Twenty-one minutes and several hundred million kilometers later, weakened considerably by its expansion, the burst reached Earth. It was first detected by automated observatories on the far side of the Moon. Within nanoseconds, a warning message was generated, and sent Earthward. It read:
UNEXPECTED CELESTIAL EVENT. ORIGIN: EXTRASOLAR. WAVELENGTHS: ALL. TEMPERATURE: 95 MILLION DEGREES. EXPECTED DAMAGE: CATA…
The message never made it.
Philadelphia stood tall, as a showcase of America’s rebuilt cities. Unearthly needles pointed at the sky. Robots labored tirelessly on reconstructing its outer areas. However, one thing had never changed in that city: a love of baseball. A little way outside of downtown, the wrecked MLB stadium had been one of the first structures to be renewed. It was now named Richard Lee Park, after one of the lesser known signers of the Declaration of Independence. The Phillies were playing the LA Dodgers. The game was in its eighth inning, and the stadium was packed to capacity. The sultry summer evening had given way to darkness. Row after row of mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, and people of all colors and creeds cheered their beloved teams on. The smell of hot dogs and popcorn wafted through the air. Children, bored with the game, played with electronic devices. The younger ones laid their heads on their parents’ laps, beginning to drift off to sleep. The jumbotron, a midair display the size of a football field, showed the player at bat, crouching, swinging the slugger in a circular motion, preparing for a fast ball.
Within a second, the sky was twice as bright as midday. The light was accompanied by intense heat. The crowd looked up and screamed as one, shielding their eyes. All sixty thousand rushed for the exits at the same time. Men, women and children were trampled in the stampede. Some fell into the rows below, crashing into others and causing a domino effect. The players ran for the dugouts as fast as they could. The commentator stopped mid-sentence. The air reverberated with terror.
Several million people were watching the game at home on their displays. Suddenly, the screens went blank, replaced by glowing words saying SIGNAL LOST. Then the power went out completely, leaving their homes in darkness. NORAD went dark. DEFCON 5 was ordered within seconds. Satellites ceased broadcasting. Those using neural implants were suddenly jerked back into reality, as their communications were scrambled. They rushed outside. The sight that greeted them convinced them that the end was nigh. They rushed back indoors and began to pray.
The power grid for the entire western world ceased to function. The land heated up, and rising air caused gale-force winds to batter everything. Signs, fences, wires, and some trees were leveled. Windows were blown in. Coastal areas were hit with hurricane force winds, due to the sudden heat differential between land and sea. America, and every country on that side of the planet, was bathed in the intense, unearthly light.
Spacecraft on final approach to the Earth Transport interchange lost all ability to communicate or maneuver. Helpless, they crashed into the terminals, with a groan of metal and exploding glass. Decompression in the terminals was almost instant. People and objects were ejected into space. They soon disappeared, flailing and gasping, into the distance. Pressure doors inside the ETI slammed shut immediately to contain the damage. The force of the outrushing air from the punctured sections nudged the offending ships back. They tumbled slowly away from the station.
Twenty seconds after the sky had apparently exploded, the intense light slowly began to dim. One minute later, it was once again a black, starry summer night in America. The heat had not been intense enough to cause any injuries worse than a bad sunburn. The high winds stopped as quickly as they had started. It was as if nothing had happened—except that every single light was off. Great cities stood in eerie darkness. Displays came back on in homes that had backup power supplies. All their programming had been replaced with one screen. The top was a blue band, bearing the seal of the US Government. Below that was a white band, with the letters U.S.E.C.N. on it. This stood for US emergency communications network. At the bottom was another blue band, with white writing on it: AN UNEXPECTED EVENT HAS OCCURRED. STAY INDOORS AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.
Chapter 37
Kato and Zara hugged each other as tightly as they could, while being pushed against the flat white wall of IIX’s side tunnel. No words were exchanged. “Stand by to warp in forty-five seconds,” was heard over the intercom.
“May as well stay here, instead of trying to climb back to our seats,” Wilson said. “The acceleration will be over soon.”
“Agreed,” Karla said. She touched Zara’s hand, which was presently behind Kato’s back. “You’re freezing, honey! As soon as we can, I want to get you to the med bay and check you over.”
“I’m fine,” Zara snapped.
“But… what were the conditions like in there?”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
A few seconds later, the travelers were weightless again. The view outside went black. “Back in warp,” Mark said. “Now we can float up to the bridge.” Elias and everybody else watched expectantly as the crew floated back into the large circular space, one by one. Zara’s dirty face appeared, framed by greasy hair. There was much clapping and cheering. Elias floated over and hugged Zara. Wilson returned to his station, opened the display, and ran his eyes over the data. “Power output is good. Ablation normal. Data throughput good. WHOA!”
Elias’ head snapped around. “What?”
“The gravitometers are going crazy! This is… this is… nuts!” Wilson shook his head slowly.
“What are you seeing?”
“The gravity well around Ceres…”—he looked up at Elias—“doesn’t exist anymore!”
“How can that be?”
“I haven’t the first clue! The equipment must be off or something.”
Elias blew air out through puckered lips. “How far are we from there?”
“Five-and-a-half million kilometers. I picked a spot in the middle of nowhere, around three hundred and fifty million K away, as our destination. Then we can assess our options.”
“ETA?”
“Four minutes.”
By now, Zara had hugged everybody on board. “You got IIX running again, just for me?” she asked Kato and Martin, as they floated on the left side of the bridge near Wilson’s and Elias’ workstations.
“Yep,” Kato replied. “Well, us and a small army. We did it under the radar, without any official approval.”
“There was some… unpleasantness,” Martin interjected. “A uh… cat fight of sorts.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Kato said. “There’ll be hell to pay when we get back.”
After a long moment, Kato turned to Zara. “Don’t ever scare me like that again!” he said.
“I don’t even know how I ended up being Seung Yi’s prisoner,” she said. “I was with Akio…”
IIX dewarped in the exact spot that Allen had set. The stars and planets reappeared outside. The Sun was about the same size as before, though it was on the opposite side of the ship now. Kato scanned around, and saw that the brightest planets were in completely different locations. He then looked back at Zara. She continued her sentence: “He and I were kind of somewhere we weren’t supposed to be.”
“Yeah, we know,” Kato said, with the merest grin. “He was accused of having something to do with your disappearance.”
“What?”
“Yes. But, we have a dump of his entire memory, proving his innocence. He’s a free man again.”
“Phew! I can’t wait to see him again.”
“You need a bath and a few good meals before you’re going anywhere, young lady!” Karla said in a mock motherly tone. Zara smiled. Her fondness for Karla had not diminished.
Sighs of relief all around. “Holy cow, we did it!” Wilson said. “Nobody got hurt. My God,
am I glad to see you, Zara!”
“Likewise.”
“Never underestimate a small group of determined people,” Elias said.
“So, what happens now?” Karla asked.
“Well, we have a while to think about it,” Elias said.
“And get our story straight?” Allen said, with a half-chuckle.
Everyone and everything turned a blinding white. The occupants shielded their eyes. Elias practically choked. “WHAT IN GOD’S NAME?”
“Holy crap!” Mark yelled. “Is it a supernova or something?”
“I… haven’t a clue!” Wilson said. “Turn the ship and get the science suite on it!”
“Doing it right now,” Mark said. “Grab onto something!”
The bridge revolved quickly around the crew in a counterclockwise direction, until it had spun almost 180 degrees. Nobody had time to grab onto anything. Martin, who was floating near the edge of the bridge, was knocked flying by Elias’ workstation. “Aargh!” The impact sent him rolling around the inside of the circular room, flailing as he tried to stop himself. Nobody paid any attention. The brightness of the virtual viewport was turned down, and they could see again.
“Holy mother of God!” Mark said. Karla shot him a disapproving look. “Okay. Readouts,” he said. “Full electromagnetic spectrum. Heat somewhere just shy of a hundred million degrees. It’s coming from… oh…”
“What?”
“It’s coming from Ceres!”
Wilson turned white. “Oh, my God! The gravitometers were right! It’s just that we saw the effect in spacetime before the light and heat caught up to us…”
“What the hell happened?” Elias said.
“An explosion of incalculable size,” Mark said. “Ceres is, was, a small, inactive, rocky body. It couldn’t blow up if it tried.”
“I was told there were seventy to a hundred million people living there…” Kato trailed off.
“That’s the current estimate,” Wilson said. “Don’t know how many of them lived on Ceres, and how many were on other asteroids…”
“Anything around there is toast as well,” Mark said. “Even if not vaporized, they’d be sterilized.”
“Sterilized…” Elias said, slowly. “As in, cleansed of all life…”
The light slowly diminished in intensity. They could now see that its source was a tiny pinprick in space. Zara was silent. She blinked several times, with a stunned, faraway look on her face. Elias shook his head, looking utterly shocked and bewildered. His lips quivered. Mark studied the instruments’ readouts intensely.
“What… what the hell could have caused it?” Wilson asked shakily.
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Mark said. “It’s absolutely without precedent.” After a moment, he continued; “I hope some observatories recorded it, since we didn’t get the first few seconds. Maybe there’s a clue in the data somewhere…”
“I guess Lana getting punched in the face and Kirsti getting knocked out don’t really matter now,” Kato said. There was complete silence for a little while.
“I hate to say this,” Elias said, “but the timing is very coincidental, don’t you think? We were just there. Do you think it was something aimed at us that went horribly wrong?”
Wilson shook his head. “There isn’t a technology known to man that could have done that. Unless they had something up their sleeves that’s completely new...”
The light had now faded. Darkness was restored outside. Kato suddenly looked as though he were about to be sick. “Guys, how far are Earth and Mars from the explosion?”
“Mars is a very long way away,” Allen said. “The pulse actually won’t have even reached them yet. It will be very weak when it does. Earth, on the other hand, is about equidistant from where we are now.”
“So… Earth didn’t get fried?” Kato asked unsteadily.
“I doubt it,” Mark said. “The outside of our hull only got about twenty-five degrees hotter at its peak. And that only lasted half a minute. So that’s the level of heat they will have experienced, and it’ll have been attenuated by the atmosphere.”
“Phew!”
“Now, all those other wavelengths on the other hand…” Mark said, still studying his instruments. “Lots of light, of course. Plus a hefty dose of gamma and x-rays. Hard to say what the effects will be.”
“S’pose we ought to head for home,” Elias said. “Only we’ll do it the proper way this time: come out of warp at a hundred million kilometers out, and cruise in on ZPR the rest of the way. Actually, nix that. Ten million K. We can get there that much faster. It worked on the way out here.”
Allen half chuckled and shook his head. “We haven’t followed a single safety procedure yet. Don’t see why we should start now!”
“Earth or Mars?” Karla said.
Elias sighed. “Damn good question. I’m gonna say Mars. I wondered if we could be of any help on Earth, but I don’t think we can.” Nods all around.
He turned to Allen. “Get us home.”
“Aye.”
Chapter 38
The plush white furniture in Akio’s living room formed itself to Zara’s body; a half-reclining, half-sitting position, perfect for watching TV. She wore a red blouse and gray sweatpants. To her right was Akio. He wore blue jeans and a white t-shirt. They held hands. He shuffled in a little closer to her, so that they were almost cuddling.
“So tell me, Zara, am I Mr. Right?”
“Look, as I’ve already explained a thousand times,” she said in mock exasperation, barely suppressing a grin, “you’re Mr. Right for Right Now.”
“Ah, a woman’s heart is a strange and mysterious thing,” Akio said, mimicking a fortune teller. “Who can understand its depths?”
Zara shrugged slightly, in her totally casual and relaxed way. “One day at a time, boy.”
“Will you at least stay here with me, while you try to figure out what to do next?”
“Yes. I will promise you that much. I’ll even put up with your dorky friends coming over.”
“So, the smell of popcorn holds much allure for you?”
“When you guys don’t burn it, yes.”
Akio smiled. “And what about model airplane glue? There are many good kits available now!”
Zara rolled her eyes. “Boys. I’ll choose those times to go out. The clubs hold much allure for me.” She paused. “Although, I don’t understand any of the styles or social cues now.” Her tone became more serious. “I don’t understand the world at all, Akio. It’s completely different from anything I remember. It’s changed even in the time I’ve been back. It’s gonna take a while to get acclimated. We have to take it slowly. You understand?”
“Yes.”
“I’m probably gonna wear a disguise most of the time, too,” Zara continued. “I don’t need celebrity status on top of it all.”
Akio nodded. “I can well understand.”
Zara scowled. “No you can’t. You haven’t done battle with that madman—twice—and almost been killed by him both times. The same is true for my dad, too.” Zara’s jaw was clenched. She looked away from Akio, at the window.
Akio sighed. “No, I can’t understand that. I’ve led a pretty sheltered, privileged life.”
“It’s gonna take me a while to deal with all that.” Zara looked back towards Akio. “Until then, I’m kind of a fragile flower. You have to take good care of me.”
Akio merely nodded. He cupped both hands over Zara’s right hand, which he was already holding. She smiled wistfully, and her shoulders dropped some.
“Well, it’s just about time,” Akio said. “I’ll put the show on.”
A floor to ceiling display appeared in front of the window. “Earth News Network is proud to present a two-hour special feature on the momentous events of Eight-Seventeen, an
d the intervening time, named One Month that Changed the World.” The network’s logo flashed past and gave way to an attractive brunette presenter. The camera zoomed in closer to her plastic smile. “Hello, everyone, I’m Cindy Turgeon. Tonight we’ll look back at what has been called the most turbulent period in over a century. To begin with, there isn’t a man, woman, or child alive who doesn’t know what happened one month ago today, on August seventeenth: the apparent self-destruction of the dwarf planet Ceres, a would-be sovereign territory that was home to the Yi Dynasty and MX9 Corporation. The magnitude of the explosion was such that that world was completely destroyed. All attempts to contact survivors have failed. An estimated seventy million people perished.
“The heat and light from that event also caused chaos on Earth. North America, Mexico, and the northern part of South America caught the brunt of the explosion’s energy, at 10:13 PM Eastern Standard Time. The heat caused no direct injuries worse than a bad sunburn. However, the mass panic and instant severe weather conditions are responsible for at least two thousand deaths and eleven thousand injuries. Coastal areas were inundated as hurricane force winds and a monstrous storm surge, caused by the sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, wreaked havoc. Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi have been worst affected. Power was out across most of the continent for about a day. Cleanup efforts continue.” The camera cut to aerial views of wreckage-filled bayou swamps.
“In space, the story was quite different,” she continued. “The Earth Transport Interchange was closed for two days following multiple pressure hull breaches caused by temporarily-disabled spacecraft crashing into it. Ninety-eight people died there, and thousands were stranded until parts of the orbiting station could reopen to traffic.” Zara and Akio looked at each other for a long moment, the severity of the situation weighing on them, and then back to the screen.
“The story of Eight-Seventeen, of course, is intertwined with that of the abduction of Zara Sasake-Robbins by the Yi Dynasty. The Mars Science Foundation mounted a successful rescue effort, using the only ship fast enough to catch the cargo ship in which she was imprisoned: the Interplanetary Interstellar Explorer. This is, of course, the same ship that brought both her and her father back from the brink of existence, to rejoin the human race two-and-a-half centuries after their departure. The fact that IIX was in the vicinity of Ceres mere seconds before the blast cannot be ignored. Many have called for an investigation into whether there is a link between the two events. In order to head this off, the Mars Science Foundation released recordings of the entire rescue operation, as seen from the craft’s external cameras. It tells a story that will in itself doubtless be recounted for generations. However, it does show Ceres as clearly being intact before the ship entered warp. Readings from onboard instruments show the explosion happened fifteen seconds after the ship left.
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