Impact (Book 1): Inbound

by Isherwood, E. E.

  “Roger, I hope you’re watching. I’ll need your help tonight. I hope you’ll forgive me if I wreck your baby.” He turned the key, glad to hear the motor crank up. The Jeep was the man’s treasure; he’d kept the engine and insides immaculately polished and clean. It was covered in dust as it sat in the collapsed garage, so Roger’s legacy was already lost.

  Ezra tried to reverse slowly and noted how the fallen garage door moved a little. The collapsed joists also shifted, leading him to believe much of the wreckage was balanced on top of the truck. “Here goes nothing.”

  The shifter was already in reverse, so when he crunched his foot on the gas pedal, the truck and most of the debris shifted with loud cracks. He dragged the heavy garage door backward until it struck the low opening of the front wall. Then the aluminum door slid down his hood and fell to the cement.

  The truck exited the gaping hole and he slammed the brakes when he was in the clear. Swirls of construction dust followed him outside, though it dissipated quickly. He hopped out of the Jeep, satisfied that even if it was covered in debris and scratched out of its warranty, it was roadworthy.

  “Susan!” he cried out. “Get our guns! We’re going for a ride.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked once she’d brought the two black rifles to him.

  “I’m not hiding in a hole while others are sitting out in the open. Babs and the trustees can pound sand if they think we can be intimidated into compliance. It’s time to show her what the Andersons are made of.”

  She cocked her head and smiled.

  “And besides,” he went on, “she kicked us out of Happy Cove. We’re free agents, now. We can save whomever we want.”

  “Let’s do this,” she said with excitement.

  He drove for the roadblock, but admitted he still wasn’t sure what he was planning.

  Chapter 18

  In flight to TKM Pacific Launch Facility

  “Thank you for your help.” Petteri had invited Dorothy up to his personal space in the front of the plane. The young woman had been instrumental in providing last-minute adjustments to bring the asteroid down in the least destructive way possible. Still, there was going to be quite a mess over Canada and having someone he could trust to help fix it was worth a kind word, even if it was forced.

  “You’re welcome, I guess. Do you know when we’re going to get wherever we’re going? I hate confined spaces. This plane is probably what a coffin feels like.”

  Petteri studied Dorothy, searching for hints of sarcasm, though after a few seconds of scrutiny he detected none. He set aside the insult of his personal aircraft to keep to the script. “Well, Dorothy, thanks again for your help. If you don’t mind, I’d like to put you on my payroll. Despite this setback, we have plans to bring in more asteroids for mining purposes. We, uh, I could use your help.” He found it best to make it more personal when handing out invitations to come work for him.

  She chuckled. “Setback? The Canadian provinces are about to be rearranged all over the map. I’d say that’s more than a setback. You sure you’ll still be around after this?”

  The crow’s feet at the edge of his eye twitched involuntarily. Her tone of voice and glib attitude were as grating as fingernails on the chalkboard. “Yes, we’ll still be around. I have a team of experts, just like you, who take care of the public relations side of my operation. Mistakes were made, yes, but progress always marches on.”

  Before she could give him her answer, Howard yelled from the back of the plane. “Sir. They did it anyway. They blew it up!”

  Petteri shot out of his seat. “What? Show me?”

  Howard came to the front and keyed the tablet to the relevant video.

  “This happened moments ago,” Howard said breathlessly. “I recorded it.”

  Captain Davis came on the screen. “People of Earth. I don’t have time to record a long speech. My crew and I were tasked with bringing asteroid 586001 Tuonela to the moon, and we failed. Then we were ordered to put it in orbit around the Earth, and we failed again. Left with the choice of letting the rock fall onto the good people of Earth, or blowing it to space dust, Mr. Tikkanen ordered me to let it crash to Earth; on Canada, to be precise. A few minutes ago, I heard a speech given by a man inside the TKM organization; he confirmed other company people were aware of this betrayal.”

  Petteri paused it. “He means Asher Creighton, doesn’t he?”

  Howard didn’t have to answer. It was understood.

  “And I assume we’ve successfully blocked this message from reaching Earth?” Petteri asked with a you-better-say-yes tone.

  “Yes, sir. We control every transmission up and down. The only people who saw this were on the ship itself.”

  Petteri’s stomach unraveled its knots. “Very good.” He hit play to continue the recording.

  “Petteri Tikkanen is the root cause of this disaster. He had a chance to save the Earth from all of this calamity, but instead of blowing Tuonela to kingdom come, he invited the destruction of an entire nation.”

  Davis looked at someone off camera, before continuing.

  “I will not allow that to happen. My crew and I now refuse his order, and in doing so, we’ve condemned ourselves. It’s far too late to safely separate ourselves from this space rock while also destroying it, so we’re going to be here when we blow it up.”

  “No!” Petteri blurted, even though it was a recording.

  “There isn’t time for long goodbyes. Control, please tell our families we love them.” Davis sighed heavily; his droopy eyes carried the weight of his words. “All I ever wanted was to make a name for myself in the space program. With this act, I hope you’ll remember me and my crew.” He glanced off camera again, then added, “Make it so.”

  The screen blanked out.

  “They blew it up, sir. Mission control fed the data—it’s there at the bottom of your screen. They sent two of their pocket reactors into the borehole. It should have been enough to split it apart, but it didn’t.”

  “It wasn’t a big enough explosion to vaporize everything,” Dorothy interjected.

  He and Howard looked to her; her smile was crooked, like she knew a trivia answer they didn’t. “You haven’t been telling the truth, have you, sir? When you showed me the data on trajectory, velocity, and mass, I took it upon myself to dig a little deeper. There’s a disconnect between what they knew on the ship and some of your people on the ground. Ring any bells?”

  Petteri nodded; the knot in his stomach was double-tied again.

  “When they drilled into the core, you know what they found inside. It was far denser than you told anyone. I’m guessing whatever it is, that’s why you were so hot under the collar to salvage it, when clearly you should have blown it up the second it got away from the moon. It’s worth a lot, isn’t it?”

  “Trillions,” Petteri whispered.

  “Sir, look.” Howard’s fingers trembled as he pointed to the screen again. Mission control had sent a text update.

  He read it like it was his final statement before a hanging. “Nuclear blast partial success. Asteroid Tuonela fragmentation extreme. Trajectory of remnants of 1400-meter rump deflected laterally by explosion. Impact zone moved one thousand miles south.”

  Dorothy spoke up with more annoying snark.

  “Now it’s going to fall on America, Mr. T. I hope your PR guy is Jesus.”

  Yellowstone

  “I think I’m getting the hang of driving a truck,” Grace remarked from behind the wheel.

  “You haven’t touched the road!” Asher replied while braced against his door.

  “Yeah, you can go anywhere in this thing.” When faced with the tangled snarl of vehicles locked in traffic all over the tourist village, she’d gone off road again. First, on the sidewalks, horn blaring. Then, she went on the lawns. Finally, when they’d made it beyond the built-up area, she drove the rocky terrain next to the roadway.

  Yellowstone was a park filled with creeks, rivers, and rugged terrain, s
o she only made it about a mile from the visitor center before she had to merge her way back onto the blacktop. Cars were on the move, which was a plus, but there were lots of them, so it was impossible to drive fast. “Is he still back there?”

  Asher turned around and looked out the broken rear window. “Yeah. He’s got a truck, too.”

  “What do I do, Asher? We’ll never make it into the canyon.” After warning all the visitors to head for the Gardner River canyon, she’d expected to follow them on the drive east. However, in their quick escape from trigger-happy Misha, she’d been forced to drive south. “All that’s up this way is the burned-out forest we escaped, and I’m not going back there.”

  She pointed ahead. The forest fire had spread on the mountains to the west, though it seemed to have died out in the forest closer to them.

  Asher scanned the landscape outside. “Is there any place this way we can use to hide? Are there other canyons? Do you have a map?”

  Grace motioned to the glove box. “We keep a hundred park maps in there. You can look, but once you get out of Mammoth Hot Springs, there isn’t much in this area.” If they made it to the turnoff, they could go up the gravel road again, but the wide valley and persistent fires offered little in the way of protection. If they had unlimited time, they could drive to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone; it was taller and longer than the Gardner River canyon and could probably hold a million people. Unfortunately, it was too far and there was too much traffic; they needed a refuge a lot closer.

  He fiddled with the glove box and pulled out one of the fold-out maps. His watch made a ringing sound before he got the map open. He glanced to Grace. “Yeah, it’s a phone, too.”

  She grinned. “It does everything.”

  “Hello? Diedre! It’s good to hear your voice.” Asher spoke quietly as she drove, and she tried to give him a little privacy as he held his watch near his ear. Cars were moving at almost the speed limit, but she kept an eye on Misha’s truck a few vehicles behind her. There was no way to lose him unless they went off the road again. If she took chances on the rocky terrain, she might be able to get him stuck, though it was equally likely she’d wreck her own truck. It wasn’t exactly in tip-top shape.

  A few moments later, Asher tapped off his watch phone. “We’ve got to get to a cave, Grace, or in some kind of tunnel. Like, right now.” He breathed heavily, almost hyperventilating. “They nuked the asteroid up there, creating a shotgun effect. The whole thing is coming down in the next fifteen minutes. Right here on top of us.”

  “Are you sure?” she said without thinking about it.

  “Yes! My sister works in the TKM flight center in Texas. She hears everything in real time. That’s how I…know stuff.” He nervously rolled the map pamphlet in his hands. “She can’t predict exactly where, but we’re in the path.”

  She went into serious park ranger mode. “Asher, listen to me. Settle down. You’re going to have to look at our map and find us a place to go. Besides a burned-out alpine hut, I don’t know anything up this way.” The park service had given her a giant map showing terrain, elevation, and every point of interest in the park. It was to help her become familiar with all the roads and tourist destinations, since giving directions was a big part of her job, but she wasn’t big on maps; she preferred to drive around and learn the places herself. So, after a cursory glance, she’d stuck it on her bookshelf back in her living space and forgotten about it. That oversight might cost her two lives.

  He anxiously ripped open the fold-out map and pored over it, though the breeze created by the broken windows forced him to steady it on his lap. As he examined it and planned their salvation, she thought about how none of the other cars knew the tragic fate awaiting them, and there was no way to warn them.

  The CB!

  She called Cindy, who picked up. “Go ahead, Grace.”

  “Cindy, listen to me! You’ve got to get on the radio and warn everyone. There’s another meteorite coming down right on top of us. Get people into cover, all right?”

  “Is this a joke? I haven’t heard anything.” She sounded exhausted on the radio.

  “It’s true. Please listen to me!” She shouted into the microphone. “I know someone who works in mission control for the space mining company. They blew it up. The asteroid is dropping!”

  Cindy remained silent for what seemed like an eternity. “The news has nothing. I’m watching a Cody Wyoming channel right now. Nada. We’re already on park emergency because of the fire; I can’t issue another warning on the word of a trainee. I’m sorry.”

  Grace squeezed the handset, imagining she could crush it with her fist. How many lives would be lost because she didn’t have the authority necessary to save them? She swallowed gravely, then made herself talk slow and calm. “Please, Cindy, whatever you do, keep watching the news. I’m sure it will show up, okay? When it does, issue the warning. Does that sound reasonable?”

  There was a pause on the other end before she replied. “I’m still watching, Grace. I promise the second I see something, I’ll report it. I hope you’re safe out there.”

  “I am,” she lied.

  Asher held the map over on her side of the cab. “Whoa! What are you doing?” She had to drop the handset and put both hands on the wheel, worried he was going to put it directly in front of her face.

  “This! We have to go here.” Asher pointed to a spot on the map.

  “Are you sure?” she asked, regaining her composure.

  “Yes. Thoughtless tourists are going to save our lives.”

  Kentucky

  Ezra never had the honor of serving his country in the military, though he thought he understood a tiny piece of the combat mindset as he drove Roger’s Jeep up the hill. He’d jammed the Bushmaster rifle in the space between the seats. Susan had hers pointed down at her feet as she balanced it on her knee.

  “These are just for show, right?” she quizzed while patting her rifle. “We’re not really going to shoot anyone?”

  “I don’t know what’s going to happen, honestly. I’m taking these so they know we’re serious, not because I want to harm our neighbors. Plus, I honestly don’t know how the people on the roadway are going to react. I met one guy I liked, but I don’t trust him with your life, you know?”

  She nodded approval.

  He sped up the hill and slammed on the brakes about fifty feet before he reached the roadblock. “Here we go. Sling your rifle over your shoulder for now.” After turning the truck around so it faced downhill, he put it in park and hopped out. Before leaving, he popped open the rear liftgate.

  Ezra joined Susan as they walked up the side of the road. Eight or ten men waited for him at the intersection, weapons at the ready. None of them pointed barrels at him, though it was obvious they were wary of his approach. Babs had done that to him.

  He walked up to the guys with his palms out. “I’m inviting a few of these people to come join me in my house. You can either stand up here and die when the next meteor hits, or you can do the human thing and save some of these families yourself.”

  “I knew you couldn’t stay away.” Babs’s voice came from behind the men. She sat comfortably in a lawn chair under a shade tree, sipping lemonade as if to prove she had no fear or worries.

  “This isn’t about you and me, ma’am. There’s about to be an explosion in the sky and we have to get into hiding.”

  “Then why are you here?” she said in a reasonable tone. “If it’s going to be so bad, why aren’t you hiding in your basement?” He was going to reply, but she didn’t give him a chance. “I’ll tell you why: it’s because you have no idea if it’s true, do you?”

  “My daughter called—”

  “Did she tell you where it would come down?”

  “Uh, no.” He had to admit she’d been vague about that, but she’d told him to find shelter. It probably meant it was going to be nearby. “She told—”

  “And did she tell you how big it would be?”

  “No,
” he replied, knowing his answers were harming his case.

  Babs took a sip of her drink, then spoke like it was a regular, boring night on the lake. “I’ve been watching the news and listening to the radio. There’s absolutely nothing about this on any official channel. Are you telling me we should take the word of E-Z-R-A FM, and ignore real radio news channels?”

  “Yes,” he said lamely.

  She chuckled. “Do whatever you want down there, but you’re not going out to invite more suckers to join you.” She gestured to the cars on the roadway.

  Was it the moment to pull the rifle off his shoulder? Could he force his way through ten men and one petty street boss? Someone would get hurt if he escalated the situation to the use of deadly force. Was anyone out on the road worth the life of his wife?

  While they’d been talking, a giant man walked over to the roadblock. “Hey, Ezra!”

  He looked over. “Butch?”

  The cowboy-looking guy held up his phone and called out in a loud voice. “You have a daughter in Yellowstone, don’t you?”

  Ezra glanced at Susan, then they waved Butch over.

  Babs wasn’t happy. “A friend of yours from the refugees? You already went out there, didn’t you? And you found the most threatening man you could. Why am I not surprised?”

  He realized Butch was suitably imposing. Maybe it was a subconscious decision to link up with the guy, but he was glad Butch made Babs uncomfortable.

  “While you were sipping lemonade, I was making allies. You can’t take on the whole world, you know? If this was truly life-or-death, this little roadblock wouldn’t last five seconds. I admit I was wrong in thinking we could defend this place alone. You’re outnumbered a thousand to one.” Before waiting for a reply, he shook hands with the arriving guy.