Aberrant: The Dam on the Yangtze

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Finding themselves collapsing exhausted in the wreckage of the damaged hotel café, they relaxed and tried to rest.

They were joined by Gifford who pointed out that their holiday here was in ruins. Stephanie pointed out that even if they could find a nice beach, it would seem rather morbid to drink and play volleyball in the surf so close to where people had suffered such a loss. So Gifford offered them a free flight to Corozal in Belize where the Neptune had its South American and Caribbean headquarters. For their deeds he'd already confirmed that Neptune would be willing to arrange a replacement holiday for them. As there was little left for them here he directed them to the airport and told them to look for somebody called Jake. He said that they would know him when they saw him.

Taking a taxi up to the airport they found it filled with delayed flights and crates of supplies, a few of which were from the Neptune foundation. There was a large topless man in shorts and wearing a broad rimmed hat with bullets in it.

When they approached he confirmed (in a very broad Australian accent) that he was Jake and was going to be their pilot to Belize. The airport staff sounded very glad to be rid of him.

He got a beer and led them out to a small prop plane which he started up once they were inside, seeming not to bother with any pre-flight checks. Once up in the sky he talked to him about some improbable adventures. One of which involved wrestling an hippopotamus. He even occasionally checked where the plane was going.

After a few hours of banter the plane touched down on a flattened earthen runway on the coast of Belize. From the air they could see it's vast forests and lush coastal islands.

They piled out and headed towards the Neptune Foundation building there, a not particularly impressive 2 storey building with a warehouse area attached. Jake however led them over to the beach where a number of Neptune's workers were having a refreshing beer i the surf. However as Jake approached, they tried to finish off the beers before Jake got there and made themselves scarce with the exception of Captain James Monroe.

The Captain introduced himself and welcomed them in. Dr Naiara Dantus, CEO of the Neptune Foundation came out to greet them and showed visible frustration that Jake referred to her as "Woman" despite her being his boss. Jake seemed cheerfully and obliviously insensitive but mentioned that there was no reason that two sheilas couldn't hook up any more than two blokes and that was all good by him.

Dr Dantus gave up and turned to the holidaymakers welcoming them to Belize. She wanted to offer them a few things, She apologised but as a charity she couldn't just pay them. But as promised she would get them another holiday as compensation for the heroic work they did.

I addition she would like to invite them to join the organisation's volunteers, which they accepted. She had Captain Monroe bring out a few phones still in their boxes. These were specially made satellite phones that their volunteers are all issued with. As well as being a tough. reinforced satellite phone, It was built with an impressively powerful battery far more substantial than a conventional phone and a suite of sensors, including a dual camera, thermal, infra-red, dual broad-range audio, standard compass, acceleration and so on and even a Geiger counter.

She also asked if she could call upon them for a small favour. Japan had been hit by a category 1 hurricane. Well within the bounds of what was expected at this time of year. However as normal they had contacted all of their field agents in the region, but one of them was out of contact. Lee Tang was an engineer working on the brand new Silver Dragon Dam.



They had been out of contact for over 24 hours and his work reported that he was just off sick, but were quite evasive. The foundation has very few operatives in China, so it was imperative that they look after the ones they did have. More concerning was that he had indicated that he wanted to leak some important information and had been asking for appropriate contacts.

Dr Dantus asked if the group would go to his home and investigate his disappearance.

They agreed and they were quickly booked on a flight to LAX in the US before catching a connecting flight to Beijing where a rental car was waiting for them. When they arrived it was already pouring with rain and high winds and under normal circumstances that might have slowed them down, but Stephanie was able to make the journey in record time, Arriving at a village downstream of the dam in little over 4 hours on what should have been a 6 hour journey.

They found a room at the Autumn Bough hotel, where Jerry's experience with Chinese culture managed to get them good service, They heard that the area did face protests about the dam destroying the habitat of a rare species of Eurasian beaver. They tried to research the beaver, but the name they were given was a local colloquialism and not actually useful for identifying the species.

The owner said that the protestors had come and gone once the dam was built. She didn't really see the value in the beavers and indeed served some as local speciality. (Though she admitted that what she served was store purchased and probably came from North America).

They stayed overnight and in the morning went to Lee Tang's home. Nadia was able to sneak them in by catching the door as it closed and Stephanie followed. with the other two waiting outside. The ladies found his flat and picked a lock to get in whilst the men played lookout. The flat was unremarkable but showed no indication that any possessions had been taken. It was as if he just went to work and didn't come back.

They headed back outside to re-join the others at the car and instead decided to go along to the dam where Lee Tang worked. approaching in the sheets of rain a security guard was in her hut doing her nails and seemed unhappy to have guests.

The group claimed that they were western climbing enthusiasts and wanted to climb the new dam. She called ahead but the boss said that she couldn't talk to them at this time.

However the team made themselves such a nuisance that the guard eventually relented and bought them in to the structure of the dam. The top part of the dam was hollow and contained supply rooms and offices.

The boss was director Shan Chao, their research had told them that before going in to the construction and maintenance of dams, her company Sunrise construction had handled PPE procurement for the COVID pandemic. Before that she was a model in Beijing.

She emerged from the office having been drinking during the day and unceremoniously told the group to leave. Although she did relent that the security guard could take them across the top of the dam on their way out.

As they did that, the Captain distracted the guard, letting Nadia sneak off. She found a maintenance shed and from the floor below (Which happened to be above the Manager's office) she heard a thudding sound, as if somebody was banging things together.

They went back down, burst in to the room and found Director Chao face down with a bottle of wine in hand and found the missing engineer locked in her personal bathroom.

As they were arguing with her, there was a horrible lurching sensation and the dam dropped over half a meter. straight down throwing everybody in the air and back down to the ground.

Once freed, the engineer Lee Tang struggled to his feet and warned everybody that he'd been concerned about the dam. Most dams fail because of faults in the face of the dam, but as this was carefully monitored, they instead skimped on the foundations. Water had been flowing under the dam unmonitored, but Director Chao tried to deny the problem existed.

They fled the dam together after ensuring everybody else was safe and Stephanie drove like a madwoman to get everybody downstream ahead of the incoming flash flood.

Lee further warned that the amount of water was not a particularly big problem despite the volume of it, but the speed at which it would hit the downstream dams would be like a steel battering ram across every centimetre of the dam walls. The water needed to be slowed down before it reached the Three Gorges Dam.

As they drove Stephanie was able to gain a small lead on the wall of water and they found a cliff face that overlooked the river. Their vehicle was large and heavy. If they hit the cliffs hard enough they could trigger a rockslide which would slow the incoming waters to a more manageable speed.

It took a few precious moments to set up, but James organised everything, making sure everybody had a their part to play, Nadia set up the car and Stephanie drove it towards the cliff before bailing out at the last moment, whilst Jerry took Director Chao and Mr Tang to relative safety.

As they were moving an ominous green flash seemed to illuminate the overhead storm clouds from behind and they saw the torrent of water approaching just as Stephanie successfully slammed the car in to the cliff and leapt out of the door.

Time seemed to slow like treacle and they were filled with a sense of vast possibility as the fatal wall of water approached. Nadia tried to outrun it and disappeared over the horizon in a burst of acceleration finding herself in a distant wet field.

Stephanie picked up the remains of the car to use as a shield and Jerry raised his hands perhaps realising the potential power of the moment, shaping the falling stone and rock in to a barrier.

Meanwhile James just stood against the raging flow and ended up completely submerged, being battered by turbulent water and uprooted trees. Eventually surfing one of them to safety.

As the dust cleared, they came to the slow realisation of what happened. Nadia ran back to the group. Stephanie found that the civilians that she had protected were completely healed of their injuries.

James seemed able to control the waters and Nadia ran him down to the Three Gorges Dam where he used his ability to calm the water to protect the dam, to the amazement of onlookers.

Stephanie called up Jake, the rugged satellite phone had impressively survived the chaos. She contacted Jake to ask him if he had ever had a weird instant which gave him powers. But he said that he had always been that awesome.

Once the dam was safe they went back to the others full of questions.


 * What had just happened?
 * Where did these miraculous powers come from?
 * Did Jakes ridiculous stories have some truth to them?

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