Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) (56 page)

“The Southern parts of Africa where many of the Germans and Eastern European countries have fled to in the past twenty years are quiet and stable as are the northern parts of Africa that are under heavy French influence.”

“Japan is reeling from the earthquakes and tsunamis and they are doing all they can to just survive the next couple of months.  The loss of life in Japan has been horrific.”

“Central America is having to deal with earthquakes and volcanoes but is politically stable.  South America
should come through all this in fairly good shape once the floods stop.  The Amazon basin is a mess from the large saltwater floods at high tides but for the most part, they are doing ok.  We are also getting intelligence that Bolivia, of all countries, is looking to hire aeronautical and space engineers to start up their own space program.  No doubt that funding is being provided by Benjamin Greco and associates.  We have no idea what they are up too, unless they are trying to set up operations for mining on the moon or on asteroids.”

“I will wrap up with our own military status.  We have one carrier group in the Caribbean and the other on the pacific side of the Panama Canal, which
by the way, has been heavily damaged by earthquakes.  Most of our ground forces are dispersed though out the southern half of our own country trying to maintain order.  We also have a small flotilla loitering around Hawaii to monitor what is happening there.  It is not known if the facility at Pearl Harbor will be usable in the near future or not.  It is important that we not let any other country get a wild idea about grabbing the Hawaiian Islands until we can try and re-populate them.”

“Our satellites are all but worthless at the moment due to all the ash in the atmosphere.  My report is based upon the best available information we have at the moment from various assets.  Space Force command on Space Station Alpha reports that they are managing even though they are totally cut off from Earth at the moment.  There was a moonquake that damaged the Schackleton base and killed about thirty personnel when their habitation dome collapsed. All in all, Space Force is doing much better than our facilities here on Earth are.  The phased radar arrays at both Farside Base and on Phobos are scanning for any potential threats to Earth from the asteroid belt or Oort cloud as the Dwarf scrambles those up.  Three small Asteroids are being monitored as potential risks and they will deal with those as the situation warrants.”

As the General sat down, Doctor Steve Jenkins, the chief climatologist stood and took his place.  “I am afraid that we have badly underestimated the amount of ash being thrown into the atmosphere by the volcanic eruptions.  We also did not adequately estimate the amount of smoke from all the fires that are burning out of control.  If you add to all of that the debris thrown into the atmosphere from the nuclear weapons that have been used in the Middle East and in the Indian Subcontinent, then you have the makings of a weather catastrophe.  We were already going to be facing a cold winter because of the change in the Earth’s orbit due to the Dwarf’s gravitation influence.  Now with all the other crap that is being thrown into the atmosphere, even less sunlight is going to be reaching the Earth’s surface for at least the next three to four years at a minimum.  It is going to be a very cold winter.  Summer in the southern hemisphere is also going to be very cold.  We are looking at large scale crop failures, large die offs in plant habitat and an ecological catastrophe.”

“I wish that Mike Banscott were here to give us some more details, but I guess you all have already heard about his death in a helicopter crash.  Peter Rockwell, the acting NASA administrator has his hands full in Houston so he could not be here.  In general, Earth is going to have a very tough time for the next ten years and probably for the rest of this century.  Our planet is going to get much colder. We are going to have a hard time feeding even the population that survives for the next year. Too bad we cannot move about half our population over to the new planet Elpis.  That world is starting to look like it is going to
be paradise compared to what we are facing here on Earth.  We will have a better estimate on our weather after the encounter is over.  We will have to wait and see how much more debris is spread into the atmosphere.  I would hazard to guess that it may be at least a year before the skies are clear enough for us to get a glimpse at the moon or stars again,” he said as he sat down.

The room became silent again as the President sat and thought about all the information that had been discussed.  Even though this had been a general briefing and many of the reports offered no real details, it looked like they were all going to have their work cut out for them.  As much as he would love to hand the reins of this mess over to someone else, it did not look as if that would be an option.  The leaders of both the House and the Senate had come and talked to him yesterday.  They were in discussion with the Justices of the Supreme Court about how to change the constitution to allow the elections for the coming fall be put off for a period of four years.  Nearly the entire membership of both houses of the government felt that it was too difficult a time to bring in a new administration or congressional leadership.  The continuity that another four years of office would give could very well make or break the country.  It looked like he would be working on cleaning up this mess for another four years.

President Walden stood up.  “We are still over a week from the closest approach of the Brown Dwarf.  Things are going to get worse before they can ever start to get better.  This country needs you to get out there and do your job.  You heard what a mess a large part of the rest of the world is in.  It is going to come down again to this country to show leadership and be a shining light to the rest of the world. I need all of you to get out there and rally your people and try and keep their spirits up.  I do not want chaos like I saw in the start of this meeting."

"If we let ourselves succumb to despair, then there really is not
any hope.  As long as we can set one foot in front of the other, we can move forward.  If someone falls, then the rest of you pick them up and get them moving forward again.  I want all of you to report back to your offices, your headquarters, or your command posts and make sure that all the preparations we made were not in vain.  We will meet again in four weeks after the worst is past and we can see at that point what we need to do to pick up the pieces.  Thank you all for your faithful service.”

The President noticed as he turned to leave that everyone present was standing a little taller than they had been.  He smiled grimly
to himself.  They no longer had the look of defeat and despair on their faces.  He saw resolve and determination returning.  It would be tough, but the country would come through this ordeal with its banner held high.  The world would be a new place but this Republic would see its Tri-centennial yet.

Chapter 62

June 23
rd
, 2043

Earth, and Near Vicinity

Peter Rockwell sat on the edge of his sofa at home.  His wife Susan sat on the floor between his knees as they both watched the live video feed from Space Station Alpha.  The news announcer was counting down with the digital clock that was behind him.  At nine forty-three pm, on June twenty-third, in the year 2043, the Dwarf Star that Peter had discovered so long ago reached its closest point of approach to Earth.  Although it was almost out at the same distance that Mars orbited the sun, the gravity of the Dwarf was tugging and straining at the Earth.  Huge tides, the like of which had never been seen, washed across the coasts of the continents. Volcanoes were erupting as the very bowels of the planet were being compressed and pulled. Everywhere the crust of the planet was shuddering and heaving.  The moment passed, and now the Dwarf was moving away.  It still had some encounters with the planets in the outer solar system in its future, but now its effects on Earth would start diminishing every day.  They would survive.  Peter bent over and hugged Susan and kissed her cheek.  Their son had fallen asleep in the recliner.

              “The world in his lifetime is going to be a lot different from what we have known,” Peter said quietly as he looked at is son.

             
Susan nodded sadly.  She pulled Peter’s arms around her and leaned her head back so he could kiss her.  “I love you, Peter.”

…

              Allan and Jason Greco stood in a corner by themselves in front of the observation dome. There were about fifteen other crewmembers standing looking out the observation dome on Space Station Alpha.  The moon was off to their left and was half full.  Directly in front of their field of view was the Dwarf.  Its disc was about a third of the size of the full moon.  As large as it loomed, they could not make out any features on it.  Its surface was a mix of grey and white bands.

             
“Frankly, I will be glad to see that thing gone,” said Jason.  “It has caused enough trouble.”

             
Allan nodded in agreement.  “The sooner it is gone the better off we will all be. Once everyone gets cleaned up from the mess it made there is another planet over there just begging for someone to come walk around on it.  I want to be the one to look inside that alien ship so bad I cannot stand it.”

             
Jason laughed at him.  “What makes you think you will get to go? You’re a remote pilot.  The next expedition will be landing humans there.  I don’t think they will need many remotes flown. Maybe they will let you operate some robots down on Mars.”

             
“Screw Mars.  Mars is dead.  Elpis is just waking up.  We deserve to be on the crew that gets to land down there.  We’re famous now, remember?”

             
“Famous how?” said Jason.  “We were on a ship that went on a medical emergency run to Phobos.  There was no mission to Elpis and nothing has been discovered there, remember?”

             
“It will come out eventually you know.  They are already working on the blueprints for the next ship to go there.” whispered Allan.  “Rumor has it that it will either be named the “Colonel Pierce” or the “Mike Banscott.”  It is supposed to be ready to go in about four years when Elpis’s and Earth’s orbits are in near conjunction.  I plan to be on that ship.”

             
“Well, I guess they may need a hotshot pilot to fly it, and besides, Dad said we have to always keep an eye on each other so we both have to go,” laughed Jason.

…

              Jessica lay awake in Brett’s arms in their bed.  Occasionally, the house shook gently as tremors passed through the ground.  Even here, in a non-geologically active area of the country, small tremors could be felt.

             
“Brett, are you sure Brianna is safe out in Houston?”

             
“Jessica, she is as safe there as we are here.  She is in a government compound with plenty of people and security around.  You just talked to her this morning and she was fine.  You need to get some sleep.  We have to get started in the morning trying to manipulate the genes of some of those plants that the guys from the South American Farming Cooperative contacted us about.”

             
“I know, but she is my baby, and I can’t help but worry about her.  Even if she is all grown up, I still miss her and worry about her,” Jessica said.

             
“Brett, I am a little confused about that request from the South American Farmers.  “Why do they want us to alter those strains of grass, brush, and trees so that their seeds can be dispersed from the air?  Trees are usually planted by hand.  And the grasses they were asking about are mostly prairie grasses.  Those are not food crops.  Why would farmers want genetically altered seeds for all of that?  With the weather going bad I would think that farmers would be looking for cold weather crops to grow for food.”

             
“Who knows Jessica, maybe they want to seed some pastures for livestock and want to do it from the air.”

             
“Maybe so, but I just thought it was weird that they wanted samples of typical prairie ground microbes also.  The ground down there should be crawling with microbes already.  You would think that they were planning on seeding sterile ground,” Jessica sighed as she finally drifted off to sleep.

…

             
Fifty two million miles from Earth the Brown Dwarf continued its rush through the planetary system of the yellow star.  This was the third system that the Dwarf had passed through since it had been ripped away from its own birth system nearly thirty thousand years ago.  The first time it had encountered another star system, it had passed through the outer fringes of a red dwarf system and scattered several gas giants that had been in orbit there.