A one time source of high energy in a post apocalyptic world with limited energy
The scenario is that it is a post apocalyptic world where the most of the humans have been eradicated and the sources of energy have been completely depleted. In this scenario, people discover an alien artifact which would be the solution to their problems but the problem is that to open it, they would require a huge amount of energy (kinda like overloading it, it's the property of the artifact).
Now my problem is finding that power source to generate an ungodly amount of energy and also justifying that it is a one time thing (even unreliable)... Otherwise it would be the solution to their energy problems.
Extra info: the survivors all live in a specially created city. The earth's crust has been rendered unstable and flash earthquakes, lateral spreading and volcanic eruptions are quite common.
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1 answer
There are many one-time energy sources around: They are called bombs.
So maybe there's a leftover nuclear bomb around. People would naturally not normally want to trigger it. However, if it is the only way to open that alien construct, and can be done at a safe distance (say, the alien construct is on an island far away, so the bomb can be transported there and then detonated after leavinf the island, possibly using a sort of improvised timer), then it would make sense to use it.
It's obvious that you cannot use the same nuclear bomb a second time. And there may not be any further nuclear bombs around (if your post apocalyptic scenario is due to a nuclear war, it's likely because all others have detonated in the war).
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