Heaven's Shadow Read Online Free PDF

bloggers, NASA and Cape officials, and, in the back row, family and friends.
    But not Megan and Rachel!
    Zack’s slow boil was interrupted by the first questioner. “For Commander Stewart—why is Destiny important? Why bother going back to the Moon?”
    The groans from the regular beat reporters gave Zack time to turn to Shawler.
    “Scott, can you bring up the Goddard website?” Shawler was happy to show that he was, indeed, competent, clicking away at his laptop to change the image on the large screen behind the podium.
    A white blob appeared on a black background.
    “This is Keanu, our newest Near-Earth Object,” Zack said. “If you look at the site, you’ll see that Keanu is almost a billion and a half kilometers out from the Sun, and heading in fast. Earth will be in its sights twenty-seven months from now.
    “Our best calculations show that Keanu will not hit Earth, which is good, because it’s around a hundred kilometers in diameter and the devastation its impact would cause would kill everything larger than a bacterium.”
    He turned to Jones, who was, as expected, blinking back tears of wonder at the thought of such horror and tragedy. “We’re going to dodge the Keanu bullet, but one of these days we will spot an object we can’t dodge. And when that happens, we need to be prepared two ways:
    “First, we need to know how to operate around and on NEOs, in case we can do something to change their trajectory. Second, and slightly more important, the human race needs to have a permanent presence on another world, a pocket of humanity that can go on. If a NEO like Keanu hits Earth someday, seven-point-something billion people are gone! Wouldn’t we be happier knowing that the human race won’t vanish from the universe like the dinosaurs?”
    The press conference had settled into the expected questions about Venture’ s pressurized rover and the likelihood of discovering ice at Shackleton Crater when an Indian man of about forty stood up and asked, “What do you say to your Indian and Russian friends who fear a possible American claim to Shackleton as the first step toward interplanetary manifest destiny ?”
    It was Taj! Taj Radhakrishnan, an Indian “vyomanaut” (the Indian space program insisted on its indigenous terminology) who had been part of Zack’s space station team. Zack had sent pro forma invites to all three of the internationals, but given the rising tensions between the United States and the new coalition of Russia and India, he hadn’t expected any to actually show up, least of all Taj.
    And now here he was—with his fourteen-year-old son, Pav, sitting next to him, obviously unhappy—asking the question half the world wanted asked. Zack’s answer: “The plaque on Venture says, ‘We come in peace for all mankind.’”
    “So it does. But what happens when our Brahma lands at Shackleton?”
    “If we happen to be home, we’ll bring over a cup of sugar.”
    Taj smiled and made a perfect bow. “As long as you don’t make us pass through an immigration check. I just had the experience at Orlando. It was humiliating in the extreme.”
    There were scattered boos from the press and onlookers—those who didn’t recognize Taj. Shawler stepped forward. “If that concludes the, uh, questions, I want to have a few words from Gabriel Jones—”
    The JSC chief started into one of his standard sound bites as a member of the KSC security team vaulted onto the stage and began talking to Scott Shawler.
    “What now?” Tea asked, close to whispering.
    Zack saw the look on Scott Shawler’s face as the security guard delivered a message. So did Mark Koskinen. “Somebody’s getting bad news.”
    Then Zack saw Shawler looking directly at him .

My father is landing on a godforsaken planetoidal thing. I’m stuck in mission control. BORED!
    RACHEL STEWART ON HER SLATE
    KEANU APPROACH: TERMINAL PHASE
    “Houston, we’re at fifteen thousand . . . coming up on powered-descent initiation in