a big lungful of air. Breathing fast, I looked around to see Elliot was passed out. I called his name and Annie responded via the main speaker for everyone to hear.
“Dr. Whitmore has fainted,” she said, “his vital signs are steady are there are no immediate health concerns.”
“Thanks,” I said aloud, unwilling to expend my precious breath on too many words.
Farnham was tapping the screen in front of him, checking the accuracy of their blast and aligning the trajectory to target. His tablet floated up past his face in the zero gravity, making him pull at the cord to get it out of his line of sight.
“All good,” he announced, “ETA seventy-one minutes to the Ark.”
Lapsing back into a state of rest, I tried and failed to return to my calm feelings from before the rocket engaged. I waited with almost catatonic boredom as my mind dissociated from the reality that I had just left Earth and, if I returned at all, I wouldn’t be back for over a hundred years.
“Taking manual control on my mark,” Farnham announced as he hit the screen again to prepare to disengage the automated navigational functions. “Three, two, one, mark,” he said in the clipped voice of a professional immersed in his work. Almost imperceptibly, I felt the pod’s attitude change, then felt my body thrown forward the few centimeters it could travel against the tight harness holding me in place. Our pilot had hit the brakes hard, firing the thrusters at the end of the tube full to arrest our momentum. I leaned over, watching the screen showing my new home overlaid with the trajectory in colorful lines as Farnham inched us closer slowly. A tense moment where we all, including the freshly awake Elliot, held our breath collectively as Chapman called out the meters to target, counting them down until he called out, “One,” and everyone cringed until the distant, muffled, metallic thumps of the pod connecting to the docking port sounded.
Looking above and ahead to the round aperture which separated us from the cold vacuum of death just outside, my heart leapt to see the array of green LEDs blink into life to signify that we had a good seal.
“Docking procedure complete,” Annie announced, inviting a sarcastic and subdued cheer from a couple of us.
Unstrapping myself, I floated free for the first time since the diving plane all those months prior. If I was honest with myself, I thought that real zero gravity was actually easier and less disturbing to my body than the training was. Here I got no sense that I would feel forced back down at any point, as though this feeling was more permanent.
Chapman reached the door and tapped in a code to unseal the pod door. There was a hissing noise as the air rushed past the opening and the pod became part of the station’s atmosphere.
“Welcome home, gentlemen,” Chapman said with a courteous wave of his hand inviting us all inside before spinning and propelling himself gently through the air.
Chapter 13
Washington, D.C.
June 1, 2032
“Sir, we have another problem,” said Sarah Masters, the replacement chief of staff, as she strode into the Oval Office clasping a loose collection of papers and slim folders. She read as she walked, glancing up to see that the president was giving her his full attention, albeit with a look of bored resignation. Continuing as she looked back down to the paper, she explained what the most recent issue was.
“An observatory in Idaho has detected the asteroid and have asked NASA publicly to explain their findings.” She paused, waiting for a response but received nothing but raised eyebrows. “Sir, NASA has a responsibility to the people, and we can’t keep this covered up forever. There are less than seven months until this thing hits us, and I don’t need to remind you of our obligations under the agreement.”
The president snorted his derision. The information he had received the previous November had sparked a chain of urgent events which saw almost every world leader meet in relative secrecy, at a remote airfield in Portugal which was close to a golf course and hotel. The airfield had been secured quietly by troops, and the hotel emptied of all but the necessary staff and all of those remaining were vetted and supervised.
Forty-six heads of state, along with their single most senior advisor, arrived quietly to be transported to the grand building. As it was the US government who called the covert summit, they were