(Author's Note - My entry for Round 12 - Word count - exactly 400 words (according to MS Word) - not counting the title or this note)
I smiled in satisfaction, watching the success of my latest project, Orbital Debris Elimination And Reconfiguration. For years, satellites, rockets and sputniks had filled the stratosphere with rubbish. Tiny, and not so tiny, pieces as they broke up and decayed, eventually becoming a threat to the Space Station and ships travelling to the small Lunar Colony.
Finally, the International Council gave approval for a team of scientists, my team of scientists to be precise, to tackle the problem. After months of planning and research, here we were, watching the gravitational debris attractor circling the Earth, gathering all the space debris in its path as it was programmed to do, like a giant magnet. After one orbit of Earth, the ball of waste would be deflected outward into space like a snooker ball and the next GDA would be launched - and so on until the stratosphere was clear.
The Intrepid was in orbit, ready to deflect the ball of debris when it came into range. Everything had been calculated to the last centimetre. I held my breath in excitement, waiting for that ricochet out into space. Cameras on the Intrepid were recording everything at close range - beaming live to the public.
"Sir? Can you check this out for me? I think we might have a problem." My assistant called me over, an odd note in his voice that wiped the smile of satisfaction from my face. As Director of CORDS' newest project, if anything went wrong, the brown stuff would land squarely in my lap.
"What do you expect of a project called 'ODEAR'?" muttered someone under their breath. I ignored them.
"What is it, Hendricks?" I asked.
But before he could show me, I saw it for myself - live on the screen. The GDA came into sight, far bigger than what we had calculated - bits of the old International Space Station sticking out of it. Horrorstruck, we could only watch it brush the Intrepid aside and continue circling, like a giant snowball getting bigger and bigger.
And when it grew big enough it would plunge down to the Earth, killing millions.
But the Intrepid hadn't given up. On the next orbit she rammed the debris-ball side on at fullspeed. The Intrepid exploded on impact but it knocked the debris out of its trajectory, out into space, towards the moon.
And the Lunar Colony.
Oh dear.
