Working Title:

THE UNCREATOR
By Eli d’Elbée
 Author’s note

As the sunset on June 18th 2004, David Tholen, Roy Tucker and Fabrizio Bernardi
made a discovery that could have profound implications for all of life on this planet.

The astronomers at Kitt Peak in Arizona, were scanning the sky for asteroids inside
the Earth’s orbit of the sun. Shortly before finishing for the day, they found one. The
men immediately reported the find to the International Astronomical Union’s Minor
Planet center, which collects and reports data on asteroids and comets. It was
designated 2004 MN4. Poor weather, however, prevented them from making any more
observations of the object that week and it was lost.

Later in December of that year, 2004 MN4was once again tracked down by
astronomers in Australia. But it was then that a terrifying discovery was made: the
asteroid’s orbit swung it menacingly close to Earth every few years. Scientists began
running computer models of the asteroids path and their results were chilling. Just
before Christmas 2004, Jon Giorgini, a senior analyst at NASA’s Jet Propulsions
laboratory predicted that on Easter Sunday, 2036, 2004 MN4 might actually hit the
Earth.

The asteroid was renamed Apophis - the Egyptian god of evil.

Apophis is over 400 meters wide (1200 feet).

It has an estimated mass of 200 million tonnes.
And it is hurtling through space at an average speed of 30.7km/second.

While the effect of an impact would depend on Apophis’s composition and

angle/location of impact, NASA estimated that if the asteroid struck the Earth it
would release the equivalent of 880 megatons of TNT1. To put that in perspective for
you: the impact that created the famous Barringer Crater – a 1,200 m (4,000 ft) wide
meteor crater near Flagstaff, Arizona - is estimated to be only in the 3-10 megaton
range (which is about 200 times the yield of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki).

At a bare minimum, Apophis would create a crater over 9km wide and 2.5km deep.

Although the rest of this story is a work of fiction, everything in this preface is
actually true.

1
“99942 Apophis (2004 MN4) Earth Impact Risk Summary” NASA.
 Comets are vile stars. Every time they appear in the south,
something happens to wipe out the old and establish the new.
Li Ch’un Feng (620-670)
 PREFACE

The Egyptian god, Apep was the enemy of the sun god, Ra.
He was a serpent that dwelt in the external darkness of Duat
(the underworld). Everyday he tried to swallow Ra and his
solar barque during its nightly passage. Apep commanded
an army of demons that plagued mankind and was
considered the deification of darkness and chaos.

With him, came only darkness.

He was considered the uncreator.

April 15th

The Pechora River begins its long journey in the Ural Mountains in the south-eastern
corner of the Komi Republic of Russia. It then flows for 1,800km north through
forests and swamps before entering the Pechora Sea at Nosovaya. Numerous cities lie
along the river’s shores, and the local populations are dependent on the water for their
daily needs. The river brings life to the region which is 80% covered in forests.

At 5:34am local time, an object - that would latter be referred to as ‘Apep’ - impacted
the ground 47.4km northeast of the city of Pechora (population 50, 000). The rock
would later be calculated to have been 3.2 km wide at the time of impact, and it would
have been traveling at 26km/second as it entered our atmosphere, striking the ground
at an angle of 78°. There was no fore warning. No one saw it coming. After eons of
traveling across the Milky Way, the object simply slipped through unnoticed. It
silently swung past our moon and 4 hours later entered Earth’s atmosphere. While the
heat of the entry took some of the mass and speed out of its impact, when it did hit the
ground a fireball 50 km wide was produced. This wall of heat radiated out at
incredible speeds, searing everything within a few hundred kilometers. The entire
population of the city of Pechora died instantly. Most of them were still asleep at the
time. The city and surrounding landscape were simply lifted and removed from the
surface of the earth by the sudden shockwave that rippled out across the northeastern
European plain. One hundred kilometers away, the surrounding cities of Kadzherom,
Usinsk and Inta followed the same fate a few seconds later.
The thermal radiation produced from the blast vapourised the surrounding forests and
grasslands. Heat equivalent to the core of the sun (2x107 joules) baked the region for
hundreds of miles for more than 15 minutes after the initial impact. Immediately
evaporating the river water and melting the superficial underlying bedrock. The
capital city of Komi Republic, Syktyvkar (pop. 230,000), which lay 500km southeast
of Pechora, was violently woken. The air temperature in most apartment blocks
rocketed up, in many cases causing third degree burns. Inhabitants awoke to a
blinding flash of light, which burnt many retinas. As they screamed in panic, many
were over come by the searing heat. Two minutes after the impact, the earth under
the city shock so furiously that buildings collapsed and vehicles in the street where
tossed around like dice. The majestic Stefanovski Cathedral succumbed to the same
fate as most of the surrounding structures. Those who miraculously survived this
horrific wake up, staggered amongst the wreckage as the earth continued to shake
beneath them. But only three minutes after their ordeal started, red-hot projectiles
averaging 10cm wide began crashing out of the sky, penetrating anything in their
path. This rain would continue until the city was blanketed in over 5 meters of debris
from the impact. Half an hour after the impact, an air blast ripped through what
remained of the city, lifting and throwing an object not securely attached to the
ground. Needless to say, no life within 500km of the impact survived.
1,200km away from the blast site, the city of Moscow slept through the initial impact.
Only those awake and looking east at the time observed the bright glow. No one
could have known the magnitude of the blast and inferno occurring below the
horizon. But their attention was drawn back to their immediate situation, by the
sudden loss of power suffered by the entire city. Streetlights failed and vehicles
rolled to a dead stop. Nightclubs echoed to the booes of young revelers stuck in the
dark. Confusion reined as those who were awake tried to work out what had
happened. Every attempt to contact a friend or family member by telephone only
found that the line was dead. Four minutes later, the city suffered it’s first major
earthquake. Measuring above 8 on the Richter scale, the city was fiercely shaken.
Luckily only a few buildings collapsed. Inhabitants were thrown from their beds and
awoke on the floor wondering what was happening. Panic broke out immediately
amongst the inhabitants stuck in the dark as the world moved around them. Scared
children ran from their beds in search of their parents. Pets screeched and barked
wildly. Only a small number of really deep sleepers were not woken by these events.
Approximately nine minutes after the impact, scorching, hail-like ejecta began falling
on the city. Although their mass did little damage, fires did break out where these
hot particles hit wooden structures. Eventually Moscow would be covered in a
blanket of these particles one foot thick. The dust that accompanied this debris would
render the air difficult to breath.
Across the globe, regardless of time zone, electrical circuitry failed en mass. Cell
phone, computers, TVs, and microwaves all suddenly ceased to function. Aircraft
were forced to switch to manual instruments. Hospitals struggled to continue
operations. Elevators stopped between floors. Stockmarkets came to a complete halt.
The electromagnetic pulse caused by the impact left all electronic devices useless.
Communication became impossible.