by Bobby Akart
“Mr. President, may I add one additional comment?” asked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
Without looking up, President Watson gestured for him to continue.
“Sir, we have also redeployed our carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups to points farther south throughout the world. In the western Pacific, the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group was relocated from the Philippine Sea to a position off the coast of Australia in the Coral Sea.
“We have also relocated the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group out of the Gulf of Oman to the south side of the Saudi peninsula. The Lincoln CSG will remain in the Gulf of Aden, awaiting further orders.”
The president looked up over his glasses. “I realize that much is to be determined about the scope and breadth of the destruction this asteroid’s remnants will have on the planet, but the free flow of oil out of the Middle East is always a matter of vital interest to our nation. By moving the Lincoln, are we ceding control of the Persian Gulf to the Iranians and their pals in Moscow?”
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs was ready with his response. “I understand your concern, sir, and we’ve addressed it in advance. We’ve left behind the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group. Led by the USS Boxer, together with the USS Harper’s Ferry and the USS John Murtha. Sir, forty-five hundred sailors and Marines with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are ready to defend the Persian Gulf if need be. Between the Harriers and the SuperCobra attack choppers, we’ll wear the Iranian naval forces out like yellow jackets chasing a wayward skunk.”
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I have no doubt about it,” said the president. He took a deep breath and remove his glasses. “I want to believe that our adversaries will focus their efforts on protecting their own people. But, as history has shown us, the weak use opportunities like this one to vanquish the strong. In the past, America has been the world’s protector, always being the first to step up in a crisis. For the foreseeable future, we’ve got to focus on our own. However, maintaining a military presence abroad is a critical part of our national defense. It also sends a clear message that no nation, large or small, should challenge us. We’ll use all of our resources to take care of American citizens, but we’ll also stand ready to respond to any threat from our adversaries. Like yellow jackets, to use your analogy.”
The president was satisfied with the nation’s military readiness, so Fielding moved on to the next topic.
“We have representatives from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with us this morning to provide us the current status of IM86. Before we get into the details, the president would like to know the whereabouts of our brave astronauts that piloted the Starhopper on this mission. Ms. Taylor, would you brief the president on this?”
Nola Taylor, the head of the Space Technology Mission Directorate, addressed the chief of staff. She’d met Fielding during the early briefings following the discovery of IM86. She stepped forward from the back of the conference room. “Good morning, Mr. President. As we disclosed in yesterday’s briefing, we lost communications with the Starhopper crew several hours before their scheduled intercept of 2029 IM86. Communications were never restored, but we are prepared to call their mission a success. We repositioned our telescopes from their usual duties to focus on the incoming asteroid. We detected four massive explosions in fairly rapid succession, sir. We are prepared to affirmatively state they were a direct result of nuclear detonations, the last of which struck directly at the core of one of the asteroids.”
A puzzled look came over President Watson’s face. “There was more than one?”
“Yes, sir, based on our analysis of the explosions, and the fact that IM86 is much closer to Earth now, we’ve determined that this asteroid was peanut-shaped—two asteroids fused together by a collision many millions of years ago.”
“Okay,” interrupted the president. “I want to get back to that in a moment. Where are our people?”
Director Taylor sighed and made eye contact with Fielding. She furrowed her brow, then responded, “Sir, as I said, the last detonation was directly at one of the cores. Um, sir, we’ve had no contact with the Starhopper, nor have there been any visual sightings since.”
The president leaned forward in his seat; a look of genuine concern washed over his face. “What are you saying?”
“Sir, the crew knew the risks. Um, we don’t believe, based upon the size of the nuclear missiles used, and the proximity to the center …” Her voice trailed off as she couldn’t bring herself to say the words.
The president rubbed his temples. “Are you saying they didn’t make it out?”
Director Taylor shook her head. “Not likely, Mr. President.”
Chapter 6
Fort Mills
Near Delta, Alabama
Pop nervously paced the floor. He’d grown increasingly frustrated with their inability to get any news on the whereabouts of Gunner. Telecommunications satellites were down, leaving news coverage spotty. Cell phone networks were overwhelmed or were rendered inoperable due to the loss of satellites as they were destroyed by the remnants of the asteroid.
Cam’s satellite phone was capable of accessing multiple satellites in geosynchronous orbit above the equator. This was their only means of communication with NASA and Ghost, who remained at Fort Belvoir with the Jackal.
During the last phone call to Mission Control in Houston, Pop had exploded on Director Mark Foster when he was told Houston had no communication with the Starhopper following a series of nuclear detonations on the surface of the asteroid.
Pop refused to believe that Gunner had perished in the attacks, although the odds were very high that he did. Foster offered no hope whatsoever, an attitude that angered Cam and Bear as well. If he didn’t know with a certainty as to the fate of Gunner, at least he could’ve showed some empathy to his grieving father.
“Hey, Pop, come sit with me for a minute,” Cam offered as she slowly sat down on the couch. She too was distraught, but she tried to keep her emotions in check for Pop’s benefit.
“Nah, I can’t, Cam,” he responded to her offer. “I’d be too fidgety and I’d be up pacing the floor again in less than a minute.” He walked up to the front windows of the twelve-hundred-foot cabin and looked across the lake.
“Okay, since you won’t sit, will you at least listen?” asked Cam.
“Sure, of course.” Pop turned around and leaned against the windowsill. He hadn’t slept since Wednesday and his eyes were surrounded by dark circles.
Cam was about to administer some tough love and sound advice. “Pop, I get it. Bear and I are frustrated, too. But one thing I can promise you is that we aren’t giving up on Gunner. He’s got more lives than a nine-life tomcat.”
“And bigger balls, too,” said Bear with a laugh. “But, Pop, he ain’t stupid. I don’t care what that joker in Houston said. If he took that last shot, it was calculated and thoroughly thought out. Gunner doesn’t go anywhere without an exit plan.”
Pop sighed and looked to the cabin’s plank flooring. He mindlessly kicked at a nail that was popping up through the wood. “I’ve been worried about him ever since Heather’s death. There were times when I questioned his will to live.”
“You can’t do that, Pop,” Cam countered. “We know him. Sure, he broods a lot and puts on the appearance that he doesn’t give a shit anymore. But that’s not him. He loves you, and believe it or not, he has a loyalty to us. We’re a team. We ride or die together. He’d never check out. Trust me on this.”
Pop began to pace the floor again. “Okay, maybe you’re right. No, I’m sure you’re right. But all of that said, come on. He drove a spaceship with four nukes strapped on toward an asteroid. He let ’em all fly, according to that idiot Foster. They haven’t seen or heard from him since.”
Cam stood and approached Pop. She put her arms around him and then leaned back to speak to his face. “Listen to me. Foster doesn’t know anything for certain. We’ve talked to Ghost about the difficulties tracking the Star
hopper’s return to Earth in the middle of that debris. It’s like trying to track a gnat in a sandstorm. It’s near impossible.”
Pop smiled at the analogy. “Okay, but how about their tracking devices or whatever. It’s a rocket ship, for Pete’s sake. Doesn’t it give off a signal of some kind?”
“Yes, sort of, Pop,” replied Bear. “The problem is Earth’s network of satellites is getting busted up by the debris. A lot of those five thousand satellites are space junk now.”
Cam took over the pep talk. “We’ve gotta believe in Gunner. He’ll make it back and then Ghost will get him to us.”
Pop wasn’t so sure. “What if he dropped down somewhere else? You know, besides Vandenberg. He’d make his way to Dog Island and then wonder where the hell we are. I think we should go there to wait.”
Cam shook her head, dispelling the notion. “It’s too early, Pop. This thing is just starting. The larger chunks of the asteroid will be hitting later this evening and into tomorrow morning. It’s just not safe by the water yet.”
Pop walked toward the front door, opened it and stepped out onto the porch. He looked skyward and viewed the incredible light show as the smaller meteors and parts of destroyed satellites burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
He turned and asked another question through the doorway. “What about the satellite phone Ghost sent him in Houston? Who’s monitoring that?”
Cam joined him on the porch and glanced up as well. The continuous light show was a constant reminder that at any moment, one of the space rocks could manage to pass through the atmosphere unscathed and land right on their heads.
“The Jackal has been on a constant vigil, watching for any signs of activity on the phone. She’s prepared to track its whereabouts as soon as she gets a ping on the comms network. Even if Gunner can’t call, once the satphone is powered on, she can track it.”
Somewhat satisfied, Pop relaxed. “I really could use some sleep,” he began as he teared up. “It’s hard, Cam. He’s my son. Heather was my daughter, just like I look at you two as my kids. I can’t stand the thought of harm coming to any of you.”
Cam hugged the only father she had now that her parents were gone. She allowed herself a moment to cry with Pop. “Don’t give up, Pop. Gunner would kick both of our asses if he saw us bawling like this.”
Pop nodded and sniffled. Then he managed a laugh. “You’re right. We’ve gotta be strong for him. The last thing I want to do is put it out there that he’s, you know, gone.”
“Exactly right! I’ve gotta say one more thing to you, okay?”
Pop nodded, so Cam continued. “We don’t know what to expect over the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours, but things could get ugly. And I don’t just mean from what the asteroid can do to us. We need to be strong, mentally and physically. So I’m gonna mother you for a minute.”
“Oh boy,” interjected Bear. “You’re about to get a dose of what Cam gives me hell about.”
Cam laughed. “No, Bear. The hell I give you is a different sort of hell. You deserve everything I dish out. Pop needs to eat and rest. So, I, Major-now-doctor Cameron Mills, hereby order you to the mess hall for some grub and then straight to bed for some shut-eye. Got it, Sergeant Fox?”
“Yes, Major,” said Pop with a laugh. It was the lighthearted moment he needed to take his mind off Gunner, even for a short time.
Chapter 7
NORAD
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado
“From what I’m reading here, the first wave of meteorite activity is focused farther south toward the lower latitudes and equator, am I right?” asked President Watson as the morning briefing continued.
Director Nola Taylor was prepared to field his questions. “That’s correct, sir. Thus far, we’ve had reports of impact events throughout Latin America, Northern Africa, and Southeast Asia. The initial strikes have been minor compared to what’s to come.”
The president looked toward the director of Homeland Security. “How are FEMA and NASA coordinating their efforts?”
“Fortunately, Mr. President, as a result of the mission to divert the asteroid, there has been a delay in the impact events effecting the U.S. Every hour provides our national, state, and local responders additional time to coordinate disaster mitigation and response activities. Our planning has always used an initial assumption that the consequences of any NEO impact event would mirror the consequences of a major earthquake, tsunami, and hurricane occurring at the same time. Frankly, it’s not unlike what we’ve designed in the event we have to implement an FIOP for an improvised nuclear devise.”
“FIOP?” The president asked for clarification.
“Yes, sir. My apologies. Federal Interagency Operational Plan. The National Preparedness System outlines an organized process for responding to catastrophic events, which coordinates across all governmental agencies, including the military.”
The president then asked, “What about public information? I’m sure folks are scared out of their wits. Food and supply deliveries have ceased. We’ve been dealing with looting for weeks.”
The director of Homeland Security responded, “Sir, in the past, all of our theoretical exercises and assumptions involved an asteroid threat that allowed us years to prepare and warn the public. This came upon us very suddenly without an accurate prediction of the areas of impact. As a result, we focused our public messaging via media PSAs and direct text messaging to all operable cellular telephones in the country. Let me add, sir, that the risk to our citizens is more than just the direct hit from the asteroid or its debris field. It’s also the potential loss of electricity and other critical infrastructure. We’re already experiencing telecommunications outages in the public sector. Naturally, the military installations around the country utilize a buried, hardwired network, so our communications are fully operable.”
President Watson turned his attention back to Nola Taylor from NASA. “You left us dangling with the words compared to what’s to come. Please expound on this.”
“Sir, based upon the limited data we have available to us on the success of the Starhopper mission, it appears that IM86 has been sufficiently destroyed to avoid an extinction-level event.”
“Well, there’s some good news,” interjected the president. “However, I sense there’s a but coming.”
“Well, yes, sir,” Taylor continued. “The timing of the attack by the Starhopper crew and the speed with which the combat pilot recruited for this task fired on the asteroid played a significant role in how the resulting debris field effected Earth.” She hesitated for a moment and referred to her notes.
“Please continue,” said the president.
“Of course, sir. My apologies. Because 2029 IM86 was a binary system, the gravitational pull of its two cores made it impossible to destroy it completely without further nuclear strikes. While Major Fox was apparently successful in obliterating the core at the front of the peanut-shaped asteroid, the second half remained, as did its gravitational pull.”
“What does this mean?” the president asked.
“The asteroid was able to reconstitute itself to an extent. Granted, it isn’t a solid space rock as it was before, but it nonetheless managed to stick together sufficiently enough to create a dense cluster of meteors similar to the Taurid swarm that crosses the Earth’s orbit every thousand years.”
The president leaned forward and rested his elbows on the conference table. He clasped his fingers together and studied Taylor. “Explain to me what the Taurid swarm is, and when did it occur last? More importantly, how does it relate to what we’re dealing with today?”
“Sir, in 1908, the Earth’s orbit and the Taurid swarm, which is the leftover debris of a comet, crossed trajectories. The comet’s dust barreled through our atmosphere at sixty-five thousand miles per hour. Most of the debris burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, similar to what we’re experiencing today. However, some of the larger meteorites made it through. One in particular, known as the Siberian Tunguska Astero
id, a misnomer, actually, leveled eighty million trees over an eight-hundred-square-mile area in Russia. It packed a punch equal to fifteen megatons of TNT—a thousand times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.”
“Are we looking at something like that now?” asked the president.
“Yes, sir, potentially. But more than just one. We could experience similar impact events around the globe, times a thousand.”
The attendees burst into a low-level uproar as they began to discuss the destructive possibilities of that many explosions hitting Earth in a short period of time.
The president absorbed her revelation and then continued his questioning. “Now, Director Taylor, has there been any indication that this asteroid, or the remains of it, has been knocked off course? Do we have any hope that the rest of this asteroid might skirt by us, you know, since the present activity is closer to the equator?”
Director Taylor sighed and nodded her head. “Sir, through the efforts of the Starhopper crew, it’s possible that North America could avoid a direct hit, with the bulk of the debris field striking the lower latitudes around the equator. We’re assessing all of the probabilities at NASA and the JPL, and I have Dr. Brian Zahn here to explain more on that.”
The president leaned back in his chair and motioned for the scientist from CalTech to stand. “Go ahead, Dr. Zahn.”
“Thank you, sir,” said the portly young man. “Mr. President, we may have a keyhole affecting the debris field of IM86.”
“A what?” asked Fielding.
“A gravitational keyhole. It’s a small section of Earth’s gravitational region in which gravity can alter the orbit of NEOs. Now, this theory was most recently applied to the trajectory of 99942 Apophis that is scheduled for a flyby in 2036, but the same concept can be applied here. The keyhole can alter an asteroid’s trajectory for the worse, as is the case with Apophis, or the better, which may be happening with IM86.”
