Birth of the Alliance Read Online Free PDF Page B

risk the structure developing a crack that would doom him. The sub wasn’t designed to deal with an issue of greater internal pressure than external, and so he returned to the water.
    Abandoning the location for another, one with breathable air, would be an easy solution to the problem, yet he discarded the idea immediately. He'd have plenty of time to walk away from this spot in the future if he couldn’t overcome the problem, but the cavern was completely ideal in every other way. He’d spend his time figuring out how to make it work, rather than beginning his search anew.
    The submarine regularly served as his home for weeks or months at a time, and much of the time was spent underwater, outside the normal atmospheric air. He used the ocean water as a source of oxygen and other components to enable him to breathe in the pressurized cabin, and ventilation systems eliminated the carbon dioxide he exhaled. The cavern was, in many ways, like the inside of his submarine cabin. The system pulled in salt water and generated fresh drinking water, energy for propulsion, electricity to power his sensors and computer systems, as well as the clean air he breathed.
    Could he build a replica of that system, on a much larger scale, and let it fill the cavern with breathable air? There was only one way to find out. It would take time. But he had plenty of time.
    He wouldn't be able to complete the project here. The pressurization issues meant he'd need to design the equivalent of a space suit to work outside the submarine in the airless void, using thick gloved hands to try to put machinery together. It was an impractical approach.
    Will extinguished the Energy light orbs, plunging the cavern into complete darkness, and piloted the submarine back through the tunnel. He set a course to return to Eden at top speed, and the submarine moved swiftly through the frigid, salty water as Will began planning his design approach to aerating the cavern.
    As he saw it, he could build a much larger version of the submarine’s internal systems for the Cavern. He’d need fresh air, water, and eventually electricity to power computer systems, lighting, and a host of other systems. The concern was that the system would be large, bulky, and difficult to transport back to the cavern after construction on Eden.
    Could he build the system in pieces? The submarine version was, of necessity, a single unit. The Cavern version had no such constraints. Could he build large individual systems and transport them individually to the Cavern?
    The submarine stored several weeks’ worth of food and fresh water; he could keep himself properly nourished and hydrated for quite some time without erecting a water purification system capable of serving the entire cavern. He wouldn’t need large volumes of electricity until later. He’d need to reproduce the air purification system only on a larger scale, just small enough to fit inside the submarine. He'd build it on Eden, disassemble it for transport to the cavern, and upon arriving at the end of the tunnel he’d teleport the pieces outside and assemble them in place using telekinesis. Once the device was activated and filling the cavern slowly with breathable air, he could make round trips to Eden to build the water purification system, carbon dioxide scrubbers, and a generator. It could take months to complete each construction project, and the round trip between Eden and the cavern was around one month. It would take months to fill the Cavern with air, and those extra round trips were both acceptable and necessary. No sense moving in until he could breathe outside the submarine.
    With that baseline—breathable air, water purifiers, carbon dioxide scrubbers, and a small generator—he could begin transforming the cavern from a place he could survive, into a place he and others could thrive. With a generator and ample power production, he'd be able to create lighting within the cavern without needing to expend