Tokyo, JAPAN (NNS) A new giant earthquake, measuring 10.0, rocked beleaguered northeastern Japan recently setting country as far back as the 22^nd century in the view of many experts. This was the first perfect 10 quake ever recorded, seismologists say. According to some, stunned citizens are struggling to cope with the descent into primitive living, by their standards. Technology breakdowns caused by the disaster are forcing accommodations unthinkable pre-quake.

Among the hardest hit was Japan’s teleportation system. The destruction of whole substations has forced citizens to travel by old-fashioned air cars, most of which are in questionable shape after years of disuse. Air car repair technicians are as plentiful in Japan as blacksmiths are in the Western world. Drivers, rusty and unpracticed, are bobbing and weaving through the air like drunken eagles. Some wary travelers have elected to use ground transportation in a desperate effort to avoid the dangerous crowded skies. Even walking, unknown for distances over 100 feet recently, has become necessary for some without access to ancient automobiles.

Energy is another huge problem. The wireless energy grid in the northern half of Honshu, the main island in the Japanese archipelago, has been put out of action by the loss of key relay stations. Cold fusion plants that provide 90% of the nation’s power are located largely in the less-populated north and have been heavily damaged. Electric boosters, too, have been largely put out of action in the region. In some cases, robot technicians have had to lay actual cables to get critical facilities such as hospitals and police stations the minimum power necessary to operate.

Although hologram transmission facilities, based largely in Tokyo and Osaka, have been relatively unaffected, home holographic receivers in the north were knocked out of balance, so information has to be transmitted largely by outmoded picture and sound technology and few citizens still have the necessary receivers known in the West as ‘televisions.’ There is even talk of resorting to radios during the rebuilding period, though other than collectors, few possess the antique devices.

Food supplies are threatened. Without the necessary electricity the organic synthesizers cannot produce the instantaneous meals standard in the country. Homemakers used to the voice command-operated food generators have little cooking skill and, in most cases, no in-home food supplies.

The almost ubiquitous invisibility cloaks, so prized by the very private Japanese, have hampered rescue efforts, making victims difficult to find. Hope is held out that as power packs run down on the energy-hungry devices, more and more victims will be found and treated.

While the world holds its collective breath, Japanese scientists and technicians are working feverishly to restore order and bring the country back into the 24^th century before languor and complacence set in. Says Japanese virtual technologist Dr. Kim O. Sabi, “We don’t want to become China or America. Our people are unaccustomed to such primitivism.”

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