Susan McGraff, professional astronomic reassurer, looked out the window of the small jet as it streaked over the US, probably somewhere over Georgia. She was not actually a "professional astronomic reassurer" it was what she referred to herself as. I am actually a theoretical astrophysicist masquerading as a human being. She looked down at the ipad in her hand wanting to increase the resolution on the the radio cameras in orbit hundreds of miles above her. The resolution would come soon, well hopefully soon.
Here she was flying to some place in Tennessee where this wave had intersected the planet. Why Tennessee? Yes, she had actually asked that and was told by the annoyed Lieutenant Max-something that she could discuss this to her hearts content when she got there with some Professor Williams whose SETA team had found the "Ripple" a few weeks ago. Apparently he would be meeting her at the landing strip she was enroute to.
Susan had no idea who Dr. Williams was, much more than he was a mostly ignored member of the Berkeley staff who spent his time and government subsidies searching the universe for intelligent life or something. She should be fair. He probably didn't deserve that remark. But she was not in the mood to be kind.
The pictures of the impact, no effect that the wave "ripple" had on the YSat Communication Satellite were dramatic on the level of a science fiction movie. Well almost. The actual time it took for the effect of the collision took longer than any sci fi fan would have sat still for. Still as she flipped through the footage, the collision remained thrilling as the Satellite shuddered and ripped apart until the thruster fuel or batteries or something ignited and the satellite blew apart. Fortunately, for all those folks up there and the other satellites, it blew into tiny bits. No, she corrected herself as her mind began the calculations, the debris would only impact a fraction of the atmosphere, given the orbit and decay most of the debris would miss the space station and other satellites.
Well, some news is good news.
As to the other news, it was curious and infinitely more troublesome. The early reports coming in were worse, much worse. From the small amount of data that she had been sent so far, it appeared that the ripple had stopped as soon as it intersected the physical surface of the planet and something had happened for about six minutes before the entire wave had ceased in sending. There was still an aftershadow of course where it had been. But the ripple had vanished from the universe as far as the radio satellites could tell. There was a logical explanation for this but the guys with the military were still freaking out about it.
Given what little she knew about overall galactic mechanics, it was unlikely that a natural phenomena could hit the Earth twice. But the behavior of the wave pointed to artificial intelligence which meant that the air force was trying to persuade the president to go to def con 4 most likely as the first real panic in years set in.
What do you do when the aliens invade the planet in six minutes or less?
Here she was flying to some place in Tennessee where this wave had intersected the planet. Why Tennessee? Yes, she had actually asked that and was told by the annoyed Lieutenant Max-something that she could discuss this to her hearts content when she got there with some Professor Williams whose SETA team had found the "Ripple" a few weeks ago. Apparently he would be meeting her at the landing strip she was enroute to.
Susan had no idea who Dr. Williams was, much more than he was a mostly ignored member of the Berkeley staff who spent his time and government subsidies searching the universe for intelligent life or something. She should be fair. He probably didn't deserve that remark. But she was not in the mood to be kind.
The pictures of the impact, no effect that the wave "ripple" had on the YSat Communication Satellite were dramatic on the level of a science fiction movie. Well almost. The actual time it took for the effect of the collision took longer than any sci fi fan would have sat still for. Still as she flipped through the footage, the collision remained thrilling as the Satellite shuddered and ripped apart until the thruster fuel or batteries or something ignited and the satellite blew apart. Fortunately, for all those folks up there and the other satellites, it blew into tiny bits. No, she corrected herself as her mind began the calculations, the debris would only impact a fraction of the atmosphere, given the orbit and decay most of the debris would miss the space station and other satellites.
Well, some news is good news.
As to the other news, it was curious and infinitely more troublesome. The early reports coming in were worse, much worse. From the small amount of data that she had been sent so far, it appeared that the ripple had stopped as soon as it intersected the physical surface of the planet and something had happened for about six minutes before the entire wave had ceased in sending. There was still an aftershadow of course where it had been. But the ripple had vanished from the universe as far as the radio satellites could tell. There was a logical explanation for this but the guys with the military were still freaking out about it.
Given what little she knew about overall galactic mechanics, it was unlikely that a natural phenomena could hit the Earth twice. But the behavior of the wave pointed to artificial intelligence which meant that the air force was trying to persuade the president to go to def con 4 most likely as the first real panic in years set in.
What do you do when the aliens invade the planet in six minutes or less?
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