and transmission of the signals, as if they were being blocked or scattered by dense electro-magnetic fields.
Some people appeared to be involved in some kind of a “dance” as they moved to and fro, seeking things to hang on to, trying to achieve equilibrium in their walk so as not to fall.
In the Amazon forests, animals that were foraging on trees fell off due to inability to move by sight or to respond to the compulsion to engage in nocturnal activities; others showed “confusion” as if being out of place for a return to nocturnal behaviors with which they were attempting to supplant diurnal activities.
In other cases, bats, perhaps perceiving that it was “night,” began to fly out of their caves to then rush back after the 30 seconds expired, but with such clumsiness, as if they had lost their flying skills; for, some were pirouetting in the air as if unable to decode their own echolocation signals; while others,—as if blinded by the returning sunlight or as if unable to detect the frequency of their own transmissions from the surrounding noise, like a radio receiver that’s out of tune, or whose signals were being “scrambled,”—circled trees and mountain sides to then smash into them, as if attempting to enter into a cave that was not there.
Television stopped operating. On the radio, John heard that the “quake” or “jolt” occurred because there was a cessation or temporary interruption in solar gravitational activity on all the planets; as it were, only the sun’s radiant emissions keep the solar system together. In short, the sun had stopped “shining” or operating for 30 seconds and its streams of rays, beams and particles, and binding energies, having ceased to function, caused a disruption in planetary dynamic equilibrium motions such as revolution and rotation, and hence, in gravity as well.
The gravitational field of energy exerted by the sun temporarily came to an end. There was no longer any “bond” or “binding energy” between the sun and the planets—for a few seconds, even depending on their respective mass, they were no longer ”together,” as a solar system. “Helter-skelter” they gyrated in deep space, “negotiating” an adjustment to the new radio-magnetic dynamics.
And on the Earth, at first, oceanic tidal wave continuum, atmospheric weather activity and landmass tectonics had undergone “a systemic slow down”; then, when the energy field provided by the sun returned, they engaged in “catch up” so to speak—hence, the “jolting, jerk-and-go effect.”
Consequently, all Earth-system events and processes were suddenly “accelerated” to a maximum, pushing and pulling, attracting and repelling—oceans convulsed, their currents forming eddies with deep vortices, as the atmosphere groaned with violent whirlwinds that uprooted trees or “rushed them barren of leaves.” The ocean-dominated landmass compressed the tectonic plates with such great force that promontories or rock formations from deep within the Earth surged through the surface to form new landscapes.
When the sun had restored its field of energy on the planets, this operation “shook” or “jolted” the Earth back into its regular patterns of motion and position—like slowing down while driving a car and restoring acceleration again as passengers feel “the jolt,” but on a greater scale, the planetary frame of reference. Where the solar frame made contact with the Earth frame, there, were formed the most disruptive gravitational interchanges causing the Earth to undergo tremulous gyrations that registered in all its components and structures as violent cosmic quakes.
These velocity and mass differentials, along with magnetic field forces that bombarded the Earth, combined to impel the planet into a convoluted orbital path around the sun—with force within force, momentum within momentum, strain within strain, turbulence within turbulence, rising, building and climaxing—compacting the atmosphere, compressing the hydrosphere and contorting the landmass as the whole planet leaped forth in staccato movements to regain its spherical shape.
Sun spot activity was at its peak maximal climax. Scientists surmised in saying, “Perhaps the sun was experiencing disruptive turbulences of a kind we had little knowledge and which may have caused a type of short-circuiting in the ‘continuum chains’ of its nuclear reactions, like a humongous sun spot or nuclear storm system that engulfed the whole star—hence, the interruption in radiating activities and the ‘jolt’ experienced by the Earth afterwards. Perhaps it is comparable to when lightning strikes interrupt the flow of electrical current in households, and then flow is restored shortly thereafter as appliances are turned ‘on’ again and their functions return as expected.”
And emergency preparedness agencies recommended that locally people engage in damage assessment and follow proper procedures for reporting and taking remedial actions; that every one should “brace for shock” and remain calm while keeping informed of developments.
“And until further analysis of solar activity is performed, no additional information can be given at this time.”
That was the last sentence heard by John Trinklung from the radio announcement regarding the darkness that covered the whole Earth for about 30 seconds on that day in 2009—when only one longitudinal hemisphere was supposed to be in darkness, but not all the Earth. He remembered his son’s comment about the sun, and kept thinking, “What could be happening within that ‘big light bulb’ that we should know about? ‘Damage assessment?’ ‘It looks like the damage has been taking place for about a decade without us noticing. The sun—that ‘big light bulb’ in vacuum Space may be experiencing its ‘last pangs of death’—a dying star! Will it ‘burn out’ or just ‘fade away’?”
* * *
4
The disruption of solar gravitational and radiant activity had dislocated the orbiting artificial satellites upon which television broadcasting so much depended; and it seemed that people in large urban areas who utilized “rabbit ears” or other types of antennae systems were able to obtain television programming. Television networks diligently endeavored to recover service with a few satellites after multiple attempts to re-calibrate their orbital path and re-orient their beaming signals were successfully performed.
Universities, “think tanks,” schools, even families, and our government at all levels of emergency preparedness, readiness, response and delivery, were engaged in “solar dynamics thinking.” What happened on that day, could it have been predicted as in “space weather forecasting?” Was it a “fluke” or “glitch” in solar plasma mechanics or did that event forebode a more ominous cataclysm? And how do we prepare for it when it affects the planet as a whole? Questions like those inspired great debates across the world as many people took opportunity to “brush up” on their knowledge of astrophysics.
Every one heard that a big tsunami had hit the coasts of Japan, Australia and New Zealand, due to plate tectonics displacement activity that reverberated into the hydrosphere—thus, oceans absorbing the larger portion of the shockwaves by re-translating them into the greatest tidal sea waves ever recorded in recent times. The devastation was so immense in terms of houses, buildings, roads, farms and equipment destroyed as well as lives lost, that it will take at least a decade before the affected areas fully recover.
Globally, and for good reasons, the greatest concerns have remained food and energy—the foundation for civilized human industrial and productive activities. At this juncture, national governments began to re-think their approach to problem solving in solar dynamics by redirecting their research activities towards more detailed solar activity observation and Earth-systems effects analysis.
At the United Nations, a conference addressing associated worldwide problems committed financial, material and personnel resources to delegating various research functions in accordance with available geographical facilities to which were assigned specific areas affected by the last solar conflagration.
Nations differed in economic development and resource utilization for comparative advantage, or rather for “opportunistic involvement” or “world engagement.” Some nations excelled in advanced technology while others, having less technological development, however, possessed great manpower availability. They thought that geography should play a role in situating experimental apparati, materiel transportation and personnel