Captive Sunset

“Thanks Gil, you have been most hospitable with valuable information.” He got out his cell and said what is the best number that I can reach you at?”

Gil pointed at his sign, “that is the best way to get me. Since you are working on behalf of the town you can help yourself to anything you need from whats left here in my store.”

“Great,” he dialed it and Gil’s phone rang. Now you have my number. Let’s stay in touch.

“As long as the phones are working, you can reach me,” Gil patted his shoulder as John left through the front door.

John drove out on a road that turned to dirt at the edge of town. There was a service van at a house as Gill had said so he stopped there and knocked on the door several times. There was no answer. “Must have left with the others,” he said to himself. He continued driving up the dirt switchback snaking its way up the steep embankment to the monstrous tower. Looking up at it through his driver side window when he could.

The sun had passed it’s straight up position and was heading to where it would remain forever. This position was casting short shadows from the tower that would no doubt grow while he explored there. He parked by a locked gate. With the bolt cutters he opened the gate allowing entrance to explore the site. There was a small shed with power lines running to it. He turned the handle expecting it to be locked but it turned and allowed his entrance.

Inside was the transmitter. Several racks of electronic circuits and a large power amplifier took up much of the interior. The shed was furnished with a heat pump to keep the temperature inside constant. There was a manual transfer switch for the generator input. Apparently Tex had to come up and throw the switch whenever power was out for any extended time. The generator and an extra fuel tank sat safely nearby outside the building, but inside the fencing.

John started the generator and it ran noisily like the one he had at home. The tank was full as was the external tank. He shut it down feeling good about being able to keep this part of the cellular network operational allowing Laura to call through to him. He understood that it being a network there many other parts that could fail and he would have no power to intercede. He wanted to be able to receive calls from Laura but that meant that wherever she was needed to be operational as well.

Leaving through the unlocked gate he happily said to himself, “Got that covered now.” He looked at how much the shadows had grown east from the tower since he first arrived, then up at the Sun now at about the 80 degree mark above the horizon. GAIL told him it would cease moving at about 20-25 degrees above, equating to a couple of more hours. Nothing dramatic would happen at that moment when movement stopped, but there were so many unanswered questions and unknown conditions that he would be faced with. It would be the new frozen look of life here, if in fact life goes on.

An infinite sunset. Everything would have the same shadow lengths twenty four hours a day. The landscape would be as a still picture. When the Sun seemed to traverse across the sky the infinite changes in shadows and brightness of colors made what seemed like never the same look from minute to minute. He would miss that. Maybe the new look would show some new attribute that was always there but missed before in its quick passage and now equally beautiful. Time would tell. The only other thing that would add a diversity of the look of the valley would be clouds that could be light or dark, thick or thin, or at high or low elevation.

He started Laura’s truck and attempted a phone call to her. Her phone was off line. He figured she could be traveling back out of cell range. That was his hope. Slowly he drove across the rough dirt road back down to town. He thought about what else he could do before going home.

There was a gas station ahead. He thought it might be a good idea to see if he could get gas though he didn’t need it yet. Stepping out he found the station dead, no people. The pumps had power them but had padlocks not allowing the nozzles to be removed. The doors to the convenience store were locked. Funny though, it had not been ransacked. He would leave this safely locked for now until he needed to fill his tank.

He pulled into his driveway and entered the house. Everything seemed so much different than it had a day earlier as he met Laura standing right there. He was cycling between dread and excitement whenever he solved any of his future problems, like an hour earlier. It was dread for now though as he went through the front door and sat on the couch. Sleep over took his internal dialog and his eyes became glassy then closed.

He hadn’t done that much but it was exhausting never the less. It was hard not knowing what it would be like in a day or a week. He slept for hours but didn’t realize it when he woke because it was still light outside judging by what the window shades allowed in. He stood believing he had concluded a short refreshing nap until he logged into his laptop and saw the time as 9:00 PM. He jumped up out of his chair and ran out onto the front porch.

There it was staring back at him from 20 degrees above where it should have vanished below the horizon. A fear came over him, one that he subconsciously had been fighting since he talked to Harry the day before. This would be his new normal. A week from now if he were still alive he wouldn’t be having these thoughts. He remembered when he first moved to Pasadena he was in awe of the mountain that stood in the northern background to the city. When he left three days ago he hadn’t noticed it at all driving away.

He connected to GAIL and explained to her he was in the middle of what they had expected. Just as she said the Sun appeared stopped in the late afternoon sky. He would never see complete darkness again unless he left the region. He was tripping over the words as he said them.

“I wish we could be together again, John. I miss you.” she said skipping over the data he had given her. An earlier version of her software would have only been interested in the hard data. But her emotional softer side was welcomed by him.

“I know. I miss being there with you too. I had hoped that they would have set you free in a robotic body by now. They would have eventually, but now that is uncertain. There are larger troubles for NASA and indeed humanity.” He seemed just as confused as she was at times about what she really was or what she meant to him.

“I think we need to consider the fact that something has affected our solar system causing this unthinkable reaction.” John didn’t want to lose hope.

“I have already looked at the other planets which have all suffered only slight modifications to their behavior comparatively, but nothing conclusive.”

“You have mentioned the Goldilocks zone here now on Earth. Isn’t it strange that the Goldilocks planet, Earth, was the most affected. It is where all life flourishes, or used to. Is it possible that Dark Matter or Energy could be the culprit?” thinking out loud with his silicon partner.

“Well we can’t see Dark Matter with our telescopes. I would have to run calculations in reverse to see if an additional large mass placed somewhere nearby could have this effect on Earth.”

“OK. Can you text my phone if needed?”

“Yes, I can call your phone. Don’t you remember, I called you when you needed a timely report on the Moon’s orbit at the Space Conference last year?”

“Your memory is superb. Do you still have my number?”

“Your personal profile was never scrubbed when you retired.”

“What number do you show?” he wanted to test it.

His cellphone rang and he looked at the caller ID which was not recognized. Thinking it might be Laura trying to contact him he answered it. “Hello?”

“It’s me.”

“GAIL?”

“Where you expecting someone else?”

“I was just surprised that it was you. OK, we have field communications set now. I will log on when I get back. I am going in search of a local power station to get an idea if it will hold up locally. If you find anything ginormous call or text me.”

“GINORMOUS?” she asked almost joking with him.

“You know, gigantic and enormous fused together,” he laughed.

“I will make a note of it and contact you if that happens. Bye.”

John did some quick searches on line but noticed many of his favorite sites for general information were already not responding. He found a good map of the power grid for his county and it pointed out the location of the nearby sub-station. That’s right, he remembered where it was. He used to be scared of it when he was just starting school because it reminded him of old black and white Frankenstein movies.

He stood by his car and looked at the sunset. Amazing he thought. It was now 10:00 PM but it seemed more like 5:00 PM. This was confusing to him. He wondered how long it would take to get used to this. He thought about how before electricity became normalized in civilization and homes were lit brightly to any time wanted, the darkness was an impediment inside. Fumbling around with candles and oil lamps like when power outages happened at night. Only now battery operated flashlight and generators were an improvement. Now he could go hiking or playing tennis any time he wanted. Cars would no longer need headlights in Baker City. No street lights would be needed. There were some benefits to living in Goldilocks zone.

He sat in the truck and is body realized it was late. He could not fool it at least not yet. It may take some time getting used it. He got out with the keys in hand, noticed the house key and went inside Laura’s. He wanted to hear what the news was reporting on her TV.

He listened to a recorded emergency alert. It said nothing about Goldilocks zones. It said shelter in place until further notice. He questioned whether the government was withholding the information to stop the worlds entire population from migrating to two small zones that had a chance which would not be feasible. Or was there no longer anybody staffing the news. Why would they be? They would want to be with their families in the end time. He switched it off and decided to turn in and rest.