Elevator Trivia

Calian POV

"Mother first, but shortly after, father," the guard is beaming in happiness at the mention of his beloved daughter. "Okay, how long is this elevator ride again? I always seem to forget considering this is and will always be my longest time in an elevator, ever," Blackhand tapped his foot on the floor, playing a rhythm of sorts.

"Over five minutes, we've passed 2 minutes already and 20 miles into the Earth," Blackhand responded to the answer by frowning, his brows shaped into a thought. "If by any decimal chance the elevator stopped working or suffered from any malfunctions, how would we be rescued?" I can see how that would be tricky.

"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but can we?" One of the guards looked at the other one, both in a dilemma. "I guess we could, the thing is, we too don't know too much about this but there is something. Right next to this elevator on both sides are two secondary elevators. As I said before, we can only tell you what little we know."

"In any situations of accidents, the two secondary elevators are able to be accessed. But of course, your card won't have enough authority to do so. Only the admins are able to access the secondary elevators. So if this elevator were to break down at this very moment, someone will come down on the secondary elevators to free us."

"This elevator chamber is made out of collaboration with tens of top construction corporations all over the world. The alloy is especially made in high density, and could withstand abnormal amounts of heat and pressure. And it is made so that the panels can be unscrewed from the secondary elevator, enabling rescue."

"Stop right there!" A voice interrupted me from my viewing session. The voice is not of the BD's, but outside, it's Jill's. "I'm going to perhaps pull you off the virtual for a minute or so," and as her words finished, my surroundings turn pitch black as my vision restored itself. I blinked once, then twice, then I could finally see the color of the submarine and everyone else.

"I did not say this before, but I hadn't watched the line of memories before giving it to you, so this comes as a surprise for me," ... Ok? "Wait, you said hadn't watched the BD before?" All of a sudden, V questioned with an incredulous tone beside me. "Yes, I haven't, is there a problem?" Jill raised one of her brows as she asked back.

"Then, how do you edit it or even find it if you haven't even watched it?" That does sound a tad bit wrong, actually never mind, that sounds very wrong. "Oh, I see what you mean. I don't need to watch it to edit it, I translated the memories into codes and I read them, and I locate the particular ones about underwater, then Antarctica, then elevator ride."

"That easily narrows down my search to a few memories. Only thing left to do is to find the one most memorable. And then, I confirmed once more b reading the computer coding and making sure the memory is what we need to view. In the end, editing is only removing unnecessary codes and unnecessary stimulus."

"And all that, from simple codes? I have to admit, you might just be the best BD editor I've seen. And I might have to say, better than my private editor," V squinted as she complimented, earning a nod of approval from a smiling Jill. "Anyway, yes, we might have another option to this. I'll have to look at the base's blueprint once more, check where the secondary elevators are located in."

"And that's all?" I gazed at Jill as she typed on a keyboard, her head turned towards me. "Well, yes. let's get you back in, shall we?" And without a single word of warning, I was plunged back into the abyss once more. But I'm not complaining, I have a job that needs to be done. And... I'm back as Morgan Blackhand.

"And how hot is it again, down here?" Blackhand began another question to pass the time in the elevator. "Let's see, an average increase 5 degrees Celcius every kilometer we go and we're going down 50 miles, about 80 kilometers. I'd say more than 400 degrees Celcius once we reach the bottom, maybe higher than 500."

"And the elevator shaft outside is precisely that hot?" Blackhand really is one curious feline creature, wants to know everything and I love it, more information, better performance in our part. "No it's not, this entire 50 kilometer long shaft is equipped with cooling coils, everything is cooled to room temperature."

"Hmm... You say 50 miles down in 5 minutes. How does is this elevator capable of moving at a speed of 0.167 miles a second? Because that's fast as hell, almost up to the speed of sound," Blackhand snapped his fingers to show just how shocking the statement is. "You won't find an elevator faster than this one anywhere else, I can assure you that statement is of the truth."

"This is what gives when super strong magnets are combined with the Earth's gravitational force that keeps increasing the deeper this elevator reaches. But, the return journey upwards is much slower though. We aren't feeling the weight of speed as the elevator itself has its own gravitational system of its own, enabling us to feel like we're in any normal elevator when we are in fact free falling 50 kilometers downwards into what might be called, the underworld."

"Hmph, fancy," Blackhand curtly replied as he had no more questions left to ask and even with more, one had to know when to shut up. "Oh look, we're almost there, looks like us talking really accelerates the mental flow of time," these guards are very knowledgeable as well, there's not juts brawns in them, but also perhaps university level brains.

"Ding!" The elevator stopped. "Ah, we're finally here. Like I always say, welcome to the Black Box," and the door opened.