[ WP ] Pompeii is an ancient supercomputer that overheated

`` DION! Páme! Let's go!'' Dion could hear the shouts of his colleagues over the roar of the mountain. All around him was a low, hungry rumble. The black rock walls surrounding him shook with an anger Dion had not felt in a thousand years. He was sweating so much he felt as though half his weight had gone to steam. His bare feet were blistering from the scalding rocks he was running over. The wide tunnel was packed tight with countless bodies, most running and some laying still on the ground, little more than cool step stones for the living. 
 
 “ Dion! Dion! ” He could see his friends ahead of him, his colleagues. Eusebios and Kallias were wearing heat-suits to protect them from the coming doom. As he pushed against the pulsating crowd, he finally made headway and reached the two. He could barely hear above the tumult and panic. 
 
 “ Eus, Kal, what has happened!? ” Dion asked, his chest heaving. “ The whole fucking thing looks to be falling apart! ” They pushed against the wall of the tunnel as the flesh mass rushed past them, a blur of pink and red against a black canvas. 
 
 Eus grabbed Dion by the shoulders, “ In the night, a coolant leak. The automated alarm never sounded. The station was unmanned, the sons of whores! ” 
 
 A man tripped and fell beside them, his ankle twisting with a sickening *SHCKKK*. The man called out in horror. “ Deus meus, non! Salva me! ” Before anybody could react, a thousand feet pummeled the man, and his pleading was drowned by the pounding of feet and the mountain's shout. In his place lay a ruin of red and white. 
 
 Dion looked away, Eus and Kal were stricken, their features more defined by the copious amounts of sweat drenching their faces. 
 
 “ Eusebios. What in fucking hell happened?! Tell it all and tell it true! Do n't waste time! ” Shouted Dion. His hands were shaking, and not from the pain. A coolant leak meant an overheat, and an overheat could easily mean hell on Earth. Their mission would be a failure. They'd be dead or worse by the end of it. Thousands will die from this. Eusebios pulled the two to a small alcove in the tunnel wall where they could speak. He breathed deeply, to speak. No words came. “ Eus, speak! ” Dion screamed. No words came. Kallias reached out and held his knee. 
 
 “ Dion, all is lost. The heat is so great that metals have melted and most of the reactor's shield is gone with it. ” He ran his hand through his thick brown hair. 
 
 “ Is there no salvaging it then? ” Dion asked. He knew the answer. 
 
 “ No. Not a chance. Hades will scrap the whole project. ” Eus simply sat shivering. Kal carried on. “ A hemisphere gone, once the shield falls. The reactor lies in the mantle, where the power can be drawn the most. Once the reactor is breached Dion, ” He took a deep breath. “ Once the reactor is breached by the lava, it will explode. A quarter of the planet will be lost. ” 
 
 
 “ The planet? ” Dion cursed. “ What can be done? To save the Earthlings? ” 
 
 
 “ Nothing. It is already done. It could happen in five seconds or five hours but the reactor will be breached, and when it is the resulting explosion will be the end of the humans of Earth. This seed was a failure, Dion I'm truly sorry. Now come, we must go before the ships take off. ” 
 
 
 They joined the flood of men and women clamoring for the surface. Every lift was full, and every stairway out of Vesuvius packed to bursting. The trio found a private lift empty and unused not far from the main tunnel, used only to ferry engineers down the power supply and mainframe miles below Vesuvius. They staggered in and breathed a sigh of relief as the heat lessened within. 
 
 “ P-press it, g-ground floor. ” Kal stammered. 
 
 Dion pounded the button with his fist, his fingers too raw to touch. In the lift, Eusebios sunk to the floor, head in hands. *The poor man, his work all lost. * Eusebios was an engineer in Vesuvius, one of many heatsinks and access points around the world linked to the mainframe. Vesuvius was the closest to the reactor however. One of a hundred or so highly intelligent men are tasked to operate and gather data from the complex system. Vesuvius, Dion thought. A computer system so vast that it could process and predict nearly every future for the Earth. It was responsible for calculating the needs of the population. The council in charge of seeding the Earth: Zeus, Hera, Hades and the rest, they will be terminated for losing an entire world. Totaling a planet was incredibly rare. Even on a cosmic scale, the loss would be... significant. 
 
 
 The lift jolted to life, heaving the men upward from the tunnel floor. 
 
 
 “ The high council will terminate the Earth's. ” Kallias' words heavy, his watered eyes blinking rapidly to rid themselves of the salt and soot. “ With the Earth considered a total loss, they may move on to Mars or another local body. They may even give us positions. All is not lost. Besides they might... ” 
 
 Dion's mind meandered to familiar faces. The products he saw every day on the surface. Humans; just a number. The race to populate the galaxy. A business model Earthlings had no knowledge of. They believe life to be a gift; freedom or some other. *When there is no price, chances are that you are the product. * 
 
 
 But Dion could not get the faces out of his mind. Regular faces, some handsome and some ugly just like Dion. He remembered the regaling he heard from the taverns at night. Drunk boys and drunker men pulling at the bar maid's skirt. Soldiers telling stories of their conquests and triumphs, and old men gazing into their cups, searching for times gone by. The songs of humanity echoed through Dion's head like a memorable tune. He remembered his first walk on the island above them, where he waded through waist high grass to meet a farmer's daughter. He remembered her soft features, and the warmth of her skin the first time they had embraced. Fraternizing with the products was frowned upon but was a common occurrence. *Besides, she was a beauty. Entire cities have been leveled for plainer faces. * 
 
 
 *There is a way. * 
 
 
 Dion's mind pulled itself back into focus when he heard a voice calling his name. 
 
 
 “ Dion. Did you hear me? ” It was Eusebios, back from the dead. “ Dion I said there is a way to stop the reactor. ” 
 
 
 Kallias was incredulous. “ What are you babbling about? A way? There is no way! ” Eus shook his head. “ There is a fail-safe. Manually seal the reactor. The mountain will still go. It wo n't save everyone, Vesuvius will seem to erupt. It will last days or more but it will restrict the damage zone to a small area around Vesuvius. Perhaps some neighboring towns might fall, but the Earth itself... safe. ” 
 
 “ Tell me. ” Dion commanded. The farmer's daughter lived in Herculaneum. She had red hair, and freckles. 
 
 “ Well, normally the reactor would be sealed automatically upon threat of a meltdown. ” He explained. “ But that did n't happen. The coolant must have disrupted some electronics situated below the tubes somewhere. That's the only explanation for the alarm not sounding. I'd stake my life on it. ” 
 
 “ What must I do? ” Dion asked. He knew he would be the one. He had to be, and his friends too if they would. 
 
 Kallias scoffed. “ You can not be talking about going down there, Dion. The products are n't our responsibility, let the nobility punish the council, not us. You could die! Two thousand years gone, and for what? Statistical superiority over the Cabarax? Fuck the lizards, Dion! ” 
 
 Dion slammed a button to stop the lift, and it shuddered to a halt. “ They are n't products Kallias. They are men, women and children. ” He wheezed as smoke caught up with the lift. “ Sure they're intellectually below us, but dammit they are human. They are sentient. ” 
 
 “ Sentient? They have no concept of the cosmos. Fuck, they have n't even discovered electricity! ” Yelled Kal, his face reddening every second. 
 
 “ They live only 100 years or so, Kal. Should n't their short time alive mean more than our eternity? ” 
 
 “ No. We have more experience in one cell of our brains that they would have in ten lifetimes, Dion. Do n't be a fool! ” 
 
 “ I am no fool. ” Dion pressed a button and the door swung open. He exited and turned. “ I am human. ” Eusebios rose and called out, “ Dion wait! ” 
 
 Dion paused, “ Be quick about it. ” he said. 
 
 “ Friend, the fail-safe lies in the monitoring station. That is below and east of the reactor. It's open space Dion. ” Eus rubbed a burn on his shoulder. 
 
 “ Meaning what, Eus?! ” Dion shuffled his legs. Time was being wasted. 
 
 “ My friend of old, when you throw the switch, the molten metals eating away at the reactor will be diverted into the corridor. You will be sealed in, or worse, burned alive. ” 
 
 Dion felt a knot twist in his gut. He clenched his teeth. “ How many number the Earth, Eusebios? ” 
 
 “ A... a few hundred million. A small world, Dion. Infantile. ” Eus whispered. He clasped Dion's shoulder. “ If you do this, you will die. I say it plainly. ” 
 
 “ If each Human of Earth lives just one more day, it will eclipse the sum of my entire life tenfold. If I do nothing when I could have done something, I will be responsible for their end. ” A tear welled up in Dion's eye. “ Eusebios, Kallias. My friends. Find the farmer's daughter for me, you know the one. Tell her of my love for her, and tell her what I have done. I love the two of you with all my years. ” He rushed forward and embraced them. They stayed there for a long moment when suddenly the whole mountain began to tremble. 
 
 “ Dion, go. It may already be too late. ” Said Kallias. He kissed Dion on the forehead and whispered a prayer. And he went. The last they saw of Dion, he was running into the smoking tunnels, searching for another lift down to the heart of Vesuvius. To the heart of the computer that doomed the world. 
 
 *In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, obliterating the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and others. The remains of roughly 1500 have been found, but many more are believed to have died. But the Earth survived. * 

