Star One: Tycho City Survival (33 page)

“That ash is
going to be a problem,” Cole said as he stopped and kicked at a pile. He was
surprised to see that it was deeper than he thought. Bending over, he dug down
and discovered that it was nearly a foot deep.

“I have two tractors
in the barn,” James commented with a frown as he gazed at the ash. “We can use
them to clear the ash from the topsoil if we need to. There’s plenty of fuel in
the underground tanks.”

He was hoping,
if the sun remained out, they could clear some ground and plant a garden. They
still had food supplies for several years in the bunker, but some fresh
vegetables would be nice.

“We may have
to do that,” Cole said as he stood back up and wiped his hands on his jeans. “I
don’t think anything will grow through this thick layer of ash.”

“At least it’s
not everywhere,” Phillip added. “Just in the low spots.”

The men continued
to walk and going around a small protective hill, they entered the farmyard.
The large metal shed was almost smashed to the ground, and the vehicles and equipment
that were stored inside were covered in ash. The barn was still intact, as well
as the house.

“I’m glad to
see the house is still here,” commented James, knowing that would make his wife
Alice happy. They had lived in that house for a long time, and it held a lot of
treasured memories.

“The barn
looks pretty much intact too,” Phillip said as he paused to gaze inside. The
wind had blown one of the large doors on the front open. Phillip noticed there
was some ash inside but not that much. It would be easy to clean up.

The men walked
over to the house, and James used his key to open the front door. Stepping
inside, they gazed around. Everything was covered in a thin layer of ash.

“That damn ash
is everywhere,” complained Cole, reaching down and running his hand across a
coffee table.

“This is going
to take a lot of cleaning,” James added with a sigh.

“What do we do
now?” Phillip asked as he looked over at the others.

“You all heard
that broadcast from Tycho City yesterday,” James responded. They had started to
pick up the broadcasts once the sky began to clear. “There are quite a few surviving
bunkers scattered across the world. From the last report, there are at least six
here in Oklahoma, almost all of them in the eastern part of the state. We know
of several more in Arkansas and Missouri. The problem is that the roads are
impassable and many of the bridges are out. That means everyone, at least for
the immediate future, will be on their own.”

“Commander
Colton also mentioned that the Earth is heading out almost to the orbit of Mars,
and we can expect some frigid temperatures in a few more months,” Cole added as
he thought about what that might mean.

“Even more of
a reason to get a garden in as quickly as we can,” James replied. “We have the
parts to build a small greenhouse, and I suggest we do that immediately. It
will give us some additional growing time for vegetables. We can get one of the
tractors out tomorrow and start clearing off a larger garden plot. We can water
it from one of the wells.”

The other men
nodded. They had work to do if they hoped to continue to survive. Phillip was a
good mechanic, and he planned to go over the two diesel generators while the
weather was decent. They would also be checking the two wind generators.

Closing the
door to the house, James locked it and they all began walking back toward the
bunker. If the weather was decent tomorrow, everyone would be allowed to come
outside for a short while.

-

To the east,
General Young was standing outside next to the small blockhouse that contained
the elevators to the large bunker below. They were in a mountainous region, but
the desolation he now looked at made it look more like a war zone. He was
standing outside with a small group, all of which were wearing simple breathing
masks.

“It’s still
cloudy,” Captain Wells commented as he gazed upward at the overcast sky. He
knew from reports that brief breaks in the clouds had been observed in some
areas of the country.

“At least the
air is clearing up some,” Sergeant Adams added as he briefly took off his
breathing mask and after taking a few breaths, put it back on. “If we can get a
little more rain it might be breathable.”

General Young
nodded. Thanks to Tycho City and the surviving communication satellites, they
could now talk to a number of the other bunkers in the United States. There were four large bunkers still intact in the Eastern United States, as
well as the four large command bunkers back in Colorado. Young had already
recognized General Mann as being in charge of all surviving military assets.

“Let’s get
some jeeps out of storage and see if we can scavenge anything up,” General
Young suggested as he turned to face Captain Wells. “I don’t think we will find
any survivors, but there may still be supplies on some of the farms and in the smaller
towns nearby.”

Captain Wells
nodded. They had checked a lot of them before they had closed the bunker up,
but there were probably some places they had overlooked.

“I’ll
volunteer to lead a team,” Sergeant Adams said stepping forward. “I’ve been
cooped up in the bunker way too long.”

“Very well,”
Captain Wells responded. “Tell Corporal Strong he volunteered also.”

Adams laughed as he nodded. “I’m sure the corporal is ready to get out of the bunker for a
few days.”

General Young
nodded. According to Commander Colton, they had a few months before the
temperatures became too cold to safely move about outside. He planned on
spending a big part of that time searching the surrounding area for additional
supplies.

He already had
plans to construct several large storage buildings on the surface. There were
numerous items they could use, fuel, spare parts, equipment of various types;
the list was unending. Young intended to give his people every chance he could
to survive.

-

Warren Timmins
was sitting in his office speaking to General Mann and Mase Colton about the
number of survivors they were finding.

“It’s hard to
believe so many have survived,” Warren spoke as he looked over the latest list
that had been sent from Tycho City.

“Larger
numbers than we ever expected,” Mase responded. “Every day we are finding more.
In the United States alone, we have located sixteen major bunkers and
eighty-seven smaller ones owned by private citizens. We have put the estimated
number of survivors at over fifty thousand. There are probably others we
haven’t been able to contact yet.”

“Some of those
will need help to be able to continue to survive,” General Mann added. He had
talked to the people in charge of all sixteen large bunkers. Most of them were military,
but several were being run by civilians.

“We still have
some tough times ahead of us,” Warren spoke over the com line. “Anything we can
do to help the survivors, we need to.”

“I know where
there may be some large stores of MREs,” General Mann commented. “I have a list
of the major distributors and their warehouses. We need to check them as soon
as possible. I would suggest that any we locate be taken to the sixteen large
surviving bunkers for storage and distribution.”

“How?” asked Mase,
knowing it would be a very difficult task. “Travel by road is going to be
nearly impossible, and even by air it will be tough with all the ash in the
atmosphere. It will clog up any aircraft’s air filters.”

“Both NORAD
and Cheyenne Mountain have helicopters we can use,” General Mann replied.
“These were specially constructed to operate in a post war environment. I’m
also pretty certain that Mount Weather and Raven Rock in the east have
helicopters we can use also.”

Warren nodded his head at hearing this. He knew that both of the two survival bunkers had helicopters,
but they were in a separate facility buried deep under a mountain a short
distance away.

“The
scientists at Farside believe the weather will continue to clear over the next
few weeks,” Mase informed them. “It might be wise to wait those few extra weeks
to ensure you don’t risk losing those helicopters. That would give you at least
six weeks to find supplies and get them to whoever needs them before the cold
sets in.”

“I agree,”
General Mann responded. “I will get in touch with the commanders of the four
bunkers that have the helicopters and assign each an area to search for
supplies. The only location we are not going to be able to cover is the west
coast.”

“Not much left
of the West Coast anyway,” responded Mase. “The Earthquakes and the tidal waves
pretty well wiped it out. We have found no surviving bunkers in California, Oregon, or Washington.”

“We lost a lot
of good people,” General Mann replied somberly as he thought about the events
of the last year. “We just need to ensure now that we don’t lose any more.”

“What about
drones?” Warren asked as another idea came to him. “I know we have some of
those in our storage facility. Can we use them to search the country for other survivors?
There are cave systems we need to check and numerous other areas that people
could have taken refuge. We may be missing a lot of survivors.”

“The drones
are not designed to work in ash,” General Mann replied. “However, we may be
able to modify them, and they would allow us to search a larger area for survivors.
I will get some people on it immediately.”

Once the
conference was over Warren leaned back in his chair and thought about what they
had just discussed. He hoped they could find other survivors. They had
contacted a few bunkers in the U.K., Canada, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Germany, and several other countries. However, Warren was concerned about
what was still ahead of them. They had the frigid cold they would soon have to
deal with and then, later, searing heat. The big question in his mind was what
could they do to ensure long-term survival for as many people as possible?

-

Mase stepped
out of the Control Center and let out a deep breath. They had found many more
survivors than he had ever expected as the airwaves cleared and they could
communicate better with the surface. It was difficult to realize that there was
nothing they could do from the Moon to help the situation. All they could offer
was a means of communication between bunkers. He was just thankful that General
Mann and Warren Timmons had survived. Between the two of them, they were bound
to come up with a plan.

After a few
minutes, Mase found himself back inside the cavern that contained the original Tycho City. He paused, as he looked at all the work that was being done. The roof was being
strengthened with a layer of Luxen, and Luxen support beams were being
installed.

It had been
necessary to reactivate a few of the mining sites outside of Tyco Crater so
they could get the raw material to produce more of the wonder metal. If all
went according to plan, in another month people could move back into the old Tyco City if they wanted. There had already been some discussion about changing the name.
Mase was leaning toward Luna City.

All the
sleepers had been awoken. Accommodations had been found for all 8,270 survivors,
and Tycho City now seemed more like a vibrant living city. The restaurants and
shops were open; people were going about their daily business as if nothing
catastrophic had occurred. Just standing on the main street in the small city
you would find it hard to believe that the world had nearly ended.

As Mase walked
through the nearly deserted city, he stopped in front of the building that had
held his former office. So much had occurred since he had received that first
call from Pierre LaRann demanding that he come to Farside. Thinking of LaRann,
Mase wondered what had happened to Star One. Were they somewhere else in the
galaxy, building a new human civilization and wondering if the Moon or the Earth
had survived? Perhaps someday far in the future they would know each other’s
fate. For now, Mase had work that needed to be done.

-

Jolene was in
the apartment with Linda discussing an important development in her
relationship with Anthony. Karen was busy at one of the ecological habitats and
would not be home for another few hours.

“Anthony has
asked me to move in with him and Jean,” Jolene confessed, her face glowing with
excitement.

“Really?”
Linda replied, surprised that Anthony was ready to make such a commitment. Of
course, he and Jolene had been nearly inseparable for the last several months.
“Are you ready for such a move?”

“I think so,”
Jolene replied, her face flushing slightly. “If things work out with us living
together, then we will go ahead and get married.” She pulled out her hand from
behind her back and showed Linda the ring she was now wearing.

“Married!”
spoke Linda, raising her eyebrows. It was hard to imagine Jolene and Anthony
married, but there was no doubt that they were deeply in love with one another.
She reached out and took Jolene’s hand, gazing at the ring. It was definitely a
nice one with a decent sized diamond. “The ring’s gorgeous!”

“I hope you
approve,” Jolene spoke her eyes searching for support.

“Of course I
approve,” Linda said with a big smile. “I just hope that Mase and I can join
you someday.”

“I’m sure you
will,” Jolene replied with a grin. “He has a big load on his shoulders, and he
needs someone to help take that off, if only for a little while. It will only
be a matter of time before he sees that also.”

Linda nodded.
She hoped Jolene was right. She was in love with Mase, and she was sure he felt
the same way about her. Someday it would be her turn; she just had to be
patient.

“So, when are
you moving out?” Linda asked as the two went into the living room and sat down.