The Comet Within

I have some very disturbing news"


:

27 days and 12 hours later in a room full of tired scientists a man stood up.
"Why not just fire every nuclear weapon we have at it, surely that would help."
Everyone laughed, nervous laughter.
"Sure would make me feel better" the man said, sliding back into his chair.
Doug was astonished; he looked around the room.
"So that's it?" He said, "We're officially giving up." There was no response; everyone was slumped in their chairs. The stench of defeat was so strong you could smell it a mile away.
"Go home to your families." Doug said rising from his chair and leaving the room. After him one, and then another of the scientists walked out, heads down, dejected, beaten. Aaron was not among them.
Where was Aaron? Doug wondered. He had discovered this thing. He had also been the first to suggest a plausible solution to the comet's approach.
Aaron believed that a nuclear blast, of some forty warheads, beside the comet would change its trajectory enough for it to miss earth. Most everyone agreed with him. So his plan was the first put into action, about one week after the comet was found, the missiles launched had detonated near the rock and it hadn't changed it's path by a foot. Aaron had never recovered. Some people just couldn't accept defeat. He hadn't been very talkative since, he just sat at his desk and punched numbers.
Doug wandered over to Aaron's desk. Aaron was typing madly at his computer; he looked up as Doug approached.
"Doug," he said, "I'm glad you're here, I've noticed some weird things about the comet."
"Like?" Doug asked
"Well, first off, My plan had no effect on it." Aaron said.
Doug sighed.

"Aaron, it isn't your fault, we all thought the blast would work. Some things are just inevitable, this comet cannot be stopped." Doug said.
"It isn't the fact that the blast didn't work that bothers me." Aaron said, "We were all prepared for the possibility that we wouldn't change the comet's course enough to make a difference. The thing that bothers me is that the blast had absolutely no effect whatsoever.
We fired 40 nuclear warheads at the load of rock and not so much as a piece of gravel broke away from it, and it didn't slide off course by a meter. And there are some other things that are trouble me too."
"What other things?" Doug asked, sitting down next to Aaron.
"Not one thing caught in its gravity, It weighs thirty tons and has nothing caught by it's gravity.

"Comets are mostly ice," Aaron continued, "The infrared maps we have of the comet show it is warm. Why?"

"Equipment malfunction?" Doug said, shrugging.

"Maybe, but I have another theory." Aaron said.
"Okay." Doug said.
"I don't believe that there is a comet headed toward earth at all." Aaron let the effect of his statement sink all the way in. Then he continued. "If you were an alien species trying to invade earth, how would you do it?"
Doug replied with a blank look.
"I think you need some sleep." he finally said.
"Look at what has happened since word leaked out about the comet that would kill earth," Aaron flipped through the newspaper on his desk, "500,000 people have committed suicide, another 20,000 have been killed in murders, society has broken down, marshal law has been declared, religious hysteria has ensued. The military is busy keeping the peace. All this prior to the announcement that we are powerless to destroy it.
All this because a rock is coming, and the closer it gets the worse the situation down here gets.