I got this idea today for a sci-fi story in which civilisation triggers an ice age at the polar caps but not before erecting enormous walls running the perimeter around each one. The idea is to keep the Earth as near as possible to having an ice age triggered without the civilisation-crushing consequences of the entire planet being covered in kilometer-deep ice.
The story follows an engineer stationed at one of the monitoring bases tasked with measuring any movement occurring between the wall surface and the Northern glacial mass, North Cap.
240 stations encircle each of the caps, providing active analysis 24h a day, with 10 stations active at any one time. Each engineer works alone, to reduce resource consumption. Contact is achieved through wired communication supported by a ring connecting that encircles each cap, both connected to the rest of the planet.
Access to monitoring stations is limited because of their location mounted high up on the wall surface. Each station was designed and built by one of three super continental powers, each with their own design but all adhering to a set of globally accepted standards and conventions.
Kohli, nick-named ‘brock’ (as in ‘brock-kohli’, get it?) by other engineers is stationed at N19, the 19th North Cap station. For four years she trained alongside the best and brightest in the Eastern continental capital, Beijing 5, for an opportunity to serve time on the wall. Every engineer starts with a year on a lower encampment on the wall. After a year of orientation she started her first shift, here at N19.
Engineers rotate on a yearly basis. If all goes well, she’ll be rotating westward to N18 in a few months. Rotations give a change for new eyes to see each station, spotting discrepancies that might escalate to a full-blown inconsistency in the wall. The slightest disturbance is something feared by many a good wall engineer.
Anyway… spoilers 🤫