Читать книгу New Earth: The Sedna/Kern Incident - R.D. MDiv Pittman - Страница 6

As Alex boarded Air Force Two he waved to the crowd gathered and gave a thumbs up to the media covered departure. Turning he walked into the cabin and told the pilot to take off. Seating himself near the cockpit instead of the President’s private office, he wondered if he would ever see Washington D.C. again. During the flight to his new headquarters, Alex reflected on the past several months and everything that had taken place. In some way it seemed so long ago. But then again it had only been two years ago that he’d overheard two professors at Cal Tech discussing the end of the world. Only to have it be the most elaborate political cover up in modern history. His involvement in the whole affair would challenge him to the very limits of his abilities. Yet, it would catapult him into the public eye worldwide as a man to be shown respect and a force to be reckoned with. He managed to move beyond Ellen’s death and the feelings of guilt he felt for not being there for her and Curt. He had found love with another woman, Sandi; theirs was a strong loving relationship. Once again, here he was thrust to the forefront in a battle not of his choosing; to save as many lives as possible…the stakes couldn’t be higher.

As Air Force Two rose above the mountain ranges of Colorado…Idaho came in view, this felt more like a homecoming. He peered out the window at the Coeur d’Alene air base below and saw a large crowd gathered at the flight line.

He descended the stairs from the plane to the ground, and walked past the Navy Seals who formed an honor guard. Alex snapped off a salute to Commander Mike Morris, standing at attention in full naval dress. He walked directly to where Sandi was standing and gave her a kiss. The team surrounded him and he managed to hug and kiss all the women on the team, paying special attention to the babies. Beyond the air base up the hill a crowd of nearly two hundred thousand people were yelling and taking pictures. Alex wanted to thank all of the people who had turned out to show their support. He asked for an open vehicle. Just then an open humvee rolled up and in climbed Alex and Sandi. Tina rushed up.

“Wait a minute, you aren’t going in that crowd without an escort,” she was adamant. Tina and Bill got in sitting on either side of Alex, with Sandi in the front seat while Mike drove. The crowd was ecstatic as the humvee passed slowly through the gathered throngs; Alex reached out to shake hands, stopping occasionally to mingle with the citizens. He encouraged them to keep the faith, he needed them, and the country needed them. The NBC news affiliate in Spokane was there with cameras rolling; Sandi had alerted them to Alex’s arrival. The evening news showed Alex emerging from Air Force Two stepping into a humvee and being driven through the gathered crowd expressing his gratitude for their support. The news footage of the carnage happening overseas sent a clear signal to all Americans that they may be facing a disaster, but there was no better place to be than right there in the United States.

Finally, the humvee with Alex and Sandi arrived at the bunker. He walked to their suite and sat down on the edge of the bed. Sandi walked over, sat down beside him, and put her arm around his back and squeezed.

“You’ve been the most remarkable man these last two days, I am so proud of you and the team couldn’t be more proud of you too. You look tired, do you want to rest for a while?” Sandi asked softly.

“No, not really, I’m feeling energized right now, later tonight I’ll crash I’m sure.”

“Do you want to take a look at the facility?”

“Sure. Let me get a beer first,” Alex was feeling an unusual calmness come over him.

“One beer and one tour coming right up.”

The group of physicians was busy piecing together their hospital unit according to the instructions. Alex came upon the scene.

“Need any help?” Alex asked casually, taking a drink of his Corona.

“Oh, General, sorry we weren’t at the airport. We’ve been pretty busy as you can see, and to answer your question, we could use someone to do the heavy lifting,” Dr. Marks replied. Alex turned to Mike.

“I’m on it,” Mike said automatically. Five minutes later six Navy Seals showed up to assist the doctors.

“Hey Dad, I need to fly to Dallas to get a new PBX system. I need to expand this one to handle all the extra calls coming in,” Curt said.

“Okay, see you when you get back.” Alex took another drink of his beer.

“You know, Pete did a good job on this place, it isn’t bad at all,” Alex observed.

“I was thinking the same thing. I didn’t expect something this nice and my room is quite spacious and very comfortable,” Carrie Hathaway said.

“Sandi where’s Pete?”

“He was at the air base when you arrived, he must have gone back to his office afterwards. Do you want me to call him?” Sandi replied.

“Yeah, tell him we need to get this hospital unit set up pronto, this isn’t the doctor’s forte, they could use some help.”

“Hello Pete, its Sandi. Alex asked if you could come help the doctors get the mobile hospital set up. We’ve got some Seals here to do the heavy lifting. Great, I’ll tell Alex,” Sandi said that Pete was on his way. She was watching Alex closely, he seemed so relaxed, no stress, and no furrowed forehead pondering a logistical challenge…there was a calm about him.

“Terry, do you know if the doctors need any additional equipment or supplies?”

“They put together a partial list but wanted to wait until everything was unpacked to see what else was needed.”

“Terry, take charge of that and get whatever they need.”

“How do you want us to pay for it?”

“You see that vault over there in the corner. It holds nearly fifty billion dollars in cash and eleven billion in gold and platinum. Do you think that’s enough to cover your requests?”

“Well, okay I’m sure we can squeeze by with that, although Hathaway has some pretty expensive tastes.”

“Hey watch it Logan, just because I buy underwear at Nordstrom’s doesn’t mean I don’t know the value of a dollar.”

“I didn’t know you wore underwear Carrie!” Dr. Fortune piped in.

“Hey, what’s this ‘pick on Carrie day’?” Everyone was laughing, and Alex was happy to hear it. He excused himself to inspect more of the bunker facility.

“Sandi, what’s this group of rooms here?”

“Those rooms are for the pharmacy; the boxes contain part of a shipment of medicines the two pharmacists ordered, with more on the way. The pharmacists arrive the day after tomorrow.”

“Even after we’ve installed the new suites and the extra one bedroom modules, we’ll still have a lot of room; we should store more water and dried foods in here? Better put Cynthia and Liz to work on that.”

“That’ll be a good exercise for them and keep them busy for a few days,” Sandi agreed.

“How is everyone holding up?”

“Not too bad, we have our moments. Everyone is cognizant and looking out for each other, it provides a good check and balance.”

“Sandi, I need to fire you as my Chief of Staff.”

“Gee Alex; you really know how to sweet talk a girl.”

Alex chuckled. “I need you to coordinate with your USDA counterparts to get our grain storage under control. The corn, wheat, rice, oats, soy bean, and livestock feeds we have in storage needs updating. In addition, we need the headcount on cattle, chickens, hogs, turkeys, and sheep. On top of that you’ve got your seed germination factory at the other location to attend to as well.”

“That last one is the big one. I have two of my colleagues from UC Davis, who’ve agreed to be my assistants they’re driving here tomorrow. So, any ideas on who my replacement will be?”

“I need someone who is driven and won’t take guff from anybody, in other words a clone of you.”

“How about Elena?”

“Excellent suggestion. She’s definitely a Type A personality. Okay, let’s go convince her. Do you know where she is now?”

“Last time I saw her she and Andrade were heading to their suite to feed the baby.”

Alex and Sandi knocked on the Kolna’s door and waited. Andrade answered the door and welcomed Alex in with a strong handshake.

“Alex, it’s so good to have you back with us again. We’re all eager to get on with what needs to be done. Now that you’re here we can concentrate on you and Sandi’s implementation plans.”

“Andrade, thank you, and yes we will get to work on the many tasks before us, but first where is that godson of mine?”

Elena had just finished feeding the baby and was changing his diaper. When Elena emerged from the bedroom Alex hugged Elena and asked if he could hold his godson, Alexander. After admiring the baby and some small talk between the four of them Alex got down to business. He described Sandi’s duties that she had assumed as her major role in the post event survival strategy.

“This means I need to appoint a new Chief of Staff, a no nonsense, takes no bull from anybody, and gets the job done person. Elena I was hoping you would accept the position?”

“Are you kidding, it would be an honor to serve as your Chief of Staff, but I’ll need someone to help with Alexander.”

“Not to worry, there are two professional nannies on their way here right now. One will be permanently assigned to you,” Sandi said.

“Then I’m ready when you are.”

“But first, when it’s just you and I, it’s Alex. Around the staff and military people you can call me General. Andrade I’m assigning you to Ted Jeffers as his Deputy Director for Internal Security. You’ll report to him for your assignments.”

“Alex, thank you, I look forward to working with Ted.”

Professor Kumar sat in his office at Cal Tech, shaking his head while reviewing the latest spectrometer readings of comet Sedna/Kern. It was becoming increasingly apparent that due to the internal structure of the core the comet would definitely break into several pieces. More ominous and frightening was the presence of several large iron ore bodies not previously detected moving in unison with the main core. These asteroid-like bodies wouldn’t burn up in the atmosphere and would add significantly to the level of destruction all across Europe and Asia. There was also concern about the possibility of above ground explosions, similar to the one in Russia in the early nineteen hundreds. The spectrometer and geology readings for the leading edge of the comet pointed to mixtures of frozen gas and rock. It was a recipe for a midair explosion where atmospheric pressure and heat combined to tear the formations apart. There was no way to predict where or even how many of these events would occur; but one thing he knew for certain…there would be many.

He made a conscious decision not to inform Alex of the latest findings since there was nothing that could be done about it anyway…why raise the level of angst for everyone? Professor Kumar decided to wait one more month to relocate from Cal Tech to his assigned survival facility at Nellis Air Force Base. This allowed him to run a few more reports using the university’s powerful computers to update the comet’s status, which in turn could help to predict impact scenarios more accurately. His wife and two children would join him at least thirty days before impact. At the moment they were overseas visiting relatives in India for a few months.

Pete arrived to assist the physicians in assembling the mobile hospital. What he observed was mass confusion reigning.

“Hey guys, why don’t you go clean your stethoscopes or something; let me and the Seals get this thing up for you. It’ll go a lot quicker and actually work when we’re finished,” Pete joked.

“Well, I never,” Carrie feigned insult.

“That’s not what I heard,” Dr. Fortune quipped.

“You just shut up Kellen.”

“Hey, any of you docs play bridge?” Specialist Ferguson asked.

“Yes, I do and so does Janice,” Dr. Marks replied.

“Great, we can start a round robin tournament as soon as everybody gets settled in, are you interested?” Ferguson said.

“Sounds great, just let us know when,” Dr. Janice Compton replied.

“Hey Pete, I’m Dr. Linda Chan, I’m the dentist. Do you know if there is a dental chair set up in this mobile hospital?” she asked hopefully.

“As a matter of fact I do. There’s a two chair dental set up, and if you give me a couple of days to uncrate everything, you can inventory it and see what else you might need,” Pete responded.

“How hard is it to get equipment requests ok’d by the General? You seem to know him pretty well right?”

“Dr. Chan, if you say ‘I need’, his response is, go get it, or get it done. Expense is not an issue, his main concern is performance. General Hanken wants to give his people every opportunity to succeed, cost is secondary to that.”

“Wow, that’s a switch, where’s he been all this time?”

“Right under our noses young lady. While we were wasting our time on those knuckle head foot draggers in Washington, he was right here waiting to be tapped on the shoulder. Thank God he’s in charge. You’re going to get to witness a brilliant strategist, a fantastic motivator, and a genuinely honest person. Something this country hasn’t seen in a very long time.”

“Yeah, and it looks like he came at just the right time, when we needed him and his leadership the most.”

The next day Curt called Alex from Dallas to go over the details of the new system. It had video teleconferencing capability through the satellite phone system. He said it would be easy to install a terminal in each of the twenty-two facilities within a week, that way Alex would see each of his facility managers every time they spoke. There was an eight-foot by ten-foot master screen for the main communications center with a thirty-line capacity for all incoming calls; he said it looked like a NASA control room set up. Alex instructed Curt to order it and have it delivered immediately. Alex knew this was a necessary distraction that would occupy Curt’s attention for the foreseeable future. It also reminded Alex to check with the 21^st Space Wing at Peterson to be sure access was provided to their six satellites through his command center in Idaho. Alex approached Mike and said he wanted to speak with him privately in his office.

“Mike, I’m placing you in charge of all military personnel in the Coeur d’Alene basin. Accordingly, I am promoting you to Captain; I took the liberty of obtaining these eagles for you.” Alex pinned the shiny eagle rank insignias on Mike’s collar; shook his hand and rendered a salute. Mike snapped a salute back in response.

“General, I’m honored, especially since it comes from you, I will not let you down.”

“I know you won’t Mike. Now you need to do what I just did, and promote one of your Seals to take over as commander of that unit.”

“I have just the man in mind, Chief Petty officer Hank Granderson. We’ve been together for six years now.”

“That’s your decision to make, whoever it is, has some mighty big shoes to fill.”

Alex was finished for the day, it was nearly eight o’clock and he was getting hungry. He walked up to Sandi.

“Hey beautiful, how about a date tonight?”

“And what exactly did you have in mind Mr. Hanken?” patting him on the chest.

“Steak dinner, a little wine, and a lot of love talk.”

“You’re on, how about going to the resort steak house?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Alex said slipping his arm around her as they walked out of the facility. After getting into one of the SUV’s parked out front, he alerted Tina to where he and Sandi were going. Tina protested.

“General, how am I supposed to protect you if I’m here and you’re there?” Tina protested, she was obviously quite upset.

“Tina, calm down, Sandi and I want a little private time together is all, okay?” Alex pleaded.

“I’ll leave you alone, just so you know I’ll be nearby. You’re taking an unnecessary risk leaving the bunker without a security team around you. Your safety is critical to our survival, and my little baby boy is depending on you,” she said as she started crying.

Alex clicked off the cell phone, turned the SUV around and headed back to the bunker. Tina was right, he was being shortsighted, and everyone looked to him for leadership and support.

“Well, how do you feel about peanut butter, crackers and a beer?”

“Alex, as long as I’m with you nothing else matters.” Sandi kissed him as they got out of the SUV and walked back into the bunker just as Tina hurried to catch up with them. Alex put his arm around Tina and told her he loved her too much to ever disappoint her.

“You’re right Tina. Alex is too important to all of us to take that kind of a risk,” Sandi admitted.

“I know what I’ll do; I’ll reserve the hotel steak house for you two tomorrow night, no one else around, just the two of you. Mike, Bill and I will set up security outside the restaurant. How does that sound?”

“And how will you get the restaurant to agree to that?” Sandi asked.

“I’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse,” Tina mocked Alex.

“Isn’t she terrific Sandi?” Alex said with pride.

Mike came sprinting out of his suite with Bill and Ted close on his heels. They stopped short as they caught a glimpse of the three returning to the bunker.

Bending over trying to catch his breath, his hands on his knees, Jeffers spoke.

“Jesus Christ, Alex you scared the shit out of all of us.”

“General, please I’m begging you, don’t take your life so lightly, you’re the leader, you provide the path and the inspiration, without your guidance I don’t know how or if we’d get through all of this,” Mike said emphatically, clearly choked up.

“Okay, so I screwed up this time, but hear this. I don’t want to ever hear any of you say such things again. Each of you is supremely talented. If I were to drop dead tomorrow, you would not only pick up where I left off, but you would succeed. I don’t want to hear you guys sell yourself short ever again. Oh, and by the way, I love all of you.” With that Alex and Sandi turned and walked to their suite.

“I think we just got kissed on the cheek while getting kicked in the ass,” Ted grinned.