Like a massive metal worm, its teeth thrushing into the earth, devouring an endless wall of granite like it was wafer, the earth drilling machine came forth, went by and continued drilling the tunnel. Only the workers and the investors know the immense cost and effort that goes into building just a few kilometers of tunnel, but standing now at the central planning station, Jacob had the full view of “his” dream - a global network of tunnels running hundreds of meters below the earth and sea. But it wasn't just a network of tunnels – these tunnels would hold life. He switched to the Australian continent quadrant 45 view and saw Hiroyuki and his team entering the tunnel. This was where the idea was first born, so it was fitting that it was here that the first wave of bunkers would be deployed.
Hiroyuki entered the tunnel from one of the many thousands of surface vents as the drilling machine made its way past on its endless journey. He pushed the air valve on the wall which released the air pressure in the capsule hydrolics, swiftly dropping him to just below the tunnel ceiling. He could see the bunker train in the distance, following its metal worm counterpart. Hiroyuki loved this part of the construction. Yes, the drilling machines were powerful and central to the whole plan, but the bunker train was ingenious. In the drilling machine's wake was left an endless snaking mound of raw, ground material – a combination of rocks, sand, minerals and anything else that became a mixed by-product of the great drilling machines' path. The bunker train, laden with its impressive cargo of thousands of bunker packs, fed upon this mound of material, digesting it, mixing into it the forma-plast formula which Hiroyuki had been working on tirelessly for many years to perfect. The bunker train left in its wake a stream of glittering forma-plast contained within a tube buried about 1 meter under the tunnel floor. The last carriage on the bunker train held robotic arms that repeatedly plucked bunker packs from the conveyor belt and placing them carefully, yet swiftly, in its pre-determined location in the tunnel. Each pack was connected to the tube of forma-plast mixture by a wide, sturdy hose. Two bunker packs per 100 feet for thousands of kilometers.
Further down the tunnel, Hiroyuki could see the swirl of dust and activity as the bunker train moved along past him, dropping its packages for the next thousand kilometers until it could replenish the bunker packs at the next loading zone. Looking down now at the closest bunker pack sitting on the tunnel floor, he could now watch, as he had done hundreds of times before, the marvel of his creation. Inside was what appeared to be a water tank sitting on top of another package and a hose coiled up on top. There was also the hose that the bunker train's robotic arms had plugged into the tube containing the forma-plast stream. Once the forma-plast had been delivered to the packs, the hose would clear itself and would later become the drainage plumbing for each cabin, feeding back into what would become an empty tube - free of its forma-plast duties for ever.
Suddenly, with a “popping” sound the package violently flipped to its side and a large balloon-type shape began to appear, growing into what seemed to be a large cube with the tunnel-side curved. The liquid in the tank had been mixing with a chemical agent to form the gas to push the “balloon” out. But soon it became apparent that this was no ordinary balloon, this was a large cubicle, 100 feet wide, that touched the base of Hiroyuki's capsule and the sides of the tunnel and had “rooms” appearing inside, also made of this material. After fully “inflating” and a few seconds of silence, a high-pitched whizzing sound could be heard, followed by a plume of dense, velvety gas filling the balloon. The fumes seemed to cover the inside walls of the balloon, making it impossible to see any further. The whizzing sound began to fade away, until there was silence again. Then the whizzing sound started again, but this time the fumes or gas from inside the balloon were being sent out into the forma-plast tube.
“And that, gentlemen, is what will be the future of mass housing for the world,” Hiroyuki said into his video-com as he descended the vent capsule to the ground of the tunnel and walked to the wall of the large balloon object. On closer inspection, various outlines had formed on the wall of the object, and did appear to be some kind of unit. Hiroyuki went to what appeared to be a door and after a gentle push, the door to the unit swung forward, exposing an amazing site – a hard-walled living unit with rooms, furniture, doorways, shelving and nearly all parts you would expect to see in an empty house. Minute, but important details that would be the foundations to enable their plans to succeed – it had to be a real, livable, workable solution.
Upon exiting the tunnel, Hiroyuki looked out upon the open, dry, red, desert plains – an almost inhabitable land it would appear at first glance. It was not difficult to get the rights to this land – no-one needed it. There was a need, however, to deal appropriately with the Aboriginal population; meetings with the grand council of elders and even some legal entities got involved. When they learned that the project would bring fresh water along the path they were building, there was not only acceptance, but encouragement and support. There were certain areas that needed to be avoided – but these were already pre-mapped and expected – which impressed the clans even more.
The Australian network of living cabins were being "inflated" by the thousands each day by a relentless team of robotic machines crawling under the continent. The rest of the world was next.
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