All characters depicted in this story are fictional and over the age of 18.
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Interferometric gravity wave observations combining the LIGO observatories with VIRGO in Italy and the newly built ERGO facility in Australia lead to the detection of a previously undetected asteroid in an Earth-crossing orbit. Once detected gravitationally, other sensors were deployed to learn more about the threat. Thermal observations were the most effective at first. The Rock had a very dark surface, which is likely why it was not previously detected. No one knows if it's orbit shifted, or the luck of the draw never put Earth and The Rock in the same place at the same time, but it is expected to impact in less than a year. Well, a year after governments came clean with the information.
The impact is too soon to use any of the planned deviation methods. The usual suspects talk about nuking The Rock, but that would just make the inevitable debris radioactive when it reaches Earth. Fortunately, impact is projected to make life on the surface very difficult, but not impossible. Experts say that some will survive without any drastic action.
No one is happy with that alone, so governments around the world make contingency plans to preserve a portion of their population. The US is building four bunkers in different areas of the country - One in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania, one in northern California, one in Central Missouri, and one near the triple point junction of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. The EU builds two bunkers, one near the German/Polish border, the other near the French/Italian border. Rumors suggest France and Germany are also each building their own national bunkers.
Secrecy is running rampant as paranoia breaks out everywhere. Brazil announces it is building a bunker, but does not reveal its location. Other South American countries offer cooperation in exchange for space in the bunker. Brazil does not respond. China and Russia flatly refuse to discuss the issue, beyond claiming their superior societies will lead the world into the future. India is building at least one bunker. The Democratic Republic of the Congo builds a bunker, but it will not be sealed or self-sustaining for as long as the bunkers built by the wealthier nations.
Other nations begin clamoring for space in the bunkers. At a meeting of the UN, Pakistan publicly offers to combine efforts in exchange for space in India's bunker. The assembled diplomats manage not to visibly react. Some nations ask for space. Some demand space based on past grievances, perceived or real. Rumors suggest that elites of some small nations have offered young women from their nations, in some cases their own daughters, as 'payment' for their own preservation.
US leaders want to ensure those exiting the bunkers are not overpowered by whomever remains. The disaster itself may take care of this, but those in power listen to the worriers. Or it was just the excuse they were looking for? Men will be chosen to enter the bunker. Each man will choose multiple women to form a polyamorous family. This will foster a baby boom beginning within the first two years of bunker life, ensuring a much larger population emerging in fifteen to twenty years.
A formal caste system is instituted. The upper tier consists of powerful and wealthy men, the next is individuals those elites want specifically to preserve - IT workers, innovators, engineers, and artists. Tier 3 is made up of men to be selected by lottery. Tier 4 is wives of any man prior to his selection for the bunker. Also in tier 4 are concubines, women picked to help manage family affairs. Tier 5 are handmaidens. These women retain some legal rights of personage, but are expected to subordinate themselves to the man of their house to a greater degree than wives & concubines. Handmaidens still retain the right to decline sex - once per month, which the man must respect for a minimum of six days after the refusal. Handmaidens also retain the right to decline anal sex, multi-partner sex and public sex. Tier 6 is sex slaves. These women are chattel. They have no legal rights and live for the whim of their master. Women with children are permitted to bring male children age 8 and younger and female children age 17 and under with them to the safety of a bunker if they opt to become a sex slave.
Protests and riots break out among those fearing they will not be allowed in a bunker. Rights advocates try to rally against the caste system, but too many are focused on their own near term survival.
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Lottery rules are announced. Every male in the US not in tier 1 or 2, between the ages of eighteen and sixty, and free of life long medical conditions (MS, diabetes, COPD, personal history of cancer, etc) will be eligible. Each male's name will be entered once in the lottery by default. Each man is also awarded additional entries based upon specific qualifications. Men ages twenty through thirty will be awarded one additional entry in the lottery. Veterans will be allotted two additional entries. Certification or documented minimum of five years work experience as a carpenter, welder, plumber, electrician, or mechanic earns a man one additional entry. Published authors (not self-published), and singers and musicians that have performed paying shows (not open mic nights and karaoke) receive one additional entry. The last two sets do not double up. Certification as an electrician and a carpenter still only earns one entry. However, a mechanic in a band that has had paying gigs will get two entries. Educators (any level) receive an additional entry, as does anyone with a bachelor's degree. Any degree above a bachelor's receives yet another entry. Chefs and cooks get an extra entry. Spiritual leaders receive an extra entry.
Since adaptability will be useful, any man exceeding five added entries would be given a weblink for uploading videos. These videos must document a passable skill level in any of the above fields. The videos would be judged by experts in the fields, who are guaranteed spots in the bunker. Here, the previously grouped skills were considered separately. A certified carpenter with or without documented electrical skills could submit a video demonstrating his prowess with electrical work. If at least four of the videos were approved by the experts, the man receives an additional entry as a 'Jack of All Trades'. If seven of the videos were approved, two entries would be awarded. Also, the videos would be appended to the man's profile so that any woman searching the lists would have them as further information to consider. The government convinces video sharing sites to temporarily take down any how-to video related to the above skillsets until the lottery is complete. The executive teams of the sites are declared essential and given tier 1 status.
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I'm a professor. I earned a BS and MS in Physics, then a PhD in Astrophysics. I'm a veteran, and I've had several books published. That earned me seven extra entries in the lottery. And a shot at two more.
First, I made a cooking video where I made an simple cheese & onion omelet, then a lasagna with garlic bread and Caesar salad, and finally a roast chicken dinner. Fortunately, I had a good video editing program, so I shot each one separately and then stitched them together. I even added in some captioning titles at the beginning of each section.
For my next video, I used the school's woodturning machine to turn four cedar 4x4's into nice but simple table legs. I then beveled the edges of a nice flat, smooth 2'x5' piece of cedar that I had already planed and attached the legs to make a respectable coffee table. I also built a passable bookshelf. Finally, I built a closet into a room of my house that had been subdivided into two rooms by a previous owner.
The dividing wall between those two rooms I mentioned? No power at all. It is an older house, so there aren't that many outlets in the first place. So I installed two outlets on the wall, one for each room. NO, I did not gang them back-to-back. That's asking for trouble. I did the extra work to install them separately. I also replaced a light switch. Then I took a breadboard and some electronics parts to build a small rangefinder.
For plumbing, I replaced a faucet and replaced rusted out sink piping with PVC. I also replaced the wax ring on the downstairs toilet.
For mechanic skills, I replaced a thermostat, then changed the filters, oil, and sparkplugs, and finally diagnosed and replaced an alternator. I deliberately sabotaged my alternator after buying a new one, just to have something to fail.
My next to last video, I pulled up some karaoke background instrumental on my computer and recorded myself singing Boston's "Don't Look Back", Garth Brook's "The Dance" and Matchbox 20's "Unwell". I thought that gave a broad range of styles that I could still manage and covered my years of life as well.
