8 Making Some Calls

It had been several hours since they last heard from anyone. There was no word from Houston but odds ware they were too busy trying to save the planet to give a hoot about those who were off world. They were not the ones who were in imminent danger at the moment. They were getting closer to Earth thanks to burning most of their fuel and they were just ahead of the asteroid. That was their plan, which they hoped would give them enough time to take on the new passengers and get out of dodge before all hell broke loose. Captain Rogers was too busy flying and Morgan was using whatever instruments he had on board to analyze the asteroid from space. He was taking pictures with the blackberry and whatever cameras were on the ship and used instruments on board to scan the rock and see what it was made of. After looking at the data for a little under an hour, Morgan tossed what he had away and cursed out loud.

"What's going on Morgan?" Rogers asked.

"Over half of that piece of shit is lead and iron." Morgan said as he came back to his seat. "Even if they hit it with every missile on the planet, which is not possible to begin with... it will have little or no effect on its path or density."

"What do you mean it's not possible?" Rogers asked.

"Close to half of the missiles on Earth are not equipped to fly into space, only to cross the ocean." Morgan explained. "So even if they wanted to, they couldn't launch everything and they shouldn't anyway."

"Why not?" Rogers called back.

"It could just make things worse." Morgan added. "Even if this asteroid isn't big enough to wipe out all life on the planet, the last thing you want is to make it radio active before impact. That could poison the entire planet. Chances are they're only going to launch a few rockets, ten of them tops."

"I never really thought of that." Rogers said as he was impressed. "How the hell do you know all this?"

"I have some friends who work in that field and I talked to them about it all the time." Morgan said as he kept looking around. "They had been warning the government about this to get funding for more scopes to look for rocks that could hit us, funding for shelters to be built. I'm sure they would do anything to be wrong about what's about to happen."

"I bet they do," Rogers agreed. "Should we tell everyone down there about what you found out about how dense this rock is?"

"There's no point," Morgan replied. "It's like asking a boxer to walk into the middle of the ring and put his hands down. Let them go down fighting."

"There's always a chance you could be wrong." Rogers added.

"That's true." Morgan said, but he had little doubt. As far as he could tell, the Earth was doomed and there was nothing they could do about it.

"Check the cell phone." Rogers asked. "We're getting pretty close."

Morgan took the Blackberry out of his pocket and checked it. "Shit, we have three bars! We have a signal!"

"There you go," Rogers said. "Don't hog all my minutes."

"Alright, thanks." Morgan dialed a number into the keypad and hit the green button to initiate the call.

He waited as the phone rang and after a few rings, someone finally picked up the phone. "Hello?" a familiar voice answered. It was his sister-in-law.

"Marcy." Morgan said as he was even glad to hear her voice. "It's Morgan... I'm calling you from space!"

"Morgan!" The other side called back. "It's nice to hear from you."

"Is Jake home?" he quickly asked.

"I'm afraid your brother is at work." Marcy answered.

"What about Gracie?" Morgan asked.

"She's here." Marcy said as she called out to her daughter to pick up the phone. "Your uncle is calling from space, come say hello!"

Moments later his nine year old niece was on the line. "Hello, Uncle Morgan! How are things in space?"

"Pretty weightless." Morgan said with a laugh. "How are you doing all the way down there, Gracie?"

"Things are okay." She answered. "Dad and I are going to the park tomorrow so we can look at the moon base from our telescope. Will you come out and wave hello for us?"

"Give me an exact time and I'd be happy to come out and say hello." Morgan lied as he wiped a tear from his eye.

"Uncle Morgan," Gracie started. "When I grow up, can I be an astronaut just like you?"

"Of course you can, sweetie." Morgan answered. "You can do anything you want as long as you put your mind to it. You're a bright girl and I know you are capable of doing great things."

"Thanks." Gracie replied. "I love you, Uncle Morgan."

"I love you too, princess." Morgan said as he got all choked up. The little girl passed the phone back to her mother. "Marcy, let Jake know that I called and that I love him."

"Is everything okay, Morgan?" Marcy asked.

"Everything is okay." Morgan lied. "Just seeing things from up here put it all into perspective. It's very humbling."

"I can imagine," Marcy agreed. "Take care up there Morgan. I'll hold the fort down here."

"Thanks Marcy." Morgan said as he sighed. "Good bye."

He disconnected the line and looked back at the Earth. He paused for a moment and then dialed another number. After a few rings, someone picked it up. "Mom, it's Morgan!"

"Morgan?" his mother said back to him. "Where are you?"

"I'm calling you from space!" Morgan said again.

"Morgan!" his mother squealed with surprise when she realized who was calling and from where. "We thought you were on the moon?"

"That's in space too, Mom." Morgan answered. "Look, I don't have too much time but I wanted to take a moment to say hello to you and Dad. Can you put me on speaker?"

"Of course." His mother said as she clicked a button. "We're both here, Morgan."

"Nice to hear from you son." His father said.

"Thanks." Morgan said as he wiped a tear from his eye. "I wanted to let you know Dad that we played a round of golf on the Moon today. It was almost in the exact spot where the first astronauts did it."

"Wow, talk about being an exclusive member." His father said with a chuckle. "I can't begin to tell you how proud we are."

"Thanks Dad." Morgan said as he watched the asteroid from his window. "I don't have much time but I wanted to let you guys know that I love you and I'm thinking of you every time I look back at home."

"We love you too son." His mother said. "It was nice to hear from you."

"I'll call again soon." Morgan lied.

"Thanks for calling son." His Dad said. "Take care of yourself."

"I'll do my best." Morgan said as he shed another tear. "Good bye."

Morgan disconnected the line and handed the phone back to Rogers. "Your turn. We'll call Houston after we all say our good byes."

"That's a good idea." Rogers said as he took the cell. "Why didn't you tell them, about the asteroid?"

"What if I'm wrong and the missiles work?" Morgan retorted with his own question. "The last thing I want to do is start a panic if it might not be necessary."

"Fair enough. Houston and the White House might not appreciate us leaking this too soon." Rogers said as he took the cell phone back. "My parents have been gone for a while and I'm an only child."

"Weren't you married before?" Morgan asked.

"Call the ex-wife?" Rogers said and the more he thought about it, the more he liked it. He had a wide grin on his face as he dialed the number and let it ring. "Hello? Angie, it's Jack. Yes, I know what time it is. I don't care if I woke you up. Look, I'm just calling to let you know that as of right now I'm going to stop paying your alimony. That's it! Not one more dime! Getting upset isn't going to change the fact that I'm through paying for all the things you're doing with that bastard you cheated on me with. You get that loser to foot the bill for a change because I'm done. Go ahead and call the lawyer, I don't give a shit. Your ride on the gravy train is over, bitch!"

Right after making that statement, Rogers disconnected the line and was grinning from ear to ear.

"Damn, that felt good." He said, passing the cell back to Morgan.

"Would you like a cigarette?" Morgan asked sarcastically.

"Those things are bad for you." Rogers said, laughing out loud.

"Well, if I was on the Earth right now... I'd light up." Morgan said as he took his seat. He took the phone back from Rogers. He used the internet to look up a phone number and then dialed. "This should be fun."

"Who the hell are you calling?" Rogers asked.

Once the line picked up, Morgan smiled as he started to talk. "Hi there, my name is Dr. Morgan Taylor. I'm onboard the Lunar Shuttle and I'd like to speak with the President."

"Morgan!" Rogers said as he finally realized what Morgan was doing. "Did you just call the White House switchboard?"

"Sir, I don't appreciate prank calls." The operator replied.

"I want you to tell your boss something: not only are Captain Rogers and I onboard the Lunar Shuttle, we're on our way back to the planet. That isn't public knowledge." Morgan said with an air of confidence. "Yes, go ahead and look into it. I'll wait."

Morgan put the phone on speaker and a few minutes later, the line came back. "Please hold for the President."

"Holy shit!" Rogers said as he couldn't believe it.

"Like I said, only a few people in the world know where we are and why." Morgan said with a grin. "That was enough to get us through."

"Dr. Morgan, this is the President. I have you on speaker with my staff as well as the joint chiefs."

"Madam President, this is Captain Rogers. Thank you for taking our call."

"What's the situation?" The President asked. "Do you still have a visual of the asteroid?"

"We do and it's not looking good, Ma'am." Rogers answered. "Dr. Taylor has been taking pictures of it from our unique angle and we're going to email them to NASA to give them more Intel."

"Well done, Captain." Another voice answered. "This is Admiral Jones, the Secretary of Defense. Do you have any other plans besides your ongoing surveillance of the asteroid?"

"Well, Sir." Rogers said as he took a deep breath. "We're currently on our way to rendezvous with the international space station."

"We're not comfortable with that idea." The Admiral replied.

"I'm aware of that, Sir." Rogers replied. "But this is not up for debate, we need to save them."

"Explain yourself." The President asked.

"Even if your planned defenses work and take out the asteroid." Morgan said as he stepped in. "The debris field left over would make orbit too dangerous for the space station. They need to be evacuated from the station regardless of what happens down there."

"Dr. Morgan, you should know by now why international guests are not welcome on Lunar One." The Admiral reminded him. "We don't want to take that chance."

"I'll tell you what, Sir." Rogers said as he came back into the conversation. "If you manage to take out that asteroid, I will land this puppy and Andrews in a few days after the debris clears and Lunar One's secrets are safe."

"That sounds like a plan to me." The President replied.

"What happens if we fail?" the Admiral then asked.

"Then keeping Lunar One's secrets won't matter anymore." Morgan answered. "We'll need as many people up there as possible in order to preserve the human race."

"Is it really that bad up there?" the President asked.

Morgan took a deep breath. "If that rock hits the earth... we're looking at an extinction level event. All vegetation will be destroyed, along with every living thing on the surface."

"I wish there was more I could do up here, Madam President." Rogers said as he didn't like feeling this helpless. "But right now all I can do is clear the path for you to nuke the shit out of that rock. Once we're clear, you can pound that thing with everything you've got and not have to worry about accidentally taking out the space station."

"How much time do you need, Captain?" the Admiral asked.

"An few hours, at least." Rogers answered.

"You have two hours." The President replied. "After that we fire everything we've got regardless if you're clear or not. Understood?"

"Understood, Ma'am." Rogers said as he realized what he was being told. "I will do my best to make sure we're all out before that happens."

"Good luck, Captain." The President said. Her tone made it clear to both men they had work to do and their conversation was coming to an end.

"And to you as well, Madam President." Rogers said and seconds later the line went dead.