Solar Storms Read Online Free Page B

extraordinary. Those that had perished in the fires were
the lucky ones, for any survivors would die horribly painful and prolonged
deaths from radiation poisoning.
    “My parents,” Emanuel whispered.
    A sudden chill ran down Sophie’s back. She had
forgotten they lived in Chicago. By the looks of it, the windy city was dead in
the center of the damage.
    “Millions will die,” Tsui whispered, taking a long
sip from his cold coffee.
    Emanuel scowled, suddenly ripe with anger.
“Bolton’s administration never took this storm seriously. If they had taken
NASA’s recommendations and hardened critical facilities, then the communication
lines would still be open and warnings could have been issued.”
    “The damage is done. We need to continue to analyze
the storms data and send it to the Department of Defense,” Tsui replied.
    Sophie took a seat at her terminal, logging in with
the swipe of her index finger. The stream of data was constant. New statistics
were feeding into their system by the second from locations around the world.
The Midwest had indeed taken the worst of the storm. The dead zone appeared to
be running from the edge of the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi. Houston was
on the border of the destruction, and while the city was busy being burnt to
the ground, the radiation levels appeared to be minimal.
    “Looks like we just missed the worst of the
radiation,” she said to the rest of the staff.
    A muffled voice rang out from the screen hanging in
the corner of the room. Sophie turned to see a middle aged man with a mop of
gray hair on the screen. She recognized him instantly as General John McKern, a
Department of Defense Official and advisor on NTC’s payroll.
     “Good morning, Dr. Tsui and staff, glad to see you
all weathered the storm safely. It appears you just missed the worst of it.”
    “Good morning, sir. How did Washington fair?”
    McKern shrugged. “We were better prepared than
most. The military has been hardening facilities, communications, and vehicles
for decades.” He lit a cigar and blew a puff of smoke toward the monitor. “As
you know, it’s the Midwest that took the brunt of it. Which is why I am
contacting you. My superiors want a module showing radioactive patterns. Which
cities are dead zones, which ones may be salvageable. You know the drill,” he
said, taking another drag of his cigar.
    “That will be no problem, sir. We will upload the
data within the hour,” Tsui said, motioning Emanuel and another scientist to a
pair of computers against the far wall.
    “Very good. I’ll check back later,” McKern said,
his image quickly fading.
    Henry, the young scientist who had panicked earlier,
hesitantly motioned Dr. Tsui over to his monitors. “Sir, I think there is
something you should see.”
    “What is it?”
    “Do you remember how the storms seemed to be
lasting longer than initial modules predicted?”
    “Yes, of course I do.”
    “So you recall it seemed as if something was
feeding the storms?”
    Tsui nodded. “What’s your point, Henry?”
    “I think I found out what was feeding them. Take a
look at this—it’s imaging of the sun from the past few days.”
    The group gathered around Henry’s terminal. With a swipe
from his index finger a hologram of the sun shot out and hovered over the
console.
    Sophie studied the translucent image carefully.
Bright red flames swirled around the perimeter of the round ball of energy. She
knew better than anyone in the room what they meant. At least theoretically.
What they were witnessing was an event scientists had never seen. Multiple
solar flares followed by a massive coronal mass ejection. There was only one
explanation.
     “That’s impossible,” Henry said under her breath before
telling the team what Sophie already knew. “The magnetic disruption is coming
from…Mars.”
     
    -5-
     
    A POWERFUL solar wind
carried the ejection straight to the earth’s magnetic field, where it
penetrated the upper atmosphere