If it had been a asteroid with but one hundredth the mass, we would have been pummeled to extinction, but a cloud traveling three times the average speed of an asteroid is an all together different thing. Imagine if you dropped a single grain of sand through a floating soap bubble, the bubble would unwrap itself into extinction. Yet, a puff of air containing much more energy would simply send the bubble wobbling off in a new direction. The CME had a similar effect. It didn’t destroy the earth instead it rang it like a bell of jello, sending it wobbling off on a slightly altered orbit.
The resulting earthquakes rippled around the world. They ranged from 3 to 10 on the Richter scale and continued seriously rattling the planet for days. For months following, after-shocks became a regular occurrence.
A searing cocktail of unfiltered solar radiation and an excess of ozone generated by the lightning caused rashes and blisters on an unprepared and unsuspecting population.
In the central areas of the impacted hemisphere the air temperatures at ground level shot up 45 F. Hot winds scoured the earth and fanned immense firestorms. Many millions died outright from the initial event. Those who survived the initial event were forced survive without adequate medical services.
Fortunately, man and animal alike can survive on less oxygen than a wood or grass fire. Within several months of the event the fires snuffed themselves out, due to the lack of oxygen. And the population that remained was able to gasp on.
While the oceans raged, stifling heat and humidity rose, supercharging the atmosphere with moisture.
The initial flash of heat greatly accelerated the melting of the polar ice cap. The ice melt raised the tidal sea level, flooding the coastlands.
Tsunamis wiped many coastal cities off the map.
Within a few months dense clouds replaced the smoke and reflected the solar radiation back into space. With the loss of solar heating the temperature began to drop. Soon the global temperatures fell below normal and the moisture-laden clouds began to rain out the excess moisture.
The electro-magnetic pulses (EMP) generated from the passing dust particles damaged all of the satellites in the path of the storm; leaving only a few shadowed by the earth to listen for silenced signals from the disabled command centers.
Maps had no relevance whatsoever. The earth’s axis shifted as did the magnetic poles. Landmasses shifted, coastlines reconfigured, rivers re-coursed, lakes disappeared, and new ones formed. Everything had moved. There were only a handful of places on earth that escaped damage.
The rail systems were in ruins. Ground communications were all but non-existent.
Before the planet settled down and the weather stabilized, nearly half the population had been lost. People had died from disease, famine, radiation, earthquakes, fires, volcanoes, hail and the list was endless.
In some areas, burying the dead was an insurmountable task.
Many cities simply collapsed into heaps of rubble; others that had survived the quakes were rendered uninhabitable for a hundred other reasons. Many governments were reduced to a tribal level.
ANGL; The Halifax shuttle is arriving. Passengers will be transferring in five minutes.
Martin; Oh yeah!
Martin made his way to the docking port, an observation area in the upper level, right behind the flight controller’s cockpit. A viewing port in the ceiling provided a good view of the activities.
The shuttle was a 75-foot diameter craft. It moved into view above the cockpit, then centered over the docking port. The bottom of the shuttle was convex in shape. Three legs extended down about ten feet from the base and were spaced about twenty apart, in a triangular arrangement. They locked into receivers on the upper surface of the Wave-Schooner.
Martin couldn’t see the final docking of the ports. But when the hatch opened, a cylindrical capsule holding five people descended into the transfer gallery and rested gently on the floor. Passengers had their regulation carry-on flight pack. Checked luggage had to be shipped by surface vessels, and would lag behind the passenger carrier by several days.
One passenger heading for Halifax entered the capsule and was drawn quickly up and into the shuttle. Martin could feel the vibration of the shuttle engine as it prepared for separation. De-latching of the shuttle caused both crafts to lurch apart with a perceptible thud. Quickly the shuttle rose straight up for 50 or 60 feet before drifting off to the front or rather rear of the schooner.
“Front” and “rear” are somewhat confusing. The schooner was actually a flying wing, drifting backward, in the wind. A tether joined the airborne wing to an opposing smaller wing below at the ocean surface. The aerodynamic drag necessary to keep the Waveschooner aloft resulted from the tether tension on the subsurface wing being dragged beneath the waves.
Twin rotors on the drag wing were pulled through the water. These rotors drove motor/generators that charged landing batteries and provided service power to the schooner. The subsurface wing and crew stayed beneath the waves for the entire trip.
In the unlikely event that the wind speed dropped to a level that couldn’t support adequate lift, then, the ocean surface wing would power up its rotors to pull the schooner to a surface landing. It also had enough battery power to re-launch the wing when favorable winds returned.
The return trip required a lot of tacking into the wind to accomplish the task. Some times the return trip could take several additional days.
There was another version of this kite like arrangement, and that was the Trade-Schooner. It was similar but instead of a water born drag wing, it had an opposing sister wing that flew several miles beneath the main wing. The two wings sailed at the bottom of the jet stream and could stay aloft indefinitely by taking advantage of the energy differential available in the wind speeds.
Passengers were loaded and unloaded into the smaller lower wing. From there they could be shuttled up to the upper wing during flight via a tether climbing gondola.
The only fuel needed was for the ground-air shuttle. The shuttle could carry several dozen people to and from a ground terminal.
As with the ocean going schooner the excess energy could be stored for emergency landings. This maneuver was avoided for safety reasons. Over land, it could be accomplished in almost any open field.
Both the Trade-Schooner and the Wave-Schooner routes varied with atmospheric conditions. Since the CME wind had not been in short supply, scheduling, though a hit and miss affair, generally worked well. All flights continued in the jet stream circling the globe every three to five days. Some East to West trips required a complete circuit around the world. This enabled a journey from the east coast around the world to the west coast.
The CME shifted the rotational axis of the earth from a 23 degree tilt to about a 15 degree tilt. That resulted in an increase in upper atmospheric wind. This change narrowed the seasonal temperature range. The precipitation in the equatorial zone had increased along with the precipitation at the poles. The glacial ice was returning. Populations migrated towards the equator again.
ANGL; Don’t forget the time change. You’re going to need to catch up on some sleep before we arrive in Europe.
Martin; Good idea. ANGL, why is the equator more temperate if it is getting more sun?
ANGL; Based on the data available in the science library and our combined analysis engines, the following assessments can be made. There is an increase in the available atmospheric moisture. Moisture has always been present over the tropics. In the major desert areas it now hits the ground in much greater amounts. In the past it evaporated back into the air and returned to the clouds; virga.
Martin; What about the poles? Shouldn’t they be losing surface ice?
ANGL; No. Though the degree/days show an overall increase in temperature, the increase in precipitation as snow exceeds the capacity of the summer to melt the additional snow cover. Blah, blah, blah, blah, shows a slight residual . . . .
Martin; Thank you, ANGL. I think that did the trick. Good night.
ANGL; ? ? ?
The rush of the wind over the wing was barely audible. The schooner rocked very slowly from side to side. Even with a few people snoring and the heating system cycling on and off Martin found sleeping a very comfortable change from the last few weeks.
He spent the next two days sleeping, reading and playing cribbage with an old guy two isles over. Though he beat Martin on a regular basis, Martin enjoyed the banter and a different point of view.
The original arrival was going to be in London. Due to weather complications, Brugge Beligum was chosen as an alternate landing site. By so doing, Martin was ahead of schedule, having avoided the ferry trip across the English Channel. The Chunnel had been put out of service by the CME.
The remainder of Martin’s trip would have to be made by utilizing a monorail transit system. The high-speed trains were a thing of the past. This part of the trip took about a day and a half.
Martin would be in conferences with the scientists and in some training sessions as well. Beyond what Dr. Grant had told him, he had no clue about the full scope of the conference.
The shuttle boarding was a quick routine. The shuttle interior was a Spartan affair. There were observation windows around the periphery of the cabin. The shuttle trip took about 20 minutes and was a somewhat bumpy ride. Though it stayed level enough, it dropped in fits and jerks.
Martin; What keeps this thing aloft.
ANGL; It’s a pancake turbine or rotor about 25’ in diameter.
Martin; Feet??
ANGL; Yes. At the perimeter of the rotor is a bank of ramjets and fan blades. The ramjets power the rotor and the fan blades drive additional air outward. The air and the ramjet exhaust are driven outward over the top of the shuttle surface. The top of the shuttle has an annular airfoil contour encircling the entire craft. The air moving over the airfoil generates adequate lift for flight; called the Coanda effect. This allows for vertical takeoff and relatively little turbulence under the shuttle where it might other wise disrupt the flight characteristics of the schooner.
Martin; Good!
ANGL; Some of the air volume is diverted through nozzles around the shuttle to create thrust in the horizontal plane allowing for movement in any direction.
Martin felt a strong tug at his arm. “Hey mister, how does this thing fly?”
“Well son. It a . . . . .mm. There are these skyhooks. . . . . these giant skyhooks and well you see ah!”
“Clayton! Get back here right now.” The voice from somewhere behind Martin could not have been more welcome.
ANGL; Skyhooks????
Martin; So? You got a problem with that?
* * * * *
Chapter 14 – The Termination
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein