“I have never seen anything like this before.” She replied. We watched in silence for agonising minutes as the station continued its orbit. As the station crossed the pacific and reached the west coast of America, we noticed a mass of small perfectly circular black clouds beneath us arranged all the way down the coast. They were all grouped around the major American cities.
“Oh shit.” I gasped, my own voice seeming distant, almost as if someone else had spoken. My heart was thumping in my chest. “That’s not a storm front is it? Please tell me that’s not what it looks like?” I turned to Natalya whose face had turned pale. Her eyes glistened and she tried to blink away a tear which had formed in the corner of her eye. The surface tension held it there for a moment before it gently floated from her face.
“It looks like a nuclear attack.” She breathed, confirming my own fears. I looked from her distraught features back to the Earth below, a lump in my throat. The black clouds were expanding, staccato flashes of explosions behind them. Remembering the others, I moved numbly towards the open hatch and yelled for them, my panicked voice echoing through the nodes and modules of the station. As the station’s orbit continued I noticed more and more of the black clouds dotted all over the face of North America.
One by one, the other four crew members joined us just as the station reached a concentrated mass of the black clouds all down the East coast. As we watched there was a wave of fresh detonations like a series of flashbulbs going off beneath the clouds as the latest warheads found their targets. A blinding pinprick of light for an instant before it faded, leaving an expanding fiery red explosion as the mushroom cloud filled the sky above each target. These were followed in turn by an expanding halo from each as the shockwave of the latest nuclear detonations emanated from ground zero. I felt nauseas, scarcely believing what I was witnessing. It would almost be beautiful if it wasn’t so terrible, like watching fireworks, only this time I was in the sky and the fireworks were on the surface.
“This can’t be happening.” Flynn murmured, sounding as stunned as I felt. “This can’t be real!” Aki put a consoling hand on his shoulder.
We all watched in stunned silence as the station reached Europe. I reached for the camera which had floated away forgotten in the horror of what we were witnessing, aiming it at the devastation below. Almost the entire continent was a mass of the black clouds and even as the station crossed over into night, we could see that the devastation continued into Russia, then the Middle East, India, China, North and South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. I glanced at my companions, seeing the disbelieving horror of what I was witnessing mirrored on their faces. We all watched aghast, almost catatonic for several minutes as the devastation below us slowly cycled past.
“My God.” Morrison finally broke the silence. “This is it. This is the end!”
Day One
“Mission Control. Mission Control. This is Colonel Sergei Karpov on board the International Space Station. Do you read? Over.” Static. We had all crowded around Karpov in the Zvezda Service Module. A few minutes had passed while the devastation on the surface below us sunk in. I felt hollow inside, my mind struggling to process the enormity of what we had just witnessed. “Mission Control. Are you receiving me?” More static.
“The uplink is offline as well.” Flynn turned away from a laptop fixed to the wall. “All the feeds from Earth, email, internet, the connection’s been severed.”
“They’re all dead aren’t they?” Aki said quietly.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Morrison put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “There could be any number of reasons why they aren’t responding. They may have been evacuated or an EMP pulse might have knocked out all the electrical systems. We just need to remember our training and remain calm.” I glanced at Morrison, wondering if he was saying that for Aki’s benefit, or his own.
“Is there a contingency in place for this?” I asked.
“If ‘this’ means a break in communication, then yes.” Karpov replied tersely. “If ‘this’ means nuclear annihilation of the planet, then no, that one must have been left back on Earth with the ‘What to do if an alien entity possesses one of the crew members’ contingency.” There was an uncomfortable silence.
“Maybe we should resume our duties until we hear from Earth.” Morrison suggested. “Try and keep our minds focussed and occupied until we hear from Mission Control. Carter, it might be a good idea for you to return to the Cupola and get some more footage of the Earth. I’m sure it’s the last thing you want to do, but it will be important for future generations.” I nodded. While it crossed my mind that future generations were looking unlikely at this moment, I kept my pessimism to myself.
“Yes. I agree.” Karpov turned to me from the communication station. “We’ll be all right, Carter. This station is the safest place to be right now.” He looked at the others. “I know our thoughts will be on the uncertain fate of our families and friends, but we must continue to maintain discipline at all times. We cannot afford to wallow in self pity. Everyone resume your duties and I will inform you if and when we hear from Mission Control.” The others silently dispersed to different parts of the station while I made my way back to the Cupola and grimly documented the devastation below. The clouds of black had lost their circular shape and had become dark smudges over the landmasses. I wondered what was happening beneath those smudges down on the surface. As Europe rotated into view, I couldn’t help but think of my parents and sister. I knew I would be deluding myself to think that any of them could survive this. London had taken a direct hit. If the strike had hit the very centre of London, then a fireball would have obliterated everything in a mile radius of Ground Zero. Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, Buckingham palace, St Paul’s cathedral and everything in between gone, utterly destroyed. The air blast would destroy or demolish every building within a ten mile radius. Those few unlucky enough not to be killed outright would have received a lethal dose of radiation and would, after much suffering, die of radiation poisoning in days, maybe weeks depending of their level of exposure. Beyond that, the fallout would stretch into the suburbs of London. The death toll would be in the millions. And that was just one nuclear strike. Globally, we had witnessed hundreds. I knew my family were gone and just had to hope and pray it had been quick. Switching the camera off, I left the Cupola and floated back up to the Tranquillity node and into the Destiny Lab. Natalya was working on one of the work stations.
“How are you holding up?” I asked her. She turned to me, her eyes puffy.
“I can’t stop thinking about home.” She replied. “My brother works in Moscow and that looked like it had been hit…” I nodded sympathetically.
“My parents lived in London.” I added, realising as I said it that I had just referred to them in the past tense.
“I just can’t believe this is happening.” She continued. “I keep hoping it’s a horrible nightmare…” She welled up, reaching into a pocket in her flight suit for a tissue to soak up the tears before they floated off again. I reached for her and she allowed herself to be taken into my embrace. She buried her face into my shoulder and quietly wept for a moment, before collecting herself.
“I really must get back to work.” She said, breaking the embrace, wiping her eyes and turning back to her work station. I nodded and moved towards the hatch into the Unity Node. “Carter.” She called out. I turned back towards her. She was looking back over her shoulder at me. “Thanks.” She smiled sadly before turning back to her station.