His orders were to attack Shanghai and then Hangzhou. If any fuel remained, he was ordered to fire his remaining weapons at Chongqing.
Beijing and Zhongnanhai had been blasted into rubble by nuclear weapons. It was thought that an American nuclear submarine had launched them. Numerous missiles were inbound towards Russian targets, and Chinese missiles were already airborne, heading towards the Koreas, Japan, and Russia.
The Major thought of his sister, Tatania. He wondered where she might be.
As his squadron flew towards their targets, they noticed that their instruments were acting a bit strangely. The air at their altitude of 35,000 feet shimmered, and a weird glow surrounded them.
The Major was intent on piloting his craft, but he noticed as suddenly three of his accompanying bombers went out of control. One flipped over and flew into his wingman on the starboard side, and both aircraft exploded and fell into the steppes below. The other one began a series of pitching motions that became uncontrollable, as the Blackjack’s wings tore off. It careened close enough for him to see that the pilot was screaming, and there was no sign of the co-pilot. His mind did not understand what he had seen, and he turned to his co-pilot, but there was only an empty suit in his seat.
Major Anton Golovonov had seen a child yelling at him as his wingman’s bomber had nosed over and barely avoided colliding with his own aircraft. He looked above him, and saw the remaining Blackjack bomber, cruising along at speed, but obviously slowing. He piloted his own aircraft alongside, aware as he did that he was calling out the names of his crew and that none was answering. He felt odd and noticed that his mask was loose. He tightened it up, and also his restraints.
He found he needed to adjust his seat forward to be able to reach the rudder controls, and did so. He put his plane on autopilot, realizing that the other plane was also flying with it activated. There was nothing moving in the cockpit of the plane next to him. He saw empty flight suits. He realized there was no one left on that plane either.
He fell back and tried to contact the aircrew by radio. There was no response. He repeated his attempts for five minutes. Finally, he backed away a safe distance and fired his 35mm cannons into the engines of the plane. They exploded and he had to flip inverted to avoid some of the debris. He completed a barrel roll as the other Blackjack began a fatal dive to the ground far below.
He watched as it came apart, and then exploded into a fiery ball. Major Anton Golovonov felt afraid, and alone. These were not the feelings of a man of war, he thought.
He felt strange and hot. He pulled off his glove and looked at the smooth, unlined skin of a fourteen-year-old boy. He felt his face and looked into the small mirror that he used when engaged in dogfighting. He saw his youthful face, wide-eyed, staring back at him.
He heard the engines of his plane begin to shut down, and noted with alarm that he was out of fuel. “How could that be?” he thought. He took a quick reading from the flight computer, then put the plane into a shallow dive. When he reached five thousand feet, he punched out of the aircraft. He watched as it flew nose first into the ground below.
As his chute deployed and he swung beneath its billows, he realized he was probably over North Korea. This time, it did not bring a smile to his face.
*****
SOMALIA, AFRICA –
Amadu sat in a wicker chair. He was in shock. He did not understand what had happened to him, his daughter, and everyone else in the camp. The camp was desolate.
Only a few people remained, and most of them were children. Confused, angry and frightened, the children were running all around the encampment. At least, he thought, he had experience in comforting them. But, these children swore and talked like adults, with adult ideas and language. Several were obviously unhinged. A small boy had his head between his hands, on the ground, almost buried in the sand.
But, the strangest thing of all was a nearly naked little girl, running around and barking orders at whoever would listen to her. She grabbed some discarded clothes and covered herself, glaring at the others. She looked at him and yelled “Father! What sorcery is this?” She tried to pick up a rifle but was too small and weak to work the bolt. She dragged it toward him and then dropped it when it became too heavy for her tiny frame. She fell to the ground, throwing a massive tantrum. Kicking and screaming, just like any toddler.
Amadu Mfala was again a man of twenty-four.
He did not know why.
He also could not grasp how a two-year-old girl could swear so heartily and wish him dead.
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”-- C. S. Lewis
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
-- Leo Tolstoy
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.”
-- Barack Obama
Chapter Ten
Earth was passing through Wave Space. The tachyon clouds, combined with other quantum phenomena, were hard at work on the organic material of the planet, causing remission to occur.
In the atmosphere, organic pollutants and toxins were being removed, as The Wave worked its eerie science on the planet. The seas were also being regressed and vast amounts of plankton and algae just vanished. As on Mars, certain forms of life were being cleansed from the Earth. On the land, shrubberies, lawns, and many seasonal plants disappeared. Trees long thought dead sprang back to full bloom. Billions of living creatures ceased to exist, as they were exposed to the effects of The Wave.
The planet Earth was systematically being changed in ways that modern physics would never be able to explain, as the progeny of the Black Galaxy took its toll.
*****
ONBOARD THE ISS -
Commander Benjamin Franklin Armstrong had been ordered by the President to isolate the American crew, and segregate all foreign nationals into areas of the ISS that were under international treaty. Under the declaration of a state of war, he was now charged with protecting and defending any and all United States assets. This did not include the Soyuz capsules, however.
Directly, he instructed the other three American astronauts, Cooper, Marshall and Devevers, to gather what equipment could be moved that belonged to the United States Space Program, and relocate it to the Destiny and Leonardo modules. There were no Japanese astronauts on board, nor any other nationalities other than Russian, so he was spared making the uncomfortable decision of having to exile them from the USOS. He conferred briefly with the Russian astronaut commander, Vlady Norovich, who agreed that, under present conditions, they separate the teams according to national borders.
“Good luck to you, my friend,” said Norovich. Armstrong replied “And, you as well, Vlady. I hope to see you on the ground.” The Russian spoke curtly to his comrades, who uncertainly waved and saluted the Americans. Then, the airlock doors were closed.
Shortly thereafter, the Russian team was split into two parts. One team boarded each of the two Soyuz capsules docked on the ISS. They began preparing for departure.
The US astronauts viewed these proceedings with no small amount of concern. If the Russians left the station in the only two operable spacecraft, they would be marooned. There were no Russian launches scheduled for another month, at least, and no American spacecraft were on the launch manifest for another six months. While they had enough food to deal with the former situation, they were not going to be able to subsist for the latter time frame.
As they considered their options, the four astronauts that comprised the US contingent were also concerned as to what they would find upon any eventual return to Earth. They could see an occasional spark rise and fall beneath them as a missile re-entered the atmosphere, which added a level of the surreal to the occasion. They wondered whether there would even be any place to land, or i
f there would be anyone left to greet them.
The Soyuz craft continued marking the minutes on their countdowns to departure, and the men and women aboard went down their respective checklists. At zero-hour, the first Soyuz capsule detached the hooks that held it to the ISS, and a particular spring actuated mechanism pushed the capsule away from the airlock. It drifted about twenty-five meters away, and the attitude thrusters began to fire in sequence, moving the craft further away from the station.
Armstrong saw his friend wave sadly as the spacecraft slowly backed away, knowing that in about eighty minutes, he would see the Soyuz one last time as it moved into descent attitude. He waved solemnly and saw the anguish on Norovich’ face. He was angry that the patriotic zeal of their respective countries prevented genuine cooperation, and that the political undertones of the world dictated the reality of things.
About an hour later, the second Soyuz capsule was preparing to detach, when Armstrong noticed an odd feeling and that the lights seemed to be flickering. He noticed that Marshall and Devevers looked transparent. Cooper’s eyes were focused on him, but her mouth was not moving. She seemed frozen in time and floated slowly towards the viewport. As he watched, she changed, her features becoming blurry and then sharp.
The light around them in the ISS module wavered, and the back of his eyes hurt strangely as if they were being scoured from behind them. He felt his uniform go slack at the belt, and his feet bumped against the insides of his boots.
Armstrong thought maybe he had fainted and looked around for a chronograph. The time it showed was impossible to reconcile in his mind. He began to ask Devevers for a status check and was brought short abruptly when an empty uniform floated past. The name tag said “Marshall”, but there was no one wearing it. He glanced about and was startled to see a young woman, of about twenty, staring at him. She was wearing a uniform, but it did not fit her figure correctly. He looked and saw the name tag was “Cooper”. Another empty uniform floated past him. He grabbed it and spun it around until he could read the nametag. It said, “Devevers.”
“Ben! What the hell has happened to them?” asked Cooper, near hysteria. Normally, Cooper had veins of ice and was unflappable, but she was unable to understand what she was seeing, and also concerned about her crew mates. The fact that she was now twenty, and that her fillings were suspended in front of her face put a tremendous strain on her normally stoic composure.
“Mary, what are you doing?” asked Armstrong, as she went to the command console, to try to contact Mission Control. “I need to find out if this is isolated to us or if it’s widespread,” she replied.
Armstrong pushed the empty uniforms away from them and looked out at the Soyuz. The three cosmonauts were waving at him frantically. Or rather, he saw three young people wearing cosmonaut suits that were frantically waving and gesturing to him. He looked out at the Soyuz, and then at the command console for the launch sequence. There were only seconds left before the capsule detached. He tried to contact the crew on the internal radio communications link. “Soyuz, this is ISS. Do NOT engage computer controlled re-entry sequence. Repeat. Abort descent sequence. I am going EVA to recover you.” Then, he said, “Mary, you need to help me get suited up. I will take a SAFER and tether them. You will get on the robotic arm and help bring them close in for evacuation and reboarding.” “Aye, sir,” said Cooper.
As Cooper secured his gloves and boots, he spoke into the headset mike. “Armstrong here. Nicolai, you need to calm everyone down and prepare to EVA the Soyuz. I will meet you using a SAFER, and then come out to attach a tether. I will then pull you back to the ISS. You will all three need to exit and enter through the main airlock. One at a time, folks. I know things are hectic right now, but I need all hands and this is how it will be done, by the book. Affirmative?” “Nyet!” came the reply. “We were ordered to abandon the ISS and land in Northern Ukraine!” “Now, listen up,” said Armstrong. “You have a decision to make. In thirty seconds, your ship will leave the ISS. In about five minutes, your attitude rockets will fire, and you will descend into a nuclear war. I am asking you to consider that your lives are better spent up here until we can figure out what the fuck just happened to all of us. We don’t know if this only affected the ISS or the entire planet. I need your brains, and your loyalty, we all have been working and living together up here for months. What’s it going to be?” Armstrong killed the transmit circuit and hissed “Mary, I don’t give a fuck what they send back, get me ready for EVA!”
The Soyuz latching hooks released and the spring mechanism pushed the capsule off the ISS airlock. “Damn!” said Armstrong. “It’s heading out! Quickly! Get me suited up, and out of here!” Cooper spent several minutes outfitting the Commander and checking his connections for air, communications, and power. “That’s it, Chief!” she said.
Armstrong crept into the airlock, and Cooper sealed it behind him. He activated the online computer and synced it to the ISS main communications links. Cooper cycled the airlock, and the outer door opened. As the air noiselessly vented out into space, it drew Armstrong along with it. He fell out, and into open space. He had several extravehicular activities under his belt, but he had only used the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue, or SAFER, during training exercises. He wondered if he would be able to pull off his feat of derring-do. He had attached several lengths of Kevlar rope and two steel carabiner links to his suit prior to leaving the ISS.
He oriented himself and saw the Soyuz floating about six hundred meters from the ISS. It was below him, and he used a few tiny spurts of propellant to align himself with it. He then pushed the controls to move toward it. The quiet always unsettled him a bit, no matter how many times he was in space. The hiss of his breathing, and a few beeps from his instruments only underscored how utterly alone he felt. He took a big gulp, and forced himself to look at the readouts, and began working the problem of how to approach the capsule optimally.
“Ben,” said Cooper. “You are going to have to catch up a bit. They are already eight-fifty out. You have about four minutes of maneuvering for safety.” “Thanks, Mary” and “Did they respond yet?” “Yes,” she answered. “They have agreed to not fire the attitude jets. Apparently, there is still some discussion going on”, she added. She did not feel it necessary to burden him with the fact that she had heard a lot of yelling when she had returned to the radio links. “You need to turn to one-one-four, and burn for six seconds, then one-one-eight for two. Copy that, please,” she said. “Roger that,” came the reply.
Looking down at the Earth, Armstrong thought he could see bright flashes of light, but he put it down to his imagination. He was too far away from home to do anything about it in any event. The three entities - man, capsule, and space station – were passing over Africa. He could see the Sahara and the Nile River. Clouds covered a large portion of North Africa and spread out into the Atlantic Ocean.
He concentrated on executing his burns precisely and was rewarded with being able to close with the Soyuz within three minutes. Now, he had to work accurately and quickly. He had slowed to match speed with the capsule, and could see the young people inside. They were going through complicated motions, and for a moment he wondered if they were going to start re-entry after all. He carefully attached two carabiners to standouts and closed them. Then, he took out two short cables and attached their ends to the carabiners. Finally, he jetted away a short distance and, using the Kevlar cables, attached the SAFER to the wires.
The cosmonauts sat back, and one of them flashed him an “OK” signal, with thumb and forefinger. The others watched him anxiously, as he began to back towards the ISS. The momentum built up by the spring detachment was not a lot, but it was going to be a close thing since the Soyuz had a lot of mass.
Luckily, he was able to increase the pressure from his SAFER jets by increments, with instructions from Cooper as to when and for how long, and in what direction he should fire them.
Gradually, the Soyuz began to drift back towards the ISS.
He had to be careful because he knew he did not have enough fuel to stop it. He felt as long as he could get the personnel back on board the ISS, they could worry about the next phase when they were all safely on board.
“Cooper, listen,” he said. “Yes, sir,” she responded. “I need you to calculate just when the cosmos need to exit. I want them to hang onto the exterior of the Soyuz, and leap towards the ISS as we pass. We are only going to get one chance at this.” The Soyuz crew had heard this plan, as the com link was on a three-way setup at this point. “What are you proposing, you mad fool?!”, said Nicolai. “I am going to make the Soyuz pass as close as I can to the ISS without hitting it. Maybe a meter. You all need to be out here and jump when Cooper tells you. That way, you can catch on the exterior cleats. Just hold onto them, and I will crawl over to you, secure you, and then we can all take turns getting inside.”
Armstrong talked to Cooper for a few minutes, and they worked out the best approach vector. The cosmonauts cycled their airlock, being careful to not explosively decompress the capsule, so as not to alter their trajectory. “OK, people, we are only going to get one shot, so make it count,” said Armstrong. “Mary, I need you to be ready to cycle the main lock as rapidly as is safe. Bring them aboard first, then I will jettison the SAFER and come on board.” “Ben, that’s not necessary, they can get to the lock by themselves!” she exclaimed.
Ignoring her, Armstrong watched the ISS approaching and growing larger by the second. The three cosmonauts were outside, clinging to the antennae on the Orbital Module. “This is going to be tricky, folks. I want you to jump in the following sequence – Nicolai, you jump first. Sonya, you second. Micha, you go third. Jump one second apart, and aim for the ISS, I don’t care what you grab, just grab something. Don’t all aim for the same spot!” he instructed. “Mary, get ready!” he said.
“Prepare to jump in ten seconds!” said Cooper. As the Soyuz approached, Nicolai jumped, before Cooper could finish her count. “Shit! Why did he do that!” she exclaimed. “Both of you, jump! Ben, lose the Soyuz!” “Roger. Fuck,” he replied.
Terminal Reset Omnibus: The Coming of The Wave Page 13
