Part 1
It is almost a day and a half after the eruption that Tim interrupts the quiet of the Lab with bad news. You all slept in the Lab overnight last night. You were easily too exhausted to shower or change your clothes before sleeping let alone go back to your parents' house. John managed to carry Andrew and Hsui Tai to their beds before collapsing into his own and Elizabeth shook you awake to help you to the bed set aside for you.
This morning TIM scolded you all for the white sheets turned black with volcanic ash but you notice that he's using his automatic systems to clean around you rather than expecting you to do any work. You're still exhausted from your efforts of the day before. It seems like a decade since you all teased John about his interview clothes rather than just a day. That interview, Tim tells you all, was cut anyway. According to TIM the producer had sounded very apologetic on the telephone and blamed a lack of time but it appealed to the sense of the ridiculous in all of you that John's interview was cut because he leads such a dull life.
You're all sitting around the Lab reading or playing simple, unchallenging games when TIM breaks the peace of the Lab with an apologetic cough. John raises an eyebrow and looks up from his newspaper.
"What's up, TIM?" He asks quietly.
"I'm sorry, John." TIM sounds sincerely regretful. "But I am afraid we have a problem."
"A problem, TIM?" Elizabeth repeats. "What kind of problem?"
"I'm not sure I can deal with anything else just now." Andrew mutters and you can sympathise with that emotion
"I am sorry, Andrew, but this is a problem caused by the volcano and the military base in its shadow." TIM tells you all. "As I feared the base has been destroyed by fire as a result of the eruption and many of the chemicals stored there have been released as vapour."
"What kind of vapour, TIM?" John asks.
"A mixture of toxic gases, psychoactive compounds and nerve agents, John. I believe several of the compounds that the explosive mixing has produced were not those originally planned by the Russian scientists who gathered the raw chemicals together."
"What makes you say that, TIM?" Elizabeth asks, frowning.
"Because several of the compounds present in the vapour cloud can only be produced in explosive reactions and to the best of my knowledge have never been generated on the Earth before. They are active on the telepathic centres of the human brain."
"What!" You exclaim sitting bolt upright. The others are also reacting strongly to the news. John gets to his feet and begins to pace the common room.
"TIM, are you telling us that these drugs will affect telepaths, Tomorrow People, in particular?"
"Yes, John. Although the compounds may affect normal Homo sapiens as well, in different ways. John, these compounds remain active at concentrations far below those at which the simple nerve agents in the vapour cloud will cease to be effective. I suspect that even diluted in the Earth's entire atmosphere there may be a residual effect."
"How do we stop it, TIM?" Andrew asks. "How do we contain this cloud."
"That is the really bad news, Andrew." TIM tells you sombrely. "I do not believe that you can. The gases were carried into the upper atmosphere by the thermal updraft of the eruption and are already dispersed together with the volcanic ash cloud through in excess of thirty thousand cubic miles of atmosphere. That figure is increasing exponentially with time. The volcano is on the path of the northern trade winds."
"Then what can we do, TIM?" You ask anxiously. "Is there some kind of antidote we can put in the atmosphere?"
"I am unable to find any in the records of the Galactic Federation, Jay, and it may take me some time to devise one. I can only suggest that you consider evacuating yourselves to the Galactic Trig for the duration."
John has turned pale.
"This is going to affect everyone isn't it, TIM? Not just the Tomorrow People we know about but those who haven't broken out yet and the telepaths who never will." TIM's hemispheres pulse in silent agreement. "Then someone needs to be here who know what is going on. Someone who can reassure them." He turns to you. "You should all go and join the others on the Trig, for the time being at least, but I'm staying here."
You look around at your pale, still exhausted friends and see the
uncertainty on their faces.
Do you:
a) Go to the Trig temporarily?
b) Stay on Earth?
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