by Kurt Winans
Armed with some new information that had just been discovered about the incoming asteroid, Ross decided he would address the nation in a few days to cover the homeless situation, and give the people a progress report on the shelters. During the time leading up to the televised broadcast, he made his intentions well known to the members of his Cabinet and Congress. A new nationwide provision would be announced that allowed the homeless to remain in the places they had relocated to, and law enforcement would be instructed to leave them alone. There were much more important things for local police to monitor, and Ross knew that his other news would create some social unrest.
Ross thanked the American people for their collective hard work and sacrifices, and then presented them all with the newest round of bad news. It was difficult for him to relay such horrendous findings, but it had to be done. Although the asteroid wouldn’t come back into view for several more weeks, the size and composition had now been determined by the probes and verified by the leading scientific minds around the world.
The hope was that the makeup of the asteroid would be soft rock that had very little mass, but the opposite was true. Large quantities of iron had been detected which would make it much more dense than the Moon, but that was only part of the problem. That density would be less likely to burn up as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, and the impact itself would have a much harder punch to it.
Ross then informed the people that the size of the asteroid was roughly one-tenth that of the Moon, which was itself about one-fourth the size of Earth. Knowing full well that knowledge of fractions had become a thing of the past for most Americans; Ross did the math for them. With the most serious tone he had ever used while on television, Ross spoke of the reality check that had just slapped everyone in the face. He leaned closer to the microphone on his desk in the oval office and said to his constituents, “That means the asteroid is a full one-fortieth, or two and a half percent, of the size of this precious little blue marble that we all live on!” To put that into proper perspective for everyone, he added, “That could easily be compared to the size of Australia.”
In terms of size compared to other asteroids that had impacted Earth throughout millions of years, this thing was enormous. It was in no way a water balloon either, as this particular asteroid containing a high concentration of iron was like a Nolan Ryan fastball coming straight at the Earths head. The only difference between the two was that a batter might have a chance to duck out of the way of the baseball, but orbital mechanics of planets were considerably less flexible. He concluded his thoughts on the subject by saying, “The efforts of the shelters will now have to be stepped up to a new level, and we all have precious little time to work with!”
Suddenly everyone in his Cabinet and Congress understood why he was pulling local police away from the homeless situation; because it became evident they would indeed be needed to maintain order in other places. Before signing off, Ross apologized in advance to the American people for changes and restrictions to their everyday life that would undoubtedly occur over the next several weeks, and told them all he would speak to them again soon.
When the lights on the cameras turned off and he heard the words “and we’re out” from the production crew, Ross punched the button on his phone to summon Mrs. Patterson at her desk in the next room. Within seconds she entered the oval office, and Ross stood to whisper instructions into her ear. He was calling an immediate meeting of his Cabinet, and he wanted them all in attendance within the hour.
The discussion of the group would center on two main topics. First would be the implementation of food rationing throughout the nations grocery outlets within the next week, as the recent news about the asteroid would undoubtedly create an additional increase in the new level of looting and hoarding. Along those same lines Ross also wanted to implement a level of martial law that would prevent price gouging by store owners. The military presence would ensure that everyone had a fair chance to purchase food and water regardless of their economic standing, and would also provide an added level of safety to the store owners themselves. Second on the agenda would be a discussion of the monetary system and its inevitable collapse. It would only be a matter of time before it took place, and then most currencies around the world would become nothing more than worthless scraps of paper.
Suddenly Ross felt the small piece of strange metal in his pocket get very hot, which compelled him to glance over at the emblem on the necklace hanging from the desks reading lamp. The alien had given him the small trinket at Camp David during their most recent of encounters when he had informed Ross about the impending asteroid. He had been informed that a drastic change in the objects temperature would signify that a non-stealthy public visit by the alien would soon occur. Ross had carried the item around in his pocket every day since then, but had never really expected it to change in temperature. Now it was so hot that it was becoming uncomfortable to the touch, and Ross needed to use the handkerchief in the breast pocket of his suit to remove the item and drop it on his desk.
The following morning Ross and Patty were awakened by a phone call from his White House Chief of Staff and within a minute after the call a secret service detail began pounding on their bedroom door. Patty groaned as she climbed out of bed, and moved towards the sanctuary of the bathroom before Ross allowed the team of agents to enter. They informed Ross that he needed to be escorted down to the secure bunker beneath the White House immediately, because there was an aerial threat closing in on Washington D.C. It was a slow moving target, but the trajectory of the object suggested it was headed very close to the White House. The military defenses had been unable to shoot it down, or even alter the course, because it seemed to weave away from anything that was aimed at it.
With that Ross looked at the bedside table to see the small metal object glowing brilliantly again as it had done on his desk the previous day, and informed the men he would not be going into the bunker. He knew they had a specific protocol to follow, but he assured them that anything that could weave its way through the defense perimeter of Washington D.C. at a slow speed probably also had the capability to get to the bunker if they so desired. No member of the secret service detail, or anyone else for that matter, had any way of knowing what was about to transpire, but Ross did. He was still in the dark as to the content of the upcoming meeting with his old alien friend, but it had become obvious to Ross that the object heading towards the White House was an alien scout ship.
As Patty emerged from the dressing area in comfortable jeans and her favorite University of Maryland sweatshirt, Ross was completing a phone call to the head of the security detail that protected the White House. He was informing them that the incoming object would probably attempt to land on the nearby lawn, and they were hereby ordered to allow it to do so. Prior to that conversation Ross had contacted the commander of the nearby armed forces that had been attempting to shoot the object down, and had ordered them to cease fire immediately. The general had not been happy to receive the orders, but he had no choice but to comply as the instructions had come directly from the very top of the chain of command.
A short time later Ross stood on the south lawn area of the White House, and waited for the door, or hatch, of the alien spacecraft to open. He was nearly completely encircled by the secret service for protection, but he somehow knew it wasn’t necessary. He clutched the small metal trinket that the alien had given him at Camp David, which was now ice cold again, in his left hand, while leaving his right hand empty in preparation for a welcome handshake.
The assembled members of the media, which were located in their customary positions nearby, had been filming the spacecraft’s every move since a few moments before it had landed. A few of them began to shout out questions in the direction of the President, but were then interrupted as the hatch opened. Ross smiled broadly and reached out his hand to welcome his old alien friend as he descended the ramp, and not a sound could be heard from anyone else who was witnessing the historic
event.
Patty, who was watching from the relative safety of the upstairs balcony, stood with mouth agape in total shock and disbelief. She now realized that her husband had been telling the truth about the existence of the alien species all along, and he had kept his vow that he would someday prove it to her.
Ross listened intently to the thoughts of the alien, and occasionally responded verbally to his guest. Those who were witnessing the encounter could not understand what he was responding to, because the alien had not projected his thoughts into anyone else’s mind but Ross. The private conversation now being witnessed by perhaps millions of people worldwide continued for more than twenty minutes, while those standing nearby remained silent. Then Ross pointed toward the spire of the Washington Monument and said, “Right next to that would be perfect”, before he once again shook the hand of the alien.
WHILE SEEMINGLY MOST of the entire planet had become mesmerized by the live television footage of the encounter between President Ross Martin and an unknown creature from some far away alien world, a vessel of tremendous size was beginning to rise from the depths of the southern Atlantic Ocean. Not a soul on Earth was aware of the spaceships existence until now, as it had been resting on the bottom in extremely deep water for well over two Earth centuries.
When the alien species had returned to this solar system after an absence of several Earth centuries to construct their small base on the Moon for another round of scientific observations, they had also placed the larger transport vessel in a well hidden spot on the planet surface. At that time, the dominant species of ₹-829-Ԅπ-3 didn’t possess the technology to explore and map the deep ocean floor, so it was a perfect hiding place.
In much more recent times that technology became available to the people of Earth, so the aliens had been forced to leave the vessel where it was or risk detection by moving it. Secrecy for the aliens was no longer an issue though, as it became imperative that they remove the large spaceship from the planet surface before the impact of the asteroid.
Ross was perhaps the first person on Earth to learn of the larger spaceships existence, as his old alien friend had just informed him of it when they communicated on the south lawn of the White House. Among many other thoughts that were transmitted, the alien had informed Ross that the spaceship would soon emerge from the ocean depths, and rise into the sky. At that point someone was bound to notice the strange craft, or satellite systems would detect it, and word would spread quickly. The transport ship would first go to the far side of the Moon, so they could gather up equipment and personnel from their observation base. It would then ascend to a higher Earth orbit, and provide the location where a fleet of similar spaceships from the alien home world would rally up with her.
That was the moment in the conversation that Ross’ jaw fell open, as the alien presented him with an amazing offer. It was limited in scope, but it would provide a miniscule portion of the human species with an interesting option. In what was to be a mind blowing opportunity to ensure that the dominant species of ₹-829-Ԅπ-3, or Earth, would not become extinct, the aliens were prepared to relocate a small sample of them to another solar system. The twelve spaceships that would join the deep water vessel in orbit were due to arrive soon, and they would remain in that orbital position until shortly before the impact of the asteroid. At that time all but the deep water vessel would land on various areas of Earth to collect those who had been selected to venture on to the new world.
Ross stopped his old alien friend for a moment to quietly ask some very important questions. The first was the obvious one of how many people of Earth could the transport fleet relocate to the new world, which was quickly followed by the perhaps more important questions of how, and by whom, would those people be selected?
Throughout all of the time since the alien had informed Ross privately of the impending asteroid, they had been keeping an even more watchful eye on the activities of the planet. The aliens had indeed been intrigued at how some percentage of the global population had been working very hard in a determined effort to save their species from extinction. However, it had also been noticed that a substantially larger number had done absolutely nothing to help the cause, and therefore this offer would not be extended to those people.
The alien continued by informing Ross that only one other condition existed, but other than that they wanted no part in the selection process. It would be up to Ross and other world leaders to come up with some method of how to choose the lucky ones, but there was limited time to develop and implement said method. Each of the twelve transport ships could accommodate up to eight hundred people for the voyage, but the selected passengers would need to be at specific locations for pick up when the time came. Ross was then informed that the coordinates for eleven of the locations would soon be transmitted to him and those locations would not under any circumstances be altered. The final transport ship would be sent to pick up Ross and his family, along with others who would be going from the surrounding area, and Ross could choose the landing location.
Although honored to be automatically pre-selected by the aliens as one of less than ten thousand pilgrims in quest of the new world, Ross couldn’t understand why he, or his family, deserved such preferential treatment. With the planet wide population now close to eight billion, the number of people who could relocate to a new marble in space represented slightly more than one one-hundredth of one percent. The alien informed Ross that his selection as one of the dominant species on this planet that must survive was their second condition to the overall offer. Ross didn’t know it at the time, and had never been informed by the alien at either one of their subsequent encounters, but the second alien that he had helped to survive on the Moon many years before was the commanding officer of the alien that Ross had originally made contact with.
Ross was now learning that the alien who Dennis encountered was actually one of the highest ranking officials in their space exploration fleet stationed in this sector of the galaxy. That particular alien was responsible for allowing Ross to have his second encounter with the extraterrestrial species while on his fishing trip, and why the first alien had visited Ross again at Camp David.
In his reports to the home world, the high ranking alien official had notified them about the events that took place on the Moon of ₹-829-Ԅπ-3, and the recent development of the dominant indigenous species of the planet itself. Several follow-up reports submitted during the next thirty-six planetary cycles around the host star stated that closer observation of the species had revealed significant progress both technologically and philosophically. The most recent of those reports had also informed the home world that the species could very well become extinct due to the impending asteroid collision. He had been able to persuade his superiors, and eventually the command council, that the dominant species of Earth was worthy of survival, and was then given permission to pursue a course of action that could make that possible. The alien informed Ross that the command council had also given his commanding officer the option to personally select a few of the species that would survive, and Ross was at the top of his list.
BY EARLY AUGUST, nearly all of the people from various parts of the globe that intended to seek refuge within the vast network of shelters were either already in them, or very close to the entrances assisting with final preparations. In the United States and Canada, it was believed that nearly a quarter of a million people could be housed in the two hundred and fifty mountain shelters that had been completed and provisioned. Similar numbers were hoped to be saved within the Andes of South America, while reports from Europe and Asia were even more optimistic.
Ross had never toured any of the facilities outside of the United States, so he had no way of personally verifying the state of readiness that each continent claimed. He would just have to take their word for it, and frankly the hopeful survival of his own citizens within the borders of America had long before become his main priority.
To that end, there was a new conc
ern for Ross. As was to be expected, many people in the country had begun to have a change of heart about their respective choices. A vast amount of citizens who never lifted a finger to prepare for the coming of the asteroid were now interested in saving their own neck. Ross knew it was basic human instinct to search for a way to survive, but that survival should not come at the expense of others. The people who would occupy the shelters had earned the right to do so, and Ross was determined to provide them with that opportunity. Most people understood that the entire process had actually been completely fair and unbiased with regard to selection, because it had nothing to do with a person’s race, creed, religion, economic standing, or even sexual orientation. In short, if someone possessed a necessary skill set, a strong work ethic, and a belief that the shelters were the best option to survive the ordeal, then they had been implanted with the microchip to assure them a place within what they had labored to build. It was that simple, and in Ross’ mind no one had the right to snivel about it.
In spite of that belief, there were countless numbers of people in America that were leaving their homes and heading up into the nearest mountain range, because it presented at least a chance to survive. Ross felt confident the same could be said in other parts of the world, but once again that was not his problem. Many would be peaceful in their initial intent and never attempt to make their way into one of the shelters, but there would be others that would cause trouble. Ross also knew that the military presence at the entrances needed to be intensified as a safety precaution, and had done so several weeks before in anticipation of the current situation.