Escaping Yellowstone

by Larry LaVoie

  Escaping Yellowstone

  Larry La Voie

  Escaping Yellowstone

  ©2018 Larry La Voie

  All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  This book is a work of fiction

  All people places and events described in this book are fictional and a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, places or events is purely coincidental.

  Acknowledgments

  This book could not have happened without the help of my wife Anna who is the first to read my work and for her encouragement, inspiration and critique of the manuscript. I am truly grateful for my editor Sharon Shafa, a continuous believer in my work, and for her constructive suggestions and attention to detail.

  Prologue

  Keck Observatory, Island of Hawaii

  From her office at the top of 13,796 foot Mauna Kea, Dr. Lisa Wilson checked the images of the unnamed asteroid her student had been tracking for the past six months. In all they had been aware of the object moving across the sky for nearly a year and now were certain it qualified as a NEO, an asteroid that was headed toward earth and would approach within a million miles or so, giving it importance to her project.

  Dr. Wilson was a NASA Scientist stationed at the Keck Observatory as part of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Objects or CNEO. The enter was part of a dozen operations making up a network responsible for finding asteroids and calculating orbit solutions to determine if they posed a risk of impacting earth.

  Keck Observatory was one of a kind, consisting of two identical optical and infrared telescopes, each weighing 300 tons and able to operate with nanometer precision. The Keck telescope’s primary mirrors were some of the largest on earth spanning 32.5 feet. The observatory was a critical part of the network set up to catalog any object in space that could pose a hazard to earth. NASA had determined that any object greater than 150 meters across could survive the earth’s atmosphere and pose an extinction hazard to the planet. The asteroid Dr. Wilson had been tracking certainly fit into that category.

  This was going through Dr. Lisa Wilson’s mind as she looked at the latest data. It was still too early to notify JPL, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, another division of NASA that had the ability to track objects more precisely using space based equipment. The preliminary data only showed the asteroid was in an orbit that could approach earth. More calculations would be needed and over the next few months the precise orbit would be determined and refined several times. If the object was perceived to be a threat, then every division of NASA would be at her disposal to quantify the threat.

  Ashlar Shari, the student assisting Dr. Wilson, had been assisting when she had made the discovery. He was proficient with computer programs that created the simulations showing the potential for impacting earth and he had put together a simulation based on the data they had gathered.

  She replayed the simulation. “What do you think?” she asked Ashlar. “Do we have enough to predict whether this object will be considered an NEO?” She knew the answer, but was using it as a teaching moment. Even if it missed the earth by several million miles, it could still pose a hazard when it completed an orbit and approached the next time. In space, everything was dynamic. Everything was moving and changing in a constant battle with the gravitational forces of any object it passed on its endless journey. The problem was the journey of some objects would eventually end. Objects that had been racing through space since the beginning of the universe sometimes collided with other objects. NASA didn’t consider it a problem unless the object was large and collision was with earth.

  Ashlar pursed his lips, his dark brown eyes fixed on Dr. Wilson. He rubbed his three-day-old stubble. “We should give it another month. Based on what we have, it’s highly unlikely it will come any closer to the earth than Mars and another month will give us a better solution.”

  “Do it anyway,” Lisa said. “It will keep you proficient with the equipment and, who knows, we might learn something.”

  “But, Dr. Wilson, I have plenty to do and this object is over a year out in space before it even comes close to earth.”

  “And traveling thousands of miles per second,” she added. “It looks to be very large and the fact it’s traveling in an unusual orbit is reason enough to develop early data.” She continued to look at the computer display. It showed the object as a series of dots against the fixed stars in the background. She wondered if they were discovering a new object or one that had been documented in the past. The orbits of asteroids were usually not this elliptical. This was coming from deep space, not one of the typical asteroids that orbited the sun in a cluster beyond Mars.

  NASA had estimated over 80 percent of asteroids large enough to cause damage to earth had already been identified, and were being tracked, yet a few years back an asteroid had seemingly come out of nowhere and exploded above Russia, killing over fifty people and causing millions of dollars in property damage. NASA had taken a lot of grief over that incident. The fact was, there were billions upon billions of objects whirling around in space, and not all of the sky could be monitored. This left NASA the task of monitoring that part of the sky where they were most likely to discover NEOs. The fact that most of the potentially hazardous asteroids had been identified was not much consolation either. To Dr. Lisa Wilson that only meant there were still a good number of an estimated 17,000 objects over a thousand meters across still out there. It was her job to find as many as possible, as soon as possible.

  Another arm of NASA had the task of identifying PHOs, or potentially hazardous objects. These were the dangerous asteroids that had orbits that crossed the earth’s path, sometimes taking several years or even decades to make a full orbit. By tracking these objects, future orbits could be predicted and their potential danger assessed. To Wilson and her team, it wasn’t a matter of if there would be a future asteroid impact with the earth, but when. If they could detect the asteroid and determine the risk soon enough, maybe something could be done about it.

  “Ashlar, when you’re finished with the simulation, I want to review it with you. I’m thinking you should be the one to name it.”

  “Really?” Ashlar gave her a broad smile showing a row of perfect white teeth.

  Dr. Lisa Wilson was the youngest woman to oversee a team in NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, a feat she should be proud of, but she considered the assignment in Hawaii differently. She had been in line for NASA’s Washington DC spokesperson, working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of State on NEO impact warning, but the assignment had been given to Martin Downing, her former fiancé who she considered less qualified. The assignment had resulted in a break off of their engagement, something she still wasn’t over. The breakup had occurred over a year ago, but every time she had contact with the Washington office she was reminded her former lover was now her boss. The data she collected would have to go through Martin Downing and she wasn’t going to give him any information that he could question. She would take the time necessary to assess the true threat of the asteroid before notifying him.

  Chapter 1

  Mammoth, Yellowstone National Park, April 3

  Dr. Dakota (Cody) Street grabbed his parka and ran out the door of the Yellowstone Park Headquarters Building. The quarry-rock structure had been standing in the same place since 1857. It had survived thousands of earthquakes, but most of them could not be felt. This one was stronger. Standing in an open area, he looked back at the building. An accumulation of snow slid from the roof and hit the ground with a thud, sending up a cloud of dusty snow that drifted away in the wind. The earthquake was strong enough to knock books from a shelf in his U
SGS office located near the back of the building on the first floor. As the rumbling faded and the ground stopped shaking, the snow continued to fall. He reached out and caught a large flake in his glove and examined it for ash, a tale-tale sign of a volcanic eruption. His background in volcanology always shifted into overdrive when there were earthquakes he could feel. In the distance he heard another rumble sounding like thunder in the mountains. In fact, it was that sound that had coaxed him away from his desk, not the earthquake that accompanied it. He had heard the sound before, but never this strong. He looked up at the slate-gray sky. It was darker than it should be this time of day.

  Cody watched several Roosevelt Elk pawing at the snow, foraging for grass. He was always amazed at how the wildlife around the park responded to earthquakes. This one evidently wasn’t large enough to spook them. Beyond the elk was the Post Office about a city block in the distance. It was the only other building occupied this early in the season. He saw a light, but no sign of life. Like the elk, if anyone was in the building, they paid the distant rumbling little concern. Maybe it was his imagination: Too many years around volcanoes, too much history, too many stories that he knew to be true. In the ten years he had worked in the field, he had learned to respect Mother Nature. He heard the thunder again. The ground shook again, hard enough to knock him down. Snow fell in large clumps from the heavily laden pine trees, bursting like small grenades around him. This was enough to frighten the elk and they scattered in every direction.

  As he picked himself up and brushed the snow from his pants, he saw Catherine Lancer, the new Postmaster, in the doorway of the Post Office. She was a fifty-something widow living by herself in an apartment in Mammoth, one of two hundred or so year-round residents of Yellowstone. Cody had gotten the lowdown on Catherine from Mildred Parker, the previous Postmaster. Since she was new to Yellowstone, Cody thought it important to let her know there was nothing to worry about. The rumbling stopped and an eerie quiet ensued. He called out to her and waved.

  His boots crunched like he was walking on gravel from a thin layer of ice under the fresh snow. He had never met the new Postmaster and thought this is as good a time as any to introduce himself.

  As he approached he could see she was a diminutive woman, barely five feet tall, with a slender profile. Her graying hair was up in a bun just like his old high school English teacher Mrs. Roberts had worn hers. Mrs. Robert’s hair had been blond and she was much younger, a knockout, he recalled. His football team had voted her the teacher they would want to be stranded on a desert island with. Boy, we didn’t have a clue back then, he thought.

  Still sizing up the woman, she might have been a looker at one time, he thought, but as he came nearer, he could see she had a hardened look about her. Her lips were thin with wrinkles radiating around them like she was, or had been, a smoker. Her eyes were a soft gray and piercing. In her short-sleeved blouse and summer slacks, she was shivering and completely under dressed for Yellowstone this early in the year.

  “I’m afraid you’ll have to get used to these minor quakes if you’re going to work up here,” Cody said. “I’m Cody Street, Yellowstone Park geologist and low man on the totem pole at USGS, or I wouldn’t be up here this early in the season.” In fact, Cody was one of the more accomplished volcanologists working out of the Western Office of USGS. He was in Yellowstone by choice and had a year-round home leased and paid for by the Government. If he wanted he could spend the entire year in Yellowstone, but elected to teach a class in volcanology at University of Idaho during the winter.

  In spite of his first observation, as he spoke with her, Catherine’s appearance up close showed her eyes were also intelligent and warm. Her voice was pleasant and she smelled faintly of a shampoo his old girlfriend had used. She reached out her hand, “Catherine Lancer. I’m glad to finally meet you. Is it safe to go back inside? I’m freezing.”

  “Sure,” Cody said. “Sometimes earthquakes come in swarms, but usually you can’t feel them. I’ll bet the seismometer in my office is recording aftershocks right now.”

  “Really?”

  “Like I said; nothing to worry about.”

  They stood inside the Post Office, a building that had been constructed out of the same quarry rock as the headquarter building and around the same time. It too had endured far worse shakes than the little ones they had just experienced.

  “I thought I was up here early this year. When did you start?” Cody asked making small talk.

  “A week ago. I’ve been stuffing material in your box.” She looked at Cody and smiled. “I guess you don’t like picking up your bills.”

  “Bills, junk mail, I try to avoid as much of it as I can.”

  “You’re not the only one. I figured the isolation was caused by the difficulty getting around in all this snow.”

  “Snow? Actually I came in on a snowmobile. The maintenance crew missed my road with the snowplows.” He leaned in like he was revealing a secret. “Don’t tell the rangers, snowmobiles are prohibited in Mammoth. They are supposed to keep the roads clear in town year around.”

  “Well somebody ought to tell them. My little Subaru was plowing snow all the way from my apartment.” She opened the door to her office and grabbed a sweater from a coatrack. “I’m glad you came over. I figure I will get to know most of the full-time people sooner or later. Now I can check you off my list. It’s nice to put a face to a name.”

  “Same here,” Cody said. “I’d better get back to work.”

  “Let me get your mail, there’s no more room in your box.”

  Cody waited while she pulled a bundle of letters and bills from his box and handed them to him.

  “You can get the rest out of your box with your key,” she said.

  “There’s more? I must be on someone’s mailing list.” He started to leave.

  “The earthquake: It happens often, you say?” Catherine asked, not wanting to lose the company just yet.

  “This one was a little unusual, but we get hundreds, sometimes a few thousand a year, most of them too small to notice.”

  “I moved here from Los Angeles so you’d think I’d be used to minor tremors.”

  Cody gave her a reassuring smile. “I measure them, catalog them, and I never get used to them. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine, there are so few people in town, I wasn’t sure anyone else was around. Don’t forget to pick up the rest of your mail.”

  “Probably just bills. I thought I’d get a jump on things so I had my mail forwarded from Moscow.”

  ”Russia?”

  “Moscow, Idaho. I teach a winter term geology class on volcanoes. I finished up last week.”

  “Well, it’s good to know someone else is around. Park Maintenance and a few Park Rangers are all that I’ve seen so far.”

  “Speaking of Maintenance, the roads need plowing again,” Cody said looking at the buildup of snow. “If you see any of the maintenance crew, tell them I had to use my snowmobile to get into town. They won’t like that.”

  “First you tell me to keep quiet and then you want me to tell them. Make up your mind.”

  “It’s okay to tell the maintenance crew, they don’t hand out tickets.”

  There was another rumble in the distance.

  “Is that another earthquake?” Catherine asked.

  “It sounded like an avalanche. It happens when we get a buildup of fresh powder over a silver thaw. The road crew is going to love that,” Cody said. “Last year they weren’t able to keep up with the snow; doesn’t look any better this year.”

  “I don’t know why I’m so nervous. Just unfamiliar surroundings, I guess,” Catherine said, “but I’m here for the duration. Would you like to join me for a cup of tea?”

  “Okay if I take a rain check? I’ve still got a pile of work on my desk. If you’re sure you’re okay, I need to get back to my office.” He turned and then stopped. “It was good meeting you, Catherine.”

  “You too, Cody Street, or d
o you prefer Dr. Street?”

  “Cody. I only use doctor if I need a reservation at a fancy restaurant.”

  “Oh, you like to eat at fancy restaurants?”

  Cody laughed. “It was a joke. See you later, Catherine.” He turned to leave.

  “Have a good day, Cody.”

  He returned to his office, dropped his mail on his desk, and brought up a monitor that showed the range and size of the earthquakes. They were shallow, only three miles deep. One registered 3.4 and the other 4.2, strong enough to be felt, and centered near Yellowstone Lake on the southern end of the park. He picked up the phone and left a message for Park Director Jerry Adams and then called the USGS office in Menlo Park, California. The calls were routine.

  Yellowstone Caldera had been turned into the nation’s first national park by an Act of Congress back in 1872. Earthquakes were not uncommon and numbered as many as 3,000 every year, but of those only a few were strong enough to be felt by humans. The rest were evidenced by minute scribblings on a drum triggered by sensitive instruments buried in strategic locations around the thirty-mile-wide caldera. As park geologist, it was Cody’s job to monitor and maintain the seismometers. To do this he had a crew of five undergraduate geology students, some he knew from teaching, others came from colleges around the country. It would be another three weeks before the crew arrived and in six weeks the park would be open for visitors.

  As he finished up his work and was leaving for the day, he looked forward to the summer ahead. He was in the job he had always wanted and ready for whatever nature would throw at him and his crew this year. Soon the snow would be gone and the park would be alive with spring flowers and newborn animals, from timber wolves to grizzly bears and tall, gangly, infant moose that looked like they were born with a set of stilts for legs. He had a contented smile on his lips as he left by the back door. He trudged through knee-deep snow to the back parking lot where he climbed on his snowmobile. In ten minutes he would be in his cabin, starting a fire in the wood stove, and enjoying a shot or two of Scotch. Life didn’t get any better than this.