Apocalypse Read online

  RISE OF THE CHOLAS

  APOCALYPSE

  J.V. JAYAKUMAR

  Version 1.0

  3rd of December 2019

  Copyright © 2019 by J.V. JAYAKUMAR

  J.V. Jayakumar asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. The names, places, characters, and events are a result of the author’s imagination or used fictionally. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental.

  Dedication

  In loving memory of my father

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Acknowledgments

  List of Characters

  Author Bio

  PROLOGUE

  A land where milk and honey flowed like rivers, men and women living as equals, appreciating the smaller things in life.

  Virtues considered more important than life itself, a civilization as old as humanity, preserving nature in all its beauty.

  Land categorized as mountains, forests, farmlands, seashores, and wilderness.

  The fragrance of the kurinji, jasmine and lotus flowers accentuating moonlit waters, guests treated with utmost respect and courtesy.

  A language sweeter than honey, the place in Southern India called Tamil Nadu, the land of the Tamils.

  Towards the end of the first millennium, three kingdoms made up this beautiful land, the Cheras, Cholas, and Pandyas.

  There lived a king who saw beyond his times, the one with friends in lands afar, ruler of the Chola kingdom, and all of the Southern Seas, Rajaraja Cholan.

  A magnificent temple that proudly stands two hundred and sixteen feet tall to this day, built of pure granite that has stood the test of time, nature’s wrath, and human greed. It is proof of the intelligence and wisdom with which Rajaraja Cholan ruled the mighty Chola empire.

  He had named the temple as Rajarajesvaram, which is now commonly referred to by the local people as the Tanjore Big temple.

  Legends are many; one associated with this temple says that the technology used in building it was beyond what people of the time had at their disposal.

  The king had a sage assisting him with the designs, of whom not much is known. Unlike kings who hold on to their kingdom till the last minute of their death, Rajaraja Cholan appointed his son Rajendra Cholan as king during his prime years. Surprisingly, no one remembers how this great king died or what happened to the sage, who assisted the king.

  Of course, there is a legend, one that says that Rajaraja Cholan, along with the sage and a little over a thousand soldiers went on a secret mission, never to be seen again.

  Chapter 1

  “The world needs to know,” asserted Andrea Stinson, the 47th President of the United States. “There is hardly a year left, and everyone has the right to spend the last days of their lives with their families or whoever they may choose. It is not just about the U.S, every country on Earth is going to be impacted by this event.”

  Fear and grief overtook her. She was known to be made of steel, being able to handle all adversities, but not this one. It was worse than the worst nightmare she ever had. She was finding it very difficult to come to terms with this reality.

  James Adams, the Secretary of State, jumped in, saying, “Madam President, there will be pandemonium everywhere. We cannot predict how people will react to this devastating news.” James was confused himself. The thought, How will I tell this to my wife and two kids? Repeated in his mind, and he was half following the conversations, not fully aware of the proceedings.

  “Breaking this news to the public would not be a wise thing to do at this moment,” said Vice President Charles Smith. “I agree with James, there will be uncontrollable chaos on the streets.”

  Charles was a senior and well-respected congressman. He had seen the peaks and troughs life had to offer, undaunted by the happenings, and in a way glad that all misery would come to an end. He survived colorectal cancer three years ago and is back to fighting cancer, this time in his liver.

  Neil Johnson, the Secretary of Defense, not wanting to be left out, said, “Madam President, I would suggest that we spend some time planning the communication.”

  Andrea looked over to Jack Thomas, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and told him, “Run us through the details again.”

  Jack was one of the highly decorated war heroes. His rise to glory started with his role in the gulf war as a strategist. It was a fight that was expected to cause substantial casualties like the Vietnam war. On the contrary, there were fewer casualties, and the battle won within a few weeks. Jack knew what they were up against this time, or maybe not.

  Jack stood up from his chair, reached out to the clicker, and walked towards the projector screen. He said, “A team of Indian, Chinese, and Israeli scientists camped at the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Ladakh has put this together.

  “There is a large black hole rushing its way towards the Earth at an incredible speed of one hundred and fifty-six thousand miles per second. The Earth will exactly fall in its path two hundred and seventy-five days from now, on the 21st of December 2030. We know very little about black holes, especially ones that move through space at this speed. Its size is much bigger than our sun. We have no way to stop it or get away from its path. Hence this is going to be an apocalyptic event that will consume the entire Earth.”

  “How come we did not see this coming earlier?” asked Andrea with frustration in her voice.

  Jack replied, “Many scientists across the world have been noticing anomalies in their readings for the past few weeks, but they could not figure out what was causing those anomalies.

  “The path of the black hole did not collide with any space object, and hence none of our telescopes or other measuring instruments looking for gamma rays had any clue about it. Added to that, the speed at which it was traveling was unprecedented, and hence they could not determine the object accurately.”

  Andrea thought for a while and said, “I would like to meet the Indian, Chinese, and Israeli leaders along with their scientists who have been tracking this closely. Get the folks from NASA as well. I want this meeting to happen on Monday; you have the weekend to prepare for it.”

  Invitations for the meeting were sent out within the next thirty minutes. Indian External Affairs Minister Ramesh Babu and chief scientist of ISRO Srinivasa Sastri were part of the Indian contingent. On the Chinese team were Foreign Minister Lee Wong and Chief Scientist Shen Lum. Foreign Minister Jacob Isaac and Chief Scientist Tobias Peres were part of the Israeli side.

  The meeting began at 10 a.m. sharp on Monday. All the invited delegates were present. Also present at the meeting were NASA Administrator Hannah Jordan along with the Secretary of State, Defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  Everyone stood up in silence as Andrea walked in. She said, “Thanks all for coming in on such short notice; please be seated. Let’s get straight to business.” Andrea looked at Srinivasa Sastri and said, “Mr. Sastri, walk us through what you’ve got.”

  “About three weeks ago, I was working on the launch of our communication satellite in partnership with the Chinese and Israeli scientists. I noticed a severe anomaly in one of our astronomical readings. I have neve
r seen anything like that before in my career.

  “There was a circular area on the reading without any stars. This area seemed to be getting bigger every time I took the reading. However, nothing got captured in our imaging telescope. This made me think that it could be a supermassive black hole traveling at a very high velocity through space.

  “As per my calculations based on the increase in the object’s diameter over time, we will be in its path on the 21st of December. The survival of our human race is highly unlikely, in my opinion,” said Sastri, adding his prediction at the end and expressing his fear.

  “Shen and Tobias, do you have anything to add to what Mr. Sastri has just said?” asked Andrea.

  Both of them replied that they had thoroughly verified the findings of Srinivasa and attested to their accuracy.

  “Hannah, what does NASA have on this black hole?” asked Andrea.

  Hannah replied, “Madam President, I met with the scientists at the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last night.

  “The Chandra X-ray Observatory has been tracking this black hole since the minute we received the details from ISRO. It never showed up in our regular scans for some unknown reason. It appears as though some cosmic event of epic proportions must have pushed it towards our Earth.

  “We have never seen a supermassive black hole move this fast through space, at eighty-four percent the speed of light, to be exact. It has a mass of four million times that of our sun, and the size of the event horizon is seventeen times that of our sun.

  “The Earth will be in its bullseye when it reaches us. I'm confused about whether this could be pure coincidence that we would end up precisely in the object's geometrical center at 10:10 a.m. EST on the 21st of December 2030.

  “The top scientists at NASA have verified these numbers, and I can vouch for their accuracy one-hundred percent. It is a doomsday scenario that none of us anticipated, at least not so soon in our lifetime. The Earth would be a tiny dot disappearing into the black hole, considering its massive size.”

  Andrea turned towards James Adams and said, “Let us convene the UN security council at the earliest and discuss this with other world leaders.”

  Then she went on to say, “That’ll be all for today. Hannah, please stay back, the rest can leave. Thank you,” standing up from her chair.

  As soon as everyone left the room, Hannah could see tears in Andrea’s eyes. Both of them were college mates at MIT, where they had done their graduate studies in Physics. They were much more than just college mates. They were the best of friends. Staying together in the same room was one of the reasons for them to become besties.

  They had developed a daily ritual of sharing the happenings of the day. Both of them completely trusted each other, and there were no secrets between them.

  “Madam President, you are heading this great country. This is not the time to get emotional,” said Hannah, trying to console Andrea.

  “Hannah, I have already told this to you many times, stop addressing me as Madam President when no one is around. You're one of those few people in this world I completely trust to share my inner feelings, and you’re always my best friend. How can I not be emotional? My daughter Tina is only twelve years old.

  “I don't have the strength in me to watch her die. I have to deal with something no one on Earth has ever dealt with before. Why should this happen during my presidency? Is nature not happy to see a woman lead the greatest nation on Earth?

  “I'm extremely disappointed that in spite of all our technological advancements, we failed to catch such a massive object much earlier. I wish there is some way we can prevent this disaster and save the Earth. You were the smartest student in our class. Please don't tell me there is nothing we can do to stop this damn lifeless thing from killing us,” said Andrea, letting her emotions out.

  “Andrea, I’m extremely sorry that we did not catch this much earlier. We have made significant progress in recent years in understanding black holes. Unfortunately, all our focus in recent times has been on studying the thousands of supermassive ones found in the center of galaxies, including our Milky Way.

  “Even in my wildest dreams, I have never seen one move at this incredible speed. I’m afraid there is nothing much we can do to save humanity from this impending catastrophe,” replied Hannah with a sense of shame in her voice.

  Andrea found it difficult to digest the fact that the end was near. She longed at the bottom of her heart to save humanity from this disaster. Looking at Hannah in her eyes, she said, “We still have close to nine months at our disposal. Here’s what I want you to do. Get the best minds we have across the scientific community and put together a task force. Brainstorm and come up with a plan to save humanity.

  “I’m aware that FrontierSpace is working on a spaceship that will take humans on a one-way trip to colonize Mars. Check whether that program can be expanded to take as many people as possible on the mission. Given that we will not exist as a species beyond nine months let’s give it all we’ve got. I will take this up with the UN security council and get all the support that you need.”

  Chapter 2

  “Hi! How are you? What can I get for you today?” asked the person behind the counter at the King of Shawarma food truck, corner of West 45th street and 9th avenue, in Times Square.

  “One Chicken Shawarma over Rice, please,” replied Salim Ali, handing over a ten-dollar bill. It was less than three months that Salim had been appointed as the permanent representative of India to the United Nations. He developed a weekend ritual of going to Times Square, picking up street food, and staring at all the LED signages.

  The UN had undergone a significant reform recently, and the permanent seats in the security council had been increased to ten. India, Brazil, Japan, Germany, and the UAE were the new permanent members in addition to the old club of the US, UK, Russia, France, and China.

  The non-permanent members were reduced to five, which included Canada, Australia, Egypt, Italy, and New Zealand.

  “Hey!!! Watch it, man!” a cab driver shouted at Salim as he tried to cross the road.

  Salim Ali was loving every bit of moving to New York. Even though he had visited many cities across the US, including the west coast, New York made him feel at home.

  He was born and raised in the cosmopolitan Indian city of Mumbai. He loved the chaos on the streets of NY. Cabbies shouting at pedestrians, drivers jumping signals, and unlimited choices of street food; it all reminded Salim of his Hometown.

  Salim heard a beep on his phone, it was an e-mail. He pulled out the phone using his left hand and unlocked it.

  “URGENT & CONFIDENTIAL,” he glanced at the subject of the e-mail and knew that it was important.

  It was from Antonio Vito, the Secretary-General of the UN Security Council.

  He went on to read it, “Meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. on Wednesday, 27th of March 2030, to be chaired by the US President.”

  It was the turn of the US to preside over the sessions in March, as per the monthly schedule.

  Antonio had requested the presence of all the heads of state from the fifteen member countries along with the permanent representatives.

  “Venue: Situation Room, White House,” that was new to him. Salim had attended few meetings between the chamber and consultation rooms of the UN Security Council in New York, but this meeting was scheduled to be held in the White House.

  This was also the first time in the three months Salim had been with the UN Security Council that he had to pull in Harsh Shah, the Prime Minister of India. Harsh had a hectic schedule, and Salim knew that it would be close to impossible to get the Prime Minister to the White House in two days.

  The protocol laid out to Salim was to reach out to the Prime Minister’s office through the External Affairs Minister, Ramesh Babu, who was his boss.

  He immediately called Ramesh on the phone, “Mr. Ramesh, good Morning. I’m sorry to disturb you like this, but it is a very urgent matter. There is a UN Secu
rity Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 9 a.m. in the White House. We have been asked to invite our PM as well to the meeting. I need your help in getting the PM to attend this meeting, as it appears to be for some urgent matter.”

  Ramesh already had the background on the topic, hence without hesitation, replied, “Don’t worry, Salim, I will personally speak to the PM and request him to attend the meeting.”

  Salim felt relieved at the assurance given by his boss.

  Heads of state from all the fifteen members of the UN security council, along with their permanent representatives were present for the meeting.

  Even though it had been less than two years since Andrea was sworn in as the President, she had built a good rapport with all the world leaders. She made it a point to visit at least two countries in a month and strengthen bilateral ties with those countries.

  It was the first time that Andrea was addressing a UN security council meeting at the White House; hence, there was the anticipation among the invitees about the agenda of the meeting.

  The seating arrangements inside the situation room were made in a circular fashion to mimic the seating in the UN security council chamber at NY.

  Nameplates were kept in front of each dignitary. There were two nameplates in front of Andrea, one read “PRESIDENT” and the other read “UNITED STATES.” The nameplate in front of Antonio Vito read “SECRETARY-GENERAL.” He was seated next to Andrea to her right side.

  Andrea looked at Antonio to confirm whether she could start the meeting. Antonio understood the question from her look and nodded. Andrea moved the gavel to her right a little bit to position it along the end of her right hand. She then looked around at all the members present and started her speech.

  “Thank you all for coming in at such short notice. This 9430th meeting of the UN Security Council is called to order.”