Kip quickly shifted to hover mode, then moved the Raptor backward and to the left.
Pierce tore his eyes away from Martin's damage assessment display and sneered openly when he realized what Kip was doing. This had better work, he thought bitterly.
Fortunately for Kip, it did.
The wizzo managed to slide the Raptor backward, then deftly moved the aircraft to the side, ducking behind the Sears Tower.
All the while, Godzilla focused his radioactive fire on the retreating aircraft. As the Raptor slipped behind the huge skyscraper and out of Godzilla's line of sight, the building took the full brunt of the monster's fiery fury.
As the crews of Raptor-One and Raptor-Two watched in amazement, the middle of the Sears Tower exploded outward, raining shattered steel beams and deadly glass shards down on the city below. Then one of the tallest buildings in the world lurched precariously and split in two. While fire and smoke engulfed the lower portion of the building, the upper half tilted to the right and plunged onto the smaller structures below.
"So much for keeping casualties down to a minimum," Martin muttered.
"Pull back, Daniels!" Pierce commanded, staring through the windshield. At the same time, both Toby's and Lori's voices cried out over the radio.
"Your aircraft is taking hits from ground fire!" Lori cried. But Kip couldn't make out Lori's frantic warnings among the other confused voices that screamed in his ears.
"Pilot taking over control of the aircraft," Pierce announced.
Immediately, Kip released control of the Raptor, and the aircraft began to ascend rapidly. Pierce, in a vain attempt to avoid the debris that was flying up from the destruction below, was taking Raptor-One higher.
But Kip had initiated the attack at a low altitude - too low, in fact. He'd exposed Raptor-One to Godzilla's chief weapon - his fiery breath - as well as residual damage from the fire and explosions rising up from the ground. The two mistakes combined, finally, to bring the mighty Raptor down.
More klaxons began to sound throughout the cockpit, spurring the crew on to more frantic action. Martin and Tia began reciting a litany of system failures - any one of which had the potential to shut down the Raptor for good.
Kip stared helplessly ahead, his eyes still locked on the rampaging creature called Godzilla. I caused this, he realized, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. I made mistakes, and I killed my friends!
Suddenly, the whole cockpit shook violently. Kip's teeth rattled as the Raptor seemed to shake itself apart around them. He expected to see fire sweep through the cockpit at any moment, even though he knew that was impossible.
"The starboard engine has exploded!" Martin cried. Kip didn't think he'd ever heard so much emotion in the young Asian-Americans voice before. Then Tia's frightened screams echoed throughout the cockpit.
With an abrupt lurch that made them all queasy, the cockpit tilted precariously to the left. The cityscape outside the windows tilted, too.
The buildings below seemed to reach up for them. Gravity pulled Kip to one side, wrenching him against his seat belts. He yanked his helmet off so he wouldn't have to listen to Tia's cries.
"Eject! Eject! Eject!" Pierce shouted so loud that Kip could hear him even without the radio.
Kip's hands reached behind his head and grasped the yellow-and-black-striped handles that activated his McDonnell-Douglas ACES II ejection seat.
But before he could yank the emergency handles the picture outside of the cockpit transparencies faded and blurred until it was only a kaleidoscope of colors. The flashing lights, klaxons, and even the HUDs and computers, all went off at once. The cockpit - or, rather, the "mockpit" - froze in place.
Then, with the grind of unseen machinery, the deck slowly began to level itself. Kip used this lull in the exercise to regain self-control. He made an effort to slow his breathing and heartbeat.
Remember the exercises Dr. Markham taught you, he reminded himself.
Finally, the mockpit was level again and locked into position. "Clear?" Pierce asked, releasing his safety belts.
At his side, Martin took a deep breath. "Clear," he said, smiling. Martin's calm demeanor was instantly restored.
"Clear," Tia called, pulling off her helmet and laughing at her panic just moments before.
Kip lowered his arms from the ejection seat handles. "Clear," he said hollowly as his seat automatically turned around, bringing Kip face-to-face with his disappointed teammates. Suddenly, the double doors at the rear of the cockpit opened, and Kip's heart sank.
General Taggart strode onto the deck of the Raptor-One mockpit, one of two Raptor simulators at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base.
His bearing was stiff, his posture erect. He looked formal and impressive, even though he wore a battered olive-drab flight suit just like the rest of them. His hard gray eyes scanned the mockpit crew, but they seemed to avoid Kip.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen," he grumbled. "You lost Raptor-One, destroyed the Sears Tower, and you're all dead."
He paused, glowering at them.
"Best of all, you never even fired a shot!" The general scanned the downcast faces around the mockpit with barely concealed contempt. Only then did he glance in Kip's direction.
Hastily, the youth lowered his eyes.
"Just how in the hell am I going to explain your miserable failure to the taxpayers?" the general asked.
* * *
In the simulator of Raptor-Two, a similar scene was being enacted. But it was Colonel Krupp doing the scolding, and it was Lori Angelo and Tobias Nelson who were bearing the brunt of his anger.
"You didn't give Raptor-One adequate or specific warnings when the aircraft moved in too low."
"I warned him!" Lori argued, pulling off her helmet and running her hands through her short-cropped dark hair.
"Too little and too late, Angelo," Krupp barked back. "The story of your life, I might add."
"You might," Lori muttered.
But if the colonel heard Lori's insubordination, he didn't acknowledge it. Instead, the officer turned and faced Toby. "And you -" he sputtered.
"I know, Colonel, I know," Toby said, nodding. Though he was only seventeen, Toby's deep, rich voice reminded everyone on the team of another African American - the actor James Earl Jones, voice of Darth Vader.
"I confess that I did it again," Toby continued. "I just can't seem to keep my big mouth shut."
"Lori is the one in the combat control chair, so she does the talking," Krupp reminded the pilot. "Unauthorized radio chatter is both distracting and confusing - especially during combat. You are both guilty of that!"
Toby nodded in agreement. But he smiled, too.
Lori figured he had the right. Toby was about the only one who hadn't screwed up big-time in today's simulation.
With one final look of contempt, Krupp turned and walked out of the mockpit. "Simulator training is over for today," he announced over his shoulder as he departed.
The simulator session is over, Lori mused. But the "screw-up" lecture from Taggart is guaranteed to go on all night!
Lori was quite familiar with those little "talks." She'd been the focus of many of them. As she unbuckled her seat belts and climbed out of her command chair, she reviewed the exercise in her mind. It was clear who had really messed up.
Poor Kip, she thought sadly.
4
LUCKY ACCIDENT
Monday, May 3, 1999, 1:15 P.M.
Robinson Laboratory
Department of Astrophysics and Astronomy
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California
With a shaky hand, Carl Strickler signed for the two thick Federal Express envelopes. His nerves began tingling with excitement when he saw the return address - NASA's Hubble Data Retrieval Center.
The lanky graduate student ran up the stairs to his cramped and cluttered office. In less than a minute, he'd reached his tiny cubicle on the third floor. The office also doubled as his bedroom.
>
Even though he had a real bedroom in the dorm just a few blocks away, there were many nights when he didn't sleep there. Strickler had lost a lot of nights' sleep planning for - then worrying about - the contents of the packages he was now carrying.
Fumbling with his keys, Carl unlocked the door. For luck, he brushed his hand across the worn plaster busts of Galileo and Isaac Newton that he'd bought the year he'd begun his doctoral studies in astronomy and orbital mechanics.
After dropping the packages onto his desk, Carl plopped into his chair and activated his computer. His mind whirled. Years of working, planning, and theorizing suddenly distilled themselves into the contents of two thick envelopes.
I passed up job offers and broke up with Amy all because of those, he thought bitterly, staring at the envelopes. I only hope it was worth it.
Carl was not the kind of person to focus on the negative for long. His natural optimism kicked in and he tried to look on the bright side.
With this data in hand, I can finish my doctoral thesis in weeks instead of months... and I just might make history in the process!
Finally, Carl tore open the first envelope, which contained the data printouts. The bundle of paper contained millions of bits of raw data condensed into a computer code, then translated into numbers. Carl called up the copy of the Hubble program he'd designed. Then he turned his attention to the hard copy from the NASA scientists.
For three minutes, he studied the data on the printout versus the data stored in his computer. At the end of that short space of time, he knew that something had gone horribly wrong.
Instead of focusing on a section of space far beyond the orbit of Pluto, the Hubble had taken photographs, electromagnetic readings, and other images of a point in space that was much closer to Earth, in relative terms. A section of space between the fourth and fifth planets - Mars and Jupiter.
Carl found the error he'd made after a few more minutes of comparisons. It was, he discovered, a simple, stupid, incredibly basic mistake that he should have caught months before he even forwarded the instructions to NASA. He had juxtaposed two numbers. The error had pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at an empty area in space.
There goes my career, Carl thought bitterly, the magnitude of the mistake finally sinking in. I wanted to be discoverer of the unknown tenth planet of our solar system, the one beyond Pluto. Instead, I sent a multimillion-dollar piece of scientific equipment on a wild-goose chase.
Numbly, without thinking, Carl reached out and picked up the second envelope. Distractedly, he tore it open and pulled out the photographs.
Oddly, there was a note attached to the top picture. The letterhead read FROM THE DESK OF DR. JACOB BERMEISTER.
He's the new head of the Hubble program, Carl realized. With a dry throat, he read the note.
Congratulations on your discovery. Do you think it is a comet cluster, or a group of asteroids? In any case, let me know what you find after you've studied all the raw data. And please tell me when you intend to go public. I look forward to meeting you, Doctor Strickler.
The note was signed Dr. Jacob Bermeister.
Thoroughly puzzled, Carl Strickler began to examine the pictures. He saw what the older scientist was referring to almost immediately. There was a black mass blocking some of the star clusters. The mass appeared in each and every photograph. In some of them, Carl noticed two smaller masses as well. According to his measurements, the objects were very close to Earth.
An hour later, the awestruck graduate student quickly gathered up the printouts and the photographs and threw the bundle into his battered duffel bag. He glanced at his watch.
I hope Dr. Dawson's having a late lunch at the Atheneum, Carl thought. Maybe he can help me verify my findings.
As the young scientist rushed out of his office, he was overwhelmed by the importance of what he had discovered - by accident. Of course, if his initial estimates were correct, then the people of the world had a big problem. And Carl would have one, too.
Yes, he'd earn his doctoral degree; and, yes, he'd be famous for making a grand discovery. But he'd also have to announce that the total annihilation of all life on Earth was only a few months away.
* * *
It turned out that Carl Strickler's name did not loom so large in the scheme of history. A week before Carl received his data, two other scientists had discovered and photographed the same celestial bodies from their observatory on Earth.
Dr. Ramon Reyes and Dr. Chandra Mishra, both from the Lowell Observatory, had been mapping asteroids for several months. Technically, they discovered the asteroid swarm first.
Carl, with the help of the Space Telescope, was able to determine the speed and trajectory of the objects, but he was not credited with the discovery.
Further observation, using the VLA (Very Large Array) Radio Telescope in New Mexico, gave the scientists a clear picture of what they were dealing with.
The objects were asteroids, not comets. They were made of rock, not ice. And there were three of them. The largest asteroid was shaped like an hourglass and measured about three kilometers across. It looked almost delicate in the computer-enhanced radio telescope images. The smallest asteroid was less than a kilometer across, the middle one a little larger.
It was also determined that there would soon be a measurable increase in the amount of meteors striking the earth's atmosphere over the next several months. Whether or not these smaller objects belonged to the same swarm as the larger asteroids was debated inconclusively.
Due to the impressive nature of his work, Carl Strickler accompanied a group of eminent astronomers, astrophysicists, and space scientists to a top-secret briefing with the President of the United States. The briefing also included Doctors Ramon Reyes, Chandra Mishra, and Jacob Bermeister of NASA.
Everyone agreed that the stunning news should be handled carefully. The president asked them to wait twenty-four hours. The scientists reluctantly agreed, but everyone knew that news of this magnitude could not be kept secret for long.
To his surprise, Carl Strickler was chosen as a spokesperson for the group of scientists. They felt he knew as much about the phenomenon as any of them and he was the man who had discovered the trajectory - and the target - of the asteroids.
So Carl found himself on the podium when a momentous press conference was held at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kennedy Space Center on Monday, May 10, 1999.
Because someone had leaked part of the story to a reporter for the Sunday Washington Times, curiosity was high. The event was aired live and became the most-watched NASA program since the conference following the Challenger disaster.
And it was Carl Strickler who informed the world that he had discovered the exact day, date, and time of doomsday.
"I have news that will affect every living creature on the face of this planet," Carl stated without visible emotion.
"On Saturday, July 31, at 7:16 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, an asteroid will strike the eastern seaboard of the continental United States. This initial strike will be followed by two others within the next few hours. The impact will release energy equal to that of two thousand hydrogen bombs. The results will be catastrophic.
Carl paused, and his voice caught. "It is likely that this asteroid, and the two others in its wake will cause the extinction of all life on this planet."
At that moment, Dr. Bermeister stepped up to the podium and touched Carl's shoulder. As Carl stepped away from the microphone, Bermeister announced that there would be no questions. Rather, the president would address the nation in two minutes.
The chief executive's statement was brief.
The news was real, the president said. All the scientists who had studied the data concurred with the results. The governments of the world had all been informed. The military had been put on alert. The National Guard had been activated. The authorities were doing everything they could.
The scientists had a plan, the president said with a politician'
s smile. The details would be announced within twenty-four hours. But, first, there was to be a debate at the United Nations.
Most important of all, the president asked the citizens to stay calm. He urged Americans to turn to their families, their friends, or their churches in this time of trouble. "I ask you, as your president, to maintain the peace and order in your communities."
Three hours later, there were riots on the streets of Cleveland, Dallas, Baltimore - and Washington, D.C.
* * *
The day after the president's address, the news was reflected in the national press headlines.
A TRIO or ASTEROIDS TO STRIKE EARTH IN TWO MONTHS! the Los Angeles Times proclaimed.
COULD THIS BE THE ASTEROID THAT KILLED THE DINOSAURS? asked Time magazine.
SCIENTISTS CALCULATE IMPACT OF ASTEROID ON LAST DAY OF JULY, the New York Times announced soberly.
USA Today and CNN conducted a joint poll, starting with the question: "Do you believe that an asteroid will destroy the Earth this summer?"
In the days that followed, the riots ended and calm was restored. People returned to their lives, many doubting that the end was near. Scientists, after all, had been wrong before. And if they were correct? Well, scientists had solved problems before. Surely they would solve this one.
On the other hand, even if a solution were found, could it be implemented in time? No one knew. There were only two things that the scientific community agreed upon: The asteroids were heading toward Earth, and they would be called the Reyes-Mishra Asteroid Swarm, after the two scientists who first photographed them.
Privately, Dr. Reyes and Dr. Mishra had offered Carl a chance to have his name attached to the discovery. The young graduate student had declined.
Carl had seen the tape of his announcement being replayed every hour of every day.
I wanted to go down in history as the man who discovered a new planet, thought Carl sadly. Not the prophet who announced the end of the world.
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