THE CARROT

Ch.6 - Administration

Six Hours After Impacts
HoxLow National Observatory and Space Monitoring Station
Kenmore Facilities, South Texas

Jeff Ward, director of hemispheric phenomenon, held his hands in fists where he stood looking at the computerized images of a large asteroid field. The images held by HoxLow Vector Systems, a NASA contractor was now being looked at as part of current events.

The HoxLow team had been one of many sub-contractors who were part of a larger research group that looked at deep space objects. The computer imaging director Kyle Ward was reviewing part of a section of images that had been scanned in a pass from the German satellite called Rosetta. It was a long term mission designed to do many things. One of the impromptu missions captured the asteroid field in a luck of the draw.

HoxLow mission analyzer, Paul Fenwood, pointed to a particularly large rock on the computer display screen and explained his theory.

"This is asteroid number 230-HH-5. We believe it is a parent to the incoming objects we are experiencing. This particular group of asteroids are moving much faster than normal space debris. The objects we are now getting are fast, dense, and large enough to survive atmospheric collision damage. Some of the material is burning away, but enough is remaining to reach the ground. Our radar units can only pick them up if they are pointed in the right direction. The problem with these particular objects is that they are coming in at a very steep angle. They come straight down and do so at great speeds. We have practically no warning."

Ward pulled a chair over from another terminal.

"How many have we been hit with?"

"Three, so far. One hit in the Pacific Ocean causing a large wave to do quite a bit of damage to the California coast. Another one hit in the desert of southern Arizona. Many people were killed or injured in California and we believe the asteroid actually may have sunk a Chinese shipping vessel. The one in Arizona hit a border patrol operation taking down a helicopter. You already know about Brownsville."

Ward's jaw went slack.

"What else do you know?"

"Ahh, yes, there is more," replied the representative. "The debris field is out of the original forming of our solar system. We believe this field swings around in a strange orbit every million years or so. Earth is travelling though this field at a tremendous speed itself while the objects are moving at speeds of fifty to several hundred thousands and maybe millions of miles per hour due to the gravitational tides that cause the orbit anomaly. The objects that just hit us are some of the slower and smaller ones. If some of the faster medium ones hit the ground... earth will take some major damage. A large fast one will be an earth extinction event."

"Can we do anything about this?" asked Ward.

The representative sighed, took a chair and leaned his elbows on his knees with his palms in open face form.

"Sir, we all watch movies like Armageddon and all the other meteorite impact stories, but we just do not have the technology to prevent such a catastrophe. These objects do not even appear on our detection systems until they are within several hundred thousand miles. They are too small and too numerous to track when they are on a head-on trajectory. When we get a broad side look we can find them easier, but this phase of their orbit places us in a bad viewing position. Besides that, the color spectrum analysis show some strange readings. Some of the debris is made out of stuff we can't even identify. We believe they survive entry because they are made out of some kind of cadmium and boron based iron mixture with some other elements we have never seen before. One of the new elements is being called Corbanium."

"Can we expect more hits?" asked Ward.

"Probably. We don't know one way or the other, but the threat is there with plenty of ammunition."