Biosphere 4 (standard:science fiction, 10203 words)
Author: Phillip Jackson	Added: Jul 13 2004	Views/Reads: 3381/2160	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
An Inspector arrives on Earths first extra terrestrial colony, his 'formality' reporting soons shows that all is not well aboard Biosphere 4!

BIOSPHERE 4 

A BRIEF HISTORY 

- Biosphere 1 - Earth. 

Work begins on Biosphere 2, a 200 million dollar, three acre
self-sufficient giant greenhouse facility constructed in the deserts of 
Arizona. Biosphere 2 completed, 8 colonists from the US, England and 
Belgium enter. Their mission, to be provided with adequate food, water 
and air with no outside aid. 1993 The ‘Biospherians’ leave after oxygen 
plummets to dangerously low levels and the carbon dioxide concentration 
rockets. Cockroaches and ants overrun the facility whilst the 
vegetation grows inconsistently. 

Biosphere 2 fails to accomplish it’s objective. 

British and American Governments join forces to reattempt the ‘Biosphere
Replication Project’. Biosphere 3 is completed and after 12 months of 
testing it is pronounced a success. With terrestrial resources 
dwindling and population explosions around the world, plans are 
proposed to progress the procedure extra-terrestrial. The construction 
of Biosphere 4 begins. Biosphere 4 completed and operational. 

Chapter 1 

January 23rd, 2053. 

Three days had passed now since Jeppeson had disappeared. 

He’d left the central complex on Wednesday morning to conduct a routine
check of the perimeter structure of Biosphere 4, a task he was quite 
familiar with and more than capable of accomplishing without so much as 
a second thought. Why he’d failed to return was a mystery and my 
questions as to his whereabouts continued to meet with solid walls of 
silence from every quarter. 

Also causing more than some pause for thought in my mind was the
absolute lack of concern from the rest of the crew as to Jeppeson’s 
whereabouts. They seemed totally unfazed by the fact that a member of 
their team was, for all intents and purposes, missing, and continued to 
carry on with their work as though nothing whatsoever had occurred. It 
just didn’t sit straight at all and I’d be understating my worries 
considerably if I said that I was simply uncomfortable with the whole 
situation right now. 

Watching over the man-made colony of Biosphere 4 were exactly three
hundred and twenty five heat and movement sensitive cameras; cameras 
that were able to detect, pinpoint and focus on to so much as the 
slightest movement or heat source within a radius of up to fifty feet. 
The cameras were placed both inside the main complex and also outside 
in the thick vegetation atop ten foot stand-alone steel alloy poles. To 
this end, no matter where, when or how any single member of the crew 
went they were followed around from camera to camera. Every step they 
took, every action they made and every task they undertook was 
recorded. As well as the cameras there was also the satellite-linked 
tags that each crewmember wore around their wrist on a thin synthetic 
nylon strap. The tag was worn on the wrist and about the size of a 
small watch. It was actually activated by the wearer’s pulse that sent 
a signal to an offsite satellite that was then bounced back to 
Biosphere 4. If the crewmembers pulse stopped then so did the signal. 
This signal was also registered at the main control centre back on 
Earth, so if Biosphere 4’s mainframe system failed for whatever reason 
and missed a signal then there was a safety net back home to set the 
alarm bells ringing. 

It was a state of the art surveillance system that had been designed not
only to monitor the crew’s whereabouts but also for their protection. 
The cameras were capable of picking up and registering body 
temperatures of every crewmember as they went about their daily 
activities. If anyone onboard had even so much as a common cold then 
the computer was able to inform the medi-lab before they’d have a 
chance to sneeze. If their temperature rose just a single degree then 
it’d be detected and reported on the spot. Upon returning to their room 
or personnel lab the crew member in question would find an e-mail 


Click here to read the rest of this story (985 more lines)