Bridge to Nowhere

Flying Blind

Monday Evening

Curtis Ross sits slouched at his desk. His hefty size makes the large executive chair look small. His desk is twelve feet long and runs along the wall of what was once the dining room of his house.

Mounted on the wall above the desk is a wireless, 8K thin-screen monitor, twelve feet wide by seven feet high and two millimeters thick. The flexible monitor is paper thin. The screen displays several windows. One window displays an image of the solar system, another the asteroid belt. A third one shows a list of all known asteroids, while others display e-mail, YouTube streams and a video chat room. On the wall behind Curtis is another wall-sized thin-screen streaming multiple news channels with the audio muted.

Curtis chews on a piece of pizza and sips cola from a Giant Gulp cup while video chatting with his boyhood friend, Jin Goldberg, and Jin's girlfriend, Becky.

Jin is a Korean, Jewish blend with light brown skin and curly black hair. The multi-cultural mix of genes created a very intelligent, handsome, young man with a stout build. "You got another one logged and verified by the MPC?" asks Jin.

Curtis sits proudly, pulling his t-shirt, emblazoned with the words, I need my Space, to cover his exposed belly fat, then brushes at his unruly bangs covering his eyes. "It's in process. They need to verify it's actually a new find and compute the orbit before entering it into the database. They will include it in a future newsletter and post it on the MPC website if all goes well," Curtis explains.

"Cool, Curtman. You'll have another asteroid find on the list of discoverers. You're a real space explorer documented for the rest of history," Jin says.

"Wait. Jin, the MP what?" asks Becky.

"The MPC—or more precisely, the Minor Planet Centeris the only place in the world responsible for keeping track of all minor planets, comets, and asteroids in our solar system. Anybody who spots and tracks an object can report it to the MPC to help build the database of what's out there. Curtis found a new, never discovered asteroid, and the MPC will publish his find. It's his fourth asteroid discovery."

"That is really cool," Becky says, picking up on Jin's enthusiasm. "So, do you get to name it?"

Curtis sucks hard on his straw, siphoning the cold soda into his gullet. "I get first dibs on picking a name, but they have to approve it."

"Will you name it after yourself?" asks Becky.

"Nah, I'll probably continue on the theme of the first three," Curtis says.

"What did you name the first three?"

Curtis plays with the straw of his Gulp cup. "Gintoki, Natsu, and Luffy. For this one, I'm thinking either Yusuke or Goku. I can't decide. I'd only name one after me if it smashes into a planet, or something."

"I wouldn't know if those are names of Japanese emperors or sushi dishes," Becky replies.

"They're names of Anime characters. Anime, you know, Japanese comic books." Jin states, slyly.

Curtis sets his Gulp cup on the desk. "Jin knows they're called Manga, not comic books. He's just trying to start a fight. I don't think I need to worry about naming the asteroid for a while. I'm still waiting for the MPC to publish an asteroid I discovered last year. The government cut their staff by fifty percent so it's taking forever."

"Yeah, they went from an entire team of six people, down to three. Can you imagine? There are millions of asteroids out there, any of which, if it hit Earth could wipe out a town or erase a huge city. Not to mention an impact could cause a five-year impact winter or worse. Talk about global cooling! Our government, in their wisdom, gave the responsibility to six whole people and then cut it to three! NASA and the MPC have mapped only twenty thousand of the potentially hazardous asteroids. They're tracking the largest Near-Earth Objects, or NEOs. The Earth destroyers. The ones larger than a kilometer across. That's an asteroid three thousand two hundred eighty feet wide," Jin explains.