Sedulity (Book One) Impact (22 page)

“I’d love the let some of the inured people in the hospital
use this phone to call home too, but it won’t get any signal down below. After
I get you in to see the Doc I’ll take this phone back up to the officer in the
theater so some of the others can use it,” Hank assured Armando. “I’ll be sure
they know you brought it in too. And I’ll tell you this, barkeep, you turned
out to be quite a hero tonight.” Armando had no response to that. He was too physically
and emotionally drained to care.

****

“This is Captain Krystos aboard the
Sedulity
. With
whom am I speaking?”

“Commander Anders of the Australian Navy, captain of the
frigate
HMAS Bounder
. I understand that your ship is the closest vessel
to the impact site.”

“Far too close for comfort, Commander. We estimate that we
were about 100 miles away at the time of impact. We have been approaching the
impact zone slowly since then, taking measurements of weather phenomena and
ocean temperature.”

“Excellent, Captain. There are a lot of scientists around the
world begging for data like that. Did your ship happen to pick up any solid
matter ejecta from the asteroid? Dust or small rocks falling from the sky after
the blast?”

“Yes, quite a bit actually,” Captain Krystos replied. “Close
to a foot of muddy sludge fell with the rain. Much of it washed away into the
sea, but there are piles of it on deck and filling the swimming pools. We were
also hit by a flaming ball of molten rock or metal that smashed through half a
dozen decks and ended up killing a passenger in our theater.”

“Bloody hell. Sorry to hear that, Captain, but do you still
have that rock?”

“Yes, Sir. It should still be sitting in the theater.”

“That’s great! Don’t get rid of it. That could be part of the
asteroid itself. Due to the location of the impact, you might have the only
piece of the thing that we will ever get a chance to study.”

“And how is that important at this point?” Captain Krystos
asked quizzically.

“Scientists around the world are scrambling to build computer
models about the long-term effects of this event. As I understand it, the
accuracy of their projections depend on knowing the composition of the
asteroid. You could be sitting on a key piece of data. I suppose it could also
become a priceless, if infamous, artifact too,” Commander Anders said.

“I understand,” the Captain replied. “It’s also evidence in
the death of a passenger, so I was planning to hold onto it for any board of
inquiry.”

“I wouldn’t worry overmuch about that,” Commander Anders
said. “Very few courts will be convened in this part of the world for a long
time to come.  But I’ll be happy to write up an official report before taking
the ejecta sample off your hands. Will you remain in the area until we arrive?”

“What is your ETA?” Captain Krystos asked.

“We should be there by mid-day,” Commander Anders replied.

“And where will you take the samples?” Captain Krystos
inquired.

“Darwin,” Anders said. “The tsunamis rolled past the
northwest coast of Australia with only a moderate tidal surge in Port Darwin. It
might be the only operable port in this hemisphere.”

“Would we be welcome there?” Captain Krystos asked. “Our
destination was Sydney, but I’m afraid it’s no longer there.”

“Bloody well right, it’s not. The whole northern and western
coasts of Australia were wiped out. You’ll be welcome to dock and re-provision
in Darwin. I’ll grant you carte blanche and escort you there myself, if you
like. The data and samples you can provide are worth a lot. Do you mind if I
ask how your ship survived so close to the impact?”

“It was a miracle, Commander,” said the Captain. “We had some
priceless advice from a passenger who knew what to expect. At his suggestion I
turned towards the point of impact and took the brunt of the blast on our bow.
Then we steamed towards the waves and rode up and over them. Pure luck that we
made it one piece.”

“More than luck, Captain. Dozens of other ships tried to flee
and were sunk. Taking those waves head-on took guts and vision. I look forward
to making your acquaintance and buying you a beer.”

“Thank you, Commander. The pleasure will be all mine. As I
said, we are just lucky to still be afloat and alive.”

****

Captain Krystos ended the satellite phone call and looked up
at his small group of advisors in the dayroom. “An Australian frigate is coming
here,” he said. “They want samples of the ejecta, including the fireball that
hit the theater. They also want us to keep taking readings of the weather and
water temperature. Apparently there are some scientists who want all that
data.”

“I’m not surprised,” said Professor Farnsworth. “They don’t
really need it to run computer models, but they are probably hoping to find
something that will prove their projections wrong. I know that I would.”

“The temperature of the rain is down to 150 degrees
Fahrenheit, which is a good sign. Ocean water temperature is up to 88 degrees,
a five degree increase since impact. That’s actually quite drastic, considering
the volume of water involved,” Kevin said, frowning as he reviewed a printout
from the ship’s weather station. “It’s too early to determine trends, but I
would say that ocean currents will be impacted. I don’t need to see a satellite
photo to know that major storms are forming in these clouds.”

“The sea is still calm here,” said the Captain.

“Yes, it would be. This isn’t quite like the eye of a storm,
but it’s close. All the steam from the impact crater is going up into the upper
atmosphere and spreading out quickly in every direction as fast moving clouds.
Air is rushing in to fill the void down here at sea level, but the actual
storms are spinning off north and south of the equator,” Kevin explained. “We
are sitting next to the incubator, so to speak. We won’t encounter heavy seas
until we try to go somewhere else.”

“Speaking of going somewhere,” Captain Krystos said, “the
Australian officer told me that Port Darwin survived the tsunami and he invited
us to go there too. How does that location fit into your climate projections?”
Kevin and Professor Farnsworth exchanged looks and both of them smiled.

“That is probably one of the best possible destinations,”
said the Professor. “It’s subtropical and might turn temperate as a result of
this event, but it won’t get too cold. It’s in the path of seasonal monsoons
and that rainfall will increase. Not a lot of agriculture now, but that sector
of the economy could grow as the weather changes. In fact, it’s one of the few
places that might become more hospitable in the early stages of an Ice Age.
Better yet, it doesn’t have a high population density and it’s a Western
industrialized democracy with a majority of immigrants. It also has an
excellent natural harbor. On top of it all is the irony of the name.”

“What do you mean?” the Captain asked.

“Darwin,” Kevin guessed the professor’s meaning. “Survival of
the fittest.”

“Exactly, my boy! Exactly,” the Professor chuckled dryly.

Epilogue:

“
Now
this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is,
perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Winston
Churchill

Captain Krystos retired to spend time with Lydia in his suite.
Kevin and the Professor went to Staff Captain Stevens’ former suite to seek
comfort from their own wives and possibly a few hours of much needed sleep. The
tsunamis were still charging across the Pacific, already impacting the shores
of South America and Southeast Asia, but it would be another six or seven hours
before they reached California, longer for the rest of the West Coast and Japan.
This was a good time for a break to recharge their energy, the better to face
the unknown challenges of tomorrow.

Emily was sound asleep, but Amanda turned to embrace Kevin
when he slipped into bed. They didn’t speak. They didn’t need to. Words could
not describe the love, fear and hope that they shared. They hoped that they had
survived the worst, feared that worse was yet to come, and knew that their love
for each other and their daughter was all they could truly rely on now. Everything
else was shrouded in uncertainty.

Kevin cradled Amanda’s head on his chest until she drifted
off into a fitful sleep. He could not do that. His mind filled with projections
and forecasts, images of disaster and chaos. He had a good idea of what was
coming and it scared him half to death. The murderous tsunamis and earthquakes
would only be the beginning. The weatherman in Kevin imagined the forecast a
week, a month, a year from now, and none of it was good.

Massive storms would rip across the globe, stirring the
rubble left by waves and quakes. The global temperature would fall. The winter
would bring crippling blizzards and massive snow fall in the northern
hemisphere, torrential floods in the southern hemisphere, and all the while the
steam would keep rising from the impact zone at the equator to fuel the
maelstrom. Glaciers and icecaps would begin to expand. Nations untouched by the
initial effects of the asteroid strike would feel the pain of climate change.

Eventually, large portions of North America and Asia would
become uninhabitable. Crops would fail. Vital trade routes, especially ports,
would be put out of action. Resources would be scarce and then exhausted as
supply lines failed. Sooner or later the surviving people and nations of the North
will want, or be compelled, to move south. That was when man’s battle against
nature would turn against himself. War on a scale unseen in history would erupt
when entire nations were forced to displace others in a desperate quest for
habitable land and limited resources. Kevin’s imagination rebelled at that
point, refusing to extrapolate further. Numbed by the horror of his vision,
Kevin’s mind mercifully shut down and allowed him to drift into dreamless
slumber.

****

Hank made sure that Armando was taken into the Med Center for
immediate treatment. He told the nurse of the bartender’s heroic role in
bringing injured passengers down while refusing care for himself, and how his
burns were compounded when he went outside to get the satellite phone. When
Hank was certain that Armando would receive priority attention, he returned to
the Promenade Deck and strolled through the casino towards the theater. He was
not really surprised to see a tarp covering the body of the woman with a broken
back, her husband weeping beside the corpse. Hank couldn’t imagine a better
fate for her in this new reality. He had a feeling that everyone would soon
become intimately familiar with the necessities of survival, and that the weak
of body and mind would not fare well.

The Texas oilman finished off the bottle of Jack Daniels and
hid another behind a slot machine before carrying the satellite phone into the
theater. He walked up to the officer and handed it to him, saying, “I’m sure
that you and most of the rest of these people would like to talk to friends and
family at home. Some of them don’t have much time left.”

Lieutenant Reiner was speechless as he accepted the orange
sat phone case. At first he thought it was one of the kindest and most selfless
acts he had ever witnessed. A moment later he realized that the presence of a
single telephone in the theater would trigger the riot he had struggled so hard
to prevent. Hank just smiled and turned away, seemingly oblivious to the consequences
his well-intentioned action would unleash.

****

Mikal and Lydia Krystos lay in bed and told each other about
their terrifying experiences since the Line Crossing ceremony was interrupted
by the asteroid that changed their world forever. Lydia was proud of her
husband for conning the ship through the waves and saving all their lives. The
Captain said he was even prouder of Lydia for coming up with the brilliant idea
of taking the passengers to the theater. He was certain that many of them would
have died, or been horribly injured, if they had joined the others at their
muster stations. Captain Krystos shared his feelings of guilt for what happened
to all those who did follow his orders to gather at the lifeboat muster
stations. When the Captain found out what happened to most of them he had
almost lost control of his emotions. Now, in bed with Lydia, he finally allowed
the tears to flow.

“I should have told them all to go to the theater,” he
sobbed. “You were smart enough to figure it out. Why couldn’t I? I sent
hundreds of people to their deaths and maimed even more!”

“Shush! Don’t you ever say or think that again,” Lydia said
as she held her husband tight and patted his bald head. “You did exactly what
you were trained to do. Any officer would have done the same in your place.
Even Staff Captain Stevens had to think about my suggestion before he saw the
logic in it. It was much more natural to send everyone to their emergency
muster stations. That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do in an emergency,
isn’t it?”

The Captain mumbled agreement, but continued to cry softly.
He would never be able to truly forgive himself for issuing those orders.
Before long, however, he cried himself to sleep and dreamed of steering his
ship up the face of a mountain, with a wild smile on his face.

****

Armando dreamed of home. He was with his family on the Bangka
pump boat. The single cylinder engine chugged away at full throttle while his
father took them through the surf that crashed on the reef beyond the lagoon.
His brothers and sister were laughing and shouting in excitement, but Armando
was gripped with fear. The outriggers should keep the little boat from
capsizing and his father was a fine sailor, but the big waves frightened
Armando.

“Don’t worry, Armando,” said his mother. She could always
tell when he was afraid of something. “Your father knows what he is doing. This
is something we must do. Our ancestors are waiting for us.” She smiled sadly
and Armando’s emotions shifted from fear to grief.

“No!” he pleaded. “Don’t do it! Don’t go out there. There is
no hope out there.” Beyond the line of surf he could see the ocean rising up
like a dark and distant squall, rushing towards them at incredible speed.

“He cannot come with us,” his father said sadly. “He is not
ready yet.” The elder Ramos leaned away from the tiller and grasped Armando’s
arm. He squeezed reassuringly, smiled briefly, then he gripped harder and
effortlessly tossed Armando out of the little boat into the churning surf.   

Armando would have awoken then, if not for the sedatives that
the doctor had administered. Instead he fell deeper into the dream, watching
his family sail away while he struggled to survive in a violent and uncaring
sea.

****

To be Continued in
Sedulity Book Two: Aftershock