Sedulity (Book One) Impact

by David Forsyth

  Kevin and the radar man grabbed whatever they could to steady themselves and keep from being sucked down the stairs. As the water drained it formed a whirlpool and Kevin made the passing observation that it did indeed rotate clockwise. He would have smiled if the circumstances hadn’t been so dire.

  The rush of water lasted close to a minute while all the water trapped in that section of Deck One drained below. Close to a dozen floating bodies were carried down the stairs as well. The men ignored the dead that washed past, but did reach out to rescue several of the injured that were in danger of joining them. As the last of the water drained away and the stairs leading below became visible, Kevin said, “Well, that was easy.”

  “I have no idea what just happened,” Perkins replied. “Perhaps the Bridge was finally able to open one of the watertight doors below.” While he was speaking the water level in the stairwell stabilized a few feet above the level of the door to the deck below. Most of the bodies that had been sucked down there now choked the stairwell in a floating tangle of lifeless limbs. It was a disgusting and distressing sight.

  Kevin was about to turn away when movement caught his eye. Was it possible that one of those bodies that washed by them wasn’t really dead? Something or someone was definitely moving around down there, causing the floating mass of corpses to wiggle and shake. Kevin didn’t hesitate to rush down the slick steps in hopes of rescuing a survivor. Holding onto the handrail with one hand, he waded into the water that still filled the lower half of the stairwell and started shoving bodies aside in search of one that was moving beneath them. Perkins and Armando followed him into the stairwell, but there was only enough room for one person to work effectively. Kevin was almost convinced that he was too late, or that the movement of the bodies had been caused by a current in the water, when a groping hand grabbed his foot below the surface, scaring him half to death.

  Kevin reached down and grasped the arm, then pulled with all his might, dragging a living person up through the tangle of dead bodies floating in the stairwell. The thing that shocked him most at first sight of the woman he rescued was that he was certain she had not been one of those sucked down from Deck 1. The second thing he noticed was that he thought he recognized her from somewhere, although she was totally disheveled and half-drowned. The real shock came when Perkins leaned down to help him pull the woman out from among the bodies and exclaimed, “Mrs. Krystos? Dear God! It’s the Captains’ wife!”

  ****

  Captain Krystos had been on hold for several more minutes, multi-tasking damage control all the while, when Dr. Kline came back on the line. “Captain, Krystos?” The Captain grunted an affirmative and the scientist continued, “Sorry for the delay, but we’ve had a number of developments here that seem to confirm your story.”

  “It’s not a story, damn it!” the Captain exclaimed. “It’s a disaster in progress.”

  “Yes, yes, of course,” Kline stammered. “Well, suffice it to say that we are taking your warning seriously. We did record a massive mid-ocean seismic event centered near you in the past hour, but our computers gave it a low probability of creating a Tsunami due to the depth and topography of the ocean floor there. However, if it was indeed an asteroid impact, we could be dealing with something totally unprecedented.”

  “Which is exactly what I have been telling you,” the Captain said in as calm a tone as possible.

  “Yes, indeed. Well, we now have confirmation from independent sources too. It seems that NORAD has finally gotten around to telling us that an object did hit the earth and actually set of nuclear detonation warnings from their satellites. Other satellites are logging an unusual number of EPIRB distress signals in the mid-Pacific, including one from your ship and several from your lifeboats.”

  “Yes, we triggered the main EPIRB manually when the waves hit us and those same waves swept several of our lifeboats off the ship which would have caused their EPIRBs to trigger automatically. I’m sorry to hear that other vessels are in distress too, but it doesn’t surprise me at all. We have been trying to send warnings to other ships and shore stations, but our antennas were also swept away. In fact, I’m calling you now on a hand-held Iridium sat phone.”

  “I see,” Kline said. “Well in light of all that we have programed our computers to stop filtering anomalies out of the data from our Tsunami Warning Buoys and the results are shocking. It appears there really are swells hundreds of feet high radiating from the position you reported.”

  “That is not news to me,” the Captain grumbled. “But I’m glad that the message is finally getting through to you. So what will you do now?”

  “As you suggested, we are issuing the highest level of warning for the entire Pacific Rim. However, as you feared, it may not be enough to save a lot of people. This is something that is impossible to prepare for. Even with several hours warning I fear we are facing massive loss of life.”

  “I understand,” the Captain said sadly. “But at least we have done what we can by warning you and I hope you can warn many others.”

  “We will, Captain. We will,” Dr. Kline said with an equally heavy heart. “Before I let you go, I should warn you that there is more to it than the waves from that impact. Our seismic sensors are now reporting massive earthquakes spreading around the Pacific Rim. The coast of Chile was first. Now we have reports of more quakes in Indonesia and Central America. I suspect the trend will continue to spread north on both sides of the Pacific. These events may generate real Tsunamis, as well as hamper evacuations from coastlines where the quakes strike. We’re afraid that the asteroid you witnessed may have triggered a shift of tectonic plates. If so, the waves you encountered may be the least of our worries. Now I have to go deal with this crisis, but I wanted to thank you for your report and fill you in on the bigger picture. Godspeed to your ship and all aboard her, Captain.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Kline,” Captain Krystos said before realizing the scientist had already ended the call. The Captain lowered the phone from his ear and stared out the Bridge windows at the pouring and steaming rain that continued to fall without pause. He realized that he hadn’t even mentioned the unnatural rain to the scientist on the phone, but supposed it was the least of their worries right now.

  The Captain was still waiting for test results on the hot rain that was pelting the ship. The Chief Security Officer, Mr. Cohn, was a retired Israeli security specialist with impeccable credentials in counter-terrorism and suspect profiling. The Captain felt lucky that a man like that had decided to pursue a second career at sea. He supposed it was usually a cushy job, especially since the security chief got to mingle with the passengers and enjoy all of the ships amenities, but it was also good to know that a man of his qualifications was aboard to keep an eye on things. The last report was that Mr. Cohn was putting on a firefighting suit to take a radiation detector out on deck. The Captain shivered slightly when he pondered what they would do if the rain was indeed radioactive, as Mr. Summers feared. Then he decided there were enough troubles to dwell on for now and he would try not to worry until the results came back.

  “Captain?” First Officer Crawford interrupted his thoughts. “I have an urgent call from the Med Center. It’s Mr. Summers and he says he must speak to you right away.”

  “Alright,” said the Captain as he reached to pick up the inter-ship phone. “Hello? Mr. Summers? Are you alright? What are you doing down there?”

  “Hello, Captain,” Kevin’s voice sounded cheerful. “We came down here looking for my family.”

  “Oh,” the Captain said. “They are safe up here in my suite.”

  “I know,” Kevin said. “Armando, the bar tender, told me. Thank you for taking them in.”

  “It was the least I could do, after all your assistance. I’m sorry I didn’t get word to you sooner. But what is the urgency of your call now? It’s still quite busy up here.”

  “Good news, sir,” Kevin said and the Captain thought he detected a smile in the weatherman’s voice. “The f
looding on Deck 1 has been drained and the Medical Center is operational.”

  “That is good news,” the Captain said. “How did you mange that?”

  “We didn’t, sir. That’s the other good news that I knew you would want to hear right away. Someone trapped down below decks opened a stairway door and released the water. I thought you’d want to hear about it from her.” There was a pause on the line and then the Captain heard the most beautiful sound in the world.

  “Mikal? Darling? It’s me, Lydia.”

  ****

  Amanda didn’t want to watch the news, but couldn’t stop herself from witnessing the events that unfolded on the flat screen mounted to the wall in front of the Captain’s sofa. Following the last commercial break Fox Rusher returned with his apocalyptic panel, but dove right into the breaking news.

  “While discussing blockbuster disaster movies here with our panel of experts we received breaking news of a massive earthquake in Chile. Details are still sketchy, but Cal Tech reports an initial estimate of close to ten point oh on the Richter scale. That’s a truly massive quake and experts predict major damage, loss of life, and the possibility of Tsunamis. Our producers are hard at work gathering information and we will bring it to you as soon as it is vetted. In the meantime, let’s return to our panel discussion about disaster movies and the psychology that fuels them.

  “Karen, it was less than an hour ago that we received reports of a giant meteor streaking over the Middle East and India. Now we hear of a massive earthquake in South America and a possible threat of Tsunamis. How do events like the ones just reported play into the public appetite for disaster movies?”

  “Well, Fox, as I mentioned before, disasters do happen in real life. That’s what makes movies about them so frightening and fascinating for many people. When terrible things happen in the real world they are horrifying, but when we see them depicted in a movie, or read about them in a novel, they are entertaining. There’s a considerable body of psychological study on this issue, along with the larger demand for graphic violence in film, television, and video games. I can’t fully explain it, except to say it exists and has become part of our culture.”

  “I think we can all agree with that statement, Karen. Now let’s turn to Media Consultant Stan Marks. Stan? What responsibility do you think movie and television producers have for flooding the market with disaster themed movies and shows? Are they helping or hurting our society?”

  “That’s a loaded question, Fox, and I’m not sure if I’m qualified to answer it in the manner you posed it. What I can tell you is that a market exists for this stuff and the industry is geared to provide what the market demands. I don’t personally see any harm in these films and some of them might even convince people to prepare for possible disasters. In the long run I think that…”

  “Excuse me for cutting you short, Stan, but we have more breaking news coming in now, including a flash bulletin from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. I’ll read it to you as soon as it comes up on my screen, but I think it’s safe to say this relates to the earthquake reported in Chile. Okay, here it is.

  “‘This is an Urgent Tsunami Warning for the entire Pacific Rim and all islands of the Pacific Ocean. At approximately 13:21 Greenwich Mean Time an asteroid of unknown size impacted near the equator in the mid-Pacific, approximately 500 nautical miles southeast of the Marshal Islands. This event has generated extremely large waves that are currently propagating from the point of impact at high speed, in every direction across the Pacific Ocean. Ships at sea report unprecedented rogue waves. All contact has been lost with the islands closest to the event. Inhabitants along any coastline of the Pacific Ocean should begin immediate evacuation to higher ground. This is not a drill. Additional Tsunami warnings have been issued as a result of large earthquakes in Chile and Indonesia, which may also have been triggered by the asteroid impact. This trend may continue and other earthquakes along the Pacific Rim are to be expected. Take immediate precautions and evacuate all low-lying areas within ten miles of the Pacific Ocean. Further updates to follow.’

  “Good lord! That’s not what I expected to be reading. Can we get some additional confirmation on this, please?”

  Amanda sat in shocked silence. Even though she knew what to expect, seeing it reported by a trusted media source from home brought the magnitude of the disaster into proportion. She continued to watch the faces of Fox Rusher and his guests in the GNN studio as they too began to comprehend at least some of the gravity of the situation. It came as no surprise to Amanda when Dr. Karen Long jumped up from her seat next to Fox and ran out of the studio without a word or backward glance. That was one smart lady. Amanda suspected that Karen would be on the next flight out of town, which might also be the last, or try to beat traffic over the Hollywood Hills and across the Valley towards the Grapevine. That might still be possible, at least until the news spread.

  Fox Rusher appeared speechless for the first time she could remember. He tapped his earpiece and signaled off-camera that he needed more information, but either the producers weren’t giving him any, or he didn’t trust them enough to share it. His other guest, Stan Marks, sat frozen in his seat like a deer caught in headlights. GNN cut to another commercial and broke the spell for Amanda. She had no interest in buying gold as a hedge against another stock market crash and suspected it was too late to follow that advice anyway.

  A few moments later the Captain came into the room from the Bridge and gave her a big smile. “I just spoke to your husband,” he said. “He’s fine and on his way back up to the Bridge after searching all over the ship for you. He knows you are both okay too. Best of all, he found my wife Lydia and rescued her from drowning. That’s quite a man you married.”

  “Yes, he is.” Amanda agreed, although she had never thought of him as a hero before.

  “I have a lot to thank him for,” the Captain continued. “His advice saved all of us from almost certain disaster and now he has saved my wife too. We’re not out of the woods yet, as they say, but I’ll do whatever I can to make your family safe and comfortable. By the way, thank you for monitoring the news for me. Has there been any coverage of this yet?”

  “Yes,” Amanda said. “Fox Rusher just read a terrifying alert from the Tsunami Warning Center. They are telling everyone within ten miles of the Pacific Ocean to evacuate inland or seek high ground.”

  “Finally,” the Captain said with a grimace. “But I’m afraid it won’t be enough to make a real difference. It’s only a matter of hours before the waves hit land. I don’t even want to think about the panic that will grip the big coastal cities.”

  Amanda was having similar thoughts, centered on her home of Los Angeles where traffic jams were common on a good day. When word got out that it was time for everyone to head for the hills it would cause total gridlock. She didn’t want to think about that either, let alone discuss her fears in front of Emily, so she kept those thoughts to herself. The Captain didn’t seem to notice her reaction. He was obviously relieved by the news that his wife had survived, if worried about the fate of the rest of the world. He nodded and smiled at her and Emily again, then walked across the room and through a door that connected to the rest of his suite.

  Amanda was tempted to turn off the TV, now that they knew the alarm had been sounded, but she waited through another commercial advertising Viagra to see what Fox Rusher would say next. She felt a morbid fascination while her imagination pictured the reaction from millions of other viewers around the world who were learning of this impending disaster for the first time. She pictured a family on vacation at a beachfront hotel in Hawaii, another family living in the fishing village they had just visited on the island of Tarawa who may have already been swept into oblivion, and millions of other people in cities along the coasts of the Pacific Ocean. It was horrifying, but she couldn’t pull herself away from the television. Everything that Dr. Karen Long had said about disaster movies suddenly made perfect sense. She had never felt this wa
y about a movie, probably because she knew it was fictional, but now the gripping tension of impending disaster hit Amanda like an upper cut to the jaw. This was horrifyingly real and she was a captivated spectator with a ringside seat at the end of the world.

  ****

  Chapter 12:

  Four hundred miles south of the Sedulity another luxurious cruise ship was traveling the high seas between American Samoa and Fiji. Many of those aboard the Italian flagged Contessa had witnessed the distant and brilliant flash of the asteroid’s arrival, but their view had been obscured by a tropical squall line of thunderheads. Some of the witnesses thought it was a massive display of lightning. Others were not so sure. When the still uncomfortably hot and compressed blast wave arrived half an hour later it had lost a lot of its punch. Nevertheless, since the ship was hit broadside, the force of the blast shattered sliding glass doors on the starboard side and caused the whole ship to list alarmingly to port. The crew were unsure of the cause and focused on clean-up, placing plastic over broken windows, and treating minor injuries caused by broken glass. The Captain of the Contessa reduced speed, but maintained course for Fiji.

  Forty-five minutes later the impact generated tsunami waves approached the Contessa at over 300 miles per hour. The waves registered as a moving land mass on the radar and a crewman sounded the alarm. The ship’s Captain was unable to identify the threat and guessed it was some sort of glitch in the system, or another freak weather event like they had experienced earlier. Moments later he realized his error as the moving mountain of water became visible. There was not time to turn the ship or send a distress signal. The Contessa capsized and went down will all hands and passengers. Any other day it would have been a major disaster all by itself, but in this case it was just a little part of a far larger global calamity.