Asteroid Crisis

by Kevin J. Anderson

  “That was the largest of the three asteroids.” Ansari’s voice had a slight catch. “We still don’t know what will happen with Asteroid 3—it’s already fragmented, and its orbit is the most erratic.”

  “We’ll know tomorrow afternoon,” Fox added. “That’s when it’s due to cross the Moon’s orbit.”

  JJ tried to relax, “it can’t be soon enough for me.”

  While they waited, the Star Challengers got a full briefing on the state of Earth’s preparations. So much of humanity’s efforts had been focused on the three asteroid missions that JJ hadn’t noticed all of the other cultural changes, the reawakening of Earth’s attention to progress.

  In the three years since the first Kylarn attack on Moonbase Magellan, Earth had scrambled to catch up after having let their advancement slow down like a stove burner on the lowest flame. But given enough incentive—and a potential devastating alien invasion was certainly enough incentive!—innovators, engineers, private industry, and government space programs had been inspired.

  Dozens more satellites had been launched, including missile defenses, along with cutting-edge systems developed by a new generation of scientists and engineers. Two more space-station modules were being prepared and would soon be lifted into orbit. Even better, plans were under way to establish a second international space station. Down on Earth, many more astronauts were being trained. Several nations built new launch complexes.

  All steps in the right direction.

  JJ and her friends spent a long time reviewing images of the alien outpost on the Moon, transmitted by the secret Eye in the Sky II spy satellite. By now, the Kylarn would know that their first two asteroids had missed Earth, and she wondered if the squidbutts were angry or defeated … or just making other plans. If Asteroid 3, with its dangerously unpredictable fragments, struck Earth, Mira would have succeeded in helping the Kylarn.

  The three-part fractured asteroid tumbled toward Earth, closing in. Soon it would reach the Moon’s orbit. JJ and her friends watched the images from Central.

  As it came in from the asteroid belt, much closer to the Sun than it had been since its creation, the increasing warmth heated up its internal structure. Some of the frozen gases and ice locked into the structure began to evaporate. With Dr. d’Almeida’s long-distance telescopes and the high-resolution images available from other observation satellites, faint wisps of steam were visible. A small but distinct explosion occurred on the largest of the distant asteroid chunks, a geyser spewing gas. It was quite a show.

  “Asteroid 3 had more ice inclusions than the other two,” King said. “That’s one thing that made it so difficult to calculate what would happen to its orbit.”

  Captain Bronsky raised his voice, though JJ couldn’t tell if he was excited or dismayed. “We could not have predicted that.”

  After the gas eruption on the asteroid, the large chunk collided with the second one, while the third chunk continued to whirl around the center of mass. It was like a complicated cosmic ballet, JJ thought. The Earth circled the Sun, as the asteroid came in toward it. All the while, the Moon spun around and around the Earth.

  “That eruption diverted its course slightly,” Pi said, displaying a chart.

  JJ had a pretty good idea from watching the Eye in the Sky II satellite where the asteroid might be heading. “Look at the Kylarn base. It’s like a stirred-up ant’s nest!”

  Tony said, “Boy, they do not look happy.”

  The nuclear detonation had only changed the broken asteroid’s orbit by a little. The Kylarn had sent it to intersect exactly with the Earth’s orbit.… and now there was a slight problem—a problem for the Kylarn.

  The Moon was in the way.

  At their base, the aliens scrambled in what was clearly an emergency evacuation. The construction activities sputtered to a halt. Several starfish ships lifted off from their landing zones and whirled away.

  “A dose of their own medicine,” Song-Ye said.

  Everyone in Central gathered around the observation screens, and the people on Earth watched with bated breath. JJ realized that the Kylarn on the far side of the Moon were now feeling the same terror the inhabitants of Earth had experienced only a day earlier, when Asteroid 2 had barely missed. Now, the Kylarn were the ones in the danger zone.

  From the astronomy module, Dr. d’Almeida transmitted over the stationwide intercom. She could not keep the excitement from her voice. “The three pieces of the asteroid are spreading out. They’re going to strike the far side of the Moon!”

  “Sometimes you get what you deserve,” King said in a hard voice.

  For billions of years, the asteroids had traveled in relatively stable orbits, placid and undisturbed until the Kylarn interfered and sent them tumbling toward Earth on a deadly trajectory. Now the Kylarn would be the victims of their own schemes.

  The broken asteroid was traveling fast, and they watched the images from the Eye in the Sky satellite. The first of the three chunks came in like a gigantic cannonball, slamming into a region near the Moon’s equator. It struck the lunar surface with a flash of bright light and a spray of ejected debris.

  The second asteroid fragment struck farther north, gouging out another large crater.

  Dozens of Kylarn starfish ships flitted about, racing in all directions. They fired their powerful white beams at the third and smallest fragment, but their weapons could do little against a tumbling piece of rock a quarter of a mile wide.

  The last piece smashed directly into the Kylarn base, impacting the fringe of extensive alien constructions. The Shockwave, vaporized lava, and ejected rubble swept widely. Though they could see little detail in the flare that blurred the Eye in the Sky images, JJ knew the alien outpost was completely obliterated.

  “Bullseye!” she said.

  ***

  Twenty

  It was a scene of disaster, and JJ couldn’t tear her eyes from the images … but at least it was a disaster for the Kylarn—not for humanity. The oncoming asteroid had struck the Kylarn base exactly as the aliens had intended to bombard a random population center on Earth.

  “Makes me believe in alien karma,” Tony said.

  “Makes me think of just desserts,” Dyl said.

  While Bronsky, Fox, and Ansari looked stunned, Dr. Kloor responded with an uncharacteristic whoop of delight. The areas around the three new craters were still hot from the released energy of impact, glowing orange like slow simmering furnaces. The entire alien city, their constructions, their landing fields, their attack ship bases, had been leveled by the impact. A handful of surviving silvery starfish ships circled about as if assessing the damage, perhaps looking for survivors.

  “If I chose to boast,” Captain Bronsky said, “I would pretend we did that on purpose.”

  “I’d rather give the credit to Mira,” King said, only partially joking. “It wasn’t what she had in mind though.”

  “Orbital mechanics can predict the paths of planets and asteroids,” Dr. Kloor said, “but there are tiny deviations. Fortunately, they sometimes work in our favor.”

  JJ looked over at Stationmaster Ansari. “Earth’s space agencies need to push forward while the Kylarn are reeling. We have to show those squidbutts that we’re not going to sit back and let them invade Earth.”

  “We’ll use all of our influence,” Colonel Fox said. “The governments of Earth know what a close call we’ve had, and everyone understands that the Kylarn aren’t going to give up without a further fight.”

  On the screen, the surviving starfish ships circled the glowing new crater one more time, before whirling away from the Moon and streaking farther out into the solar system. JJ guessed they were heading toward the asteroid belt, where the Kylarn queen had another outpost.

  “Moon, sweet Moon,” JJ said. “We need to establish a foothold there again, make sure the Kylarn don’t rebuild their base.”

  When Ansari, Fox, and the others agreed, King added, “That may be the first step, but you should think beyo
nd that. I know what I’m going to say when I get back to my own time—and throughout my life, where I hope to change things. For so long we simply ignored the rest of the solar system. It’s no wonder the Kylarn thought we just didn’t care. We should show we mean business by building a new base on the Moon, then establish the first colony on Mars, send expeditions out to the asteroid belt, to the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. There’s so much out there just waiting to be discovered.”

  JJ looked intently at her friends in the station’s Central command module. “If we do our jobs right, the human race will have more than a century of a head start, a hundred years to prepare for this. Imagine what we can do in all that time, if we use our talent and imagination. We’ve seen the future now—or one possible future—and I don’t intend to let the people of my generation just sit around on their hands. We know how important science and the space program are. It’s the best way to protect the future!”

  “I wish we could give every one of our friends this kind of inspiration,” Song-Ye said.

  “Too bad Commander Zota can’t send them all into the future to see with their own eyes.” Dyl grinned at the thought.

  Dr. Kloor shook his head, looking mystified but also full of wonder. “I spent so long studying science, thinking that I understood everything about physics and how the universe worked, but you five showed me that there’s a lot more waiting to be discovered—time travel, for one thing.”

  “The Kylarn invented that,” Song-Ye said. “We can’t take the credit.”

  Tony added, “The aliens also built starships and flew here from some other solar system.”

  Dr. Kloor said with determination, “If those tentacled things can invent a star drive, then I certainly can.”

  “It seems that we all needed a reminder to set new goals,” Ansari said.

  Though JJ enjoyed being aboard the space station and knew that her friends felt comfortable and accepted as members of the team, she realized with a sad feeling in her heart that it was time for them to go home. “Our work here is done.”

  “Our work here, maybe,” King said, sounding very serious, “but we’ll have tons of work to do back in our own time.”

  “I guess it’s time to wave goodbye.” Dyl drifted across the Control Module one more time. “I’m going to miss weightlessness, but I won’t let my damaged legs slow me down one bit, even back on Earth. Too much to do.”

  “Do you think we’ll ever come back?” Tony asked.

  “We’ve seen for ourselves that nothing’s impossible,” JJ said. “Goodbye, Colonel Fox.” She reached out to grasp the hand of the British officer, shaking it while Dyl hugged Stationmaster Ansari. Tony shook Pi’s hand.

  JJ looked at her brother, then at her friends. “Our training missions are over—now it’s time for the long-term mission.”

  Together, they activated their pingers, sending the locator signal across time. Within seconds, Commander Zota brought them back.

  ***

  Twenty-One

  The rugged commander was eager to hear their report from the future. The Star Challengers burst out of the transport room that connected the Challenger Center lobby with the simulated space-station control room on the other side of the door.

  They were all excited to tell their story, and Commander Zota heard the report with an unexpected smile. “Not only did we divert the asteroids,” JJ said in a rush, “but King and Captain Bronsky knocked the third asteroid just enough that it crashed into the far side of the Moon.”

  “Boom!” Tony crowed, punching a fist into an open palm. “One alien base recycled.”

  “We got lucky,” King said, sounding embarrassed. “Gravity and the asteroid’s unstable orbit from all those evaporating gases had as much to do with it as we did.”

  “Nevertheless, you may have saved that timeline.” Zota crossed his arms over his chest, looking relieved. “And now you five have the chance to strengthen the human race from the outset. If you can change the attitudes of your generation, you will change the world and maybe save the future of the human race.”

  Dyl took a deep breath. “No problem. All we need to do is inspire our whole generation.”

  “Sure, why not?” Song-Ye said.

  Zota nodded. “In the next decade or so the first Kylarn scouts are going to arrive at Earth and begin their reconnaissance. We’ve got that long to accomplish something, and I promise to help you as much as I can. But you five are just beginning your work. You’ll have to choose your careers, plan how to accomplish your goals in life and school, and become the seeds to help the human spirit grow.”

  “For starters,” Tony said, “if we each convince a few of our friends, they can convince more friends—and so on and so on—it’ll spread.”

  “I can do that,” JJ said. “We’re all convinced already, but we have to give other people concrete goals. What do we tell them to do?”

  “Right,” King said. “That’s why we’re going to make a plan.”

  Dyl suggested enthusiastically, “We could develop isolinear circuitry like they had in Star Trek—where information is stored in three dimensional holograms, and computers communicate through sub-space—like sending messages on …”

  Tony chuckled.

  “Okay, okay, Junior.” Song-Ye raised one eyebrow. “If you’re trying to prove you’re a nerd, you’ve totally convinced me.”

  “Uh-huh. You’re on the right track,” King said. “But there are projects we can start right away, too. Like, I’m going to talk to my Scoutmaster and find out what we have to do to create a Space Merit Badge for Scouts. We could offer credit for participating in a Challenger Center mission. We could even set up an aerospace Explorer Post here in the Challenger Center to encourage our friends to train for careers in science, tech, engineering, and math!”

  “How about robotics? Students could really learn a lot about engineering concepts by entering design contests,” Tony added. “I’ll go on the Challenger Center Headquarters website and suggest that all Learning Center Directors arrange online competitions.”

  “Cool,” Dyl said. “I’d enter that!”

  “How about you JJ? Any ideas?” Tony said with a wink. “You flew the Kylarn space plane. Gonna start your own flight school?”

  JJ blushed a bit, but quickly covered her reaction by saying, “Actually, I’ll write a letter to the President to support future space exploration. We all know it’s really important. I’ll even suggest that after kids have flown a simulated space mission at their Challenger Learning Center, that high school students should be eligible to go on a real space flight to experience zero-G and conduct experiments.”

  “Not likely,” Song-Ye broke in. “As in, there are no more Shuttle flights. You’d have to win the lottery to fly with the Russians.”

  “Maybe not,” JJ argued. “There are several companies developing space airplanes for sub-orbital flights. High school and college students might be able to fly into space with their experiments sooner than you expect.”

  Song-Ye shrugged. “Sure, why not. But I prefer to keep my feet on terra firma. I’m going to start studying medicine, and then help the Challenger Centers develop a new Medical scenario that simulates sending a microchip on a mission through an astronaut’s body. Just think how much fun that would be!”

  “So,” Dyl protested, “my idea to create a futuristic message board like the Star Trek Holoboard isn’t so farfetched then, is it? We need to stay in touch with each other and with new Star Challengers.” He gazed upward as if daydreaming, “And we could invite the millions of Challenger alumni. Every one of them has a wealth of experience that could improve our mission scenarios.”

  “The Challenger Centers mission continues here,” Commander Zota said. “We have a solid schedule of school class trips booked at this learning center, and if each of those classes can get even one or two young people inspired, it will be a good start.”

  Commander Zota still had the alien time machine locked behind
the door in his office, and JJ wondered if he might begin training another group of Star Challengers.

  She walked down the hall outside of the transport room and looked through the observation window into the Mission Control setup. She imagined the room full of students sitting at the mission stations, working on computers and communication screens as they ran through exercises, as if controlling a real space mission. In the other half of the learning center, the mockup of the space station Central module reminded her of the real thing—although even the best Challenger Center couldn’t simulate zero gravity. JJ doubted she would experience weightlessness again unless she became an astronaut herself and went on a real space mission. She realized that wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. She could do it.

  “I can sleep better tonight,” King said, “knowing that we helped our friends in the future.”

  Zota pursed his lips in thought. “Yes, but the future can still be changed, so your work is far from finished.”

  Dyl retrieved his crutches, and they all went through the lobby, passing Newton who played in his hamster cage, then returned to the briefing room, where they munched on Little Debbie snacks.

  Dyl ate one and grinned at Song-Ye. “Piece of cake.” Song-Ye groaned while Dyl picked up one of the room-temperature cans of root beer. “Commander, if the Kylarn scientists invented a time machine, then they must have had blueprints somewhere, right? And Mentor Toowun still has his own time machine.”

  “What are you getting at, Junior?” Song-Ye asked.

  Dyl shrugged. “I mean, what’s to stop the squidbutts from making another one?”

  Commander Zota looked troubled. King sat down in one of the chairs with a long sigh. “I was worried about that, too.”

  JJ heard a strange crackle and hum outside the briefing room, in the lobby of the Challenger Center. Tony, who stood closest to the briefing room door, peered out into the hallway, and his eyes suddenly went wide.

  JJ and King bolted to the door.

  In the center of the lobby, looking battered and angry, her pixie-cut hair disheveled, stood Mira. And beside her was the thin, edgy man JJ had debated in the grocery store.