Death of a Planet

by James Duggan

  The plan was not, as one would expect, for all the cubes to stay together on their cosmic journey. The chances of humanity finding a suitable planet which could be colonised would be greatly increased if the survivors scattered throughout the universe in different directions.

  It was decided that a cube would be released from the armada at the rate of one on every orbit of the Earth; sixteen a day.

  In the next four and a half days the world watched apprehensively as the galaxy of artificial twinkling stars reduced in size until there was only one left to depart.

  Slim, like the true captain of a ship, had remained at his post in orbit until all his charges were safely despatched.

  His chosen destination initially was in the direction of Mars; the very planet he had been originally robbed of visiting several years earlier.

  “Bon voyage Slim.” said Buck to his friend, as he gave a layman’s casual salute.

  ***

  THE SHORT WAIT.

  WITH no spectacle left to watch in the skies above them those who had not been fortunate returned to whatever it was that would keep their minds less focussed on what was about to happen in three months time.

  For Buck and his team the waiting was made less painful by the task of monitoring the progress of seventy strange silver metallic vessels in the huge armada crossing the cosmic black sea.

  Time on the Hubble Telescope had been wholly commandeered in pursuit of this task. Each Cube was travelling at forty thousand miles per hour and putting a million miles a day between them and the cataclysmic explosion of a planet in its death agony.

  As the days were ticked off relentlessly the task of tracking all seventy Cubes became ever more difficult as they spread out around the universe. As far as Buck and his team could tell all was well in their new artificial worlds. Daily reports were transmitted around their old world via news media in an effort to console loved ones left behind.

  Those on board watched with melancholic resignation through their ‘rear view mirrors’ as the Earth receded until it was out of visual sight. When the moment of truth came all they would be able to see was the fierce light of the explosion signalling the death of the planet.

  With all hope of escape gone the inhabitants of ‘Cube City’ began to disperse from around the perimeter of Paine Field. It was much to the relief of General Flint who could now stand down his command and allow his men the freedom to console themselves in whatever way they saw fit.

  Flint returned to his family and like everyone else in the world counted off the days whilst revisiting happier times via television, social media or simple photograph albums.

  Russians, Chinese, Europeans, Asians, South Americans and those from Australasian and myriad small islands settled into the same routine. After all what else was there to do? Finally there was a collective harmony in the world brought about by a heavenly phenomenon over which nobody had any control.

  Time passed slowly for some, particularly those who had no real purpose or interests in life; it was a bit late in the day to take up new occupations or hobbies. For others it passed quickly, almost too quickly, as they tried desperately to fulfil their bucket list ambitions. Again it was a futile goal, but it helped to pass the soul searching time.

  One month passed and Slim was getting up close and personal with Mars. The red planet had all the beauty and mystery he had ever imagined. Although it fulfilled his boyhood ambition just to be in the vicinity of such a charismatic world it was with great regret that he knew he had to pass it by. He was passing within cosmic spitting distance in search of a more habitable sanctuary.

  If he had his way he would have stopped off and picnicked on the surface, but he had eight hundred others to consider. Where their destiny lay he didn’t yet know, but his days were passed searching the cosmos for the so-called ‘Goldilocks zone’ around a star and looking back with regret at the forthcoming demise of their old address.

  ‘I’ll follow the sun.’ he had told himself on several occasions. But there were billions of suns.

  “Which one would give him the best chance of finding Earth Two orbiting in its habitable zone; not too hot to boil us and not too cold to freeze us?” he would ask himself every night before saying good night to his loved ones.

  ‘I would have a better chance of winning a lottery. Perhaps a lucky dip is as good a chance as any.’ he would think, before dropping off to sleep.

  The occupants of other Cubes had equal opportunity to contemplate both the past and future as they counted down the days.

  For some it would be a year before they reached Jupiter the largest planet in the solar system; that’s assuming they got safely through the Asteroid Belt from which the threat to Earth originated.

  Those who were in the know were able to reassure the worriers that the likelihood of hitting anything in the Asteroid Belt was about the same as dropping a pebble from thirty thousand feet and it hitting a bee in flight on the way down.

  For others, travelling on alternative trajectories, it would be two earth years to Saturn and four to the furthest planet from the sun: Uranus. After that, where they ended up was anybody’s guess. There was plenty to occupy their thoughts as the days counted down.

  ***

  THE DIAMOND RING.

  WITH still three weeks to D-day Buck and his team could be found at their posts keeping an eye, not only on the progress of the armada, but also on the approach of Ceres.

  There was little point in issuing daily bulletins on its progress since it was now so close it could be seen with the naked eye. At five million miles it became the third largest object in the sky after the sun and moon, but it was growing daily as it approached at ten thousand miles an hour.

  With seven days left it was still over one and a half million miles from impact, but close enough for its pock marked surface features to be made out with powerful binoculars.

  At three quarters of a million miles its presence became overwhelming as its size in the sky focussed the attention of the world’s population on what was about to befall them in three days time.

  Buck and his team were now directing all their attention onto Ceres whose unswerving approach made the hairs on their necks bristle in fearful anticipation.

  There were now two days to go and the rogue asteroid had grown to half the size of the moon; or at least that is what it seemed to be, depending upon where in the world it was being viewed from.

  It was a mesmerising apparition as its growth appeared to increase exponentially, seemingly emphasising its menace.

  ***

  “Hey Mister Buchannan, come and have a look at this.” said Charlie, as he rubbed his eyes.

  The request had an element of déjà vu about it as Buck wearily wrenched his six feet three inch frame out of his chair. The Irishman stood and stretched to his full height trying to loosen the stiffness in his muscles and give the impression he was fully awake. It was all just as it had been three years previously.

  He resisted the temptation to try a repeat performance of his Bugs Bunny impression. It struck him as strange that Charlie had reverted to calling him Mister Buchanan at this particular time when such formalities had long since become a thing of the past.

  “What’s up Charlie?”

  “Do you see what I see?” said Charlie, pointing to the image of Ceres on his screen.

  Just as he had before, Buck leaned across his friend and squinted at the monitor. What he saw shook him to the core.

  “Hey Molly, we need your eyes over here…quickly.”

  She hurried over and focused her youthfully sharp vision on what her two older companions were looking at.

  “Wow, it looks like some sort of eruption in the top left quadrant; a sort of prominence.” she declared.

  “Can we zoom in on that Charlie?” said Buck, becoming mildly excited at what he saw.

  Charlie obliged and sharpened the focus on the image as he did so.

  “It doesn’t look like an eruption.” said Buck, hesita
ntly.

  “In fact it looks more like…well like a reflection of some sort. Maybe it’s sunlight glistening off melting surface ice as it approaches our atmosphere.”

  Annie, who had been attracted to the small gathering, stood thoughtfully stroking her chin.

  “No, I don’t think it’s melting ice. Ceres isn’t anything like close enough to be burning off surface water in our atmosphere. It has to be an eruption of some sort.” she said, unconvincingly.

  They stood for a while as if captivated by the phenomenon; each trying to imagine the cause. As they watched the glinting became more pronounced. It wasn’t fluctuating the way an eruption would. It was just growing in size. Annie revised her original thoughts.

  “I’m not sure it’s an eruption either.”

  “Well if it’s not surface ice being melted off and it’s not an eruption, then what the hell is it?” said Buck, with his arms spread out at his sides.

  “Jeez, as if we don’t have enough trouble already…”

  His observation trailed off as he began to see what appeared to be a silver band surrounding the perimeter of Ceres. At first it was thin; barely visible. But as they stood and watched in complete bewilderment it grew in thickness until it appeared as a diamond ring surrounding Ceres in the same way as the moon creates a similar effect when it eclipses the sun.

  The diamond glistened and sparkled as the light of the sun reflected off whatever was causing the phenomenon.

  “It’s a fucking eclipse.” he exclaimed, in astonishment.

  “Sorry ladies.” he added, bashfully.

  “An eclipse of what?” queried Annie, in equal surprise and ignoring Buck’s uncharacteristic outburst.

  There was a resounding knock on the door. Without invitation it opened and a Stetson appeared from behind with a hand, rather than a head, under it. It was flung across the control room where it landed neatly on the hook of a coat stand in the corner.

  “Hi guys.” said Ringo, as he sauntered casually up to the group.

  “What’s occurring?”

  Buck’s thoughts were racing. Here was Ringo yet again turning up at a critical moment out of the blue.

  “How do you do it?” said Buck, in exasperation.

  “Well it’s the aerodynamics of the hat mate.” he replied, with a grin.

  “I just fling it like a frisbee and it kind of floats to its destination. There’s no real skill attached to it pal.”

  “No, I don’t mean that. I mean how is it you…?”

  Buck’s question was interrupted by Molly.

  “Look, it’s moving across the plane of Ceres; or at least Ceres is moving across whatever it’s eclipsing.”

  Buck’s interrogation of Ringo would have to wait as he turned his attention back to the screen.

  “Jeez, what’s going on? What is that thing?”

  They stood and watched in amazement as a silver sphere moved out from behind Ceres in what appeared to be an overtaking movement.

  Once clear of the asteroid it became obvious it was about the same size as Ceres, but more mysteriously even at that distance, it was clear it had a completely featureless and seamless surface.

  It’s a like a bloody great ball bearing just hanging there in the sky.” gasped Buck, in complete astonishment.

  “I’m down to my last few heart beats and now they’re throwing giant ball bearings at us.” he added in exasperation at the sight of this new threat.

  “Whatever it is, it’s on the same path as Ceres. Between the two of them we stand no chance at all.” said Charlie, despairingly.

  “We never had a chance anyway.” snapped Buck.

  “Whatever it is, it should make sure of our fate.”

  An hour or so passed as they watched the silver sphere gradually overtake the menace to Earth’s existence. Calls began coming in from all over the world.

  “Have you seen that?” said Barny, at Jodrell Bank, excitedly.

  “Yeah, we’ve seen it Barny. Do you know what it is?” said Buck, hopefully.

  “Haven’t got a clue, we were hoping you’d tell us.”

  “Sorry my friend, we’re just as much in the dark. Whatever it is we’ll know one way or the other within the next day or two. Let us know if you figure it out. Gotta go Barny, the phone’s melting.”

  “Hello.”

  “Have you seen that thing out there?” said Gambiadini, without any formalities.

  “Yeah, we’ve seen it Carl. I should think the whole world knows it’s there by now.” replied Buck, wearily.

  “Maybe we should make an announcement of some sort. The public needs to be kept informed.” suggested Gambiadini.

  “And tell them what? We don’t have a clue what it is and until we do all we can tell them is that we’re looking into it; unless of course you have a better idea.” said Buck, exasperated at his own ignorance of the phenomenon.

  “We’ll do just that Buck. In the meantime keep an eye on it and clue us up if there’s something worth knowing.”

  Gambiadini signed off without further comment leaving Buck and his people staring at the screen as the two objects continued to grow before their eyes.

  “Hey you guys back there. Are you still awake?”

  It was Slim’s voice coming over NASA’s speaker link to his Cube. It jolted Buck out of his fascination with the apparition they were all tracking.

  “Hi Slim. What can we do for you? We’ve only got a few hours left, so make good use of it.” said Buck, urgently.

  There was no immediate reply. The huge distances involved made normal conversation difficult. It was over six minutes before Slim’s voice broke the silence again.

  “We’re fine. But we were wondering what’s going on back there. We’ve picked up something strange with our on-board computers. There seems to be an object tracking Ceres as it heads towards you.”

  “Yeah, we’ve spotted it too. Don’t know what it is though. It’s a bloody great silver sphere about the same size as Ceres. Can you throw any light on it?”

  “Only that we’ve been tracking it for days now. It’s been following Ceres as if trying to catch it up. Couldn’t alert you any sooner; too much interference from a solar mass ejection.”

  “Yeah we were aware of that too, but we were otherwise occupied. It explains why you’ve been quite for so long. Not like you at all.” chided Buck, trying to take the tension everyone was feeling out of the situation.

  “Well if you find out what it is I sure would like to know before you check out.” said Slim, in his usual flippant manner.

  “Will do. Stay cool.” replied Buck, before closing the link.

  The whole exchange had taken the best part of three quarters of an hour during which time they had watched the sphere move ahead of Ceres and pull across in front of her. It kept pace with her whilst semi eclipsing the oncoming peril.

  The entire world was captivated by this cosmic racing duo wondering if what they were witnessing would have any significant effect one way or the other on their dilemma. Was the world about to be struck by them both just to make sure the job of obliterating it was done properly? That question was about to be answered.

  As Buck and the rest in the control room watched intently trying to figure out what was going on the sphere stopped growing.

  “It’s stopped in front of Ceres.” exclaimed Annie, alarmed at the consequences of the two colliding.

  Her alarm was short lived as Ringo pointed out rather casually.

  “Better than hitting us gal.” he said, bluntly.

  “The blast will make a bit of a mess at that close range, but we might survive to see more sunsets.”

  Buck noticed an almost imperceptible smile growing on the face of his strange associate.

  ‘If and when and we do survive all this I really must look into this guy’s background. There’s something not quite right about him.’ he thought; not for the first time.

  His attention returned to the intense drama being played out on the screen a
s Molly’s keen eye spotted a minute change in the course Ceres was taking.

  “Now what?” was all Buck could think of to say.

  It had been a long day and these changing developments were beginning to take their toll on his tolerance levels.

  Slowly, but surely Ceres was being diverted from the course it had held so unwaveringly for the past three years. A force, the like of which no one could ever have imagined, was apparently being controlled and directed from inside the sphere.

  Eventually, and with little time to spare Ceres passed by the Earth at a distance of about a thousand miles. It was what could be called in cosmic terms a near miss; a very near miss.

  There was some superficial damage caused by the shock wave it created as it passed, but it was nothing compared to the total annihilation the world had feared for the past three years.

  The world’s collective sigh of relief could have been heard on Slim’s Cube as it hurtled into the unknown. The news was passed to him as quickly as possible. The reaction on board was ecstatic, but feelings were mixed. They were many millions of miles from home and heading in the wrong direction.

  There would need to be some serious soul searching and decisions made, not only by them, but the other sixty-nine escapee craft over the coming weeks and months; to return or not to return.

  Buck sat in the control room in total shock. The last three years had been the most traumatic of his entire life, but it was nothing compared to the tension of the past twenty-four hours.

  Eight billion people took to the streets around the world screaming, not in fear, but in sheer relief at being spared annihilation. Times Square, Trafalgar Square, The Arch de Triumph, Red Square, Tiananmen Square and every other public gathering place in the world bore witness to scenes of jubilation never before experienced in its entire history.

  There was a crackling sound as every monitor in the room lost its images only to be replaced immediately by a written message being hesitantly transcribed across the screens.

  The words appeared simultaneously on every monitor, television screen, laptop, tablet and mobile phone around the world; whether they were switched on or not.