You Can Never Go Home Again Read online

  “What do you think the problem is?” the co-pilot asked. He checked his manifest, “Mr. Prezlee?” Captain Schollander’s eyes raised and he couldn’t help but smile warmly and added, “I suppose you get a lot of comments?”

  Jonathan nodded absently as he has heard comments all his life. He was trying to be calm and answer clearly as his eyes strayed past the captain’s face and the cockpit window. The plane was just breaking through the cloudbank.

  “Captain these meteors…” He exclaimed, “owp” again and pointed.

  The pilot with one eye on the interview, had laughed a little when Jonathan’s name was announced by the co-pilot, and one eye on the window saw what Jonathan saw almost at the same time.

  Jonathan yelled, “south, south, south. Go south. Go low.”

  Captain Schollander steered automatically and banked the plane south. He said to the co-pilot, “make sure the autopilot stays disengaged.”

  The captain went on the intercom and announced that all passengers must be in their seats with the seat belts on. He called for the head stewardess, yes he said stewardess also, so Jonathan knew he wasn’t as calm as he appeared.

  “Captain go as low as you can.” Captain Schollander looked at Jonathan.

  Jonathan explained as calmly as he could, “the more atmosphere these meteors go through the more they’ll burn up.”

  The captain nodded and told the navigator to go call San Francisco if Honolulu still did not respond. “Tell them about the change to seven thousand feet and the meteors.” He searched the screens above him which were now blank. The captain mumbled to himself, “I thought it might be sun spots.”

  “I can’t get Honolulu or San Francisco. Nothing but static,” the navigator said. His name tag read McNeill.

  As they continued to bank and head south the clouds over the Hawaiian Islands were left behind. To the east they could now see a dark wall moving across the sky with the front edge already ablaze. It was miles wide.

  There was no way to calculate how long this swarm was. As they flew south they could see no end to the length of it. Fortunately, they were on the southern edge of the swarm to begin with and it didn’t take long to feel a small level of comfort as only a few small, stray meteors could be seen falling to their left.

  They all turned their heads to look north. It was where the sound came from. Those in the cockpit watched a gigantic meteor plummet and burn an incandescent brilliance before plunging into the ocean. Jonathan hadn’t known that large meteors could and obviously did make a terrific din. The meteor caused an incredible splash with sea water erupting to magnificent height.

  After a brief quietness, the navigator said to no one in particular, “it was the size of a car, at least. That car will create a tsunami. It will hit Hawaii in a half hour or so.”

  “Radio Hilo…or anyone in Hawaii. Immediately.”

  “Captain, I’m unable to get anybody. I’ve tried all the stations and all the frequencies…only static.” As an afterthought he said, “but I’ll keep trying.”

  The captain looked at Jonathan.

  Prezlee shrugged, “the swarm probably took out the communications satellites.”

  The captain nodded his head in thought.

  “Terry,” the captain was speaking to the navigator, “plot a course to bring us back to Honolulu but make the arc very broad and we’ll come up from the south of the islands.” And McNeill went to work. The captain then called for the head flight attendant.

  The head flight attendant was in the cockpit and the captain asked her to oversee anyone who was hurt and quietly find a doctor and place the injured in the first class section.

  She went out to organize this as the captain once again was on the intercom.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking. Those of you on the left side of the plane have probably seen a large swarm of meteors. I am sorry for the abrupt manner in which we banked but it became imperative for the safety of this ship and all those aboard to change our flight path as quickly as possible. I have the misfortune to further announce that communication is not possible at this time and we are heading back to Hawaii. I will keep all informed of our plans. The plane has suffered no damage and we have fuel to last many hours. Any of those who were injured please stay seated if you can. Stacey, the head flight attendant, is organizing triage in the first class section. Please be patient. We are going to go very low to the ocean surface but do not be alarmed. It is for safety only and we will not be in any danger. We are presently flying at an altitude of twelve thousand feet. We may only be an hour or a little more from Oahu.”

  The captain turned off the intercom and breathed deeply. He looked at Jonathan.

  “We won’t be able to land in Hawaii,” Jonathan told Captain Schollander. Even the co-pilot looked at Jonathan.

  “The swarm was heading in the direction of Hawaii, was it not?” He asked no one in particular.

  The navigator nodded his head. The crew in the cockpit was just beginning to understand the magnitude of the probable catastrophe.

  The captain looked again at Jonathan but before he could say what he was going to say the co-pilot groaned and pointed. He pointed skyward.

  “What the hell…”

  “Christ, what now…”

  “Goddamn it. What is it?”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Captain Schollander quickly got back on the intercom, “everyone-the-captain-again.” He said it so fast it sounded like one long word. “Brace for impact.”

  It was high up and descending fast. It was white. The captain had the plane go lower and did it as quickly as safety allowed. The plane banked again. Jonathan voiced a thought, “when it hits would it be better to be flattened out and not banking?”

  The captain nodded, as did the co-pilot. They were both grim faced.

  The plane leveled at six thousand feet. The whiteness struck.

  Sounds could be heard of a tattooing on the skin of the plane. A hard metallic pinging with occasional thuds. The plane was buffeted. Screams could be heard from the interior of the plane. The plane continued to descend and the hard pinging gave way to a hard slapping sound. It was so loud shouting in ones ear was the only way to talk to your neighbor.

  As the plane descended the slapping sounds against the plane increased as the pinging and thuds decreased. The whiteness had been ice but was melting in the lower altitude as the plane descended. They went as low as two thousand feet above the ocean. Large pieces of ice could still be seen falling. Some were hitting the ocean as chunks and not as rain.

  Since nothing was in this part of the mid-Pacific the captain felt somewhat safe but he was in uncharted territory when it came to avoiding meteors and bizarre raining ice.

  Where did this ice come from was on Jonathan’s mind. He was preoccupied as he mulled this bizarre phenomenon over. He felt it was extremely important although was not certain why. He felt it must have been somehow a cause and effect in relation to the meteor swarm.

  The plane had leveled off and the primary sound was the slapping of hard and forceful rain against it.

  “Bob,” the captain said to the co-pilot, “why don’t you look into how our passengers are faring?”

  Bob breathed deeply, nodded and left the cockpit.

  Terry looked over at Jonathan.

  “You look mighty thoughtful, Mr. Prezlee. What’s on your mind?”

  “The rain, in some ways, is just as enigmatic as the swarm. Chucks of ice to descend this low in latitude and altitude and remain chunks must have been enor…oh, shit.”

  “What?” said the captain and the navigator at the same time as both looked out the cockpit window.

  “I think I know where the ice came from.”

  “Don’t leave us in suspense. Where did it come from?”

  Jonathan rubbed his forehead. He would have preferred to consider this without urgency or pressure. He was afraid of where his supposition might lead and wanted to be on secure ground or at least as s
ecure as deliberate thinking can produce.

  “Well, it may sound a bit preposterous since I haven’t had a lot of time to ponder…”

  “Go ahead Dr. Prezlee…”

  “Call me Jonathan.”

  “Jonathan it is. So, what have you got?”

  “I can think of only one cause of such a condition which would produce ice this far south and intact, in other words, remain, to some degree ice…

  “Jonathan. Please, what’s on your mind?”

  “It’s from the Arctic Ocean. The polar cap. If the swarm went over the pole and large meteors hit the ice cap on the Arctic Ocean then one of the results would be to send huge chunks of ice and water into the atmosphere. The rotation of the earth would create a reverse vortex toward the equator. The coldness of the atmosphere would make the water crystallize into large chunks and perhaps even force the water and water vapor into even larger blocks of ice. They would descend after traveling toward the equator.”

  Captain Schollander and Jim the navigator were quiet for a while. Then McNeill voiced a question. “What would happen to the ice cap in general?”

  “That depends on the severity of the impacts but much would vaporize and if near land would instantly become a huge wall of rushing water.”

  Again silence.

  “Go on.”

  “One of the results would be what’s known as a wave of translation. This would be a wall of water such as would travel from the northern most edge of land in Canada towards the Gulf of Mexico.”

  Again silence.

  “Go on Jonathan.”

  “Everything in its path would be pushed ahead of it as in any type of flood. It’s happened before. That is why the Gulf of Mexico and other places have a huge depth of silt and the Arctic basin has none.” Jonathan sighed. He didn’t really want to go on.

  “Jonathan, is there more?”

  “Yes, perhaps. There could’ve been a pole shift. Possibly a crustal shift or perhaps a tilting or I suppose I should say a re-tilting of our planets axis. Maybe both occurred to some degree. If this has happened then all the glaciers will have or soon will be melted and the sea could rise upwards to twenty feet. All the volcanoes of the world will be active and erupting and every fault line will move. Earthquakes so powerful the Ritchter scale doesn’t even go that high.”

  Captain Schollander and Terry looked at Prezlee for a moment. The captain looked back at a blank screen then out the cockpit window then quietly asked, “Jonathan, is there more?”

  Jonathan scratched his temple and nodded. “Yes, considering the magnitude of the swarm and the material it contains in size as well as numbers…well, there won’t be any safe place. This swarm will last for years if it is in resonance, ah, if it has an orbit which is connected to Earth. Man will have to learn to live underground and life as we know it will for all intents and purposes end.”

  “Do you really think it will be that bad?” The navigator had to ask.

  “It’s the worst case scenario and we’ll know more when we see what the damage is in Hawaii.”

  “What’s the worst case scenario in the islands?”

  “It’ll be pockmarked like the moon and all the active volcanoes will be erupting. Possibly the dormant ones may also be active. Powerful tsunamis will inundate the coastline and wipe out everything on most of the exposed shoreline. The tall buildings will have succumbed to the earthquakes and possibly forty percent of the people in Honolulu may be dead or dying.”

  They were silent. Each with their own thoughts. They said nothing for maybe ten minutes then Bob, the co-pilot, entered the cockpit with Stacey the head flight attendant.

  Bob took his customary seat. He was still grim faced. He gave his report.

  “We’re lucky, in that there’s an intern from Queen’s Hospital and a veterinarian with a lot of experience. There are a couple of injured passengers; one with a badly bruised forearm and the other a sprained wrist and dislocated fingers. Another one has a slight separated shoulder.” Bob paused for breath. “It was lucky we had the seat belt sign on as most everyone were in their seats and buckled up.”

  “Anyway, all three have been attended to and are in the first class area with their families. A few have twisted ankles, some cuts and bruises but nothing serious. We had to move a few of the first class fares to coach but under the circumstances it went smoothly. Stacey, can you add anything?”

  “Well, the passengers are pretty scared and do not know what to think and in some ways that’s the worst; the unknown reinforces their worst fears. I have no idea what to tell them. I discontinued the serving of alcohol because I felt if the fears become too pronounced than drunks may become unruly and unresponsive to the flight crew. I don’t know why, but I added up our meal packages and we have enough for 3 days.”

  Stacey wanted to add something but didn’t know how to broach the subject.

  “Should we, I mean, do we know what this is all about. I’d like to tell the passengers something.” She looked at Jonathan for the first time. Jonathan and the captain exchanged looks. Captain Schollander was chewing his lip. He finally decided.

  “Stacey, could you take Dr. Prezlee to the coach section and give him the intercom? Jonathan could you briefly talk to the passengers but not the worst-case scenario as yet, or at least until we’ve seen Hawaii?”

  The captain turned to Jonathan and softly asked, “Just…just tell them some of what you’ve explained to us here? But be discreet, please. Okay? Then return. I want you here when we reach Hawaii.”

  Jonathan nodded his head and began to think of a summary, something he might tell his students if he was a professor. He left the cockpit with Stacey.

  She brought him to the entrance of the coach cabin section and took the microphone in her hand and turned it on.

  “Attention all passengers. I have just talked with Captain Schollander and he asked me to have this gentleman tell you something of the meteor shower we (she hesitated a second and almost said, just narrowly) missed. I’ll turn the mike over to Dr. Prezlee.”

  There were the smiles and snickers as always but less so from such a large group. Showed the tension, anxiety and generalized but incomprehensible fear among the passengers.

  “Just call me Jonathan. I’m a geologist and have some familiarity with global cata…ah, disorders. One thing I would like to state at the beginning is that it is extremely difficult to extrapolate the extent of a problem until a lot of information can be reviewed and compared.”

  “This much we do know. A large swarm of meteors appears to be in orbit around earth and part of the orbit is within our atmosphere. Obviously, many of these meteors will find their way to our, that is, earth’s surface.”

  “The meteors that do not burn up on their descent will cause damage though as yet there is no way of knowing to what extent. Nor is the orbit of the swarm known and when it may be nearest or come into our atmosphere.”

  “It is probable that the communication satellites have been rendered inoperable which can only make the gathering of accurate data that much more difficult to obtain.”

  “We also know that the swarm was heading directly for Hawaii. It is probable that there have been tsunamis but again it is too early to speculate in their direction and degree. If you have friends or relatives who live along the coasts of the islands then some of them may, ah, find themselves in jeopardy.” Many in the cabin groaned or swore or both.

  “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I don’t want you to be too shocked when Hawaii is in view.”

  “I would guess that Kilauea certainly and perhaps Moana Loa and or Moana Kea are erupting. More than that I cannot say with any certainty.”

  The hubbub in the cabin rose as the passengers excitedly talked with their traveling companions or their neighbors.

  People began to pepper Jonathan with questions and when he couldn’t understand any one question well enough to reply the passengers started shouting their questions all at once. Finally Stacey took
the microphone.

  “Please, I’m sure Dr. Prezlee will answer each question but one at a time and there are children present and I ask you to be civil.” She again gave the microphone to Jonathan.

  A hand was up in the front row so he decided to start there and nodded to the older woman who looked terrified while nonetheless trying to remain dignified.

  “Dr. Prezlee…”

  “Jonathan, please.”

  “Jonathan then, my niece and her husband live above Makapu’u. Would a tsunami reach them?”

  “Well, we saw a huge meteor hit the ocean and it undoubtedly created some kind of wave but that would only affect the windward areas of the islands exposed to the ocean, in other words, those areas not protected by other islands.”

  Another hand shot up before any others and blurted out, “why would the volcanoes be erupting?”

  “Well, volcanic activity is usually associated…that’s a good question. Hmm. It’s my guess, and this is just a guess that there will also be some tectonic movement and if this movement is near a volcano then there is every chance of activity.”

  Outside of several children crying quietly there was silence. A hand was raised on the left side of the aisle. Jonathan recognized William Lorazini, a well-known mystery writer living in the Bay Area and in whom he was acquainted with.

  “Yes, Bill what’s on your mind?”

  “Well Jonathan, what I’d like to know is what you’re not telling us.” The writer paused for a second then added, “it may be true that many here on the plane cannot handle the truth but I for one would like to know more of what we are facing.”

  Many heads nodded in agreement and some voices were raised to demonstrate that at least some of the passengers could handle the truth.

  “Well, the problem, as I said earlier, is we do not know the extent of the swarm and what it has done and we’re, well I should say, I’m guessing about the earthquakes and the tsunamis. I have my suspicions but I’m a scientist and it’s not in my nature or training to just blurt out suspicions.”

  “Then what is the worst case scenario?”

  Jonathan sighed and tried to gather his thoughts. He was certain had he detailed the worst-case scenario no one, in truth, would understand it. None on the plane had ever researched global cataclysms nor had taken any classes which discussed catastrophic theory. There were no classes. Universities actually fired tenured professors who did nothing more than mention, in passing, catastrophic theory in a lecture.