Argent Glass

Chapter 9 - Approach - Robin

The helicopter swooped low between two mountains to fly over a washed out riverbed. Four occupants dressed in military fatigues looked down at the passing scenery.

The pilot tapped the leg of the woman sitting next to him and pointed at the steep face of an upcoming mountain. Through her headset, she heard him say, "Hold on to your stomach, Sergeant Landon."

The helicopter swooped up and banked. One of the men in the back whooped and Sergeant Landon smiled. "Is that the best you've got, Danny?"

The pilot laughed. "The Phoenix has a few more tricks up her sleeve. Maybe later you and I can take a private tour of the grounds and I'll show you all her tricks."

"You wish."

Danny grinned at Sergeant Landon, unwilling to give up. "How about a weekend on the ocean when we get a little vay-cay time?"

"I didn't know you had a boat."

"Not just any boat. A 40-foot cruiser. Got her used and spiffed her up. New paint job. Better sleeping quarters." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

"Dream on, dreamer."

"Oh snap," barked a voice in the back. "Hell of a try, though."

"My loss," Danny laughed, and Sergeant Landon winked at him.

As they flew across a long plateau, Sergeant Landon watched for the first sign of the dome, the tip of the arc that looked like the top edge of a sparkling soap bubble sitting between two boulders. As the helicopter closed in, the boulders transformed into two mountains and the immense size of the dome became apparent.

Sergeant Landon recalled a conversation with the dome engineer when he gave her a tour on her first visit.

"I expected the glass to be transparent."

Minjun's face lit up. He enjoyed talking about constructing the dome. "It's a special kind of bulletproof glass. Constructed of short glass tubes, sunlight is concentrated onto solar arrays that intensify the waves as they pass through. The energy gets stored so it can be consumed by everything in the dome that requires electricity."

Robin didn't understand everything but nodded.

Shyly, and behind his hand, Minjun leaned in and confided, "Even for flushing the toilets."

Robin laughed.

"Once the light passes through the solar array tubes, it hits a layer of UV filters that tones it down to a more natural level for the crops inside."

"So they don't burn up?"

"Yes, yes! See the filtering on the glass? Running from the top of the dome to the bottom? The glass goes deep underground. It's thicker near the bottom so we are all more comfortable."

"And the vents?" She pointed up to the ceiling where a handful of windows were open.

"Oh, good question!" He was really enjoying his science lesson. "Vents at the top and bottom provide air circulation. Like the tall windows in classic Victorian houses in the south?"

Robin shook her head. She had no idea about windows in Victorian houses.

"Cooler air comes in the bottom of the pane, and pushes the hotter air up and out the upper vents."

"Huh. I didn't know that."

"The dome's vents open and close based on humidity and temperature indicators that run on the inside of the struts that hold the glass panes in place. The many vent locations are monitored individually and have very good precision in venting air as needed. As the sun moves across the sky, it heats different sectors of the dome and those sectors respond accordingly."