Chapter 5
"Is everyone all right?" Mwende asked as the tremor passed. Everyone looked around and everything seemed to be holding together. Panthro was about to continue when an alarm sounded.
"What's that?" Lion-O asked. One of the generals who was sitting next to President Mwende checked the tablet in front of him.
"We have a breach in the outer layer of the Little China's biosphere. Crews are on the way to repair it," he explained.
"I must go!" The President of Little China, Mr. Chang, bolted up.
"Let the crews work, sir. We'll keep you up to date," Mwende pleaded with the man.
"My family is there!" Chang argued.
"So are millions of your own people! The situation is under control. Alerts have been issued and everyone is hunkering down," the President urged.
"I think we all need to stay focused on the task at hand. These repairs won't last forever. We need to start coordinating evacuations and moving food stores," Lion-O spoke up.
"He is right. Otherwise it won't matter what we do, millions of people will die," President Koothrapali backed the lion up.
"Yes, let us stay focus. Lord Panthro, you were saying?" President Mwende asked.
"We need a total count of fully operational transport vehicles and how many people they can carry and how much food stores can be transported. We have to assume that some groups will have to remain in space while both New Thundera and Third Earth are prepped for the influx of population. We have people on New Thundera working on temporary housing but I think that if we can get your construction crews on both planets then the process will be greatly sped up," the panther explained.
"What about the people stuck in the more fragile biospheres? We can't leave them where they are, waiting for the next tremor to occur or worse the next actual quake," President Uzun of the United Arab States wanted to know.
"Is there any way to begin to move people to other, sturdier, biospheres?" Cheetara asked.
"We have begun evacuations but it puts extra stress on the biospheres. They are designed for a certain number of people with a safety factor accounted for. When one country gets larger and is in need of an add-on, we begin construction and then move people around so that things aren't overcrowded. We haven't had to build an add-on in about fifty years. We have an aging population so the numbers of those born equal about those that pass away," Mwende explained.
"Perhaps it is best then to start evacuating those biospheres to New Thundera and Third Earth first. Putting more stress on the population won't end well," Lion-O noted. Before anyone could say anything else, Ben-Gali burst into the room. Everyone turned to him and almost looked sheepish for a moment. Then he jerked his head and Lion-O pardoned himself, heading over to the tiger.
"What's up?" The lion asked.
"Doctors Summa and Centi don't think this is a natural occurrence," Ben-Gali explained.
"What do you mean?" Lion-O gave him a confused look.
"Someone is doing this," the tiger clarified.
To Be Continued…