CarMo-Stabilization

I chose to use a major element from the fiction story I'm currently working on, Free Cups, for this blog post. Unfortunately this passage does not have a permanent place within the story, but I have explored explaining the idea for the sake of getting it on the page and articulated. 

The idea I'm exploring is a process called CarMo-Stabilization, an invention that removes Carbon Monoxide from the city air and carries it to the Midwest. While carrying the CarMo to the Midwest, it passes through several conversion check points to be converted into Carbon Dioxide before releasing the gas through ventilation into the Midwest air. 

I have a few invented concepts, and am attempting to make comparisons to current technology to make the story relatable to present day readers. I hope you enjoy the passage, and please feel free to send me any feedback! 

Thanks for reading,

Sean Patrick

Here it is:            

                Joe read up on the origins of CarMo-Stabilization while he acquired his dual bachelor’s in Chemistry and Anthropology with minors in Ventilation Engineering, Plumbing Systems and Human Pathogens at St. Marcos University. The theory of CarMo-Stabilization, copyrighted by Dr. J. Connor Collard would reduce emissions of Carbon Monoxide in cities to sustainable levels for human activity, after living for nearly a decade with oxygen tanks a constant necessity when exposed to the city air. The theory designated a plan that would span several decades before the CarMo returned to stable levels, and several more before the levels became completely balanced. Dr. Collard hadn’t been the one to develop the system of CarMo-Stabilizers, but his theory and some simple blueprints laid the groundwork for the greatest engineering feat in decades. Desperate for a solution, the government commissioned Dr. Collard and a team of the best civil engineers in the country to design the system of shafts, CarMo converters, survey the land and hire contractors to immediately begin construction of the CarMo-Stabilizers.

            While Joe studied CarMo-Stabilization, he found the process to be much like the catalytic converter of automobiles from the past, which ran on petroleum-based gasoline. The fermentation of petro produced a substance that burned with incredible power when used in an engine—an invention by Rudolph Diesel in the 19^th century. An engine utilized combustion to create pressure with the use of pistons and cylinders. The pressure then pushed the driveshaft that turned the tires to propel metal boxes that crept from city to city, state to state, performing all sorts of duties that humans couldn’t carry out on their own.

            Gasoline was the driving force behind this engine inside an automobile, and since so many advancements in civilization were predicted and made, petroleum was naturally fought for in wars, and hoarded by the rich rulers of the world. The worst part about the greasy liquid was that it burned to become Carbon Monoxide, an awfully poisonous, destructive chemical.

            The catalytic converters of automobiles converted the CarMo to Carbon Dioxide, so the plants could suck it up, and humans wouldn’t be poisoned anymore. This is why they designed Central Park, so long ago.

            The CarMo-Stabilizers took great amounts of Carbon Monoxide from the city air, and through the system’s vents and shafts, converted it to Carbon Dioxide at several conversion plants. The conversion checkpoints, strategically placed throughout the system, checked the CarMo for conversion percentages, then allowed it to pass, or further converted the gas.

             The CarMo-Stabilizers then carried the Carbon Dioxide through vast underground tunnels and caverns connected by metal shafts, usually to the countryside of the Midwest, and released the gas into the calm atmosphere through outtake ventilation.

            Those who once lived in the countryside either died in the CarMo Epidemic or, as most were farmers, starved to death following the complete take over of factory farming; at the time of the epidemic only three corporations had a hand in any food that was consumed by the United States. The countryside shortly became vacant of human activity.

            The only residents, who were hardly permanent, were scientists, government and private filtration contractors, and the few species of animals that had survived the CarMo Epidemic—most were genetically deformed from CO levels or from getting into the food supply of the factory farms.

            Some government contractors were hired specifically to shoot mutated wolves that repeatedly attempted to attack shaft repairmen and scientists taking samples of CarMo levels in the air.

            No matter your position in the Midwest (hunter, scientist, or wolf) everyone sought protection during the government’s first productive use of planes and jets for dropping bombs. Officials now carried out a scheduled process, thought up by a brilliant young man, now so little regarded his name is unknown. The exercise was called Seed Bombing.

            They flew planes and jets to the countryside and from the plane’s aft begin bombarding the abandoned stretch of earth with seeds of all varieties, ones that grew with little human intervention, and consumed vast amounts of Carbon Dioxide. They ranged from Hemp, Maple, Poplar, Elm, Willow and many more. The seeds chosen were of species that required little intervention to germinate and produce mature plants that in turn would absorb the Carbon Dioxide with which the CarMo-Stabilizers pollinated the cool Midwest air. This was a major fault in the original theory developed by Dr. Collard, who couldn’t determine a way to balance the active production of CarMo in the cities after its export through the system.

            The Midwest scientists and contractors had no warning as to when the area they were stationed would be bombed, and the pilots had no direction from superiors, other than to dump the seeds anywhere they didn’t see vegetation. The contractors started to record the typical schedule of the incoming planes, but with most of the pilots on rogue missions, equipped with 2,000 times more tons of seeds than the amount of bombs dropped on Vietnam during the 20^th century by the United States, it remained difficult to count on any warning other than the roar of jet engines as they bounded across the Midwest.

            When Joe was born, the Carbon Dioxide and CarMo levels were just beginning to stabilize again, though much work was yet to be done. As a child Joseph’s parents often hushed any mention of the CarMo Epidemic. They would shake their heads, purse their lips, and murmur things like, “So easily it could have been avoided,” and “what a shame to have been witness.” 

            CarMo-Stabilization disbanded the American CarMo Control & Containment Service (ACMCCS), leaving thousands jobless. But it was in no comparison to the amount of Americans the CarMo epidemic left dead, or the others left physically and mentally debilitated, which the ACMCCS was responsible to take care of.

            The service was rebranded to become the American CarMo Containment and Conservation Service. This refocused their work to taking care of victims of the CarMo Epidemic, and maintaining the vast system of shafts that ran throughout the country. The rebranding allowed the service to cut out old leadership, re-unionize, and change several policies concerning workplace safety and compensation (sometimes you have to destroy the current system to develop a better one).

            That wonderful scientist who theorized CarMo Stabilization, Dr. Collard, decided to use the proceeds of CarMo-Stabilization to establish Collard University of Science and Urban Development, where Joseph received his dual-master in Urban Irrigation and Containment of Chemicals Potentially Harmful to Human Consciousness. Attendance at the university was a prerequisite for any application to be considered at a reputable filtration plant.

            Water Filtration was one of the few available lines of work, other than the manufactures, scientists, or ACMCCS work. Most of the manufacturers were overseas even most of the factory farms that stocked American shelves.