by Andy Lettau
"Hold on, I'm almost with you", were the words that Ji heard. "Hold on, you've almost made it."
CHAPTER 21
Atlantic Ocean
North Korean submarine DA BAK SOL
31st December
Nam Chol Pak had known exactly that there were only few seconds left before the DA BAK SOL was frazzled by the exploding mines into a large ball of fire and he died. The satisfaction of having consigned the hated enemy to oblivion with the torpedo a few seconds before his own departure from this life disintegrated in the face of the depressing knowledge that he would never see his darling Yang again in this life. A horrible feeling of pressure began to spread in his chest and drove the painful contorted smile from his cyanotic face. Apathetically he looked one last time at the stumps of his legs provisionally strapped with belts, which were lying in a pool of blood and formed the extremity of a red-colored track that resembled an imaginary band between him and the long-since disappeared shark.
At exactly midnight the DA BAK SOL was convulsed by a mighty explosion that transformed it into a mass of molten steel and carbonized human remains. While the sea was still ingesting the final residue of the Korean David with a ghostly gargling sound, a second even more powerful explosion tore almighty Goliath into shreds. The Shkval had detonated the entire nuclear arsenal on board the USS George W. Bush. The expanse of the Atlantic glowed, in the middle of the saddest New Year's Eve on human record, with the brightness of a thousand suns. The sea swallowed up its tribute and spread its eternal shroud over the fateful scenario of the final struggle between two systems. The show was over.
CHAPTER 22
Atlantic Ocean
North Korean submarine DA BAK SOL
00.00 o‘clock
Less than three yards from each other, in the middle of the Atlantic, at the intersection of two enemy submarines, there were two figures: Yong-Jo Ji and an American who no longer had the opportunity to introduce himself as Ted O`Brian. Between the two men a small dog was kicking and yapping, his coat stuck to his body. Ji and O`Brian had a final simultaneous thought that could not have been more absurd:
He's the interpreter.
At that point, the odd trio, without any warning whatever, was sucked down into the depths of the ocean. In the final minutes of earthly life, the three became aware of the torpedo track that was forming behind a metal body traveling at phenomenal speed and gradually disappeared as a line becoming ever fainter as it merged into a black wall.
Two explosions in rapid succession ripped apart the silence over the water, ushering in the death of everything and everybody. Some gigantic mushrooms of light shot up and set fire to the air.
EPILOG
Apogeum
International Space Station ISS
1st January
Two hundred and fifty seven miles above the Atlantic, with a relative constant speed of approx. 1810 miles per hour, the largest object ever sent into space by human beings, the International Space Station, continued to move.
Patrick Kennedy, the Commandant, turned aside, thoughtfully, from the small observation window through which he had coincidentally looked down on the Atlantic at exactly midnight. He thought that at a certain undetermined position a small hole had appeared in the blanket of cloud. The hole had made it possible to see two needle-sized points that had suddenly appeared, a glowing red illumination in the dark that finally went out.
Kennedy was unable to interpret what he had seen. And it was clear from the depressed looks of the rest of the crew that nobody wanted to interpret it. The earth was burning and the scientists on the last outpost of humanity had given up hope long ago of returning. There was no radio, no sign that there was still life down there. It had become quiet, the conversations gradually dried up. The time had come to prepare for one's own end.
The Commandant stared vacantly into space. Maybe somewhere out there, far beyond the event horizon, was the answer to all the questions. Maybe there really was a God.
For the first time in his life Patrick Kennedy began to pray. It was a silent prayer.
THE END