The Series 
                                                  Episode Eighteen 
                                   The Underground City called Phoenix 

The last thing Walter, Silv and Jana remember is being picked up in the dirty dark collapsed stairwell leading to their bunker and being carried out and placed in a vehicle. 
Githa relaxes from piloting the RV and she sees a small light blinking on her console, so she presses some buttons and switches on a 3D screen, Jana, Silv and Walter's faces appear after being reconstructed from the INFORMATION DATA CUBE. 
Jana says. 
"Dad, Silv, are you there?" 
Silv answers. 
"Yes Jana I think I'm close to you sis, but I can't see anything, it's black as ink here, I put my hands down and I can't feel anything, have I lost my eyesight? ...... am I paralyzed? ..... what's happened to me? ..... is dad here?" 
(Silv is sobbing) 
Walter chips in. 
"Listen girls, I don't know what's happened to us, I'm sure we'll find out, do you have headaches or pains of any kind?" 
Both answer. 
"No dad we feel ok, just can't see anything or feel anything." 
Githa smiles as she hears the bewildered dialogue coming from the INTELLECTS inside the DATA CUBE and decides to risk trauma to them and make contact to break the monotony of the long trip back to Phoenix, she speaks into a small microphone. 
"This is rescue leader Githa, I'm the pilot of your rescue vehicle called an RV, welcome aboard, do you copy?" 
Walter answers. 
"Yes we hear you, can you tell us where we are please, why can't we see or feel anything, are we paralyzed?" 
Githa ignores the question and continues. 
"From our records, I see you're an electronics developer, your name is Walter James Colby your wife Samantha died in a laboratory accident three years ago, you have two daughters Jana age 15 and Silv 17." 
"Correct Githa, on behalf of my daughters and myself, thanks for the rescue, we're lucky you found us in that crumpled stairwell and got us out before our oxygen ran out, but I'm extremely puzzled as to why we can't feel anything or see anything?"
Githa hesitates and answers in a different tone.
"I'm really sorry, ...... there's no easy way to tell you what happened, it might be difficult for you and your daughters to understand Walter,..... we picked up your signals and we came as quick as we could, our RV travels fast when we get a clear run, but when we're in an urban area we slow down to a crawl even though the wheels are 100 tons each and we don't make detours, it still took a bit longer than we anticipated, your suits would have been safe in normal conditions but they weren't up to our Army Standards that design them to shield people from COBALT-60, all the metal shells in the buildings are radioactive with COBALT from the MISSILE STRIKES, ..... after the SATELLITE ACCIDENT in SPACE many FAIL SAFE defense mechanisms round the world didn't work properly, advanced MISSILE systems were AUTOMATICALLY TRIGGERED and launched from SPACE into major cities, this high level of RADIATION caused damage on a scale that's beyond repair, the surface is going to be unlivable for many thousands of years, atmospheric depletion has turned our planet into a toxic waste-dump in space." 
Githa pauses to monitor their brain wave patterns then continues. 
"Their plans for releasing oxygen from the sea could have worked if there hadn't been so many SATELLITES waiting in SPACE for commands, too little tolerance for error mixed with budget-cut planning turned it into a nightmare, we know that our Living Neuron Net  was a major factor in the missile strike, the new decision making abilities of the LIVING COMPUTER made decisions that were ALL based on bad programming, the programs had never kept pace with the Neuron NET technology, WAR PROGRAMS kicked in  once the first bank of SATELLITES went off-line in the ACCIDENT, the computers detected this as an OFFENSIVE ACTION and pre-emptive strikes were automatically launched from KILLER SATELLITES, you know the rest." 
Githa pauses with tears in her eyes. 
"I'm really sorry to tell you that you are all disembodied, you only EXIST as COMPUTER DATA, we saved your INTELLECT and records of DNA structures, so until we get to PHOENIX this is how things will have to be." 
The girls gasp and both start crying hysterically. 
Walter asks. 
"Githa I understand what you've told us, we became severely irradiated after we left our BUNKER and you saved what you could, is there any way you can turn the lights on for us so we can see?" 
Githa reaches over to the console and pushes some buttons. 
"Walter I can link you into our computers, that will allow you to SEE what's happening around you through the video scanning cameras, I'm sorry ........ it's all I can do at the moment." 
The 650 TON ATOMIC POWERED VEHICLE speeds across the nullarbor plain at 500 miles an hour, Walter Silv and Jana can SEE both inside and outside this big machine at the same time, traveling at a cruising speed of five hundred on a cushion of downward thrust doesn't take them long before they reach their destination, the big RV slows down as they enter a tunnel, then they stop as they go through a primary DECONTAMINATION center with ROBOTS in attendance, then they travel a further twenty miles along the tunnel in a straight line and after going through more air locked doors they arrive at a secondary DECONTAMINATION chamber, this DECON is the longest and the most thorough, scanners run the length of the vehicle searching for the minutest degree of radiation in any form, once the lights on the console all glow green Githa manually drives the big machine onto a GIANT SQUARE PLATFORM where they come to a complete stop, then a descent starts as they begin to drop rapidly down a huge FIVE MILE deep shaft into the bowels of the earth, Walter and his daughters can see straight down this SHAFT through the cameras, they see the lights whizzing by and the shear depth is scaring them when they SEE ALL OF IT through the EYES of the LIVING NEURON NET COMPUTER. 
THEY ARE ABOUT TO ENTER THE UNDERGROUND CITY CALLED PHOENIX.

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