“We’ll do better tomorrow, little buddy. We’ll sleep here tonight and then get up to I-80 and burn this cheap gas away.” He absently kicked the tires and did a visual inspection of the fifth wheel and pigtail connectors between the tractor and trailer. It was something he’d done a thousand times while the tank filled up.
He jumped a little when his phone vibrated in his pocket.
“Shit!”
He yanked it out and looked at the text message. “It’s from Garth!”
It was short and sweet. “Hi dad. Home safe. Can you talk?”
He scrambled to dial the phone.
Please pick up this time.
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, Pennsylvania
Carl’s team took ninety minutes to prepare the radio-controlled tortoise. After the lessons of other failed containment scenarios in the nuclear power industry, his own team had failed to keep the machine fully charged. What a nut-punch.
He thought he was due to have a heart attack for the time he lost, but Carl finally had the tortoise operating inside the airlock of the containment building. The small robot carried a wide array of sensors and crawled on two wide tracks, making it the ideal reconnaissance vehicle for investigating dangerous environments, such as the outside of a nuclear reactor.
“Seal the outer door,” he advised what was left of his team. He’d already initiated a SCRAM shutdown, which was basically turning off the reactor and telling his non-essential people to scram. The nuclear fuel didn’t just turn off, however; there was a long period where radioactive decay continued but at a much lower level. He needed to ensure that cooldown could be done safely.
The outer part of the airlock wheeled shut, leaving the mechanical turtle caught between the two cement vault doors.
“Now, open the inner one,” Carl ordered.
“Roger,” Ken replied. He continued after a short pause. “Door is open, sir. Radiation has flooded the airlock.”
“What level are you getting?” Carl inquired evenly.
“It’s off the scale,” Ken replied with a wobble in his voice.
“Stay focused. We’ve already initiated the shutdown. Let’s see what’s happening in there to make sure it doesn’t get any worse. Maybe we can save some lives, right?”
Ken stood next to his workstation as if he was going to leave, but then he rubbed his bald head with both hands like he was forcing his brain to think. After a few seconds of consideration, he sat back down.
“Good,” Carl went on. “Moving the tortoise inside.”
A screen on the wall broadcast what the black and white camera recorded. The vehicle went inside the round containment chamber, which was about a hundred feet across and one-fifty high. The space was packed with piping, wires, and other equipment, giving it a cramped appearance. The fuel rods were under a heavy metal grating on the floor, but the camera zeroed in on a huge object that did not belong anywhere close to the reactor.
“Sir, are you seeing this?” Ken asked.
Carl nodded but didn’t take his eyes from the old locomotive wedged inside the containment area. The tortoise sent an image that had to be a mistake. A distorted view. A flaw caused by the high radiation. He tried to make sense of it but failed.
If they were going to die because of a meltdown, they were going to die. But the cause of this one was going to confuse the hell out of everyone if he didn’t report it scientifically. He wanted to avoid sounding panicked or mad with the first signs of radiation sickness.
I’m writing my own epitaph, he reflected.
Carl spoke into a mic at his terminal while he watched the robot recording. “Despite the impossibility of what we’re seeing, it appears as if the tortoise is providing one-hundred percent clear footage at this time. I can see the interior of the containment chamber, and I’m able to identify the metal floor on top of the pressurized unit.” He waved to his co-worker. “And I’m including Ken Elfmann in this recording. Say hi, Ken. Show them your bald head.”
“Hello,” Ken replied. He waved glumly to the interior camera that was part of the recording apparatus throughout the plant.
“We are both observing the camera, and we can both confirm there is an object lodged inside the containment chamber, and it appears to be big enough to have affected the pumps at the very least, and maybe the core itself.”
He spoke to the other man. “Can you tell the recording what it is we’re looking at inside the sealed concrete bunker of Unit 1 at Three Mile Island Generating Station?”
“Yes, sir. It appears to be a huge diesel locomotive. It is sticking straight up out of the floor as if it got buried there. I can easily identify Union Pacific on the side, and the engine itself is labeled as Valkyrie.”
“Thank you, Ken. I confirm his observation. For those watching this later, we both have our full faculties. The film will prove what we are now seeing. By some miracle of time and space, a giant train engine has appeared in my reactor room. There’s no telling what damage is down there, and for the record, I have no idea how it got there.”
All at once, the video jerked, and a tremor shook the control room. The big wall clock fell with a crash. When the image came back, the diesel monster fell a few feet more through the containment floor. He imagined the weight crushing the pressurized system, which would blow coolant water all over the insides of the room, turning it to steam. That would expose the fuel rods—
“Radiation spike!” Ken screamed. He ran for the door and didn’t look back. The few other employees who’d braved it out took that as their cue to follow him.
“Well, fuck.” Carl sat back in his chair and did his best to maintain professionalism. As the old saying went—if he ran, he’d only die tired. There was no escaping what was coming out of that busted core: radiation-laced steam.
He leaned up to the microphone.
“I’ll report this train wreck to the bitter end.” He thought about it for a second, realizing he’d told an accidental joke. “May God have mercy on all our souls.”
Twenty-Nine
Search for Nuclear, Astrophysical, and Kronometric Extremes (SNAKE). Red Mesa, Colorado
Faith’s whole crazy day led up to her press conference. She’d scheduled it for 7:00 that night figuring only Benny from the Denver Post would show up. However, the word went out in the Front Range community, and several TV stations sent film crews with big-name reporters to stand in front of the cameras.
She looked out on the crowd from her place at the lectern, a little nervous but also excited. She had slides and videos lined up for after her introduction. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming this evening. I don’t want to keep you long, so I’ll get right to the facts.”
The auditorium was another piece of the sprawling underground campus. It was designed to hold 2,000 people, but most of the seats were empty. About two hundred scientists and admin staff mixed in with the reporters.
“This place, as most of you know, is called Search for Nuclear, Astrophysical, and Kronometric Extremes, or as we lovingly call it, SNAKE. Put in simple terms, the name means we delve into the nature of reality. We hope to discover the true form of dark matter, and we expect to know more about the context of time itself.”
After the opening, she scanned the crowd to make sure they were paying attention. It pleased her to see everyone’s faces on her, not their phones.
“This facility was finished last year, having been built by a consortium of private enterprises in cooperation with the University of Colorado. It currently houses eight hundred and fifty-five personnel, but once all the offices and labs are in operation, it can hold three thousand.”
She looked down on her staff. They were the people she’d been working with to solve the mystery of the shutdown. Dr. Stafford and the computing team sat on the left. Dr. Chandrasekhar and the physics group sat near the middle. A cluster of people in the back represented the facilities people. All flavors of engineers sat to the right. Mindy and the rest of the administr
ative group sat up front. She thought of them as five galaxies filled with stars.
Even Donald had made it, although he was a lone star in the last row.
“The science and materials community has come together at the SNAKE campus to push technology beyond limits thought impossible just three years ago. The Rocky Mountain Hadron Collider is the perfect synthesis of magnets, cryogenics, vacuum, and superconductors to explore the raw power of the universe. To house it, we’ve used the newest tools in engineering to burrow out a sixty-two-mile loop under the foothills and hogback of the greater Denver region.”
It was boilerplate press material, but she’d done enough of these talks to know to always include background data. She looked at it as a way to build up to the main point of the night, which was going to be her revelation that SNAKE might have caused the world-wide blast of blue light. At least, that was the plan when she started talking.
Her mouth spoke the words on the printed page in front of her, but her brain went elsewhere. It focused on something Bob used against her as a joke, or an insult, during one of their heated exchanges earlier in the day.
Hell, maybe we caused all the world’s problems. That would be the ultimate roundhouse kick to SNAKE’s beanbags.
Bob jokingly blamed SNAKE and her leadership for the blue light. She was convinced he didn’t know how right he was, but she couldn’t let go of how it made her feel. To be described as the cause of the whole world’s problems disturbed her on a fundamental level. They were doing science for the good of humanity, not to cause it harm.
That was why Bob made the biting implication in the first place. He knew even a harmless joke about it would drive her crazy. She was disappointed in herself for still thinking about it, even there on the stage, but the more she mulled over his words, the more it morphed into a dark presence in her thinking.
The press people spread out in front of her wouldn’t care about nuance. She knew from hard experience that they would turn on her faster than a poked bear if they found out she was personally responsible. Had Bob’s insult become a cautionary tale for her?
“One of our first experiments on the main supercollider was done in conjunction with Azurasia Heavy Industries.” Her eyes surfed the crowd in search of Mr. Shinano, but he wasn’t there. “Unfortunately, AHI was on the system when the worldwide blue light shut it down prematurely.”
If she revealed to the world that SNAKE was responsible for the mysterious interference, would it really help solve the mysteries elsewhere in the world? Hours ago, she would have said yes. Now? It might slow the research down.
“The reason we brought you here tonight was to explain what we know about that shutdown…”
You can’t tell them the truth. Not yet. Of all the messed-up things, Bob was right.
Her pause dragged on because she wasn’t sure what to say next.
Don’t be a hero after the battle is won. It was something her grandpa used to say. The first battle was figuring out SNAKE was responsible, but she didn’t have to go any further and get the world involved. That would bring interference and inevitable slowdowns. It was possible she’d be fired even if she was hailed for revealing the truth. None of it would help her SNAKE team solve the mystery of the energy burst, and time could be a factor.
“We don’t know what shut it down,” she said in a businesslike voice.
“STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!” a man shouted from the back of the room.
Men in black business suits filed in through the rear doors and went down the side aisles. A handful of military men in blueish-camo uniforms came in through the middle door at the back and stood by their leader, probably a general—the man who shouted at her.
The gaggle of press stood up and looked at the cause of the disturbance. Cameras slewed to take in the interruption.
The military official continued talking. “You will stop this press conference and remain seated. Elements of the United States Air Force and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation are here to maintain security within SNAKE while we ascertain the validity of a possible terrorist threat.”
Oh, shit.
She stood aside from the lectern and watched as the official came down the middle aisle and hopped up onto the stage with her.
He spoke quietly. “Ma’am. I’m General Smith from North American Aerospace Defense Command. Is there somewhere we can talk?”
The blood in her veins ran cold as she imagined all the trouble she was in. Not only was he a real general, as she guessed, but he had brought the entirety of the government with him. Whether true or not, that was all she could see.
“Yes,” she croaked. Faith led him to a private reception area. He and some of his men followed her in. A female guard shut the door and stood next to it. The soldiers weren’t toting rifles, but all of them had pistols hanging from their belts, even the general.
“Is my team in any danger?” she asked once everyone was inside.
General Smith’s face was grim. “You are Faith Sinclair?”
“Yes, sir,” she answered dutifully.
“Ms. Sinclair, did you tell anyone outside of this facility SNAKE was responsible for the worldwide energy pulse?”
It took her by surprise. “You mean the blue light?”
“Is that what you call it?” he asked. “Is that a scientific name?”
“No,” she admitted, still off her guard. “It is what the news calls it.”
He spoke like it was the most important meeting of his career. “We’ve tracked the blue light back to this facility and got here as quickly as we could. It is critical you tell us: Have you revealed the truth to anyone on the outside?”
She shook her head, not really thinking of the implications. “There isn’t even anyone inside the lab who knows. I just found out a little while ago we were responsible. I had slides…”
General Smith appeared taken aback. He looked at his watch. “It has been almost eight hours since the event. No one in here knows you were the ones who blasted the world with…whatever it was?”
“No. We knew about the blue light right away, but it didn’t happen here. We kept working on the assumption the light blew our link with the Denver power grid. It was what happened, but not in the order we first thought.”
The general rubbed his chin as if considering a complicated chess move.
“Dr. Sinclair, this might be the most crucial action you ever make as a scientist. I’m asking you NOT to tell the world SNAKE is responsible for the blue light.”
She couldn’t contain her surprise, and she had a million questions, not the least of which was how he discovered her lab was the source, but he held up a hand to stop her from voicing those thoughts.
“Things are worse than you can imagine out there. Infrastructure has been knocked out. People are missing. Time itself has shifted certain, uh, assets of the U.S. military.”
Time? That grabbed her attention.
“If the world finds out all their problems started at this laboratory, where do you think they’ll go to exact a little revenge?”
“Here?” she responded.
“Here,” he repeated with authority. “So, you see why I stopped your briefing?” The general stood ramrod straight. “Let me ask you again. Is there anyone you’ve told outside this facility?”
There is one person.
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
It took Destiny and the two men ten minutes to float down the creek to safety. They did have to duck under a few fallen trees, but she kept the guys floating through the tight spots until they cleared the Wollemi Park fire and reached the blacktop.
Stephen even managed to salvage his bag of wine. While they sat next to the road and caught their breath, he offered her a drink. “Want to celebrate?”
“No,” she admitted. “I just want to find out what happened to my team.”
Stephen ran his fingers through his dirty beard and turned serious. “Miss. I have a confession to make.”
“You
aren’t married, are you?” She figured he was going to try hitting on her. It was flattering, but not in a million years would it happen.
Stephen chuckled. “I wish that’s all it was. We really are married. No, the thing is…me and me brother, here…we started your big fire.” He pointed to the coal-black smoke behind them.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of a thing with us. We drive into the forest, you know, where no one will ever find us, then we drink a bunch of wine while we cut our limit on wood. We’re usually so knackered afterward, we lay down and sleep it off. It was cold last night, so we burned some of the wood to keep warm, but…” He gritted his teeth. “It got away from us. We woke up to a rager.”
None of it surprised her. She could almost sympathize. “I had the same rude awakening. That, plus the blue light.”
“We’re real sorry, miss,” Christian added.
“It’s all water under the burning fire,” she joked.
Over the next several hours, she said good-bye to her two rescuers, hitched a ride to Sydney, and made it into her flat.
Before she did anything else, she used her landline to dial the Sydney Harbor Foundation and confirm her team was still alive.
The over-the-phone reunion lasted several minutes as numerous colleagues hopped on the line to say they were sorry for leaving her. They all had the same excuse: they thought she died when she fell into the fire. They attempted to fly the drone to confirm her status, but they lost contact with it as it got close to her prone body. The team’s leader said there was no choice but to abandon her. The fire was rushing to cut off the entire valley, and all their lives were in danger.
Destiny was too tired to be upset. She hung up the phone and promised to kick some asses another time.
“I’m alive. That’s what matters. And I saved two lives doing it.” It buoyed her spirits to know she helped the two men, but her emotions cratered again when she saw herself in the mirror.
“My god, who are you?” she asked the reflection. Her dip in the water had done a fair job of cleaning her shirt and shorts, but her face was smudged with soot as sure as if she worked in a coal mine.
End Days Series Box Set [Books 1-4] Page 24