CHAPTER FOUR
Discovery
When an amateur astronomer spotted a strange object 400,000 kilometers in diameter outside Pluto’s orbit early in January 2020, almost everyone scoffed. The largest known asteroid, Vesta, was barely a thousandth as big.
“Amateurs!” said Fred Walcott, director of the James Webb Observatory in Palm Springs, California.
But the Webb Observatory’s own telescopes confirmed the find, identifying the object as a cosmic dust cloud composed of fine carbon particles.
“This is big,” Walcott told his team once other measurements confirmed the finding and estimated the intruder’s trajectory. “The good news is it has too low a density to have substantial gravitational effects. It might cause the tiniest wobble in the Earth’s orbit, some seismic anomalies, even a tsunami or two, but nothing worse.”
“And the bad news?”
“It’s nearly opaque, and it’s headed our way.”
Walcott summarized the findings in a report titled Impending Planetary Threat and requested an emergency meeting of the US National Security Council, expecting all major military and civilian leaders to attend.
The NSC meeting that took place the next day proved to be a low-key affair. Unwilling to cut short his snorkeling vacation in the Cayman Islands, the US President had ignored the astronomer’s urgent plea to attend the meeting. His lack of interest had rubbed off on other top officials as well; the Vice President and other senior leaders in the administration had decided to skip the meeting. The Armed Forces were poorly represented as well—the highest military official attending was a one-star general, John Hector, director of public relations at the pentagon. His counterpart at the White House had sent a low-ranking aide in her stead. Most of the other attendees were minor officials from various government agencies—FEMA, National Guard, and the police. The sole attendee with scientific credentials was the President’s Science Advisor, Harry Graham, a former petroleum industry executive whose claim to fame was a book that trashed climate science.
Swallowing his chagrin at the poor attendance, Walcott went ahead with his presentation in the hope that the message would eventually reach the White House.
He had barely started when General Hector cut in. “Well, what’s this nonsense about a comet?”
“Dust cloud, General—”
“Whatever. It’s not our job to worry about all that. Don’t we give you guys enough funding?”
Walcott glared at him. “The threat to our planet from this object is so grave that we at the Webb had no choice but to alert the authorities.”
“What’s the big deal here? Some chunk of rock passes through the solar system, and suddenly it’s doomsday?”
“General, this dust cloud is huge, and it’s heading toward us.”
“So what? Worried about dust on your furniture?”
Some of the attendees chuckled. Walcott flushed, struggling to control his anger. “It’s not the dust itself that’s the problem, it’s what the dust will do. When this cloud hits us it’ll wrap itself around our planet like a blanket and cut out all sunlight to us. Without sunlight, the Earth’s surface temperature will plummet to far below zero. And when this happens—”
Hector raised a peremptory hand. “Whoa there. Slow down. You mean if this object hits us.”
“It doesn’t have to be a bullseye. All it needs to do is to brush past us. And that is virtually certain to—”
Hector raised his hand again. “Hold it right there. How big is this thing compared to the solar system?”
“Its diameter is roughly one ten-thousandth of the solar system’s, but a hundred times that of the Earth.”
Hector laughed incredulously. “So this teeny little speck entering our solar system is going to exactly strike an even teenier speck? Tell me, Walcott, have you ever played the Lotto? You have a fortune awaiting you there!”
This time, there was an even louder chuckle from the audience. Feeding off its energy, Hector continued. “Let’s assume you win the lottery, and this collision does take place. How do you know that the dust will hang around here, and how do you know that it’ll block the sun’s light? Have you ever seen this happen before?”
“Yes, in the aftermath of volcanic eruptions, for example.”
“Well, we survived them, didn’t we?” Hector grinned at his audience.
“Yes, General, but this event is of a far greater magnitude. Our models show that—”
“Are these the same models that predicted a five-degree rise in temperature unless the President put a tax on carbon, which he wisely refused to do? And now you’re using the same models to predict a fall in temperature? Man, you tree-huggers crack me up!”
Walcott bent his pencil so hard it snapped. “Goddamn it! The astronomical models we use to predict the outcome of this collision have nothing to do with the geophysical models used to predict climate change.”
“Easy there,” said Hector. “Yelling won’t help. And you’re talking too much.” He turned to Graham. “You haven’t said anything, Harry. As the President’s science advisor, what do you think of this … global cooling scenario?”
Graham smiled. “Dr. Walcott’s theory is intriguing, very intriguing.” He spoke in a suave, bland voice that he had cultivated during his petroleum industry years. “But he seems to be overlooking basic physics.”
“What exactly am I overlooking?” Walcott demanded.
“Simple energy balance. As you know, the Earth gets about 240 watts per square meter of energy from the sun in the form of shortwave radiation—that is, visible and ultraviolet light. It also radiates out into space the exact same amount of energy in longwave infrared, i.e. heat. Thus, the Earth is in energy balance overall and doesn’t heat up or cool off. Agreed so far?”
“Yes, that’s basic stuff. What’s your point?”
“The point is this. You’re now saying that the Earth’s input energy from the sun is going to be cut off. Fine, let’s assume that’s true. But won’t the same mechanism also block the outgoing infrared radiation? It’s the same principle as wrapping yourself in a blanket—it’ll block energy from outside but will also prevent your body heat from escaping. Ergo, you won’t cool off, and nor will the Earth!”
Nods of comprehension and agreement came from around the room. In his many skeptical talks on climate change, Graham had employed such simple homespun analogies to devastating effect. Many who heard him went away firmly convinced that global warming was a myth. Apparently, his present listeners had a similar reaction, and many of them exchanged broad smiles with Hector.
Walcott flushed with anger. “But that’s utter nonsense, man! A cold, diffuse cloud doesn’t behave like a warm, dense blanket. Sure, the cloud will prevent the infrared from escaping directly into space, but it won’t reflect this energy back to the Earth like a blanket would. It’ll simply absorb the Earth’s heat radiation, that’s all. It might eventually radiate a little bit back to us, but most of it will go off into space.”
Graham shrugged an expressive shoulder, while the eyes of the others had started to glaze over on hearing these details. Hector took over the attack.
“Okay, let’s assume that a cloud around us is bad news. Fine. Let’s also assume that the Earth and this cloud run into each other. How fast is it moving, according to your estimates?”
“About one hundred kilometers a second.”
Hector uttered a sharp bark of laughter. “A hundred freaking clicks per second! At that rate, it’ll swing by so fast you’ll miss it if you blink!”
“No, it won’t, not all of it. Some of it will decelerate as it passes us, enough to—”
“Let me get this straight,” Hector interrupted. “You’re saying that a monster cloud speeding faster than a bullet through space is slowing down just to make a pitstop on the Earth?”
“No, I’m saying that, despite its speed, a tiny fraction of it will plunge straight down our planet’s gravitational well. Can you guess what will happen the
n?”
Nobody responded.
“It will form a near-opaque cloud around the Earth that will blot out almost all sunlight. We’ve already started referring to it as the Shroud.”
Hector snorted. “Shroud, eh? I guess Armageddon was already taken.” This drew another chuckle from the audience. “Just to humor you, when will this … thing happen?”
“It should reach us by the middle of next year and then wrap itself around in a few weeks. Once that happens, it’ll get cold, very cold. Lethally cold. For ten to twenty years, or however long it takes for the carbon particles to burn up or drift down to the surface. And do you know what that means?”
Hector and Graham exchanged quizzical glances, but neither responded.
“Extinction, that’s what it means!” Walcott shouted, springing up. “Two years from now we’ll all be gone!”
“Sit down, Mr. Walcott,” Hector growled and, after the astronomer had slumped back in his seat, looked at the others in the audience with upraised brows. After a brief silence, the White House aide asked a question. “How did you find out about this dust cloud, Mr. Walcott?”
“An amateur astronomer in southern India was the first to spot it.”
“An amateur, eh? From India, too. Sure it wasn’t a speck of dust on his telescope?” Hector said, and everyone except Walcott laughed. The astronomer’s shoulders slumped in resignation. He remembered how he himself had scoffed when the discovery was first announced. The meeting broke up soon afterwards.
After several such meetings, the decision taken by the authorities was to do nothing except maintain strict public silence on the matter. The implications of the dust cloud were so staggering that most leaders were simply unable to wrap their minds around them. A complicit media, after an initial spurt of curiosity, joined the consensus to downplay the event. Astronomers did care, but, as with climate change, they could do nothing to convince the people with power—governments, corporations, the media. In any case, there was nothing much anyone could do.
CHAPTER FIVE
Refuge
“So that’s what got you started,” said Nicole.
Larry nodded. “My company had just gone public, so I had a billion dollars to play with.”
“Lucky you,” said Anna. “And how did you go about designing the shelter?”
“I left it to the pros. The experts in ecology, spacecraft design, material science—you name it. I told them it was for a nuclear winter.”
“I remember the headlines,” Anna chuckled. “Billionaire Spins His Wheels and Shell of a Genius.”
Larry grinned. “Yes, the press had a field day.”
“Unbelievable!” said Jessica, who had been listening to the discussion with a deepening frown. “You people are just incredible.”
“Sorry?”
“Planet destroyed. Billions dead. Horror and devastation everywhere. And you’re all talking and joking like nothing’s happened!”
Larry’s face fell, and the two older women looked at each other in consternation. Everyone’s mood darkened.
“It’s true that something terrible has happened,” said Elizabeth after a pause. “So terrible that we can’t even begin to grasp it.”
Anna grunted. “Yes, and some of us are trying not to think about it.”
Jessica’s voice rose to a shout. “How can you say that? Doesn’t it matter to you that Jerry’s dead? That Callista’s dead? Lukas, Nirmal, Fatima, Uncle Peter … everyone we knew is gone.” Her voice cracked and her eyes began to glisten. “How could they let this happen?” She sobbed loudly. “They could’ve stopped it.”
Elizabeth held her close and rocked her gently. “There, there, dearest. My little baby.”
Nicole kissed her daughter’s forehead and made soothing sounds, while Anna and Larry gazed at them, looking troubled. Suddenly, Jessica stopped crying and glared at Larry. “Why didn’t you do anything? With all your money and contacts? You could’ve made the government sit up and take notice.”
“I …” Larry faltered. “I tried. Fred tried. But nobody listened.”
“Excuses. You should’ve tried harder.”
“Yes, perhaps—”
“Oh, let it go,” Jessica sighed. “Doesn’t matter. It’s too late, anyway.”
An uncomfortable pause ensued until Jessica broke it. “For crap’s sake, don’t sit there like dummies. Go back to your stupid discussion.” She seemed to be back to normal, at least for now.
Larry stayed silent until Anna prompted him: “You were telling us how you built the Shell.”
“Why Shell?” Nicole asked.
“Acronym,” said Jessica. “Southern Hemisphere Energy Location Laboratory.”
Larry stared at her. “I’m amazed you remember that. It got barely any mention, and I did my level best not to publicize it.”
“But why the secrecy?” said Nicole.
Anna snorted. “Who cares? He made it happen, didn’t he?”
Elizabeth nodded emphatically. “Yes, and thanks to him we’re alive and safe.” And for Jessica’s benefit, she added: “We should be eternally grateful, not finding fault.”
Nicole muttered an apology and kissed Larry on the cheek, but Jessica persisted: “Twenty million about to die in Australia, and the five of us were all you could save?”
Larry stood up and paced the carpet. “I wanted to save many more. Hundreds, thousands.” He explained how simple calculations showed how impractical that was; with the time and resources he had, he could house at most six healthy adults for the expected duration of the Shroud. “A shelter is like a lifeboat,” he said. “Take too many on board, and everyone sinks.”
“Ah, so that’s why you decided to build something just for us,” Nicole said. “Now I understand the need for discretion.”
Larry nodded. “Since I couldn’t take more people here, I kept the project under wraps.”
“See?” Anna said. “There’s a good reason for, like, everything he does. Look around you, Jessica!” She gestured around the room at the elaborate and lavish provisions for working, living, and sleeping, and pointed at the ceiling with the blazing ersatz Sun climbing toward its zenith. “Could you have even imagined—”
“Fine, but what about the people who worked on this place?” Jessica broke in. “Masons, engineers, architects, scientists? How could you hide it from them? Didn’t you care that they’d soon be dead?”
Larry winced and took a step back, accidentally knocking an ivory elephant off a small table. “Yes, it was morally wrong,” he admitted, as he picked up the elephant and ruefully eyed a crack on its trunk. “I feel terrible that I hid the purpose of this place from … from the very people who were building it. And some of them would have guessed the truth anyway. But how could I have saved them? They were too many.”
“And how should he have picked the ones to save?” said Anna, turning furiously on her sister. “By consulting you?”
Jessica ignored her and continued to fire away at Larry. “Okay, you misled others. But why hide it from us? You thought we’d post it on Facebook?”
“No, I knew I could trust you.”
“Why, then?” asked Nicole. “Sorry for the inquisition, honey, but couldn’t you have kept us in the loop?”
Larry sighed. “Yes, I should have. But until I was sure the shelter would work, I didn’t want to raise your hopes. There were so many critical things that were untested until the last moment.”
“Like what?” asked Jessica.
“Well, the heating system, for one. It couldn’t be tested until about two weeks ago because it was too warm outside. I had to do most of the final work myself.”
“Why?”
“Because I sent the workers away a month ago.”
“To maintain secrecy?” asked Anna.
“Right. And there were last-minute glitches—doors that didn’t open, vents that didn’t ventilate, lights that didn’t—”
“You could’ve fixed them later,” Jessica cut in.
“Oh, you poor dear!” said Elizabeth.
“So that was my state as I rushed out, dreading that I’d be too late … that the rampaging mobs and militias would have destroyed Simpsonville, that you’d have fled from home, that you’d be dead from the cold.” Larry’s voice cracked.
“Dear Larry!” said Elizabeth. “I almost lost hope, but deep inside I knew you would come.”
“Yes, me too,” said Nicole. “You somehow found us in the chaos—”
“—and found us half-frozen but still alive,” added Anna. “The rest of the story we know.”
No one spoke for a few seconds. Then Anna stood up, came to Larry, and held his hands. “Larry Brandon, you are hereby entirely, completely, totally exonerated from the crime of neglecting your family,” she said and hugged him in a tight embrace. One by one, the others came to hug Larry as well, Elizabeth warmly, Nicole passionately, Jessica shyly. All four women, even Jessica, wept and hugged each other. Soon Larry too had tears streaming down his face.
“Larry, you crybaby” said Anna at last. “Enough with the tears. How about showing us around our new house?”
CHAPTER SIX
Wheel
“Let’s start with the floor plan,” said Larry, pointing to a poster on the wall that showed an upper level called Wheel with circular rooms, and a lower level called Honeycomb with hexagonal chambers. “We’re here, in the Central dome, which is the Shell’s living room.” He pointed to a large circle at the center that linked via radial lines to six smaller circles connected by curved segments. “These smaller circles are the outer or peripheral domes. For instance, the Geo dome has the geothermal well underneath it.”
The women studied the plan for a few seconds. Anna tapped on one of the segments connecting the domes. “And these are what? Corridors?”
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