From Canada With Love: A Tale of the Second Ice Age Page 2

  Imus drove back to his small apartment. He’d decided to miss his classes so he could investigate the reason a star was missing. Stars do not just disappear. He’d been lucky in catching a dim reflection from the rock. He plotted the missing star and decided this evening to set up his own telescope and see if he could record any additional images. His next time slot at the Lick Observatory wasn’t until the following week. He didn’t want to wait that long, plus if the object was moving very quickly, he might have to search a large area before he picked it up again, time he didn’t have. His allotted time at the observatory was extremely limited. People waited years to get a time slot to use the large telescope.

  Imus started scanning the area on his personal telescope at midnight. He’d driven to the observatory and set up close by. Since the observatory was located on a small mountain and it was in a dark area Imus thought it would give his small scope a possible shot at finding his unknown object.

  Three long, cold numbing hours later Imus grinned from ear to ear. Yup, there was something out there and it was moving at one hell of a speed. He’d been able to plot a simple course based on the two nights of viewing. He knew he’d need a few more nights before he could begin to determine the object’s orbit. He knew it wasn’t a comet because it didn’t have a tail. Unless, could it be, could he have found a so-called dark comet? Imus’s excitement grew as he expanded each of the images he’d captured. He zoomed them in and rotated the images so he could get a better idea what he was seeing.

  So far all he knew was there was something out there that was moving very quickly, and it was heading in system. He didn’t yet know where it had come from or where it was going. Both calculations required computing power far in advance of what he had. Imus sat on his living room couch, his coffee table filled with empty delivery food containers and empty coffee cups. He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting in front of his three computers trying to work on the formulas when someone pounded on his door.

  “Robert are you in there? Robert, if you’re in there, open the door!”

  Imus heard the noise; however, he was so deep in his thoughts it took a moment to register. “Professor, what are you doing here, did I miss a meeting?”

  “Robert you’ve been missing for over a week. You not only missed my class, you missed two of our appointments to review your progress on your Ph.D paper.” Professor Jackson Wright looked around the small apartment. “Robert, when was the last time you opened a window, took a bath or cleaned up? What’s gotten into you? You begged me to teach one of my classes then all of a sudden you up and disappear. You pitched me a brilliant idea for your paper. I bent arms for you to get time on the big scope at Lick and I get a complaint you went over your time and then you disappeared? Please tell me what’s going on. None of this sounds like you.”

  “Professor, please let me show you something. I discovered a new object, it’s large, it’s fast and it’s coming in system and that’s as far as I’ve gotten to. I’m stuck. I’ve been trying to rig these three laptops together to give me more computing power. I tried logging in to the school’s network…”

  “That was you who took the network down three days ago?”

  “I guess it might have been. I’m sorry.”

  “We’ll discuss that incident later. First tell me what you think you’ve discovered. I want to see what you believe you’ve discovered and why you believe it’s important.”

  “Professor, come, sit, let me move some of this mess away.”

  Professor Wright shook his head, “Why don’t you clean up and have dinner with me tonight? Then you come here and get a good night’s sleep, then first thing in the morning you can show me what your data says. If I agree you have something I’ll see if we get can a little time on the school’s computer which may crunch your numbers in minutes. This hook up of yours won’t ever give you the answers you’re looking for.”

  Imus beamed, “Just give me fifteen and I’ll be ready.”

  @@@@@

  Professor Wright reviewed the numbers and images. He made three calls before turning back to Imus. “Come, you won the lottery. The Dean has agreed to allow us to use the computer in the basement of the science building.”

  “No shit!”

  “Come on, we can use it, but we don’t have much time on it.”

  Professor Wright sat at an empty desk in the computer room staring at the numbers the university’s supercomputer had spit out. He checked and doubled checked the numbers. “Robert, we need to see the Dean. Wait here while I call her.”

  “What did “Big Bertha” say?”

  “She said we’re in deep shit and I’m not so sure you’ll want your name on this thing.”

  “Huh? You mean I did discover something?”

  “Oh it looks like you did and I wish you hadn’t. Yeah, I wish you hadn’t. I would rather have not known what I’ve seen. Do you have any idea what you’ve discovered?”

  “I have a rough idea, but I wasn’t able to confirm the orbits. As you saw my computing power was quite limited.”

  “What does your gut tell you?”

  “I discovered a rouge asteroid which is flying through the solar system that will pass between the moon and Earth, but I don’t know if that part of my calculations is correct. I filled two spiral notebooks attempting to solve the formulas.”

  “My son come with me. We have a Dean to see.”

  “Won’t you tell me what “Big Bertha” said?”

  “Not until we see the Dean.”

  Chapter 2

  Months after the event.

  Erin looked over to see if Jon was awake. She whispered so as not to wake their daughters, “Did you get any sleep?”

  “A little. Not as much as I wanted, but enough for what I need. I’ve been thinking…”

  “Me too. I think it’s time, past time we leave.”

  Jon smiled remembering why he loved Erin so much, she was his soul mate. “I agree. Now that you’re up I’m going to start checking the Denali. It’s been sitting in the cold garage for a few days. I want to make sure the fuel and other fluids haven’t frozen.”

  “What can I do?”

  “When the girls wake, begin packing. First priority is our food and second any medications, first aid kits and all OTC drugs we have, then warm clothing and boots.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “As far south as we can go, I hope we can make it all the way to the American south. I’m praying the American President keeps his word and welcomes us as he’s promised to.”

  “Has something happened you’re not telling me to make you think he’s changed his mind?”

  “Not him, before the internet went out…”

  “WHOA, what do you mean before the internet went out? The girls are going to be crushed without the internet. What happened?” Asked Erin.

  Jon lowered his voice, “I have no idea. Around an hour ago I lost it on my phone. No matter what I do all I get is the spinning sand clock. I saw posts on social media from a group who calls themselves America for Americans.”

  Erin’s voice had a sharp edge on it, “We are Americans, we live in North America…”

  Jon attempted to sooth her, “You know what they’re talking about. I think the average American, excuse me, those in the United States are very warm hearted. They are always the first to show up for any disaster. I’m sure they’ll welcome us with open arms.”

  “I hope so because we can’t stay here, Canada is finished. That damn rock finished us…”

  Jon nodded, “We’re not alone. A lot, if not most, of the northern hemisphere is going to be a wasteland very soon. Before the net crashed, I saw a map of the projected ice cover and it’s not good. All of Canada, half or more of the United States, most of Europe, and of course Russia and a lot of China are all going to be dead zones.”

  “How long do you think it’s going to take us to reach the south?”

  “It depends on the route. The last map I saw showed the coa
stal region grayed out with no detail was available. My initial plan was to take Route 2 into Maine where we’ll pick up their Interstate 95 which runs all the way down to the tip of Florida.”

  “Along the coast? Didn’t you just say their coastal area had no detail? Do you think there’s a reason why it’s grayed out? What’s your back up plan?”

  “Back up plan?” Asked Jon.

  “What are we going to do if Interstate 95 no longer exists?”

  “I don’t know. With the internet down, I can’t pull up a map on my phone. We don’t have any paper maps around, do we?” Jon began to get worried about the trip. 1,800 miles along the coast is a long way. If we have to drive inland first then we’re looking at maybe over 2,000 miles. That’s going to be a long trip with the four us in the Denali packed with everything we own. I’m not sure hotels are still open or what gas costs in the States. There’s so much I don’t know. I DO know if we stay here, we’re going to die so that means we’re leaving.

  Erin nodded, “Paper maps? No, we don’t. Do gas stations still have paper maps?”

  “Not that I’ve seen in years. We’re going to have to play it by ear.” Jon attempted to remember the old maps of the United States he once studied. He wondered where the next major north to south route is. I can’t remember where their freeways run or what the numbers of their north and south freeways are. Maybe someone at the border will know.

  @@@@@

  Months before the event.

  Dean Whitmore wasn’t a pleased woman. Her administrator told her one of the professors and a grad student had to see her. She said they’d said it was a matter of life and death. “Do I have to see them?”

  “I would suggest it. If you didn’t, and they really did have something that was a life and death situation, and they went public that you refused to see them, it could ruin you, and the board would fire you.”

  “Okay, send them up.”

  Two hours later, a stunned Dean Whitmore shook her head. Her blue blouse was already stained from perspiration, which had soaked her back and ran down her sides from her armpits. Her embroidered handkerchief was drenched from wiping the dampness from her forehead. She rechecked the charts and numbers the two had placed on her conference room table six times. “You ran these through the supercomputer in the science building’s basement?”

  “For the fifth time, yes, which is the data you’re holding,” replied the professor.

  “The size of the asteroid, you’ve checked that?”

  Imus replied, “As best I could. I really need more data before I’m sure…”

  “Shit, if your discovery is correct, we’re looking at an extinction-level event. Who else knows? We don’t want to cause a massive panic. We have to be one hundred percent sure before anyone else knows.”

  Imus nodded, “Ma’am which is why we’re here. We need more time with the large telescope at Lick, or…”

  “I can get you some more time, and I can arrange time on a large radio telescope will that help? I can make some calls and get you time on the VLA (Very Large Array) in New Mexico. Are you familiar with them?”

  “Of course, you can really do that?”

  “Of course, I can, but you have to promise to keep your mouth shut until I tell you, you can go public. Please leave the reports with me. I have a number of calls to make. Robert, please leave your number with my admin and leave your phone on around the clock and keep it with you. I may need to contact you in the middle of the night, and I don’t want to reach your voice mail. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Damn, it, this isn’t the way I thought today was going to unfold. You two go and work on the data and a presentation. Assume the person you’re going to give the presentation to isn’t technical. In fact, write it as you would for a teenager. Oh my God, I don’t think I wanted to know this. GO, as you’ve pointed out, time isn’t on our side.”

  The Dean tapped her iPhone 15, “I know I have Rick’s number in here. Oh, here it is. I never thought he’d make it all the way to be one of the science advisors to the President. I thought his last book sucked. But I guess the President read it and liked it. I wasn’t aware he could understand the book. “Rick, this is your old friend…”

  “Katherine Whitmore, how are you? What’s up, and why haven’t you called earlier?”

  “Rick, I have something very sensitive I need to discuss with you, something too sensitive I can’t talk about on the phone.”

  “Huh? I haven’t read anything about campus uprisings on your campus…”

  “If it were that I could handle it and I wouldn’t bother you, but this is really something else.”

  “I’m really busy with the President’s new space program initiative. You know, the one I sold him on spending billions because it would throw off new technology as the moon race did. Can you give me a hint?”

  “Okay, combine what you just said to me with my one word, dinosaurs.”

  “I assume you mean the end of?”

  “I can’t say any more on the phone.”

  Rick sat in his office in the basement of the White House. His office was so small, only his desk and chair fit. People walking by would think his office was a closet until they saw the name plaque. Richard Weinstein, Assistant Science Advisor. There wasn’t even room for a guest chair or file cabinet. His large monitor took up all of his desk space. He thought about what he’d heard. What do dinosaurs and space have in common? Oh my God, a meteor. Did she discover a meteor? Shit, I better arrange for a trip out west. I can tell the science director I need to check the progress of the new space plane at Area 51, then I’ll jump over to the university. I’ll tell the director they were working on some data for us.

  @@@@@

  The Coats family was jammed into their 2014 Denali with every square inch around the four of them was taken up with supplies. Canned and boxed foods were packed to the roof of the SUV. They took everything they thought they’d need. Since they didn’t know where they’d end up, they brought both winter and warm weather clothing. Jon had decided not to take their trailer since he didn’t think the road conditions would be good and towing it through the storms might be a big problem. So they filled every inch of their SUV with everything they could pack into it.

  Jon’s gut was right. The roads weren’t cleared of the ever-falling snow and the chains on the four tires caused the SUV to ride very rough. It also meant the vehicle’s speed had to be held to no more than 60 Kpm, which was a slow 35 Mph. Only one lane on each side was semi plowed. The other was covered in very high drifted snow, which blew across the open lane quicker then it could be cleared. Hence, there was always at least 8 inches of loose snow on the road. Jon had seen a warning sign that said today was the last day the snowplows were even going to try to keep the roads clean. He was very happy they’d decided to leave.

  Erin sadly watched as they drove past the empty houses of their friends and neighbors. Only a couple had any light inside of them, and then it was the flickering light of candles. A few of the houses’ roofs were collapsed from the heavy snow sitting on them. She sadly remembered all of the good times she had in their home, bringing her daughters home from the hospital, watching them grow up, their first day at school, and their first boyfriends.

  She wondered what life was going to be like in refugee camps. She wondered if the news was right that the Americans were really going to welcome them with open arms or if they’d be the new minorities and thus held down in whatever new society was formed by the merging of the two country’s peoples. Erin watched the snow fall and she asked her two daughters, “Are you girls happy to be going on this trip?”

  Trinity answered, “Will I ever see my boyfriend again? Will we be gone long? I’ll miss my friends and school. Mom, what about my science project?”

  “Honey, do you remember when you were in the second grade and made up a story that you made a rifle and were an excellent shot?”

  “I am an excellent shot and my sci
ence project was to show how to make a homemade rifle. I actually made one and was going to show how I made it and even show the drawings I wrote to make the rifle. The barrel was the hardest but after studying the problem I figured it out. I was going to show them that what I said was possible. I didn’t make my own ammo, that Dad bought for me…”

  “Did you bring the rifle with you?”

  “Of course, I did. I also brought my .22 and all the ammo I had for it. I also packed my chemicals in case I have to make gunpowder.”

  “Don’t tell anyone about the chemicals, it might cause problems, and don’t ever tell anyone you can shoot. I don’t want anyone thinking we’re dangerous. We have to be liked so we can find our new home.”