I was intrigued with the story of an asteroid flying by the Earth today. This is the result.

Fly By

Jean Nichols, blogger for What’s Up!, hung up the phone. She scowled at her computer monitor. Something was wrong. Communications had been intermittent since the asteroid called DA14 was announced.

Jean’s friend, Pete Willis, an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory, Discovery Channel Telescope near Flagstaff, Arizona, told her the asteroid was going to be a near miss; inside the orbit of several communications satellites, as a matter of fact. Despite the assurances of the government on every major TV news outlet, she was already having trouble with her computer and her television reception. Even now, her computer monitor had gone all fuzzy again, static coming through the speakers.

She tapped her pencil on the notebook in her lap, biting her lip. If only, Pete, was nearby; she could go over and see what was going on. She pulled her rolodex out and started flipping through it. Who did she know nearby, or even two or three hours away from her Glen Burnie, Maryland, home? She stopped on a card, an old college friend, Kim Anderson. She was working at a research facility just over the Maryland line in Virginia. Electronics and communications research, she’d be perfect. Jean called her to set up an appointment for later today. The reception was terrible.

At 6pm Jean was waiting for Kim at a Macaroni Grill, not far from the facility where Kim worked. Jean stood as Kim approached and the old college friends hugged before they sat down. “Jean, it was so nice to hear from you this morning,” Kim unfolded her napkin and put it in her lap.

“I’m blogging a story about the asteroid. I thought you’d be able to give me some information,” Jean took a sip of the water she had the waiter pour while she waited.  “What’s the scoop from your point of view?”

They their conversation paused while they ordered. After the waiter left, Kim lowered her voice, leaning over the table. “Well it’s causing havoc, that’s for sure.”

Jean put her notebook on the table, pen in hand. “But the talking heads on TV are all saying the asteroid won’t be any danger. The thing is close, but will fly by India and back out into space.”

Kim was shaking her head. “I know that’s what they’re saying, and maybe it will. But in the meantime, whatever the thing is made of is affecting everything in the shop. If it’s electronic, it’s affected.”

The waiter brought two glasses of wine. “Your entrée’s will be out shortly ladies.”

Jean picked up her glass, “Thank you.”

When he left, she asked her old friend, “Any idea what’s causing it?”

Kim shrugged, picking up her wine glass. “No idea, lots of guesses though; everything from new elements to little green men. The government has a request out to everyone to find out what the issue is and provide a solution.”

Jean took a note; then asked, “Do you have government access to asteroid video?”

“We do; a feed straight from JPL and NASA.”

Grinning, Jean asked, “Do you think you could get me in to see, after supper?”

Kim knotted her forehead then shrugged, “Why not. The company has all kinds of people in and out at all hours. Sure, I’ll sign you in.”

After dinner Jean followed Kim to her company parking lot. As promised, Kim had no trouble signing her into the building. They went to the lab where Kim worked and found two guys there, working on diminishing the impact of the electronic interference. The JPL feed was on a 36 inch flat screen at the end of the lab.

Kim introduced Jean to Wayne and Ani, and walked her over to the JPL feed.

“Wow, the tracking data direct. How is the signal so clean?”

Wayne spoke up, “Shielded cable.” He motioned at a monitor on his workbench. “This is the local cable channel feed, it’s a mess.”

Jean could see that the signal was so bad she could barely make out the news reader’s face. “There’s no sound?”

Wayne reached over to the remote and unmuted the sound, nothing but static. He turned it back down. “I had to mute it. I couldn’t stand the noise anymore.”

Jean looked back to the big screen, “When’s the asteroid supposed to pass by?”

Kim looked at her watch, about ten minutes from now. They stood watching the JPL feed of a simulated asteroid passing by the earth. An inset showed the actual tracking on radar. At about five minutes until it was supposed to pass by, the tracking screen took over the whole picture. The asteroid had stopped.  All four men stopped what they were doing and came over to the screen. “What the hell,” Wayne offered. The rest of them just stared at the screen.

Kim turned up the sound. A JPL spokesperson came on, telling the audience that they didn’t know what was happening, but from the tracking data, the asteroid had indeed stopped its’ fly by and appeared to have parked in orbit around the earth.

Looking at the small group around her, she saw Kim chewing on a nail. Wayne said, “Crap!” and ran over to his bench. He grabbed the remote, unmuting the sound. “Guys, look at this!”

The cable feed had cleared and the screen showed a face, but nothing they had ever seen before. “Greetings, people of Earth. We are from Ceti, you will comply with our demands.”

Wayne took a step toward the monitor, face pale. “That’s what we get for sending calls out into space.”

The End

928 Words

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