Countdown Until the Long Darkness

April 24th 2047, 8:47am, CST

After finishing my third cup of coffee of the morning I looked over the data printout from the last hour of the report from the Parmer probe that orbited between Mercury and the sun.

“Readings look good, same as, always, since, there is hardly ever anything changed. the hour before.”, I sighed. Boredom crept in often during my shifts. It’s not that I wanted to see a major solar flare heading our way, but even the slightest change in the Sun’s CME’s would allow me a phone call to those upstairs. Any small change in the Sun’s normal behavior had to be reported immediately to Stan who would then look over my reports and do his own scans from his computer upstairs. It often felt like grunt work sitting here for ten hours consuming coffee and not having a single moment to go out into the day and feel the Sun on my skin. Well at least I got to see it on paper. My eyes rolled and I went to refill my mug for the fourth time today.

“Ah it is now 9:00am. Only six more hours to go then home to watch reruns of the Estonian bake off show.”

Often I would stay an hour after my shift was over to go over any changes of the Sun’s output with Jerry. But if today went like it has been going, not much to report and a quick take off.

12:32pm

Lunch time! Well more like a cup of the finest 72 cent Ramen noodles with a dash of hot sauce and watching one of my favorite shows while on the job. “What is the Sun up to now”. The noodles tasted better than they normally do, which satisfied my tastebuds. I heard a small beep and looked back to see if it was not the door alarm or some other sensor going off. But it seemed to come from the computer. When I looked at the screen, in the bottom corner, a red button was flashing on the screen. I opened it and the entire screen was now a red flash. An alarm was triggered with the cryptic message : “ anomaly detected”. What does that even mean? Where is that manual with the alarms. I need to know before I call Stan. The manual reads like a riddle and I give up. I look at the screen myself and open the comparative image screen. Well it’s called a high energy spike which could indicate a new sun spot forming. This could be dangerous for Earth as it could send a deadly solar flare our way. I noted the time and place of the spike before calling Lord Stan. Stan had fifteen years of experience working with classified technology. He designed the protocol and validated the analysis methodology. He was even the proud author of a few patents on the algorithm used in the data analysis. It was nothing that could destroy the world (at least that's what I had been told) but it certainly gave a competitive edge to US over all other Space agencies around the world. Keep your new toys quiet. I’m not sure what happened but he left that field of work and came here to Houston to work in what I feel is not that much more glorious than the job I have. Even with the setback he still maintained his military style demeanor. This is why I jokingly called him Lord Steve. (well to myself)

“Stan, it’s Marcy down in the basement. I have a report coming your way. It’s showing a possible sunspot formation.”

“Very good, report back to me with further changes. Over and out.”

Click.

Highlight of my shift. Seems that hour might just happen after all with Jerry.

I sat down looking over the monitor watching the lines rise above and below the high line when it suddenly went back to normal.

“Huh, I guess the fun is over.”

My phone rang and it showed “Mom” on the caller ID.

“She’s just calling to see if I’m making it to dinner on Saturday. I’ll call her after work.”

The woman could talk your ear off and the replacement ear you got. So I would mostly put her on speaker while I prepared my dinner for the evening.

2:41Pm

Shift is almost over! Ugh…Mom. Still have to call her back. I let out a sigh and continued looking at the monitors. There had been a few alerts earlier and a few calls to Stan but other than that a whole lot of nothing. There were days we would have two people on a shift. Those days time would often go by faster and seem less repetitive.

Beep.

Another spike, nothing abnormal there, but a final goodbye to dear old Stan. Couldn't leave my shift without hearing his voice. Rolling my eyes I dialed him up.

“Hey it’s me again, another spike as the last one a few hours ago.”

“You must always identify yourself when calling.”

I let out a grunt. “It’s Marcy. I sent over the spike that just happened now with the time and place”

As he was scolding me on the importance of identifying myself I noticed the spikes on the monitor became bigger and appeared on more spots than initially seen. The alarm signal could not get any redder than it already was. All indicators were pointing to the fact that there was a release of a solar flare heading our way.

“I hear the solar warning alarm. Why did you not notice this was going to happen and alert us earlier? These indicators should have shown up on your shifts days ago. I need to know exactly what is happening.”, Stan said with urgency.

“It’s not just the solar warning Stan, it’s flashing at least a dozen warnings. A CME warning, solar wind warning, and the solar energetic particles warning plus numbers fluctuating at a very rapid rate. All of the other systems here are showing signs of distress. Stan, nothing in the past days has indicated any . Maybe there is a technical error or a malfunction with the telescope. I’ll have to shut it all down and run a diagnostic test. Maybe the mirrors are damaged. You mind watching on your end for now?”I was beginning to worry as this never had happened before. Small errors had happened before but we had at least a dozen other systems as back ups watching over any malfunctions and it would have alerted us right away.

“I’ve dialed up Art to head your way to help with the issues there. On my end it appears my data is blank. No warnings or alerts. I am still receiving a signal from the Parmer Probe but it is not showing any data from the Sun. Check all systems until Art arrives. I will need to put you on hold for now.”

Stan put me on hold while I clicked away trying to find out what just went wrong. I spoke too soon earlier when I said it was going to be a boring day.

2:49pm

As I printed out the tests being performed by our system, I did not know that a countdown had begun.

2:51pm

“Hello!”, Jerry happily shouted from the front entrance.

“Back here!”, I yelled at him.

Jerry walked back to find me under the table in a mangled twist of wires.

“What’s going on? Why are the monitors beeping?”

“Well that is what I’m doing down here trying to figure out. Waiting on a technician to get here but something tells me I’m not gonna find it.” I looked over at a green wire and wondered where the hell did it go?

“You sure you know where all those go?”

“Of course I do. Why would I be down here taking out wires if I didn't know what I was doing?” Clearly Jerry knew I had no clue what I was doing.

“We gotta call Stan so he can get on his back ups up there.” Jerry picked up the phone and before he could press a button Stan who had put me on hold earlier spoke from the speaker.

Jerry seemed startled at first but quickly calmed to listen.

“It appears we are on heavy alert. Not only our probe but the probe at Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency and European Space Agency have also triggered alarms. They’re all assessing the problem as we speak. Hang tight there. I will return shortly with the next steps.”

Click

“Could this be hackers?”, I thought

2:54pm

“I should have started the timer.”. We are supposed to start a timer if anything ever malfunctions or shuts down. That way we fix the issue at hand in less time it took the Sun’s rays to reach Earth.

“It just turned 2:54 now. When did it begin? There should be a time when you sent the first report.” Jerry looked through the outbox of the telescope and saw it read, “2:41”

“Five minutes have passed. Three more to go plus an extra thirty-seconds. My spidey senses are not tingling. There is a natural explanation for all this happening. There should be no worrying”. Jerry was a comic book fan and always positive. Which for me was the most annoying part about him.

2:55pm

Silence.

Everything shut down, alarms stopped blaring.

Jerry and I looked at one another. “Is it the end of the world?”, I let out an unsure laugh. An awkward silence always made me feel uncomfortable.

“Doubt that. Let’s see if we can just restart everything. I’ll flip the breaker switch. You mind staying longer on your shift today to help with restoring the programs?”

“Of course. Save me from an irritating phone call to my Mother.”

Jerry left for a small room that held the breaker box while I straightened up all the strung out paperwork from the tests.

2:56pm

The lights went out.

Darkness.

Thirty seconds went by before the switch was flipped back on. It seemed like hours.

Jerry walked back out when something startled us both.

There was a knock at the door.

“Fuck. I think it’s Art.”, motioned towards the door.

“I’ll get it.”, Jerry walked over and opened the door to see Art standing there with a clueless face observing the mess of the wires I had made.

He laughs, “I really hope not much damage was done here. It will take me longer than it should.”

“Sorry about all this. It happened quickly and I wanted to solve the issue before it became a problem. But it seems like it's above our heads at this point.”

Art looked at me. I realized he had not gotten the update yet.

“All systems are down with all the probes and in every sector out there with connection with the probes orbiting the Sun. You might just standby for now while things reboot here.”

“Not a problem. I’ll contact Sarah to see if she has any updates on what’s going on.”

Art put down his tools and took out his phone.

“I need some air. You mind?”, I looked over at Jerry who was staring darts at the screens.

“Yes, yes that is fine. It will be a few minutes before it's all back up.”

2:57 (and thirty two seconds)pm

I let out a sigh and took a deep breath of fresh air in. The air was warm with a cool breeze that tickled the ends of my hair. The day was another beautiful spring day. A nice walk before heading home would be nice if I got out of here before the Sun went down.

As I said this I could tell the Sun’s light was beginning to dim around me. Puzzled I looked up to see the Sun seem to gradually fade until nothing was left its place but a dark hole.

“Has the stress caused me to hallucinate?", one eyebrow rose, as I tried to adjust to the darkness around me.

“Is it already nightfall?”. Art who had walked out to retrieve another bag from his car noticed the complete darkness around us. “I swore it was only three in the afternoon.”

“Not quite three.” I looked down at my phone at the time and the three missed calls from my Mom.

“So you don’t see it too, right? The Sun?”. I asked looking over at Art.

“Well no. Just stars. What’s going on here Marcy?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I thought I was losing my mind there for a second. But since you see it too it’s real. We have to call Stan.”

Inside, Jerry was still waiting for the computers to power up.

“Call Stan back right now.” I ordered Jerry

He looked up at me confused about the sudden urgency in my voice.

“What do I tell him?” Jerry asked as the phone rang.

“Tell him…tell him the Sun’s gone.”