Chapter One: Solar Storm

(This is the first chapter to my book. Enjoy, let me know what you think.)



CHAPTER ONE




DEEP SPACE- HALFWAY BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE SUN- MARCH 11TH, 2012

The satellite rotated around the sun in a geosynchronous orbit. It floated between the sun and the earth. For nearly five years the Solar Explorer scanned and took readings of any and all solar activity. It measured solar flares and solar winds, and sent all of the information back to Earth for analysis.

Deep within the sun’s core, massive solar activity had sprung to life. A solar wind spread out from the sun. Radiation, electrons and protons had swept forward towards the Earth and the helpless satellite.

The satellite’s computer was activated shortly after the onslaught of solar activity began.

The satellite compiled the data immediately, readying it to send to earth. The satellite was buffeted by a solar wind so powerful that nothing equal to it had ever been recorded in Earth’s history.

The Solar Explorer had been hardened to withstand the heavy radiation from the sun, but the solar onslaught was so powerful that its protective casing started to warp. Inside the Solar Explorer instruments slowly started to melt.

Cased to one side of the satellite was a long distance antenna which was wired to multiple other devices. The antenna started to send data towards the earth while seconds slipped away. The protective plastic coating on the wires dripped away as they melted.

Propelled by the sun’s gravity, a meteor the size of a kitchen fridge floated through space on a collision course with the helpless satellite.

COFFEE SHOP- DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER- SUNDAY MARCH 11TH- 12PM

Cameron Peterson sat at a small table in a small coffee shop. The coffee shop sat at an intersection that seemed to be lined with coffee shops, each with very much the same look.

“I guess some people are lazy.” Cameron said to himself as he looked at his watch, “Can’t you ever show up on time?”

Cameron drummed his hands on the table. His grubby plaid shirt, dirty blue jeans and muddy steel-toed boots told the yuppie customers that he was a tradesman.

A playful couple entered the store. They laughed and poked at each other.

Cameron reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring box. He opened it to reveal a gold engagement ring. He stared into the sparkling diamond.

“Come on, Wally.” Cameron said as he slammed the ring box shut.

His strong hands flexed around his coffee cup as Wally walked by outside the store.

“What?” Wally said as he entered the store.

“Can’t you ever get anywhere on time?” Cameron said.

“You get stressed out too much.” Wally said as he sat down, “What is this about? Why did I have to get up at the crack of dawn and come down here for?”

“It’s not the crack of dawn.” Cameron said, “It’s noon. The day is half gone.”

“Whatever.” Wally muttered, “My day isn’t. It has only just started. I am going to a screening...”

“I am proposing to Nicole tomorrow.” Cameron interrupted.

“Is that why you have been working twenty-four seven?” Wally retorted, “And are you mad?”

“What kind of question is that?” Cameron exclaimed, shocked.

“You are giving away your freedom.” Wally said.

“How many girlfriends have I had?” Cameron asked, “Two in four years.”

“How many girlfriends have I had?” Wally answered, “One three years ago. Do I care, no. I am not going to propose to the first girl that I meet.”

“I didn’t just meet her. I have been with her for two years!” Cameron exclaimed.

“So,” Wally said, “I need to be with a girl for at least six years before I even have thoughts like that.”

“The last girlfriend that you had, only lasted two weeks.” Cameron said.

“Best two weeks of sex that I ever had.” Wally shot back smugly.

“Why are we arguing?” Cameron asked.

“We’re arguing ‘cause it’s so damned entertaining.” Wally answered.

“Seriously though, I am going to propose to Nicole tomorrow at her work.” Cameron said.

“Okay. Good luck man.” Wally said.

“That’s not the problem.” Cameron said.

“What is?”

“If I don’t propose to her tomorrow, she will leave me to go traveling.”

“So let her go travel.” Wally said, “It can’t hurt anything.”

“For two years.” Cameron answered.

“I see.” Wally paused, his face turned serious, “This is me being serious. Propose to her. If you love her, get her. Don’t let her leave. If you do, you will regret it. I regret losing mine.”

“You regret your two week girlfriend?” Cameron asked.

“I do.” Wally said, “I wish that I hadn’t cheated on her. I’d be still with her.”

Cameron laughed. “All right, I gotta get going. I’ll call you after I do it.”

BRITISH COLUMBIA SOLAR OBSERVATORY- MARCH 12TH, 2012- 3AM

Lucy LuKarin sat asleep at her computer console. She leaned back into her chair with her feet resting on her desk and her hands behind her head. The latest harlequin romance novel lay splayed across her chest. The novel threatened to topple over every time she exhaled. Her long black hair was pulled into a bun, with carefully selected strands pulled aside to showcase her startling green eyes.

On her computer, an Orlando Bloom screen saver flashed. Each picture was more scandalous than the last.

Suddenly, the screen saver disappeared and a window popped up.

It said, “Solar Explorer Connection established, press Okay to download.”

Lucy didn’t stir, drool excaped her lips as she snored. She was lost deep in sleep.

The monitor flashed back to the Orlando Bloom screen saver.

A couple minutes later the screen saver disappeared again and the window popped back up. This time the change of light waked Lucy.

Groggily she clicked okay. The window disappeared and a progress bar popped up. Lucy opened up her book. She read and re-read the same line over and over again and she soon fell back asleep.

The progress bar moved slowly across the screen. Eventually it reached 17%. Then the computer beeped loudly and an error message popped up.

It said, “Error. Connection Lost.”

Lucy woke up and looked at the screen.

“Oh crap.” Lucy said as she sat up.

Her book flew to the ground in a flutter of pages.

With a flurry of clicking, window after window and menu upon menu opened and closed. “Oh fuck! Where is it?” she cursed.

She grabbed the phone and dialled a number quickly. After the phone rang a few times, the line picked up.

“Hello.” A tired male voice muttered.

“Doctor Winston, sorry to bother you, but I’ve lost the Solar Explorer.” Lucy said quickly as her words streamed together.

“What do you mean lost it?” Dr. Winston replied groggily.

“I was downloading the latest data from SK, when the connection was lost.”

“Oh. Did you look for the satellite through the secondary antenna?” Dr. Winston said mockingly, “The primary antenna isn’t well shielded from solar radiation, maybe a wire melted on the stupid, ill-designed thing.”

“Yes I did look through the secondary antenna,” Lucy snapped, “it is as if the satellite doesn’t exist.”

“Hmm.” Dr Winston muttered, “We’ll figure it out later.”

“Doctor.” Lucy said, “The data that we did recover, has solar activity going through the roof.”

“Yah. Okay.” Dr. Winston muttered. “I’ll check it out in the morning.”

“But, sir! I think that this is...” Lucy yelled out in frustration.

“It isn’t important. It is probably just an operator error.” Dr. Winston said firmly, “Don’t bother me again.”

Dr. Winston hung up and Lucy sat in her chair dumb-founded.

“What am I going to do?” she muttered to herself.

She got up out of her chair and pushed it across the room. She paced back and forth in front of the computer. She kicked the book across the room each time she passed it. The book tore apart as it left her foot and its pages scattered as they hit the far wall.

“So I discovered a surprisingly devastating increase of solar activity,” She muttered to the Orlando Bloom screen saver, “plus I think that the satellite has been destroyed. I need to call someone else.

“But who do I call?”

Lucy stopped walking suddenly.

DAVE MCDURRY’S RESIDENCE- BURNABY, BC- MARCH 12TH- 3:45AM

Dave McDurry, a thirty-five year old self proclaimed genius, lay in bed in his million dollar house on the top of Capital Hill in the City of Burnaby.

University honours, PHD’s and honorary degrees decorated his walls. His kitchen table was buried under blueprints, newspapers and letters.

Dave lay in a deep sleep with his alarm clock set to ring at five in the morning; in an hour and fifteen minutes.

His cell phone rang and he jerked awake. The ring shattered the silence of the night. He picked up the phone.

“Hello,” he muttered as he wiped sleep from his eyes.

“Hi Mr. McDurry. This is Lucy LuKarim from B.C.S.O.” Lucy said as she tried to sound professional.

“Are you aware what time it is?” Dave asked clearly frustrated.

“What time it is isn’t important right now. How much time we have is.”

“What are you talking about?” grumbled McDurry

“I met you in at the science convention, remember?”

“Only if you were that sexy brunette,” Dave muttered, “Long legs, little black dress. Red panties.”

“Red panties!” Lucy said shocked, “How did you... Never mind. Yes that’s me.” she said relieved that she got the right number, “Do you remember that prediction that you were trying to tell us about?”

“Solar storm. End of civilization.” He said, “No one listened, then it didn’t happen. I almost lost my job when I killed the power, and caused a black out. What’s the point to all of this at four in the morning, besides reminding me of an old fantasy?”

“You were right about the storm, wrong about the day.” She said as she strung the words together.

“Excuse me. Didn’t get that.” Dave said.

“Since 2 AM the Solar Explorer has been Missing in Action.”

“Missing in Action. What does that have to do with me?”

“Before it disappeared, it was giving me readings on solar activity.”

“And?” Dave said.

He wished that she would say it all ready and let him get back to sleep; a fantasy called his sleepy mind’s attention.

“The readings were incomplete. But what I did get was off the charts.”

“So.” Dave said.

“Do you remember that solar storm that had knocked out power in Quebec in 1989?” Lucy asked.

“Yah.” Dave said.

“I am afraid that the Quebec storm is like a small rain storm in comparison to this one.” Lucy said

Silence filled the room as he lay in his bed shocked, his sleepy mind suddenly awake.

“Can you get more data? I need to talk to the Mayor about this.”

“All ready tried the mayor. They told me to go back to star gazing.”

“Can you turn on A.C.E?” He said.

Dave sprang out of bed, and grabbed a discarded pair of pants that lay amongst his clothes all while he attempted to keep his composure.

“The Advanced Composition Explorer?” Lucy asked, “No, that was decommissioned years ago. Plus that was NASA’s solar weather satellite.”

Suddenly the phone cut and the connection was lost.

“Dead spot.” Dave muttered as he looked at the zero bars on his cell phone display, “I haven’t had that problem for five years.”

Dave looked at his phone as call signal returned to normal. His phone immediately rang again.

“Hello.” Dave answered.

“This is happening too fast! Communication satellites shouldn’t be frying for another three hours at the minimum.” Lucy cursed.

“How do you know that the communication satellites are frying?” Dave asked.

“I am illegally logged into the Rogers Satellite Network.” Lucy said, “We’ve just lost five in the last twenty minutes.”

“That’s not too bad.” Dave said juggling the phone.

“IT is considering that there is only about forty-five active communication satellites in the world.” Lucy spat.

Dave juggled the phone as he put on a pair of pants. He attempted to find a shirt and put it on. The phone almost slipped away from him as he tried to put on a pair of shoes. He put a blue tooth ear piece in his ear as he headed out the door.

“What do you mean that this is early?” Dave said as he ran down the pathway to his car.

“You did that prediction about solar storms. Don’t you know?” Lucy said baffled.

“That was two years ago and all I did was a bunch of mathematical equations.” Dave said fumbling with the key to his car.

Dave quickly got into his car and drove off before the door had even shut. He placed the cell phone onto a plastic holder on his dash.

“It usually takes anywhere between twenty-four to thirty-six hours for a solar storm to reach the Earth. The first wave has hit in under two and a half hours.” Lucy said.

Dave sped down the Burrard highway going 150 km per/hour.

“Refresh my memory,” Dave said, “what the hell is happening? What is this solar storm doing exactly?”

“A solar storm is really a geomagnetic storm,” Lucy said condescendingly, “Do you know what that is?”

“Do I know what a geomagnetic storm is? Are you trying to be funny?” Dave asked as he drifted around a corner at a hundred and fifty kilometres an hour, “It is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a disturbance in space weather. Like a solar flare. But those happen all the time. They don’t hurt anything but a bit of cell phone reception.”

“A solar flare being propelled by a strong solar wind can knock out power grids,” Lucy said, “You should know this, it knocked out power grids in Quebec in...”

“Right. 1989. You already told me.” Dave interrupted, “It caused nine hours of darkness.”

“And your mathematical equation said that it can happen again unless we don’t do something.”

“Okay,” Dave said as he slowed down, unsure of his actions, “So I am going to save Vancouver from a power outage by causing one myself.”

“You don’t get it,” Lucy said, “In 1859; a solar storm shorted out telegraph lines, caused fires and electrocuted operators.”

“Yah.” Dave said, “So?”

“That was twenty years before electricity became mainstream with Thomas Edison.” Lucy said, “A hundred and thirty-three years later, I doubt that you can name a single household device that doesn’t use electricity.”

“Oh.” Dave said shocked.

“This storm will make the 1859 super storm look like a baby’s hick-up.”

“Okay.” Dave said, “What’s your plan? I assume that you have a plan of action. I am not driving down the road at a hundred and fifty kilometres an hour mindlessly.”

“Um...” Lucy said, “I haven’t thought...”

Dave suddenly turned onto a dirt road. His rear tires slid out as Dave fishtailed his car around the corner. The phone slipped from the plastic holder from the force of the turn and fell onto the floor. The phone closed and hung up.

“Shit!” Dave cursed.

He reached down and tried to find the phone. Suddenly a street sign appeared in front of him. He swerved out of the way, nearly flying off the road.