Age of Power 1: Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page A

I
ended up watching more television. The big news, one morning, was that while
the IAU had originally cataloged the asteroid with a string of numbers and
letters, the asteroid was quickly renamed Yama by the public and the media.
After some debate, the International Astronomical Union let that stand because
they agreed with the argument that it almost killed us. Yama was the Hindu God
of Death. India didn’t argue about anyone using the name of one of  their religious deities. Given its size and the density,
Yama would have devastated the planet, including them.
    However, despite
the panic, some good news did come with Yama. Tests on the meteor fragments
showed several unusual heavy metals not normally found in meteorites. It wasn’t the nickel-iron type of space rock that Earth normally
gets from space. The various heavy metals discovered were enticing
enough to get Planetary Resources Incorporated to consider going out to it.
Their interest grew when NASA announced that studies of Yama through
spectroscopy, as well as from tests done on the meteor put its elemental worth
at around nine-hundred trillion dollars. I wasn’t even sure how anyone could
even imagine that level of money. But after hearing about the study results,
there were even more industries wanted to mine it.
    Mom made a joke
about how Iowa should make a grab for mining rights since it had flown over the
state. In spite of being grounded , life began to feel
good. Everyone seemed to feel good about things. After all, we escaped near
death, on a planetary scale.
    We should have
hunkered down.
    It turned out
that the two hundred and forty square miles of asteroid wasn’t going into any
sort of orbit after all. Somehow, it sped up and changed in its trajectory. So instead
of going around the Moon to enter into a stable orbit, it would now come around
to smack into the planet. The scientists looked pole-axed by the change in the
asteroids behavior. One-tenth of a degree away or towards the moon, and Yama
would have stayed harmless. But some unknown factor had changed the trajectory
of Yama’s original course into a perfect killing shot. On the second day of the new year , we all found out that Yama was going to hit
just north of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada.
    Moments after
the announcement, YouTube had the simulations. People in the government got
very tense when that bit of news came out. I don’t think they much appreciated
the scientists for passing on the message. The desk reporters harshly demanded
answers to their questions. The first question being was how they could have
missed seeing this possibility in the first place. The astrophysicists sounded
confused. They just couldn’t explain the odd increase in the asteroid’s speed,
and even argued openly about its changed orbit. As for the rest of the kids on
the planet, well, all seven billion promptly lost their minds.
    No, people
didn’t react well to hearing that, finally, Doomsday was coming. Time was
up, life was done, and don’t bother turning out the lights. The asteroid would
do it for us. Oh, and school was canceled. Yay!
    Overnight,
people began to fight for food, water, and gas. They fought over everything
they could get their hands on in some effort to find a path to safety. To my
shock, even Brand disappeared. The day after the apocalyptic announcement, I
called him and no one picked up. My texts went unanswered, and he never
appeared on the messenger service we used regularly. So, early the next
morning, while Mom was asleep, I walked to his house.
    The Housemans were
gone. Looking through a window, I saw papers, blankets, and a broken suitcase
on the living-room floor. It wasn’t hard to figure out that they had abandoned
the house after they heard about the change in Yama’s trajectory. I walked home
to give Mom the bad news. We hugged, we talked, and it helped. But it didn’t
stop the sense of hurt and surprise about their absence.
    I knew these
people since I was a kid. Karla