At This Rate, This Planet…

Synopsis

Survive shows the children images of earthquakes causing damage all over the continent, but he cannot determine the cause of them. He explains that he needs Luna's power to save the planet, even if he has to absorb her to get it. The children discuss escaping the planet, but Survive threatens them with a huge swarm of drones. Luna offers to investigate the cause of the imminent destruction in exchange for their safety – though Survive is supremely logical and has access to all the data, the humans have the ability to see connections and make intuitive deductions. Survive agrees, and the children split up to investigate – Shingo and Chako go over the data, and Tako takes the others in an anti-gravity sled to do field investigation in the volcano under the main terraforming machine. They ride an elevator down an investigation shaft, taking samples of rocks over the last thousand years, and a magma sample, but another earthquake strikes and the elevator's mechanics fail, including the refrigeration system. Held in place only by the emergency brakes, the children are at risk of burning to death from the heat of the magma, but Shingo comes up with the idea of exploding the refrigeration system's compressed air tanks to push the elevator up the shaft. The plan is successful, and the drones are able to hold the lift in place at the top of the shaft just long enough for all the children to climb out. Analyzing the samples back on the spaceship, Shingo, Chako and Tako discover that the planet suffered a large change in gravity a thousand years ago, and they realize the cause of the problems is outside the planet – the gravity storm which brought the children's shuttle and the Orion. Suddenly, an alarm sounds. (Source: Wikipedia)