2084 The End of Days (31 page)

Saeed spoke again through Suleiman.

“If we could get the Oh LII to try and fire up the fusion drive again and find some way of transmitting all the available data from the ship’s computer live then it may show up the problem.”

“Okay, can we do that anybody?”

Gary spoke up. He did not even use Mister President as they were all
equals now.

“Ah could hook up a live feed with the Oh LII through the E2MSN. Jack could then transmit all the ship’s live data back to Houston.”

“Let’s do it.”

Half an hour later Gary had patched into the on board computer’s main server via the E2MSN and Jack was told to give the fusion engines another go. After going through the standard check list he set the switch again. For a third time the Oh LII shuddered and the warning light and klaxon issued forth once more. Jack radioed back to Houston.

“No go, Lex. Will continue to run on rocket boosters meantime. Over.”

“Houston to Ell-Eye-Eye. The data is streaming in Jack. Tech boys are on it. Over and out.”

Saeed, Hossein and Gary pored over the engine fire up procedural data with Suleiman acting as an interpreter when needed. By ten o’clock they were all becoming exhausted and exasperated and Hossein, who had been the main project engineer for the fusion engines, spoke agitatedly in Persian, which Suleiman translated.

“I’m adamant Saeed, there is no major fault showing in the engines. The data shows that they are firing up okay.”

Saeed replied, again through Suleiman.

“Yes, Hossein, but it is as if they are not being maintained. Almost as if they are being switched off again.”

A light illuminated in Gary’s head and he held up his hand as he quickly pored through data sets on his screen.

“That’s it boys, ye’ve cracked it. It’s not an engine problem, it’s a computer glitch!”

The puzzled Iranians asked for a translation and Suleiman continued to speak as Gary elaborated. Gary had identified that the fault was in the ship’s on-board server, which was causing the fusion drive switch to be turned off automatically every time it was engaged. He also outlined that finding the faulty circuit or chip which was causing the problem was nigh on impossible. In fact, even if it could be found it would be unlikely that the hastily built ship was carrying a valid replacement. Suleiman’s head bowed and his hand went to his forehead in resignation.

“Then the Ell-Eye-Eye is doomed?”

Gary had a twinkle in his eye.

“Well, maybe not quite, Suleiman.”

“What do you mean, my friend?”

“Gary’s ma name – hacking’s ma game. What we do is use the E2MSN
an’ hack in to the Ell-Eye-Eye’s computer. We by-pass the main server an’ remotely fire up the fusion drive from here.”

“Allah be praised. You can do this?”

“Well with Saeed and Hossein’s tech help ah can give it a bloody good try!”

Just after ten in the morning after a quick conference, Gary, Saeed and Hossein reported back that they had been able to hack past the LII’s main server and they had loaded the engine start up programme on to Houston’s main server for transmission to the crippled spaceship. Lex called Jack and explained what they were going to try and Jack agreed that it was their only shot remaining. After clearance from Houston, Jack and Rajeev went once again through all the start-up checks and Jack gave Lex the all clear. Gary nodded to Hossein who then transmitted the engine start up programme through Gary’s hack up to the Oh LII. There was radio silence for that awful moment as they all held bated breaths, then Jack’s voice crackled down the airwaves.

“Ell-Eye-Eye reports fusion drive on and functioning!”

He was interrupted by the resounding cheering from Houston Control.

“It must have sustained some damage in previous start-ups. Only getting ninety per cent fusion thrust. But at this moment in time ah’ll take that. Over.”

Trueman shook Eckler’s hand vigorously.

“Good job, Aaron!”

“Thanks, Mister President. But with a fourteen hour delay and only ninety per cent thrust it will be nip and tuck whether they make it.”

“Well, truth is, Aaron, none of us will be around to find out!”

Chapter 24

Earthdate: 13:00 Friday May 26, 2084 GMT

S
chenkler HMM2 was now so close to Earth that it shone brighter in the sky than even the brightest Moon. Like most things in the cosmos it commanded that immense beauty that most humans could appreciate. However, it was difficult to appreciate the beauty of something so omnipotent, a glorious celestial body that was just about to wipe out everything in its path. Impact with the comet was expected within the next hour and predicted to be in the mid-Pacific basin close to the Marianas Trench. Geophysicists had calculated that as this was a particularly weak point in the Earth’s crust. Schenkler would easily smash its way through the crust and then on through the mantle and finally into the molten iron core of the planet. Following the initial impact, huge tsunamis hundreds of feet high would rip across the continents destroying everything and everyone in their paths. Volcanic eruptions would spew out at all points across the globe followed by huge pyroclastic flows. Once the core had been breached the Earth’s tectonic plates would become highly unstable and the planet would crack open like an egg and end in an awesome apocalyptic nuclear explosion measured in the billions of Hiroshimas. Over the last few weeks everyone left behind on Earth were in their own unique way preparing to meet their Maker. There had been some minor anarchic outbreaks at various flashpoints across the planet, but, in general, most people had resigned themselves calmly to their fate. There had been a sort of holiday atmosphere which had prevailed for weeks. In the main men and women had resolved to stay in their hometowns or travel to their birthplaces. Many had even arranged to go to significant locations salient to their lives or their faiths. Somewhere that they would be most happy to end their days. Holy places like Rome, Lourdes, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Mecca, Medina and sacred sites along the Ganges River were filling up to bursting with pilgrims of all faiths - including those who previously had no faith. Like many Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, Ravinder Gupta-Chaudry had travelled home to India to the sacred city of Varanasi, also known as Benares. The UN Gen-Sec had drifted away from the Hindu faith which had been fervently practised by his family for generations. However, as Ravinder bathed in the warm Ganges waters he felt that it was more than a mere coincidence that it was the Hindu festival of avatarana. To soak in the Ganges at this time was said to rid the bather of the ten sins or the dasha hara. No place along its banks is more longed for at the moment of death by Hindus than Varanasi, the Great Cremation Ground, or Mahashmshana. Those who are lucky enough to die in Varanasi, are cremated on the banks of the Ganges, and are granted instant salvation. Ravinder thought as he bathed with the massed chanting throngs just how lucky he was. The little town of Megiddo in Israel had filled up with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, Jewish and Christian, who wanted to feel like they were fulfilling the biblical prophecy of Armageddon. A few hours ago on the edge of Megiddo National Park they had received a short address by President Moshi Shalomon, who had come with his own family from his nearby birthplace of Haifa. He spoke in Hebrew and in English to the massive crowd.

“….and it is written in the scriptures –
‘then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon’
. In the Jewish religion it is believed that the Messiah was still to come and in the Christian faith that one day he would return on Judgement Day. One way or another I think today we have been given God’s answer and soon we will all sit at Jehovah’s right hand for eternity.”

Ari Schenkler was not to get sight of his very own comet today as it was coming in from the east well below the Israeli horizon. He had gone up to use the main telescope at the INSACC last night to marvel at how close HMM2 was and he looked back with a great deal of pride in the work that he and Ewan Sinclair had carried out. To have predicted that a lump of rock from beyond the solar system would impact with his little blue planet and to have gotten that spot on was a testimony to man’s knowledge, intellect and ingenuity. He had taken comfort in the fact that at least Ewan was continuing to carry those special human talents onwards to Mars. Ari had thought about flying his air-car this morning the ninety kilometres north to Megiddo. In the end he and Ava decided to take their daughter Sarah to Gordon Beach beside the Lahat Promenade in Tel Aviv. They spent the morning playing with Sarah on the beach, making sandcastles, paddling in the Mediterranean and eating far too much falafel and ice cream. Ari even bumped into his old INSACC boss Yosep Goldenheim. Yosep was
also enjoying a last day at the seaside with his new young wife Rebecca Menachim, Ari’s old colleague, and some of his grown up children from his first marriage. In the afternoon Ari and Ava relaxed in deck chairs holding hands tightly as they watched their last views of the beautiful glorious Sun starting to lower in the clear blue western sky. Sarah slept obliviously in Ava’s lap. In Tehran Mullah Abdullah Suleiman was spending his final afternoon leading Friday prayers in the packed Shah Mosque in the city of his birth in Isfahan. So many people had turned up that the adjacent Naqsh-e Jahan Square was packed solid and Suleiman and the Imams had to address the multitudinous crowd through loudspeakers. The great cry of Allahu Akbar resounded time and again around the packed square. In England PM John Ralston decided to spend his last day at the Prime Ministerial retreat of Chequers near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. He had invited family and friends, both political, religious and social, to join him in a brunch-style barbecue. The weather was pleasantly warm with just a hint of the onset of the summer that was never to be hanging in the sweet-scented blossom-filled air. After the barbecue the PM had organised a short service led by the Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster. This was followed by a bounce cricket match, Ralston’s favourite sport and pastime. The intention was that the match would not be able to come to a final conclusion for obvious reasons. The PM gave the scorekeeper strict instructions that every player was to be recorded as ‘Not Out’ on the big scoreboard that he had brought in for the occasion. Further towards the West Country Peggy Sue Milner and Justin Smythe decided to take Milner, Jack Junior and their two golden retrievers for a long walk in the sunshine from Bainley Lane Farm to a favourite picnic spot looking across the valley from Cucklington to Wincanton. Peggy Sue regaled the boys with stories about their father Jack when he was a small boy in Virginia and growing up and meeting Maria Conchita and then later marrying Peggy Sue. They were fascinated to hear about the time that Jack held on tightly to Uncle Jimmy Reid’s picket fence and found that he was ‘flying’ and also the time that their father thought that there was a man with a gun in his bedroom. After she had finished the stories about Jack, young Jack Junior cast his eyes past Peggy Sue and he seemed to be sitting entranced.

“Junior, are ya okay, son?”

The boy pointed back to an old rickety fence standing behind them on the edge of a wooded area.

“When the big comet comes maybe we could all hold on to that fence and then maybe we could fly too? Like poppa.”

Tears rimmed Peggy Sue’s eyes.

“Oh my baby, that is so the best idea an’ ah think that is jest what we’re all gonna do.”

*

Further up north in Glasgow, Scotland Gary Mackintosh had flown home from Houston a couple of weeks ago and he was staying with his parents Frank and Annie. They now lived in a swanky new home in Kelvinside which Gary had bought them well before his stocks and shares had crashed. They had decided to spend their last day together going around the art exhibitions of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. They had agreed that it was such a terrible loss to the human cultural experience that all the great works of art around the world would be destroyed. Gary’s NOAHSARK project had preserved virtually of the great artworks digitally, but as he and his parents stood admiring Salvador Dali’s immense opus Christ of St John of the Cross, they knew that in the end there was nothing to beat the real thing. They finished their day by walking across to Garnethill and took a final Mass in St Aloysius RC Church. Across the Atlantic the sun had only risen about an hour ago on Galveston Bay. Lex had been raised in Galveston, Texas as a boy and he and Irene had come here to face the end. They were joined by many tens of thousands who had decided to enjoy their last day by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone there could not help but notice that the bird life of the estuarial nature reserve was acting like crazy and the sky was filled with confused swirling flocks of many species. It was like a scene from the Hitchcock horror film ‘The Birds’. Lex commented to Irene that the birds obviously knew something big was on its way. Irene said that Schenkler was obviously playing havoc with the Earth’s magnetic fields. Lex’s maternal grandmother used to tell him blood-curdling stories of how she lost an ancestor in the Great Storm of 1900. At least 8,000 people lost their lives in Galveston when the unpredicted hurricane brought in a devastating flood, causing the greatest natural disaster to hit the United States. Lex and Irene knew that within an hour or so the 1900 Galveston Flood was about to be totally eclipsed on the scale of human disasters. It was just after 8am when Josh Trueman’s air-limo arrived at Crestwood Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Josh had been raised in the tough Crestwood neighbourhood and he felt like a returning prodigal son. A moderately sized crowd had turned out to politely applaud Josh and his family as they made their way up the white-painted wooden steps. The modest building was made of wood and stucco, which had been hastily constructed, but it still made Trueman feel immensely proud. He thought to himself that every other US President had one and his supporters in Alabama had ensured that he was going to have one too. His heart was bursting with pride as he stepped up to the mic holding a pair of ceremonial scissors with which to cut the red, white and blue tape behind him.

“Ladies an’ gentlemen, boys an’ girls, it gives me the greatest of pleasures to inaugurate the President Joshua Spengler Trueman Library. However, ah muss say - if you want to read anythin’ in it you had better be quick!”

Just about the same time, Dr Marcie Venters and her daughter Ruthie arrived at the B’nai Jeshurun Jewish Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. They had walked from the nearby Holiday Inn Brooklyn where they had been staying these last few days. Marcie’s sister Ruth Esther Bloom had already had a full house as she had invited many Bloom family members to a last reunion and Marcie and Ruth had gone to the farewell party last night in Marcie’s old home. Marcie and Ruth were both carrying flowers as they walked smartly over to the Bloom family grave. They both laid their bouquets at the graveside and a tearful Marcie ran her fingers over the carved Hebrew inscriptions. She thought to herself that soon she would be with her beloved husband Rolf and her esteemed father Dr Ezra Bloom. Marcie recited the Talmudic benediction of the
Ķ
ibbu
ẓ
Galuyot.

“Blow the great trumpet for our liberation, and lift a banner to gather our exiles, and gather us into one body from the four corners of the Earth. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who gatherest the dispersed of Thy people Israel.”

Ruthie whispered a much shorter prayer as the mother and daughter hugged each other tightly.

“Our Father, our King! Disclose the glory of Thy Kingdom unto us speedily.”

*

Earthdate: 13:55 Friday May 26, 2084 GMT

The Red Planet was now much larger on Commander Mohmed Malik’s main monitor and he was feeling much happier and certainly more secure. He had successfully brought the second fleet of twenty six ships well beyond the blast zone perimeter and there was now only three weeks left to go until they were all safely in Mars orbit. His key concern now was that Jack Crossan’s ship was still limping along well behind the fleet. The last that Mohmed had heard from Mars Control was that the Oh LII was still struggling within the danger zone. On the bridge of the LII Jack, Rajeev and Joanna were
more than just concerned. They were extremely fearful of their chances. In the last seven days the fusion drive performance had dropped down to 85 per cent. If anything, the ship was slowing down rather than speeding up. On the screens in front of Jack the key concerns he was monitoring were threefold. Firstly, there was the Red Planet sitting in the screen’s cross-hairs, but to Jack, it still looked too small, too distant and too unattainable at this juncture. Secondly, there was the schematic view of the ship as an audible blip moving inexorably to the left away from Earth with a line indicating the boundary of the blast zone perimeter. To the left the screen had a green ‘safe zone’. Just inside the perimeter line was an amber ‘critical zone’ and the right side of the screen was the red ‘danger zone’. The ship’s blip had only just crossed from the red zone to the amber zone in the last hour. Navigator Joanna Cespao’s calculations showed the vessel was highly unlikely to reach the safe green zone in time. Thirdly, there was the monitor sending pictures back from the little shining blue dot that was Planet Earth, which was about to collide with the Schenkler comet within the next few minutes. It would take about another forty eight hours for the shock waves from the massive explosion to reach this far out into the solar system and Jack knew that the waves would be dissipating rapidly by then. His problem was that NASA’s calculations still forecast that the shock waves could still do a heck of a lot of damage to even the sturdiest Oceanus this far out. Jack knew the ship he had got was cobbled together at the last minute with every corner in the book cut. He feared that the LII could easily be destroyed and he and Rajeev worked furiously to find a way to eke out just a little more power from the fusion drive. Try as they might they could not get it above the 85 per cent mark. They also did not want to tinker too much in case the fusion drive cut out completely and they ended up with the startup problem again. Jack felt that it was time to make the awful announcement to the expectant and fear-filled passengers.