Wanda

by carl smothers

  “Isn’t it amazing how they can analyze your communication style and personality without being overly invasive?”

  “Yeah. It was like having a supercomputer in my head, ready to work seamlessly with my mind at an instant’s notice. The mental processing speeds and capabilities were staggering.”

  “I told you it wouldn’t invade your personal thoughts.”

  “Yes, you did. I guess you have to experience it yourself. It’s an experience I’ll never forget.”

  “I agree,” Scott replied. “Let’s go eat.”

  “I think we’re done here. All of the people I have talked to are ready to cooperate when we get back. I just hope we’ve got most of the bullshit behind us.”

  “I couldn’t agree more, my friend.”

  ~~

  An ISA space shuttle ferried Scott and Harry from the low earth docking facility back to STL. The sleek craft touched down on the landing pad close to the STL terminal building. Andy and Pepper waited at the bottom of the stairway.

  The doorway opened and Harry and Scott emerged. Pepper wrapped herself around Harry so tight he almost lost his breath. The intense kiss made him dizzy.

  “I’m so happy to have you home,” Pepper said. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, with all my heart.”

  He kissed her again, secure in the warmth of her embrace. Both couples bid each other a temporary farewell, then left to be alone and enjoy some time together.

  Harry was growing weary. The last five years seemed like a roller coaster ride that had threatened to derail them at every turn. Somehow, they had managed to hang on, overcome and wiggle out of some difficult situations. The future was not clear to him.

  Chapter 60

  United Nations

  Brussels, Belgium

  Harry waited for Scott to arrive at the UN and present their findings about the sun. The black hole threat was minor compared to the impending catastrophe the people of the Earth now faced. President Grant and Scott Kimberly have their work cut out to convince this UN bunch. I‘m sure there will be some that won’t believe us. It’s hard to accept the fact our world will soon be destroyed. Black holes and the end of the world. When are we going to get a break? He thought.

  “How’s Andy?” Harry asked.

  “She’s great. In fact, I asked her to marry me and she accepted.”

  Harry was thrilled. Scott had grieved terribly and needed someone. He was so happy for his old professor and friend. “Congratulations and best wishes. I’m so happy for both of you. Have you set a date yet?”

  “Not yet, but I hope it’ll be soon. She’s such a wonderful woman. Besides, if I don’t marry her soon, she’ll clean out my bank account. No one has ever has beaten me so bad playing golf.”

  Harry laughed, and then reflected on his and Pepper’s relationship, as well as that of his other friends. He so wanted to marry Pepper, but he wasn’t certain there was a future for any of them. Their world was ending and nothing was certain going forward.

  “Well, you ready to face the mob?”

  “I guess so but I’m not looking forward to it,” Scott replied. “Damn, I’d rather have a root canal than face this bunch of nuts.”

  The UN General Assembly was packed. Kimberly knew there would be enormous skepticism. He wished he were back at Cal Tech where things were simple and structured. Never in his wildest dreams, did he imagine one day he would stand in front of the United Nations and tell them the world was ending.

  Parliamentary issues completed, UN General Secretary Moon gave the floor to President Grant.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow diplomats and statesmen, we have come here today to discuss a matter of great urgency, so I’ll get straight to the point. As you know, we detected a serious problem with our sun. Testing and simulation indicate we have about fifteen years before the sun will undergo a change that will cause a solar storm of a magnitude so great, it will literally blow the atmosphere from Earth, making it uninhabitable by man or beast.”

  “Who would do such a stupid thing?” one ambassador yelled.

  “We have intelligence that suggests it was most likely caused, we think, by the MOA,” Grant replied. “They directed a black hole weapon at the sun causing irreversible damage.”

  In the uproar, several diplomats voiced their disbelief. “Who came to these preposterous conclusions, and why are you accusing the MOA?” One diplomat yelled.

  “As I said, we have Intel that corroborates that the MOA did this. We just don’t know why. The damage is real, and it’s based on scientific findings verified by Earth’s top solar scientists. I’ve asked Dr. Scott Kimberly, the head of our scientific investigation team, to address you. With that I yield the floor to Doctor Kimberly.”

  There was no applause as Scott took the podium. His pulse pounded, he trembled slightly and felt sweat invading his underarms. In the days of vaudeville, they’d probably be throwing cabbages and tomatoes at me right now. He cleared his mind, and then proceeded with the bad news.

  “Good morning. I recently headed an international scientific team on the Kandar starship, Galaxy 10, to investigate and verify the fatal damage to our sun previously reported by the Kandarians. I assure you, neither the technology nor theoretical knowledge exists to correct the damage.”

  “How do we know this data and its conclusions are accurate?” Another diplomat asked.

  “The test results have been published, and we’ve invited anyone to respond if they have any issues with it. We have replied to every inquiry we received. I will try to make our findings simple.” Kimberly took a drink of water. They are not going to believe a damn word I say. Better watch out for the tomatoes. He silently chuckled at his own joke.

  “As many of you know, the sun goes through a solar cycle roughly every eleven years. At the solar minimum, there’s virtually no solar flare activity. At the maximum, sunspot activity is at its peak and flaring is considerable. Ordinarily, the Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the onslaught of radiation caused by solar flares. The visible result is the Aurora Borealis, which we call the Northern Lights. During a flare, ionized particles are trapped in Earth’s magnetic field and dance around the poles, but as activity increases, it is not unusual to see the lights migrate as far south as Cuba. The greatest solar storm on record occurred in 1859, and scientists refer to it as the perfect solar storm. Our technology at the time was mainly the telegraph and little damage was reported.”

  A delegate raised his hand. “Yes, sir?” Kimberly asked.

  “Sunspot activity has been going on for billions of years. It’s a normal activity, so why should we fear it? Also, we have much more sophisticated technologies in place to protect our systems from damage than we had in 1859.”

  “If what we were reporting was a normal event, we wouldn’t be here today. The fact is the normal differential rotation of the sun has been changed, and the sunspot distribution broken into hundreds of small plasma wells.”

  Another delegate raised his hand. “Doctor Kimberly, we’re diplomats not scientists. Why are small sunspots of concern?”

  “Unlike Earth, the sun’s surface at the equator rotates at a different rate than the pole areas. The result is, the magnetic fields become very distorted and twisted. If one looks at the sun, you will find a virtual maze of twisted magnetic fields made visible by the plasma caught in these loops. All sunspots, or plasma wells, have such magnetic fields.”

  “I’m sorry, Doctor Kimberly,” the Algerian ambassador said. “You’re not telling us anything new.”

  “I intend to, sir. As these magnetic fields get more and more twisted, they store increasing amounts of unstable energy. Eventually, these magnetic fields become so gorged with energy they erupt and spew high intensity x-rays and millions of tons of ionized particles — or plasma — into space. We call this a coronal mass eruption, or CME. It’s not a problem unless the sunspot is pointing directly at Earth when it erupts. In that case, it can cause issues with weather, communi
cations and power grids. The phenomena that caused this rotation problem also broke the normal sunspot distribution from, say, a hundred maximum to about one thousand small ones.”

  “Doctor Kimberly, Doctor Rasmutin Awar of Poland. It would seem, sir, that smaller sunspots would not be an issue since they would normally not have the ability to store much energy.”

  “That’s generally true, but in this case the change in the rotation rate is causing the small spots to store energy equivalent to much larger ones. Frankly, I have never seen data that shows the magnetic loops so twisted and brimming with energy, and it’s continuing to build. The amazing thing is their ability to hold so much energy without erupting. Quite frankly we don’t fully understand this mechanism.”

  “I’ve seen that data, but if they don’t align at the equator and point at the Earth then this is a non issue,” Kimberly’s nemeses remarked.

  Impatient with this man, Kimberly held his cool. “The simulations we conducted showed the sun’s solar cycle maximum will occur in about fifteen years. At that time, the sunspots will migrate to the equator, and there will be a large number of them pointing at Earth, each with magnetic fields overloaded with unstable energy and filled to absolute maximum capacity.” He paused briefly to catch a breath.

  “Between now and then, each year we will see progressively more solar flare energy thrown at Earth. The simulations show the Aureoles Borealis will start marching closer to Earth’s equator each year. Within fifteen years, we’ll see the absolute perfect solar storm. It will be so great it will overcome the Earth’s magnetic field and literally blow the atmosphere away from our planet. Nothing can survive this, and nothing can prevent it.”

  The Assembly was deathly quiet as the delegates absorbed the information. Kimberly didn’t know how to take this silence. Finally, a delegate raised his hand.

  “I’m Doctor Olmo Zonrich of the Ukraine. Sir, we do not agree with your results. We’ve run our own simulations, and don’t get the same answers. We think our models are the best in the world. I believe you people are playing Chicken Little and trying to convince us the sky is falling.”

  “Doctor Zonrich, if you understood the data, you should have seen that we validated the results. The simulations are correct.”

  “Again, sir, that’s your opinion, and one not shared by others.”

  “The diplomat from Algeria is recognized” the General Secretary announced.

  “Doctor, my scientists agree with the Ukraine. I recommend we adjourn this meeting and let other people have more time to look this preposterous story over.”

  The General Secretary struck his gavel and adjourned the meeting for fifteen days.

  ~~

  Two weeks later, the UN General Secretary opened the meeting and yielded the floor to the Algerian ambassador — a known associate of Sheik Oganda, and a staunch opponent to anything the Western powers proposed.

  “Mister Secretary, our scientists have reviewed the reports supplied by the scientific team headed by Dr. Kimberly. Sir, we respect Dr. Kimberly as an internationally acclaimed physicist, but in this case, we are convinced his data is flawed or faked. This whole thing about the sun is a fabrication. I think the Kandarians and United States are in this together and using it for some type of power play.”

  President Grant jumped up — his black face cringed with anger. “Mr. Secretary, I’m outraged by this accusation. How can anyone in his right mind think we would invent this danger? It is not political. People can’t hide their head in the sand and hope this goes away. It will not. If we do not prepare for it, every person on Earth will die.”

  “What sort of plan do you have in mind?” The Russian ambassador asked.

  “We’re going to relocate our people to a beautiful planet called Terra, twenty-eight light-years from us. The Kandarians and we have surveyed the planet and found it almost identical to Earth,” Grant said.

  The Assembly was still and no one said anything for what seemed an eternity. The idea of relocating an entire population to another world was obviously hard to comprehend. Finally, the Chinese Ambassador stood and asked, “Assuming what we’re hearing is true, relocating the Earth’s population is an undertaking beyond our capabilities. I can’t imagine how one would even attempt such a feat.”

  “The United States, with assistance from the Kandarians, has developed wormhole technology. We have used it to go to other worlds light-years from Earth. As many of your scientists know, we also used the technology to park the deep space telescope, Outpost, in orbit near Alpha Centauri. Astronomers from countries all over the world are currently using it.”

  “That would seem to serve the needs of the United States, Mr. President but what about the rest of the world?” One delegate inquired.

  “We would transition this technology and strategically locate it so every country in the world can use it to relocate their people,” Grant replied. “The U.S., ISA, and the Kandarians will provide Spacecraft transport. We’ve already identified a team to take charge of the technology transfer and assist other countries in bringing it on-line. We can start this within a few months. As to relocation, I would like the Kandarian Ambassador, Dr. Adrianas Kronow, to respond.”

  The ambassador rose. “Thank you. PTO 381 or as we like to call it, Terra, orbits a sun almost identical to yours. It’s very nearly the same as Earth in all respects, and has no advanced life forms. The landmasses and oceans are pristine, and it is a beautiful world. We would offer this to our friends on Earth. In fact, the United Sates and we have agreed to take representatives from your nations to visit Terra as soon as we can get it arranged. Over the next year or so, we recommend you work out territorial agreements and start the logistics and planning for the move. We’ll help in any way we can.”

  The Algerian Ambassador stood and shook his fist at the President. “Sir, I said it before and I will say it again. This is the most ridiculous fraud anyone has ever tried to perpetrate on anyone. You insult our intelligence with this craziness. This is a pure and simple political power move, and we’re not buying in.”

  With that, he stormed out of the UN, followed by most of the ambassadors from surrounding Middle Eastern countries. Oganda’s propaganda machine had already embittered most of them against the plan.

  Grant was stunned. The UN ambassadors had called him a liar and a thief. He glanced at Ambassador Kronow and shook his head. “It looks like we’ve failed to convince them. Well, regardless of their positions I plan to go ahead with the planning for relocation. We have no choice.”

  “I thought you might. It’s amazing how irrational they are,” she commented. “The test results and conclusions are irrefutable.”

  Chapter 61

  Weapon Facility

  Waziristan Valley, Pakistan

  Yasaid arrived at the Weapon Facility early morning. He was excited to get the latest status and to witness the power of their new weapon. This was the start of the war. The infidel dogs and all of their enemies would bow at their feet and beg for mercy. He was nervous about taking on the superpowers, but if the sheiks strategy was right, they too would whimper and fall.

  Olmid met him at the front gate with a utility cart to take him to the main control room.

  “Good to see you again,” Olmid said with a smile. We’ve been expecting you.”

  “I’ve missed you too, old friend. Do you like being Head of Security?”

  “Yes, although it does get a bit lonely out here in the valley, away from my lady friends.”

  “Perhaps I can arrange a visit to Anwar for you.”

  “Sounds like a great idea,” he replied. “I’d appreciate it very much.”

  Olmid let Yasaid out when they arrived at the control room entrance doors. “I’ll see you later. I have to make sure no one followed you. It is great to see you again. May Allah be with you.”

  Yasaid took the elevator to the general’s office, where Sone and Dr. Lieu met him.

  The three discussed the project over tea. “Gen
tlemen, the sheik is ready to launch our first attack. What’s your status?”

  The general looked at Lieu. “Why don’t you answer?”

  “The black hole weapon system is fully operational. We’re ready to commence operations and attack as soon as the sheik gives the order.”

  “Excellent. General, if you will, please link us with the sheik. You know the number.”

  The general entered the codes to Yasaid’s home in Anwar. After a few rings, the sheik appeared on the communication video screen dressed in his best ceremonial robes.

  “Gentlemen, are we ready to launch an attack?”

  The general replied. “The system is fully operational, Your Grace, and we can attack as soon as you give the order.”

  The sheik did not attempt to hide his feelings. “I’m very delighted. Our intelligence tells us the SWG has called a secret meeting in Beirut to discuss their failed attack and plan additional moves against us. I think this is the precise time to strike and it’s a good test for our new weapon. Most top SWG leaders will be in Beirut. Let’s plan the attack at 6 p.m. tomorrow night.”

  “Why Beirut? What about Mogadishu? It’s their secondary hub,” Yasaid questioned.

  “The Beirut attack will send a message of fear and panic to the entire world. “

  “Why not finish them immediately?”

  “Two reasons. First, a delay will increase the uncertainty and fear in the world. Second, the SWG will regroup in Mogadishu within a day or two, so a second, delayed strike will ill finish them. This attack will put the final nail in their coffins.”

  Chapter 62

  White House

  Washington, D.C.

  The President of the United States, Taylor Ulysses Grant, sat at his desk reviewing his daily schedule when his private video link rang. His National Security Advisor, Dr. Igor Romanoff was on the line. “Mr. President, I have some strange and disconcerting news.”