Joseph Chips the Secretary of State said, “Mr. President, I think we should reach out to President Aristov to make sure he knows about the rock. This might be a perfect time for us to mend our relations between our two countries.”
The President laughed, “Yeah, a great time to mend our relationship. According to our two experts who discovered the rock, the world is going to end, and this is the time to mend our relationship? Does anyone think any other country knows about the coming rock?”
Professor Imus shook his head, “Mr. President, the rock is very dark and it’s coming from an area of space most scopes don’t look at. Robert discovered it because he was searching in areas usually overlooked. He stumbled upon the rock because it covered up a star he had marked the night before. The star had disappeared which made him curious. He extended his time and discovered the rock. He plotted it and thus discovered the rock’s extremely high speed. He then spent three days calculating the rock’s orbit. I didn’t believe it until I checked his numbers and had the Dean use the supercomputer in the university’s science department to plot the rock’s course. Which we explained will cross our orbit, thus striking us…”
“Yes, yes, as you’ve already explained, but what does this have to do with the Russians?”
“Mr. President, we don’t think anyone else knows about it. If they did, the first thing they would have done is ask other universities and large arrays to check their work and see if the others also saw what they saw. Once other sites confirmed the sightings it would be made public.”
The President shook his head, “Going public will cause massive panic, panic we won’t be able to contain. If you’re thinking the rock is going to hit, then we need to begin preparing. First, I want all of our troops returned home in case we need them to keep order and to assist in the recovery of any damage we suffer from the rock.”
The Director of FEMA nodded, “Sir, looking at the preliminary data we’re going to suffer more than a little damage.”
Before the President could respond, the science advisor said, “Mr. President, there’s one other issue we need to discuss, it is going to be as the result of the rock strike.”
“Well don’t keep us waiting, what other bad news do you have for us?”
“Mr. President do you remember us discussing the sunspot activity. There are now many experts who all agree the sun entered a unique phase and in 2032, this year, we’ll be entering a mini ice age. This has happened before, cooler and shorter summers, much colder winters, but when the rock hits and throws megatons of debris into the upper atmosphere combined with the sun’s activity, we’re looking at a return of a major ice age.”
The President shook his head, “How bad could it be?”
“Sir, two words, we’re screwed. The snow and ice will form massive glaciers which will, over time, cover most of what remains of Europe, all of Canada, Russia and if you drew a line across the Mason-Dixon line, everything above the line will be under the glaciers.”
“How many people will we have to move?”
The Director of FEMA shook his head, “Sir, everyone above the line will have to move south.”
The President’s face paled, “Everyone?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Everyone is millions of people, how the hell do we move millions and where do we put them. Are you SURE we’re going to have to move everyone? How much time will we have to move them?”
“Sir, it all depends on where the rock hits and how much debris it throws up into the atmosphere, if it hits the ocean, we’re looking at a loss of every coastal city, sir, that includes Washington. I suggest we make plans to move the government to the emergency shelters.”
“You’re just full of crappy news aren’t you. I need to take a fifteen-minute break while I meet with my CoS in the Oval Office.”
Fifteen minutes turned into an hour before the President returned to the Situation Room. “If we’re agreed that if there’s really nothing we can do, then we have to use the time we have left to save as many of our people as we can. As such, I’m tasking the DHS and FEMA to quickly, and I do mean quickly, within three weeks, determine where we can and how we can house the millions of people in the north and what we’re going to say to them when we tell them they have to move. I’m also tasking the DoD to determine if there’s a way to change the course of asteroid or if possible, blow it up.”
Zack Milton, the NASA Administrator, who had been connected via a secure video conference when it was determined they needed NASA’s expertise, shook his head. “Mr. President, even if we hit the asteroid with every nuclear warhead we had, we’d only manage to break it into thousands of smaller rocks. Think of the difference between shotgun slug and buckshot. If we break it into thousands of smaller rocks, then we’ll risk those rocks falling on our southern cities too. And we still won’t be able to stop the rock.”
The President shook his head, “I understand, but I want the military to look into the problem. Maybe they can figure out how to nudge it just enough to make it miss us.”
US Air Force general Matthews replied, “Mr. President, I’m not sure that’s possible, that rock is traveling over 50,000 Mph and our ICBMs travel at 17,000 miles per hour. We’re talking about hitting a bullet with a bullet and even if we hit it on the corner, we don’t have enough
