Our asteroid survival: A fictitional history of the ten year survival of a large ELE asteroid impact by a small, pre advised, group

by Lionel Woodhead

  In order to help with the problem of waiting in the expectation of a future danger a great effort was made to distract the inmates; especially the children. During this pre impact period mains’ lighting was allowed throughout the shelter as this was provided by the electricity grid and cost us nothing. Entertainments such as soft music, games and film presentations on our largest available screen were available. The use of these facilities, therefore, did not encroach on our apparently large, but actually limited when considered against our potential incarceration period, diesel stocks so was tolerated. In addition our electronic detectors indicated a very low level of emissions from our shelter even at high loading. This being thanks to our carefully designed, though scrappily completed, Faraday cage. These measurements were taken for our future ease as we could now accept that there was a low risk of our transmissions being detected.

  As a preview of the future, after the second extended (will be explained later) period of incarceration in the shelter, virtually none of our group entertainment facilities still operated or, at least, the people were advised that they did not. We provided this misleading information so that the inhabitants would more rapidly accept a regime consisting of a much reduced level of technological support. Those that survived to rebuild our world would have to live within the technology we could sustainable support; until, that is, we could develop something better.

  Any specialist equipment provided by our tenants was taken and tested and, if functional, put into general stores for distribution as considered necessary. These items would later be functionally tested again and, where considered beneficial, allocated to those for whom it would be most useful during the first months of our incarceration. That which was not functioning and irreparable, with anything we had available, was put into an alternative scrap store in the house; nothing was wasted. This work was designed to help morale during this difficult period by giving people something useful and interesting to do. Everything was done to reduce our guests’ time to think.

  Three days before the impact we sent a small party of armed men to the two houses nearest our shelter. We had previously been made aware that they planned to maintain themselves rather than go to the government shelter. On arrival, at their abode, we invited the nine persons there to join us. This invitation, though politely presented, was put rather more forcibly than would normally be considered acceptable. We were, however, in a hurry and knew that we were offering them their only realistic chance of survival. We told them what we were offering and why. The doctor examined them and none were found to have any problem with respect to long term problems or infectious disease.

  To assist them make a positive decision we offered to take a representative, of their choosing, to our shelter. This offer was accepted and we took their representative to view the offered accommodation. During this journey and the period of his visit this gentleman admitted, under our gentle questioning, that although they lived close he had been unaware of our preparations. This was pleasing demonstrating as it did that our care and the false information we had provided had been rather more effective than expected. He advised us that his original reticence at our appearance (we had not noticed) had been because he thought we wanted to steal their very limited reserves.

  The idea that we would have given them a realistic choice was false but we hoped that the view of our better facilities would be decisive. This hope was fulfilled on the return of their representative with his description of what he had observed.

  We had, on originally taking over of their homes, taken the precaution of removing all means of external communication from both their persons and accommodation. This was purely for our security but we honestly believed that it was both necessary and in their best interest as we intended to be their saviours. We had immediately begun a comprehensive search of their homes and organized the collection of all that was, or even might be, useful to us. One of their group had, very fortuitously from our point of view, been a communications engineer and had a fairly substantial collection of antique analogue communication equipment including phones, two small switchboards, electro mechanical switches and relays and other related items that we immediately arranged to take to our shelter.

  They also provided us with an extra three hundred litres of petrol and seven hundred and fifty litres of diesel compatible oil all in portable twenty five litre containers, some additional food and a one Kilowatt petrol generator, a large but old diesel generator (both these units we stored and protected in one of our outhouses as being of no immediate use to us), a very small petrol tractor including special equipment (immediately carefully stored, with our best protection, in our house), a related towing trailer and equipment (including a small plough and hoe) together with additional articles of survival value. For the family members (a total of 9) we, in return for their “kidnapping”, were able to provide them with a realistic chance of survival, reasonable comfort, and two standard residential units.

  Another family of this group had owned a pharmacy and had taken their medicine store and even some more unsophisticated spectacles and equipment, including two old microscopes, to their house. Though they were never asked I considered it was probably their intention to barter their medicine store for whatever they might need in the future. If this had been their intention I considered that customers or even available food, after the disaster, would have made this a non viable business. Although we had a considerable store of the pharmaceuticals, from our initial pharmacist, anything additional by way of expertise or facilities was willingly accepted as a potential benefit to our “original group”.

  Another member of this new group was a cobbler with some limited expertise in basic shoe repair. With us, however, he soon learned to make reasonable shoes. He came with a considerable quantity of shoe repair equipment some of which was electrically powered. This latter equipment we modified, where possible, to human power. His equipment included specialist glues and some key copying equipment. We took all this equipment and facilities to our shelter and the latter key copying equipment was later to prove very useful in copying small metallic objects.

  On their acceptance of our offer we immediately removed all the items, previously designated as useful, from their houses. This was performed using a small lorry, without lights, to remove, in two journeys, the bulk of our new possessions during that evening. The rest was removed by manual means to further reduce the possibility of observation.

  The standard checking of the health of each member of the new group had previously taken place. One unfortunate problem with our takeover was a seriously ill, elderly member of one family; Alison Ramos. The doctor advised that this member would probably not survive the next six months and would soon be in considerable discomfort. I have often wondered what we would have done had we known of this problem before arriving at the homes. Had we decided that we could not accept them we would have lost much. One irreplaceable person, from this group, would have been the cobbler, with his supplies and equipment, who was to prove so beneficial to our future.

  It was uniquely decided that we would take responsibility for the seriously ill gentleman and make him as comfortable as possible, after the initial impact period, in the hospital. When his life became too uncomfortable we advised him that we would provide, at his request, an assisted release. He would be allowed to make his own decision and on his request he would be assisted out of his problem by our doctor who was content, in these circumstances, to provide that service.

  This offer was made partly so that the sight of his suffering would not damage the morale of the inmates. In the situation we were in, at that time, the morale of our group remained absolutely critical; especially during the first few months when, if we survived, nerves would be stretched by the situation. This period we expected to be noisy and not a little uncomfortable for us all.

  The rest of this new group were Mr. Ramos’s son Miguel, his wife Blanca, his son Marcos, 16, and daughter Julia, 15. The other family was Esteban Sanc
hez, his wife Julia and daughter Elaine, 12 and lastly Antonio Sanchez; the cobbler. All these people proved to be in the best of health, integrated well and were quite content with their work allocations.

  During the last, prior to impact, day’s preparations were made to mitigate the expected effects. We tried to be as pessimistic as possible; almost to the point of considering our inevitable destruction. This was necessary on the then quite reasonable assumption that planning for the worst and hoping for the best cannot be detrimental to such a situation. In our situation such an attitude had the benefit of never doing any harm; if the worst does not occur it is a relief.

  The more dangers we could foresee the better the chance that we could optimally protect against them thus reducing their potential effects. One of the most important options was how to find realistic ways of securely protecting our animals. This had led to much discussion between our veterinary and farming personnel which resolved into a rational preservation plan.

  The basics of this protection plan was that the animals and most of the humans (who are also animals) were to remain on the lower animal and sump areas until the effects of falling debris from the impact had reduced to what we considered acceptably. This was the initial plan, on which we based the facilities provided. We knew it was preliminary and would probably be modified by experience but it was an accepted initial plan that we would work with.

  The two young bulls were initially, just after the predicted impact time, strongly sedated and placed in constraints to prevent them hurting themselves and others. These constraints were designed to support their bodies and weight. The cows, also young being almost calves, were similarly, though less forcibly, sedated, constrained and supported.

  The goats and dogs, being smaller animals, were tied down and placed on mattresses. All these animals were given strong veterinary sedatives twenty minutes after the predicted impact time and remained in their constraints for, I believe, six hours after that time. This was probably not the best option but it was all that could be arranged given our inexperience of the expected circumstances.

  The chickens were constrained to an area where they would not aggravate the other animals but were otherwise left to fend for themselves; we could afford limited losses of these animals. Such losses would be good for the pot so not a total loss.

  The bunk beds, with their mattresses, made for the shelter homes were strapped together in groups, for additional rigidity and strength, on the lower animal floor in preparation for the vibration effects we expected. These provided relatively safe places off the ground for human protection against the more extreme of the expected earth movements. Sufficient numbers, for the population of the shelter, would be restored to the houses and hospital when we considered it safe to return and live again on the accommodation floor. The remaining beds would stay, until needed, in the storage area where they would be used as off floor supports for some of our stores.

  All ventilation systems, except those of our power station and cooking area, which might be required during this time and were, therefore, only closed, were closed and sealed from half an hour past the time of the expected impact after which we would be reliant on the millions of litres of air within the shelter. They were to remain closed until the air pressure variations had past. When the air pressure wave had passed the vents would be opened and the ventilation fans started. With approximately forty thousand litres of air per person per floor this was well within any safety margin we could have set.

  While taking a last look at our world we were surprised to find five young persons, in two groups, walking over the mountain. We collected them together and asked what they were doing. Apparently three had been on a bus going to a government shelter. The bus had broken down the previous day and being considered irreparable without garage support most of the passengers had entered a house, taking their stores from the bus, in the hope of surviving the blast and continuing their journey on foot. The three young people had decided to try to reach a government shelter prior to the impact; considering the distance to the nearest known shelter this would have been impossible.

  The other two, a boy and a girl, had been with a group who had set themselves up in a cave; we would find this later on the other side of the valley. They decided that they had not made the correct decision and panicked. They had stolen some food and departed to some distant, unknown to them, place that might be better; not an encouraging plan we thought. Having put themselves in a very precarious position they had the good fortune to be found by us. I have often thought that had we stayed watching the departing world a little longer we might have discovered more useful strays. This idea had not been taken up as we had to make final arrangements within the shelter

  Our new recruits were ushered into the shelter which they initially took to be a government system. They were provided with food and advised to the contrary and advised to make themselves ready for a period of considerable discomfort.

  Three of our new guests were university students, one being a trainee policewoman and another, part of the duo, an odd job man. This latter person, who remained faithful to his partner and her to him, was to prove very useful as the shelter’s maintenance man. The general maintenance task he performed expertly and proved very useful during our period in the shelter. He rapidly learned the intricacies of the systems that had been designed with maintenance in mind.

  One of the trio proved to be a final year university geology student, from the local area, with some training as a chemist. This gentleman was to prove of immense value in developing our chemistry industry and much more when we left the shelter. The lack of this expertise from our original list could have had grave consequences. When we later obtained a second more experienced geologist we were, indeed, blessed.

  One hour before the impact time we all had a hot meal produced by mains electricity in our insulated containers. At the same time we filled two flasks for each inmate; one with hot soup and the other with tea or coffee for all those over 16 and hot soup and a fizzy drink, in a plastic container, for the rest. Those of the adult group could request the hot soup and fizzy drinks option if they wished. All the batteries had been fully charged to provide us with basic lighting if the mains power was removed at an early stage.

  Those with no defined tasks were advised to stay on their bunks for at least six hours following the predicted impact time. They were further advised to use the upstairs toilet within the last 20 minutes of freedom after the impact time and to take items to their rest position that could maintain their interest for, possibly, several days of limited movement.

  Twenty minutes after the impact time the upper toilet suite was flushed and the outlets closed to prevent the potential detrimental effects of the expected pressure wave. Closing all the open outlets took less than ten minutes and was completed well before the first predicted result of the impact; the ground movement.

  The only outlets that remained open, though blocked at the internal end, was for the exhaust and induction tubes of a small, modern, petrol generator, placed on the lower animal floor. The two small, seventy five millimetre, thick sided, flexible, pipes were closed and clamped shut at the generator end to allow easy access to an external orifice after the pressure wave had past. The generator exhaust and induction vents could be set up and connected to the little generator at short notice. Those assigned to this task were provided with battery torches.

  This little generator was, fortunately, not required until later as it would have been potentially dangerous if used continuously for long periods in those circumstances. We intended to use it for a maximum of two hours to provide sufficient light for comfort and reading as this could not be provided in this area if we had to switch to battery lighting in the event that mains electricity should fail.

  If the air quality became too poor, with the cubic capacity of the shelter this would be a very unlikely event, the fans would have been started but this could not be performed until the air overpressure wave had passed and
the emergency downhill air vents were opened. We planned to start a main diesel generator, connected to the downhill vents, after the mains ceased to function though after the pressure wave had passed. The downhill vents would then have been re-opened.

  We planned to restart the entertainment systems showing amusing and light hearted films, as soon as possible to help everyone relax. Soft music was played at all times in areas where other entertainment was unavailable. This I found annoying as all inmates had personal low powered entertainment centres. Unfortunately my contrary request, with respect to the music, was overruled by the majority.

  I have no problem with music, I actually love music, but continuous music during period of generated power I, and several others, found a little trying. Democracy prevailed, however, and I was overruled and the music continued.

  Chapter 5. Impact & Aftermath.

  We were delighted to receive what was for us some good news two weeks before the impact: Firstly a robotic asteroid visit had shown that the asteroid was not a solid object but consisted of a fairly loose amalgamation of dust and boulders. For this reason it was believed that the asteroid would partially break up on passing through the atmosphere. This would have the effect of reducing the primary impact as it would affect us. The impact would remain considerable above gargantuan but it would not be as bad, at our impact distance, as would a similar mass of solid metal or rock. Any breakup of the asteroid on atmospheric entry, however, carried the risk of increasing secondary impacts or high level explosions, like Tunguska, which might adversely affect our shelter. Fortunately this was a relatively low risk at our axial distance from its trajectory and the relatively small atmospheric depth where any breakup might occur. There remained, however, the slim possibility that with the low trajectory some pieces might be deflected by the atmosphere towards us. As I am writing this account we were untouched by such a disaster.