2041 Sanctuary (Dark Descent)
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Authors: Robert Storey
2041 SANCTUARY
1: Dark Descent
(Book Two, Part One of Ancient Origins)
Robert Storey
By Robert Storey
2040: Revelations
(Book One of
Ancient Origins
)
2041: Sanctuary
Part 1: Dark Descent
(Book Two, Part One of
Ancient Origins
)
2041: Sanctuary
Part 2: Let There Be Light
(Book Two, Part Two of
Ancient Origins
)
2041: Sanctuary
Part 3: Genesis
(Book Two, Part Three of
Ancient Origins
)
—————
Forthcoming titles
by Robert Storey
2042: Apocalypse
(Book Three of
Ancient Origins
)
First published in Great Britain in 2014
by SANCTURIAN PUBLISHING
Copyright © Robert Storey 2014
Robert Storey has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
1
st
Edition
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance
to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
eBook design by Robert Storey
Cover design by Robert Storey
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Sancturian Publishing
CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORANDUM
The Ancient Origins series of books run sequentially in time, year on year. Within each volume, however, a multitude of characters, located in various parts of the world, may experience events simultaneously despite their narrative being separated by a significant number of chapters. In certain instances, some character timelines may be interrupted in order for other characters’ tales to be told, for them only to resume at a later stage in the book despite minimal time passing in their life. If the reader is prepared for such deferrals in narrative it will serve to let the book’s structure and chapters flow as intended.
Dedication
2041 Sanctuary: Dark Descent is dedicated with love to my parents Maureen and Terry, whose continued support proves to be as invaluable as it is inspirational.
Acknowledgements
As ever, a big thank you to my parents for reading and editing my work, with their help the whole process is a joy instead of a chore. Also my sincere gratitude goes out to my copy editor, Julie Lewthwaite, who helps make everything shine.
Table of Contents
—
Darkness resides in us all; but when it surrounds us, closes in on us, it’s the only time when we truly know the power of our light.
– Robert Storey
FACT:
On the 8
th
January 2011 an asteroid with the potential to impact Earth in 2040 was discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey. This near-Earth object was given the designation, 2011 AG5.
The governments of the world’s most powerful nations have secret contingencies for global disasters. These plans are kept from the public for a reason.
There are still many life forms on Earth that are yet to be discovered by science. Many of these mysterious microbes, insects, plants and animals populate our deepest oceans and darkest caves.
Prologue
Some people say the cosmos is a mere reflection of life on Earth, a mirror with which one can gaze into the depths of everything that life was, is, and will be. Others hold to the belief that God created the night sky in a matter of days, or that what we are actually seeing is merely a projection, a trick or sleight of hand on an epic scale. Scientists tell us with an unyielding certainty that the light from the stars is millions, even billions, of years old and that as we gaze into the night sky we are looking back through time and witnessing the past; a past before any one of us first drew a mortal breath or long before our species had even evolved.
Whatever theories of the universe you hold to, one thing is clear; it brims with glorious beauty in all shapes and forms. Pinpricks of flickering light populate the heavens while dazzling magnificent rotating discs, so bright and vast that they can only be appreciated from afar, punctuate an expanse beyond measure. But without the darkness there would only be light. And without contrast there is no beauty, no good, no evil, no life. If there is one, there must be the other; as with all things, equilibrium must always resolve itself.
On the fringes of space, framed against this backdrop of blissful cosmic serenity, a small craft orbited the once majestic vista that was planet Earth. Where before beautiful clear skies, glistening deep blue oceans and lush green forests could be seen, now only an all-encompassing thick, dark cloud remained. Far from featureless, the predominantly brown and black veil remained in a constant state of flux. Hurricane-force winds created huge vortices which revealed fleeting glimpses of the surface below; such momentary insights into what lay beneath were quickly swallowed up, snuffed out of existence like a small candle within a great and volatile tempest. Enormous thunderstorms coalesced over half a continent, sending lightning flashing and flickering across the upper atmosphere, with the occasional super plume reaching out into space itself.
Drifting through the celestial sphere, untouched by the maelstrom far below, the tiny vessel continued its balletic odyssey; and on the side of this distant wayfarer’s white hull, large, black letters read:
U.S.S.S. ORBITER ONE
Underneath this, the evocative flag of the United States of America, the star-spangled banner, glinted majestically as the light of the sun streamed across its cold, pristine surface. Rotating through the icy vacuum of space, Orbiter One turned in slow motion, small white lights blinking on and off in leisurely regularity along its silken, metallic length. Inside, through this thin alloy skin, past bulkheads and cocooned within a mass of electrical and finely-tuned mechanical equipment, a small yet comfortable area provided room to live and work for two resident NASA astronauts.
Tyler Magnusson and his colleague, Ivan Sikorsky, currently on long term assignment, sat at the observation and control deck. The large, transparent, domed window provided the two men with a clear view of their target, an imposing disc-shaped structure that approached from their port side. Concave and smooth, the massive ship’s topside was crammed full of high-yield solar panels while the underbelly sprouted an intricate latticework of intersecting walkways and modules of various shapes and sizes. The United States Space Station, also known as the U.S.S.S. Archimedes, moved within final docking range.
‘Orbiter One, this is Archimedes on final approach,’ a strong female voice said over the internal speaker system. ‘Prepare clamps and adjust position as per the navigation graphics showing on your screen projection.’
‘Copy that, Archimedes,’ Tyler replied before dialling into the computer the new parameters for the craft’s trajectory. ‘Action pitch and yaw adjustments on my count,’ he told Ivan. ‘Three – two – one – manoeuvre.’
Small puffs of air vented into space as Orbiter One lined up with one of the space station’s external entry ports.
‘Synchronising,’ Ivan intoned, carrying out the final docking procedures.
‘Reduce thrust by fifteen per cent aft,’ Tyler said.
Ivan rotated a small joystick, its white rubber surround stretching as it inched back, notch by minute notch. ‘Reducing thrust by fifteen per cent aft,’ he confirmed.