The Comet Within

Aaron Warrick bit his lip and stared at the monitor. His sandy-blonde hair hung down low, restricting his vision. A similarly colored stubble covered his square jaw, the only evidence that he was in his mid thirties and not late teens.
"That can't be right." he said, taking a moment to nurse a Pepsi and then return to study his video monitor.

The small flickering monitor showed him a picture from one of the most powerful land-based telescopes in the world. A hazy blue dot caught his interest.
A plethora of comets sliced in and out of our solar system every year, most without notice. People, it seems, have lost all interest in space. Your average comet entering the solar system was lucky to make it on the late news. The ones headed for earth tended to generate the most attention.

Aaron hit some keys, increasing the magnification.

"Good morning sweetheart." He said, to what could only be a very sizable comet.

Aaron was in an empty building surrounded by humming computers, disturbed only occasionally by a passing security guard, and tired beyond belief. His job, however, was no 9 to 5. The sky had to be black for him to work.
It was one a.m. at NASA headquarters Aaron was working late, like always, scanning the skies for rocks. The video monitors he was viewing were direct line feeds from the headquarters of the LINEAR (Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research) project. Their ground-based robotic telescopes are some of the most powerful on earth.
Aaron was one of the twelve people responsible for detecting a meteor, comet, stray asteroid or chunk of moon before it struck earth

So far his work has never paid off, no far off disaster had been averted and no warning had been sounded. Yet.

Now with all 45 of the high power telescopes he commanded pointed at one spot, he was disturbed. Not because he had sighted a comet that was previously unknown, he did that about twice a month. The comet's path was the disturbing thing.
Aaron picked up the phone and dialed his boss.
"Hello?" Said a tired and slightly angry voice on the other line.
"Hey Doug, you won't believe what I've spotted in the sky, it's huge and seems to be composed of a very dense form of iron-ferrite, it-" Doug cut him off.
"If you woke me up at one A.M. to talk about some rock I swear I'll-"
"It will strike earth in about one month." Aaron interjected.
"Pardon?" Doug asked, sounding more confused than annoyed now.
"Closer to 28 days if my calculations are correct." Aaron replied.
"How large is it?" Doug asked, now fully awake.
"127 and a half miles wide give or take a foot. It is awfully far away."
"Are you sure?" Doug asked.
"Quite." Aaron said.
"We must alert the president, and we've got to keep this quiet," Aaron continued, "If this gets leaked to the media..."
Aaron heard Doug sigh.
"Call everyone in, I'll call the president." Doug said.
Aaron slammed the phone down and then picked it back up. This was going to be a long day.


Doug ran to his car, cell-phone in hand.
"I don't care, I know he is sleeping, put him on the phone now." There was a pause and then Doug heard a click as his phone was being transferred.
"Yes?" The president said, obviously disturbed at his being awakened at the early hour.
"Mister president," Doug said, "My name is Doug Shivers, director of NASA operations.