“My parents,” Emanuel whispered.
A sudden chill ran down Sophie’s back. She had forgotten they lived in Chicago. By the looks of it, the windy city was dead in the center of the damage.
“Millions will die,” Tsui whispered, taking a long sip from his cold coffee.
Emanuel scowled, suddenly ripe with anger. “Bolton’s administration never took this storm seriously. If they had taken NASA’s recommendations and hardened critical facilities, then the communication lines would still be open and warnings could have been issued.”
“The damage is done. We need to continue to analyze the storms data and send it to the Department of Defense,” Tsui replied.
Sophie took a seat at her terminal, logging in with the swipe of her index finger. The stream of data was constant. New statistics were feeding into their system by the second from locations around the world. The Midwest had indeed taken the worst of the storm. The dead zone appeared to be running from the edge of the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi. Houston was on the border of the destruction, and while the city was busy being burnt to the ground, the radiation levels appeared to be minimal.
“Looks like we just missed the worst of the radiation,” she said to the rest of the staff.
A muffled voice rang out from the screen hanging in the corner of the room. Sophie turned to see a middle aged man with a mop of gray hair on the screen. She recognized him instantly as General John McKern, a Department of Defense Official and advisor on NTC’s payroll.
“Good morning, Dr. Tsui and staff, glad to see you all weathered the storm safely. It appears you just missed the worst of it.”
“Good morning, sir. How did Washington fair?”
McKern shrugged. “We were better prepared than most. The military has been hardening facilities, communications, and vehicles for decades.” He lit a cigar and blew a puff of smoke toward the monitor. “As you know, it’s the Midwest that took the brunt of it. Which is why I am contacting you. My superiors want a module showing radioactive patterns. Which cities are dead zones, which ones may be salvageable. You know the drill,” he said, taking another drag of his cigar.
“That will be no problem, sir. We will upload the data within the hour,” Tsui said, motioning Emanuel and another scientist to a pair of computers against the far wall.
“Very good. I’ll check back later,” McKern said, his image quickly fading.
Henry, the young scientist who had panicked earlier, hesitantly motioned Dr. Tsui over to his monitors. “Sir, I think there is something you should see.”
“What is it?”
“Do you remember how the storms seemed to be lasting longer than initial modules predicted?”
“Yes, of course I do.”
“So you recall it seemed as if something was feeding the storms?”
Tsui nodded. “What’s your point, Henry?”
“I think I found out what was feeding them. Take a look at this—it’s imaging of the sun from the past few days.”
The group gathered around Henry’s terminal. With a swipe from his index finger a hologram of the sun shot out and hovered over the console.
Sophie studied the translucent image carefully. Bright red flames swirled around the perimeter of the round ball of energy. She knew better than anyone in the room what they meant. At least theoretically. What they were witnessing was an event scientists had never seen. Multiple solar flares followed by a massive coronal mass ejection. There was only one explanation.
“That’s impossible,” Henry said under her breath before telling the team what Sophie already knew. “The magnetic disruption is coming from…Mars.”
-5-
A POWERFUL solar wind carried the ejection straight to the earth’s magnetic field, where it penetrated the upper atmosphere and cut through it like a scalpel through loose skin. It made landfall before evacuations could even be ordered. Most scientists had argued this could never happen, that the earth’s atmosphere was too powerful to penetrate.
But as Sophie stared at images of catastrophic damage streaming in from around the world, she realized how wrong those scientists had been—how wrong she had been.
“Millions of residents in the Midwest have been cut off from emergency first responders due to high levels of radiation,” a news announcer said.
“My God,” Ed whispered from beside her.
Another monitor flicked on, and President Bolton stepped up to a podium marked with the Presidential Seal insignia. As she shuffled through some pages of notes, Sophie could see the strain in her face, the fatigue and worry.
Anger raced through Sophie. Why hadn’t the President acted sooner? Millions had died on her watch, all because she had chosen to deny science.
“The storms are now over. Rest assured, we will be getting infrastructure back online as quickly as possible,” Bolton said.
A reporter in the audience interrupted her. “How do you feel about your stance on solar weather now?”
The camera panned to Bolton’s face. She scowled and ignored him, continuing with her speech as the man was quietly escorted away.
“All first responders in the nation are being activated. We are doing everything we can.”
“Do we know the extent of the damage?” another reporter asked.
Bolton paused before responding. “We are doing everything we can to get that information.”
Emanuel clicked off the monitor. “She’s a lunatic,” he said.
“Dr. Winston, can I see you for a moment?” Tsui’s fatigued voice asked from behind her.
Sophie followed him out into the hallway and crossed her arms, glad to have a break from the depressing news.
“What is it Dr. Tsui?” She took a small step backwards, trying to ignore the stale scent of coffee on his breath.
“It’s about the magnetic disruption discoveries we picked up earlier. I didn’t exactly forget to leave them out of the equation. In fact, I was told to. That folder you saw should never have existed. NTC specifically told us this information was classified, but it had been overlooked in the chaos of events.”
“What are you saying?” A chill went down her back.
“We flew you and Emanuel out here early for a reason. I knew all along the CME would make landfall. I just needed you to tell me how bad the damage would be. And I needed Emanuel to tell us how it would affect life on the planet. We just ran out of time. After the satellites picked up the data, our focus shifted from prediction and mitigation to recovery.”
“You knew all along and didn’t tell me!” Sophie looked at the tiny man. He no longer appeared as stoic as he had earlier, and the fatigue on his face made him look weak. And his lies? They made her sick.
“General McKern made it very clear. All data concerning the magnetic disruptions were to be classified. He said they were an anomaly. That the satellites had malfunctioned.”
“But when I entered the data into the calculations, they projected the time of the CME perfectly.”
“I know. But you need to forget about it. You must forget about it. This comes from the top, Sophie. All the way from President Bolton’s office.”
Sophie paused. She knew exactly what it meant—she was being censored. “You know I can’t forget about this.”
“I know, but you can keep it quiet.”
She held his gaze until she finally grew too frustrated and pulled away.
“Very well,” she said.
“Good.” Tsui turned and headed back into the room, leaving Sophie in the hallway by herself. She wasn’t the type of scientist to keep something like this quiet—she wasn’t the type of person to keep it quiet. But things like this had a way to ruin even the most promising careers.
She unfolded her arms and paced down the hallway. Whatever had caused the magnetic disturbance on Mars was a mystery, one she wasn’t allowed to investigate. All she could do now was hope whatever had caused it wasn’t malevolent.
SEVERAL DAYS passed before it was safe to go outsi
de. Sophie stood on the rooftop watching plumes of smoke escape into the sky. The perpetual sound of sirens drowned out the coughing of the nearby generator.
“Sophie,” a distant voice said.
She turned to see Emanuel standing in the entry to the stairs. Even in the shadows of the door, she could see something was wrong. His normally cheerful expression had twisted into a frown.
“I just got word.”
Sophie froze, waiting for him to finish.
“It’s Chicago. It got hit hard. Took the brunt of the radiation.”
She rushed over to him, knowing exactly what the information meant. His parents were gone. “I’m so sorry,” she said, hugging him tightly.
He pulled from her grasp and grabbed both of her wrists. “How did this happen, Sophie? How could something like this be ignored?”
She tried to speak. She wanted to comfort him, but the words wouldn’t form. Tsui’s threat echoed in her mind. She knew she had a decision to make; her career depended on it.
“I don’t know,” she lied. Reaching for his hand, she said, “I’m sorry, Emanuel.”
He quickly wiped away the tears forming in his eyes and walked past her toward the edge of the rooftop. “So am I.”
In the distance a pair of helicopters exploded out of the smoke-filled sky. They were headed away from the city and quickly faded into tiny black dots before disappearing over the horizon.
“This changes everything, Sophie. Our economy is going to be shot. Not to mention all of the lives lost. Somehow or another, this storm affects everyone. Worldwide.”
Something exploded in the distance. Sophie looked over the skyline of South Houston one more time, watching a new blaze licking the sky where an office building had gone up in flames.
“Let’s get back inside,” Emanuel said.
Sophie nodded but continued to watch the flames. Another helicopter raced toward the fire. Emanuel’s words echoed in her mind, mixing with the sound of the distant helicopter blades. He was right; the storms did affect everyone. Everything had changed, and somewhere deep down, she feared this was only the beginning.
Thank you for reading Solar Storms, the prequel to the ORBS Series. Book 1, ORBS, is now available on Amazon. As an author there is nothing more fulfilling than hearing from readers and I would sincerely love to hear your opinion on this book. Please leave a review on Amazon when you have a moment. And as a special thank you to fans I will be posting the first two chapters of Book II, Stranded, for free on my website by mid-November, 2013. Stranded will be published on January 1st, 2014. Please also stop by and like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter for updates on the ORBS series. Thank you for reading!
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ORBS
Book I
The year is 2061, and the planet is dying. Cataclysmic solar storms force leaders from around the world to finally put aside their differences and agree on one thing—to jump ship. The human race is headed to Mars.
When Dr. Sophie Winston is hired by New Tech Corporation to test a Biosphere deep within the heart of Cheyenne Mountain, she believes it’s part of the mission to save the world. Their results will help prepare NTC for the three-year flight to the red planet. A flight Dr. Winston has been promised a seat on.
Just days into their six-month assignment, things start to go wrong. When the blast doors hiss open, Winton’s team finds a vastly changed world outside. Humans are gone, vanished without a trace, but they aren’t the only thing missing. The planet’s water appears gone, too.
As the team journeys deeper into Colorado Springs, they find thousands of luminous blue orbs lining the streets. It isn’t until they accidentally uncover what’s inside that they realize the nightmare that has been unleashed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicholas entered the whirlwind of independent publishing in 2013 with the gripping dystopian thriller, The Biomass Revolution, a coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalyptic future after fossil fuels have vanished. Two prequel stories that detail both sides of the revolution—“Squad 19” and “A Royal Knight”—followed shortly after. His new series, Orbs, is a terrifying and suspenseful sci-fi account of a science team working in a Biosphere that finds itself suddenly cut off from the rest of the world. When the blast doors hiss open, they enter the horrifying aftermath of a cataclysmic cosmological event (anticipated release in October 2013). Book II will be out by the time you ring in the New Year.
His writing consistently addresses topical issues such as climate change, immigration, fossil fuels, religion, and war by adding the intriguing twist of science fiction. His motto as an author is, “Forever writing something different,” and he strives to create unique concepts.
When Nicholas isn’t writing, he is more than likely attempting to find innovative ways for his insurance company to revoke his life insurance. An adrenaline junkie at heart, Nicholas exploded onto the triathlon scene in 2012, consistently finishing in the top 10% of his age group in short distance races. In 2013 he decided to up the ante and completed his first Half Ironman in Galveston, Texas and Full Ironman in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. Check out his blog at nvrstoptriing.tumblr.com for fitness and health tips.
An honest gentleman and humanist, Nicholas is known for his compassion. A vegetarian and animal lover, he started the not-for-profit 2RRacing in 2013 with the idea of running a dog in races across the Midwest to raise money for animal welfare. Look for him and his dog on the race scene in 2014 and visit them at 2RRacing.org.
He pays the bills as a project specialist with Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency management where he helps communities recover from natural and man-made disasters. He has undergraduate degrees from the University of Iowa in Political Science and American Indian Studies, and a graduate degree from Drake University in Public Policy. An avid writer and reader his entire life, Nicholas enhanced his writing skills by taking classes at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop as an undergraduate.
Nicholas lives in the Middlesex historic district in his hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, with his dog Bella.
For more info, follow his wave of spilled ink at:
http://nicholassansbury.com
Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
ORBS Book I
About the Author
Solar Storms Page 3