Quickly, he snapped the Kevlar ropes from his SAFER unit and backed away as the Soyuz floated past him. He looked down into the open hatchway and saw the instruments blinking and flashing. He thought for a moment that he might try to board it, then realized it would be pretty futile. The current orbit was not optimal for the Soyuz any longer, and it was not going to stay up for longer than a few days. He would have to get Cooper to recalculate their respective orbits to assure they would not collide before then. That would suck, he thought.
As he turned back towards the ISS, he heard a sudden yell into his headset. One of the cosmonauts, it looked as if it might have been Micha, had gone past the ISS. The other astronauts were trying to figure out what to do, but he took one look at his fuel indicators, and the distances involved. He moved towards the airlock on the ISS. As he reached it, he jettisoned the now-empty SAFER unit. It floated alongside the ISS, then he pushed it away. He crawled along the outer skin, grabbing whatever handholds he could. He reached Nicolai and gave him a tether. Voices yelled in his ears, and he continued towards Sonya, who was hanging on precariously. He reached her and snapped a tether onto her. Then, he turned and walked back to the airlock, where Nicolai had already entered and closed the hatch. He waited as Sonya crawl-floated towards him. He watched the airlock indicators and spun open the hatch. Sonya entered, and he closed the hatch, sealed it, and waited his turn. He could hear Micha sobbing, and knew he could do nothing. The indicators flashed green, and he opened the hatch. As he entered, he looked at the receding cosmonaut. He sank into the airlock. Armstrong sealed the hatch, and when the inner lock opened, almost collapsed onto Cooper. She helped him out of his space suit. The other cosmonauts were angry and crying. They wiped at the spheres of water covering their eyes and tried to not to let their tears float too far in the zero gravity environment. Cooper found a small vacuum and sucked the small globes of water from their air supply. Armstrong thanked her, told the cosmonauts to unsuit, and eat. Then, he floated into the Unity module.
Later, Benjamin Franklin Armstrong floated in his berth, weeping at the memory of how utterly helpless they had been as Micha drifted into oblivion. He looked down at Earth, trying to comprehend what had happened to him and his comrades. His youthful body only mocked his tired mind. Armstrong tried not to think of what he had done. He wondered if, by bringing them all back to the station, he had only condemned them to a lingering death.
If that were the case, he thought, then maybe Micha had been the lucky one.
"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive."
-- Elbert Hubbard
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
-- George Washington
"The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem."
-- Milton Friedman
Chapter Eleven
CAMP DAVID -
The President had spoken with Vladimir Putin for several hours. An old POTS hookup, leftover from the Cold War era had provided a validated method for them to communicate with each other. Once the authentication protocols had been worked out, the two leaders immediately set about rectifying the nuclear situation. Unfortunately, there were going to be massive casualties on both sides, resulting from the initial launches.
The recall orders had been given, but a combined total of twenty ICBMs and SLCMs, and four Trident SLBMs had been launched by the United States Air Force and Navy. The Russian retaliatory strike was forty-two missiles. Twelve were intercepted by United States Air Defense assets, including three shot down with the Naval Laser Weapons System (LaWS), over the North Atlantic. Four had found their targets in the Midwest. Topeka, Kansas and Oklahoma City were obliterated. Twenty missiles had hit secondary targets, and fifteen of these did not detonate. This was put down to the aging electronics on board the vehicles.
In actuality, the United States had an unlikely defense against some of the re-entry vehicles. The EMP residue from the Washington, D.C. and Atlanta ark departures provided enough disruption of the communications signals during the flight phase that the older components were fried. The ballistic arcs could not be altered, but the arming protocols had been mangled by the intense electromagnetic fluctuations.
This proved lucky indeed for the targets on the East Coast. New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Groton, Miami, and even New Orleans were spared nuclear annihilation. The missiles impacted in these cities, but the local damage was minimal in comparison. Most only buried themselves in the ground. A few hit a populated building. Most ended up in vacant areas and smashed into the earth. Two missiles fell into Lake Pontchartrain. The practical result was that millions of people had been killed, but the toll could have been far worse.
Unfortunately for Putin, the Russian targets did not fare as well. Of the US missiles, only three failed to reach their targets. These were shot down by Russian Bear Aircraft armed with the charged particle weapons that Major Golovonov had assisted in testing months earlier. The Russian targets were primary military areas and two surface fleets. The one fleet, deployed in the Baltic Sea, was hit directly with a Tomahawk carrying a modified B-83 nuclear payload of 1.5 megatons. The entire fleet was destroyed, with no survivors. The nuclear submarine base near the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy was the target of two missiles and completed blasted. Three W-76 warheads were dropped onto Ukrainka Air Base, and the Russian Bear Bomber Wings that were still awaiting orders to deploy were atomized.
Russia had also been attacked by Chinese and North Korea, but with mostly non-nuclear assets. Three Russian bases were targeted by Chinese nuclear bombs, including the Saratov Oblast. The Chinese nuclear weapons all misfired.
As the combat unfolded, the President was dismayed to learn that there were still pockets of the United States military assets that were unable to be reached via the standard communication channels. Putin also noted that the military lines were not reliable. They wondered about the origin of the lack of ability for formal communications, and Obama shared the little intelligence they had collected surrounding the unexplained destruction of Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia that had triggered the cataclysmic battle. These concerns were tabled in the necessity to stop an unwarranted nuclear exchange.
Once the recall orders on both sides had been authenticated, Putin and Obama attempted to reason what had actually occurred in Washington, D. C. and Atlanta. Putin shared intelligence gathered from Israeli agencies that showed strange massive objects on radar from several areas around the world. These structures were leaving Earth orbit rapidly, and regression analysis indicated they had been originally from those two cities. Neither man had any idea of the secret construction and launch of the two space arks. The concept was beyond their comprehension and imagination. There was not any way for them to have known about the long-term plans initiated by the Elites so many decades prior.
Putin and Obama agreed to keep their lines of communication open, and special envoys would be deployed in the coming days. In the meantime, Obama made available high-level intelligence and diplomatic assets to Putin, on condition that Putin reconsider the Ukrainian situation, and that Putin would allow for an immediate summit to discuss options for cease-fire from China and North Korea.
With only hours before The Wave was to hit, the leaders of the largest superpowers on the planet worked to prevent further nuclear destruction.
*****
PUERTO RICO –
Tatania managed to get to the Arecibo Radio Telescope. Her rented car was parked outside the main control building, and she walked past the security fence uninterrupted. Her drive had been surreal. She took mental note of her physical and mental condition. She knew her body was feeling normal, for a sixteen-year-old girl. She had no idea how such a thing could come to pass. Her scientific mind sought vainly for a reason as to how this might occur. She posited a few hypothetical scenarios based on her understanding of quantum phenomenon, but almost wrecked
the car at one point. She sat for ten minutes, trying to calm down and concentrate. Tatania was not the kind of person to go into hysterics, but she was having some difficulty in swallowing the situation. She finally decided on a course of action – get to Arecibo, and try to reach someone in authority. She put the Chevy Volt back on the road and drove intently to the giant radio dish.
Now, she entered the main building, trying to remember the layout from the last time she had worked there. She was looking for the control room when she found three other survivors. There were two young boys and a young girl, who began questioning her in Spanish. “¿Quién eres y cómo has llegado hasta aquí?” she said. Tatania responded “Soy doctor Tatania Golovonov. Yo soy un astrofísico. Trabajé aquí hace muchos años, y ahora estoy tratando de encontrar una manera de ponerse en contacto con algunos de mi pueblo.” The girl eyed her, suspiciously. “No eres lo suficientemente mayor como para ser medico,” she said. “Sé cómo me presento. Les puedo asegurar que soy un médico de la ciencia. Yo soy un astrofísico.”
Tatania continued,”¿Alguno de ustedes hablan Inglés?” “Yes,” said the girl. “We all can speak the English. Do you not like Espanol?” “No,” she replied, “It is only that I feel I am more comfortable speaking about this in English.” The other two boys nodded their heads, and one of them spoke.
“We were working here on the grounds, and this strange light in the sky was suddenly all around us. For minutes, it was as if everything was frozen in place. Then, this!” he gesticulated wildly with his arms. “This must be a dream or a nightmare!” said the other boy. “I was not even supposed to be here today! I filled in for Juan!” “Dante, you must calm down! “said the girl. “This girl who claims to be a doctor may know something we do not!”
Tatania asked them to take her to the radio control room. On the way, she noticed that the girl had a cellular phone in her back pocket. She also wanted to find some more clothes, ones that actually fit her. “Have you not tried to call anyone on your phone? ” she asked the girl. “My name is Rosa,” she said, “¡Claro! Of course. But there is no signal.” “That’s very odd. My car is working fine, and so is the radio, now that I think about it. There was music playing,” said Tatania.
She was broadcasting all over the Caribbean area and hoped that someone would answer who knew what was going on in the rest of the world.
*****
ROYAL STAR PRINCESS
David and about a hundred other passengers were listening to the Captain give orders. David went with the Captain to the radio operator’s room. They monitored the emergency frequency, (MARS?) and managed to isolate a few comments from the chatter. They attempted to make contact with other nearby vessels.
Suddenly, David heard a young girl, which sounded vaguely familiar. It was not her voice, it was what she was saying that allowed him to positively identify her. He grabbed the microphone from the Captain and depressed the talk button. “Tatania!” he shouted. “Tatania! If that is you, switch to 458 kilocycles! Repeat, 458 kilocycles, and respond by using the name of the satellite that found it!” Harding moved the dial on the radio to 458, checking the settings and noting the Captain nodding in approval. He adjusted the squelch and sat down in the operator’s chair.
He waited anxiously to hear back from Tatania Golovonov, and could not still the rapid beating of his heart.
*****
SECRET UNDERWATER PACIFIC NAVAL BASE – OFF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS
The U.S.S. Pennsylvania was underway, heading towards the Okinawa Trench, where one of the best-kept secrets of the United States Navy was located. As it approached, the crew became intent on assuring that all the procedures for access to Lemuria were followed exactly. There were protocols and call-signs, acknowledgments and challenge/response signals given for almost three-quarters of an hour as the submarine was scanned and identified. All surface and other ocean traffic was monitored, and the timing of the docking maneuvers were carefully scheduled to minimize or eliminate the potential for discovery. Lemuria was an undersea base near the Solomon Islands. Nuclear Subs begin to rendezvous with each other and figure out that othersurface ships had been affected by The Wave.
Now that The Wave had struck, it complicated the relationship both countries shared. There were Constitutional issues surrounding the transfer of power in emergency situations in the United States, and in Russia there was a renewed urgency to organize a solid power base around Vladimir Putin.
"Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice."
-- Ayn Rand
"All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
"Power in America today is control of the means of communication."
-- Theodore White
Chapter Twelve
BUCKSPORT, MAINE
It had taken The General the better part of a week to determine that The Pentagon was gone.
When The Wave affected Earth, the governments of the world were mired in an ages-long model of leaders establishing social systems that would lubricate the machinery of bureaucracy. Whether a monarchy, democracy, or socialist or another form of government, everything depended upon understanding the socio-economic makeup of the population of a given country. Messages were tailored to manipulate and control the ordinary people. Ways to keep the masses occupied were devised, and economic pressures were applied to assure that few of them would achieve much of note. The media of the various countries worked to provide a continued parade of emergencies, catastrophes and manufactured stories of celebrity lives, consumerist propaganda, and infotainment.
The actual state of things was often not easily discerned, and even those people who were active participants in an event would question their perspective versus what had been presented as the truth by the media.
A robust machine of disinformation, distraction and manipulation was used continuously to shape opinion, to give illusions of choice, and to guide popular trends. It’s Achilles heel was that, as it had evolved, it became more dependent upon the rapid transmission of images, and the infrastructure upon which it was based more susceptible to catastrophic failures due to electronic disruption.
The Wave, for all of its properties and odd effects on living organic matter, did not create the immediate cessation of communication. In fact, most generators kept generating, coal and gas-fired power plants would continue to operate, and nuclear power plants remained largely intact. It was the loss of key personnel due to the Regression that threw the initial monkey wrenches into these complex systems.
Luckily, most of the critical systems utilized safeguards that prevented catastrophic failures from inattention, and would shut down automatically once certain parameters had been exceeded. SCADA controlled infrastructure obeyed the rules that had been developed by professionals over many decades. The power would stay on, and would definitely be a salvageable resource within a few months at worst.
The General was very much aware of the way that the various mechanisms of the present world inter-connected. He had been trained in methods to assure its disruption, from removal of vital materiel, personnel and assets during conflicts. His specialty, his ability to lead secret squads of equally highly competent agent provocateurs, had led to his ascending the peak of his personal hill. His targets would be compromised, crippled and made inoperable to the enemy until such a time as his orders stipulated otherwise. Then, he and his team would reactivate the necessary devices, and all would continue as it had, with the only changes noticed by those in control. Many times, these would manifest themselves as localized interruptions in services such as electricity or telephone connections. In modern cities, many times it was the connective fabric of a cable or telecommunications company that would not work just long enough to prevent the target from being able to call for help.
Lately, he recalled, it had become absu
rdly easy to isolate individuals, their families, and their associates due to the integration of all the disparate pieces, and the laughingly naïve notion that a social media platform was nothing other than intelligence collection. That the average person would volunteer so much of their lives, and give up their privacy for the illusion of interacting meaningfully with others, when the reality was just a means to further control their lives, was ironic. The General chuckled to himself at how earlier regimes would have drooled over the capabilities of the modern computer-fueled information aggregation machines.
But, an unforeseen factor threw all of this into a cocked hat. The General knew that Washington, D.C. and the city of Atlanta, Georgia had been blasted in nuclear fires. He knew as much about what had occurred as the rest of the United States. Once rudimentary communications had resumed, the first order of business was dealing with the continued counter-attacks against the perceived enemies of the US. In his estimation, the President had made a very ballsy call, and terminated all United States Military attacks against enemy positions early after The Wave had hit. This had been a calculated but costly decision. Four major installations had been hit solidly in retaliatory strikes. Two other cities in the country had been hit by foreign nuclear bombs. Oklahoma City and Topeka, Kansas were obliterated by Russian SLBM’s, originating from supposed oil platforms operating off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico.
After the President had issued orders for a cease-fire, the platforms were captured by Coast Guard forces, and a number of other similar platforms raided and deactivated.
The launches of the two arks had played Hob with the electrical communications grid. Reliable communication was relegated to the old POTS system, which became overwhelmed as the ongoing conflict sapped its meager resources. The major railroads had agreed to become priority couriers, as they were able to retrofit some of the rail system for telegraph. Morse Code became a thing again.
Terminal Reset Omnibus: The Coming of The Wave Page 14