2040 Revelations (25 page)

‘So what do you propose?’ Maria grumbled, her defiance deflated but not gone.

‘I say we look after them and act as normally as we can. In the meantime, Julie, come with me, I need your help.’

‘With what?’ Julie said.

‘Just some clothing I got recently,’ she told her. Rebecca left the room and led Julie back to her apartment. On entering, she quickly turned on the TV, hooked up her phone and scanned the local information feeds. Thankfully, much to her relief, no disturbances had been reported. Switching it off, she went over to a cupboard and opened it up to reveal two large bulging black sacks.

‘Help me with these, will you?’ she asked her friend as she passed a heavy sack to her.

‘This weighs a ton what have you got in here?’

Rebecca tapped her nose mysteriously and winked which eased the tension in Julie’s face.

‘Just some supplies in case things get a little ugly.’

‘Like what?’

‘Wait and see,’ Rebecca said, as she hefted her own bag down and shut the cupboard door.

Chapter Fourteen

Impact Day

Space, a cold deep expanse, an endless void interspersed by spherical bodies of matter and energy so large they defied comprehension. And within this cosmic eternity the solar system continued to perform its majestic dance without pause. Sunlight glinted off the surfaces of Earth’s oceans as the Sun edged out from behind its silhouette. Wispy white cloud structures slipped across a new dawn as a dark shape loomed large above, still distant but closing impossibly fast.

Barely noticeable on the very limit of the planet’s gravitational field, bisecting Earth and the blackness of space, a small craft manoeuvred into position. Rays reflected off its white casing and small irregular jets of gas vented out into the vacuum surrounding it.

‘This is Orbiter One, we are prepped and a go for live feed, Houston.’

‘Orbiter One, we are reading you five by five. Live feed is a go.’

‘We are tracking two targets, Houston, as expected. Velocities and trajectories are following observational data and impact sites will be unchanged. I repeat, impact sites will be unchanged, Houston.’

‘Roger that, that’s a visual and confirmed telemetry check, thank you, Orbiter One. Please ensure all secondary and tertiary recording systems are activated and data transmission is shielded as per simulations.’

‘We read you, Houston. We are proceeding as directed, Orbiter One out.’

‘Copy, Orbiter One.’

Tyler Magnusson shifted his seat one hundred and eighty degrees to take in the view from the nano fabricated observational window on the U.S.S.S. Orbiter One. His fellow astronaut, Ivan Sikorsky, sat beside him for what was going to be the biggest show on Earth ever witnessed. At the flick of a few switches and tapping of buttons Tyler dialled in the telescopic digital head-up display and brought up the tracking window. The asteroid had reached the final transition towards Earth’s atmosphere.

‘This is it then,’ he said to Ivan.

‘These glasses will protect us from the flash, won’t they?’ Ivan asked him as he fidgeted nervously with them.

‘So they tell me,’ Tyler said. ‘If in doubt just don’t look.’

‘What, and miss the greatest ever event in history? I don’t think so.’

Tyler twisted a couple of dials overhead, their tiny cams clicking for each notch moved, and then checked the countdown timer. It read one minute five seconds.

‘Here we go,’ Tyler said and they both pulled down their visor glasses to block out the blinding light of the impact that was about to occur. ‘All camera video streams are recording across the board, let’s enjoy the show.’

The two men gazed out into deep space with the shining light of Earth on their left.

AG5 2011 hurtled towards them, now clearly visible with the naked eye. In a heartbeat it was past, shooting through the thin layer of gas surrounding the planet. Moving at nine miles a second, the asteroid cut like a burning comet through the sky below. A brilliant flash of white light eclipsed their field of vision, momentarily blinding them despite their protective glasses. A yellow dome erupted from the centre of the light, ever climbing and widening as the impact explosion shattered everything in its path. The first tsunami streaked out like a ripple on a pond, except this ripple was a mile high and travelling at one thousand miles an hour. A smaller trail of smoke indicated the course of AG5 Minor, which had impacted in India at roughly the same instant as the main strike off the South African coastline.

A dark cloud rose up from the primary impact zone, and a haze from a great plume of steam expanded alongside it as water rushed back into the massive crater left by the asteroid.

‘I hope they managed to get everyone out of the way of the smaller one in time,’ Ivan said.

Tyler nodded in solemn agreement. Houston had told them the people were being evacuated, and that was some time ago, so hopefully casualties had been minimal. He flicked a switch as the show below still unfolded in what looked like slow motion from so far away, but which in actuality occurred at frightening speed on the surface.

‘Houston, are you getting this?’

‘Copy, Orbiter One, we have one hundred per cent data conversion down here, not a packet lost, good job.’

‘Tyler?’ Ivan said.

Tyler looked over at his colleague, who still looked intently at the planet.

Ivan pointed far off to the horizon, thousands of miles away from the impact zone. ‘What are they?’

Tyler looked back down following the path of Ivan’s finger. He squinted, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. About a dozen small trails were arcing up from the surface in unison. At the tip of each trail a small bright light pulsated, a pinpoint from their distant vantage point.

‘They look like rocket trails, don’t they?’

Ivan was right; that’s exactly what they were. Another wave had launched behind the first, perhaps twenty more. Tyler brought the reserve camera online and positioned it on the area. ‘Houston, this is Orbiter One. I’m sending you an additional feed. There appears to be some ballistic activity over China.’

A silent pause hung in the air as he waited for a response.

‘Copy, Orbiter One, we’re receiving your new signal. Decrypting.’

Tyler watched the trails drop back to the surface, where small domed lights sprang up as each one struck, and it dawned on him what he was seeing. A nuclear attack!

‘Houston, we have confirmed multiple detonations, over.’

‘Copy, Orbiter One, we see them too. Utilising one of our satellites it seems the Chinese have launched a full blown nuclear strike on Japan and South Korea.’

‘Dear God,’ Ivan said.

‘Copy that, Houston,’ Tyler said, watching in horror as rockets lifted off in a return volley from Japan. ‘And may God protect us.’

♦

Rebecca sat in her room, resting, while checking the BBC news show on her TV display. She had witnessed the image of the meteorite hitting the Indian Ocean and multi-image videos informed viewers about the progress of each wave, fire, earthquake and dust cloud from the main site. She brought up another channel; the same images played out. She tried another and another, and another three after that. All showed the same pictures.

At last the inexorable wait was over and it felt liberating. The veil had been lifted and life could now push ahead and brace for the future instead of concentrating on one single point in time. She checked the data feeds again. The National Guard had been bolstered by the army, but tensions ran high as people were herded like cattle to prevent disorder.
This is going too far
, she thought, the images she’d witnessed earlier still strong in her mind’s eye. She switched back to the BBC. Jessica Klein was still on air.

‘—according to reports,’ the newsreader was saying, ‘the dust cloud is travelling across the upper reaches of the sky much quicker than had been predicted. The whole of Africa is already in darkness and it is only a few hours since AG5 hit. You can see from these military satellites, which are still operational, the coverage is spreading at an alarming rate.’

Rebecca watched as a dark smear gradually swallowed up the continent of Africa.

‘What had been estimated to take six to twelve months seems like it is only going to take a few days. The resolve of governments will be tested to the limit as already nervous populations may be overwhelmed by this new turn of events. As I mentioned earlier, we will now be going live to New York for an address from the United Nations Secretary General, Enitan Owusu.’

A tall African man stood in front of a rostrum, with a slim black microphone in front of him and the United Nations’ logo emblazoned on a hoarding behind. ‘People of the world,’ said the Secretary General in a deep and measured voice, ‘the asteroid has impacted and the predicted after-effects are playing out as we envisaged. Yet there is one small factor that seems to have been miscalculated, and that is the dust cloud. The unexpected speed of the cloud’s expansion is an anomaly; however, preparing for and dealing with unforeseen repercussions has been an element of GMRC protocol responses for many years. Every one of us has long been aware that such scenarios were possible, thanks to the teachings of the GMRC’s global education programme.

‘Every nation’s government is fully prepared for every eventuality, including this one, and there is absolutely no need for panic. Please stay in your homes and remain calm. Governments have bolstered National Guards with regular military personnel all around the world to ensure you are protected and kept safe during this period of transition. Please remember looting and rioting will not be tolerated on any level and people who do so will be dealt with swiftly and effectively. There is no need for alarm as these measures have been in place for many years and are for your protection.

‘Once the dust cloud has completed its coverage of the atmosphere, normality will resume as quickly as possible. It will take time to get used to living beneath the cloud, but the restricted daytime curfew tests which have been undertaken by each nation’s government in the last six months will stand us all in good stead for what is to come. GMRC reports and updates will be issued on the hour, every hour, for the next month and bi-hourly thereafter. This message will be repeated every hour on all media platforms and translated into all languages for seven days. You will now receive messages from your respective leaders. Thank you for your time.’

The studio view came back on screen and Jessica Klein was once more centre stage, her red outfit complementing the blue and white of the studio set. ‘We are now going straight to an address by your country’s leader, depending on your location.’

An animated BBC graphic displayed briefly and then the President of the United States of America was at his desk in the Oval Office. ‘My fellow Americans, and to all our military personnel stationed around the world, the difficulties we will face in the days ahead will be challenging but not insurmountable. Due to unforeseen fallout resulting from the meteorite’s impact, the dust cloud predicted to reach the east coast of the United States in a few months’ time is now likely to arrive in three days. I have deployed U.S. Army troops onto our streets to bolster the National Guard, already positioned throughout the country—’

Rebecca listened intently as the president outlined the people’s responsibility to remain calm and optimistic during what was a minor setback to planned proceedings. Rebecca wasn’t convinced by his rhetoric, most of which just reiterated what the Secretary General of the UN had already said. The dust cloud was spreading quicker than expected and after listening to the speeches she felt an increased anxiety rather than the calm they were supposed to induce. She’d prepared herself for a specific timeframe and now that had gone out of the window everything was up in the air, literally. With a wry smile slipping from her face as quickly as it had appeared, she left her small apartment to rejoin the others.

In the lounge, the TV was back on.

Rebecca sighed and went to turn it off, but Maria caught her hand in an iron grip.

‘What are you doing?’ Rebecca said, twisting herself free and looking at the others, who avoided her gaze. ‘We agreed to keep this off.’

‘While you were gone we decided that things had calmed down a bit and we could put it back on without upsetting them,’ Maria told her smugly.

Yourselves, without upsetting yourselves, is what Rebecca wanted to retort, but unfortunately Maria was right, all the carers seemed much more composed and they sat quietly showing little sign of agitation, although most still looked pale and worried.

‘Fine, just make sure it stays that way,’ Rebecca said, sitting down next to Julie and a very old woman whom Julie looked after on a regular basis.

‘Hello, Edna, how are you keeping?’ Rebecca asked the woman loudly.

‘I’m fine, dear. I don’t like this film, though,’ – Edna indicated the news channel on the screen – ‘it seems to keep repeating itself.’

‘I didn’t correct her,’ Julie whispered to Rebecca. ‘No point scaring her.’

‘Good idea,’ Rebecca said, as she started watching.

‘—we now have some breaking news, so we’re going directly to our Chinese correspondent, Simon MacDonald, in Beijing,’ Jessica Klein was saying.

The studio shot slipped to one side of the screen and in a digital frame a reporter with a graphic of the Beijing city skyline behind him appeared. ‘Thank you, Jessica. Only moments ago rockets heading out towards the east coast passed overhead in what can only be a military attack by China on its closest neighbour, Japan. Other reports are also coming in from the north of missiles being launched in the direction of South Korea, although this is currently unverified.’

‘Was there any warning this was going to happen?’ Jessica asked him.

‘None, although there have been steadily disintegrating tensions in the area for the last decade. China has been growing ever stronger while South Korea and Japan have waned, both economically and militarily.’