The Formula
Page 26
Everyone crowded around the screen. The message was cryptic: Serious developments are occurring. Explosions have been detected around the world. No confirmation on what caused the explosions. Department Of Defense, U.S. Space Command and Homeland Security are looking into the matter. USSPC, NASA and NOAA satellite data are being analyzed. More information to follow shortly. Flight Director Sullivan will advise you of further developments in fifteen minutes via video feed. Signed, Houston.
“That doesn’t help much,” Kate responded in frustration.
“Okay, let’s keep the cameras pointed at the blast sites,” Commander Breen ordered. “Yuri, see if you can find anything on the cameras on what caused the explosions. Were they missiles or what? Kate, check all the monitors. Run a complete check on all systems. Make sure nothing is headed our way. I’ll find Lynn and bring her up to date. We’ll all meet here in fifteen minutes for the call from Houston.”
Everyone went to work. Captain Breen checked his watch. It was 1805 Universal Time or Greenwich Mean Time. So that meant it was five hours earlier or 1305 Central Daylight Time in Texas. He spun around and headed for the passageway to the research module to find Lynn Hoshi.
As promised, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, called fifteen minutes later. The ISS was currently positioned over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of 245 miles, traveling at 17,156 miles per hour. It circled the Earth every 90 minutes, so communication links had to be transferred between the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) and the ground station terminals located at NASA’s White Sands Complex in California every few minutes.
Burt Sullivan, a short, solidly built man in his early forties was the Flight Director at the Mission Control Center. He was standing in front of one of the desk consoles in the Space Shuttle flight control room. As a former U.S. Air Force astronaut, he could easily imagine what was going through Commander Breen’s mind at this moment aboard the ISS. Burt took one more look at the message from NASA headquarters in Washington, DC and pushed the transmit button that operated the console. The video signal popped up on the monitor. “Commander Breen, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Burt. What’s going on down there?” Commander Breen and the rest of his crew were all in the Zvezda command-and-control module clustered around a large flat screen monitor.
“I just received a message from the NASA Administrator regarding the explosions you saw in space. The President has been notified. The country is on high-security alert. It seems there were explosions all over the planet. We don’t know what they were or where they came from. Military teams have been sent to investigate. The explosions were small in size. They were not nuclear. There is no fallout according to our detection systems. The sites are all located in desolate areas. The U.S. had two explosions—one in northern Minnesota near Duluth and another in southwest Arizona near Tucson. There are no reports of human casualties. We just don’t have enough information to tell you more yet. How are things going up there?”
“Everything is fine here. We’re just worried what’s happening down there. Maybe we can help. I’ve got Yuri and Kate checking all our monitoring systems. The cameras may have recorded something. If we find anything, we’ll send the data to your team.”
“Okay, that sounds good. Wait a minute. One of my guys just handed me another message. NASA found something from one of our satellites. It appears there was an unidentified object detected approaching Earth just before the explosions. It looked like a small asteroid at first, but it was moving too fast. And it changed course when it entered our atmosphere. I’ll send you the data. Maybe your cameras spotted…”
“Sorry to interrupt, Burt, but Yuri is waving at me. He has something.” Commander Breen looked at the piece of paper with data that Yuri had just pulled from the printer. After a moment, he commented, “Tell us what this means, Yuri.”
Yuri moved in view of the screen, “I detected an optical laser pulse originating from deep space. It shot right past us two minutes ago.”
“Optical laser pulse? What do you mean?” Burt asked.
“I mean like in SETI” Yuri added, referring to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence organization that had optical telescopes looking for alien communication throughout the galaxy; so far without any luck.
“Do you know where it came from?”
“Not yet, sir. But we know where it went.”
“Where?” demanded the flight director.
“Somewhere down in Peru!”
Read the complete Series, Books 1, 2 and 3.
Author’s Page
Biography
The author lives in the Chicagoland area with his family. He attended Michigan State University and earned his MBA at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Illinois. He recently retired as a product marketing professional in the high tech industry and is pursuing a writing career. He has always enjoyed science fiction and plans to continue writing imaginative novels that explore the future boundaries of real science.
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Don Viecelli
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Other books by the author:
UTOPIAS - Book 2
UTOPIAS - Book 1
The Guardians Series, The Complete Collection, Ebooks 1,2,3
The Guardians - Book 3
The Guardians - Book 2
The Guardians - Book 1
G’s Future
G’s Future - The Journey, Part 2
Alien Storm
Author’s website:
Don Viecelli Sci-Fi
ISBN: 9781450769297
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