“I’ll give Trev, my best man, a call and tell him we’ve taken a detour for some photos,” Bruce suggested helpfully as they drew up to a door in the basement and started to get out. “That’ll keep them all quiet for a while.”
Two
Somewhere close by sirens wailed as police cars approached, and Bruce – with his overactive imagination – decided they were going to stop and disgorge another posse ready to take them into custody. But they all sped past the building on another mission. He relaxed further when there was no obvious security presence in the basement. They got out of the limousine and headed for a door that opened up after a tap from Wisneski.
Inside stood a single armed guard, who held the door open for them and gave them all a very wide berth, especially Myfair, then remained at his post as they walked down a short hallway to a lift.
They were met as the lift doors opened by a nervous looking older man who seemed surprised to find two extra bodies when he had obviously been expecting just a single guest. This was adding a level of complexity he could have done without, by the looks of things, Bruce decided. The old man also glanced disapprovingly at Bruce’s half-empty beer bottle.
“Who are these people?” he stammered. “What is the meaning of this, Wisneski? You know how important this meeting is to us, to the future of humanity, and how essential it is we keep a very low profile.”
“Friends of Myfair,” Wisneski replied. “They might be of some use to us, and they seem to know something of Myfair’s capability and origins.”
“I can’t see how,” the old man said dismissively, looking Bruce in particular up and down with evident distaste. “This man is a hick farmer from the middle of nowhere; I can’t see how he is going to add value to the discussion.
“Fuck! Here we go again,” Bruce muttered, loudly enough so the old man could hear him.
Then the phone icon blinked green again.
The offworld security apparatus you are interacting with believe they require Myfair’s spaceship to destroy the asteroid on course to collide with your planet in a few months’ time.
“So what’s the problem with that?” Bruce asked himself. He stopped for a moment. “What asteroid are you taking about?”
You don’t have to speak, Bruce; I have a direct interface to your mind. Myfair is no longer in control of the ship.
“Oh bugger!” Bruce exclaimed out loud.
There is no need to concern yourself, Bruce, the voice insisted in a manner he supposed was to make him feel comfortable with the fact that he might soon be annihilated by an asteroid unless he had some way of getting off the planet. Your planet is quite safe from the asteroid, and all will be revealed when I have a chance to get your full attention. A state of affairs which, I might add, is not going to come about while you are in this room or enjoying yourself at your wedding reception later.
The old guy looked Bruce and Sue up and down like he was a used car salesman trying to judge their collective purchasing capacity and which part of the car yard to steer them towards for something to suit their price bracket. The upper end or the lower end. Clearly the lower end seemed to be his choice, given the dubious looks he gave Bruce and Sue, and then Wisneski.
After a few moments of indecision, the old man relented and led them into a boardroom dominated by a large monitor. Three other people sat around the table. A military man, quite senior if the rows of ribbons and braid on his chest signified anything, some other bloke who looked vaguely familiar to Bruce, and a stunningly attractive much younger woman.
“Take a seat, please; there is coffee or water on the sideboard.”
Bruce finished off his beer. He really felt like another one but poured himself a cup of coffee instead, forgetting to ask Sue whether she wanted one or not, which earned him a nasty frown. After he had positioned himself comfortably he pulled out his cigarettes and fished one of them out of the pack before passing it over to Myfair.
“You can’t smoke in here!” the old boy who had greeted them exclaimed.
“And you and whose army is going to stop me?” Bruce asked, which seemed to flummox the man. Maybe he had never been confronted in that way before. Or at least not in a very long time. He had an air about him which indicated he was not used to being told no, and not getting his way.
After he regained his composure he introduced himself. “My name is Dr Bill Roach and this is Vice President Wilmot, General Smith and Dr Shelly Shaw,” he said, pointing to the other three in turn. “And you have met Colonel Wisneski.”
“Bruce Harwood.” Bruce got up and shook everyone’s hand and had a good look down Dr Shaw’s blouse at the same time. Sue noted Bruce’s interest and scowled at the woman. “And this is my wife Sue,” Bruce added, almost as an afterthought.
“We’re part of a special taskforce created by the president to develop protocols related to first-contact scenarios,” Dr Roach began.
“You what?” Bruce asked.
“What we would do if aliens landed and made contact with us,” the general added helpfully. “How we would approach them, communication protocols and what concessions we might have to make; how would this impact on our way of life. How we could bargain with them or deal with any conflict that might arise.”
The old boy paused for a moment, eyeing them up again and waiting for some kind of reaction.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” Sue ventured. “What does this have to do with us?”
“I’m not exactly sure how you can help us but we think Mr Myfair here can certainly assist,” Dr Roach continued.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Vice President Wilmot said, making his first contribution. “President Mitchell, in some of his more lucid moments, mentioned someone called Bruce. Would you be the same guy, by any chance?”
“Maybe,” Bruce grunted. “So what can we do for you?”
Bruce decided not to mention he knew all about the asteroid. He was not convinced there was one yet but maybe these guys would change his view. He had a few trust issues dealing with Skidian technology.
“We, and it is a collective we, have a big problem,” Dr Roach continued. “We have detected a large asteroid headed our way, and at this stage we believe it is going to impact Earth.”
“And it is a big one,” added the general. “It’s possible it will wipe out most, if not all, life on the planet if it hits anywhere on land. An impact into the ocean would be devastating enough but on a landmass it will probably be curtains for us as a species, along most other terrestrial life.”
“Can’t you nuke it or something? What do you need us for?” Bruce asked in surprise – clearly the asteroid story was true.
“It’s not like the movies, Mr Harwood; we can’t just send a mission to it, plant a few nukes and blow it to smithereens. The capability simply doesn’t exist for starters. This is a big asteroid, and if it impacts the planet as we think it probably will, it will cause an extinction event. Apart from the initial shock wave caused by it’s impact, the debris thrown into the atmosphere, and ash from fires created by its passage through the air will have the same cooling effect as a global nuclear war. Life as we know it on this planet will be at an end.”
“Blasting it into chunks, even if we could, isn’t a solution either. This would just cause devastation over a much wider area,” Shelly Shaw added, speaking for the first time. The hairs rose on the back of Bruce’s neck, and he felt tingling sensation as an electric charge had rippled through his body. Something inside him clicked into place, and he tried to tell himself he wanted to believe somewhere down the track Shelly Shaw was going to play a bigger part in his life than either of them realised. He glanced sideways at Sue but she seemed not to have noticed anything. Well that’s probably a sign too, he decided.
“Ideally, we want to nudge the asteroid onto a different trajectory so there is no danger of it smashing into the Earth, or the Moon.”
“And this is where Myfair and maybe you come in,” Shelly Shaw added.
&n
bsp; “I’m at a loss to understand how you think we can assist,” Bruce said, while thinking at least he had an escape route. Well, he hoped he had an escape route.
Then it struck him here he was at the big table, potentially making decisions that would change the course of world history. The thought of it made him feel a little giddy for a moment. It was both a frightening prospect and fascinating all at the same time.
“Oh grow up, Bruce, “Sue snapped angrily. “You know perfectly well we might be able to assist. Stop being so childish and petty.”
“But surely Myfair can help? I assume his spaceship has weapons aboard that can be used to obliterate the asteroid far out in space or, even better, is capable of nudging it out of the way somehow?” General Smith insisted.
“Myfair?”
Myfair looked around miserably and shook his head slowly. “I cannot,” he muttered, almost inaudibly.
Bruce’s heart skipped a few beats and there was a collective gasp around the table as Myfair dashed the last hope for the survival of mankind. He hoped the MPU wasn’t spinning him a yarn of some kind and in fact, he could do something even if Myfair couldn’t.
“What do you mean you can’t do it, pal. Where’s your spaceship parked?” the general demanded. “Here, give me one of those cigarettes; if I am going to die, I might as well die happy.”
Now he thought about it, Myfair and Leaf, his consort, had been conspicuous by their visibility in the last few days, when previously Myfair had taken off on regular jaunts to who knows where on a regular basis. Bruce had even got him to fly him back to the farm every few days when he got bored, to check on the place and give the dogs a quick run. But not in the last week or so, and he hadn’t given it another thought.
“Holy shit!” He didn’t feel quite so cocky now. He assumed the spaceship was his own personal escape route but maybe he had been mistaken. If Myfair couldn’t access it, then how could he?
“Most of the authorisation codes have been changed, which means my access to flight systems has been revoked,” Myfair told them miserably. “I can still access the ship but I can’t take it anywhere.” He was clever enough for a Skidian not to mention he thought the ship would still take him to safety before the asteroid hit and he did still have his dazer and a few other tricks up his sleeve.
However, he was still stunned about being locked out of the ship’s control systems and wondered who could do that and why would anybody do such a thing. It meant he was stuck here on this backward planet until his authorisation was reinstated.
Bruce glanced at Sue who, like the rest of the people in the room, was slowly coming to terms with the imminent end of the world. She was too stunned to speak.
Then the phone icon blinked green again.
I have revised my own estimate of the size and trajectory of the asteroid and can confirm it will result in an extinction event on the planet if it impacts. But it won’t, I will make sure of that.
“Thanks, I’m sure,” Bruce remarked.
Life as he knew it could be blasted to pieces in the next few months and all he could think of was what a stupid git Myfair was for losing his space patrol ship authorisation codes. Bruce imagined losing your codes was a bit like losing your car keys and Myfair would find them again soon. Surely he would get access again? All the while Bruce was wondering where the voice on his head was coming from. He had assumed he was somehow integrated with the spaceship’s operating system. However, if Myfair had lost his ability to access and communicate with the ship, who or what was communicating with him and, more importantly, what was its plan?
As his mind wandered off down this track it struck him just how fragile the existence of mankind and intelligent life was in this part of the universe. Despite mankind’s increasing levels of technological sophistication, humanity was, in many ways – like the Skidians, who had even greater technological capability – still pretty much at the mercy of Mother Nature and all she could throw at it.
Bruce drew in a deep sigh and joined the others in silent contemplation of the event apparently about to wipe them off the map. As he started to wonder how he might escape the asteroid impact, a UFO-shaped icon popped up from nowhere to sit beside the phone icon in his lower vision.
Bruce smiled and he thought he caught the sound of someone giggling in the background. It was absurd really. Here they were talking about the end of the world, and all he could worry about was lights flashing on and off in his head and little voices talking to him. Again!
“Are you sure the asteroid is going to hit us?” he asked.
“Dr Shaw, if you please,” Dr Roach said and motioned towards the screen.
Shelly Shaw switched on the overhead projector and picked up an infrared pointer as the image on the screen resolved itself. “What we have here is a graphic of the asteroid’s actual trajectory since its impact with a comet designated 2014D4, and this dotted line here is our best guess for its projected course,” she began, her breasts heaving with emotion. Bruce could see she was struggling to keep her composure.
“The asteroid known as Automedon has been knocked out of its normal orbit after a collision with the comet. Well, we think it was the comet, but it could have been another asteroid impacted by the comet and in turn has slammed into Automedon and knocked it out of orbit like a ball ricocheting around a pool table.”
“We picked it up about ten days ago, “the general continued. “We regularly track similar objects, as a precautionary measure. Not that we really have the capability to do much about the bigger ones like this if they are headed our way.”
Shelly Shaw pressed a button on the pointer and the graphic moved forward. A big chunky asteroid speeding towards a model of Earth grew larger and larger on the screen until the asteroid smashed into the planet in a huge explosion. The asteroid even had its own small moon tagging along behind it, Bruce saw.
“It’s about 15 kilometres in diameter and 20 odd kilometres long, which means it is bigger than the Chicxulub impactor that slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The Chicxulub impact coincided with the end of the Cretaceous period and led to the end of the dinosaurs,” she added emphatically for the benefit of Bruce and Sue.
“We are fairly certain that wherever it hits it will pretty well end life as we know it on the surface of the planet. We have time to make some plans and prepare for some kind of species lifeboat; there are a number of bolt-holes we can use. Though I doubt we will be able to save more than a really small section of the population, and they will be stuck in those facilities for a long time before they can venture onto the surface and start the process of rebuilding our civilisation.”
“Well that’s a cheerful thought.”
“Oh Bruce. Shut up,” Sue snapped at him again. “Can’t you be serious for a minute? You’re not back on Skid and pretending you are in charge of all you survey, you know.” Sue’s comments attracted some odd looks from the others in the room, and Bruce could see them processing the information. They would be wondering; just how many aliens are there?
“How long have we got until it takes us out?” Bruce asked, more casually than he had a right to.
“Months yet. In some ways the time is too short and in others it’s far too long,” added the general.
“It’s too short a time to make any major preparations to save much of the wider population and work out how to feed any other survivors until the atmosphere settles down after the impact so we can kick-start agricultural production. Or find some form of solution, of course,” Shelly Shaw continued.
“And once it becomes common knowledge, all hell will break loose and we won’t be able to keep a lid on events. We’re predicting a complete breakdown of law and order. There’s no telling what will happen as people, governments and every wacko group you can think of tries to position themselves to be on top once things settle down. I don’t think we really appreciate what it’s going to be like and how long it might be before we can go about planting crops afterwards or get back to an
y form of normality. And it’s not just about dust in the atmosphere blocking out the sun for years – the impact will be accompanied by a shock wave, and the heat generated by it passing through the atmosphere will ignite huge firestorms. If it lands in the sea it will generate immense multiple tsunamis which, depending on where the asteroid hits, will potentially circle the entire globe and wipe out everything in their path.”
The general paused for a moment to let his words sink in. “I can see a lot of score-settling going on around the world and the end might actually come for a lot of us well before the asteroid does it; there are a lot of crazy and unbalanced people out there with access to all kinds of nasty weapons, just itching to use them. They won’t care who they hurt if they believe they can position themselves to take advantage after the impact. The worst part is they don’t realise how futile it would be. People won’t be able to hole up in a cave somewhere and ride it out for a year or so. It might take decades for the dust to settle out of the atmosphere and the climate to calm down and allow the growing of crops.”
“To survive, people are going to need a lot of luck and be well prepared to live off supplies of food and water for a very long time,” Dr Roach added, taking up the story. “Because the biosphere as we know it is going to be unliveable for years. Think nuclear winter without the nukes and, as the general points out, if we are really unlucky we might have both. We estimate at its present velocity we have almost six months before it hits.”
“Plenty of time then,” Bruce remarked. “Look, we have a wedding reception to get to. Believe it or not, there are more important things in my life than worrying about than a lump of rock headed our way.”
“Haven’t you been listening, son?” General Smith said. “This is an extremely serious matter, it’s possibly the end of the line for our species we’re talking about here. Surely this is more important than your wedding reception?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, but if I can’t do anything about it, what’s the point in me hanging around? I don’t know what Myfair has done with his patrol ship and even if I did, I don’t know how to fly it.” That was a white lie of course as Bruce was beginning to think he could. The UFO-shaped icon was a bit of a giveaway, especially when a key-shaped icon popped up underneath it.
The Lifeboat Page 3
