Jolene just shook her head. She would have a talk with Karen. The next time Linda and Mase were together here in the apartment, they would make sure the two were truly alone. She was convinced that a good session in bed would be great for both Linda and Mase.
-
Mase was in the Control Center early the next morning. Already the effects of the solar flare were affecting the Earth. He knew that the flare would be screwing around with the Earth’s magnetic field and any surviving electronic equipment down below. There were twenty bunkers in the Easter Pacific and Asia that they were in contact with. But they had already lost communication with eight of them.
“The CME will be arriving in four more hours,” Major Daniels reported as she studied the latest data being relayed by several of the satellites in orbit above the Earth.”
“We are also starting to lose contact with some of the other shelters due to the solar flare,” Corporal Kelly Stewart reported as more satellites began experiencing failures in communication. “We have Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD, and the two emergency bunkers still online, but the others are starting to go silent.”
“Now we just wait and see what happens,” Isaac commented as he sat down to wait. “I just spoke to Adam Strong, and he’s not completely sure how the Earth will be affected by this.”
Mase nodded as he took a seat also. He knew it was going to be a long day as they waited for the solar flare and the CME to subside and allow them to establish contact with the bunkers and shelters. He just hoped they all survived; they had already lost too many people and they couldn’t afford to lose any more.
-
Hours later, Mase stared at one of the main viewscreens at the Earth showing a view above Asia. The clouds seemed to be swirling, and layers of glowing red could be seen in some areas.
“The temperature’s definitely rising,” Major Daniels reported. “It’s up nearly fifty degrees in some areas. The storms are intensifying, and we have recorded wind gusts in excess of four hundred miles per hour in some locations.”
-
In Japan, the wind howled across the islands, scouring the ground of any vegetation. Dead trees and vegetation were ripped out by their roots and tossed around as if they were matchsticks. Massive waves hundreds of feet in height slammed into the coasts, flooding those areas once again. There were only two major bunkers still surviving in Japan as well as ten smaller ones. All of these were sealed up tight, hoping to ride out the onslaught.
The temperature continued to rise and was soon over one hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Massive downpours of rain fell, with the heated water rapidly warming up the ground. In two of the smaller Japanese bunkers, the seals to their doors failed as the wind finally breached them. They had already been weakened from earthquakes and the half-completed repairs gave way. In a few short minutes, everyone inside the two bunkers died.
Across Asia, the wind and heat continued. Hundreds of people died as their bunkers failed from the worsening conditions. Dams that had so far withstood the earthquakes and floods collapsed from the wind and the added stress placed on their weakened structures.
In China, the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River finally gave way. It had already been damaged from a major earthquake and had several small fissures running through it. The added heat and wind, coupled with another ground tremor, was enough to cause the dam to suffer a catastrophic failure. As the flood waters cascaded down the Yangtze, there was not a living soul to watch as hundreds of thousands of square miles of land were covered in the swirling floodwaters.
-
For two days, the Earth responded to the devastating hit from the solar flare and the CME until finally things began to calm back down. The Earth’s magnetic field returned to normal, and the storms began to weaken to only Category Five and Six hurricanes.
At Tycho City, Mase studied the latest data from their scans and the satellites still operating above the Earth. Much of the Western Pacific and Asia had been devastated by the onslaught of the solar flare and the CME. They were back in touch with the two big bunkers in Japan as well as several others in Asia, but a number of the smaller ones had fallen silent.
“I just finished talking to Warren Timmons and General Mann,” Mase spoke as Anthony and Isaac came into the Control Center. The effects from the solar flare and the CME were minimal in the United States. Warren said they only recorded a six degree temperature increase which they could attribute to it.”
“I spoke to Adam Strong at Farside yesterday when I took them some supplies,” Anthony responded. “The Earth’s orbit is about to go behind the sun away from the neutron star and black hole. He feels that the earthquake activity and the volcano eruptions might begin to lessen shortly. By the time we swing back around the sun, the neutron star and black hole will be well on their way to leaving the solar system.”
Mase let out a deep sigh. Even with the neutron star and black hole’s departure, there were still a lot of unanswered questions. What would Earth’s orbit be like, and what about the other planets? How many people on Earth would survive, and could they continue to survive?
The three continued to watch the viewscreens in silence. The two main screens showed the Earth wrapped in a solid layer of clouds. They could see obvious swirls where hurricanes or typhoons were pummeling the coasts and clouds that were moving at terrific speeds. The world had been changed, and it would never be the same again.
Chapter Nineteen
Mase, Linda, Anthony, and Jolene were walking through the latest ecological habitat that Steffan had just finished constructing. It had taken two months and a tremendous amount of resources to create this new world of Jolene’s.
“This place is amazing,” Linda said as she gazed about in amazement at all that had been done. “How did you do all of this?”
Jolene smiled, knowing her best friend was excited about the new habitat. It had taken a lot of work, but it was finally finished. “This is the sixth habitat we have built and by far the largest. It is 2,400 feet long, 400 feet wide, and the ceiling is 150 feet above our heads.”
Everywhere they looked it was green. There were small orchards planted, long rows of vegetables in their plots, and winding paths one could walk down to take it all in. Over to the far side there were cattle grazing in a field that seemed to extend the entire length of the habitat.
“Are those cows?” Anthony asked as he looked excitedly at the large black animals in the distance. He wondered how many steaks they would make.
“Yes, Anthony; those are cows,” replied Jolene with a pleasant laugh. She knew exactly what Anthony was thinking. “We have a new hybrid wheat that grows rapidly with the right nutrients. That wheat field is 150 feet wide and 2,400 feet long and it will allow us to increase our cattle herd to a little over 120 animals. Not only that, but we should be able to get several good cuttings of hay later.”
“Steaks,” spoke Anthony, his eyes still focused on the cows and feeling his stomach growl. “Those cows look like steaks to me.”
“That’s all you ever think about,” Linda teased as she reached out and took Mase’s hand.
She didn’t tell Anthony that Jolene had brought home several large packages of steaks for later. The rest of the meat had gone to the restaurants in Tycho City. Portions being served in the restaurants were small, but at least you could order a small steak or hamburger once again.
The ground trembled slightly but came to a quick halt. Over the past two months, the lunar quakes had been gradually subsiding. The Moon seemed to be stabilizing again as the neutron star and black hole continued to move away.
“I’m glad the big tremors have stopped,” Jolene commented as she bent down and picked several plump, red tomatoes from a vine and placed them in the specimen bag she always seemed to have hanging from her shoulder. They would go well with the steaks later.
“Everything is returning to normal,” responded Mase, nodding his head in satisfaction. “In another month, we will be sending additional pe
ople back to Farside to help staff the observatory complex.”
“So we are going to keep it running?” Anthony asked as he stopped to watch a small hummingbird that was flitting around a small bed of roses.
“Yes,” Mase replied. “I spoke with Adam Strong and Andrew Carnegie, and they both feel we can move a few people back into the complex. Andrew has spent the last month repairing all the damage the quakes did, and he feels quite confident that the facility is secure.”
“What about the dish antennas?” asked Anthony, looking over at Mase curiously. “Over half of them have been damaged to some extent.”
“For now we are going to leave them,” Mase answered as they continued to walk down a stone path that wound around several fruit orchards. “Adam says he will put about a dozen back online and leave the rest until sometime in the future. They still have the Albertson reflector, and that will keep them occupied for some time.”
“I wonder what happened to Star One and the FarQuest?” Linda asked as she listened to several birds calling in the distance. It felt so relaxing here in the habitat. It was quite remarkable.
“We may never know,” responded Mase, wishing he knew what the fate of his friends had been. “They could be colonizing a new world for all we know. We can only hope that they made it through the wormhole safely.”
“What do we do now?” Anthony asked. He kept glancing over at the cows. He had almost forgotten what steak tasted like.
Mase paused as he looked at the other three. “The worst is behind us,” he answered. “With the habitats that Jolene and Steffan have created, we have plenty of food and resources for the people in deep sleep. We will start awakening them in another few months.”
Linda knew that Mase was really looking forward to awakening Phillip and his family. Mase really missed speaking to his older brother. Linda was just glad she had Karen living with her. She had always gotten along extremely well with her younger sister, and Karen seemed to enjoy her work with Jolene in the ecological habitats.
“What about Earth?” Anthony asked. “It’s still covered in clouds. What do we know about its new orbit?”
“Charles Turner and several of the other scientists believe we will see some clearing in the next few months,” Mase answered. “Of course, there is so much ash in the atmosphere from the volcanoes it may take years for it to clear completely. In the meantime, we will continue to attempt to contact as many survivors as we can and help to coordinate their survival. As for Earth’s orbit, we will know more soon.”
“At least all of the heavy rain helped reduce some of the ash that was in the air,” Anthony added as they reached the end of the path.
Mase nodded. The new Tycho City was finished and ready to receive the sleepers. Many people were already living there, and they still had the old Tycho City Complex to fall back on if needed. They had accomplished a lot, but they still had a great deal of work ahead of them.
-
Trace was outside the bunker once again. The ash had finally stopped falling several weeks back, but the sky was still an ashen gray. He was standing next to the door of the cellar and examining the area as closely as he could. The breathing mask kept most of the contaminants out, and the plastic shield across his face gave him a good view.
He was wearing a basic environmental protection suit that still allowed a lot of flexibility in movement. The suit he had on would protect him from most contaminants, and so far he hadn’t had to resort to using oxygen tanks and the bulkier suits that went along with them.
Looking at the ground, he noticed that much of the ash fall had been washed away by the heavy rains from the previous week. There was no doubt in Trace’s mind that the ponds, creeks, and rivers would be clogged up with it. Taking a deep breath, he began trudging toward the house, noticing that his feet were sinking a good three to four inches into the ground. The soil was still saturated from all the rainfall and would take some time to dry out.
Only yesterday, they had managed to establish radio contact with another small bunker across the state border in Arkansas. There were forty-two people in it and they seemed to be doing quite well. Trace’s bunker had thirty-one with the advent of the three Donaldson kids. Just being able to talk to someone else had been a big morale booster.
Looking around, Trace noticed sadly that many of the towering old trees from his childhood had succumbed to the heavy weight of the ash and had fallen over or split into. The trees had already been dead from the deadly toxins being released into the atmosphere by the volcanoes, and the heavy ash fall had finally finished them off.
As he neared the house, he saw without surprise that the large metal shed had finished collapsing. The weight of the ash had finally been too much for it to withstand. With relief, Trace saw that the house and old barn were still standing. He was extremely grateful that both had such steep roofs. A few more minutes and he was on the porch at the house. He noticed that all the windows were intact and the door was still securely locked.
Standing on the porch, he took a minute to look around. In the distance, he thought he could actually see a small break in the gray clouds and the faint hint of a blue sky above. Perhaps the cloud cover is finally breaking up, he thought. The ground tremors had almost completely stopped over the past few weeks. Trace stood on the porch for a while thinking about what was still ahead of them.
Perhaps if things continued to improve they would be able to contact more surviving shelters. Trace knew there had to be others. But he also recalled a worrisome conversation he had overheard at the cape. Something about the Earth’s orbit being drastically changed by the neutron star and black hole. He wondered what that might mean for their future.
Trace hoped that, at some point in time, they would be able to come out of the shelter. The house was still intact and so were the camping trailers back behind the bunker. It would be nice to get out of the bunker, if only for a short time. Everyone would enjoy a little privacy, which was one of the reasons he volunteered to go outside and check on everything. It was just a relief to get out of the bunker even if it was only for an hour or two.
Taking a deep breath, he went down the steps and began heading back toward the shelter. He still needed to check the filters in the blockhouse before he went back inside. He had promised Emily that they would all play a game of Monopoly with the Donaldson kids later.
-
Warren Timmons was walking down the center of the large tunnel they had built and filled full of vegetables and other growing things. Two more tunnels were nearing completion, and they would soon be growing enough food to add substantially to their daily meals. He was growing tired of the MREs, and he knew everyone else was too. Adding more fresh vegetables would be a big boon to their diet.
Looking along the brightly lit tunnel, he saw others out walking down the narrow paths and stopping occasionally to gaze at the growing plants. Warren wondered if he would ever see this sight back out on the surface again.
He had spoken to Adam Strong earlier, and the astronomer had confirmed that the Earth was well on its way into a new orbit. As it finished swinging around the sun, it would head out nearly to the orbit of Mars before falling back in toward the orbit of Venus. This orbit wasn’t as severe as the one they had predicted previously. That one, which took the Earth out beyond the orbit of Mars and nearly in toward the orbit of Mercury, would have made the planet completely uninhabitable.
In this new orbit, they were going to experience a little over four months of relatively normal temperatures, and then it would gradually get colder as they went through two months of frigid temperatures when the Earth neared the orbit of Mars. As it fell back toward the sun, there would be over four months of near normal temperatures again, followed by a rapid warm up until the temperature were nearly scorching as they neared the orbit of Venus. For two months, the temperature on the surface would be too hot to go out during the day.
Timmons wondered what the effects of that would be on the Earth’s ecosystem if
it still had one. Strong had also mentioned that, with the change of the Earth’s orbit, instead of there being twelve months in a year there would now be fourteen.
“Out for a walk, Sir?” asked Janet Reynolds, one of the communication specialists who worked in the Control Center.
“I just wanted some fresh air,” he responded, noticing the young woman who was standing next to him.
“I did too,” she replied, gazing down at a plot of lettuce. Her family had grown lettuce in their garden back on the family farm. “We spend so much time trying to contact other shelters and sometimes I wonder what the purpose is. Do you think we will ever be able to leave this bunker?”
Warren hesitated before answering. “I don’t know,” he replied truthfully. “I think we will be able to for short periods eventually and hopefully, once we learn how to adapt to the new conditions on the surface, perhaps even longer. It will be a while before we know.”
“I would like to go back outside,” Janet spoke in a wistful voice. “I would like to return home someday and see what’s left.”
“Where are you from?” asked Warren, curiously.
“Charlotte, North Carolina,” Janet replied. “My parents had a home and small farm in the mountains and I was living with them while I was in the military. I don’t think the flooding from the tidal waves reached that far inland.”
“Your home may indeed still be there,” Warren replied. His own home was in Houston, but he was not anxious to see if anything was left. There would be too many depressing memories at the space center.
Janet nodded. There was no doubt in her mind that someday she would return home. Then, nodding at Timmons, she turned and began walking back toward the main part of the bunker. Her duty shift began in a few more hours and she needed to eat and get ready.
Star One: Tycho City Survival Page 24