by OMAR FINK
Lee resumed speaking, “Our best computer models provide us a range of predictions. They show an eighty-five percent chance of a direct hit. That means the two circles, the circle of Earth, and the circle of the shotgun blast will be directly on top of each other. So, even if the two circles actually end up being slightly off center, most if not all the comet fragments will strike the Earth.” She stopped speaking for nearly fifteen seconds.
Anselm finally interjected, “Lee... are you still on?”
Lee spoke again, “Yes, I’m here; just collecting my thoughts. We think it is likely that most of the fragments will hit Earth. Perhaps more significant is the size of the fragments. When we say the comet
broke apart into seventy-eight fragments, we mean that more than half of that group of fragments are one hundred kilometers in diameter or larger. There are hundreds more pieces that are smaller. A single rock of one hundred kilometers in size is many times the size of the strike that we think eliminated the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago at Chicxulub in Mexico. And this time, we’re dealing with nearly eighty objects this size or larger. Basically, there is little or no chance that humanity can survive this event and it is likely to extinguish most complex forms of life on this planet.”
Now the silence lasted for more than a minute. Finally, Anselm said, “Thank you, Lee. Does anybody else have anything to add?”
There was another long silence then a lone voice spoke, “That’s just ridiculous! You’ve just said we’re all doomed and...” The voice was cut off by another voice saying, “But surely we need to check...” Yet another voice added in, “and then we could ...” The conference call dissolved into chaos as many voices spoke over each other with only small fragments being discernible.
Anselm entered a code into the phone that muted all participants and spoke, “Please, please, hold your comments for a moment. I have muted everybody so that we can continue. There is little point at this moment in disputing the calculations because they have already endured heavy scrutiny. If anybody has some serious objections, please bring it up after the call and it will be addressed. For now, the more pressing question is what should we do? Who should we tell about this and what can be done?”
Anselm paused for several seconds, “I’m going to take the call off general mute, but please don’t speak unless you intend to address the issue of what to do next.”
Anselm un-muted the call and again there was silence.
A small voice said, “This is Gregor from Vienna.”
Anselm said, “Please speak Gregor.”
Gregor said, “At this moment in Geneva, Switzerland, there is a conference going on of the International Institute of Space Studies. It is at the International Conference Center, the CICG. Many of you are familiar with this center. I am in the CICG at the moment and had to break away from the conference to attend this call and know of several others here that did the same thing. The IISS has many experts who are relevant to this issue. I suggest we refer the problem to them in order to expand the knowledge areas of the participants.”
After several more comments agreed with the proposal suggested by Gregor, Anselm Hendriks announced, “Okay, our conference call group seems to have reached a consensus to refer the problem immediately to the IISS conference in Geneva and all relevant materials will be made available in short order. Without further comment, this call will now end.”
+29 days, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Lee Martin smiled across the table at Gitane Levesque as he poured more wine into her glass. When he finished filling his own glass, he put the bottle down and asked, “Now that you’re a big news star, how does it feel?”
Lee chuckled, “I’m not any different. Am I supposed to feel different?” She took a sip of the wine.
Gitane shrugged, “Not necessarily. But some people do let it change them.” He also tasted the wine and murmured, “This bottle is just as good as the first one was.”
Lee said, “I guess I’ve always been a bit of a celebrity in my own mind, so the only thing that’s different now is that other people are beginning to notice.” She smiled broadly and sipped some more wine.
Gitane grinned back at her and asked, “So you’re a self-made celebrity, eh?” He rested his arms on the table and leaned forward.
Lee gave her wine glass a small circular motion, making the wine swirl around, “I’ve always been a natural extrovert and have been called a narcissist. I don’t think I’m obsessed with my self-image, but I’m certainly not shy about it either and I enjoy the fact that most men like to look at me, specially when I’m naked.” She drank some more wine.
Gitane’s mouth twisted his smile a bit, making it more of a leer. “Does this happen often?” he queried.
Lee chuckled again, sipped some more wine and answered, “Yes, it happens all the time. All I have to do is walk across this restaurant to the bathroom and swing my hips a little bit and you can watch all the heads of the men turn as I walk past them.”
Gitane took another swallow of wine and said, “I’m sure that is true. But I was talking about you being naked.” He smiled again.
Without hesitation, Lee retorted, “It’s the same thing. All those men who turn to look at my ass after I’ve walked by are fantasizing about seeing it naked anyway.” She swirled her wine again, then set the glass down without drinking. “They all want to see me naked and I enjoy feeling their desire. There isn’t anything perverted about normal sexual desire, so why shouldn’t we enjoy it? I do.”
Gitane blew some breath out through pursed lips, “Well, I admire your attitude, but I’m also sure some of those dirty old men watching you do have perverted fantasies in their minds.”
Lee said, “I can’t vouch for what everybody else is thinking. I just know I enjoy being watched and feeling men desire me.” She picked the wine glass back up and took another sip.
Gitane leaned back in his chair, “Well, you know you now have some real star power in my world of television news and I can get you in front of some huge audiences. Maybe you’ll also enjoy that.”
Lee raised her arms over her head, stretching them and also lifting her breasts and reshaping her cleavage, which had ample exposure. She said, “I’m sure I would.” Then she dropped her arms back into her lap.
Gitane said, “Seriously, I can get you on our news broadcasts almost every day if that’s what you want.” He shrugged, “I’ve been hearing some rumors that the comet fragments might hit Earth when they come back in ten years. Is that true? Can you confirm that?” He leaned forward.
Lee smiled, sipped some more wine and said, “No, I can’t.” and smiled.
Gitane said, “Well, that’s too bad. If you had some news like that, you’d be on every TV screen in the world for a week or more. Just think about how many men would enjoy looking at you then.”
Lee chuckled, “That sounds absolutely tantalizing. If I come across such a story, you’ll be the first to know, Gitane.”
Gitane split the last of the bottle of wine between their two glasses and motioned to the waiter for the check. Eventually he said, “Well, we should call it a night.”
Lee picked up her glass and took a sip of wine. She put the glass back on the table and ran one hand through her hair and said, “And I never got to tell you the story about how I worked my way through college by posing naked.” She grinned at Gitane.
Gitane appeared mildly surprised, then smiled back, “Your place or mine?”
Lee responded, “Whichever is closest.”
2 Alternatives
“As the red comet, from Saturnius sent
To fright the nations with a dire portent,
(A fatal sign to armies on the plain,
Or trembling sailors on the wintry main,)
With sweeping glories glides along in air,
And shakes the sparkles from its blazing hair:
Between both armies thus, in open sight
Shot the bright goddess in a trail of light,
With ey
es erect the gazing hosts admire
The power descending, and the heavens on fire!
‘The gods (they cried), the gods this signal sent,
And fate now labours with some vast event:
Jove seals the league, or bloodier scenes prepares;
Jove, the great arbiter of peace and wars."
— “the Iliad”, by Homer
+30 days, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
A large conference table filled the middle of the room. Based on a long rectangle, it was slightly bulged in the middle and rounded at the corners and surrounded by twenty or more comfortable looking black leather executive chairs. There were other chairs filling the rest of the room, allowing about forty people to sit in the room. Andy Watson appeared to be in his mid thirties and that would make him younger than almost everybody else in the room. But he was seated at the head of the long table and now attempted to call the meeting to order, “Everybody please take a seat.” He waited, then repeated his message, “Please take a seat, people.”
Eventually, the chatter subsided as the seats were filled. Andy addressed the group, “Each of you has been selected to serve on this team for specific reasons. We’ll talk about those reasons shortly. Some of you already know why we’re here, but some may not have the full story, so I will summarize our situation quickly before we enter into discussion.”
Andy continued, “We are all aware of how comet Martin broke up as it circled around the Sun. For the last thirty days, some of the worlds best astronomers and mathematicians have been using computers to model the new orbital trajectory of the comet train when it returns to our Solar System in ten years. They have been able to determine, with a high degree of confidence, that the train of fragments will impact Earth when they return, and furthermore, that most of them are likely to strike us.” There were a few muted exclamations, but most of the meeting attendees remained silent.
Andy said, “Regardless of how many fragments hit Earth, the consensus prediction is that there are too many, and they are too large for there to be any reasonable hope that human beings will be able to continue to survive on this planet after the return ten years from now.” There was dead silence.
Andy spoke slowly to emphasize each word, “The function of this team is to investigate possible actions we can take in order for humanity to survive.” He paused for several seconds, then continued, “We have already decided we should split this team up into two primary parts. One group will investigate the possibility of deflecting or destroying the fragments before they hit us. The other group will investigate the possibility of evacuating the Earth.” More quiet exclamations and murmurs arose but again, the group was mostly silent.
Andy added, “If anybody comes up with any substantial ideas for other possibilities, we are of course willing to consider them and if necessary, re-divide the team. But for now we are calling this group, the Project Analysis Team, and the two sub-teams will be known simply as, the Deflection team and the Evacuation team. We also stress the need for keeping both the information about the comet train trajectory and our discussions absolutely confidential. The information will have to be made public soon, but if it leaks prematurely, it has great potential to induce panic and mayhem.”
Several voices started to speak at once, and Andy interrupted them, “I know you have questions, but just one more thing before we start. I promised to cover how you were all selected. The first criteria, obviously, is that you were currently here in Geneva at the CICG attending this conference of the IISS, when the World Astronomy Association referred this issue to us. The second criteria is that you have some expertise in areas that we expect will be needed in our work. I hope this will become apparent as we move forward, so I won’t say anymore about that except that if we recognize the need for some other expert advice, we will call in others even if only by teleconference.”
The commotion in the conference room resumed.
+32 days, CREECH AFB, INDIAN SPRINGS, NEVADA, USA
Keel O’Donnell squeezed his tall frame into a chair in front of a bank of monitor screens and surveyed the images displayed on them. There were a variety of birds and skeletal mechanics sketches, and technical drawings of flight dynamics. The drawings seemed to indicate how wings could be moved to create lift and how drag develops from turbulence.
His trainer took a seat next to Keel and began the session briefing, “Okay, here’s where we stand. You’ve completed the preliminary pilot training and you’re fully qualified to remotely fly aircraft that operate in a conventional manner. You’ve also completed the basic swarm training and you understand how a single craft can be used to control a group of similar craft. But now things are going to get really interesting. You will be leading a swarm today. But instead of flying a conventional style craft, you’ll be learning about some state-of-the-art technology. The craft you’ll be operating today looks like a bird and flies like a bird. It will also be leading a flock of other similar craft, in swarm mode.” He looked over at Keel. Keel returned the look and raised one eyebrow.
The trainer returned to his introduction, “In swarm training, you learned how to manage modes that allowed the group to split and re-form, and also to scatter into individual mode and run a variety of fully autonomous maneuvers before regrouping. These options also exist for this group of craft, but today we will add some functions that mimic avian flight behavior. These include flocking, roosting, migrating, soaring, and hunting. And each of these functions can be further modified by the use of specific flight characteristics such as: hawk, gull, swallow, bat, and more. This last group is under dynamic development and is constantly changing.”
Keel started to reach out to touch the hybrid yoke-joystick in front of him, but the trainer grabbed his wrist, “Wait. Just a few more points. First, in training today, we won’t be addressing any weaponized attacks at all. We will have the ability to incorporate weapons systems into the bird craft in the future and at some point I’m sure we will, but at the present time, their primary mission is covertly collecting and providing information that can be used to direct kinetic attacks from the larger, more conventional aircraft.” He looked over at Keel.
The trainer motioned toward the yoke-stick, “Okay, let’s start with the basics. Begin the simulation.”
Several hours later, Keel was piloting a group of virtual bird-craft configured as swallows, toward a village sized cluster of buildings that was the mission target for recon. As they approached the edge of the village, Keel spoke into his headset, “Function split, two groups, primary left, follow mirror, execute.” The flock of birds split into two halves. Keel banked the left group to the left and the right group responded with a mirror of his action and banked to the right. Keel then banked to the right and the other group responded by banking to the left. Now both groups were flying along the outer edges of the village, but on opposite sides. Keel spoke again, “Function circle target, execute.” Both groups began to circle around the village, in opposite directions. Keel added, “Function recon, collect and transmit.” Both groups of bird-craft began scanning the village with a variety of sensors and transmitting the information back to their base. Shortly the simulation announced, “Mission completed.” and the action on the screens closed and showed summary statistics.
The trainer looked at Keel and said, “I think that’s a record time for that scenario. Why did you circle the birds like that?”
Keel responded, “To collect information faster and maybe confuse the enemy. Although, I’d be interested to know if two counter rotating circles would be considered not bird-like enough and too revealing that the birds are artificial.”
The trainer looked closely at Keel, “So would I. I’ll ask the tactical theory guys to offer some feedback on that question.”
After the end of the training session, the trainer wrote up a summary email:
<
Trainee Keel O’Donnell completed his first day of Virtual Avian Swarm Flig
ht Training. He quickly mastered the basic skills, just as he has done in his previous piloting training sessions. He shows superlative skills in the following areas:
Hand-eye coordination with yoke-stick manipulation
Sense of timing, particularly in the action delays necessary to maintain “bird-like” flight characteristics
Good judgment at decision points
Ability to think outside the box when confronted with unusual scenarios
Natural OODA awareness and ability to cycle rapidly [note – OODA = Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, the ability to cycle through faster than an opponent is critical in swarm confrontation]
Training will continue on this level until he masters all the scenarios, then will move on to counter-defense tactics and weaponization.>>
+33 days, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Andy Watson called the Project Analysis Team back into order. He said, “Okay people, let’s get started please. The first report we have will be from the deflection sub-team and that group has been led by Rich Feldman from Rockets Unlimited.” He motioned down the conference table to Rich.
