Chapter 18 - Does It Matter? It's All Taxpayers' Money Anyway

The clock goes back in time for an hour.

Location: USA, Alaska, Utqiagvik City outstrike.

Time: 1:30 AM.

Utqiagvik City, Located north of the Arctic Circle, is one of the northernmost cities and towns in the world and the northernmost in the United States, and it has been home to the Iñupiat, an Indigenous Inuit ethnic group, for more than 1,500 years.

There are only two ways to get to this city, the first one is by airplane and the second is by water transportation, with no road connecting it to any other city. The city has an airport which is the lifeline for any imports of vital supplies.

The city is built upon a layer of permafrost, making life hard for the permanent population of around 4,000 residents. The warm season has an average high of just 6°C, and the winter lasts for 160 days a year, with more than two months spent in complete darkness.

Thankfully, it is not completely cut off, the residents have a good quality of life. The homes are heated by natural gas from local oil fields, and they also have modern water and sewer systems. The city has churches, schools, and a college. As well as phone, internet, mail, radio, and cable communications.

But that is not important, at least you will not be hearing about this city for now. Maybe after many years, the city's name will be recorded in history for some special reason or another, but for now, it is just a faraway place.

On the outstrike of the city and at the end of the longest road available.

The usually calm scenery with no soul to see, where birds don't sh*t, finally witnessed some changes. (A/N: no offense to Utqiagvik and its people.)

High concrete walls appeared in the once deserted land enclosing a wide area, with all kinds of vehicles going back and forth through the highly guarded Iron gates.

The Light projectors illuminating the surrounding, high watchtowers, all kinds of fixed Guns and cannons, let's not forget the artillery vehicles chilling on the side.

Looking from afar, you would think the ULA is building an expedition base to go to war with the polar bears, or it's defending Alaska from being taken over by its old owners.

However, going inside the base would provide an extra flavor to the militaristic scene.

You would see newly assembled buildings with all kinds of materials laying around, busy construction workers moving around shouting and yelling, the scientist in white coats instructing the workers where to put certain instruments, and men in combat uniforms from different departments.

The base is being illuminated by so many light projectors, you wouldn't think it's nighttime.

Nevertheless, the thing that is most jarring and common within everybody here is not their jobs or how busy they are, but the clothes they are wearing.

Now is the warmest season in Utqiagvik with an average high temp of just 6° C. Even with the severe global warming, the temperature won't exceed 12°C during the hottest day of the year.

You can imagine the shock of having people in such a place wearing Summer clothes. That's right, summer clothes such as T-shirts and short skirts the female scientists are wearing.

If you have a thermometer at the moment, you will see the indicator stopping at 26C.

Another weird scene would be the antique vehicles and equipment, providing a unique visual that's hard to see outside the museum.

A middle-aged man with gray hair like salt and pepper, a tall build, and a handsome face that still retains some of its youthfulness was staring at such a spectacle from the roof of the only complete building with a calm expression while pondering upon something.

"Dr. Akeel, here is the latest report with the data you requested."

A young voice interrupted Dr. Akeel's train of thoughts, pulling his attention back to his surrounding. Still, with a calm expression, he looked back toward the direction where the young voice just came from only to see his assistant. A young man in his late 20s with blonde hair, hazel eyes, and a small build.

The young man with a report clasped in his hand came within a meter from Dr. Akeel and handed it to him respectfully.

"Hmm!"

With a hum and a nod of his head, Dr. Akeel took the report and started speed reading through it, only focusing on the new magnetic statistics.

After reading the last page, he handed the papers back to his assistant, then ignored him and started looking at the people working downstairs.

Being ignored, the young assistant didn't have any emotional change, he was used to his supervisor's temper. He stood to the side working on sorting some data on his tablet while checking the cloak from time to time.

"Roy, how much time do we have left until the meeting."

After 5 minutes of silence, Roy, the young man, heard Dr. Akeel's question and replied immediately while putting the tablet away.

"We still have 40 minutes."

Since Dr.Akeel asked, that means he had finished thinking, and Roy can start talking or asking questions, so he stepped beside Dr.Akeel and started looking at the busy scene.

"Hmm?"

Noticing something downstairs, Roy asked with some confusion while pointing.

"Dr.Akeel, see there, why do you think they are transporting so much medical equipment to such a place? Aren't we studying the magnetic fields here?"

Hearing his assistant's question, Dr.Akeel gave him a sidelong glare as if looking at an idiot, causing Roy to scratch his head in embarrassment, not knowing what he did wrong.

"They are building a field hospital, or do you want us to run to the city every time someone gets a cold?"

Dr.Akeel replied with an indifferent tone.

Roy was a little embarrassed but still wanted to get back and asked.

"But can these medical instruments work under the interference of the magnetic field? Our instruments were designed specifically to work under such interference. How would they manage?"

This time Dr.Akeel pointed at a place and asked.

"Look there, what do you see?"

Following the direction pointed out by his supervisor, Roy looked at the construction site with the building being half-finished. However, Roy didn't notice anything particularly.

Before Roy could ask again, Dr.Akeel continued.

"The buildings they are constructing right now are not normal buildings, throughout the building process, other than thickening the walls, they are incorporating as much magnetic insulation materials and ferromagnetic metals."

Hearing what Dr.Akeel said, Roy nodded his head in understanding. No need to say more. After all, he is a Ph.D. holder in electromagnetics. Also, NASA doesn't employ idiots.

Focusing on the other almost completed buildings, some of them are being painted with black paint.

"Are they using EMF paint?"

EMF paint, a conductive paint that can block RF electromagnetic fields and low-frequency electric fields.

"Hmm."

Dr.Akeel nodded.

"Dr, how much do you think building this base is going to cost? This is only one of the bases, there are still more than 30 bases around the globe."

Roy knew the construction of just one building like this cost so many dollars, so he asked with curiosity while calculating in his head.

Dr.Akeel thought for a minute, then shook his head.

"This is not a normal situation, and no amount of money is too much, as we don't know the consequences."

Then he started walking towards the stairs and said,

"Does it matter? It's all taxpayers' money anyway, let the politicians think about these things."

Roy was dumbfounded hearing what his supervisor said.

'That's right! It's all taxpayers' money anyway.'

Thinking to himself, he nodded in agreement and hurriedly followed Dr.Akeel.