Destruction and Rebirth
Six Months After the Nuclear ExchangeFrom a tortured world, new life was beginning to sprout and the frequent forays by Artie made sure of the situation. Artie had radiation meters built into his torso so he was able to just by being within the environment measure exactly what the radiation dosage on his dosimeter would give to an actual human being. And from there Bebe and Kimber managed to figure out the actual time-in-environment for a human being to receive a LD (lethal dose) of radiation. That way they figured out exactly when it would be safe to emerge from their bunker. Trees were much hardier than humans and thus were able to come back a lot quicker than humans would if given the same rate of rad exposure.
The explosions had wiped out a lot of the vegetation and habitable buildings surrounding the target area, but things were slowly starting to make a come-back. And from what they could tell of the recordings that Artie was able to bring back from his forays, people were starting to come back into the area - at least those who survived the initial bombardment by the Chinese and Russians. The burnt grass was starting to revive and greenery was starting to come back in the form of deciduous and evergreen trees. Though the sprouts were small, they knew that eventually the environment would favor renewed growth.
During the bombardment with the 800KT nuclear weapons, the bunker occupants were down in the lower part of the bunker hoping and praying that they were able to keep themselves secure. Harm's eyes were wide open in fear as this was something that none of them had ever experienced in their lives. And it was also something that they would never have thought was possible but had come to pass.
Some took the situation much more readily than others did. It appeared as though River figured that such was par for the course of world events and decided to get on with life as it was now. And some of the military folks in the bunker took it harder than others as they knew exactly what was at stake and that they had signed up to fight and quite potentially lose their lives for their country. But they were all now stuck in a hole hiding from the very destruction that they were supposed to be fighting. It was a very cognitive dissonant feel to the whole situation.
There was also tension in the bunker as well as many had unresolved issues and Kimber was one of them, taking long glances at Tosh in any case. Whether it was a case of Kimber having longed for Tosh since he was her squadron-mate or whether she was pretty po'd at Tosh for doing the horizontal mambo with Meg Austin, it was hard to say; but she wasn't too happy with the situation.
There were no cloud-breaks. The soot and ash that had been raised from the various nuclear explosions had gone into the stratosphere and was now circling the globe lowering global temperatures that foretold of a severe nuclear winter to come; one that would test human survival to its very limits. The fact that lower global temperatures would have a severe impact on food production in the areas that were not affected by radiation and fallout was going to severely impact the survival rate of those stuck on the surface of the planet. It was not hard to realize that being in the bunker was probably the safest bet for those who had survived. At least they had the benefits of the equipment and food that they had stockpiled pre-war to get them through the worst of it while the earth healed itself. Sunset Valley was a major target with CFB Gnome being just over the ridge and the 800KT nuclear warhead that hit the base and the other 800KT warhead that hit Sunset Valley City Hall definitively caused major destruction in the city center.
Tosh looked over at Meg, Bebe and Jen solemnly and said, "Well, it appears that we're not going to get the medical personnel that we asked for." It would have been funny if the situation had not been so dire; stating the blatantly obvious. Meg nodded. Either the Pentagon prior to the bombardment had been tied up with strategic issues; or communications had been broken between the Pentagon and the bunker
"We're going to have to improvise..." Meg stated clearly looking at Tosh. "There's no way that we can survive this without medical staff..." and looked over at Bebe.
"I've noticed that you've increased your science skill immensely prior to the attack." noted Tosh as he glanced in Bebe's direction, "We can definitely use that skill of yours and it's directly transferrable to the medical field if you are so inclined."
"I'll do whatever I can to help the situation." Bebe nodded her assent. "If there's books on medical procedures that I can read up on...I'm willing."
"That's good that you're able to consider the option." Meg stated, nodding her own assent. "We don't know what the situation will be like in the future and we know that we'll need someone with medical skills. Command Master Chief Coates? Would you also be willing to assist her with medical procedures?"
Yes, ma'am. Whatever is necessary." Jen stated.
"Good...then that's settled." Tosh said decisively. "Vice-Admiral. Can you make sure that everything is set up so that Ms. Hart and Command Master Chief Coates will have access to the necessary educational materials needed for their medical training?"
"Yes, sir." Meg replied, a twinkling in her eyes and a smirk on her lips. Military formalities.
Elsewhere in the bunker, Mac and Phil took their Young Again potions and in the office, CMCYN Coates (Jen) did the same. They all knew that they needed to become young again in order to make certain that they would have the opportunity to be at their physical best in order to increase their chances of survival in what they would learn was a physical challenge to beat all physical challenges.
...and with that they had all taken their potions and would hopefully manage to navigate the perils involved in a post-apocalyptic environment.
Artie's Reconnoitre (Shit Happens)
When Artie emerged from the bunker; the multiple blast-doors keeping the rest of the occupants safe from any residual radiation in the air; he noticed how grey and ominous the clouds were. Much of the radioactive soot and ash that was kicked up by the nuclear detonations ended up in the atmosphere and it was going to take a lot of time for it to clear; falling from the atmosphere as nuclear fallout. And that was going to remain hot for some time after it hit the ground. Human skin could get radiation burns from even touching the soot and breathing it in was a slow death sentence as the ash and soot would cause radiation burns all along the inside of the lungs causing the lungs to leak fluid and eventually suffocate the victim. It was not something that any human being would want to experience, hence Artie was the one who went out to survey the six month aftermath of the nuclear devastation.
As Artie walked along the overgrown path of what used to be a road he noted that the trees were stunted and blackened stumps of dead trees were still visible through the new growth.
Artie turned to go down the hill brushing off soot from his metal torso and headed down towards the devastated town center. He was not looking forward to the revelation of how destroyed the town was. It didn't seem as though there was a building standing.
Looking around, all he could see was sheer devastation once he reached the flats within the town center and the clearing. What used to be a hill leading down to the beach was now submerged underwater. Evidently the blast wave blew the water out all the way and when it came back in, it came back as a tsunami, covering all the low-lying areas with water which with the devastation, the waters had not receded.
What he could still see standing was the Canadian flag.
To his utter shock, his deductive circuitry barely parsing the data his visual circuits were relaying to him. There was a man standing half frozen in the park lake up to his mid-calfs and looking around as if nothing was wrong.
His auditory circuits caught a slow "Wooooah..." from the blond-haired man "Dude...those are some really gnarly clouds...man..." he said...just as Artie looked up to see a flash in the sky. This was not good. Then he heard a half strangled scream...from the man.
The frenzied jerking and spasmodic reflexes amidst the spluttering told Artie all that he needed to know about what was happening. The guy was being electrocuted. And considering the fact that Artie was metal himself...that he wouldn't be able to help him at all. The electricity in full impulse signal was enough to fry his inner circuits to a crisp. So in the pretext of self-preservation, all Artie could do was watch the poor fella suffer.
When the electrocution subsided, the man staggered away from the frozen pond...the electricity hot enough to melt the area where his feet were stuck and stood on the bank staring up at the sky as if half-expecting yet another bolt from the grey to fry him to a char-broiled crisp.
As if that wasn't enough...a sudden explosion sent debris flying...
...as poor Artie ducked fearing that the man himself was now dead as a doornail. All he'd heard was the whistling screech of something cutting through the air at well over terminal velocity.
Artie looked up just long enough to see a black smoke cloud rising from where the man had stood. He wondered if the man had survived the impact of whatever it was that fell from the sky.
When the smoke cleared he saw several large burnt looking rocks that now littered the ground. Some were even larger than he was.
There was yet another explosion as another rain of rocks came flying down and the man and Artie were lucky enough not to get hit this time. The last he saw of the blonde-haired man was him staggering away from the park area. Artie chose to stick around and pick up what he thought were quite valuable space rocks. Surely they could be helpful to the humans that he was with.
Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor in that large heavy space objects were falling from the skies and he had no desire to become an aluminum pancake...Artie decided that it would be best if he cut his reconnoitre short and head back to the bunker. That was perhaps a wise choice.
Keeping Busy Around the Bunker
The physical and emotional qualifications to survive an apocalypse are naturally equalizing ~Lauren Cohan
In the words of FADM Toshio Nakamura
There were plenty of things to do in the bunker after the bombs dropped. Mostly it was keeping up skills and making sure that we were prepared for when we had to emerge from the bunker after the radiation levels went down. It had been six months and Artie had just come back from his weekly recon of the area. The images that he'd brought back via video were unsettling. Especially things falling from the sky on a regular basis. We didn't know what was going on in terms of these meteors but it proved that the earth was a much more dangerous place now than it was before.
Everyone had settled into what appeared to be a routine. Meals were taken whenever people were hungry - breakfast in the morning was at around oh-four hundred; dinner was between seventeen hundred and eighteen hundred hours. These were long days because we knew every second of our day counted insofar as survival was concerned.
Harm noted that he was working on more nanites; evidently he'd come to grips with the fact that Meg and I were dating and it seemed like the tension had eased a bit. He informed me of his intention that plumbots were the best way to insure security around the bunker and that the possibility of the Chinese nuclear attack being the precursor to a full-scale invasion. This was most definitely a "cut the head off the snake" attack since all messages from the Pentagon had ceased the day of the nuclear attack. We were more certain than ever that what was left of the military center of the United States of America was now a six hundred foot deep crater in the middle of what would be Potomac Bay. The Chinese and Russians wouldn't be satisfied with one five megaton warhead set for surface detonation, they'd hit it with three or four. This was not going to be a good situation for DC.
But for us, it was survival. We were in Sunset Valley, British Columbia, far enough away that our only targets hit by 800KT warheads were city hall and Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Gnome.
"Harm, I haven't heard anything from the Pentagon...since the detonations, and well, it looks as though we're on our own...for the foreseeable future." I noted. Harm nodded in response - he knew what that meant for us. No help at all would be forthcoming.
The rest had their own tasks to accomplish and I didn't want to load any more on them than they already had. They knew what the deal was in terms of having to get their skills up to increase their chances of survival.
When one was upstairs in the Agricultural sector of the bunker, one could hear the rain hitting the concrete reinforced bunker roof. And most of us were very uneasy knowing that the roof was all that was between us and the post-nuclear holocaust rain falling from the sky. From what I could tell, the radioactivity in the rainfall was dropping very sharply as rain doesn't hold on to radioactive materials that well. And since Artie, thanks to Harm's foresight had instrumentation on-board that would measure radioactivity in the environment, we were certain of the fact that radiation levels were dropping within the immediate area. However the center of town was still considered hot and despite scientist recommendations in past written journals on radiation measurement stating that places where nuclear weapons were detonated would be safe for travel and decontamination in three to five weeks; we opted to stay away from the sites and considering the fact that Artie's onboard geiger counters went crazy everytime he ventured near what used to be CFB Gnome and was now called Crater Lake; we opted to stay clear away from there as well.
Meg's and my relationship had grown quite considerably since she first admitted to me that she was interested in me. Let's just say things were quite amicable between the two of us. And the nights were very cozy.
Some of the night shots that Artie brought back were very troubling as vivid colors meant that radioactive dust was still circulating in the atmosphere, which meant that if we were to go out, we would have to wear full on gas mask respirators to prevent us breathing in any radioactive dust and thus suffering internal radiation burns.
Harm also learned the technical know-how to create a plumbot recharging station and thus Artie was able to keep fully charged and ready to go and do the tasks necessary. Artie was an all-around plumbot to have. With the Steel Chef Trait chip he was able to make every recipe that we wanted to eat. With the Competent Cleaner, he was quick on the draw as far as clean up was concerned. Every morning, as a RoBotany Gardener, he went upstairs to the Agricultural Sector and gardened our plants. He was also a Handibot and an AI Angler, though with the surrounding area at minus three, our pond froze over (which was surprising since we were covered. Oh well, the fish have a chance to breed when the weather warms up...if it warms up and Artie's handibot trait allowed him to upgrade our appliances. At least we knew that we'd never have to live in fear of anything breaking down with Artie able to fix things. But that still didn't mean that we could lie around and do nothing. We had our own skills to learn...some that aligned with Artie's current skills and others that were more esoteric.
Artie told us about a human consignment store clerk who had set up shop in the vacant lot next door on what used to be the Landgraab estate and well...the Landgraab's property had gotten the worst of the blast of those houses on top of the hill; after all the blast wave had travelled outwards at the speed of sound...and pretty much knocked everything flat. Since our bunker roof was so low to the ground it wasn't affected. So whoever this consignment store clerk was...she now had free ownership of what used to be a multimillion dollar estate. So it goes; when things detonate...prices drop precipitously.
Dinner was at least a time for us to get together and bring the group closer as a team. Things had been rough for the past six months as we adjusted to a new normal and we knew that things would never be the same again. Humanity had seen to that. Breakfast was often hurried as we all had things to do. Hopefully we would walk the surface of the planet again.
And of course there was some interesting news in the fact that both Haruo and River had managed to become the first to potentially bring a new child into this post-apocalyptic world. Evidently someone was active...last night.
I went down to the Brain Analyzer and decided to hook myself up to it to see if I could increase my gardening skills. At least I didn't get zapped.
Artie went and tried to conjure some more gemstones and fishes for us in the magic cauldron - which pretty much blew my mind. Metaphysical things happening did not register in the realm of possibility in my mind or anyone else. Military officers worked on logic. We didn't lark around in fits of fantasy. We survived by using logic and personal initiative. Magic was in the realm of fantasy books and movies. But somehow Artie made it all work. Then he went up stairs and cooked us a perfect meal. We had a lot to thank Artie for.
At least he was keeping us from having to eat burnt mac and cheese.
"Flambe Phil and other Activities"
Needless to say there wasn't much to do other than the daily tasks of having to skill up in whatever skills were deemed necessary for survival. The occupants of the bunker weren't able to know when the environment would be suitable for survival top-side again. Whene the missiles rained down on CFB Gnome, it wasn't sure how many distinct rumbles they'd heard, but it was at least one large warhead that had detonated. However many, it was certain that it wouldn't be safe with the radiation in the surroundings to go out. And none of them were willing to test the surrounding area even with protective gear on. In any case, they were staying indoors without question.
Of course they had plenty of things to do while indoors.
Tosh and Meg took advantage of the fact that they had their own private shower. Ever since they'd admitted to each other of their mutual attraction, they'd spent a lot of time together doing extra-curricular activities. ~smirk~
River McIrish-Chikamori, who was going to be providing the bunker's first child, worked on her alchemy skill, while Chief Yeoman Jennifer Coates worked on her science skill hoping to be able to clone gemstones that would probably end up becoming the corner-stone of trade in the post-apocalyptic wilderness.
...and of course, Commander Phil Burrows spent time at the inventing table trying to increase his skills with varying amounts of success. Luckily someone had the foresight to install a shower near the inventing tables as Phil did manage to light himself on fire on several occasions.
It wasn't sure what was funnier, him hopping up and down in pain or him flailing his arms as he ran for the showers. Either way, he managed to extinguish himself, distinguishing himself as a klutz of the greatest order after lighting himself up like a tiki-torch.
However it wasn't much later that Captain Kimber Benton did pretty much the same thing with less humorous results as most in the bunker were sweet on her. Luckily she managed to get to the showers without incident and douse herself with water thus taking care of the flames and enabling her to escape injury.
They did resume their work on the inventing tables, hopefully with less flammable results.
Harm succeeded in reverse-engineering a nanite which increased his robotics skill-level significantly as he was hoping to add a few more trait chips to Artie to make him more versatile than he already was and Harm's robotics skills were steadily increasing.
Meanwhile, Bebe was getting extremely frustrated with chess to increase her logic skill-level insofar as gaming on the computer was concerned. Not being able to see the opponent's face and gauge their level of frustration was a new way of a playing the game and the relentless tactical strategy the AI employed was a new level of trying to play the time-honored game of kings.
The dogs in the bunker knew that their humans were getting frustrated and tried not to get in the way of things. The only things that they needed were each other for socialization and food.
Taking long, romantic showers together wasn't the only thing that Tosh and Meg did, they also concentrated on making sure that they skilled up in both logic and science skills.
With the temperature taking a nasty dip outside the bunker, it was clear that the cold, if not the radiation was seeping in as the pond froze over and no-one was able to crack through the sixteen inch thick ice. Even Artie, metal body and heavy though he was, was able to walk on the ice covering the pond with no adverse effects. This meant that fish was off the menu.
It appeared as though the scientists were right in that a wide-spread nuclear exchange would result in nuclear winter - a winter with no foreseeable end, plunging the world into an ice age that could last for potentially thousands of years and if the rumors were true that there was an age-freeze potion...they would see each and every day of that long period of time.
Eventually the earth would heal itself. And hopefully they would still be around during the rebuilding process. But for right now, they had to figure out how to survive the coming years.
Within the bunkerIn the words of Vice-Admiral Meg Austin
The past six months have been eye-opening. River has given birth to a new life; she has a new son, Andrew McIrish-Chikamori. Of course we hadn’t known that she was three months pregnant prior to coming into the bunker and thus we now have a jump-start on repopulating the planet. Haruo has practically been hovering over his wife and his newborn child but he has also been busy trying to make sure that he has had everything upstairs in the greenhouse taken care of as well. The Seabees had definitively made the bunker radiation tight and when we take our geiger counters up to the top floor to measure the readings, there’s no spike in the background radiation, which means that the crops and the fish are safe to eat.
Tosh and I have committed ourselves to each other. I know that the JAG would probably have had fits, but this is our new reality. We have no outside command structure. What used to be the Pentagon is now an eight-hundred foot hole in the ground and there has been no communiques from Cheyenne Mountain either. And even if they had, I wouldn’t give up Tosh. He is my reality now; my mate for the rest of our lives. Our bunker is our life-line and our bunker-mates our family and they are the only ones who would defend us against all attackers.
And it is even more important that we as a group stick together. I’m pregnant; with Tosh’s child, a mother now. As vulnerable as a mother is; we have to make certain that we are secure. That there are no upheavals in the current situation that we find ourselves in. I remember a moment back when we were still at the Pentagon having had the news given to us that the world was going to come to an end. I distinctly remember him saying “I’m going to need you...” and smile as I caress my tummy that encapsulates my womb that carries our child. Well...he did end up needing me a lot more than just as an XO...as a grin reaches my lips.
With my scientific background I’m utilizing the science station and taking samples of food and other items within the bunker so that if worst comes to worst that we can take it and clone food for ourselves to survive.
Jen has taken to science like a fish to water and she is busy making certain that there’s samples to research. It is important that we cross-train on different subjects so that we aren’t vulnerable and those with a background in science will be crucial to rebuilding our future.
As I currently analyze a soulpeace so that we can make more if necessary to bolster our finances, Tosh is upstairs working on perfecting his martial arts skills. He was already a black belt in three different martial arts, however he is planning to master that skill and we need it in this post-apocalyptic wilderness.
The pictures that Artie brought back from his recons tell a tale of the wild regaining its land. And of course that made it so that we had to deal with the potential for hazardous new creatures evolving from the radiation that was in the air. Even with the compounding effect of radiation decay, the number of nuclear weapons that had been unleashed was enough to cause genetic mutation and we didn’t know what that would create. There were enough dangerous animals and with the fact that humans had gone into hiding; these animals had a chance to proliferate amongst the wilds that surrounded us. Those still on the surface were either dead or dying or if they had a genetic resistance to radiation, it would still manifest itself in skin scarring through radiation burns.
Harm is busy at the plumbot station, trying to create a plumbot that works to augment Artie. His attempts at making nanites and trait chips are growing ever more successful and I hope that we can have a few plumbots to round out our recon team. The nice thing about plumbots is that they work in places that we can’t go into. If we read high-radiation counts in a zone, we can’t go in, but Artie can. And just so long as we hose him off to get the radioactive dust off him, he’s fine to be around. I know that Harm is exceedingly uncomfortable about our situation. The fact that he used to be senior to me in rank is eating at him and he feels despair about the fact that Tosh and I are now a couple. I know that there’s tension between him and Sarah Mackenzie, however it’s not any of my business. I have Tosh...and that is enough for me.
The images that Artie brings back are terrifying still and I wonder to this day how people can still live on the surface. On occasion you will see a furtive human darting from tree-line to tree-line on the video feeds that he brings back after his recon sorties. And there are chilling cries on the sound files that I’ve heard of animals that I’ve could never have dreamed of. This would be nightmare fuel if we saw what emitted those cries.
Tosh usually goes upstairs to work on his martial arts skills so that they don’t diminish. And the one thing about that is that its highly arousing to know that he’s able to defend both himself and me without weapons as his hands and feet would be considered deadly weapons. Haruo also is a martial artist and he too goes up and trains. And hopefully when I give birth, after recovery, I can train as well. It is important that we as a group are able to defend ourselves even if our weapons are wrest from our hands.
I can see to my left as I take some samples from a soulpeace that Lia and Mac are busy learning alchemy. There is something in the air that speaks of change in the metaphysical. I wouldn’t have believed it before and as a serving uniformed officer in the United States Navy, I’d have kept my mouth shut since I didn’t want to be mustered out on a section 8. But there is something there. Something that speaks of the fact that things have changed...the rules have changed somehow – that magic is a distinct possibility now.
Behind me, I can tell that Phil is hard at work on something at the inventing table. He’s a bit nuts but at least we know that he will be able to help by building things that we need. Captain Benton is also doing the same thing at her inventing table. So far things have settled down and neither have lit themselves on fire in a while. Luckily there are showers right next to the inventing table to forestall that eventuality.
Jen is busy at the science station next to me increasing her skill in science. I think that every member of our bunker needs to be honed on science as well as the potion table. We will need these things in the future. Our future is going to be one where technology might take a backseat to the metaphysical or they might work hand-in-hand.
I’m gratified that I have some success with caching some mineral samples from the soulpeace gemstone that Atlas had found prior to the nuclear warheads detonating. It may not seem like much, but the soulpeace gemstones are valuable and may give us a leg up on currency when we do start bartering once we regain the surface.
And of course...Tosh and I have some time to ourselves; since we no longer have to keep up with any communiques from the Joint Chiefs. After the nuclear exchange, there had been no contact and any attempts to contact them by VHF band had resulted in static. So my presumption is that the Pentagon is now a smoking hole in the ground eight hundred feet deep and at least a mile across.
It is our hope that the nuclear exchange resulted in all of those horrific weapons being utilized and that we no longer have anything to fear about these things ever again.
