Pilgrimage (The New World) (28 page)

NEWS OF THE
discovery spread like a wild brushfire with the ever present fanning from the media. Soon everyone in the world who wanted to know about the asteroid could find out what little was known about it at the present time. All of the leading scientific teams throughout the world were now locking in on the asteroids position so they could attempt to learn more about it. The most important information to ascertain would be the trajectory of the rogue object, as well as the overall size and composition. If the astronomers could confirm that it was indeed on a collision course, then how large the rock was could help them determine the possible catastrophic damage it would cause. Next would be attempting to determine the date of impact, but that would only matter if collision was imminent.

In spite of a steady diet of spoon feeding throughout the previous half century via television and movies of the possibility of extraterrestrial life visiting Earth, the vast majority of the American citizens thought the announcement of the asteroids discovery was nothing more than a well-orchestrated hoax. Many people had lost a tremendous amount of faith in the government over the years due to being lied to during such events as the Watergate Scandal, or the misguided extreme expense of a “War on Terror” to name a few. Each of those examples, and many others by individuals or groups of people, had brought shame to the United States in one form or another when it was discovered how much deception was involved. Some Americans believed the recent announcement was designed to provide the President with a way to “wiggle off the hook” for his outlandish claim of having met and communicated with an alien species. Many nations of the world felt that was true, but that it was also a ploy to make America look good in the world view once again. It was not beyond the realm of possibility that there wasn’t even an asteroid hurling in our direction, but just another lie by a fearful government that was well known for misrepresentation at times.

Ross knew it would probably be sometime before the results of the astronomers’ inquiries came in, but he had little doubt of what they would reveal. If there wasn’t an impending problem, then why would the alien species bring it to his attention to begin with? With that in mind, he began to make plans for saving as many of the world’s population as possible.

His first step was to prepare a written proposal that he would then have translated and dispatched to all the heads of government around the world. After that, he would speak with whoever would listen to him about the construction of shelters. Ross knew that he needed to attempt what would be a tough sell to almost everyone in the world with the exception of the global scientific community, and he would probably receive some additional grief for doing so.

It seemed logical to sculpt out large cave structures in order to house the people and supplies that would be necessary for a potentially long duration of time. It also seemed that the best places to have those shelters would be in the mountains of as many different countries around the globe as possible. The scientific teams probably wouldn’t be able to pinpoint where on the Earth the asteroid would impact until shortly before the event, so having multiple supposed safe havens just seemed like a prudent move. Ross could visualize literally hundreds of large caves within the Andes Mountains that stretched for a few thousand miles near the western edge of South America, or lower sections of the mighty Himalaya Mountain Range of Asia. There were of course many other suitable locations in mountain ranges such as the Alps in Europe, which could handle the needs of large population centers throughout the world.

As far as North America was concerned, the western half of the continent offered more, but not all of, the best mountainous options. In the United States, the general area of the continental divide along the Rocky Mountain range from Montana on down to New Mexico could prove quite useful, while closer to the west coast the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges would also be viable options. Additional fortifications could be located in the smaller western ranges of the Sawtooth or Wabash, while the Appalachian, Allegheny, and Adirondack Mountains could pick up the slack for the northeastern quadrant of the country.

If this proposal was to be globally accepted as a viable course of action, a tremendous amount of international cooperation would be necessary. Some countries of the world have the majority of their land very close to sea level, so those citizens might need to use the caves built in another country. Even if they could construct caves of their own, they might not be as safe as ones built at higher altitudes.

The odds were in favor of an ocean impact because roughly seventy percent of the Earth’s surface consisted of water, and the series of massive waves that could be caused by such an impact might flood out any low lying caves. That scenario held true for certain areas of America as well, because many of the states along the gulf coast and lower eastern seaboard had little or no mountains to speak of.

While Ross verbally spelled this all out, and Mrs. Patterson put it into the computer, he suddenly flashed back to a conversation he had years ago with Dennis Strickland. Ross asked Mrs. Patterson to remind him to give the Strickland family in Colorado a call as soon as they were finished with the task at hand, because he needed to ask them for some information. Ross couldn’t remember the exact amount, but he knew the family owned a significant amount of property within the state. He also remembered how Dennis had told him that much of it was located at high elevation.

When Mrs. Patterson asked him if there was anything else he wished to add to the current proposal, Ross quickly snapped back to the reality of the moment. He continued by saying it would be important that any and all occupants of the caves must have some sort of useful function. By that he meant that some people would be needed to build the shelters by blasting away the rock, and they would also be needed to help maintain the structural integrity of the caves. Others would be responsible for the growing and harvesting of food sources such as plant life or animals. Another group would need to hunt whatever animals were available in the wilderness near the caves during the last few weeks before the collision, and have that meat ready for consumption by the masses when they moved underground.

Beyond that there would be a need for people to gather, ration, and distribute the water supply available to each cave. There would also be a need for people to do cooking or cleaning, while others with the necessary education would be responsible for the sanitation issues of transforming human waste into useable topsoil and fertilizer for crops. Each shelter would also need to have doctors and nurses to take care of any medical issues that would most certainly arise. Perhaps the one bright spot in this entire proposal was that there probably would no longer be any need for lawyers, but Ross wasn’t going to confront Jessica with that thought just yet.

The entire process hadn’t yet taken into account the skills needed to create available access to the shelters throughout the world. Each host country would need to build roads and trails to the entrance points for multiple reasons. Aside from getting the people into the shelters, there needed to be a way for all the animals, food, water, and other supplies to be shuttled in. That could entail building some small bridges in difficult to reach areas, and time was growing short for that type of work.

No matter what the distinct duty assigned to each person might be everyone involved would need to work together in some level of harmony. It was necessary in order for the shelters to accomplish their intended task. There was a possibility that the occupants might need to live inside the caves for many months, or years, just to survive.

It would be impossible to accurately predict before the asteroid collision how extreme the atmospheric conditions might be, but conventional wisdom suggested that thick dust and huge debris clouds could envelop the planet after the collision. That would be a byproduct of an impact on land, or a large enough one in shallower areas of an ocean, but in either case venturing outside would become detrimental to ones’ well-being. There was plenty of evidence throughout history to validate such scientific claims, with several volcanic eruptions at various locations around the planet during the previous century alone. The plume ash clouds of such events had caused many nearby inhabitants to protect themselves against the accidental inhaling of the dangerous substance that could cause severe respiratory problems. Plant and animal life were negatively affected as well. One volcanic event had taken place in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. That event created a massive river of mud and debris such as fallen pine trees that tore through the adjacent mountainside, and scattered ash a few inches deep on some of the nearby towns.

Environmental conditions from an asteroid impact eventually would allow people to venture outside again, but until then, all food would need to be grown indoors. That would be a hugely important task that would require special training, and Ross would need to consult with some of the leading agricultural minds of the country to formulate and implement such a plan.

On the back end of the entire stay within the caves there would once again be a need for those people who specialized in hunting and gathering. When the surviving populace begins to emerge, new sources of food and water would need to be located. There may not be any animal life left to speak of on the surface, but whatever there was would need to be hunted for continued survival. New areas to grow crops would need to be located near whatever water sources might exist, which had just become an additional reason for locating the shelters at high elevation. If and when the atmosphere began to produce snow and rain again in an attempt to cleanse the planet, that water would need to be captured for use from the mountain runoff.

Global communications would most probably no longer exist in terms of what mankind is currently used to, so at first the inhabitants of neighboring caves would have to resort to the archaic form of face to face communication. That was sure to have a shocking impact upon many who had become overly accustomed to having communication and information access to the world in the palm of their hand. Those people would soon realize that it was significantly less important in the big picture to be informed, as opposed to being alive.

There was of course the possibility that all of this advanced planning would be pointless because the asteroid could either miss the Earth entirely, or be large enough that it would be a total planet killer. If the later of the two were true, then all the planning in the world wouldn’t matter. If however neither one of the two scenarios came to fruition, then at least the efforts of building and fortifying shelters would give some people an outside chance at survival.

With that Ross concluded his thoughts on the shelter proposal, and thanked Mrs. Patterson for preparing the document. It would take some time for the world leaders to get back to him on the subject, and for all he knew many of them were currently working on a similar plan of action. Ross knew that his current thoughts had only begun to scratch the surface of the potential logistical nightmare that lay in front of him and other world leaders, but he would welcome any additional constructive ideas. In essence the plan needed to be approved and put into action yesterday, because time was now something that could not be wasted.

Ross asked Mrs. Patterson if she could please get the information she had taken down out to the appropriate people for translation as soon as possible, and then place a call to the Secretary of Agriculture. Ross hoped that he would know the names of some brilliant minds in the field, and be familiar with any new technologies that could be helpful to the cause. As Mrs. Patterson headed for the door Ross had one more request of her, and instructed her to please place a call to the Strickland family in Woodland Park before she did anything else.