King of All I Survey-Chapter 168: Back Across the World to Ukraine

Congressman Perez relinquished the floor to the next congressman in the queue. I sent a mental command to Joe, Send him a personal letter from me, please. Tell him that I applaud and admire his principled stance on the issue of the Universal Earth Concord. Tell him that I, or Maribel, would be happy to appear at a campaign event and offer our endorsements for his re-election if he wishes, regardless of the outcome of the vote or how he himself votes on the proposal.

Acknowledged, Joe replied.

The questioning did not finish the first day. It lasted a full eight hours plus an hour for lunch. During the lunch hour, Maribel, Mom as Susana, and I grabbed a quick bite, then wandered through the congressional cafeteria saying hello, shaking hands, and chatting informally about our work and about my vision for Universal Earth Concord.

Mostly, the congressmen all wanted to meet Maribel. She had the real star power between the three of us, and everyone wanted to meet her personally, and thank her for her work among the people in their district. Because she had also received the memory implant learning about each of the members of the Congress of the Republic, she addressed each by name, asking about the welfare of family members, also by name, and asking their opinion of some specific project that was underway or already completed in their home district. Every time she knew a member’s name or his wife or children, his eyes would light up with pride that Maria Isabel Flores knew him, knew his name and knew his family members. I’m sure she gained us more than one recalcitrant vote with her charm alone.

We went four more hours after lunch and were told the questioning would continue the next day. We were escorted to our car outside the Congressional Palace, and we drove off. Maribel and Susana would stay in Guatemala City in a hotel that I owned, under an unrelated shell company. As soon as I entered my room in the hotel, I used my android’s internal LITV to transfer myself back to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

It was nearly 9:30 AM when I arrived back in my office/ sleeping quarters in Ukraine. Joe had a quick bite to eat ready and waiting for me. It was basically a fancy granola bar and a fruit punch flavored drink that he said contained an optimized mix of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins along with an assortment of vitamins, minerals and antioxidant compounds. It was fast and easy, and all I had time for. I had told the crew at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant that I would remain with them to demonstrate the safety of the plant against potential Russian attacks.

I had to make public appearances around the plant to show I was still here. I left my office, and headed for Reactor Six where Luca Mueller (AKA one of Joe’s android personas) was overseeing the repair of a leaking pipe. The leak in a boronated water pipe had forced the reactor to switch from hot shutdown mode to cold shutdown mode. That meant remaining fuel rods were removed and placed in the cooling ponds for storage so that the reactor itself was no longer acting as the cooling pond for the rods. This allowed maintenance to be conducted to repair the pipe, before returning a small quantity of ’hot’ fuel rods back to the reactor to return it to hot shutdown state. In hot shutdown state a nuclear reactor could still generate steam enough to power turbines and produce electricity, although at a much lower capacity than a fully active reactor. Three of the six reactors were scheduled to remain in hot shutdown state through the coming winter to provide electricity for heating for nearby villages. The other three would be in cold shutdown states, with all fuel rods removed for storage in the cooling ponds.

Removing, handling, and replacing fuel rods, as well as the draining of the boronated reactor water were all jobs requiring highly skilled technicians. This was the sort of work the Russians could not do without the Ukrainian technicians who had volunteered to stay. Maintaining safety with reactors in the hot shut down state was difficult and required their specialized skills. Without the power supplied by the reactor’s hot shutdown, nearby villages would face critical power shortages or extended blackouts during the cold winter months ahead.

Luca was inside the reactor visually inspecting the welding that repaired the pipe. With him were two other Ukrainian technicians and Khaled Abadi. Joe, I called out mentally, why aren’t you all wearing the new radiation shields? Instead of the field generator that could block ionizing radiation from ever reaching their bodies, they were suited up in conventional protective gear.

We are all wearing them. Mr. Abadi insisted we wear conventional protection until the new shields’ effectiveness was proven to his satisfaction. We have our personal dosimeters inside our protective suits as normal, but also one outside the suit, but contained within the shield field, and another outside the suit and outside the shield’s protection. Once we’re finished in the reactor, we’ll compare the numbers from all four of us to see how well the shields worked. The final say on the safety and future use of the shields will belong to Abadi and Oleksandr Vernydub, the ranking Ukrainian Safety Engineer on site.

I see, mine shield will protect me from radiation, too, right?

Yes, completely. By the way, there is a dosimeter in your office that you should have put on. Everyone in the plant is required to wear one. Once your aggregate numbers reach the yellow range, you’ll be restricted to areas of the facility away from the likelihood of any reaction exposure. If you reach the red level, you would be reassigned to duties away from the nuclear plant altogether. If your dosimeter reached the black level, you’d almost certainly have irreversible radiation damage and would be sent to a hospital isolation ward for evaluation and treatment.

Why an isolation ward?

To make sure no one else is harmed by the radiation you may have absorbed. If you test below the safe level, you’d be placed in a general ward.

Was this system followed under the Russians?

No. Dosimeters were frequently removed from staff. Many don’t currently know where they fall on the aggregate radiation exposure chart. From a preliminary scan of a very small sample size, I can tell you that I found some in the black. They have chromosomal damage and some have cancers or other related health issues that are as yet asymptomatic. The safety protocols for Ukrainian nuclear technicians under Russian military authority were less than lax, at times they were deliberately bypassed to cause increased radiation exposures.

Identify which Russians ordered or allowed that to happen, segregate them in our simulation cells. I may hand them over to the International Criminal Court... Assess them for therapeutic rehabilitation, but don’t start it yet until I order it directly. Let me know the results of the assessments, I want 90% reliability on whether each individual can be rehabilitated so use whatever interaction, tests, or whatever you need to give me that.

Acknowledged.

As I conversed with Joe mentally, he and the others in reactor six finished their work and moved to the shielded room for decontamination procedures. Here they would follow a strict protocol designed to leave potentially irradiated equipment behind without further exposing themselves or others to radiation. This would take roughly 30-40 minutes before they would be cleared to re-enter the main facility.

Joe, can you fix the effects of radiation exposure?

Generally, yes. Severe, acute cases may be beyond saving, but anyone with that level of exposure would be showing very obvious and serious symptoms, easily recognizable by the others. I don’t believe there are any here beyond my medical capabilities. We would need to fabricate some treatment equipment and medications, including viral vectored individualized gene therapy in some cases.

Do it ASAP. Use one of the turbine buildings associated with a cold shutdown reactor as a medical center. Bring in a fabricator and build whatever equipment you need. Find and train staff to operate it. I want every man here to undergo a complete scan, and be restored to optimum health.

Optimum? Can you be more specific, please?

Repair any and all effects of radiation exposure. Cure any other diseases or injuries you find, including and lasting effects from old injuries. If they smoke or used to smoke, clean the crap out of their lungs. Fix any cardiovascular issues related to stress, age or other factors. They don’t need to be as strong as power-lifters, or capable of running a super-marathon tomorrow, but they should have zero health issues. Rotate them through as fast as you can, with treatment capacity for, say, twenty at a time. If you can, prioritize those in the worst condition. Provide them with new dosimeters reflecting their new, refreshed state. Include built-in radiation-only shields. Be candid with each man about his health and tell him what you can do to fix it without revealing the source of our medical prowess. Make sure each knows the new dosimeter and experimental shields are in additional to standard issue gear, unless and until that policy is countermanded by Abadi and Vernydub.

Acknowledged. Just so you know, we could fully automate this facility with fabricator and industrial drones, removing the need for any personnel here at all.

No. Not now, it’d be too hard to explain. And we’d be putting national heroes out of work. We’ll phase in stuff like that as we phase in universal income through our UEC-brokered licensing royalty system.

Acknowledged. Note, I have placed a countdown timer in your onboard visual display. This reflects the start of the Russian aerial attack. Note that the plans have been altered somewhat. They have added additional assets to the attack and have a substantial infantry strike force of elite units to retake Zaporizhzhia without regard to enemy casualties, including nuclear technicians. You are to be captured if possible, killed if absolutely necessary, but under no circumstances allowed to escape.

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