The second thing RJ noticed was an odd pungent smell in the air, which reminded her of burnt rubber or plastic. She was sure the smell hadn't been present the last time she was at the mountain.

She proceeded down the brightly lit corridor and past the mammoth elevator which led to the pit. She placed her hand on the scanner on the wall by the recessed door. “Good afternoon, Miss Anderson.” She was greeted again when she called the elevator and it descended to the main floor of the complex. When the doors opened, the burnt smell was much stronger, and she could hear the ventilation fans running at full power. She entered the control room and went to the office she shared with Matt Fitch, but the office was abandoned. Several technicians were in the control room, going about various tasks.

She sat down at the desk and accessed the computer, requesting it to locate General Fitch. She rapidly received a response, confirming that the General was in the engineering area.

RJ briefly considered heading to engineering but decided against it; instead, she had the computer bring up all the status reports which had been submitted since her last visit.

Reading the reports, RJ was pleased with the progress. The enlargement of all the planned areas was complete. The hospital was finished, the mess hall was almost complete, and the second level freezers and food storage areas had been completed for a week. In fact, the freezers were online, and all backup systems were checking out just fine.

The sleep chambers for the command staff on this level were mostly complete, as were the livestock chambers. The primary sleep chambers had been completed a month ago, and there were currently five test subjects in each of the five thousand bed chambers. They'd been placed in the deep sleep two weeks ago and were scheduled to remain asleep for another two weeks. So far, there’d been no problems.

The living quarters for many of the two-hundred-member initial wake up team were due to be finalized in the next few weeks.

RJ made a mental note to get up to that level and take a look around. Her quarters were going to be up there, and she was looking forward to seeing the progress.

Deciding she was hungry, she had the computer locate General Fitch again, confirming he was still in the engineering area. She sent a signal to the intercom closest to him. After the wall unit beeped, a voice answered. “This is Cowan.”

“James, this is RJ. Could you please let the General know I've arrived and I'll be in the mess hall when he has time?”

“Sure RJ. He's here and says he'll be there in about ten minutes.”

“Great, thanks.”