Deianira

Prologue

Roughly A Year Before The Great Fall

Chaos. That was the only word that could describe what was happening. Dozens of people rushed in opposing directions with laptops or paper in one hand and cups of various liquids in the other. Matthew Greenwell wound his way through the panicked crowd with his head down and his shoulders tucked in, making himself as small as possible to avoid bumping into so many people. Well, at least it was an attempt. People still managed to bump into his shoulder, causing some of the coffee from the mug gripped in his left hand to dribble out of his cup and onto his fingers, causing his pale-freckled skin to redden. Matthew grumbled in irritation, shifting his coffee and computer closer to his chest, making sure to tuck the computer far enough from the coffee to avoid spilling any on it accidentally. The irritation that flowed through him had little to do with all the people, even if they did make him uncomfortable, and everything to do with the panic that seemed to radiate from everyone. Matthew knew this day would come, and no one had believed him. Now the day had come to pass, and the entirety of SPACE was a frenzied and clumsy mess, much to Matthew's pleasure. This is what you get for not listening to me. So much for the crazy scientist now, He thought bitterly.

Matthew finally reached the door he needed, only pausing to take a deep breath and relax his shoulders after he shut himself in the room. Taking one glance around the room, Matthew adjusted his brow-line glasses and moved to the very back of the conference room choosing an empty seat. About a dozen or so men and women sat at desks facing a large display in the front of the room where Dr. William Knash, the head planetary scientist here at SPACE, stood discussing the issue at hand. An issue that I predicted would happen about two years ago, Matthew clicked his tongue in annoyance while setting down his coffee and computer and looking at the display at the front of the room. A planet, with coloring very similar to Earth's at first glance, was pictured on the display with the heading 'Olympus Threat.' Underneath the heading, a scrolling text, which Dr.Knash was using to brief the room, could've been best summarized in four points:

A planet roughly the size of Jupiter was discovered three years ago approximately four light years away and was named "Olympus."

Olympus has been progressively getting closer and closer to our solar system over the last three years since its discovery.

Olympus has entered the solar system and is on a course to crash with Earth.

Olympus has not appeared to affect the orbit of anything within the solar system and no one knows why.

Matthew will hand it to Dr. Knash, he knows how to skip past the point that he ordered the

project to be shelved two years ago, despite Matthew telling him there was something more to the planet, and that he only knows about the planet progressively moving closer to the solar system for the past three years because Matthew told him so. William Knash had been blowing off Matthew's predictions since the very first moment he brought it up, saying things like "It is too far away to ever make it to the solar system, let alone enter it" or "This obsession of yours needs to stop, the damn project has been shelved for months." His predictions had been shut down over and over and over again until about three months ago when Dr. Knash threatened Matthew with termination if he continued to study Olympus while the project was shelved. Thus, three months' worth of calculations on the trajectory of the planet was lost and can now only be predicted.

Knowing all this information already, Matthew turned his gaze away from the display above and opened his computer to the most recent position of Olympia and all the previous positions' data points he collected up to three months ago. If he ran the data points through the proper equations and programs he should be able to predict the future pathing of the planet. Matthew was sure that many of the astrophysicists or other planetary scientists, like himself, had already run the same calculations from the data that he gave to Dr.Knash all those times he tried to show him his predictions; however, he also never gave Dr.Knash all the data points. Most notably, Matthew never gave him the points to calculate the upward and downward movement of the planet. He would not allow this project, and all the credit for it, to go to Dr.Knash when Matthew put in all the work for the past two years.

As he ran all the numbers through the various calculations and programs, Matthew's mind drifted to his family. He was right, but what would that mean for his family? What would this mean for the world? The thought made him feel a wave of that panic he found pleasure in seeing in others just moments ago. That panic sat in his gut and burst into a crawling dread. Matthew's head hung itself and his hands stilled on the keyboard. He felt his breaths sharpen and his fingers start to shake. No, not here. Not now. Calm yourself. Breathe, Matthew reminded himself repeatedly. He closed his eyes and focused on steadying himself. Once he felt his fingers stop shaking he opened his eyes once again to see the results now plastered onto his computer screen.

Matthew's face straightened as his eyes mulled over the future pathing of "Olympia" based on his brand new calculations. The other astrophysicists were right, based on the forward movement and the horizontal movement of the planet, it seems to be on a direct crash course with Earth; however, with the vertical movement now added into the calculations, the pathing of the planet shows that it will not crash with Earth but instead go over it close enough for the atmospheres to crash. We can work with this. We may not be doomed after all.

Based on the calculations the planets will meet on December 31st, 2020. The world will change forever in barely over a year and Matthew knew that he must do all he could to prepare Earth for what was about to come.