Chapter 16: The Carrington Event

Before Hana could react to Shreve’s sinister announcement, new warning dials flashed on Captain Bai’s command system monitors.

“First wave impact in nine minutes!” called the analyst from down below them.

Shreve turned to Hana.

“You’re all going to stay here with Captain Bai. This is one of the most structurally sound fortifications on the outpost, and the dome will give you cover.”

“Where are you going?!” asked Hana.

“We have to keep the outpost safe,” he answered.

With that, he started to leave but stopped and took her hands.

“You were more beautiful than any star tonight. Galaxies and nebulas could form for millions of years and still not compete with your radiance,”

Then he was off.

“How can he say that and leave me?” pleaded Hana as she, Burgess, E’twobe, and Lunara watched the other four board the elevator and disappear.

“Captain, can you hear us?” asked Jax’s voice on the overhead comms system.

“Clear,” replied Captain Bai.

“Katya here,”

“Lux here,”

“Shreve here,”

Hana felt her body’s strength leave her for a moment. She did not like the sensation that had overtaken not only her but the entirety of the outpost. Even more so, she loathed the sensation of being helpless.

The elevator reached the ground. Katya and Jax briefly embraced then went their separate ways.

“I’ll let you know as soon as I’m at the turret command terminal,” called Jax as he ran from Lux and Shreve. Lux’s feet shifted nervously as he stood waiting for orders. Shreve clicked his wrist port and spoke into the receiver.

“RAM-71. I need you to meet me at the launch bays. Code X. Outfit all automatons with repulsor gauntlets and non-Newtonian gel launchers.”

As they rode the rail to Sector Two, Lux couldn’t speak.

“You’ve never done this before. It’s not going to be fun, but it will be like a regular work day. Only difference is the rocks will be flying this time. Sometimes fast.”

“Huh?” asked Lux.

“A nearby star must have had a major CME we couldn’t see. It sends out waves of energy like a bomb. That’s what’s coming our way. We will shelter while the main wave passes over. Once that is done, our suits can withstand the aftershocks. But the waves will throw a lot of asteroids and meteors off their original courses, and many of them will come at our outpost. Turrets will repel most of them, but whatever pieces are missed or not completely broken up will be our job.”

“So that’s what the repulsor and gels are for?” asked Lux.

“Yes. Use the gels to stop small pieces. The non-Newtonian gel will absorb their kinetic energy and halt them almost instantly. If they’re too large, fire a repulsor concussion at them and it will turn them into dust.”

Shreve made it sound easy, and his tone projected certainty. But inside his mind, his thoughts screamed in fear. His knees trembled and his quads spasmed as he dressed in the ion-coated blast suit. The automatons were waiting for them, with RAM-71 carrying extra gear for Lux and Shreve. Gauntlets were attached and then activated with a cackling jolt. Non-Newtonian canisters were loaded into hand cannons with energy dampeners strapped to the men’s forearms.

“Geostorm wave impact in sixty seconds,” said the announcement system.

No one spoke. All that was heard was the haunting repetition of the alarm beeping the never-ending warning. Metal creaked and shifted. Outside, the asteroid’s massive thrusters activated to full power. Glowing green particles of nuclear power drifted like fairy dust into the dark void above.

“Emergency systems live. All residents brace for high-mobility movements,” said Captain Bai over the outpost’s announcement system.

Hana knelt in the corner of the command room with Lunara, Burgess, and E’twobe, holding one another and bracing against the wall.

“Geostorm wave impact in ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven.”

Hana felt Burgess’s hand squeeze hers. The entire asteroid felt as though it was being pulled back into the incoming wave.

“Five”

“Four”

“Three”

“Two”

She never got to have a full night with Shreve. There was so much left she wanted to do and see.

“One”

Yellow energy burned out overhead, turning the dark abyss of space into a glowing golden current. The asteroid shook and began to rotate. Deafening sound, unclear and unrelenting, roared through the walls.

“Rotating base piers nineteen degrees!” shouted Captain Bai.

The main thrusters out on the asteroid's surface pivoted and projected out a massive stream of power and the enormous rock began to turn with the incoming wave. Force pulled down on Hana as though her internal organs were being vacuumed out from within and it felt as though the blood vessels in her eyes might burst. The main wave struck the surface in the distance and Hana caught a glimpse of fiery pillars of nature’s uncontrollable fury bursting from the ground like geysers and stampeding towards them.

“Rolling back! Deactivate all thrusters and switch to balance rods!”

Hana almost couldn’t hear the captain’s words as the ground beneath her lurched and shifted back, pushing her organs into her chest and causing her throat to tighten. Burgess let out a scream.

“Brace! Brace now all of you!”

The dome of Sector One had rotated just in time. The ion coating absorbed and bent the wave-like air on a wing, slipping its rage over the curved surface in one violent rumble. Inside the dome, lights burst and the golden wave covered the visible surfaces in burning brightness. The tremor shook the structures so drastically that Hana felt as though it all might snap and cast them to oblivion at any moment. But that did not happen. The structures held. A piece of scaffolding fell from the ceiling and landed several meters away. The women all let out a scream.

“Take cover!” ordered Captain Bai.

The women stayed together and made their way beneath the bridge where Captain Bai was standing. The tremors stopped. Seconds passed as everyone in the room waited for aftershocks. None came so they all slowly stood at their posts. Captain Bai immediately picked up his command communications unit.

“Jax? Can you hear me?”

It was silent.

“Radio is down. It will likely be down for several minutes,” he said.

“They’re on their own out there.”

Down below, the tremors had passed so Shreve, Lux, and the automatons were running to the bay doors.

“Jax? Jax can you hear me?” asked Sheve.

Silence.

“RAM-71, are you all still able to communicate across your shortwave networks?” he asked.

“Yes, we are unaffected,” replied RAM-71.

“Okay, I need you to transfer our comms to your shortwave. We’ll be close enough to one of you at any point. If we speak, pass it through your systems so that Jax, Lux, and I can communicate. Once we’re outside, spread out so that there is at least one of you for each quadrant. Do not let a single human get injured or this outpost damaged. That is your task.”

“Understood,” the automatons all replied in unison.

“Ok I can hear that,” said Lux with a thumbs up.

“Lux, the automatons will sync with the turrets and take care of most of the heavy lifting. I’ll take the perch and keep an eye out for big pieces that get through. You just listen for callouts and use your nav system to track everything else.”

“Got it.”

The bay doors opened to an unfamiliar surface compared to the rock that Shreve and Hana had just seen days ago. Dust hung low to the ground, untethered from the dirt but still in the asteroid’s artificial gravity pulses. Shards of broken stone jutted into the sky like temple barriers. Thin layers of radiated wind swirled above in currents as though they were beneath the water of a golden lake. Streaks in the sky revealed that pieces of other asteroids and distant moons were already above them, hurtling through the void with viscous force and uncontrolled projection.

Those were far enough away to not be a threat, but the turrets booming above them told Shreve that dangerous pieces of space debris were already making their way into the outpost’s realm. He watched as glowing blue ionic blasts erupted from the barrels of the three-story turrets and pulverized distant targets. Automatons sped across the rocky surface with boosters illuminating their feet as they flew into formation around the asteroid’s now-jagged exterior.

“Can you hear me? Shreve? Lux? Repeat, can anyone hear me? Over.” said Jax’s voice now that an automaton was close enough to patch his signal.

“I hear you, Jax,” replied Lux from his post in the center of the processing fields.

“I hear you,” replied Shreve.

“Thirteen of thirty-four turrets offline from radiation shredding. Diagnostics at seventy-nine percent accuracy. You’re going to get a few that make it through the defenses. I’m deploying a rewrite proxy now but it will take a few minutes to get back to one hundred percent.”

“We can do this. We will give you the cover,” said Lux.

“Jax, we are ready to integrate,” said RAM-71.

A digital chime pinged over the comms and the automatons were now synced with the turrets. Their movements synced into complete harmony as several moved to new locations. Weapons fired non-Newtonian blasts into targets that were moving at Mach speeds. Streaks of flame stopped in microseconds as the trajectory of the targets halted in silence. Smaller debris yipped through, glowing yellow with tracers of burning light zipping behind as they flew into the safe zone. Lux, Shreve, and the automatons targeted each one and either halted them with the non-Newtonian blasts or released charged repulsor concussions, which broke the debris into microscopic dust that lost its velocity instantly.

Across the asteroid they flew, fired, halted, destroyed, and protected.

“Quadrant four! Zone seven! No turrets active!” called Jax.

Lux and Shreve flew to the zone together as fast as the booster jets could propel them. Dozens of burning tracers were flying towards the zone.

‘All turrets offline!”

“Automatons to me!” shouted Shreve.

Within seconds the automatons were near, and the sky erupted into a firefight as the asteroid’s desperate inhabitants waged war on the rocks streaking towards them with murderous indifference. Even with all the firepower they could muster, debris the size of sports balls and small skipping stones still rained down on them like mortar fire. The ground exploded around their feet as the debris collided and shattered. Lux’s gauntlet suddenly locked up and ceased to fire.

“Shreve??!!” called out Lux, his voice shaking.

Shreve leapt in front of Lux and a shard the size of a fist crashed into his knee, flinging his body through the air like a ragdoll before landing on his head.

“AAAAAAAaaaaarrrrggggghhhhhh you mother-” roared out Shreve as he fired his repulsor into the ground to push himself back to his feet.

He limped back to Lux and pointed to RAM-71.

“Get behind him and let your gauntlet reset!”

“INCOMING!!!” shouted Jax.

“ALL FIRE TO QUADRANT FOUR ZONE SEVEN!!!” he screamed.

The sky glowed above Shreve and Lux and they knew the target was big. They looked to the heavens as their doom careened towards them in burning fury until it became so large the two of them realized it was larger than a house.

“Oh shit. Oh oblivion no. Oh no,” cried Lux.

Back at the control tower, Hana was at the window, watching the boys and the automatons fight the sky. The enormous meteor broke into the safe zone and dozens of voices cried out in desperation and fear. Even from that distance, Hana estimated it was at least twenty meters wide, three times that long, and heading straight for the residential sector.

“Seal the blast doors in Sectors Three, Four, and Five!” shouted Captain Bai.

“Oh gods no. Please no no no,” begged Burgess as she looked out at Lux and Shreve.

“No no no,” pleaded Hana as tears ran down her face.

Shreve didn’t speak. He looked back to RAM-71 and Lux. His face was terrified and wild. His usually narrow and dark eyes were wide with hate, as though rage itself was personified in that single soul for a fleeting second.

“I have always hated everything, but not this rock,” he whispered.

His boosters burned and then ruptured as the power dampeners were deactivated. His injured leg was unsteady as he forced himself to face the meteor that was now burning as bright as the sun. His throat seemed to tear as he let out a defiant roar of pain and frustration.

“BRING IT ON YOU SON OF A BITCH!” he roared out as his gauntlets reached full charge.

“Shreve???!!!” cried out Hana as she watched from hundreds of meters away, but he could not hear her.

Shreve’s boosters fired an explosive blast and he lept into the air with the speed of the turret artillery.

“SHREVE!!!! No!!!” screamed Hana as her hands pounded against the glass.

He was hundreds of feet away from the surface now, barrelling toward his prey. His gauntlets began to beep as their charge went above safety levels. His fists clenched and his hand reared back. The meteor was seconds away, moving faster than a light shuttle. He unleashed every round of non-Newtonian cases he had and the shots beamed into the massive target.

“RRAAAAAARRRRRGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!” he screamed out as he swung the full power of his repulsor fist into the towering meteor.

White light echoed out from the sky in a silent concussive boom that rattled the window from which Hana viewed the entire event. Her fingers stayed against the glass as the blast’s force shook the building. The meteor was disintegrated. Billions of small shards of shattered stone hovered in the safe zone. It was gone.

“No,” she cried.

“Oh oblivion no.”

“Wait!” cried out Lunara as she pointed out the window.

To Hana’s shock, there was Shreve. Even from hundreds of meters away she could see that his body was still intact. He crashed towards the surface in free fall as Lux and RAM-71 flew towards him, firing gels into the air to break his fall. It was enough to slow him and he hit the surface and then rolled several meters with a heavy, uncontrolled thud. Lux was there in seconds and quickly turned Shreve’s body over to see his face.

“Ow,” groaned Shreve.

He was alive. His arm was shattered and hung at his side like a rag roll, but his suit was still sealed and he was alive.

“Hoooooooollllllllyyyyyyy shit did you just tank an oblivion-damned meteor?!!!!” screamed out Lux.

“OOOOOOOOHHHHMYYYYYYWORD, is he alive?” called out Jax over the comms channel.

“I’m alive,” murmured Shreve as he tried to sit up.

The radio systems came back online.

“Jax, Lux, this is Captain Bai. This is Captain Bai do you copy?” asked Captain Bai.

“We copy. Shreve is alive. Turrets back at one hundred percent accuracy! I repeat, turrets back, and Shreve is alive and safe!”

The women all stood at the window as they watched Jax rush down to embrace Lux and Shreve, who could not yet stand on his own.

"Did he just punch a meteor?" asked Lunara in a stunned whisper.

"Yep," said Hana.

"Did they just shoot a million meteors to protect everyone?" asked Katya.

"Yep," said E'twobe.

“...Wet,” was all Hana could murmur.

“Yep,” said Burgess and Katya.

“Yep,” agreed E’twobe and Lunara.

Captain Bai returned to the command terminal and changed the dials to long-range outreach channels. Feedback cleared.

“This is Captain Bai on Colony Outpost 1117. We have sustained damage from direct impact with an X-class Carrington wave. Be warned all who are in this realm. Be prepared for immediate action!”

Feedback broke and a voice tried to speak.

“-the main one. Repeat! That is not the main wave!” said an unknown voice.

‘Repeat?” asked Captain Bai as the room fell silent once again.

“This is Outpost 1114. We were just hit by a second wave two minutes ago! It is coming your way fast! Bank towards the colony and brace all structures now! It will be there soon! I repeat- it …. Coming… fast……….. Brace……………. ………………………………..”

Communication signals failed again. Captain Bai paused in disbelief.

“Jax? Lux? Shreve? RAM-71 can you hear me?”

There was no answer.

Hana stood and faced the window as alarms began to sound once more and the red lights returned. The boys were still embracing on the surface, unaware that the sky above them was beginning to glow white and gold.

“Shreve! Shreve!!! SHREVE!!!!!” screamed Hana as her momentary relief plunged back to dread.

He could not hear her, but when Shreve looked up, his eyes saw the sky alight with fire.

“There’s another wave…” he murmured.

Jax and Lux looked up as well.

“Oh shit. Oh shit no,” said Jax.

He and Lux each grabbed one of Shreve’s arms and rushed towards the outpost. Heat began to burn on their suits. The wave was already upon them.

“We’re not going to make it to the outpost!” screamed Lux.

“Humans! This way!” shouted RAM-71 as it opened the roof of a shallow deposit cellar that was dug into the asteroid’s surface.

The boys rushed into the cellar as RAM-71 and several other automatons jumped in behind them and pulled the door sealed. Hana screamed from the window above as the wave reached the asteroid and the ground exploded in light. Burgess and Katya were there beside her, watching in terror as the flames ignited the entire surface.

“Shreve!” screamed Hana.

“Lux!!” screamed Burgess.

"Jax!" screamed Katya.

“GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS! BRACE!!” shouted Captain Bai, but it was too late.

Force from the wave hit the building and Hana felt her body leave the ground as she was lifted and then flung into the wall behind her. Burgess landed beside her with a thud. Lights exploded. Scaffolding snapped and fell like an axe straight toward to two girls.

“BURGESS!” screamed Hana as she jumped forward to shove Burgess to safety. The enormous metal bracing missed Burgess by inches, but Hana could not get out of the way in time. Pain erupted up her arm, through her chest, and into her throat as her hand and lower-arm were crushed beneath the multi-tonne brace.

There was a blood-curdling scream then all went white.