Simone didn’t believe that, of course. The sunny, yellow print dress she had on reflected her optimistic outlook toward life. She had a closetful of similar ones. She also favored them because she felt they drew attention away from what she perceived was her slightly thick midriff. No one else ever even noticed it, but Simone was constantly, and with a healthy dose of humor, at war with it.
Fortunately, Simone’s personable humor extended to me. Her glass-is-half-full attitude was always a counterpoint to mine half-empty. I’d been an overanxious sort since childhood. I was always small for my age and barely taller than Simone. I exercised diligently on our low-impact elliptical, but it never seemed to help my physique. My black hair was trimmed to within an inch of my scalp and sprinkled with gray. Simone called it my powdered sugar. A lot more powder in the last six months.
“Hey, Clarence . . . honey . . .” She called to me from out front. “Come look.”
I walked out, knowing what I was going to see would make me more uneasy. She glanced at me, joking lightly, “Oh, you’re back at that nail again.” I was chewing on my left thumbnail, unconsciously as usual. “I swear, honey, you’re gonna bite ’em all the way to your elbows. Or die of the fidgets.”
I glanced up apprehensively at the darkening sky. “Don’t think it’s the fidgets that’s going to kill me.” The smudge of the comet was much more visible than it had been a week earlier.
Simone was studying it, like millions of others were. “It’s really beginning to look like a comet now.”
“It should, with only fifty-eight days left,” I said, feeling my stomach roil again. “I’m telling you, we should get tickets for South America or—”
“Oh now, Clarence,” Simone said with a patient smile, “they’re still not sure exactly where the damn thing’s gonna hit.”
“Yeah. Northern Hemisphere.”
“Only a few’re saying that,” she said. “And only if it really does hit.”
“We should get tickets anyway.”
Simone shook her head. “There’re none left. Even through my office.” Simone worked in the public affairs press office at the State Capitol. “Unless you go to a scalper. And we don’t have twenty thousand dollars. A piece.”
That startled me. “So you did check?” My pulse rate picked up. “You are worried.”
“Of course I am, Clarence. My God, honey, who isn’t? But there’s nothing we can do. Even FEMA’s acknowledged that.”
I looked around, like maybe there was some answer nearby, maybe down our quiet middle-class street lined with trees that were only as old as the neighborhood, about twenty years. We’d moved in when it was new. The houses were similar yet with enough individual touches it never felt like a tract. Most were redbrick like ours, some were clapboard or even stone, and they were all nicely kept up. Folks in the neighborhood cared. For many like us it was their first real house. Good mix of folks, too. Some white, some black like us, some Hispanic, a few same-sex couples, too. Our overall mix was fine with everybody. Lot different from where I’d grown up down on the South Side. This was a good place to live.
But now we were all going to die. I was chewing my thumbnail again. I couldn’t help it. I was deep into “dread time.” That’s what Simone called it whenever I worried about something ahead of me. Could be a dental appointment or my annual evaluation at the plant. Simone said I always spent so much time dreading upcoming things that I missed life while it was going by; said she had to be Pollyanna to my Eeyore. But this was different. This time we were staring at obliteration. And not exactly a peaceful, slipping-away-in-your-sleep kind of dying.
Our sixteen-year-old son, LeBron, came out of the house. Simone told me that most of the girls in LeBron’s high school, and a couple of guys as well, went out of their way to get into his line of sight. LeBron’s skin was a couple shades lighter than mine, like his mother’s. His thick brown-black hair was straight and lately brushed with such casual-but-time-consuming precision that it made me chuckle. He had a swimmer’s body: broad shoulders, narrow waist, his physique enhanced by endless laps for his high school’s championship team. From some white slave-owner ancestors, he’d picked up striking green eyes. We knew he was aware of his good looks and the attention they brought him from his classmates. He’d told us offhandedly how several girls said he ought to be a fashion model. We worried that LeBron had begun to think he might be able to cruise through life by taking advantage of his looks instead of doing real work to earn a living. Not that any of that seemed to matter much, given what was coming. He handed Simone our binoculars.
“Thanks, honey.” Simone smiled, then glanced at me. “And besides, if that thing hits anywhere, there’s gonna be so much dust—”
“That we’re gonna be dusted.” LeBron laughed nervously. “Just like the damn dinosaurs.”
Simone looked at him, then upward again through the binoculars. “I don’t think that’ll happen. I’m pretty sure the rockets’ll get it.”
LeBron arched one of his dark eyebrows. “You were pretty sure the Braves’d win the series, too, Mom.”
Simone kept gazing at the damnable smudge in the sky as she drew a long breath. I could see that she was preparing to project a mother’s confidence, and she didn’t disappoint. “Well, maybe we’ll all win this time.”
LeBron and I traded a troubled glance. We were both far less certain.
3
STARFIRE
CLASSIFIED LEVEL THREE
From: [email protected]
To: SECDOD, CSAF, CNO
Date: 05/02/20 06:48:15 ZULU
Subject: Starfire Deployment
To All—
Alexandra Willis, Chief of Combined Operations, Operation Home Run [NASA-HOUSTON-HR CCO] has urgently requested POTUS to make the Starfire Optical Range immediately available for deployment to assist and substantially improve the possibilities of success of Home Run.
Since we are advised that there may be serious natl sec issues regarding Operation Home Run’s use of Starfire, POTUS wants full background on it along with plans for deployment.
Need immediate—repeat immediate—response before action can be authorized. Please cc D/CIA, D/NSA.
Standing by—AP
CLASSIFIED LEVEL THREE
From: Maj. Gen. G. Montgomery, CSAF
To: [email protected]
CC: D/[email protected], D/[email protected]
Date: 05/02/20 07:17:17 ZULU
Subject: Starfire Deployment
Dear Ms. Perez et al.,
Here is the essential USAF background information you requested for POTUS regarding Starfire and HR CCO’s Request for Deployment. Note: this is a condensation of the full, classified 278-page Starfire spec and mission file attached.
The Starfire Optical Range (SOR) is located at a former missile defense site which was reactivated in 2005 (cost $27M) for the construction of the SOR at Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, NM. It sits atop North Oscura Peak, elevation 7,998. SOR is a Secure Lab Facility (SLAB) operated by USAF Space Command of the Directed Energy Directorate (DED) of the AF Research Lab (AFRL).
It is housed inside a facility with a roof and circular walls which retract to allow the equipment a horizon-to-horizon view of the sky through its 1.5 and 3.5-meter telescopes. They were specially designed for tracking and observing satellites in orbit. The scopes are paired with 1.0-meter laser beam director (referred to as LIDAR) which is a powerful high-intensity laser consisting of two solid state IR lasers, 1.064 & 1.319 microns, that are usually summed (combined). The laser beam light is orange, wavelength 590 nm.
(Note that on May 3, 2006, the NY Times reported, “Research is also being conducted at the base into how to use such ground-based lasers to disable satellites, i.e., as an anti-satellite weapon.” That reportage has never been publicly confirmed nor denied by DOD, DED, or AFRL.)
It is in the public record that the LIDAR beam can put a laser pinpoint on an object at least to 29,357 miles into space. L
IDAR is normally used to lase satellites so the telescopes can follow them. Currently there are over 1,300 total satellites which can be tracked. Classified specs note that LIDAR actually has considerably more power: it could be used to incapacitate or destroy certain satellites and can project a pinpoint of laser light on an object at least as far away as the moon (238,000 miles) with enough heat at that distance to start a fire if oxygen were available.
CURRENTLY: As part of Operation Home Run, NASA-Houston CCO, Alexandra Willis, has requested us to use the Starfire LIDAR to lase the head of the oncoming Comet Avery. This would allow the nuclear missiles to use the laser pinpoint as A SUPPLEMENTARY TARGETING COORDINATOR. This is similar to much smaller lasers used by drones to laser-target their air-to-ground missiles. The technique is called “painting” or “lighting up” the intended target by projecting the laser beam onto it. HR CCO stresses that this would definitely be an enormous potential aid in obtaining a successful Home Run mission.
THE PROBLEM: Avery’s Comet is expected to make its final approach at a speed of 28.1 KPS or 62,856 MPH slanting in northwest bound passing over Nigeria on the western coast of Africa at 11.4 degrees East Longitude at an altitude of 46,300 miles. Interception of the comet and detonation of the missiles is to occur 1.17 seconds later at an altitude of 27,000 miles over the Cape Verde Islands in the southwestern Atlantic at 13.77 degrees West Longitude. If interception and destruction of the comet fails, then it will likely impact 1.01 seconds later in the southcentral USA vicinity east of the Mississippi River embayment.
HOME RUN CCO REQUEST: In order for Starfire’s LIDAR to have the EARLIEST POSSIBLE ACQUISITION of and NECESSARY DIRECT LINE OF SIGHT to the comet in order to “paint” the incoming target, the LIDAR and its support equipment would need to be MOVED IMMEDIATELY from Starfire’s current New Mexico location to the peak of Cerro de Punta 18.1725° N Latitude, 66.5918° W Longitude elevation 4,390 feet, in the Cordilla Central range, Zamas, Jayuya, Puerto Rico.
That is the reason why Home Run CCO has asked for immediate emergency authorization to move Starfire/LIDAR to Puerto Rico. THE USAF TOTALLY SUPPORTS CCO WILLIS’S REQUEST AND IS STANDING BY.
IN ORDER TO HAVE STARFIRE READY IN TIME, WE CANNOT STRESS STRONGLY ENOUGH THE NECESSITY OF US RECEIVING THIS AUTHORIZATION IMMEDIATELY.
Respectfully,
Maj. General Geraldine Montgomery,
Chief of Staff, USAF
CLASSIFIED LEVEL THREE
From: Marion.Berger.D/[email protected]
To: [email protected]
CC: CSAF, D/[email protected]
Date: 05/02/20 08:22:39 ZULU
Subject: Starfire Deployment
Ms. Perez—
With all due respect to Chief of Staff USAF, General Montgomery, because of the extremely close involvement of other nationals, particularly those of and , in the Home Run mission, our agency [CIA] expresses considerable concern about exposing Starfire and to their scrutiny.
The new and technology of Starfire has shown that it could be a defensive tool in our arsenal with the potential to satellites such as might be utilized by , and even against the United States or its allies in the event of hostilities.
The risks of exposure by transporting it from New Mexico to Puerto Rico and giving and or even access to its targeting capabilities could seriously compromise US interests in the future.
The CIA therefore urges POTUS to consider all other options available before authorizing the use of Starfire and .
Marion Berger
Director, Central Intelligence Agency
CLASSIFIED LEVEL THREE
From: D/[email protected]
To: [email protected]
CC: CSAF, D/[email protected]
Date: 05/02/20 09:40:13 ZULU
Subject: Starfire Deployment
Ms. Perez—
The NSA is shocked that POTUS would even exposing the of and the to any foreign particularly those of , , , and potentially others like , and .
The danger of , , and falling into the hands of could have consequences against our to in areas like and beyond.
Since our national security would definitely be severely compromised we absolutely RECOMMEND AGAINST involving Starfire or .
Lloyd Winchester
NSA
CLASSIFIED LEVEL THREE
From: [email protected]
To: SECDOD, CSAF, CNO, D/CIA, D/NSA
Date: 05/02/20 10:32:01 ZULU
Subject: Starfire Deployment
Thank you all. POTUS appreciates your speedy counsel.
A presidential directive is being issued this morning AUTHORIZING the use and immediate relocation of Starfire to Puerto Rico while immediately supplying all pertinent scientific, technical, and targeting information to all nations involved in Home Run.
POTUS said that “national security won’t amount to a hill of beans if we don’t have a planet.”
Courtesy the White House, USAF, AFRL, DED, CIA, NSA (Reclassified)
Dr. Susan Perry. . .
My home in Atlanta for the last several years had been a rented two-bedroom condo on the twenty-fourth floor of a nice high-rise called the Mayfair Renaissance. It was situated on Thirteenth Street off Juniper, in Atlanta’s inviting Midtown area north of the city center. The CDC headquarters was just a short drive east. As the Mayfair brochure enthused: “It combines appealing urban living with restaurants, shops, leafy streets, and Piedmont Park next door.” I often jogged around the oval surrounding its baseball and soccer fields or all the way up to the botanical gardens. My sister, Lilly, three years older than me and now thirty-six, particularly liked walking through the Children’s Garden up there.
Whenever I came back from fieldwork, such as in Bangladesh, I would immediately collect Lilly from the assisted care facility. They were excellent, caring people, but I always wanted Lilly near me as much as possible. She stayed there only whenever I had to be away from Atlanta for any more than a few days, which I’d avoided doing since discovery of the comet. People often remarked on our family resemblance. I knew they were being polite, however, when they said we were equally pretty. I didn’t look too bad if I’d had a chance to put on some makeup, but Lilly wore none and never needed any. Her eyes were blue. She was fine featured and reminiscent of our French Canadian ancestors, although there was also a clear spark of our Irish grandmother, Lillian, reflected in Lilly’s light freckles, pale skin, and hair even more auburn than mine. Her hair always made me smile. Despite my best efforts at keeping it neat, Lilly’s always managed to be somewhat flyaway.
Whenever I brought her home, I would take her out onto our little balcony to look at the Atlanta skyline and let her get reoriented. I did that a lot after Bangladesh, after I’d heard about the comet. I found myself staring uneasily at the sky overhead, knowing what was out there, heading our way. But when I’d glance at Lilly, she would have already taken in the vista and was back into her standard mode: looking downward blankly at her iPad on which some lengthy text was scrolling way too fast for me to read. Anyone meeting her for the first time usually sensed, correctly, that there was something a little bit off about Lilly.
The blessing was Lilly’s innocent unawareness of the impending danger. My sweet, dear sister stood there leaning gently against me, taking comfort from my arm around her. I took equal comfort from hers around me. We’d been through a great deal together, and I was not one to give up yet.
Since the news of possible disaster, some of our building’s occupants began a weekly nondenominational prayer meeting. I didn’t attend. I’d shied away from organized religion years ago. But I did harbor a trust in an overriding order within the cosmos. Like Einstein before me, I firmly believed that God didn’t merely play dice with the universe. My fieldwork for the CDC and Doctors Without Borders brought me into hands-on involvement with people of so many nationalities, beliefs, and circumstances that it had given me a sense of optimism about our shared world.
The e
normous satisfaction I’d experienced with the success Lauren and I had achieved in Bangladesh, personified in the miraculous resurrection and survival of frail little Aniha, certainly contributed to that trust in cosmic order. Smiling up into my eyes from her hospital bed the day I left, Aniha was much recovered. She clasped my hand tightly, pressed her lips to my fingers. She and I both had happy tears.
I felt there would simply be no cosmic logic in the destruction of civilization just as it might be on the brink of some new beginning. So I had put my heart out to Nature and Nature’s God, and I dared to hope.
I felt certain that I wasn’t alone; that there must be multitudes who shared the same hopefulness as we approached the final days before the comet’s arrival.
BEGIN TRANSMISSION
SUBJECT: LAUNCH PROTOCOLS—HR DOC #LP0036A-7714095**021418
DATE: 06/30/20 07:05:34 ZULU
FROM: HOME RUN HOUSTON CCLD [Chief Coordinating Launch Director]
TO: SLD [Site Launch Directors] Baikonur, Jiuquan, Hainan, Kennedy, Guiana
CC: NASA-HOUSTON-HR CCO [Chief of Combined Operations, Alexandra Willis] UNSG, POTUS, SECDOD, CSAF
***Reconfirming agreement: as with established international air traffic control protocol, all communication regarding Operation Home Run shall be conducted in English. ***
This transmission is for Home Run interdepartments only. The Public Information Office will supply formal press release at news conference this day at 16:00:00 ZULU.
Due to the trajectory of Comet Avery dictating different times-to-interception/detonation for individual rockets from each launch facility, it has been determined by the Home Run Astrophysical Computation & Targeting Group that the sequencing of the mission is REQUIRED to be as follows:
The Darwin Variant Page 5