The ground penetrating radar couldn't determine exactly what was happening inside the biodome due to the interference, and it couldn't tell foliage from loose dirt and rubble, so the only real answer was to send the team down there and get some direct data.
The tunnel in the house was the obvious answer since it led down to the lower levels of the biodome's infrastructure and would let them infiltrate without damaging the dome itself.
Ideally, they would be able to leave the facility intact for the next person who came through to study this fallen civilization. There might not be anything left alive in there, but on the off chance that there was, it would be an incredible find and one of the longest-running biodomes in history.
Normally, such projects were abandoned once a mine was played out or the planet around them was terraformed. It was all but unheard of to keep one running for millennia on a planet's surface, and space stations underwent frequent upgrades and renovations over such a long period of time.
[Team, clear the tunnel, but keep the barrier up so nothing escapes. We want to preserve the sealed nature of the relic as much as possible. Take air quality samples as you go, and analyze the material in the blockage to see if it's from a collapse or if it was deliberately plugged.] Khan instructed the junior Hunters.
They were on it right away, creating a double barrier, both above their work area and enclosing the room itself, so that they could move the rubble out into this space without damaging anything.
They had originally thought to just vaporize it, but if they found what they wanted and were going to reseal it, the best call would be to put it back exactly as they found it. Nobody would ever know that they were here, and the biodome would be intact for the next team.
"Your away teams are quite well equipped, aren't they?" Max asked as the team got to work with some sort of gravity control digging device that pulled the earthen plug from the tunnel.
"We've had a fair bit of experience digging up relics. This is the most gentle way that we have found since it pulls all the loose rubble up with minimal effort, but once the dirt gets more compressed, the team will start digging to loosen it." Khan explained.
The whole process only took a few minutes, and the team was through the plug with a rush of displaced air.
[It appears that the inside of the tunnel has a slightly higher air pressure than the surface. The barrier has maintained the balance in air pressure, and we are analyzing it now. The results should be on your computers.
The inside air was very similar to the surface but stagnant from being sealed for millennia and with an incredible level of pollution that would have made any sort of outdoor activities nearly unbearable.
Max looked over the data, then looked to Nico to see if her opinion was the same as his.
"Yes, I think that they might have built this as an emergency shelter. Going by the pollution, the industry on the surface had made the air very nearly toxic, which would explain the riots against the settlers and the government.
The air in the sealed room in the capital was constantly filtered, so that won't tell us anything, but it is safe to assume that all these industrial pollutants came from the surface unless they are being generated by something inside the biodome.
For all we know, it could actually be a hidden factory with its own containment unit to prevent air pollution. I have seen stranger things on colony worlds before." Nico agreed to Max's wordless question.
[We are entering the tunnel now. The width is good, and according to scans, it will remain this size, but the team will need to crawl due to the 160cm roof height.]
Everyone in the room turned to look at Nico while Max and Khan chuckled. She was the only one on the entire planet who could have walked through the tunnels created for the diminutive alien species.
[The air quality remains stagnant as we progress. We have come to a set of sealed doors. They appear to be made of an advanced polymer over alloy construction. Sensors do not detect any blockages behind the seal, but the air quality might be different.
We are erecting an additional barrier now at the door to prevent the transfer.] The team leader announced.
Max watched the live feed from the helmet cams as they put up the barrier and opened the door, revealing a pristine storage room twice the height of the tunnel. Max checked the design and realized that this was supposed to be a maintenance access tunnel, and the house had been built later.
The materials of the tunnel did not match that of the biodome itself, so it could not be the original destination of the room.
[Team, please check the ceiling for signs of a patch. I suspect that the tunnel tapped into a decommissioned maintenance access.] Max requested.
More scans were run, and the results were as Max expected. They had drilled into a vertical access that had been filled with some sort of concrete. When the tunnel was created, the doors would have been in a narrow tube full of concrete, and the storage room would have led nowhere if accessed from the inside.
[Thank you, team leader. We have the data we need to establish the timeline. Please proceed into the facility.] Max added once everyone had come to the same conclusion.
The team entered the storage room and carefully closed the doors behind them, allowing them to seal properly and preventing any issues with their barrier from allowing outside air into the facility.
The room led to a long service corridor with regular markings for access upward. This seemed to be the end of the main service access, and Max wondered how brave the person who broke in had to be to put their tunnel in such a well-travelled spot, assuming the facility was supposed to still be active when they started their work.
Even if it was maintained by Androids, this was still the main access to all things maintenance and would have been regularly occupied.
[Huntress, all of the exits into the biodome appear to be serviceable. What are your directions? Should we enter at the first opportunity or map the tunnels, looking for an open access hatch?
Air quality here is not stagnant and shows no signs of pollution at the levels that were found in the tunnel. It is possible that the air filtration unit is still functional.] The team leader asked.
[Search for an open hatch to make your move to the upper level. There might be some stored materials down here as well, which would give us more information. Also, the glycol tubs are on your level, near where the main energy signature is. The energy signature is our primary target, with the exploration of the facility being a secondary objective.] Khan replied.
[Understood Huntress, we will proceed to the energy source.]
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