GENISIS: A SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY
This is an unpublished story.
Even endings need a beginning
Genesis
Dan Holbrook spent hours of his life looking up at the night skies. It was his job and his passion. He taught astronomy at a small university located in the high California desert. The location offered spectacular views of the universe, a universe that was about to change his life and the future of the planet, forever.
Dan was thirty-six, tall and lean, with a scruffy appearance, not a slave to fashion. He married his college sweetheart, Amy, right after graduate school ten years ago. Now they were a family of four with two daughters: Jenny age eight, and Heather six. His daughters loved exploring the desert during the day with their mother, searching for minerals and lizards. At night they studied the sky with their dad.
With a PhD in astronomy, along with the reputation for making significant contributions to the field of asteroids and comets, Dan earned a small amount of personal time on the telescope at Caltech. On one clear winter night Dan was studying the asteroid belt beyond Jupiter when something caught his attention. It was a fuzzy dot where none had been before. When he brought it into focus, he realized that it had passed Jupiter, and was now closer to the Earth. This was not unusual, for asteroids were often found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. He made a record of this sighting in his notebook and snapped a picture. He noted that its apparent magnitude, or measure of brightness, was +25 – extremely faint.
Dan decided to keep track of the asteroid remembering how in 2002 Asteroid 2002-MN passed within seventy-five thousand miles of the Earth. It had been the size of a football field. He doubted there was any danger, but he always believed ‘better safe than sorry’.
The following year, Dan once again was given the opportunity to observe the heavens from Caltech. Early that day, he reviewed his notes from the previous year’s observations. He had forgotten about that faint speck between Jupiter and Mars and wanted to observe it once more. That night, peering through the telescope he easily found his quarry, but now it was slightly brighter with an absolute magnitude of +20. Dan became excited, and said out loud, “Holy shit, I may be witnessing an important event.” He knew he had to follow its progress and write it up for a journal article, needed to ensure his notes were meticulous, and then contact other observatories to confirm his sighting.
The next year he published an article describing his findings and continued to keep track of his discovery, and at every viewing the object grew in brightness. There was only one explanation for this. Dan decided to contact a colleague and friend, Ralph Warner, to explore ideas.
After a few attempts, he finally reached Ralph. “Hey, buddy, how you doing? I’ve got something I’d like to pick your brains about. I’ve spotted a distant asteroid and wondered if you could study it using your telescope access?”
Ralph said, “I read your article just the other day and found it interesting.”
Dan asked, “Can’t you just take a peek at Jeneather?”
“What’s that?” Ralph asked.
“That’s what I call the asteroid, named after my two daughters.”
Ralph had limited access to the Hubble and Chandra orbiting telescopes. It was with these instruments that Dan wanted Ralph to ‘take a peek’.
Ralph answered, “Dan, do you know how precious time is for the Hubble and Chandra? I can’t just peek at things. I know this was your discovery, but the opportunity to observe it has to stand in line, a very long line.”
“I appreciate how valuable time is on the orbiting telescopes, but your observations may be able to figure out exactly what this object is and, more importantly, determine its future.”
Ralph replied, “Dan, follow its progress; when you know more – maybe then.”
Dan could hear the frustration in his friend’s voice, but he harbored just the hint of hope that Ralph might try to ‘take a peek’. Neither of them would know that in the future, all eyes on the Earth would be following the course of Jeneather’s progress.
One night the following year Dan had his daughters in the backyard looking up at the sky. He enjoyed pointing out the constellations to them and the visible planets. Their enthusiasm warmed his soul. The two girls, now eleven and nine, were in awe of the sky and would compete to see who could name whatever their father pointed out.
While looking skyward, Jennifer asked, “Where is Jeneather, Dad?”
Dan said, “Honey, you can’t see it without a telescope. Then he pointed to a region of the sky where someday he thought the object might appear.
Jenny screamed, “I can see it, Daddy. I can see Jeneather.”
Dan stood there, perplexed. The asteroid, which should not yet be visible, was there. He knew that was it, for there should have been nothing else in that little piece of the sky, at least not visible with the naked eye. He told his daughters, “Let’s go inside, it’s almost bedtime and Daddy has a lot of work to do.”
Both girls protested, “We want to look at Jeneather,” but Dan had much on his mind and the girls were ushered inside.
“Time for bed girls and Jeneather will still be there tomorrow.” Leading his daughters into the house, he yelled, “Amy, could you get the girls ready for bed? There’s something I need to do.”
Without waiting for a reply, he went to phone Ralph. Ralph was expecting a call from Dan; he picked up the second ring. “Ralph, you can now see the asteroid I discovered in the night sky without a telescope.”
“Yes,” Ralph said, “The object now has a brightness of -5, as visible as Venus. I’ve been expecting your call. Things are being kept quiet for now, but soon the entire planet will be watching the sky. Dan, you discovered a rather significant asteroid.”
“Dan, the speculation from the scientists who have closely studied this object is that the asteroid you discovered collided with another asteroid in deep space. That collision resulted in a change of both their orbits. Your asteroid is on a journey through our solar system.”
Dan paused, and then said, “That’s what I thought. It’s heading toward us. That’s why it’s getting brighter. And that’s why we can now see it in the sky. How close will it come to Earth?”
There was a long pause from Ralph, and then he said, “We’ve been tracking the asteroid’s progress. Right now, we feel it will pass between the Earth and the Moon, closer to the Moon.”
“We’ve dodged the bullet.” Ralph could hear the relief in Dan’s voice.
“Dan, this asteroid is irregular in shape, but at its widest part, it has a diameter of over 500 miles.”
“Christ, Ralph, what will that do to the tides and the tectonic plates?”
Ralph was quiet for a while, and then said, “We are still trying to estimate the scale of the damage this asteroid might cause, but between you and me, we’re in for a rough ride.”
“I just can’t believe it. Life could be changed, forever”. Dan’s voice was shaky. “Thanks for the update, and please keep me informed.”
Ralph responded, “I’ll tell you what I can, and keep this to yourself for now until we have a better handle on what we’re facing. We don’t want to cause undo panic.”
The conversation ended and Ralph sat silently in his office.
He could not tell his friend the truth; he was sworn to secrecy. The asteroid would be a catastrophe to the Earth as it passed. But that was just the tip of the destructive iceberg. Once it passed the Earth, this massive asteroid would impact Venus, perhaps obliterating the planet, or perhaps propelling Venus into the sun. This would cause a change in the influence of the gravitational pull of the Sun on all the remaining planets. The Earth could possibly change its location to replace Venus.
Unless measures were taken, unprecedented for an endeavor where all people must work together for the benefit of mankind, humanity was doomed to extinction. Even now, all the major industrial nations of the world were in secret talks. They knew the timetable. They had five years to save mankind.
THE END
