The Ares Initiative by M G Herron

Author:M G Herron [Herron, M G]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Alien Contact, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Space Exploration, Fiction
ISBN: 9781987767582
Google: rJu7DwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07B6SLYD6
Publisher: M.G. Herron
Published: 2018-06-01T23:00:00+00:00

21

Press

Eliana had been torn from Amon’s bedside to attend this damned press conference. Although her own nausea from back-to-back Translocations had receded, it seemed like nothing could undo this twisted knot of sickness in her stomach.

Her mind dwelled constantly on Amon and all the things she was sorry she ever said to him, or even thought in his direction. It all seemed so trivial now that he was lying unconscious and on the brink of death in a hyperbaric chamber tuned to prevent his atoms from flying apart.

You stupid, brilliant, idiotic, brave, hardheaded man. I hate you. I love you. You can’t leave me. Don’t you dare leave me. Please, God, let Amon come back to me and I promise I’ll be a good Methodist again.

With these thoughts running through her head, it took her whole effort to keep her cool and focus on the director’s words. His forehead glistened with nervous sweat where he stood front and center before a huge crowd of reporters and camera people, vans with bright spotlights mounted on top, and not a few members of the public all gathered in front of the closed gate to the Austin Lunar Research Center.

General Wade and his assistants stood in a row flanking Director Badeux, with Eliana at the left end, as far from the center as she could get. She blotted at the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes, and sniffed—too noisily, she thought. She couldn’t seem to help but draw unwanted attention from the nearest reporters in the crowd. Good thing that what Enzo was saying was so captivating that it soon absorbed everyone’s attention.

“On the night of November the second, astronomers at the SOLARPulse-1 lunar observatory detected a large asteroid on a course bound for Earth.”

The director gestured to the portable hologram projector that appeared beside him. As if on cue, a large asteroid, rendered as a 3D model for just this occasion, popped into the air.

“This information was intentionally but temporarily concealed from the public,” Director Badeux said. “The Lunar Terraform Alliance, in conjunction with the leaders of the United States military, including the President himself, agreed unanimously that it was in the interest of national security to keep this information classified until such time had elapsed that the threat had been eliminated. We wanted, least of all, to cause a widespread panic, especially concerning a problem that was completely out of the control of the general public.”

He pressed his glasses up on his nose and took a sip of water before continuing.

“Throughout the course of the last week, a contingency plan was executed with tactical precision, and ultimately, with success. Put into place decades ago by the Lunar Terraform Alliance and the U.S. Air Force, with cooperation from governments around the world, this plan was designed to protect the planet from inbound Near Earth Objects—NEOs—such as this asteroid, that were potentially life-threatening to our world.”

General Wade nodded his approval. The general’s stoic expression was hard to read, especially from this angle down the row of people and in the harsh glare of the light.

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