Artifacts of the Apocalypse 

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." 

- Richard Bach

[Vault Log 16022122 - Audio Recording, Single Channel 44khz 16bit] 

[Text Transcript of Audio log decoded from an electronic handheld device.] 

[Subject identified as Agnes Helminen Ph.D. - Duty Spermologist.] 

[Location: Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Spitsbergen, Norway] 

[Time stamp, 14:45 - 11.02.2122] 

Mika still hasn't returned from his trip to Longyearbyen to get our lunch. I'm starting to get a little hungry. If he wasn't so damned cute I'd probably be mad. 

Just finished cataloging the new deposit from the South African Development Community delegation. Nordgen better bump me up to a higher pay grade for all the overtime I'm doing. 

[Time stamp, 16:20 - 11.02.2122] 

I think something serious has happened. There was a major earthquake about an hour ago. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. The vault is still shaking from aftershocks...[loud cracking sound and some scrabbling noises]...sorry, that was a big one, just dropped my... ah, my phone. 

It looks like grid power to the vault has been lost. The generators kicked in after the first shock. They're still running now so I'm assuming the mains power hasn't come back online. The seed storage refrigeration systems have gone offline. It shouldn't be a problem, the permafrost surrounding the vault should keep the temperature sub-zero. All comm systems appear to have been disabled. It's weird, all the systems are functioning but I just can't get an outside connection. Nordgen control is offline and I can't get a signal on my phone either. 

To be honest... I'm, ah, I'm more worried about my situation. I've checked and it looks like the quake has sealed me into the vault. Both the main entrance and the escape hatch have been blocked, I'm guessing by rockfall. The doors aren't opening so I can't be sure. 

 Mika never came back. I hope he's ok. I hope he lets the folks at Nordgen know I'm still in here.  

There's enough fuel in the generators for a day or two of power at best. Once the power goes the air circulation and heating systems will shut down and... ah, well... I'll be fucked. 

[Time Stamp, 09.59 - 12.02.2122] 

Still no sign of mains power coming back online. I've spent some time tinkering on the main workstation and I've managed to get myself logged in with administrator privileges. The sysadmin's password was easy to guess. He had printouts of old XKCD webcomics on his workstation. The Nordgen network is still down but there is still a connection to the open web. Not much online and the connection is intermittent at best but I did eventually connect to a site in Sweden. It's good to know that The Pirate Bay is still sailing. An admin has managed to keep a server online and has been hosting a forum and chat room. 

Users on the site are saying all sorts of strange things about what is going on. A user in the U.S. [United States of America] MidKnightSon, claims that there has been a nuclear attack by the Chinese [The People's Republic of China]. He says he is a silver miner who was working Greens Creek Mine in Alaska and was underground when the bombs hit. He and some of his colleagues went above ground to take a look and apparently, the whole area is a wasteland. He said it was like hell on earth. They went back into the mine and now appear to be suffering from radiation exposure. He thinks that they will survive as they weren't exposed for very long but they are all vomiting and slightly feverish. 

I'm not sure how he has a connection to the web and I'm also not sure how he knows that it was the Chinese. He doesn't mention seeing anything specific that would indicate that this was the case. It's also contradicted by another user from Ulan Bator [Capital city of Mongolia]. 

This user SunWu, claims to be working for the Chinese embassy. He was doing sysadmin maintenance on their data centre which is in a bunker below the embassy building. He had a direct connection to the Chinese Ministry of National Defence network in Taipei [Capital City of the Republic of China] and managed to grab an unsecured communication. He attached a screenshot of the message and a translation. Unfortunately, he only translated the first line. 

[image attachment] 

身份不明的飞船 - unidentified spaceship? 
可能起源北約未經證實 
車站的關鍵 
物質拋射 
熱區 
赤道 

[image attachment] 

He claims that the connection was lost minutes after that message came through. He also says that twenty minutes after that, the quake hit. As far as he knows, China and Mongolia have been completely wiped off the map. I tried asking him to translate the rest of the message but he hasn't come back online for a few hours now. I guess he was running on backup power like me and ran out of fuel. Speaking of which, I've got about four hours of juice left which... I guess... well ah, I guess that means this is my epitaph. 

Fuck you, aliens! 

[Time Stamp, 13.30 - 12.02.2122] 

The generators have stopped. It's so weird, I had grown so used to the sound that I wasn't prepared for how quiet it would be in here. The lights are out too. It's so dark now. The only light I have is my phone's screen and the battery is in the red. 

I hope someone comes to rescue me soon, I don't think I'm going to have air for much longer. 

I'm scared.  

I can't die in this fucking place! I wasn't even supposed to be here... 

[long period of silence punctuated by heavy breathing and crying] 

...mom, dad, if you're still alive, I love you guys. I love you so m... 

[recording ends]

Chapter 37