by Carl Derham
*
Doctor Conway was furiously tapping numbers into his computer, trying to ascertain what effect the explosions had on the course of the asteroid. He knew full well that it would still be heading for Earth, but he had to try. The President and all the gathered staff had seen the explosions in space on a screen in the Oval office, cheering with each one in the assumption that it had impacted the rock.
The now familiar sound of the President’s phone began to ring as Oli relaxed in the chair with his feet on the console. This was probably not the ideal posture to assume when talking to the Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful nation in the world, but hey, they’d just saved the planet.
“Is that Conway?” barked the president.
“Hello Mr President,” said Oli. “It’s Oli here again.”
“Look,” roared the President, “I don’t know who the hell you are, but you’re on a secure line.”
“Yes I know. Firstly, I want to congratulate you on some really good shooting. I can’t even begin to imagine how you would aim a rocket from Earth to hit such a small target so far away. Very wow.” He didn’t mean to sound patronising, he was genuinely amazed at the genius involved in such a feat.
“How do you know about that?” barked the President.
“One of them nearly landed on my head,” chuckled Oli. “I just wanted to let you know that we’ve got the asteroid and we’re going to tow it into an Earth orbit. I don’t know about you, but I reckon it’ll look really cool as a second moon. If you don’t like it, we can always get rid of it later. It’s about to speed up towards the earth. I just wanted to warn you. Bye for now.”
Robbie hung up the line.
“I guess he’ll have to believe us now,” said Oli.
The ship sped towards Earth with its rather cumbersome passenger close behind. They passed close to the moon and slowed down.
“It's currently a full moon Oli, so we might as well give them the first double full moon tonight.”
Several grids and figures appeared on the screen with the earth and moon connected by an unfathomable set of equations, constantly morphing into even more unfathomable equations. The two grids moved towards each other and rotated with the roll of the ship and as they joined and became one grid, they flashed red at which point the ship turned to follow an orbital path. More figures appeared on the screen, rapidly changing, then began to slow until they ticked by, one every second or so. As the speed of the ship and the position of the asteroid matched Robbie’s calculations, the tow was cut and the graviton generator disengaged. The new moon was now free to continue on its mathematically perfect journey for all eternity. The asteroid was now part of the scenery, and Oli couldn’t wait to see the night sky over London and admire their handiwork.
The President’s phone rang again. This time, it was Doctor Conway.
“You’re not going to believe this Mr President, but the asteroid just accelerated at close to light speed and is currently in orbit around the earth.”
“Holy cow! He was telling the truth.”
“What did you say?” asked Doctor Conway.
“Ah, nothing Doctor Conway. Nothing. Thank you. I’ll call you back.”