by Agster, Joe
Friend sits listening, attaching to his words.
“After we claimed Icedragon and began mining, the GSC put a stop to all further claims of asteroid that are PHAs, potentially hazardous asteroids. But since we already had the claim, we were effectively grandfathered in. Immediately the asteroid became that much more valuable. There was no other asteroid of that size and that much wealth of metals underneath that wasn’t a PHA, not one accessible with that low of a delta-v. This attracted the interests of many outside investors. After years of spending to get our mining operation underway, we were bleeding money bad, despite the discovery of water underneath. So we raised more capital from Huludao, enough to continue operations for the next three years.
“But something never sat right with me on the deal. I was forced to create a board seat for one of their executives, and since then I was under increased pressure to turn a profit. But that wasn’t the problem. He would insist on meddling in our day to day operations, forcing us to cut research and development and lay off some of our most brilliant engineers. I was dismayed. I was losing control of my own company.
“One day I had an epiphany. It was the strangest feeling I’ve ever felt in my life. It was like myself as a boy, traveling to the future, reminding me of something I long forgot. The mere idea consumed me for days. I knew I was on my way out, so as my last act as CEO I put my idea into motion.”
Friend continues to listen, understanding now that this man is a good man, who was a victim of his own circumstance. Perhaps he can link with him, get him to undo his deal with Huludao. But he is eager to hear more.
“Before I continue, tell me how I know you. Where did you come from?” he asks, looking for certainty.
“I don’t know where I came from. The future perhaps, or the past, or another planet. I’ve been stuck living the same six days over and over for as long as I can remember, hoping one day I can learn of a way to undo this asteroid.”
Len looks satisfied, as if he already knew what Friend was going to answer. He looks into Friend’s eyes as sees the complete truth. He sees a man who so desperately longs to stop the asteroid, so he can return home from where he came.
“I didn’t believe it at first when heard about you. I knew from that moment of the epiphany that I would one day meet you. I wondered, how can that be possible? Then I learned from Gustav that there was indeed a man, an evil and twisted man, who he partnered with. Through his endless loops through time he gave Gustav and his Society the power to carry out this asteroid strike. Then I learned something so profound that I questioned whether it to be true. This evil man has a twin who has the same power. You are this man.”
“Yes. I am. But you can call me Friend.”
“Well, Friend, it is destiny then. I can trust you with what I’m about to tell you,” he speaks, as he has found the confirmation that he seeks.
“To mitigate any disaster that the asteroid would cause, I secretly ordered the installation of hundreds of nuclear devices, buried throughout the asteroid all the way to its core. These well placed bombs will provide the necessary denotation capability to completely obliterate the asteroid. There won’t be a single piece of it left larger than ten meters. The force will be powerful enough to scatter most of the pieces away from Earth.”
Friend cannot believe it. Had he already linked with Wang? An epiphany? This is the first time they have met and already he has revealed the final piece to the puzzle. Perhaps his good heart has always been attuned to the future. Forget any sort of clue, this is finally it!
Len continues, “Now, inside the asteroid there is a command center. On the control panel you need to access a secret screen. Then you need to enter the detonation code. Can you remember this?”
Len scribbles the code on a piece of paper, recalling from memory a sequence of numbers and letters so memorable like it was his date of birth. He hands Friend the piece of paper as he explains how to access the screen. Friend burns it into his prolific, photographic mind, never again able to forget it.
“Mr. Wang… Len, words cannot express how grateful I am. But why now? Why didn’t you detonate the bombs sooner… months ago?”
Len answers, “They control the GSC. I could have shouted from the rooftops about the bombs and still they would have found a way to foil any attempt to detonate them. No… I always knew a man would appear with whom I could trust this secret. That man being you.”
Friend stands up to shake his hand a final time, ready to take this information and put it into action. His elation subsides a little when he wonders how he is going to get to the asteroid. Could Max use his stature at NASA to help?
As Len pulls his hand, he comments, “One more thing Friend. You must destroy the asteroid before it gets too close, or else too many fragments will penetrate our atmosphere. At least five days before impact. I have no idea how you plan on docking with the asteroid, but it will take a normal spacecraft at least three days to make it.”
“Don’t worry Len. I have a plan. I always do.” Friend mentions.
They shake hands one final time, before Friend vanishes out of the air.
Friend returns to his room for a moment before setting out to find Fisher. His time here in this palace bunker is now at its end. At no point in his stay in this world has Friend felt this close to his goal. There is hope after all, hope for closure, hope for Friend, hope of all the timeloopers that have tried so hard. There is hope for humanity.
30
Iteration 49
It takes about a tenth of second right after Friend becomes consciously aware in the desert before teleporting directly to Cassie’s apartment. As he arrives he is pleased to hear her humming in her bedroom. He wastes no time storming directly into her bedroom. He discovers her in her raw, early morning state, still in her pajamas. The irregularity of her hair and her unwashed face suggest she had woken up maybe twenty minutes ago; the clothes on her bed indicate she was just preparing for a shower.
She turns to look at him, startled, puzzled and frightened for about a second. In that second he grabs her and holds her tight, picking her up off her feet in a strong embrace, kissing her on the neck as feels elated that she is safe. If they terminated her existence somehow he wouldn’t know what to do with himself. He would feel guilt and grief beyond anything he could imagine.
“Hurry, grab what you need. You’re in danger!” he exclaims.
Without saying a word, she grabs some clothes she intended to wear on her road trip, her tight black pants, red t-shirt, and of course her black jacket. As he sees her poised and ready, he grabs her hand and they dematerialize into nonspace.
At the mansion he cannot contain his enthusiasm. Before he goes and gets the others he has to tell her. He decrees in excitement, grabbing both of her shoulders, “Cassie. I did it. No… we did it. I know how to stop the asteroid! Let go get the others. We have a big quest in front of us.”
They teleport to get Max and Fisher, and bring them back to the mansion. As they sit, still acclimating to their sudden twist of fate of being met by this stranger, he rolls out the clearboard. Instead of the diagram and the abundance of names, shapes, and arrows that made up the board, he instead hurriedly writes only a few things: Len Wang, Gustav Prast, and the denotation code. Friend is beaming with anticipation to announce the news.
“I want to fill you guys in on everything that has transpired. First of all, I have uncovered the mastermind. His name is Gustav Prast. He is a trillionaire investor and for the past thirty years has been secretly orchestrating this crash along with his group, the Lindenberg Society.”
Fisher interrupts, “Are you another conspiracy theorist wacko? You want us to believe the Illuminati is real and trying to establish a new world order by intentionally crashing an asteroid?”
“YES! Al, you are right. That’s exactly what you told me. You said you couldn’t believe it is this Illuminari… I mean Illuminati or whatever that means.”
Fisher slowly eases, but remains skeptical, turning t
oward his esteemed friend Max, who looks on with an amazed curiosity.
“It’s plausible,” Max adds. “There are so many of these private space companies, it’s the wild west up there. The GSC is slow to take action on anything. Somehow I’m not surprised an eccentric plutocrat with unlimited wealth would try to pull something like this off.”
“So while Al and I were captive in their bunker, I met a man named Len Wang, the former Space Onyx CEO who we had presumed dead. He suspected a plot, so he secretly installed an arsenal of nuclear weapons within the asteroid. In his own words, he said: ‘the destructive force would be enough to obliterate it, and no piece larger than ten meters would be left.’”
Max’s swells up with redness as he stands up, “You’re telling me they had a failsafe system installed this whole time? We could have detonated it months ago when we first docked with it.”
Max looks peeved, as if months of hard work at NASA to try to divert the asteroid was all just time wasted. All the heartache, the backstabbing, his suicide attempt, all the guilt and anguish, his family turning his back on him, it was all for nothing. He turns red at the thought, almost in tears, and mostly would be if not in the company of other men. Friend detects this swell of emotions radiating vibrantly from him.
“He wanted to, but The Lindenberg Society controls the GSC. They would have sabotaged every attempt to detonate the bombs. Max, you had told me a long time ago that the GSC is mired in political scandals. Well that’s why.”
“Well, blowing up the asteroid when it’s so close would not be my first choice. Deflection is always preferred.”
Cassie wonders, “Wouldn’t deflection just delay the inevitable? Sure you knock it off course, but a century later you discover it’s headed toward Earth again. So what do you do then?”
Max wails with a feeling of dejection, of utter failure. “A century of preparation is better than a year, or worse, six days.”
Friend senses the group needs some inspiration, especially Max, and decides to take a moment and share everything they’ve accomplished. “Max, you have contributed more to stopping this asteroid that you can imagine. Your inside information, your bunker cards, your secret about it being intentionally crashed, all of it has been incredibly helpful. I’ve seen you confront the FBI, and reconcile with your wife Julianna.”
Friend immediately sees a sense of pride in him, he looks at the others. “Al here, he helped us find Len Wang. He led us to his fellow CIA agent Rosa. And Cassie, you hacked into a Huludao executive’s device that gave us a key piece of information. All three of you have made significant contributions.”
“So what do we do now?” Cassie wonders.
“We need to acquire a space vehicle and fly to the asteroid. Get inside the command center.” Friend turns toward Max. He points his finger toward the codes, “This code here is the detonation code to the nuclear arsenal on the asteroid. Mr. Wang indicated that pulling up the detonation screen would not be easy, so I need Cassie to come with me, to get into the control panel.”
Max sits on the couch in contemplation. He knows the best way to help in this situation is to do something he never in a million years thought he would do: return to NASA. He needs to reconcile with his bosses, somehow convincing them that this is an avenue worth pursuing. He has contacts all through the private sector that could launch a space mission with a few hours’ notice, but he will still need NASA backing.
“I’ll do it. For the sake of humanity, I will return to NASA,” Max tells the group. He continues to wonder, “Friend, if you can get up there, can you teleport out in time?”
“Once you get me in there, I should be able to teleport in and out as needed. It’s far away, but it’s moving through space just the same.”
Max uses Fisher’s phone to call his boss at NASA, Clay Alder. As Friend listens to the conversation, he faintly recognizes that name. The man from the news broadcast, Friend finally remembers, from the Mini Mart. He listens with interest as Max explains his stunning revelation, then becoming frustrated with his boss as the chat lingers on. The conversation goes quiet as Max listens to his words, before smiling and hanging up.
“Okay, this is way under the radar, like totally off the books,” Max explains, looking at Friend. “There is a company called Resonance AX based in Texas. They have a shuttle craft ideal for this purpose, sitting on a launch pad in Brownsville. But we need to get there right away.”
“I cannot teleport there. I don’t even know where this Brownsville is,” Friend explains with a tone of helplessness.
“Not to worry,” Fisher interrupts, “I can get you there.”
With little more banter, the crew teleports to the airport, to the desolate stairwell. As they walk onto the main floor, Friend observes how civil and behaved the crowds are, a far cry from the panic he has always been met with in prior visits to the airport. Fisher takes them to a separate terminal, one reserved for smaller commuter jets and chartered aircraft.
After a long, endless walk through connected tunnels they arrive at a much smaller ticketing area. Fisher goes on ahead toward a counter, then he walks in a back office and out of view. He returns to the group five minutes later, notifying them that the charter flight will leave soon. It seems through his myriad of underworld contacts he was able to arrange the flight. As Friend has observed before, he is not as fortunate after the asteroid announcement.
“You guys are set. I’ll find out what I can about this Gustav Prast,” Fisher tells the group as he walks away.
16:04 CST
Brownsville Space Port
After the three-hour flight, Cassie, Max, and Friend arrive at the spaceport via a remote-monitored, self-driving rideshare car. The spaceport sits on a giant green, grassy field, with nothing around it for miles, it’s back against a vast sea. The building is round, it’s roof shiny and silver, perfectly bouncing the glow of the fading sun. Off in the distance are a series of large hangers, also with shiny roofs, and the large control tower sits toward the rear.
They approach the main entrance to the spaceport terminal building, with Max taking the lead. They walk into a large terminal complex, complete with high ceilings and lots of glass. There are several space flight companies, all with large offices with large glass doors. The Resonance AX office is off to the right. The office is a small room, with a hallway on the left leading toward a back area.
“Hi I’m Dr. Maxwell Pond, from NASA. I’m here to see your launch director,” Max tells the receptionist.
“Yes Dr. Pond, she is expecting you,” the receptionist replies, her desk placed directly in from the company’s large green and yellow logo.
Seconds later a woman emerges from a back office area. She appears to be in her mid-forties, tall, slender with reddish blond hair. Headstrong but pleasant. She immediately calls out, “Dr. Pond, right this way. I’m Dr. McKinney, but everyone here calls me Winter. It’s my old Air Force call sign.”
From the back of the office they walk through a series of tunnels and emerge inside a large hangar bay. There, a spacecraft sits in view. It is a behemoth in size, stretching dozens of meters with its silver exterior accented with glowing blue lighting about its surface. The hull is wide, narrowing at the nose, giving an indication of its purpose as a long-range cargo shuttle. The retractable wide wings are spread mightily, curving with a slight parabolic upward shape with its tips pointing toward the sky. Several circular viewports adorn its sides and top, giving its passengers a window into the vastness of space. A massive structure circumscribes the hull’s backside, a mounted fuel tank of some sort that leads to the ship’s most intimidating feature, the magnificent propulsion engine. Even when not powered its immensity cannot be understated.
“There she is, the famed single stage cargo craft, the Ionic 3X. We call her the Prize Fighter,” she snickers, lightening the mood. “It makes her feel good.”
“We’ve had her prepped for space flight for some time.” She speaks confidently and in a grandiose manner, ma
tching awe to the power of the ship before her. She then engages Max closer and with a soft tone, continues, “Dr. Pond, I know this has been given the green light by our CEO, but may I ask, what purpose does this serve?”
“Well, doctor, err Winter, just between us, the ADS is a colossal failure. The US Government has received intel that a failsafe explosive system has been installed in the asteroid. These two have been selected to detonate the weapon,” he explains bluntly, to her horror. At that moment she understands the stakes of their mission, and from the abrupt shift in her jaw muscles it’s clear this terrifies her deeply.
Max then pulls her off to the side as he sees her face full of terror, where the two can talk in private. “The government has already prepared bunkers to save what it deems are ‘essential’ Americans.”
She interrupts, “Yes I know, I have a silver card. I am assigned to the Colorado facility,” she admits quietly. “But why these two?”
“These two are uniquely qualified to disable the asteroid. They are willing to put their lives on the line for all humankind.”
Satisfied, she leads them toward the ship, telling them, “I’d like to you to meet this ship and her crew.”
The three individuals tending diligently to the ship cease momentarily to greet their director and the party that accompanies her. First is Captain Jason Wilmer, a tall blonde man who looks not much older than Friend, maybe in his early thirties. Next is first officer Rian Gerbeck, about the same age, shorter, dark brown hair, an extremely serious and intense-looking individual. And finally flight engineer Tania Parker, about the same medium height as Rian, with sandy brown hair. She has a tough and fearless look about her, but underneath she emanates an aura of deep regret, perhaps accepting her fate as the end of the world nears.
Max then introduces the two to the group. “This is Friend. He has knowledge of the command center interior. And this is Cassandra, she has the expertise to navigate the control system to pull up the detonation screen and enter the codes.”
