Sedulity (Book One) Impact

by David Forsyth

  “Yes, quite a bit actually,” Captain Krystos replied. “Close to a foot of muddy sludge fell with the rain. Much of it washed away into the sea, but there are piles of it on deck and filling the swimming pools. We were also hit by a flaming ball of molten rock or metal that smashed through half a dozen decks and ended up killing a passenger in our theater.”

  “Bloody hell. Sorry to hear that, Captain, but do you still have that rock?”

  “Yes, Sir. It should still be sitting in the theater.”

  “That’s great! Don’t get rid of it. That could be part of the asteroid itself. Due to the location of the impact, you might have the only piece of the thing that we will ever get a chance to study.”

  “And how is that important at this point?” Captain Krystos asked quizzically.

  “Scientists around the world are scrambling to build computer models about the long-term effects of this event. As I understand it, the accuracy of their projections depend on knowing the composition of the asteroid. You could be sitting on a key piece of data. I suppose it could also become a priceless, if infamous, artifact too,” Commander Anders said.

  “I understand,” the Captain replied. “It’s also evidence in the death of a passenger, so I was planning to hold onto it for any board of inquiry.”

  “I wouldn’t worry overmuch about that,” Commander Anders said. “Very few courts will be convened in this part of the world for a long time to come. But I’ll be happy to write up an official report before taking the ejecta sample off your hands. Will you remain in the area until we arrive?”

  “What is your ETA?” Captain Krystos asked.

  “We should be there by mid-day,” Commander Anders replied.

  “And where will you take the samples?” Captain Krystos inquired.

  “Darwin,” Anders said. “The tsunamis rolled past the northwest coast of Australia with only a moderate tidal surge in Port Darwin. It might be the only operable port in this hemisphere.”

  “Would we be welcome there?” Captain Krystos asked. “Our destination was Sydney, but I’m afraid it’s no longer there.”

  “Bloody well right, it’s not. The whole northern and western coasts of Australia were wiped out. You’ll be welcome to dock and re-provision in Darwin. I’ll grant you carte blanche and escort you there myself, if you like. The data and samples you can provide are worth a lot. Do you mind if I ask how your ship survived so close to the impact?”

  “It was a miracle, Commander,” said the Captain. “We had some priceless advice from a passenger who knew what to expect. At his suggestion I turned towards the point of impact and took the brunt of the blast on our bow. Then we steamed towards the waves and rode up and over them. Pure luck that we made it one piece.”

  “More than luck, Captain. Dozens of other ships tried to flee and were sunk. Taking those waves head-on took guts and vision. I look forward to making your acquaintance and buying you a beer.”

  “Thank you, Commander. The pleasure will be all mine. As I said, we are just lucky to still be afloat and alive.”

  ****

  Captain Krystos ended the satellite phone call and looked up at his small group of advisors in the dayroom. “An Australian frigate is coming here,” he said. “They want samples of the ejecta, including the fireball that hit the theater. They also want us to keep taking readings of the weather and water temperature. Apparently there are some scientists who want all that data.”

  “I’m not surprised,” said Professor Farnsworth. “They don’t really need it to run computer models, but they are probably hoping to find something that will prove their projections wrong. I know that I would.”

  “The temperature of the rain is down to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a good sign. Ocean water temperature is up to 88 degrees, a five degree increase since impact. That’s actually quite drastic, considering the volume of water involved,” Kevin said, frowning as he reviewed a printout from the ship’s weather station. “It’s too early to determine trends, but I would say that ocean currents will be impacted. I don’t need to see a satellite photo to know that major storms are forming in these clouds.”

  “The sea is still calm here,” said the Captain.

  “Yes, it would be. This isn’t quite like the eye of a storm, but it’s close. All the steam from the impact crater is going up into the upper atmosphere and spreading out quickly in every direction as fast moving clouds. Air is rushing in to fill the void down here at sea level, but the actual storms are spinning off north and south of the equator,” Kevin explained. “We are sitting next to the incubator, so to speak. We won’t encounter heavy seas until we try to go somewhere else.”

  “Speaking of going somewhere,” Captain Krystos said, “the Australian officer told me that Port Darwin survived the tsunami and he invited us to go there too. How does that location fit into your climate projections?” Kevin and Professor Farnsworth exchanged looks and both of them smiled.

  “That is probably one of the best possible destinations,” said the Professor. “It’s subtropical and might turn temperate as a result of this event, but it won’t get too cold. It’s in the path of seasonal monsoons and that rainfall will increase. Not a lot of agriculture now, but that sector of the economy could grow as the weather changes. In fact, it’s one of the few places that might become more hospitable in the early stages of an Ice Age. Better yet, it doesn’t have a high population density and it’s a Western industrialized democracy with a majority of immigrants. It also has an excellent natural harbor. On top of it all is the irony of the name.”

  “What do you mean?” the Captain asked.

  “Darwin,” Kevin guessed the professor’s meaning. “Survival of the fittest.”

  “Exactly, my boy! Exactly,” the Professor chuckled dryly.

  They stood there in the wee hours of the morning, in the middle of the ocean, with hot torrential rain pounding down outside. Tsunami waves proceeded to spread out and wreak havoc on the lives of countless multitudes, killing millions. The waterlogged cloud cover followed in echelon, forming storms that would ravage the planet. Earthquakes and volcanoes continued to rumble and shake the earth itself. The Sedulity rode alone on a leaden sea of sorrow.

  Epilogue:

  “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Winston Churchill

  Captain Krystos retired to spend time with Lydia in his suite. Kevin and the Professor went to Staff Captain Stevens’ former suite to seek comfort from their own wives and possibly a few hours of much needed sleep. The tsunamis were still charging across the Pacific, already impacting the shores of South America and Southeast Asia, but it would be another six or seven hours before they reached California, longer for the rest of the West Coast and Japan. This was a good time for a break to recharge their energy, the better to face the unknown challenges of tomorrow.

  Emily was sound asleep, but Amanda turned to embrace Kevin when he slipped into bed. They didn’t speak. They didn’t need to. Words could not describe the love, fear and hope that they shared. They hoped that they had survived the worst, feared that worse was yet to come, and knew that their love for each other and their daughter was all they could truly rely on now. Everything else was shrouded in uncertainty.

  Kevin cradled Amanda’s head on his chest until she drifted off into a fitful sleep. He could not do that. His mind filled with projections and forecasts, images of disaster and chaos. He had a good idea of what was coming and it scared him half to death. The murderous tsunamis and earthquakes would only be the beginning. The weatherman in Kevin imagined the forecast a week, a month, a year from now, and none of it was good.

  Massive storms would rip across the globe, stirring the rubble left by waves and quakes. The global temperature would fall. The winter would bring crippling blizzards and massive snow fall in the northern hemisphere, torrential floods in the southern hemisphere, and all the while the steam would keep rising from the impact zone at the
equator to fuel the maelstrom. Glaciers and icecaps would begin to expand. Nations untouched by the initial effects of the asteroid strike would feel the pain of climate change.

  Eventually, large portions of North America and Asia would become uninhabitable. Crops would fail. Vital trade routes, especially ports, would be put out of action. Resources would be scarce and then exhausted as supply lines failed. Sooner or later the surviving people and nations of the North will want, or be compelled, to move south. That was when man’s battle against nature would turn against himself. War on a scale unseen in history would erupt when entire nations were forced to displace others in a desperate quest for habitable land and limited resources. Kevin’s imagination rebelled at that point, refusing to extrapolate further. Numbed by the horror of his vision, Kevin’s mind mercifully shut down and allowed him to drift into dreamless slumber.

  ****

  Hank made sure that Armando was taken into the Med Center for immediate treatment. He told the nurse of the bartender’s heroic role in bringing injured passengers down while refusing care for himself, and how his burns were compounded when he went outside to get the satellite phone. When Hank was certain that Armando would receive priority attention, he returned to the Promenade Deck and strolled through the casino towards the theater. He was not really surprised to see a tarp covering the body of the woman with a broken back, her husband weeping beside the corpse. Hank couldn’t imagine a better fate for her in this new reality. He had a feeling that everyone would soon become intimately familiar with the necessities of survival, and that the weak of body and mind would not fare well.

  The Texas oilman finished off the bottle of Jack Daniels and hid another behind a slot machine before carrying the satellite phone into the theater. He walked up to the officer and handed it to him, saying, “I’m sure that you and most of the rest of these people would like to talk to friends and family at home. Some of them don’t have much time left.”

  Lieutenant Reiner was speechless as he accepted the orange sat phone case. At first he thought it was one of the kindest and most selfless acts he had ever witnessed. A moment later he realized that the presence of a single telephone in the theater would trigger the riot he had struggled so hard to prevent. Hank just smiled and turned away, seemingly oblivious to the consequences his well-intentioned action would unleash.

  ****

  Mikal and Lydia Krystos lay in bed and told each other about their terrifying experiences since the Line Crossing ceremony was interrupted by the asteroid that changed their world forever. Lydia was proud of her husband for conning the ship through the waves and saving all their lives. The Captain said he was even prouder of Lydia for coming up with the brilliant idea of taking the passengers to the theater. He was certain that many of them would have died, or been horribly injured, if they had joined the others at their muster stations. Captain Krystos shared his feelings of guilt for what happened to all those who did follow his orders to gather at the lifeboat muster stations. When the Captain found out what happened to most of them he had almost lost control of his emotions. Now, in bed with Lydia, he finally allowed the tears to flow.

  “I should have told them all to go to the theater,” he sobbed. “You were smart enough to figure it out. Why couldn’t I? I sent hundreds of people to their deaths and maimed even more!”

  “Shush! Don’t you ever say or think that again,” Lydia said as she held her husband tight and patted his bald head. “You did exactly what you were trained to do. Any officer would have done the same in your place. Even Staff Captain Stevens had to think about my suggestion before he saw the logic in it. It was much more natural to send everyone to their emergency muster stations. That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do in an emergency, isn’t it?”

  The Captain mumbled agreement, but continued to cry softly. He would never be able to truly forgive himself for issuing those orders. Before long, however, he cried himself to sleep and dreamed of steering his ship up the face of a mountain, with a wild smile on his face.

  ****

  Armando dreamed of home. He was with his family on the Bangka pump boat. The single cylinder engine chugged away at full throttle while his father took them through the surf that crashed on the reef beyond the lagoon. His brothers and sister were laughing and shouting in excitement, but Armando was gripped with fear. The outriggers should keep the little boat from capsizing and his father was a fine sailor, but the big waves frightened Armando.

  “Don’t worry, Armando,” said his mother. She could always tell when he was afraid of something. “Your father knows what he is doing. This is something we must do. Our ancestors are waiting for us.” She smiled sadly and Armando’s emotions shifted from fear to grief.

  “No!” he pleaded. “Don’t do it! Don’t go out there. There is no hope out there.” Beyond the line of surf he could see the ocean rising up like a dark and distant squall, rushing towards them at incredible speed.

  “He cannot come with us,” his father said sadly. “He is not ready yet.” The elder Ramos leaned away from the tiller and grasped Armando’s arm. He squeezed reassuringly, smiled briefly, then he gripped harder and effortlessly tossed Armando out of the little boat into the churning surf.

  Armando would have awoken then, if not for the sedatives that the doctor had administered. Instead he fell deeper into the dream, watching his family sail away while he struggled to survive in a violent and uncaring sea.

  ****

  To be Continued in Sedulity Book Two: Aftershock

  Computer Generated Impact Scenario:

  Distance from Impact: 161.00 km ( = 100.00 miles )

  Projectile diameter: 1.50 km ( = 0.93 miles )

  Projectile Density: 8000 kg/m3

  Impact Velocity: 25.00 km per second ( = 15.50 miles per second )

  Impact Angle: 40 degrees

  Target Density: 1000 kg/m3

  Target Type: Liquid water of depth 2.0 km ( = 1.2 miles ), over crystalline rock.

  Energy:

  Energy before atmospheric entry: 4.42 x 1021 Joules = 1.06 x 106 MegaTons TNT

  The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 4.8 x 106years

  Major Global Changes:

  The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.

  The impact does not make a noticeable change in the tilt of Earth's axis.

  The impact does not shift the Earth's orbit noticeably.

  Possibility of major climate change.

  Crater Dimensions:

  The crater opened in the water has a diameter of 36.8 km ( = 22.9 miles ).

  For the crater formed in the seafloor:

  Transient Crater Diameter: 19.4 km ( = 12 miles )

  Transient Crater Depth: 6.85 km ( = 4.25 miles )

  Final Crater Diameter: 28.6 km ( = 17.8 miles )

  Final Crater Depth: 812 meters ( = 2660 feet )

  The crater formed is a complex crater.

  The volume of the target melted or vaporized is 12.7 km3 = 3.06 miles3

  Roughly half the melt remains in the crater, where its average thickness is 43.2 meters ( = 142 feet ).

  Thermal Radiation:

  Time for maximum radiation: 1.31 seconds after impact

  Visible fireball radius: 30.7 km ( = 19.1 miles )

  The fireball appears 43.4 times larger than the sun

  Thermal Exposure: 7.47 x 107 Joules/m2

  Duration of Irradiation: 7.1 minutes

  Radiant flux (relative to the sun): 175

  Effects of Thermal Radiation:

  Clothing ignites

  Much of the body suffers third degree burns

  Newspaper ignites

  Plywood flames

  Deciduous trees ignite

  Grass ignites

  Seismic Effects:

  The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 32.2 seconds after impact.

  Richter Scale Magnitude: 8.4

  Merca
lli Scale Intensity at a distance of 161 km:

  VIII. Damage slight in specially designed structures; considerable damage in ordinary substantial buildings with partial collapse. Damage great in poorly built structures. Fall of chimneys, factory stacks, columns, monuments, walls. Heavy furniture overturned.

  Ejecta:

  The ejecta will arrive approximately 3.07 minutes after the impact.

  At your position there is a fine dusting of ejecta with occasional larger fragments

  Average Ejecta Thickness: 30.1 cm ( = 11.9 inches )

  Mean Fragment Diameter: 5.28 cm ( = 2.08 inches )

  Air Blast:

  The air blast will arrive approximately 8.13 minutes after impact.

  Peak Overpressure: 261000 Pa = 2.61 bars = 37 psi