Five years after Mika Furutsuki’s death, human society faced a grave danger.
The first sign came from the sun. The number of dark patches on the surface of the sun — sunspots — began increasing rapidly.
Sunspots are a sign that magnetic fields are escaping the sun’s interior. Like the Earth, the sun has a magnetic field, but since the sun is made of plasma, its rotation can cause chaotically turbulent plasma currents that induce magnetic field fluctuations. While the Earth’s magnetic south pole remains fixed at the North Pole, and the magnetic north pole fixed at the South Pole, the sun’s magnetic field twists itself up in knots, scuttling around the interior of the star. When these magnetic field lines extend out beyond the sun’s surface, sunspots are formed. The more sunspots there are, the more active the fluctuations in the sun’s magnetic fields.
So, what happens when the writhing magnetic field lines inevitably intersect with each other? The intersecting lines merge, forming a new magnetic field line. The new line slams back into the surface of the sun, causing an eruption. In other words, a solar flare. Meanwhile, the magnetic lines that remain behind disperse, no longer needed, leaving a large amount of energy behind. This energy is converted to fuel for the plasma around it, sending it flying outward as if launching a pachinko ball. In other words, a coronal mass ejection.
Solar flares are hardly unusual. In fact, the plasma ejected from such flares is what causes auroras when it strikes the Earth’s atmosphere. However, the solar flare that occurred this time was of an unprecedented scale. It was a super flare — ten thousand times larger than a normal flare — and it occurred suddenly, without warning.
There are three phases to the damage caused by solar flares. Electromagnetic waves (X-rays and UV rays), particle radiation, and coronal mass ejections of plasma. The electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light and strike the Earth first. The powerful energy in the electromagnetic waves can strip the electrons off of the atoms that compose the ionosphere. This glut of free electrons absorbs short wave radiation, rending all wireless functionality on Earth useless.
At the time of the flare, Maori Niizono was on an airplane, headed to America for an international symposium on regenerative medicine. Thirty minutes after leaving Narita Airport, the plane was cruising through the stratosphere. Maori Niizono was nodding off while reading a dissertation when panic spread through the cockpit. They’d lost all contact with air traffic control. At the same time, the traffic collision avoidance system cut out. Chaos erupted at airports the world over. Mid-flight contact and runway crashes resulted in numerous fires. Massive jets weren’t like single-seater planes; it was impossible to fly them based solely on what the eye could see.
“Attention all passengers. Due to an instrument malfunction, we will be returning to Narita Airport. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
The captain’s announcement sent a stir through the cabin. The tension in the cabin was enough to wake Maori Niizono up. But there was no major panic. At least, not yet.
As the jet circled back towards Narita, the Earth was struck by a vast amount of particle radiation from the sun. The surface was protected by the thick barrier of the atmosphere and was unaffected, but for passengers in the stratosphere that barrier proved insufficient.
“Is there a doctor on board?” the cabin attendant shouted.
“I’m a resident,” said Maori Niizono, raising her hand.
“Please come this way.”
The attendant led her to the cockpit. A woman in uniform was vomiting repeatedly. There was blood mixed with the vomit.
“This is the captain. She’s suddenly taken ill...” the attendant explained.
The co-pilot was focused on flying, looking very nervous.
“Do you have any pre-existing conditions?”
The captain shook her head. If this wasn’t a flare-up of a chronic condition, then what could it be...?
“Oh, no! The passengers...” another attendant said, bursting into the cabin, looking white as a sheet. She explained that one passenger after another was collapsing. Symptoms ranged from vomiting, to diarrhea, and even hair loss.
“What!? But those are... Those are symptoms of acute radiation exposure!” exclaimed Maori Niizono to no one in particular.
“Radiation sickness?” Shock spread through the cabin.
There was a loud roar, and the plane lurched heavily to one side. Lightning had struck the plane. Lightning that came from above, despite the fact that it normally originates from clouds, below where the plane was currently flying. This lightning had come from above the stratosphere — from the ionosphere. X-rays and UV rays from the solar flare had heated the ionosphere, causing large-scale convection. Interaction between the electron-dense ionosphere and the Earth’s magnetic field was causing electrical discharges.
“What are you doing?” Maori Niizono snapped, addressing the co-pilot. “Fly this thing properly!”
“Um... It seems like the machinery’s bugged out on me...” The rookie co-pilot was starting to panic.
“You’re kidding!?”
“We’re gonna make an emergency water landing. Please return to your seat...”
Maori Niizono went back to her seat. The aisle was soaked with vomit and diarrhea. All across the world, pilots were coming down with radiation sickness, and planes were falling out of the sky. Even fighter planes and bombers came crashing down, and the nuclear warheads on board ended up contaminating the surface. Every astronaut onboard the international space station perished.
The plane dropped so quickly it felt like they were almost floating. The surface of the water was coming up fast. The shadow of the plane grew larger and larger and then it hit the water, waves churning around it.
In that moment, Maori Niizono’s mind was less concerned with drowning or radiation poisoning than with Mika Furutsuki. Mika Furutsuki’s brain was still preserved in liquid nitrogen in the hospital’s underground cold storage unit but if Maori Niizono were to die, it would soon be thrown out like so much garbage. So she couldn’t die here. No matter what, she had to survive.
“Hurry! Run! We’re sinking! We’re sinking fast!”
The co-pilot running the evacuation was a mess. Cold water was pouring in through the hatch. If they didn’t get out fast, everyone was going to drown. The passengers hurried, blood and vomit flying through the air in their panic. Some vomit flew towards Maori Niizono’s face and she blocked it with an arm, sliding out of the hatch. On the water’s surface, she clung to the escape chute/lifeboat.
The plane began to sink. It had taken enough water on board that it began to tilt even before half of the passengers had evacuated. They cut the escape chute free; if it got dragged down with the plane, no one would survive.
On the chute, Maori Niizono looked around her. She could see an island in the distance. This must be the sea off the coast of Chiba. She assumed a ship would come for them soon, but with wireless and GPS down, none did. They passed the night without food or water.
Even when the sun went down, it did not get dark. The sky was covered with a band of pink light, writhing like a living curtain — an aurora. The third phase of damage from a solar flare, the coronal mass ejection — the biggest disaster of all — had finally reached Earth. Solar plasma kicked up by the magnetic field pachinko was raining down on Earth at incredible speeds. Normally the Earth’s magnetic field intercepted it, causing the plasma to only fall at the north or south poles. But this time the plasma made it through the magnetic field and descended the world over. The plasma struck the electrons in the atmosphere, generating light. And it scrambled the Earth’s magnetic field. The magnetic lines thrashed like Yamato no Orochi in a drunken rage. It was a geomagnetic storm. The shifting magnetic fields caused extreme induction in every power line and electronic device, shorting them out. Cities around the world were plunged into darkness.
Artificial respirators at hospitals came to a stop, and patients died in agonizing pain. Traffic signals went out, and cars struck pedestrians, who lay bleeding and racked with pain. But the worst effect occurred at the nuclear power plants. Cooling systems stopped functioning, and with no hope of help from the outside, plant after plant melted down. With communications out, they had no way to send emergency warnings to nearby residents. With no way to put out the initial fires, the reactors continued burning, spraying radiation into the atmosphere. In the confusion, countless lives were lost.
Maori Niizono survived the catastrophe. The only reason she survived was sheer willpower. Her feelings for Mika Furutsuki saved her. Whether from luck or natural resistance, she developed no immediate signs of radiation sickness. However cancer remained a concern.
Human civilization survived, as well. Whether this was due to sheer willpower is unclear, but somehow they pulled through. To those that remained, a harsh new world awaited. Nuclear plants were left untreated, spewing radiation. Nitrogen oxide created from the particle radiation of the solar flare destroyed the ozone layer, and UV rays brought skin cancer with them. The heating of the ionosphere accelerated the convection of the atmosphere, giving rise to extreme weather. Global warming accelerated, too. This was because the sun’s magnetic field was now strong enough to prevent cosmic rays coming from outside the solar system from entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Cosmic rays striking the atmosphere form the kernels of clouds. An increase in cosmic rays leads to more clouds, which reflect more sunlight, and causes the Earth to cool; a reduction leads to less cloud cover and global warming.