The next location that the team arrived at was the remains of an old farm building. It was miraculously still standing without any form of high-tech barrier keeping its exterior intact. That left it far from pristine, but there was still something active and using power at a rate high enough that the orbital scans had picked it up.
[Huntress, there are solar panels all over the field, and I'm seeing quite a few of them that are only lightly damaged. It looks like this region does not receive many, if any, severe weather events.
We are proceeding into the farmhouse where the signal originated from now.] The team informed them.
The Farmhouse was definitely close to collapse, though it appeared to have a very good atmospheric seal when it was new. Why they would have needed such a thing when the sensors showed that the atmosphere was quite pleasantly balanced, and this was one of the most temperate regions of the planet was a mystery.
The data they had gathered from the body, as well as the information on the related offshoot of the species that were living within the Alliance, both said that they preferred a human-standard atmosphere, perhaps a bit higher in oxygen content, and an outside temperature in the low 30s Celcius.
That described this region perfectly.
[Mission Team, check the region for signs of an atmospheric shift. I would like to know if terraforming was still underway when this event happened or why they had sealed a farmhouse so well in such pleasant conditions.] Max requested.
[Understood, Commander. We will get right on it. Sending two members inside to explore the building now.]
Everything was quiet as the Hunters and Nico watched the data flow in from the team. The house looked quite mundane, just a simple three-bedroom bungalow-style house, but there was no sign of what was using all that power from the solar array.
Something was, but there was nothing intact in here. Only the stone and polymer shell of the house and some rubble remained after all these years. Exactly how many wasn't clear, but Max had given it a rough estimate of between three and six hundred years since the population had disappeared based on the decay rate of the buildings.
[Commander, we believe that we have found the source of the power usage. There is a hidden tunnel in the back bedroom that is filled with rocks and loose soil. It leads to an extended tunnel spiralling deep underground.
Whether it was filled from this side or the other is unclear, but I believe that it will lead us to our power usage.] The team informed them.
[Clear it and investigate. But keep an energy barrier over the opening. We don't know if it is a trap or possibly contains a toxic atmosphere. But the plug should have created an airtight seal if there are still electronic devices operating in there. It is possible that it is just a short to ground and a faulty breaker, but I don't want to risk destroying preserved artifacts.] Khan ordered.
[Should we run a more extensive ground penetrating scan first?] The team leader asked.
Nico nodded to Khan and replied on her behalf. [Do it. The shuttle has the sensory capability. Even if it takes all day to get enough ground penetrating radar work done to fully map what is underground, I want to see it before we go bursting in and disturbing whatever is there.]
That command left them waiting for hours, but it was worth it in the end. What the shuttle found under the farmhouse was absolutely incredible. There was an entire biodome down there, with both natural and artificial lights. The natural light should have come from a thick glass cap, but it had blown over with dirt and then been overgrown with grass over the years, leaving the whole dome buried.
What they had taken as a flat field behind the house was actually the biodome, and the house was supposed to be sitting on top of a hill, overlooking the small amount of farmland on the other side.
The tunnel appeared to be an illicit addition and led into a service tunnel under the biodome, which gave everyone hope that there might be a lot of surviving material there.
Sure, a lot would have been lost to time, but a Biodome needed backup materials, and they would have been vacuum-sealed against the elements and stored in a secure area. Since the biodome itself was still functional, there was a good chance that the computer system that controlled the whole facility was similarly preserved.
The scans hadn't found it, but there were a couple of possibilities. Two were enclosed rooms, and one was a storage room that seemed to be full of bulk totes of a glycol-based solution.
That could actually be the server room, with the servers immersed in a coolant solution and then sealed away to prevent contamination. Without exposure to moisture, there would be no oxidation, so in theory, they could have survived that way, along with enough of the sealed wiring to keep things functional.
"Do you think that they might have an autonomous system involved? An android or equivalent who made repairs over the years to keep things running? It would explain the ability of the facility to function so well." Max suggested.
"It would be the logical choice for a sealed environment. Unless it was designed as a habitat for their species, sealing an android inside would allow them to maintain and adjust the biodome's environment as they saw fit without opening the containment.
"Now I'm really excited to see what they've hidden in there. It's a shame that we can't clear away the covering on the dome. The scans say that it should be a magnificent facility when it is uncovered." Lilith sighed.
"Don't worry. We will get all the data to recreate it in a virtual setting so that you can play around with it all you want in your spare time." Khan assured her.
"If I'm really lucky, then the experiment will be ongoing, and enough of the lights will have survived to keep the whole place full of life. Nothing tells a story quite like a good time capsule." The Huntress agreed.
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