just as the Professor pops onto the screen. “What’s happening?” I ask.
“I just got word from the Mayor. The city engineers want to test the towers before we return to the city. We can’t leave if they aren’t fixed.”
“They’re fixed I tell you!” Davie comes to stand next to me, nodding his head in agreement.
“They won’t listen to you! Hell, they won’t even listen to me! They are extending the towers. You just have to hold on. Clip your safety lines to something and hold on!”
I motion for Davie to follow me. If I am going to be two kilometers in the air, I want to see what it looks like up there. I push open the hatch I found to the observation room and crawl through it, turning to help Davy behind me. Looking out the window, it’s hard to believe that we are moving. The fog has intensified, and all we see is a wall of gray. But as we ascend further up into the sky, the gray begins to lighten. Suddenly, the wall is pure white. And then it happens. We break through the clouds and the air is clear.
We sit atop a bed of clouds, and the sky above is the most brilliant blue. A bright yellow orb hangs on the horizon, turning the edges of the clouds pink and orange.
My first sunset.
I can’t breathe. I forget to breathe. I have found my dream; and I know that I will dream of this moment again and again for the rest of my life. I feel Davie touch my arm. He is as awe-struck as I am. We are the only people alive who have seen this wonder. My heart fills with a joy I have never known. After today we will never be just “tunnel rats” again.
The Professor’s voice comes over my helmet com. “It worked! Now let’s go home!”