Chapter 7
Aboard the Arks
On board Ark 4
Adrian arrived in his cabin and noted its rather large size. "What the hell?" he said as he examined the cabin.
"What is this? You could fit 10 people in here." he added.
Just then, his cell phone began to ring. He checked the caller ID and answered it.
"Satnam, where are you?" he asked. "On the Nampan Plateau." Satnam replied.
"What?" Adrian asked.
"There's a tidal wave coming from the east, it's gigantic." Satnam replied.
"Satnam, what happened?" Adrian asked. "We never got picked up, Adrian, the airlift never came. Goodbye, my friend." Satnam replied as he lowered his phone.
"Satnam, Satnam, Satnam!" Adrian called out. He listened helplessly as Satnam and the others around him were washed away by the massive wave.
"DAMMIT!" he said as he tossed his phone in frustration and ran out of the cabin.
Ark 4 bridge
"The flooding is coming this way?" Carl asked. "Mary, where are we set up?" Adrian asked after he arrived on the bridge.
"Over there." Mary replied as she pointed to a set of computer displays in another part of the bridge.
"Get me the satellite images from Nampan, India." Adrian ordered.
"OK, right away." Scotty replied as he pulled up the images. "What's happening?" Carl asked.
"No, Satnam was talking about another wave coming from the east." Adrian said after seeing the images of the wave coming from the west. Scotty adjusted the image display.
"Holy mother of God." Adrian said when he saw the images. "So, the flooding's gonna hit earlier, is that what you're telling me? The second wave is closer?" Carl asked.
"Plug in the new data." Adrian ordered. "Okay." Scotty replied as he entered the data.
"Satnam didn't get picked up." Adrian said, his frustration taking hold. "What?" Scotty asked.
"A lot of people didn't get picked up in this chaos. This is not a conspiracy, Helmsley. Your predictions haven't exactly panned out, have they, doctor?" Carl asked.
"It's ready, it's ready." Scotty said. They looked at the image in shock. "Oh, God, it's about 1500 meters high." Adrian said.
"When's it gonna get here? Talk to me, Helmsley, when's it gonna hit?" Carl asked. "Adjust the countdown." Adrian ordered.
All eyes fell on the timer as it adjusted to account for the newly discovered wave.
The timer stopped adjusting and continued counting down at 28 minutes and 10 seconds to impact.
"Oh, my God." Adrian said. "Captain, I need to speak to the other heads of state immediately." Carl said.
"Right away, Taylor?" Captain Michaels replied. "Aye, captain, standing by. Ark 6, stand by, Ark 7, stand by" Taylor replied.
Once the comm link was online, Carl began. "This is Carl Anheuser, acting CIC, Ark 4." Carl said. "Yes, sir." one of the commanders in the other arks replied.
"Requesting emergency conference, T-99" Carl finished.
Down the road from the crash site, a half-hour later
Robert and the others were riding in the back of the truck that had picked them up a half-hour earlier.
Robert looked at Edward, who was asleep, as Jennifer looked at Robert. "He thinks the world of you, you know that?" Jennifer asked.
"He's a great little man." Robert replied. "Yeah" Jennifer replied. "I always wanted a family of my own. You're pretty lucky, Jen; don't ever forget it." Robert replied.
Five minutes later, they arrived at a gate, likely to the safe zone. Robert and the others got out as a man on the other side opened the gate.
"Who are they?" the man asked in Chinese as the driver got to him. "We found them along-side the road." the driver replied in Chinese.
"Send them back!" the gate man replied. The driver looked at Robert and the others and knew that he would not do that.
"I am a follower of our great Lama Rinpoche. You know I cannot do that." the driver replied.
"What's the problem? You don't have to take all of us, please, just take my children, I'm begging you." Jennifer said.
"Why should I do that?" the gate man replied in English. "The same reason you sent for your family, please." Robert replied.
"Please just the children, you don't have to take us, please!" Irma pleaded. "Please, I don't know if you can understand what I'm saying, as a mother, I'm begging you!" Jennifer said to the elderly woman.
"We are all children of the earth." the elderly woman said to the gate man.
"My plan will not work for so many, Grandma." the gate man replied. "We will take them all." the woman replied sternly.
The gate man then gave them an "oh, all right" look and the others walked in.
Ark loading area
"Attention: all construction workers off deck, all crew members, on board now." an intercom announced as the massive hangar doors began to open.
"They're opening the mountain!" one man in the crowd said. "They're leaving without us." another man said.
"Step back, get back! What did I tell you?" the man in charge said as another man stepped towards the door.
"They're leaving you behind too. Look, idiot." the man said and as the supervisor looked around, before he could react, the man unleashed a hard right hook that knocked the man down.
The crowd then pushed the doors open and went towards the boarding area. "Follow me!" the lead man in the crowd said.
Just outside the facility
Robert and the others stared in awe as the large hangar doors opened. "We have to hurry, they are leaving." the gate man said. Inside her cabin, Laura stumbled as the ark shook.
"Initiate security procedures, time to impact: 17 minutes 42 seconds." a computer announced. A group of construction workers looked in awe as the ark slowly moved forward.
"Oh, excuse me. Where can I find Adrian Helmsley?" Laura asked out in the main passageway.
"He's on the bridge, this way." a woman replied as she led Laura towards the bridge.
Meanwhile, The gate man, Tenzin, led Robert and the others up towards Ark 4.
In the bridge
"Green lights on pressure, Mr. Anton?" Captain Michaels asked. "Green lights across the board, captain." Anton replied.
Meanwhile, Robert and the others climbed out of a hatch and ended up on one of the support structures below one of the arks.
Edward stared in awe at the huge vessel. "Why do they have anchors?" he asked.
"Because they're not spaceships, buddy; they're arks." Robert replied. "Noah, eat your heart out." Irma said as she and the others moved on.
Meanwhile, the crowd that was originally going on Ark 3 rushed towards Ark 4.
"Stop, stop! Stop!" one of the men in the crowd said as the crowd slowed down upon approaching the edge.
It was too late, and some people started falling over the edge. The ark shuddered as it was moved into place.
"Engage the support mechanisms." Captain Michaels ordered. "Aye, aye, captain. Engaging bow-anchor supports." another crew member replied as she engaged the supports.
"Just how long are they supposed to hold us in place?" Carl asked. "They're just meant to withstand the first impact of the waves, Mr. Anheuser." Captain Michaels replied.
As the stern supports engaged, Robert and the others carefully made their way along the edge of the place where the support would hook onto the ark.
They went into a hatch that led inside. Inside, Robert opened a bag full of flashlights and passed them out to the others.
Tenzin opened another hatch and led the others inside.
Inside the next compartment, which looked like some hydraulics area, Tenzin was using a huge air wrench to open a hatch that led to a tunnel.
Meanwhile, in the bridge, Adrian and the others in the bridge stared in horror at the camera image of the crowd spilling over the edge of the platform.
"Oh, my God. What's happening out there?" Laura asked. "Anheuser. Anheuser convinced the other heads of state to launch." Adrian replied.
"Mr. Anheuser, we have to stop this madness. Make sure the other bridges can see me." Adrian said.
"What do you think you're doing?" Carl asked.
"I know damn well what I'm doing. Turn it on." Adrian replied.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Dr. Adrian Helmsley, chief science advisor to the late President Wilson. I know we've all been forced to make difficult decisions to save our human civilization, but to be human means to care for each other and civilization means working together to create a better life. If that's true, then there's nothing human and nothing civilized about what we're doing here." Adrian said.
"Dr. Helmsley's passion is admirable, but I will remind you that we have very limited resources and extremely limited time." Carl said.
"Ask yourselves, can we really stand by and watch these people die? I read a quote two days ago, the author is probably dead by now, but he said: 'The moment we stop fighting for each other, that's the moment that we lose our humanity.' " Adrian continued.
"In order to save the human race, we have an obligation to stick to this plan, which every nation on this flotilla has signed up for." Carl replied.
"We have to let these people in!" Adrian shouted. "They're in God's hands now." Carl replied harshly. Everyone on the bridge fell silent.
"Officer, you turn that off." Carl ordered. The officer stared in shock. "That is an order, sailor, turn it off!" Carl added.
"Don't you dare touch that button, young man!" Adrian's assistant said.
"Have you completely lost your mind? Look at the clock, we have barely 15 minutes left! Do you wanna be responsible for the extinction of the human race? Can you handle that, Adrian?" Carl said.
"There's a young astrophysicist from India who's the reason we're all here." Adrian started.
"Oh, for God's sake." Carl said.
"He's the one who discovered it all. He connected all the dots, we all owe him our lives. I just learned that he was killed with his family in a tsunami in eastern India. He was my friend, and he died in vain. Everybody out there has died in vain if we start our future with an act of cruelty. What will you tell their children? What will they tell theirs?" Adrian pleaded.
"If my father were here, he would open the gates." Laura added. "The people of Russia along with China and Japan, agree to open the gates." the Russian president said.
"The United Kingdom, Spain, France, Canada, Germany, and I believe I may also speak for the Italian prime minister, we vote to let those people come in." the German prime minister added.
"Captain Michaels, please." Adrian pleaded. Captain Michaels picked up a phone.
"This is the captain, in a few moments, we will open the gates and get you people in. Please step back and clear the platform." he said over a loudspeaker.
The crowd outside instantly cheered at this news.
Meanwhile, Irma and the others, were making their way down a tunnel. "P-yew, it stinks." Bella said, referring to a foul odor that was present.
Elyon looked around and, upon looking up, saw a pair of giraffes on the deck above them. Looking around, they saw other animals in the area.
They then realized that they were in some kind of zoological chamber. Outside, the gates were opening on all of the arks.
"They are opening the gates." Tenzin said. The arm attached to the gate was coming down on the chamber that Robert, Caleb and Tenzin were still in.
Caleb tried to climb into the ventilation shaft, but the gate arm came down too fast and knocked him and Tenzin off of the ladder.
The air wrench landed in the space between two of the giant gears that were driving the gate mechanism. Caleb and Tenzin managed to grab an edge, but they were slipping.
Tenzin nearly slipped, his legs being cut by the sharp edges of the gear teeth. Robert managed to pull him up and went to help Caleb.
"Caleb, hold on, goddamn it! Give me your hand!" Robert said as he reached for Caleb. Caleb was starting to slip, and would soon fall.
"Come on, Caleb, grab my hand, Caleb! CALEB!" Robert shouted as Caleb slipped, falling to his death in the gears below.
"GODDAMMIT!" Robert shouted, frustrated over what just happened. Seconds later, the gate support arm got dangerously close.
Robert and Tenzin lay flat where they were, preparing for what was coming.
Suddenly, just as Robert had accepted his fate, the cable of the air wrench wrapped around the gear shaft and jammed the mechanism, causing it to stop.
Robert breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that he had not been crushed.
On the bridge
An alert came on the display showing a problem with the gate. "What's wrong with the gate?" Captain Michaels asked.
"Looks like it didn't run the full cycle; we're checking, captain." another crew member replied.
Outside, part of the crowd rushed onto the ramp and into the ark. Four minutes to impact. The computer announced.
Among the crowd was a group of workers that had joined the crowd. "We are loaded, captain." a crew member said.
"Well, let's lock it up, now." Carl replied. The gate began to rise as the last few members of the Ark 3 crowd got inside.
As the gate support rose, Robert and Tenzin got up. Suddenly, the cable broke, and the gate was jammed again.
On the bridge, the fault showed on the display as a hydraulics malfunction. "Something's jamming the hydraulics, captain." an ensign said.
"Then get it out, for Christ's sake. I can't fire up the engines until we get a good seal on that gate." Captain Michaels replied.
Just then, another crew member put up camera images of Robert and the others in the zoological area.
"Captain, we have a breach in the zoological bay." he said. "Can you zoom in?" Adrian asked.
"Yeah, the crew member replied as he zoomed in. Adrian recognized Bella and Edward immediately.
"I know those kids." he said. "What is happening? What is going on?" Carl asked. "Where did the come from?" Adrian asked.
The crew member changed to the hydraulics chamber camera display, which showed Robert helping Tenzin up.
"There, through the hydraulics chamber." the crew member said. "Captain, I think we found the problem." Adrian said. "Who are these people?" Carl asked.
"No, wait. He's injured, something must have gone wrong." Laura replied.
"Something must have gone wrong? Something must have gone- Are you kidding me? Of course something went wrong! You know, congratulations to the both of you, might have gotten us all killed, but as long as your conscience is clean, right Helmsley?" Carl replied.
"Captain, let's get an emergency team down there. I'll meet them at the hydraulics chamber." Adrian said.
"You know your way around here?" he asked another crew member. "Yeah, the officer replied.
"Let's go!" Adrian replied as they rushed for the hydraulics chamber. One minute to impact. the computer announced as the timer went past the 1 minute mark.
Meanwhile, the gargantuan wall of water had just reached the Cho Ming airfield, sweeping away every aircraft parked there, including Air Force One.
"Captain, Cho Ming Airfield's been hit." Taylor said. "Put me on emergency comm, Mr. Taylor." Captain Michaels replied.
"Aye, you're on, captain." Taylor replied as he handed Captain Michaels the receiver. "This is the captain speaking, we expect to be impacted by water shortly, all new passengers: hit the deck and brace yourselves" he said over the intercom.
"Okay, let's go!" Adrian said as he, the officer leading them and Laura made their way through the crowd. The new passengers got down and braced for the impact.
At this point, the crew could actually see the tsunami coming at them. "All stations, prepare for impact." the captain said.
Everyone braced themselves as the wave started to approach. As the wave hit, the ark shook and shuddered as the strong hull absorbed the impact.
Unfortunately, the gate had not closed all the way, and water began to rush in through the gap. The water rushed into the crowd, sweeping everybody off their feet.
"Collision pressure just below 80 pascal, captain." one officer said. "0.2 mil surface compression on bow sensors, captain." another officer said. "Alright, track Dr. Helmsley." Scotty said as they tracked his progress via the security cameras.
Meanwhile, as Robert helped get Tenzin into the chamber, alarms started to go off. "Elyon, will you take the kids to the stairs, please?" Jennifer asked.
"Which way?" Adrian asked as they made their way to the hydraulics chamber.
"We can't get there, water has penetrated the stern." the officer replied. The rear of the ship is starting to seal itself up one compartment at a time!" he added.
"Where's Caleb?" Cornelia asked. Robert shook his head. "He didn't make it, I'm sorry." he replied.
Suddenly, large yellow doors rose up from the deck, sealing off parts of the flooding tunnel. One door popped up between Jennifer and her kids.
"No! Bella!" Jennifer yelled. "Mommy!" Bella yelled back as the door shut. Elyon and Bella pounded on the door, but looked around as another door shut itself on the other end.
"Run, Bella! Run!" Elyon shouted as she and Bella rushed towards the closing door. "Go! Go!" Elyon shouted as Bella climbed over the door.
Bella managed to get over just before the door was sealed. "Mommy!" Bella yelled as she pounded on the door. "Dammit!" Elyon yelled as she realized that she was trapped.
"Sir, is there another way to the hydraulics chamber?" Adrian asked. "Where does this ladder go?" Laura asked.
"To the zoological bay!" the crew member replied. "Okay, okay, let's go!" Adrian said as they proceeded down the ladder.
In the bridge, the crew watched as Air Force One was swept towards them. "Professor, it's Air Force One." Scotty said.
The aircraft smashed into the starboard mid-ship anchor support, breaking it off. The ark shook from the impact as the other anchor supports gave way and broke.
The now-loose ark turned towards the other two arks on a collision course. The ark shook with the vibrations as the bottom of the bow scraped against the hull of Ark Number 5.
"Captain, the turbine's not responding." an officer said. "So override it. Hit the override button and start the engines." Carl ordered.
"We can't start the engines until we close that gate." the captain replied.
The ark went down a mountainside like going over a waterfall, throwing people against the bulkheads. "Help me! Help!" Elyon shouted as the water rose higher.
"Elyon! Elyon!" Bella shouted as she continued to pound the door. At this point, Adrian, Laura and the officer reached her. "You okay?" Adrian asked.
"My mommy's in there. Please help her." Bella replied. "We'll get to your mommy, they're doing everything they can." Laura replied to calm her down.
"Can we talk to them?" Adrian asked. "I'm gonna try to connect us." the officer replied as he dialed in some numbers.
"We have to stop the bleeding." Jennifer said as she examined Tenzin's wounds. "Mom, how about my belt?" Edward suggested.
Just then, a beep was heard as the comm link was activated. "Mr. Lair! Robert!" Adrian's voice said.
"Hey!" Robert shouted upon hearing the voice. "Help! Hey!" Irma shouted.
"It's Adrian Helmsley, we met at Yellowstone." Adrian said. "That's great! Open the goddamn door!" Robert replied.
"Your niece is with me!" Adrian replied. "Bella!" Robert called out. "Bella!" Jennifer called out. "Where's Edward?" Bella asked.
"I'm right here, Bell." Edward replied as he showed her his location. Impact warning, thirty degrees west, forty-five degrees east. Target elevation, 29,035 feet. The computer announced.
"Twenty-nine thousand feet? What the hell is at 29,000 feet?" Carl asked. "We're headed straight for the north face of Mount Everest, Mr. Anheuser, and if we cannot start the engines, we will not survive the impact." the captain replied.
The ark drifted closer and closer to Mt. Everest, in imminent danger of impact.
"Robert, you're sealed off. We can't get to you! There's something blocking the hydraulics! If you can't get it out, none of us are gonna make it!" Adrian said.
"Dr. Helmsley, look at this; it is completely submerged down there, there would be no way for them to get any air." the officer said.
"There's no other way." Adrian replied. "But it's a suicide mission, sir." the officer replied. "I know where it is, I'll give it a try." Robert said.
"Wait, I'm going with you." Irma said as she started to follow Robert. "Okay, but stay close to me." Robert replied.
"What happened, anyway?" Irma asked. "We caused it, it was us, we gotta check it out." Robert replied as they held their breaths and went under.
Meanwhile, Elyon was up to her neck in water, which was still rising. "Please! Can you hear me?" she shouted.
She struggled to keep her head above water as it rose to just a few inches below the deck above.
Meanwhile, Robert and Irma raced to the hydraulics chamber. They found the air wrench cable jammed in the gears. They located an air pocket above them and got some air.
In the bridge, the crew watched as they got closer to Mount Everest. Distance to impact: 1850 meters, the computer announced. Adrian dialed the number that switched the camera feed to the hydraulics chamber.
"There he is!" Adrian said as he picked up a phone. "Captain, we have a visual! I think we found the problem." he said.
"Show us the hydraulics chamber!" the professor ordered. Scotty changed the display to show the camera feed from the hydraulics chamber. Irma looked on as Robert tried to free the cable.
Robert surfaced to get more air as Irma went to make an attempt. They were taking turns trying to unjam the cable, alternating on each breath.
One person would be down unjamming the cable, while the other used the flashlight to mark the location of the air pocket.
"Grandma, Grandpa, I am sorry, I could not save us." Tenzin said. "They have gone back in, they will fix it." Tenzin's brother, the gate man, replied. "There's no way." Tenzin replied.
"Don't lose your faith, brother." Tenzin's brother replied.
Outside, the ark was scraping against the bottom of the mountain. The impact helped to unjam the cable, but disoriented Robert in the process.
Irma lost sight of him among the cloud of bubbles that appeared from below the gears. "Robert!" she shouted.
On the bridge, the camera feed was lost. "No, we lost him, we're gonna die, we're gonna die!" Scotty said.
In the hydraulics chamber, Robert regained his bearings and held up his hands to show Irma that he was alright before he continued his efforts. Irma found the frayed end of the cable and tracked it to the gear shaft that it was wrapped around.
She signaled Robert to show him and he swam over and saw the problem.
They surfaced to get more air. "Great job, you light the way, I'll go for the cable." Robert said as he went back under. "Okay." Irma replied.
On the bridge, the crew braced for the imminent. Distance to impact: 400 meters; the computer announced. "Underwater ridge ahead, we're gonna run aground, captain." an officer said.
The ark shook from the impact with the ridge, just as Robert had disconnected the other end of the cable from the air wrench.
At that moment, the gears started turning again, and Robert grabbed the tool before it could fall back into the gears. "Yeah!" Irma cheered as Robert dropped the air wrench onto the deck below. Irma and Robert then began heading back towards the others.
In the bridge, the display showed that the gate was now fully sealed. "Sir, the gate is sealed." one officer said. "That's affirmative, captain." another officer added. "Anton, start the engines!" the captain ordered.
"Aye, aye, captain. Full reverse." Anton replied as he applied the engine setting lever to FULL REVERSE. A puff of black smoke shot out of the exhaust stacks as the engines started up.
"We're too fast! We're not gonna make it!" an officer said. Distance to impact: 50 meters...40 meters; the computer announced. The bottom of the hull hit part of the mountain base as the bow dug into the side of the mountain.
Everyone on the bridge stared in horror as a huge avalanche of rocks and ice came down towards the ark. Reverse motion activated, distance to impact: 10 meters...20 meters, the computer announced as the ark finally began backing out and away from the mountainside.
Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Yes!" Scotty yelled as everyone on the bridge started cheering loudly. "Hard to port," the captain ordered. "Aye, captain, hard to port!" the helmsman replied as he applied the proper settings. The ark started turning away from the mountain.
In the chamber, Irma surfaced first. "We did it, we did it, we did it!" she said as she hugged Cornelia. "Where's Robert?" Cornelia asked. "He was right behind me." Irma replied.
"Any word from the hydraulics chamber? Where is he?" the captain asked. "I thought you said he was right behind you?" Jennifer said. "He was." Irma replied. "Are you sure?" Taranee asked.
"Yeah, he was right there!" Irma replied, tears building up in her eyes.
Irma and Jennifer went under to check the tunnel entrance, but saw no sign of Robert. They surfaced and stared in disbelief. "Robert...no." Jennifer said. Cornelia cried in Taranee's arms.
"Come on, Robert, come on." Irma said as she cried. "Oh, God, please don't let it end like this, please don't let him be dead!" Irma said.
Just then, their eyes grew wide as they saw a beam of light coming from the other end of the tunnel.
"Oh, my-" Irma said as she saw Robert swim up towards them. He surfaced and found himself in Irma's arms.
"He did it!" Adrian said as he saw what was happening. "Uncle Bob!" Bella shouted with joy. "He did it!" Alex shouted. "He did it!" Taranee shouted.
Everyone started cheering again, this time over Robert's incredible success against overwhelming odds. "I can't believe it, I thought I lost you down there!" Irma said as she cried.
"Hey, it's okay, guys like me don't die that easily!" Robert replied. Irma chuckled at the joke and hugged him. Tenzin weakly gave Robert a thumbs-up.
Everyone in the chamber smiled with relief as the water started to lower.
Elyon, weakened from her struggle, breathed a sigh of relief as the water level dropped fast, thanks to the ark's advanced dewatering system.
The doors eventually opened and Elyon was reunited with the others. The ark sailed out of the mountain range and into clear waters.
At long last, the danger was over.
The next night...
Robert and Irma were resting in a cabin that they were given after their intense experience. As Robert started to fall asleep, Irma started crying. "Hey, what's wrong?" Robert asked as he wrapped his arm around her.
"I...I just can't stop thinking about what had happened, all those people who died, all...all our friends and family we lost!" Irma replied before she cried on Robert's shoulder.
"Hey, it's okay, the thing that matters is that we're alive, we made it. That's what they would have wanted: for us to survive and become part of mankind's future; for us to have a future." Robert replied.
Irma wiped her tears away as she kissed Robert. A minute later, they heard crying from the cabin next to theirs.
"Sounds like Cornelia's really feeling the effects of Caleb's death." Robert said. "Yeah, I think we should go see her, show her we care." Irma replied.
"Yeah, that's a good idea." Robert replied as they got up.
They entered Cornelia's cabin and saw her crying on her bed. "Cornelia." Irma said as she sat next to her. Cornelia got up and saw Irma and Robert.
"Oh, you guys!" Cornelia said as she hugged them. "I'm so sorry about Caleb; he was a good man." Robert said.
Just then, Elyon came in. "Hey, Elyon." Irma said as she saw her. "I heard Cornelia crying and I wanted to see how she's doing." Elyon said as she walked towards them.
Cornelia saw Elyon and wrapped her in a bear hug as she cried.
They stayed like that for the rest of the night, their first night of rest since the whole series of global cataclysms began.