back to the Index or Engineer team E-4
Sunday 10 July 2140
The team was activated this day at about 8 p.m. PT, due to a magnitude 7.1 earthquake centered near Kelso, along the Lavic Lake fault (part of the fault network under Long Valley). The actual opening of the cryoberths was 8 hours later.
There were 20 foreshocks in the 20 hours before the main quake, up to magnitude 3.8.
The earthquake caused some damage at locations all over the Mojave Desert,
including surface ruptures with up to 4 meters of offset along a 40 kilometer northwest-southeast line,
and was felt all the way to the Pacific Coast. Some of the surface ruptures are within 5 kilometers of the bunker.
No damage was caused in or past the San Gabriel mountains;
the Cartel parada at Four Corners suffered some minor damage - a water tower and some light poles fell down.
Monday 11 July 2140
Sunrise at 5:36 a.m., sunset 8:05 p.m. (PST). The waning moon is 11% visible; the next dark moon will be on the night of the 14th of July.
Temperature is 105° F max, 85° F low. Continuous wind from the south, 27 kph maximum; visibility 30 kilometers.
Immediate Conditions
Six of the team's eight cryoberths opened a couple of minutes after 4 a.m. PT, though the berth's display screens show 032303UJUN04 (the team would presume 11:03 p.m. PT, Thursday, June 3, 2004). Max's berth remained closed, with a message displayed on its little screen:
REFRIGERANT FAILURE
UNABLE TO REVIVE
BERTH SHUTDOWN ON
241735UNOV07
.... which observant team members would spot as being ... 3 years in the future? Actually the berth was representing November of 1907; it failed in 2044. Max's dessicated corpse was lying inside his berth.
Sally's berth also remained closed; the display screen was blank, and the "power light" was off. Her desiccated corpse seemed as dry and old as Max's.
However, their monitor believed the activation date to be Thursday, June 3, 2004 at 3 p.m. PDT, and the cryoberths opening time to be 11 p.m. PDT.
The small display still operating showed the activation time, date, and reason as:
032334UJUN04
CODE 4404 SEISMIC EVENT STRUCTURAL DAMAGE CAUTION UNABLE TO VERIFY ACTIVATION OF MAIN CHAMBER NITROGEN VENTS AND OXYGEN MANIFOLDS
The bolthole monitor had set the time/date/reason display, and then self-destructed after the berths finished activation.
There was a simple folding banquet table between the cryoberths, with the team's gear around it (and some broken light-bulb glass). The table had fallen on it's side; on the table there had been:
-
two zip-lock freezer bags, each with a 5 pound gummi bear -- one "sour apple", one "cherry".
-
a manila envelope labeled "For Team Leader Only".
-
ten 10-ounce cans of emergency drinking water (which need a can opener to open). They had rolled around on the floor; nine of them were slightly dented by dropping to the floor, but were intact.
-
The tenth can had sprung a slight leak; there was a faintly damp patch on the floor (which had slowly ran off to one corner of the chamber, due to the post-quake floor tilt), and the can still contains a couple of ounces of water. The floor tilt was about one-half of a degree towards one of the rear corners.
Four stained white plastic pails stood on the floor; a crusty coral-like "foam" had grown out of each pail, dripping onto the floor in a couple of cases.
When the team looked inside the janitorial cabinets, many items had tumbled about a bit -- shovels and mops would come tumbling out.
The air was warm and very dry; it smelled "chemical". Only one of the six overhead 500 watt light bulbs was working (and two were broken, with pieces of glass on the floor), but all of the night-lights, and the floor heaters, were operating. In fact, it was getting a bit warm in the room (the team quickly turned off the floor heaters).
When the door to the power room was opened, the air in there was even warmer; there were about a hundred liters of stale, warm water in the tank, which had very old water stains halfway up the inside, and a thin layer of grit and cinders on the bottom. The door to the escape trunk revealed cold air.
However, opening the door to the main tunnel alarmingly resulted in a whistle of slightly-cool (cave temperature) nitrogen. The team was also a bit unhappy about the small amount of water in the tank. Colton read the team's supplemental instructions, and passed them around to the team.
They dressed and filled their canteens; some of them climbed the 190 vertical meters to the top of the escape trunk and raised the periscope -- it showed an early-morning view of the distant mountains. After opening the escape trunk, the team realized that even the nights were very warm!
When the team emerged outside, they saw two vertical pipes and the periscope sticking a few meters out of the cone -- one pipe a few meters away from the escape trunk, and another pipe about a hundred meters to the northeast. These were pressure relief vents from the cryogenic compartment and the main chamber of the bunker. The vent for the main chamber still had its titanium cap on it.
Their CBR kits showed radiation levels barely above the normal background count in the 20th Century -- in fact, lower than a few places, such as Denver or other high-altitude cities.
Both of the vents originally ended less than a meter below the surface of the cinders; it wasn't clear whether rain or earthquakes had uncovered the vent heads.
The top of the escape trunk stood nearly 2 meters above the cinders -- the whole cinder cone top had a sort of comic "surfacing submarine" appearance.
looking towards cache CA-33 and Kelso, in daytime
The team could see rusty old machinery at the foot of the northern side of the cone, but as the air was rapidly heating, they returned into the bunker, and slept until the afternoon. The well pump slowly provided a trickle of cool, drinkable, slightly gritty, water into the tank.
Six hours after the team stumbled out of their cryoberths, a couple of moderate earthquakes occurred, seven minutes apart. The first was only a couple of seconds long; the second seemed to last for 15 seconds, and was a bit stronger. Janitorial cabinet doors, drinking water cans and floor heaters clattered, the folding table bounced a bit, the whole bunker made a sort of rumbling noise, there was a sort of "rain on a tent" noise from the walls and ceiling (which persisted for a few seconds after the earthquake), and the overhead lights swung about a bit.
It's a magnitude 5.8 at 30 km distance on the surface. Think of the Alum Rock earthquake down in San Jose back in 2007.
11 July 9:52 a.m.: magnitude 5.0, 24 km S of center
11 July 9:59 a.m.: magnitude 5.8, 13 km WSW of center
Two more notable aftershocks will occur:
15 July 2 a.m.: magnitude 5.0, 27 km NW of center (close to the bunker)
16 July 4 p.m.: magnitude 5.0, 28 km NW of center (close to the bunker)
Other aftershocks, of magnitude 4.0 to 4.7, will occur until over the next two weeks, about one per day.
After nightfall, the team climbed back up the 90 flights and left the escape trunk. The clambered down the cinder slop and around to the "front" of the bunker entrance -- it looked like a lot of digging to uncover the main door. The various old trucks and construction equipment was partly-buried in cinders, with a lot of missing paint and some rust. "They did an excellent job making these look old and unattractive." There were no footprints in the area, and a thin layer (maybe 10 centimeters) of slightly greyer cinders in some places (and not seen on the south-facing slopes).
With heavy sighs and aching thighs, the team climbed back up the cone and down into the bunker; they ate a meal, discussed methods of activating the main chamber oxygen vent system, and slept.
Tuesday 12 July 2140
weather: The high temperature this day was 107° F max, 88° F low. Continuous wind from the south (bringing the warm air for the night), 25 kph maximum; visibility 30 kilometers.
Awakening in the night, the team constructed a couple of "air bags" to connect onto gas mask hoses, and built a sort of air lock or dam over the door to the main chamber. Colton and Riley put on their masks and entered the main chamber, with a 100 meter long cord attached to Colton's waist; he ran to the maintenance hatch for the oxygen system, yanked open the hatch, pulled down on the big safety-wired "VENT ALL" handle, and began running back to his friends. Hundreds of screeching oxygen vents each began blasting into the chamber (without making any frost -- there was almost no moisture in the bunker).
Colton stumbled and fell -- he may have ripped his garbage bag of air -- but Riley pulled him to the door and back into safety. The team waited for a quarter-hour, until all the oxygen tanks had vented, to venture into the main chamber. Success! They ran their hands along the gigantic tires of the Overland Train, which hummed ominously.
The team wandered into the Overland Train cars, and into the storage chambers; a few things had fallen over. Some examples:
-
some stacked steel components of the Callender-Hamilton bridge had collapsed, but were undamaged (just a bit jumbled)
-
a couple of 200 liter drums of paint had rolled off their pallet
-
various hand tools had fallen off their hooks, shelves or tool boxes
They began carrying water from the well to the control cars, and brought their personal effects out of the cryogenic chamber. After a meal and a short nap, the team started work on preparing their vehicles.
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Team E-8 vehicle assembly
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|
item and task
|
#
|
@ man-hours
|
chosen
|
total
|
|
Overland Train lube, per car
|
12
|
2
|
x
|
24
|
|
Overland Train wheel inflation, per wheel
|
52
|
0.1
|
x
|
5
|
|
Overland Train wheel installation, per wheel
|
52
|
3
|
x
|
156
|
|
Overland Train crane lube and prep
|
1
|
2
|
x
|
2
|
|
electric motorcycles, lube and tire inflation
|
2
|
0.5
|
x
|
1
|
|
electric ATVs, lube and tire inflation
|
4
|
0.5
|
x
|
2
|
|
fusion powered dozers, lube and fluids, per dozer
|
2
|
1
|
x
|
2
|
|
fusion powered dozers, load and secure on OT
|
2
|
4
|
x
|
8
|
|
fusion tractor wheel installation, per wheel
|
8
|
1
|
x
|
8
|
|
fusion tractor lube and fluids
|
1
|
2
|
x
|
2
|
|
fusion tractor load and secure on OT
|
1
|
4
|
x
|
4
|
|
electric backhoe wheel installation, per wheel
|
4
|
1
|
x
|
4
|
|
electric backhoe lube and fluids, per backhoe
|
1
|
1
|
x
|
1
|
|
electric backhoe load and secure on OT*
|
1
|
6
|
x
|
6
|
|
fusion forklift wheel installation, per wheel
|
4
|
1
|
x
|
4
|
|
fusion forklift lube and fluids, per forklift
|
1
|
1
|
x
|
1
|
|
fusion forklift load and secure on OT, per forklift
|
1
|
4
|
x
|
4
|
|
fusion telescope loader wheel installation, per wheel
|
4
|
1
|
x
|
4
|
|
fusion telescope loader lube and fluids, per loader
|
1
|
1
|
x
|
1
|
|
fusion telescope loader load and secure on OT, per loader
|
1
|
4
|
x
|
4
|
|
trailer preparation, per trailer
|
12
|
1
|
x
|
12
|
|
trailer load and secure on OT, per trailer
|
12
|
1
|
x
|
12
|
|
total
|
268
|
* performed after the team leaves the bunker
Each member of the team can provide 10 man-hours to the above tasks, per day; with six team members, the team makes 60 man-hours for these tasks, each day.
Each Overland Train wheel is fastened with 64 lug nuts, by the way.
Thus all the above tasks will take at least four and a half days, of which two and a half is Overland Train tire installation. Overland Train tire inflation takes more than 6 minutes per tire -- probably 20 minutes -- but a person's attention isn't needed full-time during that task.
The heaters were put on the escape trunk, set for "fan only" several hours before each dawn, to send some air down the escape trunk.
Wednesday 13 July 2140 - Saturday 16 July 2140
weather: Over the next week, daytime highs average 109° F, low temperatures at night average 90° F, with humidity about 35%. High winds average 30 kph, always from the south; the skies are continually clear. In the Mojave Desert for the rest of July, temperatures will increase a bit, with the highest daytime temperature of 114° F on the 18th; the coolest day is "only" 105° F.
Four more days of heavy work -- mostly moving the massive wheels of the Overland trees off the stacks, filling them with air, and then carrying them (with the overhead hoist) to the appropriate wheel hub, where the 64 lug nuts were tightened down. Speaking of lug nuts, a handful of the big Overland Train nuts fell onto Colton's head and shoulders -- fortunately he was wearing his helmet, but it still hurt.
After the Overland Train was prepared for travel, the team prepared the bulldozers, backhoe, loaders, etc. and most of the trailers, and placed them on the flatcars or in the boxcars.
The well began to go dry after about 600 liters of water was pumped up. About once a day it would have enough water at the bottom to bring up 40 liters of slightly-gritty water, and then run dry again for a day.
Notable aftershocks were felt on the 15th (a 5.0 magnitude at 2 a.m.) and on the 16th (a 5.0 magnitude at 4 p.m.).
Sunday 17 July 2140
weather: High temperature 110° F, low temperatures at night 90° F, with humidity 35%. High winds average 30 kph from the south; skies are continually clear.
Well before dawn the team woke up and had breakfast. After a quick check through the escape trunk that conditions hadn't changed -- except for a tiny but disturbing trail of smoke on the southwest horizon* -- the team activated the main entrance "cinder pusher" (with someone outside to watch for trouble); there was a five minute sound of rumbling cinders and creaking steel, and the pusher was fully extended. It then tipped forward and down; the main doors slid open with a very gritty, grinding sound (the seals had gotten very hard, and mostly came off as crumbling chunks.
*Lake Arrowhead, where the smoke is coming from, is 160 kilometers from the Aiken cinder mine.
With the main doors open, warm air rolled in, and stale, chemical-smelling air rolled out. The eastern horizon was glowing with the rising sun; the team drove the backhoe across the cinders, to the location of their "septic cache". A quarter-hour of scooping with the backhoe revealed the top of the concrete septic tank; the team opened the cleanout plugs (to circulate air) and saw the apparently-undisturbed cache contents (though it did smell interesting, and warm).
As the sun was rising, the team had pulled the lid off the cache, and were making runs back and forth to the base with the electric ATVs and trailers, carrying supplies to the Overland Train. Picking up boxes and items from the cache, or fitting them with chains and cables, and lifting them into the backhoe's scoop, or all the way up to the edge, was a fair amount of work. Some items that got cussed and fussed at:
-
full-size anvil: weight about 112lbs
-
cast-iron hand-cranked meat grinder, "large family size", 9" tall, hopper, 6" wide, with stuffing attachment; chops 4 lbs per minute, 38 lbs weight
-
grindstone: 2" by 20" wheel, steel frame and seat, ball-bearing journals, drip can, cranks: 35 kg weight
-
footlockers full of clothing
-
army field range-oven: weight 30 to 50 kg, depending on particular model
By 11 a.m. all of the cache contents were shifted (except for some spoiled foods); the main doors were closed to leave only a gap for a person to walk through.
The rest of the day was spent sorting through the cache contents, and stowing them on the Overland Train. Brainerd began making observations to find the correct date; other team members brought some of the team radios to the bunker entrance
Radio Traffic
Shortwave bands had some faint, hard-to-understand foreign language broadcasts, but the Project's shortwave channels (7.0 to 7.3 MHz) had nothing "Project official". The most "general" Project channel had a broadcast of Eastern Orthodox religious programs, in eight different languages. Other shortwave broadcasts seemed to be Spanish or African languages, but weren't received clear enough to make out any content.
|
Eagle Radio
|
|
Broadcasting 24 hours a day at 7175 kilohertz.
Segments are in Latin, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Kurdish, Bulgarian, Russian and Georgian; it identifies itself as "Eagle Radio". Half of the broadcasts are Orthodox Christian religious sermons or music; each language has 3 hours of content each day.
Non-religious content includes language instruction (mostly to learn the Greek or Turkish languages), and a small amount of weather reports or news for the Black Sea region. "Trebizond" gets mentioned -- it's a Turkish city on the Black Sea coast.
|
Other radio signals were from AM transmitters operating at 27 to 28 megaherz, at pretty low power (10 to 30 watts?) within a few hundred kilometers -- basically on or near the CB radio frequencies, sounding like Spanish-speaking truck drivers. No long conversations, lots of slang-y Spanish, lots of static; these were from the northeast, east, and southeast.
The satellite radio received nothing, zip, nada.
Monday 18 July 2140
weather: High temperature 114° F, low temperatures at night 93° F, with humidity 35%. High winds average 30 kph from the south; skies are continually clear. Sunrise 4:50 a.m.; sunset 7 p.m.; nautical twilight starts the day at 3:47 a.m., and ends at 8:03 p.m.. The waxing Moon is 23% full; moonrise is 9:19 a.m., moonset is at 9:29 p.m.. The next full moon is on July 29th. Times are all "standard" time (no Daylight Savings).
An intensely hot day. Brainerd woke up before dawn to check the time of sunrise, angle of the sun, and visible stars; he also listened to the radios. He didn't see any satellites or aircraft in the night sky. In fact, between 9:30 p.m. the night before, and nautical twilight at 3:47 this day, the sky is about as dark and clear as any of the crew has ever seen -- telescopic observation would be excellent.
A quick trip to empty out cache CA-33 went smoothly; the contents were undisturbed and undamaged. Lifting crates, boxes, and cases up from the bottom of the cache to where they could be loaded onto a vehicle was a hot job.
|
cache contents - shelter assistance - 4.0 cubic meters
|
|
#
|
item
|
volume
|
|
1
|
box of 1200 disposable filter masks
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
box of 192 "space blankets"
|
0.3
|
|
1
|
crate of 4 olive drab Army 17' hex tents with poles, stove jacks, stakes and lines; 80 kg each. The tents are usually considered adequate for ten soldiers.
|
2.0
|
|
3
|
cardboard boxes of Civil Defense "Medical Kit C" - some of the drugs will be expired by 2000 at the latest; some liquids will have evaporated
|
0.3
|
|
1
|
box of 24 hand generator flashlights
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
box of 96 bottles of 200 potassium iodide "anti-radiation" tablets; all have expiration dates around 1995
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
box of 240 bottles of iodine water purification tablets, 50 tablets per bottle. Use 2 tablets per liter, wait about half an hour. Note that these tablets are not very effective against cysts and viruses. Expiration dates on all bottles are around 1994.
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
sanitation kit (chemical toilet) - drum with seat, chemicals, sanitary napkins, 10 rolls of toilet paper; meant for 50 persons for 2 weeks
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
box of 4 Lyster bags (for sterilizing and dispensing water). Each can hold 135 liters of water.
|
0.2
|
|
1
|
plastic box of 2200 calcium hypochlorite ampoules (use 4 per full Lyster bag - one to clean, three to treat the water; or about 1 per 20 liter water can). Note that calcium hypochlorite is pretty much the same stuff used to chlorinate swimming pools ...
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
chest of carpentry tools
|
0.3
|
|
1
|
pallet of 20 cans of carpentry nails, various types
|
0.3
|
|
cache contents - neighborhood defense - 3.0 cubic meters
|
|
#
|
item
|
volume
|
|
1
|
case of 6 TRW Low Maintenance Rifles with slings, 6 claymore bags, and 36 Stoner system magazines
|
0.5
|
|
1
|
case of 6 M6 "Scout" survival rifles in stainless steel (.22 LR and .410 gauge)
|
0.2
|
|
1
|
case of 10,000 rounds .22 LR ammunition (boxes in cartons in cans ...)
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 125 boxes of 25 rds .410 gauge shotgun ammunition - birdshot (3125 rds total)
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
box of 20 Israeli "Model 4" civilian-style gas masks, each with two 40mm filter canisters and a green canvas shoulder bag
|
0.4
|
|
1
|
box of 4 Civil Defense model CDV 715 gieger counters (survey meters, 1.5 kg), 20 CDV 742 dosimeters, one CDV 750 dosimeter charger; the survey meter and charger each use D-cell batteries, which are not included
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
box of 180 D-cell batteries - long dead by the mid-1990s
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
box of 240 battery hull adapters (AA battery to D cell hull)
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
box of 18 olive drab wool blankets
|
0.3
|
|
1
|
crate if 18 vacuum-packed sleeping bags
|
0.2
|
|
1
|
box of 18 M65 olive drab field jackets, size medium and large, with hoods
|
0.5
|
|
1
|
case of 18 Army individual first aid kits (belt pouch with plastic box: field dressing, eye patch dressing, bottle of 50 iodine water purification tablets, container of foot powder, tube of lip balm, 2 muslin bandage/sling rolls, tube of antiseptic salve, 10 bandaids)
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
box of 20 SCALP suits (suit, contamination avoidance, liquid protective); each has poncho, trousers, and footwear in sage green; five each in sizes of S, M, L, or XL
|
0.3
|
|
cache contents - operations "C" - 1.0 cubic meters
|
|
#
|
item
|
volume
|
|
1
|
case of 72 empty Stoner system magazines
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 120 empty Ingram M10 magazines
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 48 empty M14 rifle magazines
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 24 empty HP-35 pistol magazines
|
0.03
|
|
1
|
case of 30 M26A1 fragmentation "defensive" hand grenades
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 16 M34 white phosphorus hand grenades
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 16 AN-M8 white smoke hand grenades
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 16 M7A3 tear gas hand grenades
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 16 AN-M14 thermite hand grenades
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 20 Mk3A2 explosive "offensive" hand grenades
|
0.1
|
|
1
|
case of 25 Mk 1 illuminating hand grenades
|
0.1
|
The rest of this day was dedicated to final preparation for travel. Weapons were cleaned and lubricated, magazines were loaded, batteries were charged and checked, radios were tested, the Autonav was "reset" to the bunker's location, dishes were washed, vehicle "nose art" was applied, the bunker was prepared for storage conditions, etc. Dr. Babatunde used a china marker to write the names and dates of birth and (presumed) death (2007?) on the cryoberths of the two dead team members.
Were there any actual modifications made to the Overland Train or other vehicles? Pintle mounts on the electric ATVs, for example?
After the sun had set, Brainerd was able to calculate the current day of the month to within a couple of days; he strongly suspected that the year was much, much later than the 2007 date their computers had presented. He was also able to set the team's clocks within a few minutes.
On to Harry Cruz and his Caravana
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