The underworld

The Underworld

This is no space station, but it sure looks like one on the blueprints. The time its taking to build, the investors, the planning but now it is ready. I have been training for months with the crew of astronauts on how to manoeuvre around in big bulky suits floating. The skills learned at NASSA have been significant to the many hours of training.

The main structures have been built, and now it’s time to put it all together. The Mission is for 6 months, with only a dozen people to complete the mission. I am excited to go, a little nervous, but happy that my wife and daughter are a part of the crew going down with us. Most of us are structural engineers, biochemical engineers, underwater welders, and my wife is a chef. Lucky us, to have meals prepared three times a day and our daughter who will be helping her.

Out in the middle of the sea there are huge ships with many parts to the underwater station, they have been there for months preparing for this day. They have been making each section out at sea to be lowered down one at a time, and underwater crews building the foundation for them to be attached to like a giant puzzle.

My nerves are on overdrive waiting in anticipation for the departure. Six months is a long time to be in darkness. When we are working on the outside of the station attached by hoses for us to breath many things can go wrong. We can’t use scuba diving equipment because we are at depths of 37,000 feet underwater. This is the first of its kind to be under that amount of pressure. The goal is to research the sea, what can live in those conditions, study the ground for nutrients, and continue to build the station to be as large as a small city, that can have the capacity for 500-600 people, offering excursions and trips to the public for a getaway underwater experience with many viewing windows in the underwater city.

The helicopter ride to the middle of the ocean seemed to take forever. It’s hard to believe that we will be gone for a half of a year, everything is all settled on land for us to be away for so long. But, for some reason I felt chilled on this warm spring day in the back of my mind it felt like we were going to be gone forever. I’m not one to think negatively, it’s just a feeling I had. I was grateful to have my family with me, because what ever challenges come we as a family could work through it.

Before our departure we had a tour of the main ship, with all of the computers. Blueprints in the middle of the room and a small scale replica of the underwater city was surreal. The captain pointed out what we would be working on. I was surprised at how much we were expected to do each day, I was prepared to work 16 hour days but wow, it was amazing. For us to be part of such a big mission was exciting. The computer room reminded me of NASSA mission controls room. We would be connected at all times to the mother ship. This crew would become family as they were also stationed for six months.

It was time for the twelve of us to enter the submarine with all of our personal gear, and to say goodbye to the world. The decent was slow and steady, each hundred feet the submarine would come to a halt for ten minutes for us to get used to the pressure. To see my daughter point out the sea animals was exciting because we were so used to being underwater not much surprised us any more. When we saw a blue whale and it’s baby we all took a minute to observe her, she was magnificent. After 10,000 feet we were seeing less and less vegetation and creatures. The light shining in front of the submarine was the only thing we could see, the visibility was 0. The pressure was intense, but we all trained for it.

The first month were 16 hour days, we were hooked up to lines and floating around the bottom assembling, welding, and gathering equipment. Communication from home base to the ships above were off and on. Somedays we had no communication at all. We assumed that the days we had no communication were the days of a storm. Out on the ocean storms come fast and the winds even faster.

Things were progressing and we were all getting used to the routine, we were all getting along well playing games at night, and we even had the workout room done so we all could get exercise . We were well into month two when we felt the shock in the water. And the ground shook. We were surprised to feel it so far underneath the surface. We knew that communication would probably be out for a few days as it must have been at hurricane or a tornado.

Weeks went by without any communication, and we were very worried. We had a few things of our own that we had to deal with, but worked through them all. I was very happy to have a doctor on board with us, because a steel bar went right through one of the welders suits and stuck in her leg. It was frightening, but we all worked together to get her to the doctor. There was a minor explosion when the furnace system was being put in and one of the guys got third degree burns. The doctors office have all of the equipment needed for any emergency including major surgery.

Six months came quickly and it was time to go home, we all went into the submarine. We were all very excited to go home. It was strange to make our way up without any communication, but we were trained to prepare for the intense pressure of rising.

100 feet to go and we were home! All of us were clapping and crying to see our loved ones! A few feet to go and we were on the surface. One of the guys opened the hatch and gasped, looking around frantically and screamed!

“They're all gone”. He closed the hatch sat in his chair and cried, and coughed.

“What the heck, is going on Sam”. Sam couldn’t talk still coughing and crying. Matt opened the hatch and he to looked around frantically. Sat down and buried his head in his hands. He looked at me and said, “hold your breath when you take a look”, bowed his head and started to cough.

I prepared myself for the worst, held my breath and opened the hatch. The sky was full of dust, the ships were gone, one was flipped over, a helicopter was in the water and a few bodies in the water. I closed the hatch, let out a breath. I looked at the rest of the crew, my wife and daughter with a tear in my eyes.

I took in another deep breath so I could talk. “Something happened out there, it looks like a war took place while we were gone, there is a ship, helicopter, dead bodies, and dust everywhere. We must make our way to shore to get help. I started the engine of the submarine and dialled in the coordinates to mainland. “How could this happen, we are from the US with some of the best weapons in the world how could this happen?”

When we reached mainland I took in a deal breath and opened the hatch. I looked around and the dust was even worse, there was sea creatures on mainland dead, there was a few dead bodies, there was no noise. The city was silent, seaweed on windows of buildings, mud in the streets. There was no birds, cars were turned upside down, ships on top of buildings. I closed the hatch, sat down quietly and put my head in my hands.

“What is it”, my wife came over looking at me. “It looks like a tsunami hit, without any warning, we should all put on our air tanks and see if we can find a radio, a telephone, something to give us some answers. Be prepared for the devastation it’s horrific. I don’t understand why there is so much dust”.

Thankfully our air tanks were full, we were all walking towards the tall buildings, looking around. It was grim, I couldn’t bare to look into the vehicles. Inside the buildings were still dusty as all of the windows were blown out. All of the telephones were dead, the radios wouldn’t work as there was no electricity.

We walked outside and my daughter pointed to a car. It wasn’t tipped over, and in the window hung a locket heart shaped. We followed her, sat in the car and took off our air masks. For some reason this car didn’t have its windows blown out. Inside the locket was a letter.

It said: a giant meteorite hit earth, if there are any survivors they would be under the bleachers in Daytona. There is a giant underground bunker,, but can only be opened by the outside. This car has two jerry cans in the trunk, please help!!

We all looked at each other and we knew what we needed to do. My daughter put on the necklace kissed it and said ok lucky necklace let’s go free some people. It was a long way, so we broke into a few vending machines along the way so we could eat tend drink.

When we got and to Daytona 500 racing grounds we put on our masks again and started to search for some kind of hatch under the overturned bleachers. Within a few minutes my daughter was waving at us. She must have found it, that lucky heart shaped necklace was truly a good luck charm. We all worked together with a steel beam to open the hatch. We prepared for the worst but hoped for the best, the charm was good luck so far!

We heard noises from people, and they all came out with masks on. There must have been 500 people, they were clapping and hugging us. One of them looked at my daughter and at me and waved for us to go underground. I’m assuming for us to talk.

Underground he took off his breathing mask and shook our hands. He explained to us what happened about the huge impact of the meteorites and wiped out the entire world. He assumed that there were more underground bunkers but didn’t know where. All underground safe bunkers could hold a maximum of 500 people and food and water to last 3 years. The government made these sites years ago just in case this would happen someday. He asked were we came from because the car that was placed in the middle of the city was not expecting to survive a tsunami. We told him where we came from and told him that it would hold 500 people but we would all have to work together to find food and fuel.as long as we had fuel we could check every 6 months to see if the dust settles, to start re-building and cleaning the streets. During that time we could try to figure out where the other underground bunks are.

It took many trips with the submarine to bring all 500 people down to live, but the environment was much better than the bunkers. We used the reserves from the bunkers for food and supplies. The gas was easy to Syphon from underground tanks. We would continue to build for as long as we had the supplies to make more room for the new residents.

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