Jessamy Beech Ch. 12: Thanatos

"Soteria. Greek goddess of protection. Cummon, control room's this way."

"Makes sense," Jessamy examined the SA80's underslung grenade launcher as she followed Hamnavoe deeper into the bunker.

He turned to face her, "Look Jess, I'm sorry I've no' been straight with ye. When Laura and the wee 'uns, Hamish and Iona, were still alive I reckoned it'd make me a target for any crazy bastard out there. I didnae wanna bring all that doon on them so I changed ma name. Even when ... even when they died, I didnae see any point in changin' it back."

"Hmm," Jessamy checked the SA80's clip then shouldered the weapon. Finders keepers. At the end of the room another door led into what Jessamy had expected to see ...

Hamnavoe stepped through into a dimly lit room only slightly bigger than the vestibule. Two padded chairs faced a huge control console that occupied the entire wall. Screens were flickering to life, gauges showing power levels, status reports scrolling across displays.

"The system boots up automatically when the outside door opens," Hamnavoe explained, "take a seat. I might need your help."

"GOOD MORNING MAJOR BANAVIE. HOW ARE YOU TODAY?"

"Uh, good morning Laura. I'm very well thank you. System activation code Banavie 432688," Hamnavoe turned to Jessamy, "we could choose what to call the computer depending on who activated the system. Fredrickson would've called it Helen after his wife. He was a twat but he was totally devoted to her."

Jessamy sat back in her chair feeling sick to her stomach. Perhaps now they were finally here, there was a slim chance they could do something after all. She found it hard to believe that all this had been here for years, hidden away underground while thousands of tourists strolled around the cathedral above completely oblivious.

"There's also a portable duplicate of this entire set up in a sealed container back there," Hamnavoe explained, "it can be loaded into a vehicle the size of a pickup if the bunker becomes ... compromised. We called it 'Soteria Lite'. It works the same but doesnae have all that security shite programmed in thankfully."

"After today we hopefully won't need it anymore," replied Jessamy. Just what did all these controls actually DO? There were literally hundreds of knobs, dials, buttons and blinking lights.

"Laura, could you give me a systems status report please?" asked Hamnavoe. He slipped on a headset and gestured to Jessamy to do the same.

"IT WOULD BE MY PLEASURE MAJOR BANAVIE ... BUNKER SYSTEMS OPERATING AT 98.5% EFFICIENCY ..."

Hamnavoe nodded.

"SENSORS AT 99.5% EFFICIENCY ..."

"Ye can expect a wee bit of degradation after thirty years lass," he told Jessamy.

"SATELLITE NETWORK AT 96.5% EFFICIENCY. UNIT AA-23 IS NO LONGER OPERATIONAL BUT ADJACENT UNITS WILL COMPENSATE ..."

"Only one satellite lost in thirty fuckin' years. That's pretty bloody good going I'd say."

"TARGETING SYSTEM AT 42.5% EFFICIENCY ..."

"What? Repeat that last please Laura."

"TARGETING SYSTEM AT 42.5% EFFICIENCY ..."

"What's that mean Hamnavoe ... Banavie, whatever the hell your name is?" Jessamy didn't like the expression on the old Scot's face one bit.

"It means the system's up and running and more or less in full workin' order ... but we cannae fuckin' shoot straight."

. . .

John Beech ducked back down behind the Merlin's undercarriage next to his father.

"Any sign?" asked Ross. He'd applied a field dressing to his leg as best he could with one arm, but prayed he'd be able to get back to Mrs Taber and some antibiotics soon before any infection had chance to take hold. Barely fifty yards away across the road stood an abandoned doctor's surgery and pharmacy, but after thirty years of looting and wanton destruction, he guessed that the chances of finding anything useful there were less than zero.

"No. Lookouts are still there but no sign of the main group. How's the repair coming?"

Ross nodded in Newald's direction. Standing precariously on a twenty gallon container of aviation fuel, the pilot's head and shoulders were hidden, up inside the helicopter's fuselage with a bullet riddled maintenance panel lying nearby on the dead grass, "Newald says it's just a hydraulic line needs fixing with some gaffer tape. We should be okay in a few minutes."

The muffled thump of a meteorite strike just a few miles distant made the Merlin's panelling rattle beside them.

"Gaffer tape? What then?"

"Well ... your Aunt Jess and her Scottish friend might need our help. I've got a sneaky suspicion that's where the rest of our scavenger chums went," Ross peered down the road at one of the barely visible scavenger lookouts, wondering how difficult a shot it would be to take them out.

"To the cathedral? Oh fuck," John glanced north towards the city centre.

Ross raised an eyebrow, "Watch your language."

"Sorry Dad."

"I'll let you off this once."

. . .

"Laura, run a full orbital sensor sweep please," Hamnavoe ordered, "tag anything non terrestrial that's bigger than say ... five metres across ... anything smaller will probably burn up an' no' cause us any bother."

"CERTAINLY MAJOR BANAVIE. AND WHAT MAXIMUM SIZE OBJECT SHOULD I BE SCANNING FOR?"

"Oh, let's say ... any object up to the size of ... France?" Hamnavoe looked quizzically at Jessamy.

"CERTAINLY MAJOR. THIS MAY TAKE A FEW MOMENTS."

"Can I get ye a coffee while we're waitin' JB?" Hamnavoe offered.

THUNK!

A long black arrow slammed into the metal wall panel inches from Hamnavoe's head, "What the fu ...?"

Jessamy spun around in time to spot two shabbily dressed figures ducking back on either side of the bunker entrance behind them. They'd forgotten to close the door, "Scavengers, or crazies. Stay here and do what you need to do. I'll deal with them."

BLAM!

The bowman stupidly chose that moment to peer out from his cover. A round from Jessamy's Glock instantly painted the vestibule wall with the contents of his head. The second ran.

"Shit," Jessamy swore as she set off in pursuit. She wondered if they were the same scavengers who'd attacked the Merlin and prayed that Ross and the others were okay. She raised her newly acquired SA80, then noticed the longbow the first attacker had dropped, "Hmm, it's been a while ..."

THUNG!

The second hostile was halfway across the cathedral when Jessamy's arrow took him in the back and erupted through his throat.

"Yes," she hissed. Jessamy's grin turned to a look of horrified dismay when she spotted at least a dozen more scruffy figures hastily taking cover behind pillars, pews and whatever else was available.

She sprinted back into the bunker and slammed her hand on the door control, "Hamnavoe. Now'd be a good time. We've got company and there's probably more on the way!"

"CURRENTLY TRACKING MULTIPLE TARGETS ..." Laura's synthesized voice announced, "... IN RAPIDLY DECAYING ORBITS. ESTIMATED ENTRY OF LARGEST MASS INTO EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE WILL BE IN APPROXIMATELY EIGHT MINUTES. IMPACT WILL BE SOMEWHERE IN CENTRAL EUROPE ..."

"Eight minutes!" Jessamy gasped. After thirty years orbiting the Earth, Thanatos was finally breaking up as it skimmed the upper atmosphere, chunks flaking off and descending at a much faster rate than the main bulk of the asteroid - the meteorite showers they'd experienced.

If what Bromden had told her was true, even an impact thousands of miles away would be catastrophic. She remembered his exact words, "The impact and resulting ash cloud will wipe out every last living thing on the planet. What we call an Extinction Level Event."

"I say we aim for the big fella first an' hope the wee 'uns don't cause too much collateral damage JB," Hamnavoe reasoned, "the rest of the network are in geostationary on the other side of the planet, so we can only use fourteen of our satellites ... a-and for a target this size it still may no' be enough ..."

"Can't we just keep shooting until we've hit them all?" Jessamy interrupted.

Hamnavoe shook his head, "Twentieth century charged particle beam weapons. Seven minute recharge time between shots lass. It'd be too late."

"SEVEN MINUTES, THIRTY SECONDS ..."

Jessamy nodded in agreement, "Go for the big fella."

"SEVEN MINUTES, FIFTEEN SECONDS ..."

"Laura, please target largest mass with all available units."

"CERTAINLY MAJOR. ENTRY IN SEVEN MINUTES, FIVE SECONDS ..."

"Fire!" Hamnavoe ordered.

"FIRING. ENTRY IN SEVEN MINUTES ..."

. . .

Miles above the Earth in the vacuum of space, fourteen identical satellites, launched in secret through the 1990s were finally called on to do what they had been designed and built for.

Minute puffs of compressed gas from dozens of manoeuvring thrusters had rotated them, tilted them and nudged them into position. Their systems, on standby for so many years, had been activated the moment Gloucester's bunker had been opened.

A millisecond after the order had left Major Angus Banavie's lips, each one simultaneously opened fire. An almost invisible pulse of plasma energy erupted from every satellite in total, absolute silence.

. . .

On Hamnavoe's console, the largest and most threatening chunks of Thanatos winked out one by one. Some as small as an articulated lorry, others as big as a skyscraper.

"Oh fuck," he whispered, shaking his head, "no, no, no. This cannae be fuckin' happenin'."

Jessamy stared at the giant touchscreen, unable to decipher what was displayed there, "What's wrong?"

Hamnavoe punched the console, "The targetin' system. Laura told us it was knackered. The satellites have blasted all the smaller fragments an' totally fuckin' ignored the big bastard!"

Jessamy slumped back in her seat. Sure enough, the muffled sounds of meteorite impacts outside had abruptly stopped. A reprieve, before the main event ...

Hamnavoe turned to her, "We've failed ..."

Twenty years of carrying Bromden's list around with her, searching for clues as the whereabouts of the chosen few who could access and use Soteria. Twenty years of clinging on to the smallest scrap of hope that when the time came she'd be able to do something about Thanatos and maybe, just maybe, save the world.

It had all been for nothing.

Images flashed through her mind. Faces. Her daughters Phoebe and Ada, safe for the moment in Cornwall with her father and Lupita Mpenzi. Merida, Ross, and their children. They would all be dead in just a few minutes. She couldn't just give up.

Jessamy clenched her teeth and leaned towards the console, "Laura, how long now until Thanatos gets here?"

Silence.

"Laura?"

"Sorry JB, you're no' on the list. Ye're no' authorised. She willnae acknowledge ye unless I tell her tae," Hamnavoe addressed the console, "Laura, for what it's worth, you will accept commands from Miss Jessamy Beech from now on, override Banavie 432688."

"OVERRIDE ACCEPTED."

Hamnavoe nodded, "Go ahead."

"Laura," Jessamy said in a loud, clear voice, "how long until Thanatos ... er, the largest object gets here?"

"ACQUIRED TARGET WILL ENTER ATMOSPHERE IN THREE MINUTES, FIFTY FIVE SECONDS ... FIFTY FOUR ... FIFTY THREE ..."

"And how long now until the satellites are recharged?"

"ALL UNITS WILL BE RECHARGED IN THREE MINUTES, FORTY NINE SECONDS ... FORTY EIGHT ... FORTY SEVEN ..."

Jessamy barked irritably, "Time difference between the satellites being recharged for another shot and Thanatos entering the atmosphere?"

"ZERO POINT SEVEN FIVE SECONDS."

Jessamy looked at Hamnavoe, "No margin for error. It'll be tight."

Hamnavoe smirked, "If that's a promise aboot the state o' yer delectable wee lady bits lass, I only wish we had the time for one last ..."

"Hamnavoe, be serious. We have one final chance."

"Angus. Call me Angus, lass. Of course wi' the targetin' system runnin' at only 42.5% efficiency we cannae guarantee we willnae miss completely ..."

"THREE MINUTES ..."

Jessamy rose to her feet and stepped over to the man she'd always known as Hamnavoe, "You've been an arse since I first met you. And you still are. Lying to me about your name all this time is something I will never, ever forgive. But you're a good man ... Angus, and your wife and kids were extremely lucky to have you."

"TWO MINUTES ..."

She settled on Hamnavoe's lap and curled her arms around his neck, "Now I'm the lucky one. I was hoping we'd have a little bit longer together but we may have to settle for these last few minutes."

Hamnavoe shifted uncomfortably, "What are ye tryin' to say?"

"I'm ... trying to say I love you," Jessamy kissed him.

"I love you too JB," Hamnavoe snaked his arms around her waist and was about to respond with a kiss of his own when Jessamy abruptly turned towards the console and pulled away, "Laura, countdown to satellite network being recharged."

"ONE MINUTE, TWENTY SEVEN SECONDS ... TWENTY SIX ... TWENTY FIVE ..."

Hamnavoe adjusted something in his lap, "Glad ye stood up lass. Ye were squashing the impressive erection ye were givin' me. Ye've the arse of a teenager still."

Jessamy ignored him, "Laura, stand by to fire on my command."

. . .

"I don't know how long that'll hold, so cross your fingers and pray," Newald shouted back over his shoulder.

They were back onboard Phoenix, strapped in with the side doors open so Ross and John could both watch the scavengers' lookouts as the Merlin took off.

A worrying vibration coming up through their seats from the cabin floor beneath set their teeth on edge as the Merlin's engines powered up. The rotors swooshed through the still air above them faster and faster until they became a blurred, chattering disc of motion.

"Here goes nothing," Newald pushed the stick forward. The vibration suddenly ceased as the Phoenix's nose dipped and the helicopter lifted creakily into the air.

BLAM! BLAM!

John unleashed a volley of shots at the lookouts as they climbed, already high enough to make out the cathedral barely a mile away to the north.

. . .

"ALL SATELLITE UNITS WILL BE RECHARGED IN TWENTY SECONDS, NINETEEN ... EIGHTEEN ... SEVENTEEN ..."

"Here goes nothing," Jessamy tried to steady her breathing. Three quarters of a second to save the world with a faulty targeting system that still might miss its mark completely. One last chance.

"There's nothin' else for Laura to shoot at up there apart from the fuckin' moon," Hamnavoe reasoned, "we cannae miss."

"TEN ... NINE ..."

He gripped Jessamy's hand and squeezed.

Thousands of years of human civilisation. All the art, the music, the incredible scientific achievements, discoveries and technological advances. It might all be erased in an instant as if it had never existed. Every organism, from the tiniest microbes and insects, birds, animals, fish, to the last few great whales swimming the planet's polluted seas would be gone.

"SIX ... FIVE ..."

Jessamy closed her eyes, tuning out everything else in the bunker. The thundering sound of her heartbeat, her breathing, the hot feel of Hamnavoe's sweating fingers around her own.

"THREE ... TWO ..."

The dry, dusty air irritating her throat. Concentrating on Laura's synthesized words and nothing else.

"ONE ... ALL UNITS NOW RE -"

"Fire!" Jessamy Beech blurted. She could do no more.

PART SIX: JESSAMY BEECH SAVES THE WORLD

"FUCK!" Ross swore as he clamped his remaining hand tightly over his eyes. The sky to the south had suddenly lit up with a burning bright intensity that made the sun seem dim in comparison. The Phoenix rocked as Newald reflexively jerked the controls sideways, startled by it too.

"What the fuck was that, Dad?" John yelled, "has Aunt Jess done it?"

A faint rumble like distant thunder and a blinding display of crackling light seethed across the sky, impossibly high up. Thousands, millions of tiny streamers of flaming light exploded outward like ripples on a pond and dispersed in seconds as they burnt up, vapourised to nothing as they entered the Earth's upper atmosphere.

"I don't know son," Ross blinked, trying to clear the tears from his stinging eyes, "I really don't know."

A dim glow, like a sea anemone thousands of miles wide across the sky, like the ghost or memory of something unwilling to move on to the next world, remained. Growing distorted, stretched and smeared across the heavens, a fragile cloud in high altitude winds, as the Earth continued to spin.

Then it too faded, and was gone ...

"There's the cathedral," Newald called, rubbing his own eyes, "but I think your friends have got company."

. . .

KABOOM!

A light fitting crashed to the tiled floor of the Soteria bunker as the walls shook. The main entry door juddered in its frame and dust sifted down from the ceiling, now noticeably marred with hairline cracks.

"What ... the fuck ... was that?" Jessamy asked. Had they failed again? Was Thanatos even now destroying the world outside the bunker?

"Laura," she called, "what happened?"

"TARGET DESTROYED," stated the emotionless synthesized voice of the bunker's computer system, "SIX MINUTES AND FORTY FIVE SECONDS UNTIL RECHARGE ... FORTY FOUR ... FORTY THREE ..."

"Ye did it!" Hamnavoe laughed, wrapping his arms around her, "ye fuckin' did it!"

Thirty years of having the rogue asteroid orbiting above their heads like a sword of Damocles, wondering when it would fall, wondering every day if it would be their last. Thirty years. Longer than Phoebe or Ada, John or Tamsin had even been alive. They'd all never known anything different and had learned to accept that on any given day the world might end and their lives might be snuffed out.

It was over. Thanatos was gone.

Jessamy felt numb. How was she supposed to feel? She'd just saved the entire planet, but the vast majority of Earth's survivors would never even know ...

BLAM - BLAM!

... besides, they had other things to think about.

"Laura, lock down console," Hamnavoe ordered.

"CONSOLE LOCKED. SECURITY PROTOCOLS NOW IN PLACE."

"Sounds like the assholes outside really want in. We still need to get back to the Phoenix in one piece," Jessamy growled.

"Ungrateful fuckers," Hamnavoe snatched a loaded SA80 from the rack and tapped the magazine against the wall to loosen the rounds, "they should be grateful. Ye just saved their miserable arses."

"We ... saved their miserable arses," Jessamy corrected him. She dropped into a crouch facing the bunker's entrance, "on three, open the door ..."

Hamnavoe nodded.

"One ... two ... THREE!"

Hamnavoe punched the door release as Jessamy aimed carefully at the widening gap, wondering just how many crazies they'd have to deal with.

POOM!

"COVER!" she yelled as she fired a grenade out into the bunker's vestibule area. Chunks and splinters of concrete blasted in at them as it exploded. While the door slid the rest of the way open, Jessamy was already on her feet, rushing outside blasting indiscriminately into the choking clouds of dust and falling debris.

BLAM! BLAM - BLAM!

An arrow caught her stab vest a glancing blow. She spun to return fire but Hamnavoe was already there by her side, stepping over bodies mutilated by shrapnel, "That's my woman ye're takin' potshots at, gobshite!"

BLAM!

They charged up the steps, ducked out under the great marble slab into the main part of the cathedral ... and paused.

"Do you hear what I hear?" Jessamy cocked her head on one side as she cautiously surveyed the gloomy shadows around them. A chattering drone from the sky outside could mean only one thing.

"Phoenix. Let's go JB before any more of these twats show up," Hamnavoe's words were barely spoken before bullets stitched a line across the great stone pillar beside him, "me an' ma big fuckin' mouth!"

They ran, weaving a wild zigzag path around rotting pews and fallen chunks of masonry as bullets and crossbow bolts ricocheted around them. Jessamy felt the sting of a badly aimed shotgun blast pepper the backs of her legs and almost fell, but Hamnavoe was there again, hooking an arm around her and urging her on towards the entrance.