Sweetness in the Dark

by W. B. Martin

  “No, I’ve been busy dealing with the effects of Cycle 24, I’m afraid,” the President said. There was frustration in his voice.

  “Sir, I think we need to break this up. You do have other duties today, I believe,” Paul injected, attempting to end the discussion before things got out of hand.

  “Yes, I do need to be attending to my schedule,” the President said. He looked around for help in extracting himself from the situation.

  John and Julie noticed the President’s predicament and walked over to help.

  “Mr. President, I want to thank you for coming,” Paul said as he placed his arm under the President elbow to escort him out of the entanglement.

  “Just one more minute. I can assure you it will be worth your time,” Kevin pleaded.

  The President looked over at Paul and made eye contact that indicated he needed help extracting himself from his predicament.

  “Please wrap it up, Kevin,” Paul offered sternly.

  “What if the Z-class blast that hit Earth, ‘the Pulse’ as we call it, was an explosion that released all the pressure inside the sun? Now that the pressure is gone, what might we expect next?” Kevin dropped the bomb and stood back.

  The crowd stood waiting for the answer, but Kevin stood mute. He wanted the moment to settle in and the silence was like a roar in the room. Finally a voice spoke up. The crowd around the President all turned to look at its source.

  “Nothing,” Julie said. The uninformed took that in and stood content.

  Nothing is good, isn’t it? Paul thought. He was obviously one of the uninformed.

  The President joined the consensus, “Nothing is good, right?” his voice hesitant.

  “Nothing is bad. Very bad. Very, very bad,” Dr. John Ewing, Professor of Astrophysics, answered.

  Paul was confused. He asked, “If a period of solar maximums had just about killed off humanity, then a little less activity must be good?”

  “A little less activity would be OK, but Kevin may be right. With the size of the explosion on the sun, the activity may drop off to nothing as the sun settles into a quiet period. No sun spots of any kind for the next eleven years is catastrophic,” John answered.

  “What are you telling me? We’re not out of the woods yet? We’ve set the standard that all new electronic devices vital for society will be hardened against any future CME. Now you’re telling me we’ve missed something?” the President asked, showing the strain.

  The reporters were leaning closer. No one seemed to notice their existence. What should have been discussed in private was being announced to the world.

  “Mr. President, if my theory holds, then no sunspot activity will bring about another Little Ice Age. What you’ve done so far is fine for an active sun. What may be coming will take something totally different.”

  Paul was grabbed from behind by Amanda. She forced his arm so that he had to turn around. She pointed out the news reporters busy writing busily in their notebooks. He quickly got the point.

  “Mr. President, this is all interesting and I’m sure we can set up a meeting with your science committee to review all of this. But I do insist that we leave for Boise now,” Paul said. Paul shoved forward and took the President by the arm. His brother, John, took the other. With Amanda opening a path, they led him out of the melee that was quickly developing.

  “Mr. President, what are the ramifications that these scientists are talking about? What is your administration going to do about this new development?” the reporters all yelled as the leader of the country was hustled out of the room. They quickly turned their attention to the instigator of the whole controversy.

  “Mr. Shepardson, can you describe what global cooling means?”

  But their voices carried into the emptiness as Julie took Kevin’s arm and headed him in the opposite direction. The reporters were stopped at the door by the local Bruneau guests.

  The President and his advisors climbed into his Suburban. A cordon of security stood at a distance. The President turned to John, “OK, what just happened?”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. President. That was not suppose to happen. My sincerest apologies,” John said.

  “I’m not worried about the press, but what you and your brother-in-law were saying. Any truth to it?”

  “I’m afraid there’s a very real possibility that what Kevin is saying could be true. A silent sun for any length of time is serious,” John said. “And before we go any further, Mr. President, you need to know Kevin is already acting on his theory. He has put together a consortium of local ranchers to pool their money and purchase farmland in Alabama and California. My son has already moved to Alabama to get everything set up,”

  “And my daughter, Brittany, has joined one of the local sons of those investors,” John added. “They are in Petaluma, California, purchasing sheriff sale property cheap and getting it ready for production.”

  “Why didn’t you inform me about this earlier? Anyone else privy to this information?” the President asked.

  “Just old family friends in New Zealand. The Leffingwell family have been in touch and I have informed them. They have headed to the North Island and are purchasing Chinese-owned farm land at sheriff sales. Seems the Chinese owners aren’t paying their property taxes,” John answered. “And this information has just recently come up. Kevin has kept things very quiet while he put his money investors together.”

  “Well, thanks for declaring your interests in this. But this is too big an issue to the nation to worry about all that. If your brother-in-law turns out correct in his prediction, his investing before the event will be a small blip. So, spit it out, what are we talking about?” the President demanded. “If it needs dealing with, I need to know.”

  “A silent sun means cold. A Little Ice Age, or God forbid, a major Ice Age. Even with a Little Ice Age, the northern latitudes will be frozen wastelands until the sun begins a new cycle. Everything north of Missouri will be so cold that crops won’t grow. Europe back in the Little Ice Age suffered massive famines. The Dark Ages were named for this period in history,” John said.

  “John, forget the Ewing Commission. You are to convene the best scientific minds we have and give me a report on the possibility of global cooling as soon as possible. We were prepared for the CME when it came. I intend to have the whole country prepared for what comes next.”

  Turning to his other advisors, the President continued, “Paul and Amanda, go have your honeymoon, but make it short. I’ll need you both working out the political implications of all this.

  Paul said, “Mr. President, I’m afraid the sun hasn’t finished with us yet.

  Author’s Note

  The very real threat of an EMP attack on the United States motivated me to write this book. While other books have dealt with a hostile power’s attack on the U.S. with nuclear missiles, I chose the sun’s threat to the Earth.

  Watching the news, it seems that there is almost a monthly report of solar flares taking place that could attack our world. While some are small in nature, some catastrophic flares have been reported. Luckily, the very big ones were not aimed at Earth.

  But either a manmade or natural EMP is a very real possibility. Meanwhile, the “2004 Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack” continues to languish in Washington D.C.

  With the 90% fatality rate stated by the commission’s report, America’s basic survival is threatened. The very real chance of 300 million fellow dead Americans certainly motivated me which is why I decided to present a story where individual states took steps to prepare. Writing a novel using the current state of preparation was too depressing to consider.

  I want the reader to understand the risk to our way of life is very real. An individual’s preparation may be a start, but the real answer is a responsive government, even if it’s at a local or state level.

  It would appear that politics at the Federal level has ceased to consider the country
’s survival an important election topic. Maybe that will change.

  Acknowledgements

  First I would thank both Jeanne Crownover and Timothy Johns, my tireless editors. Though they works hard that my writing is presentable, place no blame on them for the final product. That all rests with me.

  My proof readers offer valuable feedback at different phases as my draft is put together. Dick Martin, Marsha Wiles, Larry Stoddard, Tiffany Martin, Barbara Foster, John Briggs and Rod Gravelly have all kept me from straying too far off on tangents.

  Charlie Cremeans was instrumental at the beginning of my writing in offering words of advice, support and encouragement.

  John Ewing was an early supporter who didn’t get to see the final product. His wife Bertha Ewing was invaluable as a listener as I read out loud to her on one of my many edit jobs.

  Finding Morwenna Rakestraw to do the cover layout was a relief.

  Mitch Press of World Book has offered his wisdom from his family’s years in the book business. While not all encouraging, his guidance as publishing transforms in the digital age has been invaluable.

  Lastly, my wife, deserves recognition for tolerating my swerve into being an author.