While Aron was assimilating the new knowledges and deep in Nova’s medically induced coma, the top minds in the imperial space agency were in a meeting with Styx, the AI that headed up both the TSF and their agency.

“How reliable is this?” Dr. Musa Aminu, the head of the ISA, asked as he blinked the holographic file displayed in his glasses closed.

“We’re 95% confident, sir. Some time within the next week, another Carrington event is expected to take place. And based on the sunspots we observed along with the increase in solar winds, we believe it’ll absolutely dwarf the event from 1869. The most damning piece of evidence we have is that it’s happening off season.

“Normally, the Sun acts up on a predictable eleven-year cycle, and the last solar maximum was only five years ago, so—”

“It wasn’t 1869,” Agency Head Aminu calmly said. “It was -149 BE.”

“I’m not sure that’s relevant, sir,” the researcher said. “A change in calendar doesn’t mea—”

“It means exactly what it means, Doctor Yao. If this event is as epoch-making as you say it’ll be, then we must be absolutely meticulous. If for nothing else, consider it for posterity’s sake.”

“Understood, sir.” Doctor Yao cleared his throat and continued, “It’ll be more devastating than the event in -149 BE, sir. It might even be a civilization-ending event, given our reliance on technology.”

Musa nodded, lost in thought. The entire room fell into an uncomfortable, anxious silence before he sighed, “Styx, please inform the higher-ups of the oncoming mess and call an emergency meeting. Tell them that there’s a seventy-odd percent chance that we’ll be hit by a historic coronal mass ejection within the next week.”

Styx flickered into visibility, then blinked. [An emergency meeting will be held in thirty minutes with the emperor’s inner council,] he said. [They’re currently being briefed on the issue and will need a detailed presentation from you.]

Dr. Aminu nodded to Styx, then turned to the other researchers in the conference room. “Prepare a presentation on the event. I’ll leave it to you to present it,” he ordered.“Yes, sir,” they chorused, then left to prepare their presentation.

......

An hour later, after the briefing.

“How devastating will the impact be?” John asked, having finished reading and digesting the information.

“And should we announce the event ahead of time?” Minister Rogers interjected.

“If the coronal mass ejection hits Earth, we predict it’ll be a civilization-ending event. It won’t be an extinction-level event like the Chicxulub meteor impact, but odds are good that it’ll drive us back to before the industrial revolution, at the very least. The power grid will go down, utility services will go down, a massive electromagnetic pulse will impact the entire planet, and people all over the world will see the aurora.

“In short, with our reliance on advanced technology and electricity, the event will be devastating,” Dr. Yao explained. “As far as making any announcements, I’ll defer to the council for that decision. It isn’t in my wheelhouse, so to speak.”

“We should make an announcement as early as possible and implement rationing to prevent panic buying,” Minister Al-

Mutairi said.

“We should go further than just implementing rationing. Declare martial law and issue a shelter in place order,” John suggested.

“What about methods to prevent it from hitting us?” Minister Rogers asked. “Can we block it somehow?”

“Theoretically, an object of sufficient size and mass should work. But we’re talking on the order of planets, not man-made objects. A Dyson sphere might work, but... it’s far too late to consider a solution like that. And if we’re going to attempt to stop it, we should do it as far away from earth as possible. A CME of sufficient size can even strip the atmosphere from planets along with a not-insignificant chunk of their crusts,” Dr. Yao answered.

“What if we move the home guard fleet as close to the Sun as we can and have them link shields?” John asked.

[That wouldn’t be feasible, General Smith,] Styx replied. [In theory, enough of our ships linking shields should be able to block a coronal mass ejection, but if this one is as big as our data suggests, then even if we used everything we had—

including the ten thousand ships we just sent on the exploration missions—it wouldn’t fully block it.]

“Wait... shields?” Minister Rogers asked with a slight frown, obviously considering something. “What about the planetary defense shield? Isn’t this kind of thing exactly what it was meant for?”

Dr. Yao’s eyes lit up. “We have a planetary shield? Can it handle the full brunt of the incoming CME?” he asked. His security clearance level wasn’t high enough to have any information on the full brunt of the incoming CME?” he asked. His security clearance level wasn’t high enough to have any information on the PDS, so the information, in his mind, changed everything.

[If we switch it from passive to active defense, then, sure. We’ll also need to move all of our shipping under the shield or behind Jupiter,] Nova answered. [And during that time, nothing will be able to pass in or out of the shield.]

“Does it need to be fully active? Can we just activate the half that’s facing the sun when the CME hits?” Minister Rogers asked.

[Technically, yes,] Nova said. [The shield is set up such that any of its hexagons can be activated independently of the rest. But it wouldn’t be a good idea, as the coronal mass may wrap around it due to the Coanda Effect and hit the planet regardless. So, to counter that, we’ll need to activate the entire shield at full power.]

(Ed note: The Coanda Effect is what causes running water to “stick” to the surface of objects placed in it and flow around them. You can see this by turning on the faucet in your kitchen sink and putting a glass in the water on its side. The water will seem to adhere to the surface of the glass and flow around it, 18:06

then continue flowing instead of being deflected off to either side of the glass. Physics is fun!)

[We should let it hit the planet,] Nyx interjected, immediately attracting the attention of everyone in the room.

A moment of silence ensued, then every human in the room burst into a clamor.

“What!?”

“Do you have any idea how devastating it’s going to be!?”

“Are you insane?”

The outburst continued for a full three minutes before John slammed his hand on the conference table and shouted, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”