Asteroid Crisis

by Kevin J. Anderson

  JJ’s heart pounded, and she was disappointed that she hadn’t been able to convince him. Commander Zota had given them all a mission to make a better future, rather than just letting it happen. She couldn’t let herself be intimidated—after all, she had faced the Kylarn. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Mister. But science is a practical and realistic way to solve the world’s problems.”

  The man turned and stalked away down the aisle without saying goodbye. Scowling, JJ yanked a bag of tortilla chips off the shelf in front of her, tossed it into the basket, and walked off in the other direction.

  As soon as the man had disappeared around the corner, she thought of several other examples she could have used. She picked up her pace and headed up the next aisle, hoping to bump into him again, but he was gone. He must have moved on to a different section of the store.

  While she finished her shopping, JJ kept an eye on the cash registers to see if the man was there. The debate kept going in her mind, and she came up with some convincing points, but she never saw the man again—he had simply vanished.

  JJ paid for the groceries with the money her mom had given her and went home, still feeling unsettled.

  ***

  Two

  “Who wants to break?” Elton Elijah King asked, removing the frame that held the billiard balls in a triangle shape on his parents’ pool table. Dylan Wren leaned on his crutches, staring down at the table.

  “How’d you guys get a pool table?”

  “A guy who was remodeling his house gave it to my parents, because he couldn’t afford to pay them for singing in his jazz club.” King extended a cue enticingly. “So, you think you can beat me?”

  Dyl grimaced. “Actually, I’ve never played pool before.”

  JJ shook her head, making her blond ponytail wiggle behind her. “Neither have I, but that doesn’t mean I’m not ready to learn.”

  King nodded. “All right, then. Who has played billiards before?” Under his breath, he hummed the tune to “Jeopardy.”

  “Believe me, I’ve played before.” Tony Vasquez ran a hand through his curly brown hair. “I just never bothered to get very good at it.”

  Song-Ye Park took up a pool cue. “Pfft. There’s nothing to it.” She rubbed chalk on the tip of the cue and moved the cue ball into position, leaning forward. She put one hand on the table to steady the long stick, and with a flowing movement, hit the cue ball. The white sphere shot forward and broke the rack perfectly, sending the balls rolling in all directions across the table. A striped ball clunked into a corner pocket. “And that’s all there is to it,” she said. “Actually it’s mostly math, good eyes and a steady hand.”

  The cue ball had ricocheted off the striped ball it had hit into the pocket, then off the felt-covered side of the pool table. Song-Ye knew that one of the most important elements in a successful pool game was the law of reflection. A good pool player was able to calculate the angle from which the cue ball needed to be hit to bounce off the table’s walls and hit the next target ball.

  She slid the cue between her fingers. Equally important was knowing and understanding Newton’s Laws.

  Her mind rapidly figured that she needed to hit the cue ball at a 40-degree angle to hit the next striped ball. She knew where to point her cue on the cue ball to get it to spin properly. And she figured the amount of force with which she had to strike to get the right amount of speed. It was all science, a good eye, and a steady hand. Just one more example of the everyday value in understanding science.

  Another perfect hit! The ball sank into the side pocket.

  “Sounds like something JJ would be good at,” Tony said with a smile and a wink.

  JJ grinned. “Oh, speaking of math, how did you do on your last test?”

  “Got an 89, thanks to your tutoring. But I can do better,” Tony said as he took a pool cue from the rack on the wall.

  “We should probably put in some extra hours of studying, just to make sure.”

  “Hey, if there’s math in playing pool, maybe you can figure out a way to get extra credit,” Dyl said.

  Tony groaned. “I’m taking algebra. Billiards would be geometry.”

  “And a bit of physics,” King added.

  “Oh,” Dyl said. “This could be a problem.”

  King waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Huh-uh. This is easy stuff—stuff you know already. But maybe you don’t know that you know, if you know what I mean.” He grinned.

  Tony approached the table, and mimicked what he’d seen Song-Ye do with the pool cue. However, he didn’t know how perfectly she’d calculated everything prior to her shot. He struck at the cue ball haphazardly. The ball rotated, spinning like a planet in place on the table.

  “Apparently Tony just reminded us there’s a difference between know-know and no-no?” Dyl joked.

  “I thought we were here to play billiards,” Song-Ye said, sounding testy.

  Dyl shrugged. “Oh, we are. But really, you could think of it as another study session. We’ve got to be ready for our next mission! Never know what that will be. Anything we learn might help us to figure out how to stop the Kylarn invasion!”

  “Uh-huh, and I figured my parents’ basement was a pretty private place where we can talk without getting interrupted,” King said. “My parents think it’s kind of cool that we’re bonding because of the Challenger Center.”

  Song-Ye rolled her eyes. “My parents are just happy that I’m learning to be social.”

  King started humming “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”

  “So what’s the physics in this game, King?” JJ asked.

  “It’s about Newton’s Laws of Motion,” King said. “You know who Newton was?”

  Song-Ye gave a heavy sigh. “Newton … I miss him. I wish I could see him every day, instead of having to keep him in his cage at the Challenger Center.”

  “The little guy is cute,” JJ said, “but he’s from the future, and Mr. Zota wants to be careful that a hamster doesn’t change anything in our time.”

  Song-Ye tucked her straight black hair behind her ears. “I’m not sure what a hamster could change, even if he wanted to.”

  “Not any old hamster—a hamster from the future,” Dyl pointed out.

  “Not helping, Junior,” Song-Ye said.

  King gave a sharp whistle. “I’ve got the next best thing to a hamster.” A moment later, a dog with silky red fur bounded down the stairs into the basement and greeted King with frantic enthusiasm. “This is Copernicus.”

  Song-Ye gasped with delight and went over to introduce herself to the dog, letting him sniff her hand before petting him. The large Irish Setter sniffed all the young people and seemed to approve, demanding to be petted by each one in turn.

  “So, back to Newton—the scientist, not the hamster,” King said. “This month I’ve been learning his Laws of Motion online as part of my Three New Things that Commander Zota assigned us. Newton’s first law goes like this.” He picked up a billiard ball and set it down carefully in front of him. It stayed perfectly still where he put it. “An object at rest wants to stay at rest. It doesn’t want to move unless something comes along and moves it.”

  Tony laughed. “Just like me on Saturday mornings.”

  Dyl pulled a note card and mechanical pencil out of his pocket, and made a note. “Newton’s Law 1: an object at rest tends to stay at rest.”

  “The first law also says that something in motion will just keep on going at the same speed in the same direction, unless something else affects it.”

  Dyl wrote, “An object in motion will stay in motion.”

  “Are you sure?” Tony asked. “Because if this table was a mile long, and I rolled a ball down it, the ball wouldn’t keep going for the whole mile. Watch.”

  Tony grabbed another ball, and gave it a light nudge across the green felt that covered the table. It slowly rolled to a stop.

  King nodded. “So some kind of force is affecting it.”

  “Like gravity,” JJ
pointed out. “It was a lot easier to jump or to throw things a long way when we were on the Moon, because it has so little gravity.”

  “And friction,” Tony pointed out. “It’s rolling on something.”

  “Okay, I get it. So things want to stay still if they’re still, and they want to keep going if they’re moving, unless something interferes with that,” Dyl scribbled furiously. “And I suppose that Newton’s next law is about whatever makes something stationary move, or something that’s moving stop or change direction.”

  “Something like that,” King said. “It’s about how force comes from speed and mass.”

  “Hmm, I go to Mass every Sunday,” Tony chuckled. “But believe me, it’s not very fast.”

  Song-Ye rolled her eyes. “As in, you really don’t know what mass is?”

  “Of course I do,” Tony said. “It’s something about size, isn’t it? Or … density or something?”

  JJ said, “I think it’s closer to weight. Or not weight exactly, but how much stuff is in something … density and size?”

  King nodded. “Yup. The size and density of an object gives us its mass. Okay, what happens when something big hits something little?” He hummed the theme to The Big Bang Theory.

  “Trick question,” JJ said. “It depends on more than size—it’s how much stuff, or mass, the big thing and the little thing have.”

  King rummaged around in a box beneath the table and pulled out a hollow plastic ball with air holes in it. “What happens if I roll this at a pool ball that’s standing still?” He rolled it slowly toward the cue ball. The lightweight plastic ball tapped the cue ball, which only jiggled a bit.

  “Doesn’t do much,” Tony said. “So a holey plastic ball hardly affects the billiard ball, because the swiss-cheesey ball has a lot less mass?”

  “Sort of,” King said. “But what if I change the plastic ball’s speed by throwing it at the cue ball really really fast?”

  “It should have a lot more effect on the cue ball, even though the cue ball is heavier than the ball with holes in it,” Dyl said.

  King grinned as he demonstrated. He threw the plastic ball hard at the cue ball. The collision was loud and moved the cue ball a few inches on the table. “See? I told you that you knew this stuff already. It’s easy.”

  “But what about things that are the same size, shape and weight?” Tony asked. “Like these balls on the pool table? Don’t they have the same effect on each other?”

  King gave Tony a high five. “And you’ve just discovered Newton’s third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

  Dyl said, “So, I must be affecting Song-Ye, because she always has the opposite reaction to things that I do.”

  Tony ignored him. “I think I get it,” he said. He grabbed the cue ball and rolled it across the table at a striped ball until they clicked together. The cue ball stopped rolling, and the striped ball started moving toward the other side of the table. “They both have an effect on each other: The cue ball was rolling, but when it hit the other ball that was the same size, shape, and weight, it stopped rolling, and the other one started.”

  “Right, but it gets a lot more complicated. Like, what if both things are moving and they hit each other, or what if an object just hits the edge of the other object instead of hitting it head-on—”

  Dyl shifted his weight on his crutches. “Or what if something big and heavy like a car hits something small and squishy, like a kid on a bike? Now that’s complicated!”

  JJ winced, and Tony said, “I don’t think anyone can calculate that.”

  Surprisingly, Song-Ye said, “Science can’t measure emotional impact. At least not by Newton’s laws.”

  “Let’s keep it simple then,” King said. “What if we roll two billiard balls at each other from opposite sides of the table, and one of them’s rolling faster than the other? What happens when they hit?”

  JJ said. “If they have exactly the same mass, the one that’s going faster should have a little more effect on the one that’s going slower.” She slammed a green six ball against a black eight ball. The eight ball was moving a little faster and bounced the six ball away a little farther.

  “Okay,” Dyl slid his notecards back into his pocket. “Then I guess I’m done with extra credit for the day. Show us how to play pool.”

  Song-Ye picked up her pool cue again. “Watch and learn.”

  ***

  Three

  Tony’s father offered to drive JJ and Dyl to the Challenger Center on Saturday for their next mission. Weekends were the only days Tony could help out there, because he had gymnastics practice after school five nights a week. Mr. Vasquez was pleased to see his son spending so much time with a good student like JJ, who helped him with math, and JJ certainly liked being with Tony.

  “Because of your assistance, Ms. Wren, Tony’s getting much better grades in algebra. And I can’t believe how hard he’s been working on his new science project.” He turned into the Challenger Center parking lot.

  JJ’s heart raced when she saw the Challenger Center building—either from anticipation of adventure or because Tony rode beside her in the back seat of his father’s Lexus sedan, while Dyl sat in front. “What science project?” she asked.

  Tony looked sheepish. “It’s a new robot. I’m going to enter it into the science fair. It, uh, was going to be a surprise.”

  Dyl turned around from the front seat. “Is that one of your TNT’s—Three New Things?”

  “Actually, this project has a lot more than three new things—I had to learn about circuitry, motors and engines, remote controls, receivers,” Tony said. “But I don’t think Commander Zota wanted us to limit ourselves.”

  “Can’t wait to see it,” JJ said. “Does the robot do anything useful?”

  “I’m programming it to fill Spike’s water and food dish at regular intervals.”

  “Wow, feeding your dog? That’ll save the world,” Dyl teased.

  “Don’t think small, Junior,” Tony shot back. “It’ll save me time so that I can save the world.”

  “Only Song-Ye gets to call me Junior,” Dyl muttered. “And I’m sure she’ll do that in a few minutes.”

  “I think it’s great, Tony,” JJ said. “If you could build me a robot that would clean the bathroom and vacuum our apartment for me, then I’d have extra time and we could save the world together.”

  “You kids crack me up.” Dr. Vasquez pulled up to the front of the Challenger Center. “I’ll pick you up here late this afternoon. Call me if you’re ready sooner.”

  “We’ve got a lot of work to do,” JJ said. “I doubt we’ll be done early. Thanks for the ride, Dr. Vasquez.”

  They all piled out of the car. JJ held the door while Dyl adjusted his crutches and swung himself out.

  Tony’s father said, “Give it your best, Antonio.”

  “Believe me, I will, Dad,” Tony said, shutting the car door.

  Dyl kept up with JJ and Tony as they hurried up the sidewalk to the front door of the tan brick building. King and Song-Ye were already waiting there, excited.

  Song-Ye poked Dyl’s shoulder with a slender finger. “You ready for this, Junior?”

  He gave a mock salute, then spoke into a pretend voice recorder in his hand. “Donovan Dylan Wren, Kylarn Hunter, at your service. I’ll pull my share of the weight, but don’t expect me to do the work all by myself. That would be a problem.”

  “Nobody asked you to do it alone,” Tony said. “We’ll try to leave a few squidbutts for you to mop up.”

  Commander Zota appeared and stood listening to the banter, though his expression remained grave. The scar on his face and the haunted look in his eyes hinted at what he had been through in his future. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but do not ever think this is merely a fun adventure. You’ve seen first-hand how the Kylarn destroyed Moonbase Magellan. And even though no one was killed, thanks to you, the Kylarn had deadly intent. They also meant to destroy the Internationa
l Space Station Complex.

  “They would have murdered everyone aboard and used the ISSC as a staging point for their invasion of Earth. Again thanks to you, they were driven off. The space station is still in human hands, but the danger—both now and in the future—is very real.”

  “We understand that, sir,” King said. “We know that Mira and Mentor Toowun, and maybe a whole bunch of humans, are working against us.”

  “I still don’t understand how they can take sides against Earth.” Dyl shook his head. “How can they betray the human race and form an alliance with those … squidbutts?”

  Zota’s brow furrowed. “I’m not convinced that Toowun is working directly for the Kylarn. If I understand correctly, he wants to make sure that Earth surrenders quickly in order to minimize casualties in the war. To that end, he has chosen to make things easier for the Kylarn. Personally, I disagree with his approach.”

  JJ had never been able to believe it herself. “If they are right, there might be fewer lives lost during the initial takeover, but then humans will immediately become slaves of the Kylarn. Who’s to say the aliens won’t keep hurting and killing people for centuries?”

  “That is exactly what they will do. I have no doubt about that.” Commander Zota drew a deep shuddering breath. “Come into my office with me, and I’ll tell you a story that I have never told you, nor anyone.”

  Commander Zota led the cadets down the hallway to the lobby, where Newton played in his transparent habitat. Song-Ye opened the lid, scooped the hamster out, and petted him. Instead of turning toward the briefing room and the simulated Mission Control that classes visited, Zota took them down another short hallway into a small administrative office that contained a desk, a few chairs, and a computer. Astronomical photos decorated the walls. A plastic model of the space shuttle Challenger sat on the corner of his desk, as well as a small rock encased in Lucite—a meteorite found in the African desert. The locked steel door on the back wall looked like a small coat closet. If it was a coat closet, Zota didn’t seem to use it, since his jacket and a spare flight-director jumpsuit hung on hooks on the wall.