The Asteroid

by M R Cates

  “Yes.”

  “I assume you mean immediately, Mr. Smith.”

  “He is standing by in his office, Dr. Hughes, along with Chief of Staff Madeleine Vigola.”

  “Okay, patch me through,” Sandra said. Her heart skipped a beat, but only one. The call was not unexpected.

  In less than a minute Sandra heard, “Dr. Hughes, this is Jeff McBrand. Sorry to disturb you.”

  “Hello, Mr. President,” Sandra said. “I hope you are well.” Her hand went to her head to scratch.

  “Awakened from a deep sleep, but otherwise fine,” he said. The well-known voice sounded slightly different to her on a telephone, but all the energy and personality she had sensed were fully there. “I wanted to ask you a few questions, doctor, about the famous asteroid.”

  “Not surprised at that, sir,” she said, the impishness showing in her tone.

  President McBrand wasn't sure how to take Sandra Hughes. Rarely had he spoken to any stranger who sounded so completely at ease with herself, and indeed, at ease with him. “I have heard all the reports, Dr. Hughes, and know of the meeting there in Hawaii, but it seemed wise to me to speak directly with the main expert on the asteroid. Do you mind going over the events for me again?”

  “No, sir, not at all. If you'll just give me about fifteen seconds I'll get right back to you.”

  The president laughed lightly. How often had anyone asked him to wait? “Very well, doctor,” he said.

  Sandra switched control of the Kecks back into the control room, notifying them she was on the phone with the President. There was some scattered clapping in the background. Virtually every employee of the observatory was there, scheduled or not.

  “Okay, Mr. President,” she said lightly, “would you like me to start at the beginning?”

  “Indeed I would. Since it's the middle of the night here, I don't think we'll be interrupted any time soon.”

  “Guess not,” she said. “Alright. I began studying this asteroid as a part of a project here. My first surprise was that it was not in the posted orbit. My second surprise was that it looked like a big rock doughnut, fifteen miles across.”

  “Why were those surprises, doctor?”

  “Orbital data, sir, are normally very accurate. The asteroid, numbered 1744, had been catalogued thirty years ago, including numbers from which you can accurately calculate its orbit. And, asteroids shaped like doughnuts are not likely to form. No model anywhere would predict such a shape. Far too unstable a way to build up material during formation.”

  “So, if I understand you correctly, doctor, seeing an odd-shaped asteroid in the wrong orbit raised a kind of red flag for you?”

  “Yes, sir. After recalculating its orbit I sent the information to colleagues at the European Astronomical Institute in Spain, to see if they could also see the asteroid. You see, they have a ten-meter telescope there that had the potential to possibly observe the doughnut shape.”

  “And I understand they did see it.”

  “Yes they did, but interestingly, Mr. President, the asteroid had changed its orbit again. It had to be searched for.”

  “Ah.”

  “The next evening I was fortunate enough to watch it make a major orbital shift, moving out of solar orbit toward an orbit around earth.”

  “So the asteroid had been circling the sun?” The President's tone was alert and animated.

  “Yes, sir. In a highly elliptical orbit – meaning an oval-shaped path that takes it from a relatively close approach to the sun at one limit – called the perigee – to considerably farther away at the farthest limit – called the apogee.”

  “I understand orbital dynamics a little bit, Dr. Hughes,” he assured her. “You may remember that I flew in a space plane during my youth.”

  “So I heard, sir.” Sandra continued, undeterred. “The perigee of 1744 was still quite far from earth, about half way out to the orbit of Mars. This meant that the closest approach of the asteroid to earth could never be less than around ten million miles. As it turned out the perigee of the original orbit – the one in the catalog – would bring the asteroid to a position well ahead of the earth – as we move in the same general direction around the sun – getting within about eighteen million miles. The two earlier orbital shifts extended the orbit closer to the sun, therefore closer to the earth, then the last powerful series of adjustments basically dropped the asteroid right into our earth's gravity field.”

  “Was that a large shift, then?” He seemed to have moved the phone away for a moment then back to his mouth. There was a little hollowness in his voice now, so Sandra guessed he had put their conversation on a speaker phone. The President continued, “I don't quite understand what the significance of these orbital changes has been.”

  “Mr. President, Asteroid 1744 is an enormous hunk of rock. Were it to strike the earth – especially in the ocean – the disaster would be similar in magnitude to the horrendous strike sixty-five million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs and most other life forms on earth. To shift the orbit of this huge thing, fifteen miles across, requires amounts of energy that we can only dream of generating. The force of many thousands of nuclear bombs has been required to achieve this orbital change.”

  President Jefferson McBrand let out a breath. He was momentarily speechless – a rare condition for any politician, extraordinarily rare for him. In the quiet moment, Sandra heard sounds in the background indicating others were present. “I see,” he finally said, more of murmur than articulate speech. Then he found his voice again and added, “And none of this could possibly have been accidental, is that your opinion, Dr. Hughes?”

  “It's so unlikely as to not be worth considering, sir. The most telling evidence, it seems to me, is the long plasma plume emitted.”

  “Tell me more about the plasma plume, if you don't mind.”

  “Plasmas are sometimes called the 'fourth state of matter,' sir. The first three are solids, liquids, and gases. Plasmas are conditions where the electrons around atoms have been stripped off by high temperature and exist as separate parts of the mix, no longer bound to the atoms. To create a plasma requires very high temperatures, many thousands of degrees. With high kinetic energies like that, if the plasma was ejected in a certain direction, as it was, it acts like a rocket engine, with thrust that gets stronger and stronger with higher and higher temperatures.”

  McBrand was trying hard to take it all in. “Why is that, doctor?”

  “Newton's laws of motion, Mr. President. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The plasma is made up of atoms – probably a mix of silicon and oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon, very much like the earth's crust, plus electrons that are associated with them – all moving very fast. Their action produces a reaction by the asteroid itself, pushing it in the direction opposite the motion of the plasma plume.”

  “So this plasma had to be made by heating? I'm supposing you mean heating of some of the material in the asteroid.”

  “It had to come from somewhere, Mr. President. My guess is that it came from around the inside of the doughnut shape. I'll know more later after analyzing several sets of data, but it seems like the hole through the center was not as large in our first observations as in the last ones. Somehow, material on the inside there – and a lot of it – was heated to a plasma and directed out along the axis of the toroid.”

  “The axis of the toroid?”

  “I'm sorry, sir. The doughnut shape is approximately a toroid – that's the formal term – and its symmetry axis is right through the middle of the hole. The asteroid actually was spinning around that axis – like a wheel turning – as it ejected the plasma. That spinning and the plasma – well, I think you can see that forcing ourselves to believe such behavior is strictly accidental takes an amazing stretch of the imagination.”

  There was a silence on the part of the president that lasted a full fifteen seconds. The murmurs behind him were audible. Then he said quietly, “Dr. Hughes. Is it
possible – in any way whatsoever – that the data you have taken could have been ... well, somehow manufactured and made to appear like ... like real telescope images? Do you know what I mean?”

  Sandra laughed lightly. “Yes, Mr. President, I know what you mean. No one has directly observed asteroid 1744 with the unaided eye. It's not like the moon got a bucket of red paint spilled on it – in which case we all could see the paint stain by looking up on a clear night. Even its new orbit will make the asteroid too far away to directly observe. But it's there, sir. Part of the reason we called Spain was to get a second opinion. But now – well, I'd say at least a hundred telescopes are watching 1744 as we speak”

  “I suppose it was just wishful thinking on my part, Dr. Hughes.” He sighed, audibly. “So tell me what it means? Why is the asteroid here? Tell me your opinion of its purpose in going into orbit around the earth?”

  “I could only speculate, Mr. President.”

  “I understand that, Dr. Hughes. But I would like to hear your speculation. I'm sure I'll be hearing many speculations over the next days, but I'd like to start with yours.”

  Sandra blushed at the implied honor. Even Sandra. She remained by herself in her office, with the door closed and on a secure line. None of the fifty or so others in the Keck headquarters could hear her or the President, but she was well aware of their presence. The tension and excitement around her was palpable, able to be cut with a knife, it seemed.

  After taking a drink from a cold cup of coffee nearby, Sandra said, “Okay, here are my ... my first thoughts, Mr. President. Since we have had no communication at all – at least that we can identify as communication – from the asteroid, we don't have any clues as to why it's here, but it clearly seems to have come here on purpose. Why would it come to earth, say, instead of other planets in our system? The only answer that makes sense to me is life. Earth has life on it – lots and lots of it. That makes us rather less boring, I'd say, than a lot of planets. Especially to some possible space-traveling race. One possibility, if there are actually intelligent beings on or in that asteroid, is that they came to observe, or study, or in some way take into consideration the life on planet earth.”

  “You said, 'if there are intelligent beings.' Could the asteroid be controlled, say, by remote control?”

  “My guess is that any aliens who can control a rock that big with such precision might very well be able to do it remotely if they wished.”

  “Or they might be on board the asteroid right now?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The President then asked, “Why are you believing their purpose is only to observe us?”

  Sandra replied, “Because the asteroid is going into a stable orbit that is quite far away. At a range beyond any reasonable chance of our interfering, and presumably close enough for them to observe us. If I imagined a scenario that included a wish by the aliens to wipe us out or at least to have a little cruel fun with us, I'd say they could just as well have sent that asteroid straight down and hit us.”

  “Heaven forbid, Dr. Hughes!”

  “But,” she continued, “they didn't. I can't imagine either why they would go to the trouble to put the thing into a stable orbit unless they wanted to keep it there a while.”

  “So, to observe or study us?”

  “Exactly. I suspect we're pretty interesting, we earth life forms.” Again there was a wryness in her tone. The President was amazed at her glib-yet-direct style. Sandra added, “Putting the asteroid in orbit had to have some purpose. If it is being put there by remote control, then maybe they simply had it go into orbit around some planet based on an algorithm somebody back home – wherever that is – wrote. Maybe they automatically searched for planets with certain ranges of surface temperature or certain kinds of atmospheres or certain average densities. All of that could be gotten from instruments similar to what we have – instruments that could have been installed on or in the asteroid. But why use Asteroid 1744? And how did they take charge of it? The main features of the asteroid – except for the hole, of course – match the information on a known asteroid, one that's been going around the sun a very long time. Further, there's no other possible asteroid out there – anywhere close – that could possibly be Asteroid 1744 and we simply missed it, mistaking the alien asteroid for it. Am I being clear, sir?”

  “Yes, Dr. Hughes.”

  “To me, that's a big part of the puzzle, Mr. President. Maybe a space ship from somewhere landed on it, unbeknownst to us, and they then took it over and did their thing. But why?”

  “Yes,” he said, “why? What's your guess, Dr. Hughes?”

  “They need the asteroid for some reason. Since they didn't send it crashing down on us – and I certainly think they could have – there can only be a few reasons that we human beings can imagine. One would be that they might later on decide to drop the big thing on us – assuming they don't like what they see down here. More likely, however – at least to me – is that the asteroid is ... the whole thing ... is a habitat of some kind for them. Something they either need or want to have for some reason. Another possibility might be that they did all this by remote control, and put the asteroid here so they could come use it later – for some reason or another that we probably aren't smart enough to figure out.”

  “You certainly have given this some thought, Dr. Hughes. And I don't like hearing your first possibility. Dropping such an asteroid on earth is the worst nightmare I can imagine.”

  Sandra was quiet a few seconds. “Sir,” she then said, “I don't think you should let that possibility dominate your thinking. My feeling is – and I think energies we have already seen expended putting the asteroid into earth orbit bear out my view – that if whoever is controlling the asteroid decides – for whatever reasons, good or bad – to drop it on us, we will not be able to stop them. Why should we worry about something we have no control over?”

  The murmur behind the President increased a little. Then he asked, “Why do you think we can't stop them, Dr. Hughes? Can we not send ships up to that orbit?”

  “Yes, sir, we can.” Sandra composed herself, fighting her natural tendency to act a little too sure of herself when speaking about things about which she was highly confident. “But,” she added carefully, “remember the size of the asteroid and the amount of energy it has already released. If it were redirected to spiral into the earth there are not enough weapons in all the nuclear arsenals on the planet to divert it.”

  “You're confident of that, doctor?” There was a touch of irritation in his tone. Sandra realized she had sounded as if she were a nuclear scientist as well as an astronomer.

  “Sir,” she said, plowing ahead, “I don't pretend to be an expert on nuclear weapons, but I know how much energy they release, in general terms. If we put a number of bombs on one side of the asteroid and set them off simultaneously, we might make the asteroid miss us on the first pass – but given the ability they have to control the thing – our alien friends could simply re-direct it and get us on the next pass or two.”

  “So we are ...” The President of the United States sounded suddenly subdued. “... we are basically helpless if they decide to take such action? Is that your belief?”

  “I'm afraid so. But Mr. President, I prefer to believe a different scenario, especially since believing the one we just described is a waste of effort.”

  “And your different scenario?” His exasperation was still there, but mollified a little.

  “That the asteroid people, whoever they are, are not here primarily to snuff us out. They, for some reason, want to observe us or our planet in general, or maybe communicate with us, or perform some kind of experiment that involves us.”

  “By us you mean humans? And use us as guinea pigs?”

  “Maybe it's arrogance on our part, Mr. President, but we are the most complex form of life here. They'll surely know we're running the show on this planet.”

  “So, Dr. Hughes, should we make some effort to contact these p
ossible aliens? What's your opinion on that?” He posed his question as if it were some of kind of challenge thrown at her.

  “Speaking simply as a scientist, sir, I'd say yes. We should not pretend we haven't seen them – or at least their asteroid. You can bet they know we've seen them. Or they know if they are actually on or in the asteroid. But whether they know we've noticed them really doesn't matter, does it? We should transmit radio signals directly up there. How could it do us harm? After all, they know we have technology. No alien could miss that evidence.”

  “Interesting opinions, Dr. Hughes,” said McBrand. “Let me thank you for taking the time to discuss the asteroid. I must say it has been very informative.”

  “Thank you, sir. It's been an honor to talk to you, as well. Pardon me for my strong opinions. All my colleagues – and my sister – could have warned you about me.”

  The president laughed. “I'm afraid my sister holds a similar opinion of me, Dr. Hughes.”

  “Listen, sir, if you don't mind, feel free to call me Sandra. Scientists are informal people, for the most part.”

  “Sandra, then,” he said, but didn't offer her the option of using Jeff. “Thank you again for time. I do have one last request, if I may?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Would you be able to come to Washington if we needed further consultation with you? Consultation, perhaps, that might be more effective in person, or perhaps working with a team.”

  “Of course I could, sir. But you have to know that my heart would remain with the twin Kecks.”

  “The twin Kecks? The telescopes, right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “No surprise, Dr. ... that is, Sandra. We'll only ask you to travel if it is truly important, fair enough?”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Thank you again. Goodbye for now.” President McBrand hung up.

  Sandra let out a long sigh. She had not realized how tense she had been. Then she looked out the window and saw the quarter moon. Sandra's eyes lost focus. She stood quietly for some time, facing the sky. The reality of the last few days weighed heavily on her. Unbidden, a tear appeared in the astronomer's eye, rolling down her right cheek. Then she sighed again, wiped her eyes, and reached for the phone. The twin Kecks needed her back.