Connexion : The Atlantis Project, Book.1 (28 page)

Giuseppe stood up and finally began to speak,
looking in turn at both Jacques and Charlie, who had remained
sitting in silence all this time.

“Follow me,” he said calmly.

The twins obeyed without hesitating,
following Giuseppe as he walked with even strides toward a platform
overhanging the construction. As he got closer, what he saw
reinforced Charlie’s initial impression. It did seem to be a
three-dimensional model of the base. In any case, he was sure it
represented one of the hibernation bases built by the N.H.I.’s. The
white steel domes were arranged along a large central road, from
which many smaller roads branched out to the residential areas.
There were also huge buildings which were curiously empty. From
their arrangement and position, Charlie supposed they must be the
vast hydroponic cultivation area and the huge room where they had
arrived on the first day. However, the whole thing was quite
uncluttered, lacking many of the structures that are currently
present on the base.

“Here we have a three-dimensional map of the
Mataiva base, as it was when it was built by the N.H.I.’s.”
announced Giuseppe. “You will notice that it is made of the same
perfectly stainless metal, completely resistant to the effects of
time, used in the construction of the domes you already know. It is
an alloy that the N.H.I.’s had developed, the composition of which
we have still not managed to identify.

“As you can see also, this three-dimensional
model only shows the buildings that were present before the arrival
of humans. It is easy to pick out the vast area of domes currently
used as housing. You will also recognize the empty spaces which
have been completely converted since then by our teams. I suppose
that at the time they must have had a specific purpose. When we
discovered this cave the unusually large rooms were completely
empty. We do not currently have any explanation for that, but we
put forward two hypotheses. Firstly, these huge spaces could have
been used to house large mobile constructions which had been moved
before our arrival. Of course, we know absolutely nothing about
what type of construction they could have been. Or, it could be
that these spaces were initially designed to house other equipment
which apparently was never actually built. We discovered this model
several years ago, at the same time as Victor’s body. It would seem
that is was built by the N.H.I’s at the same time as the rest of
the base.”

Jacques and Charlie were now only a few
meters form the glass wall. The model was at least fifteen meters
long and it seemed that the number of domes on it was much higher;
maybe fifty or a hundred times more than those they had seen while
driving through the residential zone.

“As you have probably already seen for
yourselves, there is a whole vast zone of domes on this model that
you have not had access to since your arrival.”

“According to this model,” Charlie said, “the
N.H.I’s must have planned on building several thousand domes. I
haven’t counted them all, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were
nearly 5,000 on this model, which fits with what Victor said.”

“As you can see,” Giuseppe continued, “I have
no intention of hiding anything from you. I hope I have reassured
you on this point. If I have not yet told you about all our
discoveries here it is simply because the time was not yet right.
You must know that your collaboration with us is valuable and that
we have nothing to hide, as least not anything that concerns you.
You and your brother are now an integral part of the N.H.I.
program.”

Charlie was silent for a moment, studying the
model in its minutest details.

“
It’s incredible!”
exclaimed Jacques
internally.
“This metal is a color I’ve never seen before. It’s
unnaturally pale; very strange. It actually almost seems to glow.
It’s as if it gives off its own light through some strange sort of
radiation. Maybe it’s not a good idea to stand so close to this
thing. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was giving off electromagnetic
radiation.”

Charlie had been concentrating so hard on the
layout of the base that he had not noticed this very obvious aspect
of the object he was staring at. Jacques’ observation was quite
pertinent. On closer inspection, there was no lamp or source of
light present inside the glass case. The light was actually coming
from the metal itself. Only the plinth seemed to be made of an
inert metal. He quickly asked Giuseppe about it, seizing the
opportunity to show Jacques how much his opinion mattered to
him.

“Why has it been put inside a glass case?”
Charlie asked, calmly.

“We did not build this case. It was already
here when we found the model. Our engineers analyzed the material
it is made of and it seems to be a very unique type of glass. It
actually contains particles of heavy metals, some of which have not
yet been identified.

“Perhaps those particles are there to counter
the effects of any radiation emanating from the model?”

“I see you are very observant – unless you
simply know something about this subject. Maybe Victor mentioned
something to you?”

“No, this is the first time I’ve seen it, but
Jacques has just pointed out to me that the metal it is made of is
quite strange. It seems to give off light, which leads us to think
there might be some electromagnetic radiation.”

“Your brother is right. The model emits
radiation which would certainly be deadly if it was not stopped by
this glass case.”

“How do you know, if you have not managed to
get through its wall?”

“The level of radiation in this room is
slightly above normal and evidently seems to come from this
case.”

“Do you mean we’re being exposed to radiation
right now? Or maybe we already were when we were standing beside
Victor, since we were so near this room then?”

“No, don’t worry, Jacques. The level of
radiation is far below what the human body can tolerate, even if we
had to stay in this room for the rest of our lives.”

“What about inside the case?” Jacques
asked.

“We cannot be sure, but our engineers think
it could be particularly high. If this protective glass was broken,
the whole base and the surrounding rock would be contaminated.
That’s why this room is kept secret. Only a very restricted group
of people is authorized to come in here and I am the only one who
has the access codes.”

“Where does the radiation come from?” asked
Charlie. “Is it coming from the metal itself?”

“Possibly, but we have never seen anything
like it. We think it more likely that the plinth the model is
resting on contains an energy source of some unknown type. Analysis
using infra-red rays has revealed the presence of an extremely
dense mass in its center. The temperature in there is so high that
even our best equipment cannot measure it.”

“That’s impossible!” exclaimed Jacques. “Such
heat would melt everything, including the rock around this cave,
for several kilometers or more.”

“Nuclear fusion!” Charlie wondered aloud.

Giuseppe looked at him incredulously. He and
his team had been working on the matter for over ten years and they
still had not managed to establish with any certainty the nature of
this energy source. He could see that Charlie was soon going to
allow them to solve a large proportion of the puzzles they had been
faced with.

“The N.H.I’s used that technology”, Charlie
continued, looking at Jacques. “That is how they were able to power
the hibernation systems for millions of years. It’s a practically
inexhaustible source of energy, but it’s difficult to control.”

“I know about nuclear fusion, Charlie. It’s a
subject that comes up a lot in science fiction books, but in real
life the technical constraints are insurmountable. Whatever
technology the N.H.I’s may have had, I don’t believe it’s possible
to contain such a powerful reaction in an object of this size.
Nuclear fusion is a reaction that takes place in the center of
stars. It’s only because of their gigantic mass that the extreme
heat given off by the atoms’ fusion can be contained. I don’t see
how a simple glass case that’s only a few centimeters thick could
contain it. What’s more, it’s a type of energy that’s not supposed
to produce radiation, at least a lot less than the fission reaction
that we use in our power stations today,” said Jacques.

“Charlie is right, Jacques. The N.H.I’s
technology was more highly evolved than ours. This glass case is
not enough in and of itself to contain the reaction which, if it
indeed exists, most likely takes place in the heart of the metal
plinth. If something is containing it, it must be that plinth. We
had envisaged that hypothesis, but we were missing elements, as we
were unable to study the qualities of the object more closely. The
glass is certainly not there only to prevent intruders and contain
residual radiation. Only magnetic or inertial containment would be
capable of containing such energy and preventing expansion. In
theory, such a process is possible, however, and our research
scientists have been working on it for years. It would be a huge,
inexhaustible source of energy for humanity.

“We are still hindered by the significant
technical constraints involved in this technology. The temperature
of this type of reaction can reach over ten million degrees in its
center. To contain it, we would have to develop equipment which we
do not have the technology for today. What’s more, containing that
extreme heat is not our only major problem. Although the reaction
of nuclear fusion is much cleaner in terms of radioactive waste
than the actual production of energy by fission, we presume that
fusion, whatever the fuels used, will inevitably emit atomic
radiation likely to interact with the building materials used in
containment. Only a specific alloy of metals that no nation has
developed yet could prevent such a phenomenon from occurring. In
the presence of ordinary metal or any other material that we
currently know, the neutrons emitted interact with the nuclei of
the atoms in the containment wall. They are actually impossible to
contain electromagnetically and transmute the atoms that they meet
into radioactive isotopes.

“The N.H.I’s, as you have seen, seem to have
developed their technology mainly using metals. It is quite
possible that they managed to develop alloys able to resist being
bombarded by neutrons and the heat given off by the reactor. That
would explain the longevity and the unknown nature of the alloy
used to build this model, as well as that used to build the domes.
No modern ferrous material could have reached such a level of
longevity in a damp atmosphere like that of this cave. However,
their alloys, I must say, seem like new. They show no trace of rust
or any sort of oxidation.”

“Have you found other models like this one?”
asked Charlie.

Giuseppe hesitated a moment before
replying.

“This generator is the only one we have found
on this base, but I must tell you that we are far from having
opened all the domes.”

“But how is that possible?” exclaimed
Jacques. “If I remember correctly, this base was discovered over
twenty years ago. How could you not have had the time or
inclination to comb the whole place? Is there something standing in
your way?”

“I was expecting that sooner or later I would
have to answer that question,” Giuseppe replied. “It brings us back
to the question you asked me, Charlie. Victor is not alone on this
base, despite what I told you, but he is the only one of those we
have been in contact with who is still alive.”

“What do you mean?” asked Charlie in a harsh,
accusing tone.

“We didn’t want it to happen, you know! At
first, everything went very well. When we opened the first domes,
we realized right away that we had made a major discovery; perhaps
the most significant in the whole history of Man. We were blinded
by sentiment and the desire for more knowledge. We should have
taken the necessary precautions; then we would have avoided the
tragedy that ensued. The N.H.I.’s were totally naked and freely
breathing the air being constantly recycled by the ventilation
system in each dome. That air was sterile before our arrival but
the presence of humans changed that.

“The effects were not immediate. It was only
after several weeks – the time it took to open all the domes of the
section that you now know as a residential zone – that we noticed
the first disastrous signs that the N.H.I’s were contaminated by
the germs we unwittingly carried. Some of them resisted better than
others but after the first six months, only five of them were still
alive, out of the fifty we were in contact with. They all died over
the course of the following year, despite the treatment we tried to
give them. I’m sorry, Charlie. We never wanted such a thing to
happen.”

Charlie’s face had turned white. Jacques
remained silent, noticing his brother’s shock. He was taking the
news of this tragedy very hard. The fact that it could have been
avoided made it all the more painful. He understood that, beyond
Charlie’s empathy for the N.H.I’s, this news must also affect the
part of Victor that lived in him. His expression suddenly became a
lot sterner. He was now glaring at Giuseppe as if he wished he
could wipe him out with one glance.

“How can I know you’re not twisting the
truth? How can I know that you and your men didn’t use these giants
as guinea-pigs for the bacterial experiments you do on this base?
After all, if I understood what you told us when we arrived, that’s
the main reason why you’re hiding away in this place: your
so-called struggle against the great pandemics of the future –”

Giuseppe, sensing an unusual rise in
Charlie’s hostility, decided to interrupt his monologue.

“It’s not what you think, Charlie! Trust me.
I’m sincerely sorry about what happened. I should have taken the
necessary precautions involving my men. Fortunately for them, the
domes contained no pathogenic substances. The N.H.I.’s had taken
care to eliminate all risk of contamination before placing their
people in hibernation. After the first death I understood that we
had made a serious mistake. I immediately ordered that we stop the
exploration of the 4,900 domes that were still sealed. A
containment wall was then erected to completely isolate the other
part of this base. We took care to install a decontamination
chamber and a security system to prevent any unauthorized person
entering the no-go zone. The ambient air in the rest of the cave
underwent ultra-violet ray treatment to guard against any
contamination from the air of this zone.”