Shot in the dark

Lost in the darkness

"Meteorite EXO PRINTA 20X entering earth's exosphere at 50 km/s." announced excitedly the head of NASA satellite data, Henry Stafford. Cabe Passerin, overwhelmed by the excitement, made an effort to stay calm as he observed the data readings on the massive screen. His friend Domenico Tritelli, the astronautical engineer in charge of this whole operation, glanced at him and they exchanged a quick smile: they both knew that they were witnessing history itself. "EXO PRINTA 20X entering earth's Mesosphere!" Announced Stafford. Everyone in the NASA mission control center fell silent, the screen lit up and a live video from the OSS (Observatory in Sahel and Sahara) came on: the dark night sky over the observatory slowly started reddening until it seemed almost on fire with a vivid red patch in the sky. "Extraordinary" murmured Domenico. Suddenly a fireball emerged from the reddest part of this heterogeneous mess that was, moments earlier, the calm Saharan sky. Cabe was on the edge of his seat.

Suddenly everything went dark, all the computers and screens went black and the room was drowned in darkness. A murmur of confusion rose, "Get the power back on! Or we will lose the meteorite!" Shouted Domenico over the disorganised shouting in the room. "There's no point, shouted back Henry Stafford, we have been cut off from the OSS and lost all contact with the satellites!" "But how will we localise the landing point if we have no images or data?" desperately cried Domenico. "Forget your damn meteorite Dom we have more pressing problems to deal with", interjected Cabe angrily, he turned to one of his subordinates, "call the ectrical room and ask what happened!". His interlocutor hurried to a telephone on his desk. He dialed the number and waited, concentrating on his own concentration "Nothing!" he exclamed after a few seconds of intense silence. Cabe was surprised, there was always someone in the electrical room, it was the lifeline of NASA's mission control. Strange, he thought. But this was neither the time, nor the place for thought. He turned to Domenico,"I'm going to the electrical room to activate the auxiliary power supply, stay here and calm everyone down, starting with yourself".

He then ran out of the room, through the emergency doors, to the back of the NASA building where the electrical room was. While he ran, he thought to himself , It can't be a coincidence that the power went off just during the impact of the meteorite. He finally arrived at the room, he froze, his fears had been justified: the door was open and the once living electrical room operators lay on the floor. Cabe knelt next to one of the liveless bodies, he could not identify the cause of death, the medical examiner would know. He turned towards the electrics, what he saw would have horrified the bravest electrical engineers: switchboards had been ripped apart and cables cut and twisted. Cabe walked across the carnage towards his only hope: the auxilary power units.

But his hopes vanished when he saw the mess of torn steel and rubber that once was the auxilary power units. He stood in front of them, abashed. But his torpor was quickly disturbed by the sound of footsteps. He was momentarily blinded by the light of a torch, it was Domenico.

The professor made a few steps, taken aback by the extent of the carnage. "Whoever did this did not want a single amp of current flowing through the building" joked Cabe. Domenico was not in the mood to joke, "Four months of intense work thrown away! I had dreamed of this day and now it has turned into a living nightmare. Who could have done this?". "Someone who wants to get their hands on our meteorite, replied Cabe, someone who knows about it's pricelessness". Domenico nodded, "How could he have known about it, NASA's best kept secret." "It's not that well kept after all", replied Parren. "It has too be a mole!"cried Domenico. "That's probable. Whoever this or these people are, they succeeded in blinding us. They probably used their own telescope to identify EXO PRINTA 20X's landing site." "They might already be heading towards it", Domenico seemed terrified at this idea.

Suddenly Domenico paused. He had noticed something on the floor. He knelt down. "What is it?" inquired Cabe. "Have a look at this!" exclamed Domenico. Cabe knelt besides him and Domenico pointed to the floor. At closer inspection Cabe realised something was inscribed there, with use of chalk. "Fidite Nemini" he read out loud. "Latin" said Domenico.

"What does it mean?"

"Trust no one"