PROLOGUE – Part II
The first telescope to pick up the comet was the New Mexico observatory. Just after sunset it registered briefly on their computers and was recorded. However, the observatory was unmanned that night due to the retirement of the Head professor. The farewell party continued on downstairs in the lobby, unaware that their biggest discovery had just been recorded this Saturday night.
*****
Zac came in for his shift Monday morning at the observatory, still hung over from the weekend.
Old man Zeebarth’s farewell had gone long into Sunday morning and he had kicked on with some of the graduates. Snatching a couple of hours sleep around lunch he had pepped up before going to Tim’s place for the Sunday ball game. Then, boldened by the triumph of their team they had gone into town, for more beers, tequila and maybe some female action.
So, having checked all the right lights were on the computer, and turned off the speakers, Zac made himself comfortable in his chair and decided to catch some zzz’s. He could check all the equipment this afternoon. Nothing ever happened at this outpost and he knew there was nothing at the moment requiring his immediate attention. Before long he was fast asleep, dreaming of co-oed’s and tequila.
*****
Zac woke up and stretched, massaging his neck where it hurt from reclining in the chair. He was parched. Aside from that though he felt pretty good. A bottle of water and some food and he’d be right on track. Then there wouldn’t be too long till knock off time and back to Tim’s for Monday night football.
He wandered off to the lunchroom to scrounge something to eat. Emerging from the kitchen, leftover Kentucky Fried in his hands and mouth, the phone rang. It was Julie the second in charge of the observatory, calling in sick for her shift tonight.
“Haven’t got over the weekend yet huh?”, asked Zac with a grin.
“Yes of course I have. I have a migraine that’s all. What did you do all day hey? Neck sore from that big chair of yours is it?”
Julie knew Zac often slept on a Monday. He had lost his commitment to the job when they never did anything more than map the known stars. When he first arrived he was up all night, eyes glued to the scope, traversing the skies manually in search of life. Night shift was no big deal anymore. In fact they had to roster staff for the night shift instead of fighting to get on it. Zac was currently trying for a transfer to the new 300-foot telescope at Charlottesville.
Now, like most of the technicians, he just let the computer track the sky, searching and noting any interesting movements. Daytime was a time to get personal business done and maybe fool around on the computer.
“No actually its sore from throwing down some shots last night at the Beefcake.”
“God Zac, I can’t believe you really go there to drink. It’s such a hole”
“Well holes have their uses my lady. Anyway, I’ll check the computer and set it for auto again tonight. You just go to bed and I’ll be right over.”
“No thanks lover boy, the fumes would kill me. But I am going to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow”
“Okay, bye Jules”
“Well now, looks like I got me an early mark” said Zac to himself as he grabbed his coat. He turned to the computer to make sure it was on properly. Yup all the lights were on in the right places. He could check the readouts tomorrow for anything interesting. Let’s face it this wasn’t Independence Day now was it? There weren’t no mother ships headed for the earth ready to blow it away now were there?
He chuckled to himself. That was a good movie. Maybe they should rent it out tonight. He’d like to see it again. Zac grabbed his keys, and locking the door behind him, headed for his dusty old corvette, nothing more in his mind than a few cold beers and some good football.
*****
Next morning Zac was only slightly late for work. Damn drive thru had been real busy this morning.
He sat down to Burritos and cola for breakfast, flipping through the local rag of a newspaper as he munched. Finishing breakfast he tossed his trash in the can and stood up.
Oh well time to do a little work I suppose, Zac thought to himself
He moved over to the computer console and sat down. His fingers moved over the keyboard in a blur as he asked the computer to update him on the last day. The computer started beeping and a report immediately began printing out on the printer.
“Whoa baby whoa, what’s the hurry we got all morning to do this” he told the computer, affectionately known as Big mama. “Oh I see we got a few days here have we. Damn. No-ones logged on since Saturday night. I got 3 nights of crap to look at here big mama. I’ll need coffee for that.”
Zac wandered off to the lunchroom for a caffeine and sugar fix.
When he returned the report had finished. He tore it off and took the report to his desk where he put up his feet, slurped coffee and started reading.
Before long his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. You gotta be kidding he muttered to himself. Oh you better be kidding. He pushed off from the desk and went straight to the computer console. He grabbed the phone as he started typing.
“Jules hey Jules. Great are your up? You gotta get up here now.”
“No actually I was asleep. My migraine is fine thanks for asking.”
“Great, great yeah. Just get up here now”
“Why? What’s going on up there, did you run out of coffee?”
“Quit kidding around and just get the hell up here. Now” Zac slammed the phone back in its cradle and turned his attention back to the monitor. Damn.
Big mama had been tracking a comet the size of this complex since Saturday night. The alarm wasn’t working. He flipped the speakers back on and a piercing metallic screech came pouring out. He flipped it off again. Thanks I know I know already, he mumbled. Man, this was big.
*****
Julie pulled up at the observatory and jumped out of the car. Zac rarely swore in her presence and never lost his cool. Something must be up.
She pushed through the door to see him hunched over the computer console.
“Jules Jules, thank God you’re here. Come look at this. It’s really wild shit. I’ve run a diagnostics and I’m sure everything is working okay. Come look”
“Alright, alright slow down. Look at what?’
“That”, Zac said, and brought up the visual imaging display.
“Oh wow that can’t be right. How big is it?”
“Mama says it’s fucken 2 miles wide and nearly 3 miles long. It’s bloody huge.”
“Stop swearing already. It can’t be right. There must be a mistake.”
For the next two hours they checked all the diagnostics and ran all the checks they could think of. Big mama appeared to be functioning normally. It was now about 64 hours since the computer had picked it up and designated it as C18X11.
“Zac I think we should call someone”
“Oh yeah, who? The Prof’s gone and his replacement from MIT isn’t due till next week. You wanna’ call the Prez and tell him the good news?”
“Well there must be something written down somewhere. Where’s the ‘bible’, that’s got all the procedures in it hasn’t it?”
“Yeah I suppose”
They rummaged for the Observatory Emergency Manual. It directed them to call NASA upon the event of any sighting or computer recording that was out of the ordinary.
“You think this qualifies as out of the ordinary Jules?” asked Zac, back to his usual humour.
*****
Julie hung up the phone and came back to where Zac was sitting by the console, staring at the imaging display.
“They’re going to send someone right away, be here in 4 hours. They asked me if we’d called anyone else, have you called anyone on the team?
“Nah, only you”
“Okay, I’m going to get some more coffee and something to eat, want something?”
“Nah I’m wired already.”
Fifteen minutes later as Zac sat in front of the console all the lights went out and the screen went blank. He punched at the keyboard and got nothing. Then all the lights went off in the complex itself.
Julie screamed from the kitchen. “Zac what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything, what the hell is going on?”. He reached for the phone and found the line was dead. He jiggled it a few times. Nope. Dead.
Julie came stumbling back out of the kitchen into the main work area where light was filtering through the high dusty windows.
“What’s going on did we lose power?”
“I don’t know, let’s take a look outside.”
They walked to the main door and out into the sunlight. They could see neon flashing lights on the highway in the distance. So not everybody had lost power. In fact Zac seemed to remember that they were on their own grid so that nothing like this would ever happen.
Zac looked up at the radar dish above them. He thought he knew what had happened.
“Julie, I think we’ve been cut off.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Look we just discovered a comet heading straight for earth. NASA asked you if we had called anybody. Now the power is out and the phone is dead too. They shut us down so we can’t tell anyone.”
“The phone can’t be out too”
“Go try it. I’m going to turn on the generator in the shed, it doesn’t power the computer but at least we can have some lights.”
When Zac returned from the shed there was emergency lighting in the complex.
“You’re right I can’t get anything on the phone.”
“Hey Jules did you bring your mobile?”
“No I just grabbed my purse and my car keys.”
“Damn”
Outside they heard a car pulling into the carpark.
The local sheriff walked in the front door with his gun in his hand
“What’s going on here?”
“I don’t know you tell me. What the hell is the gun for?”
“I was told to get up here pronto and to expect a man and a woman and not to let them out of my sight. What are you two up to?”
“Nothing for chriss sakes, put the gun away.”
“You watch your language son I don’t like your tone.”
“You don’t like my tone, I don’t like a cop barging into my work with a gun in his hand.”
“Okay okay let’s just settle down”, Julie could see the tempers rising between her friend and the local cop. “This is not going to get us anywhere. Sheriff we are not dangerous. Let’s just sit down and you can tell us what is going on.”
The sheriff looked at the two youngsters in front of him. They looked like long-haired students not long out of college whose worst crime was probably drinking too much down at the Beefcake. And they looked more frightened than he was. He holstered his gun and pulled up a chair.
“That sounds like a good idea to me. I thought someone must have been murdered the way they told me to get up here so fast. I guess I thought I had to be ready for anything. Sorry if I scared you. I left a major accident scene out on the highway to get here asap you know what I mean? I’ve been told to keep you here till NASA arrives and not call anyone. I believe they’re going to cut off outside communication. Mind telling me what the hell is going on up here?”
“Our power went down and the phones dead.”
The sheriff picked up the phone and heard nothing. He replaced the receiver. “I thought you were on your own grid up here so you could operate even if there was a power problem?”
“We are, I have the back-up generator on now to give us some light but the computer is still down.”
“So what’s going on? You guys discover aliens or something?”
“No, probably worse. The computer’s been tracking a comet over 2 miles long and it looks like its heading for earth”.
*****
A large NASA helicopter arrived at the complex around lunch and spewed forth men in suits and 4 armed military men.
They strode up to Zac, Julie and the Sheriff. “Thank you sheriff, we’ll take it from here. I’m Major Denson from NASA. If you’ll all please come back inside we can sort this thing out.”
Zac sat in a chair behind the technician at the console. He had been twiddling his thumbs for two hours while the guy ran through a series of computer checks.
“Everything seems to be in working order here sir.”
“I told you that we ran our own diagnostics before we called you.”
“Thank you son, we do our own checks. Will you follow me please.”
Zac followed the Major into the canteen where Julie and the sheriff had been waiting.
The sheriff stood up as they entered. “I sure would appreciate some answers here major. I’ve got to call in and see what’s happening in my town.”
“Sheriff, I’m going to have to relieve you of your side arm.”
“You what?”
The major turned slightly to the door where an armed guard now stood.
“I said I’m going to request that you hand over your firearm, and then we can discuss what’s going on here and what’s going to happen.”
“Are you placing me under arrest?” the sheriff asked incredulously.
“Not as such, your firearm please.”
The sheriff stared at the Major for a second, and then over his shoulder at the armed guard who was watching everything closely. This guy was serious. He unholstered his piece and handed it butt first to the major, who passed it back to the soldier. The major relaxed visibly.
Major Denson pulled up a chair at the table in front of them. “Here’s how it’s going to happen.”
*****
“You what?” Zac was on his feet, his anger rising. No-one was going to keep him up here for days against his will.
“Sit down son and relax, don’t make this any more difficult than it has to be.”
“Relax, are you kidding me? You want to keep all three of us here while this is going on? You got another thing coming mister. On whose authority can you do this anyway?
“Son let me explain it to you again. It’s very simple. You discovered something up here that is not only a matter of national security but world security if there is such a thing. I’ve been ordered to keep you here incommunicado until we evaluate the situation. We will not release this to the public until the President says so. The panic this thing could cause is not worth thinking about. You catch my drift?”
Julie was nodding. The sheriff was just sitting there. Zac sat back down again feeling numb. This wasn’t happening.
“As for what authority I have it comes from the top. The minute we got your call the Director of NASA was informed and he went straight to the President. I don’t think even the Joint Chiefs have been informed yet. They’re keeping a tight lid on this one.”
“On this one, on this one. This isn’t a spy story. This isn’t a game. It’s not like the Russian’s are coming or the President had sex in the whitehouse again. You don’t ‘keep a lid on this one’. This is a big comet coming at the earth.
“Listen kid. I don’t make the rules, I follow orders. My orders are to keep you here till they decide what to do. You will be looked after in every way. I have more staff on the way. You can stick to the rules and help while you’re here or you can cause trouble. It’s that simple. And I’ll tell you something else. My men have orders to prevent you by any means if you try to contact the outside world or disrupt operations in any way. Am I getting through to you?”