The beeping from the front-end loader as it backed up drowned out the reporter’s voice. She looked annoyed and waited until the beeping stopped.
John opened his cell phone and called his lawyer. “Charles, are you watching Network News?” John said. “Yeah, St. Louis. Can you find a lawyer in St. Louis that will work with you to stop the destruction of these bunkers? People’s lives are at stake.”
John listened for a moment. “Yes, I agree, class action seeking an emergency writ and Temporary Restraining Order. Move on that right away and keep me posted on your progress. Thank you, Charles.” He closed his cell phone. “Arrogant bureaucrats,” John muttered.
CHAPTER 19
Major Samuels arrived at John’s cabin. John brought him down into the communications room.
“Hey, look who’s here,” Ed called out.
“The Major has an update for us,” John said.
“Things are happening rapidly,” the Major said. “The military has put together a plan to limit the damage to the planet from the meteor storm. The plan is on the President’s desk right now. All it needs is his approval.”
“Does it involve any countries besides our own?” I asked.
“It does,” Major Samuels replied. “The idea is to use our nuclear weapons to blast a path through the meteor cloud big enough for the planet to pass through.”
“Are you kidding me?” Ed said. “A path the size of the planet? Have you seen NASA’s map of the meteor cloud?”
“No, I haven’t,” Major Samuels replied, “but the plan comes from people who have.”
“Do they know it will take two months to pass through the meteor cloud?” I asked.
“Yes,” Major Samuels said, “they know.”
“And?” I asked.
“And they know we can’t stop all of the meteors. Many of them will hit the planet anyway. But, the plan is to use the shockwave from the blast to move the larger meteors out of the way. If we can limit the meteors to the smaller ones we can save our infrastructure. Our civilization will survive.”
“How many warheads will this plan take?” I asked.
“All of them,” Major Samuels replied. “All of our land-based missiles, all of our submarine fleet’s missiles and all of Russia’s, China’s and all of our allies’ missiles. Every missile on the planet will be required.”
“And they think everyone will go along with that plan?” I asked.
“It’s either that or we all die. Civilization as we know it will end. What remains of the population will be back in the stone age.”
We all sat in silence for a minute.
“So this is it?” Tia said. “Mankind rises to the challenge and finally comes together or we start over?”
“That’s the basic idea,” Major Samuels replied. “Yeah, we work together or we all die.”
“How come this plan doesn’t leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling?” Tia asked.
Major Samuels shrugged. “It’s the only choice they have.”
“Well,” I interjected, “that’s one way of disarming the world of the threat of nuclear weapons.”
“They’ll make more of them,” Ed replied. “Just because something is insane hasn’t stopped people from doing it.”
“So what does this do for our warnings and our plans?” I asked.
“It doesn’t change anything for us,” John said. “First of all, the plan is still classified, and secondly, the government hasn’t shown any signs of admitting that the meteor storm poses any kind of danger to the planet. Even if the plan works, there will still be meteors, we will still warn people, and we will still prepare to rebuild our civilization. Frankly, getting everyone on board with a plan that involves every nuclear power and every warhead on the planet is not going to be well received. If the plan had overwhelming public support, then maybe the governments would cooperate. But as long as the public is being kept in the dark, I don’t see any hope for the plan at all.”
“How can we get the public behind the plan?” Tia asked.
“Two things,” John said. “We increase the pressure on the media to acknowledge the reality of the meteor storm, and we leak the military’s plan to the public. That’ll put more pressure on the government to disclose the true nature of the meteor storm.”
“I have the broad strokes of the plan with me, but not all of the details,” Major Samuels said.
“Carl, Tia, can you work with the Major and get this plan on the website?” John asked.
“On it,” I said as we headed for a computer console.
As the meteor storm countdown reached ten days, the first reports of visual sightings of the meteor cloud surfaced on the Internet. The cloud wasn’t visible by itself, but it did block out a small portion of the stars in the early morning sky. Ed, Major Samuels, Tia and I got up at three in the morning and walked out to an outcropping of rock not far from the cabin. We had a clear view of the eastern skyline. Normally, rising stars would appear at the horizon and move up into the sky. Now the horizon was dark and no stars could be seen near the horizon at all. The black area extended up only about five degrees which left the viewer unsure of exactly what was going on.
Controversy over what was causing the black area on the eastern skyline raged on Twitter and other Blogs. Even the existence of the black area was contested by a number of people. The following morning the black area had expanded noticeably. By the time the meteor storm countdown reached eight days, the people claiming that the black area didn’t exist stopped posting comments. The shift in mood across the country was palpable.
That morning Network News began advertising that “NASA Speaks Out” was to be broadcast that evening. After an early dinner we gathered in the communications room to watch the show.
“With me tonight is Dr. Sheldon Woolser, NASA’s expert on what is happening,” the host began.
“Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be back with you this evening,” Woolser said.
“Many people are worried about the reported black section of the early morning sky. What can you tell us about it?” the host asked.
“The meteor cloud people are seeing is very large, by earthly standards,” Woolser said. “But that doesn’t mean the meteors themselves are that large. In fact, as I stated before, most meteors are as small as grains of sand. There is a lot of sand in this meteor cloud which is what is obscuring the light from the distant stars in the morning sky.”
“Are all of the meteors the size of grains of sand?” the host asked.
“Well, we have detected a few meteors that are somewhat larger than grains of sand in the meteor cloud,” Woolser said. “Some of these do pose a minor hazard to us on the ground.”
“Is there a plan to deal with these larger meteors?” the host asked.
“Yes, there is,” Woolser replied. “Our great military has presented a plan to the President to use nuclear weapons to disburse the larger meteors from the path of the Earth. All that should remain are the grain of sand meteors. They will put on the greatest night-time show in our recorded history. I, for one, am looking forward to watching the display these meteors put on in the night sky. It should be quite spectacular.”
“And is there any real danger to the people or the Earth from these grain of sand meteors?” the host asked.
“No, there is not,” Woolser replied. “The administration has asked local police departments and fire departments to be on stand-by, just in case anything actually makes it down to the ground level, which we don’t anticipate, but it is always better to be prepared, isn’t it?”