Supernova

By Isaac Abner

Nick Miller lives an ordinary life in his hometown. That is, until he starts to notice strange occurrences that seem to be indicative of a sinister cover-up. In a few seconds, his life and the future of civilization on Earth are altered forever by a deadly burst of light from space. This is the story of one man’s struggle to survive, and his ultimate triumph in the face of a tyrannical faction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Isaac Abner
• Release date: Feb 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310698125

Book preview

As the celestial bodies sparkled brilliantly in the immutable blackness of the night sky, it is imperceptible that each one possesses the ability to rescind the peaceful continuum that humans have grown accustomed to for millennia. People wandered unassumingly through their lives, lulled into a false sense of security because it had been millions of years since a cosmological tragedy befell Earth. Most people were unaware that any one of the beautiful white points of light in the night sky given the right circumstances could tear the apart the planet. Everything people knew and loved could all be destroyed with a short burst of light.

Thousands of light-years away, a massive star's heavy iron core stopped the process of nuclear fusion that is critical for its continued existence. Over the course of millions of years the star depleted its outer envelope of hydrogen and helium gas. This created a recipe for disaster as it transformed into a supernova. Next, the center of the star became powerfully compressed, as it could no longer support itself under its own gravity. Then, the material that remained in the outer layers rapidly collapsed inwards and bounced off of the densely compressed metal core of the star. This caused a tremendous blast wave that exploded outwards from the star and into space.

The outward explosion of the blast wave then halted, but the monstrous internal forces of the star immediately reinvigorated the blast wave. The exploding star, now a supernova, blasted massive ejections of material deep into space before it degenerated into a black hole. After the giant star's lifetime of billions of years shining magnificently in Earth’s night sky, for one minute and twenty seconds the star expended more energy than the sun will have expended in its entire lifetime. This horrific phenomenon is called a gamma ray burst and apart from the big bang, a gamma ray burst constitutes the most violent release of energy in the universe known to man.

At nearly the speed of light, the focused beam of energy blazed through space on a destructive path. The gamma ray burst struck hundreds of planets and objects on its path through the galaxy and utterly annihilated the ones within close proximity to the star. Never before had such a powerful burst been aimed directly at Earth from such a close distance. Like a giant cosmic eraser, the beam destroyed all molecular progress in its path as it blazed its way through the galaxy. For the first time in nearly 65 million years, Earth was about to face a staggering mass extinction.

Unbeknownst to all but a handful of people, the burst of energy would eliminate more than eighty percent of life on the planet. Four months in advance, a small group of NASA astronomers working for the United States government discovered the possibility of a gamma ray burst from the star. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the astronomers observed the dying star that was a progenitor for a gamma ray burst. Additionally, there was a significant amount of evidence that suggested Earth could be in line with one of the destructive poles of the dying star. For the first time in history, technology had advanced to the point where humans knew in advance of a coming mass extinction. The warning allowed enough time for humanity to preserve itself and ensure the survival of the species.

After the discovery, the immediate reaction within NASA was to hold a press conference to reveal the information. However, the American President Michael Lafferty decided it would be best to keep the critical information secret. He claimed that keeping the information secret would allow him and his cabinet time to deliberate what course of action was most beneficial for the American people. With the discovery that Earth faced impending doom, the United States had a two-week jump on the rest of the world. This was valuable time that President Lafferty should have used for constructing shelters and stockpiling food to protect his people. Instead, life in the United States carried on as usual without any sense of urgency.

President Lafferty spent countless nights practicing chess, drinking scotch, and mulling how he should handle the situation. His request for time to deliberate was naive enough at first, as it appeared that an explosion of such monumental proportions would not be survivable no matter the action taken. Therefore, there was no immediate need to worry people and start the mass hysteria which would inevitably follow. However, as time passed, his motives became much more sinister and ultimately lead to the deaths of hundreds of millions of Americans.

Initially, Lafferty was skeptical of withholding the information, thinking that maybe it would be better to go ahead and inform people. At least people could live out their remaining days to the fullest. People could take their family on a trip to Walt Disney World, or buy an expensive sports car that had always been just outside of their means. People could get right with the god of their chosen religion and the young people could make desperate attempts to find love. Unfortunately, none of these things would come to fruition, and daily life would march on for most without that sense of purpose.

For all of the first week after hearing about the coming gamma ray burst, Lafferty considered informing the population. He even scheduled a briefing with the press where he intended to do it. Then, he heard a mysterious voice inside his head which proposed radical ideas about how to handle the situation. Ideas that he would not have entertained for a moment before. He knew this could not be right, after all, he had graduated at the top of his class from Harvard Law School. He thought people who heard voices usually needed help in the form of medication or perhaps a visit to the shrink. If there was one thing he was certain of it was that he did not need to see a shrink. He surmised that if there was any person in the country that was in their right mind it had to be him.

He assured himself that everything would be fine, and that all he needed was a decent night of sleep. Besides, he had never suffered from anything like this before, and it would probably go away in time. As he grappled with arguably the most difficult decision to ever be faced by a president, he felt his grasp on reality slipping. For a moment, he had entertained the idea of seeking help for the unnatural voice. He thought that maybe a doctor could prescribe him a pill to rid his mind of the intruder. However, his ego intervened, and he decided to keep his mouth shut.

As the occurrence of the mysterious voice became more frequent, it seemed that it began to argue vigorously on behalf of withholding the information from the people for good. The voice he heard was clearly his own, but the thoughts and logic behind them were most certainly not. It was as if his a poisonous fog had enveloped his mind, corrupted his thoughts and polluted his thinking. He knew there should be no question what to do in his situation; the American people deserved to know of the coming danger. However, things just did not add up the way they used to for him.

However, he soon found that he had only started to lose his mind, and that his madness would deepen immensely over the coming months. The voice pursued him judiciously at all hours until it finally convinced him to withhold the information and let everyone die. He rationalized his choice by acknowledging that avoiding a mass panic situation was enough of a reason to avoid informing the people.

Later, the strange voice pointed out that should he inform the people of what was truly going on, some of the more persistent people might find a way to survive against the odds. This could leave hundreds of thousands or perhaps even millions left alive. This would make ruling by force unnecessarily difficult. What’s more, ruling what remained of the country by force was an idea that had grown more appealing to him over the past few weeks. The notion of becoming an absolute ruler proved to be an intoxicating idea, and soon he could think of little else. His transformation into a Machiavellian style bad prince was finally complete when he produced an executive order that America sever her ties with the rest of the world. An action which, with one stroke of a pen essentially condemned millions of Americans to unnecessary deaths.

As time passed, the motives for withholding the information became continually more heinous. Not only did he want to continue ruling as the president of the United States post apocalypse, he began to see the coming catastrophe as an attempt to rule the entire world. He then started putting the pieces into place that would allow him to establish an authoritarian government with enough military might to exert itself overseas. While other countries would be expending all of their resources on ensuring that the maximum amount of lives were saved, he would make sure that he maintained military superiority post apocalypse.

Months in advance, President Lafferty hired a private construction company to build a large bunker deep under the ground at Camp David for himself, his cabinet, and select members of the secret service. Additionally, he would allow one hundred handpicked U.S. Army Rangers in the bunker to work for him after the blast. Also, he tasked a small group of engineers from MIT to assist in keeping his power grid operational after the burst. The soldiers and engineers were pre-screened and contacted in advance so they knew what to expect. Those who heard Lafferty's devious plan immediately disappeared if they ultimately refused to join his ranks.

In the months leading up to the burst, Lafferty and his newly appointed army stored tons of supplies. More importantly, he had several radio towers along the east coast retrofitted with lead plate shielding. He hoped that the shielding would protect the towers from the gamma ray burst's destruction, and he would have a means of communicating with his followers post apocalypse. Also, he set up an electrical power system utilizing an old hydroelectric generating dam. As long as all of the water was not evaporated after the burst, the dam should provide enough electricity to power the bunker indefinitely. Additionally, he supplied the bunker with an exorbitant amount of military vehicles and countless of barrels of diesel fuel to power them. Finally, he stored helicopters, tanks, armored vehicles, and enough small arms to wage a small war. He realized before anyone else that society was about to devolve, and the man with the biggest weapons would soon be king. With all the weapons he had stored he knew the country would soon be his to rule with an iron fist.

To set his plan into motion, Lafferty initiated one of the most elaborate information blackouts in world history. Aided by an elaborate cover-up which painted the internet problems as a cyber-attack from China, the NSA, and CIA successfully blocked most of the Internet from United States citizens. Also, they scoured message boards vigorously in an effort to make sure bits of information did not leak. Additionally, they watched social networking sites determinedly, and issued bans to people for asking any questions concerning the coming apocalypse. Those who persisted further mysteriously disappeared in the same fashion as the Army Rangers who refused to take part in the scheme. Next, he ordered the cancellation all international flights into and out of the country. Lastly, F-22 Raptors guarded the American boarders on the north, south, and coastlines against land-based foreign penetration. The United States of America had descended into North Korean style isolationism in a matter of weeks.

Weeks later, after the national observatories of several other wealthy countries discovered the incoming gamma ray burst. All but a handful of countries chose the alternate path, and they decided to disclose the information to their people in full. These countries began work erecting large underground shelters in the limited time they had. As the news spread in these countries a widespread panic ensued. However, the panic eventually gave way to an unprecedented sense of malaise and disenchantment. For people in these countries it was not uncommon to see the rotting corpses on the streets where people had jumped from the tops of high-rise office buildings. Eventually, these morbid tales trickled in to the American President from his intelligence officers. This provided additional credibility to President Lafferty's irrational decision to keep the apocalyptic information quiet.

Weeks before the burst struck Earth, in the deepest, darkest corners of the Internet, rumors circulated on message boards that the United States government knew of a coming space disaster and was withholding the information. As the anomaly in the night sky grew larger and eventually became visible to amateur astronomers, people began to question what was going on. During the final week of July, the beam of light finally became visible to the naked eye. Then, major news media outlets joined in the questioning, and the fantastic bright spot in the sky dominated the headlines. At first it resembled any other star in the night sky, but day-by-day it grew larger and brighter. The beam of light took most of the people of the United States by complete surprise. Some thought that it was perhaps Jesus returning, while others thought it might be aliens powering toward Earth in a type of space craft. The informed saw it for what it truly was... death.

****

CHAPTER II

AUTOMATIC STOP

August 13, 2014

In the quaint Kentucky town of Bakersville, people were honest and hardworking folks who did not know and frankly did not care to know about the happenings in the universe. People focused primarily on commerce and their own affairs while they paid little attention to anything else. Like most of the rest country, people's lives engrossed them to the point that they paid little attention to the people they elected to run their government. This allowed Lafferty, an unknown politician from Maine to rise to power. Most people in Bakersville did not suspect anything nefarious about the story promulgated by their President, and they were completely oblivious to the events unfolding around the globe.

It was a hot and muggy August evening, and the trees stood full leaves for the final days before they would shed their foliage in a colorful storm of beauty in the autumn. The horizon was a decidedly strange one on that evening, as it had been for the last month. On an evening where there should only have been the fading light of the sun streaming over the tops of the mountains, a powerful point of light dominated the normally darkened horizon. Panic had commenced and rescinded weeks ago when the spot in the sky first became visible to the American citizens. At this point, people had grown accustomed to seeing the strange intruder on their skyline. It seemed that everyone had went on with their daily lives despite the spots seemingly increasing size. The warning signs were there, but hardly anyone chose to heed them.

The Miller household stood on the outskirts of the town as it had for the over thirty years. It sat at the base of a large grass covered flood wall, which surrounded the perimeter of the small town. The house itself was a moderately sized two-story brick design, built during the eighties. Dave and Jane Miller saved their money for five years to buy the property and make a down payment on the construction of the home. They built the house with the intention that it would be the place they would live out the remainder of their lives together. Up until this point the home served its purpose admirably.

Dinner at the Miller household was and always had been a family affair. It was a time when everyone could share what they had done during the day and spend some time together. No matter how far apart their scattered and varied lives would drag them, everyone always seemed to find their way to the table around 6:00 PM. There was not anything that could bring the family together like one of Jane’s home cooked meals. On that particular evening, Dave and Jane sat at the kitchen table waiting for a delicious pot roast with vegetables to finish cooking, and the remiss arrival of their twenty-two year old son Nick.

Nick stood just under six feet tall, and had short unkempt hair that the barber could never make look quite right which he usually wore a slight amount of hair gel to correct. In the corner of his right eye he had a scar from where a neighborhood boy struck him with a gravel when they were younger. When he was twelve, after he had his braces removed, he had not worn his retainers, and his teeth begun to spread out again. He was handsome, but he knew he would never be a model, and he was fine with that.

During his high school career, he had never been the captain of the football team or a star on the basketball court. In fact, he was never really all that good in any of the organized sports that were popular in the area. However, much to his peer’s astonishment he never seemed to have any problem keeping an attractive girlfriend. Despite his deficiencies on the high school jock front, he could often find other ways to impress the ladies. Somewhat self-indulgently, he would attribute his skill with the ladies to his preserved wit from avoiding the unnecessary knocks to the head inherent in football, and perhaps to a greater degree, his charm. While he did not feel compelled to participate in organized sports, he still managed to keep himself in respectable physical condition.

Nick was by all means a normal young man, if a little on the quiet side. He maintained a few hobbies, which he dabbled in when he had time. He liked to write, and had started and stopped on several different novels over the years, but could never seem to make it past the twenty thousand-word mark. Also, he drove a red, 1993 Toyota Supra that he saved most of the money he had made this far in his life to buy. He was immensely proud of the car, and he spent a considerable amount of time tinkering on it. When he purchased the car he opted for the non-turbo version because it was all he could afford at the time. Later, he swapped the non-turbo engine in his car for a twin-turbo engine when the funds became available.

Nick led an uncomplicated life, and he thought that it suited him wonderfully. It was undoubtedly the only variety of life that would do in a town with a population of a mere three thousand. After high school, a few of his friends had moved off to college and left the sleepy little town. However, most of the people from his graduating class still hung around town.

He spent most of his time working as a writer for the local newspaper, but occasionally he was able to allocate a portion of his time to catch a movie at the local cinema with Lauren Stevens. Lauren was Nick’s on again, mostly off again girlfriend. They had been together several times over the past three years, but it was unclear to him if they had any real future together. The main point of contention between them always seemed to be the amount of time Nick worked. He would often get to work several hours early in the morning, and he usually stayed after hours in the evening. There would often be days at a time that would pass without him seeing her, and sometimes he would not even get the chance to speak to Lauren before six or seven in the evening. Occasionally, he felt guilty and that perhaps he was being a little selfish by neglecting to spend time with her. However, for one reason or another he never got around to correcting it.

With her sandy blonde hair and deep, green eyes, Nick thought Lauren was a good looking girl. However, that did not change the fact that she could be a control freak at times. For example, it seemed that any time he wanted to see a movie or go out to eat with his friends he received a barrage inquisitive phone calls and text messages from her for the duration of the trip. He supposed this meant she cared about him, but that did not change the fact that it was still a little frustrating. Despite this character flaw, he supposed he loved her, and that was more than enough at this stage in his life. After all, most of the girls from his high school were already married away.

Over the last few weeks, Nick noticed that things had been a slightly amiss in the small town of Bakersville. It usually took a pretty large event to extend into the hills of eastern Kentucky, but whatever was going on had made some of the locals restless. There were a few town hall meetings, but very little had ever come of them apart from a few people venting their concerns. Also, there was some talk that the town mayor, Pat Rodgers, would be organizing a demonstration against the government in the coming weeks for any involvement they might have with regards to the anomaly in the sky. However, Nick strongly suspected that no such meeting would happen.

There was also the government’s unprecedented internet blockade. While the effects of the blockade had been subtle on most people’s lives, a keen observer could tell something was wrong. Each night, out if habit, he turned his television to a news broadcast as he waited for sleep to come. He had found that there was nothing better for bringing on the sandman than someone mindlessly babbling away about some unnecessary Middle Eastern conflict, the ebbing and flowing of the stock market, or another unfortunate celebrity pregnancy. It never failed that at some point on the program the presenter would turn their inquisitive eye to the cosmic problem. However, it seemed there was a new and unknown anchor presenting the news nearly every night. Nick did not know for certain, but suspected that more than a handful of the anchors were forced from their jobs if they categorized the anomaly as a threat, or questioned the government’s involvement in the situation.

Another peculiarity Nick observed was in the realm of international soccer. Since the 2006 World Cup, Nick developed a strange but passionate appreciation of the sport. That is not to say he did not enjoy American Football, he could consume pounds of hot wings on Monday nights with the best of them. His main reason for becoming a soccer supporter stemmed primarily from being an ardent college basketball fan in the fall. He felt he needed a sports team to keep up with to fill the void before the college basketball season tipped off in October. He decided he would follow English Professional Soccer, which helped to quell his need for sport while he awaited the return of college hoops. However, when the English Professional Soccer league began play in August, he found it impossible to find results from the fixtures anywhere. While inconvenient, he let it slipped to the back of his mind as he went on with his life and listened to his friends drone on about how well their fantasy football teams were doing. However, he knew that something must be seriously wrong when none of the European web sites which reported soccer scores worked.

As was customary, Nick scrambled through his parent’s door at around 6:15PM from his job working for The Tribune, which was the local newspaper in his small Kentucky town. The pay was pathetic, and so were the hours, but he still lived with his parents, and his expenses were virtually nonexistent. He guessed this was what he should have expected when majored in journalism at the local community college and then refused to leave town to find a decent paying job. After graduating high school, then college, and then landing the job that he would presumably work until his ultimate retirement, he often asked himself if this was it. This was quite a depressing thought, but typical of people of his generation he supposed. He guessed it should not surprise him that people get these feelings when they come to the realization that most of the exciting things in their life are behind them.

He tried not to feel sorry for himself though. At least he had a job, which is more than most new college graduates could say. Besides, he did not think that he had worn out his welcome with his parents quite yet, and they never really irritated him a. That is, so long as he completed a few requisite chores around the house. He discovered that even twenty-three years old, if you still live with your parents, you most likely will have to do a few chores once in a while.

As he walked into the house, he grabbed the trash bag from the can that was operating at maximum capacity and replaced it with a clean, fresh one. He walked the bag back outside to the trashcan and kissed his mother Jane on the cheek on the way out the door. He carried the bag outside and placed it in the garbage can near the road to be picked up by the city in the morning.

Before he turned to walk back into the house, Nick turned and took one last look at the green, gently rolling mountains that surrounded his town. He inhaled a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and exhaled it slowly. He imagined that he would never get tired of that smell. The smell was a mixture of fresh air, grass clippings and a faint note of honey suckle. These were all the exquisite smells of Kentucky in the summer. Over the past few years, his family vacationed all over the nation, squandering some of the money from Dave’s carefully invested retirement fund. They visited some of the most popular vacationing destinations in the country. From Yellowstone to Maui, as beautiful as the other places were, Nick had not been to another place where he enjoyed the smell of the air as much he did in Bakersville.

He opened the door, but before he walked back into the house he took a quick glance back at the sky. It looked vastly different than it had at any point before. Ominous streaks of red and orange light stained the horizon, making it look bloody and unfamiliar. Additionally, daylight seemed to hang on much longer than it had before with aid of the powerful new light source. The sky was considerably brighter than it had been earlier in the day, although the sun had nearly sunk below the mountains. Now a little concerned, he returned back into the house where his parents were sitting at the dinner table waiting for him to start eating.

His parents were Jane and Dave Miller, and next March would mark their thirtieth year of marriage. They gave birth to Nick when they were both in their late twenties, and they were now getting up in years. Dave was knocking on the sixty's door, and Jane was in her mid-fifties, but still possessed a certain beauty. She was loquacious, which never allowed for a dull moment around the house. She had been an elementary school teacher in the Bakersville School System until she retired two years ago. Nick thought she seemed happier since she no longer worked, but this could also be attributed the fact that a few weeks prior he had discovered a half empty bottle of antidepressants in the medicine cabinet. This was a discovery that troubled him greatly, but he did not know how to confront her about it.

However, Dave was considerably more reserved in his temperament, and he had always tended to be the backbone of the family. He was a stoic banker in his professional life, and his seriousness often found its way into the home. Additionally, an affair with a pretty, young clerk three years ago had placed a great deal of strain on his relationship with his family. As a result, both Nick and Jane both harbored a great deal of resentment towards Dave.

Despite all of their problems, they were the epitome of the old adage that opposites attract, and on most days they were happy together. They had enough in common to make up for their differing personalities. For example, they were both extremely conservative in their political leanings and Southern Baptist with regards to religion.

How was your day? Jane said loudly. Attempting to talk over the thick cathode ray tube style T.V. that blared the conservative version of the news through the kitchen.

It was fine. More of the same old, same old really. I opened a few new accounts and took care of some of that stack of paperwork I had been meaning to get around to, Dave replied as he loaded his plate with steaming food.

That's nice. I mainly spent the day cleaning the house. Oh, and I paid the electric bill. Does the food look good?

The food looks great. Have you heard anything on the news about the spot in the sky? I swear it looks like that thing gets brighter every time I look at it, he said as he denied her the praise for the food she desired.

Only that it's just a star doing something apparently. At least that's what everyone's saying. I don't understand it all completely. Science stuff baffles me.

What's up dad? Nick said as he came back inside the house from taking out the trash.

Not much. I just sat down for dinner. I had a long day at the bank today. I didn't think I’d ever get out there. How was your day Nick?

It was actually pretty crappy. I'd been working on a feature about the weird light in the sky for the past few days, and I just about had it finished. I couldn't begin to tell you how many hours I had put in on this story. Just before I sent it to print, a C.I.A. official showed up and confiscated everything. He took all of my notes, printouts, drafts, and hard drives. Before he left, he told us we were not to print a word about the light or there would be severe consequences. I'm starting to suspect that there might be something serious going on here.

These sure are strange times. I don’t know if anyone knows exactly what the hell’s going on, Dave replied.

What's for dinner tonight guys? Nick said as he sank into one of the kitchen chairs.

Pork chops, mashed potatoes, yeast rolls, and corn on the cob, Jane replied. Nick could see she was proud of the job she had done.

That sounds awesome mom. I don’t know if you guys have looked lately, but that spot in the sky looks like it’s getting brighter. Have you guys heard anything else about it?

As a matter of fact, that's exactly what we were just talking about. The news says it's something to do with a star, but they won't say anything specific, Dave chimed in as he wiped the pork chop grease from his chin.

That is pretty much what I was able to gather from all my research too. However, that still don't explain why the government came in and stopped the article I had been working on from going to print. I just hope that it isn't something that will hurt anyone. If this is something that we should be worried about, our scientists would've already figured it out and let everyone know. You know, like in the movies where the characters always get some sort of warning before the disaster happens? Unless they already have it figured out and aren’t telling us, Nick said hesitantly.

You're talking foolishness now Nick. I don't think there's any reason to worry. It's only a star that's a little bit brighter than usual, or something like that. It's hard for me to get all worked up over a little bit of bright light. I would probably be more concerned if it were a giant asteroid or something.

I'm not sure we know that this isn't more dangerous than an asteroid just yet, Nick said.

"I don't think we have anything to worry about. I trust the government enough to believe that they warn us if we’re in any real danger. You might be