May, 2001
Dr. Sloan squinted and adjusted the telescope that was pointed in
a direction of the dark night sky. He
realized he was looking at the large light in the sky in one point, meaning it
was moving towards them; head on.
“Hey, Mike,” he called toward the other astronomer in the large
room. “Take a look at this.”
Mike Johnson leaned over the eyepiece and sucked in a sharp
breath.
“That’s coming right for us, or so it looks like,” he turned to
Dr. Sloan. “Frank, how long have you
been watching it?”
“About a week, but this is the first time I know it’s heading
right for us,” Dr. Sloan said.
“Shit,” Dr. Johnson cursed.
“What are you going to do?” Dr.
Sloan stood quietly thinking for a moment.
“We have to alert people,” he said solemnly.
“That’s going to cause pure hell!” Dr. Johnson exclaimed. “What if it’s not even true?”
“Well, what if it is?” Dr. Sloan countered. “Everyone could die, and we would have not
tried to stop it!”
“Who do we tell?” Dr. Johnson asked.
“Secretary of Defense?”
***
“A what?” the confused officer asked the astronomer on the other
end of the phone.
“Comet,” Dr. Sloan said seriously.
The officer smirked and was wondering if this was a prank call.
“Look, do you know what kind of offense this is to call an
official headquarter and play around with this,” he said.
“Look you! This isn’t a
joke; people’s lives are in danger. I
work at the Keck Observatory, and I have been following this comet for the past
week,” Dr. Sloan said heatedly.
“And why didn’t you report this sooner?” the officer asked looking
at the clock with it’s hands on the 12 and the 3. “Look, it’s three in the morning… why don’t
you call when there are more people in the office.”
“We didn’t want to make any rash decisions, and after running
tests we have come to the results this comet will hit in a month,” Dr. Sloan
said. The officer spit out his coffee.
“You’re serious about this aren’t you?” he asked.
“YES!” Dr. Sloan shouted.
“I need to alert people and the rest of the officers now,” the
officer said pushing a button that immediately had ten more officers run
in. “There will be a helicopter there in
about a half an hour to bring you and your associate here to DC, please bring
all your information. Goodbye, Dr.”
The officer quick started dialing another number while telling the
others what he found out and what to do.
The person on the other line finally picked up and in a sleepy voice
said,
“Rumsfield here.”
“Sir, we have a situation.”
***