Chapter 3 - News Station Mystery
423 Days 'Til Doomsday
June 7th, 2064
[Los Angeles, California - LA Riverside News Station]
In a meeting room of a news station a group of people were asked to wait for their mystery guest, 40 people were stuffed into the room along with Dianna and some military personnel. Some of the news people included were a couple of famous news anchors, directors, executive producers, producers, chief engineer, and chairman. While everyone was waiting, there was a lot of discussion of what's going to happen or speculations of it having to do with recent events that have happened in the world that the U.S. Army had been involved with. After some time Dianna looked down at her watch, a couple of seconds had passed, she looked up and coughed clearing her throat, at that time all the discussions started to die down. Allowing only her voice to be heard.
"Hello, My name is Dianna and I work as secretary to General Roger David Slates. Many of you are here because the United States Government has asked you here today, before we proceed I ask that all of you sign a 'U.S. Embargo of Non-Disclosure Agreement', basically that anything that is spoken here is not to be said or repeated to anyone under any circumstance until the given date stated on the document. If you have any questions please ask now, if you do not wish to sign the document you may leave."
After the lengthy speech a hand shoots up and a young man in his mid 20s comes out from behind the crowd.
"Dianna, my only question is 'Does this event have anything to do with the current events in the world?'"
"Current events in the world?..... No"
"So if you do not mind me prying, this is about something we know nothing of? Correct?"
"That question seems to be within bounds to answer, but I ask that you do not ask a question I can not answer until you sign the document.... your answer is yes."
The man who had asked his question stepped back into the crowd. The crowd began whispering amongst themselves and many of them had faces of thought and some of excitement. Finally an older woman steps forward from the crowd and asks a question that they all had on there mind after hearing Dianna's answer.
"So, are we the only news station that you are going to with this information?"
"No"
"How many are going to know of this information?"
"All the news stations."
"Oh, so all the news stations in the country?"
"No, throughout the world."
The woman fell silent as well as the rest of the room. Finally many came to a realization that whatever is happening is so big that their government could not cover it up, worse yet the fact the entire world is going to find out what's happening means that the United Nations have failed or could not hide something so big without someone finding out. A chill crept down the spines of many and the room felt as if it dropped a few degrees in the matter of seconds. Finally as if all in the room came to the same conclusion, began to sign the documents, no one left the room, because they all had to satisfy their curiosity and fear of what the truth is.
After all 40 people signed the documents, as if on cue, entering the room was a man of about 6 feet with spectacles clad in a generals uniform. He walked to Dianna and leaned over to her, she whispered into his ear and he nods his head as if understanding the whispers. He then took his open seat which was positioned next to Dianna and at the end of a rectangular table which was positioned in the center of the room. He stared out from the end of the table at the rest of the room filled with anxious and excited people. The general starts to adjust his spectacles and speaks out to the crowd.
"Hello, My name is General Roger David Slates, please once again understand all things spoken here are subject to secrecy until the given time, I hope you all can agree?"
All in unison the crowd nodded their heads in affirmation.
"Good, this should be fun!"
Rubbing his hands together as if trying to strengthen his statement.
"So, who wants the first question?"
An young anchor woman raises her hand to ask a question. She came forth in front of the crowd.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"What is this big event that the U.S. Government could not hide?"
"Oooo your seriously my type, to bad I'm married."
"Uhhh, Thank you sir, but if you could be so kind as to answer my question."
"Sorry you just distracted me there for a second, hummmmm where were we... oh yes, well it's about 'The End of The World'"
The spectacled general stated with a smile on his face. Many were baffled by what he had said and his emotional response to the statement, he was clearly grinning from ear to ear as if nothing had happened, but his statement had the words of doom in them. Clearly many seemed confused due to his response, the way everything has seemed to have unfolded up until this point, all pointed to this being the truth. After seeing what transpired between the woman and the general, Dianna decides to interrupt.
"I apologize if the general confused you in anyway, he gets like this when under an extreme amount of pressure. But what he last stated is the truth and the general will give you further details, won't you Roger?"
Dianna nudges him in the ribs. Roger scratches his head and decides he does not want to piss off his wife anymore than she is because of his sleazy flirting with the anchor woman. He decides to be the general he's supposed to be.
"I apologize."
The General motions in a slight bow of apology to the crowd. He continues on with a lengthy speech.
"So anyways, about 2 years ago we noticed a cataclysm headed our way from several a galaxies over, a rather large star imploded on itself causing a super nova of sorts, this actual event happened over 2 million years ago. The 'U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command' noticed an irregularity in our systems, a massive supernova wave hit our Solar System, luckily the Earth was hidden behind the Sun which caused us little to no damage. The Supernova Wave crashed directly into our sun it caused the Sun to use a large amount thermal power directly from it's core, just to divert the wave from itself, which in turn caused the life expectancy of the sun to decrease to an extreme amount."
Everyone in the room knew exactly what this meant, the room in its entirety became rather gloomy. And a man rose to his feet and asked.
"How much time 'til ‘Doomsday'"
Roger leans back in his chair staring up at the ceiling and stated.
"About 1 year 2 months"
Again the room was dead silent. Roger returned back to a seated position. And began talking.
"Well, now that the doomy gloomy stuff is out of the way!"
He smiles ear to ear once again. Continuing his speech.
"So Yes, our time here on this planet is coming to an end, but it doesn't mean that it's the end of us. In fact that's where I come in, I work for a secret part of our army called the 'U.S. Army Experimental Energy & Weapons Division' we work on experimental concepts of weapons and energies. By chance we stumbled upon a formula which allows us to build a device that is able to Teleport to another world but currently only works one way. We have built these devices and distributed them to all the nations across the world and told them the same story we are currently telling you. The reason you are here is because one way or another you are all going to find out that the world is ending, but most in the world won't know anything of the governments working together to develop these devices to save you all, in turn it would just cause mass hysteria and pandemonium. So we need you all to report what we are doing all over the world and get people prepared for departures over the next year and to keep order amongst the masses until we reach our destination..... Am I understood in everything I have said?"
The room seemed to have understood what The Spectacled General Roger had said. Many sighed of relief and were happy that their own government was somehow competent to create a safe and fair way for all to survive such a cataclysm. The meeting went on in specific details of how the departures would work and how currency and other things of that nature would work in the other world for the time being.