by R Davison
“No. It’s as one would expect. It is interesting to note that there are some areas of higher concentration, it’s not all uniform.” Paul pointed out the splotches of dark red intermingled with the lighter red areas.
“If the denser stuff is made of larger material, then that should fall out sooner. Less big stuff to worry about,” Ivan commented.
Susan responded, more absentmindedly than intentionally. “That stuff falling back will, if small enough, vaporize in the atmosphere. If it is too big, then it will hit the ground. In either case, there will be more particulate in the atmosphere to block the sunlight.” Catching herself before she rambled further, she added, “That is if current theories are correct.”
Alexander remarked that they were about to pass over the zones of higher concentration and the room grew quite quiet as everyone tensed for some impact or sign that they had trespassed into the danger zone. Traveling at a speed over seventeen thousand miles an hour, they would quickly traverse this high concentration zone. As the radar display began to show a reduction in the red areas, they could see that they would soon pass out of this danger zone and would only need to contend with the rogue material once again. The tension in the room lessened with each lighter shade of red that appeared on the screen.
Paul switched off the display once it began to show normal clouds and moisture concentrations. “That’s it for now. We can take another look as we approach Mexico in a little over a half hour.”
Ivan moved over to the console and began to step through some menus as he spoke to the group. “I wonder if the weather satellites have a good image of the distribution of the dust? They are in geocentric orbits and should have a good view of the planet.”
He continued through the various menus on the display trying to get a link to one of the weather satellites. Not having much success with that, he pulled up a list of news services that used satellite links to transmit their stories. Ivan selected the first link on the screen.
Immediately the screen switched over to a well-groomed reporter interviewing some expert on asteroid collisions, at least that is what the caption said below the face of the person being interviewed. Ivan increased the volume on the console to hear what they were discussing, and everyone gathered closer to the display.
The display suddenly cut over to a picture of Earth, prominently showing Florida in the center of the screen. Susan felt a twinge of pain in her stomach as she immediately recognized the cloud patterns, which would be forever burned into her memory. While they watched and listened to the voices in the background describing the scene, they suddenly saw a bright streak form from the east and head toward Florida.
Susan gasped. “Oh, God! Not again.” but she was not able to tear herself away from the screen as they all witnessed, in slow motion, the image of the asteroid puncturing the atmosphere.
The display clearly showed the asteroid splitting apart and the first impact in the Atlantic Ocean, followed almost immediately by the second in Florida and a few seconds later, the impact of the last fragment in Texas. The image also recorded the fragment that escaped back into space.
They all stood transfixed at the display, oblivious to the voice describing the scene before them. The images on the screen continued. Shock waves from the impact could be seen propagating from the impact sites, as could the huge volumes of debris being thrown out in all directions, eventually shrouding the impact sites from the view of the satellite.
Ivan found himself hoping and searching the display for some indication that what they were watching was a simulation. It was so surrealistic to see this happening in front of his very eyes. He knew that it wasn’t a simulation and that they all were nearly destroyed by this asteroid on its collision course with the Earth.
He reached out and gently grabbed Susan’s trembling arm. He could feel how tense she was and could now understand the terror she must have felt, seeing this happen before her eyes in the cargo bay.
Susan put her hand on Ivan’s hand and squeezed it as the image continued to flow on the display. She tried again to look away, but could not; the images were just too strong.
Eventually the display flickered and jumped to a later time where the dust clouds were more developed. The change in the display snapped everyone out of their hypnotic state and back to the reality on board the station.
Silence filled the room, as each person sorted out his or her thoughts before speaking. Paul was the first to find words and in a quivering, hushed voice, he said, “Christ! That’s hard enough to swallow when you think it’s a simulation, but to know that what you’re looking at is real…it’s just too difficult to believe it really happened!”
“Yes, I know what you are saying, comrade.” Alexander spoke to Paul in a very soft voice. “Sometimes reality provides us with more than we are prepared to accept. It is very shocking to see this.” He looked over to Susan and was immediately concerned when he saw how pale she was. “Commander, Susan, are you all right? You look like you are about to faint.”
“Ahh…yeah, I’m okay. It’s just…just very disturbing seeing that again.” Susan shook her head and straightened up her shoulders trying to regain her composure and put those rekindled visions of the horror out of her mind.
She pulled away from Ivan’s grasp and moved over to the table to get something to drink. Taking a long drink of water and trying not to pay too much attention to the news story on the display, she distractedly played with the empty food packages that floated over the table.
Alexander made his way over to the table and began to gather the remains of their meal, while the others continued to watch the news broadcast. He watched Susan for a moment, studying her actions as she toyed with her empty water container. Her eyes never left the container as she spun it about its axis—round and round it went.
With each revolution, the room light glinted off the container’s surface and Susan’s mind jumped to a different memory from her childhood, like a slide show being presented only for her. Alexander finally let his curiosity get the better of him and asked, “What hides inside that bottle that is so fascinating?”
“Oh!” Susan exclaimed, blushing a bit and grabbing the spinning container. “I didn’t realize that you were here! I guess I was a little lost in thought.” She put the container in a bag along with the other trash from their meal.
“What were you thinking that captivated you so, if I may ask?” Alexander asked, as he relieved Susan of the trash bag she was holding.
“It wasn’t anything, really,” she said. Realizing that she was not going to be able to brush this off, she relented. “I was thinking about when I was little and we, my dad and I, would throw the Frisbee to each other. Also, how I used to play with my brothers and the neighborhood children. How much fun we had when we were children. It’s a shame we have to grow up.”
She packed up the last of the food containers and passed them to Alexander as she continued. “When I was little, I don’t remember ever worrying about the end of the world. I guess I had bigger things to fear, like the usual monsters under the bed.” She smiled at Alexander, who was listening quite intently and smiled back. “As I approached adolescence, and became more aware of the world and its politics and people, one thing that did cause me some concern was the potential for nuclear war between our countries. Some nights I would have nightmares about it and wake up screaming, but that was not very often.”
“But your parents were there to comfort you, no?” Alexander said.
“Yes, usually my mother would come and calm me down,” she said. “Sometimes it would be my father, and he would sing to me to help me get back to sleep. The fear of nuclear war faded as I got older and as tensions eased between our countries. That fear was soon replaced by something equally as bad as a nuclear winter, if not worse. The fear of an asteroid impact brought shivers to my spine when I would hear about it. At that time, there was a lot of television coverage about the topic, and just the thought of what one large rock could do to th
e entire planet was almost incomprehensible. I was older then, but still did not understand what they meant about the ‘probability of an impact,’ so the fear was there and very real to me. Growing older and understanding the math and science helped to put things into perspective, and the fear slowly faded. Little did I know then that this was going to be my reality, our reality, twenty years later! Ironic, isn’t it?”
Nicholas had joined them by the table and was listening to the conversation quietly. He smiled a knowing smile, and said, “You know, Susan, I too had those same fears. The fear that the United States was going to attack us, unprovoked, was always kept fresh in our young minds. I did not know whether it was true or not. At that age, one does not know enough to ask the right questions. After the fall of the Berlin wall those fears subsided for me, but there were other things in the country that drove our fears, including food shortages and unemployment, to name a few. With growing older, learning and understanding how things work in nature, the fear of an asteroid impact was there too, but not with any priority. It was a popular topic in our media also and frequently discussed in our science classes. That was a real fear that was not man-made. It was one I knew would one day happen. The nuclear war, I did not think it would happen. I could not conceive why America would want to attack us, we had nothing one would want.” Nicholas snagged a wayward grain of rice that floated off the table and passed it to Alexander for the trash.
“Sometimes it seemed like it was just a good excuse for the military to spend money,” Susan added. “Then again, without the military and its driving force, we probably would not have this station or the space programs that we did develop. It is just a shame that—”
Ivan interrupted with an announcement that they were cutting to the President of the United States for a press conference. The group gathered around the display for a second time, once again the room fell silent.
The display showed a podium on a stage that was not the usual affair for a presidential press conference. There were no banners or flags behind the podium, and the room appeared to be in quite a state of chaos with a lot of people in military uniforms, and a few in civilian clothes, milling about waiting for the President to enter. Very abruptly a man ran to the podium and announced the president’s entrance and everyone took a seat.
The President made his way to the podium with a hurried pace. His face was pale with large bags under his eyes; his suit was wrinkled and his hair was a bit disheveled, not typical for this president. He stepped up to the podium, took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he waited for the room to quiet down.
“My fellow Americans and my fellow citizens of planet Earth, who may be able to hear this,” he began. “I am sorry to have taken so long to speak to you, but I wanted some concrete information about our situation before I could talk to you in good faith. I will not minimize our situation. Fate has dealt us a devastating blow within the last sixteen hours. Late yesterday afternoon, approximately two o’clock in the afternoon, Eastern Time, two large asteroids struck the continental territory of the United States. One impacted in the state of Florida, and another in the state of Texas. A third asteroid crashed in the ocean just east of Florida. The damage is very widespread and we do not yet know the full extent of it. We do know that coastal areas as far north as Maine have suffered damage from the tidal waves that were generated. The west coast of Europe, England and the Caribbean also suffered extensive damage from the tidal waves. I must stress that we are in a very serious situation, and I have declared a national state of emergency to allow the proper agencies to begin to handle this situation. All federal, state and local agencies have trained for this type of an emergency and will be doing their best to see to the needs of everyone who needs assistance. The National Guard is fully mobilized and moving into the disaster areas to provide assistance and security. Martial law has been declared in numerous areas around the impact sites and will be strictly enforced. Our military forces are on high alert and are assisting in disaster relief. This catastrophe has affected us directly, but the rest of the world is not immune from its effects. The United Nations has called an emergency session for the General Assembly for tomorrow, for all nations to discuss the ramifications of this disaster.”
The President hesitated, as his voice was growing raspy and he asked for a glass of water, which was quickly brought to him. He drank the water with an unsteady hand and then blankly looked about the room. Putting the glass down, he continued. “We do not know the full scope of the damage, or the total loss of life. Obviously, this information is going to be difficult to gather and will take some time. It will be presented to you as we are able to confirm it.”
Stopping again, the President finished his glass of water, and with some effort he continued, but was obviously distressed over what he was about to say. “I have more information that I must share with you now, and it is with a very heavy heart that I tell you this. Vice President William Thompson was in Texas yesterday. His duties placed him directly in the middle of the Texas impact zone, and he is missing…and is presumed dead…He was a very dear friend and colleague, and he served his country with pride and dignity. I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to his family, and friends.” The president paused for a moment to collect himself before he pressed on.
“There have been offers of support from many countries at this time, and we are working with them to see how we can best use their assistance. I know that I speak for all citizens of the United States in saying thank you to those countries and their fine citizens for their support. As more information is available it will be distributed through the state and local channels. I will hold another conference as soon as I have information to pass on to you. Lastly, I must ask that all citizens of our United States work together, and provide their utmost cooperation with the government and military officials, so that everyone receives the assistance they need. I ask that everyone give as much help as they can to each other in this time of need. With your cooperation we can survive this disaster! Thank you and God Bless America, and our Mother Earth.” The President was immediately whisked off the stage by his Secret Service agents and was gone without responding to the barrage of questions the media threw at him.
The display flashed back to the news anchor who turned to her guest to discuss the President’s speech. Susan wasn’t interested in the babble on the display; she was taken aback by the appearance of the President. “He sure didn’t look good, did he?” she said.
“No, he didn’t,” Paul said. “I bet that the last twelve hours have been total pandemonium for him. I’m surprised that he wasn’t on the air sooner than this.”
“That is kind of odd, now that you mention it. Ivan, did they say where the broadcast was coming from?” Susan asked.
“No, I did not hear anything about where it was coming from, if they mentioned it.”
“I’ll bet that they have him sequestered in some bunker somewhere,” Paul offered. “Maybe they have him at NORAD. That’s in Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I think so,” Susan said. “I’m not sure if they would fly him there. There must be secured shelters at various locations throughout the US that he could take refuge in, in an emergency. He really didn’t have much to say, though.” Thinking about this for a moment, she added, “I guess at this point and time, they are just speculating on where the impacts were and how extensive the damage is.”
Ivan finally turned from the display. “Other than the images they may get from the various satellites in orbit,” he said, “they probably have no real good information as to the boundaries of the areas of destruction. I would imagine that they are still only getting sketchy information from the survivors and emergency people on the periphery of the impact zones.”
“Yes, it is more like they are doing it by feel,” Alexander added. “With the heavy dust and cloud layer over the impact zones, getting a clear picture of the surface will be difficult, if not impossible.”
The conv
ersation was interrupted as the intercom crackled, followed by Lieutenant Carol Barnes’ now-familiar voice calling to make contact with the station.
“Space station Alpha, this is NORAD, do you copy?”
Susan floated over to the intercom panel and switched on the microphone. “We copy you NORAD. Lieutenant, it’s good to hear your voice again.”
“Thank you, it is good to hear you, also. How are you all doing up there?”
Susan looked around at the well-fed, but shaken group and tried to respond in a light tone, “We are doing all right at the moment. We celebrated and had a feast. You should have been here!”
“I am glad that you got a chance to take a break and relax for a few moments. Things are still as chaotic down here as they were before. We did get an announcement from the President.”
“Yes, we saw it up here. Did he shed any more light on the catastrophe than you had before?”
“No,” the Lieutenant responded. “He probably doesn’t know much more about the extent of this than anyone else down here. You guys probably have more insight as to what has happened down here than we do. Not to change the subject, Commander, but I have some information for you and a couple of surprises, and we have very little time before we lose the communication link. So if you don’t mind, I’ll get down to business.”
“Okay, let’s have the information first.” Susan was unsure as to what the surprises would be. She thought that after the events of the day, there was very little that would surprise them.
“First off, we are trying to find someone for the information you wanted on the CRV. We have a couple names and locations of engineers who did the systems programming for the vehicle, and we are trying to get them on the line. Communications is not the best at this time, as I am sure you understand.”
“Totally, I admire the dedication you and your group are showing at this time. I am sure you all would rather be with your families instead of watching satellites going overhead.”
