Dr. Kintain thought about the future generation of children on board and wondered what they would make of the young man who was about their age who’d never call in sick a day in his life. But at least tomorrow, Epoh wouldn’t be wondering why Dr. Sato was tending to the care of someone who was now flawed and possibly a jeopardy in Epoh’s estimation. Hopefully, Epoh had absorbed what Dr. Kintain had just said and, if he could, taken it to heart, to better understand.
Chapter 39 – Deteriorating Conditions on Earth
Tom Burns, The Imagine, Rocky Mountains, CO
April 2030. Tom was happy to hear reports from everyone that almost everything was in place for the big day. He’d been given brief updates from Dr. Sato and her growing crew. He’d been relieved to find out that her ailing crewmember had recovered fully. He was also happy to hear that the cloning program had been accelerated. He was being kept apprised. Sam had told Tom that he was proud of having helped collect some of the DNA.
In the meantime, environmental conditions on Earth had deteriorated considerably. Tom’s wife, Sarah, had just heard from some cousins in Orlando, Florida. The news there was very distressing. Two category 5 hurricanes had hit Florida from each side of the state at the same time. Orlando, which was in the middle of the state and not on a beach, had suffered major damage. Disney World and Universal Studios were almost totally decimated and would probably never open again. The state had been just about split into two parts. Orlando and south Florida was now an island, having been cut off by the ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This meant that anyone living south of Florida did not have any to roads to the north. Bridges would have to be built for anyone to evacuate Florida. Considering all of the other issues around the United States, it was doubtful that this was going to happen. Among the other facilities cut off from the New Mainland were the Kennedy Space Center and Trump’s resorts. At least most people were still alive.
With the environment worsening, all the officers felt they had no choice but to move up the launch date. Tom had hoped to take off in 2030 or 2031 after running more tests and making absolutely sure it was going to be safe to do so.
Tom, Sam, and Jose participated in a meeting with the commanders of the four spaceships to gather information about when the launch could take place. Various estimates about when their ship would be one hundred per cent ready for takeoff were shared. The Russian commander, Yuri, was in his usual arrogant posture, telling everyone what a fantastic job Russia was doing and wanting to know why everyone was not ready to go now.
After a lengthy discussion, they decided that November 1, 2031, would be the launch date when the four spaceships would leave Earth.
Suddenly, a crewman came running in out of breath. Tom saw him and stopped the meeting. He gave him a drink of water. The crewman caught his breath.
“Sir, our communications bureau has just received word from NOAA and the president that the San Andreas Fault has just ruptured almost completely. The Richter scale had measured the earthquake at a magnitude 7.5.”
The devastation from this earthquake would be astounding. There was no way to predict how many lives would be lost, but it would probably be in the millions. He could imagine all the people falling into Earth along with all their belongings. The San Andreas Fault is roughly 750 miles. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific and the North American Plate. Over the years, it had caused several earthquakes, of which the most famous was the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed most of the city. Tom also remembered some of the worst fires in history in California the past few years that had destroyed thousands of acres and killed large numbers of people and livestock. Some of those people had been burned beyond recognition in the second four years of the Trump presidency and first four years of the current presidency.
This was something different, though. With the buckling of the fault, the catastrophe would be worse than anything else that had happened yet in history. Tom imagined that most of the people in California were dead or about to die, and there was nothing he or anyone else in the room could do about it.
He said, “Thank you, sir, for bringing this information to us. If you receive any updates, please let us know immediately. Feel free to interrupt me at any time.”
The crewman had his hand over his face and was in tears when he left the room as was just about everyone else. Tom immediately told the other commanders he would have to call them back due to the disaster taking place. Tom watched Sam look around the room at the dark faces with despair overcoming him.
Sam said, “Dad, is there nothing we can do for the people there? Is there no way to save anyone?”
Tom responded, “Everyone, may I please have your attention.”
Everyone became silent and immediately stopped what they were doing all over the ship to listen to their communicators.
“First, I think we should have a moment of silence for the millions of people who may have died in this earthquake. I am sure we would all love to do something to save and salvage these people’s lives that are in great danger of ending prematurely in California. I hope that President Stevens and the United States government, troops and so forth will put every effort into assisting those in need. If we were not so busy planning to take off in our spaceship, I could tell you that I would be one of the first responders on the scene. However, we cannot send anyone to help them. We cannot risk losing our space shuttles or other equipment with the possibility of not saving a single person.
“Our first priority is to have this spaceship ready for the mission. If we lose our shuttles now, we have to build more. That will take too long and postpone our ability to launch. We can monitor the situation and pass on any news via our communication system, but the risk is just too great to go there now. If you have any family in California, you have my permission to try and contact them. All issues will be addressed on a case-by-case basis. When this is all over, and we are in space, we will have appropriate memorial services to honor those who have died.”
Everyone in the room nodded. Many people were crying. If the people on board all went to California to deal with the earthquake, some of them might not return to the spacecraft and thus, diminish the chances for a successful mission.
About an hour later, while the officers along with Sam and Jose were still sitting there, numbed by the information that had just been received about California, Tom was contacted by the Russian and Australian spaceships. He had the call on the viewscreen. Ian Thorpe let him know that in the Ring of Fire, several volcanoes had just erupted, and lava was pouring out rapidly. The Ring of Fire is a significant area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where there had been multiple earthquakes under water and volcanoes. It stretched all the way from Indonesia, where some of the worst eruptions in history had occurred, to the California coast and South American coast, which included Peru and Chile.
These volcanoes were all ranked 7-8 on the Richter scale. Volcanoes had their own ranking system—the Volcanic Explosivity Index—similar to the Richter scale used for earthquakes. On the Richter scale, the worst earthquake could be around a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and would result in almost total destruction. If a volcano were ranked a 1, the lava flow would be minimal. A rank of 10 indicated that there was going to be mass destruction in the areas around the volcano. NOAA was now on the viewing screen and was reporting that at least four significant volcanoes had erupted. Two were in Indonesia. One was in Chile, and one was in Washington State. It was expected that the ones in Indonesia would be particularly devastating given the history of the volcanoes there. Tsunamis all over southeast Asia had been reported, and more would be possible.