A Whole New World

By M.J. De Beer

It is the year 2047. When a huge 110 mile wide asteroid hurtling towards Earth is discovered by Eddie Thompson, the governments of the time realize the devastating implications for the future of mankind. They put their differences aside to work together in secret, trying to devise a means to remove the threat of this asteroid, but also a means to escape Earth should their best efforts fail. A colonizer ship is constructed in out of sight of the public behind the moon, and no expenses are spared.

The last nuclear warheads are placed on ballistic missiles and launched to either deflect or destroy the asteroid named Derak but in the end their plans fails miserably and in 2054 it crashes into India, ending all life. Nothing survives the apocalyptic disaster. But not before a hundred and forty thousand carefully selected people escape on the first interstellar ship ever built the Genesis and head towards a known Earth like planet discovered earlier around a far away star. In Genesis, the last survivors of humanity travel for sixty years at near light speed and in deep sleep until they arrive at the new planetary system of 10 Tauri, where they find against all odds a new Earth teeming with life, and here they take on a fantastic adventure of colonizing this new world, set in a Jurassic type era. When one of the landing shuttles crash in a remote jungle, their survival is complicated by the discovery of two primitive civilizations at war

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jul 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496987839

M.J. De Beer

I was born in Phalaborwa, South Africa, and grew up in the small peaceful town of Naboomspruit. I later joined the South African Air Force in 1997, and always having been addicted to reading books, I took up writing novels in my free time soon after. Today I live with my wife and kids near the town of Louis Trichardt, still writing…

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© 2014 M.J. De Beer. 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   07/28/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-8782-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-8783-9 (e)

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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

Chapter 1   The Discovery

Chapter 2   The Final Countdown

Chapter 3   The Voyage

Chapter 4   The Arrival

Chapter 5   The Crash

Chapter 6   The War

About The Author

This novel is

dedicated in memory of Grandma Maggie Griesel. She always wanted the first copy.

CHAPTER 1

THE DISCOVERY

Mojave Desert, California, USA

October 11th, 2047

I n the end, it was all about making it safer for passengers. Sometimes you had to spend millions of dollars just to prove that your company’s inventions will make flying a lot safer. In air travel, just like in all other means of transport, accidents do happen. It took almost a hundred fifty years of aviation history to get to a point where airplane crashes were very rare events. But safety is not negotiable. No airline would ever buy your airplanes if you couldn’t prove them to be the safest thing in the sky. Eddie watched the shadow glide over the stony hills as the huge airliner approached the test range. He loved aircraft, and he owned an old classic biplane himself. It saddened him to know he’s about to see the end of an old beautiful airliner, even if it is to help improve tomorrow’s jumbos. Eddie was invited by an old friend, Stephen Brower to come and experience a crash test. Stephen was one of a team who designed and tested new safety technology for transportation all over the world, under the watchful eye of the National Transportation Safety B oard.

Two planes would be destroyed today, and both had been retired from airline service around seven months ago. The first was a forty one year old Airbus A380 originally purchased by Singapore Airlines back in 2008, and has since seen four decades of excellent service. It’s now fitted with new cabin insulating material that is supposed to protect the cabin interior from fire in case of a blazing crash landing. New safety features in the cabin should also protect the hapless passengers from flying debris. All eight hundred seats were occupied by test dummies, while the jet was flown by remote control. Explosive charges were placed inside the fuel tanks to ensure an explosion on impact. Eddie watched silently as the huge aircraft came in for the crash landing. The mighty Airbus came down purposefully hard, and the undercarriage collapsed. The big Rolls Royce engines crumpled and blew as they were forced into the asphalt, spewing fire, and the inner right engine dug into the ground, pushing its rear up into the wing, causing it to rip apart while the other three engines tore off. At the same time the charges blew the fuel tanks, and over two hundred tons of jet fuel erupted into a wall of fire as the wings exploded, and turned into huge pieces of burning tumbling wreckage, roaring down the old runway. When the remaining stump of the left wing slewed the fuselage sideways to the left, it corkscrewed over to the right, tearing off the whole tail section, witch continued on in a slow majestic tumble off the runway, breaking apart. The rest of the fuselage broke into three sections before coming to a halt, leaving half a mile of fire and wreckage behind it. The new fireproof materials seem to have done their job exceedingly well, because only a few of the dummies suffered burns where fire came into the cabin. The only dead ones were those who sat where the fuselage fractured. This test was a huge success then, and all this new cabin materials would now be installed in new and older airliners. Never in his life had Eddie Thompson seen so much destruction with his own eyes.

25000 feet above the Mojave Desert, California, USA.

October 11th, 2047

Hey Ed, you seem awfully quiet, man. Don’t worry, this machine ain’t gonna go down like that Airbus this morning. Stephen noticed that his friend was in deep thought, staring at the opposite seats of the luxurious cabin. There were enough seats for eighty passengers, but most of them were empty, as many of the thirty or so people on board were elsewhere in the airplane.

I know that Stevie. You know I’m not afraid of flying, you’ve seen what I can do with that biplane of mine. I had you puking last time, remember?

Yeah yeah, rub it in. I just thought that crash this morning gave you doubts about your hobby.

No, no – I’m brooding over a discovery we made last week.

You and Dennis got a new comet?

Maybe. In fact, I want to give him a call to hear if he got any wiser, ‘cause he’s alone at work today, and we need to find out more on that thing. And I forgot my wrist-PC.

There’s a videophone in the front. Just be back in ten minutes so you don’t miss the next test, this one’s gonna be good.

As Eddie strolled front of the long cabin, he realized he had the best friend anyone could wish for. Stephen went through a lot of trouble to get him on this flight. To miss this next test would not be nice then, so he should be quick on the phone. Usually only company employees and safety officials are allowed on the company’s jet, a twelve year old luxury Boeing 747- 800, outfitted with a state of the art VIP cabin. Stephen had a very friendly boss, so certain rules could be bent if his day and mood was just right. He found the videophone and entered the number for the Mt. Whitney Observatory.

Dennis Goodman was excited. He and Ed was gonna have something out there being named after them, or named by them. They will make their mark in history. They had been working together now for sixteen months and he enjoyed every second of it. Astronomy is a job which can have very long hours, but he wanted to do this since he was ten, and now at twenty five, he had a very promising career ahead of him. The Observatory was atop Mt. Whitney, at 4400 feet. The sky is very clear up here, but it’s usually very cold and windy. The new sixty foot telescope was performing flawlessly. Dennis was just stepping into the control room with a hot cup of coffee when the videophone started playing a merry tune. Who would be bothering me now? When Dennis said answer at the phone, Eddie’s face appeared.

Hey, buddy. How’s it hanging?

All fine here Dennis. Would you guess I’m actually calling from the NTSB’s executive 747? Stevie got me on for a flip over the Mojave, we’re gonna watch a jumbo reacting to an onboard bomb blast. She may explode if all goes wrong, else we’ll see nothing, which means she’s been modified well enough.

Whoa! That’s real cool. Wish I was there. I always wanted to see something real big blow up real bad.

Yeah. Listen Dennis, what can you tell me about that object we found in Sagittarius, could you work out the orbit?

Sort of. The computer fails to get an orbital solution. It appears as if this thing comes from deep space.

A Kuiper belt object? And we found it still out well beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Ed, I don’t think this is a Kuiper belt object. The numbers don’t add up. Indications are that this thing might be coming all the way from interstellar space.

Silence.

Ed, did you get that?

Yeah er… are you sure? What’s the trajectory look like?

Well, it comes very close to the sun, about twenty five million miles, and then it exits at too wide an angle and too high speed to ever return again. The speed is much higher than the sun’s escape velocity.

This is real scary Dennis. This has never happened before. This is a first for humanity, I think. See if you can determine it’s size, and see if any planets are in it’s way, just in case.

Okay. I’ll see what I can do. By the way, the Astronomical Society phoned to inform us that our object has been given the temporary designation 2047 AR23, and we must let them know when we have selected a name for it.

Thanks. Ed made a note of this on his pocket pad. Okay, I will see you tomorrow morning, Dennis. Thanks for the info, take care.

Cheers.

Back in the rear of the cabin Eddie found Stephen next to a huge observation window in the left side of the airplane. It occupied the space normally used for a big upward hinging cargo door as installed in cargo versions of the Boeing 747. In this 747, the thick plexiglass window was installed permanently, for observation purposes, as would be the case now. Stephen was saving a seat for Eddie, with a good view of the other aircraft which just positioned itself some two hundred yards away, off their left wingtip, slightly aft. This one was also a Boeing 747 like the one they were flying in, the only difference being that this was a much older jet, a Boeing 747-800 ER, originally bought by the model’s launch customer, Air France over thirty years ago. Now it was flying with a modified inner fuselage construction and new technology outer skin panels that’s suppose to withstand a bomb blast from within. Ten pound explosive charges were installed in the rear cargo hold, as well as the front. If all this hi-tech stuff failed, this jet would not land again. Just like the Airbus they destroyed earlier, the Boeing also flew by remote control, from the same jet in which Eddie sat. Eventually the countdown started, and high speed cameras started recording, and technicians got ready behind their consoles on the 747’s upper deck.

As the countdown reached zero, Eddie expected the big Boeing to explode in a huge ball of fire, but nothing happened. Over the intercom a voice announced that the forward charge had detonated, and the structure remained intact, part one of the test was a success. A delighted applause sounded through the aircraft. When the second countdown started, Eddie expected a very similar result, but at zero all hell broke loose. With an audible THUD the lower rear fuselage flew apart in a violent eruption of debris and fire, and explosive decompression did the rest, blowing the whole rear upper fuselage to shreds, severing off the tail section. Immediately the remaining aircraft toppled over forward, and went into a spiraling dive. The severed tail section tumbled to earth, burning, shedding pieces, trailing black smoke. More smoke and fire trailed behind the rest of the broken bird, and she could be seen loosing engines, wing parts and at least twenty feet off both outer wings, as she exceeded her overspeed limits. Around Eddie and Stephen all was silent while the cams and technicians kept recording. They watched as the stricken Boeing’s shadow raced closer to meet her at impact point, and then all of two hundred tons slammed into the desert floor at nearly seven hundred miles per hour, digging a crater eighty feet wide and fifteen feet deep. The resulting explosion and impact momentum threw millions of pieces of smoking wreckage and shrapnel up to half a mile in every direction. A minute later, the tail section flattened itself against a hill three miles back. The engines and other debris fell in between. Many faces were sad, others were shocked, as they watched the fireball dissipating, changing into smoke, dust, and falling bits. The test was an obvious failure. Back to the drawing boards.

Ed’s apartment, Visalia, California, USA.

October 12th, 2047

Eddie woke up to the sound of his TV, timed to wake him up at six o’clock every working day. As usual, Amy was just entering with breakfast and a steaming mug of coffee on a platter.

Good morning Eddie. How do you feel this morning? Sleep okay?

Good morning Amy, I’m fine. Sleep was good; I just wish I could keep on sleeping, but then again, that breakfast smells very inviting.

It should. You made it. Leftovers from last night.

Amy was a household robot. Most homes had them, despite the fact that they priced almost the same as a small car, but they were worth every cent. Amy was a newer model, a Miura C-720. She was a vast improvement over the first little machines that made their appearance in experimental form around the year 2003. 44 years later, and they were advanced enough to have conversations, wash your car, or the dishes, and clean the house (without breaking anything), or work your garden, and even prepare a mouth watering dinner. One could even communicate with your robot via wrist-PC or video phone. If not needed, the robot would go into its wall recess, fold up and recharge. Through the midnight hours it would emerge and silently clean the house in the dark.

Eddie actually had a difficult night after all that destruction he saw the previous day. He had nightmares of crashing planes and fire and tumbling wreckage, and when he woke up he was still tired and sweating. After breakfast he took a quick shower and fresh-up while Amy fixed the bed and put the dishes in the cleaner. The shower was pre-set, and immediately started spraying the right temperature water when Eddie said shower. He then got into a pair of jeans, sneakers and a T-shirt, went to the garage and eased into his waiting car. He felt like driving himself today. Manual he said, and out came the steering grips. Even though it was 2047, cars still ran on rubber wheels, with pistons, ecofuel, gearboxes, and so on, but they now had auto steering and used an advanced eco friendly fuel that was derived from diesel a few decades ago. Voice recognition technology, climate control and advanced terrain response suspension was nothing new, but to Eddie all these gadgets were simply the things of a car. All cars had them. Even the old ones. The drive to the Observatory took only around forty minutes. Once there, he got out into the cold breeze, told the car to park, and when he stepped inside, Dennis was waiting with two mugs of steaming aromatic coffee.

You look tired, said Dennis as Eddie took his seat in the computer room.

You would look the same if you were in my shoes yesterday. The amount of destruction I saw was enough to give me the sweats last night, but it was a totally unforgettable experience.

I bet. So what was the outcome?

Well, the first crash on the ground was a success, but the second one was a rather impressive failure. Stephen is not happy with it. His boss says the company was donated an old Ilyushin Il-96-800M airliner as a last chance, and they have until June next year to produce the wanted results.

Shame. He worked hard to make it almost succeed. What a waste.

Yeah, but it’s all for safety they say. This coffee is really great; you seem to be the expert. Okay, let’s get to it. What’s new about our object?

Oh, I located it last night again. The computer analysis indicate a diameter of between 80 miles to 150 miles, but it’s got a very dark surface, so we’ll have to wait for it to come a bit closer if we’re to make any accurate measurements. Fluctuations in the brightness indicate a rotational period of two hours seven minutes or so.

Surely an asteroid or comet of notable size. Will it miss us?

Ed, I hope so. I’m still working on that, but so far it won’t even come close to any planets on its inward trajectory, even though it is entering the solar system right along the equatorial plane.

Okay. Let’s start working on the rest of that data, and then we can see if the rest of that trajectory will be good news.

As it turned out, there was not enough information for the computers to calculate accurately where the object would come closest to the orbits of the inner planets on its way out. There were simply too many uncertainties to be sure. Later that day while Eddie and Dennis were busy running more projections, calculations and discussing possibilities with the computers, Macy poke her head into the door.

Guys, I’m sorry to interrupt. Ed, there’s a call for you from the U.S. Space Center.

Macy Levine was the site manager of Mt Whitney Observatory. She just happened to be inside for a hot cup of cocoa, to escape from the cold outside, when the call came through.

Thanks Macy. I’ll take that call in here. Macy’s round face disappeared again. A few seconds later the videophone chimed, and a smiling face appeared on the plastic screen.

Mr. Edward Thompson?

That’s me, Eddie answered.

I’m Roy Sullivan. I’m with the USSC here in Florida. We’ve been looking the object that you and your team found, uh…2047 AR23?

That’s the one.

Yeah, we are using the Hubble-3 space telescope, the one in Mars orbit at Langrarian position L1 ahead of Mars.

The one you guys launched this year?

Yeah. This babe produces images like nothing we’ve ever seen. Anyway, we’ve been watching this object of yours. The best image we can get doesn’t show much, but we have determined that it is definitely a large asteroid. It’s slightly irregular, like a rounded potato. The average diameter seems to be around 110 miles. The surface is quite dark, and our guys here say it is a carbonic class asteroid.

That’s very interesting Mr. Sullivan. Can you send me over some pictures and data?

Sure. Since you’re the discoverer, you certainly deserve to get any information we might have. We can also confirm your suspicion that the asteroid comes from interstellar space; the first such object ever to be discovered. We don’t have a clue exactly where it comes from though, but that would be interesting to know.

Somehow it was ejected from a planetary system in some unimaginable event, I guess. The dark color might also be from an orbit that was very close to its sun.

I guess we’ll never know that Mr. Thompson, but all we can do now is to determine it’s precise trajectory and see where it’s gonna go. We’ll let you know what we can find out, but we’ll have to wait another week or so in order to track it’s further movement, and then we’ll start calculating.

We’re gonna do the same on this side. Let’s hope for a safe passage; we don’t want this thing to mess up our planets, do we?

Certainly not. I’ll keep in contact. Good luck then, we’ll speak again.

Thanks for the call Mr. Sullivan. Don’t forget to send me that data. Let’s hope we’ll remain safe. Have a real nice day.

After allowing the asteroid to move along for another week, there would be sufficient data available to make a trustworthy prediction of the asteroid’s future journey. This would be very important if Earth’s future might be in danger.

Eddie had visitors. Stephen Brower and his wife Joan came over for a little chat, and Eddie had spent the last half hour explaining all this asteroid stuff to them. They were sitting outside on the porch steps enjoying the cool night air, and a beautiful expanse of stars in the sky, when Amy arrived with three mugs of steaming cocoa.

Thanks Amy, just put the tray down here, we’ll help ourselves.

Okay Eddie. But before you enjoy your cocoa, there’s a call for you from Dennis. It sounds urgent.

Oh my. Guys, please excuse me, I’ll be back in a jiffy.

When Eddie arrived at the videophone, he was met by a very serious face.

Hi Dennis. You okay?

Ed, we have a serious problem. No prank this time. Me and Andrea had completed the trajectory calculations of the asteroid, and it looks like trouble. We spoke to Roy at the space center, and their computers gave the same results we got. They triple checked their work. So did we.

Eddie’s mouth went dry as he pondered the unthinkable.

What are you telling me Dennis? he asked unnecessary.

That godforsaken asteroid is gonna hit us, Ed. 99.7 percent certainty. We worked it out all ways we could think of. We’re gonna die bad. If a 7.5 mile rock was enough to wipe the dinosaurs, this mother will wipe everything else. It will be final. Remember Roy told you it was 110 miles wide? We have six years and five months. Impact will be around February 23rd, 2054.

Oh my God…. Are you certain that Mercury or Venus won’t alter it’s course? Save us somehow?

Certain. No luck there. In fact, Venus is the reason why it’s gonna hit us. The rock’s gonna swing closely round the sun, inside of Mercury at only 23.5 million miles. Then it’s gonna come around to our direction, but it will pass Venus close enough to change it’s course a good 4 degrees, witch puts mother Earth right in the crosshairs. So when the rock crosses Earth’s orbit, Earth will be right in the way, passing the same point, and BANG! Roy says it won’t be a bull’s-eye, but rather an off center blow, but it will not miss. Roy also said the White House just contacted him. They are linked to his computers, so they know. We are to keep this a secret.

When Eddie got back to the porch steps, his cocoa was almost cold. He decided to keep quiet about the terrible news. For the rest of the evening Stephen explained how his bosses planned to acquire two other jumbo jets for more crash tests, and how they’re gonna fix the problem with that protective stuff in the aircraft, and so on. But Eddie’s mind was elsewhere. One o’clock that following morning, Eddie was sitting in front of his home entertainment screen. Stephen and Joan had just left, so he asked Amy to bring him a beer, and while he was waiting for that, he told the computer to go into WorldNet’s archives and find him all about ancient mythological gods and stuff.

The next morning he found Dennis and Andrea still at work. Andrea Barber was an apprentice at the observatory. Slim athletic build, long glossy brown hair, green eyes, cute face, and very adorable. Total astronomy freak.

Do you guys ever sleep?

Nah. They said at once.

We’ve been double checking all the computers again and again, said Andrea,

but its all correct. We have an earth grazer. Mother of all earth grazers. An earth grazer was an asteroid or comet who’s path will intersect Earth’s in future, a potential impact hazard.

I think I have a name for our killer asteroid. Said Eddie.

Shoot. Said Dennis and Andrea, again in chorus.

I found something on my PC, on WorldNet, about that extinct civilization that lived in the Amazon over fifteen thousand years ago, when they shouldn’t have, according to certain clever guys. Their city’s remains were discovered by chance recently under the rainforests.

Almost like the Mayas? asked Dennis.

Yeah, almost like the Mayas. These guys had a number of statues they worshipped, you know, gods. One of them was their god of death and cataclysm, and in English his name was Derak. How does it sound?

Sounds good to me, quipped Dennis, yeah I like it. Our asteroid they now say is number 312277 on the catalogue. So then it is 312277 Derak. Newest on the list. Remember to let Roy know our name. He asked me to tell him if we selected one. Apparently it’s our honor."

Andrea nodded sarcastically Yeah the name’s good, thanks for asking me too. It fits well, if it’s meaning is true.

Sorry honey. Okay, let me call Roy then while you two carry on here. Said Eddie, moving over to the videophone. The connection was fast. A tired face appeared on the screen.

Good morning Mr. Thompson. Please don’t give me any more bad news, willya?

No Roy, relax. Don’t worry about that. I take it you are well aware of our nasty predicament.

Absolutely. I’m still in shock. This is a very serious situation. The president went totally ballistic…

President Leeson knows?

Yes. Whaddya expect. This is big. Way big. He ordered us and all other parties involved to keep quiet, else the worldwide public will go ape. Right now he’s in contact with all other leaders on the planet to totally enforce this secret. Looks like the World Union came just in time. You could imagine what would happen if the world learns that we would all die in a few years. So far only around three hundred people worldwide know. All 177 countries included.

Okay. So I guess they’ll be watching us very closely so we don’t talk. I actually called to tell you the name we selected for the asteroid. We’re calling it Derak. Derak was the god of death and cataclysm for an ancient civilization that lived in the Amazon long ago.

Sounds right to me. I’ll notify the necessary parties, so they can spread the news.

Roy, how long do you think Rob Leeson will want to keep this quiet? Somehow, sometime, someone will find out, sooner, later. You can only keep so many people quiet.

Well, the President wants to see if there’s a way for the disaster to be avoided. If Derak can be destroyed or deflected, the world can be told at a later time.

"Roy. There’s no way in hell that anyone can move or destroy

a rockball 110 miles wide. We’re talking about a small planet here! Not even the strongest bunch of rockets will move it enough to make real difference. And since no nuclear warheads exist after Operation Eraser, where would you get enough hi-ex to blow a 110 mile asteroid to yingyang? And if you could manage that, we would still be hit by a trillion pieces the size of mountains. Face it,