From the Journal of
Jason Forrester
16 August 2013
I was really worried about that
one. The reports said it would hit us
dead on, and it did. Thank God this CME
was weak enough - and pointing the wrong magnetic direction - that nothing
major happened.
The problem is, that it cleared
away a large portion of the interstellar medium - I think that's what they call
it - which slows CME's down and forces them to expand. Without it - or so the NASA nerds say on
their twitter feeds - the next CME will hit us harder and faster. Even a weaker CME could do more damage
because it will be concentrated. To make
matters worse, the ACE Satellite - the Satellite which measures the strength and
speed of the solar flares which might actually hit us - was damaged.
That thing is almost 9 million
miles away from Earth. We don't have the
technology to just fly out there and fix it and come home. If the next CME is a big one, we might not
have a warning at all. I need to step up
my preparations when I wake up this morning.
There was one good thing. An old satellite which still had some
reaction mass malfunctioned while it was preparing to de-orbit. The malfunction sent it spinning through
orbit thanks to malfunctioning maneuvering jets and it knocked a large amount
of small space junk out of orbit.
Rebecca and I snuck into Shawnee
Mission Park and watched the artificial meteor shower. It was beautiful.
As was the Aurora which danced on
the northern horizon.
The Sun
13 August 2013
As with every other solar flare and
coronal mass ejection, this one was born from turbulence in the magnetic field
lines and the entrapment of plasma in the super-heated fusion oven which we
call the Sun.
Though relatively weak, this storm
was stronger than the near miss which wiped out power in Norway. And, unlike the Norway storm, this one was on
a direct path for Earth.
Lenexa, Kansas
13 August 2013
Jayce was awoken by the sound of
the buzzing of his phone. It was still
dark outside, so it wasn't his alarm clock.
Picking up his phone, he blearily stared at the screen without
comprehension.
It took him a while to blink the
sleep from his eyes. When he finally did
so, he saw it was a space weather alert.
A large CME had just lifted off from the surface of the Sun, and it was
on a direct collision path with the Earth.
"Oh, frack!"
Jayce jumped out of bed and leapt
at his computer. He muttered to himself,
urging his computer to turn on after having been off all night. Once it finally turned on, he opened the page
he was looking for and scanned the pictures and data.
The storm was big, all right. It was downright massive. But the STEREO images coming in made it look
thin, tenuous. And, it was relatively
slow. It wouldn't hit until late in the
evening the day after tomorrow. At the
rate it was going, it would hit the ACE Satellite with hours to spare. More than enough time to shut down the grid -
if that was necessary - and turn it back on afterwards.
Still, better safe than sorry.
As soon as the clock hit 8 am, he
picked up the phone and called his folks.
"Hey dad, did you see the story about the solar storm?"
ACE Satellite,
Earth-Sun L1 Point
15 August 2013
Jayce's mental calculations were
fairly accurate as it turned out. When
it hit the ACE Satellite - Advanced Composition Explorer - it was travelling at
a mere 3.1 million miles an hour. It was
still three hours out.
As the instruments on the ACE
studied the massive solar flare, it reported the data it collected back to the
Goddard Institute. The Storm had a
strength of 890 nT, more than enough to wipe out power on a continental scale,
but the storm was southern facing. It
was the exact opposite of the interplanetary magnetic field. It wouldn't affect anything on the planet,
but a number of satellites would be damaged.
The ACE was among them. Its instruments to measure the speed and
direction of a storm were damaged - with the speed instruments failing entirely
and the magnetic direction instruments glitching in and out.
Luckily, the system's maneuvering
thrusters had not been firing. This
meant the entire system was not knocked out of alignment and the system would
remain in place. A good thing as the
entire craft was located over 9 million miles from the Earth. If it had, the system would slip into the sun
with enough time once the satellite pushed itself out of the L1 point.
UMKC Dorms
17 August 2013
Rebecca enjoyed movie nights. Neither of them had class tomorrow, so they could sleep in tomorrow. Either
way, he would be able to sleep over tonight.
Tonight was not as much fun though, as Jayce was obsessed with the
Geo-Magnetic storm which had just hit.
He had even tried to get them to
watch a post-apocalyptic zombie movie.
Which was unusual for him as he usually picked out movies she would
like, such as Shall We Dance or Hachi.
He seemed to have an eye for these kind of movies. Rebecca wondered about that sometimes, but
most of the time she chalked it up to him just being a fan of culture and
civilization.
Once, when they went to the Nelson
Atkins he had accidently turned into a tour guide. With a high and tight haircut. Rebecca had been a little annoyed at her
romantic date to the art museum turning into a voluntary position as a docent
for the day. It had been fun to see him
interacting with people like a normal person, but it was still annoying.
He had cooked dinner to apologize.
Now, she laid in his arms watching
a movie she had picked out instead.
Thankfully, Jayce seemed to be enjoying the movie, though he seemed to
be paying more attention to her neck and her scent than the movie. She was having trouble paying attention at
this point, though she was okay with that.
The sound of the door opening
caused Jayce to suddenly move away, "No, don't stop."
"Sorry, Becca." Lisa's voice surprised her. This was not part of the plan.
"Lisa, what are you doing
here?"
"Cops raided the house, there
were some High Schoolers there so everyone bolted. Sorry to interrupt." Her voice had a smug smile in it. She clearly found this amusing.
"I'm surprised the two of you aint
up on the roof watching the aura."
"We watched it last
night." Rebecca said, trying not to sulk.
After an awkward pause in which
Rebecca stared at her out of the corner of her eye, Lisa finally got the hint,
"Okay, I'll leave you two love-birds alone."
"The northern lights are still
visible down here?"
"Only on the horizon in the
country. We couldn't see anything within
the city limits."
"Still, the lights should have
disappeared by now, they shouldn't be visible even this far south
anymore."
Rebecca let out a sigh. This was all she had been hearing about
recently, Jayce was obsessed with the end of the world. It was most likely a symptom of his PTSD, but
she was worried it might be something else.
Jayce was an otherwise logical and
rational person. Even his fears of
collapse where grounded in logic and rational thought, he had pointed out that
sooner or later everything collapses.
His list of reasons were not just compelling, they had been
persuasive. When she read them for
herself, she understood why he was worried.
The world really was teetering on the edge, but they already had plans
made and food gathered.
At this point, there was nothing
they could do to further prepare for the situation. Any worrying at this point was just going to
give them ulcers.
"Jayce, we already know this
wasn't the big one. There is no reason
to be worried. There is no reason to
trouble yourself with this right now.
Just close your eyes, relax, and get some sleep. Nothing is going to happen tonight, you can
let other's take the burden of the world off your shoulders."
"Jayce, I won't disappear in
the night, I will be here for you. I am
not about to let you go."
A drop of water dropped onto her
shoulder, prompting Rebecca to turn and look at him. His eyes were far off and distant, focused
on something far away. In Afghanistan
from the looks of it, remembering what happened. He said he had let down his guard that time,
that the terrorists had won because he had not kept constant vigilance, that he
had led his men into a trap and was responsible for their deaths.
"Jayce, no, look at me. Jayce, look at me."
He turned slightly and his eyes
locked on hers, "Jayce, it wasn't your fault. You had no reason to believe that was an
ambush. No reason what-so-ever. You did everything right."
"Jayce, you are safe
here. No one can hurt you. When the dawn breaks, you and I will both
still be here, alive and unharmed. There
is no fire raging just outside, no war burning in the distance, just the
left-over lights from a storm which didn't hurt anyone. Just the last remnants of a storm which blew
through and left everyone alive."
"Jayce, close your eyes, get
some sleep. Things will look better in
the light of dawn. I promise."
"I'm afraid, Rebecca."
"I know, you don't have to
be. Close your eyes, I will take first
watch."
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