The phones were ringing off the hook. People were darting from one room to the next. Lights were flashing, computers were beeping, and booming voices shouted orders. "Why all the commotion," you ask? Because this was the day the earth's core collapsed!
It all started early one morning, as the first NASA employees for the day entered the building for their assignments. When they unlocked the doors and walked inside, they took their stations. Not too much went on at NASA these days. No one had been in space since the funding for the space program was cut. Everything in space now was automated. The responsibilities of the crew here mostly consisted of monitoring the satellites and keeping track of the earth’s condition.
Today, everything was running smoothly. Scientists made observations, electricians prepared to upgrade older equipment. Dr. Samantha Cole, the head seismologist, was calmly sitting at her desk, making the usual calculations.
“The date,” She muttered as she filled out a form. “May 27th, 2205”
Her day always started -and ended- the same way. The days seemed to pass without any significance.
As she fiddled with the pencil behind her ear, she began to talk softly to herself, “I wish had a more exciting life. Ever since I was a little girl, I've wanted to be here. And Studying the Earth’s movements is an important position here, I’m not sorry that I accomplished that. But look at me! All I do is sit here in this office, making calculations, observing the world from a computer screen.” She swiveled her chair around to look at the other scientists that passed by her door. They were all carrying “important” information and walking to an “important” destination. Each with lives just as equally boring as hers. She took the pencil from her ear, “My dream just isn't what I thought it would be.”
Just then, one of the seismograph monitors sounded an alarm. The usual procedures were carried out. Public Affairs were notified and workers on the main floor alerted Samantha. When she arrived on the main floor, the local authorities were already being alerted and they took action in the area of the tremors.
“Another day at work huh Dr. Cole?” One of the operators chimed.
“Yeah,” Samantha sighed while rolling her eyes. “Silence the alert.”
“Right away,” He turned to the computer station. “System?”
One of the computers responded with a beep.
“Silence. Code E1”
The computer beeped again, and the alarm was silenced. Then, the operator told the system to display the news report from the the city where the tremors occurred. It responded and switched the channel of the wall projection to the live news broadcast. A few of the others paused to watch the projection, but most continued on as usual.
Suddenly, more alarms were sounded by the seismograph. Many more! Experts looked over readouts in confusion. As the computer shouted more alerts, more personnel entered the room. Samantha told the system to read the computer’s output. Tremors were being detected everywhere from New York to Hong Kong.
“This can’t be right,” Samantha said to no one in particular.
“What do you make of this?” Inquired a nearby workmate.
“I don’t know, There must be something wrong with the computer.”
With this, the unthinkable amount of alerts was presumed a computer error, and computer technicians were called in to address the problem. In the amount of time it took the technicians to reach the site, even more alerts and warnings were buzzing, blinking, and beeping.
“Should we be looking into the situation, sir?” One of the computer operators asked his superior.
“No. Remain as you are. It is probably only a computer glitch,” The scientist answered calmly, “Besides, they are small, only .05 on the scale,” Finally, the computer technicians finished trouble-shooting the “glitch”.
“So, can you fix it?” the Samantha asked the head technician.
“All of the computers are in perfect working order,” He looked puzzled.
Samantha brought her hand to her face, “But... That means-” She turned around and bolted for Jack Penn, the Operation Manager’s office. “Jack!”
“What’s wrong Sam?”
“Come down and look at the graphs!”
She lead him down the hall to the chaotic room. As they opened the door, the ground began to tremble. “Dr. Cole! The tremors!” one of the operators yelled out. The ground continued to shake, all the personnel were struggling to reach something to hold on to. “What’s going on?” Jack shouted to Samantha trying to raise his voice over the loud alarms and rumbling of the building.
Samantha thought for a moment. She held on tight to the shelf next to her, trying not to let the movement of the room overwhelm her. Then, with horror on her face, proclaimed, “I think we are experiencing a world-wide earthquake!”
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