Read 2021 Online

Authors: Martin Wiseman

2021 (13 page)

BOOK: 2021
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Soon it was discovered that the power cut covered an a
rea all the way from Ikiah to beyond the outskirts of Los Angeles itself.

Even Seattle reported feeling the tremor, fortunately though, its power
supply was still intact.

For the people in
the giant power cut area though, it was to be a very long night spent just huddling in the complete pitch dark, waiting for the dawn to arrive.

Chapter Eleven

 

 

Day Two:

8
th
January 2021

California, U.S.A.

 

T
he next day, the whole world was waking up to the news that there had been a massive power failure all along the Californian coast.

In many countries around the world
though, people read about the giant power cut around page seven in their newspapers as it was hardly considered a major news event. Whilst on many television channels it was hardly even mentioned at all.

All over the rest of America
however, it was now front page news.

T
he recriminations soon began as angry relatives unable to even contact their friends and family within the power cut area, now demanded to know when the power would be turned back on!

Soon
, the President found himself under pressure to quickly resolve the matter and so he quickly passed this responsibility on to the power companies themselves.

The power companies however, reported they could find no faults
all along their systems and they were entirely baffled as to what had even caused such a catastrophic failure. They pointed to odd anomalies such as a cable working fine along an area only to then suddenly fail once it reached a certain point. They had never encountered such a strange phenomenon ever before and were simply struggling to even understand how it could even happen.

The President ordered an emergency meeting with th
e power companies chief executives that quickly became quite heated!

In the
end, fed up with hearing endless technical jargon the President just exploded.

‘LOOK! I DON’T CARE HOW YOU DO IT
, BUT I JUST WANT THE POWER FOR ALL THESE PEOPLE PUT BACK ON!
NOW
!’ he demanded angrily.

‘Mr President, we are all trying our best to fix it, but the power just seems to drop off once we reach certain points’ explained one expert engineer.

‘Well just send your engi
neers into those areas to fix them then!’ demanded the President, now unable to hide his frustration.

‘But we have, Mr President, but we j
ust seem to lose touch with our people once they enter the area’ explained one power company head.


You’ve experienced that? We’ve experienced the same thing’ interrupted another power company boss.

‘And
us
!’ agreed another.

‘Then what the hell is going on in these areas?’ asked the President
, now calming down a little as he was beginning to appreciate their
quandary.

‘Mr President, we have no explanation
as to why we can’t contact anyone in these areas. I mean, we have no internet, no telephone, no satellite communications, No CB radio, no mobile phone communications,
or anything at all. We simply can’t communicate with anyone within this power cut area for some reason’ explained one power station boss as all the rest nodded their heads in agreement.

‘This is
just ridiculous!’ uttered the President. ‘If you cannot resolve this soon, I’ll have to declare a state of emergency!’

‘We’re all doing our very best, Mr President’ another company boss assured him.

‘Well then, do better than your best!’ the President smiled.

‘OK
, I suggest we use the Pentagon as our base until we get this situation resolved’ stated the President firmly.

Complaints from peop
le unable to even contact friends and relatives living in the effected area were now increasing dramatically.

Business leaders were also now complaining how it was costing them millions of Dollars for every hour this power problem couldn’t be resolved.

Very quickly t
he power companies and power stations were now all liaising with each other from their new Pentagon base in an all out effort to finally solve the problem, but very soon it became evident something else was going on.

After seeing how angry the President had became last time
, before they reported back to him this time they literally all drew lots to decide who was going to have to inform the President of this new development.

Finally, the unlucky man met up with the President as the power company’s representative.

‘Well? You’ve got some good news
for me I hope?’ asked the President.

The man was already shaking his head.

‘We’re still at a loss as to what is going on, Mr President’ he confessed. ‘Every power company has now sent in engineers fully loaded up with e
quipment, but the moment they enter the effected power cut area, it seems they are never heard or seen of again’ he shrugged.

‘But this can’t be?’ puzzled the President ‘what the hell is going on
here?’ he questioned.

At this stage
, it was still early morning and despite all the power failures covering such a large area, many aircraft were still due to land at international airports such as Los Angeles. These included small private aircraft and helicopters, right up to large passenger jets.

They upon ente
ring the power failure area now all began to simply fall from the sky!

In a single one hour period no less than one hundred and forty five aircraft of varying sizes simply dropped off air controller’s screens!

The President immediately declared an instant state of emergency and ordered all aircraft in the entire United States
to be grounded!

Television news teams themselves flew
small helicopters into the power affected area and were themselves never seen or heard of again!

The President
now alerted the National Guard!

Chapter Twelve

 

 

Day Three:

9
th
January 2021

The Pentagon, U.S.A.

 

E
lectrical engineers, military experts and scientists of all kinds were now all called to an emergency meeting at the Pentagon, and they all argued amongst themselves until the President himself made an appearance and then they were all quiet.

‘Gentleman, I have handed this problem over to General O’Dowd and
I have full confidence in him to finally resolve this matter. So have I your assurances that you will do all you can to finally find an answer to this now disastrous situation?’

Everyone in the room either nodded their heads or answered ‘yes
, Mr President’ so then the President continued.

‘I have no idea what is going on here, but
have to consider whether we are in fact at war and somehow someone has found a way to tamper with and disrupt our power facilities.

‘Mr President
is there any evidence that someone has attacked our infrastructure?’ a scientist now asked.

‘No there isn’t’ the President admitted ‘but I have to consider this could be a case of industria
l espionage on a colossal scale. When our planes are now falling from the sky, it could even be an open act of terrorism or maybe even war declared against us’ uttered the President as many people now gasped in horror. ‘Gentleman, I now have to return to Washington, so we now need answers and quickly please!’

‘Mr President, it could simply be a very unusual atmospheric condition
, such as unusually large sun spots’ suggested one scientist.

‘That could explain the strange sightings in the night sky a few days ago’ agreed another.

‘Well
, we’re not about to suggest dropping bombs on anyone quite yet, Gentleman’ responded the President as he held up his hands to calm everyone down. ‘All I’m saying is, we need to keep an ‘open mind’ on this thing, as it could even be a successful cyber terrorist attack for all we know’ suggested the President. ‘But we need to get this problem licked and quickly, Gentleman, as a great many people have now died and I don’t wish to see anymore die as a result of this. I need to go back to the American people with some answers, Gentleman and quickly!

The Presi
dent then briefly spoke to the General privately before departing.

The moment
the President left the room the arguments all commenced all over again.

General O’Dowd just stood looking at them all and shaking his head, then he shouted loudly to get their attention.

‘THIS DAMN PROBLEM
MUST BE SOLVABLE!’

He now had their
full attention.

‘But
, General, every person we send into the area is never seen or heard of again’ explained an expert in nuclear power.

‘But why are
n’t we hearing from any of your engineers? Did they not have any telecommunications with them?’ asked the General.

‘Yes, all ours did’ answered another man ‘but we still couldn’t contact them o
r apparently them us’ he puzzled.

‘Ours went in with walkie talkie radios
and their own mobile phones but still we haven’t heard from any of them’ another power company engineer then explained.

‘And when we send
someone in to find the ones that went missing, they just go missing too!’ explained another man.

‘What if we send in
surveillance craft to fly in over the area and see what is happening that way?’ suggested a scientist.

‘It won’t work!’ answered a man standing at the back as they all looked around at him.

‘Sorry, I’m Ray White, scientist with NASA’ he introduced himself ‘nothing is able to film over that area, as anything that even passes over it immediately switches off’ he explained.

‘Surely that’s nonsense?’ queried the General.

‘No, even
satellites in space are shutting down whenever they pass over the area as does every single plane, helicopter or any other craft that passes over it’ he explained as they all gasped and then scratched their heads in dismay.

‘What about Mantle Earth they manage
d to photograph my wife sun bathing naked real close up in my back garden last week
?’ suggested someone to some chuckles of laughter.

A man who had
just entered then answered his question.

‘NA
, SORRY! BUT
NOTHING
WORKS!’ he announced as he moved further into the room. ‘I’ve just come from NASA and we rerouted the International Space Station’s orbit to pass over the affected area. Now every time it does, it too suffers a catastrophic power failure. So no one can even view what’s going on in there, even from space, and that, Gentleman is just awesome technology!’ he concluded.


What the heck!’ uttered General Iram.

General O’Dowd noticed him
sitting there.

‘General
Iram, have you any thoughts yourself on this matter?’

‘Could we not approach from the sea using our navy?’ he suggested.

‘Na, tried it! They all went missing too’ repli
ed a chief electronics expert from one of the power companies.

‘Then what the heck
can
we do?’ uttered General O’Dowd in frustration.

‘Er, excuse me!’
a polite voice from the back suddenly interrupted.

‘Yes?’ uttered General O’Dowd ‘and who the heck are you?’

BOOK: 2021
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