The Beginning (Part I of ___)

1
THE BEGINNING

“Honolulu Tower, this is JAL flight number 1597 declaring an emergency.”
“What is the nature of your emergency?” The controller, Jim asked.
“We have a number one engine failure and a loss of cabin air pressure. 31 passengers are unconscious.” The pilot in a nervous voice explained.
“Roger that JAL 1597. Honolulu Tower, over.”

As soon as Jim released the TALK button, he pressed the EMERGENCY button next to his computer screen. Once the button was pressed, a loud siren sounded and then his ground control phone rang. Jittery as he always is he picked it up and brought the head set to his ear.

“This is Steve at Ground Control. What is the emergency?”
“We have a JAL flight with a number one engine failure and a loss of cabin pressure. So far 31 people are injured. I have put him on a holding pattern around the 152 VOR radial.”
“We’ll have emergency personnel set up for a runway 4L landing.”
“How long will it take?”
“15 minutes.”
“That’s not enough time! I don’t think that plane can last for five minutes!”
“I’ll have the runway set up in ten, max.”
“Good. Thank you.”

Once Jim hung up the phone he looked out his window towards the airport fire station and saw all the vehicle doors open and yellow ARFF vehicles race out and onto runway 4L. Meanwhile Jim INCOMING light lit indicating that a transmission is being received. He quickly ran over, pressing the LISTEN button.

“Honolulu Tower, this is JAL 1597…we’re loosing fuel we are at 1,500 pounds left tank, 1,200 pounds center tank and 750 pounds right tank. Requesting for an emergency clearance to land on runway 4L?”
“Clearance granted. JAL 1597 copy?”
“Copy JAL 1597, Honolulu tower we have you in visual range.”
“Roger that JAL 1597 fly straight in, runway 4L.”
“Thanks.”

After he released the TALK button he turned and looked at runway 4L where he saw JAL 1597, an Airbus A340-300 begin its descent into Honolulu. As the plane was landing, its nose gear was coming down more slowly than the main gears which were already down which was a little surprising because on a normal Boeing 747-400 or 767-200 all three gears come down together.

***

General Michael Clark was drinking his morning cup of coffee when his cell phone rang. When he picked it up the caller ID registered the number, 254-9900, as the Honolulu Int’l Airport’s ARFF division. Realizing what it was, he answered it.

“Hello. Is this General Clark?”
“Yes this is he. What is the nature of your call?”
“A JAL flight is making an emergency landing on runway 4L.”
“What make is the aircraft?”
“An Airbus Industrie A340-300.”
“Problem…what is wrong with the aircraft?”
“The flight had a number one engine failure and loss of cabin pressure. 31 people are injured.”
“I’ll be right there!”

When General Clark hung up, he ran over to his bookshelf and grabbed a three-ring binder that was labeled “EUROPEAN AIRCRAFT” and slammed it down on the table. Flipping through it he found the section on Airbus Industrie aircraft. He sifted through structural diagrams until he found the one he wanted. It said “AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A340-100, -200, -300”. He put a piece of paper on the page and closed the binder. Then he grabbed the binder and his keys and ran out the door, slamming it shut. Next, he threw the binder into the car, a Mercedes CLK-350 Kompressor series and sat down.

***

However at the airport, Jim looked in horror as the plane landed, its nose gear collapsed and the plane slid into the ground at what appeared to be at 211 knots, pretty fast for landing and cart wheeled end over end, the entire fuselage was being ripped to little shreds of metal. Debris went everywhere; it went so far that it damaged some planes at the terminal. The plane crashed so hard, that the first-class section separated from the coach-class section right where the wings attach. Through his binoculars he could see the remains of people being spitted out of the remnants of the first-class section, there were arms, legs, and other assorted body parts strewn about the runway.

As soon as it all began, it ended with the first-class section coming to a rest near the other end of the runway as a crumpled piece of metal and the rest of the aircraft coming to a rest approximately 500 feet behind the remains of the first-class section. Even after the crash, he was still shocked at what he saw, two of the aft doors were opened and people were climbing out of them, dazed and confused.
***

As General Clark was speeding down I-695 towards the Honolulu Int’l Airport, he put on his light bar, a signal to cops that he has a reason for speeding. Before he knew it, he saw the sign that read: “EXIT 31A HONOLULU INT’L AIRPORT”. Once he entered the exit ramp he saw the “DEPARTURES: LEFT/ARRIVALS: RIGHT” so he bared right because since arrivals were on the lower level, the entrance to the airport’s general aviation services was right next to the “TERMINAL B-C-E ↑” sign. Even before he arrived at the checkpoint, the guard already cleared him through the checkpoint, because the blast doors were opened and the green “go” light was lit. So he sped through and realized very quickly what he was looking for, the remains of any airplane that was painted in the JAL scheme.

Once he drove up to the aircraft he saw close-up the aftermath; the bodies, the parts of bodies, seats ripped apart like pieces of paper ripped from a book, electrical wires stretched and frayed to the point separation. But there was one thing that he did notice, a large container apparently not affected by the crash, so he went over to investigate, what he found was that the container was labeled, in Japanese along with the international symbols for radioactive materials and biohazard. Not even getting any closer, he spoke into his walkie-talkie.

“We need a HAZ-MAT team down here along with DOE agents now?” yelled Clark.
“Roger that. What have you found?” asked Jim
“I have found what appears to be a biohazard or a radioactive material container that has not been destroyed!”
“Ok…ok…stay where you are! Do not move an inch; an emergency crew will be down there to de-contaminate you! Just STAY THERE!”
“I will.”
“Over.”

“Great…I could be possibly dying of radiation poisoning,” Clark thought to himself. However, behind him two jeeps came to a stop, nearly hitting him.

“Are you General Clark?” Asked one of the men.
“Who are you?” responded Clark.
“Stay there, we’ll be over to you as soon as we can,” yelled another through a bullhorn.
“Hurry, I think that there is a timer within the box. Could you possible get my bomb diffusion kit flowchart and a pair of wire cutters?”

One of the men ran to the general’s car and grabbed the flowchart and a pair of titanium wire cutters. When he threw the flowchart and cutters, they landed next to Clark who had already picked them up, and was walking towards the box. The good thing about the box was that it was easy to get opened. Once opened, Clark stood there, shocked as he saw in horror what was in the box, a mini-cyclotron . He quickly found the timer which read “000:03:30.426”. Clark didn’t know where to begin. But he did know one thing to do, evacuate the island because the airport would become a nuclear disaster site. With nothing else to do he yelled over to the men who were standing.

“Get OUT OF HERE!” cried Clark.
“Why?” asked one of the men.
“There is a nuclear device set to explode in three minutes. I need you to evacuate everybody in a five-mile radius of the airport. NOW!”

As soon as Clark finished the sentence, the two jeeps were racing towards the main gates with their sirens blaring, “EVACUATE THE AREA!!!!EVACUATE THE AREA!!!!” over and over again.

***

But it was a different story when the timer read “000:00:10.400” for General Clark. He knew he was about to die when the timer hit zero. He knew that the gamma rays who hit him first, making his bones turn incandescent while the x-rays turned his brain into billions and billions of flashbulbs as of which he body literally disintegrated into sub-molecular bits.

However at “000:00:00.000” Clark’s time on Earth was up. His brain turned into flashbulbs as his body burned up from the inside. He didn’t feel a thing.

***
At NORAD, General Smith was drinking his coffee while reading the daily briefing. Then Lt. Commander Johnson ran into the room.

"General, we have recorded a nuclear detonation!" The Lt. Commander said with alarm.

"A what?"

"A nuclear detonation in the Honolulu area. An flight inbound from Japan crashed and that's when the first responders found the radioactive material..." the Lt. Commander said.

"Just to be on the safe side, I need you to accompany me to the master console."

With that, the General and the Lt. Commander left the office and proceeded down the brightly lit hallway to the lift.

Once on the lift the General pressed the S-21/MAIN CONTROL, and the lift lowered the 12 or so levels to the main control room. When the lift stopped, the two both got off and walked down another hallway until they reached a glass door with a fingerprint verification console to the right.

The General, eager to enter, pressed his right index finger on the scanning pad, and the system began to scan.

Computer: "ACCESS: GRANTED."

Then the door, slowly opened and the General ran into the control room.

Inside, assorted technicians were busily looking over data reports as the General made his way to the mainframe console.

The mainframe console was a regular computer terminal with 4 supercomputers surrounding it, along with 2 MPs.

Once the General entered, he was greeted with the following screen:

NORAD MAINFRAME TERMINAL
MAIN MENU

->command line interface
->launching system
->system diagnostic
->teletypewriter
->connect to satellite uplink
->emergency protocols
->EXIT

Hurridly, the General entered the launching system and opened the silo doors for numerous missile silos around the world. Them came up the seconday menu.

NORAD MAINFRAME TERMINAL
LAUNCING SYSTEM PROTOCOL

->enter coordinates
->begin launch protocol
->commence firing
->EXIT

The General entered the coordinates for North Korea and the metropolitan area of China. Once the coordinates were entered, the large screen in the front of the room showed a map of the world with the coordinates highlited. Then the expected path of the missiles come on screen. Also on the screen, the Time to Launch timer came on dsiplaying 00:00:15.45.

After about 15 seconds the timer read 00:00:00.00 and at that point, the missiles were launched and were on their way to their targets.

"General, do you think we are doing the right thing?" The Lt. Commander asked with a nervous tone.

"Lientenant, in times of war, we are the first line of attack. We always counter such attacks with ones on a larger scale." The General replied.

However on the screen, the missiles were only 5 minutes away from their targets.

***

At the Chinese Defense Agency, Colonel Juan Xian was reading the the latest reports from the prison camps in the interior regions of China when suddenly, the red light in his office lit and a large siren sounded.

Immeadately 5 guards entered the room.

"Colonel, you msut come with us!" A guard exclaimed.

"Why?" The colonel asked.

"Two missiles were approaching the coast of Beijing. They are from the United States."

"Two, what for?"

"We don't know."

With that, the 6 men left the room and ran down a flight of stairs to the enterior door and opened it. Outside, soldiers were running about trying to get into the few bunkers that were set aside the soldiers.

"Over there." One of the soldiers said while he pointed to an elevator shaft in the middle of the field.

Once they got to the elevator, they went aboard and one of the soldiers pressed the S-1/MAIN COMMAND BUNKER button and the lift decended down the shaft. Once they were inside the shaft, doors closed to prevent the fallout from getting into the shaft.

Once they reached the command bunker, the General was greeted with the Chinese primier and other governmental heads.

"Good day General. It is a pleasue to work with someone of your caliber..." the primier said to the General.

"It is a pleasure to once again, meet you president." Juan said to the primier.

"How are we going to answer this attack?" The fleet admiral of the navy asked.

"Reports from my satellite information division reported a nuclear blast in the area of Honolulu, Hawaii." Juan calmly reported.

"Hawa..."

Then the lights went out and the emergency lights kicked on. Once the emergency lights kicked on, the blast doors closed and sealed.

After a split second of thinking, Juan said, "Gentlemen, I believe that the missiles have hit their targets...It is a good thing that we are down here."

"I second," the fleet admiral added.

"We should try to contact a transport division to get us out of here," the president also added.

Then Juan called over a technician and told him to scan all the radio frequencies. After the technician was given his orders, he went back to his console and began tapping in the frequencies into the computer.

"Also, try to see if our missile batteries are operational! If they are let me know!" Col. Xian yelled as the technician left the room.

"Excuse me colonel, but I believe that we must have some firing solutions before we can arm the missiles," the president replied.

However at that moment, the technician rushed in. "Colonel! Our SS-20-N MIRV's are ready to go. Shall I have firing solutions ready?"

"See? These new technicians do all the work now. We don't even have to stress over whether we got the right targets," said the colonel cooly.

"In order to launch, you must come and authorize the launch codes comrade premier."

"Colonel, you may go in the place of me. If there are any questions, do not hesitate to come and get me," the president replied to the technician's remark.

With that Colonel Xian left behind the technician from the room and headed left down a corridor, and then proceeded to walk down that hallway until they reached a steel blast door.

"Colonel, this is firing control, you must have your retinas scanned before you enter."

"Alright."

Then the colonel went over to the left hand side of the door and pressed a rather large red button. Once the button was depressed, a eye examination unit with a chin rest extended from a port in the wall.

"Eye scan verification...Eye scan verification..." the unit began to repeat.

Slowly, he placed his chin in the unit and the eye examination light began to scan his left eye. After a few seconds of scanning, the unit closed back up again.

"Eye scan... verified... Colonel, Juan Xian..."

Once the unit was back in the wall, the door opened