7 Accessing The Situation

While Morgan thought it was a bit premature to write off the Earth, he liked the idea of linking up with the International Space Station.

"You might want to check with the station first before you burn it all away." Morgan suggested. "We should try to contact them now."

"Good idea." Rogers said, fiddling with the controls again. "Lunar shuttle to International One, Lunar shuttle to International One, please respond."

There was still some static but the radio came back to life again.

"Lunar Shuttle, this is International One. We're getting a lot of chatter from the planet. What's going on down there?"

"Listen very carefully," Rogers replied, preparing his ship for another burn towards the planet, "There is an asteroid heading for the planet."

"We can't see anything."

"Trust me, it is coming." Rogers said as he took a deep breath, "I need you guys to use your thrusters to break orbit. Get some distance from yourself from possible impact debris but don't fly in the direction of the moon. That's the current flight path of the asteroid. We're on our way to you now."

"Rogers, this isn't funny."

"Break orbit and try to get a little distance from the planet," Rogers barked into the com, "That was not a request."

"We're going to need to verify this with Houston."

"Go ahead," Rogers replied, "We informed Houston of the issue just before we lost communications with them."

Rogers still burned the engines for another minute, and rocketed their shuttle towards Earth. Rogers turned off the radio and Morgan could tell that he was starting to become annoyed with the people on the space station.

"If that rock hits the planet," Rogers said to no one in particular, "it's going to launch a lot of debris into the atmosphere. A lot of it will shoot outside the atmosphere and destroy anything orbiting the planet."

"Including the International Space Station," Morgan confirmed, "It would be like a billion bullets flying at them at once, traveling a super speed. They'd all be killed but if we do pick them up, what do we do with them?"

"We take them back to Lunar One," Rogers answered, "They'll be our first international guests."

"Is there enough room and supplies for everyone?" Morgan asked.

"More than enough to last a while." Rogers answered.

"Alright," Morgan said, still looking at the asteroid, "Let's do it."

"I wasn't exactly asking for permission," Rogers said with a sly grin, "But I do appreciate your enthusiasm."

After finishing his latest burn, Rogers reactivated the radio to re-establish communications, "Lunar Shuttle to International One."

"We read you Lunar Shuttle."

"Have you confirmed the situation with Houston?" Rogers asked.

"No need." The voice replied. "We've got a visual of your asteroid and you're right; it's heading right for us."

"Have you broken orbit?" Rogers inquired.

"Not yet. We want to know what your plan is, Lunar Shuttle."

"Our plan is to pick you guys up and bring you back to Lunar One." Rogers answered. "So please break orbit and get as much distance from the planet as you can."

"Houston says they're going to fire missiles to knock the asteroid off course to save the planet."

"Even if that works, the EMP from the missiles could knock out your station and send you crashing to Earth." Morgan said as he felt Rogers needed help with the details, "So right now your best chance at survival is to come back with us to Lunar One."

"How long can we survive up there?"

"A lot longer than if you stay where you are," Rogers answered. "And there are smart people working on that question at Lunar One... so let them handle it. Our mission right now is to get you guys out of there. Let Earth deal with the asteroid, there's nothing any of us can do about that."

"We only have four space suits, we're three short."

"I have four spare suits in the hangar." Rogers replied. "We'll bring those in and you'll all be good to go. Please tell me you have the emergency fuel tanks onboard."

"Still here and untapped."

"Good." Rogers said as he let out a big sigh. "I'm going to burn up all my fuel to get to you guys as fast as I can. Use your thrusters to make as much distance as you can. We'll be there in a matter of hours."

Rogers activated the rockets again and went on a long burn. He looked back up at the asteroid that was making its way to Earth just as fast as they were.

"They don't have much time down there." Roger said to his friend.

"I know," Morgan agreed as he thought about what it meant to his friends, his family. "They don't even have time to prepare for the worst."

"They have an enormous arsenal to deal with that, we have to worry about our own for now." Rogers said as he jetted the shuttle towards the space station. "Once we get there, we won't have a lot of time to get out."

"You better tell them that." Morgan quickly added.

"Good idea." Rogers said as he flipped the switch. "Lunar Shuttle to International One... just to let you know, we're coming in hot. You guys had better be packed and ready to go when we get there because the moment this baby is refueled, we're hauling ass back to the moon with or without you."

"Understood Lunar Shuttle. Thank you."

"No problem International One." Rogers said as he flipped off communications. He turned to Morgan. "Is there anyone you want to say goodbye to down there?"

"A few." Morgan said as he looked at the endangered planet. "My brother and my niece would be one. I also wouldn't mind calling my Dad, tell him we did a round of golf on the moon."

Rogers laughed and then reached into one of the drawers that was built into the shuttle. He pulled out a cell phone and tossed it to him. "We should get a signal once we're within range of one of the satellites."

"Do you have a good roaming plan?" Morgan asked.

"Funny." Rogers said as he gave out a soft chuckle. "In a few days, my mobile carrier might not exist anymore."

"Fair enough." Morgan said as he looked at the small phone in his hands. It was a Blackberry, which was good because it was reliable and had a keypad which many of them preferred when wearing spacesuits. He turned the small phone on and it didn't have a signal yet.

"I'll let you know when we have a signal." Morgan said as he put the cell down somewhere he could check back on it every now and then.

Rogers didn't reply and kept looking at the asteroid as it continued to hurtle towards their planet. "It wasn't supposed to end this way."

"In what way?" Morgan asked.

"This bastard is coming in with little or no warning," Rogers said. "We should have had more time to send someone like Bruce Willis or Robert Duvall up there to save the world."

"I hate to be the one to break it to you," Morgan started as he floated to the back of the shuttle to take a few pictures of the asteroid from their unique angle, "But Hollywood lies to you concerning just about everything. Truth is, if we didn't happen to see that bugger float by the moon, no one would have seen it coming until it was five our six hours out."

"I thought we had people watching the skies?" Rogers called back.

"Those massive telescopes barely cover five percent of the sky." Morgan said, as he could sympathize with Rogers' frustration. "Finding anything coming at us would be trying to find a sniper in a forest using a small pair of binoculars. Truth is this is exactly how it was going to end. This isn't the first time our planet took a hit like that. It won't be the last either. This is how the dinosaurs went and it looks like its how we'll go out as well."

"Speak for yourself." Rogers said as he activated the rockets for another burn. "We're going to beat that rock to the planet and get those astronauts back to Lunar One where I plan to live a long, full life."

"You really believe we can last that long?" Morgan asked.

"I know we can," Rogers answered, "Lunar One has a lot more secrets that you haven't even scratched the surface on yet."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Morgan said as he sat back in his seat and sighed.

Turns out that space station on the moon was going to be their sanctuary away from home. While it seemed clear the reset button was about to be hit on Earth, the human race still had a fighting chance on the moon.