“That’s why we brought you here, Dr. Winston. I read your thesis on solar flares nine years ago when you were seeking your PhD from Princeton. Which, by the way,” he paused and looked quickly at Emanuel, “is the reason you are here too, Dr. Rodriguez.”
The biologist was caught off guard and froze, still not sure why Tsui had requested him.
“Your paper on the effect of solar weather on animal migrations and behavior was fascinating. I suspect your advice will be of great help if our projections turn out to be correct,” Tsui said, raising his thin white eyebrows above his glasses.
“Projections?” Sophie asked.
“Amy, project image of active region 9897.”
A red hologram of the sun shot out of the console in the center of the room, and the knot returned in Sophie’s stomach. Visible even to the naked eye was a dark patch covering a large portion of the sun’s northern hemisphere. She could tell just by looking at it that it was at least a dozen of times larger than the earth.
“When was this image captured?” Sophie asked, her normally calm voice tinged with nervousness.
“Two months ago. Amy, fast-forward to present day,” Tsui said.
The hologram flickered as the imaging was sped up. Slowly the sunspot expanded.
Sophie gasped. It was the largest she’d ever seen—larger even than AR9393, which had grown to fourteen times larger than earth in 2001. The behemoth continued to expand until the hologram transitioned into a solid yellow.
“The storm has already produced several solar flares and coronal mass ejections that have destroyed multiple satellites and disrupted the international space station,” Tsui said, shuffling up to examine the hologram.
“How have news outlets not gotten hold of this?” Emanuel asked.
Tsui shook his head. “We all know President Bolton heavily campaigned on the premise that climate change doesn’t exist. She has also heavily denied the potential catastrophic effects of space weather, claiming any mitigation funding is a waste of money.” He paused to take off his glasses and rub his eyes. “Why do you think NTC has had to absorb virtually all of NASA’s functions? Between Bolton and Congress, there is hardly any funding left. Just barebones programs. Without NTC, I wouldn’t even have the proper technology to monitor the storms. In fact—”
Sophie waved her hand, interrupting Tsui in mid thought. “Bolton’s still in her first term; this could be very damaging for her reelection bid.”
“Precisely,” Emanuel said.
Tsui reached out and enlarged the sunspot with his fingers. “If what I’m about to tell you is true, then this will be her one and only term.”
Sophie winced. All of this foreshadowing was starting to frustrate her. Why couldn’t he just spill what he knew? She sucked in a silent breath and tried to remain calm.
Tsui took a step back to examine the monitor before turning to face Sophie and Emanuel. “Our calculations project a massive CME in the next couple of days. If correct, it will create the most severe solar storm in modern history.”
There it was at last.
Massive CME.
The words echoed in her head as Sophie studied the strain radiating from Tsui’s eyes. Those were two words she had hoped to never hear in her lifetime. An image of the NTC soldier’s flaming red goggles slipped into her mind, and she knew Tsui still hadn’t told her the worst of it. She’d written extensively on the catastrophic effect a large CME could have on the planet. History showed how fragile their infrastructure was, and she knew better than anyone how much devastation one of the solar events could cause.
“Show me all of your intel,” Sophie said, snapping out of her trance. “I want to know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
Tsui managed a small smile, but it faded quickly. “Follow me, doctors.”
Sophie paused for a moment to watch the simulation in front of her. The spot continued to expand, and the swirling flames of the solar flares grew in size. It was either an anomaly or they were dealing with an unprecedented storm. With the largest CME in recorded history about to knock on the earth’s door, the world would no longer need to fight over diminishing resources. The apocalypse was brewing on the surface of the sun, some 93 million miles away.
-3-
STEPPING into the rain room, Sophie realized a hot shower was exactly what she needed. She’d arrived at the space center having had only five hours of sleep the night before. When Dr. Tsui had shown her the simulation of solar activity, she had requested 30 minutes to get cleaned up, knowing sleep was not in her near future.
The steam from the water filled the small, tiled shower, fogging up the glass door. She allowed herself to enjoy it for a few minutes before waving the nozzle off.
Emanuel was waiting for her on a bench in the locker room. He turned away as soon as she stepped out onto the cold, tiled floor. Reaching for a towel, she laughed.
“Not like you haven’t seen it before,” she said.
He chuckled nervously, desperately trying to avoid eye contact with her. Even his dark tan couldn’t hide the red blush on his cheeks.
“What do you think?” he said, standing to make room as Sophie, wrapped in a white towel, walked down the narrow hallway lined with lockers.
“Honestly? I think we’re in big fucking trouble. The NTC Special Forces soldier was one thing, but the fact Dr. Tsui hired you really sealed the deal. If he thinks this storm is capable of a CME that could affect life on the planet, then we’re into uncharted territory.”
“I agree. But what doesn’t make sense is the cycle. The sun should be relatively calm right now.”
Sophie reached for her clothes. “Turn around.”
Emanuel obeyed and faced the empty showers, carrying on the conversation with his back to her. “I don’t understand. Is this an anomaly, or is something else influencing this storm?”
“Like what?” Sophie said, hopping on one foot as she struggled to get her damp leg in her pants.
“You’re the physicist. You tell me.”
“Honestly, I don’t think so. I’m sure we are dealing with an anomaly. The eleven-year cycle is just an average, so it is possible the sun could just be out of whack.”
Emanuel chuckled. “Out of whack? Is that a technical term? It’d have to be pretty whacked out to produce a storm of this magnitude.”
Sophie yanked her shirt over her head and pulled her hair into a ponytail. “I don’t know, Emanuel.”
“Guess we’re going to find out.”
“I guess so,” she said.
THE COOL blue glow from the command center bled out into the white hallway. Sophie and Emanuel followed the light into the room, which was beginning to fill with tired looking staff members.
Tsui greeted them at the bottom of the stairs. “Ah, you’re back. Let me introduce you to a few people. This is Saafi Yool, our primary engineer,” he said, pointing to a tall, skinny Somali man monitoring a hologram in the corner of the room. The man nodded and returned to the blue image.
“He’s not big on words,” Tsui said and turned to Ed, who was still staring at the same screen he’d been watching when they had arrived. “Ed, get over here.”
The man slowly rose and pulled up his sagging pants.
“Sorry, my team isn’t very…social,” Tsui said, pausing to find the right word.
“We meet again,” the man said, wiping the remnants of another taco on the side of his pants before reaching out to shake Sophie’s hand.
“Likewise,” she replied, hesitating before quickly shaking his hand.
“Ed doubles as the team’s lead engineer and the satellite expert. But basically he just monitors the new equipment NTC bought us.”
“Sure do,” the man said.
“You can meet the others later. We need to get to work. I will show you to your stations.”
Sophie and Emanuel followed Tsui through the rows of computers to the center of the room, where the same holographic image of the sun they had seen earlier rotated on
a slight axis.
“Emanuel, there’s not much you can do until something happens, but you can get familiar with your station and the software in the meantime,” Tsui said, motioning him into a booth lined with monitors.
“Sophie, you on the other hand will be assisting me in monitoring the storm. First, I’d like you to look over our calculations. I’ve checked them, but a second set of eyes couldn’t hurt.”
She followed him down the second set of stairs to another row of computers. Ed sat at a station on the end of the row, working on another taco.
“Amy, please load station 15 with our most recent calculations and projections,” Tsui said, sliding past Ed’s bulk with difficulty.
Sophie squeezed behind the obese scientist and took a seat at her station. With a deep breath she flicked the three monitors to life. She was anxious to see how long they had before the massive CME.
A steady flow of data raced across the screen. She scanned it quickly and then opened a folder labeled “NASA Satellite 41 MD’s.” Flicking the screen, the folder blossomed into a host of entries.
3.1.2055
23:55 Hours
Event - MD 491
She consumed the info rapidly, stopping when she got to the GPS coordinates. For some reason, Tsui and his team hadn’t used the magnetic disturbances in their calculations. Looking closer she realized something was very wrong with the data. The subsequent coordinates indicated they had originated millions of miles away from the sun.
“Impossible,” she muttered. “These can’t be correct”
But they were correct, and the farther she dug, the more of the entries emerged. They had all been collected from the new NTC-funded satellites. Not only were these new satellites state-of-the-art, they were very, very accurate.
She examined the entries line by line.
3.4.2055
21:51 Hours
Event - MD 496
4.14.2055
20:01 Hours
Event - MD 499
For the moment she decided to assume the data was wrong, that the satellites had somehow managed to capture incorrect readings. They had to be; it was the only explanation. Otherwise Tsui would have included them.
Wouldn’t he?
She entered it into her calculations nonetheless, waiting for the program to spit out the results. It took far more time to run her projection than it did to analyze what it meant.
The knot in her stomach tightened.
“Dr. Tsui!” she yelled.
The short scientist entered her station seconds later.
“Yes, what is it?”
“I ran the calculations and included the magnetic disturbance entries, something you appeared to have left out.”
“And?”
“I’m afraid you were wrong. We don’t have as much time as you projected. In fact, if my calculations are correct, then the CME is already on its way to earth.”
-4-
A red haze lingered in the sky, creeping slowly across the horizon. It was beautiful in an almost divine way. Sophie had never seen anything quite like it. Ten years had passed since she’d seen the green flicker of the aurora borealis dancing across the sky. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would see the lights so pronounced, so different.
And now Sophie had a front row seat to the destruction. With Emanuel by her side, they watched in horror as the red flares licked the earth. The rest of the team slowly filtered out of the stairway leading to the rooftop, their faces, awestruck, tilted up at the sky.
She watched the scientists, most of whom she hardly knew, as their eyes locked onto the swirling colors above the skyline of South Houston.
“It’s beautiful,” Emanuel whispered, grasping Sophie’s hand.
She pulled away, choosing instead to take a step closer to the edge of the rooftop, away from the growing crowd.
“Stay close!” Tsui yelled. “We don’t want to get caught up here if things take a turn for the worse.”
The distant scream of an air raid siren silenced the old man. To Sophie’s ears it was the most terrifying sound in the world. She’d grown up living in the Midwest, dead in the middle of tornado alley where the violent wind events were a part of everyday life. Whining air raid sirens meant one thing—hide.
The sound prompted her to take a few steps back, and she found herself once again standing shoulder to shoulder with Emanuel. When the first transformer exploded in the distance, she grabbed his hand and gripped it tightly. Another pop followed a few seconds later, and before long the entire city sounded like it was having a massive Fourth of July celebration. Transformers were lighting up like bottle rockets throughout the city, sending gouts of flame into the sky.
As the whine of the distant air raid sirens got louder, Sophie clenched his hand even tighter. It was an odd sound—an archaic sound, one that seemed as if it should be reserved for a 21st century action movie with nukes raining down from the sky. As her eyes surveyed the horizon, she realized something much worse was raining down than nuclear-tipped missiles—something that would change the civilized world.
It was then Dr. Tsui started herding the team back into the building. “Stay calm, don’t rush, we have plenty of time,” he said, his tiny arms flailing about.
Sophie didn’t want to leave. She was captivated by the view. The trail of smoke rising into the sky and red haze dancing across the horizon was one of the most beautifully frightening things she had ever seen. It took Emanuel’s strong grip to pull her way from the sight.
“My wife, my kids—they’re out there! I have to leave!” shouted one of the research assistants. Sophie knew him only as Henry; she couldn’t remember his last name. He was young, not more than 30 years old. Just a kid in his field dominated by fossils like Dr. Tsui.
“It’s not safe. Chances are they’re hunkered down and waiting out the storms like everyone else,” Emanuel said, trying to reassure the man.
“No. I told them to go to my in-laws if things hit the fan. They’re probably trying to evacuate the city. I have to find them!” he yelled, his voice getting more frantic.
Dr. Tsui stopped in the middle of the stairway leading to the basement. “No one goes anywhere. You stay here and work until the storm passes.”
“That’s my family out there, Dr. Tsui! What if I can’t find them after the storm passes?”
“We all have families. But we also have work. What if all the police officers and firefighters abandon their posts?” said a heavyset woman who worked in programming. She was one of the other scientists whom Sophie hadn’t yet met. “Society will collapse if the most important people fail to do their duty,” she continued, her double chin bobbing up and down as she spoke.
Sophie brushed a strand of sweaty hair out of her eyes. “She’s right. We need to ride out the storm and do our jobs. Leaving isn’t going to do any good, anyways; you’ll just get lost.”
The young scientist started to reply but hesitated, opting to refrain from further argument. He continued down the narrow stairway, his head lowered in defeat.
The stairway led to a command center in the bowels of the basement. It was unbearably hot. A state-of-the-art air conditioning unit was built to cool the room, but the engineer who had designed it failed to take into account the juice the computers would need when working at full capacity. Dr. Tsui was forced to re-route power from the cooling unit to the computers, which were sucking the backup generators dry. By midnight the temperature in the bunker was nearly 90 degrees.
The heat didn’t seem to bother Tsui. He nursed a cup of coffee in the corner, staring intently at the dozens of monitors attached to the concrete wall. His brilliant mind was sucking the information in like a leech, analyzing more every second.
Sophie watched from the bed she was sharing with Emanuel, trying to drown out the sound of the crying, the hushed voices, and the prayers from the other dozen scientists throughout the room. She laid her head down on the tiny pillow, turning to face him. His lips parted and rev
ealed his perfectly aligned canines. A chill crept down Sophie’s spine, making its way to her toes. She returned his smile and gripped his hands underneath the covers. As the lights faded and darkness carpeted the room, she slowly slipped out of her pants and pulled herself closer to him. The sweat from their bodies mixed. He bent in to kiss her, pulling her chin toward his with his index finger.
Sophie hesitated, looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was watching. But the darkness shrouded them. With a silent sigh she pulled him closer until she could feel his warm breath on her neck.
Another chill raced down her legs. This time it didn’t make its way to her toes, it stopped just below her abdominals, lingering until she felt the tingling sensation of lust. She kissed him deeper, her hands running through his mop of dark, unkempt hair.
There was something about the world going to shit that made her want him even more, like it was the last time she would ever feel intimacy. When she was in high school, she had had a conversation with a friend about things they would do if the world was ending. “I’d have sex with the cutest boy I could find,” her friend had said.
Sophie, on the other hand, had said she would spend the night staring at the stars—and yet, with the real possibility of the world ending, the thought of stargazing no longer appealed to her. Tonight she didn’t want to be a scientist; tonight she wanted what her friend had wanted. Tonight she wanted nothing more than to feel Emanuel, to wrap her legs around him one last time. If the world was going to end, she wanted to share it with him.
THE NEXT MORNING Tsui woke them. “Wake up! Wake up!” he yelled, flailing his arms in the air. “The storms have passed!”
Emanuel reached for his glasses while Sophie struggled to find her pants. Seconds later they were crowded around the monitors, watching the data stream in from stations around the world. He was right; the storm was over, but the damage to the Midwestern states was severe. Radiation levels were extraordinary. Those that had perished in the fires were the lucky ones, for any survivors would die horribly painful and prolonged deaths from radiation poisoning.
Solar Storms Page 2