The Ark

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

DAY 1074

Several weeks before anyone outside the Sleeper Team knew of the unfortunate fate of Rhonda Miller, and over a thousand miles away, the Hubble Space Telescope was just completing a study of a distant comet. The Hubble and several land-based radio telescopes had been assigned this task after West Coast University requested the government to confirm the results of studies they'd recently completed. The results of those studies had been so shocking and unbelievable, they wanted confirmation from agencies with more powerful equipment available.

The data had been collected over time, and sophisticated computer algorithms applied. After years of testing, these methods have proven their ability to accurately chart the path and determine many attributes of objects that moved through space.

Thomas Williams was the current Administrator of NASA, a position he'd held for the last six years and a role he took great pride in. Having come from an unstable family background, Thomas was not only the first person in his family to graduate college, but also the first to graduate high school. No one was sure who his father was. The best answer he'd ever gotten from his mother was that he was 'gone'.

His mother had worked as a waitress in a dark, dingy bar for many years. When Thomas was a freshman in high school, she'd met Darryl, a drummer in a small band. Not long after meeting him, Thomas' mother went on the road with the band and she never returned.

Fortunately, Thomas had grown up close friends with Andrew King, a boy he attended school with and whose parents were both financially stable and sympathetic to Thomas' plight. When they found out that he'd been abandoned, the King family took Thomas in, with only one stipulation – he was to excel in school and break the chain of failure that formed his family’s history.

With only the briefest of hesitations Thomas agreed, and seven years later graduated with honors from the University of Michigan.

Now he was married with three adult children of his own, who'd all excelled in school and gone on to graduate from college. Thomas was satisfied he'd kept his promise to the late Mr. and Mrs. King, and had in fact broken the chain of failure which had blighted his family's past.

Thomas was a little confused this particular morning. It was unusual for a deputy director to request an urgent meeting with him. It was even more uncommon that anyone other than his wife would insist he cancel something as important as his lunch meeting with the two senators from New Mexico.

This appointment had been scheduled weeks before and the senators were no doubt expecting the royal treatment. He was sure he'd be asked the same questions every up and coming junior congressman enquires about. With any luck, they'd go back to Congress proud of themselves for being knowledgeable about what was going on at NASA.

Ditching the lunch meeting wasn't the problem; he'd been trying to think of a way out of having to deal with them ever since he found out they were on his schedule. The problem was, there was never anything so urgent that he'd be expected to change his plans. After all, the next major launch was five weeks out. There were no problems reported on the International Space Station, and the Orion project was on track. Of course, there was the possibility of an alien spacecraft suddenly entering orbit. But even though he personally believed there was some form of life out in space, he didn't think for a moment they'd decide to arrive for their first real visit just half an hour before his lunch meeting.

“Stan, what can be so urgent that you insist I rearrange MY schedule for this meeting?” asked the overweight Administrator as he stomped into the office.

Stanley Waldorf was the deputy director in charge of the Department of Space Science at NASA, and Administrator Williams had never cared much for Waldorf. Waldorf did his job and did it reasonably well, but he had no concept of how to follow protocol, and his manner of dress left much to be desired. He reeked of an 'I don't care what you think' attitude.

Williams on the other hand, while overweight, was always dressed perfectly. He knew who to talk to and what to say. He'd gotten this far by playing the game and had come to dislike those who didn't want to follow the rules.

“You remember that request we got to confirm that data from West Coast U?” Waldorf asked.

“Yeah. If I remember, you said we were going to check it out but it was probably just a bunch of overeager university types who got their calculations all screwed up,” replied Williams.

“Well, that isn't exactly how I said it, but that's what I thought. I was sure it was a huge waste of time and resources. In fact, I considered trying to find a way to ignore the request. The only reason I didn't, was the fact that the people making the request were the same ones who control next year's budget. I mean these weren't the young pups you're supposed to be dining with now, if you know what I mean,” explained Waldorf.

“Okay, okay, so what's new?” said Williams, his irritation starting to show.

“It seems those university types didn't screw up their calculations – in fact, they were right on. Their readings were exactly the same as the ones we got. Their discovery was accidental, and we probably would have never noticed unless we were intentionally looking for that type of radiation, which we'd have no reason to do,” said Waldorf.

“Has this been confirmed?” Thomas snapped.

“Yes, Tony Jackson and I are working on the details. But there's no doubt that the comet we've been tracking is emitting hard radiation, and it'll pass way too close,” said Waldorf.

“How is this possible? Comets aren’t radioactive.” Thomas cringed, knowing he hadn't managed to hide the fear in his voice.

“Don't know. We've never seen anything like this before, but the radiation is clearly present and detectable, even at this range. As of now it still looks like it'll pass between the Earth and the moon.”

“I want this kept quiet. There have been many false reports like this over the years, and the last thing I need is one which can be traced back to this office.” Thomas warned.

“How long are we going to keep this quiet? This needs to be reported. Also, there might be others who happen to figure it out. The Europeans and Japanese, as well as half a dozen other nations, will eventually detect this and then word will get out fast,” argued Waldorf, with concern in his voice.

“I want it kept quiet until we have all the details. Remember, those university kids found this by accident. It was a fluke that they even detected it, and it took us over two weeks to verify it. We have some time. When I take this up the ladder, I want to have all the answers ready. We'll let them release it as they see fit.”

Waldorf nodded abruptly and left the room, and Williams' eyes were drawn to a picture of his twin granddaughters, dressed in the uniform of their community soccer program. Neither was old enough to understand what a comet was.

Williams knew all about comets, and he knew where this one was heading and the danger it posed. As he held the picture, a single tear formed at the corner of his left eye.