Doom of the Gods: Ragnarok

By James McHale

Armageddon looks set for mankind when a dangerous experiment with nanotechnology aboard the International Space Station goes disastrously wrong following a massive solar eruption. The destruction of the space station results in the microscopic engines of destruction beginning to rain down upon the earth.
Further complications ensue with the arrival of the stellar mass that has been ejected from the sun and also threatens the earth. With mankinds very survival in the balance, the race is on to prevent the final extinction of all life across the earth by the nanoplague and the solar storm.
This is a fast-paced action sci-fi story that spans the globe and leaves the reader breathless with its political and international intrigue, advanced technology, and raw human emotion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Aug 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491800805

Book preview

27896.jpg

JAMES MCHALE

27902.png

AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403 USA

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: [phone]

© 2013 by James McHale. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/21/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-0079-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-0078-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-0080-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

1   A Wrinkle in the Skin

2   Nanogenesis

3   Ragnarok

4   A Hard Rains Gonna Fall

5   Now You See Me, Now You Don’t!

6   Light in the Dark

7   River Styx

8   Abraxas

9   The Sky is Falling

10   Something Wicked This Way Comes

11   See Paris & Die

12   Section Seven

13   Operation Trinity

14   The End of the Beginning

15   Weapons of Mass Derision

16   All Man’s Dreams Torn Asunder

17   Death on the Potomac

18   The Four Horseman

19   Twilight of the Gods

20   Area 51

21   Omega

22   Alpha

23   End Game

FOREWORD

RAGNAROK

- A DEFINITION

Ragnarok originates from Norse Mythology and foretells a series of major events, including a great battle that ultimately results in the death of a number of major figures within the world, including the gods Odin, Thor, Freyr, Heimdall and Jötunn Loki. This battle results in the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water.

With peace and tranquillity, the world resurfaces anew and fertile. The surviving gods meet, and the world is repopulated by two human survivors. In the ancient Old Norse language, Ragnarok or Ragnarökkr translates as Doom of the Gods.

1.jpg

CHAPTER ONE

"A WRINKLE

IN THE SKIN"

The sun, the very source of light and warmth for the earth, appears to be peaceful from our perspective, but this is all illusion, as humanity is only now beginning to fully understand.

Hydrogen swirled as the nuclear reactions in the core of the star beat like a very slow heartbeat. The currents of gas from deep within the star curled around in ever changing patterns from the centre outwards to the surface of the seething mass of superheated plasma.

Suddenly from deep within the depths of the maelstrom, a large mass of stellar matter shuddered and without warning was ejected from the star surface, out into the space around the sun. This solar prominence arced across the surface to plunge back into the energised mass below.

The sun continued as it had done for the last five thousand million years, to pump out the heat and light that was the very lifeblood of the solar system. A few moments passed then another jet was emitted from the sun surface, but this was twice as large as the preceding one. Most of this hot matter fell back to the sun, caught in the gravity well, but a fragment sped off out into the inky blackness of space, accompanied by the hard Gamma and X-Ray radiation such events create and these rapidly overtook the corona mass ejection material.

Six minutes and ninety three million miles later, the energy discharge was picked up by the sensitive detectors on board the International Space Station or ISS as it was known. Immediately the computer systems on board the craft began to interpret the impulse into a display on the computer monitors. Meanwhile, the stellar mass material was picked up by the satellite tracking systems pointed towards the sun.

The computers tracking the information interpreted the data and quickly worked out that the mass would arrive in approximately eighteen hours.

In the main laboratory, John stared out through the observation window onto the glowing sphere below. He was momentarily blinded by the sudden appearance of the sun as it spread its fingers across the globe. The auto-sensing glass darkened almost immediately, but not before the bright light had managed to dazzle him. Blinking, he looked away and across at his fellow astronaut.

You know, it never ceases to amaze me, the sight of the sunrise over the earth, he said.

Yes, I know what you mean replied Anna. But you need to get back over here and help me with the experiment.

John paused for a few seconds before answering, OK boss he jokingly replied. He carefully manoeuvred, in the low gravity, over to where his colleague was standing. He was now standing opposite Anna, with the laboratory bench between. He looked down at the clear container sitting on the work surface and picked it up to hold it up to the light to study.

A moment went by, then Anna spoke.

You won’t see much you know… well maybe a trace of powder in the right light, if you stare at it long enough!

He shrugged and carefully transferred the container into the electron microscope and secured the door.

With the door to the microscope now secured, the instrument flickered into life and the vacuum pumps began the laborious process of emptying the chamber of air. A few minutes later the contents of the container appeared on the flat screen.

At X10,000 magnification, he could clearly see the small regular objects sitting unmoving looking back at him—or so his imagination thought. John studied the screen and Anna carefully walked round to join him.

"Tiny little buggers aren’t they? He said.

You do state the obvious John! countered Anna. That’s why they are called nanobots, or so I was led to believe?

Very droll.

Come on, we need to get on with the experiment.

Hang on Anna, we have not had clearance to start yet, we must not go until our illustrious commander says so!

Who rattled your cage this morning?

John did not answer immediately as he looked for the right words to say.

Look, don’t mind me, I’m just a bit edgy—It’s just that this is an important experiment and if it works it could really make a difference to life on earth.

Anna raised her eyebrows at this.

Well that was a very dramatic statement. Don’t you think you are being a bit melodramatic?

You have never believed in this experiment have you? John continued, If it was up to you, we would never have even considered doing it.

You know my views on this technology; it’s problematic at best and downright dangerous at worst. Particularly as they have code-named the experiment RAGNAROK and when I looked up the name I found out it was an old Nordic name for Doom of the Gods or Armageddon. A rather unusual name for something that is supposed to help mankind, don’t you think?

Now who is being melodramatic taunted John. Anyway, it’s not up to you. Now contact the command deck and let’s get the show on the road.

Anna pressed a button on the small headset microphone.

Anna to command, requesting permission to begin the experiment.

There was a slight pause before anyone answered, then in the headphone he heard, Negative on that Anna. We have not had the go from Johnson yet.

We copy that command. Anna out.

Anna looked over at John and shrugged whilst he frowned and looked back at her.

Seated at the main station control console was the commander of the station, Robert Thorpe and he now studied the readouts closely after the recent conversation with Anna. A few minutes passed before he said anything, but finally to no one in particular he said.

Looks like our sun is getting a little restless.

So I noticed replied his colleague and second in command, Julia Thompson.

She continued to gaze at the screen for a few moments, before she looked up at Robert and regarded him with a fixed stare.

Are you going to cancel the experiment Bob?

Robert paused before answering.

No, I don’t think so, but I will have to speak to Johnson Space Centre, I’m sure they will have more to say on the matter. After all, he added, They have the final say on this particular one.

Robert now looked across at the attractive and blue eyed blond fellow astronaut. It was sometimes difficult to look and not touch, despite his buried feelings for Anna. She continued to study him and for a brief moment her heartbeat sped up as their eyes met and for a fraction of a second his true feelings were there plain for her to see. She knew that the eyes were spoken of in literature as being ‘windows to the soul’ but this was the first time that she could truly see what that meant. For a split second Robert’s innermost feelings were there and then just as quickly they vanished. She composed herself and continued on with the conversation.

This solar activity is going to play havoc with communications though, if it continues, it’s already getting difficult to get a strong link with the ground, and judging from the readouts, that last pulse has managed to knock out a couple of the Comms satellites—not good!

Robert agreed and replied We will just have to keep a sharp eye on the sun and make sure that our Sat Com’s are unaffected. If we lose Johnson, we will be on our own.

He paused again before continuing, You had better run a status check on our lifeboat, just to be on the safe side.

Don’t you think you are being a little dramatic Bob, after all, it’s only a bit of extra solar activity?

The apparent criticism stung him and he reacted sharply.

No, I don’t and you will do as I have instructed.

He immediately regretted the tone of these words as he saw Anna eyes harden at the rebuke.

Yes sir! she replied tersely.

Silence descended on the control room, and all that could be heard was the steady and reassuring hum of the computers and the life support systems. Though the air was warm an icy chill seemed to fill the room.

The silence was finally broken by Anna.

The lifeboat is A-OK, everything checks out Sir she said pointedly.

Less of the Sir, Lieutenant Commander replied Robert. Look, I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to be so harsh. It’s just that I’ve been a little on edge lately—a sort of foreboding and I am not sure why.

Anna did not reply straight away, but she looked across at Robert and could see from the look on his face that he was genuinely worried. Her attitude toward him softened slightly.

OK Bob. I can see that you’re bothered about something.

He nodded and his right eyebrow rose slightly.

Suddenly the radio burst into life.

Johnson Control here. We are monitoring the situation and have noted that there appears to have been a corona mass ejection and its heading towards the earth. It won’t get to you for another seventeen hours, so you have a go for the experiment. Maintain contact but switch to the alternative frequency and use encryption code Ultra Violet.

Affirmative Johnson, this is Commander Thorpe, we copy that we have a go, ISS out.

For a few minutes, he digested the information from Johnson—he knew a lot about corona mass ejections. Mostly, they were harmless to earth, but every so often, an ejection would occur when it was pointed directly at the earth, and when that happened, all sorts of mayhem with communications and power line brownouts would be experienced across the world.

More minutes passed and his mind drifted away from the thought of the sun to more personal matters and in the quiet, his mind flew back to a time before they were selected for the mission. It seemed an age ago and in a way it was. He thought back to the start of their passionate affair. They had met during the early part of astronaut training. She was from Sweden and he was from England.

Her English language had a slight Nordic accent that he had found almost erotic and that had been the spur to start their affair. They had enjoyed a good relationship, both intellectually and physically, but since then, the affair had cooled. This was mainly because Anna wanted a career and not a permanent relationship. It seemed to him, that she had moved on, but his feelings for her were still there. Of course, any relationship would have had to have been put on hold—military protocol forbade fraternisation in such cases.

He looked out through the forward observation window at the large panels that spread out like wings from the main body of the space station. He could just make out the space suited figure slowly moving along outside towards one of the main solar arrays.

Outside the station the sun glittered on the solar panels of the brilliant white structure as it slowly rotated in its orbit over the Earth. The mustard yellow of the X33 escape lifeboat that was attached to the side to the station was poised ready to flee at a moment’s notice, should it ever be needed.

Carefully walking along in magnetic boots, a suited figure slowly moved towards one of the solar collectors. His job was to repair the damage to a number of panels that had been punctured by a number of micro-meteorites the previous day. The damaged panels had to be repaired as they had lost about twenty percent of the solar generation capability. The result of this loss of power meant that they had to use more power from the nuclear power cells on-board the station. Whilst this wasn’t a problem at the moment, they could not afford any more power outages as this would mean that a number of important experiments and other processes would have to be shut down, or at least postponed.

Philip continued his slow walk along the side of the station until he reached the large arm from which the array of solar panels was strung out. With almost painful precision, he unclipped the safety line from the side of the ship and onto the cable that ran along the top of the support boom.

Now securely clipped on with the karabiner clip he continued out along the solar array towards the damaged section. As he approached the damaged section he could clearly see what had caused the problem. Embedded in the glittering silicon was a piece of alloy fragment.

Huh he said to no one in particular, Another piece of space junk has been causing trouble.

Carefully using the special pliers he crouched over the damaged section and clamped onto the twisted metal protruding from the solar array and pulled slowly and carefully. At first it did not move, so he tried again. Little by little he worked it loose but paying special care to avoid inadvertent launching himself into space. He has already done that once and he had no wish to repeat the experience.

With a final grunt he pulled the piece of metal free to expose the damaged section beneath the array. He placed the section into a small side pouch and then began to re-route the connectors exposed to space. The modular construction allowed for re-routing provided you could get to the damaged section. The trick of course was actually finding the damage as it was not always apparent where it actually was.

As soon as he had completed the connections he extracted a silvery patch of reflective material from a leg pouch and proceeded to cover the damaged section. Peeling off the backing, he applied the patch to the hole and placed the backing back into the leg pouch.

Inside the space laboratory module of the ISS, John and Anna now studied the displays on the control panels for a few seconds. They had just been given the green light to proceed with the experiment and Anna was anxious to proceed as quickly as possible—her patience was now wearing thin.

Anna now spoke into her throat mike, OK, phase two now ready. Activation of the nanobots proceeding.

Whilst speaking, Anna had been operating a series of virtual on-screen buttons on the flat panel display. Close to where she was standing a large piece of equipment began powering up and a faint humming from the equipment became apparent.

John studied the screen display.

OK, we are at optimum power levels. Johnson, are you getting this?

Roger ISS, we copy, continue with the test.

Anna leaned over and flipped the cover on a red switch panel and depressed the rocker switch beneath it and spoke under her breath.

Here goes then.

At first the small regular blocks appeared to be inert, but then almost imperceptibly the first one began to move, then another and another. It wasn’t long before all of the blocks were moving slowly around like bees in a hive.

Anna looked intently at the screen for a few moments longer then said, John, contact Johnson and confirm the readings are A-OK—Phase 2 of the test is a success.

John nodded, Will do.

On the screen the blocks were now moving around more vigorously than before and now began to work together as a team.

Look at that! exclaimed John, They’re now constructing more blocks from the material provided on the sample plate.

Anna frowned slightly, carefully regarding the small blocks moving around on the screen as another block was manufactured and it too began to move independently.

John was momentarily distracted by a bright flash of light outside the observation window and looked up to see what had caused it and spotted the lonely figure of Philip working on the solar array panels. Again the bright flash came—it was only sunlight reflecting off the visor of their colleague.

Meanwhile outside the ISS, Philip stood up and admired his handiwork. He had only just stood up when the latest energy pulse from the sun reached him. Philip couldn’t actually see anything, but his suit sensors told him that the energy levels outside was rising rapidly to a dangerous level.

Oh Shit! he exclaimed. Without waiting for any confirmation from the ISS command centre, he started to move back towards the nearest emergency airlock. He desperately needed to get inside as quickly as possible. Whilst he knew his suit had a high level of protection, the amount of radiation that was now impacting the suit was high and getting higher. Not only that, but he had lost all contact as the radio now only seemed to broadcast static.

X-Rays and Gamma rays bombarded the station and enveloped the space suited figure struggling to get to the airlock. Inside the spacesuit, Philip could hear the radiation detector’s clicks change from a steady beat to a horrible buzz saw sound. He cursed as the clicks grew more frequent.

Shit, shit, shit he kept on saying, almost like a mantra.

Struggling as fast as he could towards the airlock, sweat collected on his brow and ran down his face. He shook his head as the stinging liquid entered his eyes, trying to ignore the irritation. He finally reached the outer airlock door and pressed a large button on the control panel. With desperation he gripped the central wheel in the door and began to turn it.

In his ears the sound of the warning from the radiation detector was now battering his ears, as the massive levels of radiation bathed him in the invisible wash. With a supreme effort he finally opened the door and it swung silently inwards. As quick as he was able, Philip stepped through the aperture and closed the door. The airlock door now firmly shut, the loud shriek in his ears has dropped back to a quieter and less frantic level. Now the loudest noise he could hear was the rapid pounding of his heart.

He gathered his breath as the airlock cycled the air until the pressure had equalised, moisture condensing onto the cold inner surfaces of the chamber gathered together and trickled down the walls. His breathing became easier, but the adrenaline rush had been replaced with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. The massive radiation dose he had received outside was not enough to kill him immediately, but he realised that in a day or so, he would begin to feel very ill indeed, as the cells in his body died. He was as good as dead, but his body didn’t know it yet.

Inside the ISS, John heard the warning alarms sound as the energy pulse hit the space station and he immediately looked across at the all-important radiation gauge. The normally green display had now turned yellow and was flashing in time to the warning beep.

Oh crap, that’s all we need.

Anna carefully walked over the display that was now flashing more quickly just in time to see the display change from amber to light red. The tone of the warning beep now changed to a higher, louder and more urgent sound. They both looked at each as the same thought occurred to then at the same time, what about Philip who was still outside.

In the main control room the same display was showing on the main panel.

Robert banged his fist down hard in anger, saying, I’ll have someone’s fucking balls for this cock-up. Johnson should have given us better warning than they did!

Anna looked over at Robert.

What about Philip? He’ll fry out there if this radiation continues to build the way it is.

They both now looked at the flashing display as it changed from light red to dark red and again the tone changed.

"Oh fuck! Where is Philip now? Is he back in or is he still out there?

Anna looked at the biometric display that showed Philips vital signs and carried a repeat of the radiation detector in the suit.

I think it’s too late Bob she said quietly.

Get hold of him anyway, they could be wrong!

She looked over at him and pursed her lips, but did as she was told.

Can’t get through to him, space is full of static.

We’ll just have to hope he can get back inside. It’s too ‘hot’ out there to risk anyone else.

black.jpg

CHAPTER TWO

NANOGENESIS

Inside the special chamber, the nanobots continued to build more copies of themselves from the provided raw material, oblivious of the chaos now present in the space station. The radiation levels inside the ISS continued to rise as the X-Rays and Gamma Rays from the solar mass ejection continued to bathe the structure.

Anna looked up from studying the nanobots as the sound of the space station radiation warning alarms began sounding. To her right on the master control panel was a repeater of the ISS control room radiation sensor panel and it was flashing bright red, in time with the warning sounds.

Bloody hell! she exclaimed and looked over towards John, What the fuck is happening?

John was as calm and collected as usual and answered, Not a clue, but I’m sure as hell gonna find out!

He clicked a button on the side of his ear piece and said, Bob, this is John, what’s going on? He was greeted by loud static in his ear and he winced at the sound. He realised that any chance of communicating with the headset to the main control room, was not possible due to the loud static noise.

Bugger! No chance of that working!

He moved over to the main communication panel and activated the link.

Come in, Control Room, are you there Bob? There was a brief pause and he was about to swear again when a slightly garbled reply came back, Is that you John? You are only at strength one, I can barely hear you.

"Yes it’s me, what’s going on? Every alarm seems to be going crazy.

Bob replied, filling John in on the situation.

No time to discuss in detail, but the sun’s gone mad and has sent a massive stellar mass towards the earth, preceded with a lot of hard radiation. You both need to get back to the main control room as it is the only radiation hardened part of the station, as you well know.

John frowned slightly with this news and he nodded his head slightly, and answered, OK, Will do, out!

He looked over at Anna who had already begun to move towards the science module exit airlock and started to move towards the same doorway, hampered by the low gravity. In their haste to leave the science module, they had both forgotten about the experiment.

He closed and secured the airlock and joined Anna as she moved carefully along the communication corridor towards the main control room. It wasn’t until they had travelled about half way to the main control room that