Tangor, in: Astroid Attila (Episodes #17 & 18)

Tangor, in: Asteroid Attila
(Original named: ‘Star Emblazoned’)

[Space Traveler] Episode #17 Written:
2-21-2007 (Reedited and revised 4-14-2007)

First time in Print



1
(Asteroid Attila)

I was in my spacecraft, left Mars’ orbit, couldn’t hear the voices anymore, and my ships camera picked up a photograph—I should say it was coming in, faded, and clearing up, becoming sharper; my spacecraft had been circling Mars for two years, almost inactively; the photo was among many, coming in, but only one with this certain image, and it became stunning in that it become clearer not because of my camera’s inability to pick it up, it was coming clearer because it was coming in closer, I could now see the silhouette of an asteroid heading for Mars or Earth, I couldn’t tell exactly, it shifted like a giant condor in full flight, I called it Asteroid Attila, I perhaps should not say called, in the past tense, but ‘call it,’ since it is still coming.
The closer it got the lesser of a dot it became, or black spot in space I should say. I concluded then, it would strike, or come close to striking Earth or Mars in the very near future (perhaps five years), it was picking up speed, not slowing down.
When you discover something like this, there is a cold sweat that permeates throughout your body, and that is what was happening to me, an unsure dread for Earth or Mars, or perhaps Earth’s moon, which blocks the sun from burning the Earth up to a crisp, so hitting the moon in full force also bothered me. I do believe Earth would not have the technology to strike the Asteroid in time, causing it to become fragments, and thus, striking the Earth, but not so devastatingly was my goal, is my goal. The Earth could absorb the fragmentation process, and if the moon was hit, it also would most likely split a good portion of that off into space, and being only 250,000-miles away, the Earth would get a double bombardment, but again, it would survive. It would slip off its axes, and perhaps, cause a crust movement, but again I say, not the end of time, just a bad, very bad bombardment, causing the seas to light up, and the mountains to cascade and a few other catastrophic events.
On the other hand, if Mars got hit, its understructure would look like its surface, dreadful, and there would be a ripple effect, all the way to Earth and beyond, in space.
Slow it down, that was my idea, perhaps Earth will have time to create technology by the time it would be expected be hit by it, or shoot a nuke at it and hope the strike would move it out of Earth’s direction.


2
(Buying Time)

How much time, and how slow did I need to slow the asteroid down to allow Earth to mobilize whatever it needed to counter the attack of the Asteroid? I asked myself this question off and on for days. Five years, was this feasible? I asked myself. The solution could change, and the object accelerates, then what. Space is funny, it shifts its position, like a ball thrown in mid air, it is all cascading, and objects in space pick up energy, and lose energy quicker than the mind can calculate, velocity was only part of the equation, and it was not totally fixed.
It was approaching at an unbelievable speed, closer ever minute, noticeable that is, or at least the object presented that image, it was a speed I had never imagined, I’d have to invent a speed for this cosmic body, it seems it did not to adjust to Earthly rules, and caused me to disbelieve my eyes. I examined the shadowy object with my cameras, as it approached, it was a giant asteroid, perhaps one-eight to one forth the size of Earth’s moon (Earth’s moon being one forth the size of Earth itself.) The strike would be devastating. Whatever it was, I was at a loss, I called the Los Andes Space Station, in Huancayo, Peru, they had not seen it yet, and were in disbelief. Actually they snarled their nose at me, you could say. I suppose, it goes to say: ‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ this was their premise for telling me I was limited in my reasoning and saw perhaps some kind of shadow in the far-off galaxy.


Written: 2-27-2007



Tangor, in: Meteor to Asteroid Attila

[Space Traveler] Episode #18 Written:
2-21-2007 (Reedited and revised 4-15-2007)

First time in Print


I did do something though, I found a meteor circulating between Earth and Mars, perhaps this object about one hundred miles in circumference could undermine or weaken the large asteroid coming towards these two planets, or so I thought, by putting it in its pathway, blocking the full impact if it hit the moon or Earth, or even Mars. I had three atomic torpedoes on my ship, and I set one into…flight, to intercept the meteorite, and it would hit it, thus, hoping its debris would remain in a wider orbit, in the same neighborhood it was already in, and therefore, block, or slowdown, or even knock the asteroid off its axis once it entered the fragmented zone of this meteorite, and perhaps, forcing it to take another route, around earth or away from the moon and Mars.
In essence, I expected it to hurt the asteroid, and save earth from a total collapse, catastrophe; celestial mechanics was not my forte, but it might work I concluded.

(Tangor was many things, Space Traveler, Astronomer, hunter, but most of all, he was a gambler in fate. He said, “Is not the earth called mother?” implying she is a living thing, but one we happen to live on, like lice stuck or hidden within human hair. If she dies, so do we who live on her, so he did what he could do, and left the rest of to fate.)