He was on night duty when he saw it coming.
The advanced radar system employed by the weather research institute was designed to provide high-quality weather, hydrological and climate data. However, the extremely wide, penetrating range of the radar’s equipment together with the latest software enabled it to pick up the advancing meteor where other systems couldn’t. So, the researcher sitting in front of the screen was seeing what everybody else wasn’t. At first he spent time thoroughly checking the equipment to make absolutely sure that what he was seeing was the real thing. To broadcast a warning of this magnitude, only to find out later that it was only a glitch, would see an end to his current employment if nothing else. Having convinced himself that the information was valid, he began to work out timelines. He’d always been good at doing timelines and he liked doing them.
The size and speed of the thing were far greater than any recordings ever previously made. Whereas the largest came in at around fifty to sixty tons, this one had to be between forty to forty-five times greater! The records show that these usually move through Earth’s orbital space at an average of around twenty kilometres a second, the object becoming even clearer on his screen was travelling at around one hundred and fifty kilometres a second! It became obvious that a direct collision with the planet would mean its total destruction. He checked his figures again. His postulated timeline to impact was around seven minutes. He sat back staring at his figures.
As it happens, the man who saw what was coming had always been a fairly insouciant sort of fellow. Whereas, the fact that he never got flustered had often annoyed people no end. It now served him in a practical way. He calmly considered his options. Should he first contact the institute’s director? Come to that, what about the world leaders? If he did, what could any of them do about it in the remaining minutes? Should he phone home? This would only send his family into a state of panic before they were annihilated. That would be unkind.
He thought about the six minutes now remaining… He considered the fact that within the building, one floor below, a state-of-the-art coffee machine had recently been installed. It was free for staff use. He had used it just the once, but it did manage to make a particularly fine Cappuccino coffee. He quickly worked out a timeline for this.
From the console to the stairs, the stairs obviously being functionally more reliable than the lift, he couldn’t afford to make mistakes. Yes, the stairs; down these, out and turn right, get to the vending machine, etc. He scribbled away before coming up with a three-minute timeline. With only five minutes left he considered that to enjoy the coffee properly in only two minutes was a bit of a stretch, but considering it would be the last one he’d ever drink, he’d go for it.
He made good time getting to the machine. He was pleased to see that it hadn’t run out of cups, or beans, or milk, or water, or had a failed water pump or heater, or had clogged delivery pipes… or power failure. These thoughts took seconds only. It all worked fine and he managed to drink it, albeit a touch hurriedly, when he heard the first mighty howl of wind, felt the sudden rise in temperature and saw the first widening cracks running up the walls.
He momentarily wondered about how long it would take for the planet’s debris to scatter through space to a point where the individual chunks would no longer be recognisable as coming from a planet. He didn’t have time for this…
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