Rage

FOUR

They walked up the stairs behind the bank of workstations, toward a door Raine had noticed when he first descended into this command center. The way was illuminated by a mammoth screen that hovered above everything. The only thing on it was some sort of timer: 2d4h37m37s.

The seconds rolling back, flying away, the time left until Apophis hit.

The time left until doom.

The two guards at the door moved aside as Hill waved a pass and the door opened.

“What you’re about to see is not something a lot of people have.”

Hill went in and Raine followed.

And what was there-Raine couldn’t even put a name to it.

He and the captain stood side by side at a railing, looking down at a dark, massive object. One end came to a cone-shaped point. The sides had razor-toothed metal tracks, like what you’d see at a mine operation, ostensibly for digging into the ground and moving rock.

The base looked flat, and wider, like the bottom of a mammoth bullet. And-at that base-a door.

“Captain, I have to admit: I don’t know what that is.”

People in white coats walked around, holding tablet computers, touching them, looking at other screens.

And-surrounding the room-were the ever-present soldiers in full combat gear, holding their machine guns at ready.

As if they were expecting a raid.

“You’re not supposed to,” Hill said. “C’mon-I’ll show you.” He led Raine down another flight of stairs, so that they were on the ground next to… whatever it was. With it looming above him, Raine was impressed by just how tiny it made him feel. They walked around it, and he noticed little details without knowing what they were for. Finally, they completed their circuit.

“It’s called an Ark, Lieutenant.”

“Like Noah?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s why they picked the name. The French call it L’Arche, the Chinese-with no connection to Noah-a chun jia. Means ‘life pod’ or something.”

“Everyone has these?”

“Those with the tech. Those that the scientists who discovered the truth about Apophis 99942 thought could be trusted. Lot of countries still don’t know. They still expect the flyby.”

“An Ark. You’re going to put people in there?”

Hill turned to him. “People are in there. Deep cryo. This one’s hours away from insertion.”

“And that means?”

“Each Ark gets buried somewhere, some nearly a mile deep-depends on the strata and rough predictions of seismic activity over the next century. Each one goes in with the survivors in cryo sleep-”

“Hang on. You call them survivors. This is to save people?”

“Right. Like Noah. Save some of humanity. The best and the brightest. Scientists, doctors, scholars. Each country with an Ark program formed a committee, also top secret.” Hill looked at Raine. “I’ll tell you-it’s fucking amazing no one has found out.”

“Sure is.”

Hill pointed at the truck-sized Ark in front of them. “This one will get inserted, and it’s due to emerge 120 years from now.”

“Where-”

“Above my pay grade, Raine. All I know is the timing. It’s thought that whatever radiation Apophis releases on impact should have subsided by then. The darkness created by the hit will have also long passed. Life may not survive, but as these Arks come up, they will bring hope for some kind of future for humanity.”

“I imagine they carry seeds, tools, things to start again.”

Now Hill had his eyes trained on him. Raine was so caught up in taking all this in, the global destruction to come, the Ark Project, this top secret place-that he forgot he had come here on orders.

What the hell could those orders be?

Hill put a hand on his shoulder.

“You see, Raine. That Ark down there has one empty and free cryo chamber. And you, my friend, are going in it.”

Raine turned away. I’ve been told that it’s all over. And that thing down there, that’s hope.

That was his first reaction.

More than a century in the future.

Was that hope? Which was worse? Dying in a flash or emerging from under the ground to what could-he imagined-be hell.

Unlike the rest of the world, he now had an option.

To survive, to have hope, to possibly have a future. “I don’t get it, Captain. You said… ‘best and the brightest.’ Pretty sure I don’t qualify.”

“What will the world be like a hundred years from now? Whole landmasses may have been blown away by the impact, bodies of water disappeared while new ones took shape. Will anything alive have survived? So yeah, we are sending down a lot of scientists. Doctors of all kinds. All the collected wisdom in the world in the Ark computers. But all that knowledge and learning still may need one thing-”

A woman-white coat, chiseled face, blond hair pulled back, librarian glasses-came up to Hill.

“They’re ready for you down there, Captain.”

She shot Raine a glance. Was that jealousy in her eyes? Envy?

Pity?

The scientist turned sharply away.

“They may need some law and order, Raine. Security. Things could get a little hairy. Leadership may be the skill that could make the difference between life and death.”

A small laugh. It sounded false.

“So amidst the Arks, we placed a scattering of military, all trained in difficult situations. War, disasters, all kinds of crises. Armed, and with an understanding of their mission: to protect the Ark Survivors, and lead them if necessary.”

“Why me?”

“Well, it wasn’t going to be you. I was supposed to be going. Not my choice. They brought me in, told me the mission, and I agreed. But then-”

Now Hill looked away.

“They found something during one of the last medical checks. Some cancer. With enough time, treatable. Hell, I might even live. But we didn’t have time. So…”

Hill looked back to Raine. “Would you send someone who’s perhaps dying with cancer into the future? I offered to withdraw before they even came up with the idea.”

He took a breath.

“I also suggested my replacement.”

Neither said anything for a moment.

“Guess-I should say thanks. But I feel like I don’t know enough. Who’s in this Ark? What can I expect when it comes out? Where-”

“I know. Lots of questions. Follow me.”

Hill moved toward the Ark.

Toward the open door.

Raine had to duck down as he slipped into the Ark.

Inside, in the pale light, the interior was quiet, a hushed temple of technology. Scientists moved around the room, some checking monitors, taking notes, others hitting keys.

Above them, surrounding the room, a belt of large screens mounted to the wall, the telltale signs of a serious computer embedded somewhere inside the Ark’s walls.

Suddenly, a gentle female voice filled the room.

“Full system initialization completed.”

Raine turned to Hill. “The computer talks?”

“Yes, and you can talk back to it. Ask it questions. When you emerge.”

“Talking computer… that a good thing?”

Hill grinned. “Might be your best friend when you come out of your pod.”

Raine now turned and looked away from the monitors. In a circle, sarcophaguslike chambers sat arrayed like spokes; a dozen such chambers. Almost like a bizarre funeral parlor-more like coffins than anything that might save life.

A spiral staircase curled down. He wondered: storage floors below, holding the tools, the seeds, the bulding blocks needed for a new world? He heard someone come up to Hill. “We’re all ready, Captain.”

All but one chamber was closed tight. One still lay open, waiting.

“Everyone else is already in cryo, Raine. This Ark is due to leave soon. So to your questions, who these people are-it’s all in the briefing you will get when you awaken, during emergence. The computer can answer any questions you might have. It will also be able to give you an update on the outside environment well before you reach the surface.”

Raine nodded.

“Guess you’re not asking me to go.”

Hill smiled. “Yeah. It’s an order, Raine. Funny feeling, isn’t it? To know that the whole world will be destroyed except for you and the other Ark survivors. And yet somehow-it doesn’t exactly feel like a gift.”

“All the Arks come up at the same time?”

“No. The scientists thought it best-safest-if the Arks came up at staggered periods. That allows for the greatest chance of survival. We don’t know what the world will be like. Some come up earlier, others much later.”

“And mine-120 years.”

“Exactly.”

The doctor with the librarian glasses stepped into the Ark. “All set, Captain.”

“Okay.” Hill turned to Raine. “Lieutenant, as I said, this one is ready for insertion. Just got to get you in there.”

“Now?” he asked. Raine hadn’t thought it was going to happen so soon.

Hill didn’t bother answering. He simply went over to a side wall of the Ark and grabbed what looked like a space suit.

“This-is an Ark suit. Get into it, if you would.”

And then he tossed the suit at Raine.