Circling the wagons

The battleships caught up with Eugene’s ship about four hours ago, about 200 miles east of Philadelphia as planned. They took up positions roughly a quarter mile off the port and starboard sides and matched its speed precisely, a feat made easier by the fact that the company that owns the ship has surrendered complete control of the ship’s computers to the
Pentagon.

The CNN helicopter caught the entire maneuver on camera from the proscribed distance through long range lenses. The lone man on the deck apparently recognized the noise of the approaching battleship and ambled to the land side slowly with arms outstretched. He walked to the railing as he had when the Coast Guard cutter initially approached, but apparently lost his footing when he got there, because he slipped and fell over the side. The cutter, which was still trailing the ship at this point moved up and attempted to rescue the man, but he had already fallen beneath the waves in the short time it took them to close the gap. Of course it is impossible to be sure from the remote distance of the television cameras, but it seemed like he made no attempt to swim for even the weakest of swimmers could have stayed afloat for the short amount of time it took the cutter to reach his location. I am sure that the body will was ashore in the next couple days and the CDC will be called in to examine the remains.

Shortly after, the cutter gave up its part of the chase, presumably to refuel and return to its home port. About the same time, I received a call from Admiral James Davies of the Navy asking my advice on the best way to approach the ship and obtain a sample of the mist hovering above the deck. I advised him of several methods that might be used to do it, but suggested that it may be best to avoid any contact with the substance until the cloud makes landfall in Greenland and we have a better idea of what we are dealing with.

To that point, I also suggested to Admiral Davies that he call for an evacuation of Quqertarsuaq. As far as I know, there is no way to stop a cloud. It will be enough to see how the cloud effects the local wildlife without unnecessarily putting people at risk. He assured me that the Navy was tracking the cloud by satellite and that the government of Greenland had been advised of its progress at the same time the battleships were being dispatched from Norfolk.

Admiral Davies also asked if I had any insight about the blue mist and how to combat it if it turned out to be a problem. I said that I obviously did not have enough information about it at this point to give anything even remotely close to a diagnosis. I did, however, mention that all of the labs at the CDC are intentionally outfitted with flame cleansing systems. Most chemicals break down in the presence of intense heat and any life form we know of will be destroyed in the presence of enough fire. That being said, I am not sure how you burn a cloud and guarantee you completely consume it. The Admiral thanked me for my reasoning and said most of the heads in Washington, D.C. Had come to the same conclusion.

I suppose it remains to be seen what the threat will be and what can be done about it when the time comes.