Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) (54 page)

             
The captain took the letter and shook his head.  “Are you absolutely sure you will not come with us, Doctor?”

             
“No, Captain.  My place is here and here I will stay.  Now, all of you better get going.  I am sure your services are needed elsewhere.  Thank you for checking on me though.”

             
The captain nodded and motioned to his men to move out.  The captain turned to leave and then paused.  “Are you the professor they used to call the bear at Cal Tech?  My dad told me about a professor he had in college there that he was terrified of.”

             
Eric grinned.  “I may have resembled him at one time but that was a long time ago.  When you see your dad again, you tell him that was all just a big show.  I was a really a teddy bear in real life.”

             
The captain stepped up and shook his hand.  “You take care of yourself Doctor Casselman.”  He turned and followed after his men.  About ten minutes later the helicopter circled above his house once and then flew off toward the Northwest.

             
That afternoon Eric loaded up his old jeep with about a weeks’ worth of supplies and water.  In the morning he was going to attempt to drive out to the beach.  He knew that it was probably going to be a long slow trip.  Just after dark, Eric stood and stared up in the sky at the Dwarf, the dark star that his prized student had discovered and brought to his attention.  “Such a long time ago that was," he sighed.  He looked over into the north sky and picked out another newcomer to the night sky, the planet Elpis.  "Ahh, that I was younger,” he said.   "How I would love to be among the first humans to set foot on that beautiful blue planet that the dark star has brought with it.  That night he dreamed of dark stars, blue planets, and warm beaches.

             
While Eric was sleeping, a fault zone off the coast of Japan shifted dramatically under the gravitation stresses being imposed on the Earth’s crust by the dwarf.  An ocean ledge nearly three hundred miles long heaved upwards three feet.   Three feet is nothing in the big scheme of things, but that three feet over a three hundred mile length displaced trillions of tons of water.  Approximately ten minutes after the shift in the deep ocean ledge, the Tsunami alarms were sounding all over Japan and the rest of the Pacific Ocean basin.  Unfortunately, only a small portion of those countries still had power to their electrical grids after all of the previous earthquakes. The number of people with operating communications or radios that received the warnings was very small.  In a little less than an hour, the Tsunami reached the coast of Japan.

Anyone that had not evacuated and happened to be standing on the beach would have seen the ocean retreating rapidly from the shore.  Out, out the water flowed away from the shore.  The oceans sloping beach floor was exposed for nearly a quarter mile out away from the beach.  Then the water returned, this time in a wall of water that was over seven hundred feet high.  It swept inland demolishing all that was in its path.  In places, it penetrated miles inland.  Hundreds of thousands that were trying to get to high ground were swept away.  The wall of water swept up the coast of Japan and then around the islands and on to parts of China, Indonesia, the far eastern shores of Russia, It then started reaching into the Aleutian islands and down the Northwest coast of North America.  Although greatly reduced in strength by the distance, the mass of displaced water was still formidable when it started reaching the shores of Southern California.

It was just past five pm when Eric finally made it down to the beach.  The trip had been a formidable challenge with numerous blocked roads and destroyed bridges.  Luckily, his old jeep had managed to pull through.  Eric stood at the water’s edge.  He had taken off his shoes so he could fill the soft lap of the surf on his feet.  “Oh the memories this brings back,” he thought.  His mind wandered back to the carefree days of his youth, his early days of college.  He had been in love then and had never realized it.  Not until it had been too late.

"How many times that summer had he and Eileen walked this beach, laughed as they ran through the surf, and swam together in the sea?" he asked himself.  Afterwards, they had made love on the warm sand as the sun set.  He had given her up.  He had chosen his work over his love for her.  She had left and went east, never telling him that she carried the culmination of their love in her womb.  He had found out years later about his daughter Susan, and had made contact with her, and built a relationship.  He had lived to see the grandson that Eileen did not live to see.

Tears streamed down his cheeks.  “Oh Eileen, I am so sorry.  I loved you.  I have always loved you and always will," he cried out loud.

Eric seemed to feel a presence at his side.  He felt a caress on his cheek and felt a soft warm hand slip into his.  “It’s all right Eric.  I know you loved me, and I never stopped loving you.  I knew that someday we would be together again.  Now come and walk in the surf with me.  We have so much catching up to do.”

The water was receding down the beach.  He could see Kelp beds left stranded on the bare rocks and sand. The surf seemed so far away.  As he continued to walk down the beach toward the receding water and the sunset, he felt Eileen at his side again.  Eric did not even notice the wave gathering and approaching.  He had found Eileen again and was happy at last. 

The wave that washed ashore along the coast of Southern California had dissipated somewhat from its origin off the coast of Japan.  It was estimated to have been only about five hundred high by the few people who saw it and survived to tell about it.

Chapter 60

June 5
th
, 2043

Houston, Texas

             
Mike Banscott knocked on Peter’s office door then came in and sat down as Peter looked up from the latest data on the Brown Dwarf that was now within the orbit of Jupiter.

             
“What are the latest reports from the Pacific?” asked Mike. “I have not been on my computer this morning yet.”

             
“Not good,” replied Peter.  “They are catching it bad out there, especially Japan.  That big Tsunami in the Pacific last week really hit them hard.  The latest estimates I saw say it was over seven hundred feet high when it hit the coast of Japan.  It was still five hundred feet high when it hit our west coast.  If that one wasn’t bad enough, then there have been dozens of smaller ones.  From the satellite pictures I have seen you cannot even make out the Hawaiian Islands due to all the ash, smoke and steam from the volcanoes there.  The ships in the area are reporting that both Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are erupting violently and there are large lava flows from both.  The islands are ablaze from the hot lava and ash.  There have been at least two explosions from the Krakatoa chain of volcanoes in the Java Sea and those volcanoes are spewing millions of tons of ash into the atmosphere.”

             
“The Pacific is not the only place getting socked.  Vesuvius in the Mediterranean is blowing ash and pumice all over the region there and there have been several new volcanoes rising out of the sea off the island of Crete.  Up in Iceland, there have been large numbers of people that had not evacuated killed by poisonous gases being released by the two active volcanoes there.  It is not only just the volcanos and earthquakes causing havoc.  If those are not bad enough, the coastal flooding is estimated to have killed hundreds of millions already.”

             
Mike just sat quietly in his chair.  Peter looked at him curiously. “You did not come down here to ask me about the latest news reports on what is going on in the rest of the world.  You get the same reports that I do, what is up?”

             
“I got a call yesterday from the Major in charge of the MP battalion that is trying to keep an eye on the evacuated areas of Southern California.  A SAR helicopter crew found Eric about a week ago.  I had asked a special favor of the Major in command of that unit.  He had one of his choppers fly over the area that Eric lived in.  That entire area had been devastated by the big earthquake there.  Anyway, they found Eric living in a tent in his backyard.  He was grilling a rabbit when they landed and made contact with him.”

             
Peter smiled.  “Sounds like something he would be doing.  He probably shot it on the golf course while trying to get in eighteen holes between earthquakes.  Let me guess, he still refused to be evacuated?”

             
Mike nodded.  “Yesterday, the same chopper crew flew over his neighborhood.  It was in flames.  Brushfires have spread like crazy and it was the first time the area had been surveyed after the large tsunami hit last week.  They did not see any sign of him.  They did report however, that his jeep which had been there previously was no longer there.  He may have pulled out when the fire got too close.  I know that Susan has been worried sick about him.”

             
Peter nodded.  “This news will not help.  Susan cries herself to sleep more often than not with worry.  I try to explain to her that he is doing what he wants to do.  It is his life after all.  If I was his age, I would probably do the same.”

             
Mike held out a stained envelope.  “This was sent to me by a courier from the captain that was on the chopper that landed and talked to Eric.  Eric wrote it and asked that if possible, would he try and get it delivered to Susan.  I thought it more appropriate for you to hand it to her.  It has not been opened, so I have no idea what it says.”

             
Peter took the envelope and looked at the address, “My Dearest Daughter Susan.”  “Thank you Mike for trying, I appreciate your efforts to try and get him out, and Susan feels the same.”

             
“It is no problem, Peter,” said Mike. “Don’t forget he was my good friend long before you and Susan were ever on the scene.  I know that the last time I talked to him; he was really feeling down with guilt.  He has never forgiven himself for what happened between Eileen, who was Susan’s mother, and himself.  I met Eileen a few times that summer they were together.  She was a beautiful, vibrant young woman.  I don’t know if I could have given her up the way he did.  But anyway, please give that letter to Susan with my love.”

             
Mike stood to go.  “I have to get going.  I have to catch a plane to Florida and give the NASA people who are huddled behind the dikes at  Cape Canaveral a pep talk.  I also need to see for myself how things are holding up there.  We cannot afford to lose the heavy lift rockets there.”

             
“Good luck getting out the gate,” said Peter. “Have you looked out there lately?”  He stood and pulled open the curtains of his third floor office.  His window overlooked the front security gate at NASA/JPL headquarters.  There was a crowd of seven to eight thousand protestors in front of the gate being held back by Houston City Policemen re-enforced with military police.

             
“From what I hear, they are blaming NASA for the Dwarf.  They say that the Dwarf was sent by aliens to wipe us out after the aliens intercepted the old Voyager space probe that left our solar system several decades ago.  The security chief said they are getting downright nasty and there have been multiple arrests.  Several people have been shot in the crowd by someone.  Security thinks there is some crazed sniper out there.  You would think that the shootings would scatter the crowd but it just made them angrier." 

             
Mike looked out.  “I was briefed on the security situation earlier.  There is no way I would attempt to drive out through that mob.  I have a chopper waiting on the roof pad to take me to the airport, and then a NASA private jet from there to the cape.  I will call you after I get to Cape Canaveral.  If you get a chance, look over the latest design specifications for the Elpis landing expedition.  They are still in real rough form, although the proposed ship is just a new variant of the ship design we used for the David Honstein.”  He stood to leave and paused, “Give my best to Susan.  Tell her we tried, but in the end her father was adamant and refused to leave.”

             
“Thanks again for trying Mike, have a safe flight,” Peter said as he gazed out the window.

…

              Outside the security gate of the NASA/JPL headquarters Alfred Manley sat looking out from behind the curtains in the window of the second story apartment.  He had come down to the demonstration as the voices in his head had told him to.  The voices were telling him that behind that gate the government had twenty seven alien prisoners that had been captured when the Space Force had shot up their starship in orbit around Mars.  The aliens were sending out psychic cries for help.  The capture of the aliens was why the huge Dwarf Star was nearing Earth.  The Alien’s home world had sent it to destroy Earth if the aliens that were being held against their will were not released to fly back to their home world.

             
Alfred could not understand why the government did not let them go.  Was the government really so crazy that they would destroy the whole planet rather than let them go free?  He could hear their voices screaming for help in his head even as he sat trying to figure how to help them.