Sedulity (Book One) Impact

by David Forsyth

  ****

  Chapter 13:

  One hour and thirty-four minutes after impact the San Andres Fault unleashed more than three hundred years of stored energy. The entire coast of Southern California moved 66 feet to the north. This movement was triggered by tectonic shifts on the floor of the Pacific Ocean caused by the asteroid impact. The most concentrated quake destruction occurred on the fault line running from Palm Springs through San Bernardino and the San Gabriel Mountains. Buildings and homes were torn in half and roads were broken and offset by dozens of feet. Interstates 5, 10, 15, and 8, as well as highway 14, were bisected, cut in two by the fault, effectively blocking every major evacuation route inland from Southern California cities.

  While the earthquake was focused along the fault line, it was not restricted to it. The whole coastline was part of the northward shift. Everything and everyone from San Diego to Los Angeles and up through Santa Barbara moved an average of 20 meters north during four minutes of intense shaking. It was an active shift of the Pacific Plate on a scale unseen in recorded history. The movement was not always smooth either. In spots where local geologic formations blocked the plates from sliding smoothly the earth buckled and rose, demonstrating how the coastal mountains of California had been formed millions of years ago. This had the exacerbating effect of triggering earthquakes on countless smaller fault lines that further shook the coastal region.

  Although the subsequent tsunamis would make accurate casualty counts from the earthquakes impossible to tally, initial reports indicated hundreds of fatalities, thousands of injuries and millions of structures damaged. More distressing than widespread death and destruction from the seismic events themselves were their crippling effects on the evacuation of coastal population centers in the hours prior to the arrival of the monstrous Tsunamis.

  The elevator carried Kevin and the rest of the group up to the Bridge without incident. He let out a quiet sigh of relief and was looking forward to being reunited with his family. Petty Officer Perkins led them to the secured door and used his keycard to gain entry. Kevin ushered the Captain’s wife in first, then led Professor Farnsworth and his wife onto the Bridge. He expected having to wait to introduce them while the Captain reunited with his wife, but Captain Krystos was almost all business. He did give Lydia a quick embrace and whispered something in her ear. Then he turned to smile at Kevin.

  “Thank you for saving my wife,” he beamed. “You’ve become quite the hero for all of us tonight. I know you want to see your own wife and daughter, who are safe in the next room, but I think we should discuss a few developments first. And who have you brought with you?”

  “This is Professor Farnsworth and his wife. He’s a retired Earth Scientist and Geologist. I think he can help us understand more of what is happening and what to expect than I can. I hope you don’t mind that I invited him.”

  “Not at all. Thank you for coming Professor,” said the Captain.

  “I must thank these young men for finding us in our cabin,” the professor replied. “And your wife for inviting my wife to come up here too.”

  “Yes, darling,” Lydia stepped in. “I said that I would entertain her and Kevin’s family while you men talk business.” She took Mrs. Farnsworth by the hand and led her to the door that connected with the Captain’s dayroom and adjoining suite. “Thank you again, Mr. Summers!” she added over her shoulder with a smile that lit up her otherwise exhausted face.

  Kevin smiled back and when they were gone he asked the Captain, “Any news or contact with anyone ashore?”

  “Yes,” the Captain replied. “We restored access to satellite news and I spoke to a scientist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. It’s a damn good thing that I called too. The idiots thought their sensor buoys were malfunctioning. I suppose I’d find all of this hard to believe myself, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but I expected more from the scientists.”

  “Scientists are people too,” Professor Farnsworth said. “This event is related to my own field of expertise, but I was tempted to discount the news when Mr. Summers told me what was happening. If I hadn’t been tossed around my cabin and seen the glowing cloud and flaming ejecta through the porthole, I probably wouldn’t have believed him either. My colleagues and I always spoke about impact events in the abstract, like it was only part of the geologic record and could never happen again. We all knew better, of course, but it was more comfortable that way. Less chance of getting blacklisted at faculty cocktail parties too. Most scientists learn not to rock the boat, but in this case the boat rocked me. I’m glad for the chance to offer any help or advice, Captain.”

  “I can use all the informed advice I can get, Professor. In any case, they finally accepted my report about the size of the waves. Shortly thereafter GNN announced a tsunami warning for the whole Pacific Rim. I’m skeptical about how much good that will do, considering the size of these waves, but at least a warning has been issued to the public.”

  “God help them,” Kevin muttered. “We’ve done all we could.”

  “Perhaps,” the Captain said, then paused. “I was so intent on getting them to believe me about the waves that I neglected to mention the rain and clouds. And now I’m afraid I need to share more bad news. I had our Security Chief use the radiation detector on the rain, as you suggested, and I’m sorry to say that, in his words, it is hot in more ways than one. I’m waiting for his full report, but it doesn’t look good.”

  “Shit,” Kevin said.

  “Don’t get alarmed yet,” Professor Farnsworth interjected. “It is common for asteroid impact ejecta to disperse small amounts of radioactive material. The asteroid might contain some of these elements, or the cratering could have released them from below the seabed. In any event, I seriously doubt that they will pose any immediate health threat. It’s nothing like the nasty isotopes produced by nuclear weapons.”

  “Great,” Kevin smiled. “I’m already glad to have you on the team, Professor. I had simpply remembered something about radioactive elements spread by the one that killed the dinosaurs.”

  “Yes, but once again we are talking about tiny amounts of radioactive material spread over wide areas and used by modern scientists to measure the date and scope of the event. It wasn’t the radiation that killed the dinosaurs, at least not radioactive elements. The thermal radiation from the blast wave probably wiped out most of them in Central America and much of North America too. But it was the cold that really finished them off.” The Professor looked pensive as he trailed off.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of too,” Kevin said. “As you know, I’m a meteorologist. This massive cloud above us and all the rain pouring down is what worries me most.” He paused to stare out the windows on the Bridge, seeing solid sheets of steaming rain fall incessantly. “Dozens of cubic miles of water were vaporized by the impact and much more will be released into the atmosphere as steam until the crater cools down. I’m truly worried about the level of climate change this event could trigger.”

  “Absolutely,” the Professor agreed. “It is too early to know for sure, but I think your fears are well founded. Nevertheless, we should focus on the short term impact for this ship and the rest of the world. I suspect the tsunamis that we already encountered will pose the greatest immediate threat to the rest of the world, but I’m also concerned about seismic activity. Captain? Has there been news of any major earthquakes since the impact event?”

  “Yes,” the Captain confirmed, nodding both in the affirmative and approval that the scientist would foresee that aspect of the disaster. “The scientist I spoke with at the Tsunami Warning Center mentioned large earthquakes in Chile, Indonesia and Central America.”

  “That’s not good,” Farnsworth said with a frown. “It means that we might be seeing a cascade effect that could spread around the whole Pacific Ring of Fire. Those quakes in turn could generate additional Tsunamis of the traditional type. To put it simply, I’d say that half the world is in danger right now.”

&nbs
p; ****

  Armando and Hank found no sign of Brad Brewer in or around the Martini Bar and Casino. Based on where he had found Rachel, those seemed the most likely places to find a man with severe burns. They did indeed find such men, and women, but none that answered to the name of Brad. Armando wasn’t surprised. Based on the severity of Rachel’s burns and the way she described her husband shielding her from the worst of the heat and flames, he suspected that her husband had not survived. Therefore he asked Hank to look for other passengers in need of assistance, then went to do the same. It wasn’t difficult.

  He and Hank gathered half a dozen walking wounded, several of whom had been blinded by flash burns, and organized their descent to the Medical Center. Armando led the procession while Hank brought up the rear, making bad jokes about herding cattle. If he was trying to cheer up the injured, the attempt fell on deaf ears – some quite literally. Armando had discovered that some of the injuries included ruptured eardrums from the overpressure and sound waves unleashed by the blast wave.

  Armando was lucky not to have suffered the same fate up in the Sky Lounge when all the windows shattered, but dimly recalled closing his eyes and covering his ears with his hands while wrapping his forearms in front of his face. That was pure instinct, but he had seen what was coming and tried to prepare for it. The passengers gathered at the muster stations, with no view of the approaching blast wave, must have been taken by complete surprise.

  After he delivered his charges to the line forming in front of the Med Center, Armando was happy to see that the deck was mostly dry and other members of the crew had arrived to render first aid and triage. A nurse separated the new arrivals into several groups. Those that received a red tag were sent directly into the emergency treatment rooms. Those with an orange tag sat against the wall on one side of the corridor where members of the crew, assisted by accompanying loved ones, applied bandages, ointments, and administered other first aid until additional treatment was available. The ones haded green tags were given Band-Aids aspirin, and burn cream, then told to come back later if necessary.

  Armando also noticed several people lying in a side corridor with black tags and knew from previous triage drills that they had been declared beyond saving and were simply waiting to die. In a normal situation there is no question that a maximum effort would have been made to save each of their lives, but in the current crisis their injuries were too severe to justify diverting medical care from others with a better chance of survival. It was a harsh system, but one that had been proven effective in countless wars and disasters as a way of focusing medical resources where they could do the most good for the most people.

  Hank noticed him eyeing the dying and said, “Damn shame, the way they just get tossed aside. There’s more like them upstairs. I met a woman who got paralyzed. I think her back is broke. I told them I’d send back help, but she’d probably just get thrown in with the rest of the hopeless cases.”

  “But you told her you’d send help,” Armando protested. “Why didn’t you tell me or the nurse about her?”

  “Just slipped my mind, I guess,” Hank said defensively. “Besides, they’d probably put her with the rest of the hopeless ones. But you, barkeep, you should get yourself tagged and get those burns treated now. I bet they take you straight to the Doc.”

  “No,” Armando said. “We’ve going back to get the woman you promised to help. Let’s find a stretcher.”

  “Ah dang it,” Hank said. “Me and my big mouth! It’s not like it’s going to make a difference anyway, you know.” But he followed Armando and they found a folding stretcher before heading back up the stairs towards the casino.

  ****

  Lydia escorted Mrs. Farnsworth into the Captain’s dayroom and saw Amanda sitting on the couch in front of the TV with her daughter asleep on her lap. “You must be Mrs. Summers,” Lydia said. “I’m Lydia, the Captain’s wife.”

  “Yes, I’m Amanda,” she said and started to move Emily so she could stand.

  “No, no, don’t wake the little one. I’m sure she’s been through enough tonight. I need to use the ladies room and change before we think about formal introductions anyway. Your husband just pulled me from the brink of drowning and I must look a fright! Perhaps you can keep Mrs. Farnsworth company while I make myself more presentable?”

  “Of course, Ma’am,” Amanda replied.

  “Just call me Lydia, please. I’ll be right back and I can’t wait to hear all about you and your family. Your husband must be an amazing man. I understand that we all owe him our lives, me twice over!” She smiled and passed through the other door into the rest of her suite before Amanda could think of a response.

  “Please have a seat, Mrs. Farnsworth,” Amanda said after a moment of silence. She gestured towards one of the two armchairs flanking the sofa. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “It’s no such thing, child,” said the elderly woman, smiling sadly. “There’s no pleasure in anything tonight. My name is Judith. My friends call me Judy. I too have your husband to thank for finding us down below and bringing us here to meet the Captain. I heard that he helped the Captain save this ship too. You must be very proud.”

  “My friends call me Mandy and I really don’t know much about what my husband has done after he sent me to get our daughter out of the stateroom. Kevin is a TV weatherman. He’s a smart guy and a great husband and father, but I never thought of him as a hero.”

  “Men are strange that way. You never quite know what to make of them until they make something of themselves,” Judith said. “There’s an age old debate about whether the man makes the moment, or the moment makes the man. In your husband’s case I suspect it’s a bit of both. He kept his head during a crisis and kept his heart in the right place too. If he hadn’t gone looking for you and your daughter, he wouldn’t have found us or saved the Captain’s wife from drowning. He may be an accidental hero, but he’s a hero nonetheless.”

  Amanda didn’t know how to respond to Judith’s insight, but she was saved when the worrying test pattern on the TV was replaced by a scene from a news studio that she didn’t immediately recognize. It was a different anchorman too. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place him, possibly due to the worried expression on his face. He, however, wasted no time getting to the news while Amanda pressed record on the DVR remote.

  “This is Walter Kingsley in the GNN Washington Studio with Breaking News. We have temporarily lost contact with GNN Headquarters in Los Angeles after what is being described as a devastating earthquake struck Southern California just a few minutes ago. We are working to restore contact with Fox Rusher and the rest of the GNN news team, while collecting more information on what appears to be a major disaster. Initial reports describe significant damage to buildings, highways, and other critical infrastructure over a wide area of the California Coast.

  “This earthquake couldn’t have come at a worse time, since the entire West Coast is already facing a Tsunami Warning. We were expecting official evacuation orders to be issued for coastal communities any time now, but the earthquake will certainly hamper those efforts. The reported loss of power in many California coastal cities, if it persists, will also inhibit authorities from broadcasting evacuation warnings to residents.

  “Scientists at Cal Tech did issue an unprecedented earthquake warning just minutes before this disaster struck in California. They based their concerns on a string of seismic events that have spread around the Pacific Rim since an asteroid struck the Central Pacific Ocean less than two hours ago. In case you are just joining us, that asteroid impact is also why tsunami warnings have been issued for every coastline on the Pacific Ocean. Some experts are now predicting waves hundreds of feet high. For our viewers along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii, as well as any other countries of the Pacific Rim, be advised that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center recommends evacuating to high ground at least ten miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. This is the most drastic wa
rning ever issued.

  “Okay, I’m being told that we are going live to the White House for a Press Briefing which has just been moved forward an hour, probably because of the earthquake in California. Press Secretary Carson is at the podium now.”

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, the President will be addressing you in one hour, as announced earlier, but due to the unfolding nature of events he has asked me to make a few brief statements. First, I can confirm that an object from outer space, presumed to be an asteroid, entered the Earth’s atmosphere over Southern Asia and impacted the Central Pacific Ocean less than two hours ago. This has been confirmed by satellite images, seismic sensors, and eyewitness accounts. Scientists have also confirmed that the impact has generated large tsunami-like waves that are currently spreading across the Pacific Ocean in an expanding circular pattern. The point of impact is about 2,000 nautical miles from the Hawaiian Islands and 5,000 miles from the West Coast of the Continental United States. Since the waves are moving at over 300 miles per hour, we expect the first of them to reach Hawaii in about three more hours and to reach California a little over twelve hours from now.

  “There is no cause for panic. The population of Hawaii has already begun evacuation to higher ground under direction of the Governor and National Guard. Elements of the US military will also assist in the evacuation of civilians in Hawaii and on the West Coast of the United States. The President is in close consultation with the governors of western states, as well as military commanders and representatives of the airline and rail industries. An orderly plan of evacuation is being developed and will be announced soon.