Anthimia 7, 2230 A.C.

For now, Barandigi, a young female Nouergist, is our source for what went on at the Eridu North plant. Ariadne and two other people from our team were the debriefers. I got the nouetic and audio feed, along with other media specialists. The questioner is Ariadne, and Barandigi answers.

A: Please tell us everything you remember about the situation at the plant when you arrived.

B: I don't know anything about nuclear power plants. I don't know what was wrong, only that something was broken and needed fixing and that it was radioactive. I'm only a construction worker, ma'am. I don't even know how to read and write. I can lift big things and I can knock stuff down. That's it.

A: Can you remember what Professor Tanheu did and said when you arrived at the plant? Who else was there?

B: The Aurians were there, because they had occupied the place. Bunch of soldiers with guns and some officers. And there was another nouergist there. His name was Antolak and he was from the local area and had been working to free people all day, just like me. And the Algon were there, and the director of the plant. They talked to the Professor, not to me.

A: What did they say?

B: They tried to tell him everything was all right and that we should go away and leave the Algon managers to take care of it. But Tanheu had already seen something by remote viewing and demanded to see the plans for the power plant.

A: The plans? You mean the designs?

B: Professor insisted on seeing the design for the plant. He went right up to the Algon manager. Professor may be a little guy, but he can sure stare someone down, even if he isn't using juice. So finally the Algon got one of the plaks that was lying around and handed it over to the Professor. Professor pokes around it and takes one look and then says, "This isn't a fusion plant any more. It's a fission plant. When did the fusion plant fail?" (Even I've heard of fusion and fission, huh!) So the Algon guy says, "They're all fission plants. We converted them ten, fifteen years ago."

A: Why? Did he say why? Did they all fail?

B: Yeah. They said every one of the fusion plants in the Eridu area failed. So the Professor asks why. The Algon didn't want to answer. But he finally had to. He said that there were these things which came from the Old Worlds that the Algon had brought over. They were cores for fusion reactors that were a super heavy element and that they were kept from falling apart by a big powerful R.E. (Editor's note: "R.E." is a nouergic "retained effect," kind of like a battery charge.) All the fusion plants had one of these in them. They worked real well as long as they were re-charged by a nouergist. But they started to conk out anyway, and after the Revolution the nouergic line that kept them going was thrown out of Eridu and the last guy who knew the program died about 15 years ago. So no one knew how to re-charge them any more. Everything they brought over from the Old Worlds was now gone.

The Professor got really interested and kind of wide-eyed. This was like some major secret which just got spilled. Maybe not at such a great time but then the Professor hit his comlink and asked to be put through to his son back in Surakosai.

A: Yes, he asked for a top-priority call on the satellite network. His son Tarell is a plasma engineer working on developing fusion power. He needed to tell Tarell about this just in case… he didn't make it out of there.

B: So he talks with his son for a few minutes. I didn't understand a word they said. Then he turns to the wall and speaks real softly for a minute or so. After that he closed the connection and looked real sad. But not for long. He pulls off his headset and says, All right, this is what we're going to do. He needed Antolak and me to link up and work with him and send energy. But Antolak says, I can't do that. I'll just mess your work up. I'm a piss-poor theophore. I'm 56 and I never got much training. All I can do is a few tricks. So Professor says, if we all get out of here alive, you both can come to Surakosai and train with us. Anyway, Professor said to me, you remember when we took down Enlil's old house? I'm going to link with you and you send me energy when I tell you. Antolak, just keep me protected. Don't let anyone touch me or even get close to me. And if you all hear the radiation detectors sounding the warning, just get out, all of you, and leave me here." Every so often we got this crackle from the radiation detectors, but the Algon kept saying we were safe in here, it was shielded. The Aurians had two rotocraft out there ready to evacuate us just in case.

A: That was mindful of them.

B: And after he said that, he sat down with his back against the wall, then put his knees up and his head down and rolled into a ball. Then he put me into the link, which made me dizzy for a second and I had to sit down across from him. Commander, this was amazing. It was like my brain turned into a big balloon. I was floating above the reactor, and then I was in the reactor, even though I was just sitting there in the room, and then everything turned this cosmic purple, and I saw Professor inside the reactor dome, except it wasn't Professor, it was like this big purple robot standing on four legs, but I knew it was really him, and he was like pouring this net of glowing light over a crack in the container. And then it REALLY started to get weird.…

TO BE CONTINUED

Posted at 1:33 am | link

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