Doomsday Warrior 19 - America’s Final Defense Read Online Free PDF Page B

hear of headsets? You can hear that trash all the way down on E deck.”
    “The photos, Doc, what about the photos?”
    “Oh, here, give me those!” The shaky age-spotted long hands of Schecter fumbled through the sheaf of glossies until he hit the fifth one. Then his long nailed index finger pointed out a short white line across the view of countless stars. “That one, that particular line—an object has moved. Quite a bit—it’s between Uranus and Neptune now. It’s—”
    “An asteroid. So what?” Rock was not impressed.
    “A new asteroid, Rockson. A damned new one. The first discovered in twenty years.”
    Rock rolled his eyes. “So, I’m impressed! Congratulations! I suppose you’ll call it Schecter 2099A? Why not Rockson 2099A—right? Look, if you want me to come to the celebration party and bring my Judas Priest record,” he mocked, “I will.”
    “Get serious, Rock, damn it! You won’t be so happy when you hear this.” Schecter whispered conspiratorially into Rockson’s ear. “Keep this under your hat! This new asteroid is headed toward Earth. It’s going to hit us! Only the council knows this as yet.”
    As Rockson blanched, Rona smiled, “Hey, what are you two up to?”
    “I have to take your hero away for a while, Rona.”
    “Now?”
    “Now.”
    “Yeah, baby,” Rock said a little too softly, “I’ll have to go now, to see the council.”
    “Make sure you come back here as soon as you can. It’s my day off.”
    When Rockson and Schecter left the room, the scientist snapped, “First we go to the observatory. The council told me to bring you on a leash, if necessary, back to their chamber by 2 A.M. That’s another hour. I want you to see what we’re up against while we have the time. Besides, I have to verify some crucial data.”
    The scientist led the Doomsday Warrior to the Railjet subway line that ran beneath the city. Rockson rode the tiny two-seater pneumo-car with the old man up the steep incline to the observatory at the top of Ice Mountain, a nearby peak.
    “Schecty-man,” Rock complained, when they exited the rail car to walk into a vast, dimly lit domed room. “Can’t the heat be turned up in here?” He rubbed his hands together.
    “No! Put on one of those down jackets over there. We can’t have temperature changes in this place—disturbs the optics. It’s fourteen degrees outside, and it’s fourteen in here. That’s perfect for observations.” The scientist walked over to a control panel, sat down, and started hitting the buttons to set the huge telescope in the center of the circular floor. It was an old Schmidt sixty-inch-aperture photo-telescope. There was a hum, and the dome above slid open. The perfectly clear Colorado sky, filled with stars, appeared in that widening gap.
    “I’ve always found astronomy fascinating,” Doc said. “We have only recently set up this telescope. Found it buried in a huge mound of nuclear war debris in Boulder, Colorado—used to be a university there. Took a month to haul it to Century City and another month to get it up the mountain and into this building.” He adjusted a few more dials and then walked with Rockson over to the huge tubal instrument. “Here, look into this eyepiece, Rock. Don’t fog it with your breath.”
    Rockson did as asked. “God! It’s the asteroid! You can see its shape; it’s like a potato.”
    “A potato fifty miles wide, Rock! And note the strange geysers and dark spots on its surface. All quite unusual. The asteroid is somewhat like the head of a comet. That’s our only hope.”
    “Hope?”
    “Yes. Perhaps, as the asteroid gets closer to the sun, those geysers will spout out more violently and shift the course of the asteroid.”
    All this time the old computer bank was chugging and blinking over in the corner. “What do you have on the Mega-Cray?” Rock asked. “Sounds like it’s having a nervous breakdown.”
    “Whenever it’s cold it creaks,” Schecter laughed. “It’s the