“You guys just don’t get it, and that’s what scares me,” Legend continued. “We’re not talkin’ about soft power here. Do you have any idea just how much 100 megawatts of power is? See this pineapple here?” he said, popping a chunk into his mouth. “This little jewel cost hard energy, and without it we don’t eat. And that’s not to mention the fact that our little sea harvest below is gonna dry completely up in much less than half the twenty years, which means even more food production will be necessary and even more energy required. And that’s not to mention all the little babies you and your crew are gonna be makin’, startin’ maybe as early as tonight” he said nodding at two of Dutch Harbor’s crewmembers tenderly embracing on the beach.
“Fine,” Seven responded, now truly angry. “So what’s your plan, Striker? Are you going to hammer us over the head with all the ugly realities until we all finally just give up and blow our brains out? So what’s your plan?”
“I say we go down there and recover the OTEC plant, put it back together and run it just like you planned before. We have plenty of technology available to recover every scrap.”
“Even if we could do that, Striker,” Seven replied, “we still don’t have enough ammonia to fire up the plant. And that’s if we could reassemble it, which we can’t. It was literally blown to bits. We would have to remanufacture it from scratch, and we don’t have scratch and we don’t have thousands of gallons of anhydrous ammonia.”
“What about your make-up capacity? Surely you didn’t plan to run that plant for half a century without counting on leaks and losses? What about the make up plans for your heat exchanger?”
“Striker, we have the capacity to produce one gallon of ammonia per day for make-up, that’s all, and no storage.”
“Fine, so what if it takes five years? And we can use compartments in the Chicom sub to store it while we make it.”
“That’s all well and good, Striker, but how do we rebuild an entire plant, turbines and heat exchangers, all of which are lying in tiny pieces below us?”
Legend sighed. He was obviously running out of answers. “Have you even gone down there and looked at the pieces?”
“Of course, Striker. Half the plant, including three of the four turbines, slipped over the side of the seamount and are now lying in 18,000 feet of water – way beyond our capacity to recover them.”
“Fine, then we’re screwed - absolutely, totally screwed,” Legend said with a hiss.
“No, we are not!” Seven countered forcefully. “We are not screwed until we give up and give in. Then, we’re screwed, but not before.”
“Great! So you’re gonna be the cheerleader up to the last day? So at the end, are you gonna pass out the cyanide laced Kool-Aid or shall I?”
Seven looked at him, and then began to smile.
“What?” Legend asked with irritation.
“My father-in-law recently told me that I have a certain unusual capacity to visualize truth out of complex patterns,” Seven began.
“Yeah, a regular twisted freak of nature.”
“He says I’m kinda a mental prodigy, like what I see whenever you and Frank are standing next to one another.”
“Yeah, a real legend in your own mind…” Legend replied - too late to catch the pun before it was spoken. “So – what d’ya see?”
“It’s that certain vision of you and Frank standing together, dipping the Kool-aid out of the crystal punch bowl… Will you wear one of those little mini-skirts of Sam’s while you pass it out? Hey, it might be worth going to the party, just for that! Get the picture now?”
Legend just stared back at him without smiling, until Winsteed and Serea began to smirk, then laugh loudly.
Finally, Legend himself broke into a wide smile and began to laugh. “Well, why not? Hey, if I have to drop dead, it might as well be in the company of people just as crazy as me!”
79
The announcement of the twenty year life of the storms was taken well by nearly everyone. A few had harbored hopes of the storms only lasting a year or two, but most were already adjusted to the idea of spending the rest of their lives at Pacifica.
Immediately, Seven formed teams to start brainstorming ideas to supplement and eventually replace their energy production capacity. And as he sat in his apartment staring at some of the ideas, just before sleep, his personal communicator rang beside him. Without moving his eyes from the page, he answered, “Seven, go ahead.”
“Aaron, Karl here. Can you meet me in the Command Center ?”
“Right now?”
“Yes.”
“What’s up, Karl?”
“I think you need to come and see this.”
“Be right there,” he answered. “Serea, let’s take a field trip,” Seven said to Serea who was reading an electronic book. Beside her, in their bed lay the sleeping forms of Luci and Meghan. For all practical purposes, they had adopted the two as their daughters and both had moved in with them permanently.
“Sure,” Serea said, rising slowly so as not to disturb the girls. “What’s going on this time?”
“Karl said it’s best if we meet him right now in the Command Center .”
In minutes, they walked up to the wide table over which Leighter and two others were intently bent, studying a raft of documents.
“Aaron, have a look at this,” Leighter said, his eyes wide with excitement as he handed Seven a page.
Seven studied it for long minutes, Serea reading over his shoulder. “What is this?” he asked.
“If it’s correct, it’s the solution to our power problems!”
“Where did it come from?” Seven asked, looking at the cryptic message on the page.
As he did so, Frank Spencer, Sean Conlin and Desmond entered the room.
“I thought they should see this, too,” Leighter said to Seven who nodded.
“What do you have, Karl?” Desmond asked.
“This,” he said, handing copies to Desmond, Conlin and Spencer.
“Where did you get this?” Seven asked again.
“Well, that’s the most bizarre part, so I brought Petty Officer Lincoln along from the Leviathan to explain it to you.
“Sir!” the young sailor said, standing beside Leighter, as he snapped to attention.
“Go ahead, let’s have it,” Seven said, acknowledging the man who appeared to be nervous.
“What’s your name?” Serea interrupted sweetly, attempting to calm his nerves.
“Lincoln , ma’am,” he replied respectfully.
“No, the whole thing.”
“Lincoln, Stephen Lincoln.”
“Fine, Stephen, let’s have it,” Seven replied curtly, shooting his wife a knowing look that acknowledged his lack of finesse at putting people at ease when vital information needed to be imparted immediately.
“Well, it’s my job to track broadcasts from CINCPAC and SUBPAC headquarters. They send them out to the ships daily. Of course, we haven’t had one in a longtime, but the skipper says I need to track them anyway, just in case. I picked up a strange one yesterday…”
“Define strange,” Seven interrupted.
“Strange meaning it came in on the side.”
“Side of what?”
“Well, we get our broadcasts on what we call ELF, or extremely low frequencies. This one came in like it was an old single-side band, kinda way out on the fringe of the frequencies we normally monitor. At first I thought it was junk noise, but then I saw a pattern and managed to pull it out. And that’s what you’re reading, sir.”
“Correct me if I am wrong, but this looks like a request for a rescue,” Seven said. “And why is this thing so hard to read?”
“Because of the weird frequency spread, it had a lot of missing elements,” Leighter responded. “So we just kind of kludged it together and got what you see.”
“This looks like these people want us to come to Oklahoma and pick them up!” Desmond said incredulously. “Is this a joke?”
“No sir,
we believe it to be real.”
“Well, they might as well be asking for a pick up off the dark side of the moon,” Spencer replied with a flat smile.
“Well, perhaps, but did you see the solar data they provided?” Leighter asked.
“Where?” Seven asked.
“Here,” Leighter pointed out. “And if it’s correct, our power problems aren’t only over, but we can tap into the energy of the storms themselves! It’s absolutely the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen!”
“So just figure it out based on what we have and send them a note of thanks!” Spencer said with satisfaction.
“We can’t,” Leighter replied. “They only sent us part of what we need to finish the work. They sent just enough to prove it’s real but not enough to finish the model. If we want this, we have to go get ‘em and bring ‘em back. They did it on purpose. If they don’t get a rescue, they die. It’s set up as a deal - the power plans for a pick up.”
“Well, you guys are the smartest people alive, so figure it out!” Spencer replied.
Seven looked at the data, then said, “Karl’s correct. Whoever it was who sent this page knew exactly what they were doing. There’re too many variables left out. Without these folks’ insight, we would never get it right.”
“We can’t float that many solar panels anyway!” Desmond said. “They would self destruct in the wave action. Besides, do you know how many panels it would take? Square miles!”
“Wrong!” Leighter replied, then caught himself. “I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“Go on,” Seven urged.
“This model demonstrates that by using the very quality of the storms, the power efficiency is magnified many, many times. These are very, very hot items and can generate several magnitudes more than what we know of as solar cells. It’s an incredible new technology and can probably save us!”
“We don’t have the infrastructure to build solar panels here,” Conlin added.
“Not true, sir. These panels are made up of vitrified silicone in a titanium rich base.”
“Speak English,” Spencer ordered.
“Sure. We’re sitting over a whole mountain of sand just below us and the Chinese sub’s hull is made of Titanium. We can shut down the aft compartment and remove a single 12 by 12 panel that will provide all the titanium we would need!”
“But how long would all this take?” Desmond asked.
“Well, we have over a decade to complete it and we can configure the Chinese sub into a manufacturing plant with all the energy we would need. We only have to make one cell per week to easily finish the project on time!”
“You still haven’t answered the problems of ocean storms. They would rip your panels apart in one single bad day!” Spencer pressed.
“Well, Stephen here has figured that one out,” Leighter said proudly. “Go ahead, Stephen, tell them.”
Lincoln cleared his throat, and then raised his pencil flat in front of his eyes. “We float them like this in calm waters,” he began, using the pencil to mimic the deployed solar arrays. “In rough waters, we merely ballast one end and they drop down vertically till the storm passes,” he continued, turning the pencil to demonstrate his idea. “Then we raise the end again after the danger has passed. In the roughest storm, they would merely bob up and down harmlessly like reeds on a pond.”
“Karl, is there any way to tell if this is just a hoax generated by desperate people?” Desmond asked.
“I don’t believe it is, sir. It appears that this is a well educated scientific team. And no one but no one operates an ELF transmitter except for very well financed and backed groups, like the military or, as it appears in this case, a very advanced and capable team. And there is some hint that their activities are probably being orchestrated by a military commander.”
“How do you know that?” Spencer snapped officiously.
“Well, sir, they have apparently code named their leader.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Well, his code name - and this is probably a military acronym of some sort - is MARBLES. And they’ve identified his command designation, according to Stephen here, as D.O.G.”
“Dog?” Serea asked. “MARBLES is a dog?”
Spencer laughed. “No, silly. DOG is a common military acronym that stands for Designated Officer of the Group. MARBLES is either a code name or another acronym which I’m not familiar with. But I’d bet my next paycheck the M is for ‘military’ and the R id for ‘research’ and the S for ‘science’.”
Seven’s eyes focused in that far void in front of him for a long moment. Then he looked back to their faces.
“Leighter, do we have a way of contacting them?”
“Yes, sir. Names and all.”
“How many of them do we have to rescue?”
“Six, counting the D.O.G., sir.”
“Can we make it to Oklahoma with our pair of VTOLs and bring them back without killing ourselves?”
“Yes, sir. In fact, I have a plan. Three stops: Dutch Harbor , Seattle and Tinker Field in Oklahoma . We can be back in less than two weeks.”
“How do you know you can find fuel in Washington and Oklahoma ?” Seven asked.
“Cook, sir. He worked both at SeaTac airport and apprenticed at Tinker. He knows where the stashes are and the back-up stashes. He also knows where the shelters are at both locations.”
Seven stared at Lighter hard, then said, “Fine. Mount up an expedition. Let’s go to Oklahoma , pick these people up and bring ‘em back.”
“Yes, sir!” Leighter said with a half salute.
“Can you contact them and let them know we’re on our way?”
“Yes, sir. They gave us shortwave frequencies they say they monitor.”
“Wait,” Spencer said.
“Sir?”
“Whatever you do, treat this MARBLES character with kid gloves. We can’t afford to piss him off.”
EPILOGUE
The rescue of the Oklahoma team was executed perfectly, without significant peril to crew or to the five humans and a dog, who were transported from Concharty Mountain’s Miller’s Cave to Pacifica, some 4,802 miles away.
Upon their arrival, Marbles became the instant darling of the colony, the only known living dog on planet earth. By year two, when Pacifica began to print up their own currency, Marbles was nearly unanimously voted to be the picture on the one dollar bill. He also became the first cloned Cocker Spaniel in history. By the end of the tenth year, there were seventeen copies of the furry black dog running around Pacifica and Seven had to call an official halt to the propagation. With the ban on dog cloning firmly established, the bioengineering team immediately began working on a cat from the rich collection of cells they had frozen and stored before the storms began.
Warren ’s solar panels functioned slightly better than he and Wattenbarger had calculated, made from the sand atop Hancock seamount and titanium panels cut from the hull of the Jiang Zemin. Just as they had proposed, the Chinese submarine was converted into a power plant and manufacturing unit, with the ultimate capacity of making four square feet of the high energy solar panels each day.
Pacifica ’s skilled medical team immediately repaired Mel’s leg and she walked on it once again. Juarez and Leighter soon married in a double ceremony with Wattenbarger and Mel. Within a year, Twink and Edgar also married, eventually followed by Legend and Sam, Damian Cook and Libby Donovan, and the young Chinese sailor with one of the Skillshackle girls, a formality which ironically made him Seven’s brother.. With the assurance of nearly unlimited power, permission was granted for children and one of the first born was to Aaron Seven and Serea – a boy named Raylond whose grandfather never allowed him to leave his side. By year 16, Luci and Alex married, having been lifelong friends and schoolmates.
The Phoenix and the Leviathan monitored human generated noises in the ocean to protect Pacifica , but before the end of two years, the submarine noises in the Pacific basin had drop
ped to zero after sounds of great undersea battles at some unknown distances. By year two, Pacifica was the only human noise engendered in the oceans of the world.
Likewise, the transmissions from the surface shelters continued to fall away until there were only a handful of reliable transmissions after the second year. All of them were government shelters save one – the shelter of Reverend Lloyd Sunday in Seattle , whose flock of believers had successfully survived against all odds. Aaron Seven made it a point to personally talk to Rev. Sunday one day a month to encourage him and suggest strategies. Eventually, additional solar panels were constructed and delivered to all the shelters that could be reached to help support the continuation of the mankind.
Frank Spencer fought with his evil twin inside and lost so many times that Seven ultimately had to permanently ban him from entering the Command Center . Finally, he and the Commander opened a sports bar near the beach and began selling an exquisite dark beer they had made from Pacifica ’s gardens.
On the 20th year and third month after the quantum storms had begun, the sun became quiet and returned to its former state. Seven organized parties to repopulate the land. Most of them left Pacifica and established successful outposts, never to return to the home base. A sizeable contingent remained to live out their lives in Pacifica and the undersea colony grew structure by structure. By the end of the first century, Pacifica had grown to over 1,000 permanent residents, more than half of them born there.
Even after 20 years, the Phoenix submergible platform ran as efficiently as it had on its first day out of Hong Kong Harbor. All of the ferry missions to repopulate the continents were accomplished with the Phoenix.
By the second century after the quantum storms, most of the planet was green again with seeds sown from the undersea city. The world’s population had reached 100,000 people, and not all of them had come from Pacifica.
Aaron Seven saved humankind from extinction. He became humanity’s great hero, known as the single human most responsible for carrying the fragile, irreplaceable seeds of human, animal and plant life from the greatest cataclysm the world had ever known safely over into the next epoch of life on the other side that would, because of his courage and genius, blossom once more. The earth was given another chance to host its varied and remarkable life forms. And civilization would be given another opportunity to produce more than just conflict. For indeed, humanity had learned well what Aaron Seven had taught them all: that above all else, the irrevocable promises of love and uncompromising commitment to one another were greater and more powerful than even an angry star gone mad.
Quantum Storms - Aaron Seven Page 72
