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THE COMET:
Okana grits his teeth to keep from crying out. “I need a little help over here.”
Alex hurries around the device, kneels down beside his friend, and sees the crystalized red blotch on Okana’s leg. “You’re injured and losing atmosphere.”
Alex grabs one of the straps and wraps it around the injury, cinching it tight to seal the tear in the suit. “Can you walk on it?”
Okana reaches out for Alex’s hand. “Help me up and I’ll find out.”
Alex hauls Okana up from the surface and catches him as he wobbles for a second before gaining his balance.
Okana keeps one hand on Alex’s shoulder as he puts all his weight on the leg and grits his teeth against the pain. “Yeah. I can make it back inside, but the bolt bounced off something really hard so we need to find a different location.”
Alex grabs Okana’s arm and helps him back to the airlock. “We don’t have enough time and your losing air. While you decontaminate, I’ll drag the device further away and try it again.”
David stares at Okana hobbling back to the airlock. “I’m still in my suit, Alex. I’ll come out and help you.”
“No, it will take two decontamination cycles already and we can’t afford to waste that much time. I can do it alone.”
Okana makes it into the airlock and closes the door to start the cycle. He stares out the window at Alex, who is trying to drag the device away from the ship. Through his headset, he can hear Alex grunting under the strain and realizes that compared to the last three locations, this time it’s much more difficult to roll the device across this surface.
Alex barely manages to drag the device two-feet further away from the ship. “Melvin, why am I having so much difficulty this time?”
“This piece of the comet is a remnant from a supernova that exploded approximately 4.7 billion years ago. It has sufficient gravity to hold this device in place.”
Alex stops pulling. “Why didn’t you find a better location?”
“Because this is the only area that will work. The outside edge of this piece of material is fifty-three miles away, and that’s not suitable for our needs.”
Alex drops the tow bar and walks back to the airlock. He sees the line between the shadow and sunlight on the surface of the comet quickly moving toward the ship. He knows Okana’s decontamination cycle will not be complete before he is exposed to the sun’s radiation, but doesn’t mention it to his friends.
Okana stares through the window at Alex as he waits for the ship’s artificial gravity to pull all the dust particles from his suit. His brows bunch together in curiosity when he sees Alex close the gold-colored shield over his visor. A moment later, both Alex and the device are bathed in brilliant sunlight.
Jadin watches Okana wobble for a moment, indicating he is running out of air, and possibly blood. She has David remove her helmet before backing up against the storage rack to remove her suit. She then helps David remove his helmet and suit before running back to the door. The airlock will not pressurize until all the contaminants had been removed, and it seems to be taking forever. “Melvin, how much longer?”
“Twenty-three seconds to equalization.”
Okana feels light-headed, leans back against the wall, and slowly collapses onto the floor.
Jadin watches Okana slide out of sight and presses her face against the window so she can see him. When she looks up, she sees Alex’s helmet through the window in the outside door. “I can’t tell if he’s still breathing.”
Alex cannot get his face close enough to look down at his friend and slams his fist against the window. “Don’t you dare die on me again, Okana! Do you hear me? Okana!”
Jadin hears Melvin tell her to proceed and opens the inner door. She kneels down and opens the face shield on Okana’s helmet. His skin is pale blue so she places her fingers over his open mouth. She leaps up and turns to David. “He’s not breathing! Help me get him out of here!”
David moves to Jadin’s side and helps her drag Okana into the cargo hold. He jabs his finger against the button to close the door and kneels down to help remove Okana’s helmet. “He doesn’t look good.”
Jadin feels for a pulse on Okana’s neck. It is weak, but at least his heart is beating. “He’s got a pulse.” She bends over and begins breathing for him. She takes a short pause to glare at David. “Don’t just sit there! Start taking his suit off!”
David reaches under Okana’s body and tries removing the large life support system on the back of the suit, but the clips holding it in place seem to be jammed.
The outside airlock door opens and Alex hurries inside, closing it before rushing to the window and sliding his sun shield up to see how Okana is doing. He sees Jadin breathing into Okana’s mouth and David struggling with the awkward support backpack.
David notices the crimson stain growing larger on Okana’s leg and knows his friend could bleed to death before they get the suit off. He knows the suit is ruined anyway, and jumps up to run to his locker, grabbing his pants and pulling out his pocketknife as he runs back. He tosses the jeans aside, kneels down beside Okana’s leg, and removes the strap Alex had tied around the tear. He tries cutting through the suit, but the blade barely slices the outer layer. “This is tough material.”
Alex watches David sawing the knife blade across the suit. “It won’t work. You’ll need to roll him onto his side to get the support system off.” He glances up at the red light. “Melvin, how much longer?”
“Three minutes, Alex.”
Okana’s breath is suddenly forced into Jadin’s mouth as he coughs, and she leans back. When she looks at his face, the color is beginning to return. She smiles and looks over at David. “He’s breathing on his own. He’s going to be okay.”
Alex stares through the window as Jadin and David manage to get Okana onto his side. When David releases the clips, the support system falls off Okana’s suit and he drags it out of the way. When Jadin lets him roll onto his back, Alex can’t see Okana’s face. “How’s he doing?”
Jadin doesn’t reply as she listens to Okana’s breathing. She looks up at Alex. “He’s going to be okay.”
David helps Jadin release the clips along the chest and legs of the outer suit. He sees blood oozing from the tear in the inner suit and reaches under Okana’s leg to press his palm against the wound.
Okana slowly opens his eyes and stares up at Jadin. “I dreamed you were kissing me.”
Jadin stares down at him. “Only in your dreams, Okana. How are you feeling?”
“My leg stings a little, but I’m fine.”
Jadin leaps up and runs to one of the lockers, yanks open the door, and grabs an orange plastic case. She hurries back to David, kneels down beside him, then reaches inside the first aid kit and hands him some surgical scissors while she brings out pads and gauze. Once David cuts away the inner suit around the wound, she binds the quarter inch gouge in Okana’s leg.
Alex catches a flash of green light in his peripheral vision and opens the inner door. He takes off his helmet as he steps into the room and stares down at Okana.
Okana still feels lightheaded, but manages to smile up at Alex. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, how about you?”
Okana gives Alex a smirk. “I finally got Jadin to kiss me.”
Jadin playfully slaps Okana’s hand. “That was saving your life, you idiot.”
Alex removes his outer suit. “I guess we’re ready to go. Melvin, how are we doing for time?”
“We are thirty-two minutes past our failsafe range. I’ll be able to make up the difference, but I’ll require several new power crystals along the way.”
David looks up and sees Alex staring back with a questioning expression. “We only have twelve spares. That’s all Holly could get for me without a lot of red tape and delaying our departure by another day.”
“All right. Melvin, will that be enough?”
“Possibly. I’ll know more after the first hour.”
“Okay, let’s get moving.”
***
SIX HOURS LATER:
While Melvin maneuvers the comet into position, it is deathly quiet in the control room as Alex watches the Earth slowly vanishing behind the massive chunk of ice and rock. From his viewpoint, the devices look like the spokes of a wheel on the end of the comet.
“We are in alignment.” Melvin informs them.
“All right. Let’s see if these things still work.”
David stands and hurries over to the separate control console for the devices. He taps a glowing blue touchpad. When it turns red, he returns to his seat to see what will happen. All four devices appear to be shimmering, and as each one rotates into the sunlight, the billowing clouds of gas bursting from the comet quickly freeze, creating thick white wings rising from the surface. With each rotation, the wings slowly merge into an ever-expanding umbrella of ice.
On the way to their destination, Alex asked Melvin if they could move the comet further from Earth to increase the size of the cone of protection, but at that time, they were just trying to catch up with the small blue world in the distance. “Melvin, how are we doing with the power supply?”
“Getting the comet here drained the crystals much faster than I had anticipated.”
Okana is laid back in his chair with his injured leg propped on the control panel in front of him. “Okay, Mel. Will we have enough power to move the comet out of the way once this part is over?”
“It will be close, O.K.”
“Hey, I’m just asking a question. You don’t need to get all snippety about it.”
“What is snippety? You called me Mel, so I called you O.K, for Okana.”
“That’s too confusing. I won’t abbreviate yours, and you don’t abbreviate mine, all right?”
“Okay. That is my answer, not a joke.”
Okana turns to look at David. “Can you put him on mute?”
David grins at Okana and shakes his head no. “He’s working and needs to keep us updated. Maybe once the mission is over.” When Okana turns back to the view, David stops grinning and stares at the expanding umbrella of ice.
***
GROOM LAKE:
Holly grabs the remote control for her television and sits back in her chair. She stares at the image of a news announcer with a comet in the background. She knows the comet’s change in trajectory is already baffling every scientist on the planet, and now it has settled onto a course that will smash into the Earth at a nearly perpendicular angle. She turns up the volume when the picture behind the announcer changes, showing a simulated trajectory of the comet and the shock wave spreading across the planet.
“This just came in and it’s been verified. The comet will hit the Indian Ocean.”
The picture changes, showing glimpses of groups of people praying in the streets. “Most of our staff has already left the building to be with loved ones before the end, and I’m sure most of the seven billion people of earth want to do the same.”
The picture changes again, showing scenes of chaos. “As you can see behind me, sporadic incidents of violence have already begun around the world.”
Holly is beginning to worry about Alex’s plan. He didn’t mention that the comet could still hit the Earth.
***
THE COMET, TWENTY-NINE HOURS LATER:
They manage to block the radiation, and David is watching the diminishing numbers as the power quickly drains from the crystals. For the past two hours, they have been trying to drag the comet onto a new course so it will miss the Earth, but it isn’t working. According to Melvin, the combined gravitational pull from the Earth, the moon, and the planet Venus are having on the comet is making it extremely difficult to change its trajectory.
As one of the two remaining crystals turns black, David replaces it with his last fully charged one. “That’s it. If the power consumption stays the same, we’ll smash into the Earth with the comet.”
Alex has an idea. “Melvin, could we move the comet if we had four new crystals?”
“It would be close, but yes, I could do it.”
“How much time do we have before it’s too late to make a difference?”
“Sixty-three minutes.”
“How long will it take to get us back to Earth so we can get some new ones?”
“Eighteen minutes each way.”
“Thirty-six minutes. That leaves us twenty-seven minutes to get the crystals. All right. This isn’t working, anyway. Take us home.”