The Sky is Falling

by J. D. Martens

“Maybe they found life!”

  “Yeah, that would be so cool. I bet we would get an A for sure in Physics if we showed the class there was proof of life on Mars!”

  They laughed, and Dustin began explaining how hacking an email might work.

  “Well, there’s lots of ways to do this. One way is to install a program on the scientist’s computer called a ‘keylogger.’ That would keep track of all the keystrokes on his computer—of all the keys he hits. We’d have to physically log in to his computer first, though, and then install the program. Then we could have the keystrokes sent to us, and we could figure out all his passwords—”

  “But then we’d still have to be in his office, right? Is there any way to do this remotely?” Jeremy interrupted.

  “Well, I’d need an hour with my computer while logged into the JSC servers, which would be risky. Even if they don’t catch me, they’ll see everything I’ve done. So when we leave, the government will go straight to our houses.”

  “Good thing we are only seventeen, so they can’t send us to jail,” Jeremy joked, but Dustin didn’t find it funny.

  “We would need to use someone else’s computer that has no connection to us.”

  “And you’d need an hour to hack into it?”

  “Yeah, around an hour. We only want to look at his emails and documents, so it shouldn’t be too hard. I could even download them onto a flash drive for us to look at later.” Dustin furrowed his brow, thinking. “But all of this sounds a little hard to do. I think, since the JSC—and all internet stuff—is being so tightly protected, it might be better to just go at it the old fashioned way.”

  Jeremy looked at Dustin sideways. “What do you mean? We have all this technology, and you don’t want to use it?”

  “Exactly!” Dustin replied triumphantly. “People can track all that stuff now. That’s how they knew it was China and Russia hacking into the U.S. government. They couldn’t do anything about it because it’s China and Russia, but they could definitely do some bad stuff to us. But, let’s say that we distract Dr. Miller for a second in a hallway or something, and unplug the cameras, and just run into his room, steal some papers or look at some stuff on his computer—maybe take some photos. If we get caught, we act like stupid innocent kids, and they don’t have any real evidence against us anyway.”

  “So you’re saying act like stupid teenagers because that’s what everyone thinks we are?”

  “Exactly . . . ” Dustin replied.

  Jeremy didn’t tell Dustin that Anna had already agreed to help—and he liked Dustin’s plan. They went over everything three times to make sure they had it down, and agreed to meet after school.

  Robert’s workload had increased to at least ninety hours a week. He was always working, or thinking about work. Rarely did the comet wander from his mind, and when it did he oddly found himself wondering what Elise, his ex-wife, was up to. Once upon a time, just after Robert had gotten his PhD, he’d fallen in love with a woman named Elise, who worked at his favorite coffee shop. They had a daughter, Jennifer, but things had moved too fast for them both, plus a million other clichés, and they split up when Jennifer was young. Since the comet had taken over Robert’s life, it was Jennifer and Elise that took his mind hostage. Robert and Elise had cut contact long ago, and Jennifer was now probably an adult. Even though he didn’t have a Facebook account, he was sure they would be on there, so he had entertained looking them up on the internet.

  He had even called Jennifer a few times, but always hung up the phone before she answered. What would he say? “Hi honey, I know it has been a while, but the world is about to end, and I want to be with you before it does. But I’ll be working so much you’ll probably never see me. How does that sound?” He was sure she would think he was crazy.

  His time was filled with managing the now hundreds of people working under him. Luckily, he had Suri, who turned out to be enormously helpful. Even though she was fresh from her post-doctorate, she knew a lot more than he did when he was her age.

  Robert had set up another office desk and chair for Suri in his office so they could work together, but pretty soon they would have to move. He had heard that contractors were converting a big conference room for them, so they could work together on these projects. It was going to take a lot of work. Only three weeks had passed since what Robert liked to call “D-Day,” or “Discovery Day”—the day Suri walked into his office to tell him the news.

  Already, Robert had flown in several nuclear physicists from Russia to help. He had also tasked the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California with building rockets equipped with multiple thrusters capable of 360° movement. They would need it in order to maneuver the nuclear-equipped rockets to hit the unpredictable comet. He had nicknamed the comet Shiva. Goldberg wanted to go with Jesus, or another biblical reference, but Robert liked Shiva. When Suri read Robert’s choice of nickname for the comet, she briskly walked over to her superior’s office.

  “Shiva? You really named the comet Shiva?” she asked crossly.

  “Destroyer of Worlds,” Robert answered, not looking up from his computer. “I thought it fit.”

  “This doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I’m Indian, and I found the comet?” Suri asked again, perturbed by the use of Hinduism’s most feared gods.

  “Shiva was the name J. Robert Oppenheimer gave himself when he built the first atomic bomb. It’s only fitting that we might save the world with his bombs from a destructive comet called Shiva . . . right?”

  Suri thought about this for a second, and then she walked out of the office, unable to decide whether the name was perfect or offensive.

  The data had been public for a few weeks before the United States and Russia took it offline. Several scientists had sent angry emails demanding that data. The scientists cried that this was against the core tenets of the scientific community, which was true. The data that the satellite spat out was open source, meaning anyone could read it. But since the world would have a colossal freak-out if it knew the world was going to end, they decided to shut it down. The only countries that had begun downloading and using the information were Chile, Russia, and the United States, and this was sheer luck that it was only three countries. The Chilean scientists who were working on the data had called Dr. Miller a week ago, and now they were working at JSC as well, along with many others from Robert’s hand-picked list. The Chilean government, however, had not agreed to keep things silent.

  “Got it?” Jeremy asked.

  “Are you crazy?!” Anna asked, appalled.

  “What?” Jeremy said, innocently.

  “We’ll go to jail! We won’t go to college. We—”

  “Listen, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I can have Dustin help me. And if we get caught, we just act stupid. The worst case scenario is that our parents ground us. But, I think, NASA is getting ready to do something . . . big . . . something scary—”

  Now it was Anna’s turn to interrupt him. “You can’t just wait for them to tell the whole world like a normal person?”

  Jeremy thought for a second, then he said, “No. I can’t. I want to know now. Don’t you?”

  “Not really.”

  “Come on,” Jeremy teased, pleading with her. “It’ll be fun. Consider it a test of your acting skills.”

  “Not fair,” Anna replied. Jeremy knew his girlfriend’s weakness for challenges.

  “Nothing bad will happen, and even if it does, and we get caught, we are just some stupid naïve high schoolers with a thirst for knowledge.”

  Anna looked over to Jeremy in the driver seat and narrowed her eyes at him. It was true that the worst case scenario would be that they get yelled at for being impulsive. But what if the consequences were more serious? Mr. Genser could probably bail them out, Anna thought. Reluctantly, but with little excited butterflies in her stomach, she agreed to help.

  Before they made the turn onto Saturn Lane, Jeremy stopped on the side of the road. Sinc
e Anna didn’t have a contractor’s badge to the JSC, she got out and climbed into the trunk.

  “Don’t accelerate too fast!” she said.

  Dustin would stay at home, monitoring their locations using their cell phones through an end-to-end encrypted group chat.

  Jeremy drove nervously through the gates of JSC. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, he thought.

  By now, the security guards recognized Jeremy’s car and his badge, and waved him through the gate without question. He parked in the employee lot, and, careful to make sure nobody saw him, popped the trunk. Anna quickly stepped out and smoothed her clothes. She wore tight jeans, boots, and a shirt with a deep V-neck. Jeremy wore jeans and a white T-shirt—his typical work clothes.

  Anna and Jeremy walked up together through the JSC lobby and down the hallway to Dr. Miller’s office. They watched as people shuffled in and out; it was hardly ever unoccupied. The door was never left open, so it was difficult to hear conversations inside. Jeremy could swear he heard something about Mars, but it could have been about stars or cars too. Anna busied herself outside Dr. Miller’s office by setting up the ladder and beginning to dismantle the ceiling panels above the hallway.

  Jeremy walked into the supply closet in the hallway near Dr. Miller’s office and looked up. The characteristic foam ceiling panels loomed above him. He found a stool, climbed onto it, and moved one of the tiles, settling in between the structural ceiling and the false one that so many office buildings used. He climbed across the precarious ceiling, making sure not to fall. Jeremy checked his phone’s compass to make sure he was going the right way.

  Before long he was directly over Dr. Miller’s office. There, as silently as he could, he moved one of the panels just enough to clearly see the door and much of the room.

  He texted I’m in to Dustin and Anna.

  At this point, the trap was set, and very simple. Anna would dismantle the ceiling panels and place wires just outside of Dr. Miller’s office. When Dr. Miller left and there was no one in the room, Jeremy would jump down from the ceiling and take photos of everything he could. Then he’d send the photos in the encrypted group chat, and fix the ceiling panel before walking out the front door to continue working.

  Dr. Miller, however, stayed put in his chair. Jeremy crouched uncomfortably in his position, watching Dr. Miller type away on his computer. His knees began to hurt and his muscles cramped. Every once in a while Dr. Miller would yawn, which Jeremy began to find legitimately exciting compared to watching nothing.

  This is so boring, Jeremy texted after an hour of waiting.

  I thought you said he gets a bunch of visitors all the time and is always moving around? Anna texted.

  Jeremy: I guess not now . . .

  Anna: Grrr. Well I’m going to start measuring the walls’ dimensions.

  I’m watching House of Cards! Dustin replied.

  After another fifteen minutes, Jeremy heard a knock at the door.

  Dr. Miller, who had said nothing but the occasional hmph for the past ninety minutes, spoke up.

  “Yes,” he said.

  A petite woman entered.

  “The numbers for the initial model are in. The emission jets can be catalyzed by us. In order to intercept, we have one month to launch a bomb,” she said.

  “Will we have flight control throughout?”

  “Under this model, yes.”

  “Okay, I’ll send it over to JPL and tell them the timeline. How big of a bomb do we need?”

  “Forty-five kilotons.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Suri.”

  Jeremy held his breath as he listened to the two scientists speak. What the heck is going on? he thought. Kilotons . . . that sounds like an atomic bomb. Are we starting another war?

  “You’re still there,” Robert mumbled.

  Jeremy tried to lean in closer, trying to hear.

  “ . . . I just . . . have you told anyone?” the woman named Suri asked.

  “Told anyone what, Suri?”

  “About Shiva. Have you told your family?”

  Jeremy heard Dr. Miller put something down on his desk, and Jeremy imagined it was his reading glasses. Jeremy saw that Suri had her hands behind her back and was rocking slightly back and forth. She looked very anxious.

  Dr. Miller spoke again. “This is not easy, Suri, and I know what Brighton said about confidentiality. But the truth is, it’ll be everywhere soon. A secret like this doesn’t stay secret for long. Sooner or later it’s going to explode into our world, and I mean a long time before it ends. Secretary Brighton, understandably, wants to delay this as long as possible. But it’s inevitable. If you really feel like you have to tell your family . . . heck, they probably won’t believe you anyway.”

  “They’ll like that you called it Shiva,” Suri replied, smiling. Jeremy wondered if Suri was being sarcastic or not.

  “Well, remember, Suri, that rules are just guidelines—there to make sure most people follow them. We have more important things to worry about right now than following the rules, so if it would make you work harder, then tell your parents. You still have to come to work on time.” Dr. Miller laughed, and so did the woman named Suri.

  With that strange conversation, Suri excused herself and rushed out of the room. Jeremy’s phone buzzed rapidly, and he managed to read:

  Anna: Jer, what’s going on. Is he coming or not?

  Jeremy was too confused to respond, but as Suri hurried out, she ran straight into an unsuspecting Anna as she pretended to measure the walls’ dimensions for the hundredth time.

  Anna yelped and stumbled backward because Suri was moving so fast down the hallway. The papers Suri held in her hand scattered to the floor. One drifted several feet away, and when Anna went to retrieve it she managed to take one photo—her phone was already in her hand.

  “Oh, dear. I’m so sorry. I’ve just been in such a hurry!” Suri exclaimed, quickly picking up the papers.

  “Oh no, no, I’m sorry,” Anna explained, putting her phone back in her pocket so she could to help the woman pick up the rest of the papers.

  Anna only saw a lot of numbers and equations she didn’t understand. She thought she was looking at the documents too long, and had a jolting fear Suri could see her motive somehow. She handed Suri the documents and looked up into her eyes, trying not to betray her real reason for being outside Dr. Miller’s office.

  But Suri noticed nothing, apologized again, and hurried away with her stack of strange mathematical symbols. Anna silently exhaled, feeling exhilarated at getting the photo. She held her phone tightly inside her pocket, as if squeezing the phone tight enough would keep the photos from getting deleted.

  Jeremy felt dazed as he climbed down the ladder from the ceiling. Anna was standing near him, asking him if he heard anything, but he said nothing. He didn’t know what to make of it himself. He felt like he must be on the most ridiculous reality show ever created—like The Truman Show or something. Any second now, some old B-list celebrity would pop out of the door and yell, “Psych! We really got you, there!”

  But that didn’t happen. As they drove back, Anna tried to make out what the photo of the piece of paper meant, but it was just a bunch of numbers.

  Once they were all assembled in Jeremy’s room, Anna and Dustin madly tried to decipher the pages, but Jeremy just sat and stared at the wall, thinking.

  A fourty-five kiloton bomb . . . That sounds like an atomic bomb. Atomic bomb . . . Why would NASA talk about using one of those? And what was that about Shiva? And what was all that about secrecy? He had said something about “Secretary Brighton . . . ” Isn’t that the Secretary of State? Is the United States going to war?

  “Dude?” Dustin said.

  Jeremy snapped out of his reverie.

  “Yeah, sorry. What’s up?”

  “We were just saying that these photos don’t really show us anything, but I’ll look into these numbers and Google them a bit, and see if anyone else is working with them. That way, we mi
ght be able to find some info. You didn’t hear anything else . . . maybe something someone said?” Dustin asked, but he was still engrossed in the photos.

  “No, I didn’t hear anything,” Jeremy lied.

  Dustin thanked Anna and Jeremy for an exciting night, and said he would see them at school the next day.

  “Goodnight, man,” Jeremy said.

  Once Dustin left, Jeremy turned to Anna. “Hey, I did hear something,” he said, “but I don’t know. It seems really weird.” Jeremy went over exactly what he had heard to Anna, who listened intently.

  “You think it could be war?” she asked.

  “Maybe, but why NASA? And I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like Dr. Miller would work for the military.”

  “You never know, maybe he’s making a lot of money.”

  Jeremy couldn’t stop thinking about one line Dr. Miller had said: “. . . definitely before it ends.” It . . . he thought. What was he referring to? This made Jeremy uneasy.

  “Maybe they are planning a war,” Anna said, shaking her head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  Anna sat silently for a while, playing with her hair and thinking. Finally she spoke flatly, offering, “Let’s follow Dr. Miller.”

  “What, are you crazy?”

  “He sounds a little unconventional. Didn’t you say he told that other scientist to break confidentiality and tell her parents about this . . . whatever it is that they are keeping secret? Maybe if we confront him about it, he’ll tell us what it is?”

  Jeremy thought about that, but still replied anxiously, “I don’t know . . . If he tells my dad, I’d be out of a job for sure. My dad might even kick me out of the house.”

  “Come on, you said yourself the worst thing that would happen is that we get grounded. I feel like that’s still the case, or even less likely since we won’t be trespassing anywhere. Plus, if you do get kicked out, you could come live with me!” Anna joked.

  “I don’t know if your dad would be okay with that . . . ” Jeremy smiled and kissed Anna.

  It is possible Dr. Miller would tell us what happened without informing JSC, or more importantly, my dad? Jeremy thought.