Lunar One

Chapter 13: Reaching Out For Help

     Morgan had been looking for Liz all over the base, but it hadn't dawned on him that she might be on the top level. Yet there she was, sitting in what was the observation deck of what the world thought was the very tiny lunar one colony. She was sitting on a small bench, looking out the window at the massive planet that used to be their home. What used to be a beautiful blue sphere of with small piece of white and green was now replaced with black and red, and a massive orange circle where the asteroid first impacted with Earth. Morgan didn't say anything as he walked over and took a seat on the bench beside her. They both looked up and stared at the evidence of what was a mass extinction event. The entire planet looked to be engulfed in flames, burning right before their eyes and it was the saddest thing they had ever seen.

     "How did the fire spread everywhere?" Liz asked, finally breaking the silence between them.

     "Do you want the short or the long answer?" Morgan replied.

     "I'll take the short for now," Liz said, eager to hear the answer.

     "Debris," Morgan answered, "When the asteroid crashed into the earth, as I had earlier predicted on the space station, a lot of debris rose higher than the atmosphere, and that posed a danger to more than just the station. When the rocks came back down, they heated up on reentry and turned into fireballs and then crashed back into various part of the planet, lighting those parts on fire. Tens of thousands of those large pieces of debris went everywhere, causing fires all over the world."

     "That large orange circle," Liz continued, "I assume that's ground zero?"

     "It its," Morgan confirmed, "But the color is because of liquefied rock, because a large portion of the asteroid was melted down during impact. So what we're looking at is a massive pool of lava. It will eventually cool down."

     "It just looks so depressing," Liz said, looking at the red planet, "How long will it stay like that?"

     "I'm not sure," Morgan replied, "It could be weeks, months, or even years. That's when things will freeze up. Eventually the Earth will experience a mini-ice age and that's when the healing process will begin."

     "Not for anyone that is still alive down there." Liz countered, "For them, their fight to stay alive has just begun."

     "If the winter doesn't kill them, they'll starve when all plant life and animals drop out of the food chain." Morgan said before wiping his brow, "I don't mean to be so cruel about it, but those who were killed by the impact got off easy this time out. In this case survival just punches them a ticket to an even more painful death."

     "Did you know the cameras up here caught the whole impact on tape?" Morgan asked, not taking his eyes of the planet.

     "I didn't," Liz confessed, "I'm not sure if I want to see it."

     "Me neither," Morgan concurred, "I'm not sure I'm ready to watch a video of my family being destroyed along with billions of other humans."

     "I can't believe they're all gone." Liz said, never taking her eyes off the broken planet before them.

     "I can't believe it happened in our lifetime." Morgan added, "What are the odds that it happened during out small slice of life, hundreds of millions of years after the last planet killer made impact?"

     "Way higher than any state lotto?" Liz guessed.

     "Even more," Morgan replied, "I just remember what Rogers said on the shuttle. All the kids that never get to graduate from high school or get married or have a chance to experience life. All of it was snuffed out before they could really enjoy it."