THE ARK
Chapter 20

Day 827

Several months later General Draper, General Fitch, Admiral Atkins and National Security Advisor Baker met at the Pentagon.

“Gentlemen,” General Draper began “let’s start with a quick overview of what’s occurred to date and see what the next steps are that will be taken.

“Up to this point, we’ve utilized all means at our disposal to keep the details of the comet’s radiation a secret. The comet itself is becoming widely known for the spectacular light show it’ll provide as it passes close by, in fact, in the last week I’ve seen or heard mention of it several times in the media.

“As each of you has said, on at least one occasion, we’ll need to start bringing more people into the game. It looks like we’ll have to expand the number with full knowledge of this event now.

“I’ve been dealing with the Air Force, and so far General Peebles is the only one over there who knows exactly what’s going on. He’s working on a plan to use nuclear weapons to modify the course of the comet. If we could get the weapons out far enough there might be a chance, but that’s definitely not probable. His people are working out new theories. The possibility of success is minimal. They will finalize plans as things develop.

“Teams are already scouring the country looking for places to develop shelters. As sites are located, we’re determining requirements. There is minimal concern about surface contamination. Any radioactive debris will burn up in the atmosphere; the problem is that while the stuff is in orbit it’ll be hitting everything with its radiation. This means there will be no concerns about clean up after the fact. NASA is still sticking to their current timeline. The thing is still on the same course and still gaining speed at the anticipated rate. Remember the closer it gets to the sun the faster it’ll move.

“Our next issue is the selection process for residents of the shelters and the sleeper capsules. I’m willing to hear arguments about this but I fully agree with the preliminary requirements that have been proposed. That the sleepers need to be primarily young single people. I like a high percentage of military or prior military in the group because they know how to follow orders and understand discipline. Any comments?

“Sir, how are you planning to contact and recruit roughly one hundred thousand shelter inhabitants and ten thousand sleepers without the word getting out? There will be people that turn down the idea and then they’re a huge risk that can’t just be ignored. Nor can we lock them away,” Asked General Fitch.

Admiral Atkins responded. “If we pre-select them, we can always just kidnap them off the streets as the date gets close.”

“True,” Answered Draper. “But I think we’ll need to have these people cooperative.”

Mr. Baker spoke up and added. “The plan we have in mind, for the shelter inhabitants, is to contact specific people that are recommended by those of us already in the loop.

“We will mention that we’re working on a plan that will involve shelters to be used in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear event, and ask them if they’ll be interested in participating.

“It will be clear that if they agree they’ll be rounded up if something happens and that they should be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. They’ll understand that they’ll be in the shelter for an unknown period of time that could be extensive. If they agree then we’ll arrange a more intense interview and provide them with necessary instructions. Of course, we’ll make it clear that this plan is precautionary and hopefully will never need to be actually utilized.

We will use a similar approach with the sleepers, but they’ll be required to commit and when the training starts they won’t be able to back out.”

“Are there any other questions or suggestions at this point?” Draper asked.

No one said anything so he continued. “The President has made it clear to me and to Mr. Baker that the sleeper team isn’t to be a military force run by the military. There will need to be a military arm of the unit, but its overall command and control are to be non-military. The reason I suggest single people is it will be easier to segregate them for a long period, for training prior to sleeping them. In cases where there are a husband and wife, both with valuable skills, exceptions could be made.

“Of course there will be no children in the sleep capsules. The sleepers are a group with rebuilding skills only.

“The selections for the shelters will be different. Families are encouraged. We’ll have to carefully select the people to go to the shelters.

“Psychological screening is recommended considering that they might have to stay underground for twenty years. Medical and security people will be needed in each shelter. Also, we need to look at factors like personal potential. High school dropouts and drug addicts wouldn’t be selected; we need to utilize only those people who can contribute to the group. If we had room for everyone that would be different, but remember that less than ten percent of one percent of the population will get a shelter. We’ll try to increase that number but that’s currently our best case estimate.

“We all know that the ACLU and other groups would go crazy over the selection process, so that will need to be absolutely classified. For the same reason, we’re trying to keep this all quiet from the rest of the government. I’m sure we can all envision every congressman out there causing enough of a stink that we lose almost five hundred sleep capsules to them. Let alone the other officials that would weasel their way in. No, the people that will be sleeping this out are the workers, the ones who get things done, such as engineers, builders, and farmers.

“That means, unfortunately, that we aren’t going to be sleeping. We’ll have a shelter, I can make that happen, but that’s all. Now let’s hear from the rest of you, and then we’ll tear each other’s ideas apart.”

Navy Admiral Bob Atkins went next, “We are working on the construction of undersea shelters, I don’t think we’ll have room for more than a thousand residents, and there is a good possibility that they won’t be able to stay down long enough to fully wait this thing out. The selection process will be the same as we use for the underground shelters. Also, there are many technological roadblocks we’ll need to overcome to make this work.”

Fitch spoke next and gave an overview of where things were going and discussed his increased progress since tripling the number of onsite workers.

“We have many changes to make to the facility, and a ton of work to do to get the place ready for sleepers, but the work that’s already been done is fantastic, the facility is much further along than I had hoped. As long as we get the resources, we need, we’ll be ready.” Fitch concluded with details about the facility and the changes that would be coming.

The national security advisor spoke next. “It sounds like things are on track; we need to increase the pace of looking for and building the shelters. We also need to identify who our sleepers will be. All the sleepers will have to undergo a significant amount of training. General Draper and I have been discussing this and they all need to be cross trained in many areas. Everyone must be competent with standard weapons and tactics, as well as basic medical procedures. As we’ve said before, we’ve no idea what these sleepers might encounter, but they’ll have no backup and must be able to handle any threat themselves. If someone is a mechanical engineer, he still has to be trained in something important that he can be doing when there is no engineering work to be done.

“We have been looking at several possible candidates to lead this mission. After lunch, I want us to get back together. We will look at the candidates and see if we can come up with some agreements. If in the meantime any of you can suggest any other names for consideration I’d like to know so we can dig up their information and get them considered.”

The meeting broke up and Fitch left the room. As he was heading down the hall he heard his name called, “Matt, wait up.”

He turned and saw General Lee Draper following him. He stopped and waited for the four-star to catch up. “Yes, sir?”

“Do you mind if I join you? There are some things I want to discuss,” Draper asked

“Of course not sir,” Fitch answered

Draper had his driver take them to a nice Italian place that was about ten minutes away.

They entered the dimly lit restaurant and the waitress led them to a large booth in the back.

Once seated, Draper asked, “I need to make sure that you remember that if any obstacle comes up, regardless of how small, let me know. We need you operational ASAP. The big event isn’t for two and a half years, but I want to keep expanding your site. Every additional sleeper is another life saved. Let me know what we can do.”

“Sir, I’ll keep things moving as fast as I can, give me a few weeks and I’ll have a better idea as to what all we can offer.”

“Sounds good, I also need to know if anyone else knows what’s going on?”

“My immediate team is smart enough to know something is up, I’m sure they know that this isn’t just a standby facility. They don’t know the nature of the threat or the date. Every day they’re a little closer to figuring it out. There is too much that they’re needed to be involved in for them to not make some obvious conclusions,” Fitch explained.

“I guess it’s time. Bring the two of them in on everything. No one else and I want them signing something understanding that the consequences for disclosure are imprisonment.”

“Understood sir,” Fitch responded as a feeling of relief swept over him, keeping this to himself had been very difficult. For all the work that Travers and Cowan were doing, they deserved to know what was happening.

The men discussed other aspects of the project before heading back.

When they re-entered the conference room the others were already seated.

Jeremiah Baker addressed the group, “Gentlemen, we’ve collected a list of several candidates that we want to review as a group. The person we select will be approached and given the opportunity to command the Sleepers.”

The group went over the candidates for the next four hours. In the end, they were unanimous in their decision to approach Dr. R. J. Anderson and make their offer.

RJ had served in the US Army after graduating at the top of the class from West Point. RJ’s military career was excellent; there were high marks on everything from leadership to marksmanship. RJ was on the fast track, and promotions were coming as quickly as possible. After ten years, RJ surprised everyone by resigning from the army and returning to college to finish a doctorate degree in international studies. For the last eight years, RJ had been working with the United Nations and had personally led disaster relief efforts on four different continents.

During the screening process, Baker had made sure that friends and co-workers of Dr. Anderson were contacted and not even one of them had anything negative to say.

The military background and proven leadership skills along with the disaster relief experience made RJ the perfect candidate.