Or maybe, he thought, he was supposed to do something. He did the simplest thing, which was to press RETURN.
He saw:
REMOTE NETWORK SERVICES AVAILABLE
CURRENT WORKFILES Last Modified
R/Research 10/02/89
P/Production 10/05/89
F/Field Rec 10/09/89
M/Maintenance 11/12/89
A/Administration 11/11/89
STORED DATAFILES
Rl/Research (AV-AD) 11/01/89
R2/Research (GD-99) 11/12/89
P/Production (FD-FN) 11/09/89
VIDEO NETWORK
A, 1-20 CCD NDC. 1. I
So it really was an old system: files hadn’t been modified for years. Wondering if it still worked, he clicked on VIDEO NETWORK, And to his amazement, he saw the screen begin to fill with tiny video images.
There were fifteen in all, crowding the screen, showing views of various parts of the island. Most of the cameras seemed to be mounted high up, in trees or something, and they showed –
He stared.
They showed dinosaurs.
He squinted. It wasn’t possible. These were movies or something he was seeing. Because in one corner he saw a herd of triceratops. In an adjacent square, some green lizard-looking things, in high grass, with just their heads sticking up. In another, a single stegosaurus, ambling along.
They must be movies, he thought. The dinosaur channel.
But then, in another image, Arby saw the two connected trailers standing in the clearing. He could see the black photovoltaic panels glistening on the roof He almost imagined he could see himself, through the window of the trailer.
Oh, my God, he thought.
And in another image, he saw Thorne and Malcolm and Eddie get quickly into the green Explorer, and drive around the back of the laboratory. And he realized with a shock:
The pictures were all real.
Power
They drove the Explorer to the back of the main building, heading for the power station. On the way, they passed a little village to their right. Thorne saw six plantation-style cottages and a larger building marked “Manager’s Residence.” It was clear that the cottages had once been nicely landscaped, but they were now overgrown, partially retaken by the jungle. In the center of the complex, they saw a tennis court, a drained swimming pool, a small gas pump in front of what looked like a little general store.
Thorne said, “I wonder how many people they had here?” Eddie said, “How do you know they’re all gone?”
“What do you mean?”
“Doc – they have power. After all these years. There has to be an explanation for it.” Eddie steered the car around the back of the loading bays, and drove toward the power station, directly ahead.
The power station was a windowless, featureless concrete blockhouse, marked only by a corrugated-steel rim for ventilation around the top. The steel vents were long since rusted a uniform brown, with flecks of yellow.
Eddie drove the car around the block, looking for a door. He found it at the back. It was a heavy steel door, with a peeling, painted sign that said: CAUTION HIGH VOLTAGE DO NOT ENTER.
Eddie jumped out of the car, and the others followed. Thorne sniffed the air. “Sulfur,” he said.
“Very strong, ” Malcolm said, nodding.
Eddie tugged at the door. “Guys, I got a feeling…”
The door opened suddenly with a clang, banging against the concrete wall. Eddie peered into darkness inside. Thorne saw a dense maze of pipes, a trickle of steam coming out of the floor. The room was extremely hot. There was a loud, constant whirring sound.
Eddie said, “I’ll be damned.” He walked forward, looking at the gauges, many of which were unreadable, the glass thickly coated with yellow. The joints of the pipes were also rimmed with yellow crust. Eddie wiped away some of the crust with his finger. “Amazing,” he said.
“Sulfur?”
“Yeah, sulfur. Amazing.” He turned toward the source of the sound, saw a large circular vent, a turbine inside. The turbine blades, spinning rapidly, were drill yellow.
“And that’s sulfur, too?” Thorne said.
“No,” Eddie said. “That must be gold. Those turbine blades are gold alloy.”
“Gold?”
“Yeah. It would have to be very inert.” He turned to Thorne. “You realize what all this is? It’s incredible. So compact and efficient. Nobody has figured out how to do this. The technology is – “