THE ARK

Day 1001

Early one morning several months later, NASA Administrator Thomas Williams and all of his data were heading for a scheduled meeting at the Pentagon to discuss their ominous findings.

On arrival, he was escorted to a conference room on the second level in the outer ring. He was brought coffee by a young petite female in a Navy uniform. He immediately began getting documentation ready. He had prepared an in-depth report for each of the men he would be meeting with. His laptop computer was powered up and many times the data in the reports was readily at his fingertips in the event that there were questions that he had not anticipated.

Williams had hooked the laptop to a small projector which he pointed at a whiteboard mounted on the wall.

Ten minutes later four star General Lee Draper entered the room, followed closely behind by Navy Admiral Nathanial Atkins and the President’s National Security advisor Jeremiah Baker.

Army General Draper was the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The sixty-two-year-old General stood about six four and was quite thin. His receding hairline left a large scar on his forehead visible.

The National security advisor, a sixty year old African American man, and former senator from Virginia had extensive experience in areas of national defense and politics, having spent twenty years as an officer in the Marine Corps, and later another eight years in the Senate, part of that time the as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

It was widely accepted that if he had decided to run in the last presidential race he would be sitting in the oval office instead of reporting to the current President. Fortunately for his good friend President Daniel Anson, Jeremiah Baker had no interest in the Presidency. He did, however, have every interest in doing all he could possibly to help the current administration succeed.

Navy Admiral Atkins also of the Joint Chiefs began the introductions.

“Administrator Williams, I can say that this is the first time that I know of where NASA has come here with a problem related to national security,” began Admiral Atkins

“I wish I didn’t need to be, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. I want to begin by letting you all know that all the information I’ve has been triple checked and we’ve been trying to disprove our findings for a couple months. We aren’t panicking; we’ve confirmed all of this,” stated Williams. At that point, he handed out the documentation he had prepared for each of them.

“The basic facts of this are, there is a comet heading towards Earth and there is nothing we can do about it. it’s still several hundred million miles away but is moving extremely fast,” he explained.

There was a look of bewilderment on all their faces before Admiral Atkins spoke up. “Don’t take this wrong, but we’ve all heard this before, in a few months, after word leaks out, someone will realize there has been a mistake in a calculation and”

“Not this time Admiral,” Interrupted Williams. “The whole reason we waited this long to say something is we wanted to make sure this is certain. There are no doubts; this has been verified by three different groups.”

“Please excuse my ignorance, Mr. Williams,” the Admiral began, “but like I said there have been similar stories about asteroids and meteors in the past. While I certainly have heard of comets, asteroids, and meteors, could you please give us some better background on comets?”

“Absolutely, Admiral,” Williams said as he started typing on his laptop. The projector lit up and a video presentation appeared on the white board. As the slides started flashing, Williams narrated. “Gentlemen comets are irregularly shaped bodies that are composed of mostly of ice, but there usually are other materials as well including, dust, iron, and other minerals as well as carbon and silicon-based compounds. Also, there may well be gasses trapped in the ice if the comet has passed through a gaseous cloud.

Comets normally travel at speeds around 20,000 MPH. However, as a comet nears its closest point to the sun and it’s being more dramatically affected by the sun’s gravitational pull it can be traveling at thousands of kilometers a minute. Some comets appear only once, then leave the solar system or break up while others return.

Like the planets, each comet travels on a regular orbit. Planets’ orbits are very nearly circular, but not perfectly so. Comets have highly elongated orbits that bring them very close to the Sun and then swing them back into space. Depending on the orbit, they can take from hundreds of years to over a thousand years to revolve once around the Sun.

A comet’s tail is its most recognized feature. When far from the Sun, a comet’s nucleus is very cold and its material is frozen. Water, ice, dust, and minerals as well as other compounds, may be found in the nucleus. This icy nucleus changes radically when a comet approaches the Sun. As a comet travels near the Sun, its developing tail it can lose several hundred million tons of dust and vapor. The closer it gets to the Sun, the more solids and gasses are released. As it approaches the sun, this tail can extend for millions of kilometers.

“And this thing is going to hit the Earth?” interrupted General Draper

“No, all calculations indicate that it’ll just miss us,” answered Williams

“What! Then what’s the problem? If it’s going to miss us, then so what!” Snapped Draper

“General, the comet will have a tail several million miles long. As I just said most of the time the tail of a comet is composed of dust and water vapor. We don’t understand all the details, but we’ve confirmed that the material in the tail of the comet is highly radioactive. So radioactive in fact, that even many hundreds of million miles away we have no problem detecting it. The entire tail of the comet will fall under the effects of Earth’s gravitational field. Massive amounts of this radioactive debris will be drawn into earth orbit. It’s estimated that every living thing on earth will be exposed to a dose of about fifteen hundred roentgens of radiation in the first month. That will be enough to radiation to wipe out ninety-nine percent of all life during the first year of exposure. After the radiation levels peak, in about six months, that the radioactive debris will slowly break down and much of it will burn up in the atmosphere. After about fifteen to twenty years radiation levels will be back to normal,” as Williams said this he felt as if a giant weight was lifted. The word was out; he was no longer the senior person in control of this information.

National Security Advisor Baker asked. “Could you please explain in more detail what’ll happen because of this radiation?”

“Of course, as the comet passes the radioactive material will be drawn into orbit around the Earth. It will, over a few months’ time, spread out and eventually encircle the planet. Every inch of the Earth’s surface will be affected.

“The amount of radiation we’re talking about will have almost immediate effects. We estimate the first deaths will occur within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. After that, the death toll will climb at a devastating rate. Within a few months, almost everyone will be dead.

“People all respond differently to radiation, so some will survive, but that will be very few, and those that survive will be very susceptible to some cancers, especially leukemia, as well, sterility and birth defects will affect many of those that survive but are still exposed.

“Most animal life will also be wiped out. Creatures deep in the oceans will do ok, but the sea life at shallower depths will die off. Some species of insects will be wiped out, but others will flourish, and that goes the same for plants. Some will do fine in a more radioactive environment, while others won’t.”

For the longest time, no one said a word, they just stared at Williams. Then slowly they started looking at each other, and still, nothing was said.

It was Nathanial Atkins, who finally said; “Is there any way that this data could be wrong?”

“No, sir. It’s confirmed. A University professor first brought it to our attention about three months ago and we have been checking and rechecking the data ever since,” said Williams quietly

“When will it be here?” Atkins continued.

“Just under three years, we’re estimating arrival on or around August 24, 2020,” Williams answered.

“What options do we have?” Admiral Atkins asked.

“At this time we’re aware of no options, we’re looking for any possible answer. But as of yet, we have nothing to offer,” Williams answered

“Are you saying that we’ll be watching this thing screaming through space for the next three years and there is nothing we can do except to wait for it to get here and kill six billion people?” General Draper half shouted.

“Gentlemen, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” finished Williams

The National Security advisor rose to leave. “Mr. Williams you aren’t to go anywhere until you hear from me and don’t discuss this with anyone. Also, I want the name of that university professor.”

He then looked at the representatives of the Joint Chief, “I’m going to the White House, keep this quiet.”