Milton nodded, “Mr. President, the rock is moving so quickly the odds of striking just the right place and coordinating all six or hundreds of our rockets together is very difficult. The odds say at least two of your rockets won’t strike at the correct location at the right moment. The explosions might shift the approach of one of your new rockets…”
“Yes, yes, my own people have said the same thing. Time is as you say running out, do you agree to work with us or not?”
President Lanoha nodded his head, “Yes, the United States will agree to whatever you ask.”
“Excellent, now our two space experts can talk while you and I discuss the world after this event. Do you have another conference room?”
“I really don’t know, let me check.”
A moment later the President smiled, “We can use the Admiral’s cabin, for as large as these ships are, they weren’t designed to hold meetings between heads of state.”
“I understand, mine have the same issue. I thought your aircraft carriers would have sufficient room.”
“I’ve ordered us something to eat while we talk.”
After President Aristov took off to return to his ship and then fly back to Moscow President Lanoha asked Milton, “What do you think?”
“Sir, it’s possible. We stopped looking at it because we didn’t have enough warheads or the rockets to launch large weapons towards the rock. However, I still stand by our analysis that so many nuclear weapons exploding so close together will negate some of the explosions and some may force a late arriving rocket away from its target.”
“What about sending our ICBMs into space with theirs?”
“Can our rockets be reprogrammed to fly into space versus going up and then down?”
“The Air Force has been working on that question since we first learned about the rock. So far they believe they can do it.”
“If they can, then I agree it’s worth trying. At this point in time what do we have to lose? Will we need the missiles or even have access to them when they are buried in silos under North Dakota which is going to be under a glacier?”
“Plans have been made to remove them so a glacier doesn’t crush their warheads and spread radioactive material into the winds which might cause additional problems which we don’t need.”
“I didn’t know that…”
“Not in your area. Your responsibility is space, the Air Force and others are responsible for the weapons. Once it became clear there wasn’t anything we could do to stop the rock, we began making plans to move our weapons to safe locations and develop new launch systems which we’ve also accomplished so we don’t have to spend resources being used to dig shelters to dig new silos. I have General White, the commander of the Minuteman Missiles waiting for us on a secure line.”
Two hours later the decision was made. The Minuteman Missiles could be re-purposed to coordinate with the Russians. The two strategic missile commanders were placed in communication and their staffs linked so if the Russian’s initial missiles failed the combined land based ICBMs of both countries would launch.
President Lanoha spent many sleepless nights and worked twenty hour days as Robert’s Rock continued flying towards the Earth and then only weeks away and the secret having held, an amateur astronomer shook the world when she announced she’d discovered an unusual and previously unknown asteroid flying towards the Earth. She announced she though the asteroid would pass close to the Earth. The media initially picked up the story saying the rock could be the closest pass in centuries. The amateur, Susan said, “I don’t know if it’s going to hit us or not, I don’t have the computing power to calculate the two orbits, I think it will come very close, inside the Moon’s orbit and maybe only 50 to 100 hundred thousand miles from our planet.”
Her statement set off panic that if she was wrong by a fraction of a decimal the asteroid would strike the Earth. Every network put their “experts” on the air. They all agreed that an asteroid of that size striking the Earth could destroy most of the life on the planet and it could jump start a new ice age. Panic spread across the globe. The massive panic and riots which were a result of the people’s frustration and anger bubbling over.
Cities around the world were torched. The riots caused over a billion dollars of damage. Local police were outnumbered and, in many locations, outgunned. Running gun battles spread around the globe. Old hatreds flared into battles between neighbors and even countries. India and Pakistan tossed an even dozen nuclear warheads back and forth leaving over sixty million dead. Nuclear war also erupted in the Middle East as Iran launched nuclear missiles at Israel who responded. When the dust settled, Iran and Syria were dead. Israel plastered the two countries with a total of over 150 nuclear warheads. The radioactive cloud of deadly fallout was pushed by the wind into Russia which threatened Israel with a counter strike.
The growing nuclear explosions caused Presidents Lanoha and Aristov to agree they had to announce to the world they had known of the asteroid and had a plan to deal with it. The two announced they were going to hold press conference that night at 8 PM. The world held its collective breath waiting to hear what the two Presidents were going to say. Many rumors spread around the world. The odds makers said they were going to announce they had a plan to deal with the asteroid and everyone should calm down. The media tried every trick they knew of to find out what was going to be said, but they quickly learned the two presidents wrote their speeches together without any input from anyone.
The two presidents used a split screen to appear
