COREL
1.
"Is there a chance that we might have opened it ourselves?"
"Opened what? The fault?"
The man who had just asked the first question nodded, waiting for his colleague's response
"It would be one in a million, Brian. You know the readings don't lie!"
Brian Brunswick, chief engineer at the oil extraction plant in Corel, removed his helmet and scratched his head. Something had gone wrong, terribly wrong. He stared at the quarry in front of him, where a giant oil rig stood right in the middle, piercing the rocky bottom of the man-made depression. Other similar man-made depressions could be seen in the distance, surrounded by the sand of the Corel Desert, blinding with the reflection of the afternoon sun, even at kilometres of distance.
Next to him stood his chief-technician, Harry Rosenberg
"Harry" Brian nervously asked "Can you tell me exactly what happened?"
"Again?" Harry's eyes bulged "This is the third time I tell you…"
"Just tell me already!" Brian cut him short, brimming with edginess
"All right" the technician surrendered "The third shift team was boring an exploration tunnel stemming from shaft Z, just below spur tunnel 81…"
He paused, as a line of people clad in bright yellow uniform and all strapped with rattling rescue gears asked for some room to pass by
"And then?" Brian pressed on
"Then our seismographs went off the charts" Harry explained "The whole rig, the whole structure, every beam and nut was shaken from the bottom to the top and we lost contact with the team. Fortunately enough, they were the only squad assigned to work. All, and I mean all of the other personnel in the whole extraction site was on the surface…"
Brian Brunswick pondered on the words of his chief technician. Apparently they were battling against time and the oddly-timed tantrums of the nature to rescue a group of men trapped in a cave under their feet. A cave that should not have collapsed at all but that eventually did so after an earthquake that was not expected to take place
"Do we have their transponders on our tracking devices?" Brian asked again
"No!" Harry impatiently answered "I told you, for some reason we are unable to have them online. Must be the rocks…"
"What about the seismology team?" Brian kept asking "Did they tell you anything new or…?"
Harry sighed as his arms swung down
"Brian, for fuck's sake" the technician yelled "they told me the same thing they told us five minutes ago! We won' t be told anything new until the reading will be sent back from Edge!"
"When?" Brian enquired, eyes stuck to the bottom of the pit before him, where a trail of rescue operators were meddling with the workers crawling from the holes at the bottom of the pit, in an alternation of yellow and orange uniforms along the trail that spiralled downward along the walls of the quarry
"Not before tomorrow, they are all busy dealing with whatsoever emergency up there!" Harry quickly searched his pockets and nervously lit up a cigarette. He had always thought that his boss, Brian, had the dangerous tendency of taking his job seriously. Maybe too much seriously. So seriously that sometimes he thought that Harry regarded his colleagues not so much as colleagues per se, but rather as a family. A bachelor at forty years old and counting, Brian was deeply immersed in his job and had little time to cultivate a family on his own. He was a good person to work under overall, Harry thought, but his attachment to his colleagues in a scenario like this was kind of unhealthy
"Look, Brian" Harry carefully tried to explain "it's not your fault. If the crack opened up suddenly, that was not something we could foresee. We did everything by the book. Nobody is going to hold a grudge against us for that…"
Harry looked like he was not listening. Instead, he kept staring at the bottom of the rig, were the rescue team was amassing materiel and instruments on the lift that would have brought them at the levels below. He even made a few steps towards the edge of the makeshift terrace next to the offices where he usually spent most of his working time at the facility, to have a better look.
Harry felt a strange feeling inside him. He feared that his boss was about to pull out a stunt of his own
"Harry" he finally uttered
Harry raised his head, puffing his cigarette
"I'm going in" Brian finally declared
Harry stood there, shocked. His cigarette fell from the mouth. After a brief moment where he tried to understand what could have pushed Brian to take such decision, he stomped the butt with his boot
"What if I say 'no'?" he tentatively offered
"I wouldn't listen" his boss replied, with a faint smile
"All right then" Harry surrendered "May at least ask you why?"
"Because someone will ask for a report, and I will be the one to write it!" Brian resolutely replied, walking towards the stairs leading to the rescue operations centre "I can't just tell the upper echelons that a conduit collapsed and I don't know why…"
"You already know I'm not coming…" Harry told him
"And in fact I'll ask you to stay here" Brian ordered him, as he grew bolder and bolder as seconds went by, almost as if the thought of taking part to the expedition was igniting him "Tell the rescue team down below to be prepared to have me amidst their ranks. I'll go get geared up!" he said, as he disappeared downstairs
Harry shook his head, marvelling helpless at his boss stubbornness and carelessness, cursing himself not to be able to dissuade him from taking part in an operation where surely he would have been a hindrance rather than a helping hand. But, for better or for worse, things were going the way they were going.
He reached for his portable radio on the waist and adjusted the knob before calling his counterpart at the bottom of the quarry
"Everyone down there, get ready!" he shouted in the microphone "Boss is coming down!"
Brian Brunswick had managed to get the upper hand in the discussion, or better the argument, that ensued after he had announced to Rescue Operations Director Peter Wolf that he meant to be taken down along with the rest of the team.
With a cunning combination of his trademark parlance and subtle diplomacy he had finally managed to get enlisted in the rescue squad, now gathered next to the elevator where Wolf was briefing his team
"This is a standard rescue operation" he announced "so we will descend down the regular path maintaining a straight line. Always look forward at your fellow rescuer and don' t deviate from the course. Nothing worse than getting lost in a mineshaft, understood?"
Everybody nodded, someone more resolutely than someone else.
Brian had been given the standard rescuer equipment, namely the yellow jacket and extra hard duty boots and apparel. He was also given a helmet with a lamplight strapped on it plus a gigantic torch as heavy as a thick concrete brick
"Chief engineer Brunswick will come with us to survey the damage to the tunnels fist-hand. Be ready to offer any kind of assistance at every moment. Have I been clear?"
Another round of nods. Although looking pretty young, Wolf had assured Brian that every member of the team was more than fitted to perform their duties
"I'd say" Wolf had poked at him "that they are fitter than you, Sir…"
"Well, then" Brian crossed his arms "let's see what they can do, then!"
In less than two minutes they were within reach of the level where they were supposed to begin the rescue operations. They were far beyond the reach of the light provided by the sun as it was now replaced by the faint illumination provided by the neon lamps hanged at regular intervals on the walls. The well had been reinforced by horizontal steel beams which also held up the net sheltering the passages around the shaft.
All the miners had been evacuated, as orders were issued by Brian himself. Only some dedicated technician were present, taking note of the damages of the quake. The structure appeared to be stable overall, though.
The elevator gently came to a halt, its embedded beacon still rotating and hurling flashes of yellow light on the rugged surfaces of the caves
"All right" Wolf quietly exclaimed "we're inside, let's get to the collapsed section fast, before another quake comes. We'll have a look at it and then we will come back to pick up the material we need to begin excavations"
"Do we have a line with the surface, Chief?" a rescuer asked
Wolf turned a knob on his radio, fastened to his rescue vest. It tested positively apparently. Brian followed suit with its own
"We do have" Wolf replied "Surface, how do you copy?"
"Loud and clear" a voice erupted from the radio, echoing in the narrow space
"That should do just fine, surface" Wolf nodded "Proceeding to the collapsed section. Over and out!"
The ten-man squad, minus Brian, followed its leader down a conduit
"Harry, come in" Brian spoke in his radio
"How do you copy me, Brian?" Harry replied, at the other end of the line
"Just fine" Brian answered "We're in section Z-1 and making our way to passage 81"
"I see you on the diagram" Harry told him "Too bad we will not be able to follow you down in the collapsed section. Generators and wires must have been damaged by the cave in. We don't have the holographic of that part of the mine"
"Don't worry" Brian reassured him "As long as we'll have the radio we'll be fine"
"Good, we'll guide you if needed" Harry nodded "We are closely monitoring the seismic activity. No aftershocks in sights but should they strike back, rush to the main shaft. It should be safe there!"
"I got it!" Brian said, as the team came to a small opening from which a series of tunnel departed "I'm quitting for now. I'll report back as soon as I'll have news to rely to you. Over"
"They are probably all fine, Brian" Harry tried to foster his colleague's hope before quitting the conversation himself "Over and out!"
At the opening, two miners in their orange suits were having a talk with chief Wolf
"Mister Brunswick" Wolf suddenly turned towards Harry, beckoning him "these two workers were inches away from the team that had been trapped by the collapse
"
"Oh, I'll have a talk with them for sure" he said, approaching them "So, what exactly happened here?"
"We were in section 82 setting up a replacement generator" the oldest of the two miners explained "when we felt the first jolts. At first we thought the boring machine had gone off course…"
"…but then it was clear it was an earthquake" the second miner finished for him
"All right" Brian nodded "and what did you do next?"
"Oh, we simply ran toward the shaft, as they had told us to do during training" the older miner reported
"So you did not feel or hear anything else after the first shock?"
"At all, Sir…" the younger miner replied, shaking his head
"Apparently, all the miners of section Z were accounted for, after they had been gathered for the count," Wolf told Brian "minus the ones working in conduit 81"
"I see…" Brian paused, as he tried to put together the small amount of information he had just collected. But nothing yet. He had to see the damaged section for himself
"All right, you two" he finally exclaimed towards the miners "back to the shaft and off to the surface, if your job here is done"
"It is, Sir" the older one patted his colleague on the shoulder and led him to the elevator, leaving the rescue team alone again
"Nobody else is in here, no?" Wolf asked, as he pointed his torchlight in the direction of a gallery next to a sign that read the number 81
"Apparently not" Brian shook his head "Shall we proceed?"
"Come on!" Wolf waived his arm towards the gallery as his team entered the passage. The lights were out, maybe because the electricity wires had been severed downstream. Everyone lit up their torches, even Brian.
The tunnel had a smooth surface and a regular contour, thanks to the boring machines used by the miners which were purposefully designed not to crack the earth which they were excavating. This turned the whole accident even more mysterious as Brian's mind raced to find a solution to what might have caused the quake and the ensuing collapse
"Woah!" a sudden shriek from Chief Wolf brought him back to reality
"What's happening?" a team member asked, as he nervously scoped the surroundings with his torchlight
"This is not your normal collapse!" Wolf exclaimed in an alarmed tone. Brian rushed to the head of the formation to see what had alarmed the leader of the expedition so much.
He pointed the torchlight in front of him. It took a while before Brian could realize that they were not in front of a collapsed passage.
The entire end of Conduit 81 had disappeared, along with a huge chunk of ground around it.
The gallery was in fact opening into a subterranean cave, as the beam of the torchlight revealed. Someone cracked a glow stick and threw it into the cave, disappearing in the depth of that abyss. Brian stood there, shocked at the realization that whoever might have been around that place had probably gone away with what stood there before in place of that hole
"This is isn't a collapse at all!" Brian murmured, coming to term with the realization "The ground here sank to the bottom…" he observed, his eyes relentlessly racing right and left along with the circle of his flashlight
"The bottom of what?" Wolf curiously asked him "There's nothing else beneath our feet!"
Brian ignored the chief's remark and grabbed his radio to speak up to his chief technician
"Harry, do you read me?" he asked "We have a big problem down here…"
"Speak up" Harry pressed him
"We have a cave-in here, not a collapse" he explained "A chunk of ground as big as a skyscraper has gone!"
"What do you mean? What do you mean 'as big as a skyscraper'?" Harry enquired, visibly alarmed
"There are at least ten levels of rock missing here" he tried to explain, releasing the PTT button and pressing it alternatively, producing small bursts of static echoing in the cave "Passage 81 leads to a recently formed cave made by the quake!"
He waited for a reply. A reply that was coming too late
"Harry, are you still there?"
Static
"Harry?"
Static. Brian clicked his tongue in frustration. He was just about to press the PTT button again when Harry anticipated his move
"Brian, get the hell out of there!" Harry came in, calmly but alarmed "We've got a swarm of aftershocks incoming…"
Chief Wolf was on the same frequency. He turned towards Harry, as alarmed as the latter. The leader of the rescue team put his whistle in his mouth and blew in it, alerting everyone
"Let's get out of here, fast!" he shouted "Incoming shock!"
As they prepared to run away from there, something caught Brian's attention. The earth was about to start to vibrate but the thing that lied at the bottom of the cave surely was something worth beholding.
The dark surroundings began to shine with a light emanating from below, a light that seemed to be white at first.
But as the ground shook more violently, the pale light surging from below turned into a greenish, roaring goo, raising violently like a geyser
"The hell are you waiting for?" Chief Wolfe shouted at the address of Brian Brunswick, who could not take his eyes off the surge of Mako coming in right through the pit.
Mako had been previously extracted in Corel, a long time ago. But the source had been depleted quite rapidly. And therefore Mako had traded places with oil.
This was something Brian Brunswick knew for sure.
Then why Mako had appeared again in Corel after all this time?
He could not give himself an answer.
Anyway, it would have not made any difference.
Less than thirty seconds later, after all communications were lost between the rescue team and the surface, the whole rig exploded, thankfully sparing the immediate surroundings due to the funnel-like design main well.
Unfortunately, many more rigs faced the same fate as the one where Brian Brunswick and Peter Wolf had descended.