Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) (16 page)

“We will probably start seeing changes in the weather in three to four months after the encounter.   Whereas before our pattern of summer and winter was pretty constant since Earth stays a fairly consistent distance from the sun, this will change dramatically.  Let me explain.  Winter for the Northern Hemisphere is now during the Earth’s closest approach to the sun in our nearly circular orbit.  We know how cold it can get in winter now.   Imagine if you will, a winter when the planet is twenty five percent further from the sun.  At that point the Earth will be getting only about fifty percent of the sun’s heat and energy it does now during winter.  Places as far south as say the Great Lakes will see temperatures like those seen in Antarctica during winter.  At that greater distance from the sun, even the part of the planet that is having summer will see temperatures not much higher than a warm winter day in say in Florida….maybe the seventy’s  if they are lucky.  Then, during Earth’s perihelion the summer weather patterns would be more like those we are accustomed to.  Our patterns of summer and winter will vary wildly.  Some very cool summers and unbearably cold winters and some that are similar to what we are presently accustomed to.”

“This is going to play havoc with all the life on Earth that has evolved to the weather patterns we now experience.  In addition, as a whole, the planet is going to cool because about half the time we are going to be further from the sun than we are now.  Basically, we are probably going to enter a new Ice Age.  An Ice Age that will last a long
time, maybe forever.  As the snow and ice collects at the higher latitudes it will become more reflective bouncing back  even more of the sun’s heat back into space.  I would hazard to guess that in fifteen to twenty years after this dwarf star passes us, most areas north of say Washington DC will be permanently under glacial ice.  These changes will cause massive shifts in weather patterns that I would not even venture to guess about.”  He shook his head as he sat down. “Now, might be a good time to move to Africa.”

David motioned to Doctor Desmond, the NASA geologist.  Doctor Desmond stood reluctantly.  “After that dire prediction I hate to even speak.  Most of the geological effects can be a little easier to predict, although they will be equally unpleasant.  As the Dwarf approaches Earth, as Dr. Nichols explained, we will have massive tides and flooding.  The oceans are not the only thing affected by gravitational tides though.  The gravity of the Dwarf will also be pulling and tugging on our planet’s crust.

Remember our crust is a relatively thin layer that floats on the molten core of our planet.  Instead of having tides such as the ocean does, Earth’s crust shifts, sometimes quite violently.  I expect for about three months we will enter a period of more frequent and more powerful earthquakes than we have ever seen.  Most of the major fault lines will shift.  Magnitude eight and greater earthquakes will probably be registered.  A good portion of the dormant volcanoes will erupt, belching millions of tons of dust, ash, and gas into the atmosphere.  This will compound the planetary cooling that Dr. Nicholson spoke of.  In addition to the large tides, there will be tsunamis from the earthquakes and fault line shifts the likes of which have never been seen by humans.  The areas around major fault lines, volcanoes, and the coasts are not going to be any place you would want to be for four to six months.”  He sat down silently.

The President placed her face in her hands, and lowered her forehead to the table for about a minute.  The room was deathly silent.  Finally, she sat up.  She spoke softly, in a quavering voice, “How many?” she asked.  “How many are going to die?”

No one answered.  “How many?” she demanded.

Dr. Nicholson looked around the room and spoke slowly, “If this was to happen tomorrow I would guess that thirty to forty percent of the world’s population would be dead in two to three months.  Another forty percent of the survivors will starve or die of disease the first two years after that.  Crops will fail; there will be massive die-offs of many
animal species both on land and in the ocean.  The tropical rain forests will start to die from the colder temperatures.”

General Preston spoke up.  “So we have all of that, and then how many will die from the wars that will follow?  People will be fighting for food and land along the equatorial regions such as Africa, Central America etc.”

David Honstein added his own dire prediction. “We are also going to be bombarded by all the asteroids and pieces of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons that are going to be thrown about by the Dwarf.  In addition, there will be a rain of objects thrown toward the inner solar system from the Oort cloud.  Without Jupiter’s gravity well to catch a large portion of these objects, they will make it to the inner solar system.  Many of them will have a high probability to impact Earth.  Many of those rocks will be big enough to cause extinction sized impact events.”

The President took a deep breath and gathered her resolve.  “So you all are telling me that the human race is doomed, or at least is going to undergo a catastrophic collapse of civilization.”

“We are in for tough times,” agreed David. “But this is not going to happen tomorrow.  We have twenty seven years to prepare.  There are things that we can do.  There are plans to make, and projects to get started.  Some of us here will not be alive when these events unfold. But for the sake of those that come after us, our children, and their children, what we do in the next twenty seven years can make a huge difference to the world that they will have to live in.”

The President stood up. “Doctor Honstein is right.  We can sit here and moan the sky is falling or we can make preparations to weather the coming storm as best we can. I will need your input as to how best to tell the people of this country and the rest of the world.  We will hopefully have a little time to think on this.  I want to expand this council to include a few other specialists and formulate a plan.  Perhaps we will have several months to get our acts together.”

“Uh, excuse me Madam President,” interrupted David, “We will be lucky to have until tomorrow afternoon to announce this.  Carlos Francisco from the ESA is on to us.  As pissed as he was about us taking the Hubble away from him during his allotted time spot, he will not let this go.  You are probably going to have to break this news tomorrow or we will be behind the eight ball when he goes public with the story himself.”

The President just stared at him. “Mr. Dewy.”

“Yes, Madam President.”

“We are going to need lots of coffee. Get my speech writer in here ASAP.  It is going to be a very long night.”  Elliot Dewey got up and headed out of the room.  “The rest of you stay put,” the President said.  “I am going to need your input for the biggest presidential speech of our generation.” 

Chapter 16

April 26
th
, 2016

Maryland

It had been almost five weeks since they had been promised the world by Benjamin Greco.  And true to his word, he was attempting to give it to them. Brett and Jessica had said they needed a certain sized lab, and within two days he had leased them almost twice the space they had requested in a Medical Research Park outside of Bethesda.  They had given one of Mr. Greco’s assistants a list of equipment they needed and within days it started arriving at their new lab.  They had been interviewing lab assistants for two weeks and had filled most of the eleven positions they had identified they needed.  Clinical trials of their new vaccine were starting in two weeks for their HIV vaccine.  Their research had been published and they were being lauded in numerous research centers.  Benjamin Greco had even hired them a secretary to answer all the phones that were ringing off the hook with calls from various pharmaceutical companies and research teams.  He had also contracted twenty four hour security guards at the door to give them some peace.  Brett and Jessica were on top of the world.

Today they were unloading and setting up the last of the equipment in the new lab with the help of their staff.  Loretta, their secretary, called on the lab intercom, “Doctor Brett and Doctor Jessica, you have a visitor.”

Brett frowned.  It had been tasked to Loretta and the security guard to keep out all the desperate people who had decided that he and Jessica could cure all the diseases of the world.  People had had even brought children with horrible genetic defects to their door begging their help to cure them.  It was much too depressing to speak to them all and heart breaking to turn them away.  There was still too much basic research to do to even dream of curing some of the genetic defects that nature could produce.  The sooner they could get the lab all set up, the sooner they could get back to their research.  Then, maybe they could find some solutions to help some of these people.  That was why he was so frustrated they were being interrupted again.

He could not find Jessica so he went up to the front office to see who this was demanding his time.  He arrived to see Jessica hugging their benefactor, Benjamin Greco.  He held out his hand and welcomed him. “Mr. Greco, a pleasure to see you again.  Please, come and let us show you around the new lab.”  Jessica and Brett took him on the grand tour, answering a few questions and introducing him to the rest of the staff.  They ended up in the break room where a couple of staff were taking a quick lunch break and watching the midday news.   Seeing their bosses and some important looking bigwig in a suit come in, they finished their sandwiches and headed back to the lab.

“Mr. Greco,” said Jessica. “I would…”

“Please,” Benjamin interrupted, “you two can just call me Benjamin.  This is not some board meeting where the stock holders are kissing my ass.”

“Ok, Benjamin,” said Jessica.  We just want to thank you.  It is amazing that you were able to get all our equipment ordered and even more amazing that we got it delivered to a brand new lab facility on such short notice.  This has been beyond our wildest dreams.”

Benjamin just laughed.  “One of the benefits of being rich is the ability to wave a few dollar bills in the air and people fall all over themselves to do things for you.”

“You have spent probably close to thirty million dollars on equipment alone,” said Brett.  “Then, there is the new staff, the building, and the mainframe computer. We never expected all this.” 

Benjamin waved off their gratitude.  “It is nothing.  When do you think you will be up, running, and doing research again he asked?”

Well, we have installed our software in the computer
and we will be able to start doing DNA profiling next week probably.  We are waiting for the NIH and CDC to come out and give us accreditation for running a class three infectious disease lab.  To study the heavy hitters, we will still have to go up to Boston to the level four labs to work.  The bugs like Marburg, and Ebola, they do not like them out here in the suburbs too much,” he laughed.

“When can you start working on non-infectious DNA?” Benjamin asked.

“Probably in just a day or two,” replied Jessica.

Benjamin nodded.  “In that case, I have something for you then.”  He reached inside his coat and brought out a little silver box. He handed it to Jessica.  “This is my most prized possession and I am entrusting it to your safe keeping.”  He motioned for her to open it.

She un-did the tiny latch and opened the box.  Inside was a tiny lock of hair tied with a silk ribbon.  There was also a dried twig of some sort.  She looked at him with a question on her lips.

“That is a lock of hair from my dead son.  I saved it before he was buried.  The dried tissue is his umbilical cord.  The nurse I hired to
care for him when his mother died in the hospital saved it when it dried up and fell off. I thought it rather silly at the time, but I thought maybe it might be useful when trying to get a sample of his DNA.”

Jessica nodded with excitement.  The cord will have dried blood in it as well as old stem cells.  Other than living tissue this is probably the best source of tissue you could have given us.  We should not need the hair at all.”

The relief and hope was evident on his face.  “I promised that this would not interfere with your research, but please understand it is very important to me.”

Jessica looked over at Brett.  “We do understand.  We will let you know as soon as we are successful in isolating and storing the DNA structure. We …”

Brett was holding up his hand to hush her and turning up the TV volume on the break room TV.

There was a red blinking special report banner at the bottom of the CNN newscast.  A newscaster broke in and said, “We are interrupting this broadcast for a special address from the President of the United States of America.  We are broadcasting now live from the Oval Office.”