Read The Man Who Ended the World for Free Online Page B

elevator systems. Though Steven never expects to be discovered, he has planned for the worst. At any moment, he can slip away from any level of the space station. Each passage is invisible, except to him, and can only be entered by someone possessing his biometric signatures. Each passage has an additional hidden door inside of it, and that door leads to his panic room, which is nearly as large as any one of the levels of the station. The panic room is essentially level 2.5.
    In the event of a singular threat on his life, Steven will retreat to the panic room, which duplicates many of the functions of the rest of the space station. The panic room has a life support capacity of two years. He can also escape at any time to the surface, though the escape route is terrifying to him. He had asked Tomas for something more reasonable, but this was one area Tomas could not improve. To escape the panic room, Steven must climb a ladder half a mile to the surface, through a tunnel even narrower than the one by which he enters the space station.
    He does not expect to use the panic room.
    If something goes wrong, Steven prefers to visit level one. 
     
    •   •   •
    On their first meeting, Tomas said to Steven, Tell me why you want such a place. It is a great undertaking, and it will no doubt be a very exciting facility. But it is the most expensive thing I have ever heard of. Why do you want to build this? 
    Steven had looked at him calmly and asked, Do you ever think about the end of the world? 
    So, Tomas said, it is an elaborate bomb shelter? A survival complex? 
    It is more than that, Steven had said. 
    What is it for? 
    Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be the last surviving person on Earth? 
    Tomas shook his head. I have never really thought about it. 
    I have. And so this building is not designed to protect me from the end of the world, from bombs or asteroids or chemical weapons or whatever. 
    It would be strong enough for all of those things, I think, Tomas said. 
    Yes, because I'd like to live. But simply living is not why I'd like to survive. 
    What more is there?
    I want to watch it all happen, Steven had confessed. I am completely fascinated by the concept of the end of our species. Somebody should witness it, catalog it, write about it, preserve the story of our disappearance from Earth, shouldn't they? Why shouldn't that be me? 
    So it is... what? Tomas asked.
    It is a time capsule, Steven said. Maybe in millions of years a new species will rise on our planet, and they will discover the remains of our civilization. And one day they might stumble across this complex, and crack it open, and discover a well-preserved moment in time. Who we were, what we did, how we died. All of it recorded here. 
    Will you fire me if I express my doubts? Tomas asked.
    I want you to embrace those doubts, Steven had said. Embrace them, and then build me something that puts even your doubts to rest. That's the building project of the millennium. 
    A time capsule, Tomas repeated dubiously. 
    A time capsule. 
    •   •   •
    Level one is Steven's contingency plan. 
    He has protected the level and its contents even from Stacy. If the worst occurs, he would prefer to avoid the distraction of an AI. 
    Level one is ominously sealed behind a very thick steel door. Warning labels festoon the walls around the door. There are cameras, lights, alarms. Other than the heavily secured front door, the only access to this level is through the panic room. 
    Inside the room are enough weapons, vehicles, ammunition, armor and supplies to sustain a small army of survivors. The vehicles are parked on elevation platforms so that he can quickly ascend to the surface without exposing himself to harm. They are armored, sealed against contagions and hazardous substances, and have no exposed parts. 
    Each vehicle has a mounted cannon. 
    Steven does not expect he will ever need to access this room and its materials of