Archytas International Space Observatory
June 5, 2072
Professor Alan Wilson was staring at a screen. He pushed himself away and floated
toward another. He frowned while thinking, Something is wrong with the data again.
He continued to move from one screen to another while contacting his fellow
astronauts. Soon, the station came alive with the excited yet scared voices of the
crew. They were joined by the voices of those on the ground. The data was
repeatedly tested. An anomaly was detected in the ort cloud, an area of space filled
with icy rocks and dwarf planets just outside of our solar system. Professor Wilson let
himself slowly float away from his station. The voices around him were fading away,
while a new thought flooded his mind. Is this for real? Hundreds of years ago, a
group of asteroids was knocked out of their orbit, and they were heading toward the
interior of the solar system. A gigantic rock with a diameter of about forty-five
kilometers, along with a few smaller but still destructive ones, was falling toward the
sun at ever-increasing velocities. Earth stood in their way. The impact was going to
take place just forty-four years into the future.
August 12, 2072
“Hello, everyone,” Professor Wilson said to the public. “I wish I could start this speech
with a smile or a warm welcome, but as most of you already know, the news is
anything but good. An asteroid with a diameter of about forty-five kilometers is
closing in on Earth. The asteroid is currently traveling at lower speeds, but it
freefalling toward the sun. Its speed is continuously increasing, and by the time it
meets Earth, it will be traveling at 120,000 kilometers per hour. After having thought
of all possible ways of avoiding the collision, we came to the realization that the
impact is inevitable. We can’t destroy it because it is too big, and we can’t alter its
course for the same reason. Bombarding it with missiles runs the risk of breaking it
into smaller chunks, which will most likely impact the Earth at various locations,
rendering the disaster even greater. It’s traveling too fast and it’s too massive to be
threatened by anything we throw at it. Its trajectory has a 93 percent chance of
colliding with Earth, with an projected date of forty-four years. The impact location will
be eastern Australia. Professor Haze will take the stand to give us a prediction of the
aftermath.”
“As Professor Wilson explained” said Professor Haze with clear discomfort,
“this is an asteroid with a size unlike anything that has impacted the planet since the
time of Earth’s formation. It dwarfs the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs. The
damage to the planet will be incomprehensible. Virtually all advanced life on planet
Earth will become extinct in a very short period of time. The immediate effects will be
felt throughout the world, with tremendous earthquakes, possible volcanic eruptions;
the largest tsunamis ever seen will be overshadowed. And this is only the beginning.
Burning winds will wrap around the planet, igniting everything in their path.
They will be followed by a rain of burning rock, which can last for weeks. The after effect will be
a cloud of dust and carbon, which will envelop the Earth, leaving us hidden from the
sun for perhaps hundreds or thousands of years, leading to a global ice age. Ladies
and gentlemen, we are facing the complete annihilation of our species and with it, the
annihilation of every species other than bacteria life on Earth.” He swallowed, looked
around him, and continued, “No matter how slim the chance, we need to innovate
and put our combined effort in a plan to avoid the collision. The small chance that it
will miss should not be our comfort. We need to fight this thing. Our current
technologies cannot match it, but if we work together, we might make something to
shield us from it.”
The idea that it was forty-four years into the future did not seem to calm most
of the people of the world. Many began denying the facts and claimed that the
science was wrong. Others thought that their religious deities would step up and alter
the course of the asteroid. There were those who laughed and those who cried. The
vast majority of the world, however, saw the threat and thought that science would
help us. Science would create something to change the course of it or somehow
save us. Birth rates all over the world saw a steady decline. Few wanted to bring to
life a child, only to teach it that their little island in space was targeted by the
manifestation of death.
Great leaders had their heads in their hands. They sat quietly, alone in their
offices. The Kremlin, the Oval Office, and more were waiting for something to
happen. A phone rang. Then another. Then, as if orchestrated by a maestro, the
phones and computers of all head offices of the world began connecting one another.
“We need to act now!” said a voice amid the chaos and confusion that seemed to be
the first reaction. Soon the voices calmed. In an orderly manner, they agreed upon a
meeting. A few days later, inside an amphitheater, the voices of reason began
plotting their plan for survival.
“We need to calm people down. We need hope,” said
the head of the committee.
“Our scientists are positive than an early strike has the best chance of
success,” said another.
“We need to prepare for the aftermath. There are ways we can survive the
impact,” said a third.
The options were coming from every direction. “We will have to try them all!”
one president yelled. “We have to invest all we have and try them all,” he repeated.
The room became silent. “This is not a matter of economics, nationalism, or grudges.
This is the line where we unite or perish. We need to try all the solutions.”
Slowly, the plan began to take shape. Massive projects of self-contained
environments seemed to be the answer to the continuation of our species. From
large-scale cities to small bunkers and everything in between. Others started looking
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.at ways to avert the impact altogether. Even the most optimistic could not see a
complete avoidance of the destruction, because even if the main asteroid was
directed elsewhere, the smaller ones would still strike and cause great damage.
Human colonies on Mars would not be able to accommodate a lot of people, since
Mars had not yet reached full independence of materials and new settlers from Earth.
The hope of Martians was that the small communities they had would be able to
advance to the point where they could stand on their own. Hope was limited, though.
Twenty-four cities, mainly located in Europe, western Asia, and Africa, were
chosen to be rebuilt under domes, with automation to provide for water and food to a
population of about five million each. The tremendous projects began in the year
2080, with a projected thirty-five years to completion. Entire city-sized areas were
turned into flat concrete fields with ten-meter-thick reinforced walls around them.
Their roofs were not made of futuristic glass or any other transparent material. They
were made to withstand the molten rock that would fall from the sky and use it as an
extra layer of protection for the coming snow that was expected to cover the entire
world. They looked more like turtle shells with multiple supports.
The domed cities would be using power to make an artificial blue sky in the otherwise windowless,
pitch-black interior.
In the year 2100, a new generation of scientists joined the work, and the
projects sped up. New technologies for creating tremendous subterranean water
reservoirs and linking them with the cities were created and the dome cities began to
show progressively more optimism. Besides the few unexpected events like fanatic’s
sabotage’s and larger than normal earthquakes, the progress on most cities was
proceeding better than expected.
In the year 2101, the most massive launch of weapons, expected to intercept
“Osiris,” as the asteroid had come to be called, began their eleven-year journey in
hopes of sideswiping the asteroid and changing its course. Although the project had
a very small chance of success, more than fifty similar projects were simultaneously
worked on and launched at different times.
In 2111, the dome cities were finally ready to open their doors to the three
million people they were going to host. Although five million people could be
supported, the choice to put fewer in each city was made to make them more
manageable. Picking the residents was a project of its own. Specially designed
schools around the world would train kids to operate the cities and to face the
psychological impact that was imminent. They were let in about five years before the
impact, so they could have a trial time to see if everything could run smoothly. Their
connection to the outside world was cut, and only a single superintendent would be
able to reach out, in case of failures that needed additional help. The domes’
entrances, large enough for a big truck to fit through, were hermetically shielded, thus
isolating the inside environment from the outside. The domes would use a two-way
system to produce energy—nuclear, which would produce waste that would then be
recycled and reused, and geothermal. It was projected that the power would be able
to sustain a population of up to five million for over two thousand years.
With the asteroid now visible to the naked eye, people started to turn against
the method of choice for the survivors. Fear started to spread; the mountains of the
world were slowly filling with societies who sought refuge from the destruction. The
full military force of the world was stationed guard at the twenty-four cities, which held
the hope for humanity’s prosperity. Madness seemed to be overtaking the general
population. Hope lay within the steel tubes carrying bombs in space.
In 2112, the missiles that were launched to intercept the asteroid had finally
arrived at their destination. A continuous bombardment took place, but the asteroid,
instead of changing course, began to shed some smaller asteroids, which posed a
new threat. If the bombardment continued, large enough chunks might be split that
could strike in Europe and destroy the dome cities. This called for a halt in the
bombardment, since the math showed that it was very unlikely to change its course
either way. A positive result of the bombardment was that some chunks of the main
asteroid did actually fly to a trajectory that took them off the path of Earth.
Although it made the impact less powerful, the news was not good for the
people of Earth. The outside of some domes became a battlefield. The world began
its final world war. Every country wanted its people inside. Every country wanted
some level of control. Although outside, the wars waged, the united military force of
the planet was driving the war away from the domes to protect them. As time went
by, the war escalated to the point where the only solution seemed to be the
detonation of nuclear weapons. The protection of the domes was all that mattered.
Near the end of 2115, just a few months before the impact, the world burned.
Nuclear weapons were launched to defend the domes. Under the red sky, humans
fought each other to provide a seat of survival for their leaders. In the perpetual
darkness of the dome cities, people worked with science, they illuminated the ceilings
with beautiful colors and, unaware of the outside war, they continued to build and
perfect their new homes. The superintendents, all in communication with one
another, had agreed that the nuclear war, although some cities felt it, should be kept a secret.
There was no need to psychologically damage those inside. The records
were made, and the history was written, but it got stored away from the eyes of the
population … for now. The tremors of nuclear detonations were explained to the
geologists in the domes as controlled tests for the walls of their cities.
In February 2116, the asteroid was a bright object of amazing beauty and
terror on the sky. The impact was just a month away. The world war was still ablaze.
Stronger than ever, the last battles were being fought under the watchful eye of
Osiris. Some saw it as an omen, others as nothing more than what it was. A final
attack made the wall of the dome city of Paris crack. Working on it from both sides,
the engineers had one month to patch it properly. Just a few days before the end, the
war ended. People gave up. Soldiers did not have the will to go on, and rulers had
already been changed enough times that they had forgotten who was who and whom
they were fighting for. A week before the end … calm … whoever was not on the
mountains seeking refuge among the societies there was in the cities. Finally, a
party. A celebration. They gathered at city centers around the world and looked up
into the sky. With their lungs filled with poison and radiation, slowly dying, they
looked up. With their hearts torn for the crimes they had committed, they looked up.
Someone yelled that which was then written on walls.
“We will not go the way we came. We will not cry; we will not kneel. We will
dance and celebrate life for the time we had.”
It took death to reach the door for humans to unite and finally dance. The
superintendents shared the images of the last two days with the domes. Showed the
courage and resolve humans can find in their last hours. While Osiris was breathing
its heat onto the Earth, the people of the dome cities, with tears in their eyes, saw
humanity dancing in the face of death.
This is how you will be remembered. All of you.